Debs Takes an Elizabethan Detour

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This post should possibly be called "What Debs Is Not Writing" but I think we'll be kinder than that! I'm still recovering from my back surgery on July 1st, and although all is going well, I'm frustrated by the fact that I still can't sit for more than about half an hour--and even more frustrating, I'm still not able to sit comfortably in my computer chair. But, meanwhile, I'm camped out on my living room sofa with my laptop, trying to pick back up where I was in Kincaid/James #20 when all of my back nonsense started.

I've also been rereading/relistening to Deborah Harkness's All Souls series, and am now halfway through SHADOW OF NIGHT, the second book and possibly my favorite. In it, the protagonists time-travel back to London in 1590, meeting all sorts of Elizabethan luminaries. (Harkness is a historian, so the details of life in the time period are wonderful.) In one scene, Matthew and Diana visit Queen Elizabeth I's court in Richmond Palace.

Richmond Palace fronting the River Thames.’ A 1765 engraving by James Basire

Richmond! Writerly attention flags jumped out and smacked me upside the head! Some of my characters live in Richmond! Parts of the book are set all along the Thames at Richmond, Twickenham, and Teddington. I made several research visits to Richmond on my last trip to London! Why did I not associate Richmond with the royal residence of Queen Elizabeth I? 

Down the research rabbit hole I went, learning that it was in part because the palace was almost entirely destroyed by Oliver Cromwell and his minions in the decade between 1650 and 1660. It was a favorite residence of Elizabeth's, however--she died there in 1603--and the palace has a fascinating history both before and after the Elizabethan period. 

The Gatehouse

Only a few walls remain, incorporated into later buildings designated The Gatehouse, The Wardrobe, and the Trumpeter's House due to their association with the vanished parts of the palace. All are now private residences. In 2020 you could have bought a three bedroom apartment in The Wardrobe for just under 4 million pounds!

Then, when I looked at Richmond Palace on the map, I realized I had been a stone's throw from the site! I had drinks at The Prince's Head (the Crown and Anchor in Ted Lasso,) I walked across Richmond Green and down Old Palace Lane to the Thames, never realizing that I was setting foot on what was once an actual palace.

The Prince's Head

I have no idea how this little historical side trip of mine will fit into K/J #20, but I have no doubt it will, if only as a bit of scene-setting local color. I started college as a history major, so this is all catnip to me. 

How grand the palace must have been!

A model of Richmond Palace in the Museum of Richmond

It may seem as though I've been wandering in the weeds, but it's these little tidbits and associations that spark my imagination and make me want to be IN the book--and I very much hope readers will feel the same way.

How about it, dear Reds and readers, do you like to know the background of settings in books? And who wants to go in on that flat??

Book Look

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As the last days of summer (reading at the shore or the lake) slide into early fall (book clubs pick up again) there are some terrific books being released, like Hank Phillippi Ryan's TRUST ME, coming out August 28, and Jenn McKinlay's latest Library Lover's mystery, HITTING THE BOOKS, on September 11!) We're assuming you're already stocking up on the latest Jungle Red releases, including FOUR FUNERALS AND MAYBE A WEDDING and DEATH ON THE MENU, and you'll be racing out to get Hank and Jenn's newest (if you haven't already pre-ordered.) So what other books should you be reading? We've got you, fam, as Youngest would say. We're each going to suggest one book, fiction or nonfiction, that we're looking forward to in the coming weeks, and then ask you to do the same in the comments.  Just one, you guys!

My pick is VOX, by Christina Dalcher, coming out on August 21. Here's the description: 

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

It's getting crazy good reviews, and of course, being described as THE HANDMAID'S TALE for this generation.

Reds? What are you looking forward to?




LUCY BURDETTE: This is not brand-new, but it's a delightful memoir for Francophiles or anyone who would find a train wreck of home renovation entertaining: L'Appart--The Delights and Disasters of Making my Paris Home. David is a former pastry chef at Chez Panisse who lives in Paris now. He has a hugely successful blog and many cookbooks, and I find him endlessly entertaining.

