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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Booklists
Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Booklists and Suggested Reading
Overbooked Booklist: Dog Stars
Page Modified: August 19, 2008
Fiction
(all genres) & Nonfiction about some of our best friends. Overbooked calmly and assertively states that these are good reads...
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
Fiction
- Timbuktu
Author: Auster, Paul
Publisher: Henry Holt List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0805054073 Date: 1999
PW
Mr. Bones, the canine hero of Auster's remarkable new novel, is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, the brilliant, troubled, and altogether original poet-saint from Brooklyn. Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, they sally forth on a last great adventure in search of Willy's high school teacher and mentor.
Suggested Reading: Poets - Lives of the Monster Dogs
Bakis, Kirsten
Publisher: Farrar Strasu & Giroux List Price: $23 ISBN: 0374189870 Date: 1997
Publishers Weekly LJ
NYTBR Editor's Choice - Gone to the Dogs
Author: Carmichael, Emily
Publisher: Bantam $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0553586335 Date: 2004
Booklist
Miss Piggy, the femme fatale reincarnated as a Welsh corgi, is back in this first title of a new trilogy. Piggy must determine if her owner's suitor wants romance or the $12 million Piggy has just inherited.
Updated 11.25.03 - Apologizing to Dogs
Author: Coomer, Joe
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0684859467 Date: 1999
PW
Heartwarming, hilarious, and utterly human, this book tells the tale of a group of eccentric antique dealers, who must face the task of cleaning up the mess they're in, after a violent storm strikes, wreaking havoc as well as causing fire, a heart attack, and grand theft. - Sight Hound
Author: Houston, Pam
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393058174 Date: 2004
PW LJ
From the bestselling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness comes a very special love story between a woman and her dog, a wolfhound who teaches "his human" that love is stronger than fear.
Updated 1.23.05 - Wild Dogs
Author: Humphreys, Helen
Publisher: Norton $ 22.95 ISBN: 0393060152 Date: 2005
Kirkus
As she falls in love with the wildlife biologist whose wolf leads a pack of feral dogs, Alice feels the tug between love's wild power and her desire to domesticate it. From the author of The Lost Garden, Wild Dogs strips away the conventions of love and passion to reveal deeper, richer truths.
Updated 1.29.05 - The Darkest Evening of the Year
Author: Koontz, Dean R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 9780553804829 Date: 2007
Booklist PW
Koontz delivers suspense for all seasons with a transcendent thriller--a heart-gripping tour de force featuring a dedicated dog rescuer, a very special golden retriever she saves, and the murderous adversaries they must face together.
Updated 10.31.07
- Dogs of Babel
Author: Pankhurst, Carolyn
Publisher: Little Brown $ 21.95 ISBN: 0316168688 Date: 2003
Library Journal
Booklist
A poignant and beautiful debut novel explores a man's quest to unravel the mystery of his wife's death with the help of the only witness--their Rhodesian ridgeback, Lorelei.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | New Orleans
Updated 5.14.03 - Lapham Rising
Author: Rosenblatt, Roger
Publisher: Ecco $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060833610 Date: 2006
PW
LJ
A recluse living on his own island in a creek across from the relentlessly noisy construction of a house belonging to a millionaire, reveals his life: his elaborate plot against the millionaire, the various odd visitors to his island, and his talking dog.
Updated 10.31.05 - Play Dead
Author: Rosenfelt, David
Publisher: Warner $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780446582414 Date: 2007
PWLJBooklist
Edgar Award finalist and "Today" show Book Club pick author David Rosenfelt spins a tale of crime and courtroom theatrics where the only witness to a high-profile murder is a golden retriever.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.17.07 - The Last Days of the Dog-Men: Stories
Author: Watson, Brad
Publisher: Norton $ 19 ISBN: 0393039269 Date: 1996
PW
Watson, in precise and beautiful prose, writes about people and dogs--dogs as companions, as accomplices, and as unwitting victims of human passions--and people responding to dogs as missing parts or reflections of themselves. In each of these stories he captures the animal crannies of the human personality--yearning for freedom and mourning the loss of something wild.
