To bring Black History Month to a close, I’d like to share a site that I just stumbled upon recently:  White Readers, Meet Black Authors, at http://welcomewhitefolks.blogspot.com/.

Site admin Carleen Brice calls her site "Your official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore! A sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted plea for EVERYBODY to give a black writer a try."

Thoughtful articles and essays, interviews with authors, and book reviews abound on this great site put together by someone who has a true love of books and for black writers.  Check it out.

Continuing my theme this week of books where you aren’t quite sure what the truth is…

In Lonely Places by J. M. Morris, Ruth has just escaped from her psycho abusive boyfriend.  Her beloved brother has moved to a small English town, so she decides to visit him for some tea and sympathy. However, he seems to have gone missing – and no one cares.  Is everything really as it seems?  An interesting, twisty suspense novel.

Straight Man by Richard Russo
I was thrilled when Russo won the Pulitzer for Empire Falls in 2002. But also a little disappointed that thousands of new readers would be flocking to MY discovery. Straight Man is flat out one of the funniest, smartest, most ridiculous books I’ve ever read. It is the gold standard of academic satire.

Creative Writing Professor William Henry "Hank" Devereaux acts out his midlife angst by threatening to kill a duck a day until his university’s budget crisis is resolved. This threat is delivered in front of a local film crew while wearing a funny nose and glasses. An incident that could have been overlooked if a campus quack hadn’t died the next day. Office politics, prostate problems, and an uneasy relationship with his aging father partially explain Henry’s absurd response to a mundane matter. Laugh-out-loud funny.

With this past weekend’s blockbuster success of Shutter Island, I thought I would draw your attention to a post we did way back on our original site.  

Shutter Island is full of twists and turns and characters who may or may not be telling the truth. Lehane throws a number of red herrings, odd plot twists, and a hurricane in to the mix, leaving the reader wondering exactly what is going on.
 
So today’s list features books where you can’t be sure of who is telling the truth.  Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you (like the time I wanted to read Primal Fear, so I asked my husband if he had ever read it or watched the movie, and he immediately replied,  “Oh, the one where ********?”  Sigh.)  Then again, if you like that sort of thing, then we should chat about my dysfunctional relationship with MoviePooper.com.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is undeniably a (if not THE) classic example.
Hercule Poirot investigates a series of mysterious deaths, culminating in the murder of one Roger Ackroyd.  A list of suspects is quickly assembled, with our narrator knowing more than they’re willing to tell.

In Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, our unnamed narrator hates his life and everything in it.  Then he meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic yet psycho young man who changes everything.  I’d tell you more, but the first rule of Fight Club is, You Don’t Talk About Fight Club.

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler is the debut novel of the man who would become Lemony Snicket (raise your hand if you knew that!).  It’s the story of precocious Flannery Culp and her high school clique, who call themselves The Basic Eight.  When the group falls under the influence of drugs and absinthe, murder ensues – or does it?  Is Flan a psychopath or simply a drama queen?  At turns darkly hysterical and deeply disturbing, Flan is one hell of an unreliable narrator that you won’t soon forget.

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff is a dark, fast-paced satiric novel.  A strange young woman named Jane is being held in a Las Vegas jail cell and interrogated for murder.  She claims that she works for a secret government organization: the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons.  Meaning, her job is to kill people, “Bad Monkeys”, who aren’t… nice.  As her tale unfolds, it becomes less and less clear if she is criminally insane, or if she’s actually telling the truth.

Atonement by Ian McEwan finds an unreliable narrator in pre-teen Briony, jealous of her glamorous older sister, Cecilia.  When a confused and jealous Briony tells a lie that spirals out of control, she changes the destinies of Cecilia and their childhood friend Robbie, as well as her own.  Personally, I would have liked a some more action here (and really didn’t need 2 pages of description about the lawn and a fountain…) but literary fiction lovers will devour this all the way through the twist at the end.

Primal Fear by William Diehl.
When Aaron, an altar boy, is accused of murdering a Catholic Archbishop, an unscrupulous lawyer takes the case in order to gain publicity for himself.  But when Aaron confesses to the crime under the influence of a dual personality disorder, the trial becomes even more sensational, with a stunning conclusion.

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian.
Narrator Laurel has survived a brutal attack while biking on an isolated trail.  Some years later, she comes across photographs taken by a homeless man, and among them is a picture of her on her bike.  She becomes obsessed with finding out more about the photographer, including how on earth he may be connected to her.  But is she telling us everything we need to know?

Readers on the previous blog also suggested: When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Egyptologist by Arthur Philips, and Drood by Dan Simmons.  Enjoy!

If you count on Perez Hilton for all your celebrity gossip, you missed out on this little gem. They’re FINALLY making a movie based on Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries. Nora Rawlinson spilled the beans on EarlyWord and linked to the Variety article announcing that Katherine Heigl will play the eye-rolling bounty hunter. Not that I don’t think Katherine Heigl’s a good actress, but I am a little worried that she’s too pretty to truly understand the insecurity that keeps Plum in her little Trenton orbit. What do you think? Can the Grey’s Anatomy actress pull it off?

Until then, enjoy these other unlikely P.I.s and comely crime solvers:

Author: Jennifer Apodaca
Start with: Dating Can Be Murder (2002)
Her cheating husband’s death leaves California soccer mom Samantha Shaw two young boys, no source of income, and just enough money in an insurance payout to cover a boob job and a storefront lease to start her own matchmaking service.

