Dissing Obedience -- and calling for recommendations

I need to read more contemporary crime fiction. I especially need to read more by Americans. It's a hugely popular genre and a lot of people I respect read a lot of it. But for some reason it has never reached me. I have, in recent years, been edging closer. Through my extended historical fiction kick I've started reading quite a few historical mysteries -- particularly those set in Tudor and medieval England but with a foray or two into the ancient Roman world. There are a couple contemporary crime writers I adore, snapping up their new releases as soon as they come out. But they're both Brits: Kate Atkinson and P.D. James. I've tentatively explored the white-hot area of Scandinavian crime fiction: Stieg Larsson, Asa Larsson, Kjell Erickson. I like it but not enough so I obsess about when the next installment is arriving (good thing in the case of Stieg Larsson, right?).

But I want to know what's happening around here so recently I've assigned myself some reading in current crime fiction. Unfortunately my assignment was a disappointment. I was intrigued enough by Will Lavender's Obedience to suggest we order it when I worked at the FKCC Library (we did). Then I recently saw Lavender's piece on Salon about coming to terms with writing genre, rather than literary, fiction -- I like the contrarian, anti-elitist position as a rule and I agree that a lot of fiction that gets relegated to the genre ghetto is better crafted than a lot of the productions coming out of the MFA factories. Atkinson and James are prime examples, and I enjoy and admire the historical series written by C.J. Sansom (Matthew Shardlake), P.F. Chisholm (who is actually Patricia Finney, writing about Sir Robert Carey), Ruth Downie (Medicus) and Sharon Kay Penman (who when she's not writing massive tomes about the Plantagenets has a mystery series set in the same period featuring a character named Justin de Quincy who serves Eleanor of Acquitaine).

I wanted to like Obedience. A young guy, an American, carrying the crime fiction banner into literay territory -- it all sounded good. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. The premise was just too contrived, even for the kind of book where one is prepared to suspend some measure of disbelief. Even the college campus set-up didn't seem to make sense, though my direct experience of elite midwestern colleges is, admittedly, nil. I know the Stanley Milgram experiments were famous and all, but would mere association with them give an academic such immense prestige that they would name a library after him? The characters certainly didn't make a whole lot of sense, internally. The twist at the end was admittedly pretty good and I didn't see it coming though I certainly should have. A shame.

So the question is: Who should I read if I want to read the best of contemporary American crime fiction? Michael Connelly's already on my list; I'm intrigued by the guys tapped by The Wire -- George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Richard Price. I either read or listened to James Lee Burke years back and I don't remember it wowing me but I keep reading stellar reviews. Lee Child? Harlan Coben? I'm wary of the macho hardboiled thing. And I'd really like some women in there. Laura Lippman? Tana French? Lisa Scottoline? Sara Paretsky? I read Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series back in the day but gave up somewhere around J. I'd particularly like to hear suggestions for people who aren't the usual suspects. Tom Franklin? Daniel Woodrell? Is there an American equivalent to Kate Atkinson out there? If not why not?????

My only condition: Please please PLEASE do not suggest Dan Brown or James Patterson. When The Da Vinci Code was breaking big I decided to try the guy out and read Angels & Demons. Still waiting for the International Court of Literary Justice to award me those four hours of my life back. And I'll admit I haven't actually read Patterson but my husband and I once got an audiotape for a trip to the Everglades -- with Chris Noth narrating, no less! -- but had to turn it off in hilarity and disgust when the narrator started intoning "Tick ... cock ... tick ... cock ..." I wish I were making that up.

Falling in love again: the nonfiction tome

Just the other day, I was complaining to a friend about how so many works of nonfiction are obese, topping the 500-page mark, when they would be so much more appealing at, say, 250 to 300 pages. Yet for the last couple weeks I have been happily ensconced in just such a work -- Robert K. Massie's new biography of Catherine the Great, which weighs in at 579 pages before the bibliography and end notes. I used to read these kinds of tomes all the time. This was a time when I lived in a city far from where I'd grown up where I had no friends outside of the workplace -- and I lived two blocks from an excellent independent bookstore and about five blocks from the library. I had a studio apartment that didn't require much upkeep. There was no Internet. So basically I'd do nothing all weekend but read. I'll even admit that this studio apartment and all this free time happened to be on South Beach circa 1989-1991 -- but hey, I'm a dork. I read lots and lots, current fiction and classics, and lots of giant biographical tomes like Carlos Baker on Hemingway and William Manchester on Churchill and whoever was writing about Virginia Woolf or Elizabeth I. I loved diving into a big nonfiction tome. This might be the fault of David Halberstam, whose doorstop about journalism dynasties, The Powers That Be, was one of my favorite books when I was a young and impressionable college journalist.

