Jeffrey Trachtenberg interviews Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark) in the WSJ about what makes his serial killer, Dexter — “the introspective serial killer with a ghoulish sense of humor” — and others’, so darned likable. Part of the appeal of Dexter, no doubt, is that the Miami crime scene investigator-by-day kills only (other) [...]
The Guardian is touring Spain via its fiction, drama, and poetry, and soliciting recommendations for the best authors and titles. I posted something about it on my other blog, here.
I feel like I’m pushing the season but since I just received my LL Bean catalog in the mail today, with a big balsam wreath plastered on both front and back covers, talking about Halloween doesn’t seem so unseemly …
Fiction Addiction offers title and author for 15 Halloween Reads. I’ve got links to lots of [...]
Good idea! The Bensenville Community Public Library (IL) is using its blog to post new booklists each week (author and title only), as well as entries for ‘author of the week,’ ‘book of the week,’ and some discussion of books.
Recent booklist topics: urban fantasy; apocalyptic stories; fiction about knitting, quilting and embroidery; mysteries that [...]
Posted on Pub-Libs today.
By The Book: Map for the Future – A Readers’ Advisory Conference at Albany Public Library, Albany, NY, on 15-16 November 2007. This is the 4th annual By the Book conference, whose purpose is to “give attendees real-world readers’ advisory tips and techniques that they can implement in their home libraries.”
Featured speakers [...]
On the other hand, if cozy romantic fiction’s not your thing, Serial Killers in the Stacks might be whispering your name, in a sort of creepy, spine-tingling way. Deirdre Bray Root, again in Library Journal (last week), has compiled a well-annotated list of true crime titles:
“The true crime genre covers an enormous amount of territory; [...]
If Jane’s your girl, check out Bette-Lee Fox’s article in Library Journal this week. She suggests three re-writes (two of Pride & Prejudice, one of Emma), a sequel and series of sequels to P&P, two epistolary collections connected with P&P, two novels about Jane Austen herself, a mystery series featuring Jane the detective, five [...]
“‘It is a spectacular fall,’ says Carole Horne, general manager of the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. ‘One of the best that I’ve seen.’” (Oscar Villalon at SFGate agrees.)
Horne is reported in the Christian Science Monitor to have particularly high hopes for the new Philip Roth book, Exit Ghost, and the new Richard Russo, [...]
ShelfAwareness is a tidy little (week-)daily newsletter of very current information about publishers, bookstores, and books. One section that might be especially useful for librarians and booksellers is ‘Media and Movies,’ a daily listing of films adapted from books that are opening during the week, and a list of author (and book) appearances scheduled for [...]
The latest Subgenre Spotlight at Reader’s Advisor is Time Travel Romance (or, If You Like Diana Gabaldon): “These titles are defined as romances which ‘feature protagonists who are transported from one time period to another. The exchange is usually between the present and some time in the past,’” though not invariably. Sarah suggests 5 [...]