Bestselling author and world-renowned chef David Lebovitz continues to mine the rich subject of his evolving ex-Pat life in Paris, using his perplexing experiences in apartment renovation as a launching point for stories about French culture, food, and what it means to revamp one's life. Includes dozens of new recipes.

When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with the inconsistent European work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen. In the midst of it all, he reveals the adventure that accompanies carving out a place for yourself in a foreign country—under baffling conditions—while never losing sight of the magic that inspired him to move to the City of Light many years ago, and to truly make his home there.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I cannot wait to read BAD BLOOD, by John Carryrou, the non-fiction inside story of the crash of the multi-billion dollar biotech start up that turned out to be a fraud.  (You know I am a pushover for journalist books.)

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end, despite pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers.

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work.

A riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

(Doesn't that sound great??)


JULIA: It does! I'm fascinated by the Theranos story - I'll have to get this.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Well, I am holding my breath for TIME'S CONVERT by Deborah Harkness, the long-awaited follow-up to her DISCOVERY OF WITCHES trilogy. It's out September 18th and I have it pre-ordered. I suspect I'll have to hide in a closet or something and binge read.

"On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor--the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for--is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both--forever.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries."

INGRID THOFT: I can’t wait for the newest installment in Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series, LETHAL WHITE.  We all know by now that Galbraith is really J.K. Rowling and that her literary prowess is not limited to a boy wizard.  This P.I. series is terrific, and I highly recommend it.

"Lethal White is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series from the international bestselling author Robert Galbraith.
“I seen a kid killed…He strangled it, up by the horse.”

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.
And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next installment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott."

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm in the middle of two nonfictions: EUNICE: THE KENNEDY WHO CHANGED THE WORLD, the biography of Eunice Kennedy, a force to be reckoned with, a truly underestimated Kennedy by Eileen McNamara. Also reading THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS by Sy Montgomery all about the 'intelligent alien.' Standing by is an advance copy of Joseph Olshan's BLACK DIAMOND FALL, and the wonderful Lori Rader-Day's UNDER A DARK SKY.

JENN MCKINLAY: October 23, 2018 - don't call me, don't text me, don't email me, because I won't answer. I will be reading KINGDOM OF ASH the final volume in Sarah J. Maas's fantastic A Throne of Glass series.  I can NOT freaking wait! Aelin is the most badass heroine I've ever read. Love her and I'm not a huge fantasy reader.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . .
Aelin has risked everything to save her people-but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…
With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation-and a better world.
And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen-before she is lost to him forever.
As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

RHYS BOWEN: The book I'm really waiting for is Louise Penny's next Inspector Gamache novel, KINGDOM OF THE BLIND. Alas this year it doesn't come out until November! Usually she's late in August but now I have three months more to wait.  

But a book that has blown me away this year is Robert Dugoni's THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SAM HELL. So different from his usual mystery books, and based on the personal experience of his brother born with Down's Syndrome, it is the story of a boy born with Ocular Albinism... with red pupils that make other children call him Devil Boy. It is a moving tale of the quest for belief, for meaning in life. It should also silence the critics who label us as "genre writers" and think we are not capable of more!

JULIA: All right, dear readers, now it's your turn. What's the one book you'd like to put onto everyone's TBR pile?

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: After reading the comments on my post yesterday on simplifying, I think that perhaps I am not as disorganized as I thought! There are some problem spots in dealing with daily stuff, but they are not unsolvable, or unmanageable.

The biggest issues for me seem to be scheduling, focus, and dealing with distractions.  (Not even mentioning the new Facebook Graphic thing on my phone lock screen, which is completely mesmerizing...)

My friend Deb Harkness has suggested a couple of work-managing software ideas--Pomodoro, which is an online stopwatch (I think Jan mentioned something like this before, didn't she, REDS?) and a flow manager called KanbanFlow.  I'll try both of these.  If I've learned to use Scrivener well enough to write novels in it, I can deal with the learning curve for a flow manager.

But--helpful as these things are, I suspect they are just nibbling round the edges of the real problem.  And that is the dreaded WRITING AVOIDANCE.

All you writers out there are shuddering, right?  You know what I'm talking about.

