Featured Titles 2002 New titles - selected on the basis of good reviews. Nonfiction, fiction and mystery titles are included on the lists.

January 2002

Nonfiction

• Dont' Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
  by Fuller, Alexandra
  Publisher: Random House $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375507507
  Kirkus Booklist PW
  Magnificently original and affecting, Fuller's memoir of a childhood dominated by the Rhodesian civil war of 1971-1979 captures the fascinating life of a white family living in one of the most remote regions of Africa.
  
  
• Salt
  Author: Kurlansky, Mark
  Publisher: Walker & Company $ 28 ISBN: 0802713734
  Kirkus Library Journal
  Kurlansky, author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance--salt, the only rock humans eat-- and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning.
  
• The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family
  Author: Lovell, Mary S.
  Publisher: Norton $ 29.95 ISBN: 0393010430
  PW Booklist
  The Mitfords had style, presence, and were extremely gifted: four would go on to write bestselling books. Above all, they were funny--hilariously and often mercilessly so. In this wise, evenhanded, and generous book, Lovell captures the vitality and extraordinary drama of a family that took the 20th century by the throat and became, in some respects, its victims.
  

Fiction

• Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa
  Author: Estrin, Marc
  Publisher: Blue Hen $ 26.95 ISBN: 0399148361
  PWLibrary Journal
  In this delightfully original work of imagination, compassion, and good reason, readers follow the trajectory of Kafka's salesman-turned-cockroach across two continents and 30 years as he touches the most significant flash points of his time.
  
• The Eyre Affair
  Author: Fforde, Jasper
  Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670030643
  PW
  Based on an imaginary world where time and reality bend in the most convincing and original way since Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Eyre Affair is a an endlessly inventive caper unlike any other.
  The Thursday Next web site: Here at thursdaynext.com we have put together as much information about the shadowy heroine of The Eyre Affair fame as we can within the strict guidelines of the Special Operations Network.
  
• The Jazz Bird
  Author: Holden, Craig
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743212967
  Library Journal
  Based on a true story, The Jazz Bird is at once a love story, a crime novel, and the tale of the courtroom battle between two powerful men whose respective futures hang in the balance, set at the apex of that time of glitz and innocence known as the Jazz Age.
  
  
• When the Elephants Dance
  Author: Holthe, Tess Uriza
  Publisher: Crown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0609609521
  KirkusLibrary JournalPW
  Inspired, in part, by the experiences of her father, who was a boy in the Philippines during World War II, this debut novel begins during the final week of the Japanese-American battle for the islands. As they hide in a cellar from the Japanese, several Filipino civilians tell magical tales to help pass the time, fuel their courage, and teach important lessons of hope.
  
• Roscoe
  Author: Kennedy, William
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670030295
  BooklistLibrary JournalPW
  From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ironweed. Roscoe, the seventh novel in the Albany cycle, illuminates the high and low of Albany life between the world wars. It is an odyssey of great scope and linguistic verve, a deadly comic masterpiece from one of America's most important novelists.
  
• Tepper Isn't Going Out
  Author: Trillin, Calvin
  Publisher: Random $ 22.95 ISBN: 0375506764
  Publishers WeeklyKirkus
  In a delightful new novel full of the lore of New York, Murray Tepper regularly parks in Manhattan and reads his paper. Not surprisingly, his reading is regularly interrupted by people who want his spot. But Tepper isn't going out.
  

Mystery & Suspense

• The Viking Funeral
  Author: Cannell, Stephen J.
  Publisher: St. Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312269609
  Driving along the freeway, Shane Scully glances over and sees at the wheel of a neighboring car his old friend and LAPD colleague, Jody Dean--who supposedly committed suicide two years ago. Full of the same high-wire suspense and wonderful characters that made The Tin Collectors such a success, The Viking Funeral brings Scully back into action.
• Killing Paparrazzi
  Author: Eversz, Robert M.
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312289022
  Nina Zero is a girl who attracts serious trouble--of the guns-a-blazing, knife-in-the-back variety. The "electrifying" demise of heavy metal group Death Row in a hotel hot tub gives Nina the opportunity to launch a new career as a paparazza. By turns hilarious and thrilling, Eversz has written a sharp sequel to his debut novel, Shooting Elvis.
  www.ninazero.com - pop noir heroine's web site.
• The Love of Stones
  Author: Hill, Tobias
  Publisher: Picador $ 25 ISBN: 0312287739
  PW
  The Love of Stones follows three lives all linked by one precious jewel. An epic story spanning two continents and six centuries, at the heart of their quests is the Three Brethren, a legendary jewel that binds them together in an irresistible narrative.
  
• The Analyst
  Author: Katzenbach, JohnPublisher: Ballantine $ 25 ISBN: 0345426266
  Kirkus Library Journal
  On the brink of a month-long August vacation, Dr. Frederick Starks, a New York psychoanalyst, receives a mysterious, threatening letter. The unknown tormentor then lethally begins demonstrating the potential of his (or her) threats. In a race against time, Dr. Starks suddenly finds himself at the mercy of a psychopath's revenge.
  
• Love Her Madly
  Author: Smith Tirone, Mary-Ann
  Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805066489
  Library Journal
  A tense death-row drama kicks off a winning new series featuring brash FBI investigator Poppy Rice. Funny and fearless, Poppy is just about unstoppable as she reopens an investigation of a woman convicted of being an ax-murderer.
  
• Hard Feelings
  Author: Starr, Jason
  Publisher: Black Lizard $ 12 (trade paper) ISBN: 0375727094
  In the classic tradition of Jim Thompson, Hard Feelings lets readers into the mind of an ordinary guy capable of things even he couldn't have imagined.