Posts tagged as discussion group

When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on April 25, 2013, 16 of us discussed the multi-award-winning 2007 novel In the Woods by Tana French.

Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are  welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about this book in a reply comment to this blog post, below.

For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery  fans, don't forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, if you're logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts - this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance.

What do you think of In the Woods by Tana French, set in Ireland?

Join us next on May 30th at the South Branch Library for a special discussion -- all participants are encouraged to read a volume in a NEW "cozy" or "amateur detective" series (that launched from 2011 to 2013), and share their impressions with the rest of the group!

Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?

At the January 31^st, 2013 Just Desserts meeting, after discussing our monthly “assigned” author, we did a round robin at the table, asking attendees to share what mysteries they’d been reading lately that they felt they could recommend. Here’s a list of the books that were hot last month with this mystery-savvy crowd:

• What the Cat Saw by Carolyn Hart
• Firefly Beach by Meira Pentermann
• Tell No Lies by Julie Compton
• Gone for Good by Harlan Coben
• A Necessary Evil by Alex Kava
• Mad River by John Sandford (several readers)
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (several readers)
• Nightmare in Pink by John D. MacDonald (for the Nov/Dec Just Desserts reading challenge
• Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
• The Agony of Leaves by Laura Childs
• Multiple works in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon (this month’s assigned author)
• A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron
• Books in the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben
• Buzzard’s Table by Margaret Maron (several readers)
• Books in the Scumble River series by Denise Swanson
• Books in the Mystery Shopper series by Elaine Viets
• Books by David Baldacci
• The Old Grey Wolf, the final Charlie Moon mystery by James Doss (who has died)
• The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
• The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olson
• Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman
• Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver
• Three books by James Lee Burke
• A Place of Execution by Val McDermid
• The Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
• A Time to Kill by John Grisham
• In the Company of Angels by Thomas E. Kennedy
• The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
• Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
• The Dark Winter by David Mack
• A Novel Way to Die and Double Booked for Death by Ali Brandon
• Broken Harbor by Tana French
• Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear
• City of Whispers by Marcia Muller
• The Complaints by Ian Rankin
• Hotwire by Alex Kava
• Two in the Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger
• The Fourth Bear, second in the Nursery Crimes series by Jasper Fforde
• Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
• The Con Job, a Leverage tie-in novel, by Matt Forbeck

So, what mysteries have you been reading that you’d recommend?

When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on January 31, 2013, we discussed the entire Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon, starting with, Death at La Fenice.

Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are  welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about this series in a reply comment to this blog post, below.

For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery  fans, don't forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, if you're logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance.

What do you think of Death at La Fenice and the entire Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Leon?

Join us on February 28th at the South Branch Library for a discussion of The Camel Club by David Baldacci!

As we prepare to wrap up our 2012 season of Just Desserts meetings and look forward to 2013, we are faced with that inevitable question -- what authors should we read and discuss as a group in the next year?

Harlan Coben, our October 2012 selected author, is the 67th author we've tackled thus far. Our goal for the past 6+ years has been to not repeat an author if we could possibly help it. Here are the other criteria we've used when choosing past authors/titles:

• For the first several years of Just Desserts, we've alternated between "classic" authors and "contemporary" authors. We ended that practice after we ran out of "classic" authors for whom the library had sufficient copies to meet the group's needs.
• The libraries need to own at least 12 to 15 copies of whatever title we select, preferably in a variety of formats, including audio and/or downloadable.
• We've tried to avoid those authors that everybody already seems to be reading (such as Evanovich and Patterson), and focus on picking authors that may be new to a large percentage of the group's members.
• We've tried to alternate tone and writing style -- including a mix of cozies, police procedurals, amateur detectives, noirish P.I.s, forensic detectives, various time periods, etc.
• We've had some success with picking a few authors for whom we didn't select a specific title -- instead recommending that participants read whatever novel(s) they could for those authors (Louise Penny and Suzanne Arruda). We are certainly capable of trying this again! This makes for unusual discussions, as we try to discuss generalities rather than specifics of individual titles.
  

With all of these considerations in mind, what authors do you suggest that we consider for Just Desserts gatherings in 2013? Leave your suggestions as a comment to this blog post -- and feel free to elaborate on why you recommend particular authors in your comments!

Scott C. / Just Desserts coordinator

Here's a link to the Just Desserts archives, so you can see an entire list of all the authors we've used in the past.

Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?

At the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group meeting on August 23rd, after our book discussion, we spent time doing a round robin at the table, giving all attendees an opportunity to share what they’ve been reading lately. Here’s what was popular in July 2012 with this mystery-savvy group:

MYSTERIES or THRILLERS

• Rosemary & Thyme DVD series
• Simisola on DVD from Ruth Rendell
• The Lincoln Lawyer on DVD - extras with Michael Connelly on a driving tour of L.A.
• Angels Flight by Michael Connelly
• Trickster's Point by William Kent Krueger
• Judgment Call by J.A. Jance
• Fireproof by Alex Kava
• Black Mist by Brad Thor
• Broken Harbor by Tana French
• A Corpse's Nightmare by Phillip Depoy
• Dorchester Terrace by Anne Perry
• The Closer - final season on DVD
• As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson
• Bonefire of the Vanities by Carolyn Haines -- didn't recommend it as a mystery, but for the literary element of having the ghost of the protagonist's grandmother come back as a different famous female sleuth in each book in the series
• Nobody's Fools by Richard Russo
• The works of William Kent Krueger
• Fool Me Twice by Michael Brandman, continuing the Jesse Stone novels of Robert B. Parker
• Lullaby by Ace Atkins, continuing the Spenser novels of Robert B. Parker
• Scones and Bones by Laura Childs (a Tea Shop mystery)
• Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke
• In the Moon of Red Ponies by James Lee Burke
• The Mercedes Coffin by Faye Kellerman
• The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
• The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
• Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
• Killing Gifts by Deborah Woodworth
• The Big Cat Nap by Rita Mae Brown
• Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch by Nancy Atherton
• Haven by Kay Hooper
• Lethal Outlook by Victoria Laurie
• The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder by Mary Jane Maffini
• Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow
• Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow
• Crooked House by Agatha Christie
• Black Coffee by Charles Osborne, based on the play by Agatha Christie
• And Be a Villain by Rex Stout
• Sister Pelagio and the Black Monk by Boris Akunin
• Murder on Capitol Hill by Margaret Truman
• Black Water by T. Jefferson Parker
• Criminal by Karin Slaughter
• Cat Coming Home by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
• Cat Telling Tales by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
• Frozen Heat by Richard Castle

NON-MYSTERIES

• The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns by Margaret Dilloway
• Salmon Fishing in Yemen DVD
• Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope by Gabrielle Giffords
• 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James
• Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
• Perfect is Overrated by Karen Bergreen
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• Niceville by Carsten Stroud
• The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

What mysteries have you been reading lately that you would recommend?