Monday, November 4th, 2024

SantaThing 2024: Bookish Secret Santa!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the Eighteenth Annual SantaThing is here at last!

This year we’re continuing to focus on indie bookstores. You can still order Kindle ebooks, we have Kenny’s and Blackwell’s for international orders, and also stores local to Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
» SIGN UP FOR SANTATHING NOW!

What is SantaThing?

SantaThing is “Secret Santa” for LibraryThing members.

How it Works

You pay $15–$50 and pick your favorite bookseller. We match you with a participant, and you play Santa by selecting books for them. Another Santa does the same for you, in secret. LibraryThing does the ordering, and you get the joy of giving AND receiving books!

Sign up once or thrice, for yourself or someone else.

Even if you don’t want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others. Click on an existing SantaThing profile to leave a suggestion.

Every year, LibraryThing members give generously to each other through SantaThing. If you’d like to donate an entry, or want to participate, but it’s just not in the budget this year, be sure to check out our Donations Thread here, run once again by our fantastic volunteer coordinator, mellymel1713278.

Important Dates

Sign-ups close MONDAY, November 25th at 12pm EST. By the next day, we’ll notify you via profile comment who your Santee is, and you can start picking books.

You’ll then have a little more than a week to pick your books, until THURSDAY, December 5th at 12pm EST (16:00 GMT). As soon as the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we’ll get all the books out to you as soon as we can.

» Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

Supporting Indie Bookstores

To support indie bookstores we’re teaming up with independent bookstores from around the country to deliver your SantaThing picks, including BookPeople in Austin, TX, Longfellow Books in Portland, ME, and Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.

And to continue previous years’ success, we’re bringing back the following foreign retail partners: Readings for our Australian participants, Time Out Books for the Kiwi participants, and Kennys for our Irish friends.

And since Book Depository has closed, this year we’re offering international deliveries through Kennys and Blackwell’s.

Kindle options are available to all members, regardless of location. To receive Kindle ebooks, your Kindle must be registered on Amazon.com (not .co.uk, .ca, etc.). See more information about all the stores.

Shipping

Some of our booksellers are able to offer free shipping, and some are not. Depending on your bookseller of choice, you may receive $6 less in books, to cover shipping costs. You can find details about shipping costs and holiday ordering deadlines for each of our booksellers here on the SantaThing Help page.
» Go sign up now!

Questions? Comments?

This is our EIGHTEENTH year of SantaThing. See the SantaThing Help page further details and FAQ.
Feel free to ask your questions over on this Talk topic, or you can contact Kate directly at kate@librarything.com.
Happy SantaThinging!

Labels: santathing, secret santa

Friday, November 1st, 2024

November 2024 Early Reviewers Batch Is Live!

Win free books from the November 2024 batch of Early Reviewer titles! We’ve got 209 books this month, and a grand total of 4,102 copies to give out. Which books are you hoping to snag this month? Come tell us on Talk.

If you haven’t already, sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing/email address and make sure they’re correct.

» Request books here!

The deadline to request a copy is Monday, November 25th at 6PM EST.

Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Spain and more. Make sure to check the message on each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

