The Edgar Awards are the Academy Awards of the mystery world, although a bit more congenial and less cut-throaty than the Oscars. The men dress up in tuxes and dark suits, the women in glittering gowns (teal blue was the hot color this year), and everyone is happy to see each other. Addressing the conviviality and supportiveness of the mystery community, thriller master Harlan Coben,  the incoming president of the Mystery Writers of America, suggested that  the group's old motto "Crime doesn't pay...enough"  be changed to" Nobody has to fail so I can succeed." 

Here is Coben (the bald man on the right...Read More

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Variety reported yesterday that Ellen Page, the star of the box-office hit Juno, is set to play the title character in a BBC Films adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's immortal classic Jane Eyre. This is a terrible idea. Unlike the rest of America,  I despised, loathed, and H-A-T-E-D Juno and Page's performance as the world's most annoying pregnant teenager. Why? Because its portrait of teenage life, written by a 30-something former stripper, is so fake, fake, fake, and its smug, knowing air of smart  cool hipness is grating. Each shot screams: look at me, I am an indie film:; my characters are so...Read More

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With all the hype about the upcoming release of the celluloid Sex and the City—read LJ's reviews of Candace Bushnell's novels here—I found it funny to spy a mass market paperback about a Prada-wearing demoness who screws the brains out of sinners before throwing them into the pits of hell. That's the bas...Read More

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Once again dipped into my Penguin pile and plucked out Ron Carson’s Five Skies. Terrific! It received a rave review last year, and I second the motion, a wonderful book. Interesting story and well-drawn characters. Definitely give this one a read.

It follows three men on hired to construct a ramp for a motorcycle stunt jump over an Idaho river. All three suffer from guilt stemming from their pasts. Living in a tent at the job’s location, the combination of hard work done well, bonding with other walking wounded, and seeing...Read More

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For those of you who have been  living on another planet, young adult author Stephenie Meyer is a one-woman publishing phenomenon. In just two years, her "Twilight" saga about a young girl and her vampire boyfirend has sold over three million books in the U.S. alone. The latest title in the series,  Eclipse, sold 150,000 copies on its first day on sale and knocked Harry Potter off the number one slot in USA Today's best-seller list. Meyer is also huge in Europe, and Little, Brown has one publicist, Elizabeth Eulberg, solely dedicated to Meyer's global publicity. (By the way, the film adaptation of Twilight, the...Read More

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If any genre has been cruising for a bruising, it’s "creative" autobiography (read: Margaret B. Jones's Love and Consequences). So far, Jenny Block's Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage (June, Seal Press) hasn’t been exposed as a pack of lies, but that doesn’t mean our second female duo in the Tag Team series used kid gloves. The proof, book brutalists, is in Amelia’s and Julie’s graphic photos. Holy carnage, Batman!

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Comics fans, there’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Jon Favreau. Just got back from seeing Iron Man and it lived up to all my hopes. It really was a good as it looked and was fun, fun, fun from beginning to end. Great cast, story is a bit obvious and it could have been trimmed there and there, but although there’s FX galore, it’s used to compliment the story instead of replace it. Well handled overall and as good a first in a series (the end very much sets up a sequel as does an extra scene after the credits—DONT LEAVE) as the original Spidey or X-Men. Way darker than those two films though. I’ll be seeing this again.

Hulk, Hulk
Befor...Read More

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At the 62 annual Edgar Awards Banquet, held last night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, former attorney John Hart's second novel, Down River, was named the Best Mystery of the year. His haunting tale about a prodigal son's return to his North Carolina hometown only to be accused of murder beat out Benjamin Black's Christine Falls, Ken Bruen's Priest, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and Reed Farrel Coleman's Soul Patch. 

Taking the prize for Best First Novel by An American Author was Tania French's Dublin-set debut novel of psychological suspense, ...Read More

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As Anna Katterjohn's excellent series of reviewer profiles  reveal, Library Journal's reviewers are a talented bunch. Many are  librarians, of  course, but quite a few are  writers as well. Probably our most famous alumna is Kathleen Norris who reviewed for LJ early in her writing career before the publication of the acclaimed Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and The Cloister Walk brought ...Read More

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Last weekend, Hillary Clinton's campaign sent a letter to Barack Obama, challenging him to a new kind of debate -- actually an old kind. Sort of. Her campaign wrote to Obama's:  

"This year marks the 150th anniversary of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, a series of public debates across Illinois where two candidates put their ideas, their visions, and their values before the American people. I have no doubt that Senator Obama, who hails from that great state, understands how valuable and vital these national conversations were to the heart of America....We can surely meet the standards our forbearers ...Read More

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Next Tuesday, the Tag Team Review series terrorizes yet another pathetic collation of thought. I purposefully selected Jenny Block's Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage (Seal Press, June) in the hopes of eliciting some juicy point/counterpoint tension (thus far, all of our Tag Teamers have liked the books thrown at them), and it worked pretty well. Don't like reading? Drop in for the not-to-be-missed, supergraphic photos featuring librarians Amelia Brunskill and Julianne Smith, our second female duo. I'm definitely going to get calls from Librarians for the Ethical Treatment of Books.

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Pets & Pet Care best sellers appear in the May 1 issue, a subject we haven't done a list for since 2003. When I came up with only dog books, I checked the old list to make sure there wasn't an error. Nope; people just love dogs and have for a much longer time than the past five years. However, the list from 2003 shows the popular breeds for guidebooks were rottweilers, Chihuahuas, pit bulls, and bichons frises. The dachshund and Labrador retriever stood the test of time, showing up on both lists, and the Siberian husky seems to be this year's choice breed, as far as the books ar...Read More

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