Feb 09

BOTNS Books Podcast #64: It’s Elementary, Dear Listeners

By Ann Kingman Podcasts, Uncategorized Add comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:19 — 14.5MB)

Grace

Come talk with us:

We want to hang out with you online! Whether you are a new listener or have been with us from the beginning, we want to talk books with you. It’s been awhile since we “advertised” all of the places that you can find us online, so we thought we’d use this episode to lay them all out for you. Here are all of the places online that you can connect with us.

Goodreads – we have a pretty active discussion forum at Goodreads, made up of people who love to talk about books. Goodreads is free to join, but you do have to be a member to participate in discussions there.

Facebook – Our ‘fan’ page has been a lot of fun to set up and see who joins, but we’d love to encourage more discussion there as well. If you don’t want to join Goodreads, and are already on Facebook, it’s an easy place to come hang out with us. We do have a discussion board set up there, but most people seem to just write on our wall, and we respond there. I guess the discussion board there is a bit redundant.

Twitter – It appears that many people use twitter as a means to let them know when a new blog post or podcast episode is up, so we’ve set up a Books on the Nightstand twitter account. It’s mostly just automated posts, and “official” BOTNS announcements. If you want to talk with us individually, please follow our personal twitter feeds: @AnnKingman and @MKindness. If you follow us, please send us an @ message telling us you’re a BOTNS reader or listener, so that we can be sure to follow you back.

And then of course, we very much encourage comments on our various blog posts here, and calls to our voicemail line.

Sherlockian Pastiche:

Sarah called in from Gainesville, Florida to recommend Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye, a novel about Sherlock Holmes’s investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders. Sarah’s call prompted us to think about other books that have Sherlock Holmes at the center.  A Publisher’s Weekly article titled “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” talks about many of those books, and Michael and I tell you about some of our favorites. We’ve listed all of the titles below, so that you can check them out at your leisure. In preparation for today’s episode, Michael started reading the first Sherlock Holmes mystery, A Study in Scarlet, and he’s enjoying it quite a lot.

Two Books We Can’t Wait for you to Read:

I tell you about The Routes of Man, a discussion of how roads are transforming cultures around the world, for both good and bad. Michael talks about The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, the lost history of the women who were the heirs to Genghis Khan.

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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. LibraryThing also links to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:

Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye

The Seven Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds by Manley Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King  (May, 2010)

A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

The Routes of Man by Ted Conover

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack by Jack Weatherford (February 16, 2010)

(all information is for the U.S. editions)

photo credit: Grace by chrisdonia

Grace by chrisdonia

  • Karen C

    If you love Holmes, I highly, highly recommend the Laurie King series. I know, most reinterpretations of Holmes are dreadful – they make him too kind, or too sexy – too modern. If anything, King adds layers to the detective’s character that (heresy alert) Doyle wasn’t a good enough writer to bother with. King’s series introduces Mary Russell, a young orphan who Holmes trains and mentors. She is just about as intelligent as the detective, a serious scholar of religion, and fearless. The series combines great history, a really intriguing, tough female, and lots of kick-ass fight scenes. You do need to read these in order.

  • Karen C

    If you love Holmes, I highly, highly recommend the Laurie King series. I know, most reinterpretations of Holmes are dreadful – they make him too kind, or too sexy – too modern. If anything, King adds layers to the detective’s character that (heresy alert) Doyle wasn’t a good enough writer to bother with. King’s series introduces Mary Russell, a young orphan who Holmes trains and mentors. She is just about as intelligent as the detective, a serious scholar of religion, and fearless. The series combines great history, a really intriguing, tough female, and lots of kick-ass fight scenes. You do need to read these in order.

  • http://www.marketblockbooks.com Stanley John

    I loved the Sherlock Pastiche concept and have not read a single Sherlock Holmes book but I’m inspired now. I did read the Letters of Arthur Conan Doyle and enjoyed that very much. I’m a fan of reading other people’s mail (published letters, that is!).

    But I wanted to add a book that is indirectly related to the Holmes reference. It’s a series by Gyles Brandreth, the first is called “Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance.” Wilde is the detective here and quite like Holmes in his powers of deduction. The setting is Victorian England and delicious in that regard. Wilde’s wit shows throw AND Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in the novel and a new friend to Oscar. I loved it and recommend it for its amusement factor.

