Oh I've been a lazy blogger, as well as a lazy reader! I'm still searching for those great happy book club choices...

For those that love a crackling plot, look no further than Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. A mystery told alternately by a battling husband and wife, this convoluted plot is full of red herrings and twists. It is almost impossible to put down once you start. Lots of interesting topics to discuss at book club about the relations between the sexes!

For some nonfiction, try Quiet by Susan Cain. It's about the motivations of introverts, and what they bring to the world. Then the book club can check in with their introverted members to get their take on the subject! Another non fiction choice is Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott. In this wise and honest book she interweaves stories and practical advice.

If you love bookstores, you may go crazy over Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane. This is The Da Vinci Code for book nerds! I enjoyed thinking about the evolution of searching for information, and the changing publishing world. I also loved how just like in a fairy tale, the hero Clay succeeds in his quest not because he is strongest or smartest, but because he is a good friend who can assemble a team for a quest.

The book whose language and characters have stayed in my head the most is Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues. I can hear the narrator Sid Griffiths speaking in his slang about his jazz band in World War II Europe. The language can be a little daunting, so I checked out a bookcd. That way the words flowed into my brain, and I didn't get hung up on a meaning of a particular word. Just like listening to Shakespeare, I relaxed, and the meaning flowed in.

These books aren't "funny haha", and in fact Half Blood Blues and Gone Girl are sad. Paired with some good friends, wine and conversation, however, I promise that you will have a happy ending to your reading.

Flavia fans rejoice! Alan Bradley's lastest novel Speaking from Among the Bones is his most recent mystery starring the determined investigator Flavia de Luce. For those who don't know her, Flavia lives in 1950s rural England in a mansion with her father, sisters, and staff. She uses her chemistry lab and interview skills to catch criminals, and she doesn't suffer fools. Now twelve, Flavia is starting to notice some troublesome behavioural changes in herself. In spite of this, she manages to tunnel though the local graveyard in search of clues to the murder of a church vocalist found dead just before the official unearthing of a renowned saint.

With a mystery series, I'm always concerned that the latest novel will be too true to formula, and that I'll lose interest. But Flavia never fails. I whipped through Speaking Among the Bones and once again thought "Blast! now I'll have to wait another year for Bradley's next novel to be published!" Just when I thought there would be a straight-forward end to this Flavia novel, Bradley leaves me with a doolally of a cliffhanger! Although I'm dying to tell, I won't.

Read his others first:

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
2. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag
3. A Red Herring without Mustard
4. I am Half Sick of Shadows

Review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I read Cheryl Strayed’s book almost the way that Cheryl hiked the Pacific Crest Trail: hard, with not too many stops, and with a devotion that bordered on the maniacal. It is a good book in that it accomplishes what she wants, to bring to life the hardship and wonder of pushing your body to unendurable limits. I mean, the name of her knapsack was Monster, and I would have given it a few more besides if I’d been her. With no real experience of backpacking she hikes for 1100 miles from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State in boots that are too small and a packsack that even veterans of the trail could hardly lift. At times, she believes the spirit of her dead mother is watching her, sometimes helping her. At other times, I would assume that she’d blush to have her mother watching over her, as she rashly decides on one-night stands.

Her old life would catch up to her at the most inconvenient times: when she was 22 her life was veering out of control with a marriage that was over, her mother dead, her family scattered and her drug abuse mounting. To say that she was impulsive is an understatement. How does this all tie up in her memoir? Each chapter is both a struggle with her hiking, (the boots, the endless urgings for Snapple and food, the weight of her pack) and with coming to terms with her past. Each chapter has a person’s name associated with it - her father’s and those memories, her ex-husband’s, her mother’s. Each one is grappled with and then closed as the chapter closes. She finds closure with her past and as she does so her journey becomes bearable.

I wouldn’t for all the world want to come to terms with my grief the way Cheryl did with the endless torture of walking, the way the body breaks down under stress and all the haunting memories, but it seemed to release her from her self-destructive tendencies in a remarkable way. This is what I loved most about this book; there is no psychobabble in it, no big ahah moment, no one to take the camera picture. She is just there, constantly improving with no visible understanding of why.

- Laurie Schut

Gil Scott-Heron was a unique voice during America's turbulent years of social upheaval in the 1970's. Musically, he was way ahead of his time. In the year 1970 he released his debut album, Small Talk at 125th and Lennox, which contained the song The Revolution Will Not be Televised - cited by many people as the first rap song ever recorded. Scott-Heron has been called "The Godfather of Rap" and when he passed away in 2011 pop superstar Usher, among many others, cited him as a major figure in 20th Century music.

