FICTION:
F ABBOTT
Abbott, Megan E., 1971-. The song is you. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2007.
Abbott draws on the true-life case of the 1949 disappearance of Hollywood starlet Jean Spangler to offer the story of Gil Hopkins, a smooth-talking Hollywood publicist who was drawn into the investigation and is plunged into the dark side of Hollywood in his attempt to uncover the truth.
F ACIMAN
Aciman, André. Call me by your name. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
He was a 17-year-old boy. The 24-year-old man was a summer guest at his parents’ house on the Italian Riviera. It was the perfect setting for a six-week torrid affair that neither one was prepared to face the consequences for and one that would mark both of them for a lifetime.
F ALBERT
Albert, Susan Wittig. Spanish dagger. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, 2007.
Between the herb shop, the catering business, and a weekend paper-making class, China Bayles has her work cut out for her. And now China’s half-brother is opening up old wounds, trying to investigate their father’s supposedly accidental death, and her husband is taking on the case—meaning she’s just bound to get involved.
F BALLARD
Ballard, Mignon Franklin. The angel and the Jabberwocky murders : an Augusta Goodnight mystery (with heavenly recipes). New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2006.
Augusta Goodnight, a heavenly sleuth and guardian angel, seeks to provide a little divine intervention when young women from the local college in Stone’s Throw, South Carolina, begin turning up dead.
F BANERJEE
Banerjee, Anjali. Invisible lives. New York : Downtown Press, c2006.
Lashmi Sen, 27, has always been the perfect Indian-American daughter. She’s attentive to family and tradition and is agreeing to marry an Indian-American doctor. She is hired to plan a big Bollywood-style wedding and finds herself falling for the actress’ bodyguard. When Lashmi is with him, she has the ability to see the deep, unexplained longings in her mother, friends, fiancé, and herself.
F BERENSON
Berenson, Laurien. Chow down : a Melanie Travis mystery. New York : Kensington Books, c2006.
Connecticut teacher Melanie Travis learns that her son has entered the family dog, Faith, in the “All Dogs Are Champions” contest only after receiving notification that the poodle has been named a finalist, and soon finds herself caught up in a mystery when the owner of a Scottish Terrier takes a deadly plunge off the fire escape.
F BERLINSKI
Berlinski, Claire. Lion eyes : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2007.
Author Claire Berlinski begins an on-line relationship with an Iranian man who is a fan of her novel and believes she has ties to the CIA, and when she goes to meet him in person, is approached by an American operative who informs her the man is wanted for espionage and asks for the writer’s help in catching him.
F BOLANO
Bolaño, Roberto, 1953-. The savage detectives. 1st American ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Ostensibly the story of two poets in search of a third, this freewheeling roman à clef mines the revolutionary landscape of the 1970s, the violent history of Latin American politics, and a rich trove of contemporary literature for a bold, bracing, and utterly original take on the conventional road novel. Often credited with breaking the long spell of magic realism over Latino literature, Bolaño uncovers in this remarkable book the painful, often violent collision of life and literature and the essential nature of the writer as fugitive/exile.
F BOWEN
Bowen, Rhys. In Dublin’s fair city. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2007.
P.I. Molly Murphy sails for Ireland in search of the sister of an Irish-American impresario. The young girl was too sick to board a famine ship 50 years ago, and now the brother wanted to give his sister his wealth. Before the ship docks, Molly’s maid is found murdered and a famous Irish actress, with a suitcase full of rifles, is missing. When Molly catches her own brother trying to collect the missing woman’s luggage, she’s unwillingly drawn into Ireland’s freedom movement.
F BROWN
Brown, Rita Mae. Puss ‘n cahoots : a Mrs. Murphy mystery. New York : Bantam Books, c2007.
The second honeymoon of Harry and Fair Haristeen in Shelbyville, Kentucky, goes awry when they attend a saddlebred show and their friend Joan’s treasured pin goes missing, a horse groomer is found murdered, a movie star’s mare is abducted, and the INS arrives looking for illegal aliens.
F BRUEN
Bruen, Ken. Priest. 1st U.S. ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2007, c2006.
Private investigator Jack Taylor, fresh from the mental institution, is asked to look into the beheading of a local priest in Galway, Ireland, and aided by an enthusiastic new partner, uncovers secrets the victim would rather have taken to the grave.
F BUCKLEY
Buckley, Christopher, 1952-. Boomsday. 1st ed. New York : Warner 12, 2007.
Cassandra Devine, a 29-year-old blogger outraged over the mounting Social Security debt, incites cultural warfare when she makes an outrageous proposal on her blog site that catches fire with millions of citizens, including an ambitious senator seeking the presidency.
F CARD
Card, Orson Scott. Saints : a novel. 1st hardcover ed. Burton, MI : Hatrack River Publications in association with Subterranean Press, 2007.
First published in 1984 and marketed as a romance under the title A Woman of Destiny, Card’s magnum opus deserves a wider readership than it has hitherto enjoyed. Card does an excellent job of depicting the Dickensian horrors of England undergoing industrialization in the early 19th century as well as the early trials of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints as experienced by his heroine, Dinah Kirkham. After converting to the new “Mormon” faith, Dinah emigrates from Britain to America, where she becomes one of the plural wives of the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith. Publisher’s Weekly.
