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Home The Editor's Pick

 

Public Library Core Collection: Fiction

Current Picks for October 2007

 
  A Most Highly Recommended Title  
Title:   Out stealing horses
Personal Author:   Petterson, Per
Publisher:   Graywolf Press
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   258
ISBN:   978-1-55597-470-11-55597-470-8, $22
Abstract:   In this "novel, Trond Sander, a widower nearing seventy, moves to a bare house in remote eastern Norway, seeking the life of quiet contemplation that he has always longed for. A chance encounter with a neighbor--the brother, as it happens, of his childhood friend Jon--causes him to ruminate on the summer of 1948, the last he spent with his adored father, who abandoned the family soon afterward. Trond's recollections center on a single afternoon, when he and Jon set out to take some horses from a nearby farm; what began as an exhilarating adventure ended abruptly and traumatically in an act of unexpected cruelty. Petterson's spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond's childhood and adult perspectives." (New Yorker)
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 112 no. 25 (June 24 2007). McGuane, Thomas, reviewer [with excerpt]
Responsibility: translated by Anne Born
Note(s): Original Norwegian edition, 2003; this translation first published 2005 in the United Kingdom
Series: Lannen translation series selection
   
 

 

 

 
  Core Collection
Title:   The Margarets
Personal Author:   Tepper, Sheri S.
Publisher:   Eos
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   508
ISBN:   978-0-06-117065-2-06-117065-8,
$26.95
 
Abstract:    "Margaret is the only kid on a research colony orbiting Mars. Smart, bored and profoundly lonely, she begins to create alter egos for fun. . . . As Margaret grows into a smart and lonely teenager her family must return to the grim, environmentally ravished Earth, where the only economically viable product for interplanetary export is human slaves. Facing a series of blind choices that pull her in two directions, she begins to shed the imaginary Margarets. The Margarets scatter off to other settled worlds, unaware of their other selves. Each Margaret struggles to survive by her (or his) wits, and to understand the growing threats to Earth and humanity. . . . [This novel] incorporates a grab bag of creatures, cultures, psychological metaphors, characters, commentaries and predicaments. The result is a delightful variation on the kind of novel with disparate characters and plot threads that somehow come together at the end. In this tale, they are together in the mind of a child at the beginning." (Salon.com)
Subject(s):    Science fiction; Mars (Planet); Girls
Reading Level (Grade):    Adult

 
 
 
 
Core Collection
Title:   Crossing the Sierra de Gredos
Personal Author:   Handke, Peter
Publisher:   Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   472
ISBN:   978-0-374-28154-0; 0-374-28154-8
Abstract:   In this novel a "powerful female banker is traveling from her home in an unnamed northern European seaport. She has commissioned an author living in Spain's La Mancha region to write her life story, which the novel frames within her journey to the rather forbidden mountainous zone named in the novel's title." (Los Angeles Times Book Rev)
"The artistry of Peter Handke's language may well be unsurpassed among contemporary writers in German. His prose is at once serpentine and spare, dreamlike and exacting. . . . The translator, Krishna Winston, sensitively renders the mesmerizing beauty of his style. In this book, as in much of Handke's previous work, the most stirring passages disclose the inherent strangeness of the world." (Bookforum)
Subject(s):    Philosophical novels; Travel; Authors; Spain; Women
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult
Review(s):   Harper's v. 315 (Aug. 2007). Leonard, John, reviewer

The New York Times Book Review v. 112 no. 33 (Aug. 19 2007). Gordon, Neil, reviewer [with excerpt]
 
Note(s):   Original German edition, 2002

 
  A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title:   The collected stories
Personal Author:   Michaels, Leonard
Publisher:   Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
 
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   403
ISBN:   ISBN: 978-0-374-12654-4
0-374-12654-2, $26
Abstract:   "Michaels never stopped reflecting on the condition of being Jewish. Now that he is gone, it is easier to place him in a broader context, as part of that astonishing flowering of American Jewish writing that included Bellow, Malamud, Mailer and Roth, toward which he can be seen as both filial heir and mischievous critic." (Nation)
 
