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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books 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).
The review journal assigns the star.
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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 . . .
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Starred Reviews
All Stars 2005 - Nonfiction
September 9, 2008
Nonfiction
titles which received three or more starred reviews (indicating
a work of unusual merit) from the
following review sources: Booklist
(BL), Publisher's
Weekly (PW), Kirkus,
and Library Journal (LJ).
- Epileptic
Author: B., David
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423184 Date: 2005
PW Kirkus Booklist
With stunning black-and-white illustrations, a noted cartoonist chronicles growing up with an epileptic older brother. The author charts his complicated relationship with his brother from childhood to adulthood, and the effects of the illness on the entire family.
Updated 12.25.04 - My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations
Author: Berry, Mary Frances
Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 1400040035 Date: 2005
LJ PW Booklist
Born into slavery, Callie House started the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief Fund, Bounty and Pension Association, which sought African American pensions based on those offered Union Soldiers. Persecuted for her ideas, she was jailed by the U.S. government.
Suggested Reading: Women's History Stars
Updated 9.17.05 - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Author: Bird, Kai
Publisher: Knopf $ 35 ISBN: 0375412026 Date: 2005
PW Kirkus Booklist
American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America in mid-century and a compelling portrait of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a man shaped by, or helped to shape, its major events--the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.
Suggested Reading: Atomic Age Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America
Author: Bordewich, Fergus
Publisher: Amistad $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060524308 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW LJ
An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired political movement for change: the Underground Railroad, a movement peopled by daring heroes and heroines, and everyday folk
Updated 2.7.05 - A Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom
Author: Cathcart, Brian
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374157162 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW Booklist
Re-creating the frustrations, excitements, and obsessions of 1932, the "miracle year" of British physics, Cathcart reveals in rich detail the astonishing story behind the splitting of the atom in a riveting and erudite narrative.
Updated 11.4.04 - Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic
Author: Cone, Marla
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 080211797x Date: 2005
PW LJ Booklist
The Arctic is home to some of the most contaminated people and animals on the planet. Cone reports on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultures are adapting to this pollution, and what will prevent the crisis from getting worse.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 4.22.05 - The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal
Author: Croke, Vicki
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375507833 Date: 2005
PW Booklist LJ
"Boston Globe" columnist Croke reveals the true story of Ruth Harkness, a bohemian socialite and dress designer who in 1936 took over her dead husband's expedition into Tibet to capture the first live giant panda.
Suggested Reading: Tibet | Women's History
Updated 7.12.05 - Meville: His World and Work
Author: Delbanco, Andrew
Publisher: Knopf $ 30 ISBN: 0375403140 Date: 2005
Kirkus LJ Booklist
Delbanco traces Melville's growth from bawdy storyteller through the spiritual preoccupations building up to Moby-Dick, and the profound disillusionment of later works as he charts a life that left little evidence in its wake.
Suggested Reading: Authors - Nonfiction Stars
Updated 9.17.05 - The Year of Magical Thinking
Author: Didion, Joan
Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 140004314x Date: 2005
PW Booklist LJ
"The author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and 11 other works chronicles the year following the death of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, while the couple's only daughter, Quintana, lay unconscious in a nearby hospital suffering from pneumonia and septic shock."--"Publishers Weekly."
Updated 9.17.05 - My Friend Leonard
Author: Frey, James
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573223158 Date: 2005
PW Kirkus Booklist
From the author of the bestselling A Million Little Pieces comes the story of his friendship with a highly unorthodox father figure, the high-living, recovering coke addict, "West Coast Director of a large Italian-American finance firm" (read: mobster).
Updated 4.25.05 - Them: A Memoir of Parents
Author: Gray, Francine Du Plessix
Publisher: Penguin $ 29.95 ISBN: 1594200491 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW Booklist
The much-acclaimed biographer gives an unflinchingly honest, wise, and forgiving portrait of her own famous parents, two wildly talented Russian migrs who fled wartime Paris to become one of New York's first and grandest "power couples."
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke
Author: Gurlanick, Peter
Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316377945Date: 2005
Kirkus PW Booklist
The author of Careless Love and Last Train to Memphis returns with his most powerful book ever--a revealing portrait of one of America's greatest musical artists, Sam Cooke.
