Westport Public Library BOOK blog

Charlie Huston says his vampire detective Joe Pitt is "... a kind of a detective. Kind of. In the same way he's kind of alive." His are dark stories set in a Manhattan filled with warring vampire clans. The newest book in the series, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, is due out in December. Huston adds: "Perfect for the holidays. Or the Apocalypse. Whichever."

Decidedly cozier in tone, Dean James's American transplant Simon Kirby-Jones has made a home for himself in the small English village of Snupperton-Mumsley. Writer by day and vampire by night, Simon is becoming - much to the chagrin of the local constabulary - quite the successful and sought after sleuth.

If you enjoy Tony Hillerman's Navaho country mysteries, you might like the Aimee and David Thurlo Lee Nez series. Nez, a New Mexico State Policeman, is a half-vampire - what Navajos call a "nightwalker." He hunts the "skinwalkers," Navajo witches with the ability to shape-shift into wolves or mountain lions, who prey upon his people. He also takes a bite out of real crime on the reservation, finding missing plutonium, shutting down a child pornography ring, and handling a fair share of the night shift DWIs.

Charlaine Harris's enormously popular Sookie Stackhouse novels (aka The Southern Vampire mysteries) are being adapted into a series for HBO - True Blood - which is expected to go into production this fall. Sookie is a waitress at Merlotte's Bar and Restaurant in Bon Temp, Louisiana, who can read minds. One night she meets a vampire in the bar and realizes that she can't hear a single thing from his mind. She is drawn into his thrilling and terrifying world, although the books are actually more funny than they are scary.

Any of the above will do for a satisfying Halloween read.

If you can't wait for True Blood (and perhaps miss Buffy and Angel) CBS has a new original series called Moonlight, which features Mick St. John, a captivating, charming and immortal private investigator from Los Angeles, who fills his infinite days protecting the living.

Real live people will find suggestions for many new career paths in Blythe Camenson's Careers for Mystery Buffs & Other Snoops and Sleuths. Apparently puzzle lovers have the basic skill set to qualify for all sorts of jobs including, but not limited to, law enforcement, news reporting, genealogy, art authenticating and - are you ready? - paranormal research.

No new title on the Top Ten at the Library this week; the only news is that Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo has moved into the top slot ahead of second place Away:a novel by Amy Bloom.

(Amy Bloom will be speaking here on Wednesday December 12 at noon. You still have time to place a reserve and read Away before you hear her talk.)

Here is the rest of the list:
Run by Ann Patchett, Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, Playing for Pizza by John Grisham, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, Songs without Words by Ann Packer, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Choice by Nicholas Sparks and Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan.

Here 's what I've been reading this week:
Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. I skipped his last novel, Little Children- book & movie- but I am impressed by how Perrotta nails the suburban life style. This one is about sex ed, fundamentalist religion, single parenthood, soccer competitions and how life in the suburbs is not quite as homogeneous as it seems. The writing is not beautiful, but he manages to switch points of view with relatively few bumps.

Microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes by Mark J Penn. Hillary's advisor & an advertising guru, Penn has very short chapters on interesting trends, like tattoos among the "upper class," the older age of kindergartners (especially boys), and the increase in reading! of books & literary magazines, like Atlantic Monthly. He draws a prediction from each trend.

PS: Are you a fan of forensic mysteries? Come to hear Jerry Labriola on his new novel The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte on Tuesday October 30 at noon. A mysterious commission from a secret society drives a search for the hidden history of Napoleon's death.

The speaker for the opening of this year's Rabbit Hill Festival is Leonard Marcus, one of the children's book world's most respected and versatile writers.

One of my all time favorite guidebooks is his Storied City, which contains twenty-one walking tours of New York City based on children's literature. It comes complete with maps, photographs, and book art - and includes directions to Lyle's house.

The Library has many good guides to help you enjoy New York with your children if you want to make your own way around town.

If you want professional help, check out Watson Adventures, an outfit that offers scavenger hunts at various spots around Manhattan. It's the perfect time of the year for The Ghosts of Greenwich Village Family Scavenger Hunt, where kids and adults work together to uncover the stories of creepy places and the ghosts that have haunted them - complete with bats, secret cemeteries and the haunted homes of Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain.

Lots of fun.

So is the adults only late night edition!

Lindsay's protagonist, Dexter Morgan, is a blood-splatter analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department who is a serial killer in his spare time.

The good news is that he only kills criminals who have managed to escape justice.

Dexter is driven by his "Dark Passenger" - a sort of alter ego - who prompts him to even scores for the common good.

The TV episodes portray the graphic violence of the books, for sure, but also capture what BookPage calls Lindsay's "ever so slightly highbrow" tone -- a tongue-in-cheek style similar to Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series, displaying "an endearingly self-effacing quality in the protagonist."

Bernie is a Greenwich Village bookseller who can't resist a little breaking-and-entering now and then and often develops obsessions, such as his "Morton's Foot" condition. Nothing as dark as avenging inner spirits, however.

