Do Novels Make You More Empathetic?

A new study suggests they do. Unfortunately, we seem to be trending in the wrong direction in our habits:

The number of adults who read literature for pleasure sank below 50 percent for the first time ever in the past 10 years, with the decrease occurring most sharply among college-age adults. And reading may be linked to empathy. In a study published earlier this year psychologist Raymond A. Mar of York University in Toronto and others demonstrated that the number of stories preschoolers read predicts their ability to understand the emotions of others. Mar has also shown that adults who read less fiction report themselves to be less empathic.

As a novelist, I naturally believe this observation to be true. I'd go further and say that writing fiction forces a person to develop their empathic capabilities even further. Then again, many novelists are self-involved jerks, so who knows?

Hat tip: Zoe Pollock.

"One of the Best Mysteries of 2010"

Kirkus Reviews is out today with its list of the fifteen Best Mysteries of 2010. I was stunned to learn that The Poacher's Son was one of the reviewers picks. When you consider that hundreds of mysteries were published this year—many by authors who are truly masters of the form—well, all I can say is that being selected is a pretty overwhelming honor. Here's the fine fifteen:

  •  Nowhere to Run by CJ Box
  • The Brick Layer by Noah Boyd
  • The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke
  • Worth Dying For by Lee Child
  • Edge by Jeffery Deaver
  • The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
  • The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
  • The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths
  • The Hanging Tree by Bryan Gruley
  • Crystal Death by Charles Kipps
  • The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith
  • Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
  • Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
  • Gone 'Til November by Wallace Stroby
  • The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe

As an author, I'm delighted to be in such distinguished company. As a reader, I'm excited to have some intriguing new books to add to my Christmas list.

Gray Ghosts

Woodland caribou. Wayne Wakkinen, Idaho Fish and GameThere is a city in northern Maine called Caribou. Most people probably assume it is one of those silly names you see on maps—like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, or Santa Claus, Indiana. But there is actually a good reason that Caribou has the name it does:

From the end of the last ice age to the turn of the twentieth century, woodland caribou, or American reindeer, roamed the barrens, bogs, and forests of northern and eastern Maine. When they disappeared, quite suddenly according to some accounts, they left a legacy of place names (the city of Caribou, for one), and an enduring mystique. In 1908, a small herd scampering across the Mount Katahdin tablelands entered the mythology as the last confirmed sighting, but in fact hopeful reports of lone reindeer persisted for forty years...

Maine was home to some other interesting species that were extirpated by European colonists, among them the mountain lion, wolverine, and timber wolf. Mountain lion sightings have become regular events in recent years, and eastern coyotes are growing larger and more wolflike. But I doubt wolverines are coming back any time soon. Nor caribou, sadly.