Barbara Fister

United States

Profile Information:

Hometown:: St. Peter, Minnesota, USA
About Me:: I'm addicted to reading mysteries and to talking about them with my pals at 4MA. I published my first mystery (On Edge) in 2002 and my second, In the Wind, in 2008 - not a sequel, but the start of a new series, fingers crossed.
I Am A:: Reader, Writer, Librarian
Website:: http://www.barbarafister.com
Books And Authors I Like:: This is just tooooooo hard. Before I joined the 4MA list I had a short list of favorites. Now it's so long I'd risk carpal tunnel trying to get them all down (and I'd inevitably forget a few).
Movies And TV Shows I Like:: The Wire
Homicide
Brazil

Comment Wall:

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Merrill Young

Dear Barfly!
Welcome to the circus. There is always something going on somewhere!

Mar 27, 2007
Rose

Hi Babara,
Welcome to the adult version of myspace.
And happy to see another person who refuses to be locked in on favorite authors of the moment.

Mar 27, 2007
Jenifer Nightingale-Ethier

Bugs! That's it! They are responsible for all the world's wrongs. Quite a few nasty rashes, too.

Mar 29, 2007
Karen from AustCrime

Barbara Barbara Barbara - I keep saying there's no point in trying for photos of me - I don't have a reflection either

Mar 29, 2007
Barbara Fister

Jen, there's bugs and there's bugs. (Brazil has both kinds. Also, lots of ductwork.) As for you, Karen, I'm gonna have to come down under for a good look one of these days.

You know, before I got on 4MA I could make a list of favorite authors? But now I know better, right Rose?

Mar 30, 2007
Barbara Fister

Okay, I had to add a blog post. That reproachful sign was up too long. But it has no connection to the bugs in the previous chatter message. Though if bugs keep coming up, I'm calling the exterminator.

Apr 2, 2007
Patricia

Hi Barbara nice to see you, I have finally found my way over here...I can't put down my fave authors either...way to many and it is everchanging.

Apr 5, 2007
Barbara Fister

I used to be able to come up with a list ... until I got on 4MA and realized how many great writers are out there!

So now I just don't even try.

Apr 6, 2007
Brian Thornton

Hi Barbara- thanks for you comments on the cross-gender POV discussion thread, and thanks for the add.

Apr 7, 2007
Dennis Venter

Hi Barbara.

Thanks for the pally invitation and for the well wishes on the smoking thread. Yeah, quitting makes a person as mean as a bagful of snakes. And not the friendly snakes neither. The mean bastard snakes. And yeah, it's always the poor spouse who suffers. Insidious little bugger, that nico-demon.

Anyway, good to meet you, hope to get to know you better.

Apr 7, 2007
Barbara Fister

Good to see you all - "mean as a bagful of snakes," that phrase is a keeper!

Beeg, I'm toying with doing something for a library publication with the survey results. People who work in public libraries in particular need ways to keep up with books to add to their collections and recommend, and these social spaces are great for that.

This is the first social networking site I've spent any real time in - it's hard to tear myself away.

Apr 8, 2007
Rose

Hi Barbara,
Fun time yesterday. Next time, you come to see your daughter, go to our neighborhood coffee shop, Cupcake, on Univ and Bedford. Think it is just as good, if not better, than the New French Cafe. Just don't have wine there.

Apr 9, 2007
Barbara Fister

Sounds like a good idea. That was fun, yesterday - and I won't run out of things to read anytime soon!

Apr 9, 2007
Rose

Thought maybe you were stocking up on books for the next snow storm, which the weather guessers are threatening to start tomorrow.

Apr 10, 2007
Rose

BTW, did any of the photos that you took Saturday turn out? Just curious.

Apr 12, 2007
Barbara Fister

Ah, me and cameras do not mix. The camera was only pretending to take pictures. I'll try to see if the ones on the phone are salvageable, but my laptop is not talking to its power cord these days.

Apr 15, 2007
Rose

I'm not too good with some of these machines either. That is what kids/grandkids are for. To guide us through them or just do it for us. Though everytime the teen age grandkids are here, they do strange things to the computer. And my chair.

Apr 16, 2007
Lesa Holstine

Hi Barbara,

Sorry I didn't respond earlier. My computer was back at the library for a couple days. I'm fairly new, too, but I think it's going to be an interesting site.

May 6, 2007
Barbara Fister

For the first time I'm beginning to get an inkling why our college students check their Facebook a zillion times a day.

