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".

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.

It sneaked in under the media radar…

Before Chocolat and Five Quarters of the Orange, there was Sleep, Pale Sister.

It was Joanne Harris’ debut novel, originally published in 1993 in England but never before available in the U.S.

This haunting gothic romance is set in 19th century London. Middle-aged Henry Chester, an artist of independent means has an unhealthy interest in virginal young girls. Beautiful, fatherless Effie - his model/wife is kept drugged with laudanum so as to remain his vision of feminine perfection — passive, docile, innocent, unsullied. That is, until a roguish fellow artist awakes her passion.

Multiple plot twists complete with ghosts, illicit sex and murder make for a page-turner. Harris' sensual, elegant style and atmospheric prose admired in her subsequent works, is very much evident here. You will love this one.

One of the hottest trends in reading is urban fiction. It’s a sure sign that it is no longer just a fad when The New York Times wrote about it. Alternately called street lit, hip-hop, gangsta lit, or urban fiction, it depicts life on the mean streets, and often prides itself in the authenticity and gritty details of drugs, crimes and violence. Lurid book jackets, profanities, explicit sex, and the lifestyle fueled by easy money add to its appeal.

I met T.J. Williams this week. A Princeton University student, he is not your typical street lit author writing in prison, but maybe that is why his debut novel 5 minutes and 42 seconds was so accessible for my first dip into this genre.

Oh, have no doubt, all the gritty elements are there (the drug-dealing, the illicit sex and the street culture) but it is also a thoughtful and often humorous exploration of the meaning of family and sexuality. Give it a try and check out this reading list for other suggestions.

As a rule I don’t get particularly excited over debut novels by Hollywood insiders. However, the cover blurb intrigued me. Literacy and Longing in L.A. is about a book junkie.

When other thirty-something L.A. socialites with failed marriages and time on their hands shop, yoga and lunch, (Eu)Dora book binges, albeit in style - with $50 bubble baths, Coltrane, a steady supply of red wine and a doorman who shops and delivers.

Despite being a bit of a literary snob, Dora is sexy, smart, and likable, with a healthy dose of insecurity and a strong sense of family. She is open (to historical romance and the hunky clerk in a bookstore) and generous (I will let you find out).

The Chick Lit. ending won’t surprise you. Not brain surgery for sure, but what a fun read! And keep your eyes out for the very funny book quotes.

Historical mystery fans – here is a new reason to rejoice. Let’s see… exotic locale, opulent settings, a tough, savvy amateur sleuth, plenty of seduction, danger and intrigue, not to mention a few dead bodies. Could we ask for more?

Jason Goodwin, a noted historian turns to fiction for the first time with The Janissary Tree, a mystery set in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. The sultan’s eunuch (Warning: DO NOT jump to conclusions here) Yashim Togalu suspects the involvement of the Janissaries’, an elite troop in a series of barbaric murders and jewel theft around Istanbul and the royal court.

This is the impressive debut of a projected series.

Two exemplary recent Australian releases treat geography as character - the highly original and witty debut Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany, and The Secret River by the 2001 Orange Prize winner, Kate Grenville.

Set in 1930s Victoria, Everyman is narrated by Jean Cunningham, the young, curious and courageous sewing teacher on the “Better-Farming Train” which travels throughout the country, bringing advice to agricultural communities. Love comes in the form of Robert, an idealistic soil scientist with the rare ability to identify the origin of soil by taste, and who adheres unyieldingly to his Rules for Scientific Living.

The Secret River on the other hand, is inspired by Grenville’s own family history and the early settlement of New South Wales. William Thornhill and his family must struggle for a delicate coexistence with the native population along the savage Hawkesbury River.

Landscape is far more than mere setting. Whether harsh or lush, beneficent or punishing, it drives the plots and leaves indelible marks in the lives of these characters.

With a poet’s sensibility and a Southern writer’s gift of storytelling Darnell Arnoult’s (website) accomplished first novel Sufficient Grace is moving, captivating, and destined to be in a few beach bags this summer. (Starred review in Publishers Weekly).

Character-rich and evocative of place, this is the story of Gracie Hollaman and her two very different Southern families – the white, middleclass one that she abandoned and the black one that took her in and allowed her to develop a special gift. Written with warmth and gentle humor, this novel is also about grit, dignity, and about lives reclaimed with faith and love.

For readers of Kaye Gibbons’ Charms for The Easy Life (1993); Clyde Edgerton’s Walking Across Egypt, (1987); and Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies, (1988).

I frankly cannot remember the last time a debut thriller generated such buzz. Library Journal, Booklist, as well as Publishers Weekly all gave John Hart’s The King of Lies starred reviews.

Critics are calling it ”stunning…, an exceptionally deep and complex mystery thriller”; “The writing is beautiful and the story is gripping, but it is the character study… that puts this debut novel on the must-read list.”

At the center of the mystery is Work(man) Pickens, a struggling North Carolina attorney with some serious baggage – one of them is being accused of his father’s murder. You won’t want to miss this one.

It is not for everyone but it will richly reward the patient reader.

The stream-of-consciousness narrative in Love Burns, the debut novel by noted Israeli playwright Edna Mazya, and the experimental writing style might feel like sand between the toes, but this "surprisingly fresh, deeply sardonic" (Publishers Weekly) tale of obsessive-love-turns-homicidal would keep you turning pages, and the provocative blend of sly humor and suspense might just win you over.

Ilan, a middle-aged astrophysics professor at a Haifa university is obsessed with his beautiful young wife while life is spiraling out of control. A fateful encounter with his wife’s sexy Russian lover proves to be his undoing. Thank heavens there is mother to take charge.

Already a bestseller in Europe.