Sunday Salon, 7 June 2009

Good morning fellow Sunday Saloners.
Blog visitors: if you are not familar with Sunday Salon, investigate here.

It is the Queen's Birthday weekend here in South Australia, in fact most of Australia.
Well, it is not Queen Elizabeth's birthday - she had her 83rd birthday on April 21
According to Wikipedia it is the Anniversary of her Coronation on June 2nd 1952, celebrated on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Monday of June. A sort of moveable feast. Even in Australia we don't all celebrate it on the same weekend.

I always thought it was Queen Victoria's birthday (that's her above), but have found out this morning that hers was on 24 May, so that doesn't work either.
It appears that it may have its origins in Australia in King George's birthday, good old mad "Farmer George", who lost the American colonies by his obstinacy. Governor Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, showed his loyalty by declaring a holiday on June 4, 1788.

Anyway, whoever's birthday we are celebrating, it is nice to have Monday off.

Breaking News

• CWA International Dagger Shortlist Announced
• New Agatha Christie stories discovered
• Wedding Cake stories in Flash Fiction Challenge
• Linwood Barclay wins Arthur Ellis Award
• Australian Book Industry Awards Shortlists
• Vote for Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

What I am reading

• now - RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, Mike Befeler
• then - RITUAL, Mo Hayder
• after that - THE MYSTERIOUS MR QUIN, Agatha Christie
• in the car - NAME TO A FACE, Robert Goddard

I amy have to alter this list, as I think I need to read the remaining 3 nominations for the CWA international award.

This week's posts

• CWA International Dagger Shortlist Announced
• Review: SILENT IN THE GRAVE, Deanna Raybourn
• Books sitting on my TBR
• Forgotten Books: KILLING FOR PLEASURE, Debi Marsha...
• Review: 3 Acts of Murder
• The Dangers of Genre Mixing

This week's poll wasn't a great success. I asked

As you can see, it didn't attract many responses.
It appears that a couple of us may meet up at Melbourne Writer's Festival though.

I hope the poll that I am running in relation to the CWA International Dagger Awards shortlist will be more attractive.

I'm asking how many of the shortlist you have currently read. It would be wonderful if you could comment on your poll choice.

I will run a poll closer to the date to see which book the readers of this blog think will win. As I've said in my post, it will be a tough call. All the contenders look really strong.

Reminders

• if you are in Australia: Upfield's 3 Acts of Murder premiers 14 June
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival - next submissions need to be in by June 22
• next Book Review Blog Carnival is due to go up today at The Symposium, but you can make submissions for the next one anytime. It is a good way of getting your book reviews available to a wider audience.