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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
Summer
Reading 2006
Page Modified: February 11, 2008
Selected titles for summer reading pleasure. Also, check
out the previous lists - many of the titles
on those
lists are now available in paperback.
Critics' Choice: All Stars
| For Fun | Debuts | Genres | Travel Tales
Check out the new Top Ten Booklists - top ten picks from recently published titles in various genres.
Critics Choice
All Stars - titles with 3 or more stars from the following review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly
Fiction
- Theft
Author: Carey, Peter
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0307263711 Date: 2006
BooklistPWKirkusLJ
A two-time Booker Prize-winner takes on the topic of what people will do for art, for love, and for money. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Tokyo--and exploring themes of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption--this novel will make readers laugh out loud.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - Thin Place
Author: Davis, Kathyrn
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316735043 Date: 2006KirkusPWBooklist
The prize-winning author of Versailles tells the story of a small New England village unsettled by a young girl's unearthly gift.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.17.05 - Eagles Throne
Author: Fuentes, Carlos
Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 1400062470 Date: 2006KirkusBooklistLJ
In this provocative novel, Fuentes exposes many of the political skeletons lurking in the closet of Mexican history, as he weaves a novel of cunning, naked ambition, and duplicity.
Updated 5.15.06 - The Whole World Over
Author: Glass, Julia
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375422749 Date: 2006PWLJKirkus
In this new work by the bestselling author of Three Junes, Greenie Duquette, the fiery proprietor of her own Greenwich Village pastry business, becomes the personal chef for the governor of New Mexico, setting in motion a period of adventure and upheaval that culminates in the tragedy of 9/11.
Updated 3.20.06 - Timothy: Notes of an Abject Reptile
Author: Klinkenborg, Verlyn
Publisher: Knopf $ 16.95 ISBN: 0679407286 Date: 2006PWKirkusLJBooklist
Exploring the natural history of a tortoise by adopting its own sensibility, Timothy is the story of a creature whose real life was observed by the 18th-century curate Gilbert White, author of The Natural history of Senborne.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 12.27.05 - The Girls
Author: Lansens, Lori
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316069035 Date: 2006BooklistLJKirkus
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.
Suggested Reading: Twins
Updated 2.28.06 - Black Swan Green
Author: Mitchell, David
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400063795 Date: 2006 PW KirkusBooklist
From award-winning writer Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for 13-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982.
Updated 2.21.06 - Suite Francaise
Author: Nemirovsky, Irene
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400044731 Date: 2006PWKirkusBooklist
An extraordinary novel of life under Nazi occupation--discovered and published 62 years after the author's tragic death at Auschwitz. Subtle, often fiercely ironic, and deeply compassionate, Suite Franaise is both a piercing record of its time and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.
Updated 4.10.06 - Everyman
Author: Roth, Philip
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 061873516x Date: 2006KirkusPWLJ
The bestselling author of The Plot Against America now turns his attention to one man's lifelong confrontation with mortality. From his first glimpse of death during his childhood through his vigorous, seemingly invincible prime, Roth's hero is a man bewildered not only by his own decline but by the unimaginable deaths of his contemporaries and those he has loved.
Updated 4.3.06 - Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
Author: Tiffany, Carrie
Publisher: Scribner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0743286375 Date: 2006 PW Booklist Kirkus
Sensual, witty, and startlingly original, Tiffany's debut novel--about a young woman, her passionate relationship with an agricultural expert, and their efforts at scientific living--marks the arrival of a great new voice in fiction.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars
Updated 1.28.06 - Terrorist
Author: Updike, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0307264653 Date: 2006BooklistKirkusPW
Born of an Irish-American mother and an Egyptian father long since disappeared, 18-year-old Ahmad craves spiritual nurture and is drawn into an insidious plot.
