Odds~n~Ends
From Rare Historical Photos:
– The bookmobiles – Vintage photos of traveling libraries, 1910s-1960s
– The Old Cincinnati Library before being demolished, 1874-1955
The Spy Case That Made Adam Schiff a Russia Hawk
Paranoid and Madcap, The Manchurian Candidate Is Our Timeliest Novel
From the June 2019 issue of The Atlantic: Female Spies and Their Secrets “An old-boy operation was transformed by women during World War II, and at last the unsung upstarts are getting their due.” A review of four new books on the topic.
Ten Women Mystery And Thriller Writers You Should be Reading
From The Atlantic: ‘Serial Killers Are a Uniquely American Phenomenon’
Long Read: Who killed the prime minister? The unsolved murder that still haunts Sweden.
Bentley’s $250,000 book is the Bentley of books
Coupla Podcasts!
From Slate: The Queen: Linda Taylor committed abhorrent crimes. She became a legend for the least of them. A new podcast on the life of America’s original “welfare queen.”
From NPR: White Lies: In 1965, a white minister was murdered in Selma, Alabama. For more than 50 years, witnesses buried the truth about what happened.
From Chris Pavone: The morning when normal ended: A personal account of September 11
Words for the Month
Dude: “Before there was ‘bro’, there was ‘dude’: that informal address that slaps you on the back with one hand, gives you a White Russian with the other, and says, ‘hey, I woke up at noon too, man’. For the past 20 years, Jeff Bridge’s portrayal of The Dude in the Coen Brothers’ film The Big Lebowski (1998) has epitomised the seductive spirit of dudeness. Dishevelled, stoned and disorientated, The Dude’s laid-back attitude is difficult to square with the artsy origin of the word itself, which seems to have entered popular discourse in the early 1880s as shorthand for foppishly turned-out male followers of the Aesthetic Movement – a short-lived artistic vogue that championed superficial fashion and decadent beauty (‘art for art’s sake’) and was associated with ostentatiously-attired artists such as James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
It’s thought that ‘dude’ is an abbreviation of ‘Doodle’ in ‘Yankee Doodle’, and probably refers to the new-fangled ‘dandy’ that the song describes. Originally sung in the late 18th Century by British soldiers keen to lampoon the American colonists with whom they were at war, the ditty, by the end of the 19th Century, had been embraced in the US as a patriotic anthem.
By then, an indigenous species of fastidiously over-styled popinjays had emerged in America to rival the British dandy, and it is to this new breed of primly dressed aesthetes that the term ‘dude’ was attached. Over time, the silk cravats and tapered trousers, varnished shoes and stripy vests worn by such proponents of the trend as Evander Berry Wall (the New York City socialite who was dubbed ‘King of the Dudes’) would be stripped away, leaving little more than a countercultural attitude to define what it means to be a Dude (or an El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing).”
Author Events
June 3: Owen Laukkanen, Third Place/LFP, 7pm
June 5: Sujata Massey, University Books/Mill Creek, 7pm
June 6: Meg Tilly, Village Books, 7pm
June 6: Leslie Budewitz, Third Place/LFP, 7:pm
June 7: Cara Black, Third Place/LFP, 7pm
June 12: Thom Hartmann, Powell’s, 7:30pm
June 18: James Ellroy, Powell’s, 7:30pm
June 19: James Ellroy, Seattle Town Hall, 7:30 [ Ellroy is getting lost of coverage these days: James Ellroy: ‘I’ve been canonised. And that’s a gas’, and James Ellroy thinks he’s a moralist – do you agree?]
June 23: Thom Hartmann, Seattle Town Hall, 7:30pm
Words for the Month
gavel (n): A “small mallet used by presiding officers at meetings,” 1805, American English, of unknown origin; perhaps connected with German dialectal gaffel “brotherhood, friendly society,” from Middle High German gaffel “society, guild,” related to Old English gafol “tribute,” giefan “to give” (from Proto-Indo-European root *ghabh– “to give or receive”). But in some sources gavel also is identified as a type of mason’s tool, in which case the extended meaning may be via freemasonry. As a verb, by 1887, from the noun. Old English had tabule “wooden hammer struck as a signal for assembly among monks,” an extended sense of table (n.). [thanks to etymonline]
Links
April 30: Final chapter for a Mar Vista bookstore — and its unique community
April 30: Spying whales and other undercover animals
May 1: How The SF Chronicle decides which books to review
May 1: Graves of British couple murdered in Guatemala in 1978 found
May 2: ‘You are loved’ – the power of an anonymous note and gift
May 3: The Troubling Obsession with the “Sexy Psychopath”
May 3: Matthew McGough on how an LAPD officer hid a murder for nearly 30 years
May 3: Seven simple ways to boost your creativity
May 4: New details of Harper Lee true crime book revealed as briefcase mystery solved
May 4: The working poor in the Hamptons: I cleaned a rich author’s swimming pool while writing my own novel
May 5: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan review – a man of no mystery
May 7: Dickens novel that joined Captain Scott on doomed expedition goes on display
May 7: 30-year-old murder of a hiker is yet another case solved due to a Genealogy Site
May 8: ‘Furious Hours’ Tells The Tale Of Harper Lee And Her Unfinished Work
May 8: A Night at James Bond’s Favorite London Martini Bar
May 9: Publisher David Godine to step down from his namesake publishing house
May 10: The real experiments that inspired Frankenstein
May 11: Did Ernest Hemingway copy his friend’s ideas for Cuban classics?
May 11: Anna Sorokin: Why do con artists and fraudsters fascinate us?
May 11: The children’s bookshop selling diversity
May 11: Brazil National Museum: ‘Little surprises’ salvaged from the ashes
May 14: Crossbow German deaths
May 15: Classic Ferrari worth millions stolen on test drive
May 16: Couple goes fishing, catches burglars’ bag containing guns and sorority pins stolen 26 years ago
May 16: From Agatha Christie to Gillian Flynn: Women mystery writers list 50 great thrillers by women
May 16: 10 Must-Refer to Spots for Mystery Fans
May 16: French doctor charged with poisoning 17 patients
May 17: How the FBI Cracked the GozNym Malware Case
May 18: Lost volume sheds new light on Tolkien’s devotion to Chaucer
May 20: Who said indie bookstores are dying? Not in the Bay Area, thank you
May 20: Why the New York Public Library Has 7 Floors of Stacks With No Books
May 21: Patrick Marks’ eco-conscious bookstore celebrates a decade of greening books
May 21: New Coke Was a Debacle. It’s Coming Back. Blame ‘Stranger Things.’
May 22: How the CIA tried to train cats to spy on the Russians: the strange, true story of Acoustic Kitty
May 24: How the stories of Jack the Ripper’s victims are finally being told
May 25: By Her Own Hand showcases rare books and manuscripts by women
May 26: Hannibal Lecter author Thomas Harris: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever made up anything’
May 27: Can Reading Fiction Really Improve Your Mental Health?
May 27: Quarry to be drained in 40 year police hunt
May 28: $42,000 worth of comic books stolen in smash-and-grab from Denver store
May 30: Cartoon scavenger hunts brighten Portland
R.I.P.
May 11: Alvin Sargent, Spider-Man screenwriter, dies at 92
May 12: Peggy Lipton, star of “The Mod Squad”, dead at 72
May 13: Doris Day, Hollywood actress and singer, dies aged 97
May 14: Legendary comic Tim Conway dead at 85
May 17: Herman Wouk, Best-Selling Novelist With a Realist’s Touch, Dies at 103
May 24: Navajo Code Talker, New Mexico Sen. John Pinto has died at 94
Words of the Month
gawk (v.): “stare stupidly,” 1785, American English, of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Watkins] from gaw, a survival from Middle English gowen “to stare” (c. 1200), from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse ga “to heed,” from Proto-Germanic *gawon, from Proto-Indo-European *ghow-e- “to honor, revere, worship” (see favor (n.)); and altered perhaps by gawk hand (see gawky). Liberman finds this untenable and writes that its history is entangled with that of gowk “cuckoo,” which is from Scandinavian, but it need not be from that word, either. Nor is French gauche (itself probably from Germanic) considered a likely source. “It is possibly another independent imitative formation with the structure g-k” (compare geek). From 1867 as a noun. Related: Gawked; gawking. (thanks to etymonline)
What We’ve Been Doing
Amber
Don’t forget to check out my weekly serial blog! This week Phoebe finally figures out who exactly her mystery passenger really is! Hint: it’s not great news…
Dim Sum Of All Fears – Vivien Chien
Okay for those of you who enjoy lighter mysteries but dislike the cute titles and themes – I suggest you remove the cover & title page of this book and read on.
Seriously.
Chien does a beautiful job of making sure the theme is the foundation her mystery is set on, but never overwhelms the narrative. By keeping her book squarely focused on the murder mystery at hand and our detective Lana Lee, Chien successfully avoided the pitfalls, which normally plague this style of writing. Because never once while I was reading did the Noodle Shop theme ever once overwhelm or distract from the case our heroine was trying to solve (BTW- I’m not sure the description of ‘noodle shop’ is accurate anyways – as I think of ramen or pho places not family style Chinese restaurants, but that’s just my opinion) .
In fact, I enjoyed reading this book so much I sat down and read it all in one go – and it’s been a very long time since I’ve done that!
