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.

September 2006

Nonfiction

• Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China
  Author: Delisle, Guy
  Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly $ 19.95 ISBN: 1894937791 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  The follow-up graphic novel to the acclaimed Pyongyang: A Journey to North Korea, Shenzhen is entertainingly compact, with Guy Delisle's observations of life in a cold urban city in southern China that is sealed off from the rest of the country by electric fences and armed guards.
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Works Stars
  Updated 7.11.06
• A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII
  Author: Helms, Sarah
  Publisher: Nan Talese $ 27.50 ISBN: 038550845x Date: 2006
  PWLJ
  Once rumored to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny, Vera Atkins climbed her way to the top in Special Operations Executive, or SOE, Britain's secret service created to help the resistance efforts in Nazi-occupied countries. Drawing on recently released government files and unprecedented access to family papers, Helm vividly reconstructs a complex and extraordinary life.
  Suggested Reading: Spy vs Spy - Nonfiction
  Updated 7.11.06
• The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
  Author: Mendelsohn, Daniel
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060542977 Date: 2006
  PW Booklist
  Mendelsohn grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust--an unmentionable subject during his childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939, he embarked on a hunt for the remaining eyewitnesses of his relatives' fates. This is their story.
  Updated 8.7.066

Fiction

• Beautiful Dreamer
  Author: Bigsby, C.W.E.
  Publisher: Thomas Dunne $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312355831 Date: 2006
  LJBooklistPWKirkus
  "Christopher Bigsby's Beautiful Dreamer is a tautly written and almost unbearably suspenseful parable of the tragedy of race relations in a backcountry Tennessee setting of some decades ago. It's a powerful Faulknerian vision made stark and compelling by its spare and pitiless language." - --Joyce Carol Oates
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 7.27.06
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
  Author: Brooks, Max
  Publisher: Crown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0307346609 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  The Studs Terkel of the Zombie War, Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide, puts a human face on the suffering that occurred during the horrible hostilities, interviewing civilians, soldiers, politicians, and others, in this stunning book compiled shortly after the conclusion of the epic ten-year conflict.
  Suggested Reading: Zombies
  Updated 6.28.06
• The Meaning of Night: A Confession
  Author: Cox, Michael
  Publisher: Norton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0393062031 Date: 2006
  LJPW
  The atmosphere of Bleak House, the sensuous thrill of Perfume, and the mystery of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell all combine in a story of murder, deceit, love, and revenge in Victorian England. Cox gives readers an enthralling novel that will captivate right up to its final thrilling revelation.
  Updated 7.17.06
• All For Love
  Author: Jacobson, Dan
  Publisher: Metropolitan $ 24 ISBN: 0805081038 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  With sparkling, satirical prose, All for Love moves from one end of pre-World War I Europe to the other. Shuttling between historical fact and fiction, between their time and ours, it evokes a world in which propriety conceals what is predatory, greedy, and corrupt. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 6.28.06
• Magic Time
  Author: Marlett, Doug
  Publisher: FSG $ 24.95 ISBN: 0374200017 Date: 2006
  KirkusBooklistLJ
  Carter Ransom, a son of Mississippi, had the great fortune and terrible luck of falling in love in '64 with a New York-born civil rights worker who was killed. Carter's father presided over the first trial of the murders, but now the question, among many others, is whether the good judge was knowingly involved in a cover-up.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 8.10.06
• The Emperor's Children
  Author: Messud, Claire
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 030726419x Date: 2006
  PWKirkusLJ
  A magnificent novel of fate and fortune--of love and friendship, family and secrets, of striving and glamour, disaster and promise--this is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and living in the moment.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 6.20.06
• The Thirteenth Tale
  Author: Setterfield, Diane
  Publisher: Atria $ 26 ISBN: 0743298020 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  Amateur biographer Margaret Lea receives a letter from reclusive author Vida Winter, summoning her to write Vida's life story. As Margaret pieces together Vida's story on her own, what she discovers is a chilling and transforming experience.
  Updated 7.11.06

