Man Who Accidentally Got Paid 330x His Salary Quits, Disappears
Hip, Woke, Cool: It’s All Fodder For the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
Love the Smell of Old Books? This Bookseller Would Like You to Leave.
Drool over the personal bookplates of 18 famous writers.
The Secrets of a Long-Overlooked Cipher Linked to Catherine of Aragon
After a local bookstore was scammed out of $35K their Detroit neighbors stepped in to save it
The Crypto Revolution Wants to Reimagine Books
Oakland librarian reflects on nearly 10 years of chronicling found objects
Mystery of Australia’s ‘Somerton Man’ solved after 70 years, researcher says
Rare 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card going up for auction
After Selling for $43 million, Rare Copy of the Constitution Goes on Display
Teens who mostly read paper books are better readers, a recent study says.
Books and bouncy houses: How the Uvalde library is helping a broken community heal
Words of the Month
nonsense (n.) “that which is lacking in sense, language or words without meaning or conveying absurd or ridiculous ideas,” 1610s, from non– “not” + sense (n.); perhaps influenced by French nonsens. Since mid-20th C., non-sense, with the hyphen, has been used to distinguish the meaning “that which is not sense, that which is different from sense,” not implying absurdity.
Serious Stuff
>Police Department Used Images of Black Men Holding Guns as Target Practice
*How To Directly Impact Democracy: Book Censorship News, July 1, 2022
*Who Controls What Books You Can Read?
*Pathetic Proud Boys Ruin Another Pride Month Event for Kids at Indiana Library
*Battle Over Sex and Gender in Books Divides a Texas Town
*All the Little Things You Lose in the Culture War
*Oklahoma Threatens Librarians: ‘Don’t Use the Word Abortion’
*School District Enacts One of ‘Strictest’ Book Bans Yet After Raucous Meeting
People Are Using AI to Generate Disturbing Kids’ Bedtime Stories
An Old Waterpark Could Be Mexico’s Largest Narco Mass Grave
Six Reasons the Murder Clearance Rate Is at an All-Time Low
Two men jailed for Molotov cocktail attack on Dutch journalist’s home
>Emmett Till’s Accuser Wrote A Secret Memoir!
>Emmett Till’s Chicago Home Will Be Preserved
>MS Police Chief Boasted “Shot That N-Word 119 Times,’ According To Leaked Recording
>Co-defendant in Central Park Five case to be exonerated
A Hacker Explains How to Shoplift
Rare medical book collection tracks tangled history of women’s health
28 Incarcerated Women Allege That Guards Allowed Male Inmates to Rape Them for $1000
Local Stuff
Do you recognize this woman? Mounties renew appeal to help ID woman found dead in Richmond marina (Vancouver Sun)
Lucinda Turner, who worked to combat illicit trade in Indigenous art, has died at 63
Planes, parachutes and armed robbery: Netflix take on the master criminal who became a folk hero (D.B. Cooper documentary)
From books to weddings and memorials, Island Books has served Mercer Island for nearly 50 years
D.B. Cooper, the changing nature of hijackings and the foundation for today’s airport security
Shelf Talkers: What Booksellers Are Reading at Third Place Book
Portland’s Books With Pictures named best comic shop in the world
Words of the Month
hooey (n.)“nonsense, foolishness,” 1922, American English slang, of unknown origin.
Odd Stuff
How TikTok Became a Bestseller Machine
As Watergate simmered, Nixon buckled down on a sportswriting project
Feds Nab Woman Who Tried to Rent a Hitman on RentAHitman.Com.
