From Mystery Memories to Structural Secrets
Plus, library love!
Hello fellow readers!
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m trying to chip away at the massive TBR pile I’ve acquired over the years. My goal is to create a personal library full of books I can randomly pull off the shelf and fall into at any point at any time. For instance, T Kingfisher’s novels The Twisted Ones or The Willows. Or Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Or Simone St. James’s The Broken Girls. Or Jimmy Juliano’s Dead Eleven. Books that will instantly transport me to another world and immerse me in the story in a heartbeat.
This stipulation, that I be able to fall into the book for it to live on my shelf, means that many other wonderful books (and a few not so great) have not made the cut. The story ends up being more of a one-and-done situation that I won’t want to relive again. I now have a stack of these in my closet waiting to be donated or taken to the used bookstore.
Which brings me to my question for you. What keeps a book on your shelf? A good story? A beautiful cover? An author that you love who’s novels have a reserved spot?
And, on the flip side, what do you do with the books you choose not to keep? Gift them to friends? Donate them to your local library for a book sale? Guilt yourself into keeping them anyway? Let me know in the comments!
And now, your regularly scheduled links…
So Much Nostalgia
On Thriller Thursday, Carter Wilson explores how our rose tinted memories of the good ol’ days may be darker than we think, and why that’s a good thing for thriller writers.
And, while the subject is more about teen mystery than nostalgia, Reda Rountree of Only Murders In The Building dedicates a paragraph of her article High School Can Be Murder to Christopher Pike and I love her for that. Also, the other suggestions are awesome as well. Also also, they’re rebooting I Know What You Did Last Summer for a new generation. How do we feel about this? I was less than impressed with the Scream franchise reboot.
Speaking of Mr. Pike and teen fiction, Alissa Burger’s section at Reactor is loaded up with tons of articles on teen horror and mystery that will be sure to spark nostalgia in a lot of hearts.
Mystery In General
EA Mayes examines the uptick in mystery novels with multiple POVs instead of one POV of truth.
Kirsten Weiss solves the Mystery of the Missing Glasses (complete with a reenactment video).
Julie K at Mystery Minutes explores the power of location and setting in mysteries.
At CrimeReads, Olive Rutigliano takes a deep dive into critical reception in 1985 of the movie Clue.
Also at CrimeReads, Sarah Weinman presents a fascinating article about Howard Haycraft, Mystery’s First Great Historian.
Cozy and Surprising Spaces
Ever wondered what 221b Baker Street would’ve looked like in real life? Visit The Sherlock Holmes Pub in London and wonder no more! Via Atlas Obscura, Luke Spenser reveals that upstairs, above the bar, is a life-size copy of the apartment Holmes shared with Watson.
Sarah Laskow, also via Atlas Obscura, has a great piece with photos about the New York Public Library’s Last, Secret Apartments.
At Mental Floss, Luke Spencer (who may or may not be the same Luke Spencer mentioned above) lists 9 Notable Buildings with Secret Floors.
Wrapping up this architectural themed section, the 2008 New York Times article “Mystery On Fifth Avenue” by Penelope Green details what it’s like to live in an apartment that’s also a puzzle.
Library Love
Lela Nargi on Mental Floss shares 19 Secrets of Public Librarians.
Again via Mental Floss, Jake Rossen presents 25 Amazing Facts About Libraries.
Interested in Nancy Drew and Mildred Wirt Benson (Drew’s first ghostwriter)? If you’re in Toledo, OH there’s a collection of cool Drew items to peruse that were donated by Jennifer Fisher, a Nancy Drew expert, from her personal collection.
On PBS’s site, Anthony Ha points out 10 Different Ways Libraries Make Our Lives Easier.
That’s all for this edition. I hope Spring’s treating you well, wherever you are. Here, everything’s green and lush. I love it!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the shout-out, Kate!