Book Blog Bounty

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week, so I thought I'd pass along some of the book-related blogs which I enjoy and hope you will, too. These blogs are all a labor of love, often written by one person or a small dedicated group, and non-commercial, garnering nary a penny. They run the gamut in tone and style, but their mission is pretty much the same, to share their passion about books, authors, writing and reading. Due to the nature of In Reference to Murder, most of these are related to crime fiction, but I threw in a few general-interest blogs. There are many other author-specific (individual or collective) blogs I frequently check, but they'll have to wait for an author blog appreciation day.

GENERAL CRIME FICTION

Rap Sheet: Spearheaded by J. Kingston Pierce, senior editor of January Magazine, who is ably aided and abetted by Ali Karim and a several other talented suspects.

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Book news and reviews from the pen of Sarah Weinman, who also writes "Dark Passages," a monthly online mystery and suspense column for the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Mystery Fanfare: Janet Rudolph is also the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and often called "The Mistress of Mystery" for her work in the mystery fiction community. Her postings include themed-book lists for special events and holidays.

Patti Abott is a writer and proponent of crime fiction, who organized the weekly Forgotten Books Friday feature where various bloggers contribute book suggestions of works that deserve another look.

The Bunbuyist is the blog alter ego of Elizabeth Foxwell, writer and managing editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection, the only US scholarly journal on mystery and detective fiction. She writes mostly about crime fiction, but manages to add in literary tidbits of all stripes.

Off the Page: Oline Cogdill writes this blog for the south Florida Sun-Sentinel with a primary focus on crime fiction.

Sons of Spade is dedicated to private eye fiction everywhere with reviews of books and interviews from writers of the genre.

INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION

Detectives Beyond Borders: Created by Peter Rozovsky, and a recent winner of the Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry, the blog focuses primarily on international crime fiction outside the U.S., although U.S. books and authors are also fair game.

Do You Write Under Your Own name is actually written by British author Martin Edwards with thoughtful observations on European crime fiction and related topics.

Crime Always Pays: This is the work of author Declan Burke, an Irish author, reviewer, and editor who discusses a little bit of everything crime fiction-related with an emphasis on Irish authors.

Crime Scene NI is another blog devoted primarily to Irish fiction, by author Gerard Brennan.

Eurocrime is the blog component of the Eurocrime web site operated by Karen Meek, both of which are great resources for all things crime fiction from the other side of the pond.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction is the brainchild of professor-librarian Barbara Fister, who also maintains an associated web site of links and resources.

Big Beat From Badsville is a relatively new offering about Scottish crime fiction by author Donna Moore.

GENERAL INTEREST BOOK BLOGS

When I have time, I drop by the book blog offerings by the New York Times (titled Paper Cuts), the Guardian, the Washington Post's Short Stack, The Baltimore Sun's Read Street and Amazon's Omnivoracious. Other bookaholic blogs to check out are The Elegant Variation, Book Ninja, Maud Newton and The Book Bitch (which wins my award for favorite title).

Comments

[Gerard Brennan]

Thanks for the link!

Gerard