So why wasn't he more famous? Part of the answer may be that a drug problem he developed in the seventies made him difficult for promoters, record companies, and other musicians to handle. He went through several configurations of band mates before his record company, Arista, dropped him in the mid-eighties. His strong opinions about politics and civil rights hardly made him a mainstream media darling - in short he was probably just "to hot to handle" for AM radio, which dominated what the public listened to in those times. Despite all of that his music has stood up remarkably well, and I am glad to see that several of his CDs are available for you to check out from the Calgary Public Library.

Also available from the library is "The Last Holiday: A Memoir", a biography that focuses on the time he spent on Stevie Wonder's Hotter Than July tour - a time when Wonder was the strongest voice speaking out for a holiday to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. It is an amazing book that will fascinate anyone remotely interested in the social changes that happened through the seventies and early eighties.

So today, Martin Luther King Day, why not check out the words and music of a man who did his part in making this holiday come to pass? Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to listen to some Stevie Wonder or read the words of Dr. King himself. While this may not be a holiday here in Canada, I think we can all agree that the example Dr. King set has had a great positive effect that does not stop at the borders of the United States.

Review of Georgette Heyer’s Regency Romance novels

I hesitate to write of Georgette Heyer’s novels in that they resemble nothing more than pale shadows of Jane Austen at her not very best. Heyer’s novels centre around getting married in the time of the Regent, 1795-1837, in England. The plots are improbable, the dialogue gets tiring and yet, and yet, they are delicious. No less a writer than A.S Byatt, among others, has sung her praises and I can definitely recommend them for those readers who have worn out Pride and Prejudice on their CD players. Georgette never fails.

Let’s be clear. The heroines are always virtuous, if a little careless, and the heroes, are not... That makes for some interesting stories. Kidnappings, near rapes, some interesting duels, getting into scrapes with the law and (more importantly) people of the Ton, getting out of scrapes, getting money, losing money and then, of course, shopping. It is rather dizzying. Heyer is good with details, bad with editing. She goes on at length about the way a ball gown is draped, but neglects to do the one thing that all good novelists should do, move the plot along. So, perhaps perceiving that the reader is lost somehow in the folds of a necktie, she retrieves him, (or her), stuffs her in a coach with her heroine, and drops them in a Vauxhall rout. Wait, weren't we supposed to be eloping with Valdor? Or was it Charles? The other problem with Heyer is that she loves to stuff us full with dainties - characters that are either straight out of Dickens or out of Bronte. A harsh villain may bear a close resemblance to Heathcliff while another father figure seems a tad like Daniel Peggotty. We do love these characters, but perhaps not quite so many in such short novels all enacting such Cheltenam tragedies! Her use of the vernacular of the times is brilliant, I want to be bedeviled, blue as begrim, or perhaps have a fit of the vapors. Life was so much more lived then. There were orgies, balls, duels, gaming, rakes and penitence. Above all, in Heyer, there is penitence.

Laurie Schut Louise Riley Library

When I was young and insecure I used to pretend to have read books I hadn't. It started in university in attempts to impress cute English majors and carried over when I started selling books. I felt customers wouldn't respect my opinion unless I could give them my first hand impressions. What a fool I was. Luckily I quickly caught on that people didn't care about what I had or had not read - they just wanted a book they would like. I learned to listen to what friends, co-workers and customers had to say about books and authors I had not read, and soon I was confidently recommending books based on this information.

If I were a bookseller today, I'd be selling bucket-fulls of a novel called Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Two weeks ago a friend of mine told me that it was the most enjoyable book he'd read in years, then last week another friend recommended it, saying that she really liked all the plot twists and suspense. I trust the taste of both of these friends - they are avid readers who will not recommend something unless it really stands out. They are smart people, so anything they like has got to be well written and if they both praise a book while using terms like "suspenseful" and "accessible", then I know I'm looking at book with wide appeal. It also seems that the public buzz about this particular book is getting stronger - at this moment there are thirty two holds for the copies we have in the library. The last time I remember this much positive word-of-mouth over a book it was shortly afterThe Sister's Brothers was published, and I think this one might even appeal to wider range of people.

What is behind all this interest? The publisher's blurb reads as follows: A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore. Sounds like The Da Vinci Code crossed with the kind of hip writing that fans of Jonathan Letham or David Mitchell have come to love. The names of other authors have been mentioned in comparison as well: Eco, Murakami, Calvino. The adjectives I most commonly hear applied are quirky, smart and (most importantly) fun.