Subject(s):   Short stories
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult
Review(s):   The New York Times Book Review v. 112 no. 23 (June 10 2007). Simpson, Mona, reviewer [with excerpt]

The Nation v. 285 no. 2 (July 9 2007). Lopate, Phillip, reviewer [with excerpt]

Harper's v. 315 (July 2007). Mason, Wyatt, reviewer [with excerpt]

 
     

Previous Picks

 
  Core Collection
Title:   The art of losing
Personal Author:   Dixon, Keith
Publisher:   St. Martin's Press
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   243
ISBN:   978-0-312-35868-6
0-312-35868-7, $24.95
Abstract:   "New York City filmmaker Mike Jacobs is so tired of being broke that it seems like a good idea when his friend and producer, Sebby Laslo, suggests they strike it rich by fixing a horse race. Sebby enlists two jockeys to do the heavy lifting, but Mike will have to place the bets with a string of shady bookmakers because Sebby has run out of credit. First, he needs to establish his credentials by losing a few bets--that's the easy part. The hard part comes when the horses who are supposed to win the fixed race collide and fall en route to the big payoff. One jockey is left paralyzed, the other is overcome by a need to confess, and Mike is left holding the bag for thousands in debts that he has no way of repaying. Just to survive, he'll need to do things he wouldn't have thought himself capable of doing, but he does them all the same. It is a descent into darkness that can only end in calamity, but the reader, swept up in the narrative momentum, can no more look away than Mike can avoid damnation, if not death. Dixon has written a cautionary tale that is not easy to enjoy but even harder to forget." (Booklist)
Subject(s):   Motion picture producers and directors; Gambling; Horse racing; Crime and criminals
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 8 (Dec. 15 2006). Dodge, Dennis, reviewer
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 112 no. 13 (Apr. 1 2007). Moore, Natalie, reviewer [with excerpt]

 

 

  A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title:   Montano's malady
Other Titles:   Mal de Montano./English
Personal Author:   Vila-Matas, Enrique; Dunne, Jonathan
Publisher:   New Directions
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   $14.95
ISBN:   978-0-8112-1628-9
0-8112-1628-4 (paperback), $14.95
Abstract:   "Written in the form of a journal, which becomes a novel, then a dictionary of writers' journals, then a lecture on the writing of such journals, Montano tells of its narrator's obsession with literature. Middle-aged and married to Rosa, he has become 'a walking dictionary of quotations', unable to do anything without it triggering a memory of something he's read or, worse, something remembered by a writer that he's read, which in turn recalls a thought from the head of yet another writer. Following him and his overactive brain from his native Barcelona to Nantes, Chile, the Azores, Lisbon and Budapest -- via Walter Benjamin, Kafka, W. G. Sebald, Pessoa and Robert Walser among others -- is like playing a mental version of Twister. . . . Shunning narrative, the book continues to seduce with writerly observations -- both the narrator's, and quotations from other writers." (Telegraph (London))
Note(s):   Original Spanish edition, 2002
Subject(s):   Authorship; Books and reading; Experimental stories
Dewey Decimal Classification:   Fic
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult

 

 

  A Most Highly Recommended Title
Title:   The secret city
Personal Author:   Emshwiller, Carol
Publisher:   Tachyon
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   209
ISBN:   978-1-892391-44-5
1-892391-44-9 (paperback), $14.95
Abstract:   "The city of the title . . . is a mountainous retreat, concealed by vines and tree roots, where alien tourists now stranded on Earth may assuage nostalgia for their home world, Betasha. It is to this now largely abandoned hideout that one particular alien, Lorpas, goes to seek fellowship after being arrested for vagrancy and escaping to the hills. There he meets and falls for Allush, a female Betashan who, like Lorpas, was born on Earth and has blended in so well that rescue is no longer appealing. Emshwiller alternates between Lorpas' account of his growing friendship with a bumbling rescuer whom he overpowers and Allush's tale of return to Betasha as the two meet, separate, and finally reunite to establish Earth as their new home world." (Booklist)
"First and foremost, Emshwiller is a poet--with a poet's sensibility, precision, and magic. She revels in the sheer taste and sound of words, she infuses them with an extraordinary vitality and sense of life." (Newsday)
Subject(s):   Interplanetary visitors; Science fiction; Parables
Dewey Decimal Classification:   Fic
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 12 (Feb. 15 2007). Hays, Carl, reviewer

