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This is the first time I’ve interviewed Karin Slaughter, but it’s the third time I’ve met her — and I hope it won’t be the last time I get to interview her, either. She’s wickedly funny and has great taste in literature, within and outside of her own genre. 

In this interview, Slaughter talks about why she decided to return to the characters of Will Trent and Angie Pulaski for Fractured, her new novel — and why she decided to continue writing about Trent’s dyslexia (she’s also working on a third Trent novel). But we also talked about why thriller writers are the ones writing some of the best literature out there today.

Take a look, and see why Slaughter is one of the thriller writers who really is writing strong novels that can’t be reduced to there genre tag. I hope you enjoy!

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This week our featured title is Karin Slaughter’s new novel Fractured. It’s easy to understand, once you’ve read a Slaughter book, why she’s the number-one-selling thriller writer worldwide. Even if you’re not a fan (and I am), Karin Slaughter balances plot, character, pacing, and atmosphere like a master.

Slaughter first came to fame with her Grant County series, set in a fictional Georgia region and featuring pathologist Sara Linton, her ex-husband and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and Detective Lena Adams, whose past personal trauma affects many cases. Slaughter transcended the series “curse” with her mega-bestseller Triptych, but in my opinion has really upped her game by following it with Fractured. Detective Will Trent and his beyond-damaged erstwhile girlfriend trade scenes with Trent and his beyond-furious partner in his latest case, Detective Faith Mitchell, whose reasons for her fury are directly related to Trent.

Interested yet? I hope so, because I’ve got ten copies of Fractured to give away to the first ten readers who leave a comment telling me something you’d like to see on this blog that would bring you back on a regular basis. In fact, I’m so interested in hearing from you that if you’re one of the second group of ten, I’ll send you a Book Maven grab-bag of two never-before-read hardcover books. Let the games begin — and thanks for reading, as always.

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I hope you enjoy watching this brief and fun interview with Stephen Baker. Please note that neither he nor I is a shill for the Amazon Kindle; he was simply intrigued by how quickly his book could be downloaded and how closely the e-book version resembled the print version.

Don’t be put off by any connotations of numbers or math in Baker’s title. The Numerati is a must-read book for anyone who consumes any kind of media today. Behind every web site we check out, every ad we see, every purchase we make, are equations and codes that allow the “Numerati” to quantify us. In fact, every single one of us can be reduced to (or made up of, depending on your perspective) strings of numbers, like the fellow on the front of Baker’s book:

Look closely, and watch that video above, because there’s a message in them thar numbers, and Baker has a contest about that message running on his blog.

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I used to write this blog for Publishers Weekly, and I had a great time writing it. However, all good things come to and end, and I’ve moved on to a new challenge: hosting B&N.com’s Center Stage book club.

But I’ll still be blogging here — and more frequently! (I’ll also maintain a slightly more personal book blog, “Still Life with Book Maven,” which I hope you’ll visit.) There will be lots of author interviews, as usual, but I’ll do more with Flip video, text, and audio in the weeks to come. You can see one of the Flip video interviews here later today!

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“If you lived in the 60s, you know they felt like they were 20 years long,” says Stephen Carter in this interview as he explains the challenges and joys of writing a thriller that takes place from the 50s on and covers so many different characters and events.

Carter also admits that writing fiction is the hardest thing — “It’s emotionally draining,” he says. Does he have other novels in the works? Watch and find out! You’ll also meet an author who is a true intellectual and a quick wit and watch him discuss his own favorite novelists. Enjoy!

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Stephen Carter’s elegant mystery novels are sui generis, a combination of the Yale Law professor’s education, erudition, and anthropological interest in nearly every aspect of American culture.

His focus, however, in each of his three books (The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White were the first two) is on elite African-American communities and how they’ve negotiated the twentieth century. In choosing to examine individuals and families with material and educational advantages, he provides a different view of race in our country — one that contains struggles, secrets, and hypocrisies, just like European American society. However, he never ignores or plays down the roles of slavery and civil rights in everyone’s lives.

Carter entwines certain plotlines and characters from book to book, but Palace Council, like its predecessors, is a standalone read. Here, the murder of a prominent white businessman in Harlem affects the life of writer Eddie Wesley, whose sister June has inexplicably disappeared and seems to be involved in a revolutionary group called Jewel Agony. Meanwhile, Aurelia Treene, the love of Eddie’s life, also becomes a part of the decades-long search for the truth about why a group of men is so dedicated to creating a kind of dynasty.

We’ve got ten copies of Palace Council by Stephen Carter to give to ten readers who share their favorite mystery titles — I’ll select the ten randomly from the first 20 responses. Thanks for reading, and please come back tomorrw for my interview with Stephen Carter.

