'Tis the Season When Children Star

It's the time of year when children dominate in public media and private ceremonies, symbols of hope and innocence to be showered with gifts. We forget how recently children became "economically worthless but emotionally priceless," as sociologist Viviana Zelizer has said.  Even in early 20th century America, children were economic assets who worked in fields and factories; they were soldiers and sexual partners; they were traded in marriage by families seeking financial and social gain; and they were regularly parents themselves in their teens. In many places in the world, children still perform roles today's Americans believe should be reserved for adults--and they are still political pawns in deadly adult conflicts, as the recent headlines about the Pakistani Taliban's school massacre prove. So it seems especially apropos now to remember one of our earliest and most popular icons of the child as innocent source of joy: child star Shirley Temple, who died just this year at age 85. Some of the curly-topped moppet's 1930s-era Christmas-themed movies used to be seasonal TV fare, including Heidi, I'll Be Seeing You, Bright Eyes (with the signature song "On the Good Ship Lollipop"), and Stowaway with its final Christmas scene. Now little Shirley is the subject of a new book, The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression by John F. Kasson. Yes, this is one little girl who was economically priceless (to the movie studios), emotionally priceless to a nation seeking optimism in hard times, and politically priceless to leaders like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who publicly enlisted Shirley in his "politics of cheer" to back economic revival programs. Kasson also credits Shirley's impact with a new view of the child as coddled consumer, of children cared for through the purchase of things. To borrow from her hit debut song, "Baby, Take a Bow" for the seasonal shopping frenzy, Shirley.  To see a review of Kasson's book, go to http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/judith-levine-john-kasson-shirley-temple

Remembering Mystery Author P.D. James

Some mystery authors transcend the genre in style and originality, and P.D. James, the British "Queen of Crime," who passed away at age 94 this November, is one example. Her last book, Death Comes to Pemberley, was published in 2011 when she was already in her 90s and combined two of her passions, which happily coincide with mine: Jane Austen's social novels and detective fiction. But I fell in love with her poetical Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh long ago, from his first appearance in Cover Her Face, published in 1962, through 13 other Dalgliesh books, including the award-winning Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower, and A Taste for Death, as well as the last Dalgliesh mystery, The Private Patient, published in 2008. Another favorite was Unsuitable Job for a Woman, which introduced female detective Cordelia Gray, an inspiration/aspiration for female mystery fans back in 1972. James provided this deceptively simple definition of a mystery novel in a 2011 NPR interview: "What we have is a central mysterious crime, which is usually murder. We have a closed circle of suspects, with means, motive and opportunity for the crime. We have a detective who can be amateur or professional who comes in rather like an avenging deity to solve it. And by the end, we do get a solution." The difference between James and most other genre authors is how masterfully she led us on the literary journey through twisted psyches and plots to solution. James, who said she drew inspiration from grande dames of mystery such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ruth Rendell, her longtime friend, has earned her own special place in the mystery writing pantheon, and her voice will be missed. For one obituary, see http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/27/366997584/british-mystery-novelist-p-d-james-dies-at-94

Reading for Perspective on Our Wintry Storms

As I write, it's a rainy day in Southern California, which is what passes for "a major storm" here but nothing like the paralyzing snowstorms in the Northeast. Wintry weather events are reminders of nature's power and our vulnerability despite climate-controlled environments, fossil-fuel-powered transport and electronically-dependent communications. But such storms were even more devastating in the past. For example, younger family members can gain perspective with a childhood favorite, The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is one of the more exciting Little House books as well as a fairly accurate portrayal of the terrible "Snow Winter" of 1880-1881 in the Dakotas. Or they can read Blizzard!--The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy. It's about the East Coast blizzard of March 1888, when wind-driven snow accumulated in 50-foot drifts in some places and lead to 400 deaths, 200 in New York City alone. The disruption of above-ground telegraph/telephone and rail led to changes such as underground communications lines and the first underground subway in Boston. For adult readers, there is the moving The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. This cautionary tale covers the tragic Schoolhouse Blizzard that suddenly blasted the Great Plains in the afternoon of January 12, 1888, after an unseasonal warm morning that had schoolchildren forgoing heavy coats and gloves. It was called the Schoolhouse Blizzard because so many of the 500 or so dead were schoolchildren trying to walk home from one-room schoolhouses through blinding snow, with many found frozen just yards from shelter. For more historical perspectives, read about some other surprising weather impacts on human events: http://www.weather.com/news/news/7-strange-ways-weather-has-changed-history-20130921#/1

Secrets of Best-Selling Children's Picture Books

The holiday shopping season is starting in earnest, and I'll be hunting for children's picture books for the youngest members of the clan. Can I fall back on my own kids' favorites, or has time eroded their appeal? Well, I was happy to see that the list of the top 100 picture books for the 21st century, chosen by the readers of the School Library Journal, did include my own children's faves with Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown at spots No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 respectively. That got me to thinking about what factors give these books their timeless appeal. Studying the comments of numerous editors, publishers and educators, I put together the following list of secrets to picture book success: illustrations that are colorful, varied and original; interesting, lovable, iconic characters to whom the child relates; humor or emotional appeal; an engaging and authentic concept or story line; text that is well written and plays with word meaning, repetition, rhythm and rhyming to fit the story context; interactivity that encourages the child to participate in story-telling; learning that is subtle and not didactic or boring; and re-readability, because little children engage with a book by repeating the experience again and again (so it better not be a book taxing adult patience). Looking at the list, you realize that, except for illustrations, classic picture books and classic adult literature share secrets to success: strong characters, engaging plot, good writing, and emotional connection. Perhaps an early diet of enriching picture books promotes adult reading enjoyment. Can't hurt! Shop the top-100 picture books at http://www.slj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/SLJ_Fuse8_Top100_Picture.pdf

Already Feeling Overwhelmed by Holiday Decor

It's that time of year when printed magazines and online social sharing are dominated by holiday decor. This year, I was feeling especially uninspired as I began to haul out old ornaments, yet I couldn't find the motivation for the effort and expense required to create a new seasonal look. I considered stealing holiday ideas for my house from the nation's most famous house, the White House. The newly published Christmas with the First Ladies: The White House Decorating Tradition from Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama is by Coleen Christian Burke, a professional holiday decorator who was among the volunteers helping to deck the halls with Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, and it highlights themes for a range of tastes. But I don't have an army of volunteers to trim my tree or helping hands for all those "handmade ornaments and crafts" on a presidential scale. I've never been a big fan of craft projects, to be frank, which is why I also hesitate to buy the popular Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts. I am attracted to the holiday memories of my regional childhood found in Christmas with Southern Living 2014, especially the recipes, but I am intimidated by the complexity of the elegant decor--those gorgeous floral and wreath arrangements, themed Christmas trees and beautiful gift wrappings. Then it occurred to me: Why should I craft new decorations when I already have a big box of "handmade" holiday items thanks to my children's 20 years' worth of school projects? Each child's holiday decoration had several seasons on the mantel or Christmas tree before being stored away--and forgotten. With bright paint and a heavy dose of glue and glitter, cardboard, paper, Popsicle sticks, pine cones, feathers, clay, felt and ordinary objects had been transformed into the vehicles of warm memories. When I resurrected the keepsake ornaments and ranged them on the mantel, I realized that these relics of childish holidays shown with an innocent joy that no commercially perfected bauble or well-meaning adult craft could capture. It was decor to suit the family meaning of the holiday in a way no copy of First Lady chic or magazine glamour could deliver. That's not to say it's not fascinating to see the changing trends in holiday style exemplified by White House decor, so if you're interested, you can check out Burke's book at http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-First-Ladies-Decorating-Jacqueline/dp/1608870464/

Mysteries Need to Kill Off These Clichés

Many mystery fans probably share my unhappy experience: By a few chapters into a mystery novel, I'm bored. The main culprits are cliché characters and cliché plot devices. Here are some of the cliché characters that I would like to see mystery writers kill off for good. First on my list is the sardonic, hard-boiled detective who drowns his or her problems in alcohol but still shines at sleuthing. Authors, if you think excess alcohol consumption is de rigueur to show the inner pain of the hero/heroine, don't forget to show how that alcoholism also undermines clear thinking as well as romantic performance. Next on my list is the omniscient Sherlock Holmes-type who lacks people skills but is endearingly quirky as he/she outwits criminal masterminds. Really, these characters are both too fey and too infallible to operate believably in the real world. Finally, there's the tough, cool sleuth who has a secret soft and sexy side just waiting to be awakened (once you can get past the old personal trauma or "daddy issues" or injustice that's hardened his or her shell). I think these protagonists are created simply to justify sex scenes and often borrow from romance novels: sexy bad boy, noble warrior, damsel in (secret) distress. When it comes to villains, No. 1 on my list of overused devices is the insane serial killer genius. These people are driven by bizarre motives and macabre urges but somehow remain mentally astute enough to engage in elaborate plots, ruses and false personas. These characters proliferate in novels because they commit difficult-to-solve crimes (plus crimes that are especially gruesome), but the insane-killer ploy comes at the expense of emotional connection and intellectually satisfying mystery-solving for me. Another trite character that I could do without is the proud and dominating matriarch or patriarch who will do anything to protect the family honor or family secrets. As soon as these characters appear, you know they are guilty -- if not of murder then of driving someone else to commit murder. For more clichés that can kill good mystery writing, check out the Booklist article on "Criminal Clichés" at http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=6162402

