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.

December 2006

Nonfiction

  • The Harbor Boys: A MemoirHarbor Boys
    Author: Hamilton, Hugo
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060784679 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    From the author of The Speckled People, one of the most lyrical and powerful memoirs of recent times, comes an exploration of another crucial moment in his early life: the summer he spent working at a harbor close to his home in Dublin, at a time of tremendous unrest. - Publisher Marketing
    Suggested Reading: Memoirs
    Updated 10.16.06
  • The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of BurmaRiver of Lost Footsteps
    Author: Thant, Myint-U
    Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374163421 Date: 2006
    starKirkusstarPW
    The author tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling.
    Suggested Reading: Burma
    Updated 9.25.06

Fiction

  • CarnivalCarnival
    Author: Bear, Elizabeth
    Publisher: Spectra $ 6.99 ISBN: 0553589040 Date: 2006
    starBooklist
    Two diplomatic attachs to a colony world set in motion a chain of events which could change the nature of humanity forever in this edgy new science fiction novel from the acclaimed author of Worldwired.
    Updated 11.1.06
  • The Physician's TalePhysicians Tale
    Author: Benson, Ann
    Publisher: Delacorte $ 24 ISBN: 0385335059 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    Part futuristic thriller and part historical epic, this unique novel spans two worlds in the wake of crisis and gives readers a touching glimpse into the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity.
    Updated 9.13.06
  • Against the Day Against the Day
    Author: Pynchon, Thomas
    Publisher: Putnam $ 35 ISBN: 159420120x Date: 2006
    starPWstarBookliststarLJ
    Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, and elsewhere.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars
    Updated 11.27.06
  • The Crimson PortraitCrimson Portrait
    Author: Shields, Jody
    Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.99 ISBN: 0316785288 Date: 2006
    starPW
    Set in England during World War I, this haunting love story by the author of the bestselling The Fig Eater makes unforgettably real the ravages of love and war.
    Suggested Reading: World Wars
    Updated 10.23.06
  • A Treasury of Old-Fashioned Christmas Stories Christmas Treasury
    Author: Slung, Michele (edt)
    Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 14.95 ISBN: 078671803X    Date: 2006
    A rich Christmas cake of an anthology, stylishly packaged and brimming over with heartwarming drama, seasonal merriment and unexpected thrills. Michele Slung, who has been creating original and highly praised collections for thirty years, believes in bringing new energy to the term "old-fashioned." That is to say, she's a reader's reader who loves to uncover those stories written in another time that surprise us by their vibrancy, by the way they move us or make us laugh, while also reminding us of our most deeply held values and our ideals.
    Among the writers we might expect to find are such familiar classic masters as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, Saki, O. Henry or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The real idea, however, is the crafting of a book that is as unexpected in its roster of authors as it is in its effect on our heartsand spirits. - Publisher Marketing
    Updated 11.30.06
  • IceIce
    Author: Sorokin, Vladimir
    Publisher: New York Review of Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 1590171950 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    The book follows a secret sect of blond-haired, blue-eyed people, whose hearts have been "awakened" by contact with a block of interstellar ice, as they seek to hunt down their spiritual "brothers and sisters" among the population of Moscow. Members of the sect consider themselves the scattered remnants of a divine emanation whose original brilliance has been obscured by their sojourn on earth. When they reunite they expect to put an end to the travesty that is human life. But what is the secret relation of the group not only to the KGB but to the Gestapo? And why is it that they are now going into business in a big way, packaging the sacred ice and distributing it to the grateful world?
    Ice is at once a work of fantasy, prophecy, parody, and wild paranoia. Itis the finest work to date of a writer of proven genius and growing international renown, whose work is here to stay. - Publisher Marketing
    Updated 10.16.06

Crime Fiction

  • Extraordinary PeopleExtraordinary People
    Author: May, Peter
    Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590583353 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    What has happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher who trained some of France's best and brightest at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration as future Prime Ministers and Presidents vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. Talk about your cold case.
    The mystery inspires a bet, one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland can ill afford to lose. The wager is that Enzo can find out what happened to Jacques Gaillard by applying new science to an old case. - Publisher Marketing
    Updated 9.13.06
  • Erased from MemoryErased From Memory
    Author: O'Hehir, Diana
    Publisher: Berkely $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425212165 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    Diana O'Hehir returns in the new novel featuring Carla Day and her elderly father, an Egyptologist suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
    Dr. Day was once famous for the ancient coffin lid he discovered, and he and Carla are at the museum that houses it when someone falls to the floor, choking. Dr. Day rushes to pry off the victim's tie. But instead of praise, Day faces charges of murder by strangulation and is accused of faking Alzheimer's. The police take him into custody, only to learn that the museum-goer isn't dead, but comatose.
    It has been Carla's father's experience that the dead (and nearly-dead) do not hop out of bed. But once the nurse turns her back, the patient vanishes. Now, when someone refers to the disappearance-or to a subsequent murder-Carla's father asks to visit the coffin. Are these ramblings from a faulty memory? Or is there a connection between a millennia-old Egyptian death-and a present-day California one? - Publisher Marketing
    Updated 10.2.06
  • Ask the ParrotAsk the Parrot
    Author: Stark, Richard
    Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.99 ISBN: 089296068x Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    In this follow-up to his acclaimed Nobody Runs Forever, Stark bring back master criminal Parker, who's now on the run from a heist gone terribly wrong.
    Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled | Noir
    Updated 8.28.06
  • Hollywood StationHollywood Station
    Author: Wambaugh, Joseph
    Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.99 ISBN: 0316066141 Date: 2006
    starBookliststarPWstarLJ
    "Wambaugh's outstanding new novel, his first in a decade, is not only a return to form but a return to his LAPD roots". - PW
    Suggested Reading: All Stars
    Updated 10.2.06

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages


Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
  • Set in Stone Set In Stone
    Author: Newberry, Linda
    Publisher: David Fickling $ 16.95 ISBN: 0385751028  Date: 2006
    Star Image Kirkus
    When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across a place containing such secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as can be--younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, sensible and controlled. Helped by their governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly why Marianne is so emotionally fragile, and in doing so uncovers a web of intrigue. But his discoveries lead to revenge and betrayal--and lives all around are turned upside down.
    Linda Newbery has written a novel in diary style, combining different voices and a different century with her usual brilliance and ease. These are characters full of the same passions as our own today, while living in an unfamiliar and fascinating time. - Publisher Marketing
    Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction | Historical