Featured Titles 2009

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 sometimes listed.

October 2009

Nonfiction

• The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
  Author: Egan, Timothy
  $ 27 ISBN: 9780618968411 Date: 2009
  Kirkus PW
  In The Worst Hard Time, Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history. Now he performs the same alchemy with this story of the largest-ever forest fire in America, painting a moving portrait of the people who lived through the disaster.
  Updated 9.23.09
  

Fiction

• On the Edge
  Author: Andrews, Ilona
  $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780441017805 Date: 2009
  PW
  From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Kate Daniels novels comes an edgy new series about a world on the border of fantasy and reality, packed with pulse-pounding action and white-hot romance.
  Updated 8.18.09
  
• Wolf Hall
  Author: Mantell, Hilary
  $ 27 ISBN: 9780805080681 Date: 2009
  LJ
  In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man, Thomas Cromwell, dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power.
  Updated 9.23.09
  
• Love in Infant Monkeys
  Author: Millet, Lydia
  $ 13.95 ISBN: 9781593762520 Date: 2009
  PW Booklist
  Lions, Komodo dragons, dogs, monkeys, and pheasants--all have shared spotlights and tabloid headlines with Hollywood celebrities. Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of this fascination with famous people and pop culture.
  Updated 9.24.09
  
• Boneshaker
  Author: Priest, Cherie
  $ 15.99 ISBN: 9780765318411 Date: 2009
  PW
  [Boneshaker is] a steampunk-zombie-airship adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions, full of wonderfully gnarly details.--Scott Westerfeld, author of Leviathan.
  Updated 8.31.09
  
• Half Broke Horses
  Author: Walls, Jeanette
  $ 25 ISBN: 9781416586289 Date: 2009
  LJ Booklist
  Walls's The Glass Castle was nothing short of spectacular ("Entertainment Weekly"). Now Walls presents this magnificent, true-life novel based on her no-nonsense, resourceful, hardworking, and spectacularly compelling grandmother.
  Updated 9.1.09
  
• The Financial Lives of the Poets
  Author: Walter, Jess
  $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780061916045 Date: 2009
  PW
  From National Book Award-finalist Walter comes a hysterically funny--and painfully timely--new novel of one man's attempt to save his family from economic disaster by putting his entrepreneurial leanings toward a life of petty crime.
  Updated 8.31.09
  

Crime Fiction

• Death Message
  Author: Billingham, Mark
  $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780061432750 Date: 2009
  PW
  From one of Britain's most compelling and talented crime writers comes an unforgettable new entry in the Tom Thorne detective series. This chilling thriller begins with a body and a phone line--both dead.
  Updated 8.18.09
  
• Blind Eye
  Author: MacBride, Stuart
  $ 26.99 ISBN: 9780312382643 Date: 2009
  PW Booklist
  Investigator Logan McRae tackles another thankless case in MacBride's sharp and suspenseful fifth novel.
  Updated 8.13.09
  
  
• Blood Safari
  Author: Meyer, Deon
  $ 19.95 ISBN: 9780802119032 Date: 2009
  PW LJ
  Tough in-your-face crime writing that spares nothing in language, visceral sense of blood and mayhem . . . and never waivers from the compelling pace of the story. [Blood Safari] also has a mean line in humor that comes through in the snappy dialogue.--"The Sunday Independent."
  Updated 8.18.09
  
• Ghosts of Belfast
  Author: Neville, Stuart
  $ 24 ISBN: 9781569476000 Date: 2009
  Kirkus PW LJ
  Fegan has been an IRA killer in northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is haunted day and night by the ghosts of his innocent victims. In order to appease the spirits, he's going to have to kill the men who had given him orders.
  Updated 9.24.09
  
• The Brutal Telling
  Author: Penny, Louise
  $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780312377038 Date: 2009
  PW LJ
  The peace of Three Pines is shattered when a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing long-buried secrets.
  Updated 9.24.09
  
• Box 21
  Author: Roslund, Anders
  $ 26 ISBN: 9780374282950 Date: 2009
  PW LJ
  This suspenseful, gripping, and intelligently written ("Solo") Scandinavian thriller delves into the seedy underbelly of Stockholm.
  Updated 8.18.09
  

Young Adult

• Going Bovine
  Author: Bray, Libba
  $ 17.99 ISBN: 9780385733977 Date: 2009
  Booklist PW
  All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school--and life in general--with a minimum of effort. It's not a lot to ask. But that's before he's given some bad news: he's sick and he's going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure--if he's willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 9.23.09