Updated 4.10.06
All Star Nonfiction
- Let Me Finish
Author: Angell, Roger
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151013500 Date: 2006 PW Kirkus Booklist
Intimate, funny, and moving portraits form this book's centerpiece as Angell remembers his eccentric relatives, his childhood love of baseball in the time of Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio, and his vivid colleagues during his long career as a "New Yorker" writer and editor.
Suggested Reading: Sports Stars
Updated 3.6.06 - Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Author: Gilbert, Elizabeth
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034711 Date: 2006 PW LJ Booklist
A celebrated writer pens an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.
Updated 1.21.06 - Death in Belmont
Author: Junger, Sebastian
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393059804 Date: 2006 PW Kirkus LJ
In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking sex murder that exactly fits the pattern of the Boston Strangler. This spare, powerful narrative chronicles three lives that collide--and ultimately are destroyed--in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America.
Suggested Reading: True Crime
Updated 4.3.06 - Mayflower: An American Beginning
Author: Philbrick, Nathaniel
Publisher: Viking $ 29.95 ISBN: 0670037605 Date: 2006 PW Booklist LJ Kirkus
The startling story of the Plymouth Colony--from the flight to religious freedom to the war that ravaged New England--is told by the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award.
Updated 4.24.06
Just for fun - all kinds of humorous books
- Company
Author: Barry, Max
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385514395 Date: 2006Kirkus
With broad strokes, Barry satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel, taking aim at corporations that turn people into cogs in a machine.
Updated 9.26.05 - Catastrophist
Author: Douglas, Lawrence
Publisher: Other $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590512197 Date: 2006Kirkus
In the tradition of Michael Frayn and David Lodge, an intellectual comedy satirizing love, marriage, and academic life. . . From an idyllic New England campus to the rarefied art worlds of Berlin and London, The Catastrophist charts the rise and fall and partial rebound of an ambivalent but endearing everyman. Razor sharp and riotously funny, this debut novel heralds the appearance of a major new comedic voice in American fiction. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.28.06 - Rattled
Author: Galant, Debra
Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312349319 Date: 2006LJ
Carl Hiassen meets Desperate Housewives in this hilarious debut about a face-off between the new suburban chic, some old-time residents, a real estate mogul--and a rattlesnake.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 11.22.05 - Adverbs
Author: Handler, Daniel
Publisher: Ecco $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060724412 Date: 2006PWKirkus
In a series of intersecting narratives that explore variations of that ineffable feeling of love, Handler--who also writes as Lemony Snicket--crafts a moving and shifting story exploring the frustrating glory of this most troublesome of emotions.
Updated 2.8.06 - Dirty Job
Author: Moore, Christopher
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060590270 Date: 2006 LJ
The author of the national bestsellers Fluke and The Stupidest Angel returns with this absurdly outrageous, howlingly funny, scathingly satiric novel about a neurotic, just-widowed father of a newborn whose life takes a really weird detour.
Updated 3.20.06 - The Futurist
Author: Othmer, James P.
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 038551722x Date: 2006KirkusPW
From the hideously ugly Greenlander nymphomaniacal artist to the gay male model spy to the British corporate magnate with a taste for South Pacific virgin sacrifice rituals, The Futurist manages to be wildly entertaining and deadly serious at the same time.
Updated 3.8.06 - Lapham Rising
Author: Rosenblatt, Roger
Publisher: Ecco $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060833610 Date: 2006PWLJ
A recluse living on his own island in a creek across from the relentlessly noisy construction of a house belonging to a millionaire, reveals his life: his elaborate plot against the millionaire, the various odd visitors to his island, and his talking dog.
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars
Updated 10.31.05 - Absurdistan
Author: Shteyngart, Gary
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN:1400061962 Date: 2006PWLJ
From the bestselling author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook comes the uproarious and poignant story of a literally large-than-life character and his bizarre adventures.
Updated 4.3.06 - Memoirs of a Muse
Author: Vapnyar, Lara
Publisher: Pantheon $ 22.95 ISBN: 037542296x Date: 2006PW
Humorous, charming, and written with the same beguiling grace and vividness as her story collection There Are Jews in My House, Vapnyar's first novel is a poignant and comic story about a delightfully sincere modern-day muse.
