July Author of the Month is Diana Wynne Jones

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Staff Picks for July

Annie's Staff Picks

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

"As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief... or will it?

The fifth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Somehow, over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and discount the teen. Even Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the school, has come under scrutiny by the Ministry of Magic, which refuses to officially acknowledge the terrifying truth that Voldemort is back. Enter a particularly loathsome new character: the toadlike and simpering ("hem, hem") Dolores Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, who takes over the vacant position of Defense Against Dark Arts teacher--and in no time manages to become the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, as well. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their Ordinary Wizarding Levels examinations (O.W.Ls), devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team lineup, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested."

$29.99 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Trixie Belden #1: The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell

"Trixie's summer is going to be sooo boring with her two older brothers away at camp. But then a millionaire's daughter moves into the next-door mansion, and old miser hides a fortune in his decrepit house, and a runaway kid starts hiding out in Sleepyside!"

$6.99

Stolen: Women of the Otherworld, Book II by Kelley Armstrong

"Elena Michaels, the only known female werewolf, cavorts on a more fully cultivated supernatural playing field in this sure-footed follow-up to Bitten (2001). While investigating a suspicious notice advertising information for sale about werewolves, Elena meets witches Paige and Ruth Winterbourne-and, to her misfortune, a team of mortal and supernatural commandos who abduct Elena and Ruth to a remote underground bunker in the wilds of Maine. There Ty Winsloe, "billionaire and computer geek extraordinaire," is collecting a menagerie representing all the supernatural species that coexist anonymously with humanity (vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.). While his scientists study such creatures in the hope of distilling their uncanny powers as salable commodities, Winsloe hunts those captives who have outlived their usefulness in cruel most-dangerous-game fashion. Elena's efforts to outsmart Winsloe long enough to apprise her Pack of her whereabouts are complicated by a werewolf wannabe among the captors. Though the tale is pretty much a prison-break story spiffed up with magic, Armstrong leavens the narrative with brisk action and intriguing dollops of werewolf culture that suggest a complex and richly imagined anthropologic backstory. The sassy, pumped-up Elena makes a perfect hardboiled horror heroine, with enough engaging attitude to compensate for the loose ends left untied to set up her next adventure."--Publishers Weekly

$24.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Minerva Wakes by Holly Lisle

"He has a dragon singing in his bedroom. She's stuck on the wrong side of an alternate universe. Their kids are kidnapped, both the good guys and the bad guys want them dead, and all of this started as somebody else's mistake. For Minerva and Darryl Kiakra, nothing will ever be the same."

$4.99

The Wood Wife by Terri Windling

"When prize-winning poet Davis Cooper died mysteriously in the canyons east of Tucson, Arizona, he left his estate to Maggie Black, a young writer who knew him only from his letters. There, in his desert home, Maggie begins a journey of self-discovery that changes her forever, encountering terrible danger and passionate love, coming face to face with the wild spirits that inhabit that strange and magical place."

$14.95

Andrew's Staff Picks

Shop til You Drop by Elaine Viets

"Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is now going nowhere fast. She traded in her chic life for a shabby one. And now she's on the run, jumping from city to city and dead-end job to dead-end job, trying to stay one step ahead of her past... After two weeks as the new salesclerk at Juliana's, Fort Lauderdale's ultra-exclusive clothing boutique. Helen still feels out of fashion. And since the only crime likely to be committed around here is being old--or worse, looking old--Helen figures she's safe. Until she discovers the manager has been embezzling money and selling designer drugs along with the designer clothes. Add murder to the mix--and Helen's dead-end job is downright deadly."

$5.99

True Crime by Max Allan Collins

"Nate Heller survived his confrontations with Al Capone, only to find himself facing Ma Barker; Baby Face Nelson, and pehaps the biggest and most dangerous question in his life: Who was the man shot down in the alley next to the Biograph Theater; the man the FBI had confidently identified as John Dillinger? Heller's search for the answer leads him into a confrontation with J. Edgar Hoover; and into a much more comfortable meeting with Sally Rand...but not before the streets of Chicago run red with blood."

$6.99

Like a Hole in the Head by Jen Banbury

"Jill, a part-time bookseller and full-time wise-ass, buys a first edition Jack London from a slippery-looking dwarf. The dwarf returns soon after with a polite assassin who wants the book back. Unfortunately Jill has already unloaded it for a nice profit, to a fomer child actor turned book dealer turned love interest. She isn't about to drop the dime on him, so the upshot is, Jill has to find it -- or else. What at first seems like a lucky break turns into unexpected adventure when a cast of B-movie thugs, sleazy book dealers, and ambitious Hollywood moguls join the hunt for the book. Jill finds herself leading an antic chase -- via motorcycle, station wagon, and hijacked bottled-water delivery truck -- across Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Hills. Before she can retrieve the book and discover its irresistible secret, Jill will be cheated, lied to, drugged, tortured, and even forced to act as a movie extra against her will."

$12.00

Troublemakers by Harlan Ellison

"In a career spanning more than 50 years, Harlan Ellison has written or edited 75 books, more than 1700 stories, essays, articles, and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays, and a dozen movies. Now, for the first time anywhere, Troublemakers presents a collection of Ellison's classic stories-chosen by the author-that will introduce new readers to a writer described by The New York Times as having "the spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind."

$12.95

Lelia's Staff Picks

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

"A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for." First published in 1949.

$6.99

Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke

"Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar and Lake Eden, Minnesota's own amateur sleuth extraordinaire, returns in "Lemon Meringue Pie Murder" to track down the killer of a neighbor with a sweet tooth. It's summer in Lake Eden and Hannah's younger sister Michelle is coming home for a visit. But before the family reunion can get under way, Hannah discovers the body of a local resident in the woman's basement. The only clue is one of Hannah's luscious lemon meringue pies on the kitchen counter with only one slice missing. . .even though from the looks of the victim's kitchen, she was planning an intimate dinner for two."

$22.00 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Cold Quarry by Andy Straka

"When a falconer is found dead in the West Virginian woods, P.I. Frank Pavlicek doesn't believe it was an accidental shooting. Hunting for clues, he discovers evidence of a toxic agent contaminating the area--which leads to a group of domestic terrorists and Frank's former NYPD partner."

$5.99

Fluke, Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore

"Everybody knows that humpback whales sing ... but no one knows why. So every winter, researcher Nathan Quinn plies the warm waters off Hawaii in search of an answer. Lately, though, Nate's beginning to wonder if he's spent just a little too much time in the sun. Either that, or he's losing his mind. For just as he snapped a photo of a humpback tail fluke, he could've sworn he saw the words "Bite Me" scrawled across the whale's tail ... So begins a rollicking adventure involving an age-old conspiracy, top-level military secrets, a highly evolved super race with a penchant for baked goods, the source of all life on the planet, a very bizarre long-distance love affair, and a megalomaniac undersea ruler thrown in for good measure."

$23.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

"Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed "The Eyre Affair." To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.

If Thursday thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken. The unforgettable literary detective whom Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times calls "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry" had another think coming. The love of her life has been eradicated by Goliath, everyone's favorite corrupt multinational. To rescue him Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of "The Raven." But Poe is off-limits to even the most seasoned literary interloper. Enter a professional: the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations. As her new apprentice, Thursday keeps her motives secret as she learns the ropes of Jurisfiction, where she moonlights as a Prose Resource Operative inside books. As if jumping into the likes of Kafka, Austen, and Beatrix Potter's Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies weren't enough, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth. The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Fforde's magnificent new adventure, the second installment in what is sure to become a classic series of literary fantasy."

$24.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount