Library Journal articles from March 2005

Library Journal archives from March 2005

What value fellowships? Postgraduate fellowships give new graduates a leg up in the job market.(editorial)
March 1, 2005... INSTEAD OF A GOLD WATCH TO COMMEMORATE her 25 years on the job as director of Darien Library, CT, Louise Berry got a two-year, privately funded fellowship--not for herself but to hire a 2005 MLS graduate. The endowed fellowship sounds like the...

Off the record: in troubled times it is valuable and necessary to communicate ...(blatant Berry)
March 1, 2005... BAD TIMES COME IN MANY VARIETIES. SOMETIMES they are the result of out-and-out malfeasance by a librarian or library-related official. More often trouble comes with budget cuts, layoffs, and decisions driven by lack of fiscal support. These...

Worse for small libraries.(feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Thank you for your editorial and its message on small rural libraries (Franclue Fialkoff, "Small Libraries, Big Impact," LJ 2/l/05, p. 8). I often feel that the American Library Association does not realize that we exist, that it is all about...

VR alive in Kansas.(feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Brenda Bailey-Hainer rightly points out that whereas localized virtual reference services have sometimes struggled with low use and high costs, statewide VR has been more successful ("Virtual Reference: Alive & Well," LJ 1/05, p. 46-47). One...

Christian selection.(feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I am the adult fiction/large print selector at our library system in Nebraska. I appreciate the Christian Fiction column in LJ. Our library uses LJ and Baker & Taylor publications as our main sources for upcoming titles. Our patrons love the...

Theology data bases.(feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... While we were pleased with the overall article and that "Finding Religion: Gall Golderman and Bruce Connolly Rate the Religion Databases" (E-Reviews, LJ netConnect, Fall 2004, p.32-38) called the ATLA Religion Database "the premier indexing...

Offensive & sexist.(feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I suggest that columnist Jeff Dick refrain from labeling a 15-year-old's virginity as a negative characteristic. The opening sentence in his review of the film Fat Girl (Fast Scans, LJ 11/15/04, p. 96) would indicate that a "comely but...

RBI/NBC to debut quill awards.(front desk)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Librarians will be among the judges in a new glossy book awards program announced January 26 by Reed Business Information (RBI), parent of Library Journal and Publishers Weekly (PW), and NBC Universal Television Stations. The Quill Awards will...

Heard.(front desk)
March 1, 2005... Q: What is the difference between a librarian and a large pizza? A: A large pizza can feed a family of four. --POSTED ON LISNEWS.COM FEBRUARY 2, 2005

Princeton's hot firestone library.(front desk)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... "[I]t was obvious to me then, and has become only more so as the years go by, that libraries are the sexiest places, and librarians the sexiest people, on earth." John F. Fleming, Louis W. Fairchild '24 professor of English, Princeton...

A bracelet for us.(front desk)(public library fundraising)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... "Libraries matter" (www.librariesmatter.com) began as a local library awareness campaign sponsored by Alliance Library System, one of the nine regional systems in Illinois, based in East Peoria. Participating libraries could buy 50 bracelets...

Stat watch.(front desk)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... 80,000 The number of page requests the King County Library System, WA, receives in a typical month for ebooks and downloadable audio 135,591 The number of requests received in one week after the Seattle Times published an article...

FL, SC studies tout return on public library investment: assert that $1 generates impact of $6.54, $4.48, respectively.(LJ news)
March 1, 2005... Florida's public libraries return $6.54 for every $1 invested, asserts a study prepared for the State Library and Archives of Florida (dlis.dos.state.fl.us/bld/roi/pdfs/ ROISummaryReport.pdf). While the total revenue invested is $449 million,...

Hope for Salinas libraries?(LJ news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Salinas, CA, mayor Anna Caballero February 3 unveiled a "Rally Salinas" fundraising campaign to reverse the planned closure of the city's library system (see News, LJ 1/05, p. 19), which would begin in March. "We are here at this location to...

Baker & Taylor branches out.(Industry News)
March 1, 2005... Baker & Taylor (B&T) remains the library market's leading print distributor (it reports 90 percent penetration in PLs), but the company has expanded its turf, making it the supplier with the most formats, including games. Venturing outside...

