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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.

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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 . . .

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Starred Reviews

Historical Fiction Stars 2000

June 18, 2008

A sporadically updated, (mostly) annotated list of hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist - BL, Publisher's Weekly - PW, Kirkus, and Library Journal - LJ.

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Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless otherwise noted.

Historical fiction is loosely defined on this page - a book set 25 years ago may qualify for inclusion.

Categories on this page may include general (period setting) and also worthy of note (time

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2000

• In the Name of Salome
  Author: Alvarez, Julia
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN: 1565122763
  Kirkus PW
  Based on the lives of two heroic Latin women, Alvarez's sweeping fourth novelspans more than 100 years in the tumultuous history of the Caribbean.
• The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War
  Author: Bahr, Howard
  Publisher: Henry Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805059725
  Kirkus PW
  Written with scrupulous respect for historical accuracy, The Year of Jubilo is the story of Civil War soldier Gawain Harper, who returns to his home in Cumberland, Mississippi, only to find that a showdown awaits him that once again pits South against North, and dignity against defeat.
• Wish You Well
  Author: Baldacci, David
  Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446527165
  PW
  It is 1940 and a tragedy sends two young children, Lou and Oz, along with their invalid mother, from New York City to the rugged mountains of Southwestern Virginia to live with their great-grandmother. The portraits of the land and its people are described with an extraordinary eye for detail as the story flows through swells of prejudice, innocence, greed, and faith, and the question of whether one can ever really wish another well.
• Master of the Crossroads
  Author: Bell, Madison Smartt
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 30 ISBN: 0375420568
  Booklist PW Library Journal
  Against the 1793 slave revolt of Haiti's Saint Dominigue, the author of All Souls' Rising gives a kaleidoscope portrait of the remarkable Toussaint Louverture. The black leader's beliefs, passions, and compulsions unfold over the course of seven tumultuous years.
• Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written By Himself
  Author: Berry, Wendell
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 25 ISBN: 1582430292
  Kirkus Booklist
  In his latest story about the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky, Berry introduces readers to Jayber Crow, his love for his community, and his abiding and unrequited love for one special woman.
• The Marines of Autumn
  Author: Brady, James
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312262000
  PW
  The Korean War affected the lives of all Americans, yet little is known beyond "M*A*S*H". This new novel of the Chosin Reservoir Campaign is about Tom Verity, a man brought to Korea to monitor Chinese radio transmissions. Within hours, he is thrust into MacArthur's last daring foray and witnesses firsthand the horrors of war.
• The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes
  Author: Bram, Christopher
  Publisher: Morrow $ 26 ISBN: 0688175694
  Kirkus PW
  from the imagination that created Father of Frankenstein, the basis for the Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters, comes an emotionally riveting historical novel about an improvisational pianist who believes his music is sometimes inspired by the spirit world.
• The Hat Box Baby
  Author: Brown, Carrie
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565122992
  Library Journal
  The Chicago World's Fair in 1933 is the setting for this story about a desperate father who brings his premature baby to a famous incubator doctor who exhibits live premature infants to the fair's gawking crowds. All the characters who get involved in this fragile baby's life form the plot of this startlingly original novel.
• Girl With a Pearl Earring
  Author: Chevalier, Tracy
  Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594527x
  PW Kirkus Booklist
  With the precision and focus of an Old Master's painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring paints a vivid portrait of colorful 17th-century Delft, as well as the hauntingly poignant story of one young girl's rite of passage.
  Suggested Reading: Vermeer Fiction list.
• Deus Lo Volt! A Chronicle of the Crusades
  Author: Connell, Evan S.
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 30 ISBN: 1582430659
  Library Journal Kirkus
  God Wills It! From the best selling author of Son of the Morning Star comes a magisterial recounting of the Crusades, telling - in stunning immediacy - one soldier's first-hand experience of the defining war of Christendom. - Publisher marketing.
• Sharpe's Fortress
  Author: Cornwell, Bernard
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25 ISBN: 0060194243
  PW
  Richard Sharpe's old nemesis Obidiah Hakeswill commits another treason, forcing Sharpe to seek revenge. Wellesley's army is besieging the Mahattra fortress of Gawilghur, an impenetrable bastion of rock and bristling canon. But this time the defenders are standing between Sharpe and his reputation, his honor, and a sultan's stolen jewels.
• Suspension
  Author: Crabbe, Richard E.
  Publisher: St Martins $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312203713
  Library Journal
  In this thrilling first novel in the tradition of The Alienist and The Great Bridge, a small group of die-hard Confederates, led by their fanatical captain, endeavors to destroy the Great East River Bridge nearly 20 years after the war.
  
