Last Saturday the weather here was glorious. I had my older son help me haul the hammock outside so I could pretend either that it was summer or that I was still in Florida. I looked through my stack of books and plucked out THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD by Kevin Brockmeier to read while I swung.

Here's the premise of the book. When people die, they do not go to "the next place," but rather to an interim place where they are "living dead." When the last person who knew this person on Earth dies, they move on to their permanent next place home. Interesting concept. Now think about the number of people who one person may come in contact with --- and would thus be able to survive in the interim place by knowing. In a parallel story in this book, a woman named Laura is fighting for her life at an Antarctica outpost and in the balance are a number of people who are "waiting to move on." Their destiny lies with Laura. This book will have you thinking for a long time! I look forward to meeting Brockmeier next weekend at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville.

Sunday night I wanted to read something as a total escape. I found a book that we recently wrote about on Kidsreads.com called THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE by Kate DiCamillo. I had seen Kate present last year at a dinner and I thought she was just terrific. This book about a toy rabbit who is loved and lost and found again is just precious. While I was looking for an escape I found a book with a lot of hidden meaning.

Speaking of books about animals, a few weeks ago I read THE GOOD GOOD PIG by Sy Montgomery. Montgomery lives in a remote town in Vermont, and confesses that she has always been more of a loner than a people person. Then she adopts a runt pig, named Christopher Hogwood. Through her life with him, he becomes far more than a pet, and teaches her more about life than she thought she could know. She learns to be part of a community of people that Hogwood gathers around him --- and much much more. It will be out in May and we will be spotlighting it.

Many of you have written to tell me how much you enjoyed Stephen White's book, KILL ME. This week we have Stephen's replies to our advance reader questions. We enjoyed reading them --- and think you will too.

Richard Montanari's book, THE SKIN GODS, hit stores this week. I dare you to finish reading it and not want to head to your local video store. Read our review to see why. I had drinks with him a few years ago and his knowledge of films, especially noir ones, impressed me. He has watched two to three a night on occasion while he was working on this book. We'll have an interview with Montanari next week.

In my blog last week I misnamed the mystery bookstore that I visited in Delray Beach that is so popular with mystery authors. It's called Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore. Note to stop by if you ever are in the area! Also note that I am notorious with names. Three staffers check up on me before we send this newsletter each week just to see what I invented! These are part of Bookreporter.com lore.

Thursday I am off to Charlottesville. If any of you plan to be at the Virginia Festival of the Book, please drop me a note. For those of you making future plans, I am pondering a trip to L.A. the last weekend of April to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, known to many of us simply as the L.A. Book Fair.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. We have corned beef and cabbage on the menu for dinner with Irish soda bread here tonight. A reader wrote last year that lamb stew was a far better idea. Anyone with a recipe, send it my way!

Have a good week....read something Irish tonight.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

List of titles reviewed and featured on March 17th.

List of titles reviewed and featured on March 10th.

THE SKIN GODS by Richard Montanari (Suspense)
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Back on the force after taking a bullet during the arrest of a sadistic murderer, Detective Kevin Byrne warily returns to police headquarters. He cannot shake the memory of the Rosary Killer's innocent victims --- or his growing sense that the evil has not been vanquished. When he and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano, are called in on a bizarre case, Byrne's gravest suspicions are confirmed.

-Click here to read an excerpt from THE SKIN GODS.

Harley Jane Kozak is our newest featured Mystery Mayhem author. Her smart and funny novel DATING IS MURDER is coming out in paperback and we're excited to be spreading the word about this witty and suspenseful tale.

We have 20 copies of DATING IS MURDER to share with readers who would like to read the book and comment on it. Interested? Then send your name and mailing address to Mystery@bookreporter.com by Friday, March 24th.

More about DATING IS MURDER:
Wollie Shelley, the plucky amateur sleuth Kirkus Reviews called "funny, brave, smart, and altogether the fetchingest crime heroine since the early Stephanie Plum," returns to face suspect lovers and unlovable suspects in this hilarious sequel to DATING DEAD MEN.

Wollie Shelley is a greeting card artist struggling to keep afloat financially and to pursue --- despite a series of recent disasters --- the search for the love of her life. She reluctantly agrees to be a contestant on the reality television show Biological Clock. The show's premise: Six eligible singles date each other, and the audience votes on which couple would make the best parents. Alas, Wollie isn't having much luck finding a man she'd like to date "off the air," much less father her child. As her own biological clock ticks away, Wollie gets caught up in a much more pressing demand on her time. Her friend Annika has vanished into thin air, and Wollie is convinced that she's in grave danger.

