Must be synchronicity — or is that serendipity? — but just a day after I point out how cool the National Book Critics Circle’s blog Critical Mass is, they go and link to Littoral, the most excellent of local literary blogs (or national literary blogs for that matter). The specific item that caught their interest was Arlo Haskell’s interview with Barry Unsworth, historical novelist and one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Key West Literary Seminar. Since taking on this blog and making it his own, Arlo’s really classing up the joint.

Amid all the mourning for disappearing book coverage in newspapers, Publishers Weekly reports some good news: NPR is increasing its books coverage. (That’s 100.5 on your FM dial in Key West, most of the time, or anytime on the web from a station of your choice — I like the NPR books podcast they put out every couple of days which collects a bunch of their books stories — reviews, interviews, features — it’s free and you can subscribe on iTunes then pop them right onto your computer and/or iPod.)

I found this story about NPR, by the way, on Critical Mass, the excellent National Book Critics Circle blog. Don’t know if anyone but me uses my blog’s blogroll as a handy way to check in on various book and literary sites but some of them are fun. And today I added a new one, PhiloBiblos, the blog of a young and, judging from his blog, extremely smart librarian up in Massachusetts. Found that one through my new addiction, LibraryThing.

Sure, it’s hot and sticky around here in July — but Voltaire Books is rewarding those of us who stick around with Tax-Free Tuesdays. For the entire month, locals — who already get a 5 percent discount — can take an extra 7.5 percent off purchases at the island’s best independent bookstore. Let’s go! (The store also offers a 15 percent discount for all Key West High School required summer reading books, all summer long.)

My review of Tony Horwitz’s latest historical travelogue, A Voyage Long and Strange, is in this week’s edition of Solares Hill, and on the Citizen’s website. I liked the book, better than Blue Latitudes but not as much as Confederates in the Attic. Still, a fun and informative read. It will be interesting to see if Horwitz continues along this line or strikes into something entirely new. Maybe we can ask him at the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar, where he will be appearing along with his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks.

I’ve since finished another great nonfiction book by an upcoming KWLS panelist (and workshop leader) Patricia O’Toole: The Five of Hearts was really well written history, or biography, or whatever you want to call it. Even if you think you don’t give a damn about late 19th century politics and literary history, it’s a good read. Last weekend, in one enormous gulp, I read “After You’d Gone,” Maggie O’Farrell’s first novel. I discovered her earlier this year when I reviewed her most recent, “The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox,” for SH. This first effort hits some of the same themes — Scottish social oppression, especially of women, historically and now, especially of smart, unconventional women. It’s a little melodramatic, especially toward the end. But I bought it. (The story I mean, not the book — got the book through interlibrary loan, a service I’m starting to use much more now that I work at a library and I don’t know why I didn’t before.) Speaking of melodrama, I also finished listening to an audiobook, Lady MacBeth, by romance writer Susan Fraser King — the best part about it was the reader’s Scottish accent, which I found replaying in my head all through the day.

It was mostly a test to see if my 20-minute commute was enough to make an audiobook worthwhile and I have to say, it was. Fortunately we have a sizeable audiobook collection at the library so I’ll be pillaging that for future rides. I’m currently listening to a two-disc NPR compilation of baseball stories, and after that it’s a Billy Collins appearance in New York, which includes reading and a talk. Billy, by the way, will be back for next year’s seminar. As if you had any doubt.

Next on the plate: More seminar reading: “Dominion” by the recently-added Calvin Baker and Russell Banks’ first work of nonfiction, “Dreaming Up America.”

The most astounding thing I’ve read in ages, however, was not between hard covers. It was in the June 2 New Yorker, the issue I just finished because of my obsessive-compulsive habit of reading New Yorkers straight through, in order, which means I’m always at least a couple weeks behind. I had heard of Roger Stone, most recently when my friend Amy broke the news in the Miami Herald of his possible involvement in Eliot Spitzer’s downfall. But Jeffrey Toobin’s profile of Stone and recounting of his involvement in every American nightmare from Watergate to the 2000 Florida recount was a revelation. Even if you’re not a political junkie, this is a story worth reading. And then you can join me in weeping.

I haven’t read the Da Vinci Code (can you hear my tone of satisfied superiority via text?) — though I think it made a fine movie. I did read Angels & Demons and thought the writing SUCKED but eventually found myself turning the pages for plot. But I have been looking for several years for a good writer of biblio-thrillers — not literary thrillers, which I define as more in the P.D. James, Benjamin Black category — but books where the MacGuffin is a book or a manuscript and a few of the characters are bibliophiles.

I tried Ross King. Ex-Libris was OK but not terrific. I tried Arturo Perez-Reverte. Same verdict for The Club Dumas (though I recommend, for sheer camp value, the movie they made out of it, called The Ninth Gate and starring Johnny Depp as the corrupt, chainsmoking book dealer). Then I looked at Salon’s summer reading recommendations and they were swooning over some guy named Michael Gruber.