Updated 2.28.06
First Novels
Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction:
- The King of Lies
Author: Hart, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 031234161x Date: 2006PWBooklistLJ
When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface, and he sees his own carefully constructed facade begin to crack.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 3.20.06 - Field of Darkness
Author: Read, Cornelia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 22.95 ISBN: 089296023x Date: 2006KirkusBooklistLJ
A tough-talking, shotgun-toting debutante gets in over her head investigating a pair of cold case murders in this assured, thrilling first novel.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 3.20.06
Fiction:
- Cellophane
Author: Arana, Marie
Publisher: Dial $ 24 ISBN: 0385336640 Date: 2006 PW Booklist
From noted writer and National Book Award finalist Arana comes a debut novel with all the power and grace of her acclaimed memoir, American Chica.
Suggested Reading:Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow
Author: Guene, Faiza
Publisher: Harvest $ 13 ISBN: 0156030489 Date: 2006LJKirkus
Disarmingly funny and fresh, Gune's debut novel is a hopeful, wise, and intimate portrait of Arab immigrant life, as it follows Doria, a 15-year-old Muslim French girl living in the infamous Paradise projects of suburban Paris.
Updated 5.10.06 - Winkie
Author: Chase, Clifford
Publisher: Grove $ 17.95 ISBN: 0802118305 Date: 2006PWKirkus Booklist
In Cliff Chase's scathingly funny and surprisingly humane debut novel, the zeitgeist assumes the form of a one-foot-tall ursine Everyman--a mild-mannered teddy bear named Winkie who comes to life and finds himself on the wrong side of America's war on terror. Winkie introduces the most memorable protagonist since the Velveteen Rabbit, and--with the help of a lesbian Moslem cleaning woman, a stuttering attorney, and a Lacan-spewing bear cub--brilliantly exposes the cruel absurdities of our age and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly barbaric world. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - The Stolen Child
Author: Donohue, Keith
Publisher: Nan Talese $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385516169 Date: 2006LJ
When Henry Day is seven years old, he is kidnapped by ageless beings called changelings, who leave another child in Henry's place, a boy who will be his duplicate. Haunted by memories, both boys are driven to search for the keys to who they once were before they switched places.
Updated 2.14.06 - White Ghost Girls
Author: Greenaway, Alice
Publisher: Grove $ 13 ISBN: 0802170188 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
In her astonishing literary debut, Greenway tells a tale of sacrifice and solidarity between two American sisters who tumble into their teenage years in 1967 Hong Kong, against an extraordinary backdrop that is both sensuous and dangerous.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Historical Fiction | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.14.05
More Fiction Debuts
Romance & Romantic Suspense
- Love Walked In
Author: De Los Santos, Marisa
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525949178 Date: 2006Kirkus
A tribute to classic film and true romance, this is the story of a 31-year-old cafe manager and an 11-year-old searching for her father, and the unexpected ways in which their lives are forever changed by chance.
Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 12.27.05 - Shadow Touch
Author: Liu, Marjorie M.
Publisher: Love Spell $ 6.99 ISBN: 0505526301 Date: 2006PWBooklist
The second release in Marjorie Liu's Paranormal Romance series featuring the Dirk & Steele Detective Agency. When Artur Loginov awakens imprisoned by a rival group of psychics and supermen, he must use his powers to escape and find true love." A striking paranormal romance.--"Publishers Weekly".
