What is it we look for in novels?

     A few days ago I read an interesting quote.  But I can't remember where I read it.   Granted I'm taking it out of context, because it caught my attention in just that way.  In fact, I  read it to myself three times as I thought about some of our current events.
     Dick Wald is a professor of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a former ABC News president.  And I quote: "...We are a society of people who look for novels in our general appreciation of life."   I guess it was the "general appreciation of life" that really caught my attention.
     Lately, we have been in awe of a recently published novel and a television interview.  Jaycee Dugard's novel "A Stolen Life" was part of the recent Diane Sawyer interview.  You can bet a lot of people will rush out to buy Dugard's book, simply because they are curious to know more about her 18 years of captivity.  But do you think they're that interested, as well, about her life now?
     We've also been caught up big time with the Caycee Anthony trial.  Then the verdict came out!  Wow! Doesn't that just make you want to know who is going to write the book about that event?  Will anyone be more interested in what Caycee will be doing from now on, as compared to what happened to her two-year-old daughter?
     There's another ongoing event...the one of Dr. Conrad Murray and the death of Michael Jackson.  How many books do you think will be written about that astounding event?  I can imagine you'll have at least six books to chose from.
     How many novels were written about Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife, Laci,  and their unborn son, Connor?  How many novels have been written about O.J. Simpson and the death of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman?
     Goodness!  Is this our "general appreciation of life"?
     I don't know about you, but when I read such novels, the scenes stay in my mind for what seems hundreds of years.  Movies are the same way.  So, I try to pick novels that don't make me wonder who might be "out there" waiting to kidnap me or break into my house and kill me.  I just scare easily!  I know that!  But I am aware of my surroundings and circumstances, and do take precautions like our crime watch organizations suggest.
     Are these novels about Dugard and Murray and Peterson and Simpson considered biographies?  Mysteries?  Crime novels?  Memoirs?  Non-fiction?  Are do they fall into each one of those genres?
     I thought again about my "general appreciation of life."  And I checked our PINES system to see what we have in our library that might be more uplifting and give me a better appreciation of life.
     How about these people?
     Martin Luther King, Jr.
     Margaret Mead
     Grandma Moses
     Harry S. Truman
     Annie Oakley
     Juliette Gordan Low
     Mary Cassatt
     Leonard Bernstein
     Edith Wharton
     Henry Aaron
     Neil Armstrong
     James Herriot
     Amelia Earhart.
Do  you know who all these people are?  Can you go down the line and pick out which person was the baseball player, the writer, the astronaut, the artist, the president...?  Do you know what these people, and people like them, have contributed to our appreciation of life?  So...what do you consider your "general appreciation of life" to be?
     Well, I'd like to encourage you to visit our library and check out the Biography Section.  You'll find novels about these people, as well as many more interesting people.  And yes, you'll find the novels about sinister people, also.  I mean, we can't have the good unless we have the bad, right?
     Check out the Biography Section for a good read and look for ways to encourage your "general appreciation of life."  You might be surprised what a good read you'll find.

Top 10 U.S. Crime Writers

     Well, the verdict is in...I have a list of the top ten U.S. crime writers in front of me, thanks to reading Southern Review of Books, a choice reading site of mine.  Would you like to know who they are?  Just look at this list (without the bo-koo millions they make) from top dog to number ten:

1. John Grisham (did you have any doubt?) wrote such famous books as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Confession,
2. Dan Brown, writer of The Da Vinci Code,
3. Patricia Cornwell, Port Mortuary,
4. Robert Ludlum, the Bourne series,
5. Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park,
6. Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness,
7. Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs,
8. Elmore Leonard, Road Dogs,
9. Ed McBain, the 87th Precinct series, and
10. James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia.

     I didn't have time or space to list all the other great books they've written.  I'll let you go to our Pines System and check on the books we have here in the library.
     And while I'm at it, maybe you'd like to know who the top ten U.K. crime writers are.  Look at this list:

1. Ian Fleming, writer of the Bond series and (yea!) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,
2. Agatha Christie, the Miss Marple series and the H. Poirot series,
3. Jeffrey Archer, Honor Among Thieves,
4. Jack Higgins, Day of Reconing,
5. Ken Follett, Fall of Giants,
6. Dick Francis, Crossfire,
7. Ruth Rendell, the Inspector Wexford series,
8. Lee Child, the Jack Reacher series,
9. Ian Rankin, Exit Music, and
10. Alexander McCall Smith (my favorite!), the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

     Oh, there are just so many good books to read.  Remember, you don't have to go out and buy these books to read them.  We've got tons of them here at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library.  Just bring in your library card and take home a stack of scarey crime stories to read.  Guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of your neck!
(Source: http://www.anvilpub.net/)