American Libraries Magazine: Rousing Reads

Translit: New Genre Collapses Time and Space

Sanhita SinhaRoy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:38:54 +0000

By Bill Ott

At the recent Public Library Association conference in Philadelphia, my friend and Booklist columnist David Wright, who was giving a presentation on literary fiction, used a term I had never heard, translit, to describe that boundary-breaking kind of novel that shatters all the too-often pigeonholing categories we use to compartmentalize modern fiction.

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Science for the Nonscientist

Sanhita SinhaRoy — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:22:30 +0000

March/April 2012

By Bill Ott

I was never any good at science, whether it was dissecting a frog or—God help me—completing a science-fair project. My personal nadir came on a chemistry exam in high school. I like to think my score of eight points out of a possible 100 remains, these many decades later, the worst officially posted number in the history of the school.

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It’s That Time of Year

Beverly Goldberg — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:03:23 +0000

January/February 2012

By Bill Ott

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Hard-Boiled Mysteries and Soft-Boiled Poets

Beverly Goldberg — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:28:32 +0000

November / December 2011

By Bill Ott

The world needs more hard-boiled mysteries written by soft-boiled poets. This admittedly peculiar insight occurred to me as I was reading poet and novelist Jim Harrison’s first crime novel, The Great Leader. The book immediately reminded me of another mystery written by a poet—my favorite modern poet, as a matter of fact—Richard Hugo.

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The Problem with Sports Novels

Beverly Goldberg — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:35:37 +0000

September/October 2011

Bill Ott

Most sports novels, especially the kind that follow a team or an individual through a season of play, face a built-in problem: The drama and suspense usually rides on the team’s success or failure as it moves through the season and plays the inevitable Big Game. Thus, there can only be one of two endings.

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Surf’s Up

Beverly Goldberg — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:50:07 +0000

July/August 2011

Bill Ott

I’ve never been on a surfboard, never even seen one up close, but after finally getting around to reading Don Winslow, I’m starting to dream about being able to hang 10, if only I was 40 years younger, and my twenty-something self was endowed with far more agility and upper-body strength than that wimpy-looking kid who stares out at me sullenly from the pages of my old photo albums.

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The Ancient World

Beverly Goldberg — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:01:59 +0000

May/June 2011

Bill Ott

Every year, in late March and early April, I’m consumed with putting together Booklist’s annual Mystery Showcase issue. For more than a month, my mind is clogged with crime novels: reading them, writing about them, editing what others have written about them, etc.

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Wallander’s Last Stand

Sean Fitzpatrick — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:54:07 +0000

March/April 2011

By Bill Ott

Readers whose knowledge of Scandinavian crime fiction goes beyond Stieg Larsson know that it was Henning Mankell who jump-started what has developed into a nearly 20-year golden age. The very fact that Sweden could foster a new spin on the Chandlerian hard-boiled novel seemed puzzling initially.

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1946

Sean Fitzpatrick — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:12:43 +0000

January/February 2011

By Bill Ott

The war was over, soldiers were returning to civilian life, and governments were beginning to rebuild. Beneath the euphoria, though, the Cold War was gathering steam, and a peculiar mood—a mix of relief, ennui, and alienation—was taking hold in the minds of survivors.

I’ve Got a Horse Right Here

Sean Fitzpatrick — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:28:05 +0000

November / December 2010

By Bill Ott

There are two kinds of horse-racing stories. The most common are the sentimental ones (think National Velvet) in which an underdog horse triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds. Sometimes the same formula is used in more realistic treatments of the racing world (Seabiscuit) that embroider the march to victory with plenty of social and historical landscape.