FICTION:
F ALMOND
Almond, Steve. Which brings me to you : a novel in confessions.
1st ed. Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006.
One couldn’t call a lusty encounter in the coatroom at a friend’s wedding a recipe for true love, but when John and Jane decide it could be the start of something, they decide to start over and really get to know each other first through letters. What follows is a series of traded confessions of their messy histories, their past errors, their big loves, their flaws, and their passions. Where all this soul-baring will take them can only be answered when they meet again in the flesh.
F ANDERSON
Anderson, Scott, 1959-. Moonlight Hotel : a novel. New York : Doubleday, 2006.
David Richards is a mid-level diplomat assigned to Kutar in the early 1980s.The American Empire decides to flex its muscles and decides to do something about the tribal conflict that has flared up. This is bad news for the people of Kutar and the people of Laradan, especially when the Americans later abandon the country and leave Laradan’s people at the mercy of rebels. Ordered to remain, David holes up in a resort called the Moonlight Hotel just before the siege begins.
F ARCHER MYSTERY
Archer, Jeffrey, 1940-. False impression. 1st U.S. ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
In the days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, an FBI agent searches for the link between eight very different individuals who together may hold the key to the mystery of Van Gogh’s last painting.
F ARRUDA
Arruda, Suzanne Middendorf, 1954-. Mark of the lion : a Jade del Cameron novel. New York : New American Library, c2006.
Jade del Cameron sets off for Africa determined to forget the horrors of World War I and fulfill a man’s dying wish, and is forced to draw upon all her ingenuity and courage to find a killer and live to complete her mission.
F ATKINS MYSTERY
Atkins, Ace. White shadow. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.
Shock waves ripple through Tampa, Fla., in 1955 when mob boss Charlie Wall is found bludgeoned to death. As cops, reporters, and gangsters scramble to discover the truth behind his death, the truth is that there are many more surprises to come. With the trail winding through neighborhoods rich and poor, enmeshing the innocent and corrupt alike, all the way down to the pre-revolutionary Havana, a story of revenge, honor and greed begins to emerge. Soon even Charlie Wall’s secrets will be revealed, with serious repercussions.
F BARNES Staff Favorite MYSTERY
Barnes, Linda. Heart of the world. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
Carlotta Carlyle is awakened by a late-night phone call telling her that Paolina, the 14-year-old girl she has been mentoring, is missing, apparently kidnapped. With memories of a child she’d bore at 15 and had given up for adoption, Carlotta combs the streets of Boston, Miami, and then Bogota, feeling more and more desperate. After Carlotta is kidnapped by Paolina’s father, drug lord Carlos Roldan, they eventually team up in an unlikely bid for Paolina’s freedom.
F BERENSON
Berenson, Alex. The faithful spy : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 2006.
John Wells, the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda, has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan since before the attacks in 2001. Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri, the mastermind plotting more al Qaeda strikes on America, Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells’superior, knows what to expect. Wells, now a Muslim, has changed through the years. Has he changed enough to make him turn against his own home country? They’ll all find out soon enough!
F BOVA SCIENCE FICTION
Bova, Ben, 1932-. Titan. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
In 2095, the gigantic colony ship “Goddard” carries a population of more than ten thousand dissidents, rebels, extremists, and visionaries to the remote Titan moon of Saturn, where they face danger, uncertainty, and tension to create a new world for themselves.
F BOX MYSTERY
Box, C. J. In plain sight : a Joe Pickett novel. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006.
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett finds himself right in the middle of a violent battle between three grown sons over control of their vanished mother’s empire, including Saddlestring Ranch. Soon after beginning his investigation into Opal’s disappearance, Joe’s attacked and nearly beaten to death. A series of threatening messages and attempts to sabotage his career follow. Although he thinks it’s all connected to his investigation, he soon discovers otherwise. In fact, someone with a personal grudge wants to make Joe pay the ultimate price.
F CAREY
Carey, Peter, 1943-. Theft : a love story. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Australian artist Michael Butcher Bones’ Boone’s fame seems to have come and gone. Now living with his brother in Sydney, they’re caretaking a house while Butcher scrounges what supplies he can and purloins the rest. Then Marlene Leibovitz, daughter-in-law of the late, great painter Jacques Leibovitz, comes into his life. Although married, she falls in love with Butcher and visa versa. Unfortunately for Butcher, she’s also a criminally pathological liar who soon has him and his brother involved in the forgery of a lost Leibovitz.
F CHILD
Child, Lee. The hard way : a Jack Reacher novel. New York : Delacorte Press, 2006.
For once Jack Reacher seemed to be in the right place at the right time to stop a ransom request gone wrong and help a haunted man with a military past similar to his own. Reacher soon realizes however, that the only way to find the truth, and save an innocent life, is to do it the way he does it best: ‘the hard way.’
F COOPER
Cooper, T. Lipshitz six, or, Two angry blondes. New York : Dutton, c2006.
Fleeing pogrom-shadowed Russia only to lose her fair-haired son upon their arrival in America, Jewish refugee Esther Lipshitz becomes certain that Charles Lindbergh is her lost son and virtually destroys her family with her obsessive conviction.
F CORNWELL MYSTERY
Cornwell, Patricia Daniels. At risk. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.
A Massachusetts state investigator is summoned to Knoxville, Tenn., to assist the local district attorney, who has aspirations of becoming governor. She plans to use some radical new DNA technology to solve the 21-year-old murder of an elderly woman. It’s the DA’s hope that if she solves the case, it will cinch her chances of winning the political post. The investigator isn’t so sure about that, but before he can say anything, a nasty piece of violence intervenes, shaking up the lives of everyone around them.
