Bookgirl's Nightstand | When I'm not reading books, I'm making them.

Mysteries On My List

iliana Nightstand December 18, 2007

I think I mentioned that I had received my latest issue of Mystery Scene last week and finally I sat down to read it and added some new mysteries to my wish list.

The Devil’s Whisper by Miyuki Miyabe. An eerie tale that recalls some classic Japanese horror films.
Variations on Murder by A.C. Baantjer. An Amsterdam police detective.
London Frog by Joseph Pittman. A crime caper.
The Widening Stain by Morris Bishop. Reprint of a Golden Age classic.
Absolution by Caro Ramsay. A police procedural and psychological thriller.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these and recommend them. And, if you can’t get enough of mysteries be sure to check out January Magazine. They are doing a best of 2007 Crime Fiction report. I just realized that the only one I’ve read from their best of list is one of the books I least liked this year. Ah well, there are a lot of books on here that I’ve heard of and that sound good so I’d still give some of those a try.

Finally, I did post some book notes on some current reads, Last Rituals and To Kingdom Come. I wasn’t as bowled over by Last Rituals as I expected but I really liked To Kingdom Come a lot.

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Getting Graphic

iliana Nightstand December 17, 2007

Aside from the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi, Fun Home and Ghost World, my knowledge of graphic novels is quite limited. So when I saw Dewey’s Graphic Novel challenge I knew I wanted to join but where to start?

Luckily Dewey had links to some good resources and Dark Orpheus sent me a fabulous list of suggestions. This Bookgirl didn’t feel so lost anymore!

Today I spent some time at the library looking through the shelves of graphic novels and I have come up with my list (yes, I’m including one from another challenge and yes, I may switch some titles out as I go). Here are the six challenge books I hope to read next year:

One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
Blankets by Craig Thompson
The Book of Magic by Neil Gaiman
Strangers in Paradise by Terry moore
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Watchmen by Alan Moore

I’m so excited about this challenge. Also if anyone is thinking of this challenge but needs a little help with the genre, I recommend Graphic Novels: Stories to Change your Life by Paul Gravett. I checked out this book and it’s also been a great resource.

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Some Things

iliana Nightstand December 16, 2007

For anyone in the Dallas area, the 17th Season of the Arts & Letters Live program has just been announced. This season they have one of my favorite authors on their program list, Joanne Harris. Know who else is stopping by? Tracy Chevalier, Geraldine Brooks, Anne Lamott, and Marjane Satrapi. There are some others I’d enjoy listening to as well but the only bad part about all of this is the cost. $37 a ticket per author event does put quite a damper on this for me.

Anyway, moving on to other things I can get excited about I just saw that Becky is hosting the 19th Century Women Writers challenge! This means I might be able to read some of those classics I’ve been putting off for so long. Really, isn’t this challenge great? I’ll get back to you guys on this but I’m pretty sure I’m going to throw in my name for this one as well.

Finally, last night was just one of those nights where I couldn’t settle down with any one book. I tried a couple of new books but nothing was working for me so I did what I usually do when this happens…. Fall back on a series I like as I know the characters and know what to expect from the author. It was the perfect choice as I quickly relaxed and started to enjoy another adventure with Inspector Banks. I started Blood at the Root by Peter Robinson which is the 9th book in the series.

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