The Big Pine branch of the public library has his book The Book of Air and Shadows so I ordered it up and found myself devouring it last week. It’s got it all — character, plot and best of all, smart writing. His new one, The Forgery of Venus, is set in the world of art, not literature, but that’s OK. I’m going to read it anyway.

Speaking of art, and books, here’s an interesting essay on a couple of interesting book artists in an interesting online journal called The Quarterly Conversation. I’m not sure how I feel about destroying the original physical form of books in order to make art, or at least some kind of artistic statement. But hey, I’m not an artist.

Wondering what to read this summer? The Monroe County public library has an idea; here’s the press release sent along from Anne Layton Rice: What now? Is June eBook of the Month
Bestselling author Ann Patchett offers an essay on hope and inspiration for graduates and anyone at a crossroads
Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by bestselling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another. With wit and candor, Patchett tells her own story of attending college, graduating, and struggling with the inevitable question, What now?
From student to line cook to teacher to waitress and eventually to award-winning author, Patchett’s own life has taken many twists and turns that make her exploration genuine and resonant. As Patchett writes, “‘What now?’ represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life.” Praised as “The best graduation present on the market…” by Publisher’s Weekly, What now? highlights the possibilities the unknown offers and reminds us that there is as much joy in the journey as there is in reaching the destination.
Provided through the generous support of HarperCollins Publishers, What now? will be available to Monroe County Public Library patrons June 1-30. If you have already established a NetLibrary account through Monroe County Public Library Library, visit www.netLibrary.org and log in.  If you do not have a NetLibrary account, you can create an account from any Monroe County Public Library library computer.  Library hours and directions are available here: www.keyslibraries.org For more information, contact Anne Layton Rice at rice…@monroecounty-fl.gov

Other ideas should be on the air Sunday from 9 to 10 a.m. on U.S. 1 Radio (104.1 for local listeners, us1radio.com for those far away) when I, along with Kristina Neihouse and Christine Bell from the public library, will be on Cruisin with Grusin to talk about summer reading. I’ll be talking about all the cool stuff you can get here at the college library – anyone in the Keys can belong! — as well as all the stuff to read before next year’s Literary Seminar. So listen up.

Probably. Hell, if you’re old enough, and/or a slow reader, you could spend the rest of your life just reading the Oates books we happen to own at the FKCC library – 43 titles according to my quick search of our catalogue — and that represents a small portion of her oeuvre, I’m sure.

But if you’re going to read just one, and especially if you’re an unrehabilitated English major, I can recommend Wild Nights – my review is in today’s edition of Solares Hill, available as a downloadable PDF (the review is also posted on the Citizen’s website).

What else? I went on a reading binge last weekend — finished up “The Man Who Made Lists,” Joshua Kendall’s biography of Peter Roget, of Roget’s Thesaurus fame. It was OK but I didn’t feel like I knew the guy — the way I already feel I’m getting to know the characters in my current reading, Patricia O’Toole’s “Five of Hearts,” a group portrait of Henry and Clover Adams, John and Clara Hay and Clarence King, all post-Civil War movers and shakers in Washington. This is the first book of hers that I’ve read and it’s great. Can’t wait to see her at the upcomng Key West Literary Seminar.

After my disappointment with Alison Weir’s Elizabeth novel, I turned to Jhumpa Lahiri and, after finishing the Roget bio last weekend, I finished “Unaccustomed Earth” — the stories got more powerful as the book went along, especially the last three that were linked stories about a man and woman. And the ending, which I should have seen coming but didn’t, was surprising and moving.

After that I temporarily lost my mind and persuaded my husband to embark on a long-overdue attic cleaning (it cooled off a bit on Monday and we figured this was our last shot at working in the attic without serious overheating issues). It needed to be done, I’m glad we did it, but it was an exhausting end to the holiday. Since then, all I’ve been able to take in is a couple episodes of “Deadwood” and a couple New Yorker “Talk of the Town” pieces. Hoping to make a full reading recovery this weekend, though. (Speaking of Deadwood, after starting the show I noticed that we happen to have the Pete Dexter novel of the same name on the shelf at home — it turns out it’s not the basis for the series though it shares some characters, ie. Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane — it may have just moved up the stack just out of western curiosity … I don’t think I’ve read one since the fabulous “Lonesome Dove,” which is getting close to, um, 20 years ago.)

When I was 10 or 11, visiting my grandparents, I came across a copy of “Elizabeth the Great” by Elizabeth Jenkins. Since then I have, to varying degrees, been obsessed with the various versions of the Tudor story — mostly nonfiction, though more recently supplemented by fiction (I like to call this genre Tudor Trash) and movies. Antonia Fraser, David Starkey, Alison Weir — I’ve read them all. Obviously, from looking at the sales numbers for Philippa Gregory or the investment of the Showtime tv show “The Tudors,” I’m not alone. And why not? It’s an insanely dramatic story with so many elements: sex, politics, religion, birth, death. I’ve watched the old Glenda Jackson miniseries and I’m still bitter that Cate Blanchett was robbed of her richly deserved Oscar for “Elizabeth.”