F CHAN
Chan, Cassandra. Village affairs. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
Scotland Yard detective Jack Gibbons calls on his best friend Phillip Bethancourt for help in investigating the death of middle-aged widower Charlie Bingham in the small town of Chipping Chedding, but their quest turns up more questions than answers when they learn Bingham was a very wealthy businessman who kept his assets hidden.
F CHERCOVER
Chercover, Sean. Big city, bad blood. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
Private detective Ray Dudgeon comes to the aid of Hollywood location manager Bob Loniski when Bob becomes a prosecution witness against the Chicago mob; however, Ray’s investigation puts him in the middle between organized crime, the Chicago police, and the FBI.
F CHIAVERINI
Chiaverini, Jennifer. The quilter’s homecoming : an Elm Creek quilts novel. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2007.
Elizabeth Nelson leaves Pennsylvania with her new husband Henry for the 120-acre ranch they hold the deed to in California. Upon arriving, they discover that they’ve been bilked out of everything and are now penniless. While Henry takes a job as a farm hand for the owners of the ranch they thought was theirs, Elizabeth makes over a dilapidated cabin. It’s only after she discovers quilts belonging to the property owners’ mother that she begins to understand the loss that the owners too have suffered.
F CLARK
Clark, Mary Higgins. I heard that song before. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Kay Lansing, 28, is a landscaper, married to Peter Carrington, 42, who is the head of his family’s fortune. Kay, the daughter of the Carrington family’s gardener, should be happy, but she’s not. She’s been living under a cloud of suspicion since Peter’s former wife’s death and that of a high school senior. As rumors swirls that the deaths were not accidents, and Peter is eventually arrested for one of them, Kay wonders if it could be true that she had married a killer.
F CRIDER
Crider, Bill, 1941-. Murder among the OWLS. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2007.
Texas sheriff Dan Rhodes investigates the death of a neighbor, Helen Harris, who might have been the victim of a love affair gone dangerously sour—or the target of ill will in her older-women’s group, which liked digging for treasure.
F CULHANE
Culhane, Patrick, 1948-. Black hats : a novel of Wyatt Earp and Al Capone. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
The pseudonymous Culhane (aka Max Allen Collins) once again shows himself a master at the historical thriller. In 1920, 70-year-old Wyatt Earp, who’s working as a PI in Los Angeles, is hired by “Big Nosed Kate” Elder, the widow of his best friend, Doc Holliday. Kate wants Wyatt to go to New York and help her speakeasy-owning son, John (fathered by Doc as he was dying), who has fallen afoul of a local tough guy, the young Alphonse Capone. In New York, Wyatt teams with another old pal, Morning Telegraph sportswriter Bat Masterson. Publishers Weekly.
F CURZON
Curzon, Clare. The glass wall : a Superintendent Mike Yeadings mystery. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006, c2005.
When Ramon witnesses someone falling from a luxury penthouse, he is pulled into the police investigation and finds himself obsessing about the elderly victim and her mysterious past.
F CUSK
Cusk, Rachel, 1967-. Arlington Park. 1st American ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, c2006.
The residents of Arlington Park, a modern-day English suburb, live out the dubious accomplishments of everyday life, balancing marriages, careers, friendships, and parenthood.
F DANFORD
Danford, Natalie. Inheritance. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
After finding the deed to a house in Italy amid her deceased father’s belongings, Olivia Bonocchio decides to travel to his hometown of Urbino where she becomes involved with a local man and learns of her dad’s secret past.
F DEAN
Dean, Louise. This human season. 1st U.S. ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, Inc., c2005.
In November 1979, Kathleen Moran’s son Sean is transferred to the H-block in Belfast’s notorious Maze prison, where he becomes a key player in the protest that political prisoners are staging and crosses paths with John Dunn, a prison guard searching for a way to support his family.
F DEKKER
Dekker, Ted, 1962-. Saint. Nashville, Tenn. : Westbow Press, c2006.
Carl Strople is an assassin with unusual telekinetic gifts. He has been kidnapped, taken into hiding, and had his memory wiped out over a 10- month period of intense training and torture. Now, with a new set of memories and developing skills he is being molded into a killer for an extraordinary mission. No, Carl Strople is definitely not who you think!
F DORSEY
Dorsey, Tim. Hurricane punch. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
Serial killer Serge A. Storm and his perpetually intoxicated friend Coleman head to Florida to chase hurricanes and kill those he sees as deserving of death, pursued by criminal profiler Agent Mahoney, who is convinced Serge has some competition in the murder business.
F DRAKE
Drake, Nick, 1961-. Nefertiti : the book of the dead. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.
Rai Rahotep, youngest chief detective of the Thebes Medjay division, is assigned a missing person case in Thebes, but doesn’t know that the person missing is Nefertiti, who has vanished on the eve of a great celebration. There’s a lot hanging on his solving the case: like his very life if he fails.
F EAGLE
Eagle, Kathleen. Ride a painted pony. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2006.
Lauren Davis, an accomplished jockey, finds herself on the run from ex-boyfriend Raymond Vargas, a powerful, abusive man who has stolen their young son from her, and having been granted a reprieve from the man Vargas told to kill her, she is picked up from the side of the road by horse rancher Nick Red Shield, who provides her with a safe haven on his South Dakota ranch, and a base from which to try to steal her son back.
