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Young Adult/Children's
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
SoundCommentary is a Review Source on the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, www.childrenslit.com.
Columns : EDITOR'S PICK OF THE MONTH
*Contested Will by James Shapiro
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
James Shapiro, a professor at Columbia University in New York, is the author of Rival Playwrights, Shakespeare and the Jews, Oberammergau and A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.
Featured Stories
Mark Twain: Man in White by Michael Shelden
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Michael Shelden is the author of three previous biographies, including Orwell, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph (London) and a critic for the Baltimore Sun. He is currently a professor of English at Indiana State University.
The Spy by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Clive Cussler is the author of many New York Times bestsellers, most recently Spartan Gold and The Wrecker. He lives in Arizona. Justin Scott's twenty-four novels include The Shipkiller and Normandie Triangle; the Ben Abbott detective series; and five modern sea thrillers published under his pen name Paul Garrison. He is the coauthor with Clive Cussler of The Wrecker. He lives in Connecticut.
29 Gifts by Cami Walker
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006 and created the online 29-Day Giving Challenge in April 2008. She has continued her own giving cycle every month since. Walker lives in Hollywood, California, with her husband, Mark.
*Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Peter James's novels, including the number one bestseller Possession, have been translated into thirty languages and three have been filmed. All his novels reflect his deep interest in the world of the police, with whom he does in-depth research, as well as science, medicine and the paranormal. He has produced numerous films, including The Merchant Of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. He divides his time between his homes in Notting Hill in London and near Brighton in Sussex.
*Eight for Eternity by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
The husband and wife team of Mary Reed and Eric Mayer began writing together in 1992. After publishing several short stories in anthologies and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, their first full length novel appeared in 1999.
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-loved authors. Her works of fiction have won numerous awards both in Australia and internationally. THE IDEA OF PERFECTION won the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction and became a long-running bestseller. In 2006 THE SECRET RIVER won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Kate Grenville lives in Sydney, Australia.
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Jack Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied at Oberlin College and Columbia University. Shane, his first piece of fiction, began as a short story; it was made into a critically acclaimed movie in 1953. Mr. Schaefer went on to write many other stories and novels set in the West, earning a devoted following of readers that continues to grow. He died in 1991.
The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Anne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels She is also the author of the World War I novels No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, and We Shall Not Sleep, as well as six holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Grace. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.
The Value of Names by Jeffrey Sweet
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
This is the author's most frequently performed play. This full-cast performance features Hector Elizondo,Garry Marshall, Sally Murphy
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Charlaine Harris, who writes both fantasies and mysteries, has been a published novelist for more than twenty-five years. A native of the Mississippi Delta, she grew up in the middle of a cotton field. Now she lives in southern Arkansas with her husband, her three children, three dogs, and a duck. The duck stays outside.
Tears of the Maasi by Frank Coates
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Frank Coates was born in Melbourne, Australia.. He worked for many years as a telecommunications engineer in Australia then moved to Africa and spent many years there. When Tears of the Maasai made the best-seller's list in 2004, Coates retired from the telecommunications industry to write full time. He now lives in Sydney's Northern Beaches area.
Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.
Traitor's Blood by Reginald Hill
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Reginald Hill has been widely published both in England and the United States. He received Britain's most coveted mystery writers award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, as well as the Golden Dagger for his Dalziel/Pascoe series. He lives with his wife in Cumbria, England.
*The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Lynn Cullen is the author of the young adult novel I Am Rembrandt's Daughter, an ALA Best Book of 2008, and several other acclaimed books for children. She lives with her husband in Atlanta.
The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Sheena Iyengar's groundbreaking research on choice has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Security Education Program. She holds degrees from UPenn, The Wharton School of Business, and Stanford University. She is a professor at Columbia University, and a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award. Her work is regularly cited in periodicals as diverse as Fortune and Time magazines, the NYT and the WSJ, in books such as Blink and The Paradox of Choice.
True Blue by David Baldacci
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
David Baldacci is the author of seventeen previous consecutive New York Times bestsellers. With his books published in over 40 languages in more than 80 countries, and with nearly 90 million copies in print, he is one of the world's favorite storytellers.
Imperfect Birds by Ann Lamott
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Anne Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Grace (Eventually), Plan B, Traveling Mercies, and Operating Instructions, as well as seven novels, including Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. She is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes Volumes I-III by Stephen King
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Under the Dome, Just After Sunset, the Dark Tower novels, Cell, From a Buick 8, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Lisey's Story and Bag of Bones. He was the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Anne Frank was born in June 12, 1929. She died while imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen, three months short of her sixteenth birthday. Her father, Otto H. Frank, was the only member of anne's immediate family to survive the Holocaust.
*Among Thieves by David Hosp
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
David Hosp is a Boston attorney. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from George Washington University. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter south of the city.
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Ford Madox Ford wrote The Good Soldier, the book on which his reputation most surely rests, in deliberate emulation of the nineteenth-century French novels he so admired. In this way he was able to explore the theme of sexual betrayal and its poisonous after-effects with a psychological intimacy as yet unknown in the English novel.