But I’m afraid this 30-year affair may be over. “The Tudors” is enjoyable as camp, but I can’t really buy it. More worrisome, “The Other Boleyn Girl” left me cold. “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” didn’t live up to its predecessor and managed to sap the swagger (and acting ability) from Clive Owen. And now, Alison Weir’s second novel, “The Lady Elizabeth,” is … boring. Yep, that could well be due to the writing not the story. But what if it’s really over? What if I’m just sick of this story?

Well, there’s always the Stuarts and the drama of the English Civil War. But those Puritans just aren’t much fun. In the meantime, I’m going back into the archives to see if there’s any spark left. The college library has a pretty decent collection of movies on VHS, should you still have a working VCR, and I happened to bring home a 1940 swashbuckler called “The Sea Hawk.” Errol Flynn is Capt. Thorpe, a Sir Francis Drake-like privateer, and Flora Robson is Elizabeth. Next, I’ll have to check out “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” with Flynn again and Bette Davis as Elizabeth. And, in an earlier wave of Tudor novelization mania, Jean Plaidy wrote a whole series that I’ve never read. Maybe they’ll renew my obsession.

Other reading? I finished Tony Horwitz’s new book, “A Voyage Long and Strange.” He’s in fine historical travelogue style — not as good as “Confederates in the Attic” but that’s a very high bar indeed and I like it better than “Blue Latitudes.” Look for a review in Solares Hill when I get to writing it. And I was inspired by an NPR piece on Kate Christensen winning the PEN/Faulkner award to see if the public library had any of her books. They have several and I just finished her first, “In the Drink,” which is very good. I read about 60 pages of the new Alison Weir (fulfilling the Nancy Pearl 100-minus-your-age-page-rule — minimum page number before abandoning a book) and turned to the “Unaccustomed Earth,” the new Jhumpa Lahiri story collection for relief.

Yes, this blog hit a sophomore slump for awhile there. But I have been reading and even reviewing, if not writing about it in this forum. My latest was a book called “Literary Seductions” by Frances Wilson — I saw it referred to somewhere, looked it up in our catalogue at work and got it through interlibrary loan. Last weekend, I read it. It was OK though not to my standard of high-end literary gossip/lives for regular readers (”Parallel Lives” by Phyllis Rose being my high watermark in the genre). It was kind of a hybrid between academic treatise and layperson read. Maybe that’s how they do it in the UK. Anyway a decent read.

But not as good as the previous one, “Wild Nights!” by Joyce Carol Oates, which I have reviewed for an upcoming edition of Solares Hill. I know, I know, JCO’s prodigious output can be intimidating. And I even made sure to write this review without using the word “prolific.” But this is a good one, maybe because it’s also on the literary lives vein — but with the Oatesean twists of eerieness and weirdness pushed a few shoves beyond comfort level.

The stories are all very different from one another, which is good, and makes it difficult to choose a favorite. I might have liked the first one the least, perhaps because of all the writers I’ve read the least Poe, perhaps because the 19th century diary style was a tad offputting. The Emily Dickinson robot story is savagely funny, the Hemingway story full of pathos. And, in an additional Key West link, the book is dedicated to Joyce and Seward Johnson, of sculpture and Key West Literary Seminar scholarship fame.

I also read “The Princess of Burundi,” another Swedish mystery, this one by Kjell Eriksson (and from the FKCC collection). I thought it was a better read than “Sun Storm,” and I enjoyed a little brain candy. But I think I’m done with the Swedish mystery genre for the moment — my list of other reading, for review and for the upcoming seminar, is just too long. Fortunately the next is a combo: Tony Horwitz’s new book, “A Voyage Long and Strange,” about European interactions in the New World between Columbus and the Pilgrims. “Confederates in the Attic” is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction books, so I’m hoping Horwitz is on form with this one.

My review of Quiet, Please, Scott Douglas’ memoir of working in a public library, is in today’s edition of Solares Hill and on The Citizen website. I liked the book, but not as much as I’d hoped to. But it’s still a great behind-the-scenes look at life in the library. And definitely check out Scott’s blog.

I also FINALLY finished Samantha Hunt’s The Invention of Everything Else, a historical novel about Nikolas Tesla and a young hotel chambermaid. It’s mostly set in the early 1940s in New York though it contains extended flashbacks, mostly to Tesla’s life. I liked it a lot and hope we may see Hunt down here for the 2009 Literary Seminar. It’s going to be a great one, and there’s lots of reading to do. Lots and lots.

And some really great news: We’re getting a lot of new titles onto the shelves at the college library, from donations and other sources. Every day I go in and find a new book I just have to read. Since I don’t finish a book a day, this is a bit of a problem. But at least they’re library books so I have to give them back and they won’t add to the book storage issues already occupying my house. (And I always assume people know this but many don’t: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A COLLEGE STUDENT TO BORROW BOOKS FROM US!!!!!)