X marks the spot: newly released treasure map sparks hunt for £15m Nazi hoard
Town Forced to Tell Treasure Hunters to Please Stop Looking for Nazi Gold
Florence Pugh called John le Carré an “old f*cking fart,” which… inspired him?
~Something is afoot with copyright this Public Domain Day
~Here are the books that just entered the public domain.
A New Member Of Congress Explained Why He’ll Swear His Oath Of Office On The US Constitution With A First-Edition Superman Comic (borrowed from the Library of Congress!)
Amateur archaeologist helps crack Ice Age cave art code
World’s oldest runestone found in Norway, archaeologists say
Archaeologists discovered a new papyrus of Egyptian Book of the Dead
LeVar Burton to Host Children’s Podcast ‘Sound Detectives’
A collector was ‘bitten by the postcard bug’ 80 years ago; see some of his favorites
Somebody made an exact LEGO replica of this classic movie bookstore.
He tossed a message in a bottle. A family sent it back 37 years later.
They’re getting rid of ‘red tape’ in Washington. Literally
Font furore as State Department retires Times New Roman for retired Calibri
Edgar Allan Poe had a promising military career. Then he blew it up.
Once a Floating Speakeasy, This Shipwreck Tells a Tale of Bullets and Booze
Meet the New Words Added to the Official Scrabble Dictionary
CNET’s AI-Generated Articles Riddled With Errors and Plagiarism
Before Folding 30 Years Ago, the Sears Catalog Sold Some Surprising Products
Katie Porter reading a book during the GOP’s House speaker fight is all of us.
Words of the Month
disgruntled: It started from the English barnyard, where gruntle was used to describe the noise made by a piglet (adults made a grunt). From there it became a term for a complaint. Dis got added as an intensifier sometime in the 17th or 18th C. (Says You, episode 1512)
Serious Stuff
Floods, fires and humidity: How climate change affects book preservation.
>Exclusive: Russian hackers targeted U.S. nuclear scientists
>Russia backs banning of maps disputing official ‘territorial integrity’
>Twitter Hacked, 200M User Email Addresses Leaked, Researcher Says
>Norton LifeLock says thousands of customer accounts breached
>PayPal: 35,000 Users Had Social Security, Tax Info Exposed to Hackers
>ChatGPT Is Pretty Good at Writing Malware, It Turns Out
>Hackers penetrated LAUSD computers much earlier than previously known, district probe finds
>Hacker Found FBI No Fly List on Unsecured Server
>Australia’s Health System Prime Target for Hacks, Minister Says
>The Unrelenting Menace of the LockBit Ransomware Gang
>US infiltrates big ransomware gang: ‘We hacked the hackers’
^Hiding History: Everyone talks about the need for transparency in public affairs, but what the government means by transparency turns out to be… not all that clear.
^JFK Murder: Evolving Strategies for Damage Control
They Called 911 For Help. Police And Prosecutors Used A New Junk Science To Decide They Were Liars
These Documents Reveal Abuses and Breakdowns in Rogue System of Global Diplomacy
LAPD Finally Decides Cops Shouldn’t Be Driving Around Totally Wasted
Paul Auster: ‘The gun that killed my grandfather was the same gun that ruined my father’s life’
2nd Colorado library closes due to meth contamination
Met Police missed NINE chances to stop sadistic serial rapist cop who attacked 12 women
Mexico’s former top cop on trial in New York, accused of working for Sinaloa cartel
Journalists Reveal the Horrors of Murdered, Lifeless Children in Ukraine
US to designate Russia’s Wagner Group as ‘transnational criminal organization’
=Neo-Nazis Are Hosting MMA and Boxing Tournaments to Recruit New Members
=Nazi Homeschool Network Under Investigation by Ohio’s Department of Education
Former FBI agent charged with violating sanctions against Russia, aiding oligarch
Ex-New Mexico state GOP candidate arrested in shootings at Democrats’ homes
Failed GOP Candidate Allegedly Hired Hitmen To Target Dem. Lawmakers
Michigan is Banning Inmates From Reading Totally Normal Books
Florida High School Cancels ‘Indecent,’ a Play About Censorship on Broadway in 1923
Secret Video Reveals Twitter Team Warned of ‘Shooting in the Streets’ Ahead of Jan. 6
Students want new books. Thanks to restrictions, librarians can’t buy them.