Updated 5.29.08
- Dog Eat Dog by Jerry Jay Carroll
- Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight
- Rover's Tales by Michael Z. Lewin
- Nop's Trials by Donald McCaig
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
- Lad: A Dog by Albert Terhune
Crime Fiction Canines
- Carol Lea Benjamin
- Laurien Berenson - Melanie Travis series
- Susan Conant
Nonfiction
- Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had
by Bass, Rick
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 22 ISBN: 0395926181 Date: 2000
PW
Colter is an interspecies love story that vividly captures the relationship between humans and dogs and along the way explores a man's childhood fascination with snapping turtles and dirt, and of the other animals - including people - that have shaped his life. - Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior,
and Evolution
by Coppinger, Raymond
Publisher: Scribner $ 26 ISBN: 0684855305 Date: 2001
PW
LJ
The Coppingers explore how dog breeds have evolved into their unique shapes and behaviors. Concentrating on five types of dogs--modern household dogs, village dogs, livestock guarding dogs, sled dogs, and herding dogs--they examine canine companions from a unique biological viewpoint.
Suggested Reading: Nature - Dog Years
Author: Doty, Mark
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780061171000 Date: 2007
LJ Kirkus PW
Both moving and entertaining, Dog Years is the story of two beloved retrievers and is a pointed, perceptive meditation on life, death, and the nature of companionship.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Dog Stars
Updated 3.15.07 - Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm
Author: Katz, Jon
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 9781400064045 Date: 2007
Booklist
In five memorable books, readers have followed Katzs transformation from a suburban New Jersey dog owner to squire of Bedlam Farm. In his latest book, Katz chronicles the experience of life with animals--what they teach us, and what they bring out in us.
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars
Updated 6.28.07
- Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
Author: Kerasote, Ted
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 9780151012701 Date: 2007
Booklist LJ
While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote met a dog— a Labrador mix— who was living on his own in the wild. They became attached to each other, and Kerasote decided to name the dog Merle and bring him home. There, he realized that Merle’ s native intelligence would be diminished by living exclusively in the human world. He put a dog door in his house so Merle could live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle’ s Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine, bringing to bear the latest research into animal consciousness and behavior as well as insights into the origins and evolution of the human-dog partnership. Merle showed Kerasote how dogs might live if they were allowed to make more of their own decisions, and Kerasote suggests how these lessons can be applied universally. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars
Updated 7.11.07
- Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs
by Caroline Knapp
Publisher: Dial ISBN: 0385316984 $21.95 Date: 1998
PW
Knapp, the author of the acclaimed Drinking: A Love Story, tells the tale of her relationship Lucille, a mixed breed dog. - My Life with George: What I Learned About Joy from One Neurotic (and Very Expensive) Dog
Author: Summers, Judith
Publisher: Voice $ 23.95 ISBN: 9781401322441 Date: 2008
LJ
This is the hilarious and moving account of the impossible but adorable King Charles Spaniel George, of his adventures and misdemeanors, and of the wonderful way in which he filled a huge void in the lives of Summers and her son while driving them absolutely barking mad along the way.
Updated 5.29.08 - The Social Lives of Dogs: The Grace of Canine Company
by Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0684810263 Date: 2000
PW
From the celebrated anthropologist and bestselling author comes a uniquely frank and enlightening sequel to The Hidden Life of Dogs that explores how our favorite pets adapt for life with their human owners. "A beautiful sequel . . . brimming with new insights". --Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Dogs Never Lie About Love.
- The Difficulty of Being a Dog by Roger Greiner
- Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan
- James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories by James Herriot
- From Baghdad , with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava by Jay Kopelman
- Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
- My Dog Skip by Willie Morris
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
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