• The Tale of Murasaki
  Author: Dalby, Liza
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385497946
  Library Jounral
  "The Tale of Murasaki" brings vividly to life the fascinating 11th-century world of the creator of Japan's enduring masterpiece, The Tale of Genji. Liza Dalby is not only a most remarkable scholar of Japan--she is a keen storyteller".--Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.
  The Tale of Muraraki web site.
• Gemini
  Author: Dunnett, Dorothy
  Publisher: Knopf $ 27.50 ISBN: 0679454780
  PW
  In this eagerly awaited final installment of Dunnett's brilliant House of Niccolo series, Nicholas finally unlocks the door to his past, but not before his physical strength, his willpower, and his humanity have been tested to the breaking point.
• Family Orchard
  Author: Eve, Nomi
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0375410767
  PW Kirkus
  A rich tapestry of Jewish life, this mesmerizing debut is a magical, multigenerational novel spanning 200 years of an unforgettable family of immigrants in Jerusalem. From Esther, the family matriarch, who was lured by the smell of baking bread into the baker's arms, to her great-granddaughter Miriam, a seamstress of intoxicating beauty, this novel captures six generations of love affairs, legends, and family secrets.
• Requiem Shark
  Author: Griffin, Nicholas
  Publisher: Villard $ 23 ISBN: 0375503366
  PW Kirkus
  Set in the 18th century's golden age of piracy, this literary debut is the tale of a young recruit, William Williams, and his forced apprenticeship to Captain Roberts, slaver-turned-pirate captain.
  Suggested Reading: Sea Stories
• The Gates of the Alamo
  Author: Harrigan, Stephen
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0679447172
  PW Kirkus LJ
  This full-scale novel about the siege and fall of the Alamo weaves in a love story between an American naturalist and a widow innkeeper who, along with her 16-year-old son, get swept up in the harrowing events of the heroic battle.
• The Binding Chair: A Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society
  Author: Harrison, Kathryn
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679450009
  Kirkus PW
  This mesmerizing novel by the author of the bestselling The Kiss is set in alluring Shanghai at the turn of the century, and it tells the story of two women whose lives intertwine - fascinating, tiny-footed Mai and Alice, her Western niece.
• The Old American
  Author: Hebert, Ernest
  Publisher: Univ Press of New England $ 24.95 ISBN: 1584650737
  PW
  This novel is inspired by the real life story of Nathan Blake, the first frame house builder in Keene, New Hampshire who in 1746 was abducted by Algonkians and held in Canada as a slave.
• The Vision of Emma Blau
  Author: Hegi, Ursula
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0681829975
  PW LJ
  From one of our century's most distinctive literary voices comes the eagerly anticipated companion novel to the bestselling Stones from the River. Hegi creates a fascinating picture of immigrants in America: their dreams and disappointments, the challenges of assimilation, the love that bonds generations, and the cultural wedges that drive them apart.
• The Angel and the Sword
  Author: Holland, Cecelia
  Publisher: Forge $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312868901
  LJ
  In a tale based on a traditional French legend of the Dark Ages, the story of Roderick the Beardless, Holland wields her incomparable talent to bring ninth-century Paris to vivid life. For the one known as Roderick is in truth a maiden princess who has taken up the sword to avenge the death of her mother and reclaim her own rightful crown.
  