Finding Mysteries North of the Border

I recently began reading the best-selling How the Light Gets In by award-winning Canadian mystery author Louise Penny. It's another entry in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series set in the Quebec village of Three Pines; this time, Gamache comes to the tiny town as a personal favor to look into the disappearance of a once-famous woman, only to find himself stalked by the same evil that turned her village sanctuary into a deadly trap. Since Penny is one of my favorites, I began to think about other Canadian mystery writers to explore. One place to start is the list of winners of the Arthur Ellis Award for Canadian crime fiction (named after the nom de travail of Canada's official hangman). The award is given annually to authors residing in Canada (regardless of original nationality) as well as Canadian-born authors. The 2014 Ellis winner for best crime novel is The Devil's Making by Sean Haldane, a psychotherapist/neuropsychologist and poet. The mystery's protagonist is a young English-immigrant policeman in Victorian-era British Columbia, who seeks to solve the murder of an American "alienist" (archaic term for psychiatrist) while navigating the tensions between Native American, British and American residents in the colonial outpost of Victoria. Two more Ellis Award honorees are Giles Blunt, author of the 2013 Ellis crime fiction winner Until the Night, which is part of his popular John Cardinal series set in fictional Algonquin Bay, Ontario, and Peter Robinson, the English-born Canadian resident who produced the popular Inspector Alan Banks series set in the villages of Yorkshire, which spawned BBC's "DCI Banks" TV series. Beyond the Ellis awards, there is Man Booker Prize finalist Emma Donoghue, an Irish-born Canadian resident, whose new mystery Frog Music follows the efforts of a French burlesque dancer in 1876 boomtown San Francisco to solve the murder of her friend, a notorious and secretive young woman, in a "lyrical tale of love and bloodshed." Even though she is a U.S. writer, I think personal favorite Kathy Reichs deserves a place among the Canadians when her forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan mysteries (basis for the "Bones" TV series) are set in Quebec and based on her actual experience with the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale of Quebec province. For more top-notch Canadian crime fiction, see the Arthur Ellis Award finalists and winners at http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/Awards/Ellis_Awards.html

Try Paranormal Mystery Treats for Halloween

Halloween is a perfect time to indulge in mysteries with the extra spice of the supernatural--ghosts, curses, magic, haunted houses and dark forces. I've always had a soft spot for Jonathan Kellerman's best-selling Alex Delaware mysteries set in Los Angeles, so I'll start with The Golem of Hollywood by Jonathan Kellerman and his son Jesse. This new contemporary mystery pulls in religious mythology and the supernatural to produce "an extraordinary work of detection, suspense, and supernatural mystery," per Amazon's quote of Stephen King. Solving the mystery of a severed head in an abandoned living room takes burned-out LAPD detective (and rabbi's son) Jacob Lev on an odyssey from Los Angeles to Prague to Oxford and back again. His standard crime-genre investigation is complicated by a mysterious woman and a monstrous being of Jewish mythology (the title's Golem), built to render justice upon the wicked—including serial killers. If your appetite for the spine-tingling is still not sated, read Mateguas Island, a debut novel by Linda Watkins and winner of the gold medal in Amazon's 2014 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Competition for the Supernatural Fiction category. A troubled family comes to a remote island off the coast of Maine, not realizing that their inherited property is steeped in destructive forces. An arcane locked box, a foreboding trail into the woods, a seductive young woman, and tales of a malevolent Native American spirit ratchet up the suspense. Then, for a modern haunted house story, turn to Christopher Fowler, award-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series. His original thriller Nyctophobia isolates newly married architect Callie in a grand house in southern Spain, a house split between rooms flooded with light and rooms locked away in darkness and neglect. As Callie begins to research the history of the strange house, her nyctophobia (fear of the dark) is awakened, along with haunting secrets. But when it comes to seeing ghosts, hysterical, attention-seeking adolescent girls would seem to be most susceptible. So no wonder the girls at a posh Irish boarding school keep seeing the ghost of the boy victim of an unsolved murder in Tana French's The Secret Place, another installment in the Dublin Murder Squad series. The narrative alternates between flashbacks by clique of schoolgirls and the perspective of a cold-case detective and his partner, who spend a long day and night investigating. As any parent of an adolescent might guess, the private lives of teenage girls, their friendships and betrayals, can be more mysterious and dangerous than the detectives imagine. If psychic sleuths rather than psyched-out sleuths are your cup of tea, then pick up veteran paranormal mystery writer Kay Hooper's Haunted, the latest entry in the Bishop Special Crimes Unit series. For more reviews of paranormal mystery releases, check out http://www.iheartreading.net/genres/paranormal-mystery-mystery-and-suspense-3/

Have You Been Fooled by an Unreliable Narrator?

The popularity of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, now a hit movie, shows that the "unreliable narrator" is still a potent fictional device. The unreliable narrator is a fictional character--sometimes a protagonist, a witness to events or a third-party storyteller--who misleads the narrative audience (and eavesdropping real readers) by outright lies, concealment or omission of information, and misjudgment or misrepresentation, intentional or unintentional, of characters and situations. There have been many famous unreliable narrators in fiction. Children and naifs are naturally chosen for their poor skill at evaluating people and circumstances, a la Huck in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A mentally disturbed narrator creates another type of unreliable voice; consider many Poe stories or Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Characters also mislead to justify or reinvent their actions, like pedophile Humbert Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita, or the fabulist Pi in Yann Martel's Life of Pi.  There is an obvious utility in mystery writing to an unreliable narrator who can provide clues and red herrings while revealing and obscuring motives, all in order to take the reader the long way through the woods to that surprise turn that reveals the truth. One of the most famous mystery examples of an unreliable narrator is Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This year, Sophie Hannah's paranormal mystery The Orphan Choir offers a seemingly unreliable housewife narrator who complains of hearing children singing liturgical music, music that appears to be all in her head--but maybe not. Now if an astute mystery reader wants to avoid being fooled by an unreliable narrator device, there usually are built-in clues. Consider signals such as narrator contradictions, unexplained memory gaps, lies to other characters, and negative reactions or contradicting input by other characters. Be alert when a narrator's story defies common sense, logic, normal experience or probability. But when a mystery is well written, it is probably more enjoyable to take the twists and turns with the unreliable narrator, right to that satisfyingly unexpected ending. For more examples of unreliable narrators in fiction, see http://flavorwire.com/410468/10-of-literatures-most-unreliable-narrators

New Mysteries to Add to Your Holiday Reading

'Tis the season to stock up on mystery novels for vacation reading. Here are a few highlights of my shopping list for anyone planning to cozy up with a good read for the holidays. At the top of my agenda is the best seller The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. The story is set in 1922 London, still reeling from World War I, where an impoverished widow and her spinster daughter live alone in their genteel villa and have been forced to take in lodgers. The arrival of a modern young tenant couple of the “clerk class,” disturbs their lives unexpectedly and profoundly, including a steamy lesbian love affair and a shocking murder. The tale has garnered reviews such as “a tour de force” from The Wall Street Journal, “unputdownable” from The Washington Post and “volcanically sexy, sizzingly smart, plenty bloody and just plain irresistible" from USA Today. Meanwhile, why not try out some debut authors to refresh the genre? For example, Shovel Ready, a debut novel from New York Times Magazine culture editor Adam Sternbergh, is set in a near-future New York City after the explosion of a dirty bomb has driven all but the very rich and very poor out of the city. It's the perfect dystopian hunting ground for the cynical Spademan, a New Jersey garbageman turned hit man (turned anti-hero). In contrast, M.P. Cooley's Ice Shear is a debut with a conventional small-town setting, but her single-mom cop is a refreshing change from hard-boiled bachelor/bachelorette detectives. June Lyons is a former FBI agent who left the Bureau to care for a terminally ill husband. Three years after her husband's death, Lyons is a cop in her upstate New York hometown, where she and her daughter live with her father, the retired local police chief. When Lyons finds a body impaled on Hudson River ice, a body that turns out to be the daughter of a local congresswoman, the political implications bring in the FBI--and Lyons' past with agents who doubt her abilities. Likable mom Lyons soon proves she's tough enough to handle an investigation loaded with surprise twists and gory deaths. No one does mysteries quite like the British, of course. So check out Precious Thing, a debut novel by Colette McBeth, a former BBC crime reporter. The story centers on Rachel and Clara, who met in high school when Rachel was the shy, awkward new girl and beautiful Clara was the popular one. The two disparate teens formed a deep bond that helped Rachel survive her mother’s alcoholism and school bullies. They lost touch after high school, but they've reconnected in their late twenties--only now Rachel is a television journalist with an apartment and a boyfriend and Clara’s life is the one spiraling out of control. When Rachel’s news editor assigns her to cover a police press conference, she is shocked to learn that Clara has been reported missing. Is it abduction, suicide or something else? McBeth's tale twists around stalkers, secrets, betrayals and CCTV images. To add more to your new-mystery reading list, take a look at the 2015 Edgar Award submissions (not to be confused with nominations or finalists) and then check out relevant reviews: http://mysterywriters.org/edgars/currentsubmissions/#novel

