You've the Right to Six Words - Week 11

Oh, I'm giddy about this week. Did I say that last week? Can you believe how many authors there are to be excited about hearing from? Well this week's got it all: a man who made an incredible debut and is ready to turn his sophomore effort loose on the world. A woman who has helped define the genre as it is today and a man who is making waves with his thrillers across continents. Can you believe they were all willing to talk to me about six-word memoirs? I am not worthy, but I'm more than willing to share, so let's see who we've rounded up today:

Charles Cumming graduated with honors in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh before he was approached for recruitment by the Secret Intelligence Service, a.k.a. MI6. His experiences with the MI6 would then become the basis for his first novel, A SPY BY NATURE. As he moved around: Montreal, Madrid, ultimately back to the U.K., he continued writing. In March of 2008 he published the interactive online story THE 21 STEPS as part of Penguin's We Tell Stories project. Now, with four published works, he's working on his next book due to be published in 2011, THE TRINITY SIX. In addition, he's an Assistant Editor of The Week and writes book reviews for The Mail on Sunday.

Charles is the founder and President of the Jose Raul Capablanca Memorial Chess Society. He lives in London with his wife and two children where philosophically he ponders:

Possibly none of it meant anything.

Next up is a man who recently rocked my reading experience with his debut novel STARVATION LAKE. Bryan Gruley decided he wasn't going to enter the crime fiction world quietly, oh no! He was going to do it with hockey sticks smashing, with panache and damn it, awards! This hockey-playing journalist graduated from Notre Dame and worked for various Michigan newspapers before snagging a position at the Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau. There he wrote a front-page story that earned the Pulitzer for Breaking News and another story that was an alternate finalist for the feature writing Pulitzer.

These days in addition to publishing a debut novel that earned an Edgar nomination, an Anthony nomination and a Strand Award for best first novel as well as an Anthony nomination for Best Paperback Original, Bryan is the Chicago Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal and he's an amateur musician. He fits hockey and blogging at The Outfit in there somewhere and oh yeah, next week he's releasing THE HANGING TREE, his follow-up to STARVATION LAKE. I know you're use to my personal commentary in these little bios, so I'm sure you won't mind me saying that I CAN. NOT. WAIT. to meet Bryan in person this October. How does Bryan sum up all that leaves me in such awe?

From fact to fiction to truth.

Our final memoirist today is a woman who has left her Anna Pigeon on the Mystery World. Nevada Barr will release the 16th book in her best-selling, award-winning Anna Pigeon Mystery Series next week. Nevada was born in Yerington, Nevada, but grew up in California. Her parents were both pilots and mechanics. While her sister followed in their footsteps, Nevada took the logical alternative: the dramatic arts. After earning her graduate degree in Acting, she headed east where she would work on stage, commercials, films and radio for almost two decades. Meanwhile Nevada and her husband developed interests in the environmental movement and she started working seasonal jobs in the National Parks. Her first position was boat patrol on Isle Royale National Park. Eventually she would take a permanent Park Ranger job on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.

At most of the stages of her various careers, Nevada incorporated writing in what she was doing: teaching storytelling, writing travel publications even working as a restaurant critic. Then in 1983 she added novelist to her resume when BITTERSWEET was published. The Anna Pigeon series would come to life for the first time in 1993 with the publication of TRACK OF THE CAT, which also earned her both an Anthony and an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery. Of course, Anna Pigeon is a park ranger and her character was originally based on Nevada and Nevada's experiences with the National Parks. However, Nevada says that she and Anna evolved in different ways. Regardless, Anna did evolve and now, again almost two decades later, Nevada is publishing BURN, the 16th Anna Pigeon mystery.

Nevada Barr has the arts in her DNA. In addition to her acting and writing, she paints. For the past fifteen years she has put brush to canvas under the name Paxton.

I'd love to sit down and chat with Nevada Barr because she lives with her husband, "four magical cats and two adorable dogs." Hmmm, subtract the husband and the adjectives and that sounds like a familiar living arrangement. But this is not about me. For Nevada, she

Loved books. Loved cats. Got lucky.

Yeah, there was some talent mixed in there, too, but we're sure glad luck was on her side! Luck is also on our side considering these three people write crime fiction for us to enjoy.

Please help me in thanking all three wonderful authors for their contributions this week. I had a blast getting to know each one a little better and I hope you did, too. Best of luck to Bryan and Nevada on their releases next week. And to all of you...Happy Reading!





