2013 Michigan Notable Books

Library of Michigan ~ Lansing, MI

The Library of Michigan has announced the twenty books considered notable for 2013. The titles were selected from 200 nominees "that spotlight stories from the Great Lakes state or were written by Michigan-connected authors."

Here's what the Detroit Free Press had to say. Click HERE.

The Need for & Future of Self-Help Books

How did Austin Kleon's book about creativity end up shelved with self-help books? Read what he has to say HERE.

Literary Christmas Cards!

I love these literary Christmas cards posted on the Booklicious Blog. This one is my personal favorite. Which one(s) would you send?

Bookstores in Movies

Here's a fun article that lists ten bookstores from movies. My favorite is from Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. What's yours?

What Happens to Your Brain When You Read

Benjamin K. Bergen has written a book called Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning (Basic Books, 2012). It's fascinating stuff. You can read an article about it on the Huffington Post.

A New Independent Bookstore for A2?

Several tweets today have alluded to the fact that there could soon be a new independent bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor.

You can read about the journey Hilary Lowe and Michael Gustafson are undertaking as they search for the perfect location by clicking on Literati Bookstore.

At this point there are several businesses vying for the same spot and the landlord hasn't signed a lease yet so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Here's more information.

The Christmas Star (2012)

The Christmas Star by Christopher Fahy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This short holiday novel ends the way you expect and hope it will. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

A wealthy developer has just bought a fantastic property he plans to turn into a huge resort. It's right before Christmas and an accident strands him in a snow storm. Taken in and sheltered by locals, who don't know who he is, he emerges a changed man. It's a familiar story but there is a twist.

The story is as much about the reader's journey as it is about the wealthy businessman's. It is a tale to be rediscovered each year and would make a lovely gift. If you read it you will question the way you are living on your journey to Christmas.

Charming black and white drawings and a quote from the Tao Te Ching begin each chapter. The illustrator, Cortney Skinner, has even merged a relevant Chinese character into each drawing.

If you are looking for a new, meaningful, and moving story for the holidays, consider "The Christmas Star".

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was the antidote to miserable news and online bickering. I retreated to my comfy chair and read a charming Christmas story that reinforces the goodness that we all share.

It is definitely a classic and every kid (and adult) should know it. I read parts out loud just to explain what was making me laugh.

What a wonderful way to reach my goal of reading 40 books this year! Merry Christmas 2012 to everyone, even the Herdmans in our lives.

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From Ann to her blog readers,

Dear Friends,

I just finished reading Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows wonderful book and feel like I have new friends. The funny thing is that I have resisted this book for years because of what I considered a cutesy title. Nothing in the reviews I scanned encouraged me to pick it up.

But this fall some friends joined me in a book club and each member chooses what we will read in a particular month. A friend, who in the past has introduced me to some wonderful reads, chose this one. Well, I sighed and ordered the book from the library.

Can you imagine how astounded I was when I found out what a wonderful story was told through a series of letters about life on the island of Guernsey during and immediately after the German Occupation in World War II. I didn't even know where Guernsey was located before!

And then to find out that Mary Ann Shaffer died in February 2008, a few months before her first novel was published, made me sad. She worked as an editor, a librarian, and in bookshops. I am sure we would have been great friends just like her fictional character Julia felt that she and Elizabeth would have been friends . 

I loved the comfort this wonderful book allowed me to share during a difficult time. It's not great literature but I don't think it is trying to be something it isn't. It is perfect as it is.

I wish people still wrote letters. And I wish I knew people who could write ones like these.

Yours ever,
Ann

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The Big Red Christmas Book

My second guest blog was posted today on Girl Who Reads. Take a look and post a comment about Christmas books or stories that made a difference in YOUR childhood.

AUDITION FOR MURDER (1985)

Audition for Murder (Maggie Ryan, 1967) by P.M. Carlson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I especially loved about P.M. Carlson's AUDITION FOR MURDER is that she really knows her theater and she really knows her Shakespeare!

That being said I'd have to agree with one reviewer who wrote that people who understand theater and have been exposed to Shakespeare's Hamlet would love this mystery while others would not enjoy it at all.

The author's insightful descriptions of how directors and actors approach a part would probably strike the general mystery reader as obtuse and unnecessary. It drew me in and made the story special.

Maggie Ryan, a student who is running lights for a production of Hamlet, is an extraordinary sleuth. A gymnast and math major, she impresses from her first attention-drawing entrance. Setting the story on a college campus in the 1960s of Viet Nam protests is clever too. It allows for a clearly defined group of suspects, all well-drawn by the author.

Married professional actors Nick and Lisette, with problems of their own, sign on to spend a semester as artists-in-residence at a small upstate college. But someone apparently isn't happy with Lisette playing Ophelia and strange and sometimes dangerous things start to happen.

Besides beautiful use of language, I look for inventiveness and surprise in books and love those the best. P.M. Carlson has managed to do both things while writing quotable sentences!

Here are a couple of quotes that caught my fancy.

"Excellence is often unwelcome and difficult to forgive."

And on acting:

"The perfect detail, the instant that sends shivers down your spine...Those performances when somehow for an instant or two we connect with the universal. With eternity. When it happens, if it happens, it's worth any amount of time. It's worth your whole life."

Unfortunately there is only one other Maggie Ryan mystery. MURDER IS ACADEMIC. Both titles have just been reissued by The Mystery Company/​Crum Creek Press trade paperback and Ebook, 2012.

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WRITERS’ CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS and BOOK FESTIVALS, 2013

Thinking about attending a conference or workshop on writing? Jodie Renner, freelance editor and craft writer has published a list on the Crime Fiction Collective's page. Here's how she describes his list:

I've updated my list of writers' conferences, workshops for writers, conventions for writers and  readers, and book festivals for 2013. I'm still waiting to hear from several groups who've held conferences in the past, so I can list their dates for 2013.

Personally I'm considering attending Malice Domestic May 3-5, 2013. Malice Domestic is the annual traditional mystery fan convention in Bethesda, MD.

Changes in the Publishing Industry

Southeastern Michigan is home to a number of small book manufacturing companies. Here's an interesting article from the Detroit Free Press about how one company, Thomson-Shore of Dexter, has made changes to keep competitive in the changing environment.