I Helped Thousands of Teens Impacted By Book Bans. Here’s What They Had To Say
Florida teachers forced to remove or cover up books to avoid felony charges
The Long Shadow of ‘American Dirt’
M&M’s accept Tucker Carlson’s invite to the culture wars
Words of the Month
comeuppance: Of British origin, you have come up before a judge to face the legal music. (Says You, episode 1512)
Local Stuff ~ From the Greater Pacific Northwest
Here are Seattle Public Library’s most-checked-out books in 2022
Fleeing driver calls 911, says chase violates her ‘rights,’ Washington cops say
I’m a Criminology Professor. I’ve Seen Students Like the Idaho Suspect Before. [a freaky, scary, and thoughtful article – JB]
Thousands lose power after shooting in South Seattle
Iris Yamashita on Writing a Murder Mystery About an Isolated Alaskan Town
Oregon-born Holly Madison hosts ‘The Playboy Murders,’ about crimes connected to the Playboy world
After a half-century, Elliott Bay Book Company is surviving and thriving
Seattle Morgue Struggling to Accommodate Glut of Fentanyl Deaths: Official
Ghost Herd: a KUOW Postcast – A true story of family, fraud, land and power
in the American West.
What if you gave a book signing and nobody came? Local authors and booksellers reflect on book signings – poorly attended or not
Words of the Month
furphy: A false report, a rumor. (Says You, episode 1512)
Odd Stuff
What Were TSA’s Most Unusual Finds in 2022?
An inflection point for GOATs: Please quiet quit these ‘banished words’ moving forward
This Rare Robert Burns Book Was Discovered in a Barber Shop, Where It Was Used to Clean Razors
‘Sopranos’ Actor Discovered a Famous Baroque Painting Hiding in Plain Sight
$Novelist Appears to Announce She’s Alive 2 Years After Faking Suicide: ‘Let the Fun Begin’
$Fan outrage at Susan Meachen, the romance novelist accused of faking her death
A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay
“We Are Fake America”: Why So Many Christmas Movies Are Filmed in Canada
This Italian accountant holds the world record for most books typed backwards
Egypt foils plot to steal 10-tonne statue of Ramses II
An AI Lawyer Is About to Defend a Human in a U.S. Courtroom
Mike Pence’s PAC Spent $91,000 On His Book. It Became A Bestseller
The Underground Cooks of Singapore’s Prisons
Wyoming GOP Considers Declaring War on Electric Vehicles to Protect Fossil Fuels
Man arrested after uranium found at UK’s Heathrow Airport
Replika, the ‘AI Companion Who Cares,’ Appears to Be Sexually Harassing Its Users
Prince Harry’s Spare is fastest-selling nonfiction book since UK records began
Oyster mushrooms release nerve gas to kill worms before eviscerating them
‘The Label Misleads Consumers’: Fireball Cinnamon Producer Sued in Class Action Lawsuit
Flying saucers to mind control: 24 declassified military & CIA secrets
Donald Trump is suing Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster over his audio interviews.
El Chapo’s Son Had an Anti-Aircraft Gun in His Bedroom
SPECTRE
Amazon Will Shut Down AmazonSmile Charity Donation Program
Amazon launches $5 a month subscription drug service
Words of the Month
trave (n): an inescapable structure in which to hold an unruly animal. In the world of espionage, a counterintelligence term to nullify a mole in your organization
Awards
Here are the winners of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Awards
The Griffin Poetry Prize Shakeup: New Rules, New Controversy
Here are the winners of the second annual Silvers-Dudley Prizes for literary and arts journalism.
Here are this year’s finalists for The Story Prize
MWA Announces 2023 Special Edgar Awards – Grand Master, Raven & Ellery Queen Recipients
Fuck the Poetry Police: On the Index of Major Literary Prizes in the United States
‘Hot Dog’ wins Caldecott, Newbery is awarded to ‘Freewater’
Here are the winners of the first Albertine Translation Prize
Julie Otsuka won a (much-deserved) Carnegie Medal!
Book Stuff
Filippo Bernardini: Italian admits stealing unpublished books
*After 44 years, London’s first Arabic bookshop closes down
A new indie bookstore named for Octavia Butler is opening in the author’s hometown.
This super cool, futuristic library is opening in the Bronx by 2025
My First Thriller: Diana Gabaldon
Here’s How Author James Patterson Writes 31 Books at the Same Time
When Fictionalizing True Crime, How Do You Avoid Exploitation?