Federal library funding may rise: budget request would increase state grants, 21st Century program.(LJ news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... President George W. Bush's budget request of $221,325,000 in FY06 funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) represents a rise of $15,374,000 (7.5%) from the FY05 appropriation--but an amount similar to his FY05 budget request...

OhioLINK cuts resources: also, state shortfall threatens funding for public libraries.(LJ news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... After years of adding resources, OhioLINK, the highly regarded statewide consortium of academic libraries in Ohio, has cut service. In the latest two-year budget proposal, OhioLINK--following a period of small cuts to its funding, budget...

NIH access plan watered down: required access replaced by voluntary posting of medical articles.(LJ news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Seven months after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposed an ambitious policy to offer free access to medical research (News, LJ 8/04, p. 17), the final policy, released February 3, leaves the issue pretty much where it started. The...

Library of the Year nominations sought.(LJ news)
March 1, 2005... The Library Journal/ Gale Group Library of the Year Award honors the library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding community service. Members of the editorial board of Library Journal, representatives from Gale's Executive Committee,...

OverDrive offers audiobook plan: joins Recorded Books/netLibrary in unlimited downloads.(LJ News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In a response to market demand, as well as the announcement of the Recorded Books/netLibrary partnership (see "Feeling a Squeeze," LJ 11/15/04, p. 36), OverDrive launched "Maximum Access," which allows libraries to lend unlimited quantities of...

San Diego PL project hits snag: financial investigation halts planned sale of bonds.(LJ News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The San Diego Public Library's ten-year, $312 million expansion/improvement plan has hit a roadblock, as pending criminal investigations into the city's financial crisis has halted the issuance of bonds. Some $87 million in bonds were to be...

Emerald sorry for duplication: company offers some recompense to libraries and to endow research.(LJ News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In response to charges of unethical article duplication among Emerald journals (see News, LJ 12/04, p. 20), CEO Keith Howard offered a "qualified mea culpa" and an invitation to host up to five directors of Association of Research Libraries...

Mellon boosts recruitment effort.(LJ News)(Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a second grant of $500,000 to six academic libraries to address librarian recruiting and diversity issues at the undergraduate level. The award funds the second year-and-a-half of a three-year,...

Calendar.(LJ News)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... APRIL 5-8--Texas Library Assn., Austin www.txla.org 6-8--Oregon Library Assn., Portland www.otaweb.org 11-13--Connecticut Library Assn., New Haven cla.uconn.edu 11-13--New Jersey Library Assn., Long Branch www.njla.org ...

Budget causes SFPL to postpone RFID.(LJ News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Faced with a $600,000 budget shortfall, the San Francisco Public Library chose to save half of that amount by postponing its planned $300,000 expenditure for radio frequency identification (RFID) at one branch, AV materials at the Main Library,...

OUP, Mellon douse project TORCH.(LJ News)(Oxford University Press)(The Online Resource Center in the Humanities)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Oxford University Press (OUP)-led Project TORCH (The Online Resource Center in the Humanities), a collaborative activity to make collections of backlist scholarly monographs in the humanities available in electronic format, has been...

Nixon papers freed.(LJ News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A law passed in 2004 has cleared the way for the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda, CA, finally to receive the 37th president's papers, which have been held by the federal government in California. The facility, currently the only...

Americans for Libraries Council.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Gloria Coles has been appointed national Lifelong Access Director, Americans for Libraries Council, leading its Lifelong Access Libraries initiative, implemented by Libraries for the Future. She was Director, Flint Public Library, MI, for 20...

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Mary Beth Gratop has been named Manager, Locke Branch library, Toledo Lucas County Public Library (T-LCPL). She has been with T-LCPL since 1969.

Minneapolis Public Library.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Edward R. Kukla, first Head of the Special Collections Department, Minneapolis Public Library, has retired after 18 years of service. He began his career as Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian, Greenfield Museum, Dearborn, MI, in 1974.

Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Georgia Morgan, Circulation Staffer, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, AL, has recently celebrated her 96th birthday. She has been working for the library for over 20 years.

Digital Media Center.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Peter Murray is now Assistant Director of Library Systems, Ohio Library and Information Network (Ohio-LINK), a consortium of 84 academic libraries and the State Library of Ohio. Murray will be managing the Digital Media Center. He was Assistant...

Colorado Library Consortium.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Colorado Library Consortium has hired three Regional Consultants: Lisa Priebe, formerly with the Arapahoe Library District, Englewood; Shelley Walehak, formerly at Fort Lewis College, Durango; and Beth Filar Williams, from Southwest Library...

Batavia Public Library.(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... George H. Scheetz is now Director, Batavia Public Library, IL. He was Director of the Virtual Library, The Library Channel LLC, Champaign, IL.

Obituary.(people)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... Yvonne Humber, retired Librarian, died on January 13 at the age of 99. Her career in librarianship spanned 44 years. Robert Jevne, retired Librarian and Bibliographer, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, for 20 years, died in...

Librarians work with GIS on enhancements to Polaris 3.2: Polaris Users Group makes significant recommendations for beta release.(infotech)
March 1, 2005... GIS Information Systems is beta-testing Polaris 3.2, the latest incarnation of its signature ILS solution, but it has proven a team effort between the vendor's developers and numerous members of the Polaris Users Group, who were pivotal in...

Sirsi Corporation buys Docutek.(infotech)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Sirsi Corporation recently announced the acquisition of Docutek, which markets e-resource and e-learning solutions. Sirsi said that, as a wholly owned subsidiary, Docutek will continue to "design, develop, sell, and support its Docutek ERes,...

Serials Solutions' new engine: Central Search federated searching tool crosses disparate resources.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Serials Solutions has entered the federated search engine fray with the debut of Central Search. According to the vendor, Central Search "allows patrons and librarians to search disparate digital resources from a single, easy-to-use interface,...

TLC upgrades to 13-digit ISBN: all cataloging programs to accept upcoming expanded ID number.(Industry News)(The Library Corporation)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The upcoming expansion to the 13-digit ISBN has set the library field into a minor tizzy, with many questions about how OPACs will handle the extra digits, as the software was designed for the current ten-digit ID. The Library Corporation (TLC)...

VTLS releases FASTRAC 2.0: partnering with Univ. of Virginia Library for FEDORA tools.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... VTLS has moved into 2005 with updates and new partnerships. The company is now marketing a new release of FASTRAC, "a complete rewrite of the product into the .Net environment utilizing the C# programming language and the web services...

U. of Virginia partnership.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... VTLS is also in talks with the University of Virginia Library (UVA) to "explore the creation of software tools that can be used with FEDORA." The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is funding research into FEDORA applications as a joint effort between...

WilsonWeb links to Scirus: users can toggle from citations to science-specific search engine.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... H.W. Wilson has cut a deal that will see its WilsonWeb product linked to Scirus, Elsevier's science-specific web search engine. Via the OpenURL linking feature, according to Wilson," customers can click from article citations to an automatic...

EBSCO founder dead at 93: Elton B. Stephens Sr. established nation's first endowed library chair.(Infotech People)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... Elton Bryson Stephens Sr., founder and chair emeritus of EBSCO Industries, died February 5 at age 93. EBSCO had its humble beginnings in 1944 when Stephens and his wife launched an endeavor to sell recreational supplies, including magazine...

SAGE's targeted collections.(E-Views And Reviews)
March 1, 2005... Education: A SAGE Full-Text Collection Psychology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection SAGE Publications www.sagefulltext.com The SAGE Full-Text Collections are research databases of popular, peer-reviewed journals in a variety of subjects...

Teaching student searchers.(Online Databases)
March 1, 2005... MUCH HAS CHANGED IN MY 30 years of teaching library and information science (LIS) students about online searching. Certainly the specific systems and hardware have evolved but so has the role of the librarian; access, which is now 24/7; the...

Visualize this: visualization software may become a powerful new way to search--or a footnote in technology history.(Infotech Feature)
March 1, 2005... Three students hunch over their computers, each doing research for a paper on nanotechnology. They all began their assignment with a simple Google search, only to learn that there are "2,500,000 English pages for nanotechnology." Their problem...

