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Something to Read – Websites – Mysteries and More

I was looking up websites about Mystery books to recommend to Harford County Public Library customers now our new Mystery book group is starting up in Bel Air.

I found this one specifically about Mystery, plus resources on other genres too:

The Mystery Reader
http://www.themysteryreader.com/
For fans of mysteries here are reviews of current books divided into subgenres, including police procedurals, cozies, thrillers, etc.


What Should I Read Next?
http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/books/search
Enter a book you like and the database of real readers' recommendations will suggest something to read next.

Bookspot
http://www.bookspot.com/
BookSpot.com is a free resource center that simplifies the search for the best book-related content on the Web. Featured sites are hand-selected by BookSpot.com editors and organized into intuitive categories, such as bestseller lists, genres, book reviews, electronic texts, book news and more. BookSpot is maintained by StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc. The Wall Street Journal said, "Are you looking for a book to tuck into your beach bag? BookSpot is a hub for online book reviews, reading lists and bookstores."

BookPage
http://www.bookpage.com/A monthly general interest book review, BookPage covers the best in new releases. In the past 15+ years, BookPage has interviewed everyone from John Grisham to Norman Mailer, and typically reviews up to 100 of each month's new fiction, nonfiction, business, children's, spoken word audio, and how-to books. The tone is upbeat and literate, focusing on bestsellers as well as new discoveries.

You can find these, and more websites recommending books at Something to Read - Websites on the Recommended Booklists on ReadersPlace.

Labels: Internet Booklists, Mystery Booklists, Online Booklists, Reading Websites, Recommended Booklists, Something to Read

It seems I have been reading quite a lot of historical fiction lately. Unlike the books I recommended a few days ago, Annette Vallon is not an historical mystery but a straightforward historical novel – a work of fiction that evokes or recreates the past. Quite often these fictional works take for their characters real people who actually lived at the time. Sometimes a novelist takes for the main character a notable historical figure and puts words into their mouths and motives into their heads. Since these kinds of historical novels are usually based on meticulous historical research, it could be argued that this kind of reanimation of people who have lived and died and can no longer defend themselves is as legitimate as the work of a biographer. Another approach to historical fiction is to create the main character from imagination and to set him or her among minor characters who actually lived. A compromise is to make your main character a minor figure from the past about whom little is known, as is the case with Annette Vallon.

History records that Annette Vallon (1766-1841) met English poet William Wordsworth when he spent a year in France on the eve of the French Revolution. Annette became his lover and muse and bore him a daughter, Caroline (1792). Wordworth left France as the Revolution became more repressive and violent, returning to see his daughter years later, even after having proposed marriage to an Englishwoman.

In this fictional account, Annette is a headstrong, spoiled, and convention-breaking daughter of a rich doctor who has the temerity to enter into an unconventional “marriage� with William. When William’s foreign status and outspoken politics place him in danger, Annette risks her life to assist him in escaping the Loire region where she lives. In this region there is much popular resistance to the Jacobins, who are Paris-based and are stripping the country of food and conscripts for the army. Annette becomes a legendary resistance leader and helps many refugees from the civil war. The bulk of the second part of the book is about this resistance. I found it exciting reading. There was a lot to think about in the way the ideals of the Revolution degenerated into tyranny, bigotry, fear, and violence.

Conversation Starters
“Tipton's descriptions, à la Tracy Chevalier, of how masterpieces are created alternate with the spirited heroine's adventures, making for an uneasy balance…�
“Annette—and those who help her along the way—are believable in their struggles through the best and the worst of times.�
One reviewer called the book “vibrant and alluring.� Would you agree?
Annette refuses to be married unless it is for passion. She says she has been spoiled by the novels of Rousseau. Find out about Rousseau.
The novel is narrated in hind-sight by the 50-year-old Annette. Did you like this device?
What did you think of Annette’s mother?
Do you think it is fair to take a real person’s life and fictionalize it?