Dressed to Kill: A True Crime Collection of Criminal Clothing
A Judge Pulled a Gun in the Courtroom—and Then It Got Weird
How an Unqualified Sex Worker Allegedly Infiltrated a Top Air Force Lab
Million-Dollar Wine Heist Ends With Mexican Beauty Queen Arrested in Europe
The YouTuber making millions from true crime and make-up
FBI Comes Up Empty-Handed in Search for Jimmy Hoffa in New Jersey Landfill
How a Dick Pic Helped Detectives Crack a $30M Celebrity Diamond Heist
Alabama Officials Tell Reporter Her Skirt Is Too Short to View Inmate’s Execution
The Sinaloa Cartel Is Now Selling Tesla and Prada Branded Cocaine
The Collected Works of the Zodiac: Was the 1960s serial killer a frustrated author, desperate for his voice to be heard?
Codebreakers Find ‘Sexts,’ Arctic Dispatches in 200-Year-Old Encrypted Newspaper Ads
Literary-themed cruises with famous writers are apparently a thing now.
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul Unveil Bronze Statues of ‘Breaking Bad’ Characters in Albuquerque
Words of the Month
twaddle (n.)“silly talk, prosy nonsense,” 1782, probably from twattle (1550s), of obscure origin.
SPECTRE
Security News This Week: Amazon Handed Ring Videos to Cops Without Warrants
Amazon Gave Ring Doorbell Videos to US Police 11 Times Without Permission
Fake online reviews lead shoppers to overpay, new study says
Amazon wants to be your doctor now, too
Amazon’s Dangerous Ambition to Dominate Healthcare [Time Magazine, no less]
Words of the Month
guff (n.)“empty talk, nonsense,” 1888, from earlier sense of “puff of air” (1825), of imitative origin.
Awards
Mick Herron wins crime novel of the year award for Slough House
Booker prize unveils book club challenge
2022 Booker prize longlist of 13 writers aged 20 to 87 announced
These 24 debuts just made the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize longlist.
Here’s the shortlist for the first Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize.
Book Stuff
Writer’s Digest Best Writing Advice Websites For Writers 2022
Iowa City Public Library eliminates fines for overdue materials
HarperCollins Union Has Voted To Strike
Sotheby’s To Bring A Most Rare Shakespeare First Folio Under The Hammer In New York On July 21
PS: Rare original copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sells for £2m ($2.4M US)
Irish writers dropped from UK school curriculum in move to increase diversity
Daphne du Maurier: Novelist who traced past to a French debtors’ jail
‘First modern novel – oldest language’: Sanskrit translation of Don Quixote rescued from oblivion
Collecting first-edition Beatrix Potter books
The Cult Classic That Captures the Grind of Dead-End Jobs
News From Nowhere: Inside Liverpool’s iconic radical bookshop
His First Novel Was a Critical Hit. Two Decades Later, He Rewrote It.
The Great Locked Room Mystery: My Top 10 Impossible Crimes
Tess Gerritsen: ‘There’s always comfort in Sherlock Holmes’
My First Thriller: Laura Lippman
Dana Canedy, Publisher of Simon & Schuster’s Flagship Imprint, Has Left the Job
London and the Long, Dark shadow of Charles Dickens
A copyright lawsuit threatens to kill free access to Internet Archive’s library of books
This Website Makes It Easy for You to Support Local Bookstores
Writer Gets Locked Out of Novel Draft by Chinese Word Processor for Illegal Content
From Mo Hayder: The Desert Brings Danger and Mystery in This First Look at The Book of Sand
The Bookseller Who Helped Transform Oxford, Mississippi
Little Essays on Sherlock Holmes: “The Engineer’s Thumb”
Book review by Joseph Kanon: A (dubious) suicide, a (possible) mole and an enduring CIA mystery
Ian Flemings ’13 Rules for life’ notebook sells for $52,500 [“Rule 13. Live until your dead.“]
A historic lesbian-owned queer bookstore is fighting to stay open.
21 Independent Bookstores to Browse in the DC Area
Attention ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ fans: Rare Dr. Seuss collection coming to Columbia
With Violence All Around Us, What Does It Actually Mean For a Book To Be a Crime Novel?
