Hi friends:

That issue of The Horn Book I’ve been telling you about for weeks is just out and available for free, for now, to anyone with access to the internet. I do hope you like it; I think it’s the best ALA awards issue we’ve done in my time, anyway. But go see and decide for yourself. As Mr. Sondheim wrote, “Stop worrying if your vision / Is new / Let others make that decision— / They usually do.” (Do any of you writers have that one tacked above your desk?)

So, I took the advice of Wendy Lesser, in Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery, to try Viveca Sten’s Still Waters, set mostly on a holiday island near Stockholm. While Lesser’s book, in which she constructs a portrait of Scandinavia as if from the point of view of someone whose sole source of information about the region is its exported mystery novels, is more original than Sten’s, boilerplate but very well paced, I’m enjoying the island getaway. I will probably regret sharing what is possibly TMI about my reading habits: on the Fourth I had the best time reading Sten’s novel while listening to Hugo Alfvén’s music aching and watching the Swedish countryside go by. All I lacked was some good salt licorice to chomp while reading, but spice drops straight from the freezer still went down a treat. Hmm, next week let’s talk about food.

Love,

Roger