But wait ... there's more!

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More from Kris on book clubs at the Key West library: "The All for One Book Club at the Key West Library will discusses Ann Patchett's novel Bel Canto next week.  The group will meet Wednesday afternoon March 19  at 4:00--bring your afternoon coffee, tea and snacks to the discussion!Here is a link for a reading guide for the novel:  http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=833 Books for discussion are not chosen ahead of time.  When we finish discussing Bel Canto the group will decide what to read for next month's meeting. Hope to see you at the library!"

Toni tomorrow

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From Kris Neihouse at the Key West library: "Sorry for the late notice (again!) but at least this time nothing has changed. This is just a reminder about Book Bites tomorrow night March 12th  at the Key West Library at 5:30.  We will be discussing Pulitzer AND Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison.  So come on by for a discussion of The Bluest Eye, Beloved and other amazing works by this amazing author. (Note:  There is a Maritime Society lecture in the auditorium at 7:00 so we will need to end our group promptly by 6:30.)"

The mysteries of Sweden

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When not gulping down episodes of "The Wire" and "Rome" (on DVD, courtesy of the Monroe County Library). I recently read a couple books from the collection of my employer, the FKCC Library: "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan -- which I reviewed for Solares Hill, probably appearing in Friday's edition. And I read my first Swedish mystery, a book called Sun Storm by Asa Larsson. I'm not a big mystery reader but I do like well-written mysteries (P.D. James or Kate Atkinson, for example) as recreational reading and I am half-Swedish so I figured I might be able to relate. Plus my friend Betsy is a big fan of this genre so I thought it was worth checking out. At first I was disappointed -- it was not a P.D. James-level novel (surprise!) and my impression is that the translation made it more stilted (unless people actually talk like that in Sweden, which I kind of doubt). But I kept going, partly because the literary novel I've got going is even more depressing, and the story wound up snaring me as they usually do in mysteries. If this were Entertainment Weekly I'd give it a B-. We've got another in our collection here at the college, called "The Princess of Burundi," by Kjell Eriksson. I'll probably give that one a try. My sister, who is a Swedish translator and an avid mystery reader, recommends two other writers: Kerstin Ekman and Hakkan Nesser. She also contributes this website from the Springfield (Mass.) City Library, which goes to show that when it comes to foreign crime fiction, peace-loving, ABBA-producing Sweden can murder with the best of them.

Cool library links of the day

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Just like the excellent library-themed wedding invitations, this comes from public librarian-turned-author Scott Douglas, who not only has a great blog but is also a contributor to McSweeney's, with this list of reasons to be -- or not to be -- a librarian. How cool is that? He's also got a book coming out soon -- if we're lucky, the publisher is sending Solares Hill a review copy and I'll get to review it there.