Lee Smith

Lee Smith is one of my favorite Southern writers. I found this video interview that I thought I would share here in the Books section of my blog.

Bride Quartet

I was reading one of the recent New York Times Book Reviews and came across the latest installment of Nora Robert's Bride Quartet. It reminded me that I bought the first one in the series awhile back and have never read it. The first one is Vision in White. I can't believe I haven't read these. They look so good. I love all of Nora Robert's books except for the J. D. Robb ones. Those are too much for me, but I love all of the books she's written as Nora Roberts.

Brava, Valentine

I just finished a wonderful book by Adriana Trigiani. It's called Brava, Valentine. I have always loved her books and I loved this one too. At the end of the book, in her acknowledgements she writes that the chapter titles are Frank Sinatra songs that were recorded when her grandparents were young, and her father younger still. The following are the chapter titles/songs. I think I'm going to see if I can find the songs.

Frank Sinatra Songs, from Brava, Valentine:

Shake Down the Stars
From the Bottom of My Heart
Ain'cha Ever Coming Back
Just as Though You Were Here
Polka Dots and Moonbeams
April Played the Fiddle
Love Lies
Be Careful, It's My Heart
The Street of Dreams
Here's That Rainy Day
It Isn't a Dream Anymore
Autumn in New York
A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing
Don't Ever Be Afraid to Go Home

Robert B. Parker Dies

Robert B. Parker has died at 77. What are we going to do? That's what a coworker and I asked each other when we heard the news earlier this week. We both love his books, and it was really sad to hear that he had passed and to know that we will no longer be able to read his books. He is best known for his Spenser novels about a tough, wise-cracking private eye, which inspired the TV series "Spenser for Hire."

Robert B. Parker passed away on Monday at age 77 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The reports say that he was at his desk working on his next Spenser novel when he suffered an apparent heart attack. He and his wife had eaten breakfast earlier that morning and she said he seemed fine. He went to his desk to write and his wife went for her walk and when she came back, she found him dead at his desk.

Publishing 65 books in 37 years, Mr. Parker was as prolific as he was well-read. He featured Spenser -- "spelled with an 's,' just like the English poet," he said -- in 37 detective novels. He also wrote 28 other books, including a series each for Jesse Stone, the police chief of fictional Paradise, Mass., and Sunny Randall, a female PI in Boston. "Jesse Stone" became a TV vehicle for Tom Selleck, and "Appaloosa," his 2005 Western, was made into a 2008 movie directed by and starring Ed Harris.

There are already 4 books at the publishers, so we still have some novels to read before there are no more. His latest book is "Split Image," part of the Jesse Stone series, and is due out next month, his agent, Helen Brann of New York said. There is also another book in the western series and 2 more Spenser novels.The reports said that he always wrote between 7 and 10 pages a day. This may be the reason he had so many books written ahead. While he was working on one novel, he had at least one or two already at the publishers.

In interview after interview, Mr. Parker refused the opportunity to make the idea of writing detective fiction seem mysterious.

"The art of writing a mystery is just the art of writing fiction," he told the Boston Globe magazine in 2007. "You create interesting characters and put them into interesting circumstances and figure out how to get them out of them. No one is usually surprised at the outcome of my books."

I guess I love the Spenser series the best. I loved the dialogue between Spenser and his side-kick, Hawk, and between Spenser and his psychiatrist girlfriend, Susan Silverman. I also love the way that he and Hawk never backed down from a challenge and never entertained the thought that they weren't going to win against the bad guys. I've seen them take down the baddest of the bad and reduce them to whimpering babies.

I started reading the Spenser novels about ten years ago when my boss introduced me to this series. I loved them and have read every one since then. What I haven't read are the earlier Spenser books. I think the first one is The Godwulf Manuscript. I think I'll go back to the very beginning and read them up to the point that I started several years ago. Heck, I might even decide to reread those.

The Life Plan by Sybil Baker

Yesterday a local author, Sybil Baker, came to our college library and read from her book The Life Plan.

“Sybil Baker spent twelve years teaching in South Korea prior to accepting a position as an assistant professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after earning her MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. During her extensive travels throughout Asia, she became increasingly interested in the allure and alienation of American travelers and expatriates, and this has heavily influenced her writing. Her fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including upstreet, The Bitter Oleander, Paper Street, and Alehouse. Her essay on American expatriate literature appeared in AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle in September 2005.”

Robert Eversz, author of the Nina Zero novels, describes The Life Plan as “…a screwball comedy for the 21st century, a witty and winning romp through one woman’s discovery that life, love, and liberty do not always go according to plan. Baker’s talent for zinging one-liners and trenchant characterization make The Life Plan a joyously touching read.”

Watch the book trailer below.

Here are some of the books that I'm currently reading and titles that I'm looking forward to reading in the near future.



Finger Lickin Fifteen by Janet Evanovich



The Life Plan by Sybil Baker



The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo

Fearless Fourteen and Hissy Fit

I just finished reading the new Janet Evanovich book Fearless Fourteen. As usual it was hilarious and I really hated for it to end. Janet just can't write fast enough for me. I love the characters in her books and the funny, hilarious dialogue and situations they get themselves into.

After reading one of Janet Evonavich's books it puts me in the mood for some more funny, light-hearted reading, so I Googled "if you like Janet Evanovich" to get some more authors who write similar to her. I found this list, which has not only Janet Evanovich, but other authors too. I think I wrote about Charlotte Hughes in my last post and she's really good too. She and Janet have paired to write the Full Series.

After I finished Fearless Fourteen, I decided to read some Mary Kay Andrews books, so I went to the library and checked out Hissy Fit. I can already tell this is going to be a good one too.