International Thriller Writers, Inc Awards

2006 is the first year this fledgling organization of International Thriller Writers bestow awards to honor the best of the best among them.

The stellar membership includes such names as Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Alex Kava, David Liss, along with the usual suspects of Dale Brown, Janet Evanovich, Tess Gerritsen, David Baldacci, and the like.

2006 BEST NOVEL
THE PATRIOTS CLUB by Christopher Reich

2006 BEST FIRST NOVEL
IMPROBABLE by Adam Fawer

2006 BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
PRIDE RUNS DEEP by R. Cameron Cooke

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Reyna Grande’s debut novel Across a Hundred Mountains is a stunning and poignant story of migration, loss and discovery.

Under desperate circumstances in a Tijuana jail, young Juana Garcia and teenage prostitute Adelina Vasquez met and their heartbreaking stories intertwined in the novel's alternating chapters, and re-crossed years later in the most unexpected ways. Starred review in Publishers Weekly.

A 2003 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow, Grande was born in Guerrero, Mexico. With an insider’s perspective, she puts a human face on one of the most controversial issues of our time – Mexican immigration to the United States. A writer to watch, she is currently at work on her second novel.

If you're just starting college, thinking about it or looking back, you might find these novels about college life entertaining if not totally realistic.

In Making Stuff Up, by Bill James, passions and rivalries erupt in a creative writing class. The president of the college tries to smooth things over while struggling to keep the college afloat.

Blue Angel by Francine Prose is a hilarious and cynical portrayal of college life, especially writers and English departments. She satirizes the pervasive feminist interpretation of literature by the women's studies teachers and empathizes with the disillusioned creative writing instructors who are resigned to reading some awful student work.

Elinor Lipman has also presented a farcical account of college life in her newest novel, My Latest Grievance, the story of Frederica Hatch, the precocious daughter of two activist professors who are also dorm parents at a small New England women's college.`

Playwright and actress Pamela Gien was commissioned by Random House to turn her 2001 Obie-Award for Best Play The Syringa Tree into a novel.

Set in her homeland of South Africa during the turbulent 1960s, Gien tells the story of 6 year-old Lizzie, a child of privilege, her Xhosa nanny, Salamina, and their fierce devotion to each other. As the meaning of apartheid unfolds, Lizzie takes her worries to sit in the welcoming arms of the large lilac-blooming syringa tree in her backyard, trying to make sense of the violence, the injustice and racism amidst the intoxicating beauty of the land.

Moving and illuminating, it will interest readers of social issues and modern history.

Call 327-8301 to register for the September 11 book group and receive a free copy of Next Door Lived a Girl by Stefan Kiesbye. Read the book and meet on the 11th from 6:30-8 p.m. in the 4th floor conference room of the Downtown Library. Refreshments will be served. Meet the author, Stefan Kiesbye, 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 12 at the 2nd Tuesday presentation in the 4th Floor Board Room of the Downtown Library.

NOTE: This is the first in a series of monthly author events and related book discussions. You can receive Community Resource credits from the Ann Arbor Public Schools for participating – contact Jeff Kass at jeff@neutral-zone.org for more details.

If you are still waiting for Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, rest assured that the wait is well worth it.

In the meantime, there is Renee Dodd's A Cabinet of Wonders. There are many similarities between these two Fabulous Fiction Firsts - they are well researched, engrossing in the storytelling, and chock-full of realistic, behind-the-scenes details of the little known world of circuses and traveling carnival shows.

Set in the Depression, they both paint a vivid portrait, with emotional authenticity, of the lives, dreams and relationships of the performers and personalities, as well as their struggles to stay together for what might very well be, one last season.

Starred Kirkus review praises A Cabinet of Wonders as "...a rare treat: a diverting and insightful piece of quirky fiction".