In Food Books, 'Healthy' Outsells Tasty Recipes

I've noticed that new best-selling food/cooking books have become less focused on tasty recipes and more on healthy "lifestyle" diets. But it really hit home when I went shopping for holiday gift books for "foodie" friends in September. I started my research with The New York Times best sellers, only to find the food category dominated by books like Grain Brain, Wheat Belly, Practical Paleo, The Doctor's Diet, Eat to Live Cookbook (plant-based) and so on. I don't want to offend true believers in gluten-free, weight-loss, vegan or Paleo diet regimes; I don't know enough to comment. But I wonder whether these diet trends have done more to improve the profits of the food industry and weight-loss firms than the health of their followers. Consider the new gluten-free popularity. According to a 2013 report by Mintel, a leading market research firm, "some 24% of consumers currently eat, or have someone in their household who eats, gluten-free foods," although "75% of consumers who do not have celiac disease or sensitivity to gluten eat these foods because they believe they are healthier, despite the lack of any scientific research confirming the validity of this theory." Mintel goes on to predict that "the gluten-free food and beverage market will grow 48% from 2013-16, to $15.6 billion, at current prices." And what about all the weight-loss schemes? Even if they work, Americans apparently can't or won't follow them because our obesity epidemic is only getting worse. In 1980, 25% of adults in the United States were considered overweight; by 2001, over 66% of adults were classified as overweight. Over a third of the adult population (35.7%) was in the obese (very overweight) category by 2010. Since my gourmet friends prefer books to please the palate, and trying to preach a diet lifestyle is probably not a way to keep them as friends, I went from the best-seller list to Bon Appetit magazine's recommendations for mouth-watering cookbook releases this fall, including: A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus by Renee Erickson (a Seattle chef's seasonal menu); Heritage by Sean Brock (Southern Low Country delights); and Relæ by Christian Puglisi (inspiration from the noted Copenhagen restaurant). For those who do want to stress healthy eating in their book buys, I would recommend first checking out the 2014 U.S. News & World Report experts' ranking of the best diets among weight loss, diabetes control, plant-based, heart health, commercial dieting, healthy eating, or easy-to-follow plans: http://health.usnews.com/best-diet

Reading for Insight on the ISIS Threat

Today's headlines are full of ISIS/ISIL barbarism and American-led coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria. The majority of Americans polled support the current U.S. policy of advise-and-bomb, but the majority also probably have a limited understanding of the region and its players. Unfortunately, I'm not sure policy-makers are much wiser. Indeed it's instructive to read the recently released Before the First Shots Are Fired by retired four-star Marine Corps General Tony Zinni, also honorary chairman of the nonpartisan Middle East Institute. He calls on five decades of military experience and lessons of previous U.S. misadventures to advise on preconditions for successful armed intervention, starting with sound intelligence and analysis. Have we done that? Do we know enough about the enemy and its context for good strategy? To that end, I recommend another recent book by Patrick Cockburn -- The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising. The swift and unexpected rise of ISIS should not lead Western powers to assume that its fall will be as sudden, he warns. ISIS, unlike al-Qaida, is a well-run military organization. And, by the way, it should be noted that some current regional "allies" helped birth ISIS, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The ISIS caliphate vision is violently repressive, leading many wishful thinkers to believe local resistance can be mustered if we just guarantee protective air strikes and training. But the opponents of ISIS are weak and crippled by disunity, from Assad's beleaguered regime to Baghdad's corrupt Shi'ite government to separatist Kurds. Plus, there's a method in the brutal ISIS madness. Just consider The Management of Savagery, which is seen by many as an influential guide for ISIS. This aptly titled 2004 handbook for creation of an Islamic caliphate recommends inciting violence between Muslims and also stretching military forces of a target nation by laying claim to vital infrastructure, such as energy sources. The resulting destabilization creates “regions of savagery” where inhabitants willingly submit to a force such as ISIS to end conflict and chaos. The book also advocates use of media and violence as psychological weapons, especially media-broadcast atrocities to instill fear in opponents. The Management of Savagery even anticipates foreign air strikes and urges a response that makes foreigners "pay the price," read journalist beheadings. The goal is to get the enemy to either back off or commit ground troops in an infidel invasion that will bolster the jihadi cause. For more, go to http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/09/10/3565635/the-book-that-really-explains-isis-hint-its-not-the-quran/

ISIS & Ebola Inspire Revisit of Camus' The Plague

President Obama has asked the world to unite in stopping menaces as different as Ebola and ISIS. Leaving ISIS aside for the moment, Ebola is not really a threat to the U.S. Yes, it's a scary disease with no preventive vaccine and a high mortality rate (over 50% in the current outbreak), but Ebola is not easy to contract since the virus is passed along in bodily fluids, not airborne, so special hygiene, medical support, and good water/sewer systems can prevent contagion (basics lacking in poor African areas). Other diseases pose greater threats to the homeland; setting aside defunct menaces like smallpox, there's influenza (a perennial problem, with the specter of the 1918 Spanish flu's 50 million to 70 million world death toll) and AIDS (over 36 million dead worldwide since 1981), for example. Why lead a mobilization against Ebola? Altruistically, we are making a humanitarian appeal to prevent further suffering and loss. There is also political self-interest in preventing the epidemic from causing political/social collapse in Africa, perhaps opening the door to more forces inimical to Western interests. On both the Ebola and ISIS issues, I am reminded of a classic book: The Plague by Albert Camus. In the novel, published in 1947, the North African city of Oran is swept by a plague, causing the city to be sealed off. Various characters -- from doctor, bureaucrat and criminal to priest -- face a world where mass death visits guilty, innocent, young and old indiscriminately; where relationships are broken by quarantine, exile and fear; and where individual decisions on communal resistance vs. fatalistic acceptance vs. self-interest/self-protection move from metaphysical questions to daily choices. The novel certainly provides a paradigm of society facing existential, environmental threats, from Ebola to climate change. But the book also works as an allegory with political and ethical implications, which brings us right back round to ISIS. Originally, The Plague was seen as an allegory of the French Resistance (Camus was a member) to Nazi occupation, but I think it could be read today as an allegory of resistance to ISIS or any other deadly, insidious political movement. To put Ebola in perspective, check out the Al Jazeera infographic: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/08/infographic-deadly-ebola-epidemic-west-africa-20148248162913356.html

What Do Celebrity Icons Show About Our Times?

My children follow the ups and downs of numerous "celebrity" lives: The whole Kardashian clan, of course; pop music divas and abrasive rappers; movie stars in love and sports figures in trouble; and reality "stars" from blushing bachelorettes to rich housewives. Who are these people and why should we care about them? What does it say about our society that Beyoncé has more ardent fans than any political leader or innovative thinker? An interesting book about the fame phenomenon came out in the late 1990s: The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History, by Leo Braudy. Reviewing the lifestyles of the rich and famous over 2,000 years of Western culture, Braudy concludes that fame is actually a symptom of something deeper: our "ideas of what an individual is." Famous people as diverse as Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman and P.T. Barnum embody definitions, in sometimes quite revolutionary ways, of how an individual exists and expresses himself or herself in the world of the time. For example, contemporaries Augustus Caesar, notable during his life, and Jesus, more notable after his death, provided very different models for self-definition in their public vs. transcendental paths. But what about contemporary celebrity? Braudy sees modern American self-definition torn between our wish to embrace transcendence, uniqueness and private truths and our desire for public expression and performance that win general acclaim and acceptance. Now that's a troubling notion. Champions of "inner truth" are notably absent from the popular pantheon, I think. And consider the exemplars of public performances awarded fame today--namely "celebrities" who put glam and self-interest ahead of emotional depth and communal well-being. Are we missing more inspiring role models to crown with renown, or are we ignoring them in favor of shallow symbols of wealth, looks and pleasure? Let's hope new varieties of celebrity arise. I shudder to think of Kim Kardashian as the defining icon of the times! For Braudy's book, go to http://www.amazon.com/The-Frenzy-Renown-Fame-History/dp/0679776303

Is the Heat Index Linked to Crime Rates?

