Books & Such

Ah, Wednesdays..
A patron just brought back The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg [the Danish author who published Smilla's Sense of Snow about 15 years ago - a terrific novel, by the way, if you haven't read it, except for the ending, which as I recall kind of falls apart and my isn't this a giant digression] and said "I'm not sure I can recommend this. It's just weird. Really really weird. I'd kinda like you to read it so we can talk about it". Well, sure. What librarian wouldn't want a challenge like that? So I've now read the front cover synopsis and you know what? It sounds weird. Really really weird. This should be fun.

We had Mystery Group Monday evening at Bear Pond - talked about Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller [the first Sharon McCone novel] & A Great Deliverance [the first Lynley/Havers et al novel] by Elizabeth George. Terrific discussion, I thought - strong opinions, enthusiastically expressed. And we decided that, for a novel published in 1977, the Muller is remarkably undated. Maybe that's because there's not a lot of 'you-are-there' description - just crisp dialogue & good characters. The only - glaring - exception is McCone's police lieutenant/ future love interest, who persists in calling her 'papoose'. Really, she should've just smacked him one & been done with it [although they do eventually break up, can't imagine why.] The McCone books are a terrific series. Muller's one of the relatively few authors - Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, Margaret Maron & Walter Mosley are some others - whose characters actually change believably over time. And can anyone think of anyone else?

Bear Pond Mystery Group

Well, it's been a while...

For the past few months, we've had a Mystery Book Group going at Bear Pond Books [my other place of semi-gainful employment] and it's been a load of fun: good books, good discussions, and stuff I wouldn't ordinarily have read. I think particularly of the very first Georges Simenon Maigret novel - A Man's Head, if you're wondering. Man, it was terrific: short, really powerful, and an interesting portrait of Paris in the 1930's. And it didn't feel even slightly dated despite being published in 1931. Yowza. We have a bunch of other Simenons here in the library - libraries are so good for that - & I'm looking forward to plowing through them.

We're doing one newish & one 'classic' book each month, by the way; our books for June are A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George & Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller. The Muller book - the first modern private eye novel featuring a woman, way predating Sue Grafton - is, sadly, out of print. Again, nice thing about libraries. Other books we've read recently are The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Rees & The Janissary Tree by Goodwin [newbies] and Whose Body? by Sayers & The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie. And raving about Christie [or Goodwin] can be a whole different post. Our next meeting is Monday, June 30 at 7:00p at Bear Pond. I'd take suggestions for books & authors, too. Feel free to throw 'em on, below.