Of couse few, if any, books appeal to everyone, and since I don't know you (you being whoever may read this blog) I can't guarantee this will be your next favourite book. But if you are a book nerd (and if you are reading this I have to assume you are a bit of a book nerd) the chances are pretty good you will like this a lot. So get a copy - ask for it should anyone pester you for last second gift suggestions. Or check it out from the library; just make sure to get your name on the hold list right away. That list is only going to get longer, I suspect.

One of the great things about being a snob is that you get to discover things way before the general public, or even the culturati in general, catch on. Yes it is lonely being so far ahead of the crowd but that is just the burden a snob like me has to bear. This loneliness is more than offset once the world catches up to you, and you can then proudly say you were into R.E.M. after their debut album and you read Haruki Murakami's first novel to be translated into English when it was still only available in hardcover. Yes I know some people will mutter under their breath that you are an insufferable bore, but I'm sure that deep down they admire your genius for recognizing the genius of others.

I say all this as a preamble to my latest book-snobbish pronouncement: Etgar Keret is the most important writer in the world.

Now I realize you may have no idea who Etgar Keret is, so let me fill you in. Etgar Keret is a forty-five year old Isreali writer who has published five collections of short stories. Five books? you say How can I claim to have discovered this guy when he has already written five books? Calm down. He is still in that "cult following" stage, so as long as you claim him as your own before he becomes a household name (which could be in five years or sometime next week) then you get all the hipster points. Take it as a good sign that currently only two of his books are available from the library. You may want to even buy (gasp!) one of his books, so then you can leave it lying around your apartment to be noticed by friends.

Why is he important?

Glad you asked.

Every great new writer stakes out uncharted territory - and this is exactly what Keret does. He writes very short stories - which is perfect for the age we live in. Let's face it, the internet has reduced our collective attention span down to the level of fruit bats. While other authors attempt to fight this reality - writing longer works in the vain hopes we will exercise our brains back to Tolstoy strength - Keret knows you can't fight evolution. Or is it devolution? Whatever - the point is Keret can deliver a beautiful story that illuminates a profound truth about the human condition and he can do it in about four pages. His stories are absurd, which probably puts the serious literature folks off. I say we live in absurd times and that calls for absurd literature. So what if his stories feature talking fish and cute girls that transform into fat harry men once the sun goes down? This is the new mythology that make sense of the early twenty first century. Eighty years ago nobody understood why a story about a guy turning into a cockroach was important. But more important than form is the style Keret uses: part Kurt Vonnegut, part Coen brothers, part Lenny Bruce, part Bugs Bunny, part Sigmund Freud....Keret has a voice that is quitessentially "now". Oh, and another thing - Keret has some things to say about being a human and trying to have some dignity in a world where dignity is rare. This alone makes him important.

The big knock against Keret is that he is not politically correct. He offends some people. In his native Isreal he has pulled off the impossible trick of being both the most popular writer and the least popular writer at the same time! If that is not a sign of genius, I don't know what is.

So go get yourself an Etgar Keret book. You will find it is as great as it is hard to find.

The Lazy reader recommends books for bookclubs: not too long, not too sad, and a little humour thrown in!

Popular favourites: The Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Help, The Imperfectionists, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Water for Elephants

A little more literary: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Generosity: An Enhancement, State of Wonder

Fun mysteries: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Thirteenth Tale

Non fiction to discuss: Bossypants, Dreams of Trespass, The Film Club, The Horse Boy, Julie and Julia, Me Talk Pretty One Day, West with the Night, The Happiness Project

Quirky characters: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, The Family Fang, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutman, Come Thou Tortoise

Fantasy favourites: The Night Circus, Wicked, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Graceling

When you’re on holiday, why read a dry list of dates and events to learn the history of a place? There are glossy paperbacks to fill that need! I was going to London, England, the home of Madame Tussaud’s waxworks. Although I haven’t seen her wax figurines, I was curious about the life story of this London institution. And then I chanced upon Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran. It turns out Madame Tussaud was born Marie Grosholz, and she spent her early years in Paris, modeling wax figures of the royal family. Michelle weaves a story around this volatile time during the French Revolution. Although Marie teaches sculpting to the King’s sister Elisabeth, her step father wisely invites the leading figures of the Revolution to their salon. Thus we meet Robespierre, Danton, Marat, the Marquis de Lafayette and the Duc d’Orleans. Although the story was cliché at times, it was a pleasant way to review French history. And Madame Tussaud, a practical businesswoman in the midst of such turbulent times, is an excellent choice for an historical imagining.

