Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
More . . .
Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books 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).
The review journal assigns the star.
Spacing Out . . .
Overbooked is Myspacingout and Crimespacing out
New! Overbooked social site join the conversation with other readers
Overbooked is an affiliate of Book Sense. Support your local book store and help support Overbooked. Overbooked is nonprofit, but would prefer not to be in the red - only widely read. Just click on the Booksense link to order books.
Stellar All Stars
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Judas Horse by April Smith
The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw
Bonk by Mary Roach
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Starred Reviews
Fiction Stars 2006
April 2, 2008
January - June
Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted. A
indicates an Overbooked Jump for Joy book. A
indicates a Best Bet for Book Club/Reading Groups
June
- The Lambs of London
Author: Ackroyd, Peter
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23 ISBN: 0385514611 Date: 2006
Booklist
A lighthearted follow-up to Ackroyd's magnificent biography of Shakespeare, The Lambs of London transforms the real-life literary hoax that swept most of London off its feet into an ingenious, intriguing drama that keeps readers guessing right to the end.
Updated 4.17.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.17.06 - Room for Improvement
Author: Ballis, Stacey
Publisher: Berkley $ 13 ISBN: 0425209822 Date: 2006LJ
Give two singles their own fashion consultants and interior designers and allow them four days to perk up each other's style and homes--and Lily Allen's dream job turns into a nightmare. Episode by episode, through disasters and matchmaking miracles, Lily starts to discover that a little bit of controlled chaos is the spice of life and love.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 6.28.06 - The Flamenco Academy
Author: Bird, Sarah
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400040841 Date: 2006Kirkus
The passion and danger attached to flamenco flows through this compelling new novel by the author of The Yokota Officers Club--a story of two young American women caught up in the fevered excitement of the flamenco revival sweeping the Southwest.
Updated 5.10.06 - Last Evenings on Earth
Author: Bolano, Roberto
Publisher: New Directions $ 23.95 ISBN: 0811216349 Date: 2006Kirkus
The first short-story collection in English by the acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolano. Winner of a 2005 PEN Translation Fund Award.- Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.10.06 - Save Your Own
Author: Brink, Elisabeth
Publisher: Houghton $ 23 ISBN: 0618651144 Date: 2006Kirkus
In her final year at Harvard Divinity School, Gillian Brandenburg must quickly transform herself from obedient graduate student to hardcore authority figure at a halfway house in order to gain supporting evidence for her thesis about spiritual transformation. Ultimately, the women inspire her to realize her own true impulses and desires.
Updated 4.10.06 - Grab On to Me Tightly As If I Knew the Way
Author: Charles, Bryan
Publisher: Perennial $ 13.95 ISBN: 0060882980 Date: 2006Booklist
In 1992 Vim Sweeney is dealing with the recent end of his high school career and the uncertainty of his future. This novel traces his stumble toward adulthood as he learns to accept that the things he thought would last forever probably won't.
Updated 3.16.06 - By a Slow River
Author: Claudel, Philippe
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400042801 Date: 2006Booklist
In this indelible meditation on morality, the daily life of a small French town is shattered by the deaths of three innocents during the First World War.
Suggested Reading: World Wars
Updated 4.17.06 - It Might Have Been What He Said
Author: Collinsworth, Eden
Publisher: Arcade $ 23.95 ISBN: 1559708123 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 3.16.06 - The Whistling Season
Author: Doig, Ivan
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151012377 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 12.5.05 - Touchy Subjects
Author: Donoghue, Emma
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151013861 Date: 2006KirkusLJ
In this sparkling collection of 19 stories, the bestselling author of Slammerkin returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from public controversies.
Updated 4.18.06 - 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
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 2.28.06 - Get a Life: The Collected Monsieur Jean Short Stories
Author: Dupuy & Berberian
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly $ 19.95 ISBN: 1896597793 Date: 2006 Kirkus
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works
Updated 4.24.06 - The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion
Author: Estleman, Loren D.
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765309149 Date: 2006Booklist
Johnny Vermillion's theater troupe brings masterpieces to the Wild West. The four actors bustle in and out of costumes while one of them robs the local bank. A Pinkerton man notices the news reports of stage performances one day and bank robberies the next, and he sets a clever trap.
Suggested Reading: Westerns
Updated 4.17.06 - Kensington Gardens
Author: Fresan, Rodrigo
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374181012 Date: 2006Kirkus
Children's writer Peter Hook, creator of the time-traveling boy Jim Yang, tells his life story--and that of J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan--to the child actor cursed with playing Jim Yang in the movies. Gradually, a fantastical and terrible tale emerges, a tale of shadow identities and suicide, lost boys and foundlings.
Updated 5.10.06 - Old Filth
Author: Gardam, Jane
Publisher: Europa $ 14.95 ISBN: 1933372133 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
Filth is a lawyer with a practice in the Far East. A few remember that his nickname stands for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. But Old Filth is not as pompous as people imagine, and his past contains many secrets and dark hiding places.
Updated 5.5.06 - The Syringa Tree
Author: Gien, Pamela
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375507558 Date: 2006Booklist
This novel vastly expands and deepens the Obie Award-winning play of the same name--the moving story of a tumultuous time and place as seen through the eyes of a child in South Africa.
Updated 6.28.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars| Reading Group Stars | 911
Updated 3.20.06 - Girls' Night Out
Author: Gore, Kristen, Emily Giffin, Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez, Tilly Bagshaw, Carole Matthews, etc.
Publisher: Red Dress Ink $ 14.95 ISBN: 0373895798 Date: 2006LJ
Featuring such "New York Times" bestselling authors as Meg Cabot, Tilly Bagshawe, and Marian Keyes, this much-anticipated follow-up to the "USA Today" bestseller Girls' Night In contains tales about reunions and weddings, sisters and friends.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 6.20.06 - The Gravedigger
Author: Grandbois, Peter
Publisher: Chronicle $ 23.95 ISBN: 0811853500 Date: 2006Booklist
In a small, whitewashed village, indistinguishable from any other in Andalusia, Juan Rodrigo is a gravedigger. The job was handed down to him by his father, as was the ability to hear the voices of the dead and to tell their stories to the living. Though the details and revelations of these accounts aren't always well received, Juan is a respected member of the community who encourages people to understand and to forgive. But his own tolerance is tested when his young daughter, just on the brink of adulthood, falls in love with a gypsy boy Juan doesn't approve of. Incorporating aspects of magic realism, Peter Grandbois' distinctive voice and style lures readers to an enchanting place where spirits and people coexist harmoniously. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Six Feet Under
Updated 4.17.06 - The Observations
Author: Harris, Jane
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670037737 Date: 2006Kirkus
In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy takes a job as a maid. Her "missus" demands Bessy keep a journal of her thoughts in this powerful story of secrets and suspicions, hidden histories, and mysterious disappearances.
