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Today is National Biography Day. On this day in 1763, Samuel Johnson had a meeting with John Boswell and a beautiful biography was born.

Mystery writers have given the biography a bloody twist. Historical figures investigating crimes make for entertaining reading and hopefully even more entertaining discussion. There’s the built in topic of how accurate and/or realistic was the author in depicting the life, personality, and times of the investigating luminary. Not to mention the methods that are used to solve the puzzle.

If you’re looking for some historical mysteries featuring real characters try one of these titles, a scant few considering how many more are out there.

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard features a young Edgar Allan Poe, assisting a retired New York City detective who takes a fatherly interest in the moody young alcoholic with poetic tendencies. The two men are investigating the murder and dismemberment of a cadet at West Point.

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl features a cadre of American scholars, Henry W. Longfellow, James Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and J.T. Fields, all of them Dante scholars. The young band of intellectuals are investigating a serial killer who is using Dante’s Inferno as inspiration for his murders.

The Escape Artist by Ed Ifkovic features a young Edna Ferber before she became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Edna is a girl reporter with the lucky break to interview Harry Houdini during a visit to his small home town. After the body of a young woman is discovered, Edna and Harry team up to solve the crime.

Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story by Kim Powers features the death bed confession of Truman Capote as he telephones his long-time friend Harper Lee and they discuss their shared experience involving the Clutter family and their estrangement over Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. A literary mystery.

Midnight Fires: A Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft by Nancy Means Wright. This isn’t the Mary of Frankenstein fame, but her mother, a staunch defender of the oppressed and advocate for women’s rights. Before she became notorious for her outspoken views, Mary was a governess. In this fictionalized account, she investigates the murder of an illegitimate member of the local aristocracy.

There are also series featuring Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Beatrix Potter, Charles Dickens, and Charlotte Bronte, just to name a very few. Be sure to bring along a biography of the “investigator” for fun fact checking during discussion.

An important part of the book club experience is using what we learn from our fellow readers to find books that will suit us. But as book clubs succeed and fail in selecting or reviewing books collectively, individual members succeed and fail at the art of recommendation. It’s a subject worth exploration, and in this post I’ll examine the process by which we suggest books to club friends.

Sometimes suggestions are artful. When a match is made, lights going off in the potential reader’s eyes: “I like books about that subject. And in that setting! And those kind of characters!” When it’s done right, the potential reader latches onto the book without anyone saying directly, “I think that you should read this book.”

But sadly, many recommendations are made badly. Like the gift giver picking presents that he or she wants, not what recipients might like, an overenthusiastic reader can push a book on someone who’s clearly uncomfortable with what’s being offered. The victim of such white elephants is placed in the awkward position of being perceived as rude in rejecting the unwanted gift or having to read and report on a book that there’s not much hope he or she will ever appreciate. Neither scenario is pretty.

When the urge comes to recommend your newest favorite, take a step back. As generously motivated as the thought is, you won’t make friends by trying to force the book into the hands of the first reader who says hello. There are more reasons why this will go wrong than space to explore them in this post. Here’s the better way:

First, talk about the book to the full group, instead of cornering an individual. If your group doesn’t include time to talk about side reading, consider adding it to at least some of your meetings. It’s fun, and it makes a better forum than forcing readers to corner each other before, after, or during a refreshment break when they’d rather be socializing. If a book is worth promoting, sing its praises to everyone at once. This avoids the awkward overstep–all of the unknowable reasons that a particular reader might have for not wanting to take on a “gift” at the moment it’s offered.

The most important thing to remember when recommending (and the same idea is worth keeping in mind as we review books in groups, too) is that reading is a subjective experience. Even the greatest books will not please every reader or make a good fit with their current reading needs. Instead of thinking about quality as an absolute and single measure, as a thumbs-up-or-down review, it’s better to  divide focus, identifying all of the aspects of a book (in librarianship, we call them appeal factors) that might make a particular reader like it.

By all means sell the book, but not with generics: “It’s the best book ever,” “The writing is fantastic,” or “It’s a real page-turner.” Just as good discussion gets into specifics, so should your suggestion. Don’t spend much time recounting plot details either, keep that to a bare minimum. Think instead in terms of “readers who like _______ will really love this book.” That blank can be filled in many ways: particular subject matters; the different ways in which writers use language; settings in place or time that particular readers find fascinating; characters who are like themselves or of a type that they find intriguing; books paced in a certain way; books that resemble other popular titles… the list of potential appeals is almost endless, and identifying the important ones for the book that you think others should try is the core of the art of recommendation.

Finally, remember that there is a flip side: qualities or content that will make it difficult for certain readers to enjoy the book. Don’t put as much energy into this part of the review or recommendation as you give to the positives, and don’t be too prudish, but include a gentle warning if the book takes strong political or religious positions, includes strong language, violence or sexuality, or uses a style that some readers find difficult to enjoy, such as a plethora of big words, strongly colloquial speech, non-linear plotting or frequent switches in narrators, unlikable or untrustworthy protagonists, black humor, or minimalism that requires extensive reading between the lines. In identifying these elements, don’t judge. Many people like books with each of the qualities just mentioned, so just mention that they are there, don’t apologize for their presence.

