Pearls from the sea of blogs

Amy at Books, Words, and Writing lists "the authors who dominate my shelves" See her post for the rules of inclusion.

Tricking the publisher's computer into thinking you are a debut author? The depths to which people are forced to stoop! Read all about it on Galleycat.

Nice post by Joe Wickert on "the potentially longer tail opportunity for independent bookstores". As he says: "Two valuable aspects of the local independent still really jump out at you: A sense of community and an incredible depth of selection. The latter is limited to certain topic areas and local interest segments, of course, but it’s still an attribute that’s not as impressive in the chains."

Omit needless commas, says Mark Liberman of Language Log. He forgot to add a (not) to his post title. "In a recent Wired interview, Bart Kosko explains why he's given up commas:

Q: I noticed there aren’t any commas in your book. Is this your way of cutting back on punctuation noise?
A: Commas are a kind of channel noise. You’re not getting to the verb fast enough. Why make us wait? The comma is on its way out. Use small words. The perfect illustration is a swear phrase: Go to hell! Screw you!

Hell, why not leave out the spaces, too, andgettothoseverbsevenfaster?"  Read on at Language Log.

Scream! More tempting reviews from Paperback Mysteries. It's not fair! The force that through the green fuse (I am Welsh enough to know where that quote comes from) highlights Forcing Amaryllis, a debut novel by Louise Ure. Someone else must have recommended this book as I am pretty sure it is in my massive Amazon "waiting for paperback" basket. And two other new (to me) writers of legal thrillers, Reed Arvin and David Ellis. Please help me!

Susan Hill's blog now features rss, so I highly recommend signing up to it. She features a book bloggers' book prize, what a great idea, so please head on over and make your nominations. (Susan has written before, and movingly, about her experiences of motherhood. Her most recent post on the topic is one with which I, for one, can identify.)

I was going to be quite clever and "rounded", ending as I had begun with another nice list. But I've lost the list I was going to link to. So that will have to do.

Comments

[Karen M from Euro Crime]

Forcing Amaryllis is a very good debut novel. The ending relies a bit on luck (for the character) but it's all quite fascinating on the way and brilliant sense of place.

[dave roberts]

This is probably a bit late, but as someone who reads impausible legal thrillers obsessively, I can recommend Reed Arvin's first book (The Will?), but the second was rubbish. Best recent discovery? William Lashner. Falls The Shadow is truly excellent.

[Maxine]

Thanks, Dave. Reed Arvin's books were recently recommended by/on Dick Adler also, so I should read one. Thanks for dropping by.