Karen's blog

Early Christmas present for me - Redback by Lindy Cameron:

This week there's been quite a flurry of discussion around - from "The Death of the Book" to somewhat less excited analysis of the future for electronic book readers, triggered mostly, by Amazon's release of their device, called, for some incomprehensible reason the Kindle.

With little fanfare, some would say as little fanfare as he received in life, a report of the death of Eric Rolls appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald this week.  Not a crime fiction author, but an Australian author whose most well known book is probably 1981's A Million Wild Acres, the story of the conquest and destruction of the Australian Wilderness.   Another of his books "Citizens and Sojourners" has adorned the shelves in these parts for many years.  He was 84 years old.

A quick glance at Katherine's website shows that Panic has been renamed The Darkest Hour - and there's a bit more info on the book, so we've updated our listings here.

Mary Saums has picked up the Carnival of the Criminal Minds across at Femmes Fatales this week.   In typical grand style, Mary points us to the fabulous and fantastic that has crossed her crime fiction path recently.  Wander over and follow the Carnival - it's proving to be a fantastic way of keeping up with the goings on.

Yesterday we spent a very happy hour or so in the company of a lot of other people in the beautiful old Baptist Church in Collins Street in Melbourne, listening to Shane Maloney and Ian Rankin chat.

The session was organised by local bookstore Readers Feast, as part of their new Crime and Justice Festival - which Ian Rankin is the International Patron for.  This sounds like a fascinating and very exciting idea for a festival - combing crime fiction and issues of social justice.

The R.D. Wingfield version of Frost that is (not the cold white stuff on the ground), I recently started to "flick read" HARD FROST for an upcoming discussion one of my two favourite online reading groups - 4MA (4_Mystery_Addicts).

Sigh

SIIIIGGGHHHHH

Sigh

On holidays this week (or at least himself is, although having your head stuck in a fire prevention system making sure it's all working for a week might not be some people's idea of a holiday....) but one of the bonuses is that over the weekend I read EXIT MUSIC.

There's something profoundly, fundamentally, deep down inside satisfying about a convergence of events that indicate a change of season.  First there's the baby Kookaburra's sort of wobbling their way up and down the branches of the big ghost gum at the end of the house; then you realise that the King Parrots are calling each other from the trees on either side of the garden - and you get a sneaking suspicion that some of those King Parrots look younger than others - so the babies have hatched.  The apple trees flower and leaf, the Yucca re-emerges from the ground and the self-sown tomato s

Last night's First Tuesday Bookclub on the ABC discussed On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler - keep an eye on their website:  http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/ because you'll be able to watch the espisode online as soon as it's posted.

Next month they are looking at Ruth Rendell's Not In the Flesh.