With a little practice, you can become a great matchmaker between books and readers, a master of the art of recommendation. Next week, I’ll look at how libraries, online booksellers, and book social media sites have approached the practice of recommendation.

Have any of you BG Buzzers out there read The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry?  At my library, it’s classed as a “mystery,” although I noticed that on the cover, the publisher calls it a “novel.”  I’ve been puzzling over it, for a number of reasons, so I guess in that sense it is a “mystery,” although I’m not sure it’s a satisfying one.

To begin with, the narrator for a large share of the book is beyond unreliable — she’s mentally unbalanced!  She sees dead people, although she doesn’t realize that’s what is happening.   After a while, one asks — is she dreaming or hallucinating?  Some of the story isn’t told from her point of view, but follows a police officer that she’s attracted to.  Turns out he’s a recovering alcoholic, as is her former boyfriend, who keeps popping up at inconvenient times to cause problems.  More unreliable folks.

In addition to switching abruptly from a first-person narrator and a third-person account, the book moves back and forth in time; most of it is set in Salem, Massachusetts (there’s a witchcraft theme), but some scenes take place in California.  All of this adds to the mystery, as one is reading along, and then there’s the issue of character names: the heroine is named Sophya but goes by Towner, and she has a twin sister (raised by her aunt and uncle instead of her mother) called Lyndley, but who we later find out is really named Lyndsey.  On top of this, we have characters named Eva and Emma, as well as Ann, Anya, and Angela.  Are you confused yet?

The primary mystery seems to be the disappearance of Towner’s beloved great-aunt Eva (who may be dead), but there’s also a second disappearance — of a troubled teenager named Angela, who may be having an illicit relationship with Towner’s uncle, a religious fanatic named Cal.  Rafferty, the policeman Towner is dating, is trying to solve the mystery of the two disappearing women, but he doesn’t go about it in the typical manner of an investigator;  he’d rather watch the sun go down while eating chop suey sandwiches.

Also puzzling are the quotes from something called The Lace Reader’s Guide that start off each section of the book as well as many of the 33 individual chapters.  Quotes such as “The Reader must be certain, as she asks the question, that the Seeker is prepared to receive the answer.”   I presume these are presented to provide a certain texture to the story, but although there are “lace readers” in the tale, “lace reading” doesn’t really figure in the development of the plot or the solution to any mystery.

Fellow authors call The Lace Reader “astonishing” and “evocative” in quotes that appear on the back cover, and Publishers Weekly claims the book will “keep readers captivated all the way through.”  Well, I’m not sure I agree.  I did finish the book, but I’m uncertain that all the mysteries were cleared up by the time I turned the last page.  Maybe I need to attend a discussion of the book, to ask all the questions that came to mind as I was reading and find out what other readers thought.

I’ve just finished my first dip into John Dunning’s Cliff Janeway series with the opener Booked to Die. It’s a brisk, entertaining mystery with a sympathetic cop who doesn’t like the way his job is tapping into the dark side of his character.  He turns to work in the private sector, rubs elbows with well developed secondary characters, has a little romance with a potential femme fatale. It’s a great story, but one that might not support a great discussion.

In this case, however, the background framing device makes all the difference. The trade that lures tough guy Janeway away from policework is bookselling. He opens a shop, highlights many aspects of book collecting, notes the behaviors of bookish people, and opines on several authors. The first victim is a book scout, a ne’er-do-well type whom Janeway is convinced was killed because of some motive related to his occupation.

This frame makes this mystery prime material for a book group, either on its own, or as part of a meeting focused on bookshops and book collectors. It would pair well with nonfiction titles like the works of Nicholas Basbanes, Lewis Goldstone or Alberto Manguel, Lewis Buzbee’s The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Allison Hoover Bartlett’s The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road or Larry McMurtry’s Books: a Memoir. Some groups might even have a book seller or an amateur collector among their numbers who would like to talk a bit about some of their own book adventures.

Dunning’s biography also has several hooks on which to hang discussion. The first is that Dunning has made himself an advocate for ADD, a condition that in his case wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood and made his early years difficult.

Reality also mirrors fiction in this case, as at one point he gave up writing to open his own bookshop, the Old Algonquin in East Denver. Dunning closed that shortly after starting the Janeway series, moving his bookselling practice online as many dealers have.

Finally, fans of the series may have wondered what happened to Dunning and his hero Janeway, who hasn’t been featured since the series’ 5th entry, 2006′s The Bookwoman’s Last Fling. Dunning was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that year, and its removal cost him an eye and has left him in a long recovery. Readers should wish him well as he works toward returning to writing.

Fiction has been kind to the career of Sean Bean, who has perhaps appeared in more films adapted from novels than any other contemporary actor. You could easily theme an entire book group meeting around the great novels that have been made into films and series in which Bean figures prominently. Now he’s about to add one more genre to his resume.

Bean first came to the attention of film buffs as the villain in the adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan thriller, Patriot Games.

Historical fiction fans perhaps knew him first as Sharpe, the hero of films from fourteen well-loved Bernard Cornwell novels set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain.