F EPSTEIN
Epstein, Leslie. The eighth wonder of the world : a novel. New York : Handsel Books/Other Press, c2006.
Architectural genius Amos Prince presents Mussolini with a design for a mile-high tower as a memorial to Italy’s triumph over Ethiopia; and in his struggle to bring the skyscraper to completion, loses his family, his native country, and nearly his mind.
F ERIKSON
Erikson, Steven. House of chains. New York : Tor, 2006.
When a raiding party of tribal warriors descends on Northern Genabackis, the region is thrown into turmoil and ruin, and, years later, Tavore arrives in the Seven Cities to control the armies and release their hold on the city.
F FALLON
Fallon, Jennifer. Warrior. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006, c2005.
The High Arrion of the Sorcerers’ Collective plots to destroy Marla Wolfblade, the power behind Hythria’s throne, and preys on Marla’s confidant and ally, Elezaar the Fool, to help complete her plan.
F FRAZER
Frazer, Margaret. The traitor’s tale. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, 2007.
Dame Frevisse of St. Frideswide’s nunnery is in London to help her cousin Alice through the task of burying her husband, who was very much hated by the populace. Simon Joliffe is also in London to bring vital information to the exiled Duke of York. He has the names of the Englishmen who betrayed their King by conspiring with the French. Events cause him to question whether or not the list is valid or actually part of a greater conspiracy against the crown. (Margaret Frazer is the pseudonym for Gail Frazer.).
F FRIEDMAN
Friedman, C. S. Feast of souls. New York : DAW Books : Distributed by Penguin Group (USA), c2007.
Young Prince Andovan is dying of a mysterious ailment known as the Wasting, and his father, the High King, summons a council of Magisters to save his son’s life, but the Magisters refuse to help the King, for fear that the long-held secret to their powers might be revealed.
F GEAR
Gear, W. Michael. People of the nightland. 1st ed. New York : Tom Doherty Associates, 2007.
The People of the Wolf have now split into two clans. The People of the Nightland live in the ice caves that skirt the glacier, while the People of the Sunpath live inside lodges to the south. When a young orphan boy named Silvertip receives a vision from the long-deceased Wolf Dreamer that their world is about to end, a jaded war chief, and a little girl must convince the others to leave before they’re destroyed by the Ice Giants.
F GEMMELL
Gemmell, David. Shield of thunder. 1st American ed. New York : Ballatine Books, 2006.
Agamemnon, King of the Mykene, prepares to use force against the city of Troy; Achilles prepares to test his strength in battle; and Odysseus, leader of Ithaca, must choose between friendship and honor.
F GINSBERG
Ginsberg, Debra, 1962-. Blind submission : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Shaye Areheart Books, c2006.
Angel Robinson, assistant to noted literary agent Lucy Fiamma, begins receiving chapters to a mysterious manuscript via e-mail that parallel her own life; but when the plot suddenly turns to murder, Angel knows she must discover the author’s identity before the final chapter is written.
F GODDARD
Goddard, Robert. Sight unseen. Delta Trade pbk. ed. New York : Delta Trade Paperbacks, 2007, c2005.
David Umber re-opens the case of a two-year-old girl’s abduction at Avebury, an ancient stone monument in England, which he witnessed years ago, and learns that what he saw may be the only clue to the abductor’s true identity and the key to unlocking the case.
F GRABIEN
Grabien, Deborah. Cruel sister : a haunted ballad. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
Ringan Laine is asked to design an Elizabethan mansion for his girlfriend Penny’s brother and his new wife, but his misgivings about the project, and the site it is built on, lead him on a dangerous journey that threatens his own life and those of his family.
F GREEN
Green, Tim, 1963-. American outrage. 1st ed. New York : Warner Books, 2007.
Investigative journalist Jake Carlson, now a successful TV news correspondent, had his life and career derailed after he found himself a single parent in charge of Sam, a child fearful of being left parentless if Jake, his adopted father, should leave him. To comfort Sam, Jake used his investigative skills to discover the truth and whereabouts of Sam’s biological father. What he discovers instead is the man’s nefarious connection to the mob and danger for himself and Sam. “A novel that examines what happens when a television, tabloid journalist becomes the story”—Provided by publisher.
F HAINES
Haines, Carolyn. Penumbra. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
Jade Dupree, a beautician and undertaker’s assistant, is also the unacknowledged illegitimate daughter of the town’s most prominent woman, and must live with the knowledge that her mother and half sister refuse to accept her, but when her half sister’s daughter is kidnapped, Jade may be the only one able to save the young girl.
F HAMID
Hamid, Mohsin, 1971-. The reluctant fundamentalist. 1st ed. Orlando : Harcourt, c2007.
Mohsin Hamid offers a spare, disturbing, utterly compelling tale of a young Pakistani man on his way to success in Manhattan who must decide, in the wake of September 11, where his true allegiance lies—with his adopted country or his homeland.
F HARDING
Harding, John, 1951-. One big damn puzzler. New York : Harper Perennial, 2006, c2005.