• American By Blood
  Author: Huebner, Andrew
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0684857707
  Booklist
  Three U.S. Army scouts leading an infantry column arrive a day late to the battle of Little Bighorn to find the bloody ruins of Custer's troops. Their mission to clear the land of the Indian tribes then becomes one of vengeance, forever changing their sense of manhood, honor, and country.
• The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi
  Author: Japin, Arthur
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375406751
  Kirkus Booklist LJ
  In 1837, two young African princes arrive at the Dutch royal court of Willem I. Sent by the King of the Ashanti as surety in a deal they have brokered over illegal slave trading, the two boys think they are there for a European education. But as time passes, they forget their native language and become exiles. This acclaimed first novel is based on a true story.
• Test Pattern
  Author: Klein, Marjorie
  Publisher: William Morrow $ 25 ISBN: 0688172849
  Booklist
  Brilliantly recreating the innocence and energy of the '50s, Test Pattern is a tour de force of imagination showing how a new TV set forever changes the lives of the Palmer family in 1954.
• English Passengers
  Author: Kneale, Matthew
  Publisher: Doubleday/Talese $ 25 ISBN: 0385497431
  PW Kirkus
  When a band of smugglers sails for Tasmania, believed to be the Garden of Eden, they find the British "civilization" of the aboriginal tribes is in full force. Each character has a voice in the narration in this bravura performance, which sets new standards for historical and nautical adventure writing.
  Suggested Reading: Sea Stories | Historical Fiction Stars. Also, Kalimantaan by C.S. Godshalk.

• Longing
  Author: Landis, J. D.
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151004536
  PW
  Madness, genius, and passion fuel a towering novel of the Romantic era's most romantic couple, Robert and Clara Shumann. Robert shocked and confused listeners with music that heralded the beginning of the modern era and Clara was the most acclaimed pianist of her time.
  Suggested Reading: Music and Fiction

• The Iceweaver
  Author: Lawrence, Margaret
  Publisher: Avon $ 24 ISBN: 0380976218
  Booklist
  In January 1809, John Frayne returns to New York state to reclaim his father's confiscated lands and the affection of his abandoned son. There, he is drawn to a beautiful, mute "madwoman" named Jennet Trevor, who has been declared indigent and put up for auction. It is Frayne who bids for her future.
• In the Fall
  Author: Lent, Jeffrey
  Publisher: Atlantic Monthly $ 25 ISBN: 0871137658
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  "An extraordinary first novel that bears no resemblance to a first novel" (Jim Harrison), In the Fall tells the heartrending story of three generations of an interracial American family, from the end of the Civil War to the Great Depression.
  Suggested Reading: Civil War Fiction
• Conspiracy of Paper
  Author: Liss, David
  Publisher: Random $ 25 ISBN: 0375502920
  Kirkus PW Booklist Library Journal
  "In A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss has woven a tale of 18th-century finance, murder, and religion that is a remarkable debut and a thoroughly satisfying novel." - Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.
• Two Moons
  Author: Mallon, Thomas
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375400257
  Booklist
  Astronomy, politics, and romance join forces in this post-Civil War novel from the writer John Updike has called "one of the most interesting American novelists at work."
• Morgan's Run
  Author: McCullough, Colleen
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 28 ISBN: 0684853299
  PW
  From the bestselling author of The Thorn Birds comes the saga of Australia's first settlers, based on the extraordinary life of one man. Richard Morgan is a roistering, down-on-his-luck, 18th-century hero, irresistible to women and full of wily charm. He makes the awful journey from England, survives, finds his love, and makes his mark despite the odds against him.
• Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution
  Author: McGrath, Patrick
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN:0375500812
  PW
  From the desolate wharves of Hogarth's London to the wild stretches of the New World, master storyteller McGrath maps out a vast saga of revolt and renewal--the story of one sublime heroine, but also of the birth of America.
• Boone's Lick
  Author: McMurtry, Larry
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23.50 ISBN: 0684868865
  Kirkus Library Journal
  Boone's Lick is a major novel in the rich tradition of Lonesome Dove and Comanche Moon about the opening up of the American West. The first novel in a new series, it is the story of a trek by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming, and proves to be one of McMurtry's richest and most satisfying works.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars
• Becoming Madame Mao
  Author: Min, Anchee
  Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 0681004076
  Library Journal Booklist PW
  From the bestselling author of Red Azalea comes a strikingly original, erotically charged portrayal of Madame Mao, one of the most vilified women of the 20th century.
  Updated 4/13/00.
• Tulip Fever
  Author: Moggach, Deborah
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385334893
  PW
  With critical raves from Britain and film rights already sold to Steven Spielberg, Tulip Fever is a tour de force set in 1630s Amsterdam - a tale about a smoldering passion that develops between a married woman and the artist painting her portrait.

