I ran across an article about challenges the Canadian libraries and school libraries faced for the year 2010. Despite lagging a year behind in their statistics, the outcome was quite pleasing to me, as someone who has written so much on banning books from school and public libraries in the US. Report of the Annual … Read more
Anne Anderson’s House That Jack Built is worlds apart from a Victorian’s book plate, or Art Deco vision, or a Golden Book’s mid century idea of what the perfect abode would look like in Mother Goose Land. Because of these differences it’s like a birthday, or holiday whenever a collector finds a new version of … Read more
An interesting article once again explores the impact of print on demand books. A offbeat attitude is displayed by the author of the article, Clive Thompson. It’s his contention that PODs will lead to *more* physical books, not less, actually he thinks in 20 years we will all be ‘neck deep’ in them. It’s what … Read more
I’ve revamped, redone, reorganized and generally changed the way I’m going about listing and writing up the Best 100 Mysteries of All Time. Although these titles are still in the list–they no longer are numbered. I have put the entire list up, in alphabetical order, thereby keeping what book comes in at what number, undisclosed, … Read more
Fright George Hopley 1950-IP It’s no secret that I love Cornell Woolrich. There are several entries on this list of his work. Fright is a latecomer to me. Under the pen name of George Hopley, Woolrich wrote a book that I literally could not put down. I was riveted, horrified, wondering if the protagonist would … Read more
Who would have thought it? Not me. Thanksgiving in my life is something I’ve always wanted to avoid. Stress, relatives, stress, too much food, and stress were the prevailing elements when I was growing up. Naturally, over the years the holiday was celebrated with other people, but the stress remained–a boyfriend’s mother, a friend’s family, … Read more
Biblios = Books about Books Part 1: Books about Books–Better Known as Biblios Part 2 Bibilos Focusing on Bookselling/Collectors Part 3 Bibilos Focusing on Writers Part 4 Biblios focusing on Writers Part 5 Biblios Focusing on Publishing Naturally, after I write about the specific areas within mystery biblios, I find slews of other titles that should … Read more
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie—Alan Bradley 2009–IP There’s never been a protagonist quite like 11 year old Flavia DeLuce. Right off the bat you are thrown into her chaotic world where she lives with her two sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and her widowed father in a decaying manse called Buckshaw. She and her … Read more
