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May/June
2003 Book Sense 76 Picks
Unique and provocative selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally recommended by the independent booksellers of America.
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| The Top Ten Vote Getters |
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 Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
by Paul Collins
"Alternately cuddly and curmudgeonly, Collins takes us on a picaresque tour
of Hay-on-Wye, the celebrated "Town of Books" on the Welsh border. He
indulges in discourses and inspired rants on books, bookselling, writing, and
myriad differences between Britain and America, and he's always entertaining."
-- Joe Pilla, Paperbacks Plus, Bronx, NY
 A Kiss from Maddalena
by Christopher Castellani
"This is a touching story of love and war. Castellani's description of the small Italian towns makes me want to go there even more. The story brings the reader into the lives of those just trying to survive the war, and illustrates how hard it was not knowing what was happening to their loved ones. Can Vito and Maddalena's love overcome war and tradition? It will keep you guessing until the end." -- Dina Matson, Book Garden, Lake City, MN
 Getting Mother's Body
by Suzan-Lori Parks
"Getting Mother's Body has at its center the wild and beautiful Willa
Mae Beede. Her dying wish was to be buried with her big diamond ring and her long
string of pearls, and, now that the ground where Willa Mae rests is about to be
turned into a supermarket, a whole gaggle of family members, and others, are making
the journey to Arizona to dig her up and claim the jewels as their own. The novel
is told from the points of view of nearly a dozen characters, each as quirky as
you'd want them to be." -- Linda Urban, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena,
CA
 Crescent
by Diana Abu-Jaber
"Combining the mystery and exoticism of The
God of Small Things
with the poetic nuance of Garcia
Marquez, Crescent is delicately sensuous and gripping from beginning
to end. It's a multidimensional love story infused with the aromatic scents of
the Middle East. This is a novel that will please even those who don't think they
like love stories. There is a rare sense of effervescence about the writing --
Abu-Jaber's prose is exquisite." -- Steven Fidel, Powell's City of Books,
Portland, OR
 Fatal Flaw
by William Lashner
"This book grabs you from the very first page. Suspenseful to the end --
a real page-turner! I am recommending this to everyone who enjoys Grisham,
Meltzer,
or Coben.
I know that my customers will enjoy this book as much as I did." -- Lee
Musgjerd, Lee's Book Emporium, Glasgow, MT
 The
True Account
by Howard Frank Mosher
"Mosher's very American tall tale chronicles the quixotic adventurer True
Teague Kinneson's epic race to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific. Full of flamboyant
characters and outrageous deeds, The True Account honors Cervantes
and Twain
in spirit and style, minting a fresh folk hero from the vein that produced Paul
Bunyan and Pecos Bill. The True Account is humorous, heroic, and expansive
of horizon and heart." -- Jean Matthews, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton,
MT
 No Second Chance
by Harlan Coben
"I thought I could read just a chapter or two before bed, but, no, I stayed up all night to finish the book. How does he do it? As always, his book is gripping and smart." -- Elizabeth Cook, Emerson and Cook Book Co., Old Saybrook, CT
 Signal
& Noise
by John Griesemer
"This is a good, dense historical novel with extraordinary characters. The laying of the transatlantic cable in the 1850s and 1860s provides an interesting story, which is only part of the pleasure of reading this book. There's a lot going on and Griesemer is a terrific writer to tell the story." -- Susan Porter, Maine Coast Book Shop, Damariscotta, ME
 Eat Cake
by Jeanne Ray
"Eat Cake presents, with warmth and clarity, a snapshot of you and
your neighbors -- lives pulled between elderly parents and sullen teens, bills,
and midlife searching. You will laugh out loud, and you'll pass this book on to
everyone you know in this same boat. The "cake" Ray whips up is warm,
and a comfort food for what ails us!" -- Jenn Fontaine, Book Rack and
Children's Pages, Essex Junction, VT
 Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane
"Lehane follows up his break-through novel, Mystic
River, with his first work set completely in the past. It is 1954, and
two U.S. marshals are summoned to Ashcliffe Hospital on Shutter Island to track
down an escaped patient. The deeper the investigation moves, the more horrific
the revelations about the nature of treatments at Ashcliffe. A frightening window
on the darkness always threatening to seep from the human soul." --
Todd Morgan, DIESEL, A Bookstore, Oakland, CA
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