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Hotlists 2008
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Booklists
Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.
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Booklists and Suggested Reading
Booksense #1 Picks
Page Modified: April 5, 2008
Book Sense is a national marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America. Booksense Picks are amonthly selection of eclectic new books chosen by independent booksellers. Booksense
Top Monthly Booksense Picks
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
2007
- Mistress of Death
Author: Franklin, Ariana
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780399154140 Date: 2007
Kirkus
Set in medieval England, this chilling, mesmerizing novel combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the detail and drama of historical fiction, as a "mistress of the art of death"--an early version of a medical examiner--arrives in Cambridge from Italy to investigate the suspicious deaths of four children.
Updated 10.16.06 - Sacred Games
Author: Chandra, Vikram
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 29.95 ISBN: 978006113035Date: 2007
Booklist
Set in present-day Mumbai, this work tells the story of a notorious Hindu gangster and a police inspector whose lives unfold and eventually intersect with cataclysmic consequences. A gripping epic saga, the tale is filled with humour, tragedy, and characters who prove to be all too human.
Updated 11.16.06
February
January
2006
- The Book of Lost Things
Author: Connolly, John
Publisher: Atria $ 23 ISBN: 0743298853 Date: 2006
LJ
In the tradition of C.S. Lewis and Gregory Maguire's Wicked, bestselling author Connolly (The Black Angel) offers a creative coming-of-age story about one boy's journey into adulthood by combining dramatic themes with edge-of-your-seat suspense and a fantastical imagination.
Updated 8.29.06 - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
Author: Bryson, Bill
Publisher: Broadway $ 25 ISBN: 076791936x Date: 2006
Kirkus
From one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language comes a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century.
Updated 7.11.06 - One Good Turn
Author: Atkinson, Kate
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 0316154849 Date: 2006
LJ
From the author of 2005's breakout favorite Case Histories comes a brilliant new thriller featuring the irresistibly reluctant detective Jackson Brodie. A triumphant novel filled with wit and surprise, One Good Turn will delight the many fans who cheered Kate Atkinson's foray into thrillers.
Updated 7.10.06 - The Interpretation of Murder
Author: Rubenfeld, Jed
Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805080988 Date: 2006
Booklist
In this ingenious, suspenseful historical thriller, Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer who is savagely attacking Manhattan's wealthiest heiresses.
Updated 6.28.06 - Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories
Author: Fountain, Ben
Publisher: Ecco $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060885580 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Through Fountain's rounded and novelistic prose, these intelligent and keenly observed stories are painted in provocative and vibrant detail across a global canvas. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.10.06 - Between Georgia
Author: Jackson, Joshilyn
Publisher: Warner $ 22.99 ISBN: 0446524425 Date: 2006
Booklist Kirkus
The author of Gods in Alabama returns with a heartwarming story of a young Southern woman caught between a decades-old family feud and the realization of her dreams.
Updated 5.10.06 - Water for Elephants
Author: Gruen, Sara
Publisher: Algonquin $ 13.995 ISBN: 1565125606 Date: 2006
An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons.
Updated 11.30.06 - The Girls
Author: Lansens, Lori
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316069035 Date: 2006
Booklist
LJ
In Lori Lansens' astonishing second novel, readers come to know and love two of the most remarkable characters in Canadian fiction: Rose and Ruby, 29-year-old conjoined twins.
Updated 2.28.06 - Saving the World: With Don Francisco
Author: Alvarez, Julia
Publisher: Algonquin $ 24.95 ISBN: 156512510x Date: 2006
LJ
A stunning tour de force--"about a contemporary bestselling Latina novelist, obsessed by the life of a 19th-century Spanish spinster--"that probes the depths of politics, medicine, activism, and love.
Updated 1.18.06 - The Madonnas of Leningrad
Author: Dean, Debra
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060825308 Date: 2006
Booklist LJ
In this sublime debut novel, set amid the horrors of the siege of Leningrad in World War II, a gifted writer explores the power of memory to save . . . and betray.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | World Wars
Updated 2.14.06 - A Brief History of the Dead
Author: Brockmeier, Kevin
Publisher: Pantheon $ 22.95 ISBN: 0375423699Date: 2006
PW LJ
From the author of the widely praised The Truth About Celia comes a mesmerizing new work that imagines the world of the afterlife and its stark relation to the world of the living.
Suggested Reading: After Life
Updated 2.14.06 - The Space Between Us
Author: Umrigar, Thrity
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060791551 Date: 2006
Booklist
Devastating in its power, here is a searing novel that vividly captures the delicate balance of class and gender in contemporary India, as witnessed through the lives of an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife and her stoic, illiterate domestic worker.
Updated 1.21.06 - The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
Author: Tayman, John
Publisher: Scribner $ 27.50 ISBN: 074323300x Date: 2006
Booklist
In the bestselling tradition of In the Heart of the Sea comes the untold history of America's only leper colony--which exists even today--and the extraordinary people forced to create a community under horrific circumstances.
Suggested Reading: Leprosy/Hansen's Disease
Updated 11.2.05
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April (a tie)
March
February
January
2005
- Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook's Corner and from Home
Author: Smith, Bill (foreward by Lee Smith)
Publisher: Algonquin $ 19.95 ISBN: 1565124790 Date: 2005
The new bistro food of the South is showcased in dishes like Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Corn and Mustard Beurre Blanc, Cold Stuffed Pork Loin with Artichoke Spread, Scallops with Spinach and Hominy, and Smith's signature dish, Honeysuckle Sorbet.
Updated 4.3.06 - Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
Author: Grogan, John
Publisher: Morrow $ 21.95 ISBN: 0060817089 Date: 2005
In this funny and poignant memoir about a wildly neurotic Labrador retriever named Marley, an unsuspecting young couple come to understand what really matters. Marley had no brakes on his loyalty, exuberance, or passion.