Did you know that:
The number of women-only tour operators has increased 230% in the past decade?
Of all nature, adventure or cultural trips travelers, 75% are women?
The average adventure traveler is not a 28-year old male, but a size-12, 47-year-old female? More women travel statistics

Maybe that’s why the U.S. State Dept. feels the need to put out Tips for Women Traveling Alone and prompted website such as SERIOUS SAFETY TIPS FOR WOMEN to advise solo women travelers of the “power in vocal embarrassment", and to practice screaming before you leave home!

Not that Thelma and Louise would heel any of these - they were in for the thrills, the risks, and the possibilities of the open road, and in turn, have inspired a whole new fiction genre. Here are just a few:

Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish. From Sonoma to Manhattan, 5 women carry Annie Freedman’s ashes inside a pair of red sneakers to the special places in her life and try to unravel the secret she left them.

Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair. Set in contemporary India – 45 and single, an income-tax clerk weighted down by a demanding family, buys a one-way ticket on the all-women sleeping car bound for a resort town.

Lady Luck's Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel. A snazzy Thunderbird, Route 66, some mother-daughter bonding and a few saucy secrets.

Loop Group by Larry McMurtry. Needing a change of scenery from their complicated lives in Tinsel Town, two women of a certain age take a fun and sex-obsessed road trip through Texas. Hey, let's be careful out there.

You might as well hear about it here, no doubt you will be hearing a lot about this book.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters was THE buzz among librarians and booksellers at the American Library Association annual conference. Some of us stood in line with a coupon in hand, just to pick up a preview copy. The reviews for this debut novel thus far have been mixed but the storyline is intriguingly complex, and the telling mesmerizing.

Miss Celeste Temple travels from her tropical island home to Victorian London in search of her fiance after receiving a cryptic message from him breaking their engagement. This 768-page doorstopper is part adventure, part fantasy, part mystery, part romance, but 100% entertainment. It should appeal to Diana Gabaldon readers.

The author Gordon Dahlquist is an award-wining playwright and a director of experimental films. He lives in New York.

Billed as the British version of Oprah's Book Club, the vastly popular "Richard (Madeley) & Judy (Finnigan)" talk show has its very own RICHARD & JUDY'S SUMMER READ!.

The 2006 list is selected by Amanda Ross who is the joint managing director of Cactus TV, which produces the show, and was recently named the No. 1 most influential person in British publishing.

Instead of the authors or experts, a panel of celebrities is invited to discuss the books (only paperback titles are considered) on air. Richard & Judy are pleased that "The books are there to be read and enjoyed and talked about sensibly, not in the rarefied ways of a wine buff or a food critic, but in the way the rest of the world does".

Don't be surprised to find U.S. titles and some very familiar names, and what a great way to get to know new ones.

Blow the House Down by Robert Baer. Riveting and complex debut spy thriller by an ex-CIA operative whose memoir inspired the film Syriana.

A Field of Darkness* by Cornelia Read. A tough-talking, shotgun-toting, ex-debutante being drawn into a cold case involving a double homicide. (A noteworthy FFF - primed as a mystery series opener).

The Futurist* by James P. Othmer. Wildly entertaining and deadly serious satire on global politics and personal integrity. (A FFF)

The Girls* by Lori Lansens. The lives, loves and dreams of a set of conjoined twins. Unforgettable, from a noted Canadian author.

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn* by Sarah Miller. A wild ride inside the head of a sensitive, funny, and a bit lusty 15 year-old prep school hunk. (Another FFF!)

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. Entertaining nonfiction account of one man's attempt to read the whole Encyclopedia Britannica. (Recommended by Sancho Panza).

Little Beauties by Kim Addonizio. FFF from a noted poet, about a has-been junior beauty queen, a pregnant teenager and a baby girl determined to carve out her own future. Moving and engaging. Reminds me of Billie Lett's debut novel Where the Heart is.

Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn. A romantic and wise look at first loves, set in the Pacific Northwest. You will be hard pressed to find a better beach read.

* = Starred reviews