F COUPLAND
Coupland, Douglas. jPod. New York : Bloomsbury, 2006.
Ethan Jarlewski and five co-workers are bureaucratically marooned in JPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver video-game-design company. The six JPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a boneheaded marketing staff, who torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan’s personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. JPod’s universe is amoral and shameless and nobody is exempt.
F COYNE
Coyne, John. The caddie who knew Ben Hogan. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2006. The country club where Jack Handley worked as a youth and caddied for Ben Hogan holds pleasant memories for him. Memories he enjoys recounting to the sons and daughters of members he once knew. He especially likes to tell the story of the dramatic match between the mysterious and charismatic Hogan and the young club pro he idealized. It was a summer that changed his life forever.
F CRUSIE ROMANCE
Crusie, Jennifer. Don’t look down. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Television commercial director Lucy Armstrong is hired by her ex-husband to complete an action film on which he is working as stunt coordinator, and arrives to find herself in the middle of chaos that only gets worse with the arrival of J.T. Wilder, a Green Beret captain who has been hired by the star of the movie to act as his stunt double, while at the same time doing a little investigation for the CIA.
F DEAVER MYSTERY
Deaver, Jeff. The cold moon : a Lincoln Rhyme novel. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2006. It begins with the brutal murder of two people on the dark streets of New York City. The sadistic killer had prolonged their deaths and left calling cards: moon-faced clocks that ticked away the victims’ last minutes on earth. Feeling that more murders are planned, Lincoln Rhyme and his team have only hours to stop the killer they’ve dubbed the Watchmaker. Meanwhile, Amelia Sachs must balance her efforts to catch the Watchmaker with revelations that threaten to undermine her relationship with Lincoln.
F DELIBES
Delibes, Miguel. The heretic : a novel of the inquisition. Woodstock : Overlook Press, 2006.
Delibes, the author of more than 50 books, tells a tale that shows how Catholic Spain contrived to withstand the landslide of Lutheranism. On the very day that Luther proclaims his 95 theses at Wittenberg, a child named Cipriano Salcedo is born in Valladolid, Spain, and is destined to join the Protestant movement there. The new Christians meet secretly at great risk, sharing the belief that faith alone (without good works) guarantees salvation as well as disbelief in purgatory and the worship of relics. The Inquisition is now being zealously implemented because Emperor Charles V, sorry that he did not execute Luther when he had the chance, has charged his son Philip II to compensate for his error. The novel is not at all gruesome until the larger-than-life penitential “ceremony” at the very end, and its appeal resides in the vivid details of Cipriano’s everyday 16th-century life, such as his career in business and fashion, his failed marriage, and the insanity and institutionalization of his wife. Library Journal
F DOIG
Doig, Ivan. The whistling season. 1st ed. Orlando : Harcourt, c2006.
Widower Oliver Milliron knows Rose Llewellyn is what he’s been looking for when he sees her newspaper ad offering housekeeping services. That’s how she and her brother, Morris Morgan, came to be in Marias Coulee along with hundreds of other homesteaders drawn there by the promise of jobs on a big project. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher, Morris is pressed into service. He and Rose bring several kinds of education to Oliver, his three sons, and the students of the region’s one-room schoolhouse.
F DONOHUE FANTASY
Donohue, Keith. The stolen child : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Nan A. Talese, c2006.
Henry Day, a boy stolen by changelings at the age of seven, and the look-alike hobgoblin sent to replace him, both grow up feeling out of place in their respective worlds—and their search for answers about their pasts puts them on a collision course decades later.
F DUMAS MYSTERY
Dumas, Margaret. How to succeed in murder. 1st U.S. ed. Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, 2006. Heiress, theatrical producer, and newlywed Charley Fairfax finds herself poised to do the unexpected: get a job. Her husband, Jack, has been hired to investigate mysterious events at a local software company where high-tech executives are turning up dead. He’s not exactly happy when she and her band of irregulars from the repertory theater go undercover to find a killer, but she’s determined. Will she survive to take a honeymoon with Jack?
F DUNNING MYSTERY
Dunning, John, 1942-. The bookwoman’s last fling : a Cliff Janeway novel. New York : Scribner, 2006.
Rare book dealer, ex-homicide cop, and private eye, Cliff Janeway is tempted out of his bookstore into the world of horseracing. He accepts an invitation from wealthy horse trainer H. R. Geiger to travel to Idaho and look at some rare first-edition children’s classics that render Janeway speechless. When Geiger turns up dead, Janeway becomes convinced someone has been dipping into the book collection for their own personal profit. His search for a killer takes him to Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita Park.
F FINDER
Finder, Joseph. Killer instinct : a novel. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
While sales exec Jason Steadman is witty, charismatic, and well liked at the office, he lacks the instinct to move up the corporate ladder, much to the chagrin of his ambitious wife. Then one evening he meets Kurt Semko, a former Special Forces’ officer just back from Iraq. After arranging a job for Kurt in Corporate Security, good things begin happening for Jason while bad things start happening to his rivals. Only too late does he discover that Kurt is responsible for both.
F FOWLER MYSTERY
Fowler, Earlene. The saddlemaker’s wife. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, 2006.
Ruby McGavin gets a lot of surprises following the death of her husband, Cole. First she learns she’s inherited part of a cattle ranch in California. Then she learns that the family he claimed was dead is really much alive. Traveling to California, intent on selling her part of the ranch to the McGavins, she doesn’t count on her attraction to Lucas McGavin, a handsome saddle maker; or, the ultimate painful realization that she never really knew her husband at all.
F FRANK
Frank, Dorothea Benton. Full of grace. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2006.