There are three Dexter novels, the third of which is the recently released Dexter in the Dark. Publishers Weekly promises that "the macabre wit that powered the first two installments ... is still evident."

Looking for some good fiction to "send your mind on a trip ?" This week's Top Ten at the Library provide nine fiction ( and one non-fiction) suggestions:
1-Away by Amy Bloom
2-Run by Ann Patchett
3-Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
4-Nine: Inside the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
5-Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
6-Songs Without Words by Ann Packer
7-Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
8-Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
9-Choice by Nicholas Sparks
10-Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Not in the Top Ten, but getting attention are these two titles by authors soon to speak at the Library. Put yourself on the reserve lists to read them before you come to the events.
You've Been Warned by James Patterson & Howard Roughan- Patterson produces books at a truly amazing rate. His co-author on this one will be speaking here on November 14 at 7:30pm.
One Drop:My Father's Hidden Life - a Story of Race and Hidden Secrets by Bliss Broyard - Ms Broyard will be here on November 19 at 7:30 pm to talk about her book.

Has anyone read Almost Moon, the new Alice Sebold book? Lovely Bones
was very popular and created a controversy in Westport Middle schools. Matricide sets off the story this time; so far, reviews have been tepid.

For you Ken Follett fans: World Without End is here - all 1014 pages of it! This is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth- a mere 973 pages, in case you want to re-read it before the sequel.

Note: to place a reserve or to read more about a book, click on the link and go to the Library catalog.

On Tuesday, October 30, at noon Jerry Labriola will discuss his book The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, a suspense novel that combines equal parts mystery and rich historical detail.

The plot: American historian and international treasure hunter, Paul D'Arneau, receives a mysterious invitation from Gens de Verite, a clandestine organization formed in France after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, and he quickly realizes that his efforts to penetrate the secrets hidden in musty documents and oral histories of Napoleonic lore could cost him his life.

On Wednesday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. Jed Rubenfeld will discuss his book The Interpretation of Murder, a historical mystery and a psychological thriller - in the truest sense of the term -- with a cast that includes Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

The plot: In 1909, Drs. Freud and Jung visit Manhattan. A young socialite is murdered, followed by another attempted murder bearing the same characteristics. In the second case, the victim lives. She has lost her voice and cannot remember anything. Freud is called in to help and he must simultaneously fend off a mysterious conspiracy to destroy him.

On Monday, November 12, at 7:30 p.m. Susan Schaab will discuss her book Wearing the Spider, which Liz Smith called "The Devil Wears Prada in legal Technicolor."

The plot: Evie Sullivan is trying to make partner at a high-profile Manhattan law firm. She discovers that someone at the firm has stolen her identity and that her name is linked to a shady South American deal. When an FBI agent confronts her with insinuations of murder and fraud, Evie decides to do her own investigating.

Copies of the books will be available for purchase and signing after the program.

And do't forget next Sunday's Usual Suspects discussion of this years Agatha Award winner The Virgin of Small Plains, written by Nancy Pickard. Newcomers are always welcome. To reserve a copy of the book call 291-4821.

Moe Howard of the Three Stooges plays detective in Murdelized, one of 14 stories contained in Hollywood and Crime: An Anthology of Hollywood Crime Stories.

The stories are scattered through time from the 1930s to the present but all intersect at Hollywood and Vine.

Michael Connelly has contributed a Harry Bosch story, just the thing for the fans who need a little something to tide them over until his next novel.

There is a Hedda Hopper story set in the 1960s by Robert S. Levinson as well.

Hollywood based mystery series offer us many different views of life in the City of the Angels.

There are the amateur detectives. If she were still around, Hedda would have some serious competition from Jon P. Bloch's gay gossip columnist Rick Domino.

Celebrity mystery fans can find a laugh per line in Ron Goulart's Groucho Marx outings.

Cozy lovers will enjoy the escapades of Marlys Millhiser's hotshot literary agent Charlie Green.

Culinary mystery fans can savor the adventures of Jerrilyn Farmer's Madeline Bean, caterer to the rich and famous.

And then there are the professionals. Stuart Kaminsky's Toby Peters would have to be at the top of my list of Hollywood private eyes.

Terence Faherty's Scott Elliott is also a 1940s P.I. although a bit more on the hard-boiled side.

Later gumshoes include R. Wright Campbell's Chandleresque James Whistler and Robert Crais's wisecracking collector of Disneyana Elvis Cole.

This past summer's thriller City of Fire, by local author Robert Ellis, features L.A.P.D. detective Lena Gamble who is hampered by city politics and the ravenous Hollywood media while on a desperate search for a sociopathic serial killer who is targeting beautiful young women.

Parting shots from Groucho Marx:

"Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."

"Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

Since all of the titles in our Speaking of Books collection are paperbacks, I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting titles to add to the collection. Every week the New York Times Book Review highlights a few selections of note. One of my favorite authors is mentioned this week, Anne Tyler, author of Digging to America. This is a tale of two families from Baltimore who meet when both adopt Korean infants. One family is a typical white middle class American family and the other is Iranian-American. A connection forms between the couples that will cause some family members to question what it truly means to be an American. Tyler has written a touching, humorous story about the collision of cultures in the modern American family.

Another book new to paperback this month is Golden Country by Jennifer Gilmore. This is another story of intertwined families, the Blooms, the Brodskys and the Verdoniks, all immigrants to this country in the early 20th century. As they pursue the American dream, Gilmore has given us a view of a period of intense change in this country and the hopes and desires of these immigrants to achieve success.

Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club, has a follow up book now available in paperback. The Poe Shadow focuses on the mysterious death of Edgar Allen Poe and the quest of a young lawyer to solve the mystery. Suspenseful and full of historical detail, this book is a perfect blend of fact and fiction. If you liked The Dante Club, a literary mystery, be sure to check this one out.

Of course all of the above books are available for you to check out now at the library. If you would like to make a suggestion to add to our Speaking of Books collection, or would like to request multiple copies for your book club, just let me know.

This week, Amy Bloom still commands the top spot with 76 holds on her new novel Away. Bloom is a Connecticut author, who teaches at Yale University. She has most recently been writing for the new television series, State of Mind on Lifetime TV.
In second place is Ann Patchett with Run. Patchett, author of Bel Canto, sold her first novel 24 hours after it had been sent out for consideration.
Third: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. This first novel is about Frank Lloyd Wright's clandestine love affair with a married woman.
Khaled Hosseini holds the fourth place with Thousand Splendid Suns.
New to the list this week is Richard Russo, number five with Bridge of Sighs. The Washington Post calls Russo "the patron saint of small town fiction."
Number six is Ann Packer with Songs Without Words. See Susan T.'s comment on last week's top ten list. (Thanks, Susan.)
Jeffrey Toobin's Nine: Inside the Supreme Court is seventh. See Toobin on CNN commenting on everything legal.
Audiobook Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling is eighth on the list.
Ninth: Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan.
And John Grisham reappears with his new one: Playing for Pizza. It's football in Italy- no legal thriller this time!

There is so much Jane Austen buzz these days.

Book clubs are still dissecting Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club -- the film version of which opens today -- and people are still queuing up for Becoming Jane, which is making the rounds at art cinemas.

PBS is launching an Austen extravaganza in mid-January 2008 when Masterpiece Theatre will begin airing adaptations of all six of her novels.

There are two mystery series which arise from the Austen legacy. Stephanie Barron has a series in which Austen herself is the detective and Carrie Bebris has a series where Austen's fictional characters Fitzwilliam Darcy and his wife Elizabeth (née Bennet) do some genteel sleuthing.

In a 1997 interview shortly after her series was launched, Barron explains that, as a detective, "Austen is a natural ... because she understood the human heart, she understood motivation, she understood the society of her day. She was a strong, independent woman with a natural curiosity and a desire to figure out why people did what they did."

Despite the current Austen revival, Barron will be making a departure from the Austen mysteries and bringing out a stand-alone novel in February.

A Flaw in the Blood opens on the evening of Prince Albert's demise. Barron's website describes it as "A suspense novel centered around Queen Victoria's troubled court and a secret so dangerous it could topple thrones."

That's thrones, plural, so it must indeed be dangerous!

A friend recently forwarded me a New York Times piece from September 23rd about the filming of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency underway in Botswana.

I have been in the thrall of Alexander McCall Smith's stories for years now. Reading the latest book in the series, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, was one of the high points of a recent brief convalescence. With my feet propped up on a pillow I was transported to the agency office at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors in Gaborone, sipping bush tea with Mma Ramotswe and her devoted assistant Grace Makutsi.

The Times article relates that some of the sets, including the office, will become part of a planned "Ladies' Detective Agency Tour."

In a folder of trip ideas that I keep at home I unearthed an article from the May 23, 2005 issue of Time that mentions "Mma Ramotswe tours" offered by a safari company called Africa Insight.

They offer a one day trip which goes out to Mochudi, her ancestral home, where there is a school-turned-local history museum, in the morning, and features a drive around Gaborone, including Zebra Drive and the garage that inspired Speedy Motors, in the afternoon.

There is a second tour, which goes into the farther corners of the countryside to which Mma Ramotswe often travels in her tiny white van.

The Library has up-to-date guidebooks on Botswana and I recently ordered a book called Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide.

I already learned one safari survival tip just from reading the review. You can keep monkeys out of your tent at night (!) with stuffed toy leopards.

The film director reports that while scouting for locales he camped out "beneath a Milky Way that was a luminous stripe across the sky, with stars that glistened like buckets of salt tossed on black velvet."

I want to go!

If any McCall Smith fans are reading this through, I will end on a happy note just for you. The ninth book in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, is due mid-April 2008.