There's a new vampire/witch/daemon fantasy novel that's hit the best-seller lists. Here's my experience reading the 579 pages. Slayer fans, if you're wondering why the brilliant Joss Whedon is present, read on. And a heads up to everyone: this is a long post. Settle in, or put on your skimmers.
“You Know When the Men Are Gone”
A great title for a debut collection of stories that focuses on the soldiers of Fort Hood, Texas, and the wives they leave behind when deployed to Iraq. It provided this reader an enjoyable respite from witches and vampires.
Smart, hilarious (better?) book titles
During a week that's been unkind to my reading time, a TLC interlude of humor.
How do you spell Mississippi?
Here's a great novel, one of the contenders for the 2011 Edgar Awards in the category of Best Novel. It's got wonderful characters, intriguing mysteries and a deep south setting so richly evoked you feel like it's just outside your back door.
The kind of question one can never answer
Snooping through the bookshelves of The Little Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio, I came across a novel published in 1949 with interesting copy on the back of the dust jacket. Not the usual plot summary or praises of the book one would expect, rather a commentary about reading, written by the book editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A curiosity worth sharing.
An Italian love story
"From the Land of the Moon" won the City of Rome Prize for Italian Fiction and recently became available to the English-speaking world via Europa Editions. Set in Sardinia in the World War II era, it's an exceptional story. I loved the bold and beguiling narrative voice.
Chief Inspector Alan Banks on the case
I've recently experienced the crime solving of Henning Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander and Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret. I enjoyed both, but Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks has got me hooked more. Here's what I found in his first book, as I continue to explore this genre of crime mysteries.
Two from Canada, one from Billy
A collection of short stories by a Canadian author arrived in the mail this week, and I couldn't put it down. Then, I found my nose deep into Newfoundland territory as I read reviews about Michael Crummey's new novel. Amidst the Canadians, also, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Here's what I know of these three upcoming books.
A retreat into the Yorkshire countryside
J. L. Carr's "A Month in the Country" is the story of a WWI veteran who escapes to the English countryside to restore his broken spirit. A gentle narrative big in meaning first published in 1980 and one of the New York Review Books/Classics. Also in this blog post, a YouTube video from the 1987 movie starring Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh.
A rabbit hole and a lighthouse
Linda Gray Sexton is the author of a new memoir, "Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide." If you know her heritage, then you know the stories about her mother, Anne Sexton, the famous confessional poet whose depressions and suicide are legendary. Now her daughter reveals the mental illness she inherited from her mother in a brave story of triumph.
Caught, crooked, faithful…
The Edgar(R) Awards are given to the best mystery books of the previous year. There are 10 categories, and the nominees were announced this week. TLC checks out the six novels in the Best Novel category as possible candidates for the reading table.
A troubled detective, faceless killers
Kurt Wallander is Henning Mankell's inspector in nine crime mysteries published in the U.S., soon to be ten. His detective work is now a major TV series with Kenneth Branagh in Masterpiece Mystery! This is my first meeting with the sleuth.
Hymns to the fragility of human culture
I found this incredible creation of book art, a great grandmother's autograph book turned into a series of clay pages. Yes, we're going back to Mesopotamia. No e-books here.
So very far from the madding crowd
Paradise or hell? I'm thinking hell to inhabit, but these 50 remote islands are paradise to look at and read about in Judith Schalansky's "Atlas of Remote Islands."
When failure means success
Here's the classic novel that launched me into 2011: John Williams' "Stoner." A champagne of books.
The Longest Chapter 