I'm not that bad! but it's pretty addictive - though it's the forums I read most obsessively.

May 7, 2007
Craig Larson

Hi, Barbara--

Actually, I, too, am an academic librarian, though I realize community colleges and four-year schools are probably different in that regard. I like that I get to do a whole bunch of different things (instruction, reference, acquisitions, and interlibrary loan) and am not stuck doing one thing all the time. I think I've got your book On Edge somewhere in my towering TBR stack!

Craig

May 8, 2007
Amanda Clay Powers

How fun to hear from you! Not about the Kate part, though :( I can pretty much imagine what you went through, alas. Much sympathy...

Circulation here has started a Facebook group for our student workers, and it's been a big success... Something to chew on. Are you doing 2.0 stuff at your library?

May 8, 2007
Barbara Fister

We turned our stodgy newsletter into a blog that feeds onto our front page. We just started our own reference blog to share things like "oh my god, that political science assignment is back! remember to point the students toward..." I like the idea of a facebook group for circ students... hmmm, we should think about that. We talked about a wiki to replace our various procedures manuals which I still think would be a good idea.

2.0 - making library life more exciting all the time!

As for Kate - ah, well... some excitement I can do without. :o)

May 8, 2007
Amanda Clay Powers

That's a great idea! Our "Library Links" would make a great blog!!!

Hmm... you've got me thinking. I love talking to other librarians about what they are doing...

May 9, 2007
Barbara Fister

They are so easy to update, too.

My new time-wasting discovery: LibraryThing. Wow. I sure wish our opac was half as fun and useful. I put what I'm reading on my webpage at work - the covers show up linked to my reviews. It's hard to get any work done when you're having fun like this :o)

May 9, 2007
Jeri Westerson

I was at Madison, but I was schmoozing it up at the Berkely party. Thought it would go there but St. Martin's called first before it ever got sent out. Woo hoo! I look forward to going to Anchorage. Maybe they'll let me into the St. Martin's bash now.

May 18, 2007
Barbara Fister

My excuse for the invite (I guess) was that I was taking Arnaldur Indridason from Madison to our college, as a guest of the Scandinavian Studies program. The poor man didn't realize it was such a long drive. But we had plenty of time to talk!

May 18, 2007
Lois Reibach

Thanks for the invite. I was just reading your wall. I'm a librarian also and just this week was talking to my boss about using a wiki for our procedures manual!

Jun 3, 2007
Daniel Hatadi

Well spotted, Barbara. It's a moment I've been waiting for.

Jun 3, 2007
Michael Robotham

Hi Barbara,

Great observation on John Banville. I'm a huge Banville fan, but I really hate it when literary writers are deemed to be 'slumming it' when they write genre fiction. By all means I'm happy for them to jump on board and there's a long tradition of it, as long as they don't demean the genre in interviews by saying they did it for 'a bit of fun' or because it 'amused them'.
Grrrrrrrrrr!!

Jun 8, 2007
Michael Robotham

Glad you liked NIGHT FERRY. I have a soft spot for Ali. My wife became rather jealous about how much time I was spending with another woman.
M

Jun 8, 2007
Dave Zeltserman

Hi Barbara, thanks for the invite--Dave

Jun 19, 2007
sue neale

What is interesting is that some writers like Mankell are regarded as mainstream and people forget that they are translated. However some less well known ones, particularly French ones like Manchette, Izzo - the more politically motivated writers - are seen as somehow less worthy of notice because they are translated, and published by small presses who have to charge more for paperback originals. The French love the genre and many writers in English are translated. Once they have been published there the French somehow lump all the Anglo-Saxons together and seem unable to tell which writers originate in the UK/Ireland and the US/Canada. In general they are anti Anglo-Saxon though at the moment there are no quotas about non-French novels as there are for films and music.

Is Fred Vargas published in the US or only in Canada - esp as her 2004 novel Sous les vents de Neptune (now Wash this blood clean from my hand 2007) was mostly set there?

Jul 6, 2007
sue neale

I agree about the Adamsberg novels. Interestingly the one he first appears in has not yet been translated and it contains much that is not repeated which explains his quirks and gives you the background you need. Also in Seeking... Vargas says she only went back to using Adamsberg when she realised that the policeman she was inventing for this book had to be him. I also think she has not quite worked out how she wants Camille and Adamsberg to relate to each other. I find them odd but maybe it is the French way...