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Normally I try to write completely separate posts here and on my other blog, but I think today’s post over there is one that readers over here might also like.

I’m pondering Tina Brown’s new website, The Daily Beast. My humble opinion is that it’s just a gussied-up version of what other sites have been doing for a long time with links and original content, made fresh by its intellectual tone. And maybe that’s enough — maybe it isn’t. I was also surprised that it devoted its “Big Fat Story” to the kerfuffle over the Nobel Prize for Literature, but doesn’t have any other content devoted to books (although on the Buzz Board has a few people mentioning books, it’s only as they relate to “other” categories, like politics and foreign affairs — no place for stories… ).

I think taking a good, long look at sites like The Daily Beast is important for all of us who are already members (whether devoted or lurking) of sites like this one. What do we get? What do we want? What works for us, and what is superflous? As more and more print publications and print doyennes (like Brown) move into the online space, the users who have been here for a while need to stay vocal and involved.

What do you think about The Daily Beast?

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Since WETA is currently running this series about England’s royal family, I thought it only proper to provide viewers with a list of books that you can read while you watch, after you watch, or even if you miss the series entire (although I’d never recommend that and, just so you won’t have an excuse, here are the broadcast times.)

I’m going to get this started now, and add to it over the next few days, so please come back — and please offer your own suggestions for books about the Windsors in the comments.

Majesty : Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor by Robert Lacey is the best introduction I know to this enigmatic monarch and her lineage.

The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor by Penny Junor is a comprehensive but softpedal look at the challenges (including all the scandals) that the contemporary royal family has faced - sometimes well, sometimes not.

The House of Windsor by Andrew Roberts and Antonia Fraser is part of their A Royal History of England — although the book isn’t as in-depth as others, it is a helpful and well-illustrated way to get to know the “players” on this particular stage.

The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor by A.N. Wilson is a loyalist’s look at how a great British institution has survived its troubles.

Back with more quite soon, but looking forward to your recommendations.

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These days I’m busy writing a reference book about history, so a lot of my reading time is spent perusing thick tomes about the Middle Ages. I”m in hog heaven, actually, but sometimes a girl has gotta take a break and read something for fun.

You might be excused, then, if you hear about what I am reading for fun and say “Huh?” One of the books that’s been close by my nightstand lately is Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. Smith’s debut thriller made news over the summer when it was longlisted for England’s prestigious Booker Prize and members of the “Briterati” grumbled because they thought thrillers shouldn’t be allowed on that list next to “real” literature.

I think they didn’t want it on there because they were afraid it would win, thereby encouraging more people to read interesting, well-written, entertaining books — and ignoring some of the clunky, mannered novels on the list.

Child 44 is a police procedural made deeper and more mysterious by being set in Stalinist Russia, where crime technically did not exist; after all, the State was perfect and would not allow such a thing as murder to occur. Leo Demidov is a discredited State Security officer whose exile with wife Raisa entangles them both in the hunt for a serial killer — even though no one wants to admit that such a killer exists.

The first chapter is so difficult that you might want to put Child 44 down — don’t. You won’t even need patience to be rewarded, since the plot moves along both briskly and naturally. I was sorry to finish a book so smart and satisfying, and I look forward to Smith’s next work.

Has anyone out there read Child 44? What did you think?

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Last week over at my other blog I wrote this post about Olsson’s Books closing down permanently. I indulged myself, too, in a brief rant about book people not putting their money where their mouths are, and was called out on that by a commenter named Katie who said “Interesting post from someone who’s constantly pushing e-books and talking about how paper books waste natural resources. If people heed your past advice about switching to electronic, pretty soon there will be no independents and, eventually, not even any more chains.”

My response to her comment was “Katie, thanks for reading, and I hear you — but I don’t think that e-books and paper books are mutually exclusive. I read and enjoy both, and I’ve written previous posts on independent bookstores I shop at, too. I wonder how e-books and consciousness about paper and shipping resources can be combined with a great shopping/community experience? This isn’t a question that has been solved yet, although I know people are trying — but I’d welcome your thoughts about it.”

I’ve been thinking about the tension between brick-and-mortar book shopping and online book shopping ever since, and I must admit I remain conflicted. I wish I could come down firmly on one side or the other, but here’s the problem: I love to read far too much. I’ll take good reading material any way that I can get it! If a book I really want to read comes to my attention when I’m out at a store, I’ll buy it; if I read about it online and can click through to buy it there, I’ll buy it; if I learn about a hot new book in a newspaper (which I tend to read online!), I’ll buy and download it on my Kindle.

I think I’ll just have to remain conflicted. If it means I have more reading material than less, I can live with it.

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