U.K. Bookshop Crawls

Who wouldn't love to do a Bookshop Crawl in the U.K.? And, at so many different locations! The London Bookshop Crawl was last weekend, but the Cambridge Bookshop Crawl will take place Wednesday March 26; Bath Bookshop Crawl:April 3rd, and there are lots more. There are group bookshop crawls, as well as Bookshop Crawl Kits for those who want to do their own thing on the day. These crawls are filled with guided and self-guided tours of bookshops, quizzes, literary landmarks, and other book-related programs. Book shops will provide freebies, special perks, and events during the bookshop Cawl, both in bookshops and online. You'll get to meet other book people, too. And, there are BOOKS!!!

Bookshop Crawls are run around the U.K, in different locations each year, beginning with the Bookshop Crawl in London each February--then cycling rough a range of different locations between March and October. The London Book Crawl is a full weekend, but the others are just a day. Read more here. Check out the 2025 Bookshop Crawls, as well as the online Book Swap & Book Group. Sign up for the Newsletter. 

HT: Mel Hunt

INTERNATIONAL MYSTERIES: Mystery Readers NorCal Winter Book Group

Our weekly Tuesday night Mystery Readers NorCal mystery book group has been meeting for over 35 years. Every winter we 'travel' together to distant lands with a list featuring International Crime Fiction. In real time/real space this takes place every Tuesday night at 7 in Berkeley, CA. Since we read a book a week for at least 40 weeks a year, we've discussed a lot of books. Nevertheless, I put together what I think is a great list of books that we have not yet discussed. Some of the books are written by residents of the countries in which they are set, some are written by "outsiders." Whatever, this list offers something for everyone in our book group. Feel free to follow along with us and send comments.

INTERNATIONAL MYSTERIES: Winter 2019

January 8        The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (India)

January 15      An Aegean April by Jeff Siger (Greece)

January 22      The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong  (Korea)

January 29      Aunti Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano  (Sicily)

February 5      The Rage by Gene Kerrigan (Ireland)

February 12    Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen (Norway)  

February 19    The Bookseller by Mark Pryor (France)

February 26    Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint (Malaysia)

March 5         Time is a Killer by Michel Bussi (Corsica)

March 12       All This I Will Give to You by Dolores Redondo (Spain)

March 19       Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Japan)

March 26       No meeting: Left Coast Crime in Vancouver

April 2           My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Nigeria)

FALL MYSTERY GROUP READING LIST

The Mystery Readers NorCal Book Group has been meeting every Tuesday night, September-June, for over 30 years. Thought I'd post the books for this Fall. We meet in Berkeley (CA) on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. Feel free to read along and make comments. We have one book group member joining us on a regular basis via Skype!

FALL MYSTERY BOOKLIST

Most of the books this session came out in 2011 in the U.S.

September 11: Jacqueline Winspear’s A Lesson in Secrets

September 18  Camilla Lackberg's The Ice Princess

No Meeting September 25 or October 2 

October 9:   Emily Arsenault’s In Search of the Rose Notes

October 16: Lawrence Block A Drop of the Hard Stuff 

October 23: George Pelecanos’ The Cut

October 30: Val McDermid’s Trick of the Dark 

 November 6: Harry Dolan’s Bad Things Happen

November 13: Possible: Mo Hayder’s Gone or Reginald Hill’s The Spy’s Wife 

November 20: Steven Wetta’s If Jack’s in Love 

November 27: Philip Kerr’s Field of Gray

CARTOON OF THE DAY: BOOK CLUB

My friend Judy Bobalik sent this my way. Love it.. and our Mystery Book Group meets on Tuesdays!

Cartoon of the Day: Book Group

Love this comic from Six Chix. Is this your Book Group?

Hat Tip: Janet Appel

Forgotten Books: Mystery Book Group Winter 2012

The Mystery Readers International, NorCal Mystery Book Group has been meeting weekly on Tuesday nights in Berkeley (CA) for over 30 years. Since we've read so many books during that time--at least a book a week--this session we'll be revisiting some books and authors we've come across in the past. So this session, we'll be reading "Forgotten Books". Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. Please comment if you plan to attend...or  comment if you'd like to 'read and discuss' along with us.

Forgotten Books Winter  2012 

Mystery Readers Book Group Berkeley

January 10    The Killings at Badger’s Drift – Caroline Graham

January 17    Many Deadly Returns - Patricia Moyes

January 24:   Rogue Male - Geoffrey Household

January 31   The Murder of Miranda - Margaret Millar

February 7    The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod

Feburary 14   Brighton Rock - Graham Greene

February 21   Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone

February 28   Savage Season - Joe R. Lansdale

March 6        The Hollow Man (The Three Coffins) - John Dickson Carr

March 13     Outsider in Amsterdam - Janwillem van de Wetering

March 20     Speak for the Dead - Margaret Yorke

Around the World in Mysteries: Winter Bookgroup 2010

Our mystery book group meets every Tuesday. We read a series of 10 books each session. In the past we've done themes such as Art Mysteries, Academic Mysteries, Award Winners, and Just Good Books. Last winter we read a series of books with the title: Around the World with Janet and Friends. This winter we're going Around the World again, touching on some countries we missed last year. Different places, different writers, different times. I think you'll find there will be a lot of discussion and, hopefully, an introduction to a few new authors.

The Group is very well read, and after 35 years of meeting every Tuesday, you can imagine that we may have read way more than the titles here. This cumulative knowledge is brought into each session. Besides discussing books, our book group has been responsible for putting on several mystery conventions including Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon. Some of the members include people known in the mystery community such as Bill & Toby Gottfried, Vallery Feldman, Noemi Levine and Sue Trowbridge, and there are even more.

We meet every Tuesday night at my home in Berkeley, CA, and we welcome new members. Email me if you'd like to join us. If you can't join us physically, how about sending a weekly review of each book to share.

Around the World with Janet and Friends II: Winter 2010

January 5 A Beautiful Place to Die by By Malla Nunn (South Africa)

January 12 A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (Botswana)

January 19 The Witch Doctor's Wife by Tamar Myers (The Congo)

January 26 The Man of My Life by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (Spain)

February 2 The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer (Turkey)

February 9 Songs My Mother Never Taught Me by Selcuk Altun (Turkey)

February 16 The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva (Israel/Italy)

February 23 The Collaborator of Bethlehem Matt Beynon Rees (Israel)

March 2 The Menorah Men by Lionel Davidson (Israel)

March 9 No session (??Left Coast Crime??)

March 16 Beekeeper by J. Robert Janes (France)

March 23 Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo (France)

March 30 or April 6 A Cara Black -- Everyone will read a mystery set in a different Arrondisement in Paris