Set on a fictional South Pacific island inhabited by black bantam pigs and a clan of nearly-naked eccentrics, this excessively zany British import has a raging conscience and a muted heart. Managua, a one-legged tribesman (most of his fellow inhabitants are missing limbs), is obsessed with transcribing Hamlet into island pidgin and finds his unconventional paradise disturbed when William Hardt, a white American lawyer, arrives to arrange reparations for natives whose limbs have been blown off by the landmines left behind years ago by the American military. Hardt soon witnesses a staggering array of peculiarities: the “the shitting beach” where villagers empty their bowels every morning; transvestite men forced into dressing in drag by parents who wanted girls; vision quests brought on by consuming “kassa,” a red hallucinogenic paste. A few years after his departure from the island, Hardt’s successful mission has drastic consequences for the island. Publisher’s Weekly.
F HEWSON
Hewson, David. The lizard’s bite. New York : Delacorte Press, 2006.
While exiled in Venice, detectives Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni investigate the deaths of a wealthy woman and her husband.
F HILL
Hill, Reginald. Death comes for the Fat Man. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2007.
Nearly killed in an explosion, Yorkshire policeman Andy Dalziel now lies in a hospital on life support but with a strong will to live. A fellow policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe, is determined to bring those responsible to justice. He suspects a group called the Templars. The more he digs, the more convinced he becomes that the Templars are getting help from within the police department.
F HILL
Hill, Joe. Heart-shaped box. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
Aging rocker Judas Coyne, a collector of the macabre, pays a thousand dollars for a suit said to be inhabited by the owner’s ghost, and learns only after the angry spirit arrives that he has been set up by the family of his last young lover who committed suicide upon her return home.
F HOLEMAN
Holeman, Linda, 1949-. The moonlit cage : a novel. New York : Three Rivers Press, c2006.
A rich and mesmerizing novel about a 19th-century Afghani woman who, cursed by a jealous tribeswoman and forced from her life in the Hindu Kush, travels to Victorian London in her desperate quest for survival and, perhaps, even happiness.
F KAPLAN
Kaplan, Janice. Looks to die for. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2007.
Lacy Fields, mother of three and wife of a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, is shocked when her husband is arrested for murdering a young actress and vows to find the true killer and uncover the secret her husband has been hiding.
F KEADY
Keady, Walter, 1934-. The dowry : a novel of Ireland. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
The young people of Coshlawn Crann in rural Ireland simply aren’t marrying and properly propagating in the hardscrabble postwar 1946. It’s all about the economy, and Father Donovan isn’t above using the power of his collar to lean on two locals who can get something done: rich skinflint farmer Tom McDermott and publican Austin Glynn (some of whose wealth comes from bank robberies long ago in the Bronx). Tom’s older son, Martin, the town Lothario, soon finds himself engaged to Austin’s daughter, Aideen, a good-hearted girl with a face “like the back of a bus.” Biking home from popping the question, Martin runs into Barney Murphy’s donkey on the bridge, tumbles into the river and is believed drowned. He quickly decides to stay dead and slips off to London, where he soon wearies of actually having to work and starts dreaming about Aideen’s dowry.
F KENYON
Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Dark side of the moon. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Susan Michaels’ promising career as a journalist was cut short by a scandal that ruined her life, but when she gets a lead on a breaking story, Susan feels it may be a chance to salvage her career and sets out on an investigation that may cost her her life.
F KINSELLA
Kinsella, Sophie. Shopaholic & baby. New York : Dial Press, c2007.
Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood is enjoying her pregnancy, especially buying baby clothes and accessories, until she begins to suspect that her husband is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be her obstetrician.
F LIPPMAN
Lippman, Laura, 1959-. What the dead know. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
Baltimore detective Kevin Infante becomes caught up in investigating a long-ago crime when police arrest a woman involved in a rush-hour accident only to have her tell them she is the younger of the two Bethany sisters who went missing from a local mall thirty years earlier.
F LOWENTHAL
Lowenthal, Michael. Charity girl. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
Frieda Mintz, a seventeen-year-old Jewish girl in Boston, spends one impulsive night with a U.S. Army private and finds herself left with an unspeakable disease that causes the government to send her to a makeshift detention center where she is humiliated and violated by the officials, and inspired by the strong women surrounding her.
F MAINE
Maine, David, 1963-. The book of Samson. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Samson, the Israelite judge from the Bible, reflects back on his life as he awaits execution, and tells of his disastrous liaison with Dalila, the woman who facilitated his capture by cutting off his hair—the source of his strength.
F MARLETTE
Marlette, Doug, 1949-. Magic time. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
New York City newspaper columnist Carter Ransom returns home to Mississippi to recover from an emotional breakdown, but instead of understanding and comfort, he finds a disappointed father and the long-buried memories of a traumatic past.
F MARX
Marx, Patricia (Patricia A.). Him her him again the end of him : a novel. New York : Scribner, c2007.
A young woman falls for philosopher Eugene Obello during her graduate school days in Cambridge, England, but finds their obsessive relationship harmful to her studies and her psyche.
F MATAR
Matar, Hisham, 1970-. In the country of men. Dial Press hardcover ed. New York : Dial Press, 2007, c2006.
A novel about the love and relationship between nine-year-old Suleiman and his mother in the midst of the political turmoil of Libya under the dictatorship of Qaddafi in the 1970s.