It was a sweltering day in Southern California, and I found myself banging the phone down on yet another solar energy solicitation, secretly imagining I was bludgeoning to death this almost daily annoyance. How many times do I tell the same companies I already have solar? Blame it on the heat, shocked telemarketer. But if I can blame my temper on the heat, what about real violence? Do rising temperatures increase the violent crime rate? Back in August of 2013, a group of academics published a piece in The New York Times contending that, yes, higher temperatures make people more violent. Their conclusion was based on what they saw as 60 of the best studies on the relationship between extreme climate and human conflict -- whether interpersonal aggression such as murder or large-scale mayhem such as wars. Studies consistently found higher temperatures associated with more violence, claimed the academics, warning of dire implications given global warming. Certainly, problems with water, food and arable land due to global warming can be catalysts for large-scale conflict, but the link between temperature and interpersonal crime is less supported, even refuted by some data. Frankly, to blame violent crimes on the sun makes as much sense as blaming the moon to me. Yet it's an old and still popular belief that the full moon leads to an increase in violent, irrational acts. It's also an idea not backed by data, except that a 2005 study found over 80% of mental health professionals link lunar cycles to behavior anyway. I guess it's comforting to blame an external force, like the blazing sun or the glowing moon, rather than deal with the fault in our characters or our society. When it comes to crime and climate, I would paraphrase Shakespeare: The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves. For the article on weather and violence, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/opinion/sunday/weather-and-violence.html?_r=0

'Stranger' Fear Ignores Real Threats to Children

According to the news headlines, America is a dangerous place for children as soon as they step out of their homes and into the potential clutches of evil strangers. Armed maniacs spray bullets in elementary schools; deviant killers abduct tots from playgrounds; the Internet allows disguised pedophiles to lure gullible innocents; and don't forget possible terrorist attacks. Are the risks real or just media hype? FBI crime statistics actually show that violent crime rates overall have declined significantly from the 1990s. But Americans don't believe it; a 2013 Pew Research study found that while the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010 than in 1993 and other firearm crimes (such as robbery and rape) were 75% lower, 56% of Americans believed gun crime was higher than 20 years ago. So what about those scary stories of crimes against children? The crime data reveal a surprising fact: Children are in more danger before they step outside the home rather than afterward. Looking at just child abductions and murders, a 2013 Discovery.com report stressed the rarity of stranger abductions, citing data that the majority of missing children are taken by a parent or caregiver, and many other abduction reports are hoaxes or false alarms. As a 2000 report by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs noted, more than three-fourths of kidnappings were committed by family members or acquaintances of the child -- and, more shocking, children abducted by strangers actually were harmed less frequently than those taken by acquaintances! Indeed, of all children under age 5 murdered between 1980 and 2008, Department of Justice figures show that 63% were killed by a parent, 23% were killed by male acquaintances, 5% were killed by female acquaintances, 7% were killed by other relatives, and just 3% were killed by strangers. Yes, children need to be taught about "stranger danger," and schools need better security, and Internet threats (from pedophiles to cyberbullying) must be policed. But those actions won't address the greatest dangers to our children. To quote W.H. Auden, "Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table." How do we protect children from those closest to them, from familiar faces? The challenge of keeping our children safe is a lot more complex than criminals, madmen and terrorists. For more data and links to articles on children and crime, check out http://www.freerangekids.com/crime-statistics/

The World's Looted Beauty: Who Owns Art?

I've just returned from a Baltic cruise that allowed me to indulge in a favorite activity: visiting art museums. This trip included stops at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg as well as the British Museum in London, both with impressive foreign-origin collections. Coincidentally, on the plane at the start of my journey, I watched the film "The Monuments Men" about American efforts to recover and return Nazi-looted art troves (racing Russian "trophy brigades" seeking to confiscate the purloined art). But the film, in focusing on Nazi villains, missed the more complex question of who really owns the world's art treasures. It's not a new problem. Consider, as a hypothetical, an antique Greek sculpture snatched by Russians from a German museum that had appropriated it in World War II from a French private collector, who had purchased it after its pillage by Napoleon in Italy, where it had long ago arrived as Roman spoils from Greece. Who owns it? Among current celebrated art squabbles is the Greek demand that the British Museum return famed sculptural friezes from the Parthenon. Various American museums, including the J. Paul Getty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also have been pressured in recent years into returning masterpieces with similar shady provenance to their countries of origin. Dealers, collectors and museums -- the art market -- can defend their profitable art transfers by arguing that vulnerable treasures must be removed from their origins to best preserve them from the poverty, corruption or war of "source" countries or individuals. Meanwhile, governments of "source" countries, many once victims of colonial looting, have begun to assert the claims of cultural heritage and national pride, and to seek the power and prestige boost from return of high-value art assets. Many of these disputes end in legal and political stalemate. Holland Cotter discussed the issue in a 2006 New York Times article "Who Owns Art?" and suggested a compromise in which museums and individual collectors become "keepers instead of owners of art, responsible for conserving it in the present, and responsible for letting it go when circumstances are auspicious to do so in the future." History supports the idea. Looted, exiled, cached or flaunted, great art has transcended time and possession by any single mortal or transient political power. We can at best strive to be good stewards in the present. But political and economic powers are stubbornly blind to history. Will the British Museum really hand over its famed Parthenon marbles now that there is a spiffy new museum in Athens? For more discussion, see Cotter's article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/arts/artsspecial/29treasures.html?_r=0

Taking Romance From Staid to Steamy

With the rise of "erotic romance," the romance genre has come a long way since I first discovered it in my early teens, when most of the piles of love stories I brought home from the library ended with a kiss, and only a kiss (plus a proposal of marriage). Some things about romance fiction haven't changed, of course: It still claims the largest share of U.S. consumer book sales, still is an almost completely female pleasure (91% of readers are women), and still appeals to an audience that has graduated young adult but is still far from senior (mean age 49 for print and 42 for e-books). But the popularity of erotic romance (exemplified by the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon) definitely has added new heat, in terms of sales and content, to an old formula. One reason for the growth of the erotic subgenre is doubtless the advent of the e-book, which allows women to download and read a sexy story privately, without the embarrassment of publicly purchasing and carrying the telltale cover. (I used to wish paperbacks would do away with half-naked Fabio back in the day.) And because of the success of erotica, I've noticed that other romance subgenres, including contemporary, historical, paranormal and even Regency romances, are being spiced up with steamy sex scenes. (The inspirational romances remain chaste, of course.) Adding "romance" to mystery or sci-fi probably requires penning a few sex scenes in today's market, too. For an amusing PBS/POV infographic on the evolution of the romance novel, see http://www.pbs.org/pov/guiltypleasures/infographic-evolution-of-romance-novels-fifty-shades-of-grey-ebook.php#.U7M6pJRdWSo

Clothing As a Clue to Character

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society,” remarked Mark Twain. Clothes, even if sketchily observed, make the fictional character, too. OK, naked characters rule in erotica, but you still want to know about clothes taken off; a tux or a leather jacket (ball gown or sundress) inspires a different fantasy. Clothing is such a key psychological and social expression that I attire characters carefully; chic, businesslike, sloppy, outmoded, provocative or thuggish, the clothes must fit the personality. I also have to decide if the character's clothing choice is natural and unstudied, or a conscious effort to present a certain persona. And to make sure clothing is interpreted similarly by most readers, it pays to check research on clothing psychology. Consider one study that found it took only 3 seconds for people shown pictures of men in tailored suits versus off-the-rack suits to make a more favorable judgment of the strangers in tailored clothing. I guess a sophisticated hero needs a tailored suit! Fashion choices can be especially tricky for women characters, especially women in positions of authority. In another study, when people were shown pictures of faceless "senior management" women all dressed in conservative business attire, varying only slightly in terms of skirt length or blouse buttons fastened, they expressed negative opinions of the "provocative" managers (meaning only a slightly shorter skirt or an extra button undone). So, if a heroine is aiming for the executive suite, I don't risk reader disapproval by dressing her in a tiny skirt and low-cut top, at least not at work. Clothing not only speaks to observers, it speaks to the wearer. A new outfit really can lift its owner's spirits. And just donning the trappings of competence can improve performance: A recent study found people asked to dress in a doctor's lab coat to perform a task were more careful and attentive than people performing the same task dressed in a painter's smock. If you're interested in clothing psychology, especially for women, check out Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner's book You Are What You Wear: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-What-Wear-Clothes/dp/0738215201