Suggested Reading: Music - Nonfiction Stars
Updated 9.17.05 - Bury the Chains: Prophets, Slaves, And Rebels in the First Human Rights Crusade
Author: Hochschild, Adam
Publisher: Houghton $ 26.95 ISBN: 0618104690 Date: 2005
Kirkus LJ PW
Like the author's classic King Leopold's Ghost, this new work abounds in atmosphere, high drama, and nuanced portraits of epic anti-slavery crusaders, heroes, and villains in Britain.
Updated 1.3.05 - The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad
Author: Horn, Stacy
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034193 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW LJ
Following four cold cases from inception to resolution, Horn depicts the world of the victims and their murderers, along with the scientific advancements that don't always yield hoped for answers, and the harrowing politics and tangled history of the NYPD and its cold case unit.
Suggested Reading: True Crime Stars
Updated 6.29.05 - Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
Author: Kluger, Jeffrey
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 158567592x Date: 2005
Booklist LJ PW
Kluger reveals the thrilling story of Jonas Salk's quest to conquer polio in this medical adventure full of rivalries and last minute reversals that culminated in one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century.
Suggested Reading: Medical Nonfiction
Updated 2.15.05 - 1776
Author: McCullough, David
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 32 ISBN: 0743226712 Date: 2005
Booklist PW Kirkus LJ
Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Truman and John Adams, McCullough returns with the story of the Revolutionary War--a book certain to be another landmark in the literature of American history.
Suggested Reading: 1776 Stars
Updated 4.5.05 - The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism
Author: Marshall, Megan
Publisher: Houghton $ 28 ISBN: 0395389925 Date: 2005
PW Booklist LJ
Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody were in many ways the "American Brontes." The story of these remarkable sisters--and their central role in shaping the thinking of their day--is told in Marshall's monumental biography.
Suggested Reading: Women's History
Updated 4.7.05 - Tender Bar: A Memoir
Author: Moehringer, J.R.
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300642 Date: 2005
Kirkus Booklist LJ
The author's vivid memoir about a boy striving to become a man, and his romance with a grand old New York saloon that was sanctuary for all types of men--cops and poets, actors and lawyers, gamblers and stumblebums--is told with heart, drama, and exquisite comic timing.
Suggested Reading: Drink Up Stars | Memoirs
Updated 9.17.05 - Two Lives
Author: Seth, Vikram
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060599669 Date: 2005
PW Booklist Kirkus LJ
This captivating new book--the story of a century and of a love affair across a racial divide--from the author of A Suitable Boy is the memoir of the marriage of the author's great uncle and aunt.
Updated 11.23.05 - Mark Twain: A Life:
Author: Powers, Ron
Publisher: Free $ 35 ISBN: 0743248996 Date: 2005
PW Booklist LJ
In the most important narrative biography of Samuel Langhorne Clemens in half a century, a Pulitzer-Prize winner brings to life the astonishing man behind one of America's most famous sons.
Suggested Reading: Twain
Updated 8.24.05 - Still Looking: Essays on American Art
Author: Updike, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 40 ISBN: 1400044189 Date: 2005
Kirkus Booklist LJ
John Updike, moonlighting as art critic, now gathers together in this richly illustrated book 18 of his remarkable pieces, all dealing with American art.
Updated 11.1.05 - Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima
Author: Walker, Stephen
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060742844 Date: 2005
Kirkus PW Booklist
British filmmaker and documentary director Stephen Walker tells the story of the bombing of Hiroshima in a new and dramatic way: a minute-by-minute account told from multiple perspectives, including American soldiers, Los Alamos scientists, and Japanese survivors.
Suggested Reading: Atomic Age Stars
Updated 5.25.05 - The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Author: Walls, Jeannette
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743247531 Date: 2005
PW Kirkus Booklist
In the tradition of Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shouting, Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family.
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Drink Up
Updated 2.15.05 - Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent's Natural Soul
Author: Weidensaul, Scott
Publisher: North Point $ 25 ISBN: 0865476888 Date: 2005
PW LJ Booklist
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wild America, naturalist Scott Weidensaul retraces Roger Tory Peterson's and James Fisher's steps to tell the story of wild America today.
Suggested Reading: Nature Stars
Updated 10.31.05
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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