F MAY
May, Peter, 1951-. The fourth sacrifice. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. Forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell’s stay in Beijing, where she has gone to give a seminar, is extended when the U.S. ambassador insists she help police investigate the ritual murders of four men—the last a Chinese-born American, a task that forces her back into contact with Li Yan, the Beijing detective she loved and lost.
F MCLARTY
McLarty, Ron. Traveler. New York : Viking, 2007.
Jono Riley returns to his childhood home in Rhode Island in search of the truth about a series of mysterious shootings that changed his life, and must come to terms with his own role in the devastating events.
F MCMAHON
McMahon, Neil. Lone Creek : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Harper Collins, 2007.
Hugh Davoren, a construction hand on the Pettyjohn Ranch, is just trying to get through another day when he discovers two buried horses. The new owners, Wesley Balcom and his wife, Laurie, seem to be hiding something. As he quietly investigates further, Davoren discovers that everyone involved with the ranch, past and present, including the original owner, Mr. Pettyjohn himself, has secrets: secrets that could resolve a years-old seemingly accidental death of a teenage girl.
F MEADE
Meade, Amy Patricia, 1972-. Million dollar baby : a Marjorie McClelland mystery. 1st ed. Woodbury, MN : Midnight Ink, c2006.
Successful young mystery writer Marjorie McClelland, living in the post-Prohibition town of Ridgebury, Connecticut, catches the eye of Creighton Ashcroft, a British heir who has purchased a local mansion, but his hopes of engaging her romantically are dashed when the couple comes across a body while walking in Ashcroft’s garden, and the detective who arrives to investigate proves much more interesting to Marjorie.
F MEKLER
Mekler, Eva. The Polish woman : a novel. 1st ed. Bridgehampton, N.Y. : Lanham, Md. : Bridge Works Pub. ; Distributed in the United States by National Book Network, c2007.
Karolina Staszek comes to New York lawyer Philip Landau with a strange story, claiming she is the long-lost child that his uncle had paid a Catholic family to hide in Poland during World War II, but Philip fears the young woman is a cunning scam artist who is after his uncle’s vast estate and sets out to prove the woman is lying.
F MICHAELS
Michaels, Fern. The marriage game. New York : Pocket Books, 2007.
Sam, Slick, Kayla, Olivia, and Zoe, CIA dropouts, are lured into a secret law enforcement agency. Poke Donovan, the agency’s recruiter, has sent Avery Mateo to spy on them but bungles the job. Now, Sam is suspicious of the training contract she’s signed. Pappy, the covert ops leader, insists he was merely testing them, but Sam has a lot of questions she expects him to answer about the organization when she spends her first day at Big Pine Mountain, the agency’s training headquarters.
F MOON
Moon, Elizabeth. Command decision. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2007.
With the Vatta’s War series, award-winning author Elizabeth Moon has claimed a place alongside such preeminent writers of military science fiction as David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold. Now Moon is back, and so is her butt-kicking, take-no-prisoners heroine, Kylara Vatta. Once the black-sheep scion of a prosperous merchant family, Kylara now leads a motley space force dedicated to the defeat of a rapacious pirate empire led by the mysterious Gammis Turek.
F NYLUND
Nylund, Eric S. Halo : ghosts of Onyx. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
Section Three, a secret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligences, travels to the planet Onyx, where the soldiers are suppose to begin their plan to save Earth, but instead they awaken an ancient technology.
F ONEILL
O’Neill, Heather. Lullabies for little criminals. 1st ed. New York : Harper Collins Publishers, 2006.
Baby, 13 and motherless, is young enough to drag her dolls around in a vinyl suitcase and old enough to know more than she should about life on the streets. She lives with her father Jules, who has a penchant for heroin. To survive, Baby spins stories, cracks herself up, and slips through life. Her beauty captures the attention of Alphonse, and his stable of young girls. Jules sends her to reform school, but Baby finds a way out and into the hands of Alphonse.
F PARSHALL
Parshall, Sandra. Disturbing the dead. 1st ed. Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, 2007.
Tom Bridger returns to his remote mountain community to take his father’s place as deputy sheriff and finds himself investigating the murder of a Melungeon woman and trying to uncover secrets that may endanger his and his family’s life.
F PASTOR
Pastor, Ben, 1950-. The water thief. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2007.
In the summer of 304 A.D. Aelius Spartianus is researching the 200- year-old unsolved drowning of Emperor Hadrian’s male favorite, Antinous, when he discovers that there’s a lost letter written by Hadrian, supposedly hidden in Antinous’ grave, which mentions a threat to the State. Aelius plans to find it but must first survive to find Antinous’ grave, since there are those who would kill for the mysterious document.
F PHILLIPS
Phillips, Arthur, 1969-. Angelica : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2007.
Constance had thought she’d found her ultimate husband and protector when she married Joseph Barton, a biological researcher. But, after three miscarriages, and the troubled birth of their daughter, Angelica, Constance fears Joseph’s apparent hatred of her. She senses the presence of supernatural evil in the house and calls upon a spiritualist to combat the threats she sees to her life and her child. Divided into four sections, the book takes a different character’s point of view of events, and nothing is at it seems.
F PIRIE
Pirie, David, 1946-. The dark water : the strange beginnings of Sherlock Holmes. 1st Pegasus Books ed. New York : [S.l.] : Pegasus Books ; Distributed by Consortium, 2006, c2005.
