Tag Archives: mystery novels

10 Plus Scary Reads for Halloween

Every Childs Nightmare

Scary Reads?  Not all of the mystery novels I have reviewed are about a place as creepy as Cora Harrison’s Burren of Ireland ()or Martin Cruz Smith’s  Wolves Eat Dogs (♥♥♥♥). I’m wrapping up the two weeks of scary things and mystery novels with a list of some of the reader-preferred mysteries, with hearts to denote how fast they’ll make your heart beat. Continue reading 10 Plus Scary Reads for Halloween

Visit Ystad Sweden with Wallander

Destination: Sweden

TV Series: Wallander with Kenneth Branagh  ( BBC and PBS)

Guest Post by Melanie McMinn

 

Melanie McMinn
Melanie McMinn

Melanie McMinn, an American ex-pat writer and artist living in New Zealand, actually takes time off from raising bees, creating creatures of felted wool, cooking, remodeling, and making all sorts of other things including a blog called Frugal Kiwi–which was named one of the five best blogs of Australia/New Zealand in last year’s Bloggies–(pant! pant! she’s wearing me out)– to watch television.  When I mentioned that I was doing a series of mysteries here at A Traveler’s Library, she jumped at the opportunity to talk about her favorite. She watches [amazon_link id=”B001VLBDB2″ target=”_blank” ]Wallander[/amazon_link] on BBC, but Americans have seen two series of the show on PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery Theater (2009 and 2010), and are hoping the next three will appear soon. Continue reading Visit Ystad Sweden with Wallander

Likin’ the New Stuff at A Traveler’s Library

Contributors at A Travelers Library
Clockwise from top left: Jessie Voigts, Edie Jarolim, Kerry Dexter, Jennifer Close, Jane Boursaw and Brette Sember

NEW COLLEAGUES AT THE LIBRARY

I hope you are enjoying the new contributors to A Traveler’s Library as much as I am.

You have now met five of the current six contributors who are bringing you new reasons to travel and new resources. Kerry talked about Nova Scotia Music on Monday; Jessie talked about Scottish Cultural Travel on Tuesday; I interviewed Jane (Wednesday Matinee) and interviewed Edie (Pet Travel) on Thursday; and Jennifer brought you various aquariums and a children’s book on Family Friday. The will be back the first full week in November.

But wait! There’s more! Brette Sember, prolific author and blogger about both legal matters and food, will be bringing us Tasty Travel on Tuesday in the middle of each month. Next week on Tuesday, I’ll interview Brette, but you can get a sneak preview at her life and work on the Contributor’s Page.

PRIZE WINNERS

Nobody e-mailed me a protest, so either you didn’t notice or you didn’t care–but I did not announce any new winners here last week, after Casey Freedland chose The Tapestry Shop, a story in the time of Robin Hood.

But since we had a new post EVERY DAY last week, I thought I’d just wait a few days and announce all the winners at once.

Remaining books are:

On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe (non fiction, the Balkans)

The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith (non fiction memoir, Syria)

Culture Smart! China. And just to spice things up, I’ll throw in today’s novel, Silk Road

The Floor of Heaven: a historical novel (real people) in Alaska’s early days

A Trick of the Light :mystery novel (Audio book, Montreal)

Contact Creede : a historical novel set in Creede, Colorado.

Our Daily Bread: dark novel based on real events in Nova Scotia

The Civilized World: Short stories about Africa

Chronicles in Stone: historical novel about wartime in Albania

At least two of these will wind up in my best travel-inspiring books of 2011 list, so leave a comment, subscribe to the blog, or tweet a message with @pen4hire in it. And I should be ready to announce the complete list of winners by October 20.

COMMENT LUV REWARDS YOUR COMMENTS

I also hope you will enjoy the new, improved Comment Luv below, which allows you to do even more than the old version. You can still post your latest blog post or a favorite site, but after you have visited and commented three times, retweeted, or posted the url of the blog post on Facebook or hit the Google Plus button, you can choose between many possible links to add to your comment. Don’t forget to add your twitter handle as well. If you are a blogger and want to get the new premium Comment Luv for your own blog, here’s a clickable link:

RANDOM POSTS

Now this is really fun! Look over to the right hand column–at the top, just below the Search by Category box. A random post displays. Click on the title and one of 434 Destination posts will pop up and a the title of a post on a new destination will be suggested. Discover new travel books. Plan trips. I can see where this could be addictive. What can you find? Where will you go?

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Haunted House Behind the Middle SchoolPlease leave a comment  and then come back later to enjoy this week’s posts that visit China and India. The next two weeks will focus on Scary books (travel mysteries set in Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Colorado for your travel library),  and Scary places (In Arizona, Louisiana and Ohio) in honor of Halloween.