Listening to Others

I love to get a good book  recommendation from a reader. Today's recommendation: You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon. The patron told me that he read it after he had read the new book by Frazen, Freedom, which is getting all the great reviews, and he said it is much better. I love to hear "the word on the street" if you will.

Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie

Listed as a cozy title by Library Journal, I thought I'd post my reflection of the book. The main character is an eleven year girl, Flavia de Luce, worried about her father's innocence as he is taken off to jail. She becomes a sleuth extraordinarily precocious, fearless as she treks around the small English village trying to make sense out of disparate clues, like what does the town library know about her father's past? She goes to the library to look up old newspapers and the librarian sends her out into a boarded up place that holds old newspapers and a perfect trap. Our Booklovers Discussion group all loved this novel.

Cozy recommendations from Library Journal

I tried this once, to define cozy mystery . From the Library Journal the members of the Reading list have offered up this definition of cozies as an introduction to their list of the 22 Core Titles for libraries. "Cozies, frequently defined as mysteries where the violence occurs offstage, offer readers reliable pleasures. These books contain less violence, sex and gritty language than the norm, have an engaging tone (ranging from warm comfort to crabbily witty), and typically feature a sleuth who stumbles into his or her role--be that as a sideline to another job or as the presumptive village busy body."
From this list the Tipp City Library has copies of The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Witting Albert,  Burglars Can't be Choosers by Lawrence Black, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun, A Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, and The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. It looks like I have a nice little list to order from, as I know there are a lot of people who read mysteries. It seems like the fall is a good time to sit back with a nice cup of tea, a cozy sweater or afghan, and lose yourself in a mystery, preferably one that is not too scary.

Dayton Peace Prize

Today I found out that the Dayton Peace Prize 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award is being awarded to Geraldine Brooks. The Dayton Peace Prize in the "first and only U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace." Geraldine Brooks is an Australian-born author who began her career as a journalist which took her to the Balkans during the war, and later into the Middle East. Her writing includes journalism, nonfiction and most recently, literary novels. She won the Pulitzer for her novel, The People of the Book. She and her husband, writer Tony Horowitz, live in Martha's Vineyard and Sidney, Australia with their two sons. I am so glad that her word is being recognized by this great group in Dayton. 

Agatha Christie

I have been mulling over my affection for Agatha Christie and her books. Years ago my mother shared her copy of Agatha Christie: an Autobiography with me and I devoured it. Mom said she had reread it every couple of years, and even bought her own copy of The Imitation of Christ to read. I was at my mother's house this weekend to see if I wanted any of my Mother's books, and I chose the autobiography, and all the paperback copies of Agatha Christie mysteries that Mom collected over the years. This is something my Mother gave me, her love of books and her devotion to Agatha Christie. It bonded us. We watched the movies together. Christie's novels made me love everything English even more than I already did. Somehow Mom knew me like no one ever did, "the girl who loved to read books." She predicted a career in English, which I abandoned, but slowly came back to after I hit 40. She shared a little of this with me in her later years, and I will always treasure her copy of the autobiography of Agatha Christie.

Caroline Graham

The Killings at Badger's Drift is the first novel by Caroline Graham in the Inspector Barnaby Mysteries. The plot is reminiscent of Agatha Christie, an elderly spinster sees something disturbing in the woods while searching for a wild orchid. Because she leaves the telltale sign, a ribbon on a pole by the flower, her close friend is sure she would have called her to gloat over the sighting of the "first" bloom. Her friend alerts the police to foul play when her friend's body is found and heart attack is listed as the cause of death. Inspector Barnaby has to sort through the villagers to determine the killer. This novel also brings to mind mysteries by Ruth Rendell, whose mysteries are a little darker and psychological in nature.

Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders is a British TV series that has been running since 1997, based on the novels of Caroline Graham. The series is available on DVD, of which I have seen about four seasons. I just noticed that John Nettles who plays the main character will be retiring at the end of the 2010 season. I thought I would read a couple of her novels in the Chief Inspector Barnaby series, and I just finished the last one that she wrote in 2004, A Ghost in the Machine. Tom Barnaby is a CID, Chief Inspector Detective, in the town of Causton. His office is responsible for investigating the murders in the surrounding country villages. This story takes place in Forbes Abbot, a small village where Mallory and his wife have moved since the death of his aunt. Many of Caroline Graham stories have a good introduction to the characters and the setting which gives it a sense of cosy mystery that is characteristic of Agatha Christie's mysteries. I would place it in the police procedural, with the police involvement about one fifth of the way into the story. I thought the book was well written, with a good plot. Plenty of mystery and suspense kept the action going.