(photo credit: JD Lasica, Flickr)

And then I saw this article about tons of self-improvement books, each described in a single sentence. And so, of course, that had me all blissed out. 

All of which has me thinking: This was one of the best book news weeks in recent history. 

Their #3 is my #1 city

Who doesn’t like a good list? And if you’re hanging out here, then you also like a good book. 

So when there’s a list of the 20 most well-read cities… I don’t know about you, but I sure get excited. 

My only quarrel: it’s based on Amazon sales, which completely neglects to factor in library use. And some of us are huge library users!

(In Amazon’s calculations, I’m a reading lightweight!)

But anyway. That’s what this list is about, and we’re gonna roll with it. 

So in this Amazon sales contest, Seattle’s the winner, but my all-time favorite city comes in a highly respectable 3rd. 

Then I started thinking of cities that are literary because of their culture, rather than just their online book-buying habits, and I found this article, which lists the top literary cities in America. 

And this list, I liked even better. It’s even got Iowa on it! The literary cities list looks like a great list of travel destinations. 

What’s your favorite literary city?

Hello! to my hardcover children’s classics

Anyone else old-school enough in their childhood reading, that they were completely obsessed by The Boxcar Chidren? 

Yeah, me, too.

I still think about that book sometimes — how the children were so resilient and hardworking and honest and kind and cheerful. 

They made do, with so little! And they liked it!

It feeds that part of me that keeps reading all the self-improvement books. 

(I know: annoying and sickeningly earnest.)

So when I saw this headline, I got super excited: 
“The Boxcar Children” and the Spirit of Capitalism. 

It’s an article in the New Yorker by Jia Tolentino, and it explores the Puritanical work ethic stuff in the book. 

And the inevitable happy ending. 

Pretty darn fascinating. 

I was a little afraid the article would rip the book to shreds, which I don’t think it does. It’s a critique, but an intriguing, fair-minded one. 

And it goes gently on the way the book led into a mystery series about the same children. I loved, loved, loved those mysteries, even though I knew they were kind of a strange spin-off from the original book with its old-fashioned notions. Suddenly, the kids are solving crimes! 

But heck. I’m still a sucker for a good mystery.

Anyone else a Boxcar Children fan? Original book or series… or both? 

 
Good morning from Book Expo America! 

We’re in lovely Chicago today, and we’re living and breathing books. 

And while I’m public transit-ing into the city, I’ll be reading other stuff about books, like this list of books to dive into this summer.  

Let the games begin!

Mysteries have filled the news this past week. 

The Edgar Awards were announced, and that always gets me all excited. 

Each year, I look at the winner (and nominees) of the Best First Novel award, because usually that signals we got some up-and-comers to track. 

This year, you didn’t have to look far to find out which novel won that one. 

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, recently all over the news for having won the Pulitzer, also won the Edgar for Best First Novel.

And then some other books won awards, too.  

In other news… Book Expo is almost here, and I’m gonna be there! Completely excited about meeting other bloggers amidst the book-laden frenzy. If you see me, say hi. And then tell me what you’re reading; can’t wait to hear.

Books — they’re in the news!

The Pulitzers were announced, and thanks to the Tournament of Books, I’d actually heard of the fiction winner (though it’s largely been overshadowed by Hamilton‘s big win in the drama category). 

And the good folks over at Library Journal put together a list of the 10 best American police procedurals. Such a list would always make me happy, but when I saw that they included Craig Johnson… squealing commenced.