2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

2 Comments / Book List, Featured, Legal, Mystery, Nominated for Award

The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction was established to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” written by former Alabama law student, Harper Lee. For the past several years, the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal have partnered to award the prize to a published work of fiction from the previous year that best demonstrates “the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.”

Congratulations to the finalists (chosen from a field of 21) for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The winner is indicated in red.

Sujata Massey: “The Satapur Moonstone”

Victor Methos: “The Hallows”

Chad Zunker: “An Equal Justice”

Previous winners:

2011 – John Grisham, “The Confession”

2012 – Michael Connelly, “The Fifth Witness”

2013 – Paul Goldstein, “Havana Requiem”

2014 – John Grisham, “Sycamore Row”

2015 – Deborah Johnson, “The Secret of Magic”

2016 – Attica Locke, “Pleasantville”

2017 – James Grippando, “Gone Again”

2018 – C.E. Tobisman, “Proof.”

2019 – Sharon Bala, “The Boat People”

2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Read More »

Pandemic Themed Fiction and Nonfiction

2 Comments / Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Book List, Featured, Fiction, Non-fiction

You asked for it. A list of books that deal with pandemics. In the past, we’ve watched the pandemic movies and TV shows and a few thriller authors have addressed the topic in their fiction. But, here we are in 2020, fighting a real life pandemic. Don’t read any of these books if you want to be reassured. Some, although written decades ago, are eerily predictive of our current worldwide battle with the Coronavirus, Covid 19.

Bobby Akart series: Starts with “Pandemic: Beginnings: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller Series”

Michael Crichton: “The Andromeda Strain”

Molly Caldwell Crosby: “The American Plague” (nonfiction)

Stephen King: “The Stand”

Dean Koontz: “The Eyes of Darkness”

Emily St. John Mandell: “Station Eleven”

William Maxwell: “They Came Like Swallows”

Thomas Mullen: “The Last Town on Earth”

Katherine Ann Porter: “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”

Richard Preston: “The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” (nonfiction)

Mary Shelley: “The Last Man”

Karen Thompson Walker “The Dreamers”

Do you have a favorite pandemic themed book that’s missing from the list? Let us know in the comments below.

Pandemic Themed Fiction and Nonfiction Read More »

Irish Fiction & Mysteries – 2020 List

6 Comments / Bestselling Author, Cozy, Crime, Featured, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

St. Patrick’s Day will be here soon! For those of you that focus your reading on holiday/cultural themed books, the list below features Irish writers, mysteries/suspense set in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day murders, or titles with Irish characters central to the plot. Some are modern classics, some are newbies, but all are entertaining reads. You’re sure to find a story in the updated list of 38 Irish Fiction & Mysteries–2020 List that you will want to read again and again. (Links included for bold titles)

Lisa Alber: “Path into Darkness”
Maeve Binchy: “Chestnut Street”
S. Furlong-Bollinger: “Paddy Whacked”
Declan Burke: “The Lost and the Blind”
Steve Cavanagh: “Th1rt3en”
Sheila Connolly: “Fatal Roots“
Kathy Cranston: “Apple Seeds and Murderous Deeds”
Sinead Crowley: “One Bad Turn”
Kathi Daley: “Shamrock Shenanigans”
Frank Delaney: “The Last Storyteller“
Nelson Demille: “Cathedral”
Patricia Falvey: “The Yellow House“
Tana French: “Broken Harbor”
Alexia Gordon: “Murder in G Major”
Andrew Greeley: “The Bishop at the Lake”
Jane Haddam: “A Great Day for the Deadly”
Lyn Hamilton: “The Celtic Riddle“
Lee Harris: “The St. Patrick’s Day Murder”
Erin Hart: “The Book of Killowen”
Jonathan Harrington: “A Great Day for Dying”
Mary Anne Kelly: “Twillyweed”
Amanda Lee: “The Long Stitch Good Night”
Dan Mahoney: “Once in, Never Out”
Caimh McDonnell: “A Man with One of Those Faces“
Brian McGilloway: “Preserve the Dead/The Forgotten Ones”
Adrian McKinty: “The Chain”
Ralph M. McInerny: “The Green Revolution”
Leslie Meier: “St. Patrick’s Day Murder”
Stuart Neville: “So Say the Fallen”
Carlene O’Connor: “Murder in an Irish Cottage“
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie: “Death Takes Up a Collection”
Helen Page: “Equal of God”
Louise Phillips: “The Doll’s House”
Janet Elaine Smith: “In St. Patrick’s Custody”
Jo Spain: “Beneath the Surface”
Patrick Taylor: “An Irish Country Family”
Peter Tremayne: “Blood in Eden”
Kathy Hogan Trochek: “Irish Eyes”

If your favorite Irish Fiction & Mysteries titles are not on the list, let me know and I’ll add them! Happy choosing and reading!

Irish Fiction & Mysteries – 2020 List Read More »

Valentine’s Day Mysteries and Fiction

Bestselling Author, Book List, Cozy, Crime, Fiction, Holidays, Mystery, Romance, Short Stories/Collection

Are you a fan of holiday themed reading? Published between 2016 and 2020, here is a list of twenty-three novels, novellas, and short stories centered around Valentine’s Day. Be prepared to swoon, or laugh, or be delighted by the selection. Click on the titles to discover more about the books and enjoy!

