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Picks of the Week

  • Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)

    Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)
    One would think this book is about sex, And while it is, since the characters have so much about it, some of it is kinky, and threesomes play a big role in the narrative. mostly POLITICS is about everything else: the mechanics, the logistics, the emotional minefields, the awkward questions, the moral dilemmas, and, well, the politics of what it is to be with someone you love or someone you don't, and how an act that should be simple is anything but. Thirlwell was disgustingly young when he wrote this but he absolutely understands that to make this book work, there must be an underlying sweetness and sincerity to the entire story. Now I want to see what he's up to more recently. Amazon | Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Powell’s

  • Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir

    Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir
    Years ago I was blown away by Mascia's Modern Love piece describing her parents' secret past: her father was a mobbed-up convicted murderer, and her mother not only knew all about it, but aided and abetted her husband when life required being a fugitive, selling drugs, and living at great highs and crushing lows. Mascia's book tells a more whole story about her peripatetic life, and even with every new shocking revelation what remained consistent was how much she loved her parents, no matter how deep those lows went, and how much she misses them now that they are gone. Unconditional love never goes away, no matter if those who receive it deserve it. Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N | Powell’s

  • Juli Zeh: In Free Fall

    Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
    Give me a novel of ideas and if the story is good and the characters are believable and entertain me, I am there. Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year. Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N

  • Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts

    Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts
    It appears to be a crime with an easy solution: a disgruntled schoolteacher shoots up his place of employment and kills several students in the process. But really, Lelic's novel is about the catastrophic consequences of bullying, and how this act is hardly limited to kids turning on other kids, but burrows deeply into adult relationships as well. He evokes empathy for the killer and sympathy for Lucia, the investigating officer who has to fight for every scrap of dignity as she pieces together the far more complex truth of what really happened at the school. Powell’s | Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N

  • William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley

    William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley
    I cannot stop raving about this book to people. The circular narrative structure, the demented feel of a traveling carny troupe, and the extraordinary rise and precipitous fall of Stan Carlisle give off the persistent, raging feeling that hell is always with us, and success is basically a sucker's game. No matter what the biographical evidence on Gresham's state of mind leading up to and after the book's bestseller (and movie basis) status in 1946, I don't think we can really know what demons plagued him to produce this marvelous noir gem. B & N | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | Powell’s

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« Edgar Nominations: Best Novel | Main | Return of the Links »

February 07, 2005

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Comments

David J. Montgomery

The Best Novel line-up is one of the best I've seen in years for the Edgars. Four of the 5 were among my favorite books of the year. (I didn't read the other one.)

Kudos to the committee!

Lee Goldberg

I'm surprised the four of the five nominations for Best Teleplay went to LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT... when there was THE WIRE, THE SHIELD, THE SOPRANOS, LAW AND ORDER SVU, CSI, WITHOUT A TRACE and so much else to choose from. I know why it happened, too...the committee didn't reach out beyond what was sent to them. Rene Balcer, the ep of L&O:CI, inundates the committee with cassettes of every single episode. No other show, or producer, is as diligent about submitting work as he is. He makes it easy for them. I'm not saying L&O:CI isn't deserving of nomination... it is... but for four out of the five slots? I don't think so.

Aldo

What great news for Hard Case Crime. In there first year that garner 2 nominations! Congrats to Domenic and Richard (Charles, you are a genius) for their work.

David Montgomery

As good as the Best Novel list is, the Best First Novel list is pretty weak. I did enjoy Richard Aleas' book. I'm very underwhelmed by the other selections, though.

Elaine Flinn

Um, yes-what happend to The Wire and The Soprano's??

m.j. rose

I agree, the best novel list is stupendous. And ditto on Teleplay. Strange.

Donna

I wasn't quite sure which post to put this one under as similar comments appear under a couple of the blog entries but, as a woman (last time I checked) I have absolutely no problem with some of the lists not having any female authors. Why should they? I'm assuming that the judges (men and women alike) read the books and made their selections based on what they thought were the best books, not whether the authors were male, female, or green, hermaphrodite aliens from the Planet Zog. If books by females aren't on the short list, does that not just mean that there were no books on the longlist by females that all the judges thought were good enough?

I would hate to think that the Edgars committee would say "Oh look, we have 3 female and 2 male authors in the Best Novel shortlist, we need to have 3 males and 2 females in best first."

Considering my own favourite list of best 6 novels from last year, I have 5 males and 1 female on the list. And similar ones for best first and best PBO, and all my favourite short stories are by male authors. I'm certainly not saying that males are better writers than females and I don't think the Edgars judges are either. I hadn't even thought about sex. Well, let me clarify ;o) I hadn't thought about the sex of the writers of my favourite books/stories and I'm sure the Edgars judges (again - male AND female judges) didn't either.

And finally, I have to say that if this was the other way round, and there had been more women than men nominated, and a male blogger/commenter had asked where the men were, he would have been roundly scolded :o)

Donna

Laura

The Wire didn't submit this year.

thevamp

Wow! So much new reading material. Thanks for posting it all. Now I'll never get any work done.

nick

Re: Teleplay nominations.
Sounds like sour grapes from Lee Goldberg. Not to mention he's factually incorrect in stating LO:CI submits every episode. They submitted 16 out of 23 episodes produced. SVU submitted 14 episodes: if the committee thought any of those episodes were more deserving than CI, they would've nominated them. Same goes for the 39 non-LOCI episodes submitted. As for the Sopranos, and THe Wire, fine as those shows are, they don't really fit the mystery genre.

ebrown2112

Actually, apart from "Want", I would have nominated other LOCI episodes, like "Great Barrier", "The Saint", and "Magnificant."

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