What to Read Next

People always ask me what I'm reading. The embarrassing truth is that I'm so busy writing that books tend to stack up beside my bedside. At Maine Crime Writers today I did the weaselly thing and asked the most voracious reader I know—my wife Kristen—to recommend some of her recent favorites.

On a side note, I strongly believe that writers need to keep reading, both the classics and your contemporaries; it really is the best way to learn. So essentially my schedule has made me a hypcocrite on this subject.

Add "find more time to read" to my growing list of New Year's resolutions.

The Man from Misery

One of the benefits of my position at Down East is that I get review copies of just about every new Maine book. Very few of them end up on my personal bookshelf. The latest to earn a permanent spot in my Maine library is Paul J. Fournier's memoir of his life in the North Woods. Fournier started his career as a Registered Maine Guide and a bush pilot, then went to work for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and later produced a television show Maine Fish and Wildlife. Now, he brings readers Tales From Misery Ridge in which he shares some of his most memorable tales gathered mostly from his decade-long experience living in Somerset County’s Misery Township. Fournier thrills readers with anecdotes about  learning to fly a Piper Cub, recounts the state's quixotic quest to bring caribou back to the area around Baxter State Park in the 1980s, and offers advice on what to do when a mother bear threatens to attack (Don’t panic). It’s a collection of the type of love stories Mainers can identify with — those between one man and the great outdoors.

The Jo Nesbo Boomlet

Never let it be said that I am behind the curve. Booklist came to me last month for a reading recommendation, and I presciently picked the Great Norwegian Hope. Now everyone is picking Nesbo to become the next Larsson. See here and here.

Update on 2011-05-13 00:22 by Paul Doiron

As an aside, that New York Magazine feature I linked to makes the point that Scandinavia has an enviably low murder rate, making it unlikely hotbed of crime fiction. Norway, for instance, saw only 6.9 murders per 1,000,000 people for the years 2006 through 2008. Maine, by contrast, averaged 18.7 murders per 1,000,000 people per year for that same period, and we are one of the safest states in the nation. 

Recommended Reading

Kirkus Reviews asked me which book I'm most looking forward to in 2011. There are lots, but the return of Kurt Wallander is definitely at the top of my list:

Paul Doiron: “One book I’m really looking forward to in 2011 is the English translation of Henning Mankell’s The Troubled Man(Knopf, March 29). I can't think of a character in contemporary crime fiction that feels as real to me as Kurt Wallander. I’ve read reviews that criticize the way Mankell chronicles the mundane details of Wallander’s day-to-day existence—all those rumpled shirts and take-away hamburgers—but I’m more captivated by the prosaic quality of these books than I am by the political issues at their centers. Because we identify so closely with Wallander, we share his shock and moral repulsion at the horrific crimes he investigates. Mankell’s achievement is that he takes us inside the lived experience of another human being who just happens to be a police detective. He makes us believe in Wallander’s reality.” Doiron made our Best Mysteries of 2010 list with The Poacher’s Son. His next book, Trespasser, is out June 21 on Minotaur Books. 

I should have mentioned that Mankell's mysteries have damned good plots, too.

Vacation with a Book

I have a new Editor's Note up over at the day job, this one discussing my tendency to pick up a local book whenever I'm on the road. It occurs to me now that if people follow my sage advice, a few travelers might be touring Maine this summer with a copy of The Poacher's Son in hand. I'm not sure whether the folks at the Maine Department of Tourism will consider that a good or a bad thing.