Carnivals, Memes, and Lists

Crime fiction readers are always hungry for recommendations and reviews.

So, if you've found your way to my blog, I guess you might be interested in finding some of these places that are specific to crime fiction.

If you are a blogger who reviews Crime fiction, then here are some places you can contribute to.

Carnivals

Ariel Heart contacted me this week about a new Carnival she has initiated:
The inaugural post of the Mystery & Crime Fiction Blog Carnival is now available.

I've been contributing for sometime to the Book Review Blog Carnival.
While this is a much more general Carnival, its organiser, Clark Bjorke, has always been good enough to accept my offerings.
This is a carnival that is hosted fortnightly on rostered blogs. I hosted it back in April and am due to host it again in February 2009.
The current issue is at Necromancy Never Pays

Currently there is a carnival running under the name of the Blog Advent Virtual Tour.
My participation was back on December 1, but the advent tour will continue until Chistmas. Again it isn't just for crime fiction addicts, but do check out the calendar.

Another Carnival that may be of interest is the monthly Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival. This is one that I run and it is hosted here.

Memes

I am currently running two memes that may be of interest.

The Crime Fiction Alphabet Community meme is a weekly one, where each week contributors have to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
The post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname. They then come back to the site and leave a link to their post. Currently we are "working on" the letter J.

The other meme is a seasonal one: Suggest a Christmas Title. This is not restricted to crime fiction contributors but so far many of the suggested titles are crime fiction.


Rooms and Lists

If you are looking for communities of crime fiction readers that you can join, then the following may be of interest.

• Crime and Mystery Fiction on Friend Feed - a gathering of readers and bloggers from all over the world.
  
• oz_mystery_readers - this is an email list that I created nearly 7 years ago now. A small group, with participants from all over the world, but with an eye on Australian crime fiction (although not exclusively)
  Below are lists that I belong to.
  
• 4MA - reading group
• Murder &Mayhem - group
• Mystery Readers Cafe - group

Crime Fiction Blogs

If you are looking for other crime fiction blogs to follow than check Crime Fiction Journeys - all the blogs I'm watching

Euro Crime: Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2008

Euro Crime: Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2008

Karen asked a bunch of crime fiction addicts to list their top 5 reads for 2008.
The 15 of us are mainly people who have reviewed books in the last year for Euro Crime.
Only 5! It was very hard to choose.

It is interesting to compare this list with others I have been part of or seen.
I've marked those I've read. ***
You could do a lot worse than use this as a "reading syllabus".
All the ones I have marked *** are more than worth your attention, and I trust my fellow reviewers to recommend the others too.

4 votes:
Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ***

3 votes:
Stuart MacBride - Flesh House
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Last Rituals
Johan Theorin - Echoes from the Dead

2 votes:
Kate Atkinson - When will there be good news?***
Reginald Hill - A Cure for All Diseases ***
Arnaldur Indridason - Arctic Chill ***
Philip Kerr - A Quiet Flame
Jo Nesbo - Nemesis***
Michael Robotham - Shatter***
Helene Tursten - The Torso***
Fred Vargas - This Night's Foul Work***

Your Best Crime Fiction reads in 2008

Lots of people are publishing their "best reads" for 2008.
Mine are easy to find.

I thought perhaps we could try something different here, by having readers of this blog give me their top 10 crime fiction reads for 2008 via a comment, and then in about a week's time I will collate the lists with mine and give a definitive list.

O.K. So the rules are

1. it is about crime fiction you've read in 2008. Year of publication doesn't matter.
   
2. about 10 titles in the format of title, author (no need for description etc).
3. any order will do. If you think one was so much better than the others, you might like to put it in your list twice.
   
4. You have until Jan 4 to do it.
5. You can help on your own blog by writing about what I am doing and pointing people to this post, so they can come here and contribute their list.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the final list looks like.

The first results:
What we said - tops in 2008

Book Lists for Christmas buying

If you are not a crime fiction reader, or don't buy new books, or haunt book shops, then what to buy friends and family for Christmas may be a bit of a daunting task.

Fear not! As the date approaches, 24+ days to go, then suggestions will abound.

This week I 've come across
The Times Christmas Books: Crime
Lovely choice here, including a new-to-me Scandinavian author.
Check out also
Top 10 hardbacks - fiction
Top 10 paperbacks - fiction
although these are not exclusively crime fiction

100 Notable Books of 2008 - from the New York Times. Oddly, there's few crime fiction on this list.

Here are the Angus and Robertson Crime Fiction Best sellers, Dymocks have 25% off 25 best sellers (but they are not all crime fiction), and browse the Borders catalogue online.