Author: Stephanie Bond
Start with: Body Movers (2006)
When her parents left Atlanta to avoid prosecution for a white-collar crime, Carlotta Wren, got a job at Neiman Marcus, got dumped by her fiance Peter, and got to work creating a stable home for her brother Wesley. Ten years later, Peter’s wife is killed, and Carlotta is the only person who believes he’s not the murderer.

Author: Nancy Bush
Start with: Candy Apple Red (2005)
Process server and PI-in-training in Lake Chnook, Oregon, Jane Kelly’s first case is looking for her ex-boyfriend’s best friend–a man who disappeared four years ago after being convicted for killing his entire family. The case is complicated by Jane’s kinda-cute boss and the return of her ex-boyfriend. 

Author: Tori Carrington
Start with: Sofie Metropolis (2006)
After calling off her wedding, Queens waitress Sofie Metropolis asserts her independence by moving out of her parents’ house and going to work for her uncle, a Private Investigator. Mostly pawned off on missing pet cases, Sofie catches her big break when a standard cheating spouse stakeout at a hotel turns up a dead body.

Author: Lisa Lutz
Start with: The Spellman Files (2007)
Isabele “Izzy” Spellman, never thought that her family was normal, but when she starts dating a nice dentist she sees life inside her parents’ San Francisco private investigation firm with a fresh set of eyes. Just how weird is it to bug your children’s rooms? To have your 12-year-old negotiate a fee for every household chore or bite of healthy food? To run a complete background and credit check on the nice dentist you’re dating?

This week’s Web Crush is Smart Bitches Trashy Books:  "A website that reviews romance novels from a couple of smart bitches (Sarah and Candy) who will always give it to you straight." Marvelously sassy, with really interesting discussions of all kinds of romance novels, from paperbacks to hardcover bestsellers.  You have to be able to appreciate a site where one of the FAQ (or, FAQ U to them) is, "Why do you swear so much?"

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/

In The Storyteller by Arthur Reid, aspiring author Steve King (oh, to be saddled with that name…) discovers a trunk of fantastic novels left behind by a talented dead friend.  He decides to pass them off as his own – and quickly becomes a mega-bestselling author.  Trouble is, there may be a few people who know that the stories aren’t his… Darkly comic, this book has a great double twist at the end.

LOTS of interest in Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  I managed to make it to the top of the reserve list at my library, and found it to be a fascinating story, riveting and entirely "readable".  You librarians know what I mean – how many times has a patron not realized that something was nonfiction, because it read like a fiction book?  (Countless patrons looked in fiction for Devil in the White City…).  A large part of the mystery to patrons is that we shelve these books under the call number for the disease or the science they are discussing – in your library,Skloot’s book is likely among the research on stem cells. Perhaps we need a section for "Medical Memoirs"?  "Medical Musings"?

Here are some great medical titles that might be sitting in your 600s amongst the Merck Manual and the PDR… why not draw some attention to them?

Bad Blood:  The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment by James H. Jones resonates in much the same way that Immortal Life.. does, because it’s deeply rooted in racial tension.  For 40 years, the US government conducted secret studies on poor black sharecroppers.  The men were never told they had syphilis, they were never given treatment options.

One of those books I’ve always bemoaned being abandoned in the 600s is Stiff:  The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.  A humorous (yet "deadly" serious – ha ha), informative, and fascinating look at what happens to us once we shuffle off this mortal coil. 

The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston reads like a medical thriller by Robin Cook:  Just when the world thought smallpox was eradicated by vaccinations… it’s BACK!!  Preston’s The Hot Zone (about the Ebola virus) is equally thrilling.

Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician’s Error and the Psychologist Who Helped Her by Dan Shapiro is likely hiding in your mental disorders section or worse, your pregnancy books.  It’s neither – it’s the story of a young doctor who, after being sued for medical malpractice, becomes so depressed that she decides to quit medicine entirely.

Dolley by Rita Mae Brown
Sure I could have highlighted some amazing work of historical research by Joseph Ellis or David McCullough for Presidents’ Day. But let’s be honest, those readers already know how to find the 973s by themselves. I want to tell you about a hidden gem of historical fiction by Rita Mae Brown who is probably better known for her coming-of-age novel Rubyfruit Jungle or her mystery series.

Until I read this book, the words "Dolly Madison" always made me think of the snack cake company that advertised during Peanuts specials when I was a kid. Now I think of Zingers and the high-spirited wife of the fourth President of the United States. Third-person narrative and a fictionalized diary bring to life the behind-the-scenes life at the White House during the War of 1812. Dolley comes across as a smart, witty partner who is devoted to her husband and her country. Eight years in the writing, this detailed historical novel includes an extensive bibliography.

Update your Black History Month book lists or displays with these authors on the rise:

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
After surviving a horrifying family tragedy, 11-year-old Rachel Morse, the daughter of a Danish woman and black G.I., goes to live in her paternal grandmother’s African-American neighborhood in 1980′s Portland, Oregon.

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
A green-eyed slave on an 18th-century Jamaican sugar plantation, Lilith is believed to have a dark power that will help the others, the "Night Women,"in their revolt.

Big Machine by Victor LaValle
An anonymous note brings ex-heroin addict Ricky Rice to rural Vermont where he joins the Unlikely Scholars, other down-on-their-luck African-Americans who sift through newspaper clippings for signs of the divine in the absurd.

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
Ethiopian immigrant Sepha Stephanos runs a grocery story in a struggling Washington, D. C. neighborhood. A long suppressed longing for family resurfaces when a white professor and her biracial child move next door and befriend him.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Taken to a private Ohio resort every summer by their masters, four slave women share their experiences being the boss’s mistress and plot what the risks of staying in the free North would be.