archive
Excerpt: 'Dial H For Hitchcock'
December 11, 2009 In Susan Kandel's latest Cece Caruso mystery, the middle-aged fashionista and part-time sleuth is about to hit the bottom. Her love life is a shambles, her biography of Alfred Hitchcock is over deadline, and to top it all off, she's just been accused of murder.
Excerpt: 'G. I. Bones'
December 11, 2009 In Seoul, South Korea, a U.S. Army criminal investigator is charged with settling the spirit of a long dead American solider in Seoul, Korea. This book is the sixth in Martin Limon's Sueno and Bascom series.
Excerpt: 'Liar'
December 10, 2009 Justine Larbalestier's gripping and imaginative story is told by a narrator who admits, from the beginning, that she cannot be trusted to tell the truth — and she may or may not be guilty of a horrendous crime.
Excerpt: 'When Wanderers Cease To Roam'
December 10, 2009 Vivian Swift's book of memories, in words and drawings, stems from 20 years of world travel but was composed after the author settled down in a small village on Long Island Sound. Her book, part diary and part graphic novel, is about her new life and her past travels.
Excerpt: 'The Good Soldiers'
December 10, 2009 David Finkel, a reporter for the Washington Post was embedded with a battalion of about 800 troops in Iraq. His book focuses on the triumphs and traumas of that battalion, particularly its commander.
Excerpt: 'Bubble Trouble'
December 10, 2009 The trouble begins when young Mabel blows a bubble that ensnares her baby brother, wafts out the house and begins floating around town. This children's book by Margaret Mahy is beautifully illustrated with the watercolor and cut paper pictures of illustrator Polly Dunbar.
Excerpt: 'Spooner'
December 10, 2009 National Book Award winner Pete Dexter's newest novel is a coming-of-age story that takes place in Milledgeville, Ga. It's filled with unforgettable characters — each episode spins off into another and the book transitions from heartbreak to humor without missing a beat.
Excerpt: 'Going Bovine'
December 10, 2009 Libba Bray's novel is narrated by a 16-year-old boy diagnosed with "mad cow" disease. He embarks on a crazy, complicated quest for a cure, encountering a range of quirky characters — some of whom may be the result of his disease-driven delusions.
Excerpt: 'The Lost Conspiracy'
December 8, 2009 Francis Hardinge's fantasy novel concerns class, race, and a potentially devastating conspiracy involving the inhabitants of Gullstruck Island.
Excerpt: 'Lips Touch'
December 8, 2009 If the novella and two novelettes that comprise Laini Taylor's Lips Touch lack vampires and werewolves, they scare up the next best things: goblins and demons.
Excerpt: 'Charles and Emma'
December 8, 2009 Deborah Heiligman's historical novel examines the tension between Charles and Emma Darwin as the agnostic biologist and his devoutly Christian wife struggle with issues of family, faith, and science.
Excerpt: 'Marcelo In The Real World'
December 8, 2009 Marcelo, the narrator of Francisco X. Stork's novel, falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, and he's made a deal with his dad. If he can spend one summer working in the mail room at his dad's law firm, he won't have to transfer from the special ed school where he's been enrolled since first grade.
Excerpt: 'When You Reach Me'
December 8, 2009 Rebecca Stead's short novel throws together seemingly disparate elements — game shows, time travel, mystery — but happily, they come together into a wonderfully engrossing whole.
Excerpt: 'There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby'
December 4, 2009 A collection of "scary fairy tales" by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, from the heartland of ethereal fiction: Russia.
Excerpt: 'The Confessions of Noa Weber'
December 4, 2009 In Gail Hareven's novel, feminist and Israeli author Noa Weber turns to her writing to expose an intimate view of the life, love, and obsessions she is embarrassed to share with the world.