 

 

  Core Collection
Title:   Softspoken
Personal Author:   Shepard, Lucius
Publisher:   Night Shade Books
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   179
ISBN:   978-1-59780-073-0
1-59780-073-2, $23.95
Abstract:   "A chilling and mysterious voice becomes audible to Sanie shortly after she and her husband Jackson move into the decaying antebellum mansion that is the Bullard ancestral home in rural South Carolina. At first, she wonders if the voice might be a prank played by Jackson's peyote-popping brother Will or his equally off-kilter sister Louise. But soon Sanie discovers that the ghostly voice is merely a single piece in the decadent, baroque puzzle that comprises the Bullard family history." (Publisher's note)
"Sanie's tale is, ultimately, after the final page is turned, a little slight. . . . But while you're immersed in its ectoplasmic toils, you get the full measure of domestic creepiness and occult horror." (Sci Fi Wkly)
Subject(s):   Ghost stories; Psychological novels; Family life; South Carolina; Supernatural phenomena; Horror stories
Dewey Decimal Classification:   Fic
Reading Level (Grade):   Adult

 

   

Previous Picksss

 

   
Title:   Fieldwork
Personal Author:   Berlinski, Mischa
Publisher:   Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   320
ISBN:   978037429916-3
0-374-29916-1, $24
Abstract:   The narrative "focuses on Martiya van der Leun, who has committed suicide in a Thai women's prison, where she was serving a 50-year sentence for murdering an American missionary. A young farang (white and foreign) journalist named Mischa Berlinski learns that Martiya was an American anthropologist who for years lived with a tribe called the Dyalos to study its mysterious culture. Mischa finds Martiya's story--and exactly why she committed the crime--so oddly compelling that he dedicates his life to understanding Martiya's fate." (Libr J)
"With its offbeat style, Berlinski's consummate fieldwork--fictional though it may be--produces an intricate whodunit, both disturbing and entertaining." (Washington Post Book World)
Subject(s):   Americans/Thailand; Missionaries; Anthropologists; Suicide; Murder stories; Psychological novels; Thailand; Tribes
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 6 (Nov. 15 2006). Hooper, Brad, reviewer
Review:   The Christian Science Monitor (Eastern edition) v. 99 no. 71 (Mar. 9 2007). Zipp, Yvonne, reviewer [with excerpt]

 

 

   
Title:   The knitting circle
Personal Author:   Hood, Ann
Publisher:   W. W. Norton & Co.
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   346
ISBN:   978-0-393-05901-4
0-393-05901-4, $24.95
Abstract:   "After the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter, Stella, Mary Baxter is advised by her mother that learning to knit will take her mind off her grief. When she joins the local knitting circle, she learns that all of its members have a tragic story as well. As she starts knitting and develops a group of friends who understand the depths of loss, Mary's grief begins to heal, allowing her to return to work, repair her marriage, and learn a terrible secret from her mother." (Libr J)
This novel was "written after Hood's own tragic loss, the death of her young daughter, and it is not hard to imagine the ways in which writing this novel must have been both painful and therapeutic. It is a wondrously simple book about something complicated: the nearly unendurable process of enduring after a great loss. The novel, like knitting, seems to make itself up as it goes along, the threads bound and gathered into a whole. In the end, there is something where there once was nothing." (Washington Post Book World)
Subject(s):   Women/Relation to other women; Knitting; Bereavement; Mothers and daughters; Rhode Island/Providence
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 19 (Nov. 15 2006). Ford, Amy, reviewer [with full text]

