Articles tagged "Colin Cotterill"

Monday Fun Day! (2/4/2013 Edition)

Hello, librarian buds! We'reback in the office after ALA Midwinter and ready to talk about a bunch of great award nomination news.

The 2013 nominees for the Left Coast Crime (a.k.a. Lefty) Award, which honors the best humorous mystery published during the previous year, have been annouced! The Macmillan nominees are:

SWIFT RUN by Laura DiSilverio

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Brad Parks

Also HUSH MONEY by Chuck Greaves has been shortlisted for the Rocky Award for best mystery novel set in the Left Coast Crime geographical region and DANDY GILVER AND AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR A MURDER by Catriona McPherson is shortlisted for the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, which is given to mystery novels covering events before 1960!

Winners will be announced on March 23rd during the 23rd annual Left Coast Crime Convention in Colorado Springs, CO.

In other award news, Colin Cotterill's GRANDAD, THERE'S A HEAD ON THE BEACH was shortlisted for this year’s Dilys Award! See all of the nominees here.

And again in award news, CURSE OF THE JADE LILY by David Housewright is up for the Genre Fiction Minnesota Book Award this year! See the rest of the cetegories and nominees here.

In, um, dragon news, Publishers Weekly talked to Marie Brennan, author of A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS, about—you guessed it—dragons! Read "Why Do Dragons Look Like That?" on PublishersWeekly.com.

Read more

Wednesday Fun Day! (5/30/2012 Edition)

It's Wednesday already?! Oh, Time, you sure are a fickle creature!

I hope you all had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure you all set aside at least one of the days to properly celebrate MY BIRTHDAY!! I know I did!

Here's a few fun links to get you excited for the rest of this short week:

- The New York Times Books Section recommended some Books for Basking including GRANDAD, THERE'S A HEAD ON THE BEACH by Colin Cotterill, BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel, MOST TALKATIVE by Andy Cohen, and LOVE, LIFE, AND ELEPHANTS by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

"This year 'GRANDAD, THERE'S A HEAD ON THE BEACH' is the best beach title around, and its author, Colin Cotterill, isn’t even pandering." Ha!

chuck - Debut mystery writer Chuck Greaves, who will be livin' it up at the Pop Top Stage at ALA Annual, wrote a heartfelt love letter to libraries and librarians. He writes in part about his impressionable years checking out copies of Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein and also about the twenty years he served on the board of directors of the Pasadena Public Library Foundation. Read his post here.

- The GeekDad section of Wired.com featured John Scalzi talking about his latest novel, REDSHIRTS.

"So how can we take these tropes that everybody knows, jump through all these hoops that everybody knows... and still put something in there, structurally speaking, that does the job that we’re supposed to do as storytellers? The real challenge for a storyteller is to take that ‘nudge-nudge-wink-wink’ thinking and simultaneously subvert and fulfill it." See the full article here.

- Also, if you're going to be at ALA Annual in Anaheim, don't forget to pack your Unshelved swag because Saturday is officially Unshelved Day @ ALA!

Read more

RUSA’s 2012 Notable Books & Reading List

The 2012 RUSA reading list is in!

Between the noshable hors d'oeuvres, the wine, and the charming company, we had a riotous time at the announcement ceremony in Dallas. Yes, we were whooping and hollering when they listed books we love!

Don't believe me? Boom: proof.

Library Journal reported, "Some of the announcements were greeted by quite a bit of excitement, especially from Robin Nesbitt (on Twitter, @robnesb) of Columbus Metropolitan Library; Alene Moroni (@surlyspice) of King County Library System, WA; Talia Sherer (@macmillanlib) of Macmillan Library Marketing; and Stephanie Chase (@acornsandnuts) of Mutnomah County Library." So, yeah, we were excited.

RUSA ladiesNow, on to the books!

2012 Reading List

ADRENALINE
Shortlisted:

NOW YOU SEE ME by S. J. Bolton
YOU'RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz

MYSTERY
Winner:

THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X by Keigo Higashino

Shortlisted:

KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT by Colin Cotterill
A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny

SCIENCE FICTION
Shortlisted:

THE QUANTUM THIEF by Hannu Rajaniemi

See the complete list of RUSA winners, short lists, and read-alikes here.

2012 Notable Books List

NONFICTION:

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman

See RUSA's complete list of Notable Books here.

Read more

EarlyWord Galley Chatting!