Less known in the U.S. are several adaptations of classics. Try him in 1990′s Lorna Doone, 1993′s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, or his turn as Count Vronsky in the 1997 version of Anna Karenina. These aren’t marvelous, but they’re serviceable, and will make you want to read the great books that inspired them.

Those who like works for young readers might check out Bean as Farmer Grey in 1994′s Black Beauty, as Zeus in the adaptation of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, or wait for his turn as Smee in the forthcoming Pan which will drastically re-imagine the J. M. Barrie classic.

Of course Bean’s fame was truly cemented by turns in two fantasy masterworks. He was a memorable Boromir in the film of The Fellowship of the Ring and recently raised cries of distress among those who loved him in HBO’s Game of Thrones and hadn’t read George R. R. Martin’s book.

If romance is your thing, you could even catch him in the miniseries based on Alexandra Ripley’s Gone with the Wind sequel, Scarlett, although in this case you’d be better served by re-reading or re-watching the works that inspired them.

Now you can add crime fiction to Bean’s list. Bean has signed to play South African Detective Benny Griessel in a film based on Deon Meyer’s Devil’s Peak trilogy. If you love the books, which have received starred reviews in Booklist, you’ll be happy that they’re about to get much better known. If you love Sean Bean, starting reading now to finish the trilogy before the film. The three books are Devil’s Peak, Thirteen Hours, and the forthcoming 7 Days.

As our local crime fiction book discussion group continues its genre study of crime and mystery fiction, we find ourselves reaching the category of psychological suspense.

In writing Make Mine a Mystery, I proposed the idea that the after effects of war has changed how readers approach death in fiction.  After WWI, my idea is that people may have come to believe that the death of an individual might not have any meaning when so many are killed in senseless battles in trenches.  I would like to think that the creation of detectives who did care about the death of an individual, such as the great thinking detectives in the classic puzzle novels of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, may have restored people’s faith.

After the use of atomic weapons in WWII, my theory is that people again began to have doubts about the deaths of individuals.  When so may can be killed so quickly and so impersonally, does the death of an individual matter at all?  A second layer of doubt points back at the persons causing the death:  how could this happen.? In relationship to crime fiction, the question is simply one of why rather than how.

Although arguments could certainly be made for works of fiction by James M. Cain (and I even like to point to The Grapes of Wrath occasionally), I like to use Patricia Highsmith as the benchmark author of psychological suspense.  Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950) was the book we read and it fulfills all the requirements of setting the stage for future writers, establishing a crime with psychological underpinnings as the motive, and developing characters who are disturbingly engaging.  The discussion on this title was lively and thorough, taking almost too much time because we had a contemporary novel to discuss this night as well.  (Do not forget to encourage readers to watch the excellent Alfred Hitchcock movie with the same title, even if Hitchcock changed a few things for cinematic reasons).

The basic plot of Strangers on a Train is that an architect named Guy Haines, who is having relationship issues, is traveling by train to confront his wife Miriam in Metcalf, Texas, when he encounters a man named Charles Bruno.  Bruno initiates a conversation that eventually leads to the suggestion that if Charles kills Miriam for Guy, Guy should kill Charles’ father for him.  Sensible people would run.  People in a psychological suspense novel are not sensible.

Our contemporary novel was The Chameleon’s Shadow (2008)by Minette Walters.  Walters has been dazzling our crime book discussion for years as we have been reading one of her novels each semester, including one of my “sure bet” book discussion selections, the totally creepy The Sculptress (1993).

This novel features Lt. Charles Acland, a severely damaged Iraq war veteran who through a series of Jungian synchronicity ends up the focus of a police investigation into the murders of street people.  In discussion these two titles together, it was interesting to see how issues of self-image, sexual relations, sexual orientation, physical illness and overbearing mothers were present in both books.

Minette Walters has twelve novels that are the best psychological suspense written since Cain and Highsmith.  Any of her titles will engage and enrage any book discussion that attempts to discuss them, and The Chameleon’s Shadow was no exception.  Our group stayed overtime to allow all aspects of the two books to be discussed and everyone went home with a better understanding of why the characters behaved the way they did.

The Mystery Writers of America have announced their Edgar Awards for 2012 for the best writing from 2011.  They are:

BEST NOVEL:  Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

Nominees:  The Ranger by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons);  The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur Books);  1222 by Anne Holt (Simon & Schuster – Scribner);  Field Gray by Philip Kerr (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Marion Wood Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR:  Bent Road by Lori Roy (Penguin Group USA – Dutton)

Nominees:  Red on Red by Edward Conlon (Random House Publishing Group – Spiegel & Grau);  Last to Fold by David Duffy (Thomas Dunne Books);  All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen (The Permanent Press);  Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL:  The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Hachette Book Group – Orbit Books)

Nominees:  The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle (Felony & Mayhem Press);  The Dog Sox by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Mystery Books);  Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Paperbacks);  Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

BEST FACT CRIME:

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (Random House – Doubleday)

Nominees:  The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins (Crown Publishing); The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T.J. English (HarperCollins – William Morrow);  Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender by Steve Miller (Penguin Group USA – Berkley);  The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal (Penguin Group USA – Viking)

BEST JUVENILE:  Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press)

Nominees:  Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger (Abrams – Amulet Books);  It Happened on a Train by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers);  Vanished by Sheela Chari (Disney Book Group – Disney Hyperion);  The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey (Egmont USA)

BEST YOUNG ADULT:  The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall (Random House Children’s Books – Knopf BFYR)

Nominees:  Shelter by Harlan Coben (Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons);  The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (Penguin Young Readers Group – G.P. Putnam’s Sons);  The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Roaring Creek Press);  Kill You Last by Todd Strasser (Egmont USA)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD:  Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown Publishing Group)

Nominees:  Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books);  Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow);  Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick (Minotaur Books);  Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)

Booklist’s own Bill Ott attended the Edgars, and blogged about it for Likely Stories.