 

 

   
Title:   The terror: a novel
Personal Author:   Simmons, Dan
Publisher:   Little, Brown and Co.
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   769
ISBN:   978-0-316-01744-2
0-316-01744-2, $25.99
Abstract:   This historical suspense novel follows the "difficulties of the dwindling remains of Sir John Franklin's failed 1840s mission to find the Northwest Passage. However, in addition to scurvy, frostbite, botulism, snow-blindness, and threats of mutiny, the crews of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus are harried by some enormous Thing out on the ice. The story is told from the viewpoints of several members of the ships' crews, with emphasis on Terror captain Francis Crozier and Erebus surgeon Harry Goodsir." (Libr J)
"A deeply absorbing story that combines awe-inspiring myth, grinding horror and historically accurate adventure." (Seattle Times)
Subject(s):   Arctic regions; Survival (after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.); Horror stories; Adventure; Inuit; Shipmasters; Crozier, Francis, 1796-1848; Franklin, John Sir, 1786-1847/Fiction
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 6 (Nov. 15 2006). Green, Roland, reviewer
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 112 no. 11 (Mar. 18 2007). Rafferty, Terrence, reviewer [with excerpt]

 

 

   
Title:   Voices from the street
Personal Author:   Dick, Philip K.
Publisher:   Tor Books
Publication Year:   2007
Pages:   301
ISBN:   978-0-7653-1692-9
0-7653-1692-7, $24.95
Abstract:   A heretofore unpublished 1953 work l of social realism. "In many ways, the central figure here, Stuart Hadley, lives the ideal American dream, working as an electronics salesman and married to a beautiful woman in a tony district of 1950s Oakland, California. Like many of Dick's iconoclastic protagonists, however, he is also a dreamer, an idealistic artist, and ultimately a dropout from lockstep social conformism. The novel follows Hadley's descent into depression, madness, and eventual return to sanity. Surprisingly well written for a formative effort, it is a welcome addition to its author's large and brilliant canon." (Booklist)
Note(s):   A Tom Doherty Associates book
Subject(s):   California/Oakland; Sales personnel and selling; Mental depression; Marriage problems; Alienation (Social psychology)
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 7 (Dec. 1 2006). Hays, Carl, reviewer
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 20 (Dec. 2006). Bergstrom, Jenne, reviewer [with full text]

 

 

   
Title:   The boy detective fails
Personal Author:   Meno, Joe
Publisher:   Akashic
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   320
ISBN:   1-933354-10-0 (paperback), $14.95
Abstract:   "In their youth, Billy Argo, his kid sister Caroline, and their friend Fenton solved a series of puzzling crimes with only a cheap detective kit and their imaginations. After Billy goes to college to study criminology, Caroline commits suicide and guilt-ridden Billy attempts it, ending up heavily sedated in a mental hospital. Ten years later, he connects with two other outcast, nerdy sorts to help solve the mysteries going on in their lives and in that of a kleptomaniac widow who is as fragile and traumatized as he is. The one mystery he can't solve is Caroline's death. This is postmodern fiction with a head and a heart, addressing such depressing issues as suicide, death, loneliness, failure, anomie, and guilt with compassion, humor, and even whimsy." (Libr J)
Subject(s):   Detectives, Private; Mentally ill; Brothers and sisters; Psychological novels; Suicide; New Jersey
Review:   Booklist v. 102 no. 21 (July 2006). Seaman, Donna, reviewer
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 14 (Sept. 1 2006). Dwyer, Jim, reviewer
Review:   School Library Journal v. 52 no. 9 (Sept. 2006). Fortin, Thomas, reviewer

 

 