Trish Palluck.(Paraprofessional Of The Year 2005)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... Twenty-six years ago Trish Palluck started as a page, shelving books at the Wyoming State Library. In a year she moved up to cataloging. Even at the entry level as a library assistant, she loved it. "She mastered not only all the mechanics of...

The masters of science writing.(Best Sci-Tech Books 2004)
March 1, 2005... Within the community of science writers, just a handful are recognized--often via best books lists and literary awards--as the elite. Of the 36 authors whose works are cited below as the best in science and technology for 2004, 19 have seen...

And the winners are ...(Best Sci-Tech Books 2004)
March 1, 2005... Major literary fiction awards like the Pulitzer and Booker prizes attract the most public attention, but awards for nonfiction writing, and for science writing in particular, are no less prestigious or valuable, even if they are less well...

Digital savings: a study of academic libraries finds that going from print to electronic journals can save money, if it's done right, but challenges remain.
March 1, 2005... Without question, the ongoing transition from print to electronic periodicals has challenged librarians to rethink their strategies. While some effects of this change have been immediately apparent--greater breadth of material, easier access,...

Bon Voyage!(Collection Development / Cruiseship Travel)
March 1, 2005... Twice the size of the Titanic, the recently launched Queen Mary 2 heralds the spectacular revival of the cruise ship industry, which had been depressed by the tragic events of September 11, outbreaks of the Norwalk virus, and the bankruptcy of...

Is the MLS DOA?(Case Study)
March 1, 2005... "THANK YOU, JACK. WE APPRECIATE your taking the time to meet with us," said Augustus Wilkes, veteran chair of the Essex Public Library System's board. "You staying in the city overnight?" "I wish I could," Jack Scavullo answered, smiling...

Managers are born.(Analysis I)
March 1, 2005... The question of whether or not to hire MLS candidates for managerial positions is not new. Case in point, several of our country's Librarians of Congress have not held MLS degrees, and many keynote speakers outside of the library field have...

What's the big picture?(Analysis II)
March 1, 2005... There's one fundamental question, but it's not the MLS question. Wilkes has made his stance perfectly clear: he's met with at least six candidates and none fits his preconceived notion of the next Essex Library director, so move on. He's...

What's your sign?(Backtalk)
March 1, 2005... AS LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY HAS evolved, librarians have begun to turn over many of their usual tasks to their patrons. There are online catalogs, self-checkout stations, remote access for placing holds, and self-service hold shelves. Some libraries...

Prepub alert.(Audio)
March 1, 2005... FICTION Brockmann, Suzanne. Breaking Point. Ballantine. Jul. 2005. 400p. ISBN 0-345-48012-0. $21.95. FBI hostage negotiator Max Bhagat fell in love with Gina Vitagliano while rescuing her from a terrorist hijacking. Now she's been...

Crime with a Spanish accent.(mystery)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In the past few years, Latino authors, subject matter, and characters have made inroads into the mystery genre. Alicia Gaspar de Alba, for example, offers a powerful depiction of social injustice and serial murder on the Mexican-American...

Farmer, Jerrilyn. The Flaming Luau of Death: a Madeline Bean Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Farmer, Jerrilyn. The Flaming Luau of Death: A Madeline Bean Novel. Morrow. Mar. 2005. c.240p. ISBN 0-06-058729-6. $23.95. M Madeline (Perfect Sax) and partner Wesley, L.A. event planners extraordinaire, treat longtime employee Holly (and...

Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... * Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders. Arte Publico. Mar. 2005. c.352p. ISBN 1-55885-446-0. $23.95. M IvonVilla, a women's studies professor who needs to finish her dissertation in order to keep her job, travels to her...

Geisler, Barbara Reichmuth. Graven Images.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Geisler, Barbara Reichmuth. Graven Images. Lost Coast. (Averillan Chronicles, Bk. 2). Apr. 2005. c.432p. ISBN 1-88289784-6. pap. $16.95. M Abbess Emma, troubled by knowledge of the abbey steward's financial perfidy and wondering how she...