Jennifer S. Alderson “Death by Baguette”

Carolyn Arnold “Valentine’s Day is Murder”

Patti Benning “Tall, Dark, and Deadly”

Franky A. Brown “What Happened to Romance?”

Susan Carroll “The Valentine’s Day Ball”

Cherry Christensen “Secret Valentine”

Sylvia Damsell “A Valentine Wish”

Steve Demaree “A Valentine Murder”

Liz Dodwell “Valentine’s Day: a Polly Parrett Pet-Sitter Cozy”

Jessica L. Elliott “Operation: Romance”

Tammy Falkner “A Valentine’s Day Miracle”

Deborah Garner “A Flair for Truffles”

Patricia Gligor “Marnie Malone”

Holly Hepburn “Valentine’s Day at the Star and Sixpence”

Liwen Y. Ho “Romantically Ever After”

June McCrary Jacobs “Handmade Hearts”

Libby Klein “Theater Nights Are Murder”

Jackie Lau “A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day”

Lia London “Love from A to Z”

Ava Mallory & nine more authors “Stirring Up Love & Mystery”

Leslie Meier “Valentine Candy Murder”

Summer Prescott “A Blossom of Murder”

Amy M. Reade “Be My Valencrime”

Happy Reading!

Valentine’s Day Mysteries and Fiction Read More »

“New York Times Best Fiction and Nonfiction of 2019”

Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Debut Author, Fiction, Historical, Nominated for Award, Non-fiction, Short Stories/Collection, True Crime

It’s always interesting to see which books the Book Review editors choose for their “Best of…” lists for the year. The titles are sometimes bestsellers, sometimes from debut or international writers, but more importantly, the NYT Book Review editors have fallen in love with the story (or the writing) and ta-da! the book makes the list.

Check out their Best of Fiction and Nonfiction choices from 2019. Listed in alphabetical order by author, click on the book titles to read their reviews.

Fiction:

“Night Boat to Tangier” by Kevin Barry

“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang

“The Topeka School” by Ben Lerner

“Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli

“Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips

Nonfiction:

“The Yellow House” by Sarah M. Broom

“The Club” by Leo Damrosch

“Midnight in Chernobyl” by Adam Higginbotham

“Say Nothing” by Patrick Radden Keefe

“No Visible Bruises” by Rachel Louise Snyder

Have you read any of the titles? Please let us know what you thought in the comments below.

“New York Times Best Fiction and Nonfiction of 2019” Read More »

Man Booker International Prize – 2019

Leave a Comment / Award Winner, Book List, Fiction, General, Nominated for Award

The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world. The £50,000 prize for the winning book is divided equally between its author and translator. The 2019 finalists are listed below, with the winner indicated in red.

Author (Origin Language Country/territory)	Translator	Title
Jokha Alharthi (Arabic – Oman)	Marilyn Booth	"Celestial Bodies"
Annie Ernaux (French – France)	Alison L. Strayer	"The Years"
Marion Poschmann (German – Germany)	Jen Calleja	"The Pine Islands"
Olga Tokarczuk (Polish – Poland)	Antonia Lloyd-Jones	"Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead"
Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Spanish – Colombia)	Anne McLean	"The Shape of The Ruins"
Alia Trabucco Zerán (Spanish – Chile)	Sophie Hughes	"The Remainder"

The shortlist was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Bettany Hughes, award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, and is made up of writer, translator, and chair of English PEN Maureen Freely; philosopher Professor Angie Hobbs; novelist and satirist Elnathan John, and essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra.

The winner of the 2019 prize was announced on 21 May at a formal dinner at the Roundhouse in London. Congratulations to all!

Man Booker International Prize – 2019 Read More »

“Poisons Can Be Deadly” Book List

4 Comments / Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Book List, Cozy, Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Nominated for Award, Suspense

On occasion www.kerriansnotebook.com crosses into the Nightstand Book Reviews realm. Many of you have shown a great interest in the various poisons used as a method of dispatching the victim(s) on the Kerrian’s Notebook site, so I thought you might like to have a list of 30 books with poison as the primary cause of death here on NBR. The authors and their fans provided the titles. The books were written/published after 2015, so there are no classics in the list, just relatively new ones to add to your TBR pile. Any post-2015 titles missing? Let us know in the comments below.

Listed in alphabetical order by author, the list also includes links to the book 'buy' pages. Click on the titles to find out more.

Mary Angela “An Act of Murder”

Juliet Blackwell “Toxic Trousseau”

Laura Bradford “The Silence of the Flans”

Becky Clark “Fiction can be Murder”

Brenda Donelan “Murder to Go”

Jan Edwards “In Her Defense”

Amanda Flower "Toxic Coffee"

Maggie Foster “The Arms of Death”

Daryl Wood Gerber “Wreath Between the Lines”

Debra H. Goldstein “One Taste Too Many”

John Hazen “Zyklon”