Dictionary.com contends that the Word of the Year, 2018, is misinformation. Our point of view is why should there be only one?
Stan Lee
As you’ve no doubt heard, American Master Stan Lee died on November 12th. While much has been written about his impact and accomplishments, we ran across this that we’d not heard about when it was originally printed. From November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, this is Stan Lee’s “powerful definition of the American idea”. Take a moment to read this: America is a Dream.
Awards!
It’s that time of year again, award season for books! Announced on October 27th (we are a hair late) are the CWA Dagger Award Winners. Grats to one and all!
The CWA Diamond Dagger:Michael Connelly
The CWA Gold Dagger: Steve Cavanagh – THE LIAR
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Attica Locke – BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD
The John Creasey Debut Dagger: Melissa Scrivner Love – LOLA
The CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction: Thomas Harding – BLOOD ON THE PAGE
The CWA Historical Dagger: Rory Clements – NUCLEUS
The CWA Short Story Dagger: Denise Mina – “NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT”, BLOODY SCOTLAND
The International Dagger: Henning Mankell – AFTER THE FIRE
The CWA Debut Dagger: Bill Crotty – THE ETERNAL LIFE OF EZRA BEN SIMEON
Highly Commended: Joseph James – RIVERINE BLOOD
The CWA Dagger in the Library: Martin Edwards.
November 15th: National Book Award Winners
Word of the Month
Bunyip (noun – plural -s – bun·yip | \ˈbənˌyip\) – impostor, phony
Bunyip comes to us from Australia, where the word originally had the meaning “a legendary wild animal usually described as a monstrous swamp-dwelling man-eater.” Bunyip comes from an Aboriginal language, and began appearing in print in the 1840s.
The “impostor” meaning came shortly thereafter, appearing the following decade.
“…and they one and all recognized the bone and picture as belonging to the “Bunyip,” repeating the name without variation.”
— Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate (Victoria, Aus.), 2 Jul. 1845
Thanks to Merriam-Webster website for the word & definition
Links of Interest
October 31st: Judge’s copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover fetches £56K at auction
October 31st: The Scottish writer who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula
November 1st: Medieval ‘Porpoise grave’ remains a mystery
November 1st: Gunpowder Plot: 1605 Thomas Percy link found in archives
November 1st: Portland’s Rose City Book Pub, a bookstore and bar, now open
November 1st: Pride and Passion: Jane Austen novels the Brazilian way
November 1st: Killing Eve: How the hit BBC show’s killer soundtrack was made
November 2nd: West Side Story’s gangs get new moves after 60 years
November 3rd: Ian Rankin Interview ‘I couldn’t get on with War and Peace’
November 3rd: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to Release Campaign Setting Book in 2019
December Issue: Jack Reacher Still Won’t Quit, 23 Books Later
November 4th: Murdered mob boss gave stolen Boston art to IRA, says former Met detective
November 5th: Booksellers show unprecedented act of solidarity
November 5th: Morbid exhibits of UCL’s Pathology Museum
November 6th: Why a Book Tour Is More Brutal Than a Political Campaign
November 6th: How Stan Lee led the 1960s superhero revolution
November 7th: Drowning cow saved by ‘mermaid’ on a swim
November 7th: Collection of ‘obscene’ books on display at Oxford University
November 10th: How Edgar Allan Poe Got Kicked out of the U.S. Army
November 12th: Enigma code veteran to take secrets ‘to end of my days’
November 12th: ‘A pas de deux of sex and violence’: a poet’s guide to film noir
November 12th: Amazon asked to share Echo data in US murder case
November 13th: Arrest in hunt for ‘Ross from Friends’ lookalike
November 14th: Reusable coffee mugs that can be borrowed like library books
November 14th: The Birth, Death, and Long Afterlife of The Gashlycrumb Tinies
November 14th: ‘Too short’ Tom Cruise to be replaced for Jack Reacher reboot – Maybe they’ll get it right this time?
November 15th: John Sandford: By the Book
November 15th: Lost Disney ‘Oswald’ film found in Japan
November 15th: Megan Abbott’s Work Diary –‘My Psychiatrist Notes How Tired I Look, Which Is Great’
November 15th: Seattle high-school teacher shares ‘the wonder of books’ with students on a different kind of field trip
November 16th: Mark Twains Complicated Relationship with the Typewriter
November17th:Elite library sorters race to process books in cutthroat competition. Also: Aaron Sorkin talks To Kill a Mockingbird, a fanfic writer talks going pro, and the rest of the week’s best writing on books and related subjects.
November 18th: 4am Starts and Spinach Smoothies – Dan Brown on How to Write a Bestseller
November 18th: Dan Brown on Trump – “Reality Has Surpassed Fiction”
November 18th: Bookstore’s Tweet On The Sale Of A Children’s Book After 27 Years Goes Viral
November 19th: The Birth, Death, and Long Afterlife of The Gashlycrumb Tinies ~E is for Edward who wrote a gory masterpiece.
September 15th: French bookshops revolt after prize selects novel self-published on Amazon ~ Booksellers refuse to ‘jump into the wolf’s mouth’ and order Marco Koskas’ Renaudot-longlisted novel online
November 19th: Canadian literary prize suspended after finalists object to Amazon sponsorship
November 20th: How Agatha Christie hides her plot secrets in plain sight
November 20th: NYTimes ~ 100 Notable Books of 2018
November 23rd: Stop Thief! An otter on the loose is eating koi from a formal garden
November 23rd: Laura Lippman ~ Books That Made Me
November 26th: The isolated Albanian artillery base hidden in a cliff
November 28th: Margaret Atwood to write Handmaid’s Tale sequel
November 28th: Harry Potter are endless tie-ins diluting the magic?
Word of the Month – Continued
phony (adj.): also phoney, “not genuine,” 1899, perhaps an alteration of fawney “gilt brass ring used by swindlers.”
His most successful swindle was selling “painted” or “phony” diamonds. He had a plan of taking cheap stones, and by “doctoring” them make them have a brilliant and high class appearance. His confederates would then take the diamonds to other pawnbrokers and dispose of them. [“The Jewelers Review,” New York, April 5, 1899]
The noun meaning “phony person or thing” is attested from 1902.
thanks to etymonline
R.I.P.
November 2nd: Raymond Chow: Film mogul who discovered Bruce Lee dies at 91
November 7th: Kitty O’Neil: Wonder Woman stuntwoman dies at 72
November 7th: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Long-Serving Times Book Critic, Dies at 84
November 12th: Douglas Rain: Actor who voiced Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey dies
November 12th: Stan Lee
November 25th: magician, author, and actor Ricky Jay (he was in a terrific crime movie filmed here in Seattle, David Mamet’s House of Games)
Word of the Month – Lastly
huckster (n): circa 1200, “petty merchant, peddler” (often contemptuous), from Middle Dutch hokester “peddler,” from hoken “to peddle” (see hawk (v.1)) + agent suffix -ster (which was typically feminine in English, but not in Low German). Specific sense of “advertising salesman” is from 1946 novel by Frederick Wakeman. As a verb from 1590s. Related: Huckstered; huckstering. (thanks to etymonline)
What We’ve Been Doing
Amber
Don’t forget to check out my original mystery! Finder Of Lost Things
Jenn McKinlay – Hitting The Books
Lindsey Norris, Library Director of Briar Creek Library, didn’t seek out trouble this time. She just gazed out the window during the weekly crafternoon meeting, when she witnessed the hit-and-run of one her patrons. The weird thing? Lindsey is pretty sure the car sped up and swerved into Theresa Huston. But who would want to hurt the former tennis pro? When the driver turns up dead in the car with a stack of library materials in the passenger’s seat – Lindsey can’t help but do her own investigating…
I am so glad I stuck with this series! This installment is an excellent read! The mystery itself is engaging, and the variety of subplots (which are woven in flawlessly) are hilarious. I also enjoy how McKinlay is able to keep her library angle fresh and interesting for her readers.
I would recommend this book (which you can start with, provided you know going in that this installment isn’t close to being the first-in-series) to anyone looking for a fun fastpaced cozy read! Seriously this book moved at a quick clip from cover to cover!
Brandon Sanderson – Legion
Stephen Leeds is a genius.
Kinda.
Stephen can learn any new skill in a matter of hours, has a photographic memory and is considered the smartest man on the planet. But unlike Sherlock, who utilizes his mind palace to recall information from the depths of his psyche, Stephen speaks with his aspects.
What’s an aspect? Glad you asked…An aspect is how his brain outsources its knowledge. Stephen only has access to the information when that particular hallucination is advising him. A new aspect pops into existence each time Stephen acquires a new skill, like learning Hebrew or astrophysics. Each aspect (or hallucination, but most of them don’t like this term) comes complete with their own name, unique physical features and is nutty as a fruitcake in their own unique way. Stephen has forty-seven aspects and counting.
Having gotten tired of being studied by people with strings of letters after their names (which made him rich), Stephen and his team of imaginary experts now solve mysteries; such as locating a missing scientist and his revolutionary prototype or figuring out who stole a dead body and why.
Perfectly ordinary cases, well except for the teleporting cat…
Stephan Leeds is one of the most unique characters I have read in a very long time, and I’m kinda bummed that Sanderson only wrote these three novellas featuring this extraordinary detective!
While this novel is composed of three individual components – it doesn’t feel that way. There’s an overarching mystery which helps to marry the three together. Plus Stephen Leeds’ (as well as his aspect’s) voice is consistent thru the entire book, which also helps keep the continuity.