“…This has been one of them.”

That’s the famous line that concludes the narration of the noir classic, The Naked City, and it came to mind twice recently. The first was when I came across a recent post on Flavorwire that identified ten books that star cities. It’s a list with mostly unexpected, recent choices that you might find intriguing.

The second time I though of the many stories that can be generated by a city (or a country, state, or other locale) was when our staff book group at Williamsburg Regional Library took on Paris as its theme for this month’s reading. I won’t recap the meeting as I often do. I wrote about Paris books in a post about A Moveable Feast at Blogging for a Good Book, and the nature of the books we  chose for this meeting–out-of-print histories, children’s books, and various kinds of light reading–made them enjoyable, but perhaps not prime focus for typical book groups.

But then that’s the joy of thematic book grouping. As Gary noted here earlier this week, a strong setting doesn’t necessarily create much to talk about in a single-book meeting. But when that setting becomes the theme for the meeting, and readers highlight several books, it creates a kind of mosaic that can begin to replicate the many aspects of any given locale. The variety of books that come to thematic meetings ensures that nobody goes home without jotting down a few titles they would like to try later.

Since we’re neck deep in Mystery Month coverage for May, I’ll also note that the thematic approach works well for genre fiction. Genre books are often heavy on plot, short on the kind of everyday human conflict that makes books easy to discuss. It doesn’t mean they aren’t great books, but you can’t follow the model of a literary seminar: you’ll run out of things to analyze too quickly. Still, people love to read these books, and they’re very well suited to five-minute “teaser” talks, which makes the thematic approach the ideal way to feature them.

You probably won’t get through eight million stories in your thematic meeting. But getting through eight is a good start.

Last year my colleague Linda Johns decided that she was going to try to read through the alphabet in the mystery section to gain even more familiarity with the world of mystery. David Wright is doing the same this year and writing blog posts for Shelf Talk about his “Alphabet of Crime” reading adventures.

Here are some of the posts that David has written about his A-Z affair with the mystery stacks:

Margarey Allingham

Killer B’s

E. C. Bentley

G. K. Chesterton

Sherlock Holmes  (Doyle)

Loren Estleman and James Ellroy

Four Felonious Frasers

William Faulkner

Stay tuned for the rest of this fun series!

I once asked Sue Grafton what were the themes in her books.  She had to think a minute and then replied, “People should not kill each other.”

For a crime fiction book discussion group, “people should not kill each other” is not sufficient textual content to handle a ninety minute discussion on a title.  The reason is the same for this genre as it is for any:  the main ingredient of the genre is a foregone conclusion when approaching the topic so it has minimal impact on the reader.  In most crime fiction (with rare exceptions), the central core of the novel is going to be a death or a crime and someone is going to be tasked with dealing with that disruption in society.  Readers know this and book discussion participants are going to need more to discuss.

Arguments can be made that if plot is not a major player in the discussion, certainly characters and setting can be.  While that is true, in genre fiction the danger for characters and setting is that they can be used as entertainment devices but not as thematic enhancements.  You can drop into any of the thirty nine Hercule Poirot novels by Agatha Christie and understand the character because he is essentially the same man in each book.  Once you are done discussion Poirot’s cute little peculiarities, there is not much left to discuss about the character.

The same can be said for the use of setting by some authors.  If the setting is a cruise ship, a hat shop or an Amish farm in Pennsylvania and those settings are used to entertain but not to educate, then setting will fail to enhance a book discussion as well.

Entertain vs. educate.  When I wrote the book Read ‘Em Their Writes in 2006, I did a duck and cover because I was upfront about my opinions on this topic and nothing has really changed over time.  My intent is not to disrespect entertaining works of fiction (or to be accused of being a cozy hater!!!) because there is no greater joy that spending a few hours inside an entertaining book of fiction.

I still believe that there are two types of genre writing:  those titles written to provide a wonderfully entertaining reading experience and those that are written to provide a wonderfully entertaining reading experience and send a message. 

For book discussion leaders, I believe you need to use those that are written to provide a wonderfully entertaining reading experience and send a message.  The exception is when your group is reading an entertainment-only effort because you are doing a genre study of that author or character.  I belong to a local crime fiction book discussion whose montly topic is the author and their character with members reading multiple titles in the series.  The multiplicity of our attack on this author’s works can easily fill the time required even if the books are entertaining only and lack strong thematic content..

