This is not America

Twelve Books That Made Me Happy

Good Housekeeping published a list today of 60 Books That Will Make You Happier and I found it a kind of strange list, full of books like Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and the ever-annoying Eat, Pray, Love. But that got me thinking about the books I've read that made me happy.  Not necessarily happy I'd read them--almost any book does that--but a book that made me laugh or gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling. I read a lot of noir and horror; sometimes I need a warm, fuzzy feeling from my fiction. Here's a list I made:

1.  Michael Malone's Handling Sin. This is a road trip book about a man chasing down his rascal of a father and discovering he has half-siblings. His full-of-life best friend comes along and it's all set in the south. And gets it totally right. Malone also writes wonderful mysteries.

2.  Eudora Welty, The Ponder Heart. This is a novella and it's also very southern. Seems Uncle Daniel POnder, a confirmed bachelor, has married a young woman who spends all her time reading magazines and making "the kind of fudge anybody can make." This is a lovely take on small towns and families and will make you smile.

3.  Cyde Edgerton, Walking Across Egypt. The first book of Clyde's I read was The Floatplane Notebooks, which is a family saga told from multiple points of view, including that of the kudzu vine wrpping the house. This is a quick read, a book about an independent old lady and her dog and a young boy in need of love.

4.  Sharyn McCrumb, St. Dale. I am a huge fan of McCrumb's Appalachian Ballad es with their dual timelines. This stand-alone book is not a mystery at all, but an ensemble piece about a tour group visiting NASCAR sites as a summer vacation. It comes across like one of those multi-plot movies the late, great Garry Marshall used to make--New Year's Day or Valentine's Day, or a summer version of Love, Actually.

5.  Joe Keeena, Blue Heaven (not to be confused with the 1990 Steve Martin movie My Blue Heaven). This is a rollicking novel about two dead broke best friends in New York who decide to marry for the wedding presents and other loot and the hijinks that ensue. There's a running bit about a character  who fancies herself a designer coming up with the wedding dress that's hilarious.


6.  Rita Mae Brown, Bingo.  Again, a character-heavy novel set in the south.  My grandmother lived with me when I was a child and the old ladies in this book remind me so much of her, especially in a scene where two woomen get so competitive in a game of bingo that they start attacking each other with their dab-a-dot markers. (They're apparently called Do-A-Dots these days, but if you ever went to a bingo hall with your grandparents, you know what I mean.) there are sequels!  I love this book but hate Brown's super-sweet cozy mysteries.

7. Beverly Cleary, Beezus and Ramona.  Actually, I loved all the books that Beverly Cleary wrote. She was the first "author" I followed. I remember going to the library to get her books. she's 101 years old!!!  I loved the books because I had a little sister I loved and we had neighbors and the book seemed like the even-better version of my own childhood.

8.  Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game. I love, love, love this book. It's a puzzle about a wealthy man who intends to leave his fortune to whoever can solve a puzzle. It involves multiple characters in various families and it's a wonderful story about friendship and families and expectations and dreams. Raskin wrote other, similar books (The Disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel) but this one is her best.

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

I'll be reviewing this upcoming novel for Criminal Element in a few weeks, but here's a mini-review. I liked the book a lot:

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a powerful book about race relations that does an excellent job of hiding the real secret of its mystery. Locke's mastery of character and dialogue is topnotch and she's pitch-perfect in creating this small Texas town. I've enjoyed her past books (BLACKWATER RISING particularly), but I think this is her best one yet.


View all my reviews

Weekend SF and Fantasy Promotion

For only ninety-nine cents more than nothing, you can buy a whole slew of fantasy and science fiction books this weekend--all your favorite genres in one big, beautiful promo here.  You know those savings accounts that "match" and "round up" your spare change? I like to use my spare change for books. I WILL be buying a few books this weekend.

Wesley Snipes' new Urban Fantasy

Actor Wesley Snipes and co-author Ray Norman have a new urban fantasy novel out from Harper Collins. Talon of God got a nice review from USA Today and it's currently available in all formats. Here's the blurb:

Imagine that everyone you have ever known or loved was forced against their will into a state of demonic possession and spiritual slavery. Imagine an unholy cabal of the world’s richest and most powerful men directing this sinister plan in order to cement their unbridled control of the planet.

