"So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to be and Why it Endures" by PBS Fresh Air book reviewer Maureen Corrigan is a delightful book. Ms. Corrigan teaches a class on "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald at George Washington University in Washington, D. C. and presents programs on the book for The Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts promotion on classic books around the country. From this latest book of hers we read about her absolute passion for the greatest novel in American Literature, and she does take passion to a whole new level. She takes her research into obscure rare book and special collections in various libraries around the country to research why "The Great Gatsby" continues to be the great American novel even though at the first printing it was a flop, selling a measly 23,000 copies for Fitzgerald and leaving a mass of remainder copies at Scribner's. Her question is how it has remained one of the top novels read in high school English classes around the country and stays on some of the syllabi of various colleges in the United states. The book was published in 1926, and one accounting of the poor readership was the onslaught of the great depression in 1929 that left little taste for the flamboyant lifestyle presented in the Great Gatsby, a life of booze, bootlegging and marital bed swapping. Fitzgerald was known for his wild drinking and bizarre behavior in the 20's. His novel came out when he was just 26 years old himself, living the good life that many people could not relate to in the ensuing years. One thing Ms. Corrigan uncovered was that after his early death in 1940, Fitzgerald had his handful of literary critics who felt that his effort was to be applauded and kept the American people from forgetting his name. She also uncovered the effort during the war to replicate great novels for the American servicemen in paperback to accompany them into battle and prison of war camps. The government issued copies were called Armed Services Collections, a total of 1322 titles that were printed in small paperback form, "nearly 123 million books were distributed to U.S. troops overseas." p.230 If you love "The Great Gatsby" then you'd love to read how it has remained in publication for many years, with several movies being made for good measure.

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading

I just finished Maureen Corrigan's 2005 memoir on reading. She is the book reviewer on NPR's Fresh Air and has been since 1989. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and daughter. She is also a literature instructor at George Washington University. Maureen Corrigan has a PhD. in literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and I found the beginning of the book a little off-putting. Maybe because I haven't read all the great English literature she was writing about and making the comparisons with. She writes a lot about the "women's extreme-adventure stories" and this was a new genre to me.  But I learned and isn't that what you are supposed to do when you read. Because she is such a voracious reader she keep talking about why we read. I am very interested in that because I read so much also and often ask myself that question. For me, reading jars my memory in a way that is comforting to me; that I can remember and that I find myself in my reading. She also has a new book out, " So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures." Because I think that "The Great Gatsby" is one of the finest books in American literature I am finding this a very interesting book to read also.
    Back to "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" I was excited to get into the part of the book that she writes about her love of the detective series. That's where we hit a common thread. Since leaving the library I have been free to read just for myself and I keep coming back to the detective series for pleasure. I like to start at the beginning of a series that has the same character and read in the published order of the books. I find that FantasticFiction does an excellent job of listing the books in order in an author's series. Some series must be read to follow the story line, others are written so that if you jump right in anywhere you get the gist of the storyline and you can enjoy the books that way. The alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton don't have to be read in order. For example her book "W is for Wasted" has her living in the same apartment with the same landlord and time just seems to standstill at 1986. I have jumped around in that series without missing a beat. But Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley moves the characters along in their own storyline apart from the mystery, and I think they are more enjoyable read in the order they were published. That is just my personal preference. In the back of Maureen Corrigan's book is a list of Recommended Reading and I think I will be reaching for my book for this list in the future.

Death on Demand series

Carolyn Hart writes mysteries for the light-hearted. I love the Death on Demand series. Annie and Max Darling live on Broward's Rock, an island off the coast of Georgia. Annie's business venture is the Death on Demand Bookstore that features the latest mystery novels, nonfiction books on mysteries, and collectible mystery novels. Max is involved with his choice job as a consultant for his own firm, Confidential Commissions. "Max's agency specialized in solving problems." This novel, "Death by Midnight" has Annie and Max baffled as they try to be amateur sleuths trying to solve the murders on their island. One of the clues is found on the murder victim's cell phone, a picture taken at midnight of a bundle wrapped in a towel, but where was this photograph taken? Of course as usual Annie gets wrapped up in the murder of friends and neighbors, and invariably gets too close to the murderer for her own good. The mystery keeps one involved and the name-dropping of all the classic mystery novels that Annie can think of keeps a booklover like me entertained. To keep myself in the spirit of the Annie-Max mysteries I am now reading, "A Little Class on Murder", which is educational as well as good fun. This book reminds me that Carolyn G. Hart is also a teacher, as Annie tries to teach as an adjunct professor thirteen miles from Broward's Island, on the mainland. A good academic novel.