Artist Barbara Bloom and Writer Ben Lerner Invent a New Kind of Book
How do you organize your books? 9 authors share their favorite shelves.
How a Book Is Made – Ink, Paper and a 200,000-Pound Printer
Milton Propper: Scion and Imitator of the Golden Age Mystery, Pioneer of the Procedural
We Need to Reckon with the Rot at the Core of Publishing
Meet the People Behind Some of Today’s Best Small Publishers Specializing in Crime Fiction
From Duluth to Decatur these bookstores are helping in the fight for reproductive justice.
The Search for the Funniest Crime Novel Ever Written
Author Events
Aug. 3: Deborah Cuyle signs Murder and Mayhem in Spokane, Auntie’s 7pm
Aug. 4: Leah Sottile signs her Idaho true crime book, When the Moon Turns to Blood, Elliot Bay Books, 7pm
Aug. 9: Mercer Island author Mark Pawlosky signs Hack, Island Books 6pm
Aug. 13: 2 OR authors sign their new cozies from Kensington ~ Angela M. Sanders and Emmeline Duncan, University Books, 2pm
Aug. 19: Beverly Hodgins signs Mercy and Madness: Dr. Mary Archard Latham’s Tragic Fall From Female Physician to Felon!, Auntie’s 7pm
Aug. 23: Patricia Briggs signs her new Mercy Thompson, University Books 6pm
Aug. 23: Peter Blecha and Brad Holden sign Lost Roadhouses of Seattle, Third Place/Ravenna 7pm
An Interesting List That Mixes Books and Film
The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time
Other Forms of Entertainment
True crime psychologist sharing insights with Central Illinois library-goers
‘Dark Winds’ Renewed for Season 2 at AMC
+Michael Mann Plans To Turn His Heat 2 Novel Into ‘One Large Movie’
+Why Marxist Heist Masterpiece ‘Thief’ Was James Caan’s Finest Work
+Inside Tokyo Vice, the Flat-Out Coolest Show of the Year
Daredevil’s Darker Tone Called For A Different Kind Of Superhero Costume
The 25 Best True-Crime Podcasts of All Time
7 Movies Depicting a “Perfect” Murder
Girl in the Picture review – the scale of the true-crime monstrosity will leave you reeling
All Agents Defect: Espionage in the Films of David Cronenberg
‘Almost mythical’ Michael Flatley thriller Blackbird gets September release; Lord of the Dance star ‘thrilled’ self-financed film finally being released four years after premiere
‘Noir Alley’ host celebrates cinema’s double crosses and doomed characters
Tony Sirico Used to Direct His Sopranos Castmates, Whether They Liked It or Not
Is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Insomnia’ a Successful Remake?
Two Drivers Shooting at Each Other Crash Into Chicago Set of FX’s ‘Justified: City Primeval’
8 International Podcasts To Listen to This Summer
The HBO True Crime Series That Starts With an Exoneration—Then Gets Really Interesting
Five of the Best Unexpected Crime Movies of All-Time
Your Guide to the Best Crime Shows Coming Out This Month [published at the very end of July]
Deliverance at 50: a violent battle between urban and rural America
Jonathan Banks of ‘Better Call Saul’ explains Mike’s saving grace
Words of the Month
fiddlestick (n.): 15 C., originally “the bow of a fiddle,” from fiddle (n.) and stick (n.). Meaning “nonsense” (usually fiddlesticks) is from 1620s. As an exclamation, c. 1600.
RIP
July 1: Joe Turkel, the Bartender in ‘The Shining,’ Dies at 94
July 3: Novelist and former Guardian journalist Susie Steiner dies at 51
July 7: James Caan, Macho Leading Man of Hollywood, Dies at 82 [here’s a link to what we put up on the day of his death]
July 8: Tony Sirico, ‘The Sopranos’ Actor, Dies at 79
July 8: Larry Storch, Corporal Randolph Agarn on ‘F Troop,’ Dies at 99
July 9: L.Q. Jones, ‘Wild Bunch’ Actor and Member of Peckinpah’s Posse, Dies at 94
July 11: Bond theme composer Monty Norman dies aged 94
July 21: Taurean Blacque, Det. Neal Washington on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ Dies at 82 [let’s be careful out there!]