Doyle finds himself held prisoner by the evil madman, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream; but soon escapes and joins with Dr. Joseph Bell where they face an eerie mystery in a small seaside town haunted by the apparent reappearance of a legendary witch.
F POWERS
Powers, Tim, 1952-. Three days to never. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2006.
Twelve-year-old Daphne Marrity takes a videotape from her grandmother’s house and finds her family pulled into a murderous power struggle that originated decades earlier in the Middle East and threatens the modern world.
F PYNCHON
Pynchon, Thomas. Against the day. New York : Penguin Press, 2006.
As the uncertainty of the future surrounds a group of individuals in the years following the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, they struggle to pursue their dreams and overcome the tragedies of war, death, and failure.
F PYPER
Pyper, Andrew. The Wildfire season. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.
Miles McEwan finds isolation in the vast wilderness of the Yukon, where he struggles to escape the demons of his past while fighting wildfires, but as a killer stalks hunters in the woods and a wildfire spreads dangerously out of control, Miles must put his own fears aside in order to stop a catastrophic event.
F RICE
Rice, Luanne. The edge of winter. New York : Bantam Books, 2007.
Bonds are formed and hearts are healed within a group of five people in Rhode Island’s South County as they work together to save a wounded snowy owl and prevent a developer from raising a sunken World War II U-boat that is a cherished part of the community.
F RICH
Rich, Lani Diane. The fortune quilt. New York : New American Library, 2007.
Carly McKay’s life is going just fine until she produces a television piece on psychic quilt maker Brandywine Seaver and receives a quilt with an enigmatic reading telling her that everything is about to change. And it does. She loses her job and her best friend (who proclaims his unrequited love for her). And her mother, who deserted the family seventeen years ago, returns, sending Carly into a serious tilt.
F RICHMOND
Richmond, Michelle, 1970-. The year of fog : a novel. New York : Delacorte Press, c2007.
Photographer Abby Mason’s happy anticipation of a life as a wife and stepmother comes to an abrupt end when Emma, the six-year-old daughter of her fiancé Jake, disappears at the beach while in her care.
F RILEY
Riley, Judith Merkle. The water devil : a Margaret of Ashbury novel. 1st ed. New York : Three Rivers Press, c2007.
Margaret seeks out her old friend Brother Malachi to help save her daughter from being married off by Gregory’s father.
F ROSE
Rose, Joel. Blackest bird : a novel of murder in nineteenth-century New York. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, c2007.
In the sweltering New York City summer of 1841, Mary Rogers, a popular counter girl at a tobacco shop in Manhattan, is found brutally ravaged in the shallows of the Hudson River. John Colt, scion of the firearm fortune, beats his publisher to death with a hatchet. And young Irish gang leader Tommy Coleman is accused of killing his daughter, his wife, and his wife’s former lover. Charged with solving it all is High Constable Jacob Hays, the city’s first detective. At the end of a long and distinguished career, Hays’s investigation will ultimately span a decade, involving gang wars, grave robbers, and clues hidden in poems by the hopeless romantic and minstrel of the night: Edgar Allan Poe.
F SAMSON
Samson, Lisa, 1964-. Quaker summer. Nashville, Tenn. : Thomas Nelson, c2007.
Heather Curridge, blessed with a wonderful son, a successful and loving husband, a great house, and money to burn, still feels unfulfilled, haunted by her behavior as a youth and searching for a greater purpose, but her life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes involved with two elderly Quaker sisters and a nun in a downtown homeless shelter.
F SAWYER
Sawyer, Robert J. Rollback. 1st ed. New York : Tor Books, 2007.
Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too . . . if she lives long enough. A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback, a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties. While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she’d done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.
F SCHROEDER
Schroeder, Karl, 1962-. Sun of suns. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
As the residents of the world known as Virga struggle to build their own fusion suns and towns, the city of Rush is threatened by Hayden Griffin, a man with a murderous plot for revenge that could change the future.
F SEE
See, Lisa. Snow flower and the secret fan : a novel. Random House Trade pbk. ed. New York : Random House, 2006, c2005.
Friends Snow Flower and Lily find solace in their bond as they face isolation, arranged marriages, loss, and motherhood in nineteenth-century China.
F SHREVE
Shreve, Anita. Body surfing : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2007.
At 29, Sydney had already been once divorced and once widowed. Now she was trying to fill her days by serving as a tutor to the teen daughter of a wealthy couple spending the summer at their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. Following the arrival of two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, Sydney finds herself caught up in a web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As each son vies for her affections, her fragile existence is threatened when she’s drawn into a love triangle.
F SHTEYNGART
Shteyngart, Gary, 1972-. Absurdistan. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2006.
Misha Vainberg longs to return to New York City, but since his grandfather killed a prominent Oklahoma businessman, Misha knows he is stuck in Russia, where he becomes the hapless Minister of Multicultural Affairs and finds himself fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to lead a normal life.
F SLOUKA
Slouka, Mark. The visible world. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
An American son tries to understand his Czech-born mother’s despair by investigating her past and finally reimagining it.
F SPANOGLE
Spanogle, Joshua. Isolation ward. New York : Delacorte Press, c2006.
Dr. Nathaniel McCormick is called in to investigate when three young women are admitted to St. Raphael Hospital with a strange virus, and his investigation leads him to a violent killer who may have developed his own breed of bioterrorism to enact his revenge.