Then there’s Stephen himself who provides a fascinating point of view to read from. He’s quirky (not crazy as he repeatedly tells us), but all of his aspects are mad as March hares – which causes no end of hilarity! Plus watching how he’s learned how to cope with the nuances of his own mind is inspiring (for those of us still trying to master our own).
Then there are the mysteries themselves, which Sanderson jampacks with action, levity, and depth. Skin Deep’s (the second novella) resolution contains one of the comical twist endings I’ve read in a long while.
Overall I think anyone who enjoys mysteries with a splash of strangeness will enjoy reading Legion and I cannot wait to badger Fran into reading this book! (Which, BTW, is much harder now that we don’t see each other five days a week – perhaps a letter writing campaign? Everyone likes getting mail that isn’t a bill…Right?)
Seriously if the shop was still open I’d be putting this book into your hands and telling you to trust me – you’re going to love it!
Fran
Okay, I know you don’t like short stories. I get it, I do.
(Not you. You love short stories, and you probably already have this anthology. Just have my back, ‘kay?)
But I’m asking for a leap of faith here – this is a “trust me” moment.
Last year, Soho Press put out a Christmas/Holiday anthology called The Usual Santas. Eighteen short stories, all holiday themed although not necessarily Christmas themed. And you must read this book.
I’m not kidding! Holy cats, is it FUN! Dark in many ways, laugh-out-loud funny in others, compelling no matter what. Stash it in the car so you can read while you’re waiting in line. Tuck it into your jacket for when you’re on the bus. Hell, put it in the bathroom, and read the occasional story there.
This is a holiday buffet that simply can’t be beat. And see, just look at all the authors – Martin Limón, Peter Lovesey, Helene Tursten, Stuart Neville, Cara Black, Colin Cotterill, and James Benn, whose quote about the anthology, “The Usual Santas: a very good example of that kind of thing.” is perfect.
Oh, and fair warning. When I get older, I’m changing my name to Maud.
You’ve been warned.
JB
I have stacks of books around here that I had gathered during my decades at the bookshop that I never allowed myself enough time 
to read. I have one pile of biographies of jazz masters, or painting masters, of history and biography and I am now getting to some of them. Starting in early October, I picked up David McCullough’s Truman. While the President and I come from the same area, and I knew the basics of his life, I have to say I really knew very little about HST’s life. This thousand-page book won McCullaugh the Pulitzer Prize and every page shows why. It has been worth every moment of the nearly two months it took to read it!
I did take a couple of breaks. One was to read the latest Lee Child (great news they’re going to find someone LARGER to play Reacher) and Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers (disappointingly thin on detail in comparison to the Truman tome…).
From page 947-8 of the McCullough:
“The opening installment of the Memoirs, titles ‘The Most Momentous First 18 Days’ appeared in the September 25th issue of Life, with a cover photograph of the former President and the First Lady standing in front of their Independence home. Doubleday’s publication of Volume One, called Year of Decisions, followed five weeks later, with an author’s autographing party in the grand ballroom of the Muehlbach, on Tuesday, November 2, 1955.
“To the delight of the publisher, Truman had agreed to sign books for all who came. ‘I expect to use, probably, a couple of $1.75 fountain pens that I bought at the Twenty-five Cent Store, along with a half dozen others that I happen to have, and I don’t want any advertising stunt [for the pens] whatever,’ Truman had written to Samuel Vaughan, Doubleday’s advertising manager. ‘I will go along with any party arrangements which you make for Doubleday, but don’t get me into any advertising for pens, cakes or anything, because I won’t do it.’
“Arriving in Kansas City a few days in advance to make arrangements, Vaughan was distressed to hear people asking why they would want to come to such an occasion for Truman, ‘when we see him all the time anyway.’ Greatly concerned, Vaughan worked to line up Battery D {Truman’s WWI comrades} veterans, the Boy Scouts, anyone he could think of, to be sure there was a crowd. But he need not have bothered. More than three hundred people were already in line waiting before the party began.
“‘Hand Firm to the End’ was the headline in the next morning’s paper.
“It was almost unbelievable. ‘I had no idea it would be anything like this,’ Truman said as he saw the crowds grow, the people still coming, hour after hour. His hand fairly flew as he signed books, until he was doing six to eight autographs a minute. If there ever was a demonstration of his extraordinary vitality, this was it. He kept going hour after hour, not only signing his name but greeting people. ‘There, that one’s all slicked up,’ he would say with satisfaction, finishing his signature and handing over the book.
“By the end of the first session, he had signed over a thousand copies. In all, incredibly, he turned out four thousand autographs in just five and a half hours. Reporters on hand, his publishers, watched in amazement. Earlier, when Ken McCormick of Doubleday has suggested to Truman that perhaps he might prefer to have the autographs done by a machine, Truman had replied, ‘I will autograph as many as I can. I am not an expert with a machine, and I would rather do it by hand.'”
Truman turned 77 six months later on May 8th.
So what to read next????????
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