9 Literary Classics for the Contemporary Crime Reader
These are the bestselling books of 2022 [from Publisher’s Weekly]
Mike Pompeo lands a coveted Mike Pompeo blurb for his forthcoming book.
UK’s independent bookshops survive Christmas but fear for the future
Mayor’s proposed library cuts will hurt New Yorkers, leaders say
Collector discovered Isaac Newton’s lost personal copy of Opticks
Stroll Through the World’s 11 Most Unusual Libraries
35 of the Best Bookstores in the USA
Bookstore goes viral for post about customer’s $800 return: ‘don’t do this to a small business’
How an Unorthodox Scholar Uses Technology to Expose Biblical Forgeries
This Library Design in Heyuan, China Features a Celestial Display
70k Books Found In Hidden Library In This Germany Home!
Rare illustrations from French classic ‘Les Fables de La Fontaines’ sold for €2 million
New York Public Library Acquires Joan Didion Papers
Writing wrongs: how true crime authors can fall victim to tragedy
*Bookseller ‘fundraising for a dream’ to open Arabic bookshop in London
For a Mystery Novel, How Much Sex Is Too Much Sex?
Wait, Channing Tatum is writing a romance novel with Roxane Gay?
Madeline McIntosh to Step Down as CEO of PenguinRandomHouse US
Author Events
Feb. 8: Jeff Guinn signs Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage, Powell’s, 7pm
Feb. 11: Mike Lawson signs Alligator Alley, his new DeMarco, Magnolia Books, 11am
Feb. 22: Matt Ruff signs The Destroyer of Worlds, Powell’s, 7pm
Feb. 23: Matt Ruff signs The Destroyer of Worlds, Elliott Bay Books, 7pm
Feb. 28: Matt Ruff signs The Destroyer of Worlds, Third Place /LFP, 7pm
Other Forms of Entertainment
French Cesar Film Awards ban nominees suspected of sex crimes and violence
“Kaleidoscope”: Netflix’s Mind-Bending Heist Is 2023’s First Great Series
Documentary examines lie detectors’ checkered history
That’s right! A new Philip Marlowe movie: ‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson Is The Old-School Gumshoe In Neil Jordan’s Frisky Noir Pastiche
Bernie Madoff Gets the Serial-Killer Treatment in Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street [JB says the contents of the show is great but the fakey re-enactments are a distraction]
7 Crime Movies That Should Have Been the First in a Series
Lone Woman and Cub: The Divergent Paths of Two Neo-Noirs
Dr. No’s Felix May Secretly Be The Reason For James Bond’s Coolness
Here’s Your 2023 Literary Film and TV Preview
Le Doulos: the violent French film that changed crime cinema
Stephen Colbert to Adapt One of George R.R. Martin’s Favorite Books Into TV Series
Alec Baldwin to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over Rust shooting
How Doug Liman Directed a Brett Kavanaugh FBI Investigation Doc in Secret
‘Riotsville, USA’ Shows the Birth of Police Militarization
Why cop show ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ was revolutionary
The Most Popular Film Noir Festival in the World Makes Its Full Return to the Bay Area
New graphic novel explores the life of ‘Queenie,’ Harlem Renaissance mob boss
Tom Selleck Was Never Concerned About ‘Blue Bloods’ Airing On Friday Nights
‘Poker Face’: Natasha Lyonne Doing Columbo Is Weirdly Exactly What We Need
Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down: On the 1975 Thomas Harris Novel, Black Sunday, and Its Underrated Adaptation [For you Super Bowl fans!]
