A reporter for more than 20 years, including more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun, Laura Lippman infuses her Tess Monaghan Mysteries with the authenticity of experience. Ms. Lippman will be appearing at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11, the same day her new novel, Another Thing to Fall, will hit bookstores and library shelves. (This event is free--no tickets required.) She recently took a moment to chat with us about some of our favorite topics.

What role have libraries played in your life?

My mother's a librarian. Do I need to say more? I will, anyway. My mother went back to school in the 70s, to get her master's in library science, and one of my fondest memories is working through the Newbery list with her.

As an adult, I've been so fortunate to have librarians among my early fans. (See, that's librarians. They're actually much quicker to spot what's new and hip.) I couldn't possibly name them all, but one, Doris Ann Norris, is so important to me that she's the co-dedicatee of What the Dead Know.

What was your favorite childhood book?

Hmm, I guess this is one time when I can't cite Lolita as my favorite book, although I did read it as a 12-year-old. Didn't understand it, but I read it. I'm going to pick Half Magic, a perfect book. The thing about Edward Eager is that his youthful characters are all readers and don't run to stereotypes at all. The boys and girls (often siblings) share their adventures equally. In fact, the girls are often feisty and troublesome, while the boys can be calm and even-tempered. Since the Harry Potter mania began, I keep waiting for kids to go back and discover Eager, and Half Magic is the best of them all.

Who is your favorite fictional character?

It's really close, but Betsy Ray just squeaks past Beany Malone. (I don't have the hubris to pick Tess Monaghan, but she's good company.)

Who are the three authors you think everyone should be required to read--which books would you start with?

Jane Austen, Theodore Dreiser and James Crumley. And the books, respectively, would be Pride and Prejudice, Sister Carrie and The Last Good Kiss. Austen, because she illustrates what Eudora Welty wrote about writers with sheltered lives: all serious daring starts from within. Dreiser because, clumsy as his sentences can be, I've never known another writer who basically does the Vulcan mind meld on the page. Reading Dreiser, one becomes his characters. And Crumely because it is my oft-state opinion that he, more than any other crime writer, helped to kick in the renaissance of the PI novel in the 90s, when talents such as George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane first started to flourish.

If you couldn’t write, what other job would you like to have?

I'd probably be a social worker. Or a librarian!

Tags: Take Five

Whether you like it or not, Wikipedia matters. According to Web information company Alexa, Wikipedia is currently the eighth most popular website in the United States--six spots ahead of mega-retail destination Amazon and 21 spots ahead of the New York Times--and the ninth most popular website in the world. And that's not a bad thing, says University of Texas Assistant Professor of Emerging Media and Communications David Parry. "Not only does Wikipedia contain the 'hard science,' but it also records and contributes to the politicization and dissemination of scientific research and communication," writes Parry in a recent piece for Science Progress titled "Wikipedia and the New Curriculum."

"No longer is an encyclopedia a static collection of facts and figures (although some of its features might be relatively so); it is an organic entity," writes Parry. But whose actions contribute to the organic nature of Wikipedia? A broad cross-section of humanity? Not exactly, says Slate's Chris Wilson. In a piece titled "The Wisdom of the Chaperones," he writes, "[Even] though people are catching up to the idea that Wikipedia is a force for good, there are still huge misconceptions about what makes [it] tick. While Wikipedia does show the creative potential of online communities, it's a mistake to assume the site owes its success to the wisdom of the online crowd. Social-media sites like Wikipedia...are celebrated as shining examples of Web democracy, places built by millions of Web users who all act as writers, editors, and voters. In reality, a small number of people are running the show. According to researchers in Palo Alto, one percent of Wikipedia users are responsible for about half of the site's edits."

Comments:

• Matt in Cary, NC, Fri 3/7/2008 10:37 AM:
  When researching a topic, I will visit Wikipedia to see what this resource has featured, but I am more interested in what links they offer. I then visit those links and will reference those sites, not Wikipedia.

This week's edition of the Philadelphia City Paper includes a piece on the Free Library's Automobile Reference Collection. Managed by librarian Kim Bravo, who is featured prominently in the article, the ARC is one of the largest gatherings of automotive literature in the world, offering extensive information and providing a comprehensive record of automotive history. The ARC includes technical manuals, sales literature, photography, books and periodicals, as well as up-to-date repair information for domestic and imported cars. And all of this isn’t just accessible to Philadelphians. As “part of the nationwide effort to have librarians available online,” Ms. Bravo says, “If I can e-mail [the material], it's yours!”

Excited about the three-month exhibition of more than 40 works by Frida Kahlo opening tomorrow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art? Just in time to prepare for your visit, the Free Library’s Author Events team has made available the podcast of renowned art historian Hayden Herrera’s talk--titled “Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Sacred Monsters”--delivered at the Central Library last Wednesday. Ms. Herrera is a co-curator of the PMA’s Frida Kahlo exhibition and the author of the influential 1983 biography, Frida, which helped establish the Mexican artist's reputation in America and was used as source material for the acclaimed 2002 film of the same name.

And if you’re looking to delve even deeper into the life and work of Frida Kahlo, Free Library staff have put together some excellent reading lists for all ages and interests.

Today's edition of the New York Times features a piece on Susan Jacoby’s new book , The Age of American Unreason, which the author’s website describes as a “tough-minded work of contemporary history [that] paints a disturbing portrait of a mutant strain of public ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism that has developed over the past four decades and now threatens the future of American democracy.”

According to the New York Times, Jacoby was first inspired to write the book on September 11, 2001: “Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment..., overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II... ‘This is just like Pearl Harbor,’ one of the men said. The other asked, ‘What is Pearl Harbor?’ ‘That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,’ the first man replied. At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, ‘I decided to write this book.’”

Ms. Jacoby will be appearing at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium on Tuesday, March 4, at 7:00 p.m. (This event is free; no tickets required.)