Michelle's Recommendations...

American Gods
Neil Gaiman

Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident. On the plane home to the funeral, he meets Mr.Wednesday--a beguiling stranger who seems to know everything about him. A trickster and rogue, Mr.Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard. With nowhere left to go, Shadow accepts, and soon learns that his role in Mr.Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought--and the prize is the very soul of America.

~American Gods will prove itself to be, I believe, a very important part of this century's literature. It establishes a new kind of mythology in which one can choose sides between the old gods and the new. Beyond that, Mr.Gaiman is a masterful storyteller; his imagination is fertile beyond belief, his knowledge of ancient mythologies extensive, and his use of those mythologies infinitely clever. American Gods is one of those most remarkable books that must be read to be believed.*2002 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel.

*Visit Neil Gaiman and check out his journal, updated daily!


A Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective wall. To the south, the King's powers are failing, and his enemies are emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the King's new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but also the kingdom itself. A heroic fantasy of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and evildoers who come together in a time of grim omens.

~George Martin is quickly proving himself to be the best writer that the fantasy genre has to offer. This is a novel of intense feeling and power. The writing is compelling, beautiful, the characters well-drawn(almost too human,)and the plot taut with suspense. A Game of Thrones is the first in the A Song of Fire and Ice series. Be prepared for long nights of reading.

*Visit George Martin on the net


Harm None
M.R. Sellars

When a young woman is ritualistically murdered in her Saint Louis apartment with the primary clue being a pentacle scrawled in her own blood, police are quick to dismiss it as a cult killing. Not one for taking things at face value, city homicide detective Ben Storm calls on his long time friend, Rowan Gant--a modern day practicing Witch--for help. In helping his friend, Rowan discovers that the victim is one of his former pupils. Even worse, the clues that he helps to uncover show that this murder is only a prelude to even more ritualistic bloodletting for dark purposes. As the body count starts to rise, Rowan is suddenly thrust into an investigation where not only must he help stop a sadistic serial killer, but also must fight the prejudices and suspicions of those he is working with--including his best friend.

~The most attractive thing about this book is its protagonist, Rowan Gant. In him, we have a character who thinks before he acts; it's a most refreshing trait. M.R. Sellars has crafted a graphic mystery that is not recommended for those who get a little queasy at the sight, or thought, of blood. However, it is fast paced and well developed, and leads one to want to know more about Wiccan practices. This is the first in the Rowan Gant Investigations series.

*Visit M.R. Sellars and find out about the Rowan Gant Investigations Series




Newton's Cannon
J. Gregory Keyes

A dazzling quest whose outcome will raise humanity to unparalleled heights of glory--or ring down a curtain of endless night...

1681: When Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy, he unleashes Philosopher's Mercury, a primal source of matter and a key to manipulating the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Now, as France and England battle for its control, Louis XIV calls for a new weapon--a mysterious device known only as Newton's Cannon.

Half a world away, a young apprentice named Benjamin Franklin stumbles across a dangerous secret. Pursued by a deadly enemy-- half scientist, half sorcerer--Ben makes his fugitive way to England. Only Newton himself can help him now. But who will help Sir Isaac? For he was not the first to unleash the Philosopher's Mercury. Others were there before him. Creatures as scornful of science as they are of mankind. And burning to be rid of both...

~Newton's Cannon is a fantastical tale of an alternate history in which magic is as real and logical as science, and where intrigue and espionage are daily habits. The narrative takes shape under the watchful eyes of Benjamin Franklin and Adrienne, a woman whose powers have yet to be foretold. There is a wonderful sense of supense in this novel that will keep you turning the pages until the end. But then, all is not quite yet finished...First in the Age of Unreason Series.


The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude. Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax.

~The Eyre Affair is a most exceptional alternate reality in which some of our most beloved classics come to life. Quite literally. Jasper Fforde's sense of humor is wonderful indeed and no doubt you'll find yourself chuckling more than once throughout the course of reading this exciting new novel. And before you despair, yes, this too is a series. Expect Thursday Next's next mission in *Lost in a Good Book* due out next fall('03).