This is a very good review from the Philadelphia Inquirer http://www.popmatters.com/pm/books/reviews/53082/annette-vallon-a-novel-of-the-french-revolution-by-james-tipton/

Further Reading
Wordsworth: the Poetic Life by John L. Mahoney
Other novels on the artist life by Tracy Chevalier and Sarah Dunant

Labels: Annette Vallon, Annette Vallon - Fiction, French Revolution - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Here is another blog to help you find something good to read:

Blogging for a Good Book: a Suggestion a Day from Williamsburg Regional Library

The reviewers just use their first names, though I suspect they are the Regional Library’s staff. The nice thing about this blog is that they have categorized the books reviewed. The categories are listed all down the right sidebar; so, that if you liked Nature Writing, for instance, you could click on that category and see reviews for more books.

Just a slight drawback for me – the recommendations are for all kinds of books, including books for children and young adults. I enjoy reading all kinds of things, but mostly I prefer books written for adults, so I have to be careful to check the level before I try and get the book.

Labels: Blogging for a Good Book, Book Group Suggestions, Good Books for Book Groups, Good Books for Reading Groups, Reading Group Suggestions

Labels: Book Group Buzz, Book Groups Blogs, Good Books for Book Groups, Reading Groups Blogs

I was looking at my bookmarked list of favorite readers' websites today and was reminded that there are several best seller lists online, where you can check what is currently popular at any given moment. These lists are a great place to go if you are looking for something new and timely to read.

Just in case you have forgotten them, here they are:

BookSense.com Best Sellers These lists are based on sales at over 400 independent bookstores across the country.

New York Times Expanded Best Seller List Get all the lists: hardcover fiction, paperback fiction, hardcover nonfiction, paperback nonfiction, hardcover advice, paperback advice, and children's books. Note: Free Registration is required for the complete lists.

USA Today's Top 150 Best Selling Books List Based on sales from the previous week, this list shows the top sellers in all formats together.

Labels: Best Sellers Lists

What Angels Fear combines the elements of historical fiction, mystery, and romance all in one fast-paced, suspenseful package. Set in England in 1811, the book is rich in the details of daily life and the political intrigue of the time. The story is summed up by Publishers Weekly like this: “When Sebastian Alistair St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is accused of the rape and murder of actress Rachel York, mistress to various members of Spencer Perceval's wobbly Tory cabinet, Sebastian goes "on the lam," in the words of young Tom, his adopted companion and faithful servant, and must spend frantic days in clever disguises chasing "across London and back." Uncanny powers of sight and hearing help him to identify several suspects, including Hugh Gordon, Rachel's fellow actor and ex-lover; shadowy French émigré Leo Pierrepoint; and even his own wayward nephew, Bayard Wilcox, who had been stalking the victim for weeks. Also implicated is portrait painter Giorgio Donatelli, for whom Rachel often posed nude, whose current patron, Lord Fairchild, is expected to be the next prime minister. Waiting in the wings to rule over this gathering chaos is dissolute Prince George (aka Prinny), soon to become regent for his incompetent father, George III.�

Conversation Starters and Things you might like about the book
Many readers will like the quick start and the fast pace. In the Prologue, atmosphere is established right away with the terror of a fog-shrouded evening in a deserted church. The first chapter begins with a duel. Character is established through action. Much is left to be inferred.
The book is rich in historical detail, especially graphic depictions of poverty in the slums of London. Some readers have been jarred by the characters’ motives and sensibilities – they found them to be anachronistic and they detected also some errors in judicial procedures.
The main character is very likeable – he is an outsider, independent, iconoclastic, physically powerful and adept, well-liked by his friends, moral, heroic, and conflicted.
Humor is provided by St. Cyr’s self-deprecation and by the cheeky character of his side-kick, Tom.
Suspense is provided by the dangers St Cyr faces in the pursuit of the murderer and in his flight from Bow Street. There is suspense in the mystery as it unfolds and the plot is pleasingly complex. The gothic and convoluted turns of the plot are set believably in the political unrest of the times.
Romance is a very powerful element of the book and is provided by the lovely and mysterious actress Kat Boleyn. While Romance is very important, the book never becomes sentimental nor loses its pace.

Other books like this
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
Petty Treason: a Sarah Tolerance Novel by Madeleine E. Robins
Covent Garden Mystery by Ashley Gardner
The Egyptian Coffin by Jane Jakeman

Labels: C. S. Harris, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Regency London - fiction, What Angels Fear

"I don't know about Freddie Troy, " said my husband as he finished the last page of Old Flames by John Lawton, a book I had finished just the week before, "he's selfish, unprincipled, completely unpredictable, violent, and snobbish." I agree, I said, as I reached for the next book in the series, "I don't know how he has survived in Scotland Yard this long or why he has any friends." Despite this dismay at Freddie's lamentable character, we both have grown almost to like him and to be deeply interested in other books in the series which might explain more about how he got to be this way.