WRITING AVOIDANCE is not the same thing as the infamous Writer's Block.  Writer's Block, I assume, is having nothing to say.  I wouldn't know. I always have something to say (maybe too much.) I have characters, I have setting, I have a plot so complicated I don't know how I'll manage to pull all the threads together, but that's nothing new.  I always feel that way when I'm part way into a book and wonder why on earth I ever thought all this stuff would work out. I know from experience that if I just keep writing, it will.

No, WRITING AVOIDANCE is when you sit down at the computer and then suddenly find you are scrubbing the kitchen sink.  Or cleaning out the dog toy basket.  Or any number of useless things other than sitting and staring at that blank screen.

Maybe Stephen King doesn't suffer from writing avoidance.  But most writers I know do. 

What is this thing? Fear of failure?  Partly, probably. But I've written fifteen-going-on-sixteen novels, and I know I can do it, and that it will probably be at least all right in the end.

I think it goes deeper than that.  I think immersion in a novel requires a basic loss of identity. You are no longer entirely you.  You are your characters, living your characters' lives, feeling your characters' emotions, and that is downright scary. Or your characters are feeling your emotions, the ones you don't allow to surface in your ordinary everyday life.  And that is really, really scary. We resist that, heels dragging in the dirt.

Psycho-babble?  Maybe. Either way, it doesn't matter. The book matters, and maybe I just need somebody to push me off the cliff.

REDS and all you writers out there, tell me I'm not the only one!

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES--DEBORAH HARKNESS

DEBORAH CROMBIE: If you've been in a bookstore since February, looked at books online or read reviews, it will come as no surprise that Deborah Harkness's A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES is one of the publishing sensations of the year, if not the decade. It debuted at #2 on the New York Times list--a buzz indeed for a first novel. And now both A Discovery of Witches and its upcoming sequel have been optioned by Warner Brothers for films.

The surprise? Deborah Harkness is an academic, an historian who teaches European history and the history of science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her previous books were non-fiction and include John Dee’s Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. She also writes a popular wine blog, Good Wine Under $2o.

I read A Discovery of Witches on the recommendation of my editor, and was . . . bewitched. The heroine, Diana Bishop, is a scholar, an American on an extended stay in Oxford studying ancient manuscripts on the history of science. She is also a witch, descended from one of the preeminent families of Salem witches, who has refused to use her powers. But her life takes an unexpected twist when she encounters an enchanted manuscript in the Bodleian Library, along with the interest of a very sexy vampire named Matthew Clairmont who also happens to be a geneticist.

PEOPLE MAGAZINE calls A Discovery of Witches ". . . a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter or Twilight. . . An irresistible tale of wizardry, science and forbidden love, Discovery will leave you longing for the sequel. . . . A first novel that casts a singular spell.”

As indeed it does. Magic, science, Oxford, France, enchanted books, a gripping love story, and the highest stakes--the balance of the world as we know it. I barely put the book down from beginning to end, and when I finished it I picked it up and started over. Deborah Harkness--DEB from this point on--has created literary magic, a world the reader won't want to leave.

DEBS (DEBORAH CROMBIE): I had the oddest feeling of parallelism when I read A Discovery of Witches. (And the parallel names were a nice touch, too. For consistency's sake we're using the British version of my nickname and the American version of Deb's, although we both answer to either.)

It was as if you'd taken all the books and places and things that I most loved, and stirred them into something entirely new and unique. Oxford was my Mecca for a good twenty years of my formative imaginative life. I wanted to be an Inkling, drinking pints and having fascinating conversations in The Bird and Baby (officially The Eagle and Child) in Oxford with Tolkien, Lewis, and the poet Charles Williams. The souvenir I brought home from my very first trip to England, and to Oxford? A poster of the Radcliffe Camera (home to the additional reading rooms of the Bodleian Library.) It still hangs in my office.

Who did you read that sparked your imagination?

DEB (DEBORAH HARKNESS): I think I bought the same poster--but it's long gone now!

It's so hard to isolate a single source of inspiration for the book. The immediate spark was being in an airport bookstore, where I was struck by how our modern interest in vampires, ghosts, daemons, and witches seemed so similar to the interest my research subjects had in these subjects--way back in 1558. But there was certainly an element of pulling together ingredients from many areas of my life into a kind of stew: places like Oxford or upstate New York that I loved, activities I engage in like yoga or research, passions like wine, and the history and mythology that has made my imagination hum since I was a child.