July 23: William Richert, Writer-Director of ‘Winter Kills,’ Dies at 79
July 24: Bob Rafelson, Director of ‘Five Easy Pieces’ and Co-Creator of ‘The Monkees,’ Dies at 89
July 25: Paul Sorvino, Actor in ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘That Championship Season,’ Dies at 83
July 27: Faye Marlowe, Actress in the Film Noir Classic ‘Hangover Square,’ Dies at 95
July 27: Stone Barrington novelist Stuart Woods dies at 84
July 28: Mary Alice, Actress in ‘Fences,’ ‘Sparkle’ and The Matrix Revolutions, Dies at 85
Links of Interest
July 3: Long-Lost Alexander Hamilton Letter to Marquis de Lafayette Discovered
July 5: Top secret D-Day map of Omaha Beach goes to Library of Congress.
July 12: Bombs, blackmail and wire-taps: how I spent my childhood on the run from the FBI
July 13: Prisoners of their own device? Men accused over theft of Hotel California manuscript
July 14: Man exonerated in Malcom X murder sues New York City for $40m
July 14: Roman Polanski rape case testimony can be unsealed, prosecutor says
July 14: Ex–CIA Hacker Convicted for ‘One of the Most Damaging Acts of Espionage in American History’
July 15: Mexico Captures Drug Lord Rafael Caro Quintero, Portrayed on ‘Narcos: Mexico’
July 15: New Report Shows Criminals Are Mixing Crypto Streams to Conceal Revenue
July 16: Crypto Founders Say It’s Not Their Fault They’re Enabling Ponzi Schemes
July 17: Millions in jewels stolen from armored truck outside LA
July 18: FBI Warns Fake Crypto Apps Are Stealing Millions
July 18: Inside the Stringer Bell Bandit’s Bank Heist Spree
July 19: Rhino Horns, Tiger Teeth and 6 Tonnes of Ivory Seized in $18M Record Bust
July 19: Italian police thwart illegal sale of Artemisia Gentileschi painting
July 19: ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ Crew Member Shot & Killed On Set Of NBC Drama
July 20: A discarded coffee cup may have just helped crack this decades-old murder case
July 20: How Professor Maynard Burned Down – The criminologist on trial for serial arson.
July 20: Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing, wanted for questioning over real-life killing
July 21: Thieves stole ‘Precious Blood’ relic. It reemerged at detective’s door.
?July 22: Rays’ Wander Franco Has $650K Worth of Jewelry Stolen from Car in Hotel Parking Lot [pardon the editorializing, but who needs that much jewelry, and who is dumb enough to leave it in a car?!?!?!]
July 22: Three Picasso artworks discovered in three months
July 22: A German Woman Turned Herself in for a Brazen Art Theft, but Claims She Lost the Painting
July 23: Woman sentenced to prison for collecting $400,000 in viral GoFundMe scam
July 25: Former GOP Congressman Made Hundreds of Thousands Off Insider Trading Scheme, Feds Say
July 25: She seemed like an elderly Sacramento landlady. Dorothea Puente was actually a serial killer.
?July 25: NYPD: Preacher, Wife Robbed of $1M in Jewelry During Sermon [see July 22 – same questions]
July 27: KGB Photo Deepens Mystery of Texas Couple Who Stole Dead Babies’ Identities, Feds Say
July 27: Anti-Vaxxers Looking for Love Had Their Data Exposed
July 27: Third set of human remains found at Lake Mead amid drought, National Park Service says
July 28: Father of JonBenet Ramsey is pushing for new DNA testing
?July 29: Brooklyn Pastor Robbed of $1 Million in Jewelry Accused of Plundering Congregant’s $90,000 Retirement Fund [now watch – the crime reader in us wonders if he staged the robbery to collect on the insurance?]
