Novels Now

The Little Known by Janice Daugharty
BelleBooks, Inc, February 2010
Fiction (YA); 234 pgs

The Little Known is the story of a nine-year-old African American boy named Knot in 1960’s segregated Georgia. While out riding his cousin’s bicycle, he comes across a bag of money, dropped by a bank robber who was fleeing from the police. [...]

A few days after Benny’s death, Ellie and Frank Benton broke into separate people. Although they didn’t know it then. At that time, all they could do was concentrate on getting through each bewildering day, fighting to suppress the ugly memories that burst to the surface like fish above water. [Prologue, page 2]
The [...]

Their first reaction to this crime is to seek vengeance, not justice. I had to do something to prevent disaster. That such a mission was probably doomed to fail did not excuse me from trying. As Rabbi Tarfon says, “It’s not your job to finish the work, but you are not free to walk [...]

It was like this all up and down the river and many of the young people, the way they accepted their lack of prospects, it was like watching sparks die in the night. [excerpt from American Rust]
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
Spiegel & Grau, 2009
ISBN #978-0385527521
Fiction; 369 pgs
It’s quite an endorsement when several book bloggers include [...]

And the girl once again remembered the feel of warm skin, the sweet breath of laughter. And the loss was so deep, so intense that she felt a deep hatred boil inside her chest for those who had cast her out that morning, severing her from the only place she regarded as home.

As the [...]

“Earrings are not decorations. They are a statement of legitimacy, of dignity, of self-worth. Ask any woman, and she would tell you that she would pawn everything she has before she gave up her earrings. Even her wedding band. For what is a wedding band worth except to say that a man coveted your [...]

The cat on the middle step was washing its face, carefully licking its left paw and then running it over each ear in turn. “Mr. Grey?” It made no sense. The cat kept washing, straining sideways now to get its tongue into the thick grey ruff.Dulcie closed her eyes. The heat, grief, [...]

“You Got Trouble?”

Go-boy says, “No, we’re just waiting.”

The guy looks up and down the slough for signs of something to wait for. I look with him. He glances around the open fields in front of his truck, then turns in his seat and looks back at the village. There is [...]

“So cold,” he murmured. “Once she was warm and breathing.”
It was what he could never quite get his mind around–not just how complex life was, but why it was so easy for life to leave a person once so complex. [excerpt from Wife of the Gods]

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
Random House, 2009 [...]

Agents and the men they chase often have the same start in life. They are creative problem solvers, natural leaders with street smarts and an ability to anticipate their adversary’s next ten movies. Somewhere along the way, guys like Gagne choose the law, and guys like Solomon choose crime. Gagne understood that [...]

No one stays forever. On the morning of her disappearance Lilia woke early, and lay still for a moment in the bed. It was the last day of October. [excerpt from Last Night in Montreal]Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
Unbridled, 2009 (ARC)
Fiction; 247 pgs
Last Night in Montreal is a rather [...]

She’s dead, Pat wanted to say. I’m too late. But he could not form the words. He heard them echoing in his head, but though he tried he could not get them to his lips. Then suddenly he was crying, holding his hands to his eyes to hide his tears. [pg 13]
A [...]

“Caucasian vampires should never wear white,” the television announcer intoned. [first sentence from Dead and Gone]

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
ACE Fantasy, 2009
Fantasy; 312 pgs
There are times when I wish I could read people’s minds. I imagine it would get tiresome after awhile–not to mention the headache! And would I be able to [...]

In the parking garage elevator, I was sandwiched between an elderly woman in a bright pink velour sweatsuit–didn’t anyone tell her it was a hundred degrees outside?–and a guy who looked like he was on his way to a Young Republicans meeting, complete with a three-piece navy pin-striped suit, red tie, and buzz cut. [...]

For me, life was a house that I passed through quietly, trying not to unsettle the dust or bump up against the furniture. Henry was just the opposite; he moved through life with his hands outstretched, picking everything up and measuring its weight in his hands, knocking on walls to test their strength. [pg 116]
No [...]

 
He talked of how journalism had always been what he’d wanted to do since he was a little kid. Of how chasing a story could feel a little like chasing a drug, getting high, moving on to the next one. Of how covering a war had seemed like the ultimate hit. 
“And what do [...]

As he left the hotel, Henry looked west to where the sun was setting, burnt sienna flooding the horizon. It reminded him that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days. [pg 77]
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Ballantine Books, 2009
Fiction; [...]

To find someone suddenly gone, to see them one day and not know that this will be the last day you see them, to not have the moment register until hours, days later, or years, is never easy. How we catch ourselves as life moves forward, thinking about that last moment and about what [...]

There was no other word for it. Moth knew constellations were pictures, but these seemed alive to him, moving together, tumbling, running. And not just one big mess of stars, either. They were separate from each other, moving in their own particular dance. [pg 65]

Starfinder: A Skylords Novel by John Marco
DAW, May [...]

I am not a cat. Beyond the obvious - no fur, no whiskers - I’m not and have never been as fastidious as your average feline, and I’m certainly not the clean freak that my own Musetta is. [from the prologue]
Probable Claws by Clea Simon
Poisoned Pen Press, 2009 (ARC)
Crime Fiction (MYS); 255 pgs
My favorite [...]