Descriptive Words for the Unwise

Effective descriptive writing is hard work, requiring careful word choices to inspire the reader's imagination and emotions. Misguided use of adverbs and adjectives can suck the life out of prose, and here is a partial list of my pet peeves. 1) Empty Intensifiers: Adverbs such as "very" and "really" are lazy substitutes for more intense verb or adjective choices; for example, "adores" delivers more punch than "really likes," and "massive" provides more dimension than "very big." 2) Adjectives That Forget It's All Relative: Adjectives such as big/little, important/minor, or exciting/dull fail to connect with readers because interpretation is subjective and relative. Good writing provides specifics. Thus, "baseball-sized dent" is clearer than "big dent," and "front-page news story across the nation" has more meaning than "important news story." 3) Adverbs That Try to Put a Bright Wrap on Dull Verbs: Most of these adverbs end in -ly (the boy ran quickly), and they reflect uninspired verb choice. When writers select strong action verbs, there is no need for clunky modifiers (the boy raced). 4) Adjectives That Judge Without Evidence: People decide whether something is beautiful or alluring (ugly or disgusting at the other end of the spectrum) based on input from their five senses, so descriptions that rely on general qualifiers, such as "lovely" or "awful," without sensory detail leave readers fumbling for the author's vision. For example, isn't it easier to picture "a pond with a viscous green surface emitting sulfurous fumes" than an "ugly" pond? 5) Adjectives Struggling to Meet the Right Noun: "Elongated yellow fruit" is not a better way to say "banana."  So a "very tall urban building" can be effectively replaced with "skyscraper," and the "main artery carrying blood from the heart" is succinctly and accurately termed the "aorta." For other words to avoid: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1444332-10-Words-to-Avoid

Beware the Pitfalls of Internet Research

My son once wrote an earnest elementary-school paper about alien visitors based completely on Internet research. (I hasten to add that I was out of town when this happened.) Before shrugging off his childish online trust, note that even adult readers and authors have been misled by online sources. Internet research is convenient -- with seemingly every publisher, research outfit and news organization offering digital access today -- but information-highway riders must be wary. Yes, you can type in a search phrase and scroll through a trove of information sources, but those search findings are a Pandora's Box. Consider Wikipedia, which often tops the list of online search results. Wikipedia is a great starting point, but it is not an online research bible; it is an "open source"encyclopedia where non-experts may edit articles and even insert inaccurate information. Also be aware that when popular community information sites (ask.com or WebMD, for example) collect articles from outside sources, they may unintentionally include unreliable data or data interpretations. And, hopefully, even a neophyte web surfer knows that a blog or social media post can be opinion without any basis in fact. So how do you find reliable online information? First of all, beware single-source, dated, excerpted and/or unattributed information. Remain skeptical of "scientific" findings based on unexplained methodology, culled from tiny or non-random samples, contradicted by many other reputable sources, or provided by clearly biased, self-serving entities. For suggestions on reliable online sources, including government, academic and publisher sites, start with the ehow article at http://www.ehow.com/how_6326469_do-good-internet-research-wikipedia.html. But I would add the following advice (despite the imagined groans of digital-agers): Try also visiting a brick-and-mortar building called a "library" that is full of original source material and reference works. Instead of just sniffing digital footprints, consider interviewing a recognized expert in person! 

Arf or Meow: What Author Pet Choice Tells You

Many author promotional photos include pets, as I noticed when researching my prior post about author portraits. I suppose it is partly a ploy to make the writer more appealing; you can't be a selfish, irresponsible brute if you love a pet, right? And pet-owning is a common social connector -- to the point that I see more sharing of photos of pets than human partners. But assuming authors also picture pets because they are important in their lives, I wondered if the choice of pet (meaning cat versus dog) has any psychological significance. Yes, studies have shown that dog lovers, reflecting their social pets, are generally more extroverted and confident, as well as more conventional, while cat lovers are generally more introverted but also more open, meaning more likely to embrace unusual ideas, artistic creativity and a variety of experiences. Since I'm a cat person, I was naturally curious about writers who have been inspired by felines. A very partial list includes Mark Twain, Jean Cocteau, Stephen King, Jean Paul Sartre, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Colette, Samuel Johnson, Raymond Chandler, Tennessee Williams and Joyce Carol Oates. Of course, creative writing has a canine contingent. Famous dog-owning authors include Virginia Woolf, John Steinbeck and William Faulkner. I'm not sure what it says about the personalities of authors fond of unusual pets -- such as Charles Dickens with his raven or Beatrix Potter with her rabbit. But for some aah-inspiring photos of famous writers and their pets, go to http://flavorwire.com/350238/adorable-pictures-of-famous-writers-and-their-pets/

Author Photos: Good, Bad, But Mostly Cliché

When I first prepared to publish a book, I was surprised by how many people stressed the importance of a professional and appealing author photograph. They told me that they always check the author's bio photo and that it is a factor in deciding to read a new author. After only a little thought, I realized that the author's promotional portrait on a physical cover or online can affect my first impression of a book. Blurred, amateurish photos make me worry about a lack of professionalism that could extend to writing and editing. A clearly out-of-date picture of a living author makes me wonder if the content might need updating as well, or if the writer's current appearance would repel readers. Intentionally or unintentionally bizarre photos draw a second look, and sometimes a giggle, but not necessarily a purchase (a prime example for me was aging romance queen Barbara Cartland bejeweled in a hot-pink gown with a fluffy white lapdog). But the main problem with promotional author pictures is that they are usually so formal or cliché they leave no impression at best or a sense of marketing manipulation at worst. A clever flavorwire post by Paul Hiebert highlighted five of the most common author portrait clichés: 1. The Sophisticated Photograph (aka “The My-head-is-so-weighted-down-by-great-thoughts-it-requires-additional-support”); 2. The Office Photograph (aka “The Oh-I-didn’t-hear-you-enter-please-come-in-it’s-really-no-problem”); 3. The Comfortable Photograph (aka “The Torso-twist-with-arm-resting-on-back-of-couch”); 4. The Smoker Photograph (aka “The You-can’t-be-bad-ass-by-doing-what’s-good-for-you-and-your-children”); 5. The Hand-To-Face Photograph (aka “The Face-alone-is-boring-and-therefore-not-enough”). So I asked a professional photographer to create my author photo, and if it tends toward the Comfortable Photograph formula, I kept my hands away from my face at least! To see Hiebert's photo examples, including portraits of many famous authors, go to http://flavorwire.com/117566/against-promotional-author-photographs

Separating Forensic Facts From Fantasy

I admit I'm a sucker for forensic detection, especially mystery fiction where the medical examiner or expert is the key crime solver. I like Patricia Cornwell's Dr. Kay Scarpetta series, Kathy Reichs' Dr.Temperance Brennan mysteries, Tess Gerritsen's Dr. Maura Isles, and Aaron Elkins' "skeleton detective" Gideon Oliver, for example. Of course, I watch TV series such as "CSI," "Bones," "NCIS," etc., where forensic experts put trace evidence in fancy machines that pop out scientific proof of guilt in seconds. With all the incriminating circumstantial evidence from DNA, fingerprints, bite marks, ballistics, blood spatter, insect activity, hair and fiber matching, and so on, it's amazing that, in reality, direct evidence from witnesses still leads cases and that some crimes remain unsolved, murderers escape and innocents are convicted. In fact, popular fascination with forensics has actually created a crime prosecution problem known as the "CSI effect." Trial jurors now may hesitate to convict without the forensic evidence from supposedly infallible experts that they have come to expect based on fictional crime dramas. Alas, there is more fantasy than fact in many televised forensic feats. Contrary to TV dramatics, forensic investigators don't question suspects, process evidence in minutes, and then direct police to arrest the guilty party. The police, not CSI sleuths, take care of interrogations and arrests. Most forensic investigations stay removed from the action in autopsy rooms and labs. And those labs lack all the high-tech devices and expert staff seen on TV so specimens are routinely sent out for tests requiring days to months, not minutes, to complete. It can take four to six weeks just to get toxicology test results, for example. Plus, forensic tests -- even DNA and fingerprint matching-- are not foolproof. Forensic science is not immune to human error or varying opinions. That's not to say that forensic advances aren't playing a vital role in solving and prosecuting crimes today. The real forensic triumphs are as amazing as the myths. Check out some fascinating forensic facts at http://www.myforensicsciencedegree.com/25-surprising-facts-about-forensic-science/