  • http://www.marketblockbooks.com Stanley John

    I loved the Sherlock Pastiche concept and have not read a single Sherlock Holmes book but I’m inspired now. I did read the Letters of Arthur Conan Doyle and enjoyed that very much. I’m a fan of reading other people’s mail (published letters, that is!).

    But I wanted to add a book that is indirectly related to the Holmes reference. It’s a series by Gyles Brandreth, the first is called “Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance.” Wilde is the detective here and quite like Holmes in his powers of deduction. The setting is Victorian England and delicious in that regard. Wilde’s wit shows throw AND Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in the novel and a new friend to Oscar. I loved it and recommend it for its amusement factor.

  • http://booksexy.wordpress.com/ tolmsted (BookSexy)

    Ann! Michael! I’m shocked…. you’ve forgotten Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution (granted, not my favorite Sherlock Holmes book, but it still rates a mention!). There’s also The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr – which has a wonderful ending. Also, Neil Gaiman has a lovely short story – very Lovecraftian – entitled “A Study In Emerald” which is collected in Fragile Things: Short Fictions & Wonders. And while its not a Holmes story per se (one of the two main characters is Arthur Conan Doyle) – Julian Barnes’ Arthur & George is said to be very good.

    I can’t think of another fictional character who has been appropriated as many times, by as many authors, as Holmes – and almost always successfully. I wonder what it is about he & Watson that makes them so so adaptable.

  • http://booksexy.wordpress.com/ tolmsted (BookSexy)

    Ann! Michael! I’m shocked…. you’ve forgotten Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution (granted, not my favorite Sherlock Holmes book, but it still rates a mention!). There’s also The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr – which has a wonderful ending. Also, Neil Gaiman has a lovely short story – very Lovecraftian – entitled “A Study In Emerald” which is collected in Fragile Things: Short Fictions & Wonders. And while its not a Holmes story per se (one of the two main characters is Arthur Conan Doyle) – Julian Barnes’ Arthur & George is said to be very good.

    I can’t think of another fictional character who has been appropriated as many times, by as many authors, as Holmes – and almost always successfully. I wonder what it is about he & Watson that makes them so so adaptable.

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    I’m so glad you mentioned Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell books – they are fantastic! I’ve been a Holmes fan for as long as I can remember, so this episode was a lot of fun to listen to. :)

  • http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

    I’m so glad you mentioned Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell books – they are fantastic! I’ve been a Holmes fan for as long as I can remember, so this episode was a lot of fun to listen to. :)

  • http://bibliosue.blogspot.com Suzanne

    There is a YA mystery series by Nancy Springer featuring Enola Holmes — Sherlock’s younger sister — that looks interesting. A local bookstore was featuring one of the books for a mother-daughter book club and so when my 8-year old niece gets a bit older (I looked at one briefly and I think she’s still young for them yet) I’m going to see about reading these with her.

  • http://bibliosue.blogspot.com Suzanne

    There is a YA mystery series by Nancy Springer featuring Enola Holmes — Sherlock’s younger sister — that looks interesting. A local bookstore was featuring one of the books for a mother-daughter book club and so when my 8-year old niece gets a bit older (I looked at one briefly and I think she’s still young for them yet) I’m going to see about reading these with her.

  • http://jaynesbooks.blogspot.com/ Melissa W.

    I read an interesting book a few years back called “Arthur & George” by Julian Barnes, which is based on the Great Wyrley Outrages and Conan Doyle’s own foray into detective work in which he went to prove the incence of George Edalji, a half-Indian solicitor in Birmingham. There is also a more comprehensive non-fiction book ‘Conan Doyle and the Parson’s Son: The George Edalji Case’ by Gordon Weaver.

  • http://jaynesbooks.blogspot.com/ Melissa W.

    I read an interesting book a few years back called “Arthur & George” by Julian Barnes, which is based on the Great Wyrley Outrages and Conan Doyle’s own foray into detective work in which he went to prove the incence of George Edalji, a half-Indian solicitor in Birmingham. There is also a more comprehensive non-fiction book ‘Conan Doyle and the Parson’s Son: The George Edalji Case’ by Gordon Weaver.

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