Updated 4.10.06 - Grief
Author: Holleran, Andrew
Publisher: Hyperion $ 19.95 ISBN: 1401302505 Date: 2006KirkusPWBooklist
Reeling from the death of his invalid mother, a professor comes to the nation's capital to recuperate from his loss. What he finds there--in his lonely landlord, in the city's mood and architecture, and in the journals of Mary Todd Lincoln--shows him poignant truths about America, yearning, and mourning itself.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - 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 - The Up And Up
Author: Irby, Lee
Publisher: Doubleday $ 19.95 ISBN: 0385515006 Date: 2006 Kirkus
With suckers aplenty looking for land in the Sunshine State during the Roaring Twenties, Frank Hearn and his partner, the well-connected son of a former mayor, plan to make a killing in the real estate biz. However, when his partner is brutally murdered, Frank is accused of the crime.
Suggested Reading: Florida | Historical Fiction
Updated 4.24.06 - The Maxx 6
Author: Kieth, Sam
Publisher: Wildstorm $ 19.99 ISBN: 1401209467 Date: 2006Booklist
The final volume of Sam Kieth's eclectic masterpiece collects a series of innovative stories known as Friends of Maxx. These tales mark a turning point for Kieth's artistic evolution as a storyteller, paving the way for later groundbreaking titles such as ZERO GIRL and FOUR WOMEN. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.17.06 - Anybody Out There?
Author: Keyes, Marion
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060731303 Date: 2006Kirkus
Written in her classic style and marrying the darker parts of life with humor and wit, Anybody Out There? is Keyes' best novel to date--a wonderfully charming look at love here and ever after.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 3.8.06 - Sparkle Life
Author: Lindstrom, Kara
Publisher: Other $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590512324 Date: 2006LJ
Wholly contemporary and compulsively readable, this sparkling debut is a finely honed tale of sex, love, and making movies that is sure to appeal to fans of Nick Hornby and Melissa Bank. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 1.31.06 -
Author: Mackel, Kathryn
Publisher: Westbow $ 13.99 ISBN: 1595540377 Date: 2006LJBooklist
Dr. Susan Rose tumbles into a crevasse when her horse balks and discovers a young man chained in the darkness. As she tries to learn the cause of his amnesia, dark possibilities emerge--could he be a fallen demon, "bound with everlasting chains for judgment"?
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction
Updated 6.20.06 - Song of the Crow
Author: Maheu, Layne
Publisher: Unbridled $ 23.95 ISBN: 1932961186 Date: 2006LJ
A narrating crow wonders why a lanky old man would build such an oddly shaped home--this 'ark'--so far from the waters. At a time when many are searching for meaning, Maheu's extraordinary debut novel asks readers to ponder the unsettled state of the world.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.3.06 - Castle Waiting
Author: Medley, Linda
Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 29.95 ISBN: 1560977477 Date: 2006BooklistPW
The multiple Harvey and Eisner award-winning fantasy is now collected in one volume!
The 450-page Castle Waiting graphic novel tells the story of an isolated, abandoned castle, and the eccentric inhabitants who bring it back to life. A fable for modern times, Castle Waiting is a fairy tale that's not about rescuing the princess, saving the kingdom, or fighting the ultimate war between Good and Evil--but about being a hero in your own home.
For the first time, Fantagraphics' Castle Waiting collects the entire story into one mammoth volume--and includes the concluding chapter written and drawn especially for this volume. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works
Updated 4.10.06 - Last Voyage of the Valentina
Author: Montefiore, Santa
Publisher: Touchstone $ 15 ISBN: 0743276868 Date: 2006Booklist
Determined to learn the truth about her dead mother--a woman she barely knew--Alba returns to the olive groves of the Amalfi coast of Italy to uncover a mysterious tale of decadence, deception, and betrayal involving partisans and Nazis, peasants, and counts, and discovers the gateway to her own happiness.
Updated 3.16.06 - The Second Wives Club
Author: Moore, Jane
Publisher: Broadway $ 19.95 ISBN: 0767916921 Date: 2006LJ
Turning the tables on the usual sympathy for first wives, Moore's dishy novel is a brilliant, unputdownable look at "second wives," who must contend with malicious gossip, scheming divorce lawyers, and ex-wives intent on sabotaging their relationships.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 5.15.06 - The Last Anniversary
Author: Moriarty, Liane
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060890681 Date: 2006 PW
As she so adroitly did in her smashing debut novel, Three Wishes, the incomparable Liane Moriarty once again combines sharp wit, lovable and eccentric characters, and a page-turning story for an unforgettable Last Anniversary. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.24.06 - Ladies Coupe
Author: Nair, Anita
Publisher: Griffin $ 14.95 ISBN: 0312302876 Date: 2006LJ
This wonderfully atmospheric, deliciously warm novel takes the reader into contemporary India, revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships are the same world over.
Suggested Reading: Stars of India
Updated 7.11.06 - 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 - Lost and Found
Author: Parkhurst, Carolyn
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316156388 Date: 2006Booklist
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel comes the story of seven unlikely couples who scour the globe searching for love, treasure, fame, family--and themselves.
Updated 3.6.06 - The Lovin' Kind
Author: Parra, Nancy J.
Publisher: Avalon $21.95 ISBN: 0803497768 Date: 2006Booklist
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 5.16.06 - Back to Wando Passo
Author: Payne, David
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060851899 Date: 2006 Kirkus
Payne offers a passionate and elegantly written story that propels two related love triangles--one marriage unraveling in the present day, and another one shattered by the Civil War--to a simultaneous crescendo of betrayal, revenge, and redemption.
Updated 4.24.06 - Birthdays
Author: Pitlor, Heidi
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393061272 Date: 2006LJ
On an island off the coast of Maine, the Miller family reunites to celebrate the father's 75th birthday. Each of the adult children is expecting a first child, and at the same time each is at a major crossroads in life. The novel deftly explores the myriad ways of seeking sustenance after disappointment or loss.
Updated 6.28.06 - The Marriage Spell
Author: Putney, Mary Jo
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345449185 Date: 2006LJ
"New York Times" bestselling author Putney delivers a spellbinding Regency romance where magic is commonplace but desire is the most mysterious--and powerful--force of all.