How Universal Fears Power Mystery Writing

The "dark and stormy night" is a cliché illustration of how writers appeal to universal fears to heighten suspense. Just look at the National Institute of Mental Health's list of the 10 most common phobias: fear of public speaking, fear of death or dying, fear of spiders, fear of darkness, fear of heights, fear of socializing or being in a crowded place, fear of flying, fear of confined spaces, fear of being unable to escape an open place, and fear of thunder and lightning. So let's set the scene with our protagonist trapped in a dark closet crawling with spiders while thunder rumbles, lightning flashes, and a killer lurks on the other side of the door! That's the stuff of a B movie, but good writers do the same thing more subtly. Consider author Stephen King's cogent remarks about fear in the introduction to his short-story collection Night Shift: “Fear is the emotion that makes us blind. How many things are we afraid of? We’re afraid to turn off the lights when our hands are wet. We’re afraid to stick a knife into the toaster to get the stuck English muffin without unplugging it first. We’re afraid of what the doctor may tell us when the physical exam is over; when the airplane suddenly takes a great unearthly lurch in midair. We’re afraid that the oil may run out, that the good air will run out, the good water, the good life.... Fear makes us blind, and we touch each fear with all the avid curiosity of self-interest, trying to make a whole out of a hundred parts. We sense the shape. Children grasp it easily, forget, and relearn it as adults. The shape is there, and most of us come to realize what it is sooner or later: it is the shape of a body under a sheet." Horror writers and murder mystery writers approach that mortal fear from different angles, perhaps because of the nature of their readers. The murder mystery reader handles fear of "a body under a sheet" by turning it into an intellectual puzzle to solve; and while thrills along the way make the puzzle-solving exciting, the mystery reader's strong sense of justice and order demands a resolution of fear, that the evil threat is punished and removed. For mystery writers, fear's blinding quality is also a great way to distract readers from clues to the who, how and why. But I also would hope that by facing fears in fiction, readers can deal better with fears in real life. Cue Dr. Robert L. Leahy, psychiatrist and author of the lauded The Worry Cure and Anxiety Free: Unravel Your Fears Before They Unravel You. One of his suggested ways to cope with fear: "Turn your anxiety into a movie (or a book, I would add). You can let go of a worry by disconnecting yourself from it... sit in the audience, eating popcorn, a calm observer." For more of Leahy's advice, see http://www.realsimple.com/health/mind-mood/emotional-health/ten-ways-to-cope-with-anxiety-00000000021548/index.html

Mythical Online Threats to Offline Relationships

I'm not among those who suspect digital networking undermines offline relationships, especially romantic ones. I believe the basic need for emotional intimacy is not going to be eroded or replaced by expanding social media connections and constant mobile chatter. But when 66% of American couples (adults who are married or in committed relationships) say the Internet, mobile devices and social media are key factors in their lives, I suppose it's a concern worth exploring. A recent report by the Pew Research Internet Project should reassure. Its 2013 survey found 72% of online adults in marriages or committed relationships said Internet use has had "no real impact at all" on their partnerships. And of couples who said the Internet had an impact, 74% said it was positive! In fact, 21% of cell owners or Internet users said they actually felt closer to a partner because of online or text/cell message exchanges. Not that digital communications don't have negatives: For example, 25% of all coupled adults complained a spouse or partner was distracted by mobile use when they were together, 8% had an argument about the amount of time a partner spent online, and 4% got upset at something they found out a partner was doing online. There also were age differences that reflect the higher digital affinity of younger adults. I'm sure you've noticed that mobile device deprivation causes anxiety in people under 30. So 45% of 18- to 29-year-olds in serious relationships reported a significant relationship impact (both good or bad) from digital communications (compared with 25% for all couples). Now I admit there is one digital trend that does make me a tad queasy: Sexting is on the upswing for both couples and singles, with 9% of cell owners saying they sent a sext of themselves (up from 6% in 2012) and 20% saying they received a sext (up from 15%). For more on the Pew findings, go to http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/11/couples-the-internet-and-social-media/

Time Flies When You're Getting Older

I recently read a fiction work that played with time and memory. With the turn of a page, the reader was taken from long, intense passages of youthful experience to brief words of graying regret, and I recognized with dismay a similar warping in my own time perception. Simply put, as we grow older, time seems to speed up. The memories of youth may remain rich and crowded, but recent events pass in a blink. Why? Sure, one day to an 11-year-old is about 1/4,000 of his or her life but is just 1/20,000 of a lifespan for a 55-year-old, so any random day literally counts for less with age. But that's just mathematics and doesn't explain why I perceive time accelerating moment by moment. A common theory is that children and young adults are actively engaged in learning and adapting to new stimuli, while older people draw on experience, routine and mental habit, so older brains form fewer rich memories and rely on pre-mapped reactions that basically treat familiar stimuli as invisible. The increase in invisible, unremembered moments will make the subjective perception of time pass at a faster rate as we grow older. No matter your age, studies show there are ways to put the brakes on flying time. We perceive time as moving more slowly when we experience certain strong emotions, such as fear or awe. Time also seems to slow down when we are engaged in a cognitively demanding task or experiencing multiple changes in a short interval or faced with novel stimuli. So there are solutions to my illusion of speeding time if I want to take a little effort. A recent New York Times opinion piece on time and aging by psychiatrist Richard Friedman put it aptly: "It’s simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again. Learn something that requires sustained effort; do something novel. Put down the thriller when you’re sitting on the beach and break out a book on evolutionary theory or Spanish for beginners or a how-to book on something you’ve always wanted to do. Take a new route to work; vacation at an unknown spot. And take your sweet time about it." For more, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/fast-time-and-the-aging-mind.html?_r=0

Modern Echoes of the 'Penny Dreadful'

The term "Penny Dreadful" has been revived by the recent Showtime horror-thriller series. "Penny dreadful" refers to cheap and lurid British publications catering to the newly literate youth of the late 19th century. Thanks to increased public education, a growing number of English working class adolescents had learned to read at a basic level, and had income for inexpensive escapist entertainment. An American parallel would be the "dime novel." Aimed mainly at young adult males, the "penny dreadful" began as serialized stories on cheap pulp paper (costing a penny per installment). They offered sensational tales of paranormal chills, violent crime and youthful adventurers. For example, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who has been recently reincarnated as a Broadway and film star, was a penny dreadful invention. Other series featured "Varney the Vampire" and "Wagner the Wehr-Wolf." Actually, the penny dreadful tales don't sound that different from current best sellers in the Young Adult genre. Clearly, the teen taste for horror-thriller adventure is unabated. But I wonder if the penny dreadful content has modern-day parallels because the elementary literacy of Victorian youth--who demanded short-attention-span excitement devoid of literary and historical allusions and difficult vocabulary--is also still with us. A 2012 study of reading trends among high school students found that the average student reads at the 5th grade level--the reading level of the Hunger Games and Twilight series. For more on penny dreadful history, see http://vichist.blogspot.com/2008/11/penny-dreadfuls.html

Young Adult Fiction's Star Keeps Rising

Young Adult literature is experiencing a new golden age. Just consider the impact on popular culture, including movies spawned, of the Harry Potter series, the Twilight novels, the Hunger Games books, and Markus Zusak's award-winning The Book Thief. As YA and children's fiction crosses over to generate adult fans and purchasers, watch for adult fiction writers to follow and adapt/adopt these popular YA trends, as identified by Millhouse Press: dystopian tales (The Hunger Games); special needs protagonists (My Brother Charlie is an example); paranormal romance with vampires and more (such as Beautiful Creatures, a 2013 movie, too); mythology-based fantasy (see the Goddess Girls series); return of the venerable diary/journal format (such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid); and multimedia (exemplified by the Skeleton Creek series). But what's coming next? Writers want to strike gold with the next hot trend, not mine an exhausted vein. A recent story by Husna Haq in The Christian Science Monitor suggests that vampire-zombie-werewolf romance, Potteresque magical fantasy and dystopian adventure all may be running out of steam at last, and cites these hot new YA content predictions courtesy of Bookish.com editors: novels about a "loveless future," where teens struggle against societies seeking to eradicate love; modernized fairy tales, perhaps with a cyborg Cinderella or an unusual viewpoint, such as the not-so-wicked witch or stepmother (Disney seems to be tapping into that with its Maleficent film); a rise in male protagonists to end the long reign of girl power a la Katniss Everdeen; and a melding of YA with cyberpunk virtual reality and AI villainy (James Dashner's The Eye of Minds is an example). Some of the 2014 YA debuts certainly fit those new categories. For a list of the best YA of 2014, see the Young Adult Library Services Association's picks at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2014-best-fiction-young-adults

