Episode 311: Literary Mysteries

Welcome back! We are so pleased you are joining us for our podcast book group: Reading with Libraries! Who is joining us this week? We are pleased to welcome returning Guest Host Leah Larson from State Library Services! Literary mysteries combine the excitement of a mystery, with all its twists and turns and puzzles to solve, with the careful thought given to word choices and ideas. One article said a snarky way to describe it would be "a book people have heard of, but haven't read." Umberto Eco is the example here: many people have heard of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum – but many of those people have never made it to the end of the books. But literary fiction can be very broad, and encompasses many of the best-selling mysteries people are definitely reading right now. Words and characters matter, and subverting the reader's expectations is part of the fun. You know a literary fiction story when you read it; you can tell that you are enjoying the way the story is put together as much as you are enjoying following the clues.