It's fitting our new mystery store within a store, MysteryPeople, gets to introduce debut author Judith Rock, who's starting a new series. Rock's book, The Rhetoric Of Death, takes place in seventeenth century France, when the Catholic church was entwined with the monarchy and there was a hunt for heretics (aka Protestants). Rock gives us an intriguing series character in Charles du Luc, an ex-soldier and fledgling Jesuit, who's need for justice and order are tested by the rules and politics of his religion and society. Finding himself at odds with both, he is forced to teach ballet at the Jesuit school. When one of his dancers is run over by a horse cart and another murdered, he investigates, finding himself in the middle of royal intrigue and the dark shadow of history. Judith Rock is both a former police officer and dancer. She has lectured on and written for various publications on dance, art, and theology. Her knowledge is apparent in her attention to detail of the period. The staging of the ballet holds as much suspense as the mystery. She should be a fascinating guest, so please come out Monday, December 13th, at 7PM and support a new author.
Category: BookPeople Events
Mystery Pick of the Month
If you have passed by our newly established MysteryPeople section, you'll notice a new display: New Crimes. We now have an area for the latest in the latest in mystery and crime fiction. Each week, you can take a look at what's new from gentlemen sleuths to down and dirty criminals.
My favorite 40 books (for now)
My humble addition to the 'favorite 40 books' game we've got going here at BookPeople. Still feel like I'm leaving some big ones out. P.S. Don't forget about the party on Saturday. -Peter
Happy 40th Anniversary BookPeople!
On November 11, 1970, two couples opened a small bookstore out of the ground floor of a two-story duplex on West 17th Street, just blocks from the University of Texas campus. With the modest sum of $5,000, they put together a hand-picked collection of books from small presses or little-known authors that focused on alternative … Continue reading Happy 40th Anniversary BookPeople!
In honor of our 40th, Our Top 40
In honor of our 40th Anniversary (don't miss our celebration this Saturday!) we're asking our staff to submit their top 40 favorite books. Any genre, any author, good taste, bad taste, it doesn't matter. Just the top 40 books that matter to them, in order of importance. We'll be posting several of these, and our first comes from Brian Contine, a well known contributor to this blog.
Ben Folds/Nick Hornby ‘Lonely Avenue’ CONTEST
Good news for Ben Folds fans...or Nick Hornby fans...or just fans of cross-media collaborations: Alt piano-rocker/song-writer Ben Folds recently collaborated with veteran British novelist Nick Hornby on an album, Lonely Avenue, where Hornby wrote all the lyrics and Folds supplied the music. Wait...writers and musicians...together? How can that be? Luckily, here's a video that explains the whole thing:
The birth of MysteryPeople, our store within a store
In the last three years, BookPeople's mystery section has grown into something special. Our stock as well as our sales have increased-- especially with titles like Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager series, and some you can't find at other stores. Mystery authors like CJ Box and Craig Johnson now make this store a stop on practically every book tour they have. We've attracted more fans of the genre, even from outside the city, to where it feels like we're becoming Austin's de facto mystery bookstore. So we've decided to make it official. On November 7th we're launching our own mystery bookstore within a bookstore, MysteryPeople.
The Saddest Music Ever Written
Tear-jerking. Soul-stirring. Immensely powerful. Just a few apt descriptions of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, a piece you've surely heard before. Even if you're not a classical music afficianado, you've heard it in movies, TV shows or on CNN. It was used as the soundtrack for many 9/11 montages around the time of the attacks and on it's anniversary.
Where Good Ideas Come From…
If you're not familiar with TED conferences (the letters stand for "Technology, Entertainment and Design") you should Google it now. It's ok, I'll wait...back yet? Hopefully, you were directed to a video that blew your mind. TED is basically a reoccurring conference where really interesting people from all over discuss groundbreaking ideas on culture, science, art...anything that expands our understanding of this crazy world. In this clip taken from a TED conference, Steven Johnson discusses the methodology of "good ideas". While it's kind of impossible to predict where and when a "good idea" might occur to us, Johnson claims that there are many recognizable factors of "good ideas" and how they come into being. He cites certain factors and environments that foster the birth and maturation of good ideas. Here, just watch:
A little about yesterday’s fire
It wasn’t the mad dash for Rick Riodan’s new book The Red Pyramid. Not even Anthony Bourdain, the sizzling chef himself, that brought down the house. Nay! An electrical fire is being blamed for the flame and water ‘splosion that sent customers and staff alike to the parking lot while BookPeople manager and local hero John Turner put out the flames.





