PETRONA

April fools' day arrives early

So, today is 29 February. A lot of people have been arguing for a day's holiday today, on the grounds that they are providing a day of unpaid work for their employer. And some organisations are even going along with this, on somewhat pious grounds of "saving the environment". Of course, these employers cannot know if they are saving the environment or not, because they don't know what their employees are going to do on their day off. For example they could charter a private jet and take a round trip to a distant country (especially this year, when 29 February conveniently falls on a Friday).

Be that as it may, I don't agree with the premise that one works "for free" on 29 February, as the "day" is an artificial unit created by us. It does not properly fit reality (the natural world), hence the need for the four-yearly correction. An employee could just as easily think of it as receiving an extra quarter of a day's pay for nothing every three years, in preparation for the fourth year when she or he works the "extra" day.

Opposite views of Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been widely, and mainly very positively, reviewed in the blogosphere, and has been the subject of many a discussion on quality of translation, publisher's choice of title, and so on. I was quite struck by the contrast between these two opinions:

Andrew Taylor in The Spectator:

"This is a long thriller but it sustains the reader’s interest, partly because it’s well-plotted but more, perhaps, because of the anger Larsson directs at his targets. Misogyny, financial corruption, murder, fascism all have a contribution to make, and Larsson implies that ultimately they spring from the same source. The book may not be particularly subtle but it’s highly effective and a very good read: I look forward to the sequels."

Josephine Damian's blog (thanks to Karen of Euro Crime for the link):

....."Then onto chapter one wherein we’re introduced to the sleuth, a hapless guy who's already in a heap of trouble (great way to introduce the MC). We meet him first in a courtroom where a judgment has just been handed down against him – it seems he’s a financial journalist who just that moment has been found guilty of slandering a bilious billionaire. The judgments trashes his reputation as a journalist and wipes out his savings – a very nice set up to what no doubt will be the motivation for his making a bad and desperate choice – to investigate the long-ago mysterious disappearance of the girl whose grand uncle receives the flowers. Lots of great characterization as he receives/reacts to the judgment – so good, so far – this author was doing everything right.

Then the author decides to tell me the entire back story of how the journalist met, got tangled up with, and ultimately came to slander the billionaire. I guess the author never read the advice from Donald Maass where he says: DO NOT HAVE A FLASHBACK EARLY ON IN YOUR NOVEL. This being a book published in Europe, I cut the author some slack thinking the Swedish editor would be more tolerant of flashback/digressions than say, a US editor so I read this flashback with an open mind. After 15 pages, I started skimming (trusted reader – you know what words come next – so say them with me now) - always a bad sign. The flashback introduced a bunch of new characters, and I got confused on top of being bored; I wanted to get back to the murder plot! While I figured this financier and the conflict he had with the MC must have some bearing on the missing girl, there’s a right way and a wrong way to convey this. “Information dump” – a phrase I see a lot in writing advice books in the section marked “what NOT to do” – is something all writers need to watch out for, especially the thriller scribes."......

An optimal medium for book reviews

The other day I read a very well-written review, by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, of Wicker (also called Cast of Shadows) by Kevin Guilfoile. The plot sounds horrific, as Kerrie describes it: "When his teenage daughter is raped and murdered, Davis uses the semen left in her body as the genetic basis of a cloned baby. He hopes that when the baby grows up he will somehow be able to use him to identify his daughter's murderer.
The people who do this work are being targetted by an organisation called the Hand of God, that employs a killer to see that high profile pro-cloners and scientists are killed. Although these pressures, together with the death of his daughter, lead to Moore retiring from active practice, he follows the growth of Justin, the baby cloned from the rapists' semen, with interest, and attempts to track the rapist down."

Although I've read about this book before, I wasn't then inclined to read it: yet Kerrie's review intrigued me, as she highlights some of the scientific and ethical questions arising from the previous paragraph (there are quite a few, obviously!) and concludes, "I didn't "see" the ending of this novel coming. There are things revealed in the final 50 pages that you won't predict, so if you find it a bit of a long read like I did, hang in there!" So yes, maybe I'll overcome my sense of squeamishness and go for it.

But the book didn't let Kerrie go, and yesterday she posted further thoughts about it, explaining that the book is essentially in two parts: one about DNA cloning and the ethical issues; and the second about a virtual 3D world called Shadowland, in which people are represented by avatars in a manner similar to Second Life. Kerrie describes some of the scientific, medical and "virtual world ethics" addressed in Wicker, as well as linking to some media articles about rape, prisons and child abuse in virtual reality.

This post decided me: I'm definitely going to read the book. But I wasn't the only person impressed by Kerrie's thoughts. In the comments, one Kevin Guilfoile writes: "just wanted to thank you for the thoughtful reading you gave to WICKER (Cast of Shadows). And thanks too for those Second Life links. I'm not really a gamer myself, but it is fascinating to watch expressions of violence find their way inevitably into a virtual world and more fascinating to watch the community try to come to grips with it.".....

