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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
Driven Stars
Page Modified: April 5, 2008
Fiction (all genres) and Nonfiction about cars, drivers, NASCAR, road trips, etc.
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
Fiction
- Robbers
Author: Cook, Christopher
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786707763 Date: 2000
Booklist
This brilliant and tough debut novel follows Eddie and Ray Bob, one a sociopath and the other a talented blues guitarist, and the Texas Ranger who pursues them. As the two losers wind their way across Texas, robbing and killing with no long-range plans, readers will be able to smell the magnolias and taste the dust.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 10/27/00 - Drive Like Hell
Author: Hudgens, Dallas
Publisher: Scribner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743251638 Date: 2005
Kirkus
Set in the 1979 outside Atlanta, this "thoroughly enjoyable" ("Publishers Weekly") debut tells the story of 16-year-old Luke Fulmer, who grows up in a difficult family with a stockcar-racing, absentee father, an alcoholic mother, and a delinquent brother.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 11.25.04 - St. Dale
Author: McCrumb, Sharyn
Publisher: Kensington $ 25 ISBN: 075820776x Date: 2005
LJ
"New York Times" bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb looks deeply into the heart of America in this emotionally charged novel about love, miracles, and grassroots sainthood.
Updated 11.22.04 - Bird Dog
Author: Reed, Philip
Publisher: Pocket $ 22 ISBN: 0671001639 Date: 1997
Edgar Award Nominee Best First Novel | Anthony Award Nominee Best First Novel
With equal parts wit, grit, taut suspense, and more twists than a L.A. freeway, Bird Dog introduces Harold Dodge, a hard-luck case if ever there was one, living in a less than perfect world where good men sometimes have to do bad things. When Harold lands in a scam so rotten that the FBI's in on it, readers get taken on a bumpy, lethal ride through L.A.'s seamy underbelly.
Also: Low Rider, 1998
Updated 4.22.05 - Sweet and Vicious
Author: Schickler, David
Publisher: Dial $ 23 ISBN: 0385335687 Date: 2004
Kirkus Booklist
In this first novel, the acclaimed author of Kissing Manhattan brings readers a larger-than-life legend of a tough guy on the run and the outrageous woman who tames his spirit. Passionate, criminal, comical and possessing all the dark enchantment of a fairy tale, Sweet and Vicious is a modern love story shot straight from the heart of David Schickler's miraculous imagination. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 9.20.04
Nonfiction
- Driving to Detroit: An Automotive Odyssey
by Lesley Hazelton
Publisher: Free Press ISBN: 0684839873 $25 Date: 1998
Kirkus
In this moving and captivating memoir, a British expatriate, car junky, and veteran travel writer takes the wheel and crosses the country in search of the elusive American dream. Along the way, she discovers herself and what America is all about.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales - Highway 50: Ain't That America
Author: Llilifors, Jim
Publisher: Fulcrum $ 19.95 ISBN: 1555910734 Date: 2005
Booklist PW
A lively, anecdotal chronicle of travels along U.S. Route 50--a road that literally cuts through the middle of the country, from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California. Following a course mapped by George Washington in the East and by gold-rushers and pioneers in the West, the present-day Route 50 remains the most intriguing thoroughfare spanning the United States.
Updated 4.22.05 - Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Fast, Furious Year Across America With Nascar
Author: Macgregor, Jeff
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060094710 Date: 2005
Booklist
A groundling's view of life in the fastest lane of NASCAR is offered by an award-winning writer from "Sports Illustrated" in the tradition of The Right Stuff and Moneyball.
Updated 3.10.05 - Roads: Driving America's Great Highways
Author: McMurtry, Larry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0684868849 Date: 2000
LJ
As he crisscrosses America--driving in search of the present, the past, and himself--western chronicler Larry McMurtry shares his fascination with this nation's great trails and the culture that has developed around them.
Updated 4.19.05 - Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein's
Brain
by Paterniti, Michael
Publisher: Dial $ 18.95 ISBN: 0385333005 Date: 2000
Booklist
PW
A brilliant young writer, an 84-year-old pathologist, and Albert Einstein's brain rocket across the country through the palpable zeitgeist of contemporary America. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales - Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Racing Legend
Author: Seymour, Miranda
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061687 Date: 2004
Kirkus Booklist
Drawn from a remarkable cache of newly discovered papers, this work sheds new light on both the treacherous world of international racing and life in Occupied France, while revealing the story of Hell Nice, a fearless and passionate woman who lived for the challenge of becoming the fastest woman in the world.
Updated 11.29.04 - Fixin' tp Git: One Fan's Love Affair With NASCAR's Winston Cup
Author: Wright, Jim
Publisher: Duke $ 26.95 ISBN:0822329263 Date: 2002
Booklist
Closeted NASCAR fan Wright attended stock car races at eight of the Winston Cup's legendary venues. The "Fixin' to Git" Road Tour resulted in this book--not just a travelogue of Wright's year at the races, but a fan's valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing.
Updated 4.22.05
Hotlists
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Hotlists
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