Big Al and Connie’s move from New Jersey to the coastal paradise and supposed retirement heaven of Hilton Head, S.C., has been fraught with complications, especially for their daughter, Grace. Now 31, she does what she chooses. That includes living, without benefit of marriage, to Michael, a doctor whom Grace suspects is an atheist. Grace, a Catholic, has become ambivalent about her faith while her family is devoutly old-fashioned. The coming showdown could change Grace’s outlook on life, family, and the South itself.
F FUGARD
Fugard, Lisa. Skinner’s drift : a novel. New York : Scribner, c2006.
Eva van Rensburg returns to South Africa after a ten year absence to tend to her ailing father, and fueled by her dead mother’s diaries, embarks on an exploration of her youth on Skinner’s Drift farm, and the social and political upheavals that splintered her family.
F GALLANT
Galant, Debra. Rattled. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Housewife Heather Peters is thrilled when she moves with her husband and son to an upscale neighborhood, but her idea of household bliss is soon shattered when she clashes with an animal rights group, a dishonest real estate mogul, and an endangered rattlesnake.
F GIARDINA
Giardina, Anthony. White guys. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
Billy Mogavero is the only one of five close friends who didn’t make it out of Winship, Mass., after graduating from high school. Twenty years later, the other four, who have been successful, decide to visit Billy, who is now a paint salesman living at home with his mentally handicapped brother. Their reunion sparks a rapid-fire chain of events that changes his life forever. This book was inspired by actual events in Massachusetts relating to the notorious Charles Stuart case.
F GOLDEN FANTASY
Golden, Christopher. The myth hunters. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.
Oliver Bascombe abandons his dream of being an actor to join the family law firm and marry a respectable woman, but on the eve of his wedding, Oliver is lost in a blizzard and encounters Jack Frost, who needs Oliver’s help to save both himself and his world, an alternate reality where fairy tales come true.
F GOODWIN MYSTERY
Goodwin, Jason, 1964-. The janissary tree. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
As the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire tries to make changes to stay in step with a modernizing Europe, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court. Only intelligence agent Yashim Togalu can be trusted to find out who’s behind the murders. Yashim, a eunuch, is able to go where others can not. He also introduces readers to the Janissaries, the empire’s elite soldiers, whom the Sultan had crushed ten years before. Could they be staging a comeback?
F GORE
Gore, Ariel, 1970-. The traveling Death and Resurrection Show : a novel. 1st ed. [SanFrancisco] : HarperSanFrancisco, c2006.
Orphaned at age four and raised by her black-clad, rosary-mumbling, preoccupied grandmother, Frankka discovered the ability to perform the stigmata as a way to attract her grandmother’s attention. Now twenty-eight, Frankka’s still using this extraordinary talent, crisscrossing the country with “The Death and Resurrection Show,” a Catholic-themed traveling freak show and cast of misfits who have quickly become her new family. But when a reporter from the “Los Angeles Times” shows up to review the show, Frankka finds herself on the front page of the newspaper—the unwitting center of a religious debate. Now unsure of who she is and where she belongs, Frankka disappears in search of herself and a place to call home.
F GREENWAY
Greenway, Alice. White ghost girls. 1st American ed. New York : Black Cat, c2006.
The children of a war-photographer father and beautiful but remote mother, Frankie and Kate, two American sisters, grow up in Hong Kong during the turmoil of the Maoist revolution of the late 1960s.
F GROOT
Groot, Tracy. Madman. Chicago, IL : Moody Publishers, c2006. Groot’s well-paced, beautifully written historical novel begins in the tombs of Kursi in Palestine on the Sea of Galilee. The story focuses on Tallis, an Athenian servant and scholar who has come to Hippos to learn about the fate of a Socratic academy his master has assembled and bankrolled. As he pieces together cryptic, horrifying details of the academy’s dissolution, Tallis finds himself drawn to the owners and staff of the inn where he is a guest. Groot reveals the secrets of the lost academy as well as those of the innkeepers gradually and with virtually no contrivance. Publisher’s Weekly
F HOCKENSMITH MYSTERY
Hockensmith, Steve. Holmes on the range. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
In 1893 Montana, Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the Bar VR cattle spread, expecting little more than hard work, bad food, and a comfortable campfire, but when they come across a dead body, Old Red pulls out his detective skills to find out the victim’s identity and how he was killed.
F HYLAND
Hyland, M. J. (Maria Joan), 1968-. Carry me down. 1st American ed. Edinburgh ; New York : Canongate, 2006. Twelve-year-old John Egan, alarmingly tall for his age, believes himself to be a human lie detector, a skill he hopes will get him into the “Guinness Book of World Records,” but that in the meantime is proving quite useful in dealing with his disintegrating family.
F JOHANSEN
Johansen, Iris. Killer dreams. New York : Bantam Books, c2006. Sophie Dunston, a sleep therapist, knows all too well how dreams can kill. She specializes in the fatal night terrors that plague her ten- year-old son. Unfortunately, her horror is just beginning because a shadowy figure threatens to shatter her life with a nightmare that won’t end . . . ever!
F KARP MYSTERY
Karp, Marshall. The rabbit factory. San Francisco, CA : MacAdam/Cage Pub, 2006. Familyland, an offshoot of Lamaar Studios, has grown into an entertainment conglomerate encompassing movies, TV, music, video games, and a theme park. When an actor portraying Familyland’s mascot, Rambunctious Rabbit, is murdered on park grounds, Lamaar execs worry about the park’s image. They ask Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs to solve the case discreetly. When a second and third murder occurs however, it’s clear a conspiracy’s afoot to destroy Familyland.
F KELLY
Kelly, Cathy. Just between us. 1st Downtown Press trade pbk. ed. New York : Downtown Press, 2006.
