Books & More!

Hi! I’m Jessica Koenig, the new Director at the Island Trees Public Library and I’ll be blogging about books. I hope to have an ongoing conversation with Patch readers about what you’re reading, what I’m reading, what you recommend for others to read, and so on. Right now I’m reading Strange Affair by Peter Robinson. In case you haven’t read Peter Robinson, he writes a wonderful series of police procedurals featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Banks is a smart (of course!), thoughtful, music-loving, somewhat morose character.  He is ably assisted by fellow department members Detective Inspector Annie Cabot, Detective Constable Winsome Jackman, Sergeant Hatchley, et al. Banks’ son Brian, daughter Tracy, and ex-wife Sandra also figure in his books. The Yorkshire landscape is brought vividly to life by Robinson’s powerful descriptions.

Robinson’s latest is Bad Boy (the 19^th Alan Banks novel!) which I haven’t read yet but if you’ve never read him before, you may want to start with the first Alan Banks novel, Gallows View. By the way, if you already know you like Peter Robinson, the database Novelist suggests you might also like Michael Malone (whom I have read and like very much indeed) Reginald Hill, and Mark Billingham (both of whom I’ve never read or even heard of!). Novelist is a great way to find readalikes. It’s also a great way to get a complete list of the books in a particular series. Levittown and Island Trees Libraries both subscribe to it. Either go to your library’s website and try it out yourself (www.islandtreespubliclibrary.org or www.nassaulibrary.org/levtown ), or stop by the library and a librarian will show you how it works. Or, call me at 731-2211 and I’ll walk you through it. Go into the record of the author you’re interested in and click on the Lists & Articles tab for a nice “readalikes” article.

So, what have you been reading lately? Please post and let us all know!