Gunn, Elizabeth. Crazy Eights: a Jake Hines Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Gunn, Elizabeth. Crazy Eights: A Jake Hines Mystery. Forge: Tor. Mar. 2005. c.272p. ISBN 0-765-30806-1. $23.95. M Capt. Jake Hines (Seventh-Inning Stretch) and his Rutherford, MN, detective crew finally locate and prosecute two hijack...

Peterson, Audrey. Murder in Stratford: As Told by Anne Hathaway Shakespeare.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Peterson, Audrey. Murder in Stratford: As Told by Anne Hathaway Shakespeare. Five Star: Gale. Mar. 2005. c.202p. ISBN 1-59414-273-4. $25.95. M William Shakespeare's widow sets the story straight about a murder charge brought against her...

Quirina, Fiona. Sex: a Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Quirina, Fiona. Sex: A Mystery. Berkley: Penguin Putnam. Mar. 2005. c.240p. ISBN 0-425-20034-5. pap. $13. M Formerly a highly paid business executive who blew the ethical whistle on her employer's business practices, Harvard-educated sex...

Seamon, Hollis. Flesh: a Suzanne LaFleshe Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Seamon, Hollis. Flesh: A Suzanne LaFleshe Mystery. Momento Mori Mysteries: Avocet Mar. 2005. c.343p. ISBN 0-9725078-3-3. $22. M Full-bodied, over six feet tall, and 38, SUNY at Albany grad student Suzanne Brown (a.k.a. Suzanne LaFleshe)...

Skibbins, David. The Eight of Swords.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Skibbins, David. The Eight of Swords. Thomas Dunn: St. Martin's. Apr. 2005. c.288p. ISBN 0-312-33906-7. $23.95. M The unusual hero of St. Martin's 2004 Malice Domestic Contest winner reads Tarot cards for people on a Berkeley sidewalk....

Sloane, Kit. Extreme Cuisine: a Margot O'Banion Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... * Sloane, Kit. Extreme Cuisine: A Margot O'Banion Mystery. Durban House. Apr. 2005. c.317p. ISBN 1-930754-68-X. pap. $12.95. M Hollywood filmmaker Max Skull and longtime partner and film editor Margot O'Banion (Last Words) assist their...

Strohmeyer, Sarah. Bubbles Betrothed.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Strohmeyer, Sarah. Bubbles Betrothed. Dutton. Apr. 2005. c.304p. ISBN 0-52594864-3. $19.95. M By a stroke of dumb luck, bumbling blonde rookie journalist Bubbles Yablonsky (Bubbles A Broad) interviews a homeless woman accused of murder...

Emerson, Kathy Lynn. Face Down Below the Banqueting House: a Lady Appleton Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Emerson, Kathy Lynn. Face Down Below the Banqueting House: A Lady Appleton Mystery. Perseverance: Daniel & Daniel. Apr. 2005. c.240p. ISBN 1-880284-71-5. pap. $13.95. M Queen Elizabeth I plans to visit Susanna's country house, but before...

Eslick, Tom. Mountain Peril: a White Mountains Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Eslick, Tom. Mountain Peril: A White Mountains Mystery. Viking. Apr. 2005. c.274p. ISBN 0-870-03386-3. $24.95. M While searching for a missing boy on New Hampshire's Mt. Washington, science teacher/series protagonist Will Buchanan (Deadly...

Fluke, Joanne. Peach Cobbler Murder: a Hanna Swensen Mystery with Recipes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Fluke, Joanne. Peach Cobbler Murder: A Hanna Swensen Mystery with Recipes. Kensington. Mar. 2005. c.320p. ISBN 07582-0154-0. $22. M A new bakery in Lake Eden threatens Hannah's (Sugar Cookie Murder) cookie shop sales, but she's more worried...

Haddam, Jane. The Headmaster's Wife: a Gregor Demarkian Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Haddam, Jane. The Headmaster's Wife: A Gregor Demarkian Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin's. Apr. 2005. c.384p. ISBN 0-31231314-4. $24.95. M Suspicion falls on an unstable prep school student who finds his roommate (rumored to have been having...