In the Irish village of Kinvara, the three Miller girls appear to have it all. There is the smart and intelligent Stella, the sharp and successful Tara, and the shy bohemian Holly. As the family prepares a birthday party for their mother, Rose, secrets and heartaches are revealed. Are these women strong enough to deal with the truth about their supposedly ideal lives?
F KING
King, Jonathon. Eye of vengeance. New York : Dutton, c2006.
Seasoned journalist Nick Mullins is struggling to balance his career with single-fatherhood following the death of his wife and one of their two daughters. Just as things are beginning to get back to normal, a convicted pedophile and murderer is gunned down in front of a corrections’ facility. Nick is sent to the scene to cover the story and is soon caught up in the case of a serial sniper: a sniper that must be found before he kills again.
F KWITNEY
Kwitney, Alisa, 1964-. Sex as a second language : a novel. New York : Atria Books, 2006.
Katherine Miner, 40, has withdrawn from the world of men and sex to teach advanced English as a second language to adults in downtown Manhattan. It’s not that she hates men. She just doesn’t trust them. Her ex-husband, who abandoned her and their nine-year-old-son, and her own father, whom she hasn’t spoken to in more than 30 years, is reason enough. Then she receives a letter from her father that turns her life upside down and is drawn into a relationship with one of her students.
F LARSSON MYSTERY
Larsson, Åsa, 1966-. Sun storm. New York : Delacorte Press, 2006.
Now translated into English for the first time is Larsson’s Sun Storm in which a young Swedish lawyer is pulled into a vortex of suspicion and religious fanaticism after she’s summoned to her hometown when a body is found.
F LEBBON FANTASY
Lebbon, Tim. Dusk. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.
In the Year of the Black 2208, Kosar the thief senses that Rafe Baburn holds extraordinary powers and vows to save the boy from the men seeking to destroy him and protect the old ways.
F LEIMBACH
Leimbach, Marti, 1963-. Daniel isn’t talking. 1st ed. New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, c2006.
Melanie Marsh struggles to help her three-year-old son, Daniel, who has been diagnosed as autistic, get the help he needs and teach him to communicate with her, but her efforts strain both her marriage and her relationship with her daughter.
F LEVINSON FANTASY
Levinson, Paul. The plot to save Socrates. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006. In the year 2042, a young graduate student of classics is shown a new dialogue of Socrates that opens up the possibility of time travel and sends her on an adventure that spans the globe and history.
F LONG MYSTERY
Long, Jeff. The wall. New York : Atria, c2006.
Friends Hugh and Lewis reunite once again to climb El Capitan in Yosemite Park, but when their expedition is plagued by deadly disasters, the friends begin to suspect the mountain is cursed.
F MACOMBER ROMANCE
Macomber, Debbie. Susannah’s garden. New York : Harlequin, 2006.
The year Susannah Nelson’s parents sent her to school abroad at 18, she said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake, and never saw him again. Now, at 50, she finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Long married, a mother and a teacher, she should be happy. She feels there’s something missing. Returning to her hometown of Pine Ridge, Wash., to care for her aging mother, she also returns to the past, and the choices she made back then.
F MCCULLOUGH
McCullough, Colleen, 1937-. On, off. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
Few contemporary forensic techniques are available to Lt. Carmine Delmonico in 1965 when he’s assigned to solve what at first seems to be a single murder. After part of the body of a woman turns up at a leading center for neurological research, Delmonico suspects he could have a serial killer on his hands. When the body turns out to be from a woman employed by the center, Carmine partners with the center’s female business manager to dig up the dirt on other secretive employees.
F MCGOWAN
McGowan, Heather. Duchess of nothing : a novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Bloomsbury Pub. : Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers, 2006.
After leaving her husband and traveling to Rome, a middle aged woman finds herself haunted by her past, until her lover’s seven-year-old brother teaches her about the wonders of life.
F MCMURTRY WESTERN
McMurtry, Larry. Telegraph days : a novel. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
In the Old West, Nellie Courtright and her brother Jackson, orphaned by their father’s suicide, made their way to Rita Blanca, where Jackson became a deputy sheriff and Nellie became the town’s telegrapher. Together they put Rita Blanca on the map when Jackson succeeded in shooting down all six Yazee brothers in a gunfight. Nellie romanced Buffalo Bill, had a ringside seat at the Battle of the O.K. Corral, and eventually lived long enough to see her once-wild West tamed on the movie screen.
F MEYER MYSTERY
Meyer, Deon. Dead before dying : a novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006.
Three men who have nothing in common have been killed in Cape Town. The weapon appears to be a century-old German handgun with ancient bullets. The killer’s trademark of one shot to the head and one shot to the chest is even more curious. Now it’s up to Capt. Mat Joubert to find answers and prove to everyone that his life’s slow spiral will not pull him under or prevent him from finding a killer.
F MITCHARD
Mitchard, Jacquelyn. Cage of stars. 1st ed. New York : Warner Books, 2006.
Veronica Swan, a sixteen-year-old Mormon, attempts to avenge the deaths of her younger sisters, who were brutally killed four years before by a deranged man her parents have forgiven.
F NANCE
Nance, John J. Orbit. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
In 2009, Kip Dawson thinks his dreams have come true when he wins a passenger seat on one of American Space Adventure’s commercial spaceflights, but when a micrometeor punches through the spacecraft walls, cutting out radio contact and killing the pilot, Kip has no way to navigate the ship home and is left to face his death and reflect on the life he has led.
F NELSCOTT MYSTERY
Nelscott, Kris. Days of rage. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
In 1969, African-American private investigator Smokey Dalton and his adopted son, Jimmy, who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., try to keep a low profile in Chicago as the city is thrown into chaos by the trial of the Chicago Eight, but they soon realize someone has tracked them down and is out to kill Jimmy.