And, as a teacher, I am fascinated with the way women struggle with their own power. I see it in my classroom all the time, but less so in popular culture (except in ugly caricatures).

Because I'm a professional non-fiction reader, my last extended forays into fiction were in the late 1980s. If I had to pick the two novels that probably influenced A Discovery of Witches the most they would be A. S. Byatt's Possession and Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. Both were published in 1990, just as began my dissertation research. I still remember staying up all night to read them.


DEBS: Ah, Possession. I should have known. That book is on my lifetime Top Ten list. . . Then there is tea . . . You discovered an interest in wine (which I also share) when you were living in northern California and teaching at Davis, but what prompted your passion for tea? Was it spending time teaching and studying in England?

DEB: My passion for tea has childhood roots. My mother is British, so there was always tea in the house and wonderful teapots. I love the ritual of afternoon tea, too (and morning tea, and evening tea...)

DEBS: And rowing! My latest book, out in February, is set in Henley-on-Thames and revolves around rowing. This was an entirely new thing for me--I'd never been near a scull until I started the research for this book, but I found it beautiful, brutal, and addictive. I loved the fact that your heroine, Diana, is a rower--are you?

DEB: I'm looking forward to reading the latest Gemma and Duncan adventure even more if there's rowing in it! I *was* a rower. My roommate at Mt. Holyoke College was a serious athlete and member of the crew team, and she introduced me to the Concept 2 rowing machine and the basic aspects of the stroke, but I never had the commitment or time to do the sport there. At Oxford, however, I became a member of the Keble College Boat Club and rowed and coached for several happy years while doing dissertation research at the Bodleian. I guess books and boats go together for me. I'm a terrible sculler, though. I like the big boats!

DEBS: You've constructed a very logical world in which the supernatural may have scientific, and particularly genetic, grounding. I'm a biologist by education and have for years been fascinated by Darwin and his theories. You've said that the first glimmer of the idea for A Discovery of Witches was wondering "If there were vampires,what did they do for a living?" What led you to the idea that genetics might be involved in the differentiation between the witches,vampires, daemons, and humans in your story?

DEB: As a historian of science, I study how people build up plausible accounts of the world and how it works. I know the kinds of questions scientists have asked about nature over the past several thousand years, and the various avenues they've taken to answer those questions. It was a logical process for me to start with a straightforward proposition (there ARE supernatural creatures living alongside humans) then proceed to questions about habitat (where they'd live and what they'd do), then dig deeper into questions of similarity and difference. The next step is to wonder if these differences result from nature or nurture? Plus, I should point out that I started writing the book in the fall of 2008, which is when historians of science began to gear up for the Darwin anniversary, so my mailbox was stuffed with conference invitations and other information about evolution. There's another spark of inspiration for the story.

DEBS: There are writers who set out to write best sellers, drawn by the idea of fame and fortune. But there's very little of either for most of us--not to mention the fact that writing is bloody hard work. Most writers put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, in their equivalent of JK Rowling's Edinburgh coffee house, because they have the germ of an idea for a story and they want to see if they can tell it. Was this true for you, and were you at all prepared for the success of A Discovery of Witches?

DEB: I was not prepared for it AT ALL--either for the writing process or the success that came after. Who could be--least of all a middle-aged college professor? I never dreamed I'd do such a thing. With respect to the writing, the last creative writing I did before A Discovery of Witches was in 10th-grade English. Though I've published two books of academic non-fiction, writing fiction turned out to be very different. It was at once more exhilarating and more exhausting. When the manuscript went out to publishers for consideration, I just hoped someone would agree to publish it. That way, I could justify continuing to write fiction while returning to my long-planned academic book on the culture of experiment in the early Royal Society! And contrary to popular opinion, the fact that there was a vampire in the book did NOT make it easier to find a publisher. There were editors who said "no more vampires," and that was that.