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 12.2.05 - Second Sight
Author: Quick, Amanda
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153527 Date: 2006LJ
The "New York Times" bestselling author of Lie by Moonlight and The Paid Companion takes readers into the simmering passions and paranormal secrets of the Victorian age.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.18.06
Speculative Fiction
- Proven Guilty: A Novel of the Dresden Files
Author: Butcher, Jim
Publisher: Roc $ 23.95 ISBN: 0451460855 Date: 2006LJ
Continuing the story of wizard Harry Dresden, who solves crimes in modern-day Chicago.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults | Cross Genres | Alex Awards Read Alikes: Martinez
Updated 4.18.06 - Widdershins
Author: De Lint, Charles
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0765312859 Date: 2006Booklist
Introduced in the first Newford story, "Timeskip," Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell's story is finally being told in this stand-alone novel of fairy courts set in shopping malls and the Bohemian street scene of Newford's Crowsea area.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy | Adult Books for Young Adults | Alex Award Read Alikes: Gaiman
Updated 3.16.06 - The Lies of Locke Lamora
Author: Lynch, Scott
Publisher: Spectra $ 23 ISBN: 0553804677 Date: 2006Booklist
Debut author Lynch pens a witty and fast-paced narrative that is nearly as much of a con as the wily schemes of its hero.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Teens | Alex Award Read-Alikes: Gaiman
Updated 5.4.06 - Night Watch
Author: Lukyanenko, Sergei
Publisher: Hyperion $ 11.95 ISBN: 1401359795 Date: 2006PW
Set in modern day Moscow, an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world?
Updated 6.5.06 - Her Majesty's Dragon
Author: Novik, Naomi
Publisher: Del Rey $ 7.50 ISBN: 0345481283 Date: 2006BooklistLJ
This first adventure of a new fantasy series introduces the remarkable dragon Temeraire and his heroic captain, Will Laurence, who are thrust into the world of the Aerial Corps, offering aerial support to the British during the Napoleonic Wars.
Updated 4.20.06 - Glasshouse
Author: Stross, Charles
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 0441014038 Date: 2006PWKirkus
In the 27th century, interstellar travel is by teleport gates, and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities. On the run from an unknown enemy, the memory-less Robin volunteers to participate in a unique experimental civil order--a decision that places him at the mercy of the experimenters and his own unbalanced psyche.
Updated 5.10.06 More Speculative Fiction Stars
Inspirational Fiction
- Rekindled
Author: Alexander, Tamera
Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 ISBN: 0764201085 Date: 2006LJ
When her husband disappears, Kathryn Jennings is flung into the world of ranching, banking, and business. Most disconcerting of all is the uncanny familiarity she feels toward the badly scarred ranch hand who works in the dark shadows of the horse stables.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 1.31.06 - River Rising
Author: Dickson, Athol
Publisher: Bethany $ 17.99 ISBN: 076420162X Date: 2006Booklist
In 1927 Louisiana, Rev. Hale Poser arrives in the bayous of Pilotville, looking for his roots. In the swamp beyond the cypress lies a lingering evil. For years it slept in dreadful isolation. Now comes Hale Poser, and it will sleep no more.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 1.21.06 - Uncharted: Expect the Unexpected
Author: Hunt, Angela Elwell
Publisher: Westbow $ 19.99 ISBN: 0849944848 Date: 2006Booklist
Six college friends meet up at their friend's funeral, and out of loyalty to him, they grant his last request when they embark on a journey at sea -- a journey that takes them farther than they'd ever want to go as they land on an uncharted island where all is not as it first appears. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 4.17.06 - Madman
Author: Groot, Tracy
Publisher: Moody $ 12.99 ISBN: 0802463622 Date: 2006PWLJ
From the author of The Brother's Keeper comes a tale of mystery, horror, and hope in the midst of unimaginable darkness, the story behind the Geresene demoniac of the gospels of Mark and Luke.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 4.3.06 - Admission
Author: Thrasher, Travis
Publisher: Moody $ 12.99 ISBN: 0802486711 Date: 2006Booklist
Jake Rivers tries to put his college days and memories--including the suicide of a friend--behind him. But a phone call leads him to find answers to questions that were never resolved in a story of haunting secrets and personal redemption.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 4.17.06
Crime Fiction
- The Faithful Spy
Author: Berenson, Alex
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345478991 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
A New York Times reporter has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. Alex Berenson's debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes readers inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Espionage
Updated 3.16.06 - Hard Way: Jack Reacher
Author: Child, Lee
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336691 Date: 2006BooklistLJPW
In Lee Child's new thriller, ex-military cop Jack Reacher sees more than most people would . . . and because of that, he's thrust into an explosive situation that's about to blow up in his face. For the only way to find the truth--and save two innocent lives--is to do it the way Reacher does it best: the hard way.