F NEMIROVSKY
Némirovsky, Irène, 1903-1942. Suite française. New York : Knopf, 2006.
In 1940, several families and individuals are thrown together as they flee Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion and struggle to stay alive and grieve for the life they once knew.
F NIEDERHOFFER
Niederhoffer, Galt. A taxonomy of Barnacles. New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2006.
When the Barnacle sisters’ father proposes a contest to see which daughter can most spectacularly carry on his name, the sisters set out to win the contest, and their father’s inheritance.
F NIELSEN
Nielsen, Francis, 1920-1990. The witness of St. Ansgar’s : a novel. 1st ed. Hanover, N.H. : Steerforth Press, c2006.
Mario, an altar boy and assistant to Franciscan friar Father Benigno relies on his friendship with the priest to help him through the violence and tragedy of World War II.
F NOEL
Noel, Katharine. Halfway house. 1st ed. New York : Atlantic Monthly, c2006.
Angie Voorster’s entire world changes when she dives to the bottom of the pool during a swim meet and suffers a mental breakdown.
F NUNEZ
Nunez, Elizabeth. Prospero’s daughter : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.
A retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in which British doctor Peter Gardner, an amoral genius, flees England with his young daughter Virginia and takes up residence on the Caribbean island of Chacachacare in the 1950s where he conducts experiments on Carlos, a dark-skinned orphan who turns the tables on Gardner when he wins Virginia’s love.
F OBRIEN MYSTERY
O’Brien, Martin. Jacquot and the waterman. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006, c2005.
Detective Daniel Jacquot matches wits with a cunning killer who is threatening the women of Marseilles.
F OMALLEY
O’Malley, Thomas, 1967-. In the province of saints : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2005.
In south Ireland, Michael McDonagh struggles to come of age without his father’s influence and while caring for his ill mother, but his life becomes more complex when his father returns home after his neighbor’s sudden death, igniting an old scandal that threatens Michael and his family.
F PAWEL MYSTERY
Pawel, Rebecca, 1977-. The summer snow. New York : Soho Press, c2006.
When an arrogant, elderly woman is found dead, police are reluctant to believe that she may have been murdered, and Lieutenant Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon, the woman’s nephew, takes charge of the investigation.
F PAXSON FANTASY
Paxson, Diana L. The golden hills of Westria. 1st ed. New York, NY : Tor, 2006.
Prince Phoenix, who has never measured up to his father King Julian’s expectations, is abducted in a raid and sold to slavers. While King Julian searches for his son he must also ward off an army of fanatics led by the charismatic Mother Mahalial who are conquering land after land. Now it seems the only person who can save the Prince is Sombra, the woman he loves. But, at what cost?
F PEARL MYSTERY
Pearl, Matthew. The Poe shadow : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 2006.
No one can say Quentin Clark isn’t loyal. Following the death of Edgar Allan Poe in 1849, everyone accepts that Poe died a drunkard and a second-rate writer. Everyone except Quentin, that is. When he discovers Poe’s last days were riddled with bizarre, unanswered questions, Quentin sets out to resolve Poe’s mysterious death. It sets off a race between two master detectives and catches Quentin in a tempest of crime, murder and literature.
F PRESTON
Preston, Caroline. Gatsby’s girl. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.
She was two months past her sixteenth birthday, a rich man’s daughter who had been told she was pretty far too often for her own good. He was nineteen years old, a poor boy full of ambition. They met at a country club dance in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January 1916. Ginevra was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first love, but despite their intense epistolary romance, the relationship wouldn’t last. After throwing him over with what he deemed “supreme boredom and indifference,” she married a handsome young aviator from the right background. Caroline Preston deftly evokes the entire arc of Ginevra’s story- from her first romantic meeting with Scott to the second act of her sometimes charmed, sometimes troubled life.
F PYWELL
Pywell, Sharon L. Everything after. New York : Putnam, c2006. Iris Sunnaret, at 19 the baby of the Sunnaret family, is the curious but shielded narrator, her sunny view tempered by her siblings’ perceptions and her own dim memories. Having lost both their parents at a young age (father left; mother drowned), Iris and her three siblings-Eddie, Perry and Angie-were taken in by their Aunt Eleanor, Uncle Charlie and cousin Hank. Eldest brother Eddie has volunteered for the war, and Perry follows; when the family learns that Eddie has been killed and Perry is missing in action-and, furthermore, that Perry may have killed Eddie-it turns the family against itself. Publisher’s Weekly
F QUICK
Quick, Amanda. Second sight. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006. Venetia Milton learns that Gabriel Jones, whose priceless artifacts and relics she has been photographing, has been reported dead; however, she receives quite a surprise when Jones winds up on her doorstep very much alive and afraid for his life.
F ROBINSON
Robinson, Patrick, 1940-. Ghost force. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, 2006.
After one of the largest oil fields on earth is discovered on the Falkland Islands, Argentina, with the secret assistance of the Kremlin, invades the islands. An outraged Great Britain dispatches a battle fleet to the region. Lying in wait is a Russian nuclear submarine capable of destroying them. With Great Britain on the verge of a massive defeat, the former director of the NSA, Adm. Arnold Morgan, sends in the SEALs. The consequences are as unexpected as they are devastating.
F ROBY
Roby, Kimberla Lawson. Changing faces. 1st ed. New York : Morrow, c2006.
Three best friends band together when Charisse’s husband threatens to reveal a shady secret from Charisse’s past, forcing the women to devise a plan for revenge to save Charisse’s reputation and put her deadbeat husband in his place.
