Quote of the Week

"I'm one of those regular weird people."

--- Janis Joplin

Odds and Ends

Fleming, Ian Fleming
For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond is the the latest exhibition at The Imperial War Museum in London. So, if you're a Bond fan who lives in London (or just feel like going there) be sure to stop in to see it. The exhibition is scheduled to run through March 2009.

It's kind of like...Coke buying out Pepsi
Super bookstore chain Barnes and Noble reportedly has been eying the bid to buy out rival Borders Group.

"No time for love, Dr. Jones"
Actually, there seems to be plenty of love for Indy. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the first in the series in nineteen years, grossed $56 million dollars in it's first two days. On his blog, The Man in Black, author Jason Pinter gives a good round up of the movie. WARNING: The post contains spoilers. Don't read it unless you've seen the movie. And just for fun, don't forget to check out the official Indiana Jones Web site.

Quote of the Week

"It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper."

--- Rod Serling

Is that a fact?

Are you someone who enjoys strange facts and trivia? Then perhaps this book is for you. Secret Lives of Great Authors by Robert Schnakenberg reveals to the reader some lesser known facts of some very well known writers. Did you know that:

• After being given a bad review, Ernest Hemingway wrestled the critic to the floor
  
  
• F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda would sometimes show up at parties drunk and bark like wild dogs
  
  
• Toni Morrison is a fan of the show Law & Order
  
  
• Kurt Vonnegut once owned a Saab dealership

These are only a few of the interesting bits of trivia about some of the greatest writers, from Shakespeare and Lord Byron all the way to J.D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon, found in this entertaining book.

Quote of the Week

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

--- Toni Morrison

May I have the envelope please?

The Mystery Writers of America has announced 2008's winners of the Edgar Awards.

Best Novel

• Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)

• Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
  
  
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
  
  
• Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
  
  
• Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best First Novel by an American Author

• Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins - William Morrow)

• In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group - Viking)
  
  
• Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
  
  
• Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
  
  
• Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Best Paperback Original

• Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)

• Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
  
  
• Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent's Tail)
  
  
• Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
  
  
• Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)

Best Critical/Biographical

• The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction by Patrick Anderson (Random House)

• A Counter-History of Crime Fiction: Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational by Maurizio Ascari (Palgrave Macmillan)
  
  
• Deviance in Contemporary Crime Fiction by Christiana Gregoriou (Palgrave Macmillan)
  
  
• Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press)
  
  
• Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy by Jean Gould O'Connell (McFarland & Company)

Best Fact Crime

• The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert (Penguin Group - G.P. Putnam's Sons)

• Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton and Company)
  
  
• Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit by Kerry Max Cook (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
  
  
• Relentless Pursuit: A True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit by Kevin Flynn (Penguin Group - G.P. Putnam's Sons)
  
  
• Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders and the Judgment of Mankind by Bruce Watson (Penguin Group - Viking)

Best Short Story

• "The Catch" - Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)

• "Blue Note" - Chicago Blues by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Bleak House Books)
  
  
• "Hardly Knew Her" - Dead Man's Hand by Laura Lippman (Harcourt Trade Publishers)
  
  
• "The Golden Gopher" - Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books)
  
  
• "Uncle" - A Hell of a Woman by Daniel Woodrell (Busted Flush Press)
  

Best Young Adult

• Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Penguin - Dial Books for Young Readers)

• Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Press)
  
  
• Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing - Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
  
  
• Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Press)
  
  
• Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing - Simon Pulse)

Best Juvenile

• The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

• Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman (American Girl Publications)
  
  
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion Books)
  
  
• The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)
  
  
• Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen (Random House Children's Books - Alfred A. Knopf)

Best Play

• If/Then by David Foley (International Mystery Writers' Festival)

• Panic by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers' Festival)
  
  
• Books by Stuart M. Kaminsky (International Mystery Writers' Festival)

Best Television Episode Teleplay

• "It's Alive" - Dexter, Teleplay by Daniel Cerone (Showtime)

• "Yahrzeit" - Waking the Dead, Teleplay by Declan Croghan & Barbara Machin (BBC America)
  
  
• "Pie-Lette" - Pushing Daisies, Teleplay by Bryan Fuller (ABC/Warner Bros Television
  
  
• "Senseless" - Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Teleplay by Julie Martin & Siobhan Byrne O'Connor (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)
  
  
• "Pilot" - Burn Notice, Teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios)

Best Motion Picture Screen Play

• Eastern Promises, Screenplay by Steven Knight (Focus Features)

• The Lookout, Screenplay by Scott Frank (Miramax)
  
  
• Michael Clayton, Screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures)
  
  
• No Country for Old Men, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy (Miramax)
  
  
• Zodiac, Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on the book by Robert Graysmith (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

• "The Catch" - Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)

Mary Higgins Clark Award

• In Cold Pursuit by Sarah Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur)

• Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group - Berkley Prime Crime)
  
  
• Inferno by Karen Harper (Harlequin - MIRA Books)
  
  
• The First Stone by Judith Kelman (Penguin Group - Berkley Prime Crime)
  
  
• Deadman's Switch by Barbara Seranella (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Congratulations to all the winners as well as the nominees!