Labels: Chief Inspector Troy, Cold War - fiction, espionage fiction, John Lawton, Old Flames

Labels: Bel Air Mystery Program, Edgar Awards 2008, Look at Detective Fiction, Mystery Writers of America

Actor Ron McLarty's first novel was well-received back in 2005, and in general the Abingdon Lite at Night book group enjoyed reading it. Only one reader wasn't too keen but this was because it was not the kind of book she would normally read. It does deal with some serious issues such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, and violence in American society, but above and beyond that it is a heartwarming and inspiring story of a man who goes on a quest to claim his sister's body, and finds himself in the process. Smithy Ide is a very overweight, alcoholic, chain-smoking Vietnam vet, socially inept, in a boring job, living alone. He discovers that his sister has died and is in a funeral home in Los Angeles. Without any planning or forethought he takes off on his old bicycle one day and his ride becomes a road trip across America from Rhode Island to Los Angeles. He meets a variety of characters on the way, some good, some bad, loses weight and quits his bad habits. He also rediscovers his childhood neighbor, Norma. This is a wonderful story, although you have to grant that the author has used some artistic license. It is doubtful that a man in Smithy's shape could just set off and ride so far without some serious health problems, but give McLarty the benefit of the doubt and read this book.

Ron McLarty’s new novel, Traveler, was released on 1/22/07.
A film version of The Memory of Running may be made in 2009.

You will find a good review of this book at http://www.curledup.com/memrunnin.htm and a book group reading guide is available at http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/memory_of_running.html

Labels: bicycles, mental illness, road trip, weight

Labels: Bel Air book discussion group, book discussion, Dilys Award, Mysterious Minds, Mystery awards

Harford County Public Library's Winter Reading Program has been up and running for a couple of weeks now. It's called, "Let Your Imagination Run Wild: Read!" All you have to do to participate is sign up. If you read 5 books by March 1, 2008, you receive a free gift! Just check with your local branch for details.

I have signed up, and for doing so I have received my free Winter Reading Pen. I love those pens because they have a nice heft to them! The pen is going to come in very useful as I fill in my five titles on my book log, which I will turn in to my branch for my free gift.

So far, I've only read one and three-quarter books, and some odd pages of two or three others; however, already branch librarians have been receiving completed book logs from swifter readers than me. With permission, librarians are sending me titles from these book logs so that I can make booklists of readers' recommendations. I thought it would be nice for people to share their favorites, and also for you to see what others have read and liked.

If you put a star on your book log by the book you most recommend, we will share that recommendation with other readers. You in your turn can get an idea of what other people have liked recently by checking out the Winter Reading Booklist on Readers Place. I will keep it updated throughout Winter Reading.

Labels: Harford County Public Library, winter Reading Program

Labels: National Book Crtics Circle Awards

A couple of days ago I did a blog about books made into movies that had made the Golden Globe nominations in various categories. All of the books are eminently discussible and great suggestions for book groups.

The Golden Globes were awarded yesterday with little ceremony because of the writers' strike.
Movies based on books did very nicely. Among the winners: Antonement, best drama and best original score; No Country for Old Men, best screenplay (Ethan and Joel Coen) and best supporting actor (Javier Bardem); The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, best director (Julian Schnabel) and best foreign language film; and Into the Wild, best original song.

Please see my Readers Place book list for more about the books.

Labels: Atonement, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Golden Globes, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men

Labels: Essence Literary Awards

Labels: Golden Globe Awards, New York Film Critics Circle, Sami Rohr Prize, Screen Actors Guild Awards

On Thursday, January 15, 2008 at 6:30 PM, the Darlington book group will meet at the branch to discuss Anita Diamant's The Last Days of Dogtown. Call 410-638-3750 for details.

Labels: Anita Diamant, book groups, Darlington Book Discussion Group, Dogtown Commons, Gloucester, Last Days of Dogtown, Massachussetts - fiction