Doesn't this story show blogging at its best? First, a review of a book that makes the reader want to buy it. Then, the reviewer has thought more about the book, and can write a follow-up post, as well as linking to topical, related issues. And, the author lets us know his take. Perfect.

 

Army of Davids or Serial Killers?

Debra Hamel's verdict of The Serial Killers Club (I can forgive no hyphen in the title but not the lack of apostrophe): "part thriller, part romance, this black comedy is one weird book." Although the plot of this book, which, according to Debra's review, concerns an exclusive club for serial killers in which said criminals can relax and share experiences of their nefarious deeds, must surely be unique, it is a pity that the same could not be said of the cover.

I was instantly reminded of An Army of Davids, Glenn Reynolds's excellent book about the power of blogging. I checked it out and, yes, the two books could be mistaken for each other.

I shan't be reading The Serial Killers [sic] Club, but I can highly recommend the first half of An Army of Davids, which is the best of the many books about blogging that I have read. (I was not so keen on the second half, an over-rosy science and technology prediction exercise.) Frank Wilson, Book Review Editor Emeritus of the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote an excellent review of the book (it was Frank's review and my subsequent reading of the book that really opened my eyes to the full potential and power of blogging, in fact). Here is a taster of Frank's review: unfortunately I cannot find a freely available version of it, but if you drop a comment at Frank's blog, Books, Inq., he may be able to help.

Army of Davids on Amazon.com and on Amazon.co.uk.

Sunday Salon: building loyal readers

The reading week started out well, as I completed The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards (review will follow), but went downhill from there. For various reasons I read another thriller, this one called Requiem by Jack Ross. It is an easy read and exciting enough, but flat, leaving me wondering what the point had been. It seemed to me as if the author was going for the Patterson ticket. But although I find Patterson's currentish (haven't read the past few) books shallow -- written by computer market-research programme -- the early Alex Cross novels were darn good of their kind. Patterson worked to build a readership. Now he is cashing in on that, throwing in a few other genres (historical, chick lit) for good measure. (For some good thrillers recommended by me, see yesterday's Petrona post).

After that I read The Golden Section, Pernille Rygg's follow-up to The Butterfly Effect. The sequel continues the theme of exposing the seamy underbelly as well as the alternative culture of Oslo, but has a sentimental "Disneyfied child" theme included. The book is also too long. For me, a disappointment compared with the author's first novel.

So it is a pleasure to turn to a familiarly reliable author, Donna Leon, and her latest novel The Girl of his Dreams -- wonderful, so far -- readable, evocative, sad and infused with that sense of place for which this author is so renowned. I haven't got very far into the book yet, but here are some delights (look away now, Norman):

"..he recalled an observation Paola had once made, after a train trip from Padova to Venice when they had sat opposite a long-gowned mullah, busy with his prayer beads for the entire trip. His robes had been whiter than any businessman's shirt Brunetti had ever seen, and even Signorina Elettra would have envied the perfection of the pleats in his skirt.
As they walked down the steps of the station, the mullah moving gracefully off to his left, Paola said 'If he didn't have a woman to take care of his costume for him, he'd probably have to go out and work for a living.' In response to Brunetti's observation that she was displaying a certain lack of multicultural sensitivity, she replied that half the trouble and most of the violence in the world would be eliminated if men were forced to do their own ironing, 'which word I use as a metonym for all housework, please understand', she had hastened to add. "

---

"That day's headline, giving further details about the recent capture of one of the chief leaders of the Mafia, looked up at the room, shouting for attention.
She stopped behind the sofa, two cups of coffee in her hands, and asked, 'Reading about your triumph?'
Brunetti closed his eyes. 'Indeed', he answered, 'a triumph'.
'It's enough to make a person give serious thought to emigration, isn't it?' she asked.
'He's been on the run for forty-three years, and they find him two kilometres from his home.' He raised a hand and let it fall with a helpless slap on the open newspaper. 'Forty-three years, and the politicians fall over themselves praising the police. A triumph.' "

(PS Typepad spell check wanted to replace "Disneyfied" with "dignified".)

Italian fashion crimes

When I saw the headline Fashion crimes on this week's table of contents in the TLS newsletter, I immediately thought of Italian crime fiction expert extraodinaire, Uriah Robinson (aka Norman Price) of Crime Scraps, whose fiendish and comprehensive understanding of the country's crime psychology (dentistry pales in comparison) is second to nobody's, and that includes Italians. (See here for a typical Norman post, but there are many others of this ilk at Crime Scraps.) The TLS article so titled is a review of Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano, translated by Virginia Jewiss (Macmillan UK; Farrar, Straus & Giroux US). I've read reviews of this book before, but this is a particularly good one.

