Appointment With Agatha discussion

Let's talk about side reads? Do we want to bring them back? Let me know your thoughts...

Though I always have too many books on my monthly lists, I´d like to have side reads too. Needn´t be every month though...

I agree with Michaela. Maybe four side reads a year?

I happened to be lent a book called Murder in the Snow by Gladys Mitchell, would anyone want to read that as a side read in the next month or two?

Rosemarie wrote: "I agree with Michaela. Maybe four side reads a year?"

This is a good idea - I think trying a quarterly side read would be a good starting point. What do you think about February, May, August & November. I think starting on January 1 is a bad idea - everything always starts on January 1, and there would be less competition in February. We could open the thread on the first day of the appropriate month, and then leave it open for discussion for 2 months.

That sounds very do-able, Christine.

I'm definitely in favor of bringing back the side reads. I really enjoyed the introductions they gave me to different authors.

I know that the general consensus was previously to pick the side-reads on the fly, but I really think that was one of the problems with maintaining them. It was a struggle to get nominations and they seemed to be constantly flying at me, lol.

I'd like to try picking all four side reads for 2023 at the end of this year so I can put them on the schedule.

So, next question:

Do we want to pick a theme? A specific author to explore? A publisher to focus on? With only 4 books, it's much less of a lift.

Think on that for a bit.

Jazzy wrote: "I happened to be lent a book called Murder in the Snow by Gladys Mitchell, would anyone want to read that as a side read in the next month or two?"

Jazzy, I've read a few of the Mrs. Bradley books, including that one. They are very strange mysteries. I liked that one quite a bit. I love to read Christmas mysteries, so I'd probably be up for a reread.

Perhaps we could use a four-book omnibus edition for the sidereads.

I'm thinking of

Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1950s (LOA #269): Mischief / The Blunderer / Beast in View / Fools' Gold

I miss the side reads; they have introduced me to a lot of authors I would not have otherwise read. But I can only read them if they are available to me in an audio version and because of that I don't get to read all of the side reads. When there were a dozen, it wasn't a problem missing a few during the year because none was available. When there are just four side reads a year, it is a different story.

Therefore, my request is that any book that is chosen for the four a year that we are doing should be available to everybody no matter what country they live in and no matter what format they read in.

Peregrina651 wrote: "Therefore, my request is that any book that is chosen for the four a year that we are doing should be available to everybody no matter what country they live in and no matter what format they read in.

This certainly seems like something we could accomplish, although I'm going to need people to let me know about availability for them as we go through the selection process!

Some possible "themes" for 2023:

A couple of publishing imprints to consider:

1. British Library Crime Classics: BLCC is a publishing imprint of the British library that is reissuing classic crime fiction by a lot of different authors. Martin Edwards is heavily involved in this project. A link to the BL page is here: https://shop.bl.uk/collections/crime-...

*As a specific adjunct to the BLCC idea, they have issued many short story anthologies - we could select 4 of them and read them as our side reads. Not sure if they would be available in audio format, though.

2. American Mystery Classics: This is part of a project that Otto Penzler is involved in that is along the same lines as the BLCC, but related to American authors. More info & title list here: https://penzlerpublishers.com/product...

Peregrina, you'd need to let me know if these are available for audio or not, and if yes, is it all of them, or only specified titles. I'm hopeful that they will be available, but not confident.

Authors/Detectives:

We could do an author "study" with our side reads. Some ideas would include: Patricia Wentworth (Miss Silver), Margery Allingham (Campion), Georges Simenon (Maigret), Raymond Chandler (Marlowe), Gladys Mitchell (Mrs. Bradley) or Dorothy Sayers (Peter Wimsey). There are a lot of other authors we could consider, but I think these are most likely to be available on audio. Ngaio Marsh is also a possibility, but I left her off because we have previously done a side read with four of her books.

Theme:

1. Locked room mysteries
2. Noir style mysteries
3. Specific years/decades
4. Country house mysteries
5. Train/plane/shipboard mysteries

There are many other possibilities - this isn't an exhaustive list by any means, so if you have an idea, let me know.

Just thinking out loud here, so bear with me!

Another possibility for 2023 would be to do two "tracks" of side reads, each made up of 4 books. So, for example, we could do a "locked room mystery" track and an "American Mystery Classics" track. Each track would do one book per quarter. This would be a total of 8 side-reads per year. We could assign the books to months in an alternating fashion:

January: Track 1 side read
February: Track 2 side read
March: no side read/catch up with Track 1 or 2; discussions will be archived on April 1.

etc...

Readers could obviously still drop in an out of the side reads based on interest, but could also choose a unifying theme if they only wanted to participate in 4 side reads in 2023. It was also be great if, in addition to myself, someone would commit to being a "track leader" for the discussions that apply to those books.

Thoughts?

Sounds lovely Christine PNW, I can borrow the book til the first part of January.

Jazzy wrote: "Sounds lovely Christine PNW, I can borrow the book til the first part of January."

I like to start my festive reading around (U.S.) Thanksgiving. How does 11/26 sound as a starting point?

Sure, end of November is class!

If you're thinking of festive side reads, I'd be interested in 'Murder After Christmas' by Ruper Latimer. It's a BLCC book that's available as an ebook and as an audiobook.

Murder After Christmas

Mike wrote: "If you're thinking of festive side reads, I'd be interested in 'Murder After Christmas' by Ruper Latimer. It's a BLCC book that's available as an ebook and as an audiobook.

[book:Murder After Chri..."

I'm always up for a festive read or two (or ten) - I had already put this one on hold @ my local library!

I decided to start a new thread for Festive Reads in the Monthly Reads folder. You can find it here, since there's reading fun to be had for the next couple of months!

MR, I'm working on checking out the BLCC anthologies and the Penzler. I've got a lot going on today and tomorrow, but I'll let you know what I learn in dribs and drabs.

Gladys Mitchell is not available on AudibleUS. She was when I bought one of hers but they no longer have the rights and there is nothing audio through my library.

I will say that titles come and go on Audible.

If there are other sources that folks use, let me know and as long as I don't have to open an account, I will check them out.

Other possible themes:
1) 1940s mysteries -- since most of the ACs we will be reading were published in the '40s.
2) Vintage Mystery around the world (i.e. works in translation such as Simenon, Rampo and Yokomizo

Peregrina651 wrote: "1) 1940s mysteries -- since most of the ACs we will be reading were published in the '40s.
2) Vintage Mystery around the world (i.e. works in translation such as Simenon, Rampo and Yokomizo."

I like both of these a lot. I also thought of mysteries in translation but forgot to write it down!

Christine PNW wrote: "I also thought of mysteries in translation but forgot to write it down! "

Nudge, nudge!

Christine asked: Peregrina, you'd need to let me know if these are available for audio or not, and if yes, is it all of them, or only specified titles. I'm hopeful that they will be available, but not confident.

Many of the BLCC books are available on Audible/Amazon but too many to make a list of all of them, especially if we are only interested in a few. They may also be available through our libraries but I can only check my libraries (and so far, I haven't been very lucky locally). Give me a specific title or an author and I will check it out.

American Mystery Classics does not seem to be publishing audiobooks. I looked in the Winter 2022 catalog and saw ISBNs only for print editions -- no Kindle listed and no audio listed. But that doesn't mean that an audio edition is not available from other publishers.

I will watch the threads and check out what is being suggested.

I too would be interested if there were only four books a year. I wanted to join in previously but just didn't have the time. I'd like to read some of the older books. I haven't delved into any yet besides Christie and Georgette Heyer.