A Place No Flowers GrowTunnel of Hope: Escape from the Novogrudok Forced Labor CampFarmhouse on the Edge of Town: Stories from a B&B in the Mountains of Western MaineWould You Rather? True Crime Edition: 1,000+ Thought-Provoking Questions and Conversation Starters on Serial Killers, Mysteries, Crimes, Supernatural Activity and MoreHeart of the GlenSerial BurnThe Indigo HeiressA Furnace SealedEmotional Confidence: 3 Simple Steps to Manage Emotions with Science and ScriptureMade to Be She: Reclaiming God's Plan for Fearless FemininityBring Back Your People: Ten Ways Regular Folks Can Put a Dent in White Christian NationalismIllusory Dwellings: Aesthetic Meditations in KyotoHere Goes NothingFrom the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative AgricultureDivision Street: AmericaConfidentialWhat If We Were All Friends!I Am Wind: An AutobiographyWicked KingSingle PlayerA Death in DiamondsMother's First Aid: Mother's Guide from Birth to FourI Refused to Be a War BrideHard FoodMarry a Mensch: Timeless Jewish Wisdom for Today's Single WomanA Fateful EncounterThe Language of MothersAlterationsSoviet Jewry Reborn: A Personal JourneyAcademy of Unholy BoysAccess All AreasCaribbean HolidayThe WeirdotsA Simple Guide to Staying Healthy & Living LongerThe Bugs1950s Nostalgia Activity Book for Seniors: 50 Retro Themed Word Search Puzzles with Illustrated Fun Facts and Trivia for a Fun Walk Down Memory LaneNostalgic Trivia for Seniors: Relive Your Favorite Memories of 5 Decades of Americana (1950s-1990s) with 500 Multiple-Choice Questions and Illustrated ThemesEnemies of the StateHunger In The StonesThe Mall WalkersOur Comeback Tour is Slaying MonstersObsidian PrinceBewitching RosemaryHeart Games 3: A Christian Romance (Christmas) Puzzling ExperienceNew Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights MovementSomewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest EmancipationBearslayerDeath Of A Spy?Love is the Answer, No Matter what the QuestionHow to Chop Tops: A Pictorial Guide to Hot Rodding's Most Popular ModificationTime BeforeFehuUnderstanding Adolescence for Girls: A Body-Positive Guide to PubertyUnderstanding Adolescence for Boys: A Body-Positive Guide to PubertyAmorphous: Breaking the MoldThe Old Secret at Hotel OregonHotel ImpalaAntidote: A New Emotional Wellth Framework™ to Build ResiliencePractical Money Skills for Teens: Personal Finance Simplified, with a Quickstart Guide to Budgeting, Saving, and Investing for a Stress-Free Transition to Financial Independence365 Inspirational & Motivational Quotes to Live By: Daily Wisdom to Inspire Personal Growth, Resilience, Positivity, and MindfulnessLandscapes & Landmarks Coloring Book for Adults: Scenic Beauty and Iconic Places from All 50 States of America for Mindful Relaxation and Stress ReliefLeadership Bites: An Approachable Handbook for Emerging LeadersConspiracy of CatsFive Minutes from a MeltdownBefore the King: Joanna's StoryWhen Stars Light the SkyDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Essentials You Always Wanted to KnowPython Essentials You Always Wanted to KnowBlockchain Essentials You Always Wanted to KnowDigital Shock: Seven Shocks That Are Shaping the FutureLove by the BookSarah: Discovering LoveThe Matrix of the MindBeing a Woman Over Forty: The 40 Things You Should Know by NowA Choir of WhispersConductoid - Scars of the DominatayEvolving Through Life Transitions: A Coping Strategies Guide, Resource, and Workbook Designed for Individuals, Therapists, and Their ClientsCursed EarthAllies, Arson, and Prepping for the ApocalypseNo One Will Save UsTrance Formation: My Hero's Journey of How I Turn Life's Greatest Challenges into Life's Greatest Gifts. A Spiritual Awakening Real Life StoryDentro di Te: Un Viaggio Illustrato di Mindfulness per Bambini CuriosiConversation with XenexThe God FrequencyBeyond the Dismal Veil: Five Short Horror Romance StoriesPaper FaceDiez recordatorios para la mujer Cristiana solteraSpared: A Memoir of Risk and ResolveTeslamancerAnny in LoveRooted and RememberedHouse of SecretsThe Lightning SeedThe Twisted Tree Dig3 Strikes: Finding Love in Forbidden PlacesThe Focused Faith : Detox Your Digital Life Reclaim Hijacked Attention Build Habits for Focus & JoyStrawberry GoldBackupThe Happy Hunting Ground of All MindsFood Freedom: Empowerment Manual for Liberation Through FoodMeantime in GreenwichThe