Imagine two heroes emerging from that darkness to do battle with the forces of evil.

Set in the mean streets of Chicago, Talon of God is the action-packed adventure centered around the Lauryn Jefferson, a beautiful young doctor who is dragged into a seemingly impossible battle against the invisible forces of Satan’s army and their human agents that are bent on enslaving humanity in a mission to establish the kingdom of hell on Earth.

But Lauryn is a skeptic, and it’s only as she sees a diabolical drug sweep her city and begins to train in the ways of a spirit warrior by the legendary man of God, Talon Hunter, that she discovers her true nature and inner strength. Facing dangerous trials and tests, it’s a true baptism by fire. And if they fail, millions could die. And rivers of blood would flow throughout the land.

Imagine such horror. Such pain. And imagine what it would take to fight against it. For only the strongest and most faithful will survive?

Get ready. Armageddon approaches quickly.

Sounds like the beginning of a great new series to me!

Books about books--a great list of suggestions

One of the things that's happened in the last few years is that publishers are starting to repurpose thier websites as content hubs. thus you have Macmillan's crime fiction site Criminal Element, which features numerous bloggers contributing articles and reviews, along with excerpts and contests and sweepstakes.Penguin/Random House is no exception. They have exceptionally engaging content, including their READ DOWN feature. One of the offerings today is a list of books about books. It's an eclectic list (Ink and Bone, The Book Thief, The Fault in Our Stars) and even if it is heavy on Penguin books, that doesn't take away from the suggestions.

Free books for the First of August

It's Tuesday. Want some free books for your favorite ebook reader? Of course you do. Here's an instafreebie giveaway sponsored by writer Erik Carter.

Friday Freebie Fiction!!!

It's Friday and there are freebies all over the place.

Like Dystopian? Here you go. Fancy something more steampunky? Check these out. Books with kick-ass heroines across a variety of genres? There's a giveaway for that.

Here's a thriller and mystery deal that will end soon--as in today, Friday the 28th. So don't wait.

Twenty -three writers, one boxed set

Venom and Vampires, a boxed set of novels and novellas themed to paranormal creatures, went live last night on Apple, Kobo, Nook, and Amazon.  It's a double-dozen tales, with a little something for everyone, from straight up urban fantasy to historic fantasy to Kory Shrum's rural noir-tinged tale. This is a limited edition and the material is all original, so it's not one of those boxed sets where the editor gathered a bunch of stuff that's already out there. If you love the genre, you really owe it to yourself to pick it up. (Just 99 cents plus tax where applicable.)

Author Interview...KB Inglee

KB Inglee writes historical short stories. Her collection, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence is available from Wildside Press. She works as an historical interpreter at a 1704 water powered grist mill. She lives in Delaware with her family and too many pets.

When you research your fiction you really get into it. Are you part of an organized group of history re-enactors? I work at Newlin Grist Mill where I present the 1704 grist mill and the 1739 miller’s house, spin on a great wheel, and wrangle any animals I can. I am not part of an independent group of re-enactors.

What is your favorite era, and why? Early colonial. My grandfather was the pastor of the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth and the Adams church in Quincy, so I was pretty much brainwashed as a kid. I haven’t figured out how I ended up writing late 19^th century, probably my least favorite time period.

In the spirit of your historical fiction, have you ever written a story longhand? When I started writing, I wrote in longhand a lot, but as I aged it got more illegible, so if I want to read it, it has to be on the computer.

Do you find it hard to “switch gears” when you go from short to long fiction? I don’t have a problem since nowadays write only short fiction.

Are you a member of a writer’s group? Do you belong to Sisters in Crime? Have you ever been to a writer’s convention? Yes, yes, and yes. I would not be where I am now if I hadn’t found Sisters in Crime. I belong to two SinC chapters, and a critique group. I also belong to Pennwriters, and I am part of a group of Delaware writers. I try to attend two writer’s conferences a year. Favorites are Malice Domestic, New England Crimebake and Pennwriters.