If you missed the EarlyWord Galley Chat on Twitter yesterday, I highly recommend you go back and take a look at the conversation (just search hashtag #ewgc).

What's that you say? You're not on Twitter? BIG MISTAKE! These monthly chats are an exceptional way to hear about which galleys other librarians are reading, have read, or plan to read and what made them pick up those books. It's the perfect first look at forthcoming titles.

A few excellent, upcoming Macmillan titles were discussed yesterday. I'll highlight a few for you here:

GRANDDAD, THERE'S A HEAD ON THE BEACH by Colin Cotterill

tweet

SO DAMN LUCKY by Deborah Coonts

tweet

GLAMOUR IN GLASS by Mary Robinette Kowal

tweet

MIDNIGHT IN AUSTENLAND by Shannon Hale

tweet

The next EarlyWord Galley Chat is on February 7th. And if you're looking for news on teen titles, you're in luck! The folks at EarlyWord are adding an EarlyWord YA Galley Chat starting February 14th (hashtag #ewYAgc).

Read more

Library Journal's Best Books 2011:

And wrapping up our week of annual best books lists is Library Journal's Best Books of 2011! Here are all of the Macmillan titles you should check out (library pun totally intended):

The Top Ten

Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz
Tides of War by Stella Tillyard

More of the Best

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Mystery

Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton
Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill
Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
Stealing Mona Lisa by Carson Morton

SF/Fantasy

Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova
The Unremembered by Peter Orullian
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Children of the Sky by Verner Vinge

Street Lit

Eviction Notice by K'wan

Women's Fiction

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews

Historical Fiction

Pacific Glory by P.T. Deutermann
The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Thrillers

You’re Next by Gregg Hurwitz
Strong at the Break by Jon Land

Excellent picks, Library Journal! If you readers want to see all of Library Journal's great picks from 2011, you can see their "best of" lists right here.

Read more

Monday Fun Day! (7/18/2011 Edition)

Happy Monday, librarians!

First of all: congrats to all five winners of the Great ALA Signed Books Sweepstakes! We had hundreds of enthusiastic entries and so much positive feedback that we'll definitely be holding more contests like this in the future. In case you missed it, the winners are as follows:

The three (3) runners-up for a signed copy of IRON HOUSE are:
Nancy Vigezzi, Merrimack Public Library
Lisa Hullett, Wallace State Community College Library
Jeff Bailey, Arkansas State University-Jonesboro

The 1st runner-up for three (3) signed paperbacks is:
Lisa Cosgrove-Davies, Arlington Public Library

The Grand Prize Winner for six (6) signed hardcovers is:
Shana Hitt, Brooklyn Public Library

Last week EarlyWord put up a list of great new reads, "New Title Radar – Week of July 18," and marked Colin Cotterill's KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT as the Rising Star! And did you see Colin as Book Brahmin in Shelf Awareness last week? He's a riot.

If you've fallen head over, ehem, heels for the sassy kicks on the cover of third-in-series THIRD GRAVE DEAD AHEAD, you can buy them here on heels.com! NOTE: This is this Little, Brown UK version of this cover, so keep your eyes peels for our steamy US version.

DRAGON'S OATH, the first novella in a House of Night mini-series, released last week so we can finally share with you some rad early versions of the illustrations by Kim Doner.

"These characters may be nearly immortal, but they are at the beginning of such immortality and, therefore, they are like any other young couple.

These are a few of the sketches I made: him approaching from behind her, sword down; her handing him a sunflower; her beginning to lift the face of a sunflower up towards him." -illustrator Kim Doner

Read more

Three Starred Reviews for Killed at the Whim of a Hat

KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT kicks off a sharp and charming new series by the internationally bestselling, critically acclaimed author, Colin Cotterill. Cotterill drops the reader smack dab into present day rural Thailand, right into the heart of an eccentric family's drama.

And reviewers are slapping stars all over it.

"This outstanding series debut from the author of the Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries (LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE) would appeal to crossover readers who enjoy well-developed ensemble casts and a sense of the absurd. It’s not just about Thailand; Cotterill understands people and writes subtle humor like a master." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Cotterill combines plenty of humor with fascinating and unusual characters, a solid mystery, and the relatively unfamiliar setting of southern Thailand to launch what may be the best new international mystery series since the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency." —Booklist (starred review)

"Cotterill (THE CORONER'S LUNCH and six other mysteries featuring Laotian coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun) combines a wry narrative voice with an appealing picture of a world unfamiliar to most Americans." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Read more