In the main, a crime fiction title with a strong theme is going to work best.  My sure bet recommendation and my personal all-time best crime fiction novel is Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River.  This novel is set in a working class neighborhood in Boston and the setting is integral to the story because the fascinating characters are steeped in the traditions of their environment.  But more important to this discussion today, the multiple themes of the novel are significant and compelling.

Ironically, one of the core themes in Mystic River is people should not kill each other.  Sue Grafton might have been put on the spot when I asked her that question because a number of her books have themes that extend far beyond the worry over murder.  She deserves more credit than she gave herself.

The good news is that I believe that this is true of a vast majority of contemporary crime and mystery novels.  Read ‘Em Their Writes lists discussion questions for 100 novels I believe would work and since that publication I have accumulated another 100.  If I can find them, so can you.  Watch Book Group Buzz this month for many helpful suggestions for a crime and mystery book discussion titles that work.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or just don’t read crime fiction, you’re probably familiar with Michael Connelly and his first series character, Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch. Bosch is a long-suffering LAPD detective, a man who doesn’t always play well with others because of his fierce code of conduct, his quick temper, and his somewhat impulsive methods in solving crimes. Working on the LAPD, Harry’s got to struggle with red tape, grubbing careerists, and outright corruption almost every time he tries to solve a crime.

The consistent quality of this series makes it one of my favorites to suggest to crime fiction neophytes at the library. The publication of The Drop in 2011 marked Harry’s 16th outing, and he’s getting very near retirement. It’s a series best read in order, as the events of Harry’s personal life are often of as much interest as those in his cases. If you’re like me and you find entry into a series this long intimidating, or if you’re considering skipping around, I recommend two books that are required preliminaries to understand Harry’s character.

First, of course, start at the beginning with The Black Echo. Not only is it his first case, but it explores a key part of Harry’s personality. The murder victim here served, as did Harry, as a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War, a man who had to crawl into underground labyrinths where claustrophobic run-ins with the enemy or booby traps were a constant possibility. The experience contributes to the post-traumatic stress which makes it difficult for Harry to form relationships or work well with others. There’s a murder, a bank caper, the introduction of FBI agent Eleanor Wish, and Connelly’s signature L.A. settings as well in this fine series opener.

The second book to highlight is Bosch’s fourth outing The Last Coyote. It reveals the other key piece of Bosch’s personal mythology: the murder of his prostitute mother. She was a call girl, but she took good care of Harry until the state sent him into many years of neglect in the foster system. Shortly after mother and son were split, she was murdered, and when Harry is suspended for assaulting a clueless superior, he decides it’s finally time for him to take a personal look at a case left cold since 1961. His encounters with the past, his sessions with a police psychologist, his ongoing battle with internal affairs, and even his attempts to renovate his earthquake damaged home in the Hollywood hills do much to illuminate the man that is Bosch. This is the book that fully explains Bosch’s anger at institutional neglect and his personal credo, “Everybody counts.”

Michael Connelly is a veteran with more tricks in his bag than just Harry Bosch. As such, book groups might enjoy sampling works from throughout his career in a meeting. Try The Poet, which pits Denver crime reporter Jack McEvoy against a serial killer who he believes killed his cop brother. Make sure someone reports on Mickey Haller, the defense attorney with somewhat unusual working methods. He’s a man with sleazy ethics, but in the first book of the series, The Lincoln Lawyer, he’s forced to confront the cost of his behaviors. Connelly veterans will enjoy a double dose of fun with The Reversal, which features both Bosch and Haller.

Over at Books & Such blog, Rachel Kent asks this question. It’s a good one to ask in light of the recent news surrounding book awards. In the U.S., the Pulitzer board couldn’t name a clear winner from three very deserving nominees. In Australia, the Queensland Premier has announced no winners for the Queensland Literary Prizes be named at all and the prize is on hiatus indefinitely due to state budget cuts.

Ms. Kent looks at this question from a publisher’s view. She freely acknowledges that some prizes are a “notch” above others, but all awards can make a difference in a writer’s professional life. For publishers, fledgling writers that come with an award are a much easier sell. Of course consumers will pay attention to a book with a shiny gold or silver medallion it. Booksellers know this, publishers know this, and library staff know this.

For all the wonderful books out there to choose from, it’s not that easy for some book groups to select only twelve per year. Sometimes a vetted title will hold more sway than one that didn’t get nominated for a prize. Some book groups only want to read award winners. And occasionally the good jurors who bestow the prizes recognize a title the rest of us would have missed.

Prizes do matter to all concerned, publishers, authors, and readers alike. Prizes will boost industry sales, discussion and readership, and, hopefully, a writer’s confidence and name recognition.

It’s a little disappointing that the Pulitzer board couldn’t come to a consensus for a Fiction winner, but they did provide three exceptional titles that will generate plenty of discussion in the year to come. Book groups everywhere will read all three and cast their own votes for the best of the trio. My library is running it’s own “Publitzer Prize” promotion right now and generating more conversation about titles that weren’t even in contention.