Gomorrah is, according to the TLS review, "the product of several years of investigative journalism in Naples and the Caserta area of southern Italy by a young journalist (born in 1979). Its greatest merit is to show in meticulous detail how the organized crime syndicate in the region, Camorra, has been able to forge relationships of mutual cooperation with a sizeable section of the local and national economies, and how legal and illegal production intersect and support each other. The book aspires to be, and fully succeeds in being, a work of literature: it is written in the first person, in a raw, unadorned yet highly elaborate style. The reader is invited to read Gomorrah as the personal memoir of a young man who cannot turn his analytic gaze away from the evil he grew up with. In Italy, the book has become a literary phenomenon and won a major literary prize. The author is a now a marked man."

The story is of how the famous fashion houses use fixers "to contract out the production of their designs to dressmaking sweatshops in the Neapolitan area", with all kinds of horrible twists and warped systems that have evolved around this apparently simple, if unedifying, practice. Just read the review, and believe it if you dare (will you ever wear one of those £x,000 off-the-shoulder numbers again afterwards?). As the TLS reviewer, Federico Varese (Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford)  concludes: "No matter how much individual valour anti-Mafia campaigners display, the nexus of self-interest that links sizeable sections of the economy and organized crime must be weakened and eventually broken."  Professor Varese himself has a book coming out later this year called Mob and Mobility.

13th tale, Rendell and more

I have been unavoidably away from blogging and the Internet for a few days -- the past couple of posts were by courtesy of the advance timer button -- but now I am back. Back, in fact, with a post "hoisted up from the comments" of my previous post, which linked to my review of Diane Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale. Susan Balée's view of the book as a modern Victorian novel is exactly my own. She writes:

"I, too, really enjoyed "Thirteenth Tale," .....Sort of a modern Charlotte Bronte story, and I was certainly fooled by the extra character haunting the plot (I'm saying that obliquely, so as not to spoil the novel for other readers)."

Susan continues: "I've just read Ruth Rendell's "The Crocodile Bird," on a rec from Becky -- quite a good psych. thriller. Do you like Rendell and can you make any other recs? I don't like detective stories, but I do like thrillers!" "

Well, yes, as it happens, I can recommend a few thrillers ;-) I love being asked to recommend books!

For a sustained series of thrillers (as opposed to detective/crime novels) I don't think that Lee Child's Jack Reacher series can be bettered. Start with the first: if you like that, you'll revel in the rest. Jack Reacher (like his televisual counterpart Jack Bauer) is a perfect storm of a hero, and I'm reliably informed that he is immensely popular with women readers.

If you are more interested in a stand-alone, I can suggest five intensely exciting novels  that I'll bet money will have you turning the pages without being able to stop (click on titles for more details):

Triptych by Karin Slaughter

The Serbian Dane by Lief Davidsen

The two-minute rule by Robert Crais

No time for goodbye by Linwood Barclay

The Woods by Harlan Coben

Turning to Ruth Rendell, Susan's currently identified thriller writer, I like almost everything she writes: she produces a longstanding crime fiction "English village" [East Anglian market town, actually] police-procedural series featuring Chief Inspector Wexford and Inspector Burden- characters with whom I have literally grown up, and seen change as they have married, had children and (in the most recent books) the children have had children. These started in the 1960s and have held up incredibly well, still going strong today , as Becky notes (I have the latest installment on my shelf to be read). Ruth Rendell also writes stand-alone thrillers (and many short stories) under that name, including The Crocodile Bird as recommended by Becky; and as if that isn't enough, she writes other books under the name of Barbara Vine, which tend to be slightly more dense and deep concerning motivation and character. A good one to try is The Chimney Sweeper's Boy -- successful author dies of heart attack, but was he all that he seemed? Another good one is The Blood Doctor, not so much for its plot (maybe it is because I'm scientific, but I found that pretty obvious), but because it is set in 2002, the year the House of Lords dissolved itself (apart from a rump), and is told from the point of view of one of the hereditary peers who are (mostly) metaphorically falling on their swords. The atmosphere is so convincing, due to the happy duality of Barbara Vine's insightful writing and Ruth Rendell's real-life role as a Labour life peer. Enjoy!

Thirteenth Tale and Ice Trap

My reviews at Euro Crime this week are a contrasting pair, indeed. First, a book I wasn't expecting to enjoy a great deal because of the hype, but in the event found utterly absorbing and enjoyed very much: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, a "beautifully written and involving story". I adored it.

The second book I review is Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell. The opening sequence was haunting and suspenseful, but the main plot turns out to be somewhat unrealistic in a soap-opera kind of way. Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner, and if you are prepared to suspend belief a bit, you might enjoy it as much as some of the newspaper reviewers did.

Other new reviews at Euro Crime can be seen here. They include Karen Meek on Crimini, the collection of Italian short stories edited by Giancarlo De Cataldi; Norman Price's take on A Vengeful Longing by R. N. Morris; and Fiona Walker on The Abominable Man by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo-- one of the ten-part Matin Beck series. I haven't yet read this one as I am only up to number four, but I am looking forward to it.

