Featured Titles 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.

January 2006

Nonfiction

• Men of Salt: Across the Sahara with the Caravan of White Gold
  Author: Benanav, Michael
  Publisher: Lyons $ 23.95 ISBN: 1592287727 Date: 2006
  PW
  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
• Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis
  Author: Stargardt, Nicholas
  Publisher: Knopf $ 30 ISBN: 1400040884 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWBooklist
  This text breaks new ground in its exploration of the lives and fate of the children of all nationalities under the Nazi regime.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 11.14.05
• 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

Fiction

• Arthur and George
  Author: Barnes, Julian
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 030726310x Date: 2006
  KirkusLJPW
  A masterful novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality and race, this tale is a profound and witty meditation on the fateful differences between what is believed, what is known, and what can be proven. Two men's lives become interwoven and each becomes the other's salvation.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 11.7.05
• Thin Place
  Author: Davis, Kathyrn
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316735043 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The prize-winning author of Versailles tells the story of a small New England village unsettled by a young girl's unearthly gift.
  Updated 10.17.05
• Skinner's Drift
  Author: Fugard, Lisa
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743272994 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWBooklist
  In this beautiful and brutal debut, the new South Africa comes to life with its violent history, as Eva van Rensburg must do when she confronts her dying father with a terrible secret from her childhood.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | South Africa
  Updated 10.11.05
• World to Come
  Author: Horn, Dara
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393051072 Date: 2006
  BooklistPW
  A painting by Marc Chagall is stolen from a museum, and the unlikely thief is Benjamin Ziskind, a 30-year-old quiz-show writer. The author interweaves a real art heist, history, biography, theology, and Yiddish literature in a novel that opens the door to "the world to come"--the world created by one's actions right now.
  Updated 10.24.05
• People's Act of Love
  Author: Meek, James
  Publisher: Cannongate $ 24 ISBN: 1841957305 Date: 2006
  PWBooklistKirkus
  In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Anna Petrovna, a beautiful, restless photographer, is raising her young son by herself amid this brutal landscape. Stationed nearby is a company of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side of the recent conflict. Each soldier lives in a fragile co-existence and a troubling uncertainty prevails. Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost prison camp. Immediately apprehended, he is brought before Captain Matula, the Czech company's megalomaniac commander. But the stranger's appearance has caught the attention of others, including that of Anna Petrovna. And when a local shaman is found murdered, suspicion and terror engulf this village. To be published in twenty countries, The People's Act of Love is quite simply magnificent storytelling and it promises to be an auspicious literary event. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 10.24.05
• A Taxonomy of Barnacles
  Author: Niederhoffer, Galt
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312334834 Date: 2006
  Booklist
  "Rich in poignant detail, Niederhoffer paints a fascinating portrait of six sisters engaged in the merciless age-old fist-fight, struggling to love and best each other in turn."--Nicola Kraus, co-author of The Nanny Diaries.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 11.14.05

Crime Fiction

• Size 12 Is Not Fat: Heather Wells
  Author: Cabot, Meg
  Publisher: Avon $ 12.95 ISBN: 0060525118 Date: 2006
  PWLJ
  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
• The Shape of Sand
  Author: Eccles, Marjorie
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312352328 Date: 2006
  PW
  A scandal catapults a family into the headlines--and near ruin. Nearly four decades pass, and still the exact events remain a mystery. When an old diary is unearthed, it finally seems answers are within reach--until a mummified corpse is found in the ruins of the estate.
  Updated 10.24.05
• Gentlemen and Players
  Author: Harris, Joanne
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060559144 Date: 2006
  PWBooklistLJ
  Friendship, murder, revenge, and class conflict collide in an upper-crust English school. As a new term gets under way, a number of annoying incidents befall students and faculty, escalating to murder.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | School Days
  Updated 12.27.05
• Holmes on the Range
  Author: Hockensmith, Steve
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312347804 Date: 2006
  LJPWBooklist
  Somewhere due west of Deadwood, a pair of unlikely cowboy sleuths investigate murder just like their hero, Sherlock Holmes, who they come to know by scouring "Harper's Weekly" for the detective stories.
  Suggested Reading: Elementary Stars | All Stars | Cross Genres
  Updated 11.7.05
• Spurred Ambition
  Author: Phelan, Twist
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581474  Date: 2006
  From the moment Tony Soto saves business attorney Hanna Dain from a climbing mishap, Hannah is beguiled by the Native American/Latino. What becomes a near-fatal attraction enmeshes her in a kidnapping tied to a complex securities fraud.
  Updated 12.5.05

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages

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

• Ithaka
  Author: Geras, Adele
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 17 ISBN: 0152056033 Date: 2006
  PW
  Told through the eyes of a young girl who is like a daughter to Penelope, wife of Odysseus, this follow-up to Troy captures the quiet strength and patience of a woman's enduring love for her husband and the ensuing chaos as Penelope is pressured to remarry.
  Ages: 14 +Category: Fiction | Historical | Myths & Legends
• Pompeii
  Author: Osbourn, Mary Pope and Bonnie Christensen (ilt)
  Publisher: Knopf $ 16.95 ISBN: 0375828893 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW SLJ
  The dramatic story of the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius that snuffed out life in Pompeii in 79 A.D. is told by in brief text, accompanied by illustrations using the same colors, style, and technique as the ancient frescoes unearthed at Pompeii.
  Grades: 1-5 Category: History
• The Outlaw Varjak Paw
  Author: Said, S.F.
  Publisher: David Fickling $ 16.95 ISBN: 0385750447 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  Having saved the city cats from a fate worse than death, Varjak Paw finds himself the leader of a new gang, but soon the city erupts in an all-out gang war. Horrified and outnumbered, Varjak and the others must fight for their freedom or die trying.
  Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
• Ptolemy's Gate
  Author: Stroud, Jonathan
  Publisher: Miramax $ 17.95 ISBN: 0786818611 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus
  In this thrilling conclusion of the Bartimaeus trilogy, the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty are thrown together once more. For the first time, the secrets of Bartimaeus's past are revealed, and the threesome must face treacherous magicians, unravel a masterfully complex conspiracy, and defeat a formidable faction of demons.
  Ages: 9-12 Category: Fiction | Speculative