Updated 4.3.06 - Julia and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living
Author: Powell, Julia
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 031610969x Date: 2005
LJ
Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens, and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life. So, she invents a deranged assignment: She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and will cook all 524 recipes . . . in the span of just one year.
Updated 10.3.05 - Widow of the South
Author: Hicks, Robert
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446500127 Date: 2005
Booklist LJ
This debut novel is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock. During the Civil War's Battle of Franklin, a five-hour bloodbath with 9,200 casualties, McGavock's home was turned into a field hospital where four generals died. For 40 years she tended the private cemetery on her property where more than 1,000 were laid to rest.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Civil War Stars | Historical Fiction
Updated 6.29.05 - No Country for Old Men
Author: McCarthy, Cormac
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375406778 Date: 2005
Booklist PW
Set along a bloody frontier in our own time, this is McCarthy's first novel since Cities of the Plain completed his acclaimed, bestselling Border Trilogy. Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot dead, a load of heroin, and over $2 million in cash. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything.
Updated 5.23.05 - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Author: See, Lisa
Publisher: Random $ 21.95 ISBN:1400060281 Date: 2005
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.28.06 - The Historian
Author: Kostova, Elizabeth
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316011770 Date: 2005
PW Kirkus Booklist
In this riveting debut novel, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could--the quest to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.20.05 - The History of Love
Author: Krauss, Nicole
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393060349 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW Booklist
Leo Gursky is barely surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: 60 years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Reading Group Stars | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 3.28.05 - Gods in Alabama
Author: Jackson, Joshilyn
Publisher: Warner $ 19.95 ISBN: 0446524190 Date: 2005
A crime from her youth threatens a young woman's future in this extraordinary debut novel that follows in the bestselling Southern tradition of Big Stone Gap.
Updated 2.28.06 - March
Author: Brooks, Geraldine
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033359 Date: 2005
PW
From the author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders comes a powerful love story set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, and adds adult resonance to portray the moral complexity of war and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Civil War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - Same Sweet Girls
Author: King, Cassandra
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300383 Date: 2005
The new novel by the celebrated author of The Sunday Wife chronicles the lives of a tight-knit group of lifelong friends.
Updated 2.28.06 - Baker Towers
Author: Haigh, Jennifer
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509414 Date: 2005
Kirkus Booklist
The author of Mrs. Kimble returns with an emotionally rich and evocative exploration of community, love, and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 11.2.04
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
2004
- Gilead
Author: Robinson, Marilynne
Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374153892 Date: 2004
Kirkus Booklist PW
In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. This is also the tale of wisdom forged during his solitary life and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Epistolary Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - The Stupidist Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Version 2.0
Author: Moore, Christopher
Publisher: Morrow $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060842350Date: 2005
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Pine Cove, creatures are stirring--not all of them in a holiday way. When a little boy sees Santa take a shovel to the head, he makes a heartfelt prayer for his resurrection. Unfortunately, the stupidest angel in the heavenly hosts hears the plea.
Updated 2.28.06 - The Green Age of Asher Witherow
Author: Cunningham, M. Allen
Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932961003 Date: 2004
LJ
Rich in historical detail, this gorgeously written debut novel tells the story of a young soul coming of age during the boom and bust years of a California Welsh coal mining in the 1860-70s. M. Allen Cunnignham writes about a place at once gritty, yet magical. He captures an intimate connection between the characters and a sweeping landscape, where the future seems filled with promise but where a day's labor is bone breaking and dangerous. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 8.16.04 - Waiting for Teddy Williams
Author: Mosher, Howard Frank
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618197222 Date: 2004
PW
Haunted by a dark mystery in his family's past, eight-year-old E.A. is an outcast in his Vermont town, except when it comes to baseball. A drifter named Teddy, who is determined to do one decent thing in his life, teaches E.A. how to really play ball.
Updated 6.14.04 - Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Author: Lindsey, Jeff
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 038551123x
PW Booklist LJ
Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a new kind of mystery novel starring a lovable serial killer, one Dexter Morgan, who only kills bad people and who cringes at the sight of blood.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Serial Killers | All Stars
Updated 6.17.04 - Shadow Divers: The True Story of Two Americans Who Discovered Hitler's Last Sub
Author: Kurson, Robert
Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375508589 Date: 2004
PW
This "New York Times" bestseller tells the true adventure of two American scuba divers who discovered a sunken World War II-era German U-boat 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey, and risked everything on a dangerous mission to salvage it.
Suggested Reading: Nonfiction That Reads Like Fiction | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.29.04 - Eventide
Author: Haruf, Kent
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375411585 Date: 2004
Kirkus
PW
LJ
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.4.04 - Candyfreak
Author: Almond, Steve
Publisher: Algonquin $ 21.95 ISBN: 1565124219 Date: 2005
Almond embarks on a hilarious, sugar-high tour through America's last remaining independent candy companies.
Updated 2.28.06 - Good Grief
Author: Winston, Lolly
Publisher: Warner $ 18 ISBN: 0446533041 Date: 2004
PW
Good Grief is a brilliantly funny and heartwarming debut about a young woman who stumbles, then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 3.1.04 - The Lady
and the Unicorn
Author: Chevalier, Tracy
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525947671 Date: 2004
Booklist
Kirkus
PW
An extraordinary story exquisitely told, Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn weaves history and fiction into a beautiful, timeless, and intriguing literary tapestry that rivals in grace and grandeur the masterpiece that inspired it.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Historical Fiction Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 12.8.03
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April/March
February/January
Hotlists
Crime Fiction - embedded
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
Hotlists
Hotlists: Fiction | Crime Fiction
Genre Hotlists: Christian Fiction | African American Fiction
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
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