April 2011 Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 7:30pm, at the Borders Bookstore in Canoga Park (NE corner of Victory and Canoga). Robbie will lead our discussion about Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker. The time is now; the setting is the South of France.

Posted in Monthly Books | Leave a comment

January 2011 Meeting Reminder

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 7:30pm, at the Borders Bookstore in Canoga Park (NE corner of Victory and Canoga). Beverly will lead our discussion about The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, by Michael Stanley. The time is now; the setting is northern Botswana.

This month we’ll define and begin to make selections for our new, upcoming monthly theme: Another Time, Another Place. If you haven’t been to a meeting in a while (or ever!), this is your chance to give your input for the books we’ll read April through December 2011.

Here are a few places on the web to look for books by time and place:

Stop You’re Killing Me

Looking for a Mystery?

If you can’t make the meeting, we’d still love to have your suggestions about the definition of the new theme (Another Time, Another Place) as well as possible book selections that fit the theme. Simply respond to this post by clicking the Leave a comment link.

Hope to see/hear from you!
Gail

Posted in Monthly Books | 1 Comment

January Meeting

Book CoverHope everyone is enjoying our next selection, The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, by Michael Stanley, and will join us for our discussion of the book on Tuesday, January 11th (see mysterybookclub.info). The December selection (Monkeewrench) was written by a mother-daughter writing team; the January selection, by two men writing under a pseudonym.

As we begin the new year, our book club will finish up the current theme (alternating male and female authors) and, in April, begin a new one: Another Time, Another Place. In January, we’d like to begin selecting books for this new theme, so put on your thinking caps and bring your ideas for mysteries that take place during another time period and/or another place (other than L.A., I guess … we haven’t yet fully developed the meaning of the theme).

If you can’t make the January meeting, we’d still love to know what you think. Join our online discussion and post your thoughts and ideas to this blog spot.

Happy new year!

Posted in Monthly Books | Leave a comment

Stieg Larsson, USA TODAY Author of the year

It is not big news that Stieg Larsson is USA TODAY’S Author of the Year but it may be surprising to see how long the legs are for this trilogy of an expected ten book series after the three books have been long time residents of the best seller lists and have released three Swedish movies based on the stories. However, with three new Hollywood movies directed by David Fincher due out in 2011 with Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander the popularity should continue to grow.

USA Today author Dierdre Donahue describes Lisbeth as “… the digital age’s first true heroine. This 92 pound outcasst with the social skills of a feral cat, the computer savvy of a WikiLeaker and the vengeful ferocity of a Norse goddess has hacked her way into the world’s psyche.” Lisbeth’s three adventures have sold 50 million copies of the books in 46 countries, 14 million in the U.S. alone.  And there’s the possibility of a mysterious fourth book locked in Larsson’s laptop. Ready the presses, there are no doubt many more million yet to be sold.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Memento – a “must see” movie for suspense buffs

Imagine waking up each day with no real memories beyond muscle memory of how to walk and talk and only the basic instincts of how to operate in the world. No short term memories, not who you are or what happened to you or why you are so entirely ignorant. What kind of tools would you invent to help kick start your life each morning. On top of that, how would you remind yourself that the wife you loved is dead and that you are on a mission to find the person who raped and murdered her. This is a ‘must see’ movie from Christopher Nolan, whose latest movie Inception is another classic-to-be. While this movie is just being re-released for its 10 year anniversary, it is fresh and timeless.

Memento (Widescreen Two-Disc Limited Edition)
Friend John, click on the Amazon link above and get it with your birthday gift card. :)

Posted in Mysteries in other media | Leave a comment

Google Enters the E-Book Market

December 5, Google officially took on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and most importantly Amazon in offering a new competitive ebook format. While most of the library still includes free, open source books there are books from publishers that the Amazon Kindle market was unable to obtain.

While the model set by Amazon has been to maintain an exclusive format for its Kindle reader, Amazon intends to break that model by offering books in as broad a spectrum as possible. That means everything Except Kindle at this point. However, Google is offering a competitive smart phone App iPad, iPhone and Android, available here. While these apps can read the new Google ebook lineup they still can’t read Kindle books… at least yet.

The Google books webpage

The Google Book webpage live is here.

Posted in Mysteries in other media | Leave a comment

December’s Book To Review – Monkeywrench

In December the book club will be reading P.J. Tracy’s MONKEYWRENCH. This topic is dedicated to an ongoing discussion of this book from the members and others interested in the book.

Posted in Monthly Books | 1 Comment

Hello Mystery Book Club!

We now have a blog as an integrated part of our website. It’s an important way to continue the discussion of the books reviewed between meetings. It’s also another good way to talk about other books and authors that we’ve enjoyed and want to share information about.

But that’s not all. As we are all friends, its a chance to share event information and other conversations with each other.

Please enjoy blogging and seeing what everyone has to say.

Posted in Messages from Admin | Leave a comment