Monthly Archives: October 2010

Stieg Larsson’s ‘Girl’ is an international publishing phenomenon – latimes.com

Stieg Larsson’s ‘Girl’ is an international publishing phenomenon – latimes.com.

I’m sure this news comes as no surprise to anyone but I love reading about how Stieg Larsson’s books have continued to smash records all over the place. Why are Stieg Larsson’s books so popular with readers? I know for me, it all begins and ends with Lisbeth Salander. She’s one of the most interesting characters I have ever read. The Millenium Trilogy as a set are good reads. That is if you can get past the boring financial stuff in the first book. It’s well worth it to try if you haven’t. Or maybe not.

Otto Penzler, editor, with James Ellroy of “The Best American Noir of the Century,” thinks the books benefit from being less gloomy than most Nordic crime fiction.

But most of their appeal, he says, comes down to Salander being “the most interesting character I’ve read since Hannibal Lecter. Everybody reading is so deeply and seriously captivated — you’re relentlessly fascinated to know what she’ll do next, say next, what stroke of genius will bring her to a solution. To me that series doesn’t exist without her.”

Source: Twitter

How Publishing Works Abroad Courtesy of author Diana Gabaldon

There isn’t anything I can say that hasn’t been said already. Territorial rights are a pain in the ass for readers – get this – who want to buy the damn books. With every new and expensive ebook reader going on sale and enticing readers left and right, one wonders what content they are supposed to read on it when you’re faced with: sorry you can’t buy this book here. It just seems unfathomable to me that ebooks are not universal. Books and especially ebooks should be available to everybody but not everybody seems to agree with that statement.

In a recent article by Diana Gabaldon, titled, THE EXILE abroad and Other Tales, Gabaldon breaks down to her readership why the UK and Germany, among others, aren’t getting THE EXILE. It’s a graphic novel adapted from her bestselling Outlander series. Continue reading →

Mark of the Lion (Jade del Cameron Novel) – Suzanne Arruda

“Mark of the Lion” written by Suzanne Arruda is the first book in the series set in British Colonial Africa during the 1920′s and features larger than life heroine, Jade del Cameron. This book was a joy to read. One of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed this novel is because of the setting which the author brings vividly to life. But there are other elements to the novel as well: romance, adventure and mystery.

Jade del Cameron is a journalist/photographer writing travel articles of Africa for the magazine, The Traveler. But before she did that, she was fighting on the front in France. During the war, Jade along with her best friend, Beverly, were ambulance drivers. Under military fire, they would go in and retrieve wounded soldiers. Tragedy strikes when Jade’s fiance, David Worthy, is killed during aerial combat. With his dying breath he asks her to look for his estranged brother and gives her his ring in remembrance.

Jade goes to Africa with the determination to find David’s brother and to also solve the murder of David’s father, Gil Worthy. In Nairobi, Gil Worthy was found mauled in his hotel room. His murder never solved. In London, Mr. Worthy’s widow, vehemently denies the existence of the so-called “other son” and offers Jade no help in that direction. Mr. Worthy’s solicitor, however, hires Jade to investigate Gil Worthy’s death and to track down this missing son so that he can get his inheritance. Continue reading →

Silence of the Grave (Detective Erlendur) Arnaldur Indridason (writer) and Bernard Scudder (translator)

“Silence of the Grave” [2002] written by Arnaldur Indridason and translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder is the second translated book in the Reykjavik series featuring Detective Erlendur.

In this entry, Erlendur and his team are tackling a cold case. A skeleton has been found in the Millennium Quarter, in what appears to be a shallow grave. Erlendur decides to use archeologists over forensics, to dig, sweep and brush around the bones in the hopes of uncovering any evidence intact. It is a slow and tedious process that allows Erlendur and his team to investigate a case that is said to be at least 50 years old.

Erlendur directs his colleagues to search missing persons and the national registry for a family who may have lived on the hill where the bones were found. It’s discovered that there was once a chalet, built on the hill, rented out to a family of five during World War II. The story is told in alternating events taking place in the past and present, branching off into three separate subplots. Continue reading →