Sue Grafton on book clubs and readers' guides

Sue Grafton's latest X is released on August 25.  In Sunday's (7/19/2015) The New York Times'  Book Review she sums up exactly how I feel about book clubs and reader's guides:

Do you belong to a book club?

I can’t stand the idea of joining a book club, because I don’t want others dictating my reading matter. Reading is a cherished passion, and the decision about what to read is strictly my own. Also, just frankly, while we’re on the subject, what the heck is the point of those study guides at the end of so many novels? Are publishers assuming we’re so dimwitted that we can’t arrive at our literary judgments without the benefit of a list of muddle-headed grade-school questions? Give us some credit here.

Heirs and Graces, A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen

7/2/2013

Evoking Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series in combining history, mystery and humor, Rhys Bowen has done it again with Heirs and Graces, her seventh Royal Spyness mystery.

Kept guessing until the end, the reader is all the while treated to a social commentary of the time (1930s Edwardian England), including "royal" descriptions of country houses and misbehavior and decidedly un-royal behavior while in country houses.

Georgiana, thirty-fourth in line for the throne, is asked again by no other than the Queen of England for her help.  This time, she further hones her detection skills while grooming the heir of the title and is aided in both with her support system:  Darcy, Belinda and, yes, the irrepressible Queenie, too.

Ms. Bowen has wittily combined royalty and romance for another jewel in her crown.

Coincidentally, Ms. Bowen has posted an excerpt on her blog today. Of course, you can pre-order at the usual places, but why not try an independent book seller near you?

The Book of Killowen by Erin Hart

A triple treat for me today:

1. A great post on Jungle Red Writers regarding Fiction = Reality and how real fictional characters stay with us readers.

2. The post involves neuroscience, long a favorite topic of mine.  Many have heard me utter (too many times) that if it weren't for all that science and chemistry (!), I would have made a great brain researcher.

3. And the post was written by a favorite of mine, Erin Hart.  While Erin has "only" written three novels featuring Nora, an American pathologist and Cormac, an Irish archaeologist, these two have stayed with me long after finishing each book.  And to prove Erin's point in her post today, I commented that "even" a secondary character (Triona, in Erin's False Mermaid) can become as real to the reader as the main protagonist.

And while I haven't yet had the privilege of reading Erin's latest featuring Nora and Cormac, The Book of Killowen, I just know it'll be another fantastic installment in this series.  Also, it doesn't hurt to have the word of some of the following blurbing the bounty of this book:


"Can the arcane science and lore of the Irish 'bog people,' who often died alone and in agony, be fuel for a mystery that actually does what The Da Vinci Code tried to do? A thousand times yes, if Erin Hart's storytelling witchery is at work. Intelligent, eerie, utterly compelling."
   —Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and What We Saw At Night

"Combines powerful insights into human nature and pristine prose...offers food for thought that persists beyond the immediate thrill of a well-told tale."
   —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The novel is rooted in medieval Ireland and rich in the particulars of monastic manuscripts... All of this history serves the novel's carefully measured suspense and adds to the book's splendor."
   —Minneapolis Star Tribune

So, Erin, please tell me novel no. 5 is a WIP?!

And as my no.1 book newsletter and website, Stop, You're Killing Me!, says:  "You made it to the end; now go find a book to read."  And, of course, I suggest that book be Haunted Ground, Erin Hart's first in the Nora and Cormac series.  Read all about it and the series here.

Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend

Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend

An adult romance truthfully articulated with characters (and settings as characters --- Italy, San Francisco, New York) voicing eternal sentiments and questions without whining, e.g., "How about defining ourselves by how we love?" [Jamie, page 231, in discussion with her sister.]

Or Luca on why each wine and love is its own (and more pointedly to the story, why he's waiting to harvest his grapes): Like amore, love, one wine is like no other wine.  The troubles [emphasis mine] make it yours."

Vino and amore and amore amongst the vino, perfectly paired in Jackie Townsend's Imperfect Pairings.




NetGalley in its own words is " . . . a service to promote and publicize forthcoming titles to readers of influence."

I've been a member since 2010 and as a "professional reader" (again, Net Galley's words, not mine) I am able to request galleys from publishers that, in turn, can accept or reject my request.

Life intervened shortly after requesting and reviewing my first title in 2010.  In the interim, I remained on NetGalley's weekly e-mail newsletter and often thought of returning to a space and time requesting multiple galleys on a weekly basis and, perhaps, becoming of reader of a bit of influence, something to expand on the years of recommending books to my circle of family and friends. And to jump-start my re-entry into the virtual world, or as Jamie in Imperfect Pairings would put it, "Give into who you've been all along," a professional reader.

The Sequel to the Prequel AKA "The End"

It's been my experience that things come in threes, good and bad.  And, so, at the end of this blog, here are three book-related "things" I've recently discovered and enjoyed perusing, slowly:


*Little Free Library

This site was introduced to me by Dee Dee and she hopes to get her son, Tyler, to build a little free library to place outside her Santa Cruz cottage.  


*"Mystery is alive and well in St. Looey"

Met the proprietress, Helen, and chatted about the latest Bouchercon (world mystery convention) just held in the city of the Arch.

*Writing well is the best revenge.

What's not to like about a blog with this tagline, "Eight smart and sassy crime fiction writers dish on writing and life.

It's The View. With bodies."

Some might object to my calling this "The End" as we all know nothing ever really ends or disappears once on this worldwide, web, internet thingy. But I vaguely recall one of my first posts saying, "This blog's birth has come about for many reasons, none of which I want to share right now."  And quite appropriately, the death of this blog has come about for many reasons, none of which I know right now.

But thank you for visiting, commenting and sharing your thoughts.  Now please go support your local library and independent book stores.

Spinning Tales by the Light of the Silvery Moon

Continuing the web/weaving theme of yesterday's post (and no, Charles/Charlotte didn't succumb to the pest technician's monthly maintenance), I've been researching local textile classes and teachers in search of a beginner's spinning class. 


With the economy in the shape it's in and my income prospects still dim (perhaps tonight's full moon will enlighten that situation), my rallying cry of "off-the-grid seaside cottage" has reached smoke-alarm intensity and I figured I'd better do something more than just keep repeating that statement.  


While researching the spinning class options, and there are several, my mind went to the origin of "spinning tales" and sure enough found the interconnection among the spinning wheels, spider webs and novelists:


*in the U.K., the phrase is "spin a yarn" harking to those days when women would sit at spinning wheels, spinning yarn and tell tales to pass the time.


*the spider "spins a web" meaning forming, creating as when someone "spins" a tale or story


*the novelist completing chapter 3 is making a continuous connective thread


And where does all this spinning lead this post?  I don't know; it seems I've lost the thread of connection . . .

Web Weaving

This lovely portrait of nature greeted me this morning as I opened the door to the monthly visit of my pest technician.  How appropriate, we both thought, as Halloween approaches. My neighborhood's Halloweens are legendary.  Our street is one of the few, flat, long streets in town and is the major thoroughfare for  the elementary school at the street's one end, for the residents living in the hills, not to mention emergency vehicles of every stripe. In years past, about 200 kids have shown up at the door and in the five years I've participated, I've run out of candy each year.  And, the decorations' anchor is a six-foot web made of twine!  Must be I was inspired by the all the web-weaving naturally surrounding the house.

Charles'/Charlotte's Web