Updated 3.27.06 - The Princess of Burundi
Author: Eriksson, Kjell
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312327676 Date: 2006PWLJ
When a jogger stumbles upon the mutilated body of the local reformed troublemaker and tropical fish expert during a morning run, Inspector Ann Lindell takes time off from maternity leave to uncover the killer and is drawn into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a vicious murderer.
Suggested Reading: European Crime Fiction
Updated 12.27.05 - The Saddlemaker's Wife
Author: Fowler, Earlene
Publisher: Berkley $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425207781 Date: 2006KirkusPW
After the death of her husband, Ruby McGavin is shocked to learn she's inherited part of a cattle ranch in California. She's even more shocked to learn the family he claimed died years ago is very much alive. Driven to discover the whole story, Ruby discovers a legacy of pain and denial.
Updated 3.21.06 - The Foreign Correspondent
Author: Furst, Alan
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400060192 Date: 2006PWKirkusBooklistLJ
"The greatest living writer of espionage fiction" ("Houston Chronicle") returns with his most suspenseful and stylish novel yet, in which an international news correspondent's secret life leads him to become a target for assassination.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Espionage
Updated 5.15.06 - Death Without Company
Author: Johnson, Craig
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670034673 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
This riveting tale of the unspeakable viciousness that can lurk in the most unlikely of places is a new Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery from the author of the acclaimed The Cold Dish.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled | Noir Stars
Updated 3.6.06 - Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night
Author: Patterson, James (edt)
Publisher: Mira $ 24.95 ISBN: 0778322998 Date: 2006PW
Written by a cadre of major thriller authors, this collection's contributors include James Grippando, Alex Kava, John Lescroart, Eric Van Lustbader, and Douglas Preston.
Updated 4.3.06 - Beautiful Lies
Author: Unger, Lisa
Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0307336689 Date: 2006 PWBooklist
In this sexy, fast-paced literary thriller, Unger takes readers on a breathtaking ride in which a young New York writer's good deed has terrible consequences and leaves her running for her life.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.6.06
Series-ous Reading: catch up with the latest books in these excellent new series:
- Heart of the World
Author: Barnes, Linda
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312332874 Date: 2006LJ
Barnes' searing breakout novel finds P.I. Carlotta Carlyle tracking her Little Sister to Columbia--but did she run away, or was she kidnapped?
Suggested Reading: P.I.'s
Updated 4.3.06 - North by Northanger, or the Shades of Pemberley: Mr.& Mrs Darcy Mystery
Author: Bebris, Carrie
Publisher: Forge $ 22.95 ISBN: 076531410x Date: 2006PWLJ
As Elizabeth settles into her pregnancy, the Darcys' serene solitude at Pemberly is not meant to be. First a mysterious letter is discovered, then a summons to Northanger Abbey involves the young couple in intrigues that may threaten Mr. Darcy's freedom.
Updated 2.28.06 - Oh Danny Boy
Author: Bowen, Rhys
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312328176 Date: 2006LJ
An Edgar Award finalist captures early 1900s New York as P.I. Molly Murphy sets out to catch a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes.
Updated 2.28.06 - In Plain Sight
Author: Box, C.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153608 Date: 2006KirkusLJ
From the author of Out of Range comes a thrilling tale of suspense, vengeance, and murder, featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.
