overbooked.com or overbooked.org

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

October 2006

Nonfiction

• Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran
  Author: Elliot, Jason
  Publisher: St Martins $ 26.95 ISBN: 031230191x Date: 2006
  PWKirkus
  The bestselling author of An Unexpected Light conducts a fascinating journey through the cultural and artistic landscape of Iran, both past and present.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 8.28.06
• Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
  Author: Mitford, Jessica & Peter Y. Sussman (edt)
  Publisher: Knopf $ 35 ISBN: 0375410325 Date: 2006
  PWBooklist
  The letters of "Decca" Mitford give readers a luminous self-portrait of an inimitable woman, and of 20th-century society, from the inside out.
  Suggested Reading: Mitfords | Sisters
  Decca: The Letters site by Peter Y. Sussman ( includes excerpts from the letters)
  Jessica Mitford Memorial Site
  Updated 9.18.06
• The Shakespeare Wars: The Battle to Explain the Bard
  Author: Rosenbaum, Ron
  Publisher: Random $ 35 ISBN: 0375503390 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWBooklist
  Rosenbaum's provocative and illuminating encounters with scholars and directors gives readers new ways of thinking about Shakespeare.
  Suggested Reading: Shakespeare
  Updated 9.18.06
• Blood Brother: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57
  Author: Weisskopf, Michael
  Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805078606 Date: 2006
  KirkusLJ
  A powerful account of 18 months in the lives of three soldiers and a journalist, all patients in Ward 57, Walter Reed's amputee wing. A chronicle of devastation and recovery, this is a deeply affecting portrait of the private aftermath of combat casualties.
  Updated 9.18.06

Fiction

• The Ghost at the Table
  Author: Berne, Suzanne
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN: 1565123344 Date: 2006
  PWKirkus
  The Fiske family is gathered at the exquisitely restored New England home of the second of three sisters. The family table groans with the weight of guilt and blame. The result is the taut story of a 21st-century family's unraveling, played against a famous 19th-century writer's own family dysfunction.
  Updated 7.27.06
• Eifelheim
  Author: Flynn, Michael
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765300966 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWLJ
  In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.18.06
• The Uses of Enchantment
  Author: Julavits, Heidi
  Publisher: $ ISBN: 0385513232 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW
  Julavits weaves a spell in which the reader sees how the extraordinary power of a young woman's sexuality, and the desire to wield it, have a devastating effect. The riveting cat-and-mouse power games between doctor and patient, and between abductor and abductee, are gradually revealed, along with the truth about what actually happened to the 16-year-old in 1985.
  Updated 7.10.06
• The Road
  Author: McCarthy, Cormac
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0307265439 Date: 2006
  KirkusPWBooklistLJ
  At once brutal and tender, despairing and rashly hopeful, spare of language and profoundly moving, this work is a fierce and haunting meditation on the tenuous divide between civilization and savagery, and the essential, sometimes terrifying power of filial love.
  Suggested Reading: Apocalypse Now | All Stars
  Updated 8.28.06
• Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
  Author: Naslund, Sena Jeter
  Publisher: Morrow $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060825391 Date: 2006
  PWKirkusLJBooklist
  From the author of Ahab's Wife and Four Spirits comes her most astonishing work yet--a portrait of a young queen called Marie Antoinette.
  Suggested Reading: Marie Antoinette | All Stars
  Updated 9.13.06

 

• Echo Maker
  Author: Powers, Richard
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374146357 Date: 2006
  PWKirkusBooklist
  On a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister Karin returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. When he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that this woman--who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister--is really an identical impostor.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.4.06
• Greywalker
  Author: Richardson, Kat
  Publisher: Roc $ 14 ISBN: 045146107x Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  This debut features more than enough "nonstop action and paranormal complications to keep you on the edge of your seat" (Charlaine Harris, author of Definitely Dead).
  Updated 7.27.06

Crime Fiction

• A Corpse in the Koryo
  Author: Church, James
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312352085 Date: 2006
  BooklistPWLibrary Journal
  Like Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy and the Inspector Arkady Renko novels, A Corpse in the Koryo introduces another unfamiliar world (North Korea), a perplexing universe seemingly so alien that the rules are an enigma to the reader and even, sometimes, to Inspector O. Author James Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart after decades as an intelligence officer. This is a chilling portrayal that, in the end, leaves us wondering if what at first seemed unknowable may simply be too familiar for comfort. - Publisher Marketing
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.10.06
• Sharp Objects
  Author: Flynn, Gillian
  Publisher: Shambhala $ 24 ISBN: 0307341542 Date: 2006
  KirkusLJ
  After eight years, the murders of two preteen girls--timed nearly a year apart--bring reporter Camille Preaker reluctantly back to her hometown. As she works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 8.10.06
• Stripped
  Author: Freeman, Brian
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312340443 Date: 2006
  Booklist
  In this stunning follow-up to Freeman's remarkable debut novel, Immoral, Detective Jonathan Stride discovers that there are only two ways to go in Las Vegas. You can hit the jackpot--or you can get "stripped."
  Updated 8.7.06
• What Came Before He Shot Her
  Author: George, Elizabeth
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060545623 Date: 2006
  KirkusBooklistLJ
  In her compelling new mystery, George explores the unforgettable events leading up to a murder.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.28.06
• All Mortal Flesh
  Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312312644   Date: 2006
  LJPWKirkus
  One horrible murder. Two people destined for love or tragedy. Emotions explode in Spencer-Fleming's most accomplished mystery yet.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.16.06

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages

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

• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party
  Author: Anderson, M.T.
  Publisher: 17.99 Candlewick $ ISBN: 0763624020 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age 16, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
  Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction
• An Abundance of Katherines
  Author: Green, John
  Publisher: Dutton $ 16.99 ISBN: 0525476881 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus
  In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska, Colin Singleton always falls for girls named Katherine--and he's been dumped 19 times, to be exact. Letting expectations go and allowing love are in the heart of his hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.
  Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction
• The Pinhoe Egg: A Chrestomanci Book
  Author: Jones Diana Wynne
  Publisher: Greenwillow $ 17.99 ISBN: 0061131245    Date: 2006
  PW
  Marianne Pinhoe, a young witch discovering the extent of her powers, discovers a mysterious egg while clearing out her grandmother's attic.
  Ages: 10+ Category: Speculative Fiction