But in recent years, not so much. Over my journalism career, my nonfiction reading turned more toward works of current narrative nonfiction -- the New Yorker School, I guess you'd call it (Trillin, Frazier, Horwitz, Orlean). And in most recent years, I've been on a sustained run of fiction, mainly genre fiction -- historical for the most part, especially historical mysteries. I can only blame the Key West Literary Seminar's session on historical fiction for jumpstarting that.

But I was surprised and delighted when I saw that Massie, who is in his 80s, has produced another giant tome on a Russian monarch. A little guilty, too -- like almost everyone I know, I had a copy of his Peter the Great on my shelf for years; finally gave in and donated it to the library for the book sale. But I have read him and liked him a lot -- I first read his book The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, which used DNA findings and the post-Soviet Russian thaw to tell the story about what really happened to the royal family (hint: Anastasia did not make it out). From there, I read his Nicholas and Alexandra and found it to be well-written absorbing history, perfect for the lay reader who doesn't know much about the subjects, the place or the time. And the same, I'm happy to say, goes for Catherine. I've long had a thing for Elizabeth I and Catherine is a similar figure in being a woman ruling in her own right, despite all kinds of odds against her ever reaching, or keeping the throne.

The only problem with inhabiting these giant tomes is that post-book letdown is all the more severe for having lived with the characters for weeks. My mom, after finishing Bob Richardson's biography of William James, said she felt sad and that she'd miss James -- I knew just what she meant.

These are some titles of giant nonfiction tomes I highly recommend if you're looking to dive into the deep end:

Catherine The Great by Peter Massie -- For all the reasons described above. And no, there's nothing about horses at least not of an intimate nature. Turns out the Potemkin Village thing isn't true, either.

The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen -- You may think island biogeography would be a boring subject. In Quammen's hands, you would be very very wrong

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop -- Her letters, edited by her longtime publisher Robert Giroux. The closest thing we'll ever get to a memoir; they are heartbreaking in many ways but an amazing insight into the mind of a great poet

Up In the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell -- Early New Yorker writing at its finest. Yeah, I know, we can argue about the "nonfiction" qualifications of this one.

Annals of the Former World by John McPhee -- A compendium of the modern New Yorker master's books about geology. You know who was surprised to find herself reading 657 pages about geology ... and enjoying it? Me!

Titan by Ron Chernow -- Biography of John D. Rockefeller -- Great book on the influential mogul behind Standard Oil.

Other Powers by Barbara Goldsmith -- Biography of Victoria Woodhull, who was a medium, a suffragette, a financial adviser and all around force of nature -- fascinating look at the nation in the late 19th century, through the lens of a mostly forgotten figure

To be appreciated

I am so negligent a book blogger that I hadn't even realized it was Book Blogger Appreciation Week -- but it is! At least for another day. The website has links to lots of interesting blogs, almost all of which are new to me. But I thought I'd use the occasion to point out some links to some blogs that I particularly appreciate. They're all in my blogroll on the right, but these few are the ones I find myself turning to most often. In no particular order, they are: Citizen Reader -- Written by a librarian and avid reader of (mostly) nonfiction, I appreciate how it is always smart and both sincere and snarky, when appropriate.

Philobiblos -- Written by a librarian with a historical bent; I particularly appreciate the reviews and the links to stories about manuscript and rare book shenanigans.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books -- I appreciate Sarah Wendell bringing romance out of the closet and celebrating (or ridiculing) its many and varied forms. I particularly enjoy the HaBO (for Help A Bitch Out) feature, in which readers describe in hilarious terms some romance they read long ago and the commenters invariably figure out which book it is.

Between the Covers -- Written by Miami Herald Books Editor Connie Ogle, I appreciate the reviews, the South Florida literary news and, most of all, Connie's and the Herald's perseverance in providing book coverage in a time when newspaper journalism is in dire straits indeed.

Book Slut Blog -- I appreciate its relentless literariness and its links to interesting literary journalism, especially when I don't have keep up with Arts & Letters Daily -- which I don't know if that qualifies as a book blog but it's definitely worth checking when you have time.

And all of these, along with the nominees and winners from Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I appreciate for supporting my belief that the Internet is not, in fact, the Grim Reaper of Reading and in many ways serves to connect, facilitate and otherwise celebrate people who live for the written word.

