Blog

This past weekend, thousands of booklovers, writers and publishing professionals trekked to downtown Brooklyn to paint the town read at the Brooklyn Book Festival. For the 11th year, dozens of vendors were selling discounted books and related gear at tents around Borough Hall and Cadman plazas, while hundreds of authors spread out nearby to give free talks and readings from their latest works.

This year's Bouchercon --- the world's largest mystery convention --- took place on September 15-18 in New Orleans, LA, and brought together all parts of the mystery and crime fiction community for a weekend of exciting panels and awards. Unfortunately, none of our staff was able to make it out to the Big Easy, but we once again had generous authors and friends do some sleuthing for us. Here, 12 mystery superstars --- Linwood Barclay, Laura Benedict, Jim Fusilli, our very own Joe Hartlaub, Keith Kahla, Clair Lamb, Daniel Palmer, Keith Raffel, Kelli Stanley, Wendy Corsi Staub, Otto Penzler and Lita Weissman --- share with us some convention highlights; although, like all good writers, they leave some things to our imagination.

  Brunch at Brennan's; featuring Lita Weissman, Katia Lief, Alison Gaylin   and Kristen Kittscher [submitted by Wendy Corsi Staub] The Wallet Thief; featuring Greg Herren [submitted by Wendy Corsi Staub]  

To celebrate the release of SANTORINI CAESARS, the eighth book in Jeffrey Siger's mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, we're excited to share a blog piece that Jeffrey has written exclusively for us. Here, he explores his love of Santorini: its history and geography, as well as the quirks that make this beautiful island a ripe setting for a mystery.

In the August 5th Bookreporter newsletter, I asked for suggestions of authors for my friend Cathy to binge. She had previously read all of Lee Child, Harlan Coben and Greg Iles. Here are suggestions that I got for her from our readers. May you also find some suggestions here.

              We are happy to welcome author Doug Johnstone to the Bookreporter.com Blog, the latest stop on his blog tour for his new thriller, THE JUMP, which has just been released in the US. In this piece, Doug talks about the difficulty of writing about suicide, which is one of the major themes of THE JUMP, and his desire to write an honest book on the subject.

Last Friday, The Book Report Network’s Carol Fitzgerald, Nicole Sherman, former intern Erin Siu and I made our way to Random House’s New York offices for their ninth Open House, a day when readers are invited to interact with both Random House staff and authors to go behind the scenes of their favorite new and forthcoming titles. Also with us were Bookreporter.com reviewers Vivian Payton and Matthew Burbridge and Carol’s friend, Beverley.

What do hip-hop culture and comic books have in common? Join Ed Piskor, New York Times best-selling, award-winning cartoonist on hursday, August 4th at 6:30 pm as he discusses his 40-year career illuminating that connection.

Join leading comics publisher Francoise Mouly for a conversation about the wondrous possibilities for artistic and emotional expression that comics and visual narratives allow. Art editor of The New Yorker since 1993, Mouly is editorial director and publisher of TOON Books, as well as co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of the comics and graphic magazine Raw with her husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman. In recent years, TOON Books has spurred a revival of interest in children’s comics, both vintage and contemporary.

“Funny Ladies: A Conversation with Four New Yorker Cartoonists” Wednesday, June 29 at 6:30 pm at the Museum of the City of New York