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Featured Titles 2005 New titles - selected on the basis of good reviews. Nonfiction, fiction and mystery titles are included on these lists. Books for kids and teens (fiction and nonfiction) are also listed.

May 2005

Nonfiction

• Guitar: An American Life
  Author: Brookes, Tim
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117961 Date: 2005
  LJKirkus
  When the author wasn't breathing over a guitar maker's shoulder, he was trying to unravel the symbolic associations a guitar holds for musicians and nonmusicians alike. His quest took him across the country talking to historians, curators, and guitar makers.
  Updated 4.7.05

 

• Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine
  Author: Chelminski, Rudolph
  Publisher: Gotham $ 27.50 ISBN: 1592401074 Date: 2005
  KirkusPW
  A riveting behind-the-scenes look at the mysterious world of three-star French haute cuisine is revealed through the biography of one of France's most celebrated chefs--Bernard Loiseau, who ended his own life on February 24, 2003, after one of his restaurant's ratings took a disappointing drop.
  Updated 3.28.05
• A Year in the Merde
  Author: Clarke, Stephen
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1582345910 Date: 2005
  LJ
  A #1 bestseller in the United Kingdom and an urban antidote to A Year in Provence, this laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of an expat in Paris is the almost-true story of the author's own experiences.
  Updated 4.7.05

 

• Them: A Memoir of Parents
  Author: Gray, Francine Du Plessix
  Publisher: Penguin $ 29.95 ISBN: 1594200491 Date: 2005
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The much-acclaimed biographer gives an unflinchingly honest, wise, and forgiving portrait of her own famous parents, two wildly talented Russian migrs who fled wartime Paris to become one of New York's first and grandest "power couples."
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Memoirs
  Updated 4.22.05
• Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Fast, Furious Year Across America With Nascar
  Author: Macgregor, Jeff
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060094710 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  A groundling's view of life in the fastest lane of NASCAR is offered by an award-winning writer from "Sports Illustrated" in the tradition of The Right Stuff and Moneyball.
  Updated 3.10.05

 

Fiction

• Zorro
  Author: Allende, Isabel
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060778970 Date: 2005
  PWBooklistLJ
  In this swashbuckling adventure, the author of My Invented Country reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man of legendary fame.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 3.10.05

 

• The Lake, the River and the Other Lake
  Author: Amick, Steve
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423508 Date: 2005
  LJ
  As the lives and loves of the people of Weneshkeen--a once-quiet village on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan--unfurl, readers are treated to a big-hearted tale that is by turns uproariously funny and dark, and always poignantly real.
  Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars
  Updated 4.7.05

 

• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
  Author: Doctorow, Cory
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312786 Date: 2005
  PW
  One of the leading voices of next-generation SF and author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom returns with a miraculous novel of secrets, lies, magic, and Internet connectivity, set on the streets of modern-day Toronto.
  Updated 3.10.05

 

• The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932
  Author: Fergus, Jim
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300545 Date: 2005
  PWBooklist
  From the award-winning author of One Thousand White Women comes a novel in the tradition of Little Big Man, tracing one man's search for adventures and the wild Apache girl who invites him into her world.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars
  Updated 4.22.05

 

• The History of Love
  Author: Krauss, Nicole
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393060349 Date: 2005
  KirkusPWBooklist
  Leo Gursky is barely surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: 60 years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 3.28.05
• Beyond Black
  Author: Mantel, Hilary
  Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805073566 Date: 2005
  Kirkus
  Troubles spiral out of control when a psychic and her assistant move to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside and take up with a spirit guide and his drowned therapist in this darkly comic, unorthodox novel.
  Updated 2.23.05
• Gil's All Fright Diner
  Author: Martinez, A. Lee
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311437 Date: 2005
  PW
  Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes! Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer . . . - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
  Updated 3.21.05

 

• Glad News of the Natural World
  Author: Pearson, T.R.
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743264630 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  In this hilarious and heartbreaking sequel to the beloved bestseller A Short History of a Small Place, readers will find Louis Benfield nearly grown up, feckless as ever, and a long way from his native North Carolina.
  Updated 3.25.05

 

• Pretty Birds
  Author: Simon, Scott
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400063108 Date: 2005
  KirkusPW
  This mortal chess game of guile and manipulation plays out against the backdrop of beautiful, war-torn Sarajevo as two high school friends--one Muslim, one Christian--struggle to survive the Serbs' ethnic cleansing.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 4.19.05

Mystery & Suspense

• Bangkok Tattoo
  Author: Burdett, John
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 1400040450 Date: 2005
  PW
  From the author of Bangkok 8 comes a head-spinning new novel that puts readers back in the company of the inimitable Royal Thai Police detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep.
  Updated 4.25.05

 

• The Closers
  Author: Connelly, Michael
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 26.95 ISBN: 0316734942 Date: 2005
  BooklistPWLJ
  The death of a teenage girl almost two decades ago comes back to haunt all of L.A.--and detective Harry Bosch--in this spellbinding new thriller from "New York Times" bestselling author Michael Connelly.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 4.19.05

 

• The Poet's Funeral
  Author: Daniel, John M.
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058144x Date: 2005
  PW
  This romp rich, with poetry, publishing, book collecting, and literary gossip, is a story of ego, love, art, and murder during four hot days at the 1990 American Booksellers Association convention.
  Updated 3.14.05

 

• The Four Courts Murder
  Author: Nugent, Andrew
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312327587 Date: 2005
  Kirkus
  Inspector Denis Lennon and his sergeant, Molly Power, are given a lead in the murder of a hated judge. Bring in a series of high and low Irish characters, add a delightful young German student, and one has a highly seasoned story in unusual settings, told with a small twinkle sure to endear readers to this new author.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 3.10.05
• Keys to Death
  Author: Toll, Emily
  Publisher: Berkely $ 6.99 ISBN: 0425202941Date: 2005
  While visiting a friend's newly opened resort in the Florida Keys, travel agent/sleuth Lynne Montgomery runs afoul of a killer who may make her vacation a permanent one.
  Updated 4.22.05

 

• Just Murdered: A Dead-End Job Mystery
  Author: Viets, Elaine
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 ISBN: 0451214927 Date: 2005
  Helen Hawthorne's new job at a bridal salon becomes downright dangerous when a rich, obnoxious mother-of-the bride is murdered. Now, Helen must find the killer before this job turns into another dead-end for her--literally.
  Updated 4.25.05

 

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages

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

• Guys Write for Guys Read
  Author: Scieszka, Jon (edt)
  Publisher: Viking $ 16.99 ISBN: 0670060070 Date: 2005
  SLJ
  Male authors like Gordon Korman and Stephen King contribute to this collection of stories, cartoons and writing about being boys - for boys. (Overbooked)
  Grades: 6-12 Category: Collection
  
• A Thief in the House of Memory
  Author: Wynne-Jones, Tim
  Publisher: FSG $ 17 ISBN: 0374374783 Date: 2005
  KirkusSLJ
  In this masterful new novel, Wynne-Jones explores with wit, compassion, and humor the fictional territory he knows best--the prickly ties that bind families, the murky connections between imagination and real life.
  Grades: 7-12 Category: Fiction