Digital facsimiles of rare books

Via my friend and colleague Li Kim Lee, I learn about a seminar on Wednesday (20 February): Turning the Pages 2.0: 3D digital audio-facsimile of manuscripts and rare books, by Michael Stocking of Armadillo Systems at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at Kings College London. "Turning the Pages is a technology for creating interactive 3D facsimile of books. It powers an ongoing digitisation programme of the most treasured, illuminated manuscripts and rare books in the British Library, National Library of Ireland, USA National Library of Medicine, and other libraries and archives." For more information and links, see 3DVisA Index of 3D Projects. Advanced visualisation techniques made it possible to make interactive digital facsimiles available online. Pages can be turned virtually and examined in close detail, using a virtual magnifying glass. Perhaps the most wonderful attraction is Mozart’s Musical Diary, accompanied by 75 audio excerpts.

Sunday Salon: reading tour

Two weeks ago, I wrote for Sunday Salon about starting The Pool of Unease by Catherine Sampson. I finished that book a few days afterwards, finding it a compelling and well-told story. It is the third book in a series, but distinct from the previous two in that a large part of the action takes place in China, where the author herself now lives. And although I've read as many news and analysis articles about China as anyone else, so could be said to be broadly aware of the "issues" in that country as the rest of the world sees them, I was struck by how much more involved one feels by reading a good novel compared with a dry, factual account. There are three main Chinese characters in the book: they are vividly portrayed, more so than the series regulars, in fact, and I now feel much more emotional connection with -- maybe I should write "emotional inkling about" what it must be like being a citizen of that country, leading a life there.

Next was the long-awaited (by me) The Woods by Harlan Coben, just out in paperback in the UK. As I predicted, I thoroughly enjoyed this racy, tense thriller, which is a standalone, though featuring several characters who appear in other books by this author. I was anticipating that the solution to the conundrum would be convoluted and far-fetched, as this is an area where Coben (in common with many other detective/thriller fiction authors) tends to fall down. But although I guessed some aspects of the outcome, and some of the others don't bear too much scrutiny, the denouement worked pretty well, I'd say. Harlen Coben is a bestselling author who is improving rather than coasting: good for him.

Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway (in proof) was next - as short as its predecessor (Borderlands) - it is lean and very readable, although lacking that additional touch of magic that made Borderlands exceptional. But compared with Meltdown, by Martin Baker, my next title, it is genius. Meltdown is such a load of badly written hokum that I really regretted wasting my time reading it.

I've completed one more book since then, The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, much admired by Euro Crime aficionados. This book is a solid (i.e. long) book, and after 100 pages I almost gave up. But I was glad I didn't, because I soon became so absorbed in it that I couldn't put it down. This author "gets" emotion, so I enjoyed very much the character study of Harry Hole and his colleagues, and was dreadfully saddened by the death that affects him so much in this and even more in the next book, The Devil's Star -- which I have already read because Nesbo's books are being published in translation out of order, for reasons unknown to me, but crazy, whatever they are. I half want to read The Devil's Star again, knowing what I do now about events preceding it. But I probably shan't, because both books are long, and the crime plots too complicated and unconvincing (although Nesbo's light on Norway and Norwegians' behaviour during the Second World War is fascinating, and probably uncomfortable for many of his countrymen to read). I'm very much looking forward to Nemesis, soon to be published in the UK.

Finally, I started The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards the other day. I'm enjoying it so far, a few chapters in. I smiled at Miranda's comments when her train was (allegedly) delayed at Crewe, making her late to return home to her partner Daniel. She says "The guard says we may be stuck for a couple of hours, God knows why.....Wrong kind of sunshine I expect". The other day I read in the Times that exactly this excuse was given in Wales to account for train problems - something about unseasonal sunshine causing unanticipated passenger demand. A few pages later, another character opines that he doesn't trust league tables because he is a supporter of Carlisle United. I think I'm going to like this book (as I happen to live with someone with just this affliction). 

Shooting the messenger in the foot

The (UK) Booksellers' Association blog regularly features stimulating articles, but boy could it do with a proofreader, let alone an editor. It does not take comments, so one is forced to suffer in silence while reading items such as this one ("Open access opt out at Harvard"):

"Harvard are now planning to change things albeit quietly by voting to enable its arts and sciences faculty to distribute their scholarship freely online. If passed an open access repository run by the library would instantly make maretial available on the Internet. Authors would still retain copyright and the ability to publish anywhere. In fact the system would be an opt out one which would automatically include works unless the author opted out. An interesting position for authors who could be said to be dammed iof they do and dammed if they don’t."

My subedited version:

"Harvard is now planning to change things, albeit quietly, by voting to enable its arts and sciences faculty to distribute its scholarship freely online. If passed, the resolution would allow an open-access repository run by the library to instantly make material available on the Internet. Authors would still retain copyright, allowing them to re-publish the article anywhere. In fact, the system would automatically include all work published by an author employed or funded by Harvard, unless that author opted out. An interesting position for authors, who could be said to be dammed if they do, and dammed if they don’t."