F SPIEGELMAN
Spiegelman, Peter. Red cat. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
PI John March has always been a thorn in his well-to-do family’s side, which makes the identity of his latest client doubly surprising: his older brother, David. Even more surprising is the nature of David’s request: he wants John to locate, and warn off, a woman he knows only as Wren, who is stalking him and threatening to reveal his indiscretion with her to his wife and boss. When Wren’s body is pulled from the river, John wonders if his brother could be a killer.
F STONE
Stone, David, 1946-. The echelon vendetta. New York : Putnams, c2007.
CIA agent Micah Dalton finds himself chasing a killer when his friend and mentor, Porter Naumann, is the victim of serial killer bent on murdering ex-CIA agents.
F TAPPLY
Tapply, William G. Gray ghost. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2007.
Stonewall “Stoney” Jackson Calhoun, a fishing guide on Maine’s Casco Bay who lost his memory seven years ago in a lightning strike, stumbles upon two grisly corpses in the course of a week—one a client, deposited on his front porch—and suspects they may have something to do with his lost past.
F THURLO
Thurlo, Aimée. Turquoise girl. New York : Forge, c2007.
Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah thinks there’s something familiar about the murder crime scene of a young Navajo woman. It reminds her of a case from her FBI days. Calling on Agent Dwayne Blalock for help, they work long hours to identify and put a finish to the killer’s reign of terror, which may actually have started a decade earlier.
F TODD
Todd, Charles. A false mirror. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, 2007.
Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge is summoned to the small town of Hampton Regis in the wake of World War I at the demand of Stephen Mallory, a soldier who served with Rutledge who has now been accused of severely beating the husband of an ex-lover, and is holding the woman hostage until Rutledge can prove his innocence.
F TURNER
Turner, Frederick W., 1937-. Redemption. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.
Ex-cop Francis Muldoon, injured in the line of duty, hits bottom before being offered a job working for Tom Anderson, the vice-lord of the Storyville District of New Orleans in 1913, but the shine comes off his devotion to his new boss when he falls in love with a beautiful singer at a competing dance hall who has a sordid history with Anderson.
F VARGAS
Vargas, Fred. Seeking whom he may devour : Chief Inspector Adamsberg investigates. 1st Simon & Schuster pbk. ed. New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006, c2004.
Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is summoned to a small mountain community in the French Alps to investigate a murder and the disappearance of a loner believed by the villagers to be a werewolf.
F WEBER
Weber, David, 1952-. Off Armageddon Reef. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2007.
As Earth is destroyed by an enemy alien race known as the Gbaba, the Terran Federation Navy embarks on a secret mission to set up a new civilization on a distant planet, but when the operation fails, Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban finds herself on a planet called Safehold, where she must comply with the religious beliefs of its people or be killed.
F WILEY
Wiley, Richard. Commodore Perry’s minstrel show : a novel. 1st ed. Austin : University of Texas Press, 2007.
In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and “opened” Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show—and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American “barbarians” could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures—the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro Okubo—are just slightly more curious than cautious. Within the minstrels Manjiro sensed “the subtleties of spirit that reside in all good men.” When Ace and Ned are unwittingly made part of a Japanese plot to undermine the American presence, Manjiro helps them escape into the countryside. Pursued by samurai, torn between treachery and loyalty, Manjiro and the minstrels (along with family, friends, and lovers) make their way across Japan, fleeing a showdown with the samurai that gradually becomes inevitable.
F WOODS
Woods, Stuart. Fresh disasters. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2007.
Stone Barrington is forced to take con man Herbie Fisher as a client, with the goal of taking down the notorious Mafia boss Carmine Datilla. With the help of his ex-partner Dino, Stone investigates the boss called ‘Datilla the Hun’ and his crime family, encountering danger and intrigue at every turn. It’s a ticklish situation that could lead to his ending up at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay if he’s not careful.
F WYNN
Wynn, Patricia. The motive from the deed. 1st ed. Corona del Mar, CA : Pemberley Press, c2007.
Mistress Hester Kean’s brother Jeremy is sent to Newgate prison after being charged with murder and printing seditious pamphlets, prompting Mrs. Kean to enlist the help of the highwayman Blue Satan to unravel the mystery and free her brother.
F YEHOSHUA
Yehoshua, Abraham B. A woman in Jerusalem. 1st ed. Orlando : Harcourt, 2006.
A woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of “gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee,” the bakery’s owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. This man is at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman’s life take shape—she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful—he yields to feelings of regret, atonement, and even love.—From publisher description.
F ZAHN
Zahn, Timothy. Star wars : allegiance. 1st ed. New York : Del Rey/Ballentine Books, c2007.
The destruction of the Death Star brings together struggling Jedi Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia to face a new cataclysmic conflict with the Rebel Alliance.
NON-FICTION:
170 THI
This I believe : the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2006.
In this thought-provoking book, which is based on the NPR series, 80 essayists use the three little title words as a jumping-off point to a discussion of their deepest personal beliefs. The list of contributors includes Colin Powell, Isabel Allende, Bill Gates, John Updike, William F. Buckley Jr., Gloria Steinem, and Penn Jillette; but it also includes relatively unknown people with everyday jobs.
