Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Favorite Late-Night TV Guest Is Writer--

I may catch part of the Dave Letterman show after the local news but as a rule I don't catch "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" which follows. Not to knock Ferguson, I remember hearing his monologues a time or two and liked his commercials promoting his show. And I like that he does the show with a loosed neck tie--yep, he looks like he's *hard at work.*

As it turns out as I checked on my favorite entertainment website Entertainment Weekly yesterday, and found that Ferguson likes to interview a certain mystery writer on his show. Long-time writer Lawrence Block , author of the PI "Matthew Scudder" series which Ferguson enjoys, is also a hoot to share the late night TV guest chair.

Need some convincing? Take a look here on YouTube as Block visited the show last month and talked about his newest book and more. Here's a
googled photo of Block too who claims he's retired at 73 but spent his year writing...well, you listen to him explain it.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Recommended mystery (politicially speaking) --

Are you one of the 99 percent? If so, there's a recent mystery for you.

Charlotte is a home of the weekly newspaper "Creative Loafing"--several exist around the country, I still believe--and it had an informative cover story about the Occupy Wall Street movement last week. The story was nicely-detailed about the movement and even included a small accompanying list of examples of popular media sharing the populist sentiment of the movement.

Included are columnist John Glooms book selections with the story and his first was a 2005 mystery by Sara Paretsky, Fire Sale. Glooms writes (under the coarsely-titled subheading of "Corporate D[***]-Head Fiction" a quick blurb) "Paretsky's novel is a fast-moving mystery about scheming corporate bullies and the struggles of the working poor."

And writing about these matters puts writer Paretsky in the right ball park as she has a longtime association with community activism (look at her bio on her webpage).

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

For the one of my co-workers...

After my co-worker teased me about my messy desk, I found a title on the shelf to match her fondness for felines. She is without a doubt a *big* cat lover and, as to be expected, a long-time cat owner. Oh, and she has worked as a librarian for years and the protagonist of this series is a librarian.

Author Miranda James who has started "a cat in the stacks" series with librarian Charlie Harris has a second in her series with Classified as Murder on shelves this year. Mississippi is the setting for these cozy stories with librarian Charlie playing detective with his helpful cat, "Diesel" helping him in murder investigations.

The first novel was published the previous year and is entitled Murder Past Due.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Clean up your mess (hint, hint)!

One of my dear colleagues shared a cute paperback mystery title today (with a knowing smile) from her new display as a suggested read: Death Loves a Messy Desk. It is the third book in the "Charlotte Adams" series by writer Mary Jane Maffini.

Ms. Adams is a fictional professional organizer and an amateur sleuth in upstate New York. The 30-year-old Adams is in her comfort zone working, as the author's website says, " surrounded by old friends, new dogs and plenty of clients."

I'm afraid my comfort zone includes large piles of papers on my desk (from computer classes or book club stuff and more), checked out books or music CDs, bookmarks, a lunch bag, an old paperweight my father received for serving on the public library board years ago, a framed art print, hand sanitizers, (often) a package of crackers, a cup with scissors, straws, pens, datebooks, and more old books from book sales or removed from the library collection. And, well, there's more with my chair sometimes holding the last items I've touched for the day...

So, I'd be wise to take my co-worker's advice and read the book, especially with tips at the beginning of the chapters like "five minutes of filing at the end of every workday can save hours searching through piles of papers for documents later on." And for more about the book, take a look at this video book ad.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Writer Lilian Jackson Braun dies--

To live into your nineties is seen as a blessing and that hopefully was the case for mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun. Today's news outlets report that she died last week in South Carolina (and here's a googled photo).

Braun was a fixture on the mystery book shelves with her long-running "The Cat Who..." series. A devotee to the cozy mystery genre, she retired from newspaper work in 1984 and turned to writing mysteries full-time until retiring again in 2007.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

(Another) Mystery writer blog

Maybe two years (or so) I signed up for email updates from writer Julia Spencer-Fleming entitled "Kill from the Hill" for messages about her series featuring "Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne. It's possible it might be much further back though, double-checking the date when the book club read Spencer-Fleming's first book (In the Bleak Midwinter) it was in October 2004.

There's a new book in the series One was a Soldier due for release in April and Spencer-Fleming joined a blog featuring eight mystery writers now called JungleRed. I'm actually quite glad to read about the blog because (too often) I tend to go to a few websites and I'm done so it is good to see what else is available. The blog also features the work of Rhys Bowen, Jan Brogan, Roberta Isleib, Hallie Ephron, Deborah Crombie, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Rosemary Harris.

The blog description reads (in part): Welcome to Jungle Red, a salon of eight mystery writers. Here, it's all about writing. And not writing. And our search for motive in life, love, fiction and reality.

All have books in the library system.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Holiday reading--

Over the holidays a visiting sister-in-law had a small paperback mystery that kept her attention until she polished it off just after Christmas. The book's cover didn't catch my interest--it looked like a "cozy mystery" I'd be reluctant to try--but I reconsidered and took a closer look.

The book is Tapped Out (2007) by writer Natalie M. Roberts, which is the second book of the "Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mysteries." I began to wonder if my library had that book or any Roberts books so I checked into it. The library system does have a couple of copies of Robert's first of the series Tutu Deadly. It was also printed in 2007.

I was glad to see the author's work carried in the area libraries so that the collection is that varied and diverse. It's reassuring to know we mix it up including a writer who doesn't have a long-running series (see here for Roberts).