I’ve been reading a lot of short story collections lately, not my usual fare, but short stories are a good way to get a sense of a writer, seeing how he or she handles a number of different plotlines, looking at the way stories develop, the way characters are presented and the patterns that emerge over the course of the… Read more
Blood of the Muse is giving away a signed copy of White Night by Jim Butcher. I’m a big fan of the Dresden series, so I’ll be blogging with my fingers crossed, hoping to win this one! Details on entering are at the link above. Good luck! Read more
My recent post on book bloggers and newspaper reviewers got the attention of David Rosenthal, Assistant Managing Editor at the Baltimore Sun. He had some comments on my post and he mentioned the Sun’s book blog, Read Street. (There’s some great stuff on the site – check it out and say hello!) He emailed me about a great little side… Read more
In Eric Van Lustbader’s new novel, the President is an ultra-conservative, ultra-religious extremist, and he and his supporters are willing to do anything to keep a lock on the country, even if it means torturing their own citizens and forcing foreign governments to be complicit in their dirty deals. It’s a future that seems all too plausible in our current… Read more
Today’s question from The Boston Bibliophile: what other weekly memes or round robins do you participate in? Is this the only one? Why Tuesday Thingers and not some other weekly Tuesday meme? Or do you do more than one? Tuesday Thingers is my only meme and I plan for things to stay that way. I got involved in this one… Read more
Cornelia Wetnap! I want to thank everyone who entered my Shining City giveaway. I’ll be announcing another giveaway later this week, so there are still more chances to win. Read more
I wasn’t planning to talk about this, but I’m beyond frustrated with Huffington Post right now. They ran a column I found particularly annoying, Will Blogs Save Books, and I really felt moved to comment on it. You have to register with them to post a comment. So I registered. Then I waited. And waited. Two days later, my account… Read more
I have long been a fan of John Sanford’s “Prey” series, featuring Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. In this book, Sanford focuses on a different member of the BCA, Virgil Flowers, with the same excellent results. Virgil arrives in the tiny town of Bluestem in a rush of rain and fire – he’s speeding through a… Read more
You can enter to win a copy of Faye Kellerman’s new book, The Mercedes Coffin at The Optimistic Bookfool. You can win a copy of Neil Gamian’s The Graveyard Book with a little creative writing. Check it out here. Devourer of Books is giving away a copy of Queen of the Road. Bookfinds is giving a autographed copy of Sisters… Read more
I was very disappointed not to get a copy of The Lace Reader as an ARC and I have been looking forward to its release. After reading the many good reviews among the blogoscenti, I took a look at the review in the New York Times by Janet Maslin and I was absolutely floored by this phrase: Women write books… Read more