A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

I picked this up because of a review I heard on NPR. A Fatal Grace is second in a series about Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of the Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec.  The series is technically "detective fiction" or a "murder mystery" but the writing itself is literary.  I will be reading other titles in this series and hope to continue to be delighted with the artful weaving of the arts with mystery/detective work.  

A Fatal Grace is set in a lovely village in the Canadian province of Quebec.  The cast of characters include a poet, two artists, and several other interesting folk.  The poetry included in the book is lovely and inspired me to return a volume of poetry to my "to read" stack.  Inspector Gamache is a particularly compelling main character.  He is intelligent, sensitive, and wise about people.  Unlike many other detectives he appears not be to plagued by major personality quirks or haunted by demons from his past. 

If I'm reading her home page correctly I have quite a bit of reading to do.  I appears there are 11 titles in this series to date. 

http://www.louisepenny.com/

tales from outer suburbia, by shaun tan

For those of you who are not fans of graphic novels, this is one for you. Were I still in the classroom I would have several of these around to share with students as "mentor texts" to help them see the power of short stories and essays. The piece (I hate to call it a short story--it's more like an essay or poem) Distant Rain, is a lovely piece about poetry that could inspire almost anyone to begin writing a poem. Grandpa's Story is full of wisdom about what makes a marriage work and last. Alert, but not alarmed, gives me hope that we may be able to reduce our war-like mindsets.

Each of tan's stories/essays/imaginings leaves the reader with a feeling of having been touched by a creative mind with ideas that may help us move forward with life and with society. This "graphic novel" gets my highest recommendation