A Blog for Readers and Writers of Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction
Early Monday morning and I’m sitting on a deck, looking out at Lake George, stunned by its beauty. I’m working on my new novel, which is a suspense novel. Something different for me, and I’m very excited about it. My mind is humming along. Except that, there’s a part of my mind that’s somewhere else because I know that next week this time I’ll be starting chemo.
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Since I visited Portugal’s famed Livraria Lello bookstore this week, I decided to ask the MissDemeanors to share with me some of their favorite bookstores and why. Here’s what my colleagues in crime (writing) said.
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For the first time in a long time, I’m out of the country for American Independence Day. I am missing the flying flags and fireworks, the pool parties with family, friends, and neighbors during which we all celebrate over BBQ and potato salad and grilled corn.
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I went to Porto, Portugal earlier this week. There were many things on my must do list, including visiting the Livrario Lello and tasting port in the city that made it famous. But also on this list was visiting the catacombs by the Church of Saint Francis.
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I am writing this post from Porto, Portugal, home of Livraria Lello–the world’s most beautiful bookstore. The store was founded 150 years ago in 1869 and has been selling a variety of Portuguese language titles and translated works ever since.
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Brooklyn was hot and sticky. After days of rain, the sun had returned with a vengeance, beating down on the young residents darting between cafes and boiling the trash-bags tucked in alleys. I’d been walking for miles. Sweat had ceased beading on my hairline and begun dampening the back of my neck. My shoulder sopped beneath the strap of the heavy bag that I carried, laden with books.
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I love music: cheesy 1980s anthems, chamber, jazz, classic rock and roll, baroque, bachata, cabaret, chansons, big band, electro swing, disco, broadway, pop, American songbook, country, and styles I have yet to discover (including noir rock … thanks Cate!). To riff off the famous quote by Lily Bollinger, “I listen to music when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I listen to it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory.” Music can transform our moods, lift our spirits, and soothe our souls.
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It’s hard to pick up a newspaper these days without reading something that makes your heart ache. It doesn’t matter where you live or how you vote, all of us are aware that there’s a lot of suffering in this world. We have different levels of tolerance, but most of us have a limit to how much disheartening information we can take in without feeling overwhelmed. It’s very tempting to completely disengage.
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Last week, as I sat in the darkness of an indoor cycling class—happy up-tempo music blaring from invisible speakers—our cheerful and impossibly fit instructor told us, “Turn up the resistance! If it’s not hard, you’re not getting stronger.”
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