Mystery Fiction Embraces Genre-Bending

I've noticed, and a recent Library Journal article confirms, that the genre boundaries of mystery fiction are expanding and blurring. Mystery authors seem increasingly prone to borrow from other genres, ranging from romance, paranormal/fantasy, horror and thriller to Westerns. The resulting crossover novels may have the traditional mystery puzzle solving, but they've got a genre-bending persona. For example, how do reviewers categorize the hit Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? The page-turning psychological mystery about a husband suspected in the disappearance of his wife seems to have jumped right over genre into "literary fiction" status. The current paranormal craze is especially infectious, with paranormal mysteries, like paranormal romances, proliferating. So no surprise that Southerner Maggie Toussaint (author of Cleopatra Jones and Mossy Bog mysteries) is going paranormal with her new book Gone and Done It about a landscaper/pet-sitter who uses dream-walking to help police. The crime-solving Western, following the trail of the late Tony Hillerman, seems to be another mystery crossover category; an example is the Western noir Bad Country by C.B. McKenzie (featuring a Native American rodeo-cowboy-turned-PI). Meanwhile, the success of the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series has paved the way for imports with a foreign accent, and not just from Scandanavia. I'm looking forward to the summer arrival of Bernard Minier’s Frozen Dead, set in the French Pyrénées and winner of several French literary prizes. Of course, American authors are also pumping out standard mystery fare and doing it well: Police procedurals, spunky women sleuths, historicals and small-town "cozies" abound. But based on sales trends, I'm thinking about penning an erotic paranormal mystery set in Iceland. For the Library Journal preview of 2014 mystery debuts, go to http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2014/04/books/genre-fiction/mystery/pushing-boundaries-mystery-preview-2014/

Book Clubs Often Give Short Stories Short Shrift

In an upcoming book club meeting, we are discussing the short-story collection Runaway by Canadian Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature as a "master of the contemporary short story." Despite the prestigious award, Munro wasn't an obvious choice. There is a hesitation in book groups to tackle a story collection; it's hard enough to structure a conversation about one plot and set of characters, much less multiple ones! That's a shame because some of our most iconic fiction is in short-story form. Consider the authors: Start with Chaucer and move on to O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger and Jorge Luis Borges, to name only a few. What about sci-fi giants Bradbury, Asimov and Clarke, icons of the eerie Stephen King and Shirley Jackson, or mystery masters Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie? There are hundreds of great writers of short-story gems. Some recent collections include Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, and John Updike's My Father's Tears and Other Stories. As Publishers Weekly said of Munro's Runaway stories of love, betrayal and time's surprises: "One never knows quite where a Munro story will end, only that it will leave an incandescent trail of psychological insight." But how to tap those insights in a single discussion? Short-story writers liken the process to appreciating an art gallery or rock album collection, meaning pieces appeal individually yet the collection is more than just the sum of its parts. Unique style and story-telling combine with recurring themes or characters to heighten the overall impact on readers. For book clubs who want to add a story collection to their roster, here's a general plan of attack from one author, and for Runaway in particular, BookBrowse offers a discussion guide at http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm/book_number/1495/Runaway

When the Paintbrush Inspires the Pen

Along with readers across the nation, my book club is discussing The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel referencing the painting "The Goldfinch" by Carel Fabritius. The fictional tale has sparked new interest in the real painting, and I wonder what Fabritius would make of booming museum gift-store sales of tote bags featuring his trompe l'oeuil portrait of a little pet bird chained to its perch. Tartt's novel follows the "Dickensian" journey of the protagonist from his boyhood survival of a terrorist explosion in a museum, which killed his mother and left him in secret possession of a famous painting. Like many, I pondered why Tartt chose "The Goldfinch" as the fictionally purloined artwork out of all the other candidates. The painting's history certainly recommends it as a disaster survivor: It is one of the few surviving works of Fabritius, who was killed at just 32 in a massive gunpowder magazine explosion in 1654 Delft. Fabritius, a master of the 17th century Delft school along with Vermeer and de Hooch, has been praised for painterly illusion and originality, breaking from Rembrandt and Dutch conventions to favor light backgrounds, a cooler palette, delicate light effects and spatial illusion. The chained bird may or may not have symbolic significance: A goldfinch was not only a popular Dutch pet of the time but also a symbol in art for death, resurrection and the passion of Christ. For a good discussion of the work, see the Wall Street Journal article by art historian Mary Lewis. So I can think of many themes from the painting that make it an inspired choice: the trompe l'oeuil of fate and freedom; the soul tethered by a traumatic past, by guilt, by responsibility, by obsession; the fragility and transcendence of art; death and immortality. The intersection of visual and literary arts can create unique epiphanies, both universal and personal. So, of course, this is not the first work of art to inspire a fictional work. Remember the popularity, if not the prize quality, of Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring? For some other examples, see http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jan/17/fine-art-fiction-donna-tartt-goldfinch

Why You Gotta Have Friends (Beyond Facebook)

As of this post, I am actually on a cruise ship sipping wine with three girlfriends -- far from husbands, children, bosses and any other potential stress inducers. A regular getaway with friends is one of those things, like my gym membership, that I consider essential to my health. My friends are more than a collection of Facebook photos; they are the people to call in an emergency, trust with my secrets and share my joys. They improve my mental and physical well-being. Psychologically, my friends buck me up when I'm down, hold my hand when I'm afraid and keep me tethered to earth when I'm full of hot air. They also help me live longer and more healthily. Scientific studies show that friendship's health benefits include a better immune system (people with more social connections get fewer colds), less stress, improved brain power (including reduced risk of aging dementia); lower blood pressure and better sleep. In my opinion, all those social network "likes" and "friends" and shared photos of cute cats are distracting from a dangerous problem in American life: the decline of friendship. Studies show that Americans have fewer close friends today than they did 25 years ago (an average of two friends now), and that the decline in social connections has resulted in a drop in general happiness despite climbing material success. Is that increasing isolation being offset by the rise of social networking? I doubt it. In fact, social networking can actually make you feel more lonely and less happy. Recent studies have shown that the "friendship paradox" is at play on social networks: On average you really do have fewer friends than your social media friends. To make matters worse, you really are less wealthy and less happy as well as less popular on average than your social media friends. No wonder that research finds active social network users have higher levels of unhappiness! For more, read  http://www.technologyreview.com/view/523566/how-the-friendship-paradox-makes-your-friends-better-than-you-are/

His Sense of Humor Makes Him Sexy. Really?

Humor is an aphrodisiac -- or at least women (and men) consistently tell surveys that "a sense of humor" is a top attraction in a romantic partner, even more important than looks, brains or wealth. So in crafting my next novel's sexy hero, I should forget face and fortune and focus on funny? Really? I just don't buy it, even though I've heard countless girlfriends declare the importance of a "sense of humor" in choosing "the one." Let's get something clear: Men and women mean something very different when they say they value a sense of humor in a potential mate. Women mean they want men who can amuse, while men mean they want women who think they are amusing. Women want a humor generator, and men want a humor appreciator, as one psychologist explained. Natural selection has put humor at the top of the sexual scale for women as an indicator of male "cognitive fitness," opines another scientist, so men naturally use humor to compete for female attention. OK, so laughter and desire are linked. But which comes first? Is a gal enticed because he makes her giggle, or does she giggle because she's already interested in him? It's the latter, asserts comedian Gilbert Gottfried's Playboy magazine article entitled "Women Say They Want a Guy With a Sense of Humor. They Don't." Concludes Gottfried: "If a woman is laughing at everything you say, she already plans to f-- you. That's all there is to it. Your jokes don't have to be any good, because she's not really listening. If she's planning to f-- you, she'll laugh. And if she's not, she won't. End of story." Humor is probably more important in sustaining rather than sparking romance anyway. Marriage researchers have found that when humor plays a role in diffusing tension and conflict, marriages tend to last longer, and that people who joke with their spouses tend to be happier in their marriages. For a more scientific and less profane discussion than Gottfried's, read the Psychology Today article at http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200508/humors-sexual-side

The Self-Help Books to Keep on Your Shelf

I'm sure you've noticed that self-help books are frequently best sellers. Just a glance at The New York Times' current nonfiction best sellers finds 10% Happier by Dan Harris (how the co-anchor of "Nightline" used meditation to improve his life) and Thrive by Arianna Huffington (personal well-being as a measure of success, along with money and power). I've read my share of self-help books, but I've thrown out (and forgotten) more career, health, relationship, and spiritual guides than I've kept. So I began to wonder which entries in the self-help genre have stood the test of time and may merit a permanent place on my bookshelf -- and maybe yours. There are lots of recommendations out there, but when I combine them all together, I come up with two winners per pundits, popular acclaim and my own experience: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Harvard MBA Stephen Covey, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by super-salesman Dale Carnegie, published in the 1930s and still going strong. Other consistently championed books are The Power of Now by philosopher Eckhart Tolle, Man's Search for Meaning by concentration-camp survivor Viktor Frankl, Awaken the Giant Within by motivational guru Anthony Robbins, The Road Less Traveled by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, bringing the "law of attraction" of earlier writers to new audiences. So if you find yourself troubled by basic questions -- who am I, what do I really want, and how do I get from where I am now to where I want to be -- check out these books. For more top-rated self-help guides, consider other picks by sources as varied as Amazon, Reader's Digest, and Elle magazine.

