Crime and cookery - award-winning books available @ your library

You may remember that it was only a week ago that we highlighted Canadian crime / mystery writers Louise Penny and Alan Bradley (see blog post here). Well, they've done it again, each winning one of this year's Agatha Awards (awards for mystery / crime novels that contain no graphic sex or violence). Congratulations to our Canadian authors!

The Edgar awards were also announced recently announced, and some of the winners are avaiable for you to borrow right away:

John Hart - The Lost Child
“Hart once again produces a novel that is elegant, haunting, and memorable. His characters are given an emotional depth that genre characters seldom have, and the graceful, evocative prose lifts his stories right out of their genre and into the realm of capital-L literature. A must-read for every variety of fiction reader.” –Booklist (starred review)

Otto Penzler (ed.) - The Lineup
"A great recurring character in a series you love becomes an old friend. You learn about their strange quirks and their haunted pasts and root for them every time they face danger. But where do some of the most fascinating sleuths in the mystery and thriller world really come from?
What was the real-life location that inspired Michael Connelly to make Harry Bosch a Vietnam vet tunnel rat? Why is Jack Reacher a drifter?... In THE LINEUP, some of the top mystery writers in the world tell about the genesis of their most beloved characters--or, in some cases, let their creations do the talking. " (publisher description)

...and for true crime fans
Dave Cullen - Columbine
"A remarkable book. It is painstakingly reported, well-organized and compellingly written . . . For any reader who wants to understand the complicated nature of evil, this book is a masterpiece." (The Seattle Times )



Also honoured as a grand master is Dorothy Gilman, a wonderful writer who deserves a wider audience. Gilman is most famous for her novels about Mrs. Pollifax, a grandmother who becomes a CIA agent.

Lastly, two sets of awards were announced for cookbooks, The International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Awards, and the James Barber Foundation Awards.  One book named in both sets of awards is Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller.

"Thomas Keller shares family-style recipes that you can make any or every day. In the book every home cook has been waiting for, the revered Thomas Keller turns his imagination to the American comfort foods closest to his heart flaky biscuits, chicken pot pies, New England clam bakes, and cherry pies so delicious and redolent of childhood that they give Proust's madeleines a run for their money. Keller, whose restaurants The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Per Se in New York have revolutionized American haute cuisine, is equally adept at turning out simpler fare." (from publisher)