Suggested Reading: Wild Life
Updated 5.16.06 - See Delphi and Die: Marcus Didius Falco
Author: Davis, Lindsey
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312357656 Date: 2006KirkusBooklistLJ
Humor, surprises, and domestic irony await Roman sleuth Falco as he attempts to solve the disappearance of two newlyweds on their honeymoon trip to Ancient Greece.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.3.06 - Zero to the Bone
Author: Eversz, Robert
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743250176 Date: 2006 PW
Robert Eversz's edgy and endearing heroine Nina Zero is back...and this time she's embroiled in her most dangerous case ever -- investigating L.A.'s underground S&M scene while getting caught up in sex, lies, and babysitting. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Nina Zero
Updated 12.27.05 - No Good Deeds
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060570725 Date: 2006Kirkus
The unsolved murder of a prosecutor becomes too personal when Tess's boyfriend brings home a street kid who holds an important key to the case. Tess finds out how far official authorities will go to get their way. Soon she's facing felony charges, and the boy has gone into hiding beyond her reach.
Updated 4.10.06 - Blue Shoes and Happiness: No.1 Ladies Detective Agency
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 21.95 ISBN: 0375422722 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
This newest entry in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series continues the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's leading, and only, female private detective. Her personal life, busy agency, and unusual cases are always fascinating--and highly entertaining.
Updated 3.6.06 - Cripple Creek
Author: Sallis, James
Publisher: Walker $ 23 ISBN: 0802733824 Date: 2006PWKirkusBooklistLJ
In the sequel to Cypress Grove, deputy sheriff Turner returns to Memphis, the city that formed him, and confronts his ghosts and sets in motion a tempest that threatens to destroy his newfound sanctuary.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 3.6.06 - Murder Unleashed: A Dead-End Job Mystery
Author: Viets, Elaine
Publisher: NAL $ 19.95 ISBN: 045121840X Date: 2006
An employee of the Pampered Pet Boutique, an establishment that sells high-end canine cuisine and couture, Helen Hawthorne becomes the prime suspect in the killing of a trophy wife and the kidnapping of a valuable labradoodle puppy, when she stumbles upon the corpse during a delivery to a client.
Updated 6.28.06
Paperback Best Bets:
- Size 12 Is Not Fat: Heather Wells
Author: Cabot, Meg
Publisher: Avon $ 12.95 ISBN: 0060525118 Date: 2006PWLJ
The #1 "New York Times" bestselling author strikes gold once more with a new series featuring a pop star-turned-girl detective in a mystery that rocks.
Suggested Reading: Humorous Crime Fiction | If You Like Janet Evanovich
Updated 12.27.05 - Borrowed Time
Author: Goddard, Robert
Publisher: Delta $ 12 ISBN: 0385339224 Date: 2006Booklist
In this "hugely enjoyable" ("The Times") mystery, a man is caught up in the murder of a woman along the Welsh Border.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense
Updated 12.5.05 - The Prop
Author: Hautman, Pete
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 ISBN: 0743284658 Date: 2006Booklist
A National Book Award winner pens a fast-paced mystery featuring a professional poker player who ups the ante in a deadly game of winner-take-all.
Suggested Reading: Best Bets
Updated 3.6.06 - City of Tiny Lights
Author: Neate, Patrick
Publisher: Riverhead $ 14 ISBN: 1594481865 Date: 2006Booklist
From an award-winning novelist comes a literary mystery that introduces a new kind of British detective, Ugandan-Indian Tommy Akhtar, and a side of London that the mystery world has never seen.
Updated 1.21.06 - An Unquiet Grave
Author: Parrish, P.J.
Publisher: Pinnacle $ 6.99 ISBN: 0786016078 Date: 2006PW
When the body of a stranger is found in the grave of a woman in the forgotten cemetery of an abandoned, notorious sanitarium in Michigan, Louis Kincaid investigates. On his darkest journey yet, Kincaid is led to the long, dark tunnels below the asylum, where he unearths crimes of unimaginable depravity.