Robert Taylor, whose intelligent and wickedly well-written thriller PARADIGM came out March 13th, is our newest featured Debut Suspense/Thriller author. 

-Click here to read a new excerpt from PARADIGM.
-Click here to see our list of Advance Copy Winners.
-Click here to see a list of Robert Taylor's Bookstore Appearances.

More about PARADIGM:
What is tomorrow's Wall Street Journal worth to you today? Where is the line between reality and fiction? Are the financial markets really predictable? Does an ancient artifact hold the key to how some of the world's wealthiest families made their fortunes?

When a mysterious granite and cypress Egyptian box is found hidden away in a secret room in the palatial Biltmore Estate, twin scientists Alex and Nicholas Shepard work to unlock the secret of its intricate dials, gauges, crystals, and carvings. What they discover has the potential to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But it could also collapse financial markets, bankrupt corporations around the globe, and destroy many of the world's most powerful families. As the twins quickly find out, people will not only kill to make money, but will kill to keep it.

We have two very special contests currently running on ReadingGroupGuides.com --- one for THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN by Mitch Albom, featuring a special DVD giveaway, and one for THE MERMAID CHAIR by Sue Monk Kidd. We also have the following guides now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

THE ALCHEMIST'S DAUGHTER by Katharine McMahon
ALL THIS BELONGS TO ME by Ad Hudler
ANNIE FREEMAN'S FABULOUS TRAVELING FUNERAL by Kris Radish
BEAUTIFUL INEZ by Bart Schneider
THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD by Kevin
Brockmeier
A BRIEF LUNACY by Cynthia Thayer
THE DEAREST DOROTHY SERIES by Charlene Ann Baumbich
EATING HEAVEN by Jennie Shortridge
EVIDENCE OF HARM by David Kirby
FREAKONOMICS by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY by Jon Fasman
THE GOOD SON by Craig Nova
HONEYMOON WITH MY BROTHER by Franz Wisner
THE ILLUMINATOR by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN by Sarah
Dunant
INTUITION by Allegra Goodman
KILL ME by Stephen White
THE LAST BOLEYN by Karen Harper
LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE PURSUITS by Ayelet Waldman
LOVE STORY by Erich Segal
METROPOLIS by Elizabeth Gaffney
MONEY, A MEMOIR by Liz Perle
MURDER MOST ROYAL by Jean Plaidy
MY JIM by Nancy Rawles
THE PROBLEM WITH MURMER LEE by Connie May
Fowler
RIVER RISING by Athol Dickson
SEND ME by Patrick Ryan
SNOBS by Julian Fellowes
THE SPACE BETWEEN US by Thrity Umrigar
THINGS WE ONCE HELD DEAR by Ann Tatlock
THE TRAIN TO LO WU by Jess Row
WHITE GHOST GIRLS by Alice Greenway
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion

Please note that these titles, for which we already had guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:

THE BAKER'S APPRENTICE by Judith R. Hendricks
A CHANGED MAN by Francine Prose 
MARCH by Geraldine Brooks
ME & EMMA by Elizabeth Flock 
OH MY STARS by Lorna Landvik
THE PAINTED KISS by Elizabeth Hickey

People say that teens don't read, but we do not agree. And we have proof. Just this month more than 150 teens wrote us to have what they are reading added to the Teenreads.com Word of Mouth feature! Have a teen in your house who loves to read? Send them to Teenreads.com.

Now Teenreads.com is better than ever! This month we launched a Coming Soon feature and our review section now includes Manga, Christian Fiction, and Bookreporter.com titles that are perfect for teens. We also have information about the Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Contest, Cool New Books, and updates on series favorites.

Who is an author (name up to 3) you will skip dinner to read?

Please note: Our question of the week will update on March 31st.

Tell us what books YOU are reading and loving --- or even those you don't.

This week we have two great prizes: FIVE readers each will win a copy of PRIOR BAD ACTS by Tami Hoag and TOMB OF THE GOLDEN BIRD by Elizabeth Peters.

Please note that our next Word of Mouth update will be on March 31st.