Winner of the Illustrated Book of the Year award in 1994, The Art Book has become a publishing phenomenon and a well-known event in the art book world. Reduced in size, making it light and highly portable, this new mini edition presents the same easy-to-use alphabetical guide to 500 of the world's greatest painters and sculptors. 500 color illustrations.

THE SHAPE OF WATER is the first in Camilleri’s series of contemporary mystery novels featuring Inspector Salvo Montalbano and set in Vigáta, a fictional seacoast town in southern Sicily. One can’t help but love this Montalbano character. He’s an unpretentious and honest Italian policeman who doesn’t care who he offends when he is intent on solving the crime of the moment. In this case, there doesn’t seem to be a crime at all when an influential local contractor is found dead in a very compromising situation.

The deceased Silvio Luparello appears to have had a last fling with a prostitute and suffered a massive and fatal heart attack in the process. Montalbano becomes suspicious when a powerful politician, a judge, and a bishop all apply pressure to quickly close the investigation.

Our hero manages to get a 48-hour extension during which he sorts it all out.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first novel from Stieg Larsson, a Swedish magazine editor who passed away before its publication. A runaway success in Swedish, this mystery novel doesn't adhere to the conventions of most English-language mysteries. The book tells the story of a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who is hired to investigate one prominent family's murky history, and he in turn hires a young girl to help him with the detective work.

That main thread is only one part of what's going on, though; Blomkvist is also caught up in a libel lawsuit stemming from his day job as a financial reporter. The editorial commentary on the world of high finance and the professional responsibility of financial journalists is an interesting but incongruous and not fully formed thread of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Overall, Larsson's debut novel is intriguing, and readers willing to stick with the unusual storylines will become absorbed in the mystery.