World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books, and it will be celebrated in the USA, UK and Ireland on April 23, 2012. Tens of thousands of givers will share the joy and love of reading with millions of non or light readers.

Want to participate as a volunteer book giver as part of World Book Night? Sign up at www.worldbooknight.org by February 1, 2012.

Best Novel

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Gone by Mo Hayder

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

1222 by Anne Holt

Field Gray by Philip Kerr

Who do you think should win?

Complete list of categories and nominees

When we bought a new condo a year ago the builtin bookshelf was the deciding factor. We homestyled our old place before we sold it and we sorted our bookshelf according to color.

As a result our friends and family had many opinions on how a bookshelf should be sorted. And why not? It is not something to take lightly, so we asked ourselves some questions:

Should paperbacks be separated from hardcovers? Yes!

Should we separate fiction from non-fiction? Absolutely!

How should we sort the non-fiction? We selected a few categories: philosophy, autobiographies, geography, religion, IT, and law.

Should fictional genres be separated? No, it is too difficult to decide which genre a novel belongs to, plus we would not have that many books for some genres.

Is it ok that my Agatha Christie collection is kept together – with a mix of paperback and hardcover? Yes! (You would not dare to day no).

Here is the result. We are already outgrowing our bookshelf and we have had to stack the books behind each other.

We are not the only ones who have a passion for books and bookstorage. Just this past week I have come across several inspiring bookshelves. First, Sara showed me this link with incredibly beautiful bookshelves, and then Mattias from Piratförlaget (Swedish publisher) shared this link with living bookshelves.

It is clearly the Era of Bookshelves!

DC Comics will adapt Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy into graphic novels. The first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will be published as two volumes. The cover art for the first part is shown above, and the release date is scheduled for November 2012.

…my true love gave to me: two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

About Twelve Days of Christmas

About Twelve Days of Christmas…

Diamond Dove

To symbolize the gift on the second day of Christmas (two turtle doves) we chose “Diamond Dove” by Adrian Hyland.

Diamond Dove is Adrian Hyland’s first crime novel, and it is set in the Australian outback. The main character Emily Tempest, part white part aborigine, is returning to the community where she grew up just as an old friend is found murdered.

The setting alone makes me want to read it right away. Plus I do not think that I have ever read a crime novel set down under. Maybe I should make my New Year’s resolution for next year to read novels from all parts of the world. What would your recommendation be?

…my true love gave to me: a partridge in a pear tree.

About Twelve Days of Christmas

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” in an English Christmas carol that lists a series of presents given each day of the twelve days of Christmas. Inspired by this song, we have decided to associate each day of the song with a crime novel/movie/writer, thriller, or murder mystery.

To symbolize the gift on the first day of Christmas (a partridge in a pear tree) we found the following book.

The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811

“The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811″. It is a true crime book by mystery writer P. D. James and British historian T. A. Critchley. The Ratcliff Highway murders were serial killings that occurred over twelve days in London in 1811.

I am a big fan of true crime books and I like P. D. James crime novels, so I believe this book would be something for me. Has anyone read it? If so, what did you think?

Among the suspects are names like Sherlock Holmes, John H. Watson and Inspecteur Lestrade. Some of the suspects are people who in one way or another were part of the real investigation.

Just a Boardgame…

The game Mr. Jack is for two people, who gets very different conditions. One player represents Jack with the goal to escape the crime scene without having his/her identity revealed. The other player represents an investigator who has to find the killer before the break of dawn. There are eight suspects on the streets this night, and the players take turn moving the different characters. The investigator is trying to eliminate possible suspects, and Jack is trying to escape.

It only takes about 15 minutes to play the game, once you have learned the rules. There are a lot to learn about the different strategies, but for new players it seems easier to be the investigator. This player can usually eliminate many of the suspects early on, and then it is fairly easy to expose the guilty person.

Despite this it is a fun game, and since it does not take long to finish you can play it several times in a row, and the rules are easy to learn.

A perfect Christmas gift for the family who loves board games!

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” in an English Christmas carol that lists a series of presents given each day of the twelve days of Christmas. Inspired by this song, we have decided to associate each day of the song with a crime novel/movie/writer, thriller, or murder mystery.

Join us on December 25 for the First Day of Christmas Crime.

Happy Holidays!

Right now you can get Double Exposure by Michael Lister as an ebook FREE from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

For those of us not living in the US: I don’t know if international customers can create an account at B&N (I have never tried it myself). But I do have an Amazon Kindle account (and I live in Sweden) so I know that that works! And I am able to read my Kindle books in the Kindle app on my iPhone and iPad (it is also available for Android).

Are you smarter than Sherlock Holmes? More clever than Miss Marple? Well, now you have the chance to prove it! Try and solve our first Murder Mystery: The Case of Jenny Moore.

Click here to start the game! (it will take 5-15 minutes depending on how fast you read)