Chinatown Is Still a Thrilling, Clear-eyed Portrayal of the Arrogance of Power
Hollywood Flashback: The Corvette Debuted in 1955’s ‘Kiss Me Deadly’
Words of the Month
impend (v.): To hang or hover menacingly; to be about to take place; archaic use to overhang
RIP
We recently learned that one of our long-time supporters died last Sept. John Cashin stopped in a couple of times a week on his way to the Bainbridge ferry or a Mariners’ game. Couldn’t say when he first found us but it was probably on one of those trips home. He’d worked at a local printer for decades and he’d hand off a couple of notepads of a certain size that we’d use for daily bookkeeping. We called them ‘cashin pads’. John helped us out a few times as an auxiliary staff member during big events or if one of us had a health issue. Always cheerful, he slowly amassed a sizable collection. Adele stumbled on the news of his passing when dropping into Arundels Books. “Phil has not gotten through all the mysteries but said most he kept with the SMB signing band.” We got those belly bands through John. We also got our GM Ford limited edition pieces through John. John died five days short of his 74th birthday. As he said each time he departed, “Say goodbye, John!“
Jan. 6: Earl Boen, Actor in the ‘Terminator’ Films, Dies at 81
Jan. 7: Joyce Meskis, Tattered Cover Bookseller Who Defended Readers’ Rights, Dies at 80
Jan. 15: Al Brown, ‘The Wire’, Star Dies After Battle With Alzheimer’s Disease at 83
Jan. 16: Gina Lollobrigida, Legendary Italian Screen Siren, Dies at 95
Jan. 19: Jonathan Raban, adventurous literary traveler and Seattle resident, dies at 80
Jan. 29: Lisa Loring, Original Wednesday Actress on ‘The Addams Family,’ Dies at 64
Jan. 29: Annie Wersching, Actress in ‘Bosch,’ ‘24,’ ‘Runaways,’ and Borg Queen, Dies at 45
Jan. 29: Barrett Strong, “Money” Singer Who Wrote Motown Hits Including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” Dies at 81 [how could we NOT include this??]
Jan. 30: Cindy Williams, Star of ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ The Conversation, Dies at 75
Links of Interest
Jan.1: Inside the Life of a Career Con Man Who Couldn’t Stop
Jan. 3: The Most Glamorous Gang in London History
Jan. 4: Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body parts
Jan. 4: Gloria Trevi Sex Cult Claims Revived in New Lawsuit
Jan. 4: ‘Varsity Blues’ mastermind Rick Singer sentenced to 3.5 years in prison
Jan. 4: Judge dismisses sexual assault suit against Marilyn Manson
Jan. 8: They Hunt Cartel Killers
Jan. 9: Vatican reopens investigation into teenager who went missing in 1983
Jan. 9: Real-Life ‘Training Day’: Inside the Corruption Scandal That Brought Down the Oakland PD
Jan. 9: South Africa’s Eskom says police investigating alleged poisoning of CEO
Jan. 12: New York Firefighter Accuses Chief of Raping Her as a ‘Birthday Present’
Jan. 12: 11 Gang Members Arrested for Failed Motorcycle Hit on Famous Mexican TV Anchor
Jan. 14: Security News This Week: A Russian Ransomware Gang Attack Destabilizes UK Royal Mail
Jan 14: Unemployed Lawyer Settles Years-Long Grudge by Stabbing Rival Attorney
Jan. 16: Sicilian Mafia’s ‘Boss of Bosses’ Arrested After 30 Years on the Run
Jan. 18: ‘Godfather’ mafia boss’ secret hideout had condoms, Viagra and ‘well-stocked fridge’
Jan. 18: Websites Selling Abortion Pills Are Sharing Sensitive Data With Google
Jan. 18: How Fine Art Has Become a Tool for the Bad Guys
Jan. 18: The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags
Jan. 19: Two men killed during cockfighting event after armed-roosters attacked them
Jan. 19: Umbrella Guns and Fake Poop? Cold War Spies Thought of Everything
Jan. 22: Paintings in Colorado Art Theft Recovered After Hotel Room Search
Jan. 22: He wanted a hit man, feds say. One stole his money; another was an FBI agent.
Jan. 25: U.S. Authorities Return Dozens of Looted Artifacts to Italy, Including 27 Objects from the Met
Jan. 27: Scientology Leader David Miscavige Appears to Be Missing
Jan. 28: Murdaugh Trial Upstages Bride’s Dream Wedding
Words of the Month
clothes horse (n): Mid-1800s in England, the wooded racks were sold so that one could lay out clothes to air or dry. (Says You, episode 1512)
What We’ve Been Up To
Amber
A Christie Bookshop Mystery: Dead and Gondola — Ann Claire
Okay, so the pull of this mystery title is obvious. Whilst not about Dame Agatha directly, the tangential tie intrigued me, so I settled down for a read…. and found myself enjoying the book rather a lot.
Ann Claire, our author, does a great job of keeping the mystery focused on the mystery. Knitting tidbits about the famous authoress in seamlessly and as needed — by using a Mary Westmacott book as a critical clue, naming the bookshop cat Agatha, and occasionally invoking our sleuth’s inner Miss Marple to help push the story forward.
The characters are well-rounded and interesting, as is the town of Last Word itself. The mystery, a variant of a Patricia Moyes plot I once read, works well.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries set in a bookshop, around a ski town, or with a strong family vibe. Seriously, I cannot wait until the next book in the series, Last Word To The Wise, comes out in October!
Fran
January in February
For any number of reasons, I’ve been in a funk this month, and it’s been a bad one for me. Therefore, I don’t have a book recommendation this month because I pick them up and set them down again. Yeah, I can’t even read.
Although I can write, so that’s something, and one of these days I’ll tell you what I’m writing, but for now the fact that I am seems encouraging. And, of all weird places, I find inspiration while I’m doing physical therapy for my knee, especially during my pool time.
So I decided to do a Best Of 2022 review, but then realized that it’s a recap of authors I’ve recommended through the years. Apparently I spent last year reading authors I know and love, and honestly, I’m really good with that.
Louise Penny
John Connolly
Thomas Perry
Walter Satterthwaite
Craig Johnson
Well, you get the drift. Tried and true authors who never let me down. Or if they do, it’s a minor drop because none of these folks can write a bad story if they had to.
So instead, I’m going to resurrect a recommendation from years ago, with a slight twist. I’m going to tell you to read anything and everything by Jenny Lawson, a/k/a The Bloggess. Why? Because I’m in a funk, and Jenny Lawson is perfect for those times when our mental health is iffy. She isn’t afraid to tackle mental health issues, which I admire endlessly, but she’s funny as hell too, which I also need.
This is one of her books, and starting here is a good place. It’s funny, and decidedly weird, and uplifting in an unusual sort of way, and for January and February doldrums, well, you just can’t ask for better than that.
JB
Entertainment recommendations:
“Slow Horses” – Apple TV adaptation of Nick Herron’s books – is fabulous – both seasons.
“The Pale Blue Eye” – adaptation of Louis Bayard’s 1830 murder mystery with West Point cadet A.E Poe – is a a good evening’s entertainment. On Netflix.
Also on Netflix, “Kaleidoscope” is astonishing. Episodes are by color and you can/are supposed watch them in any order. They direct you to save White for last. I would recommend that you save Pink to watch just before White. It was created, and some of the episodes were written, by Eric Garcia (remember Anonymous Rex?).
After sitting on my “to be read” pile for FAR TOO LONG, I picked up the new hardcover by Michael Mann and Meg Gardner, Heat 2. When I first heard they were releasing the novel, I was curious about what was left to tell. Well, there was LOTS. It goes both into the past, the period right after the end of the movie, and into the future. We get Vincent Hanna’s (Pacino) past in Chicago, Chris’ (Kilmer) escape from LA and his future, and then how their lives collide in the future.
The writing fits the characters very well and mirrors the stylings of the movie. And just like the movie, the plot and characters are full and rich and the result is terrific. Hard to put it down to eat or sleep!
Loren D. Estleman has been one of my favorite authors since Bill recommended when I first started working with him. His Detroit PI series with Amos Walker is the closest we’ve been able to get to Chandler since he started the series. It’s as reliable, durable, and hardboiled as the private eye himself. Looking on my overloaded shelves for something to read next, I spied The Sundown Speech, from 2015. I hadn’t gotten to it when it was released as that was the time of true stress at the shop. It appears to be out of print but it you can find a used copy, get it. Amos is hired by an Ann Arbor couple to recover an investment they made in an independent film and the director has gone missing. Great fun, especially Walker’s by-play with the homicide detective on the eventual case. I’ll be gathering the Walkers that I’ve missed over the last five years, no doubt about that!
Max Allan Collins has another Nate Heller book just out, The Big Bundle. As usual, Collins puts his fictional Chicago private eye, Nate Heller, into actual, historical true crime events. It starts out with Heller called into assist with a famous kidnapping case in 1953 Kansas City. I was astounded by this because I grew up maybe 7 minutes from the family’s house and drove by it maybe 10,000 times over the decades. Never heard anything about the case at any time, anywhere from anyone. The issue of missing ransom money continues into second half of the book and becomes entangled in the Bobby Kennedy/Jimmy Hoffa war, which will lead into the next book and RFK’s assassination.
I did find a few geographical things in the book that I thought were mistakes but the author insists they’re correct. If you know the streets of Mission Hills, KS, and the geography of eastern Kansas, you may run into things that clank when read. They are as the author insists they should be. Except for them, it was a great read.
and, finally, one last word for the Month of Romance
shotten: exhausted from a recent, romantic encounter (Says You!, episode 1402)
BUY SMALL ~ SUPPORT SMALL
Seattle Mystery Bookshop 