• Eagle's Cry: A Novel of the Louisiana Purchase
  Author: Nevin, David
  Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312855117
  Kirkus
  President James Madison learns that Napoleon Bonaparte has forced the Spanish to turn New Orleans over to him, allowing him to potentially take over the Mississippi River Valley. France could stop the aspiring free trade market growing along the Mississippi including the business of widow Danny Mulberry, a New Orleans shipping tycoon and one of the most sought-after women in the city.

• Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works
  Author: Nye, Bobert
  Publisher: Arcade $ 23.95 ISBN: 1559705523
  Kirkus PW
  In this humorous and bawdy fictional memoir, Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway reminisces about her famous husband seven years after his death.
• Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War
  Author: Pressfield, Steven
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385492529
  Kirkus PW Library Journal Booklist
  The internationally bestselling author of Gates of Fire returns with a stunning novel of the Peloponnesian War and Alcibiades, the man whose heroics and passions fueled the epic struggle. Narrated by the conqueror's trusted bodyguard and hired assassin in a mesmerizing death-row confession, Tides of War is historical fiction at its finest - a full-bodied, flesh-and-blood retelling of one of history's pivotal conflicts.
• Worthy's Town
  Author: Rolens, Sharon
  Publisher: Bridge Works $ 22.95 ISBN: 1882593359
  Library Journal
  Beneath the quiet surface of life in Old Kane, Illinois, love, cruelty, murder and friendship drive the destinies of Worthy and Willa Giberson and their boy Cappy in this novel spanning 1925 to 1950.
• Houseguest
  Author: Rossi, Agnes
  Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594365x
  Kirkus
  Moving from a small town in the north of Ireland to Depression-era New Jersey, The Houseguest offers an eloquent and morally complex story that perfectly captures the rhythms of grief, hope, and humor that are indelible parts of the Irish-American experience.
• Scandalmonger
  Author: Safire, William
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 27 ISBN: 0684867192
  Library Journal
  Exploding any notion that political sex scandal is a recent phenomenon, our press-hounded Founding Fathers star in an outrageous - and fact-based - novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Safire demonstrates how media intrusiveness into private lives and politicians' manipulation of the press are as old as the Constitution in this entertaining and thought-provoking historical novel. Illustrations throughout.
• Abe
  Author: Slotkin, Richard
  Publisher: Holt $ 27.50 ISBN: 0805041230
  PW
  In a brilliant work of historical imagination, award-winning historian Slotkin recreates the childhood of Abe Lincoln, including a dramatic flatboat journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.
• In America
  Author: Sontag, Susan
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 25 ISBN: 0374175403
  PW Booklist Library Journal
  In a glorious, sweeping new novel by the bestselling author of The Volcano Lover, Sontag once again bases her work on a real story. In 1876, a group of Poles led by Maryna Zalewska, Poland's greatest actress, travels to California to found a "utopian" commune. In America is a big, juicy, surprising book about a woman's search for self-transformation, about the fate of idealism, and about the world of the theater.
• White Teeth
  Author: Smith, Zadie
  Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375501851
  PW Kirkus
  A spectacular, riotously entertaining epic set in post-World War II London, White Teeth is a novel of two families - the Joneses and the Iqbals - whose hilarious and tortured lives capture all the optimism and absurdity of the past half-century. "Zadie Smith's fizzing first novel is about how we all got here - from the Caribbean, from the Indian subcontinent, from 13th place in a long ago Olympic bicycle race - and about what "here" turned out to be."--Salman Rushdie.
• Chang and Eng
  Author: Strauss, Darin
  Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525945121
  PW Kirkus
  Everyone has a story to tell. Some of us even have two. Born attached at the chest, Chang and Eng Bunker were the Siamese twins for whom the term was coined, one of the 19th century's most fabled oddities. Narrated by Eng during the final moments of his life, Chang and Eng follows the extraordinary lives of the twins from poverty to wealth, from hopeless solititude to boundless love, from the court of the King of Siam to the crowded bedroom of their North Carolina home. Chang and Eng is an unforgettable and sublimely moving story that reveals the longings and humanity of these remarkable twins. - Publisher marketing.
• Music and Silence
  Author: Tremain, Rose
  Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux $ 25 ISBN: 0374199892
  PW Booklist Kirkus
  In the year 1629, a young English lute player named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish court where he must find the path that will realize his hopes and save his soul. Short-listed for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.
  Suggested Reading: Music and Fiction.
• Legacy of Love
  Author: Trollope, Joanna
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670891819
  Booklist
  Trollope's second Caroline Harvey historical novel traces the lives and lovesof three generations of strong, adventurous women.
• The Heartsong of Charging Elk
  Author: Welch, James
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24 ISBN: 0385496745
  PW
  From a master of contemporary Native American fiction, a haunting novel of an Oglala Sioux's odyssey from the Great Plains to the back streets of 19th century France. - From the Advance Reading Copy.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars
  

