Library Journal has posted an intriguing list of "not to be missed" fiction debuts from the Fall 2003 season. How many have you read? I was interested to find there were a few I hadn't even heard of. Anthropology of an American Girl by H.T. Hamann (published by Vernacular, a small press) and The Rope Eater by Ben Jones both look like they're worth a library browse.

Vernacular Press is quite mysterious; a Google search yields only a website for Anthropology of an American Girl. Check out the excerpts from the glowing reviews on Amazon.

Speaking of fiction by first-time novelists, I finished reading Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z by Debra Weinstein (see my post from March 10). Although the ending had been heavily foreshadowed, that was beside the point because Weinstein's rendition of how the Flower Poet carried off the theft of Annabelle's work was so well done.

Weinstein writes a newsletter for NYU--that's her day job. She's also a poet, as is evidenced by the beautiful pieces sprinkled through the novel. In any case, it's clear she knows the cut-throat academic literary world very well, and that's what makes the novel so satisfying, so true.