Newspaper Mystery Book Critic is Library Guest--

The local newspaper, thankfully, can be a reliable source for mystery book reviews and at the Charlotte Observer Salem Macknee has held the spot of responsibility for a while.  Writing mystery book reviews for the newspaper since 1995, Macknee has given readers a quick run-down of selected new books with a few sentences per title and then its on to the next.

Salem Macknee (photo
by Charlotte Observer)

That serves her well as the reviews give a quick gist of the novel and a sense of mood or Macknee's reaction.

This long-time newspaper staffer visits South County Library next week--Thursday, June 13th--as a participant with the Adult Summer Reads series in "Hot New Mystery Novels for the Summer."

Macknee will share what we can expect new in the mystery section at  libraries and book stores.  Additionally, some lucky attendees will have the opportunity to walk away with a  gift provided for the event.  Please register at the library's webpage for programs or call the library at 704-416-6600. ext. 4. 

So instead of the monthly book club session at the library, the scheduled time will feature a guest who just may have read and finished a book or two when even if she didn't find it engaging--then she did not stop after 50 pages.    

Bad news on the book review beat--

I walked into the family room earlier this week to catch the news on the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS-TV and heard a discussion about book reviews. Listening closer, I found the participants were talking about the shrinking space for book review sections in today's newspapers.

One speaker lamented the situation and soberly discussed the cutback of book review sections in newspapers. Another guest had a different take and noted the benefit of blogs with book reviews which are available now.

Walking in the middle of the discussion, I asked myself, "OK, what's this all about?" Double checking the PBS website, I found that the Los Angeles Times had ceased its weekly stand alone book review section following this Sunday's issue. That led to the the discussion about the shrinking of the book section in papers nationwide. That would also include our local daily paper in town.

Yuck. We all benefit from a good and strong book review newspaper section in the newspapers--particularly for local talent. However, it is not that good blogs don't fill a great need too especially being somewhat interactive in nature.

Yet, you be a judge on the matter yourself and read more about it here if interested about the TV interviews.