Sight and Sound

Sight

Blitz starring Jason Statham, Paddy Considine. London cop Brant cracks heads while hunting a killer. Based off the Ken Bruen books. Bruen's Brant is a feared cop among both crooks and cops and his work and personal activities cover both sides of the law.



Sound

1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber. 5 CDs at 6 hours. Cover has three dogs in a basket. As if those dogs would actually stay in the basket.

The Accident by Linwood Barclay. 11 CDs at 12.33 hours. I was sure I spoke to Barclay at a Bouchercon party hosted by Random House. I just saw Barclay's photo and it was not the same guy. I must have gotten his name mixed up.

Justice by Karen Robards. 10 CDs at 11.5 hours.

Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen. Another Rizzoli and Isles novel. 9 CDs at 10 hours.

Area 51: an uncensored history of America's top secret history base by Annie Jacobsen. 15 CDs at 16.25 hours.

What to Read 44: Chasing the Devil by David Reichert

What to Read

Chasing the Devil: my twenty year quest to capture the Green River Killer by David Reichert.

Two Novels for You

Fiction

Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn. A superspy does super spying. Guy is out to assassinate an Iranian and travels around the globe. Because that is what spies do, they travel around the world making last minute airline reservations and stay in expensive downtown hotels.

Prey by Linda Howard. Many customers have reservations for this book.

Five Novels, Cartoons, Bouchercon Report

Fiction

1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber. "A Cedar Cove Novel" These just keep coming out. I wonder if they are being ghosted. Single mom in Cedar Grove expects a great Christmas. But, someone left basket of puppies on her doorstep and her kids invited her ex-husband for the holiday.

Shadow in Serenity by Terri Blackstock.

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke. Sheriff in a rural, Texas border town investigates a torture killing.

An Angel for Christmas by Heather Graham. Heather Graham the actress is from Wisconsin. I cannot recall from where and will not look it up.

Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson. A paperback version I got for free at Bouchercon.

NonFiction

How to Draw Cartoons: s step-by-step guide with 1000 illustrations by Ivan Hissey and Curtis Tappenden. I may bring this home for Boy #1. He has been drawing comics lately after reading things like Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants.

Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis

Bouchercon was a few weeks ago. I attended. Bouchercon is an annual meeting for authors and fans of mysteries, crime and suspense novels.

I barely talked to anyone except for a few guys in the bar and at the Random House party. I had three goals of the event. 1- Say hello to Bill Crider. 2. Say hello to Barbara Fister. 3. Say hello to Patti Abbot. I completed the first two objectives and missed the third.

The advantage of a librarian attending Bouchercon is to learn more about new books, old books, and all sorts of authors for genres that are very popular with library users. Bouchercon is also a chance to learn more about the publishing industry from the author's perspective. I took about ten pictures all week, here are five.

Bill Crider waiting to sign books


New copies of Quarry's Ex


New copies of Choke Hold


Panel members for Girl Trouble about 'bad girls" in fiction


I stocked up on coffee before the Girl Trouble panel

Nothing New.

Nothing New

New items have arrived but are not ready for the shelf.

Baby Monkey On A Pig

Lorine Niedecker: a poet's life

NonFiction

Lorine Niedecker: a poet's life by Margot Peters. Lorine Niedecker...was a poet of extraordinary talent whose life and work were long enveloped in obscurity. Margot does a lot of research for each of her biographies. Margot will be speaking here, at the library, on November 26th.

Firm Dragon Fish Tank

DVD

The Firm Weight Loss System: turbocharge weight loss featuring [some blond woman]. 40 minutes of exercise.

Fish Tank starring Michael Fassbender and British people. 15-yr-old girl lives with mom and sister in English housing project. Mom's attractive boyfriend moves in and tension builds.

Audiobooks on CD

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin. 38 CDs at 49 hours. 49 hours? What the heck? I'm listening to the always quotable Joe R. Lansdale's Vanilla Ride and that is only 7.5 hours.

A New Quarry Novel

Fiction

Quarry's Ex by Max Allan Collins. A novel set early in the career of Quarry the hit man. Quarry gets hired for a job and learns the case involves his ex-wife. These books are fantastic.
- Interesting Fact About Max Allan Collins #1: He is fairly tall.
- Interesting Fact About Max Allan Collins #2: He is a good singer. Not for his vocal ability but for his energy and emotion.

Large Print

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer. Dock in 1920 Bristol, England gets scholarship to exclusive school.

Audiobook on CD

In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda. 4 CDs at 4.5 hours. Based on the true story of Enaratollah Akbari. Akbari was ten-years-old when his family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan to Pakistan. Left on his own, Akbari traveled on his own through Iran, Turkey, and Greece to asylum in Italy. The title says Bill Crider, I don't know if the story does.

