2006 first-time novelists

Author's background: Dyson has written eight books for young adults, as well as articles for National Geographic World and Backpacker. She grew up in Alaska and now lives near Glacier Park, Mont.

Plot in a nutshell: Brandy, a blonde cocktail waitress, follows her latest fling to the Aleutian Islands, but the change of scenery isn't enough to distract her from her dead-end life. She delves into Aleutian island history, learning about the women years ago who, like her, were stranded in this remote outpost. In parallel stories, Dyson chronicles Brandy's life in the Aleutians and introduces readers to successive generations of Aleut women who were charged with fulfilling their ancestors' tragic obligations. Eventually, past and present combine to bring new meaning to Brandy's life.

Sample of prose: "I was in a strange motel room, in a strange town. I was burning through men faster than Yolanda could change expressions. And I had no idea where I was going next, what I was going to do, or who I was going to do it with. I was thirty-one, the daughter of a bum and a slut, saddled with a liquor name."

Author reminds me of: A modern-day Jean Auel

Best reason to read: This is a tightly plotted, multi-layered book: not only a chronicle of a young woman's awakening, but also a fascinating primer on Aleutian life, past and present.

-Vicky Uhland

Lessons in Duck Hunting
By Jayne Buxton (Ballantine, 336 pages, $13.95).

Author's background: Buxton is founder of flametree.co.uk, a website that deals with work-life balance issues. She is also author of Ending the Mother War: Starting the Workplace Revolution. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Plot in a nutshell: Ally James, a 37-year-old Londoner and recently divorced mother of two, has found that she has no life beyond her busy job as group product manager in charge of marketing marmalade and taking care of the kids. She's also not happy about her ex-husband David and his new life of revolving girlfriends.

Enter Ally's good friend Mel, staff writer for Me magazine, a monthly for the modern 30-something woman. Mel wants to write a story about a new "Market Yourself" seminar that helps busy women find the men of their dreams by following business strategies. She convinces Ally to attend the seminars in an "undercover" role so she can get the story done properly.

Ally goes reluctantly, but soon finds that the techniques, though awkward, do make her feel better about herself and help her attract men. One in particular, Tom, looks like a real keeper, but then Ally's life gets more complicated when her ex, who likes what he sees about the new and improved Ally, tries to convince her that they should get back together.

Sample of prose: "I think I've become invisible. Perhaps the invisibility has something to do with age. Perhaps when your children are in their teens, like Di's, and you're deemed to be footloose and fancy free, you have the appeal of a nubile young creature, but with twice the experience. We've all read the literature about women in the forties being in their prime. When you're in your mid thirties with two young children, maybe you fall into the category of 'too much like hard work with not enough pay off.'

"Of course it's possible that the invisibility is self-inflicted. When you're over thirty, single and surrounded by couples, you're an automatic object of suspicion. People can't help but see you that way. So you spend an awful lot of time keeping your eyes down and your hands to yourself in case anyone should interpret you as a threat. In mixed company, flirting is simply out of the question. Invisibility is by far the safest option."

Author reminds me of: No one in particular.

Best reason to read: While this novel clearly has "chick lit" written all over it, the story rises above the usual such fare with significantly more heart and soul. The dilemma of a working single mother looking for love clearly has appeal to a large group of readers. In addition, the idea of using business techniques to find a mate becomes intriguing and keeps the reader turning pages to find out more.

-Verna Noel Jones

The Thrall's Tale
By Judith Lindbergh (Viking, 446 pages, $25.95).

Author's background: Lindbergh's work has appeared in Archaeology Magazine and in connection with a Smithsonian exhibition on the Vikings. She spent 10 years researching this book.

Plot in a nutshell: In this compelling saga of the Viking settlement of Greenland in the late 10th century, Katla is a thrall, or slave. When her beauty brings the attentions of the jealous son of her owner, she is brutally raped and disfigured, setting the plot in motion.