Crime Fiction

• Stamping Butterflies
  Author: Grimwood, Jon Courtnenay
  Publisher: Spectra $ 12 ISBN: 0553383779 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  From acclaimed author Jon Courtenay Grimwood comes an exotic new novel that defies expectation at every turn. A mystery, a thriller, and a cutting-edge sci-fi adventure all in one, Stamping Butterflies bends time, genre, and consciousness itself to tell the spellbinding story of two worlds, three lives, one future-and the question upon which everything depends: who is dreaming whom.... - Publisher Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
  Updated 6.28.06
• Kill All the Lawyers
  Author: Levine, Paul
  Publisher: Bantam $ 6.99 ISBN: 0440242754 Date: 2006
  PW
  The courtroom will never be the same when the legal world's oddest couple team up in their third mystery. "Levine writes some of the funniest--and most wickedly accurate--courthouse dramas you'll ever read."--Carl Hiassen
  Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
  Updated 7.24.06
• Alibi Club
  Author: Mathews, Francine
  Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 055380331x Date: 2006
  PW
  Mathews weaves a web of betrayal, passion, espionage, and the foundations of atomic fusion against the backdrop of a stunning, little-known episode of early World War II. Four women, thrown together by chance, make a perilous attempt to smuggle a brilliant scientist and his lethal secrets away from Nazi control.
  Suggested Reading: Espionage | Spy Girls
  Updated 6.28.06
• The Interpretation of Murder
  Author: Rubenfeld, Jed
  Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805080988 Date: 2006
  Booklist
  In this ingenious, suspenseful historical thriller, Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer who is savagely attacking Manhattan's wealthiest heiresses.
  Updated 6.28.06
• The Harrowing
  Author: Sokoloff, Alexandra
  Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95ISBN: 0312357486 Date: 2006
  "The Harrowing is a real page-turner, a first novel of unusual promise."---Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby. The Harrowing is a find: fast, original, and genuinely creepy."---F. Paul Wilson, author of Midnight Mass - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 8.29.06
• Lights Out
  Author: Starr, Jason
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312359721 Date: 2006
  LJ
  This razor-sharp crime novel combines biting social satire, explosive suspense, and revealing human drama. Both Ryan and Jake were Major League-bound til an injury sidelined Ryan. Returning home, Jake discovers Ryan's having an affair with his fiance, and none of the players in the triangle have any idea what's about to play out.
  Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled | Noir
  Updated 7.11.06
• The Zero
  Author: Walter, Jess
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060898658 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  In the tradition of Franz Kafka, Joseph Heller, and Don DeLillo, comes this extraordinary story of searing humor and sublime horror, of blindness, bewilderment, and that achingly familiar feeling that the world has suddenly stopped making sense.
  Updated 7.11.06
• The Devil's Feather
  Author: Walters, Minette
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0307264629 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW
  When five woman are brutally murdered in Sierra Leone, Reuters correspondent Connie Burns suspects a British mercenary who seems to be using the chaos of war to act out sadistic, misogynist fantasies. Connie's suspicions fall on deaf ears, but she's determined to expose the man and his secret--a choice that causes devastating consequences.
  Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense
  Updated 6.28 .06

Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages

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

• Framed
  Author: Cotrell, Boyce Frank
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060734027 Date: 2006
  KirkusSLJ
  With the same easy mix of wit, warmth, and wonder that made his debut novel, Millions, an award-winning international bestseller, Frank Cottrell Boyce tells the story of a boy who reminds an entire town of the power of art.
  Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction | Humorous
  Updated 8.16.06
• Fairest
  Author: Levine, Gail Carson
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060734086 Date: 2006
  BooklistPW
  From critically acclaimed author Levine comes Fairest, a spellbinding retelling of "Snow White" set in the same magical world as Newbery Honor Book Ella Enchanted.
  Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction | Fantasy
• Bread and Roses, Too
  Author: Patterson, Katherine
  Publisher: Clarion $ 16.00 ISBN: 0618654798 Date: 2006
  KirkusPW
  From a beloved, award-winning author, here is a moving story based on real events surrounding an infamous 1912 strike. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction | Historical