The *Best* of 2009--

The new year is not quite a month old so I'll assume it's a-OK to look back for good books to read which were missed. Hence, I found on the web the (Fort Worth TX) Star-Telegram touting the top mysteries of 2009 in an appealing list of thirteen.A few titles and writers jumped off the page to me as the first pick The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly which I really enjoyed reading and number twelve by a personal favorite author George Pelecanos ' The Way Home. And there are more familiar names for me and my book club regulars, I know.

Click here for the entire list. What do you think?

Book club discusses "Cold in Hand" [November]

In November, the book club had the interesting project of reading and discussing a book that was identified as being the last book of a series featuring an English police detective. Writer John Harvey created Charlie Resnick a number of years ago and his first novel to be published in 1989 was Lonely Hearts. Here is a googled recent photo of Harvey.

In 2008, Cold in Hand was released with DI Resnick preparing to end his police career with retirement when a case with personal ties pulls him into a major investigation. A shooting and murder involving rival gangs takes place when DI Lynn Kellogg--Resnick's live-in girl-friend--plunges into the fray to settle things down without success. The murdered person, a young woman named Kelly Brent, has a vocal critic of the police in her father, Howard of the circumstances leading to that death. And yet, Howard, due to his shadowy activities draws the interest of the police in his daughter's death.

The high profile murder case for Resnick and Kellogg is only part of the professional issues they encounter as another murder case Kellogg has handled resurfaces with an interdepartmental investigation and tints of police corruption.

The book was well-received and here are a few observations:

• the novel caught some of us off guard with a sudden murder nearly midway in the story of an important character
• the murder investigation of Kelly focuses in one direction and--oddly--doesn't look at the gang fight for suspects
• the author plays with the reader's attitude towards Howard Brett as he is an angry parent after the death of a child but also pictured as an angry militant black man
• when a major character is introduced midway through the story, Harvey uses a telling example of personal judgment to represent her character early on
• the novel is well-written to share character background and scenes of threat and menace.

In closing, I looked to find a library music CD with singer Bessie Smith performing "Cold in Hand Blues" (hence, the book title) but I could not check it in time for the book club. So, I settled for the available Bessie Smith music CD I could check out and played it before the book club started.

Writer Robert B. Parker dies--

When I read the headline on the Internet today about the death of novelist Robert B. Parker, I gave a small gasp and mouthed "oh no." Although I did not keep up reading private eye Spenser books Parker cranked out at a steady quip for a number of years now, I was a fan. Here's a googled pix of one of the true favorites of the library mystery section.

When I was younger, I enjoyed the '80s TV series Spenser for Hire with actors Robert Urich and Avery Brooks--based on the Spenser series--and much later got into those characters stories in print. I started with The Godwulf Manuscript and--truth be told--just bounced around wildly from there.

And as a fan, I looked forward to seeing Parker's other work too, whether reading his young adult book Edenville Owls, a stand-alone book about a bodyguard for ballplayer Jackie Robinson in Double Play and the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randell novels. I was also pleasantly impressed when I watched the movie Appaloosa last year on cable and saw that it was based on the Parker novel at the movie's end. Usually, I'm not too excited about Westerns but I read this was a good one (and the actors were interesting).

At 77 years old, Parker did thankfully live to get nods of appreciation for his body of work which includes the recent Mystery Ink's Gumshoe Award in 2007 for the lifetime achievement. Here's much more here about Parker's work aside from my reflections.

He won't write any new stories of characters striving for justice, battling with fistacuffs or throwing wise-cracks but I've certainly enjoyed Parker's work over the years.

Staff Picks Their Favorites for 2009

Speaking of Avatar the movie in the previous message, "avatars" have come up at work as a fun resource to use for promoting a staff picks display. Spectifically, our library had one created for several staffers to accompany their selection list for their favorite reads of the past year.

I missed out on participating myself but decided to create an avatar anyway that I may use again. This one comes from doppelme.com. I reviewed the other staff's selections and came across a few mystery/thrller titles and thought I'd pass on those picks. Nine staff participated with maybe five in this list to follow.

Here goes: Dan Brown's The Last Symbol; Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow; C. J. Box's Blood Trail; John Hart's The Last Child; Michael Connelley's Scarecrow (I read and really enjoyed that one) and Sara Paretsky's Hardball.

If I got in the promotion with my choices I would have included Frederick Ramsey's Stranger Room; Joe Barone's The Body in the Record Room and Jacqueline Winspear's An Incomplete Revenge: a Maisie Dobbs Novel.

Movies, Movies--Do I Want To See That Movie???

It seems the official holdiay movie season may be technically over and Avatar is the big box office winner with--surprise(?)--a reworked version Sherlock Holmes making a very strong showing. This is the movie art shown on Yahoo! movies.

In November, I included Holmes along with two other movies for a mini-movie poll for upcoming movies and it placed first so I shouldn't be surprised it is doing well now. The other two movies I included were The Missing Person with a limited release in November so I'm unsure if it makes a theater in my area (ever) and The Lovely Bones is set to open nationwide next weekend.

From the poll (just from the movie trailers), my favorite movie was The Missing Person as it appeared to be a noir type of film. My least favorite was the Holmes movie with a nice update of the character but just too present day in manner (for my tastes).

I have read the book The Lovely Bones and I'm interested in the movie treatment.

And yet, I may only see these movies on DVD (or cable) as I just can't get the movie theater as often as I'd like...

New Year Resolution Suggestion--

My local daily newspaper had a syndicated guest column recently with a suggestion for a slightly different new year's resolution--join or start a book club. A little different, huh? Maybe--maybe not.

Anyway, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times columnist Robyn Blumner wrote such an article punctuated with rules for a successful book club (check for "Join a book club to open your mind" Dec. 17th).

I appreciated Blumner's analytical take on book clubs and want to borrow her third suggestion to "let each member pick a book as opposed to making a consensus list." That sounds like a good approach to shift book club leadership dynamics around the group.

My book club has used a consensus model for years--primarily the selections which get the most votes from the group and that has been an acceptable diplomatic treatment for book titles. But I think we can make Rule #3 an option to explore.

And participants can count this down to stretching their reading palette.