Wednesday 2 March 2011

Alternative World Book Night

First of all, over at Confessions of A Mystery Novelist, Margot Kinberg is holding a book raffle in aid of the Christchurch earthquake relief.

Next, a reminder of Alternative World Book Night on Saturday. Just in case you can't be bothered to click, it's all about a book that you love and that you wish was better known. The idea is simple. If you're a blogger, post on Saturday (or Sunday, or Monday...) about a book you love to recommend to people and which you wish everyone knew about because it's so good. Tell us what it's about, and why you love it. Then give a copy of it away on your blog, in any way that you like. Let me know when you've posted and I'll link to them all here. If you're not a blogger, then I'm happy to host your book rave here at Badsville. Send it to me any time - just a paragraph about the book, and also let me know how you want to give it away. I'll then post yours when I post mine on Saturday (or Sunday, or Monday if you like - I'm not good with rules :o)). It's all about loving crime fiction and wanting to share our favourites.

And now, the crime fiction news.

The intrepid Douglas Lindsay changes a light bulb.

Win a copy of M C Beaton's DEATH OF A CHIMNEY SWEEP over at Mystery Scene Magazine.

The Badly-Behaved Guest - a short story by Alexander McCall Smith.

Several reviews of Scottish authors over at the wonderful Crimesquad HQ - Alex Gray's SLEEP LIKE THE DEAD, Doug Johnstone's SMOKEHEADS (which is next on my TBR list too), and Chris Ewan's THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO LAS VEGAS. Mysterious Reviews on Louise Welsh's NAMING THE BONES. And a review of Craig Robertson's RANDOM.

An excellent post from Nigel Bird over at Sea Minor, including a lovely wee charity book from a class of six-year olds.

Ian Rankin on writing comic books.

David Ashton's McLEVY on the radio.

Val McDermid will be appearing at the Brisbane Writers Festival. I feel that there should be an apostrophe in there...

Blogger Alyssa looks at how Kate Atkinson writes characters. And the FT reviews STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG.

And now, I'm off for a lie down to try and recover from a yoga class in which we did the Cobra, the Cat, the Downward Dog, the Cow Face, the Warrior and the Eagle. Although, if you happened to be looking at me through the door you would think we did the Baby Hippo, the Baby Hippo, the Baby Hippo, the Baby Hippo With A Face Like A Cow, the Baby Hippo and the How The Hell Did The Baby Hippo Tie Herself In That Knot?

Tata for now, dear Reader.

6 comments:

  1. Donna - Thank you so much for helping spread the word about Do The Write Thing; I really appreciate it, and your own contribution. Thanks, too, for telling us about Alternate World Book Night. I'll have to think of what I might contribute :-).

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  2. Donna-I will do GO WITH ME, Castle Freeman on Saturday night.

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  3. I'll bet that class would have a lot more students if those were the real names of the exercises (or whatever they are).

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  4. OMG - I'm obsessing about which book to buy and give away. And who to give it to!

    Emmmmmmmm.

    I'll go in to Waterstones on Sat - buy a book that jumps out at me - and then give it away on my blog. Right. Decided.

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  5. Thinking of you doing yoga poses and calling them other names, been there done that myself. :-)Also trying to figure out what book to talk about and give away, there are so many underknown great books! By the way, I agree that GO WITH ME by Castle Freeman is one of them, but I'll be thinking of another, no sense doing same when there are so many of them! I will send to you since don't have own blog. What a great idea. And best wishes getting out of the knots. :-)

    Bobbie

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  6. Margot - you're welcome, and thank you!

    Patti - excellent! I loved that book :o)

    Jan - I might have known that repetition of the word hippo would have got you out of hiding :o)

    Michael - I look forward to seeing your choice! I currently have a short list of 10...

    Bobbie - brilliant - I look forward to hosting your book!

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