Don't Miss Lists and Other Reading Resources

MEET THE AUTHOR: Debut Authors 2008

Allen, Sarah Addison. Garden Spells.
In this fairy tale-like story, set in North Carolina, two half-sisters with unusual talents become reacquainted after a ten-year separation.

Campbell, Gordon. Missing Witness.
When a wealthy rancher is murdered in his home, his wife and emotionally disturbed daughter are the suspects; recent law-school grad Doug McKenzie takes the job.

Carrell, Jennifer Lee. Interred with Their Bones.
Compared to The Da Vinci Code, this thriller involves a chase from London to Utah in search of a long-lost Shakespeare manuscript.

Clarke, Brock. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England.
A man who served time in prison after accidentally setting fire to Emily Dickinson's house seems to lead a normal life once he's released, until fires start breaking out at the homes of other nearby writers.

Clinch, Jon. Finn: A Novel.
Inspired by Mark Twain's novel, Huckleberry Finn, this story creates a history for Huckleberry's father, a violent, racist, drunkard.

Dean, Margaret Lazarus. The Time It Takes to Fall.
In this novel that involves the NASA space shuttle program in the 1980s, 12-year-old Dolores dreams of becoming an astronaut until her family falls apart when her dad, a NASA technician, loses his job.

Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
This is the complex story of several generations of a Dominican-American family, particularly focusing on events during the regime of dictator, Rafael Trujillo.

Dolnick, Ben. Zoology: A Novel.
After flunking out of college in Chevy Chase, MD, Henry joins his brother in New York City where he finds a job as an animal keeper at the Central Park Children’s Zoo.

Doyle, Larry. I Love You, Beth Cooper.
Geekazoid Denis Cooverman declares his love for way-cooler Beth during his high school graduation valedictorian speech, and discovers later that’s she’s interested.

Eck, Matthew. The Farther Shore.
When 3 men from a U.S. Army unit is stranded in a city somewhere in East Africa, they escape the city and try to make their way to the sea in this novel by a veteran of the Somalia conflict.

Ferris, Joshua. Then We Came to the End: A Novel.
Copywriters and designers face layoffs at their Chicago ad firm at the end of the ‘90s boom, and all manner of downward-spiraling behavior ensues.

Forbes, Elena. Die with Me.
After a young woman falls to her death from the balcony of a London church, Detective Tartaglia chases a suspect who lures lonely, depressed women into suicide pacts and then kills them instead.

Ganek, Danielle. Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him.
Mia, a blocked painter and an assistant in a Soho art gallery, helps launch a show by a talented artist who dies in an accident on the night of his opening.

Horan, Nancy. Loving Frank.
This novel is based on the life of Mamah Cheney, a feminist and intellectual who scandalized Oak Park, Illinois society by leaving her husband and children in order to live with the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Kagen, Lesley. Whistling in the Dark.
In Milwaukee, in 1959, 10-year-old Sally fears the local child predator – the neighborhood cop – has targeted her and her little sister.

Khakpour, Porochista. Sons and Other Flammable Objects.
Iranian-American Xerxes Adam and his family, who fled revolutionary Iran for California, get caught up in post-9/11 paranoia as they attempt to make the United States their home.

Kiernan, Kristy. Catching Genius.
Two sisters drift apart after it’s discovered that one of them is a child genius; years later they come together to sell their childhood home, and learn to make amends.

King, Rachael. The Sound of Butterflies.
Amateur naturalist Thomas Edgar leaves his wife, Sophie, behind, and sets off from turn-of-the-20th-century England for Brazil and the Amazon River in search of an elusive butterfly, returning months later ill, disturbed and unable to speak.

Kingman, Peg. Not Yet Drown'd.
In Edinburgh in 1822, a young widow about to lose her husband’s daughter too, receives a package from her supposedly drowned twin brother, compelling her to travel, with her daughter, to India, to solve the mystery and find her brother.

Lecard, Marc. Vinnie's Head.
Smalltime Long Island crook Johnnie LoDuco, accused for a crime he didn’t commit, discovers the head of his con-artist, best friend, Vinnie, while fishing, and ends up on the run from crooked cops, mobsters and bounty-hunters.

Litman, Ellen. The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories.
Litman has written a series of interconnected stories concerning a group of Russian immigrants in Pittsburgh depicting the loneliness, isolation and loss of community they endure.

Loomis, Jon. High Season.
Ex-Baltimore cop returns home to Provincetown, MA, to avoid memories of a horrific murder, but is soon involved in investigating the local murder of a television evangelist.

Lutz, Lisa. The Spellman Files.
Izzy Spellman tires of the family business – they’re all private investigators who even spy on each other – and is allowed to leave the business once she solves a cold case involving a missing teenager.

McDonald, Craig. Head Games.
It’s 1957 and larger-than-life Hector Mason Lassiter, who bedded Marlene Dietrich and befriended Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett and Orson Welles, somehow gets his hands on Pancho Villa’s head and takes on the challenge to deliver it to Prescott Bush (#43’s grandfather) for the Skull and Bones Society in this fun caper novel.

McGinniss, Joe, Jr. The Delivery Man.
After failing at NYU, Chase returns to Las Vegas and gets set up as the driver for the teenage call-girl service run by his childhood friend, Michelle; a lost generation set in glitzy Las Vegas.

Mengestu, Dinaw. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears.
Sepha, who fled to Washington, DC, from the Ethiopian Red Terror, runs a grocery store in a poor neighborhood with only 2 fellow immigrant friends, until Judith and Naomi move in nearby and befriend him.

Nikitas, Derek. Pyres.
Goth teen Lucia Luc Moberg witnesses her professor dad being shot to death outside a New York mall, a situation that sets off a chain of events that tears apart her family and the community.

Pancake, Ann. Strange As This Weather Has Been.
West Virginia’s coal mines have stripped the land in the mountain hollows causing devastating floods and environmental disasters. Lace and her family take on the coal companies. A book about people and their connection to the land.

Phillips, Marie. Gods Behaving Badly.
The Greek gods and goddesses are living together in modern-day London and are, well, behaving badly, barely making a living and losing their powers.

Romano-Lax, Andromeda. The Spanish Bow.
This epic story of Feliu Delargo, is about an underprivileged child prodigy, who travels from Cuba to Spain around the time of the Spanish-American War, to become a world-renowned cellist.

Rothfuss, Patrick. The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One.
The first book of a planned trilogy in which a young man, from his childhood as an orphan in a crime-ridden city to his life in a troupe of traveling players, grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen.

Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz.
In this novel set in Tehran after the Iranian Revolution, a Jewish businessman is wrongfully imprisoned, charged with being a Zionist spy; meanwhile, his family in Iran tries to find him, and his son, a student in New York, tries to cope when money and information from home dry up.

Taylor, Katherine. Rules for Saying Goodbye.
Too big for Fresno at 13, Katherine is sent to a New England prep school, but she ends up as a cocktail waitress in Manhattan.

Vigorito, Tony. Just a Couple of Days.
In this humorous, apocalyptic novel, the origins of a disastrous virus is traced back to the moment sociology professor Blip Korterly writes "Uh-oh" across a bridge.

Wilson, C.L. Lord of the Fading Lands.
A thousand years ago, King Rain Tairen Soul destroyed his kingdom to avenge the death of his love Sariel. Now his people are dwindling in numbers and his journey to Celeria to remedy the situation brings him a new love.

Wood, Patricia. Lottery.
Perry Crandall (IQ 76) narrates his life after the death of his Gran, who raised him after his parents abandoned him. When he wins a $12 million lottery, his avaricious family schemes to appropriate his prize.