Thorn: Go online to explore stellar debut novels

Friday, May 25, 2007

Tomorrow, the Rocky offers its annual summer reading issue, filled with great books that are sure to please a wide variety of readers. You'll find titles by high profile authors, as well as those from first-time writers - enough to keep you entrenched in that beach chair from now till next summer, no doubt.

Rocky critics have worked hard to let you in on their favorite reads so far this year. But even with our expansive list, I was reminded while putting it together that there are many titles worthy of your attention that we simply didn't have space to mention.

With that in mind, this seems like a good time to remind you of one of the best features Rocky Books offers: our online reviews of unforgettable debut novels .

Each month, I forward a stack of first-time novels we don't have room to review in print to critics who volunteer to screen them. Their marching orders are simple: Read and discard those that aren't top-notch. When something special turns up, write a brief review to be posted online.

So far this year, our critics have found ten awesome titles - books as varied as a British hip-hop retelling of Hamlet and a historical novel involving Sir Thomas More. Our readers will keep searching, and the list will continue to grow all year long. You can find these titles by going to RockyMountainNews.com, then clicking on "Spotlight," then "Books."

So here's a thought: Cut out this item and stash it away - in the same place I hope you'll stash tomorrow's summer reading issue. Then, when you're between books, be sure to hit the Web site for suggestions.

This will, of course, require you to get up out of that beach chair. But sheesh, we can't do everything can we?

IT HAD TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER

The mystery world features plots centered on cats, birds, crossword puzzles - heck, even dry cleaners. So is anyone surprised that Carroll & Graf has just released a title centered on a new national craze? In The Sudoku Murder, a professor is found with a letter opener in his neck and a half-finished Sudoku puzzle in front of him.

Whodunit?

Who cares? Does the publisher really think obsessive puzzlers will put down their pens an abandon their calculations for something as distracting as a novel?

SEEING DOUBLE

When Knopf recently announced the looming publication of Carl Bernstein's bio about Hillary Clinton, titled A Woman In Charge, bestsellerdom seemed assured. With Hillary on the national stage, Bernstein's Watergate cred and rumors that he's dug up dirt on the senator, the book seemed bound to attract both Clinton supporters and detractors.

But in the publishing world, less is never more - and soon after, Little Brown announced its own Hillary book on the way. What's more, the publication date for Her Way, by Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Von Natta Jr., has been moved from August to June 8 - just three days after Bernstein's book is due. Talk about dirty politics. Which book will win the most votes? Can Hillary overcome whatever bad news is dished out? And is November 2008 really 18 mud-slinging months away?

PAPER CLIPS

Paperback novels by noted Denver authors have recently hit the shelves, including:

• Rick Reilly's romp at the golf course, Shanks for Nothing (Broadway $14.95)

• John Dunning's latest mystery involving his rare-book-collecting protagonist Cliff Janeway, The Bookwoman's Last Fling (Pocket Books, $9.99)

• William Haywood Henderson's poignant story about a woman's struggle to raise her daughter in early 1900s Wyoming, Augusta Locke (Penguin, $14)