Another pleasant book to read about London is The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart. This is a light romantic comedy set in The Tower of London. Like a frothy lovefest that William Shakespeare or Ingmar Bergman would write, all the many characters find love after misadventures. The main love story is between Balthazar Jones, a beefeater and his wife Hebe who works in Lost and Found for the London Underground subway. Ridiculous and charming, the reviewer that called it a “summer confection” hit the nail on the head. If you’ve ever visited the Tower of London, you will pick up some historical bits as you’re entertained.

Today I noticed the headline on the front page of the Globe and Mail: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Cottages." What grabbed my attention, aside from the fact that such a calm and inward-looking piece should be front page material, was that the "What We Talk About When We Talk About" schtick has become so ubiquitous that a national newspaper could reference it on the front page. The unspoken message seems to be "If you get the Raymond Carver reference you are going to like this article." This seemed an improbable idea to me at first but the more I thought about it the more fascinated I found it to think of the journey this quirky sequence of words has taken in the last three decades. I simply had to explore the question: How has the title of a Raymond Carver collection of short stories published over thirty years ago managed to become a recognizable turn of phrase?

It all began back in 1981 when Raymond Carver, the acknowledged living master of the American short story, (a title which, alas, brings about as much fame and fortune to the one it is bestowed upon as does the title of World's Greatest Fooseball Player) wrote a story called "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." Undoubtedly this would have made no impression on the general public except that the collection in which this story appeared also bore the same name. There is something so good about this title - the rhythm is almost hypnotic and it forces the reader to slow down and really think about the meaning of the sentence: that we are going to get to the truthful heart of the subject that we have, until now, only been talking around. That the subject is love makes it all the more compelling. It is an undeniably great title and one that sticks in the mind for a long time.

Carver wrote in a style often labeled "minimalist" or "realist" or, if you are really into labels, "minimal realism". In short, he has a writer who didn't use two words where one word would suffice and this produced an effect that everything in the story mattered—there is a concentration in the style that demands the concentration of the reader. He was also a remarkably consistent writer—the level of excellence in his early stories was pretty much equal to his later work. You can pick up any of his books and find yourself reading superior fiction. There are no bad Carver books but if you are looking for a place to start why not check out the book we are talking about?

Carver was a critic's darling and his work was much admired by other writers and students who wanted to impress people with the quality of fiction they read (I was just such a student in the 1980's) but he didn't make a deep impression on the general public. His books sold moderately well, but his chosen form—the short story—was terribly out of fashion. It still is. He made a great impression on the generation of writers to follow not only in America but all over the world. One such writer who openly sites Carver as a model is the superstar of world literature Haruki Murakami. At first glance the surrealistic fiction of Murakami bears little resemblance to the realism of Carver, but Murakami was a very impressed with the obvious craftsmanship of Carver's writing. In fact Murakami was such a big fan of Carver that he felt compelled to translate some of his idol's stories into Japanese. In 2008, when Murakami needed to come up with a title for his non-fiction book about running it seemed natural that he should settle upon "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running." The Murakami title not only pays homage to Carver but it hints at the connection between running and writing and this connection is the main theme of the book. In fact you don't have to be a runner at all to enjoy this excellent book.

Last year Nathan Englander released a collection of short stories titled "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank." This title neatly sums up a lot about Nathan Englander; he is both an "intellectual" (hence the Carver allusion) and a smarty pants (hence the way he uses the allusion). Nathan Englander is not afraid to offend and is willing to be controversial to make a point. Not only does he borrow Carver's title, he follows the plot of the Carver story in his own version. In the original Carver story two couples are disscussing the topic of love while drinking gin. As they all get increasingly less inhibited (drunk) they let more and more deeply gaurded thoughts and feelings escape until, inevitably, it goes too far. In the Englander version the two couples are Jews living in Florida and the topic is not love but who among their Christian friends would save them if there was an American Holocaust. I confess I have not read this collection yet but I did read his earlier short story collection, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" and can recommend it to anyone who is not easily offended.

Just last month saw the release of a book By Noah Richler called "What We Talk About When We Talk About War." I have not read this book yet, but it seems to me that the title is meant to be completely un-ironic. Like the original Carver title, it is simply meant to imply a "cutting through the bologna" and getting to the heart of the matter. In this case Richler is examining the long held idea that Canadian troops are "peace keepers" rather than "war makers."

This "straight up" use of the Carver title signals that the whole phrase is now part of the common lexicon we all use. Don't be surprised to hear people start saying "What are we talking about when we talk about hockey?" or "books" or "freedom" or just about any topic in which we need to cut through all the noise and get to the truth.