Sometimes authors fall out of favour simply because they relentlessly pursue a single theme. Pennsylvania-born John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) hit on the ultimate mystery, the murder that takes place in a hermetically sealed room, and wrote variations that increased in ornate complexity, with cliffhanger chapter ends and solutions that still have readers slapping their foreheads.

I posted about the Book Blogger Hop a couple of weeks ago, and have continued to participate in the hope since then! I am pleased to say that the event seems to be going from strength to strength. If you haven't heard about this relatively new event, here are some of the details: This is a weekly event, hosted here (at Crazy-for-Books.com), where book bloggers and readers can connect to find new b...

I could have used some help from IBM’s widget, Blog Muse today but, alas, it is not available to the likes of IBM outsiders. At least not yet. Blog Muse lets potential readers suggest and vote on topics they’d like to read about and then presumably the blogger chooses a topic from the

As the celebration of Passover nears, parents, relatives, and friends are preparing to teach children about the Jewish tradition. Counting on our readers' collective knowledge of books, GalleyCat Reviews regularly features curated book lists from Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations. Today's list is timely: The Best Passover Fiction for Children. Over the last year, Flashlight Worthy B...

25-year-old debut novelist Lauren DeStefano just inked a six-figure deal for The Last Chemical Garden--the first book in a dystopian trilogy about genetics and "a failed effort to create a perfect race." The book is scheduled for an April 2011 release. Irene Goodman Literary agent Barbara Poelle sold the book to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers senior editor Alexandra Cooper. DeStefano...