Three Fic, Two "Writing As", and One Non

Fiction

Getting Off by Lawrence Block (writing as Jill Emerson). Another novel recovery by Hard Case Crime. This is a older novel Block did in the '50s or '60s. A serial killer woman who murders who one-night stands starts to track down the men she did not kill before.

Son of Stone by "Stuart Woods". Because, really, does Woods write his books anymore? Maybe he does an outline and a final edit.

Lethal by Sandra Brown. Widow with young daughter caught by a suspected mass murderer who claims the woman's dead policeman husband was hiding something valuable.

Large Print

Canyons of Night by Jayne Ann Krent (writing as Jayne Castle).

Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry.

NonFiction

Grand Pursuit: the story of economic genius by Sylvia Nasser. Narrative of the history and development of economics and it's rise from the destitute and poor of London.

Duel to Death! Watson vs. Mitchard!

Wisconsin Blood Battle!

American Boys by Larry Watson. The Milwaukee Mauler enters the cage carrying his latest novel. A 1962 setting featuring a young guy with a "feverish longing for [a] mysterious woman." If Watson survives he will be here, in our library, on November, 12th.

Second Nature by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The Madame Master of Madison bursts out with a love story. A woman facially disfigured during a childhood fire decides to a new surgery to restore her face to what it was. If Mitchard survives she will be at the Watertown Friends of the Library on October 6th.

Non-Wisconsin Fiction

The Race by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. "An Isaac Bell Adventure." Something to do with airplanes.

The Vault by Ruth Rendell. I've read good things about Rendell's novels but have not yet read one of them. Murder mystery set in London.

New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb. An In Death novel.

DVD

24: Season 8 starring Kiefer Sutherland and The Weaver Stance. Secret agent fights secret bad guys.



Cell 211 starring Spaniards. Prison guard on his first day at work gets knocked unconscious. Guard awakes to find out a riot has occurred and he is in the middle of it. Guard has to pass as a prisoner.



Bereavement starring Michael Biehn and John Savage. I ordered this because Biehn and Savage are both in it. In 1989 a 6-year-old is kidnapped by a serial killer who teaches him to kill.

2.5" to 3" of Fiction

3" deep (uncompressed, measured from spine) or 2.5" deep (compressed, measured from spine)

Crimes in Southern Indiana by Frank Bill. 272 pages with acknowledgments. This is listed again because the spine label had to be redone. Bill thanks Roger Smith and Christa Faust in his acknowledgments. I always have difficulty spelling acknowledments.

The Mercy by Beverly Lewis. 306 pages with author's note.

Burning Soul by John Connolly. 406 pages with acknawludgmints. Connolly thanks Howie Carr for the Boston background and information of Carr's The Brothers Bulger. I read that book.

Two Movies, One Television Show

DVD

The Horseman starring [Australians]. Man's daughter is murdered and he murders for revenge and "reaches a new level of brutality."



Prisoner of Her Past featuring Sonia Reich and Howard Reich. Sixty years after surviving a concentration camp Sonia Reich's PTSD catches up with her and she thinks everyone is out to kill her. Her son films her and also traces the PTSD effects on kids who survived Hurricane Katrina. Dirty, filthy, rotten, stinking nazis.




Single-Handed: Series (Season) One starring [Irish People]. Irish Garda (police) Seargeant from Dublin is transferred out West and takes over his father's rural beat. As chief law-enforcement officer in this insular community, Jack soon learns the hard truth [of working alone].

Lake Mills 175th Anniversary

175th Anniversary

I was going to go around this past weekend and take photos of the many events that were scheduled. I did not do so. My family did attend the car show on Sunday.

The Handy Man tries out a Ferrari.


The "upper" grill off a Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner. One of two Fairlanes at the car show.


Panoz Esperante. The owner said the company only built about 230 of these. The owner told me the exact number but I cannot recall it, look it up yourself.


I guess this came from Germany. That makes sense since this badge was on a Porsche.


Lotus Europa Special. This puts the driver and passenger incredibly close to the ground.


Renault 4CV. My apologies but I do not know any insulting jokes about French cars.


Edsel grill. A face only Sheriff Dan Rhodes could love.


1930s MG Midget that won the overall judging and peoples choice award. The car was highly polished with copper tubes routed all around the engine bay. There is no way the Midget's owner drove the car here.

New Guy, Old Guy, North Country

Fiction

Northwest Angle by William Kent Krueger. Continuing character Cork O'Connor is on vacation in Lake of the Woods, MN. Someone is dead. Infant boy is found. Cork has to protect boy from bad guys.