Suggested Reading: Romance | Paranormal
Updated 7.11.06 - Fire Fire
Author: Sallis, Eva
Publisher: Allen & Unwin $ 14.95 ISBN: 1741143527 Date: 2006Kirkus
Shocking, tender, and grotesque, this darkly humorous novel captures the resilience and confusion of growing up. The Houdinis have grand plans for their family when they move to a dilapidated and isolated farm in the heart of the Australian bush. The mother, famous violist husband, and seven children plan on becoming self-sufficient, allowing creativity to rule and forming the perfect environment to raise a family of musicians, artists, and poets. But as problems arise from both outside and within the house, Ursula Houdini watches her brothers and sisters thrive and then wither under a mixture of love, neglect, and cruelty. In this affectionate and compelling story, Ursula must ultimately decide what she is willing to sacrifice to make her own place in the world. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Humor
Updated 4.10.06 - In Persuasion Nation
Author: Saunders, George
Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 159448922x Date: 2006Booklist
This new collection of stories--his best work yet--comes from the acclaimed and mind-bendingly hilarious George Saunders.
Suggested Reading: Humor
Updated 3.16.06 - Enslave Me Gently
Author: Showalter, Gena
Publisher: Downtown $ 13 ISBN: 0743497503 Date: 2006Booklist
Two alien assassins ordered to destroy a group of slavers--other-worlders who are abducting humans and selling them on other planets--must learn to work together, and fight the white-hot blaze of desire that threatens to scorch them both.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Cross Genres
Updated 5.4.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.10.06 - Can't Get No
Author: Veitch, Rick
Publisher: Vertigo $ 19.99 ISBN: 1401210597 Date: 2006PW
Suggested Reading; Graphic Works Stars
Updated 4.17.06 - Triangle
Author: Weber, Katharine
Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374281424 Date: 2006PW
The last living survivor of the notorious 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire has told her story countless times. Even so, her death at the age of 106 leaves unanswered many questions. Are the discrepancies in her various accounts over the years just ordinary human fallacy, or is there a hidden story in Esther's recollections of that terrible day?
Updated 4.3.06 - The End of California
Author: Yarbrough, Steve
Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400044383 Date: 2006LJ
A PEN/Faulkner finalist for Prisoners of War, Yarbrough now returns to the Delta--not seen through the historical lens of World War II nor of Jim Crow, as in his previous novels, but in the blinding light of contemporary life.
Updated 5.15.06
- Nexus Archives 2
Author: Baron, Mike
Publisher: Dark Horse $ 49.95 ISBN: 1593074557 Date: 2006 PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 4.24.06 - The Fate of the Artist
Author: Campbell, Eddie
Publisher: First Second $ 15.95 ISBN: 1596431334 Date: 2006PW
In wildly comical reenactments of incidents from his curious life, Eddie Campbell conducts an investigation into his own sudden disappearance. In this creative mining of the rich resources of the comic strip language, Campbell offers a complex meditation on the lonely demands of art amid the realities of everyday life.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics
Updated 3.16.06 - Theft
Author: Carey, Peter
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0307263711 Date: 2006BooklistPWKirkusLJ
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 - JPod
Author: Coupland, Douglas
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1596911042 Date: 2006Booklist
Six co-workers are bureaucratically marooned in JPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver video-game-design company. Full of word games, visual jokes, and sideways jabs, this book throws a sharp, pointed lawn dart into the heart of contemporary life.
Suggested Reading: Word Play
Updated 4.17.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 2.14.06 - Between the Bridge and the River
Author: Ferguson, Craig
Publisher: Chronicle $ 24.95 ISBN: 0811853756 Date: 2006Kirkus
Bawdy, joyous, messy, hysterically funny, and guaranteed to offend--regardless of religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or profession--Between the Bridge and the River is the debut novel by Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's "The Late Late Show".
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 2.8.06 - The Good Works of Ayela Linde
Author: Forbes, Charlotte
Publisher: Arcade $ 24 ISBN: 1559708077 Date: 2006Kirkus
From an O. Henry Prize–winner, this dazzling novel in stories marks the arrival of a powerfully original and beguiling new voice in American fiction.
The linked stories that make up this spare and beautifully written novel follow the life of Ayela, the illegitimate daughter of a Mexican dressmaker, born in 1933 in the Texas border town of Santa Rosalia. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 3.8.06 - The Eagle's 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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.15.06 - The O.Henry Prize Stories 2006
Author: Furman, Laura (edt)
Publisher: Knopf $ 14 ISBN: 1400095395 Date: 2006Kirkus
Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction" ("Atlantic Monthly"), the O. Henry Prize honors 20 of the year's best short stories.
Updated 3.8.06 - Secret River
Author: Greenville, Kate
Publisher: Canongate $ 24 ISBN: 1841957976 Date: 2006Kirkus
After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thomhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the terms of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children to tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. But his first glimpse of land for the taking awakens in him a desire he never had before: to own that land, no matter the cost to his soul. From the winner of the 2001 Orange Prize. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Australia
Updated 3.8.06 - 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 - The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
Author: Hempel, Amy
Publisher: Scribner $ 26 ISBN: 0743289463 Date: 2006PWBooklist
With her trademark compassion and wit, Hempel takes readers into the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America.
Updated 3.16.06 - When Light Breaks
Author: Henry, Patti Callahan
Publisher: NAL $ 12.95 ISBN: 0451218345 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 4.10.06 - This Book Will Save Your Life
Author: Homes, A.M.
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034932 Date: 2006Booklist
Richard Novak is functionally dead and doesn't even notice until two incidents conspire to hurl him back into the world in this novel about compassion, transformation, and what can happen if one is open to the world.
Updated 3.6.06 - The Family Fortune
Author: Horowitz, Laurie
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060875267 Date: 2006 LJ
Updated 3.20.06 - Boot Tracks
Author: Jones, Matthew F.
Publisher: Europa $ 14.95 ISBN: 1933372117 Date: 2006Kirkus
A commanding, stylishly written novel that tells the harrowing story of an assassination gone terribly wrong and the man and woman who are taking their last chance to find a safe place in a hostile world. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.8.06 - Rabbit Factory
Author: Karp, Marshall
Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 25 ISBN: 1596921749 Date: 2006Booklist
Rambunctious Rabbit--Rambo to his fans--is an American icon and a theme park's biggest draw. When the actor inside the Rambo costume and two other theme park employees are murdered, LAPD detectives must catch the madman before he brings the family entertainment giant to its knees.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.10.06 - The Attack
Author: Khadra,Yasmina
Publisher: Nan Talese $ 18.95 ISBN: 0385517483 Date: 2006LJ
Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Arab-Israeli citizen, is a respected surgeon in Tel Aviv. When police declare that his dead wife was the suicide bomber who destroyed a restaurant, he is torn between cherished memories of their years together and the inescapable realization that the woman he loved had a life far removed from the comfortable existence they shared.
