mid-morning smatterings

The Octagon Library at the University of London is doing a most unpopular thing: disposing of rare books, some that might even fetch good money on the open market…

Nancy Pate, the Orlando Sentinel columnist (and part of the writing team of Caroline Cousins) reveals what’s happened to her in the last few months: she’s grappling with lupus, and wonders how Flannery O’Connor managed to write her classic books in the grips of the auto-immune disease (link from Mobylives)

Robert Louis Stevenson’s KIDNAPPED has been designated as the Book of the City in Edinburgh, to be distributed free to all.

The Freep’s Ron Bernas looks at a new book that retraces the real-life Orient Express trip Agatha Christie took in 1928.

Is there any point of writing a new biography of a noted figure when an earlier one is so definitive? It’s the question Andrew Bostridge asks about anyone tackling the life and work of J.M. Barrie.

On the book club front, meet the Madison County Mystery Readers, who get together on a monthly basis to talk about their favorite books in the genre.

And finally, is it me, or are people getting crazier on the red carpet?