There is another, equally stimulating but equally grammatically challenged post here, about the book-publishing industry. From that post, entitled "Oprah kicks [sic] start digital":

"But then comes a breath of fresh air from that book star and number one bookseller – no not jef bezos [sic] but Oprah Winfrey. She has announced that a free downloadable PDF version of Suze Orman's bestselling book WOMEN & MONEY (published a year ago by Spiegel & Grau) is to be available at Oprah.com today and tomorrow. It is to be offered in both English and Spanish and will include a clear copyright notice that reads, ‘This book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person."

My freelance editing services are available for a very reasonable fee.

Idea of the week

I will Get That Nobel Peace Prize Yet! writes Scott Adams. How?

"What I’d like to see is a pen pal web site designed to end war. The idea would be to connect citizens in different countries at such a high rate it would be politically impossible for the two countries to start a war."

He suggests this would be a good project for the Gates foundation's billions (including auto-translation). Just so long as they don't discuss football.

Six-word stories, cont

Back in late October 2006, I wrote a brief post: Six-word biography challenge, a pastime in which one is allowed three lines of six words each to write a short autobiography (or biography). There were lots of good suggestions in the comments, which dried up, as is the wont of comment threads, in December (2006). Suddenly, on 8 February this year (2008 in case you hadn't noticed), two more comments were appended to that post. How strange.

Dave Lull then added another: "Nicholas Lezard says that "Six words can't tell good stories. It's just not enough to plumb any kind of depth. Discuss. At length" (Guardian article). Curious, I scanned the Guardian article whose link Dave supplied, and got it: Mr Lezard's piece, rehashing the story of the six-word game, had presumably caused the old Petrona post to show up in Guardian readers' search returns. Or something along those lines.

Mr Lezard's article contains a quote from the New York Times: "Of last year's 10 bestselling novels [in Japan], five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels." Mr Lezard's point is that six-word novels aren't literature, they are advertisements ("Never knowingly undersold", for example, the slogan of my favourite shop, John Lewis). But I don't think anyone ever thought otherwise, did they? Or, to put it in six words: "Bestseller equals literature? Ain't necessarily so."

Harnessing the web, Nature's way

LOGOS, the "journal of the world book community" has just published an article by me. It's called Harnessing the Web — Nature's way: New tools and resources to help researchers communicate and innovate.

The LOGOS blurb states: "How does one of the world's oldest and most successful scientific journals harness the Web? Maxine Clarke, publishing executive editor of Nature, spells it all out for LOGOS readers. This is an excellent example of a brilliant specialist reaching out to the general reader, a recurrent theme in LOGOS's eighteen-year history."

LOGOS is a subscription-only publication, so only the first page of the article is available at the link above. If you are interested in seeing the whole thing, drop me a line in the comments.

For more about LOGOS and what it's all about, the journal's home page is here.

An accidental journey

Dave Lull sends me a link to an article at Critical Mass (the US national book critics' circle blog) by the poet and critic Reginald Shepherd. It's a readable and thoughtful piece (title: All kinds of favors fall from it) on that perennial topic of the discovery of blogs, blogging and the benefits that can ensue. Don't let your eyes glaze over, though, it is a good essay with an individual perspective.

One of the reasons I like the essay is the story of how the author set up his blog: "Though I had never left a comment on a blog before, I was moved to leave one on Ron Silliman’s blog by a post of his that I found infuriating. Silliman, one of the original “Language poets,” is an elder statesman in the somewhat insular online poetry world.. Google’s Blogger software requires one to set up an account in order to leave a comment, but instead of taking me to the comment page once I had done so, the program sent me to a page to set up my own blog. The process was remarkably simple, so I said, “Why not?” "

This immediately reminded me of Susan Barr, whose blog, In Over My Head, was set up in similar circumstances, as reflected by its title. In Susan's case, if I remember correctly, she set up her blog in order to be able to comment on Debra Hamel's young daughter's (now sadly defunct) blog, certainly not because she was infuriated.

Mr Shepherd writes of the good things blogging has bought him, even though his blog comprises careful and referenced articles, rather than quick posts -- in fact, a year of blogging has produced almost a book's worth of essays. He writes: "Through my blog I have developed correspondences and virtual friendships with writers from all over the world, people I would otherwise never have encountered. I have also had some brushes with rabidly insane people, but these have been fairly brief." There are other nice passages in the essay, I recommend reading it.

Sunday Salon: Euro Crime reviews

A few of my book reviews have been posted on Euro Crime, both last Sunday (too late for me to include in last week's Salon) and today.

First review last week is of Sun Storm [aka The Savage Altar] by Asa Larsson. (My copy, via Amazon, was called Sun Storm, presumably the US edition. I think this is a much nicer title than the one chosen for UK publication.) I think this book is hauntingly wonderful as well as very well-plotted, with an unflinching view of a range of issues. From my review: "This book is incredibly assured; it is hard to believe it is a first novel. The shifts between past and present, rural and city values, old times (symbolised by the most attractive character in the book, the old neighbour Sivving Fjallborg, as well as Rebecka's dead grandmother) and modern relationships, are all told in a spare, compelling and deft style. Everything is made to count, never does the book slip into sentimentality". Euro Crime also points to a letter by Asa Larsson to her readers. I think this book is as good as, and certainly much shorter than, the recently published and much-praised The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (no relation).

