Teenage Friendships

Megan did a piece on teenage friendship in novels for the Guardian and it set us off on trying to remember books that dealt with that subject.

Phil picked A SEPARATE PEACE (which was a uneasy friendship to my mind). My choice would be BIRDY by William Wharton. Both male friendships. It was harder to come up with an adult book that portrayed a female friendship between adolescents other than a new one IN ZANESVILLE by Joanne Beard, which I haven't yet read and Megan's new book, of course.

What books or stories about teenage friendship stand out for you? Hard to think of them, isn't it?

Your Favorite Lawrence Block Book

I have been reading several books by Lawrence Block of late. TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT is loaded with great advice for writers.

And A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF entertained us from Detroit to Buffalo and back again.


But my all-time favorite is WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES. I think that was the first Block I ever read and it just blew me away.

What about you? What Lawrence Block book do you like best?

Books for a Monday

Purchased in Canada and Buffalo several weeks ago.

Under the Snow, Kersten Ekman

The Lecturer's Tale, James Hynes

Fay, Larry Brown

Hell at the Breach, Tom Franklin

Raven, George Dawes Green

The Rabbit Factory, Larry Watson

Replay, Ken Grimwood

And add in Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross; Dogs of the South, Charles Portis and Stone Arabia, Dana Spiotta from a trip to Borders on Friday.

Three Books for Your Desert Island Trip

Rules of the Game: The trip is of indefinite duration. You can take an empty book and a package of pens to write in. But what three books would you take to read?



None can be the collected works of a writer/s. (No Shakespeare's Plays, for instance)

Single author books only. (No best mysteries of 2009)

And no best short stories of a writer. (No collected Works of John Updike for instance)







What would they be? Would you pick books you know you will like because you have read them already. Books you know you will like from recommendations?



I'd pick three collections of short stories because there is so much to think about in a volume of perhaps 15-20 stories.



Raymond Carver, Cathedral.



Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find



Alice Munro, Moons of Jupiter



What about you?

One- Book Wonders

Saw a good documentary on Harper Lee called HEY, BOO: HARPER LEE and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. ("Hey. Boo," is what Scout says, when she finally meets Boo Radley.)



Lee kept her silence both in this film and over the years. She has not been interviewed since the sixties. It is also poignant that she never wrote another book. No one knows why although I suspect it was the very success of this one.



Quite nauseating though how Truman Capote ended his lifetime friendship with her when she won the Pulitzer. He insinuated for years that he had a hand in the book.



Who are some of the other one-book wonders?

Sisters in Crime-Blogging Challenge from Barbara Fister

And the challenge is: blog about books or stories written by women. If you'd like to join in, Barbara Fister is here.



BLACK SECONDS is the second book by Karen Fossum I've read. And the ending really caught me up. An unexpected ending is not a prerequisite for me so I am always amazed when someone pulls it off. And pull it off, she did in a most satisfying way. It all made sense, the clues were there, and yet I didn't see it coming.



Fossum takes elements of the police procedural and mixes them with psychological drama in BLACK SECONDS. Women writers seem more interested in doing this. Less concerned with action and more concerned with motivation and character, which makes for a good read for me. The great exemplar of this sort of writing was Margaret Millar and I think Fossum is a worthy successor.



Inspector Sejer is the series detective in the two Fossum books I have read and it is he who doggedly follows the few threads he is able to find in the story. BLACK SECONDS concerns the disappearance of a ten year old girl on a yellow bike.



A secondary plot deals with a cousin of the girl--a teenager who crashes his car. This plot gradually dominates the novel. But the two strands come together in the end.



Karin Fossum is very adept at both keeping you reading and in putting depth and complexity in her plot. I am anxious to read a third book by Ms. Fossum.



Anyone else read Karin Fossum?

Two New Books, one e, one print

PULP INK has some of the sassiest-assed stories you're likely to read. Edited by two of my favorite gentleman, ( at least when not in print), Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird.

Mine is one of the tamer tales I am sure. You can find it here.



Also in print now is DEADLY TREATS from Nodin Press, wherein I write of angels.



You can find that anthology, edited by the lovely Anne Frasier (Theresa Weir) right here.

Or check here with the publisher.