F ROSENBERG
Rosenberg, Nancy Taylor. Sullivan’s evidence. New York : Kensington Books, 2006. Ten years ago, probation officer Carolyn Sullivan recommended a 44-year sentence for killer and serial rapist Carl Holden. Forensic evidence had him nailed, or so everyone thought. Then the evidence was discredited and Holden was set free, with Carolyn assigned as his probation officer. When the killings start again, everything Carolyn’s ever trusted as a professional is put to the test as she takes the biggest gamble of her life.
F ROTH
Roth, Philip. Everyman. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
The tragically human hero of this book discovers the universal experiences of love, loss, regret, and mortality as a painful surprise. At the pinnacle of his life, he’s a swaggering advertising director, a fond but flawed parent, and a faithless husband. Then his life winds down to something far less comfortable. At the end, he has a daughter who adores him, but he’s three-times divorced, his sons aren’t speaking to him, and he’s estranged from his brother. He’s exactly the person he hoped he’d never be.
F SARAMAGO
Saramago, José. Seeing. 1st U.S. ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.
Four years after a bizarre blindness plague hits the capital, a mysterious turnout of blank ballots appears on election day that prompts a state of emergency.
F SCHAEFFER
Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg. Poison. 1st ed. New York : Norton, c2006.
Meena, the third wife of celebrated poet and womanizer Peter Grosvenor, desperate to preserve her wealth after he succumbs to cancer while living with yet another woman, refuses to execute his wishes that she share his estate with his two adult children and his sister/business manager, setting the stage for an epic and revealing struggle.
F SEIDEL
Seidel, Kathleen Gilles. A most uncommon degree of popularity. New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2006.
The camaraderie of four mothers is tested when social cliques create trouble for the friendship between their middle-school-age daughters.
F SHERRILL
Sherrill, Martha. The ruins of California. New York : Penguin Press, 2006. Inez Ruin moves between two worlds—her mother’s life in Los Angeles and her self-obsessed father in San Francisco—as she attempts to find a reality somewhere in the middle during the turbulent decade of the 1970s.
F SHERWOOD
Sherwood, Frances, 1940-. Night of sorrows : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Norton, c2006.
In early sixteenth-century Mexico, an Aztec princess sold into slavery begins a love affair with conquistador Hernan Cortes.
F SHREVE
Shreve, Susan Richards. A student of living things. New York : Viking, 2006.
As a graduate student in biology, Claire tends to a menagerie of creatures-mice, birds, snakes, and insects-and she finds solace in this daily routine. However, she is constantly aware that just beyond the relative safety of the academic arena, there is widespread fear and civil unrest. On one fateful day, these two worlds collide when Claire’s brother, a law student with shadowy connections, is shot and killed as he and Claire are leaving the campus library. Of course, many questions arise. Who, for instance, is the man who has been following Claire since that terrible day? Are she and the rest of the family in danger as well?
F SPANBAUER
Spanbauer, Tom. Now is the hour. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.
The year is 1967, and Rigby John Klusener, seventeen years old and finally leaving his home and family in Pocatello, Idaho, is on the highway with his thumb out and a flower behind his ear, headed for San Francisco. Now Is the Hour is the wondrous story of how Rigby John got to this point. It traces his gradual emancipation from the repressions of a strictly religious farming family and from the small-minded, bigoted community in which he has grown up, during a time of explosive cultural change.
F SYKES
Sykes, Plum. The debutante divorcée : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Miramax Books/Hyperion, c2006.
Lauren Blount’s life as a rich divorcee seems incredibly glamorous to the newly married Sylvie, but Sylvie’s jealousy of Lauren soon causes cracks in her own marriage that may lead Sylvie into the divorcee lifestyle.
F TURSTEN MYSTERY
Tursten, Helene, 1954-. The torso. New York : Soho Press, c2006.
Part of a human torso washes up on a beach near Goteborg, Sweden. It is so mutilated that gender is only established by DNA testing. A similar crime, now several years old, remains unsolved in Denmark. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, a wife and mother as well as a member of the Swedish Violent Crimes Unit, is called upon to liaise with the police in Copenhagen. There she finds a clue: a beautifully rendered sign for a gay sex shop which is very like the tattoo on the mutilated torso. Then a third murder takes place, and a fourth, and these new victims are connected to Inspector Huss. She begins to fear that the killer is tracking her, targeting her acquaintances. There is a chilling suggestion that he - or she - is one of her colleagues.
F TURTLEDOVE
Turtledove, Harry. In high places. New York : Tor, c2006.
In twenty-first-century Versailles, Khadija struggles to keep her family’s work as secret agents from disrupting her normal teenage existence, but when she is separated from her parents, she becomes captive in a caravan of slaves being taken to the southern markets.
F UNGER
Unger, Lisa, 1970-. Beautiful lies : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Shaye Areheart Books, c2006. After a good deed unleashes a chain of events that cause Ridley Jones to question her entire life, she is thrown into a confusing world where everyone in her life seems like a stranger and she is forced to trust no one in order to save her own life.
F VALDES-RODRIGUEZ
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa. Make him look good. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Six Miami women, each involved in some way, either personally or professionally, with sexy Latin singing sensation Ricky Biscayne, decide they have finally had enough of his lying and womanizing and join together to win back their lives.
F WATSON
Watson, Jules. The dawn stag. 1st ed. Woodstock, NY : Overlook Press, 2006.
In A.D. 81, Agricola, the ruthless governor of Roman Britain, vows to conquer Alba, Scotland, but is unprepared for the wrath of the Alban priestess and princess Rhiann, who will go to any lengths to save her land.
F WHITE MYSTERY
White, Jenny B. (Jenny Barbara), 1953-. The sultan’s seal. 1st ed. New York : Norton, c2006.