Jardine, Quintin. Alarm Call: an Oz Blackstone Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Jardine, Quintin. Alarm Call: An Oz Blackstone Mystery. Headline, dist. by Trafalgar Square. Apr. 2005. c.276p. ISBN 0-7553-2102-2. $25. M Socked by success, Oz Blackstone (Poisoned Cherries) is a movie star married to a loving,...

Wilson, John Morgan. Moth and Flame: a Benjamin Justice Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Wilson, John Morgan. Moth and Flame: A Benjamin Justice Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin's. 2005. c.304p. ISBN 0-31230984-8. $23.95. M Washed-up L.A. reporter Justice (Blind Eye) takes over for a recently killed writer by finishing a booklet for...

Hamilton, Denise. Savage Garden.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... * Hamilton, Denise. Savage Garden. Scribner. May 2005. c.336p. ISBN 0-74326192-5. $22. M In Edgar Award nominee Hamilton's (Last Lullaby) fourth Eve Diamond mystery, the Latina lead in a hit play is murdered, and the Los Angeles Times...

Khadra, Yasmina. Double Blank.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Khadra, Yasmina. Double Blank. Toby. Apr. 2005. 144p. tr. from French by Aubrey Botsford. ISBN 1-59264-119-9. pap. $12.95. M Superintendent Brahim Llob of the Algerian police force sets out to solve the murder of Ben Ouda, a retired...

King, Jonathon. A Killing Night.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... King, Jonathon. A Killing Night. Dutton. Apr. 2005. c.304p. ISBN 0-525-94865-1. $23.95. M A phone call from an ex-lover cop asking for help in catching a rogue policeman leads Philadelpha cop--turned--Everglades private investigator Max...

Q & A: Denise Hamilton.(Mystery)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... You were a Los Angeles Times reporter for ten years. How did you get started writing mysteries? L.A. is a crazy place, where there are so many homicides. I often got pulled into helping cover murders, even though I never was formally a...

Prepub mystery.
March 1, 2005... Aubert, Rosemary. Red Mass: An Ellis Portal Mystery. Bridge Works. Jul. 2005. 272p. ISBN 1-882593-96-0. $23.95; pap. ISBN 1-882593-95-2. $15.95. Forced to defend his enemy and pitted against his own daughter, disgraced Toronto judge Ellis...

Akunin, Boris. The Turkish Gambit.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Akunin, Boris. The Turkish Gambit. Random. Mar. 2005. c.224p. tr. from Russian by Andrew Bromfield. ISBN 1-4000-6050-8. $22.95. F Though he keeps bringing back diffident yet penetrating sleuth Erast Fandorin, Akunin never exactly repeats...

Allende, Isabel. Zorro.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... * Allende, Isabel. Zorro. HarperCollins. May 2005. c.400p. ISBN 0-06-077897-0. $25.95. F Allende's retelling of Zorro displays her essential belief that the fabric of the story--the making of the man--is as important as the actions. Born...

Amat, Nuria. Queen Cocaine.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Amat, Nuria. Queen Cocaine. City Lights, dist. by Consortium. Mar. 2005. c.222p. tr. from Spanish by Peter Bush. ISBN 0-87286-435-9. pap. $13.95. F This apocalyptic novel by Spanish writer Amat, who identifies more with South America than...

Bartlett, Anne. Knitting.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Bartlett, Anne. Knitting. Houghton. Apr. 2005. c.288p. ISBN 0-618-49926-1. $23. F Knitting, the hot new trend, serves as an intriguing theme in Bartlett's first novel. Set in southern Australia, the story revolves around two very different...

Berg, Elizabeth. The Year of Pleasures.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Berg, Elizabeth. The Year of Pleasures. Random. Apr. 2005. c.240p. ISBN 1-40006160-1. $24.95. F As evidenced by this 14th novel (after The Art of Mending), Berg's talents grow richer with each book. Her heroine is Betta Nolan, whose...

Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Sugar Camp Quilt.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Sugar Camp Quilt. S. & S. Apr. 2005. c.320p. ISBN 0-74326017-1. $22. F In 1849, 19-year-old Dorothea Granger and her strongly abolitionist parents are at the mercy of Uncle Jacob, a bitter, hard-driving man with a...