Visit SpecOps agent Thursday Next at www.thursdaynext.com (site contains spoilers, but it's fun once you've read it!)
or, if you'd prefer, Jasper Fforde at www.jasperfforde.com


Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman

Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her--and the life he knows vanishes like smoke. Several hours later, the girl is gone too. And by the following morning Richard Mayhew has been erased from his world. He has become invisible, and inexplicably consigned to a London of shadows and darkness--to a city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, that exists entirely in a subterranean labryinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations. For this is the home of Door, a mysterious girl whom Richard rescued in the London Above. A personage of great power and nobility in this murky, candlelit realm, she is on a mission to discover the cause of her family's slaughter, and in doing so preserve this strange underworld kindgom from the malevolence that means to destroy it. And with nowhere else to turn, Richard Mayhew must now join the Lady Door's entourage in their determined-- and possibly fatal--quest. For the dread journey ever-downward--through bizarre anachronisms and dangerous incongruities, and into dusty corners of stalled time--is Richard's final hope, his last road back to a "real" world that is growing disturbingly less real by the minute.

~Neil Gaiman's first foray into novel writing is a delight for the senses. Well, perhaps "delight" is incorrect. After all, we spend an awful lot of time in the sewers. But, nonetheless, Neverwhere is a classic fairytale. And, an added bonus, this novel has perhaps the two greatest villians ever to be written. You must meet Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandamar for yourselves. For an enjoyable read, Neverwhere can do no wrong.


Warmly Inscribed
Larry and Nancy Goldstone

Larry and Nancy Goldstone, accompanied by their wise and witty eight-year-old daughter, Emily, treat their readers to a fabulous personal tour of the Library of Congress ("114,000,000 books, so little time"). They also entertain us with unorthodox behind-the-scenes looks at the Folger Library and the Beinecke, Yale University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Forgeries, famous and otherwise, feature largely among the tidbits of arcane booklore that the Goldstones share with their readers this time around. The clever detective work that led to the uncovering of the infamous New England forger is recounted in all its fascinating detail, as is the case of the murderous Mormon. Fans of Antiques Roadshow will find here an amusing bibliographic counterpart.

~This is actually the third book the Goldstones have written on the world of antiquarian books, the first two being Used and Rare, and Slightly Chipped. They are all wonderfully entertaining accounts of the lengths bibliophiles will go to to obtain that rare Proust or a signed Steinbeck. And best of all, the Goldstones make frequent trips to the New England area (some in Boston), which adds to the atmosphere because they are so near and identifiable (plus, they say there is a *really* great restaurant in Connecticut, just in case you're heading that way some time soon.) They need not be read in order, but no doubt you'll want to read them all!


Naked In Death
J.D. Robb

Following up on a murder investigation, New York police lieutenant Eve Dallas goes against her normal instincts when she becomes involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire who is a suspect in Eve's case.

~From the moment I started this novel I knew I was in big trouble. I had a lot of catching up to do, about ten books worth, and I couldn't get to them fast enough to suit myself. The In Death series never, ever fails to hook you and to keep you wanting more. The characters are so engaging, so real, and the plots often keep you guessing till the very end.

A complete list of books from the In Death series can be found here.


Kiss of Shadows
Laurell K. Hamilton

My name is Meredith Gentry, but of course it's not my real name. I dare not even whisper my true name after dark for fear that one hushed word will travel over the night winds to the soft ear of my aunt, the Queen of the Air and Darkness. She wants me dead. I don't even know why. I fled the high court of Faerie three years ago, and have been hiding ever since. I ran as far as the land would take me, stopped only by the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and the fact that if I'd used my passport the Bureau of Human and Fey Affairs would have been notified, and they would have told my relatives. And my relatives would have killed me. As Merry Gentry, I am a private investigator for the Grey Detective Agency: Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions. My magical skills, which are scorned at the courts of Faerie are valued in the human world. Even by human standards, my magic isn't flashy. Fine by me: Flashy attracts too much attention, and I can't afford that. Sightings of the Princess Meredith are now more popular than Elvis sightings. Rumor has it that I'm dead. Not quite. I am Princess Meredith NicEssus, and if you read that name after dark, you will call down a knock upon your door from a hand that can kill you with a touch. I have been so careful, but not careful enough. The shadows have found me, and they are going to take me back home, one way or another. The running is over. The fighting has just begun . . .

~Kiss of Shadows introduces Meredith Gentry and a new series for best-selling author, Laurell K. Hamilton. This novel is, in a word, addictive. Hamilton is well known for her inventive imagination, but here, well, she has simply outdone herself. Wonderful (how tame that word seems...) characters, court intrigue and a hint of horror make this a book to be read over and again. Oh, and the second book in the series, Caress of Twilight, is even better.

Also recommended: Hamilton's Anita Blake series

A complete list of Laurell K. Hamilton's series, both Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry, can be found here.