Inheritance of Amaya MontgomeryPlea to a Frozen GodOne Night BoyfriendA Fate Far Sweeter: Passion & Peril In UkraineMien: CurrentsHealing Your Innocent Inner Child: Your Workbook to Overcoming Past Trauma, Regaining Emotional Stability and Practicing Self-Compassion With 20 Scientific-Backed Practical ExercisesThe Songs of MagicLight LockedDragon FlameAliens Versus FootballEffortless Monthly Bills Checklist: Stop Stressing and Achieve Financial Clarity in Just Minutes a Month with this Easy to Use 4-Year Workbook for Tracking your Bills!Monthly Bill Payment Checklist: Take Control Of Your Finances Today!Poseidon's Progress: The Quest to Improve Life at SeaLeave No Trace: FestiFellThe QuietThe Unexpected GuestsHolding On To Her Identity: Losing My Wife To Alzheimer'sLouisa Sophia and a Legion of SistersMy Thanksgiving Coloring Book for Kids: Ages 4-6Be the Weight Behind the SpearThe Fixer: The Good Criminal: Part OneA Madness UnmadeGrandma Mcbee, How Slow Can She Be?Prompted: Synaesthete and Other StoriesIdentity Crisis (A Lawyer's Tale): How Divorce Nearly Ended My LifeMilk Before MeatWife No. 56One Year Without Sugar: Unlocking the Secrets to Weight LossThe Last Nuclear WarGitel's FreedomShort StoriesThe Street Illuminati: DragonShort StoriesDelusions of ChenilleMutated Files: Case OneThe Trench of the DeadAbout the BoyThe Trillion Dollar CowBetween Taste and SoundThe Curse of the Smoky Mountain TreasureLa Vaca Cuesta DemasiadoWhen the Roman Bough Breaks: How a History of Violence and Scandal Shaped the Roman Church, and Hope for Catholics in the GospelThe Misfits: Tails of AlienationsHow the HeussKid Moved the Mole-Lid!Devil's DefenseNew American CaféOld White Man WritingThe King of Myths: Gods and Legends from Every CultureThis Thing is Starving3 by 3: Self Help Discovery and Inner Growth BookThe Keeper's SecretA Hot Chocolate for TwoBlades of ObsessionAn Author's Guide to MonstersPreterism From The BeginningThe Vanishing Heiress: The Unsolved Disappearance of Dorothy ArnoldThe Silent Witness: The Unsolved Murder of Mary Rogers: A Scandal That Shook New York and Inspired Edgar Allan PoeAnywhenWhispers from the Murder Farm: The Case of Belle Gunness: Inside the Mind of America’s Darkest Femme FataleThe Emotional Intelligence Advantage: Transform Your Life, Relationships, and CareerCurse of the Maestro and Other StoriesA Certain Slant of LightPresented with LoveLet the Purring Begin: Sapphire's TaleThe Ultimate Guide to Rapport: How to Enhance Your Communications and Relationships with Anyone, Anytime, AnywhereTangled up in MurderThe Starlight ContingencyFree Life Revolution: Zero-Cost Hacks to Transform Your Body & Mind: Book OneDelitti Fuori OrarioNo One Will Save UsThe Little Hedgehog's Second ChristmasUnboundBlair CountyA Legend of the SailorsThe Displacement Dilemma: Navigating the Survival of Human Expertise in an AI-Driven WorldVivid Visions: Tales Woven from the Threads of Diverse ImaginationsWould You Rather? True Crime Edition: 1,000+ Thought-Provoking Questions and Conversation Starters on Serial Killers, Mysteries, Crimes, Supernatural Activity and MoreThe Business Rescue Casebook IIIThe BreakdownThe Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes: Essays on Victorian England, Volume FiveEchoes of the TombSuper Psyched: Unleash the Power of the 4 Types of Connection and Live the Life You LoveFinding KIND: Discovering Hope and Purpose While Loving Kids with Invisible Neurological DifferencesSatan, Get Out in the Name of Jesus: An Autobiographical Account of a Personal Struggle Against Demonic Forces of DarknessSide Quest: StoriesWillful Wanderer: A MemoirThe Fields of Britannia: The Darkness Before the DawnFree Life Revolution: Zero-Cost Hacks to Transform Your Habits & Horizons: Book TwoShallow DepthsThe Intentional Leader: A Guide To Elevate Your Residential Service BusinessDark ArteriesPoinsettia LaneThe ProjectionistA Change in Destiny: Dark SuspicionsTales of a Toy Soldier: The CorpseVesselFelones de Se: Poems about SuicideNoir Dirt Cheap: Film Noir in the Public Domain, Volume 1Queen of TradesShadows Under a Dipping SunDavid and the Lost NookThe Evolution of Nora O'Brien PachecoShort Stories from Faraway PlacesBeyond Beliefs: The Incredible True Story of a German Refugee, an Indian Migrant and the Families Left BehindLosing ItA Blessed FallPick Me!The Secret of the Mind-Garden

