My Top 10 in Fiction for 2003
Discover the top 10 must-read fiction books of 2003! Explore this curated list of the year's best novels, from gripping thrillers to heartwarming stories. Perfect for book lovers!
Book
Keeping Watch
by Laurie R. King
The biggest selling telecommunications and computing dictionary.
Book
The Jesus Thief
by J. R. Lankford
In her national debut, Lankford bypasses apocalyptic themes for mainstream storytelling of an attempt to clone Jesus using DNA stolen from the Shroud of Turin.
Book
Four Spirits
by Sena Jeter Naslund
From the acclaimed author of the national bestseller Ahab's Wife comes an inspiring, brilliantly rendered new novel of the awakening conscience of the South and of an entire nation. Written with the same scope and emotional depth as her previous award-winning novel, Four Spirits is set in Sena Jeter Naslund's home city of Birmingham, Alabama, a city that in the 1960s was known as Bombingham. Naslund brings to life this tumultuous time, weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, civil rights advocates and racists, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression, to create a tapestry of American social transformation. Stella Silver is an idealistic, young white college student brought up by her genteel, mannered aunts. She first witnesses the events of the freedom movement from a safe distance but, along with her friend Cat Cartwright, is soon drawn into the mounting conflagration. Stella's and Cat's lives are forever altered by their new friendships with other committed freedom fighters. A student at a black college, Christine Taylor is inspired to action by the examples of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. She courageously struggles to balance her family responsibilities, education, and work with the passions and dangers of the demonstrations. Her friend Gloria Callahan, a gifted young cellist and descendant of a runaway slave, tries to move beyond her personal shyness and family coziness to enter a wider circle, including blacks and whites, men and women, all involved with the protests. Lionel Parrish, teacher, preacher, and peddler of funeral insurance, battles his own demons of lust and self-preservation, while New York activist Jonathan Green gives up a promising career as a pianist to work for racial justice in the South. These characters all add their voices to the chorus that makes up this symphony of innocent children and the mythic elderly, the devoutly religious and the skeptical humanist, the wealthy and the poor, the city and the country. Poignant and evocative, rich in historical detail, and filled with the humanity that is the hallmark of Naslund's fiction, Four Spirits is a compelling tale that transcends tragedy and evokes redemptive triumph.
Book
Derailed
by James Siegel
A fateful encounter with Lucinda, a married woman, on the Long Island Railroad leads to disaster for middle-class ad executive Charles Schine after a rendezvous at a sordid hotel leads to a brutal attack, blackmail, a would-be hitman, and murder. By the author of Epitaph. 20,000 first printing.
Book
Monkeewrench
by P. J. Tracy
Haunted by a series of horrifying and violent episodes in their past, Grace McBride and the oddball crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught, where the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone starts duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail. By the time the police realize what's happening, three people are dead, and with seventeen more murder scenarios available online, there are seventeen more potential victims. While the authorities scramble to find the killer in a city paralyzed by fear, the Monkeewrench staff are playing their own game, analyzing victim profiles in a frantic attempt to discover the murderer's next target. In a thriller populated by characters both hilarious and heartbreaking, a rural Wisconsin sheriff, two Minneapolis police detectives, and Grace's gang are caught in a web of decades-old secrets that could get them all killed.
Book
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
A novel of the future explores a world that has been devastated by ecological and scientific disasters.
Book
Persuader
by Lee Child
Jack Reacher takes an undercover assignment to investigate the disappearance of a federal agent from the home of a notorious drug dealer, but Reacher soon discovers that the dealer has ties to a man from Reacher's own past.