If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino

~I was unable to find a suitable description for this book...there wasn't even one on the book itself...because, I suppose, there is no way to define it. It straddles numerous genres, but at its heart it is a novel about the love of novels, the written word, the thrill of being a reader. It is metafiction at its very best. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler quickly became and has remained one of my favorite novels and has spurred an even deeper love and appreciation for the talents of Italo Calvino.




Asoka
Videorecording, 2001
Shahrukh Khan

Asoka, the emperor of the Mauryan dynasty between 274 and 232 B.C., was famed for having unified much of modern-day India and for raising Buddhism from obscurity to the ranks of a world religion. Early in his life, as Emperor of the region of Magadha, he waged a brutal campaign against the neighboring fiefdom of Kalinga, leaving the land bloody and ravaged. The war paid a toll on the young king; having realized the full horror that he wrought, Asoka renounced violence and turned to the spiritual sanctuary of Buddhism.

~I found this film quite by accident and am most happy that I did. ASOKA is irresistible. Part humor, part heart-wrenching, this fictionalized version of Asoka's life is one that begs to be watched over and again. It even has some wonderful examples of Bollywood's famed musical interludes. Shahrukh Khan stars as Asoka and most of the film's success rests on his shoulders. Khan is incredibly talented and a joy to watch. (You'll want to find every film in his filmography after viewing this, trust me.) In Hindi with English subtitles.


The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Laurie R. King

In 1915, long since retired from his crime-fighting days, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybees on the Sussex Downs. Never did the Victorian detective think to meet an intellect matching is own--until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a young twentieth-century lady whose mental acuity is equaled only by her penchant for deduction, disguises, and danger. Under Holmes' reluctant tutelage, Russell embarks on a case involing a landowner's mysterious fever and the kidnapping of an American senator's daughter in the wilds of Wales. Then a near-fatal bomb on her doorstep--and another on Holmes'--sends the two sleuths on the trail of a muderer who scatters bizarre clues and seems utterly without motive. The villain's objective, however, is quite unequivocal: to end Russell and Holmes's patnership--and then their lives.

~Mary Russell has exposed Sherlock Holmes for what he was... a man. And an emotional one at that. For those accustomed to the aloof detective, King's vision of Sherlock Holmes may be startling. But after a while, I don't doubt, he'll grow on you and you'll come to love this classic detective even more. A truly wonderful series!

-->The Mary Russell series


Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath
Kate Moses

Wintering is the story of a woman forging a new life for herself after her marriage has foundered. She shuts up her beloved Devonshire house and makes a home for her two young children in London, elated at completing the collection of poems she forsees will make her name. It is also the story of a woman struggling to maintain her mental equilibrium, to absorb the pain of her husband's betrayal, and to resist her mother's engulfing love. It is the story of Sylvia Plath.


The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive hysterical truth -- will be lost forever.

~The Da Vinci Code is a truly fascinating book. It's part mystery suspense, part art history, part religious commentary; each element seems to have been meticulously researched. This is the type of novel that makes you want to do your own research on cryptology, Leonardo Da Vinci and secret societies. You'll definitely take something away from The Da Vinci Code. (One of the things that is so wonderful about this book is that it all takes place in a day, which really adds to the tension!)


The Night Calls
David Pirie

"As a young medical student, Arthur Conan Doyle - the creator of Sherlock Holmes - studied under one of the pioneers in forensic medicine, Dr. Joseph Bell. While details of Doyle's actual relationship with the Doctor remain shrouded in mystery, author David Pirie has created an engrossing series that pairs the two as partners in criminal investigations in the dark underworlds of Victorian Edinburgh." "The Night Calls chronicles their most frightening and disturbing case, the encounter with the man who prefigures Holmes's archnemesis Moriarty. A series of bizarre and outlandish assaults on women in the brothels of Edinburgh has caught the attention of Bell, who calls on Doyle to assist in the investigation. At the same time, however, there's a violent struggle for women's educational rights taking place at the university's medical school where Doyle is a student. There he meets young Elsbeth Scott, a fellow student with an unfortunate list of enemies, among them a crazed misogynist student named Crawford, and the smiling hypocritical patron of the university, Henry Carlisle." Bell slowly begins to realize that the increasingly freakish crimes indicate a heretofore unknown and terrifying kind of criminal, one who is not susceptible to the Doctor's old methods. The Night Calls takes them from the evil heart of old Edinburgh into what Bell calls their "fight against the future" and to London itself, where Doyle again faces a villian with terrifying results.

~If you love an absorbing, atmospheric mystery you must read THE NIGHT CALLS. The man behind Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is compelling in and of himself. His history is not as fleshed out as biographers would like and here David Pirie has his own idea of what may have transpired between Doyle and his mentor, Joseph Bell. Pirie has obviously done his own reading of Doyle's biographies and includes many interesting pieces of Doyle's actual known past. The novel at times takes a couple of tangents, but it is a compelling read from start to its rather chilling end.


The Key Trilogy
By Nora Roberts

A mysterious invitation brings three strangers--gallery manager Malory Price, librarian Dana Steele, and hairdresser Zoe McCourt--to Warrior's Peak, a castlelike estate outside of Pleasant Valley, Pennsylvania, where their elegantly enigmatic hosts, Rowena and Pitte, offer the opportunity to participate in an unusual quest. Malory, Dana, and Zoe will each have 28 days to find one of the keys to a mystical box, which holds the trapped souls of three sister Celtic demigoddesses imprisoned by a jealous sorcerer.

~Each title in the Key Trilogy by Roberts is entertaining in and of itself, but add the overall story, character relationship development, and concept together and you have a fantastic series. I'm hopeful that Roberts will revisit these engaging characters again somewhere along the way.


The Bookman's Promise
John Dunning

The quest begins when an old woman, Josephine Gallant, learns that Janeway has recently bought at auction a signed first edition by the legendary nineteenth-century explorer Richard Francis Burton. The book is a true classic, telling of Burton's journey (disguised as a Muslim) to the forbidden holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Boston auction house was a distinguished and trustworthy firm, but provenance is sometimes murky and Josephine says the book is rightfully hers. She believes that her grandfather, who was living in Baltimore more than eighty years ago, had a fabulous collection of Burton material, including a handwritten journal allegedly detailing Burton's undercover trip deep into the troubled American South in 1860. Josephine remembers the books from her childhood, but everything mysteriously disappeared shortly after her grandfather's death. With little time left in her own life, Josephine begs for Janeway's promise: he must find her grandfather's collection. It's a virtually impossible task, Janeway suspects, as the books will no doubt have been sold and separated over the years, but how can he say no to a dying woman? It seems that her grandfather, Charlie Warren, traveled south with Burton in the spring of 1860, just before the Civil War began. Was Burton a spy for Britain? What happened during the three months in Burton's travels for which there are no records? How did Charlie acquire his unique collection of Burton books? What will the journal, if it exists, reveal? When a friend is murdered, possibly because of a Burton book, Janeway knows he must find the answers. Someone today is willing to kill to keep the secrets of the past, and Janeway's search will lead him east: To Baltimore, to a Pulitzer Prize-winning author with a very stuffed shirt, and to a pair of unorthodox booksellers. It reaches a fiery conclusion at Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. What's more, a young lawyer, Erin d'Angelo, and ex-librarian Koko Bujak, have their own reasons for wanting to find the journal. But can Janeway trust them?

~A thoroughly engaging mystery that will leave you wanting to know more about rare books and Sir Richard Burton. This is actually the third book in the Cliff Janeway series by Dunning. The first is Booked to Die and the second is The Bookman's Wake.


The Arcanum
by Thomas Wheeler

It is 1919 and the Great War has come to a close. But in the shadows of the worlds major cities, the killing has just begun. In this perilous time, as the division between order and chaos grows increasingly slim, a select group of visionaries have taken it upon themselves to ensure the safety of humanity. They are known as the Arcanum. In London's stormy Hyde Park, Konstantin Duvall, the Arcanum's founder, has been killed in a suspicious accident. Dismayed, the group's longest-lived member, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, determines to avenge Duvall's death and uncover the secret left in his wake. For the dead man possessed the world's most powerful now missing artifact: the Book of Enoch, the chronicle of God's mistakes, within whose pages lie the seeds for the end of everything. From the scene of the crime, Conan Doyle embarks on a path that leads him to the sleazy underworld of New York City's Bowery and a series of deceptively disparate but decidedly connected murders. And as he calls upon the scattered members of the Arcanum for aid, he also finds himself embroiled in a story of war as old as time itself. Not of a struggle between countries, but between darkness and light. Peopled with the twentieth century's most famous and infamous figures, here is an extraordinary tale in which the stakes go beyond the realm of humankind into the divine.

~A great mix of historical personalities, an intriguing concept, and an entertaining--albeit sometimes gory--story.

*Neil Gaiman, fromADVENTURES IN THE DREAM TRADE