The second of my last week's reviews is another Swedish novel, The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It is third in the Martin Beck series, published about 40 years ago, but still fresh, relevant and powerful (and short!). From my review: "The book is a masterpiece: the society formed by the people of the town and the police force is almost a single character - insignificant events are interconnected so that when pieced together into a dovetailed whole, everything makes perfect sense in retrospect."

This week, Euro Crime features a Fred Vargas special, to celebrate the publication of this French author's latest, This Night's Foul Work (there is also a helpful running order, as this author's books have been translated in a seemingly random fashion). Vargas is the only holder so far of the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger -- she's won both years since the award's inception. Please visit the Euro Crime post for links to reviews of this book plus several others by this uniquely quirky and campaigning academic. My contribution to the Vargasfest are reviews of Seeking Whom He May Devour and Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand, but there are a total of eight Vargas reviews linked at the Euro Crime post, plus a pointer to the fascinating interview with the translator, Sian Reynolds, by Peter at Detectives Beyond Borders. Vargas's novels defy characterisation or encapsulation, so do check out the reviews on Euro Crime, for accounts of some very unusual flights of the imagination.

The nature of peer-review

I don't know if any readers of Petrona have the least interest in the peer-review system, but if so, you might like to take a look at an article called Working double-blind, which was one of the editorials in Nature this week (7 Feb issue), reproduced on our Peer to Peer blog.  At time of writing, there are 40 comments to this article after a couple of days (actually 43, but 3 of them are mine). Many of the people commenting, who are scientists, feel that the 'single blind' peer-review system, in which the reviewer knows who wrote the paper but in which the author does not know the identity of the reviewer (unless the reviewer chooses to reveal it), is biased. They would prefer, variously, a 'double-blind' system, in which the reviewer does not know the authors' names, or an open system, in which everyone knows everyone's names - there are variants.

Well, this may all seem pretty arcane, but careers depend on getting one's paper published in a "high-impact" journal, so to a scientist it is a very important question.

Early February blog reading

Mary Beard of A Don's Life (at the TLS) writes amusingly about how the National Geographic has confused her with an encyclopaedia. Oh, I know the syndrome all too well; being on the receiving end of an email sent blind to me and 10, 100 or 1,000 other "experts", with a one-line question that would require about half a day of work. Usually it is from a "student" or other scholar who has an assignment to write about a particular topic, and rather likes the idea of getting you to do their work for them.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Susan Hill writes cogently and correctly about a ludicrous situation by which people in young offenders' institutions are not allowed books, whether sent to them or via the prison library. Sheer madness, for all the reasons Susan writes. If you agree, please join her Facebook group (via the link at the start of this paragraph).

The deviously convoluted mind of Uriah Robinson, inspired, apparently, by the "Round Britain" radio quiz, has come up with a set of questions so fiendish (and he's been called worse than that, he says) that one can only read the answers in utter amazement -- an amazement that is increased when one reads that somebody in the world was able to score 80 per cent. We are assured that an easier version is in the works for the Spring. These retired dentists!

In all the immense verbiage about the US elections, you may have missed two pertinent posts: Improbable Research reports an exclusive on the cost per page of books by US presidential candidates; and the difficulty of labelling Barak Obama, Dilbert-style.

A spectrum of jokes

I think I used the word "puerile" to describe many blogs in my previous post, so here goes.

Here are the Grauniad's "corrections and clarifications" from yesterday's edition. Pay special attention to the last one on the list.

For more upmarket humour, popular science writer Brian Clegg writes on his blog Popsci that many jokes will "separate the scientists from the other people in the room". He tells a good one (go to the link in previous sentence) -- well, it made me laugh, so I must be a scientist I suppose. He then asks his readers to suggest more, and there are some very funny examples in the comments.

Graham Steel's offering (in the comment thread): "A neutron walks into a bar. “I’d like a beer,” he says. The bartender promptly serves us a beer. “How much will that be? asks the neutron. “For you?” replies the bartender. “No charge.” "

My favourite, though, is not a joke but a lovely posting via Cath Ennis on the analogy between the Lord of the Rings and doing a PhD. Lovely. Very much worth reading.

When a pebble is a jewel

Both the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books have recently featured highly related articles about blogging (thanks to Dave Lull for the link to the latter). The London Review of Books article, by Thomas Jones, is a review of a book edited by Sarah Boxer, a former New York Times reporter, called Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web (Vintage, $14.95) "on the face of it, an early contender for most pointless book of the year." Jones describes Boxer's assertion that to make a readable book, the entries in the collection had to be as "unbloglike" as possible --  "The best of the lot, though, is the diary of Samuel Pepys, which a web designer called Phil Gyford has been posting in daily instalments since 2003, using the text already online at Project Gutenberg." Jones also reviews Andrew Keen's much-derided Cult of the Amateur, making the point that although Keen is right to say that much of what is written on blogs is rubbish, he shouldn't worry that the internet heralds the end of the world as we in the West know it, as the commercial imperative will fill the gap, whatever that is.