   
Title:   The last of her kind
Personal Author:   Nunez, Sigrid
Publisher:   Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   375
ISBN:   0-374-18381-3, $25
Abstract:   This "portrait of countercultural America in the sixties and seventies opens in 1968, when two girls meet as roommates at Barnard College. Ann is rich and white and wants to be neither, confiding, 'I wish I had been born poor'; Georgette has no illusions about poverty, having just escaped her depressed home town, where 'whole families drank themselves to disgrace.' Georgette finds Ann at once despicable and mesmerizing, and she's stunned--if not entirely surprised--when, years after the end of their friendship, Ann is arrested for killing a cop. In previous works, Nunez has proved herself a master of psychological acuity. Here her ambitions are grander, and the result is a remarkable and disconcerting vision of a troubled time in American history, and of its repercussions for national and individual identity." (New Yorker)
Subject(s):   College students; Women/Relation to other women; Friendship; Radicals and radicalism; Counter culture; Murderers; Psychological novels; Sisters
Review:   New York Times (Late New York Edition) (Jan. 17 2006). Benedict, Elizabeth, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   Ms. v. 16 no. 1 (Wint 2006). Zia, Helen, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 111 no. 6 (Feb. 5 2006). Marshall, Megan, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   Booklist v. 102 no. 9/10 (Jan. 1-15 2006). Huntley, Kristine, reviewer
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 4 (Mar. 1 2006). Bader, Eleanor J., reviewer [with full text]
Review:   The Christian Science Monitor (Eastern edition) v. 98 no. 59 (Feb. 21 2006). Zipp, Yvonne, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   The Antioch Review v. 64 no. 4 (Fall 2006). Miller, Tara, reviewer [with excerpt, full text]
Review:   The New York Review of Books v. 53 no. 8 (May 11 2006). Messud, Claire, reviewer
Review:   Women's Studies Quarterly v. 34 no. 3/4 (Fall/Wint 2006). Day-MacLeod, Deirdre, reviewer

 

 

   
Title:   Night bus
Personal Author:   Rigosi, Giampiero; Goldstein, Ann
Publisher:   Bitter Lemon Press
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   348
ISBN:   1-904738-11-7 (paperback), $14.95
Abstract:   "Francesco is a gambling-addicted bus driver in Bologna, with a thuggish debt collector on his trail; Leila is a smart dame with a great pair of legs, who each night looks for a man to bed, drug, and rob. In perfect noir fashion, the two become uneasy allies, trying to escape a pair of vicious intelligence agents after Leila unknowingly swipes a mysterious document from a victim's apartment. Rigosi somewhat overdoes character quirks--one agent has a condition that leads him to constantly leak tears as he slices apart his victims--but an ever-expanding cast of creeps and criminals keeps the plot accelerating, and he describes the dripping of blood and the angle of a broken neck as lovingly as the preparation of a nice eggplant parmigiana." (New Yorker)
Note(s):   Original Italian edition, 2000
Subject(s):   Italy/Bologna; Crime and criminals; Murder stories; Gambling; Suspense novels
Review:   Booklist v. 102 no. 17 (May 1 2006). Ott, Bill, reviewer

 

 

   
Title:   Farthing
Personal Author:   Walton, Jo
Publisher:   Tor
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   319
ISBN:   0-765-31421-5, $25.95
Abstract:   "In an alternate reality in which a group of English nobles overthrew Winston Churchill and made peace with Adolf Hitler in 1941, a murder is committed at the home of Lord and Lady Eversley, and suspicion falls on David Kahn, the Jewish husband of Lucy Eversley. Only Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard believes that something else might be at work and that the Kahns could, in fact, be victims themselves. . . . An excellent example of alternate history." (Libr J)
Note(s):   A Tom Doherty Associates book
Subject(s):   Police/England; Murder stories; Jews/England; Antisemitism; Conspiracies
Review:   Booklist v. 102 no. 22 (Aug. 2006). Murray, Frieda, reviewer
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 12 (July 2006). Cassada, Jackie, reviewer [with full text]

 

 