The murder of an English governess for the royal harem causes controversy at the palace and the British embassy as the search for the killer consumes the Ottoman Empire.
F WHITE
White, Stephen, 1951-. Kill me : a novel. New York : Dutton, c2006.
A very wealthy man, deeply affected by an accident that has left a close friend in a vegetative state, enters into a contract with a shady company known as the Death Angels which promises for a million dollars to ensure his death if he should become incapacitated, but when he develops a aneurysm shortly after making the final payment, he realizes he is not at all ready to die.
F WOLITZER
Wolitzer, Hilma. The doctor’s daughter : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.
Alice Brill, a fifty-one-year-old wife and mother who has just been downsized from her job as a senior book editor, begins to reevaluate her life and relationships with her husband, son, parents, and a promising new writer, looking for the reason behind the nagging sense of dread that seems to have lodged itself in her chest.
F WOODS MYSTERY
Woods, Paula L. Strange bedfellows : a Charlotte Justice novel. 1st ed. New York : One World/Ballantine Books, c2006.
LAPD homicide detective Charlotte Justice is forced to confront her pain over the murders of her husband and child nearly thirteen years earlier when another case lands on her desk that bears striking resemblance to her family’s murders.
F WORRAL
Worrall, Jay, 1943-. Aboukir Bay : a Charles Edgemont novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 2006.
This time out, Edgemont joins rear admiral Horatio Nelson’s squadron in the Mediterranean to search for a French fleet up to no good. When a storm scatters the squadron, Edgemont sails his frigate, Louisa, in search of Nelson-a search that becomes even more crucial when he learns the location of the French fleet at Alexandria, Egypt, from an English spy. After a series of adventures and misadventures, Edgemont finally stumbles on Nelson, and the squadron sails to Alexandria where it engages the French fleet in one of history’s great naval battles-the Battle of the Nile. Publisher’s Weekly
F WRIGHT
Wright, Vinita Hampton, 1958-. Dwelling places : a novel. 1st ed. [San Francisco] : HarperSanFrancisco, c2006.
After losing his family farm, Mack, his wife Jodie, and their two children struggle to build a new life for themselves, but their efforts are soon threatened by Mack’s overwhelming depression.
NON-FICTION:
327.73 MAN
Mandelbaum, Michael. The case for Goliath : how America acts as the world’s government in the twenty-first century. 1st ed. New York : Public Affairs, c2005.
Presents a comprehensive look into America’s global role, and maintains that the U.S. uses its power to provide the world with services they would otherwise not be able to acquire including global security and prosperity.
388 MCP
McPhee, John (John A.). Uncommon carriers. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2006
Ever think about what life must be like for the folks who work in the freight transportation industry? John McPhee, who has spent considerable time in the company of such people over the years, relates some of his stories such as: the driver of a 65-foot, 18-wheel chemical tanker carrying hazardous materials; the engineer of a coal-laden train traveling across country; the skipper of a barge on the Illinois River, and more.
599.93 WAD
Wade, Nicholas. Before the dawn : recovering the lost history of our ancestors. New York : Penguin Press, 2006.
Draws on new findings to examine the ancestral human population that lived in Africa fifty thousand years ago, explaining how the human line evolved from African apes to humans with the unique gift of language.
921 ARMSTRONG
Brothers, Thomas David. Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, 2006.
Brothers examines the social context of trumpeter Louis Armstrong and early New Orleans jazz. The influence of outdoor parades and park concerts, the Sanctified Church, itinerant street musicians, and the influx of former slaves into the Crescent City from 1880 to 1910 all come into play, as does the importance of the decidedly male basis of jazz and the national ragtime craze. Throughout, Brothers interweaves the personal history of Armstrong, including his stay in the Colored Waifs Home for Boys and his work on riverboats with jazz pianist and bandleader Fate Marable. Describing New Orleans as a focal point of racial and social diversity, the author concludes that Armstrong succeeded as a musician by coupling the African traits of polyrhythms, call and response, and blues improvisation with the Eurocentric harmonies and melodies of the Creoles into an innovative style-jazz-that could be accepted by whites, well-heeled Creoles, and lower-class African Americans alike. Library Journal
921 BRENNAN
Brennan, Christine. Best seat in the house : a father, a daughter, a journey through sports. New York : Scribner, c2006.
Woman sports columnist Christine Brennan recalls her close relationship with her father, their life-long love of sports, and the encouragement she received from him to pursue a career in sports broadcasting and journalism.
921 KENNEDY
Leaming, Barbara. Jack Kennedy : the education of a statesman. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, c2006.
This is the previously untold story of the friendships and forces that shaped the Kennedy presidency. Drawing on new sources, this book is the first to trace the arc of Jack Kennedy’s intellectual and political formation, and to detail the goals of his presidency as he saw them. Readers are given an intimate picture of a leader torn between politics and principle, a president who was wrestling with private demons and unresolved conflicts dating back to the 1930s when Churchill and his father were adversaries.
921 SHEA
Shea, John, 1965-. Rat bastards : the life and times of South Boston’s most honorable Irish mobster. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2006.
The man who has remained silent for more than a decade finally speaks, revealing the true story of his life inside the infamous South Boston Irish mob led by the elusive, Machiavellian kingpin Whitey Bulger, who to this day remains on the lam as one of the world’s Ten Most Wanted criminals, second only to Osama bin Laden. In “Rat Bastards”, John “Red” Shea brings that mysterious world and gritty urban Irish American street culture into sharp focus by telling his own story - of his fatherless upbringing, his apprenticeship on the tough streets of Southie, and his love affair with trouble, boxing, and then the gangster life. A man who did the crime, did the time, and held fast to the Irish code of silence, which he was raised to follow at any cost, Shea remains a man of honor and in doing so has become a living legend.