Most of what is written on blogs may indeed be rubbish, without the tempering provided by independent editing, but just like any other endeavour in life, there are plenty of jewels if you know how to look.

The New York Review of Books article is highly related in the sense that it is by the aforementioned Sarah Boxer, and is a review of a half-dozen books about blogs, the "social web" and the media. By reading the article, I learnt a few things, for example "In Japan neglected or abandoned blogs are called ishikoro, pebbles." However, most of the (long) article is a history of so much that I've read before, in books about blogging and on the Internet itself, with examples that I've read so many times (Jessica Cutler, etc) that I imagine it is written for readers who don't know the first thing about the topic. For those who blog and are comfortable with the medium, the article doesn't say much. Yes, again, plenty of blogs (most, probably) are puerile, incoherent and read mainly by one person (the blogger), but enough of them are not. Those of us who are living the long tail have formed "niche" online communities and are very happy communicating with each other about our chosen topics of interest, whether we are in Australia, Alaska, Argentina or Aberystwyth.

Anyone interested in reading a blogging anthology could do a lot worse than to try Open Laboratory 2007, a selection of science blog posts for the year. Most of the "debate" about the value of blogs seems to revolve around pitching the medium against newspapers, as if the two activities are in competition (which they are not, they fulfil quite different functions). If instead, you take a particular topic, whether science-related (as in the Open Laboratory) or book-related or similar, I think a rather different picture emerges concerning the richness and depth of the "conversation" that can be had.

Every cloud....

...has a silver lining.

Frank Wilson will continue blogging. Or, as he puts it: "... this little world, this precious plot ... this blog will be joining me in retirement."

Quote from Patrick Kurp: "What Johnson said to Boswell might well be said of Frank Wilson, book review editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who retires from that position on Friday. Newspapers are bruising places, military in their capacity for conflict if not in discipline and esprit, and Frank has “fought a good many campaigns.” Through his blog, Books, Inq. he pioneered the conversation between traditional media and their unruly electronic offspring. He is an online raconteur, a fine poet and a gentleman."

More updates: Here is Sarah Weinman on the news (read the comments) and, over at Crime Fiction Dossier, David Montgomery's reaction.

The cat's out of the bag

Frank Wilson has announced on Books, Inq. that he is leaving the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Yes, it's true. Friday will be my last day as book editor of The Inquirer. I will have more to say about this eventually, but for now I'm busy enough just trying to get the hell out. I feel immensely flattered to be called a sarcasm machine - and to be mentioned on Philebrity! I should have quit sooner."

I was also pointed, by Dave Lull, to an article at Literary Saloon lamenting Frank's departure. I think I could not express it any better than what is written at that post: "No one has done as much to bridge any divides between newspaper and online literary coverage, through his own weblog, his generous invitations to so many of us bloggers to review for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and, most of all, his always supportive and open-minded attitude, and we can only hope that he continues his fine work wherever his next stop may be."

Frank has not only very generously commissioned me to write book reviews for his paper, but he has also become a dear friend. I know that he will have made exciting plans for a productive future, and can only hope that they include blogging.

My very best wishes to Frank, whom I enormously respect. And my thanks to him for all his friendship and support over the past couple of years.

Update: also from Dave Lull, here is a nice post on Anecdotal Evidence about Frank.

New books from Pan Macmillan

Some news from Pan Macmillan's e-newsletter, about some books I haven't read:

Chelsea Cain's Heartsick - "the most exciting and terrifying thriller debut of 2007" - is now available in paperback. "View our exclusive trailer", states the email. No thanks. I remember seeing this trailer on Richard Charkin's (now defunct) blog when the hardback was about to be published, but I did not press "play" based on the book's description. 

Clare Francis, bestselling author of Homeland, is back this month, with Unforgotten - "another masterful and suspense-filled crime novel". An interview with the author is here.

Richard North Patterson, "master of the 'thinking man's thriller' is back with The Race, a topical political drama set during a US presidential primary."

And finally, to celebrate publication of G. M. Ford's new thriller The Deader the Better, "we're giving you 20% off all of G. M. Ford's previous titles in both the Frank Corso and Leo Waterman series. Click here to find out more".

Sunday salon: book buying

Sunday is the most dangerous day of the week from the point of view of impulsive book purchases. Today is no exception.

