Between the Covers

I believe! I believe!

You may (or may not) have noticed that Between the Covers disappeared there for a few days, due to its author being felled by a mysterious illness that made it impossible for her to remain even semi- vertical for more than a few minutes. The codeine in the cough syrup didn't help the alertness factor much either.

  So for a few days the best I could do was skim the paper and read old Mutts comics. (Yes, that's what I do when I'm hideously sick. That and watch M*A*S*H reruns. It's just like ginger ale; you don't normally crave it, but when you're not feeling well it's comfort food/drink/entertainment.) But finally the antibiotics kicked in, and I was able to read. So I picked the new Wally Lamb up again and - wow. Well. Don't you hate when people say, "This book is fabulous!" and there's no way you can get your hands on it for a couple of weeks? Well, I hate to have to do that to you, but The Hour I First Believed dragged me in; I read half of it yesterday, and it's a big fat book, and I cannot wait to see how it ends.

No more spoilers, because I'll be writing more about it later. Just wanted to give you a preview and remind you that Mr. Lamb will be at Miami Book Fair on Nov. 16.

A preview of Toni Morrison's new novel

One of the big books of fall is Toni Morrison's A Mercy, which Knopf will release in hardcover on Nov. 11. Unfortunately Morrison isn't coming to the Miami Book Fair International, as she did several years ago for her novel Love. But Publisher's Weekly reports that you can get an early preview of A Mercy courtesy of NPR.org, which will air a four-day serialization of the novel, from which Morrison will read the first 30 pages.

NPR correspondent Lynn Neary will discuss the novel with Morrison, with audio available as streaming audio, podcast or download from the website. Michele Norris of All Things Considered will also interview the author, and Morrison will join in a web chat due to run sometime the week of Nov. 17 on the website, according to PW.

St. Martin's releases first exclusive ebook

St. Martin's Press goes green in a big way Tuesday by announcing the release of its first exclusive ebook title, The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet by William Becker, the executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

The book aims to be a handbook for the next president to help him deal with climate issues. Click here to read more about the book.

What are you reading now?

"Replay by Ken Grimwood. A man dies on page 1 and then wakes up, and he's 18 years old, and he gets to replay his life . . . until he dies again -- and replays again. Sounds simple, right? It's not. And once Grimwood has his authorly hooks in, he has you. This is one of the few thrillers I love.''

BRAD MELTZER, author of The Book of Lies and Identity Crisis

Riding to the (readers') rescue

Don't miss this great New York Times story on a different sort of book mobile - one that's donkey-powered.

Macavity Awards

Laura Lippman won Best Mystery Novel at this year's Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, for What the Dead Know.

Other winners:

Best First Mystery: Tana French: In the Woods

Best Mystery Short Story: Rhys Bowen: Please Watch Your Step

Best Mystery Non-Fiction: Roger Sobin, editor/compiler: The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery: Ariana Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death

The Mystery Readers International and subscribers to the Mystery Readers Journal nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in these categories.

A review of Kindle

Here's an interesting and extremely positive review of Amazon's Kindle, the electronic reading device, courtesy of Rick Tetzeli at Entertainment Weekly. He gives it an A rating, calling the device "the best tech gadget I've laid my hands on since the iPod." Really? It's better than the iPod? That's high praise indeed.

I bet it's not as good as TiVo, though.

Why don't I ever get sick of Michael Connelly?

You can see from my review of his latest book that I'm still happily along for the ride.

The Brass Verdict picks up where The Lincoln Lawyer left off, only this time defense attorney Mickey Haller meets up with his half- brother Harry Bosch. The plot - Mickey picks up the caseload of a murdered colleague and scores the high-profile trial of a studio executive accused of killing his wife and her lover - is the usual stuff of legal fiction. But Connelly is such an adept writer, so skilled at picking up the jargon and the intricacies of procedure, that you fly right through it.

Of course the Bosch books are better - darker, deeper, full of insight about the human condition. The Brass Verdict, like The Lincoln Lawyer, is just fun.

The only Connelly book I wasn't fond of was Void Moon. The rest, I've enjoyed as much as anything.

Shoppers planning to buy more books than iPods?

So says a chart on the Miami Herald's front page today, which ran with Elaine Walker's story on how retailers are starting sales early to lure shoppers vowing to be more careful this holiday season. (Don't ask why the chart isn't online; I can't figure that out either.)

Anyway, here are the percentages of what shoppers say they will buy:

Apparel: 49%

Toys: 37%

Movies: 29%

Books: 27%

Electronics: 23%

Video games: 22%

Accessories: 20%

Music: 20%

Now much as I'd like to believe more people will buy books instead of video games, I am skeptical. This is sort of a Bradley Effect type deal, isn't it? Are people merely acting like they're more likely to buy The Story of Edgar Sawtelle than Grand Theft Auto so they'll sound smart? Guess we won't know until the January retail results come out...

David Sedaris: Funnier than ever

Is it possible that David Sedaris is getting funnier? His performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center Wednesday night was uniformly hilarious, with pitch-perfect comic timing and exceptionally sharp observations on the ridiculousness and indignities of this modern life.

The diminutive Sedaris was on tour for his latest collection, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, but what he read were essays that will appear in the New Yorker (one very soon, as it's about the strange phenomenon of undecided voters). My favorite was easily his opening piece, about his book tour beginning and ending in a Costco and taking - as his essays always do - a meandering turn through a variety of concerns, one of which involved shopping for condoms with his brother in law and an anal sex/strawberry shortcake joke. I can't repeat it here, but I'm still laughing.

As he always does on his tours, Sedaris recommended a book he loves. (Previously at performances, I've heard him applaud Jincy Willett's Jenny and the Jaws of Life and Jean Thompson's wonderful collection of short stories Throw Like a Girl. Wednesday he chose George Saunders' The Braindead Megaphone, a collection of essays, though not necessarily in the traditional sense and even read a bit from one that also appeared in the New Yorker awhile back. (And people ask me why I still subscribe. Even if you don't read the lengthy, tedious pieces about artists or the latest show at the Met, that magazine is worth the hassle for Sedaris, Saunders and Anthony Lane, who may be God.)

And always, Sedaris signed books afterward, after urging the audience to buy Saunders' book instead of his own. This guy has a future as a PR agent if he ever runs out of funny things to say.