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

Alcove Press Arctis Books USA Baker Books
Before Someday Publishing Bethany House Broadleaf Books
CarTech Books Census Press City Owl Press
Crooked Lane Books Entrada Publishing eSpec Books
Gefen Publishing House IngramSpark Islandport Press
Lerner Publishing Group The New Press Prosper Press
PublishNation Purple Diamond Press, Inc Purple Moon Publishing
Revell Riverfolk Books Rootstock Publishing
Running Wild Press, LLC Simon & Schuster Somewhat Grumpy Press
Stone Bridge Press Tundra Books Twisted Road Publications
Unsolicited Press Vibrant Publishers Wise Media Group
Yorkshire Publishing

Labels: early reviewers, LTER

Thursday, October 17th, 2024

Come Join the 2024 Halloween Hunt!

It’s October, and that means the return of our annual Halloween Hunt!

We’ve scattered a hauntourage of ghosts around the site, and it’s up to you to try and find them all.

  • Decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a ghost. Each clue points to a specific page on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
  • If there’s a ghost on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.
  • You have just two weeks to find all the ghosts (until 11:59pm EDT, Thursday October 31st).
  • Come brag about your hauntourage of ghosts (and get hints) on Talk.

Win prizes:

  • Any member who finds at least two ghosts will be
    awarded a ghost Badge ().
  • Members who find all 12 ghosts will be entered into a drawing for one of five LibraryThing (or TinyCat) prizes. We’ll announce winners at the end of the hunt.

P.S. Thanks to conceptDawg for the ghostly flamingo illustration!

Labels: halloween, treasure hunt

Thursday, October 10th, 2024

LibraryThing in Your Language—Even British!

We’ve made some exciting changes and improvements to LibraryThing’s member-drive translations, first developed in 2006.

Try it out: Spanish, German, Dutch, French, Italian or British English! (Change back by clicking the name of the language you’re in at the top right of the screen.)

CataloGUE to your heart’s content!

It’s Working!

This blog post explains the changes, and why we made them. But the best justification is already evident: Members are finding and using LibraryThing in their language more than ever! Some 5% of members are already using our new “English (UK)” option. Another 5% are using LibraryThing in a (non-English) language.

Best of all, new, non-English members are up 50%, and I suspect we are also reeling in some new English members too! (It’s hard to tell, because TriviaThing is also reeling in new members.)

Goodbye All Those Domains

The core change is a big one: We’re phasing out our non-English domains, like LibraryThing.fr, LibraryThing.de and tr.LibraryThing.com, in favor of members chosing their preferred language on LibraryThing.com. Nothing is being taken away here—we’re just changing where you go! In fact, we’re adding some features (see below).

We’re getting rid of the non-English domains to improve your experience of the site. First, search engines never fully understood what we were doing, so English-language people were coming to LibraryThing off Google searches, and finding themselves on a site in Danish, or Catalan! (They’d leave.)

More importantly, we’re doing it to reduce our “non-human traffic”—the search-engines and AI bots that make up more than 50% of LibraryThing’s traffic. The AI bots in particular have been particularly wild, with rogue bots hitting us night and day. Unfortunatley, having some 50 separate domains meant 50 targets. Reducing this traffic will help us serve you—the “human” traffic—faster and better.

Feature Changes

Here’s a run down of the changes:

  • Language Switcher. Every page now shows your language. Click it to change your language, or to help us translate non-English languages.
  • British English. Do the Amrican “catalog” and “color” annoy you? We’ve added a new language, British English, called “English (UK)” in our language menu. Apparently you want it, because already 5% of members are using it!
  • Domain Forwarding. If you go to an old domain, like LibraryThing.fr, you’ll be forwarded to LibraryThing.com and asked if you want French or English.
  • Home Pages for Every Language. While you can change language on any page, each language also has its own, dedicated home page, like LibraryThing.com/t/fr (French), LibraryThing.com/t/de (German), or LibraryThing.com/t/gb (UK English). You can find them by changing languages before you sign in. You’ll also get them when you sign out. If you want to avoid changing languages again, bookmark your page.
  • Language Detection. When you go to a website like LibraryThing, your browser actually tells us your preferred language. Some websites just follow that, but we know a lot of our members straddle languages. So if, when you first come to LibraryThing, we detect a disconnect between what your browser wants and what you’re using, we ask you if you want to switch.
  • Better Translation Pages. Our Translations page is better in various small ways. If you are using a non-English language, it has new options to see and edit only machine-translated text.

