Josef Skvorecky: R.I.P.

From the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW) comes the news that crime writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky died on January 3, in Toronto. He was 87.

Josef Skvorecky was a Czech émigré writer who moved to Canada in 1969, where he taught for many years at the University of Toronto. With his wife, Zdena Salivarova,  he ran 68 Publishers, which published banned Czech works. The imprint became an important mouthpiece for dissident writers, such as Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, and Ludvík Vaculík, among many others. For providing this critical literary outlet, the president of post-Communist Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, later awarded the couple the Order of the White Lion in 1990. Skvorecky's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.

Most of Skvorecky’s novels are available in English: The Cowards, Miss Silver's Past, The Republic of Whores, The Miracle Game, The Swell Season, The Engineer of Human Souls, The Bride of Texas, Dvorak in Love, The Tenor Saxophonist's Story, Two Murders in My Double Life, An Inexplicable Story or The Narrative of Questus Firmus Siculus. Short stories: When Eve Was Naked. Short Novels: The Bass Saxophone and Emöke.

He wrote four detective novels featuring Lieutenant Boruvka of the Prague Homicide Bureau: The Mournful Demeanor of Lieutenant Boruvka, Sins for Father Knox, The End of Lieutenant Boruvka and The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka.

His best known novel was The Engineer of Human Souls, which won the Governor-General’s Award in Canada. He also won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. In 1990, he won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada for "Humbug," in The End of Lieutenant Boruvka. In addition,  his numerous literary awards include the Canadian Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction (1984), the Czech Republic State Prize for Literature (1999) and the Prize of the Comenius Pangea Foundation “For Improvement of Human Affairs” (2001) which he received with the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1982. He was also awarded the Order of the White Lion by the President of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, in 1990.

Cats on Classic Book Covers from Abe Books

Beth Carswell and the very clever people over at Abe Books have 'catified' the classics with imagined book covers and titles! Cats and books go together, albeit not in these original books.  Be sure and go to Abe Books to see all the covers.  Here's a sampling.

Lord of the Fleas

A group of adolescent fleas are stranded on a lush, furry tabby with no adult fleas, and the ever-present threat of a well-aimed claw. Eventually, despite plentiful blood and space, the stress of the situation becomes too great, and they turn on one another and sharpen a cat-hair at both ends.
The Real Deal: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Girl with the Kitten Tattoo
A kitten vanishes in Sweden, and none of the townsfolk are talking. What's the matter - cat got your tongue? Only Lisbeth Salander, super-sleuth and cat-fancier, can follow a trail this cold. What follows can only be described as a deadly game of cat and mouse.
The Real Deal: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Catsino Royale
007 declares war on Le Chat, French calico and paymaster of the Soviet euthanasia organization CAT-B-GONE. The battle begins with a fifty-million-franc game of bat-the-mousie, gains momentum during Bond's fiery love affair with a sensuous Persian, and escalates.
The Real Deal: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Be sure to see the rest of the covers at AbeBooks.com

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

Double Sided Binocular Flask

I always like things that are other than they seem. This pair of binoculars is really a double sided flask. Each eye piece opens to provide access to a separate compartment. A good solution to bringing drinks to the Ballgame. Of course if you're a thriller reader, you've probably come up with many other possibilities.

Available at several sources on the Internet, ranging from $19.95 to $47.99

Ronald Searle: R.I.P.

UK Artist, St Trinian's Creator Ronald Searle Dies at 91

From the NYT: British cartoonist Ronald Searle, best known for his spiky drawings of the tearaway pupils of the fictional girls school St Trinian's, died in southern France.

Searle, whose anarchic St Trinian's characters spawned a series of movie adaptations, died on December 30 at a hospital near his home in Draguignan, in France's south-eastern Var region.
His spindly schoolgirl creations, which first appeared in 1941, hit the big screen in 1954 as "The Belles of St Trinian's," with Alastair Sim starring in drag as headmistress Millicent Fritton.

Searle was also known for his comic illustrations in a series of 1950s satires on British private school education, written by author Geoffrey Willans, including "Down with Skool" and "How to be Topp."

The books featured the thoughts of schoolboy Nigel Molesworth, and his advice on how to survive the trials of term-time at the crumbling St. Custard's, ruled over by terrifying headmaster Grimes, head boy Grabber and the school dog.

Searle's cartoons also appeared in magazines and newspapers, including Britain's Punch and The New Yorker.

His work was recognized internationally, and he won a number of awards from America's National Cartoonists Society. In France, where he lived since 1961, he was awarded the country's prestigious Legion d'Honneur.

Read the rest of the obituary in the NYT HERE.

Read the Guardian obituary Here.

Masterpiece: Downton Abbey, Season 2

So many wonderful PBS shows on Masterpiece for 2012, starting Sunday night with Downton Abbey, Season 2. I was lucky enough to screen episodes 1-6 this past weekend. What a great way to greet the New Year, don't you think? Downton Abbey will air on your local PBS station, Sundays, starting January 8 and go through February 19.

I enjoyed Downton Abbey's first season, but I found the second season even better, if that's possible. O.K., Downton Abbey revisits many themes we've watched before: the Great War, Upstairs/downstairs relationships, the Spanish Flu, change. It's a soap opera, but such a beautiful and well written soap opera with terrific actors and great cinematography that I only lamented the end to the season. As I said, the acting is superb, the costumes fabulous, the cinematography outstanding. This is classic MASTERPIECE as well as Masterpiece Classic!

The second season of Downton Abbey starts several years after Series One ended. It's about love, intrigue and the trauma of war both in the trenches and back at the estate. And, change is definitely afoot. Add to that a bit of mystery, intrigue and romance. Several new characters fill out the cast with a new beau for Lady Mary and a fiance for Matthew. Below stairs Mr Bates continues his relationship with Anna and tries to deal with Mrs Bates, his wife. Thomas is off to war and much more. The Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith is one of the best character in my opinion. She has so much to say on so many matters. Above and below stairs there's lots of intrigue. 

Returning cast includes Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Siobhan Finneran and many more. Downton Abbey, produced by Carnival Films and copproducted by MASTERPIECE, won 6 Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movies, plus awards for Supporting Actress Dame Maggie Smith, Writer Julian Fellowes and nominations for Direction, Cinematography, and Costumes.

If you weren't one of the thirteen million MASTERPIECE viewers who watched the first season, you can watch episodes online at PBS HERE. Be sure to tune in Sunday night for Downton Abbey or set your DVR or watch next week on PBS, streaming. Don't miss it!