Crimes in Southern Indiana by Frank Bill. First book by short story writer. "The union jobs and family farms that kept the white on the picket fences have given way to meth labs, backwoods gunrunners, and bare-knuckle brawling." Bill has gotten a lot of raves from other writers, like Anthony Neil Smith who will teach our writing workshop on Nov. 5th.

Heartwishes by Jude Deveraux. "An Edilean Novel." Edilean?

Only Time Will tell by Jeffrey Archer. First in a new series about 1920s guy from the English docks who wins scholarship to a prestigious school. Sounds like that novel by that one guy. You know who I mean. I had to read the book in high school.

Liquid Smoke by Jeff Shelby. Surfer mystery by author in Texas. These are supposed to be good. Try reading Winslow's Dawn Patrol for surfing comparison. Then email the author you liked the least and complain at him. Writers love that.

End of Days by Robert Gleason. Some lady who has stockpiled for apocalypse finds out about a plot for apocalypse. The flyleaf's plot description is very confusing.

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman. I'm attending Bouchercon in St. Louis in a couple weeks. Lippman is scheduled to be there. She sells a lot of books. I think if I run into her I'll say something like. "Oh, do you write books?"

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. Inspector Gamache investigates another murder in the small Quebec town of Three Pines. The mortality rate in Three Pines is worse than that of Bill Crider's Blacklin County.

Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. I saw a television advertisement for this book. Patterson is not scheduled for Bouchercon in St. Louis. He is probably too busy counting his money.

The Cut by George Pelecanos. Another guy with a big following among fellow writers. Former soldier who served in Iraq has a new job in D.C.: "recovering stolen property, no questions asked, as long as he gets his cut - 40 percent."

Musical Interlude. Again.

Musical Interlude

I will have to holler at the Pages to get working on the processing. Here is something I just heard on BBC's 6 Music channel. 6 Music is my favorite radio station.

Some guys called Foster the People.


Someone is a fan of apocalypse movies.

Nothing New. Park Photos Instead.

Farmers' Market

Six

One

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs. Murder at a NASCAR race.

Two

Ice Station by Peter Tonkin. Floating nuclear station in Siberian Sea threatened by an ice storm and human intrigue.

Three

Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath. Boston cop on loan to Icelandic Police Forces has a murder to work on. "Strikingly original plot," says the flyleaf.

Four

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs. LARGE PRINT MURDER AT NASCAR.

Five

Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. Women immigrants from Japan to San Francisco to get married.

Six

Legends of Shannara by Terry Brooks. How many of these Shannara books are there? Counting is not easy when there are multiple series set there.

Stray Dog in the Library

Stray Dog

A girl came in the back door last night (August 24th) amidst lots of barking. I asked her if the dog outside was hers. She nervously said no. Her grandmother was still outside getting barked at and both were a bit scared of the dog.

I called 911 to get animal control - which for Lake Mills is contracted through the Humane Society. A local police officer showed up and tried to loop a dog catcher noose but the dog was too skittish and skittered away. The Officer was patient and trying not to injure or the dog, or get bitten.

The dog was not aggressive. He was just nervous and barky. Really barky. Woof, woof, woof, woof, bark, bark, woof, woof. The dog was hanging around the back door and not wandering off. I let him inside to see if that would calm him down and he did not.

Neither of us could coax the dog into the squad car. The dog had looked all over the library but was not satisfied that whoever he was looking for was not there. I left about fifteen minutes after close and the PO stayed for the dog catcher.

Oops. There is a new one.

Fiction

Ink Flamingos by Karen E. Olson. Fourth in the paperback series featuring Las Vegas tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh. When hot shot rock'n'roller Dee Carmichael dies Brett is seen leaving the dead girl's hotel room. Except, is wasn't Brett. Uh-oh what will happen?
Will Brett start sleuthing?
Will Brett find the real killer?
Will Olson write about tattooing and Vegas scenery?
Will Olson's publisher continue to hire the same graphic artist who does the neat book covers for this series?
Will Olson buy me a new .45?

Nothing New - Musical Interlude

Musical Interlude

Liam Finn, as mentioned below by Dunedin, is the son of Neil Finn. Our copy of I'll be Lightning has circ'ed 17 times. I ordered the next album, Fomo, which releases this fall.

Off the first album.



Liam and the rest of his family were part of the 7 Worlds Collide concerts in Kiwi-land. Neil Finn invited musicians to Auckland to collaborate. The second album from 2009, The Sun Came Out, features songs and performances by several well-known musician types. A lesser known Kiwi dude is Don McGlashan.



I really like the whole double album of Sun. There is a neat tune by the bassist from Wilco, John Stirratt. This one is by Johnny Marr and Jeff Tweedy, Too Blue.