Updated 5.4.06 - 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 | All Stars
Updated 2.28.06 - Slipstream
Author: Larson, Leslie
Publisher: Crown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0307337995 Date: 2006PW
Set against the backdrop of the iconic LAX airport, this deftly choreographed Altmanesque narrative offers a climactic wallop of an ending.
Updated 3.16.06 - Once a Thief
Author: Ledbetter, Suzann
Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 ISBN: 0778323005 Date: 2006Booklist
Ramey Burke gets a surprise when her elderly uncles, sent to prison years ago for bank robbery, decide to stay with her after their release. But when one of their old jail buddies is found dead in front of Ramey's house, sexy detective Mike Constantine begins sniffing around.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 5.4.06 - The Englisher
Author: Lewis, Beverly
Publisher: Bethany $ 19.99 ISBN: 0764202162 Date: 2006LJ
Will Annie's intention to join the Amish church be derailed by the attention from a handsome Englisher?
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction
Updated 6.20.06 - The Sand Cafe
Author: Macfarquhar, Neil
Publisher: Public Affairs $26 ISBN: 1586483684 Date: 2006LJ
The Cairo bureau chief for the "New York Times" goes inside the private lives and professional mischief of war reporters waiting for the first Gulf War to begin in this bitingly funny first novel.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Gulf War
Updated 2.28.06 - The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories
Author: Martin, Valerie
Publisher: Vintage $ 13 ISBN: 1400095506 Date: 2006PW
This gripping collection of six stories explores the inner lives of artists as they struggle to make art while falling in and out of love.
Updated 3.16.06 - The Tango Singer
Author: Martinez, Tomas Eloy
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 23.95 ISBN: 1582346011 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 3.16.06 - Cage of Stars
Author: Mitchard, Jacquelyn
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446578754 Date: 2006LJ
The author of The Deep End of the Ocean delivers a compelling, emotionally charged tale of tragedy, revenge, and redemption, set in a close-knit Mormon community, whose peace is shattered by two brutal murders.
Updated 4.3.06 - Scott Pilgrim 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
Author: O'Malley, Bryan Lee
Publisher: Oni $ 11.95 ISBN: 193266422x Date: 2006PW
Ramona's third evil ex-boyfriend, Todd Ingram, is currently dating the former love of Scott Pilgrim's life! Envy Adams broke Scott's heart a year and a half ago. Now she and her evil art-rock band are back, and they're getting Scott's band to open a show two days from now! That's just enough time for Scott to fight Todd, keep Ramona happy, fend off demented ex-girlfriends, and practice that new setlist. Right?? Don't miss the latest chapter in the graphic novel saga The Globe and Mail calls "Canada's answer to Tank Girl!" - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 5.8.06 - The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo
Author: Orner, Peter
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316735809 Date: 2006LJ
This utterly original debut novel from the prizewinning author of Esther Stories takes a young American to a school in Africa, where he falls for a woman of far deeper experience.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.18.06 - Project Daddy
Author: Perry, Kate
Publisher: Zebra $ 3.99 ISBN: 082178028x Date: 2006Booklist
Commissioned to find the perfect man for her demanding boss, a determined woman recruits her handsome best friend and discovers he could be her own Mr. Right.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.17.06 - Ludmila's Broken English
Author: Pierre, D.B.C.
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393062376 Date: 2006PW
A wild and brilliant tale by the winner of the Man Booker Prize focuses on Ludmila who trudges out of the Caucasus in search of help for her starving family and runs into Blair and Bunny, conjoined British twins who have just been separated.
Updated 3.21.06 - Gatsby's Girl
Author: Preston, Caroline
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618537252 Date: 2006LJ
Preston deftly evokes the entire arc of Ginevra's story--from her first romantic meeting with F. Scott Fitzgerald to the second act of her sometimes charmed, sometimes troubled life. This is the affecting story of two people--one world famous, one a private person known only through her portrayals in priceless works of fiction.
Updated 4.3.06 - Everything After
Author: Pywell, Sharon L.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153500 Date: 2006Kirkus
Updated 2.8.06 - Let It Be Morning
Author: Qashu, Sayed
Publisher: Grove $ 13 ISBN: 0802170218 Date: 2006LJ
With the enduring moral and literary power of Camus and Orwell, Let It Be Morning offers an intimate, eye-opening portrait of the conflicted allegiances of the Israeli Arabs, proving once again that Sayed Kashua is a fearless, prophetic observer of a political and human quagmire that offers no easy answers. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.18.06 - 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 | Paranormal
Updated 4.18.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading:All Stars
Updated 4.3.06 - Date Me, Baby, One More Time
Author: Rowe, Stephanie
Publisher: Warner Forever $ 6.50 ISBN: 0446617660 Date: 2006Booklist
This delightful and witty paranormal romance debut features pretzel-eating dragons, cursed mathematicians, and a guardian of the Fountain of Youth in desperate need of a date.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.10.06 - There Will Never Be Another You
Author: See, Carolyn
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679463178 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 2.16.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Humor
Updated 4.3.06 - MBQ 2
Author: Smith, Felipe
Publisher: Tokyopop $9.99 ISBN: 1598164120 Date: 2006PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 4.17.06 - Voodoo Heart
Author: Snyder, Scott
Publisher: Dial $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385338414 Date: 2006PWBooklist
Readers of "Zoetrope, One Story, Tin House" and "Epoch" will recognize this fiercely original young writer, whose compelling stories are now assembled for the first time.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 5.16.06 - Now Is the Hour
Author: Spanbauer, Tom
Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618584218 Date: 2006PWBooklist
A powerful, entertaining story of self-awakening, the complex bonds of family, and of America during the late 1960s, this novel follows the journeys of 17-year-old Rigby John Klusener who leaves his home and family in Idaho and heads for a new life in San Francisco.
Updated 5.5.06 - 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 - Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War
Author: Turtledove, Harry
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312355203 Date: 2006Booklist
"New York Times" bestselling author Turtledove delivers a harrowing novel of the Civil War's most controversial battle.
Suggested Reading: Civil War
Updated 4.10.06 - Digging to America
Author: Tyler, Anne
Publisher: Knopf $ I 24.95 SBN: 0307263940 Date: 2006BooklistLJ
This luminous novel brims with tender observations about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdam, who after 35 years in this country must finally come to terms with her "outsiderness."