Technorati Tags: Charles Cumming, Bryan Gruley, Nevada Barr, You've the Right to Six Words

A Little Catch-Up

I recently finished The Appeal by John Grisham and Deep South by Nevada Barr, so I need to get those reviews on here. Presently I'm enjoying three authors who are new to me: Scott Turow, T.Jefferson Parker and Lisa Unger.

I've also been working on this little scrapbook project. I've decided to record the author events I attend for posterity!

So, on to The Appeal by John Grisham. In this novel, the Payton's (a husband and wife law firm) are representing Jeanette Baker in her lawsuit against a large chemical company that allegedly dumped cancer-causing chemicals at their company's site, instead of having them properly disposed of. Over time, the chemicals soaked their way into the water supply of the town and the people of this town started developing cancer. Jeanette Baker's husband and son both died from this cancer.

The book starts out with the jury awarding Jeanette Baker 41 million dollars. After the first chapter, I thought to myself, "hasn't this storyline been done...A LOT?" I couldn't believe that Grisham was going to revisit something that's been beat to death. BUT, he merely used the cancer-causing lawsuit as a conduit to his real theme...political corruption.

For me, the first three quarters of this book went very slow. I questioned whether I should keep going, but it really takes a lot for me to decide to give up on a book. I persevered. And I'm very glad I did. The last quarter was OUTSTANDING! Grisham pushes the actual lawsuit to the background and brings to the foreground the chemical company's efforts to buy their way out of the jury's outcome. He also highlights how politicians use people's fears to manipulate them as voters. This is both relevant in the present day and terrifying. The fact that so many people vote ignorantly based on unfounded fears shows we have a terrible weakness in our democracy.

Grisham illustrated how easily our sources for information can be twisted. These are sources many people believe to be "reliable" when they are gathering their "facts" to make their voting decision. And we as a people are so wrapped up in ourselves, that we're more likely to listen to a false 15-second sound bite on tv or radio - and believe it as fact - than take the time to hear a candidate speak, him/herself or to even do our own research. We simply take what is dropped in our laps. Grisham makes you question if you should believe anything that is simply dropped in your lap!

I waited the entire book for what I was expecting to happen...and it never happened. I applaud Grisham for that choice. It was the right one. I won't reveal what that was, though, so as to avoid spoilers.

It would have been nice for the beginning to be a little more engrossing, but the end of this novel was worth reading every page in the beginning.

I also recently finished Deep South by Nevada Barr. I do remember reading an Anna Pidgeon book several years back, but it's been so long now that I don't recall which book it was. In this part of the series, Anna is taking a supervisory position on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. She and her cat and dog are headed out to the new assignment as the book opens. And Barr begins the foreshadowing here when a tree falls to block Anna's U-Haul trailer.

Before Anna is even officially on the job, a dead teenager is found in The Trace. She has been left with a white sheet over her head and a noose around her neck. Given the fact that it's Mississippi, this murder needs to be solved swiftly and quietly so as not to result in additional craziness.

I absolutely love the character of Anna. She has a lot of spunk and she isn't bullet-proof. She battles the resistance of her subordinates who have never had a female supervisor. She battles the resistance of the town, who also resent her as the "outsider", the female supervisor who is snooping around about this murder. She doesn't have a "sixth sense" that allows her to just know everything. She learns through trial and error, common sense, and good old fashion investigating. I especially appreciate that she isn't some stunning beauty queen. She's a REAL person. Overall, I think Barr does an outstanding job with character development.

The complexity of the plot was especially fun in this book. The law enforcement agents were following the logical clues only to find out things aren't always what they seem. I appreciate that almost nothing in the plot is "unnecessary." Everything contributes to the conclusion. There were a couple parts where I started to zone out when she was getting a little prolific with the description, but otherwise, the plot was tight.

Being the animal lover that I am, I will admit that I had some trouble with the scene where the alligator attacks Anna's dog. Had it been a movie, I would have closed my eyes through it or fast-forwarded through it. But it was a moving representation of the devotion of the dog.

Overall, this was a great book. I look forward to reading more in the series.

And on one last quick note, I'll tell you about a website I discovered this morning. It's called "I Love a Mystery Newsletter". Here they review mystery books. I added a couple books to my To Read list based on their reviews, and I'll see how my feelings on the books align with theirs. I signed up to receive their future newsletters. I think it will be a good way to find out about books and authors that aren't necessarily forefront in the news.