Featured Titles 2003 New titles - selected on the basis of good reviews. Nonfiction, fiction and mystery titles are included on these lists. Books for kids and teens (fiction and nonfiction) are also listed.

October 2003

Nonfiction

• Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
  Author: Cahill, Thomas
  Publisher: Doubleday/Talese $ 27.50 ISBN: 0385495536
  KirkusPW
  In the fourth volume of the acclaimed Hinges of History series, the author of How the Irish Saved Civilization brings his characteristic wit and style to a fascinating tour of ancient Greece.
  Suggested Reading: Ancient Greece - Fiction
  Updated 8.25.03
• An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland
  Author: Dirda, Michael
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393057569
  KirkusLJ
  A funny, wistful memoir by a Pulitzer Prize--winning critic that recalls the charm of growing up and the tenderness of one writer's beginnings.
  Updated 8.14.03
• So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading
  Author: Nelson, Sara
  Publisher: Putnam $ 22.95 ISBN: 0399150838
  LJ
  Nelson--editor, reporter, reviewer, mother, daughter, wife, and compulsive reader--set out to chronicle a year's worth of reading. Throughout, So Many Books, So Little Time is pure delight--a work at once funny, wise, and rueful: enough to make a passionate reader out of anybody.
  Updated 9.2903
• Paradise of Cities: Venice in the 19th Century
  Author: Norwich, John Julius
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 32.50 ISBN: 0385509049
  KirkusBooklist
  The greatest living chronicler of Venetian history brings to life the city's magical charm in a beautifully illustrated and captivating book. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Venice
  Updated 7.28.03

Fiction

• My Life As a Fake
  Author: Carey, Peter
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375414983
  KirkusPWLJ
  Using as a springboard a real literary hoax that transfixed Australia in his boyhood, Peter Carey wickedly and ruefully explores how a phantom poet taunts, haunts and otherwise destroys his maker, pursuing him from Melbourne to a seedy, sweaty, bitter ending in the tropical chaos of Kuala Lumpur.
  Updated 10.30.03
• Calligrapher
  Author: Docx, Edward
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618343970
  KirkusLJ
  This fresh, original, altogether winning first novel is centered on a young London calligrapher named Jasper--an engaging, intelligent serial seducer and a breaker of hearts.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.08.03
• Great Fire
  Author: Hazzard, Shirley
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 24 ISBN: 0374166447
  KirkusPWBooklist
  This is Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | World Wars
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Way the Crow Flies
  Author: MacDonald, Anne-Marie
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060578955
  PWBooklist
  From the acclaimed author of Fall on Your Knees--a New York Times bestseller and Oprah pick--comes a mesmerizing new novel, breathtaking in its storytelling power.
  Reading Group Guide
  Updated 9.22.03
• Mirror Mirror
  Author: Maguire, Gregory
  Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 006039384x
  KirkusPW
  From the bestselling author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (debuting on Broadway this fall), Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Lost comes a master retelling of the Snow White story set in Renaissance Italy.
  Updated 9.22.03
• Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather
  Author: Willett, Jincy
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312311818
  LJPW
  The long-awaited novel from the author of the acclaimed collection Jenny and the Jaws of Life. In her darkly comic and unsettling first novel, Willett explores the darker side of human nature with the lightest of touches. She is a writer of astonishing power and talent.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.08.03

Mystery & Suspense

• Eye of the Abyss
  Author: Browne, Marshall
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312311567
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-nominated mystery, The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders, now delivers an atmospheric and powerful thriller set during the rise of the Nazi party.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | World War Fiction Stars
  Updated 9.22.03
• Now May You Weep
  Author: Crombie, Deborah
  Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060525231
  PW
  The acclaimed mystery author of Dreaming of the Bones returns with this evocative thriller of marriage, betrayal, and murder set in the wilds of Scotland.
  Updated 9.22.03
• Burning Garbo
  Author: Eversz, Robert
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $23 ISBN: 0743250133
  With the noir-inflected wit of a modern-day Chandler, Eversz returns with a harrowing thriller featuring his scathingly funny, whip-smart heroine Nina Zero. Fans of classic noir will love this stylish thriller and its vibrant, believable anti-heroine.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Havana: An Earl Swagger Novel
  Author: Hunter, Stephen
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743238087
  KirkusPWBooklist
  It is 1953 and Cuba is at its lush, tropical, and glamorous best. Only one small problem threatens this situation--the rise of a daring revolutionary named Fidel Castro. Now, legendary sniper Earl Swagger has been called in by the CIA to take him out.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.13.03
• Dead I Well May Be
  Author: McKinty, Adrian
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 07743246993
  KirkusBooklist
  This New York Irish bad-boy thriller--brimming with violence, greed, and sexual betrayal--brings a gripping new voice to the literary turf of Michael Connelly, Chuck Palahniuk, and Dennis Lehane.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 9.22.03
• Blind Eye: Benjamin Justice
  Author: Wilson, John Morgan
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312309198
  KirkusBooklist
  When a Los Angeles Times columnist is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident, Benjamin Justice soon finds himself in the midst of a complex case involving a decades-old child murder, a powerful Cardinal, and elements from his own dark past.
  Updated 9.29.03

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages

Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.

• Inkheart
  Author: Funke, Cornelia
  Publisher: Chicken House $ 19.95 ISBN: 0439531640
  PWKirkus
  Meggie lives a quiet life with her father, a bookbinder. But her father has a deep secret--he possesses an extraordinary magical power. When a mysterious stranger arrives, Meggie is plunged into intrigue as her father's life is put in danger.
  Grades: 4-7 Category: Fiction
  Updated 9.29.03
• The She
  Author: Plum-Ucci, Carol
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 17 ISBN: 0151268192
  Booklist
  It's been eight years since Evan's parents disappeared at sea. Searching for answers, Evan wonders if they were swallowed up by The She, the she-devil of legend that devours ships off the New Jersey coast.
  Grades: 9-12 Category: Fiction|Mystery
  Updated 9.29.03
  The Amulet of Samarkand- Bartimaeus Triology #1
  Author: Stroud, Jonathan
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 17.95 ISBN: 078681859x
  BooklistPW
  Set in modern-day London, this first book in a gripping new trilogy introduces young magician's apprentice Nathaniel. Humiliated by a hotshot wizard, Nathaniel summons the not-so-tame djinni, Bartimaeus, and sends him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand.
  Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction|Fantasy
  Updated 9.29.03