July 29: California court upholds death penalty for notorious serial killer Charles Ng
Words of the Month
falderol (n.)also falderal, falderall, folderol, etc., 18th C. nonsense words from refrains of songs; meaning “gewgaw, trifle” is attested from 1820.
What We’ve Been Up To
Amber
A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder — Dianne Freeman
Familiarity breeds contempt…and when it’s your family?
Well…..
Things can get explosive.
And explode they do (though not literally). When a murder, accusations of infidelity, thugs, and rivalries all come to a head at and after France and George’s much-anticipated wedding.
Seriously, if your looking for a light-hearted historical murder mystery that never takes itself too seriously — the Countess of Harleigh Mystery series is the one for you! Freeman does an excellent job of blending the time period, manners, and societal rules into an excessively readable mystery.
What I love the most about the Countess of Harleigh Mysteries (BTW – Frances is said Countess) is their funny. Not a slap you on the back hardy-har-har kind but wry, sly, and observational humor that one can relate to – especially if you’ve ever tried planning a wedding with the “help” of your family and/or in-laws.
Now, you don’t need to read them in order….However, there are only four predecessors, so starting at numero uno, A Lady’s Guide To Etiquette and Murder isn’t too much of a stretch, and hopefully, you’ll laugh (or at least smile) as much as I did whilst turning the pages.
Fran
Okay, so hear me out
I don’t have a review, but I have a really good explanation. A couple of ’em, if I’m being honest. And one is legit book stuff!
The mother of a dear friend of mine passed away, and she lived near me. Her son and his wife, both of whom are great friends of mine, asked me to assess her books to see if there was anything worthwhile in there. We all figured probably not, but hey, you never know, right? And she was a pack rat, as was her late husband, so treasures were possible.
There were a couple of catches. One was that she lived near where we had originally moved to in New Mexico, which is now an hour away from where I now live, but is certainly much closer than the five hours away where Bill and Kate live. I have time and am certainly willing to help, so that was just a minor thing.
The bigger issue is that, while I’m pretty good at mysteries, I’m not so well versed at Southwestern history.
Like not at all. And it’s been educational.
There have been books, and pamphlets, and cookbooks, and all manner of things. Including Hillermans and Jances, which were easy enough. But mostly it was Southwestern stuff.
Boxes and boxes of books. It’s kept me busy, and it’s been immense fun.
But that’s why I haven’t reviewed anything.
Well, that and the fact that I’ve been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. But that’s not really a good reason. Assessing books, however, really is.
I’m going to try to have a review next month, but I’m planning on putting these books up for sale, and honestly, that may take a lot of time, so we’ll see what next month brings.
Oh, but it’s exciting!
JB
After catching up on my Haller, Bosch, and Ballard, I picked up another from my always growing To Be Read Pile – Stephen Hunter’s Game of Snipers from 2019. Burned through it in two days, as one does with a thriller of this quality (please note I chose to not writer “of this calibre”. Swagger books are reliable fun. I don’t know about anyone else, but I skip over the nitty-gritty details of the guns in play and stick with the action. This one is as if one put the Day of the Jackal in the US with Swagger part of the team hunting the sniper. And thanks to David G. for keeping me supplied!
We’ve been watching a number of series that I’d recommend: “Dark Wind”, the adaptation of Tony Hillerman’s The Listening Woman, “Reservation Dogs”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” with a wonderfully guilt-ridden Obi-Wan, “DB Cooper Where Are You”, and “Under the Banner of Heaven”. After watching that, I bought a copy of Jon Krakauer’s book on which it was based and burned through it. First of all, the series is quite accurate when it says “inspired” by the book. While the series is a good police procedural, it is largely fiction. Written in 2003, it is a deep dive into the Mormon faith and the fundamentalist offshoots. True it does center around a vicious double murder but it really is about people blinded by their faith and incapable or unwilling to look at the real world before them. While Krakauer does make a few faint parallels to Isis and other foreign “tribes”, the book felt more relevant to me when matched to Trumpism, and the true believers who know that they know to be truth and everyone else is just wrong.