Updated 4.3.06 - Make Him Look Good
Author: Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa
Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312349661 Date: 2006LJ
The bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club--soon to be a Lifetime Television series--and Playing with Boys hits Miami in this exhilarating novel of six women and their distinct relationships with one very charismatic man.
Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars | Romance Stars
Updated 4.3.06 - Playing in the Light
Author: Wicomb, Zoe
Publisher: New $ 24.95 ISBN: 1595580476 Date: 2006Kirkus
In this impeccably wrought new work, the acclaimed author of You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town provides wisdom and insight about the new South Africa and about people everywhere. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 7.27.06
- Which Brings Me to You
Author: Almond, Steve & Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN: 156512443x Date: 2006KirkusLJ
A funny and shocking epistolary novel of modern love, told in the alternating voices of a man and a woman who spend the course of a year candidly writing to each other about their past love affairs.
Suggested Reading: Epistolary Stars | Humor
Updated 2.28.06 - Saving the World: With Don Francisco
Author: Alvarez, Julia
Publisher: Algonquin $ 24.95 ISBN: 156512510x Date: 2006LJ
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.
Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 1.18.06 - Visigoth: Stories
Author: Amdahl, Gary
Publisher: Milkweed $ 15.95 ISBN: 1571310517 Date: 2006Kirkus
Visigoth is a portrait of the American male -- gritty, violent, and fascinating. The protagonists in this collection of stories come from all walks of life -- hockey players, middle managers, political hopefuls, and wayward husbands -- but all share a tendency to turn towards violence when life begins spinning out of control. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.28.06 - The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories
Author: Anaya, Rudolfa A.
Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma $ 19.95 ISBN: 080613738x Date: 2006PW
Thirty years of short stories from the godfather of Chicano literature. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 1.30.06 - The Young Apollo and Other Stories
Author: Auchincloss, Louis
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618551158 Date: 2006Kirkus
Bringing together 12 previously unpublished pieces, this collection sparkles with Auchincloss's singular style and, like East Side Story, reveals in precise, aphoristic prose "not only the textures of this world but also its elemental and evolving truths" ("New York Times").
Updated 2.8.06 - Three Little Secrets
Author: Carlyle, Liz
Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 0743496124 Date: 2006Booklist
The sensational conclusion to Carlyle's irresistible Regency-era trilogy--begun in One Little Sin and Two Little Lies--is the sensuous story of two star-crossed souls who share a secret or two.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.10.06 - English, August: An Indian Story
Author: Chatterjee, Upamanyu
Publisher: New York Review of Books $ 14.95 ISBN: 1590171799 Date: 2006KirkusLJ
Chatterjee's novel, an Indian Catcher in the Rye with a wild humor and lyricism that are all its own, is at once spiritual quest and a comic revue. It offers a glimpse an Indian reality that proves no less compelling than the magic realism of Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Stars of India
Updated 4.3.06 - White Spirit
Author: Constant, Paule
Publisher: Univ of Nebraska $ 19.95 ISBN: 0803215355 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 2.2.06 - The Girl from Charnelle
Author: Cook, K.L.
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060829656 Date: 2006 LJ
It's 1960 in the Panhandle town of Charnelle, Texas -- a year and a half since sixteen-year-old Laura Tate's mother boarded a bus and mysteriously disappeared. Assuming responsibility for the Tate household, Laura cares for her father and three brothers and outwardly maintains a sense of calm. But her balance is upset and the repercussions of her family's struggles are revealed when a chance encounter with a married man leads Laura into a complicated relationship for which she is unprepared. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 12.27.05 - Sleepwalking Land
Author: Couto, Mia
Publisher: Serpents Tail $ 14.95 ISBN: 185242897x Date: 2006PW
As the civil war rages in 1980s Mozambique, an old man and a young boy, refugees from the war, seek shelter in a burnt-out bus. Among the effects of a dead passenger, they come across a set of notebooks that tell of his life. As the boy reads the story to his elderly companion, this story and their own develop in tandem. Written in 1992, Mia Couto's first novel is a powerful indictment of the suffering war brings. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.28.06 - Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel
Author: Cunningham, Elizabeth
Publisher: Monkfish $ 29.95 ISBN: 0976684306 Date: 2006Booklist
By turns feisty and funny, outrageous and tender, this Celtic Mary Magdalen challenges all stereotypes, both old and New Age, and brings us to transforming encounter with the divine feminine made flesh. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
Updated 2.2.06 - The Dead Fish Museum: Stories
Author: D'Ambrosio, Charles
Publisher: Knopf $ 22 ISBN: 1400042860 Date: 2006PWKirkus
From the celebrated author of The Point comes eight burnished, unforgettable stories that examine the implacable failures and intractable desires of men and women orphaned in their most essential relations and clinging to increasingly fragile lives.
Updated 2.28.06 - Dancing in a Distant Place
Author: Dewar, Isla
Publisher: Thomas Dunne $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312349467 Date: 2006Booklist
Updated 2.16.06 - Whiteman
Author: D'Souza, Tony
Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151011451 Date: 2006Kirkus
Brimming with dangerous passions, ubiquitous genies, spirited proverbs, and the pressures of life in a time of war, this extraordinary debut novel about a maverick American relief worker deep in the West African bush is a tale of desire, isolation, humor, action, and fear.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 12.27.05 - Book About Blanche and Marie
Author: Enquist, Per Olov
Publisher: Overlook $ 23.95 ISBN: 1585676683 Date: 2006Kirkus
From one of the world's most acclaimed authors comes a tale that explores the complex relationship between Blanche Whitman, the famous hysteria patient of Professor J.M. Charcot, and Marie Curie, Polish physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
Updated 11.22.05 - Sointula
Author: Gaston, Bill
Publisher: Raincoast $ 15.95 ISBN: 1551928434 Date: 2006Kirkus
Summoned to the deathbed of a long-ago lover, Evelyn is overcome by emotion. Off her medications, she impulsively steals a kayak and embarks on a quest that takes her deep into the Canadian wilderness in order to find her lost son, Tom. On the way to Sointula, a remote fishing village off Vancouver Island, she gains a traveling companion, Peter Gore, a writer working on the quintessential book on the region. Stymied by illness, writer's block, and whiskey, Peter makes an unlikely and unreliable shipmate and paramour. Tom, the survivor of a gunshot wound that slowed his speech and his drug-dealing, finds solace in his isolated life, collecting data for a whale researcher. As Evelyn and Peter approach, Tom waits for the whales' irregular visits to the water's edge. Like the novels of David Malouf and Jonathan Raban, "Sointula is a celebration of place, a novel where the landscape comes as fully alive as its memorable characters. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 11.22.05 - Tales from the Crib
Author: Green, Risa
Publisher: NAL $ 12.95 ISBN: 0451217691 Date: 2006Kirkus
The "bright, edgy narrator" ("Kirkus Reviews") of the hilarious Notes from the Underbelly returns to show that nine months of pregnancy were just kids' stuff.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 2.28.06 - 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 - He Done Her Wrong
Author: Gross, Milt
Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 16.95 ISBN: 1560976942 Date: 2006PW
First published in 1930, the famously wordless He Done Her Wrong is Milt Gross' graphic masterpiece, the result of his prior collaboration with Charlie Chaplin on the 1928 silent-era film classic The Circus. Sharing the same goofy, over-the-top comic mayhem that was Chaplin's trademark, and preceding the expressive, cartoony art style of "MAD" magazine legend Harvey Kurtzman, all of He Done Her Wrong''s hilarious slapstick, tragic heartbreak, heroism and villainy, character development, high emotions and raucous thrills somehow manages to take place, astonishingly, without a single word of text, or conversation, or even a footnote. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works
Updated 3.16.06 - The Priest's Madonna
Author: Hassinger, Amy
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153179 Date: 2006LJ
Interweaving the history of France at the turn of the 20th century, scenes of ancient Judea, and the romantic and religious journey of a spirited heroine, The Priest's Madonna is a lyrical work about the forbidden love between a woman and a holy man and the moral and spiritual struggles of faith.
Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
Updated 2.28.06 - Challenger Park
Author: Harrigan, Stephen
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375412050 Date: 2006Booklist
The author of the bestselling The Gates of the Alamo pens a novel of extraordinary power and excitement that takes readers to the heart of what it's like to be one of today's astronauts, and to experience the unimaginable joy and terror of going into space.
Suggested Reading: Space Age
Updated 3.6.06 - Augusta Locke
Author: Henderson, William Haywood
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034916 Date: 2006Booklist
From the author of The Rest of the Earth comes the story of one woman's tough, spirited life in the deserts and lonely ranges of the 20th-century West.
Updated 3.6.06 - Come Together, Fall Apart
Author: Henriquez, Cristina
Publisher: Riverhead 24.95 $ ISBN: 1594489157 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
An exciting "New Yorker" debut fiction writer and new voice in Latina fiction delivers stories as beautiful as they are gritty, as haunting as they are immediate.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Latino & Latina Stars
Updated 3.16.06 - Grace in Thine Eyes
Author: Higgs, Liz Curtis
Publisher: Waterbrook $ 13.99 ISBN: 1578562597 Date: 2006LJ
Readers can rediscover the Genesis story of Dinah through a 19th-century Scottish lens in Grace in Thine Eyes, a tale of passion, revenge, lost innocence, and cruel retribution.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction
Updated 4.3.06 - Taming of the Duke
Author: James, Eloisa
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060781580 Date: 2006BooklistLJ
Imogen, Lady Maitland, has decided to dance on the wild side, but she's still under the watchful eye of her former guardian, the Duke of Mayne. Is it annoyance Imogen feels toward the duke, or something far more perplexing and uncomfortable?
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.20.06 - The Nimrod Flipout: Stories
Author: Keret, Etgar
Publisher: FSG $ 12 ISBN: 0374222436 Date: 2006Kirkus
A bestseller in Israel, this volume of short stories--from a case of impotence cured by a pet terrier to a pessimistic Middle Eastern talking fish--is an extraordinary collection from the preeminent Israeli writer of his generation.
Updated 12.27.05 - The Lightning Keeper
Author: Lawrence, Starling
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060825243 Date: 2006LJ
Sparks fly in Lawrence's blend of romance and historical fiction, set against the struggle to harness electricity in the early 20th century. Skillfully intertwining fact and fiction, the author generates an electric history of ideas, kindled by the flames of capital and passion.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 1.18.06 - My Latest Grievance
Author: Lipman, Elinor
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618644652 Date: 2006LJ
From the author of The Inn at Lake Devine comes a pitch-perfect novel about a young woman, too smart for her own good, and the chaos that ensues when her path crosses that of her glamorous new next-door neighbor.
Updated 2.28.06 - Chronicler of the Winds
Author: Mankell, Henning
Publisher: New $ 24.95 ISBN: 1595580581 Date: 2006LJ
On the rooftop of a theater in an African port, Nelio, a ten-year-old boy--a leader of street kids, rumored to be a healer and a prophet and possessed of a strangely ancient wisdom--tells his unforgettable story over the course of nine nights.
Updated 5.4.06 - Alternatives to Sex
Author: McCauley, Stephen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743224736 Date: 2006Booklist
From the bestselling author of The Object of My Affection and True Enough comes a comedy and drama in equal measure--a spot-on portrait of one man's quest for the holy trinity of modern life: true love, good sex, and great real estate.
Updated 2.16.06 - The Duchess of Nothing
Author: McGowan, Heather
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1596910666 Date: 2006KirkusPW
The author of the critically acclaimed Schooling returns with a darkly comic novel about a mentally unpredictable woman intent on giving a young boy a proper education.
Suggested Reading: Black Humor
Updated 2.7.06 - L'America
Author: McPhee, Martha
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151011710 Date: 2006LJBooklist
The events of September 11th serve as a catalyst for the unfolding story of Beth, an American, and Cesare, an Italian, who meet on a small Aegean island and begin a transformative love affair that spans two continents, two decades, and two lifetimes.
Suggested Reading: 911
Updated 3.6.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.21.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Humor
Updated 3.20.06 - The Memory Artists
Author: Moore, Jeffrey
Publisher: Griffin $ 13.95 ISBN: 0312349254 Date: 2006LJBooklist
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Novel Noel Burun has synesthesia and hypermnesia: he sees words in vibrant explosions of colors and shapes, which collide and commingle to form a memory so bitingly perfect that he can remember everything, from the 1001 stories of The Arabian Nights to the color of his bib as a toddler. But for all his mnemonic abilities, he is confronted every day with a reality that is as sad as it is ironic: his beloved mother, Stella, is stricken with Alzheimer's disease, her memory slowly slipping into the quicksands of oblivion. The Memory Artists follows Noel, helped by a motley cast of friends, on his quest to find a cure for his mother's affliction. The results are at the same time darkly funny, quirkily inventive, and very moving. Alternating between third-person narratives and the diaries of Noel and Stella, Jeffrey Moore weaves a story filled with fantastic characters and a touch of suspense that gets at the very heart of what it means to remember and forget, and that is a testament to the uplifting power of family and friendship. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 2.2.06 - Sylvanus Now
Author: Morrissey, Donna
Publisher: Norton $ 14.95 ISBN: 0393328694 Date: 2006Kirkus
On Canada's Atlantic coast at the edge of the great Newfoundland fishing banks of the 1950s, Sylvanus Now is a handsome and willful fisherman. His youthful desires are simple: he wants a suit to lure a girl--the fine-boned beauty Adelaide--and he knows exactly how much fish he has to catch to pay for it.