As for the success itself, thinking about it can be overwhelming and more than a little surreal. I prefer instead to focus on the happy reader who writes a note on Twitter to say "I loved your book, I'm planning a vacation to Oxford, and learning more about wine." That's a measure of success I can grasp. While there is a lot of advice out there to keep people writing through difficult times, there isn't a lot of guidance for those of us lucky enough to be published. Thankfully I had excellent support from my editor and her colleagues at Viking, who steered me through what can be a complicated and mysterious process. I've also been so grateful when established authors have reached out and offered me the wisdom of their experience and a shoulder to lean on--whether its been about how to pack for a book tour or how hard it is to write a second novel. (Answers: as much black knit clothing as you can fit into a suitcase and much harder than the first!)

DEBS: I have to agree on both the answers. I've never learned to pack properly, and, now working on book #15 (yikes!), I have to say they have never gotten easier. But I hope that won't deter you, as I can't wait for the next book!

Those Little Addictions

Deborah Crombie: Don't worry, I'm not talking about Twelve Step stuff
here, but about the little things that creep into our lives. The things we take for granted, then assume we can't do without.

Not that there aren't little addictions that we consciously deem necessary--I confess, mine is tea. I did go without tea once, when I was pregnant with my daughter. I swore I'd never do it again, and I
still stand by my resolution. Well, I probably could write without tea, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. . .

But I recently discovered that something I'd thought a necessity was surprisingly easy to give up--the daily newspaper. I grew up in a household where my parents read both the local paper, the Dallas Morning News, and the Wall Street Journal, so newspapers had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. And I'd subscribed to the Dallas Morning News for, well, most of my adult life. It was such a part of my morning routine: flipping through the sections to find the ones I liked, perusing them over breakfast and then another cup or two of tea.

But the paper got smaller and smaller, the subscription price didn't go down, and I found I was getting most of my news online. So at the beginning of the summer, after a lot of agonizing over the decision, I went cold turkey. No "Just the Sunday edition." No paper, period.

And what I've found is that I don't miss it at all. Not the least little bit. In fact, it's been liberating. I can read a book while I eat my toast. Or listen to a book. Or make notes for my own book. Or--the best thing--stare out the kitchen window at the hummingbirds zipping around the feeder. Quiet time.

I am not advocating or applauding the slow decline of print newspapers, by the way. I am as distressed as anyone over the demise of many of the best book review sections, and perhaps if the DMNs hadn't become a shade of its former self, I'd have found the parting harder. But for me giving up the paper has been a welcome bit of simplification.

What about you, Jungle Reds? Are there any little things that steal your time that you might find you could do without?

ROSEMARY HARRIS: It's hardly original to say that the computer is stealing my time - but that doesn't make it any less true. One thing I've done to fight back is to turn off the sound notifying me that I have a new email. I felt like a complete dope for never having done it before. And I suppose I could live without watching the early rounds of a tennis tournament - do I really need to see Rafa Nadal humiliate some poor guy from Uzbekistan?

What I can't do without are my periodic walks around my garden. A few times a day I feel the need to "walk the back 40" as I refer to it. I prune, I plan, I think, I chill. Then I come back and sometimes check emails.

LUCY BURDETTE: (AKA Roberta) We get the NEW YORK TIMES delivered daily. There are plenty of days that I can't get through all of it, but I nibble on it across the day--a little at breakfast, a little at lunch, and then maybe a bit more while making a cup of coffee. And Sundays, forget about it. I would HATE to give up the real estate and style sections. Not that I'll ever own a place in New York, but I love reading about the hunt for the right apartment. And the food section on Wednesday, of course. No not giving those up Debs!

DEBS: Okay, I have to confess. I do miss the food section. My friend usually saves it for me, but I have about three weeks worth of those I haven't read (maybe partly because it's too hot to even think about cooking here.) And you are talking about The New York Times, which I think would a little harder to part with . . .

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yes, we do "the back forty" too--every night when we get home from work. Lovely, and now the dahlias are starting. But--my addictions have to do with food, too. And they're like--serial addictions. For awhile, a few years ago, I was craving toasted sesame bagels with strawberry jam. I mean--I loved them, wanted them, had them every day. I could have lived on only that.