What kept me riveted to the pages for an entire afternoon was Lana Lee. An imperfect woman with bills to pay, a fondness for doughnuts, a pug, who still bickers with her older sister and who’s unexpectedly good at running her family’s Chinese restaurant (much to her sister’s dismay) while her mom’s off dealing with her own mother in Taiwan.
Plus – I have a weakness for amateur detectives who are constantly told to keep their Nancy Drew impulses in check yet cannot help themselves!
I would recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a mystery with a bit less blood and a great atmosphere!
Fran
Because I will always be an indie bookshop supporter, lately my go-to bookstore is Page 2 Books in Burien, because it’s within walking distance of my job, and let’s face it, it’s the place Jayne Ann Krentz went to for her signings after we could no longer help her out, so it’s obviously a cool shop. And believe me, it is!
They know me there, and of my former life here, so when I went in to order a couple of books (the new Patricia Briggs, because it’s Mercy Thompson after all, and the debut Juliet Grame, because she’s the publisher at SOHO who helped us out and has been just a gem, so of course I’m supporting her debut novel), the owner’s face brightened – I can’t remember her name right this minute, but I will, and I’ll add it in – and then dropped when I said I was there to order books.
Yes, she looked sad because I was ordering books. She wanted me to be in to ask for a job. She wanted to hire me, and honestly, has wanted to for a while now.
I come with impeccable credentials, after all, and a fairly comprehensive knowledge of how the book world works. And I do have contacts, even now.
They’re moving into a bigger space (yay, them!), and could use my knowledge and help. I flashed on the idea of setting up a packing station so we could get back to doing the Krentz ship-outs the way they need to be done, and imagining bringing in authors for signings, and generally helping amp up the profile. Not bragging; I know my worth here.
But I had to say no, and not just because our household has gotten used to me having a real paycheck complete with benefits, and an 8 – 5, Monday through Friday schedule, which bookstores simply can’t do. Either part, actually.
No, it’s more than that. I miss selling books, I seriously do. JB, Amber and I have been comparing dreams we’ve had over the course of this couple of years being out of the business, and we’ve all three dreamed of being back in the life. It’s compelling, it’s addicting, and it’s so often heartbreaking.
I’m fairly adaptable, and I could handle another shop’s routines, but I don’t know that I’d be able to compromise my grading of books. Could I bring myself to sell a true collector a book I knew was a C, when SMB prided itself on having the best? NOTE: I’m not saying Page 2 Books has lesser standards – not by a long shot! Everything I’ve gotten there has been great, but until you’re on the inside, you don’t truly know, y’know? And I absolutely have been in other bookstores where SMB standards were not met!
One of the things I love about my current job with the Department of Corrections is that I don’t have to deal with money. I kinda blew out my financial give-a-damn circuits worrying about SMB’s finances, especially at the end. I don’t even have to make change, and it’s a bigger relief than you might think.
Page 2 Books is a general bookstore, and I have no idea how one goes about stocking such a critter. It was hard enough with a specialty shop; the nuances of managing salable titles for a general shop just boggle me, but these folks do a great job! Still, it’s another skill set that I’m not sure I’m ready for.
And there’s figuring out who you can order from, how long it’ll take to get something in, juggling all the variables, not to mention merchandising and publicity. Running a bookstore is more work than most people think, and it’s certainly not as glamorous as we made it look! 🙂
If I was going back into the book world, it would be at Page 2 Books. They’re good people, and we think in the same ways. I like them. They’d be a good second home.
Well, okay, I’d seriously consider working for Jenny Lawson – yes, THAT Jenny Lawson – who’s opening up a bookstore in her hometown, and I’d be strongly tempted to work at Nowhere Bookshop, but that would have the added disadvantage to me of having to move to Texas, which definitely isn’t happening.
I miss the book world, I do. And part of me will always want to go back. Maybe after I retire from the DoC, if they still want me, I’ll think about it. But for now, the hurt is still too real, and I need to keep my distance. Oh, but someday, I’d love to be back again!
JB
I WANT ONE!
unfortunately, this is the only one I will ever be able to afford
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I’ve always maintained that Kat Richardson is one of the most intelligent writers I know, and that statement still holds true. Writing as K. R. Richardson, her new novel,
But then came 
Assassinate Martin Luther King Jr.” Do they say who fired the shot? I’m not sure. It’s a fascinating book but not for what it says about that horrifying day in Memphis but for what it says about the Southern white racists.
It provides no end of local color to Chandler and LA at the time the book was written and published and does a great job explaining and showing how he cannibalized his short stories to be elements of his novels – in the case of The Big Sleep they do it nearly line by line. There are lingo explanations and word derivations. There are photos and illustrations – the original book on the left and the annotations on the right. As Otto Penzler is quoted on the back of the trade paper original, “What a great excuse to read this masterpiece again! The annotations are addictively fascinating, educational, and almost as compulsively readable as the novel.”