Updated 2.8.06 - Fortunate Son
Author: Mosley, Walter
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316114715 Date: 2006PWBooklist
In this riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, the "New York Times" bestselling author crafts a work about two boys, one ensconced in a life of privilege and the other in a life of hardship.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 4.17.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | World Wars | WWII Fiction
Updated 4.10.06 - High Lonesome: Stories
Author: Oates, Joyce Carol
Publisher: Ecco $ 34.95 ISBN: 0060501197 Date: 2006PWBooklist
This unprecedented collection features the best of Oates's short fiction, plus nine new stories.
Updated 3.16.06 - Touba and the Meaning of Night
Author: Parsipur, Shahrnush
Publisher: Feminist $ 25.95 ISBN: 1558615199 Date: 2006PWLJ
This complex epic captures the changing fortunes of Iranian women in the twentieth century from the eras of colonialism to the rule of two shahs to the Islamic revolution of 1980. Touba's long life intersects with many memorable characters and refutes Western stereotypes of Iranian women. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.27.06 - The Firefly Cloak
Author: Reynolds, Sheri
Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0609610082 Date: 2006Booklist
From the author of the #1 "New York Times" bestseller The Rapture of Canaan comes the haunting story of a young girl's journey to find the mother who abandoned her, set against the backdrop of the Deep South, with all its quirkiness and charm.
Updated 2.2106 - A Broken Mirror
Author: Rodereda, Merce
Publisher: Univ of Nebraska/Bison $ 49.95/24.95 ISBN: 0803239637/0803290071 Date: 2006Kirkus
In its moment of great splendor the novel was held as a mirror of society: Merce Rodoreda shatters that mirror in this her most ambitious novel, which tells its story in brilliant fragments, a vision reflected and refracted and finally coming together in a richly articulated mosaic of life. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 1.25.06 - Seeing
Author: Saramago, Jose
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151012385 Date: 2006Kirkus
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of Blindness comes this follow-up, set in the same capital city four years after being hit by an epidemic of blindness. What begins as a satire on governments and the sometimes dubious efficacy of the democratic system turns into something far more sinister.
Updated 1.25.06 - Night of Sorrows
Author: Sherwood, Frances
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393058255 Date: 2006Kirkus
Night of Sorrows plunges readers into the conflicting New Worlds of the mysterious Malintz'n, born as an Aztec princess and sold as a slave, and her dashing and ruthless lover-master, conquistador Hernn Cortz.
Suggested Reading: Aztecs | Cortes
Updated 3.8.06 - The Booster
Author: Solow, Jennifer
Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743281837 Date: 2006PW
This smart and gripping tale follows a chic Upper East Side kleptomaniac who gets seduced into the dark, erotic underworld of a South American high fashion shoplifting ring.
Updated 1.30.06 - My Most Secret Desire
Author: Soucet, Julie
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly $ 19.95 ISBN: 1895697955 Date: 2006PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 12.5.05 - Edge of Pleasure
Author: Stockley, Phillipa
Publisher: Harvest $ 14 ISBN: 0156032104 Date: 2006LJ
Gilver Memmer is an enormously gifted painter, but profoundly self-involved. His creative gifts cannot save him from sliding inexorably toward oblivion. Into his life come two women: one who wants to push him into the grave he has been digging for himself and another who just might save him from it.
Updated 1.18.06 - A Million Nightingales
Author: Straight, Susan
Publisher: Pantheon $ I24.95 SBN: 0375423648 Date: 2006Booklist
Haunting and beautifully written, this novel of 19th-century Louisiana is the tale of a slave girl's journey--emotional and physical--from captivity to freedom.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.2.06 - 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 - Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
Author: Vallgren, Carl-Johan
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060841990 Date: 2006Kirkus
Vallgren paints a cast of grotesques in a magical and atmospheric tour of nineteenth-century Europe in this story of social oppression and religious persecution with a marvellous love story.
Updated 2.28.06 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 2.28.06 - Night Watch
Author: Waters, Sarah
Publisher: Riverhead $ 25.95 ISBN: 159448905x Date: 2006PW LJ
Written by the author of the Booker Prize finalist Fingersmith, this novel of relationships set in 1940s London brims with vivid historical detail, thrilling coincidences, and psychological complexity.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | WWII Fiction
Updated 1.18.06 - Apex Hides the Hurt
Author: Whitehead, Colson
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 038550795x Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
From the MacArthur and Whiting Award-winning author of John Henry Days comes a new, brisk, comic tour de force about identity, history, and the adhesive bandage industry.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 1.21.06
March
- La Perdida
Author: Abel, Jessica
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375423656 Date: 2006PWBooklist
In this richly emotional, high velocity tale, a young woman journeys to Mexico City in search of her true identity, only to discover a self she can hardly recognize.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 3.6.06 - 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 - Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle
Author: Bartlett, Beverly
Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 ISBN: 0446695599 Date: 2006Kirkus
Styled as a royal biography, this clever and witty debut follows a fictitious princess whose svengali is a mechanic who takes his advice from Bruce Springsteen.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Chicklit
Updated 1.10.06 - Brookland
Author: Barton, Emily
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN:0374116903 Date: 2006 PW Kirkus LJ
Set in eighteenth-century Brooklyn, this is the story of a determined and intelligent woman who is consumed by a vision of a bridge she devises to cross the East River in a single, magnificent span.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | All Stars
Updated 1.18.06 - The Penultimate Chance Saloon
Author: Brett, Simon
Publisher: Toby $ 14.95 ISBN: 1592641628 Date: 2006Booklist
Soul searching was an unfamiliar exercise to Bill Stratton, and he found it intriguing as well as painful. He hadn't had much occasion for it in his life, given that he was fairly shallow, but then, on the verge of his 60th birthday, his wife told him she was leaving him for another man. He'd been under the impression they had a happy marriage. She assured him that for nearly forty years, in fact since the second week of their honeymoon, she'd known she was married to the wrong person. Bill had not had much experience of dating (or sex, for that matter) before he met and married Andrea. Post-menopausal dating might be very different to dating in your twenties or thirties, but then he didn't know much about either scene. Still, as a mildly famous television newsreader who'd managed to hold on to (most of) his looks, it seemed he was about to have plenty of opportunities to find out... - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.16.06 - A Brief History of the Dead
Author: Brockmeier, Kevin
Publisher: Pantheon $ 22.95 ISBN: 0375423699Date: 2006 PWLJ
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 - Lord Perfect
Author: Chase, Loretta
Publisher: Berkley $ 7.99 ISBN: 0425208885 Date: 2006LJBooklist
From "one of the finest romance writers of all time" (Julia Quinn) comes an all-new romance. Benedict, the Earl of Hargate, has always been in control--until Bathsheba Wingate enters his life and pulls him into a dangerous rescue mission.