And here are my top 30 reads from 2008 (so far)
Go to your book shop armed with this and you are sure to come away with a lighter purse.
5.0, SHATTER, Michael Robotham
5.0, NEMESIS, Jo Nesbo
5.0, FAN MAIL, PD Martin
5.0, DIRTY WEEKEND, Gabrielle Lord
5.0, A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, R.J. Ellory
5.0, A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill
5.0, BENEATH THE BLEEDING, Val McDermid
4.9, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR, Fred Vargas
4.8, VOODOO DOLL, Leah Giarratano
4.8, WHERE WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?, Kate Atkinson
4.8, THE LORDS' DAY, Michael Dobbs
4.8, WATER LIKE A STONE, Deborah Crombie
4.8, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Stieg Larsson
4.8, NOT DEAD ENOUGH, Peter James
4.8, CARELESS IN RED, Elizabeth George
4.8, OVERKILL, Vanda Symon
4.7, WHAT THE DEAD KNOW, Laura Lippman
4.7, DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS, Peter James
4.7, WORLD WITHOUT END, Ken Follett
4.7, WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND, Fred Vargas
4.7, COLD IN HAND, John Harvey
4.7, SUCKED IN, Shane Maloney
4.7, THE RISK OF DARKNESS, Susan Hill
4.7, THE PURE IN HEART, Susan Hill
4.7, THE VOWS OF SILENCE, Susan Hill
4.7, THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS, Donna Leon
4.7, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, Linwood Barclay
4.7, DEATH DELIGHTS, Gabrielle Lord
4.7, A NAIL IN THE HEART, Timothy Hallinan
4.7, A KILLING FROST, R.D. Wingfield
4.7, THE UNQUIET NIGHT, Patricia Carlon

Crime Fiction books listed on PW's Best Books of the Year

Publishers Weekly says "we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's."

Here are some that they list that may interest crime fiction and murder mystery readers - to put on your wish list for the family to buy of course. I found that I had read only one, so there's plenty for me to look out for.

I find the categorisation just a little odd, particularly why some listed under fiction were listed there, and not under Mystery. Answering my own question- probably because "mystery" is narrower than "crime fiction".

Fiction
When Will There Be Good News? Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown)
Hold Tight Harlan Coben (Dutton)
The Brass Verdict Michael Connelly
Master of the Delta Thomas H. Cook (Harcourt)
The Likeness Tana French (Viking)
Ritual Mo Hayder (Atlantic Monthly)
The Given Day Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
Flesh House Stuart MacBride (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Mystery
Wild Inferno Sandi Ault (Berkley Prime Crime)
Lie Down with the Devil Linda Barnes (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Ghost at Work Carolyn Hart (Morrow)
The Private Patient P.D. James (Knopf)
The Messengers of Death: A Mystery in Provence Pierre Magnan, trans. from the French by Patricia Clancy (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Death's Half Acre Margaret Maron (Grand Central)
Salt River James Sallis (Walker)
Fear of Landing David Waltner-Toews (Poisoned Pen)
The Calling Inger Ash Wolfe

Mass Market
No One Heard Her Scream Jordan Dane (Avon)
Deadly Deceptions Linda Lael Miller (HQN)

Comics
Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child Rick Geary (ComicsLit)

Many thanks to Marg at Reading Adventures to pointing me to the list.

Who makes up these lists anyway?

Over at Feast on Books Peter is flagellating himself because of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die he has read only 60.

Always one to dive in, I scrolled down the list and counted 140. Of course the concentration lapsed here and there, and it could have been 80 or 160. I must admit many of them were compulsory reading in English literature courses done 40+ years ago.

Not a lot of crime fiction there, just a few titles, but a lot of "classics" from the 18th & 19th centuries.

So I'm laying down the gauntlet! Go on test yourself and come back here and confess.

Perhaps you can suggest more sensible lists for me to look at - 1001 murder mysteries or the like. Something where we can tick boxes would be good.

This is more my sort of Quiz: Bloomsbury Crime Fiction Quiz
although I only got 5!!

What about the Penguin 2008 Crime Quiz?
Drat! I'm usually good at these- got only 4 that time :-(

Last one: Mystery, Suspense, and Detective Fiction Quiz - you have to "mark" this one yourself
Ah.. that's better 24/28 - I think I'll stop while I'm ahead. Have fun and let me know how you went.