Weekly Geeks 2011-18

I mean to participate more often than I actually do when it comes to Weekly Geeks. (Maybe you're the same way?!) But. I do value the idea of Weekly Geeks, I want to help keep this project alive because it was one of Dewey's legacies.

There are two options this week. I think I'll do a bit of both.

Suggestions for weekly geeks topics

• lists, lists, more lists. I like topics that give me an opportunity to write and share lists with readers. They don't *have* to be top ten lists or anything. But lists of favorite authors, favorite books, favorite genres, favorite subgenres, favorite covers, favorite first sentences, favorite couples, favorite friendships, favorite pets, favorite book-to-movie adaptations, favorite heroes, favorite heroines, favorite villains, favorite quotes, favorite addictions, favorite book trailers, whatever.
• create a music playlist for a book (or series)
• pair quotes from song lyrics with books 
• write letters to fictional characters
• write letters to authors (dead or living)
• share reading plans, reading goals, reading lists
• create a reading challenge. It doesn't have to be a *real* challenge. You'd be under no obligation to actually host it. But if you could host any challenge, any reading challenge, what would it be, what would the rules and guidelines be, what would the focus be?

If you have a suggestion for a weekly geek topic, leave a comment here or on the weekly geeks blog.

Genre Allergies

There was a time when I was convinced that I hated mysteries. I was so very sure that I hated mysteries. That this genre was so-not-for-me. Not ever. Let other people "waste" their time on such stuff, but as for me, you won't find me reading "those kinds of books". Well, if you've read my blog since January--you'll notice that I've become more than a little obsessed with the genre!!! (My current obsession is with Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. And Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series.)

So here are a few of my suggestions for those who have allergies to mysteries

Rex Stout: The Golden Spiders or Some Buried Caesar. The good news with Nero Wolfe, I believe, is that you could start with *any* book in the series. They don't have to be read in any certain order at all.

Agatha Christie: Miss Marple mysteries: Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger, 4:50 from Paddington. Hercule Poirot mysteries: Sad Cypress, Cards on the Table, Murder on the Orient Express.

Dorothy Sayers: Lord Peter mysteries: Whose Body? and Strong Poison

Carrie Bebris: Pride and Prescience

Alan Bradley: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag
and A Red Herring without Mustard.

Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time.

A clip from "The Golden Spiders"



I do still claim an allergy to westerns. But I've read two that I *really* loved. So it remains to be seen if this allergy will disappear too over time. 

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews