Thanks to our little earthquake yesterday, the jokes have been streaming fairly steadily in the Twitterverse and on Facebook. It also made me think of crime fiction books with an earthquake as a plot device or setting, but I'm not the only one making the literary connection; immediately after the temblor, our local library put up a display of earthquake-themed books. Have I told you how much I love my library?
So, here are a few suggestions for your earthquake-reading pleasure, first from the Golden Gate Mysteries site that has recommendations aplenty about the San Fran region. It's a list of books about the 1906 quake, starting with the 1908 Travers: A Story of the San Francisco Earthquake by Sara Dean, to Locked Rooms, the 2005 book by Laurie R. King.
Other authors have used earthquakes in other regions and times, including The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones, which is set in Japan; Aftershock by Peter Corris, set in Australia; and Earthquake Weather by Terrill Lee Lankford, involving the 1994 Northridge quake, and The Walk by Lee Goldberg, both set in Hollywood.
In case you haven't been following the "laughtershocks" on Twitter, you can check out some of the fun here and here.
All kidding aside, this is a good time to remember that two areas of the world were hit by devastating earthquakes in the past year, Japan and New Zealand, both of which are still struggling to recover. Two different story anthologies were put together to help raise funds, including Shaken: Stories for Japan, including authors Kelli Stanley, Brett Battles, Timothy Hallinan and more; and Tales for Canterbury, edited by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro, with the themes of survival, hope and future. Also, the Spirit of Hope Charity Anthology is a project from the British graphics novel community, with proceeds benefitting both earthquake-hit areas.
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