Before that, it was-and you can tell it was when I was single--baked potatoes with sour cream and broccoli. Honestly, I would start thinking about it on the subway on the way home from work ,and I just could not wait to have that for dinner. I bet--I had it for a year.

And then, just like the strawberry jam bagels--there comes a moment when I think--ACCK! Never never never again.

And Debs, we've gotta talk. You can't give up the newspaper. Gosh, I really couldn't. If I don't read the papers in the morning, I feel like--I'm missing something. And Sundays? Ritual.

RHYS BOWEN: My kids have always told me that I'm addicted to tea at tea time. Have to have my cup on the dot of 4 p.m. On the beach in Hawaii I'd suddenly leap up and start looking for a tea shop while the kids teased me.

Facebook--I'm on the way to becoming addicted. Project Runway for a while. Now I've taken the twelve step and I'm over that. I wish I had a garden to walk around--I'm on a hill so steep that only the deer can walk without slipping.

I could watch tennis non-stop every day--even Raffa against a guy from Uzbekistan. And I'm thrilled to say I have two days of tennis next year at the Olympics. Yeah!

HALLIE EPHRON: Say it ain't so, Debs - you gave up the NEWSPAPER?! Sure, there are "little things that steal [my] time that [I] might find [I] could do without, but my morning paper isn't one of them. I get up and write; and after a few hours the paper is my reward. The real on paper paper -- reading it online is so not the same experience, don't ask me why.

What I wish I could do without: blow drying my hair.

And I so agree with Ro - the big time sink is the computer -- specifically the Internet. On a good day I disconnect from the network when I start to write.

DEBS: Hallie, there wasn't much left to read in the Dallas Morning News. Funny, I read more than one paper every day obsessively when I'm in the UK. But you are all right about the internet. I think I'm going to have to start going somewhere without wi-fi to write, and turn off my phone. Don't get me wrong, I love my phone, but with smart phones you NEVER get away from it.

Unless, of course, you can go somewhere like the Reading Room in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which is not only my fantasy work space, but a little tease for the upcoming week.

Later this week we have Susan Conant chatting about her new Holly Winter book, Emily Arsenault on In Search of the Rose Notes, and on Friday, Deborah Harkness will be here to tell us some unexpected things about one of this year's publishing sensations, A Discovery of Witches.

So, JR readers, are there things you could give up that would make your lives a wee bit simpler? (And that would not include BOOKS.)

What are you reading?

ROBERTA: Okay Reds, time to stock up our summer reading stacks with your recommendations! I met a lot of interesting writers last year in Key West, one of them named Rosalind Brackenbury. I've had her book BECOMING GEORGE SAND on my pile for a while--I was afraid it would be a little slow. But it turned out to be quite lovely--the story of a professor in Scotland who becomes obsessed with George Sand, and studies Sand's life and work to find answers for herself.

I've also been reading lots of food-related books, including a memoir by Sandra Bullock's sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado. Gesine worked in Hollywood for a while managing her sister's movie production company. But she hated it and decided to leave the familiar and open a bakery in northern Vermont. What an interesting story!

And I've got some good options burning my TBR pile, including new books by Steve Hamilton (love his series set in the UP of Michigan) and Megan Abbott (highly recommended by Hallie), and a couple of Barbara O'Neal's backlist books that somehow slipped my attention. Oh, and I've downloaded our own Deborah Crombie's first novel onto John's Kindle--she's the only Red I've had yet to read. Must correct that right away!

What are you all reading?

JAN: A lot of history and non-fiction: I just finished Villa Air-Bel by Rosemary Sullivan, a WWII story set in Marseilles. The Women Who Wrote the War, about early women journalists who covered WWII and sometimes slept with Ernest Hemingway (that guy got around), by Nancy Caldwell Sorel. Now I'm reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis and listening to ...
And The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. The last two books I'd highly recommend to anyone. The first two are for subject-specific readers..

HALLIE: Making a list and adding on... Kindle is so great at giving you access to all kinds of books that you'd have to hunt and hunt for. I'm promising myself a Kindle... or a Nook... or an iPad... how to pick is a blog for another time. If there was just one choice I'd have it by now.