Member Translated, with Help

Since 2006, translation has been in the hands of members. This hasn’t changed. But we’ve gone ahead and had a translation program have a go at untranslated text. Members can, of course, change these translations, and we’ve given them special tools to do.

The change is minimal for most of LibraryThing’s popular languages:

  • Spanish — 99.2% translated, 16.3% by machine
  • German — 99.5% translated, 1.5% by machine
  • Dutch — 99.3% translated, 2.3% by machine
  • French — 99.3% translated, 4.2% by machine
  • Italian — 99.6% translated, 0.4% by machine

For less-used languages, the percent is much higher:

  • Maori — 92.9% translated, 71.1% by machine
  • Korean — 92.5% translated, 88.9% by machine
  • Armenian — 92.1% translated, 90.9% by machine
  • Tagalog — 91.4% translated, 89.5% by machine
  • Welsh — 91.1% translated, 75.3% by machine

While human translation is best, these versions were seas of untranslated, yellow text. It’s a Catch 22—you can’t get new Armenian members if the site isn’t translated, and you can’t get it translated without Armenian members.(1)

Problems and Improvements

We are working on a few improvements:

  • Multiple Accounts. Some members appreciated being able to have one member on one language site, and another on another. I think it’s clear we need to get a “Switch account” feature, like Facebook and some other sites have.
  • AI is Meh. We are aware that machine translation isn’t ideal. If we have time, we will try to do it again, feeding in appropriate human-translated text, so we can be consistent on terms like “tags.” For now, however, if the translation annoys you—maybe that’s the prod we need to give you?
  • Cookies? The way we implemented languages, cookies, has various implications—some good, some bad. You can read more about this here.
  • Account-level Language Setting. If you want to set your account language, go to Account Settings. As many members have a dissonance between their account langauge and the language they actually use, you won’t be switched when you log in, but you will be asked if you want to switch.

For more on this change, and a lot of great suggestions read Talk > New Features > Big language changes.


1. There’s actually a wrinkle here in that it’s not about the total number of translated strings, but how often they are used. A site with only 50% of its strings translated could still be quite useful—if they were the RIGHT strings. Unfortunately, many languages had untranslated home pages. Nobody is going to join a site like that!

Labels: languages, translation

Thursday, October 3rd, 2024

Author Interview: Danielle Trussoni

Danielle Trussoni

LibraryThing is pleased to sit down this month with bestselling author Danielle Trussoni, who made her debut in 2006 with Falling Through the Earth, a memoir chronicling her relationship with her father that was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. Trussoni’s first novel, Angelology, was published four years later, going on to become a New York Times and international bestseller. It was translated into over thirty languages, and was followed in 2013 by a sequel, Angelopolis, which was also a bestseller. Trussoni has also published a second memoir, The Fortress: A Love Story (2016), and a stand-alone novel, The Ancestor (2020), and writes a monthly horror column for the New York Times Book Review. The Puzzle Master, a thriller involving a brilliant puzzle maker and an ancient mystery, was published in 2023, and a sequel, The Puzzle Box, is due out shortly from Random House. Trussoni sat down with Abigail to answer some questions about this new book.

The Puzzle Box continues the story of puzzle maker Mike Brink, a savant who came to his abilities through a traumatic brain injury. How did the idea for this character and his adventures first come to you? Did you always know you wanted to write more about Mike, or did you find that you had more to tell, after finishing The Puzzle Master

The idea for this character didn’t arrive in a lightning flash. Mike Brink developed through slowly working backward from the puzzle that I wanted to be at the center of this novel. I had developed a puzzle that the character of Jesse Price, a woman who is in prison for 30 years for killing her boyfriend, draws. She hasn’t spoken to anyone for five years but creates a cipher. Mike Brink arrives to solve it. At first, Mike was just a regular puzzle solver. And then I began to research real people with extraordinary abilities and stumbled upon Savant Syndrome. He seemed like the perfect vehicle for solving complex and fun mysteries.

