EarlyWord.Com

This is one of those sites that you want to keep to yourself because it will make you seem so terribly knowledgeable to your friends. On the other hand, it was so exciting to discover it that I have to share it here. 

Early Word, which began slowly in January 2008 and picked up speed in June of that year,  "is a Blog and Web site on a mission — to give libraries the earliest information possible on the books their customers will be looking for, so they can stay ahead of demand."

You can browse for upcoming movies made from books, Best Books of 2009 according to a variety of sources, One Community/One Book programs and many other tools with a librarian point-of-view but still valuable to the dedicated reader looking for the next best 'read'. Check this site out. It is awesome. 

A Reliable Wife (2009)

I was surprised (or maybe not) to find a mention of The Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick in Entertainment Weekly. The headline read 'a sexy paperback catches fire'.

Set in the early 1900s in rural Wisconsin, a young women answers a newspaper ad looking for a wife. Catherine is not who she appears to be and although Ralph begins to suspect, he marries her anyway. This dark psychological story takes the characters and reader to unexpected places.

Even with good reviews and pretty good numbers as a hardcover, the paperback has taken on a life of its own recently hitting no. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list in paperback form.

After reading the book last May,  I blogged that I couldn't wait for the movie. Highly recommended.

Vote for the Oddest Book Title of the Year

Read about this at Boing Boing today. Check it out. A link takes you to The Bookseller (a UK site) where you can vote for your favorite!

The Grave Maurice (2002)

The Grave Maurice by Martha Grimes


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
"His thought, unfinished, stumbled up against loss." And that beautiful line, one of many in The Grave Maurice pretty well sums up my reaction to the book. The story is promising with a horse racing background, a missing young women, and Jury recovering from his last case. (I was pleased to see Josephine Tey credited for inspiration.) But when the last page was turned, the holes in the plot disturbed me.

"There never is anyway. Closure. Everything remains unfinished." Another lovely quote from Grimes which maybe sums up her way of dealing with the story. It didn't work for me.

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Lost in the Shelves.

My friend lidija, a photographer, took this picture of me surrounded by books at the library. In the same vein, here are a series of pictures on Flickr capturing the book lovers idea of paradise. (If one book is good, many must be exponentially better!)