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 2008

Nonfiction

• Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern-day Iraq
  Author: Baez, Fernando
  Publisher: Norton $ 25 ISBN: 9781934633014 Date: 2008
  Kirkus Booklist
  Baez's well-researched work traces a tragic story: the widespread looting of libraries, book burnings, and censorship against authors past and present as well as the motives behind the destruction of books
  Updated 8.1.08
  
• Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Railway Bazaar
  Author: Theroux, Paul
  Publisher: Houghton $ 28 ISBN: 9780618418879 Date: 2008
  Booklist PW
  Thirty years after his classic The Great Railway Bazaar, Theroux revisits Eastern Europe, Central Asia, India, China, Japan, and Siberia. Wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain.
  Updated 8.1.08
  
• How Fiction Works
  Author: Wood, James
  Publisher: FSG $ 22 ISBN: 9780374173401 Date: 2008
  PW Kirkus LJ
  What makes a story a story? What is style? What's the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions Wood answers in How Fiction Works, a book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation.
  Updated 5.29.08
  

Fiction

• The Lace Reader
  Author: Barry, Brunonia
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061624766 Date: 2008
  LJ
  In Barry's captivating debut, Towner Whitney, a young woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers, has returned to her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, for rest and relaxation. Any tranquility in her life is short-lived, however, when her aunt drowns under mysterious circumstances.
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The Good Thief
  Author: Tinti, Hannah
  Publisher: Dial $ 25 ISBN: 9780385337458 Date: 2008
  Kirkus Booklist
  A Dickensian cast of characters in 19th-century New England comes brilliantly to life in this wondrous debut novel about an orphaned boy and the colorful con man who claims to be his brother.
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The Gargoyle
  Author: Davidson, Andrew
  Publisher: Doubleday$ 24.95 ISBN: 9780385524940 Date: 2008
  Kirkus PW
  An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time, The Gargoyle is a hypnotic, horrifying, astonishing novel that manages, against all odds, to be redemptive" (Sara Green, author of Water for Elephants).
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The 19th Wife
  Author: Ebershoff, David
  Publisher: Random $ 25 ISBN: 9781400063970 Date: 2008
  Booklist
  This new novel from the author of The Danish Girl and Pasadena is a spellbinding work of literary suspense, set against the history of the Mormon Church, that combines historical fiction with a modern-day mystery.
  Updated 7.14.08
  
• Travel Writing
  Author: Ferry, Peter
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 9780151014361 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  Pete Ferry, our narrator, teaches high school English in the wealthy suburb of Lake Forest outside of Chicago, and moonlights as a travel writer. On his way home after work one evening he witnesses a car accident that kills a beautiful woman named Lisa Kim. But was it an accident? Could Pete have prevented it? And did it actually happen, or is this just an elaborate tale he concocts to impart the power of story to his restless teenage charges? Why can't he stop thinking about Lisa Kim? And what might his obsession with her mean to his relationship with his girlfriend, Lydia?
  With humor, tenderness, and suspense, Travel Writing takes readers on fascinating journeys, both geographical and psychological, and delves into the notion that the line between fact and fiction is often negotiable. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• Iodine
  Author: Kimmel, Haven
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 9781416572848 Date: 2008
  PW LJ
  The fourth novel by "New York Times"-bestselling author Kimmel tells the terrifying story of a young woman who, after recovering a horrific, long-suppressed memory, discovers that much of her present-day life is a carefully constructed delusion.
  Updated 8.1.08
  
• When We Were Romans
  Author: Kneale, Matthew
  Publisher: Nan Talese $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780385526258 Date: 2008
  PW Kirkus
  Updated 6.19.08
  Like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird . . . young Lawrence, nine years old and the 'man' of the family, brings readers into his world, powerfully connecting us to the drama of his childhood.--Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides.
• The Seamstress
  Author: Peebles, Frances De Pontes
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780060738877 Date: 2008
  Booklist LJ
  An enthralling novel of love and courage, passion and adventure that brings to life a faraway time and place, The Seamstress is an epic saga, rich in depth and vision, that heralds the arrival of a supremely talented new writer. Updated 5.2.08
  

Crime Fiction

• Lie Down with the Devil
  Author: Barnes, Linda
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312332891 Date: 2008
  PW
  Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle turns to the mystery in her own life--Sam Gianelli--in this latest installment in one of the best private-eye series ever (Harlan Coben).
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• Black and White and Dead All Over
  Author: Darnton, John
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780307267528 Date: 2008
  Kirkus
  A keenly intelligent, delightfully mordant novel, this mystery blends fact and fiction with the same deft hand that was at work in Darnton's bestselling Neanderthal.
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The Garden of Evil
  Author: Hewson, David
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 24 ISBN: 9780385339575 Date: 2008
  PW Booklist
  The internationally acclaimed author of smart, literate thrillers ("Publishers Weekly") delivers a heart-stopping crime novel steeped in richly atmospheric modern-day suspense and Rome's treacherous history.
  Updated 6.19.08
  
• The Black Path
  Author: Larson, Asa
  Publisher: Delta $ 12 ISBN: 9780385341011 Date: 2008
  Booklist PW
  From the internationally bestselling author of The Blood Spilt and Sun Storm--winner of Sweden's Best Crime Novel Award--comes a searing tale of darkness beyond imagination.
  Updated 7.14.08
  
• Good People
  Author: Sakey, Marcus
  Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780525950844 Date: 2008
  PW
  The author of the critically acclaimed The Blade Itself returns with this dazzling thriller in which a couple in search of the American Dream is drawn into a world of criminals, double-crossing, and unspeakable revenge.
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The Shadow Walker
  Author: Walters, Michael
  Publisher: Berkley $ 14 ISBN: 9780425222331 Date: 2008
  PW
  A serial killer is loose on the streets of Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, and Nergui, the former head of the Serious Crimes squad, is no closer to catching the killer and will accept any help he can get. Drew McLeish, a senior British CID officer, is sent out to lend his expertise to the investigation.
  Updated 6.18.08
  
• The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs
  Author: Yancey, Richard
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312347536 Date: 2008
  PW
  From the critically acclaimed author of The Highly Effective Detective comes a deliciously funny follow-up featuringing the lovable but bumbling P.I. Teddy Ruzak.
  Updated 7.14.08