It’s a grave disappointment that the Queensland Literary Prizes have been decommissioned. I’d bet that if we asked any of the Australian authors living in Queensland, and quite a few who do not, that it’s not about the purse attached to the literary prize. It’s the recognition for artistic merit and hard work that prize winners appreciate the most. It’s the dialogue among new readers that will follow after the prize has been given.

The discussion doesn’t stop because there’s no Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year and there won’t be any Queensland Literary Awards winners at all. But there’s definitely a lull in the conversation.

On the eve of the announcement for the call for entries for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Queensland Premier announced the cessation of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Both awards are two of Australia’s most valuable and noteworthy awards for literary achievement.

Due to budget cuts, the Queensland Premier’s government is no longer funding the awards. This decision has been met with anger among Australia’s authors. In The Courier of Ballarat, Victoria, Peter Temple, one of Australia’s top authors and a recent winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, was exceptionally vocal.

Temple noted awards such as the Franklin and Victorian Premier prizes are far more meaningful for the authors and the readers than a hefty purse, “they celebrate the place of the book in our culture. They tell the world we value books and the people who write them.”

Prizes are awarded in numerous categories for both the Queensland and Victoria literary awards: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, youth and teen literature, plays, film and television writing. Quite a few eyes are turned on the Victorian Prize for Literature, the most valuable of Australia’s literary prizes.

Book group readers and leaders will see many familiar names on the lists of previous winners of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

In crime writer James W. Hall’s new book Hit Lit, he argues that most bestsellers, and in particular twelve mega-sellers that he examines, share some common characteristics.

Like many experienced readers, Hall became frustrated with the quality of the books that made the bestseller list. But teaching a course on bestsellers began to change his point of view, and now, although he still sees the flaws in these books, he also appreciates what they do well. His book identifies twelve characteristics that are shared by bestsellers: for instance that they’re small stories told against big backgrounds; that little time is spent on character backstories; that the bestsellers portray some aspect of the American dream; that characters in them move back and forth between country and city; and that they are often misfits of some kind in the world.

I don’t agree entirely with Hall, but I do think his book would make a fantastic starting point for a discussion in one of your upcoming meetings, perhaps even over the course of several meetings if your group prefers reading bestsellers to more complex fare.

Even if you aren’t interested in Hit Lit, I encourage you to check out the discussion questions posted on Hall’s website. They would make useful fodder for discussion of other books or as an icebreaker at an upcoming meeting.

Yesterday I went to an event at a local independent bookstore to hear two Random House representatives talk about forthcoming summer releases.

Here are some of the ones that stood out:

Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson: The story of a young man’s journey from Ethiopia to the kitchens of New York City. It’s being hailed as a great read for anyone who enjoyed Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential or Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones & Butter.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce: A letter arrives and a man’s memories compel him to hand-deliver his reply–even though he has to walk 500 miles to do it. A good bet for readers who enjoyed Helen Simonson’s breakout debut Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.

Twilight of the Elites by Christopher Hayes: American institutions have let us down and Hayes delves into the many facets of how this has affected us all.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: This former Entertainment Weekly television critic is becoming a rising star in the world of riveting, dark suspense. In her latest, you can’t trust anything you think you know in this unpredictable thriller.

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya: In this political thriller set in Kandahar, an Afghan woman who has lost her legs posts herself outside a military base demanding the body of her brother. But does she want more than that?

I also picked up Inside by Alix Ohlin and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sendker.

While it’s a Houghton Mifflin title, I have to say that I can’t wait to get my hands on Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel memoir, Are You My Mother?

What spring and summer releases are you dying to read or think might be smash hits?

I met with the Science Fiction/Fantasy group at Williamsburg Regional Library last week to discuss steampunk. There’s a real surge of popularity for steampunk in fandom and among designers lately, driven by retro-future romanticism and the fact that steampunk, with its mix of Victorian high style and gleaming gears, glistening clockwork men, blimps, and goggles, looks fantastic on film but is relatively easy for the home costumer or designer to re-create.

The question for our book group was whether or not this aesthetic phenomenon translates to successful literature. Steampunk should be set in a Victorian or Edwardian era past (though not necessarily England), but an alternate history that featured advanced technologies (still usually driven by steam power, intricate mechanics, or some other juiced-up version of science available at the time.) That’s the “steam” part of the name. The “punk” portion of the moniker comes from anti-authoritarian attitudes and individualist aesthetics: Victorian amateur scientists or Wild West adventurers taken to new extremes. Books that aren’t set in the Victorian era, but evoke the same styles and attitudes in another world or time period may also be called steampunk.

The genre’s roots are in works originally published in the Victorian era, particularly those of Jules Verne, whose advanced science in works like Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea presuppose the steampunk aesthetic. Later, works published in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s would inspire and inform the current explosion. These writers include James P. Blaylock (The Digging Leviathan), Paul Di Filippo (The Steampunk Trilogy), Alan Moore (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates), Christopher Priest (The Prestige), Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass), Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age), S. M. Stirling (The Peshawar Lancers), Paula Volsky (The Grand Ellipse), Martha Wells (The Death of the Necromancer), and William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (The Difference Engine).