303.48 OHA
O’Harrow, Robert. No place to hide. New York : Free Press, 2006.
In ‘No Place to Hide,’ award-winning Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., pulls back the curtain on an unsettling trend: the emergence of a data-driven surveillance society intent on giving us the conveniences and services we crave, like cell phones, discount cards, and electronic toll passes, while watching us more closely than ever before. He shows that since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, the information industry giants have been enlisted as private intelligence services for homeland security. And at a time when companies routinely collect billions of details about nearly every American adult, No Place to Hide shines a bright light on the sorry state of information security, revealing how people can lose control of their privacy and identities at any moment.
306.874 ISA
Isay, Jane. Walking on eggshells : navigating the delicate relationship between adult children and their parents. 1st ed. New York : Doubleday/Flying Dolphin Press, c2007.
Jane Isay offers practical advice to parents and their adult children on how to maintain a positive relationship even in the toughest situations.
307.76 RYB
Rybczynski, Witold. Last harvest : how a cornfield became New Daleville : real estate development in America from George Washington to the builders of the twenty-first century, and why we live in houses anyway. New York : Scribner, 2007.
Architecture critic Rybczynski spent four and a half years observing the progress of New Daleville, a residential subdivision designed by one of his former students in a “neotraditional” style that builds houses close together on smaller-than-usual lots in order to foster a stronger sense of community. He is there to witness every stage of development, from the purchase of a large tract of land in rural Pennsylvania through meetings with local community leaders to get planning approval, to the moment when a family moves into one of the first completed units. Publisher’s Weekly.
332.024 ORM
Orman, Suze. Women & money : owning the power to control your destiny. 1st ed. New York : Spiegel & Grau, 2007.
Suze Orman doesn’t want women to just learn about finances, she wants them to change the way in which they perceive money and their financial worth. A well-established personal financial adviser, Suze states in plain language what women need to do to equate money with self worth.
629.13 NAT
National Air and Space Museum. Best of the National Air and Space Museum. [Washington, D.C.] : New York : Smithsonian Books ; Collins, 2006.
A collection of photographs profiling the aircraft and spacecraft from around the world and throughout history that are on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
635 ALL
Allen, Debbie Mahoney. Garden notes from Muddy Creek : a twelve month guide to tending ornamental perennials. 1st ed. Ferrisburgh, VT : Fuller Mountain Press, c2006.
Debbie Allen’s Garden Notes from Muddy Creek is a monthly guide to tending ornamental perennials. In an informative and anecdotal style, Debbie discusses all aspects of caring for perennials, from pruning, planting, weeding and soil tending, to watering, preventive measures for disease and pest control, and even the ins and outs of making home compost. Her book is illustrated by Hannah Firmin whose block prints charmingly depict gardening life at Muddy Creek. Hannah is an English illustrator who won best book cover of the year from the prestigious British Book Awards in 2004. Debbie states, This is the book I wish someone had given me in my early gardening years.
921 BEAH
Beah, Ishmael, 1980-. A long way gone : memoirs of a boy soldier. 1st ed. New York : Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Ishmael Beah describes his experiences after he was driven from his home by war in Sierra Leone and picked up by the government army at the age of thirteen, serving as a soldier for three years before being removed from fighting by UNICEF and eventually moving to the United States.
921 MARAVICH
Kriegel, Mark. Pistol : the life of Pete Maravich. New York : Free Press, c2007.
Mark Kriegel examines the life and achievements of basketball player Pete Maravich, discussing his relationship with his father, time spent playing at Lousianna State University, professional career, and family life.
930 BER
Bernstein, Josh, 1971-. Digging for the truth : one man’s epic adventure exploring the world’s greatest archaelogical mysteries. New York : Gotham Books, c2006.
Josh Bernstein, host of The History Channel’s “Digging for the Truth” offers a behind-the-scenes look at his adventures at some of the world’s most remote and challenging archeological sites.
967.5103 DEV
Devlin, Larry. Chief of station, Congo : a memoir of 1960-67. 1st ed. New York : Public Affairs, 2007.
Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied, and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry boat, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way--out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette, Congo style, with him. During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered and Devlin was widely thought to have been entrusted with (he was) and to have carried out (he didn’t) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Devlin found himself at the heart of Africa, fighting for the future of perhaps the most strategically influential country on the continent, its borders shared with eight other nations.
MEDIA:
DVD 551.55 WHE
When the levees broke : a requiem in four acts. Widescreen. [New York?] : HBO Video, c2006.
disc 1. Act I (65 min.). Act II (62 min.) -- disc 2. Act III (58 min.). Act IV (70 min.). Special features: Audio commentary by filmmaker Spike Lee—Next movement : Act V (108 min.) -- Water is rising (8 min.). Featuring Ray Nagin, Sean Penn, Al Sharpton, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Belafonte. The world watched in horror as Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Many were shocked, not only by the scale of the disaster, but the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery efforts. Structured into four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina’s catastrophic passage through New Orleans. Tells the heartbreaking personal stories of those who endured this harrowing ordeal and survived to tell the tale.
DVD 641.5 JAM
Jamie Oliver : happy days tour live. Full screen. Los Angeles, CA : Delta Entertainment Corp. : Free Mantle Home Entertainment, [2002], c2001.
Presented by: Jamie Oliver.
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.
