Poisoned Pen

You're awesome!

Prime Day, Schmime Day. Hey, listen, indie bookstores are out there being awesome every day. And they tend to ship directly to you, even if you're not local to the store. They're where the books live! And booksellers are book wizards! Bonafide bibliomancers fast with the recommendations.

Also delighted but not stunned. Congrats!

Megan Abbott, Bonnie Garmus and More Writers on the Books They Love Some of their favorites didn’t make our “Best Books of the 21st Century” list — but these authors make a case for them anyway.

Stephen King, Megan Abbott and other authors' favorites didn’t make our "Best Books of the 21st Century" list — but these writers make a case for them anyway.

For @deannaraybourn.bsky.social.
From the other place: x.com/drhingram/st...

"Romance Roundup: July 2024." www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/rom...

YES

Congratulations!

Inside Author Meg Gardiner's Latest Thriller About Dueling Serial Killers: 'Dark and Twisted Minds' The #1 New York Times bestselling author of 'Heat 2' is debuting her next page-turner, Shadowheart, on June 18.

I talked to People magazine about SHADOWHEART, out tomorrow! Plus writing, and more. Inside Author Meg Gardiner's Latest Thriller About Dueling Serial Killers: 'Dark and Twisted Minds'

Double Dab Dance GIF ALT: Double Dab Dance GIF

Pour one out for all the fathers opening up their ties, Old Spice gift sets, barbecue gloves, and cards with fart jokes.

🎧 Good talk.

Important June Dates

3 Egg Day
4 Hug Your Cat Day
4 Cheese Day
7 Donut Day
8 Gin Day
10 Ballpoint Pen Day
13 Pigeon Day
18 Picnic Day
18 Panic Day
19 Sauntering Day
21 Longest Day (WTAF)
22 Onion Ring Day
23 Pink Day
30 Meteor Day

2 Legendary Detectives Take Their Final Cases Jacqueline Winspear is retiring Maisie Dobbs, and Susan Elia MacNeal bids farewell to Maggie Hope.

My latest Crime & Mystery column says goodbye to two excellent sleuths, Maisie Dobbs (by Jacqueline Winspear) and Maggie Hope (by Susan Elia MacNeal), reviews new books by John Copenhaver and William Deverell, and a classic mystery by Akimitsu Takagi.

Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch? For first-time writers, it’s harder than ever to break out. That poses an existential crisis for publishing—and disturbing limits on your access to exciting new voices.

No question it is harder and harder out there for a debut novelist. And for the novelist who has to reinvent themselves with every book.

Bakers, this Anything Cake Chart is genius & so useful. By Nicola Lamb

Scanned from last weekend’s FT Magazine.

Bound for Betrayal: The Crime Films of Elaine May When considering the career of Elaine May, who turned ninety-two on April 21, 2024 and remains one of the brightest lights of twentieth-century popular culture, several superlatives come to mind. P…

I'm at CrimeReads today with a story on Elaine May, because almost every one of her films is a crime story. crimereads.com/bound-for-be...

Patti Smith’s 40 Favorite Books Despite her fame as a rock

Patti Smith’s 40 Favorite Books

www.openculture.com/2015/04/patt...

The Best Crime Novels of the Year (So Far) Looking for some murder and mayhem (fictional, of course)? Here are the best crime novels of 2024 so far.

Picked some of of my favorite crime novels of the year so far:

Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92 Her stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes.

Farewell to a titan.

Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92 Her stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes.

Alice Munro, the revered Canadian author whose short stories dazzled the literary world and earned her the Nobel Prize in Literature, died at 92.

Book Bans Are Surging in Florida. So Lauren Groff Opened a Bookstore. It’s called The Lynx, after the wildcat native to the state. “We wanted something a little fierce,” she said.

As book bans surged across Florida, the best-selling novelist Lauren Groff and her husband decided that their town needed an independent bookstore where titles that had been purged from libraries and classrooms would be on prominent display.

It does indeed.

Shirley Conran, campaigner and ‘queen of the bonkbuster’, dies aged 91 Bestselling author of Lace and Superwoman turned her attention to helping people overcome anxiety about maths

A legend has passed.

Yay!

RIP Paul Auster, one of the great figures of modern American letters. We ran a conversation between him and Eddie Muller in NOIR CITY magazine in 2021.

Important May Dates.

4 Bird Day
6 No Diet Day
9 Lost Sock Memorial Day
12 Fatigue Day
13 Hummus Day
14 Dance like a Chicken Day
18 Museum Day
22 Goth Day
25 Wine Day
28 Burger Day
29 Paperclip Day
29 Otter Day

Werner Spitz, Forensic Expert in High-Profile Murders, Dies at 97 He figured in the examination of sensational cases involving President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., O.J. Simpson and others.

RIP Werner Spitz, one of the giants (for good and for ill) in forensic science.

Congratulations!