The readers in our group found that the works that inspired the steampunk phenomenon (a nice selection can be found in the two Steampunk anthologies edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer) are worth reading. The current crop of steampunk fiction is a more mixed bag. As with any hot subgenre, some of the work is inspired, but much is derivative. In this case, there’s also the problem that clever technological advances and plucky spirit are only an authorial misstep away from unbelievable pseudo-scientific hand-waving or jarring anachronistic behavior.

Some of the recent authors found advocates in our group. Gail Carriger writes funny romantic urban fantasies about the Parasol Protectorate starting with Soulless. Mark Hodder’s Burton and Swinburne adventures start with The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack and George Mann’s Newbury and Hobbes investigations begin with The Affinity Bridge). China Miéville’s New Crobuzon-set books–Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council aren’t pure steampunk but they have the right aesthetic. Scott Westerfeld, one of many young adult authors exploring steampunk, has found success in the trilogy of Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath.

Our group first explored this topic a couple of years ago, but we revisited it because since then, steampunk has been taken up by a slew of new writers. Other authors that those interested in sampling recent steampunk might try include Tim Akers, Meljean Brook, Andrew P. Mayer, Felix J. Palma, Cherie Priest, Lev AC Rosen and Lavie Tidhar. Is it back to the future or forward to the past? I’m not sure, but it certainly stirs something in the creative mind and the romantic spirit.

“People are freer in America.  But there are more tears.”

The sentence above, a quote by Mama Geless, a Danish immigrant in the book City of Orphans. does a nice job of summarizing the theme of this story.  Unintentionally, I have been reading books with similar themes lately including Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (another coming of age novel set in New York City) and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (another novel dealing with children forced to make grown up decisions). 

Also, unitentionally, I find myself reading a crime novel.  This novel was selected for our monthly staff book discussion by our Youth Librarian because it fit the category of Historical Fiction.  However, it does fit my definition of a crime novel and therefore gave me an entry into crime writing for the younger market.

Set in 1893 in New York City, the novel tells the story of Maks Geless, a thirteen year old boy who has left school to sell newspapers (a newsie) in order to help his family survive the economic depression of the times.  Papa and sister Agnes (a tuberculosis sufferer) work in a shoe factory while older sister Emma has a job as a maid in the brand new Waldorf Hotel.  When she is accused of the theft of a gold watch and tossed into The Tombs, Maks takes action to get her released.

The contrast between the Geless’ family poverty and their struggles to hold multiple jobs just to survive is nicely contrasted with the elegance of the Waldorf where bell boys will retrieve your glasses from your hotel room if you forgot them.  Even more sinister, people who are not of the right ilk will be denied entry to the hotel at all, tossed out by the same hotel security who accused Emma of her crime.

In his desperate search for affordable allies, Maks turns to the very interesting Dickensian character Bartleby Donck, a former Pinkerton who now lives in poverty as a tuberculosis sufferer, writing boy detective stories for the papers to survive.  Another touch from that writing style is Bruno, the head tough of the Pub Uglies Gang, a group of boys being used to attack the newsies in order to disrupt distribution of the paper and the message it carries.

The central figure in the whole story that unites it all is a homeless girl name Willa who rises up one day in an alley to defend Maks from an attack.  That earns her his respect, a place in the Geless family and a role in all the future developments in the plot.  The pathos that surrounds this character is a big part of the atmosphere of the book.

In the Author’s Notes, Avi says, “It was a time of great wealth, great poverty, widespread crime, great charity, and major political reform.”  Hmmm, how familiar does that sound?

Ultimately, I may not have the background to say with authority that this book would work as a discussion title for younger readers.  But as an adult reader, I enjoyed the story and believe it does have enough thematic content to create questions for a discussion.  One of the challenges of the novel is it is written in present tense in a colloquial voice and occasionally shifts away from Maks perspective.  I would give it a try if for no other reason that it is just a good story to read in these hard times.

And finally, the last post of all on the best books of 2011! Here are the most frequently mentioned titles in best-of-the-year coverage in the categories of narrative nonfiction (excluding memoirs and biographies, which were featured earlier this week) and the catch-all of how-to, art, cooking, and crafts books.

The final version of the 2011 ABBC (All-the-Best-Books Compilation) is available for download as an Excel spreadsheet via Blogging for a Good Book at Williamsburg Regional Library. The spreadsheet lists 3328 titles published in 2011 in 11 genres and subject categories, each annotated to show which of 237 newspapers, magazines, awards, blogs, and other web sites named them a best book of 2011.

NARRATIVE NONFICTION

35 mentions  Erik Larson  In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family In Hitler’s Berlin

23 mentions  John Jeremiah Sullivan  Pulphead: Essays

Stephen Greenblatt  The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

22 mentions  James Gleick  The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood

21 mentions  Susan Orlean  Rin Tin Tin: the Life and Legend

20 mentions  Michael Lewis  Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Candice Millard  Destiny of the Republic: a Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President

19 mentions  Joshua Foer  Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything

18 mentions  Christopher Hitchens  Arguably: Essays

17 mentions  Daniel Kahneman  Thinking, Fast and Slow

16 mentions  Mitchell Zuckoff  Lost in Shangri-La: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Missions of World War II

Jon Ronson  The Psychopath Test: a Journey through the Madness Industry

Adam Hochschild  To End All Wars: a Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