I always knew that I wanted to write more about Mike Brink. I feel that this character has an almost endless supply of fascinating angles to write about. I could see writing about him for a long time!

Your hero has Sudden Acquired Savant Syndrome. What does this mean, and what significance does it have, to the story you wish to tell?

Savant Syndrome is an actual disorder that has occurred only a handful of times (there are between 50-75 documented cases). It occurs when there is damage to the brain, and a kind of hyper plasticity occurs, allowing the person to develop startling mental abilities. Some people become incredibly good at playing music, for example. Other people develop an ability with languages. But Mike Brink develops an ability to see patterns, solve puzzles, and make order out of chaos. Once I began to read about this skill—it’s really a kind of superpower!—I knew that this ability would be perfect for a hero of a mystery novel.

The Puzzle Box involves the Japanese royal family, a puzzle created by Emperor Meiji, and a notable samurai family. What kind of research did you need to do to tell this story, and what were some of the most interesting things you learned, in the process?

First of all, I lived in Japan for over two years. That experience was in the back of my mind as I developed the characters and the story of this book. That said, as I wrote The Puzzle Box, I found I wanted to see the places that appear in the novel: the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the puzzle box museum in Hakone, and the many locations in Kyoto. So, I went to Japan for two weeks in 2023 to do on the ground research at these locations.

The historical elements of the book, especially the storyline about the Emperor Meiji and the Empresses of Japan, were a different story. I read a lot about the Imperial family, their origins, the discussions and controversies surrounding succession. A big part of my process is to read as much as I can find about something in my work and then carve out the most striking details.

How do you come up with the central puzzles in your books? Are they wholly original creations, or are they taken from or inspired by known puzzles?

The ideas for the puzzles are completely original, and necessarily have to do with the story I’m trying to tell. Each of the puzzles in The Puzzle Master and The Puzzle Box act as gateways to information that helps move the story forward. So I start with story. Then, I speak with the REAL puzzle geniuses, who help me imagine what kind of puzzles are possible. I work with two constructors, Brendan Emmett Quigley and Wei-Hwa Huang, who have worked for The New York Times Games Page (Wei-Hwa is a four-time World Puzzle Champion). They are incredibly smart and really understand what I’m trying to accomplish with my storytelling. Because the puzzles are not just gimmicks or diversions: they are essential to the plot of the novel.

What is different about writing a sequel, when compared to the first book in a series? Were there particular writing or storytelling challenges, or aspects that you enjoyed?

The Puzzle Box is designed as a stand-alone novel and can be read without reading The Puzzle Master. Still, Mike Brink is the hero of both novels, and there are other characters and storylines that show up in both books. I loved being able to go back to characters that I’d already spent time with, and found that because they were familiar, I could go deeper into their minds and feelings. The complications of Mike Brink’s superpower are a challenge for him. How he lives with his gift—and how he can continue to solve puzzles and find happiness—is the primary question of this series.

What can we expect next from you? Do you think you’ll write more about Mike? Are there any other writing projects you are working on?

I hope to write more books in this series, and of course Mike would be returning. I always have three or four novels on the back burner, and sometimes it’s hard for me to know which one will be the next to be written. Sometimes I need to wait and see.

Tell us about your library. What’s on your own shelves?

I am a lover of hardcover books, and so my shelves are packed with contemporary fiction in hardcover. I live in San Miguel de Allende Mexico, and it isn’t easy to get new books, but I’ve managed to find a way!

What have you been reading lately, and what would you recommend to other readers?

I used to write a book column for The New York Times Book Review, and a lot of my reading was for the column. But since I stopped writing it last year, I have been reading for pleasure. I’m revisiting books I loved in my twenties—And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, for example—and I’m reading contemporary thrillers such as The Winner by Teddy Wayne and Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman. I have Richard Price’s Lazarus Man, which is out in a few months, on my most anticipated list. There is never enough time to read everything I want, but what I’m reading is exactly what I love most in fiction: sharp, evocative prose that carries me through an engrossing, surprising story. Give me those two things and I’m hooked.

Labels: author interview, interview