2010 Edgar Award Nominees Announced!

Here's an exciting announcement for mystery readers looking for a good book - I know you're out there!

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce on the 201st anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, its Nominees for the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2009. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the
winners at our 64th Gala Banquet, April 29, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)
The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books)
The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books)
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Random House - Ballantine Books)
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing)
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA Books)
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (HarperCollins)
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement (Minotaur Books)
Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Lethal Vintage by Nadia Gordon (Chronicle Books)
Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel (HarperCollins)

For more nominees and information, visit the Mystery Writers of America website.

R.I.P. Erich Segal and Robert B. Parker

This week marks the passing of two very different and well known authors.

“What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?” is the moving opening sentence from Love Story, the popular 1970 novel by Erich Segal, which also had great success as a film. I've read the book and seen the movie- yes, they are tear-jerkers, and yes I cried. Segal died Sunday, January 17. For more, read the New York Times article "Erich Segal, ‘Love Story’ Author, Dies at 72".

And mystery author Robert B. Parker passed away on Monday, January 18. He died at his desk while working on his next book. Parker created the hard boiled P.I. Spenser (no first name) who appeared in nearly 40 novels. Further details are in the New York Times article "Robert B. Parker, the Prolific Writer Who Created Spenser, Is Dead at 77".

On the left side of this blog, I have a link to Goodreads which is a "social cataloging" website. I use it to keep track of the books I've read, as well as to create a list of books I want to read in the future (it's a LONG list that just keeps getting longer!). And I like to read the reviews left by fellow book lovers. It's interesting to me that there can be so many varying opinions about the same book- one person just loves it, one person hates it, and someone else says "it was ok".

I mention this because I was just reading some of the reviews people gave the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The book tries to detail the story of Chris McCandless, a young man who left his family and well to do circumstances to live on his own in the wilds of Alaska. Several months later, he was found dead in the wilderness. Some people say he was naive, unprepared, and reckless- hurting his family as well as himself. Others feel he was moved by idealism, undaunted, a modern day Thoreau wanting to become one with nature. Personally, I think understand what Chris was looking for, he just pursued it with the recklessness of youth, which is not always the smartest way.

If you enjoy the book, definitely watch the film with Emile Hirsch and directed by Sean Penn.

Wow, it's 2010!

Welcome to a new year and a new decade! I have to say it feels kind of strange to write the date with a "10" at the end, but I'll get used to it because there's no going back. Or is there? Last year I read several autobiographies from former 70's stars, and that provided a really interesting blast from the past. No one is perfect, but life behind the scenes was pretty crazy for these three actors. Put on your mood ring, get out your lava lamp, and get groovy with:













C'mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus by David Cassidy
Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert
Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice by Maureen McCormick