This being the 50th Anniversary year of Watergate, I’ve read four books on that “event”- that period is better. In 2012, Lamar Waldron released his mammoth, 808 page Watergate: The Hidden History. It’s a deep dive into the subject. Then, in 2013 came Phil Stanford’s slim trade paperback White House Call Girl: The Real Watergate Story. Earlier this year, Garrett M. Graff’s Watergate: A New History was released. It was just under the page count of Waldron’s. I wrote about both of those in an earlier newzine. [If you want to read just one, read Waldron’s. And then read Graff’s!]
Now, what I expect to be the last “major” book on Watergate (at least this year) is out: Jefferson Morley’s Scorpion’s Dance. I’d looked forward to this, as I thought his book on James Jesus Angleton, The Ghost, was quite good. But I found this book focusing on the lethal dance between President Nixon and CIA Chief Richard Helms to be oddly light. I suppose I was expecting something of the heft of Waldron’s or Graff’s and I found it short on depth. For instance, during the heat of August 1973, he glides over the details of the Saturday Night Massacre in one small paragraph and doesn’t use that weighted term. I certainly followed along because I knew the details and was hoping for new revelations. There was little of it. I would not recommend this to someone not familiar with that crucial and sordid history.
Yet there were a few bits new to me that I found interesting:
~ After his arrest, James McCord directed his wife and a neighbor, who was also a CIA officer, to burn papers and copies of transcripts of the DNC wiretaps. The damper in the fire place was closed, they filled the house with smoke, and had to explain what was going on to the fire department.
~ He never points to a specific rationale for the Watergate break-ins, but does repeatedly write about the salacious recordings that the bugs provided. It is the supposition of some – like Stanford – that a call girl ring was being run out of the DNC office and the bugs were to get dirt on the Dems. Indeed, the office of Larry O’Brien, the head of the DNC, never was bugged.
~Helms quoted a Nixonian threat as having a “devious, hard-nosed smell”
~ Sometimes it is just the way he phrases things: “In this perilous situation, Helms had one advantage that Nixon did not. For the president, it was illegal to conceal of destroy material evidence, suborn witnesses, or dissemble to law enforcement. Helms, not so much… As CIA director, Helms had discretion to hide certain activities from law enforcement. As the duly sworn president, Nixon did not. And that would make all the difference in determining who would fall first.”
~ I had not known that like JFK, LBJ, and Nixon, Helms had recording equipment in his office. Those recordings and transcripts were destroyed damn fast. Likewise, the day after Nixon’s resignation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had been recording and transcribing their meetings since the end of WWII, destroyed all of those records.
~ After his fall, Helms was stunned by how Washington had deserted him. “‘ It was unthinkable that the Establishment would turn against Dick Helms’… He could not understand with all these powerful friends and with all these connections and with all these people who he had helped and become socially close to them and that retained positions of influence and power, that this could nonetheless be done to him…” This brought to mind the disbelief in the intelligence world after Philby defected to the Soviets. He was one of them, he was from their schools, they socialized and ate dinner and drank in the same clubs – this “Old Boy” network was the rot at the center of the post-war Free World. Those who belonged to it were deluded and took us down with them.
~ At Helms’ sentencing, the judge threw down the wrath of the bench at him: “If public officials embark deliberately on a course to disobey and ignore the laws of our land because of some misguided and ill-conceived notion and belief that there are earlier commitments and considerations which they must first observe, the future of our country is in jeopardy.”
What would that Judge, Barrington Parker, an African-American Republican appointed by Nixon, think of January 6th and The Big Lie that won’t die????
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