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.
August 2006
- Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death in the Dawn of the 20th Century
Author: Blum, Deborah
Publisher: Penguin $ 25.95 ISBN: 1594200904 Date: 2006
PW
At the close of the 19th century, William James, the great philosopher, a founder of the American Psychological Association and brother of author Henry James, proclaimed his belief in ghosts and embarked on a determined, lifelong pursuit of scientific evidence to prove it.
Suggested Reading: Afterlife
Updated 7.17.06
- Unquiet Grave: The FBI's Secret War Against American Indians
Author: Hendricks, Steve
Publisher: Thunders Mouth $ 30 ISBN: 1560257350 Date: 2006
PWKirkus
In 1976 the body of Anna Mae Aquash, an American Indian activist, was found frozen in the Badlands of South Dakota--or so the FBI said. First-time author Hendricks offers a gripping and long-overdue reexamination of the FBI's decades-long undeclared war against American Indians.
Suggested Reading: True Crime
Updated 7.17.06
- James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Author: Phillips, Julie
Publisher: St Martins $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312203853 Date: 2006
KirkusBooklistPW
Tiptree burst onto the science fiction scene in the 1970s with a series of hard-edged, provocative short stories. Then the cover was blown: the author was actually a 61-year-old woman named Alice Sheldon--world traveler, debutante, chicken farmer, CIA agent, and experimental psychologist. This fascinating biography is based on full access to her papers.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Authors
Updated 7.11.06
- Prince of the Marshes: A Year of Governing in Iraq
Author: Stewart, Rory
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151012350 Date: 2006
Kirkus
In August 2003, Rory Stewart, a Farsi-speaking British diplomat, was appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. This is the story of his eleven months of negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure.
Suggested Reading: Iraq
Updated 6.9.06
And . . .
- Places in Between
Author: Stewart, Rory
Publisher: Harvest $ 14 ISBN: 0156031566 Date: 2006
Kirkus
In January 2002, Rory Stewart survived a walk across Afghanistan by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. In this memoir, he writes about heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers as he makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 2.28.06
- An Illiad
Author: Baricco, Alessandro
Publisher: Knopf $ 21 ISBN: 030726355x Date: 2006
PWKirkus
The acclaimed author of the bestseller Silk now offers a bold reimagining of our civilization's greatest tale of war: the siege of Troy, as told through the voices of 21 Homeric characters in the narrative idiom of our modern imagination.
Suggested Reading: Trojan War Stars | Greece
Updated 5.10.06
- Magic Man
Author: Base, Ron
Publisher: Thomas Dunne $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312328095 Date: 2006
Kirkus
A charming novel of old Hollywood, first loves, and man with a touch of magic
- A mysterious young man named Brae Orrack arrives in Venice, California, in 1928, claiming to be a magic man who can turn stones to bees. Brae also comes carrying a curse. He says he will die unless he can find true love---and find it soon. Is he a con man or is he telling the truth? With Brae, it’s hard to tell. Like Elwood P. Dowd and Harvey, Brae, with his old-fashioned charm and ease, invites the reader to embrace just a little bit of magic.
- Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Hollywood Stars
Updated 7.27.06
- America's Report Card
Author: McNally, John
Publisher: Free Press $ 24 ISBN: 0743256263 Date: 2006
Jainey O'Sullivan cares so little about school that she told the government exactly what she thinks of its stupid standardized testing. Test scorer Charlie Wolf sees her as someone who needs rescuing after he reads her essay, and soon they forge a strange, tentative connection in this hilarious and humane portrait of folly, luck, and paranoia in the age of the Patriot Act.
Updated 7.11.06
- Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA
Author: Meister, Ellen
Publisher: Morrow $ 22.95 ISBN: 0060818638 Date: 2006
LJ
Three women come together when Hollywood announces plans to shoot a movie in their children's schoolyard. "Ellen Meister's characters are so funny, smart, and real, I feel like I've made three new friends!"--Lisa Kudrow.