Regional Mystery Rewards Sleuth and Tourist

Sometimes the setting of a mystery novel goes beyond a dash of "local color" into the realm of regional fiction, offering a special atmosphere, unique characters and local accents so integral to the story that it's hard to imagine the same plot in another place. Here are just a few regional mysteries that may appeal to fellow armchair detectives and tourists. Take a trip to New Mexico and its blend of Hispanic, Native American and Anglo cultures courtesy of the late Tony Hillerman; Skinwalkers or A Thief of Time is a good first read. Closer to home for me, Raymond Chandler may have been the pioneer of Los Angeles noir, but Michael Connelly is a worthy heir, winning every major award given to mystery writers, with his novels featuring LAPD detective "Harry" Bosch and defense attorney Mickey Haller. I also like Jonathan Kellerman's L.A.-based series with child-psychologist sleuth Alex Delaware, starting with the award-winning debut When the Bough Breaks. On the opposite coast, Dennis Lehane draws powerful, wrenching literary mysteries out of a gritty Boston landscape; a great example is Mystic River, winner of multiple book awards. Or follow the cases of the late Robert B. Parker's Boston private detective Spenser; with so many books in the series, a good start is Edgar Award-winning Promised Land. If New York City tops your tour agenda, Linda Fairstein and her Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper provide satisfying reads, including Nero Award-winning The Deadhouse. If you think drizzly gloom is the perfect setting for murder and mayhem, you'll be drawn to J.A. Jance's Seattle-based detective J.P. Beaumont series, starting with debut Until Proven Guilty. Or you can move further north to the wilder shores of Alaska, and meet Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak, kicking off the series with Edgar Award-winning A Cold Day for Murder. There are a lot more regional mysteries worth sampling, of course. For more suggestions, take a look at the post by Marvin Lachman, author of The American Regional Mystery, at http://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2012/10/17/the-american-regional-mystery-by-marvin-lachman/

Sleuthing 101: Are You a Good Lie Detector?

Most of us hear a slew of lies each day, and before you dispute it, realize that most of us are also bad at spotting lies (about a 50-50 chance of being duped, per research). We solicit and embrace relatively harmless deceptions ("Do these pants make me look fat?"), but when it's the case of a murderer, a crooked politician or a cheating spouse, failure to detect a liar has serious consequences. Think you're good at lie detection? Try the simple Lie-Q quiz at http://liespotting.com/liespotting-basics/quiz/. Here's one hint: If you suspect the nervous guy who can't make eye contact, you're chasing the wrong clues; liars can be glib and engage in more eye contact to sell their stories.  Since lies are at the heart of mystery writing -- both deceits plotted for fictional characters and deceptions by authors to keep readers guessing -- understanding why people lie and how to catch liars are basics. A lot of research on deceptive behavior's cues comes from psychologist Paul Ekman, who pioneered research in facial expressions, gained a reputation as "the best human lie detector in the world," and inspired the brief Fox TV series "Lie to Me."  While liars can be skilled at controlling their words and facial expressions, studies show there are still verbal and nonverbal "tells" to alert trained observers. One of Ekman's finds is how micro-expressions (complete but very brief expressions of hidden emotion) and squelched expressions (an angry response quickly masked by a smile, for example) can reveal deceit. For more, including examples of famous lies, read Ekman's book Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics and Marriage, available at http://www.amazon.com/Telling-Lies-Marketplace-Politics-Marriage/dp/0393337456/

What If the Lady Is a Psychopath?

The dangerous psychopath is a stock figure in modern mysteries and thrillers, but most stories focus on menacing males. What if the psychopath is a lady? Is she just a male psychopath with lipstick and high heels? Not quite.There isn't as much research on the female psychopath, but she's like her male counterpart in being superficially charming while, behind the mask, she's an egocentric, manipulative, deceitful and impulsive risk-taker who lacks empathy, remorse and respect for social norms. It's a personality compatible with criminal acts, which is why psychopaths, who are estimated to represent 1% to 3% of the general population, are over-represented in prisons and murder mysteries. One study pegged psychopaths at 16% of the female prison population (although that's lower than the 25% of male prison inmates). It's the manifestation of the disorder that differs between the sexes, including violent behavior. Where male psychopaths are prone to physical aggression, for example, females tend to resort to relational or verbal aggression -- such as manipulating social networks to exclude a victim, engaging in self-injury, or using sexual seduction and coercion. Male and female psychopaths may have more in common when it comes to sexual behavior. A recent U.S. study of "hypersexual" people, meaning those with the most casual sexual partners, found that psychopathy is the key predictive personality trait for hypersexuality in both men and women. The female psychopath is more likely to be a sexual thrill-seeker because she is impulsive and immune to the anxieties and social taboos that usually discourage risky encounters, and she is successful in using socially and sexually exploitative tactics to snare partners. By the way, female psychopaths apparently are also more interested in coercive and sado-masochistic sex (pause to consider this if you enjoyed 50 Shades of Grey). For more on psychopathy and sexuality, read http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-raj-persaud/male-and-female-psychopaths-get-more-sex_b_1845750.html

Cultural Mystery: One's Taboo Is Other's Custom

Mystery novels focus on the eternal conundrums of violence and justice, on solving the who, how and why behind legally and socially taboo acts--so we often assume a fundamental agreement on what is illegal or immoral. However, readers with an appetite for global mysteries need to be aware that one country's taboos can be another's customs. For example, polygamy is taboo in the United States (despite TV series on Mormon sister-wives), but Islamic cultures accept that a man can have up to four legal wives. Pedophilia is illegal and repugnant here, but child marriage and child prostitution are tolerated globally; in Greece, for example, pedophilia is defined as an "ailment" rather than a crime. Incest of the father-daughter, mother-son and brother-sister type is pretty much a universal no-no today, but laws on incest still vary within the United States when it comes to first-cousin marriage and even uncle-niece/aunt-nephew relationships. In the Netherlands, France and Spain, sex (as distinct from marriage) between consenting adults is legal no matter how closely related. Well, at least all societies agree that murder is wrong. Not really. Cultures differ by ignoring, condoning or punishing leniently homicides that the community has deemed justified: "Honor killings" in South Asia and the Middle East and "crimes of passion" in Latin America are examples. The "stand your ground" defense in some U.S. jurisdictions has sparked similar controversy and condemnation by human rights groups. For U.S. taboos that are considered acceptable in other countries, see http://www.buzzfeed.com/natgeo/lifestyles-that-are-taboo-in-the-us-but-are-okay-5n1c

Is It Time to Escape on a Foreign Mystery Tour?

As you emerge from winter's grip, it's time to plan for some fun travel -- and there's no cheaper way than a global mystery tour. Enjoy sunny piazzas, pyramids and pagodas with fascinating sleuths for company. If you're already addicted to bleak Scandinavian landscapes by Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, consider Norway's "Queen of Crime" Karin Fossum and Swedish master Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series. But then go sip white wine in a Paris café courtesy of one of the world's top-selling mystery writers, the late Georges Simenon, creator of the Commissaire Maigret mysteries. Add Italian zest with mystery fan favorites Andrea Camilleri, creator of Sicilian Inspector Montalbano, and Donna Leon, creator of Venice police detective Guido Brunetti. Best-selling Spanish novelist Arturo Perez-Severte can offer historical flair with his Diego Alatriste, a 17th century sword-wielding sleuth. Next leave Europe and go East. Sample Japanese Keigo Higashino's The Devotion of Suspect X, a 2012 Edgar Award nominee, and Qiu Xiaolong's series about poetry-spouting Shanghai detective Chen Cao, including Death of a Red Heroine, an Anthony Award winner for first novel. Fly over the Taj Mahal and land with Kishwar Desai's award-winning Witness the Night, featuring Punjab social-worker-cum-crime investigator Simran Singh. Visit Africa with the Botswana-based Detective Kubu series by Michael Stanley (alias of a duo of South African professors). Finally, come back to the Americas and go south with acclaimed psychological thriller The Book of Murder by Argentina's Guillermo Martinez. And that's a very abbreviated world tour of great mysteries! For a much longer list by geography, go to http://www.mysterylovers.com/books/book_clubs/foreign.php