940.53 BER
Berthon, Simon. Warlords : an extraordinary re-creation of World War II through the eyes and minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. [Cambridge, MA] : Da Capo Press, 2006, c2005.
Berthon and TV reseacher Potts have a book that focuses narrowly on the day-to-day actions of Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt as they grapple with the war’s events and plot strategy. Contrary to common perceptions, Churchill and Roosevelt held each other in low esteem at the war’s beginnings but put aside their personal and tactical differences to achieve victory. Stalin spent the war pressuring the other Allies to join in the fight, which caused friction between Roosevelt and Churchill over the war’s aims. And, of course, Hitler and his henchmen affected the war’s progress every day. How these four leaders reckoned with one another, how their quirks and prejudices, small or vast, affected policy, and how eventually the Allies prevailed is displayed here in a lively narrative. Library Journal
940.54 WHI
White, David Fairbank, 1951-. Bitter ocean : the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
This superior history of the longest-running battle of WWII by White opens with winter on the North Atlantic and Adm. Karl Donitz’s U-boats hunting Allied merchant ships. The question was whether Britain could be starved into surrender or at least made incapable of launching offensives. Against the Royal Navy, with its American and Canadian allies, were pitted the “wolfpacks” of submarines that decimated whole convoys and sank merchant ships faster than the Allies could build them. In the end, Allied training, code breaking, long-range aircraft, escort carriers and the sheer output of American shipyards turned the tide. Along with the overview, White provides excellent focused passages, such as the ordeal of the tanker San Demetrio, as well as portraits of individual combatants-the colorful British destroyer expert Donald Macintyre and the superbly professional U-boat captain Otto Kretschmer.
951 HES
Hessler, Peter, 1969-. Oracle bones : a journey between China’s past and present. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.
Hessler explores how China has changed over the last century, focusing on the role of the Chinese people in this transformation and the country’s growing links to the Western world and its people.
973.931 KOH
Kohut, Andrew. America against the world : how we are different and why we are disliked. 1st ed. New York : Times Books, 2006.
Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, and Pew consultant Stokes describe the results of a worldwide opinion poll involving 91,000 interviews in 50 countries from 2002 to 2005. Anti-American sentiment was widespread before 9/11, they observe, but outside of the Arab world it was generally the minority view. Yet in the wake of 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq, anti-Americanism has become the majority view in most of the world, and throughout Europe America is seen as more dangerous than Iran. People are tired of hearing how different and superior we are (and Pew polls reveal that the least exceptional Americans believe in American exceptionalism). Canadian scholar Michael Ignatieff enumerates other reasons, all of which figure in the survey results: Majorities across the world despise capital punishment; America’s disregard for the poor; a president they believe attained office unjustly in 2000; a culture that hates the thought of gay marriage but divorces on a dime; and America’s God-obsessed people-and they worry that Americans as a class are greedy, dishonest and violent. Interestingly, Kohut and Stokes note, Democrats are far more likely to hold “European” views than are Republicans-but even they are likely to subscribe to exceptionalism. Kirkus Reviews
MEDIA:
CD SIE
Sierra, Javier, 1971-. The secret supper. New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, p2006. Read by Simon Jones.
In 1497 a Dominican inquisitor is sent to Milan to supervise the final phase of the painting of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Never a conformist, da Vinci creates a masterpiece that raises questions that have yet to be answered. Unlike his contemporaries, he does not hold strictly to the religious doctrine of the scriptures, but adds touches advocated by a repressed heritical sect. Could da Vinci be a member of the secret society?
CD 332.024 PER
Perle, Liz. Money, a memoir : women, emotions, and cash. Abridged. New York : Audio Renaissance, p2006. Read by the author.
Liz Perle shares how her ambivalent feelings about money nearly left her homeless and penniless and discusses how she learned to overcome her financial fears and take responsibility for her own financial security.
CD 599.789 CRO
Croke, Vicki. The lady and the panda : [the true adventures of the first American explorer to bring back China’s most exotic animal]. Abridged. New York : Random House Audio, p2005. Read by Jennifer Van Dyck.
Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.
CD 921 MITCHELL
Mitchell, Andrea. Talking back : to presidents, dictators, and assorted scoundrels. New York : Penguin Audio, p2005. Read by the author.
NBC news reporter Andrea Mitchell gives insights into every president from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, and the men and women who surrounded them.
DVD 372.63 SPE
Spellbound. Culver City, Calif. : Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, [2004], c2002.
This documentary follows the lives of eight young Americans who share one goal: to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The Bee is as intense a competition as any Olympic match, for both the spellers and their families. The unbearable pressure becomes even more extraordinary when it is felt by ordinary teenagers.
DVD GUI
Guimba : un tyran, une époque = a tyrant in his time. New York : Kino on Video, c2004.
A tyrant throws his city into conflict and chaos when he allows his randy, dwarf son to reject an arranged marriage to the slim local beauty in order for him to pursue the girl’s larger, married mother. The tyrant then sets his own eyes on the girl, making the situation even worse. An epic set in the legendary past of Mali (West Africa) to provide a biting allegory of present-day African politics. Through the story of the downfall of Guimba the tyrant, the filmmaker foretells a similar fate for the many dictators who still pillage the continent. He frames his film with the appearance of a griot, a traditional African storyteller who passes down the “wisdom of the ancestors,” looking to the values and legends of the African past for inspiration and guidance in reconstructing well-governed, self-sufficient nations.
Please note: Some of the book descriptions have been excerpted from Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. They are most often based on Publisher's descriptions. Sources such as Booklist, the New York Times Book Reviews, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus and others are specifically identified.