   
Title:   The android's dream
Personal Author:   Scalzi, John
Publisher:   Tor
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   396
ISBN:   978-0-765-30941-9
0-765-30941-6, $24.95
Abstract:   "When a human diplomat causes the death of an alien counterpart, the aliens threaten war unless Earth's government can present them with a particular kind of sheep used in their race's coronation ceremony. War hero and superhacker Harry Creek, along with his friend Brian Javna (now an artificial intelligence), tracks down the sheep, only to discover that it is, in fact, Robin Baker, a pet store owner whose DNA contains remnants of sheep genetic material. While Creek and Javna attempt to find a way around their dilemma, other forces are searching for Baker--and they don't care whether she's dead or alive. . . . . A tongue-in-cheek sf adventure that delivers serious action and intrigue as well as clever comedic barbs aimed at diplomatic airs, sf cults, and other foibles of the modern era." (Libr J)
Note(s):   A Tom Doherty Associates book
Subject(s):   Life on other planets; Science fiction; Satire
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 111 no. 52 (Dec. 24 2006). Itzkoff, Dave, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 5 (Nov. 1 2006). Hays, Carl, reviewer

 

 

   
Title:   Crippen: a novel of murder
Personal Author:   Boyne, John
Publisher:   Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   337
ISBN:   978-0-312-34358-3
0-312-34358-2, $24.95
Abstract:   The author "blends fact, fiction, and supposition in a suspenseful tale based on the 1910 transatlantic pursuit of Dr. Hawley Crippen for the murder and brutal dismemberment of his wife, Cora." (Libr J)
"Boyne starts with the basic facts. . . but he has altered the story to suit his dramatic needs and authorial whims. The result of his reinvention is a dark comedy that is supremely readable, always suspenseful, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and, finally, a monumental piece of misogyny. In Boyne's sardonic telling, Cora Crippen was a monster who richly deserved to die, and her longsuffering husband was a man more sinned against than sinning." (Washington Post Book World)
Note(s):   First published 2004 in the United Kingdom
Subject(s):   Murderers; Police/England; Crippen, Hawley Harvey, 1862-1910
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 2 (Feb. 1 2006). Moritz, Susan O., reviewer [with full text]
Review:   Booklist v. 102 no. 14 (Mar. 15 2006). Huntley, Kristine, reviewer

 

 

   
Title:   English, August: an Indian story
Personal Author:   Chatterjee, Upamanyu
Publisher:   New York Review Books
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   326
ISBN:   1-59017-179-9 (paperback), $14.95
Abstract:   "This satiric novel chronicles the reluctant coming of age of a privileged young man who has just entered the prestigious Indian Administrative Service. Posted to a small town deep in the interior, he finds himself a foreigner in his own country, wary of cholera, defenseless against mosquitoes, and shocked by the sight of a tribal woman: 'They exist, he shrieked silently, outside arty films about tribal exploitation and agrarian reform.' In revolt, he sneaks out of meetings, pretends to be the son of Antarctic explorers, and smokes copious amounts of pot. He's an avatar of the Western slacker: overeducated, bored, plagued with doubts, and incapable of action. Still, Chatterjee's story is uniquely Indian, as he plumbs his hero's fear of being 'just one more urban Indian bewitched by America's hard sell in the Third World.'" (New Yorker)
Note(s):   First published 1988 in India
Series:   New York Review Books classics
Subject(s):   India/1947-; Satire
Review:   The New York Times Book Review v. 111 no. 27 (July 2 2006). Kapur, Akash, reviewer [with excerpt]
Review:   Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 6 (Apr. 1 2006). Chadwell, Faye A., reviewer [with full text]
Review:   American Book Review v. 28 no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 2006). King, Bruce, reviewer [with excerpt, full text]

 

 

