In the Bookroom

May 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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

Industries: Book News/Interviews, Book Reviews, Collection Development, Genre Fiction, People, Prepub Alerts

May 8, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

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

Industries: Book News/Interviews, Book Reviews, Collection Development, Genre Fiction, Prepub Alerts, Video/DVD Reviews

May 6, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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
Industries: Book News/Interviews, Book Reviews, Collection Development, Genre Fiction, Prepub Alerts

May 2, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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
Industries: Book News/Interviews, Book Reviews, Collection Development, Genre Fiction, People, Prepub Alerts

May 1, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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
Industries: Book News/Interviews, Book Reviews, Collection Development, Genre Fiction, People, Prepub Alerts