Author Interview...Debra H. Goldstein

Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (Five Star -2016) and the 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus. Her short stories and essays have appeared in periodicals and anthologies, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Birmingham Arts Journal, Mardi Gras Murder and The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fourth Meal of Mayhem. In addition to being the Sisters in Crime Guppy President, Debra serves on the national Sisters in Crime board, numerous civic boards in Birmingham, Alabama and is an MWA member.

I love the title of your website, “It’s Not Always a Mystery.” Your first two books—including the IPPY Award-winning Maze in Blue—were mysteries. Do you have an alter-ego who’s writing in another genre?

For years, my alter-ego could be found in the decisions I issued as Judge Debra H. Goldstein (much more boring than my mysteries).  I called my blog “It’s Not Always a Mystery” because, under my own name, I write both mystery and literary short stories and non-fiction essays, as well as my novels. 

You grew up in New Jersey and Michigan and worked in New York before moving to Atlanta to attend law school. Now you live in Birmingham, Alabama. Was it an adjustment, a culture shock when you first moved to the South?

For me, moving to the South was a charming experience.  I embraced it although I came South by accident. I was working in New York and had been accepted to several law schools.  I got on a plane to tour some of the ones offering me scholarship money.  It was snowing when I left New Jersey, snowing harder in Pennsylvania, snowing even harder at my next stop, but when the plane broke through the clouds in Atlanta, I saw the red clay Margaret Mitchell described in Gone With the Wind and this English major was hooked.  I didn’t know it was the day after one of our terrible rainstorms when the air is clear, the pollen washed away. At that point, I thought I would be here for three years, but when I took my first job out of law school, it was in Michigan during a winter which had thirty-four inches of snow.  I moved back to the South the following year.

Author Interview...Kristin Kisska

Kristin Kisska used to be a finance geek, complete with MBA and Wall Street pedigree. A member of the International Thriller Writers, James River Writers, and Sisters in Crime, Kristin is now a self-proclaimed fictionista.

Her short mystery story, “The Sevens” was included in the Anthony Award-winning anthology, MURDER UNDER THE OAKS (2015). “A Colonial Grave,” which is a murder mystery set in Colonial Williamsburg, was included in Virginia is for Mysteries, Volume II (2016). She was excited that her jewelry heist short story, “Wine and Prejudice” set in Savannah was included in Fifty Shades of Cabernet (2017). And, she contributed her psychological suspense short story, “To the Moon and Back” to the eclipse-themed anthology, Day of the Dark (2017).

When not writing suspense novels and historical thrillers or blogging for Lethal Ladies Write, she can be found on her website~ www.KristinKisska.com, on Facebook @KristinKisskaAuthor, and Tweeting @KKMHOO. Kristin lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

On your website, you describe yourself as a “finance geek” complete with an MBA and a Wall Street pedigree. Does that background figure into your fiction?

            Thank you for hosting me on your blog, Katherine! It’s truly an honor.

No, I haven’t written any finance stories yet; perhaps I overdosed on corporate financial statements and stock prices when I wore my investment banker hat. That said, someday I hope my muse will inspire me with a chilling MBA-themed suspense or mystery plot.

So far my published stories have involved a secret society (“The Sevens”), a cold case murder (A Colonial Grave), a jewelry heist (“Wine and Prejudice”), and with Day of the Dark, a mother-daughter bond (“To the Moon and Back”).

I had to laugh when I saw you had a story in an anthology called Virginia is for Mysteries. I used to work for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and had the original “Virginia is for Lovers” t-shirt. (And yes, many people asked me if my name was Virginia.) What took you from Virginia to Prague?

I’m a first generation American from then-Czechoslovakia.  A few years after the Iron Curtain fell, I decided it was finally time to explore the country of my dad’s birth and meet my family members. I bought a one-way ticket to Prague—my parents thought I was nuts.  After three years living in the *Paris of the East*, I returned to the States, but Prague is still the city of my heart (it’s the setting of both a new short story and the novel I’m currently writing).