I loved Mary Roache's nonfiction STIFF -- all about what happens to dead bodies. She's a hilariously funny writer and fearless researcher. It opens with: "The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you."

In my TBR pile, Joseph Finder's BURIED SECRETS and Gary Braver's TUNNEL VISION and Margaret McLean's UNDER FIRE. Also all the Harry Potter books to reread.

ROSEMARY: I also enjoyed STIFF.

On August 17th I'll be moderating a talk with Edward Conlon and Andrew Gross and I was just sent their latest books. I happened to open the package from Random House first and I haven't been able to put down RED ON RED by Conlon. I even took it in the cab with me on the way to the theatre last night (WAR HORSE, great, by the way.)Conlon is a NYPD detective and is the author of BLUE BLOOD, a memoir and NY Times bestseller from a few years back which I didn't read, but will now.

It does RED ON RED a disservice to call it a police procedural although it is ostensibly the story of two cops. Halfway through.. it is the story of two men, their lives, their friendship, their passions, flirtations, memories.

It is exquisitely written communicating their lives, the place, the circumstances and the job without the endless cursing and "hopping in and out of the Crown Vic" that bores me to tears in many police procedurals. Not to sound like such a delicate flower - there is profanity - but it's there when it needs to be there, not because the writer wants you to think the book is dark, edgy, or hard-boiled or is too lazy to fully flesh out a character. Anyway...can you tell that I'm lovin' this book?

RHYS: I'm a judge for an Edgars committee this year so that is my first reading priority at the moment, but waiting on my Kindle for when I escape to Hawaii next month are Kate Morton's Rivington Street, Jan Burke's Deliverance and Connie Willis's Blackout. I don't know about you but I can't read fiction when I'm writing so my bedtime book is currently Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Country--a journey around Britain which I'm enjoying a lot.

HANK: Yup, Edgar Judge. More I cannot say. DO YOU REALIZE HOW MANY MYSTERIES WILL COME OUT THIS YEAR??? Just saying. But I am having a terrific time.

ROBERTA: Hank, I did that twice. I think I warned you:). All consuming, but fascinating! I think I will love RED ON RED, Ro. And the ones Hallie mentioned, going on the wish list. And Andrew Gross's book from our blog last week. At the last minute, I chose Keith Richards' autobiography LIFE out of my stack. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion...can't stop reading...

JULIA: Every July, I appear at the Boothbay Book Festival, sponsored by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. I always walk away with a stack of summer reading, and this year is no exception. I picked up SHOW ME GOOD LAND by Shonna Millikin Humphrey, which can best be described as The Beans of Egypt Maine solve a murder. I got Jim Nichols' HULL CREEK, about a lobsterman tempted into pot running in order to save his family's home from voracious out-of-state developers. This is actually turning out to be a lot funnier than I expected! And I was happy to buy my friend Hannah Holmes' latest, QUIRK: BRAIN SCIENCE MAKES SENSE OF YOUR PECULIAR PERSONALITY. Some of you may know Hannah from her first book, THE SECRET LIFE OF DUST, I think she's the funniest, most intelligible science writer out there.

I've just read some great mysteries: Amanda Flower's MURDER IN A BASKET, Sarah Graves' DEAD LEVEL, C.C. Benison's TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUMMING. Unfortunately, as I'm sure is the case with the rest of you ladies, I can't push them on anyone because they won't be published until next year!

DEBS: Yep, Edgar judge, too. Looks like JRs got blitzed this year. But I've been reading mostly mysteries just for fun as well. Julia, I liked TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUMMING, too.

A couple of weeks ago I read A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness, which is my "find" of the last several years. LOVE that book! Will read it again! And can't wait for the next in the trilogy.

Now I'm reading a lovely novel called IN SEARCH OF THE ROSE NOTES by Emily Arsenault. Next up is COME AND FIND ME by our own Hallie Ephron, and I can't wait for that!

And THEN--drum roll--my much anticipated summer highlight--GHOST STORY by Jim Butcher. It will arrive on my doorstep on the 26th and I know I'll be hard-pressed to get any work done that week . . .

This has made me realize I'm not reading much non-fiction this summer, but I was steeped in research all spring, and besides, that's what summers are for, right?