15 mentions  Simon Sebag Montefiore  Jerusalem: the Biography

14 mentions  David McCullough  The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

13 mentions  Charles C. Mann  1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

12 mentions  Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War

11 mentions  Steven Pinker  The Better Angels of Our Natures: Why Violence Has Declined

Janet Reitman  Inside Scientology: the Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion

10 mentions  David Eagleman  Incognito: the Secret Lives of the Brain

Amanda Foreman  A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War

HOW-TO, ART, COOKING, and CRAFTS

9 mentions  Yotam Ottolenghi  Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi

8 mentions  Phaidon Press  The Art Museum

David McMillan et al.  The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: a Cookbook of Sorts

7 mentions  Andrew Bolton  Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

6 mentions  Andrew Carmellini  American Flavor

Mourad Lahlou  Mourad: New Moroccan

Jennifer McLagan  Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal

Annie Leibowitz  Pilgrimage

5 mentions Brad Thomas Parson  Bitters: a Spirited History for a Classic Cure-All

Jacques Pepin  Essential Pepin

Ferran Adria  The Family Meal: Home Cooking from Ferran Adrià

Paula Wolfert  The Food of Morocco

Nathan Myhrhold et al. Modernist Cuisine: the Art and Science of Cooking

Michael Ruhlman  Ruhlman’s Twenty: the Ideas and Techniques that Will Make You a Better Cook

Last week I had the pleasure of attending my colleague Jared’s new science fiction and fantasy book group, Other Realms. While it was at the library it was still particularly enjoyable to be there as a participant rather than as a facilitator.

The group met to discuss Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels, a teen fantasy that won the World Fantasy Award for Fiction (in a tie with Jeffrey Ford’s The Shadow Year) and a Printz Honor Award in 2009.

I am not giving much away in revealing the set-up of Tender Morsels. Liga is 14 at the beginning of the book and after her mother died her father has started raping and impregnating her and even enforcing herbal abortions. But Liga is determined to keep her third pregnancy and her father dies mysteriously on his way back from the witch who has provided the termination powders. Shortly after the birth of her first daughter, Branza, Liga is gang-raped by five village boys.  Liga then becomes the mother of a second daughter, Urdda. Somehow Liga is able to retreat with her daughters from the real world into a magical world where they are all (mostly) safe. Lanagan relays Liga’s plight with lyrical, visceral prose that shares the shape of Liga’s traumas while not showing the readers the acts.

Tender Morsels is a dark fantasy indeed so one of the first questions that the group tackled was is this really a teen novel? Everyone agreed it was not and that marketing it as a teen novel lost the book some of its audience. Then the group explored the themes of the novel, the fairytales that serve as its scaffolding and inspiration. They also asked why a novel that has been called feminist by many (and one reader took vehement offense to this) made the female narration third person while the male narrators were told in first person?

One question kept coming back around through the group–do authors use rape as a metaphor for the worst that can happen to a person and why? Was Liga a victim and was that drawing of her exploitative or not? Or was the sorrow of a loss of true love and connection, in the end, the greatest harm done? We talked about the ways this theme has carried out in other contemporary novels like Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mary Doria Russell’s The  Sparrow. Is there a right way to write about rape?

The group also talked about some of the humor in the novel and the ways in which the Bears in the story reveal some levity as well as danger. The ending of the novel also drew some different reactions.

Tender Morsels is a provocative novel to be sure and brought out strong opinions and feelings in the group. While not for the faint of heart, if your group is open to fantasy that explores some dark corners of the human experience and psyche, try Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels.

With my brand new e-book reader and time on my hands due to some vacation, I decided to reach out into the world of literature and read something completely different for me.  My book of choice was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and I chose it for two reasons.  Early reviews had caught my fancy including our own coverage by Misha.  The second reasons was that it was available free from my library’s e-book selections when I needed to download something to my new device.

Serendipity rules. 

What a delightful surprise this book turned out to be.  It is a fantasy, a romance, a Gothic, a work of magical realism.  It is one of those works that is hard to describe especially when trying to append appeal factors to it.  But I am certain of one thing:  no one will lack for questions when putting together a book discussion about this title.

The basic plot of The Night Circus is that two master wizard manipulators are setting up a contest between two budding magicians (for lack of a better word) who are going to be set against each other while not being told what the game is, what the rules are, where it is being played and who their opponent is.  Ultimately, we learn that the battle ground is Le Cirque des Reves, a magical traveling carnival that evolves with the story and includes secondary characters of equal power to the two main combatants.  The parallels between the fates of secondary characters and our two main protagonists enriches the tale.

Morgenstern chose to write this tale across time by bouncing around in a thirty year period and using multiple points of view.  While the plot is not hard to follow there is a challenger in her style.  She is beautiful writer who can be both graceful in execution while being meaningful in her message.  It is both a very dark, sad book while having an uplifting message that self-worth can be a powerful cure for even the most overwhelming challenges.

If I had to use one word to describe this book, it would be:  different.  I felt so refreshed reading this book because it was unlike any other I had read.  That made me want to discuss it with someone and hopefully that is how your book group participants will feel as well.