Katla is then sold to Thorbjorg, a healer and seeress, who nurses her back to health, and she eventually gives birth to the product of her rape: Bibrau, a child she despises from birth. Although Thorbjorg fosters and apprentices Bibrau, the child becomes embittered toward her mother and obsessed with revenge.

When Leif Eriksson brings Christian settlers to Greenland and creates a culture clash, Bibrau sees a way to pervert Thorbjorg's healing spells and ceremonies to punish her mother and disrupt the close-knit community.

Sample of prose: "While the sun set not upon the far horizon but hovered low and shed bare warmth, the fires burned in the Althing booths, but my foster-daughter stood above. I felt her eyes ... that burned. Burned with a kind of passion ...Now I knew for certain: it was hate. Hate that I did feed with skills for something greater. Yet she took them from my hands and churned them with her hunger, then spat them back with but a fiery rage."

Author reminds me of: Jean Auel, in her ability to transport the reader into an unfamiliar time and place filled with authentic characters.

Best reason to read: Lindbergh's prodigious research, blended with a lively plot and full-dimensional characters, makes for a positively engrossing read. The three female narrators propel the story forward and also represent the conflict between the old paganism and the new Christianity.

-Joan Hinkemeyer

Two Harbors
By Kate Benson (Harcourt, 312 pages, $14).

Author's background: Benson’s short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines. She teaches English in Massachusetts.

Plot in a nutshell: Casey's mother, a former high school prom queen, abruptly abandons her husband and her only child, Casey, for a chance at stardom in Hollywood. Throughout her adolescence in the desolate Minnesota town of the title Casey, still suffering from her mother's abandonment, rejects all overtures of love and affection until she meets Dex. When he dies in a plane crash, his California family invites Casey to Hollywood for the funeral. As Casey discovers the truth about her mother, she finds her own voice and sense of self.

Sample of prose: "I think of home, its thickness and density: the coarseness of stone and bark, the rich, dark smell of soil, of pine and a wider landscape rolling forcefully along the horizon. Dex told me once he felt REAL there, that he'd found in Minnesota a stability he'd never had before - and I can feel, for the first time, why he might have wanted that beneath his feet."

Author reminds me of: Ellen Gilchrist and Pat De Voto, in her ability to probe the psyche of a young woman coping with loss and seeking personal identity.

Best reason to read: For it's fine, sensitive portrayal of a small town girl and her search for herself.

-Joan Hinkemeyer

The Year the Music Changed
By Diane Thomas (Toby Press, 242 pages, $22.95).

Author's background: Diane Thomas is a freelance writer/editor, with an MFA from Columbia University. In writing Year, Thomas wanted to see "how close I could fit fiction up against reality." She divides her time between Florida and Georgia, with her husband, Bill Osher.

Plot in a nutshell: A fan letter leads to a yearlong friendship via the mail, between a lonely teenage girl named Achsa and a young singer named Elvis Presley. Between corrections of his grammar, Achsa confides in Elvis about her unhappy home, her birth defect, and her wish for a future in the theater. Only 20 himself, Elvis marvels at the power of his growing stardom. "The fans was going for my pants!" he writes Achsa. The relationship ends in their first and only meeting, as precocious Achsa realizes that it's time for her to pursue her own dreams.

Sample of prose: "Elvis has advised Achsa to leave off talking in slang. 'It don't sound right some girl saying 'Dig it, man, he's a real gone cat.' 'Thank you for your advice, but I shall talk jive if I wish. I don't see why my being a girl should make one whit of difference,' sniffs sophisticated Achsa. So there, big brother."

Author reminds me of: Colorado young adult author Julie Ann Peters, in her gift for voices. Even secondary characters have distinctive tones when they appear in the correspondents' letters. Achsa's critical, explosive father is frightening.

Best reason to read: For the friendship between Elvis and Achsa. By turns, Achsa is funny, pompous, innocent, impetuous, and wise beyond her years. It's a treat to see the young King take care of her.

-Christine Jacques