Mystery

• Wake Up Little Susie
  Author: Gorman, Ed
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 22.95 ISBN: 0786706651
  Booklist
  In 1958, Sam McCain makes some troubling discoveries about his hometown's upstanding citizens as he tracks down 19-year-old Susie's elusive murderer.
• The Dress Lodger
  Author: Holman, Sheri
  Publisher: Atlantic Monthly $ 24 ISBN: 0871137534
  Kirkus PW
  The author of A Stolen Tongue now delivers a stunning exploration of sinister Industrial England, prostitution, and the dark secrets of 19th-century medical science. Reminiscent of the works of lain Pears and Caleb Carr, The Dress Lodger is a historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice.
• The Fig Eater
  Author: Shields, Jody
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316785644
  Library Journal
  When a young woman's body is discovered in the summer of 1910 Vienna, the Inspector's wife is certain the figs found in her stomach during the autopsy are the clue to the identity of the murderer - for there are no fresh figs in Vienna at this time of year.
• Just Passing Through
  Author: Taibo, Paco Ignacio
  Publisher: Cinco Puntos $ 21.95 ISBN: 0938317474
  Library Journal
  This elegant and literate adventure novel is set in 1920's post-revolutionary Mexico finds the author searching for a hero, specifically a leftist hero, and he thinks he has found him in the person of Sebastian San Vicente. But everyone - including the baffled novelist - is trying to figure out exactly who San Vicente really is.
• Pieces of Light
  Author: Thorpe, Adam
  Publisher: Carrol & Graf $ 25.95 ISBN: 0786706619
  Kirkus
  A masterfully inventive novel of psychological adventure, as magical as a memoir of colonial Africa and as sinister as a ghost story set in rural England.

Other

• Pilgrim
  Author: Findley, Timothy
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25 ISBN: 006019197x
  PW
  Populated with a fascinating parade of historical characters, including Leonardo da Vinci, Carl Jung, Oscar Wilde, and Gertrude Stein, Pilgrim is the story of a man who cannot die - ageless, sexless, and timeless - whose many lives span across 4,000 years.

LINKS:

Historical Mysteries
Soon's Historical Fiction Site
Uchronia: Alternate History

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