The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Jane Austen (1775-1817) began her writing career composing stories and novels for her family as entertainment. Although she began to write Pride and Prejudice at the age of twenty-one, her first book to appear in print was Sense an Sensibility. All of her novels, including Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion, were published anonymously. Austen's identity as an author was announced after her death by her brother, Henry.
*My Life as a Man by Philip Roth
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
In the 1990s Philip Roth won America's four major literary awards in succession: the National Book Critics Circle Award for Patrimony (1991), the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock (1993), the National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater (1995), and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for American Pastoral (1997). He won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for I Married a Communist (1998); in the same year he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. Previously he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Counterlife (1986) and the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959). In 2000 he published The Human Stain, concluding a trilogy that depicts the ideological ethos of postwar America. For The Human Stain Roth received his second PEN/Faulkner Award as well as Britain's W. H. Smith Award for the Best Book of the Year. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in fiction, given every six years "for the entire work of the recipient."
Hellhound on his Trail by Hampton Sides
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
A native of Memphis, HAMPTON SIDES is an award-winning editor of Outside and the author of the bestselling histories Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers.
Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Louise Erdrich is the author of thirteen novels as well as volumes of poetry, short stories, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award. Most recently, The Plague of Doves won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Louise Erdrich lives in Minnesota and is the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore.
Dark is the Sun by Philip Jose Farmer
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Three-time Hugo Award winner, Philip Jose Farmer is best known for his Riverworld Series
*A Murder of Crows by P.F. Chisholm
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Patricia Finney has been writing since she was seven, writing novels and screenplays since the age of fifteen and a published author since she was 18. She has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University – where she also met her late husband, American lawyer Christopher Perry. She won the top BBC Radio Drama Prize for her play A ROOM FULL OF MIRRORS and has published fifteen novels, including three Elizabethan thrillers, two childrens' books told by a dog, and, of course, the Robert Carey series of crime novels set in Elizabethan England.
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Anthony Hope is the pseudonym of Anthony Hope Hawkins , a successful and prolific author of fiction and drama. The son of a school headmaster, Hope was born in London in 1863. While practicing law, he also experimented with creative writing. With the publication of his most famous novel, The Prisoner of Zenda, in 1894, Hope abandoned his legal career to write full-time, penning the short story collection, The Heart of Princess Osra (1896), and the Zenda sequel, Rupert of Hentzau (1898). Throughout his productive life, Hope published a wide variety of fiction, in areas ranging from the light domestic comedy of The Dolly Dialogues (1894) to the more serious fiction of Simon Dole (1889). He died in 1933.
*Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), despite an impoverished childhood and little formal education, achieved lasting artistic and popular success with the novels Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations, all of which were originally published in serial form.
Plum Pudding Murder/Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke was born and raised in a small town in rural Minnesota, but now lives in sunny Southern California. She is currently working on her next Hannah Swensen mystery.
The Map of True Places by Brunomia Barry
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry made her debut with the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling novel The Lace Reader. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her husband and their beloved golden retriever, Byzantium.
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Janet Evanovich is the author of the Stephanie Plum novels, twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author. She lives in New Hampshire and Florida.
Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Marla R. Miller is an associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the director of the public history program there. She has won the Organization of American Historians' Lerner-Scott Prize for the Best Dissertation in Women's History and the Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Colonial History. In 2009, she was awarded the Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship from the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.
*The Lion by Nelson Demille
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Nelson DeMille is the author of 15 previous novels. He lives on Long Island, New York.
*Gene of Isis by Traci Harding
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Traci Harding lives in Australia and writes sci-fi and fantasy mixed with historical details.
Horizon: The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold burst onto the scene in 1986 with Shards of Honor, the first of her tremendously popular Vorkosigan Saga novels. She has received numerous accolades and prizes, including two Nebula Awards for best novel (Falling Free and Paladin of Souls), four Hugo Awards for Best Novel (Paladin of Souls, The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance), as well as the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novella The Mountains of Mourning. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. The mother of two, Bujold lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Woman who Fell from the Sky by Jennifer Steil
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Before moving to Yemen in 2006, Jennifer Steil was a senior editor at The Week, which she helped to launch in 2001. Her work has appeared in Time, Life, and Good Housekeeping. She lives in Sana'a, Yemen, with her fiancé, Tim Torlot, the British Ambassador to Yemen and their daughter Theadora Celeste.
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Helen Simonson was born in England and spent her teenage years in a small village in East Sussex. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former travel advertising executive, she has lived in America for the last two decades. After many years in Brooklyn, she now lives with her husband and two sons in the Washington, D.C., area. This is her first novel.
The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Gayle Lynds is the bestselling, award-winning author of several international espionage thrillers, including Masquerade, The Coil, and The Last Spymaster. A member of the Association for Intelligence Officers, she is cofounder (with David Morrell) of ITW (International Thriller Writers). She lives in Santa Barbara.
*Innocent by Scott Turow
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Scott Turow is the author of eight best-selling works of fiction including Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof, and two non-fiction books including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages, sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into film and television projects. He frequently contributes essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Atlantic.
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Miranda Carter is the author of Anthony Blunt: His Lives, which won the Orwell Prize for political writing and the Royal Society of Literature W. H. Heinemann Award, and was chosen as one of The New York Times Book Review’s seven Best Books of 2002. She lives in London with her husband and two sons.