Let us now praise Georgette Heyer

Sometimes people are shocked when I reveal that I occasionally read ... romance novels. I could give you an abbreviated version of my rant about how this is as valid a genre as, say, thriller or mystery, which seems to be perfectly acceptable as lighter literary fare. Only thrillers and mysteries generally have more violence and usually have less sex. Some romances are pretty well written. Many of them are terrible dreck. I think that's true in any area of literary output, including a lot of the stuff that is considered Literary. But I'll spare you (any more of) that rant. Instead, I'll blame my mom and grandmother. They did not leave what the smart women at Smart Bitches Trashy Books have dubbed Old Skool romances (Kathleen Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers) lying around the house. But they did have a weakness for the works of Georgette Heyer. Enough of a weakness that the bookshelves in our house, along with lots of Serious Nonfiction and Classic Works of Literature, had a pretty good collection of Heyer novels. These tended to be either well-worn hardcovers that had been discarded from the Chappaqua Library, where my grandmother was director, and some 1970s-vintage paperbacks, like the one I'm including here.

I don't know my romance novel history all that well but I suspect Heyer might be responsible for making the Regency the Big Mama of historical romance time periods. This, of course, is a nod to Jane Austen (by the way, people, the works of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters are NOT HISTORICAL NOVELS. They are novels that were contemporary works of fiction; they just happen to have been written a long time ago. It makes me crazy when I see that stuff recommended as works of historical fiction). But back to Heyer. She's funny. She's entertaining. Her characters are smart and complicated (or stupid and funny). You're pretty much guaranteed a happy ending but you may be surprised and you're probably going to be amused by how she gets there.

Don't just take my word for it. How about the word of A.S. Byatt, Booker Prize-winner and all that? In her essay collection, Passions of the Mind, she has a whole piece about Heyer called "An Honourable Escape" (which sounds just like a Heyer title, as I'm sure Byatt intended). It comes right after essays about Sylvia Plath and Toni Morrison.

All of which is to say, if you need some good "escape literature," as Byatt calls Heyer, to distract yourself from hurricanes, economic stresses, political strife or whatever, you might consider giving Heyer a try. Especially since, if you are of the digital persuasion, you can get a lot of her stuff for pretty damned cheap, at least on Amazon. If you prefer reading on dead trees, we have a bunch of them in the Monroe County Library collection and I wouldn't be surprised if, outside of the Keys, your local library also had a good stock. My grandmother was not the only librarian with a weakness for Heyer. If you don't know where to start, two that I highly recommend are The Nonesuch and The Toll-Gate -- and not just because the Key West Library copies happen to have those old buckram library bindings, about which I am becoming ridiculously nostalgic.

The future of the book(store)

First of all, the important news: If you are a reader in the Key West area, get your butt down to Voltaire Books, at the corner of Simonton and Eaton streets -- they're going out of business and the stock is 50 percent off. Fabulous deals to be had, and you'll be helping out some very good guys in taking the books off their hands. This is happening at the same time as the national collapse of Borders, which is giving us a strange feeling in Key West, an allegedly literary little city if there ever was one. I'm sad that Voltaire is closing -- I loved to browse there, tried to buy books there when I was buying books and gave gift certificates as birthday presents for the last couple years. But even though the bibliogods are probably going to strike me down for thinking this, much less writing it, I don't feel like this is a sign of the book apocalypse.

For one thing, I just returned from a conference about the Future of the Book (more on that in future posts, I hope) and the future, it is clear, is largely digital. Not entirely and not for everyone. I expect to read print books for the rest of my life and after that .. well, that's not my problem.

I also think some part of me, having watched bookstores come and go over the years, knew not to invest too much emotionally into Voltaire. I supported them as best I could but I did not pin all my hopes on the future of the book on them. It was a wonderful little store for a time and now it's gone. Just like Blue Heron and lots of other bookstores I have loved and supported. Also: I work in a library. I have plentiful access to books -- new, old, donated, advanced review copies. Personally, selfishly, I don't feel a dearth of books. (When my husband sees me coming home with bags loaded with books I think he wishes I did.) You can buy books here, too -- we have donations and library discards for sale for as little as a quarter -- and paperbacks for free!

And there's this: We still have Key West Island Books on Fleming, just off Duval -- the venerable institution is now under new ownership and it's time to return and support them. It's a lot cleaner and less cluttered, too. They've always had a great selection of used books; now the challenge will be to see if they can pick up the new book market, beyond top 10 bestsellers and local interest titles. If not, that's OK -- there's always Amazon and it will give new justification to the occasional Books & Books binge on mainland trips. (A side note to fellow islanders: If you visit Miami and do not take the time to stop by Books & Books you are cheating yourself -- they have several locations but I recommend the Coral Gables flagship store -- amazing selection, dream atmosphere ... and a nice little cafe with terrific panninis.)