Updated 12.5.05 - Ladies Courting Trouble
Author: Riccio, Dolores Stewart
Publisher: Kensington $ 14 ISBN: 0758209878 Date: 2006Booklist
When a hemlock-laced brownie at the church hospitality hour spells the end for an elderly townswoman, Cass Shipton and her circle of friends use their very special brand of detective skills--magic, clairvoyance, and good old-fashioned common sense--to ferret out the culprit.
Updated 3.6.06
General Fiction - Domestic Fiction
- Sufficient Grace
Author: Arnoult, Darnell
Publisher: Free $ 23 ISBN: 074328447x Date: 2006PW
This spellbinding debut novel explores the power of personal transformation and redemption, and the many extraordinary ways they come to pass.
Updated 4.17.06 - Between Georgia
Author: Jackson, Joshilyn
Publisher: Warner $ 22.99 ISBN: 0446524425 Date: 2006BooklistKirkus
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 - The Tenth Circle
Author: Picoult, Jodi
Publisher: Atria $ 26 ISBN: 0743496701 Date: 2006PW
Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone has been a ghost for 14 days, seven hours and 36 minutes, not that she is officially counting. With a story that transports readers from smalltown New England to the wilds of the Alaskan bush, Picoult probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play God.
Suggested Reading: Ghosts
Updated 12.5.05 - Once Upon a Day
Author: Tucker, Lisa
Publisher: Pocket $ 24 ISBN: 0743492773 Date: 2006PW
From the internationally acclaimed, bestselling author of Shout Down the Moon and The Song Readers comes a wise, humorous, and deeply compassionate story about the risks and rewards of loving when a single day can change one's life.
Suggested Reading: Best Bets for Reading Groups
Updated 12.2.05 - Frangipani
Author: Vaite, Celestine Hitiura
Publisher: Back Bay $ 12.95 ISBN: 0316114669 Date: 2006Kirkus
In Tahiti, it's a well-known fact that women are wisest, mothers know best, and Materena Mahi knows best of all--or so everyone except for her own daughter thinks. Soon enough, mother and daughter are engaged in a tug-of-war that tests the bonds of their love.
Updated 9.26.05
Book a Trip - Travel Tales
- Men of Salt: Across the Sahara with the Caravan of White Gold
Author: Benanav, Michael
Publisher: Lyons $ 23.95 ISBN: 1592287727 Date: 2006PW
Benanav became one of the few Westerners to ever join the Caravan of White Gold. Following his amused guide, Benanav lived for weeks among the camel drivers, marching 18 hours a day for nearly a thousand miles through sandstorms and searing heat to the salt mines of the Sahara in this gripping narrative of a unique Islamic culture.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 10.11.05 - The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule
Author: Kavenna, Joanna
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034738 Date: 2006Booklist
The author set out on a harrowing and exhilarating voyage of discovery from Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland, and Svalbard in search of this most haunting of northern places, the mysterious lost world of Thule.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 2.16.06 - A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler
Author: Mayes, Frances
Publisher: Broadway $ 26 ISBN: 0767910052 Date: 2006Kirkus
The author of the bestselling Under the Tuscan Sun expands her horizons to immerse herself--and her readers--in the sights, aromas, and treasures of 12 new special places, in this illuminating and passionate book that is also a celebration of the allure of travel.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 12.27.05 - A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler
Author: Roberts, Jason
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0007161069 Date: 2006 Kirkus
In an era when the blind were routinely warehoused in asylums, James Holman was studying medicine, fighting the slave trade in Africa, hunting rogue elephants, surviving a frozen captivity in Siberia, and circumnavigating the world alone in the 19th century.
Updated 4.24.06 - Getting Stoned With Savages
Author: Troost, J. Maarten
Publisher: Broadway $ 12.95 ISBN: 0767921992 Date: 2006Kirkus
A rip-roaringly funny account of life in the farthest corners of the world, Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals the wry appreciation of the absurd and infectious joy of discovery that make Troost one of the most engaging and original travel writers around.
Updated 4.10.06
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