Jul 12, 2007
carole gill

Thank you so much, Barbara for that reply. I do appreciate it. I'll see what I can find out.

Aug 5, 2007
Bernd Kochanowski

Hello Barbara,

I would just like to tell you that I found "When we were orphened" wonderful.

Aug 6, 2007
Cara Black

Hey Barbara,

thanks for the invite...you got to talk Idradason? I love his books?

Aug 7, 2007
Gary Warren Niebuhr

Thanks for the kind comments about my panel in Madison. But that panel did not go the way I wanted it when it started off with the first person talking way to long about something off topic. I should have stopped her but she is such a good friend I hated to do it. The rest was OK (just OK). I am taking a whack at moderating again in Alaska so if you are heading to Bcon and want to hear about film and book discussions, check ours out.

Aug 26, 2007
Rosemary Harris

Hi,
Have to get over to PDD archives to check out your guest blog. I just wrote one for them. Re Tanzania, went there for a Habitat trip in 06 and loved the little village we built in. The primary school has no electricity, no water, 18 teachers for over 1000 students and until this past August no library. My husband and I (and some friends) raised the money to build a library this past spring and the structure has just been finished. Currently installing bookshelves, furniture and solar panels and compiling booklist. We return to Tanzania in November for dedication. Pix on my website www.rosemaryharris.com Thanks for asking!

Sep 30, 2007
Dana King

Re the discussion you started earlier this month, Not Shaken, Not Stirred, No Twist. I just got one of 'those' books to review. It's a bummer, because it's from a respected and well-liked author, but aside from the usual demented serial killer stuff mentioned, this one has enough "Marketing 101" elements added to make the entire read painful.

Just wanted to let you know you're not the only one who gets that feeling when you open one of those.

Oct 1, 2007
Clea Simon

Hi Barbara, Thanks for inviting me -- very interesting discussions. I could spend all day here, but then I wouldn't write. Which some would say wouldn't be a bad thing, but I'd find frustrating.

Oct 2, 2007
Cornelia Read

Hi Barbara, thanks for the comment. And I loved your take on A Field of Darkness. I can promise there aren't any debutantes or fortunes to speak of in The Crazy School (well, except Madeline, but it never gets mentioned).

Oct 6, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Barbara,
I'm new to the world of publishing. I learn something new everyday on how to promote my books. (And believe me, it's very hard for a new author to get her/his name "out there.") Pardon my naivete, but what is the"LibraryThing" you're referring to? Could I get my books listed and exposed through its catalog?

Oct 12, 2007
Dana King

Barbara,
I'm working on a review and a line you used in a discussion here a while ago fit perfectly. I'm borrowing it, but giving you credit for it. Below is the paragraph in question. Please let me know if you object. I haven't submitted the review yet.

Dana

So when I started Greg Rucka’s Patriot Acts, my first thought was, “Oh, this is one of those books.” (Apologies to fellow reviewer Barbara Fister for borrowing her line.)

Oct 21, 2007
Cara Black

I heard Cornelia read the beginning of The Crazy School at Litquake...prepare for your socks to be knocked off.

Maybe you've read and know Olen Steinhauer's books but I just finished Victory Square, last in his Eastern European country quarter - read Romania - amazing!

Oct 24, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Barbara,
Thanks fo rthe info on LibraryThing. I'll have to check it out.

Oct 31, 2007
Jennie Bentley/Bente Gallagher

Barbara, Mary Saums and I are members of the same SinC-chapter, but we're so far not personally acquainted. I enjoy her writing, though! Thanks for being my friend!

Dec 30, 2007
Sophie Littlefield

Hi Barbara - Crazy School is GREAT! My husband and I both loved it. PS I picked up Homicide 69 on your recommendation. I think we share reading tastes. Lately I've been reading Daniel Woodrell - what are you up to?
- Sophie

Dec 31, 2007
Sophie Littlefield

oops, I didn't even notice you had Blood of Paradise up there on your top ten - we truly are soul sisters. Also Citizen Vince and Denise Mina. I'll have to look for the others now. - Sophie

Dec 31, 2007
Sam Reaves

Many thanks for the kind words about Homicide 69. I am grateful for your support. Sam

Jan 12, 2008
Mike Morris

I look forward to having some grreat conversations with you in the future! Welcome to my little world!

P.S> My 3 cats took a vote and unanimously decided you will make a great friend to have!!!

Feb 1, 2008