I read an article in yesterday's Business section of the Times (which, unusually, I was reading for details of the Microsoft bid for Yahoo) about The Works, a bargain bookshop chain, going into receivership. [As an aside, I find newspapers far better than the tech blogs for the Microsoft-Yahoo type of story because the tech bloggers always focus on crowing about having guessed it was going to happen ages ago, linking back to previous posts predicting it, etc, whereas with the newspapers you get "an account" without the journalist's name appearing anywhere other than in the byline. Also, when newspaper business sections write about tech you can understand it, whereas when tech bloggers do, you can't as they are all too clever and "geeky".] Returning to the story about The Works, my interest was caught by the picture, of a table of bargain books, among them some of Sue Grafton's early "alphabet" series. So today I checked out the Book People, who are very good on "sets", and find that yes, indeed, one can buy the first 10 letters (A to J) for £9.99. If you like these, I warn you that the author is now up to T. The backlist is likely to have a resurgence of popularity in the light of Sue Grafton's recent, deserved winning of the 2008 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.

Browsing Amazon, the main source of temptation for the book addict, I checked out their "books of the week"  -- three or four half-price promotions, one week only. Recently, too many celebrity "books" have been featuring, but this week is a good one. You can get the beautifully produced hardback of Stieg Larsson's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for £6.75 (see here for my review at Euro Crime) and John Grisham's latest, The Appeal, for £8.55. Offer ends at midnight UK time tonight (3 February).

Sunday Salon: tolerant Canadians

Reading was slower this week than last. I finished Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid. Although the book was, predictably, a very exciting page-turner, the rationale of each of the criminals in the two intersecting crime plots turned out to be, well, ludicrous. Nevertheless, I'll probably read her next.

I read a passage that I thought Susan Barr might like (apart from the grammar, which like me she probably won't):

" 'He was planning to escape to a cottage in Canada?', Kevin expressed the incredulity Carol thought they were probably all feeling. 'Canada?'

'He was thinking about it, at least,' Stacey said.

'You wouldn't think Canada would be the destination of choice of an Islamic fundamentalist fugitive, would you?' Chris said.

'They're very tolerant, the Canadians,' Paula said."

(Note to Susan: Carol does go on to add 'not that tolerant'.)

I'm now well into The Pool of Unease by Catherine Sampson: verdict so far is excellent.

Uncle Vanya at the Rose Theatre

The picture (credit: Guardian) shows Michelle Dockery as Yelena and Neil Pearson as Dr Astrov in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, the inaugural production at Kingston's Rose Theatre, where I have just spent Saturday afternoon.

The production is absolutely wonderful - every actor is fantastic, the translation naturalistic, and the play even more powerful than I remember. I was moved to tears by Sonia's closing speech, which, according to the programme notes, Rachmaninov found so poignant that he set these poetic last words straight to music.

There are glowing reviews of the production, which will tour the country for 8 weeks after the Kingston run, here at the Guardian, here at the Telegraph, and here at the Times.

In all honesty I could not single out any of the actors in the ensemble cast for special praise, but I was thrilled to see Neil Pearson, one of my very favourite actors, on stage, playing the prescient environmentalist Astrov, energetically warning against man's destruction of the climate and ecosystems. As he is sporting a beard for the duration, I am sure regular readers will understand my choice of picture.

No bed for Lolita

As I experience a frisson of rage each time I am in the school stationery area of WHS or other similar store and observe the prominently displayed "Playboy" range, I empathised with a story in the Times this morning describing how Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture aimed at 6-year-old girls because it has the brand name "Lolita". (As in a bed called "the Lolita Midsleeper Combi".) Mothers at the raisingkids.com website protested and the furniture has been withdrawn. As well as empathising, I laughed out loud to read this:

" Whereas many mothers were familiar with Vladimir Nabokov and his famous novel, it seems that the Woolworths staff were not. At first they were baffled by the fuss. A spokesman for the company told The Times: “What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now.” "

According to the article, Tesco was made to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website in 2006. Maybe there is yet hope that the ghastly Playboy range of school stationery, which has been selling for several years, will suffer the same fate.

Alan Bennett on "History" and more

Via National Theatre email, I read a characteristic article (in the Daily Telegraph) by Alan Bennett. The article is a version of a speech he gave, so it is a series of observations rather than a seamlessly connected argument. It is therefore hard to summarise it in a pithy sentence or two, but it contains plenty of wryly amusing Bennetisms on the topic of why he doesn't accept invitations to school speech days, teaching styles (as epitomised in The History Boys), the writing process (characters are the most important thing), achievement, potential and a comparison of state and public education systems. This being Bennett, there are also some good anecdotes, particularly at the end. Here's a quote from the piece:

"It's nice to think there is some pattern in what one writes but I'm not always sure there is. You write one thing and then you write another with no more purpose than a hen scratching about in a yard. Still I can see there is a tenuous connection between History Boys and The Uncommon Reader if only because Hector believes books are companions, which is what a woman rather late in life discovers for herself and which liberates her in a transformation of which Hector would surely have approved."

The talk on which this article is based, given at the Wyndham's Theatre where The History Boys is still running, is available here; and you can watch a video of the cast at the National Theatre website.