Suggested Reading: Romance
Updated 3.6.06 - Touch of Evil
Author: Clamb, Cathy & C.T. Adams
Publisher: Tor $ 6.99 ISBN: 0765354004 Date: 2006Booklist
The authors of Hunter's Moon begin a new paranormal series. It's been six years since Kate Reilly's lover turned her over to the vampire parasites who call themselves the Thrall. Now Katie is next in line to be the Thrall Queen--and each day might be her last as a human.
Suggested Reading: Romance | Paranormal
Updated 2.16.06 - The Madonnas of Leningrad
Author: Dean, Debra
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060825308 Date: 2006BooklistLJ
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 - Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War
Author: Djebar, Assia
Publisher: Feminist $ 14.95 ISBN: 1558615105 Date: 2006Kirkus
Updated 11.9.05 - In the Company of the Courtesan
Author: Dunant, Sarah
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400063817 Date: 2006PWBooklistKirkusLJ
Set in Renaissance Italy, this follow-up to Dunant's The Birth of Venus recounts the fantastic escapades of Bucino Teodoldo, a wily dwarf, and his mistress, celebrated courtesan Fiammetta Bianchini, who escape to Venice where intrigue awaits.
Street Date: 2.14.06
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Historical Fiction | Venice
Updated 1.18.06 - Sweetness in the Belly
Author: Gibb, Camilla
Publisher: Penguin $ 23.95 ISBN: 159420084x Date: 2006Kirkus
Updated 12.7.05 - Intuition
Author: Goodman, Allegra
Publisher: Dial $ 25 ISBN: 0385336128 Date: 2006KirkusPWBooklist
The National Book Award finalist returns with a revelatory new novel, a mesmerizing human drama set in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a cancer research lab.
Sugggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 12.5.05 - The Widow's War
Author: Gunning, Sally
Publisher: Morrow $ I24.95 SBN: 0060791578 Date: 2006LJ
When her husband is lost in a whaling disaster, Lyddie Berry finds her status as a widow is vastly changed. Her son-in-law sets out to strip her of everything she and her husband worked for, but she refuses to bow to societal and legal pressures.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 1.18.06 - Philosophy Made Simple
Author: Hellenga, Robert
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316058262 Date: 2006KirkusBooklist
Rudy Harrington has spent half his life in a rambling Chicago house, raising three daughters with his independent-minded wife. But his wife has died, his daughters have moved away, and Rudy is restless. In what he interprets as a moment of transcendent vision, he puts the family home up for sale and buys an avocado grove in Texas. While adapting to his new vocation, new home, and new friends, Rudy takes up a book-Philosophy Made Simple-and begins to struggle with Plato and Aristotle, Hume and Schopenhauer.
Updated 3.6.06 - Carry Me Down
Author: Hyland, M.J.
Publisher: Cannongate $ 23 ISBN: 1841957402 Date: 2006PW
Hyland pens a restrained, emotionally taut, and sometimes oddly funny portrait of a misfit--John Egan, a 12-year-old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant, and an obsession for the Guinness Book of World Records.
Updated 1.17.06 - Gray Horses
Author: Larson, Hope
Publisher: Oni $ 14.95 ISBN: 193266436X Date: 2006PW
Noemie has left her home in France to study abroad. In Onion City there are new friends, new environments, and new loves. There are also new dreams. And not ordinary dreams. Vivid visions of life in a different time and in a different place, but more than that, of a different existence. In Noemie's sleep she's not a woman, but a horse. A noble creature aiding a sick little girl. But how does this effect Noemie's own journey? - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
Updated 3.27.06 - What Price Love?
Author: Laurens, Stephanie
Publisher: Morrow $ 22.95 ISBN: 0060840846 Date: 2006LJ
The internationally bestselling author continues her extraordinary success with this lushly romantic new tale featuring the wildly poplar Cynsters.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.18.06 - Woman Who Waited
Author: Makine, Andrei
Publisher: Arcade $ 24 ISBN: 1559707747 Date: 2006Kirkus
Updated 1.10.06 - How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life
Author: Medwed, Mameve
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060831197 Date: 2006LJ
This astonishing novel is for any woman who has ever thought about changing her life, making peace with her past, and finding out the worth of the treasures in her attic.
Updated 2.28.06 - The Last Witchfinder
Author: Morrow, James
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060821795 Date: 2006PWBooklist
Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living, but when the young girl witnesses the horrifying death of her beloved Aunt Isobel, she makes it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Witches
Updated 2.21.06 - Here They Come
Author: Murphy , Yannick
Publisher: McSweeneys $ 22 ISBN: 1932416501 Date: 2006PW
The author of the "New York Times" Notable Book Sea of Trees gives lyrical voice to an unforgettable 13-year-old girl, who with a quiet sense of the surreal recounts a year of vivid, mundane moments in 1970s New York City with dark humor and deadpan resilience.
Updated 1.30.06 - Some Fun
Author: Nelson, Antonya
Publisher: Scribner $ 14 ISBN: 0743218736 Date: 2006Booklist
In seven taut, striking stories and a brilliant novella, an award-winning author applies her exceptional talent to the familial themes of teenagers and their middle-aged parents.
Updated 1.21.06 - Halfway House
Author: Noel, Katherine
Publisher: Atlantic $ 23 ISBN: 0871139340 Date: 2006LJ
Set in a small town in New Hampshire, this novel is the story of a girl's psychotic break and her family's subsequent turmoil. With grace and precision rarely seen in a first novel, Noel guides readers through a world where love is imperfect, and where longing for an imagined ideal can both destroy one family's happiness and offer redemption.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 12.27.05 - Prospero's Daughter
Author: Nunez, Elizabeth
Publisher: One World $ 24.95 IS