Updated 7.11.06
- Wizard of the Crow
Author: Ngũ gĩ Wa Thiong'o
Publisher: Pantheon $ 30 ISBN: 037542248x Date: 2006
KirkusPW
In exile now for more than 20 years, the author has become one of the most widely read contemporary African writers. This volume is an ambitious attempt to sum up the Africa of the 20th century in the context of two thousand years of world history. Multiple themes of globalization, greed, power, love, corruption, and resurrection of the spirit are explored.
Updated 7.24.06
- Ashes and Bones: An Emma Fielding Mystery
Author: Cameron, Dana
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060554673 Date: 2006
While archaeologist Emma Fielding is haunted by her past, a stalker zeroes in on her every move in this sixth mystery from real-life archaeologist Dana Cameron.
Updated 7.11.06
- Never Fear
Author: Frost, Scott
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399153403 Date: 2006
BooklistPWKirkus
Pasadena homicide detective Alex Delillo faces demons from the past in this chilling psychological suspense by the "L.A. Times" bestselling author of Run the Risk.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 5.10.06
- Dying Light
Author: MacBride, Stuart
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312339976 Date: 2006
BooklistLJ
MacBride's impressive debut Cold Granite took reviewers by storm, but this follow-up realizes all of its potential--and more.
Suggested Reading: Scottish Crime Fiction
Updated 6.20.06
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Author: Pessl, Marisha
Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 067003777x Date: 2006
PW
Structured around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class, this mesmerizing debut, uncannily uniting the trials of a postmodern upbringing with a murder mystery, heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in literary fiction.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 5.22.06
- Three Days to Never
Author: Powers, Tim
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0380976536 Date: 2006
PWKirkus
From the author of Declare and Last Call comes a standout literary thriller in which one man finds the discovery Einstein tried to keep hidden.
Updated 6.9.06
- Murder of a Real Bad Boy: A Scumble River Mystery
Author: Swanson, Denise
Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 ISBN: 0451218280 Date: 2006
After breaking up with her boyfriend, Skye Denison cheers up when a sexy contractor renovates her house. He looks too good to be true, and, sure enough, he has a reputation for conning the ladies. But before Skye can fire the hunk, he turns up with a bullet in his head.
Updated 7.11.06
- Winter's Bone
Author: Woodrell, Daniel
Publisher: Little Brown $ 22.99 ISBN: 031605755X Date: 2006
BooklistKirkusLJ
When Ree Dolly's father skips bail, the 16-year-old knows if he doesn't show up to answer the drug charges against him, her family will lose their home. Her goal had been to leave her messy life of poverty and join the army, but first she must find her father, teach her little brothers to fend for themselves, and escape a downward spiral of misery.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Hard-Boiled | Noir
Updated 5.15.06
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
- The Loud Silence of Francine Green
Author: Cushman, Karen
Publisher: Clarion $ 16 ISBN: 0618504559 Date: 2006
BooklistKirkus
Once again, Newbery Medalist Cushman (The Midwife's Apprentice) follows a young woman's progress toward her true self, this time exploring the nature of friendship and the experience of growing up Catholic in an era that is both fascinating and relevant to today's young people.
Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction
Updated 6.28.06
- Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini
Author: Fleischman, Sid
Publisher: Greenwillow $ 18.99 ISBN: 0060850949 Date: 2006
KirkusPW
In this passionate biography, the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Whipping Boy turns his eye to the greatest magician of them all: Harry Houdini.
Ages: 9+ Category: Biography
Updated 7.27.06
- Endymion Spring
Author: Skelton, Matthew
Publisher: Delacorte $ 17.95 ISBN: 0385733801 Date: 2006
KirkusPW
You've stumbled on to something much larger than you can possibly imagine." In the dead of night, a cloaked figure drags a heavy box through snow-covered streets. The chest, covered in images of mythical beasts, can only be opened when the fangs of its serpent's-head clasp taste blood.
Centuries later, in an Oxford library, a boy touches a strange book and feels something pierce his finger. The volume is blank, wordless, but its paper has fine veins running through it and seems to quiver, as if it's alive. Words begin to appear on the page--words no one but the boy can see.
And so unfolds a timeless secret . . . . Publisher Marketing
Ages: 12-17 Category: Speculative Fiction
Updated 7.27.06
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