   
Title:   Twilight: a novel
Personal Author:   Gay, William
Publisher:   MacAdam/Cage
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   224
ISBN:   978-1-59692-058-3
1-59692-058-0, $25
Abstract:   A "story set in rural Tennessee in 1951. Teenage Kenneth Tyler is on the run from Granville Sutter, a monstrously evil but wickedly efficient hit man who has been hired to retrieve some incriminating photos the boy has stolen from the local mortician, who has a penchant for doing unspeakable things to and with the corpses in his professional care." (Booklist)
The "absence of a soothing depth--of motive, reasons, understanding--is one of the great achievements of the novel. It sets up a central tension for the reader, who deaires to know more, while the writer resolutely adheres to the truth of his universe--that such comforts aren't available and that the quiverings of the individual consciousness aren't substantial enough in the face of life's darkly malevolent forces." (Paste)
Subject(s):   Undertakers and undertaking; Good and evil; Adolescence; Hired killers; Sexual perversion; Eccentrics and eccentricities; Brothers and sisters
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 3 (Oct. 1 2006). Cart, Michael, reviewer

 

 
Title:   Winter's bone: a novel
Personal Author:   Woodrell, Daniel
Publisher:   Little, Brown and Co.
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   193
ISBN:   0-316-05755-X, $22.95
Abstract:   "Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly has a plan. She's going to join the army as soon as she can free herself from her complicated family obligations. Unfortunately, her father, part of a large extended Dolly family crystal meth enterprise, is missing. Her mother's mind is gone, and two little brothers worship at Ree's feet. Ree gets word that her father has skipped bail; if he doesn't meet his court date, the family loses its home, and there's nowhere to go. Ree begins a journey through the savage poverty of a brutally cold Ozarks winter to deliver her father before his court date." (Libr J)
"Like his characters, and especially his teen characters, Woodrell's prose mixes tough and tender so thoroughly yet so delicately that we never taste even a hint of false bravado, on the one hand, or sentimentality, on the other. And Ree is one of those heroines whose courage and vulnerability are both irresistible and completely believable--think of not just Mattie Ross in True Grit but also Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or even Eliza Naumann in Bee Season. One runs out of superlatives to describe Woodrell's fiction." (Booklist)
Subject(s):   Adolescence; Girls; Fugitives; Fathers and daughters; Drug traffic; Mountain life; Brothers and sisters; Ozark Mountains region

 

 

Title:   Dark Mondays: stories
Personal Author:   Baker, Kage
Publisher:   Night Shade Books
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   231
ISBN:   1-59780-051-1, $26.95
    Link to Book Part(s)
Abstract:   In this collection, the "supernatural matter-of-factly touches the shabby lives of people in small, isolated towns, providing resolution and revelation. . . . In "The Maid on the Shore," a sprawling novella set in the 17th-century West Indies, English pirates are helped to bloody victory against the Spanish by a beautiful girl who embodies the fury of war. Though Baker's uncanny plot-turns often feel inorganic to her stories, she grapples vigorously with moral and philosophical conundrums." (Publ Wkly)
Contents Note:   In addition to the novella The maid on the shore, this collection contains the following short stories: The two old women; Portrait with flames; Monkey Day; Calamari Curls; Katherine's story; Oh, false young man!; So this guy walks into a lighthouse; Silent Leonardo
Subject(s):   Short stories; Fantasies; Supernatural phenomena

 

 

Title:   Mineral spirits: a novel
Personal Author:   Sharfeddin, Heather
Publisher:   Bridge Works
Publication Year:   2006
Pages:   250
ISBN:   978-1-882593-98-9
1-882593-98-7, $21.95
Abstract:   "Freshly elected as the sheriff in a one-lawman town in Montana, Kip Edelson is immediately put to task when 10-year-old Gray Dausman discovers a rotting corpse down by the river. As Edelson attempts to discern the identity of the victim, he becomes increasingly convinced that it is none other than the boy's missing mother, and he reluctantly takes Gray under his wing even as his own marriage evaporates before him. When Edelson stumbles upon an illicit drug ring involving the local tavern owner and various other shady locals, the identity of the corpse takes on a new, unexpected significance." (Booklist)
The author "blends Western and mystery genres into a fine, heady concoction." (Libr J)
Subject(s):   Sheriffs; Boys; Montana; Murder stories; Western stories
Review:   Booklist v. 103 no. 3 (Oct. 1 2006). Chipman, Ian, reviewer

 

 

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