A crime writer I am also a crime reader and probably about 80% of my reading is crime novels. I also like to read books set in Canada whenever possible, and sometimes that makes for a difficult search. Canadian crime writers still have the impression that they have to set their books in the U.S. and pretend to be Americans. There are noticeable exceptions, but despite the success of many Canadian - set mystery books on the world stage, setting a crime book in Canada, with Canadian characters and Canadian issues, is seen as taking a risk.

Fortunately there are a number of excellent Canadian writers prepared to take that risk. One of my favourites of the last couple of years is The Weight of Stones (Dundurn Press) by Ottawa's C.B. Forrest. Weight of Stones is a crime novel in that that protagonist is a Toronto police officer and he is on the trail of some 'bad guys' but (like the very best crime novels) it is so much more. The main character, Charlie McKelvey, is consumed by grief and guilt. Grief over the death of his son, and guilt in what he sees as his part in the death because he threw the troubled young man out of the house. Forrest's portrait of McKelvey's anguish, which has destroyed his marriage and is well on the way to destroying his career, is so heart-rending I was surprised when I met Forrest to find, not a drunk ex-cop with a grudge against the world, but a happy young man in a happy marriage. Excellent writing does that.

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Giving a book is like giving an obligation. - Gabriel Zaid in So Many Books.

My life is one long night of unfinished books. - A character in one my unfinished short stories.

I had a bit of a laugh when I received the request for Night Table recommendations from McNally Robinson's because I have a bad habit of starting a lot of books (usually at night) and never finishing them. So of course I'd never deign to actually recommend any book to put on one's night table for one to actually finish, keeping also Zaid's comment in mind! In other words, the little list I'm putting forth here is simply what I'm reading now and if you should happen to be interested in the books, all the better!

Since I'm a writer of different genres, a translator, and a teacher, I've usually got books on hand to meet those various needs of my writing life as they arise.

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Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Penguin, 2009)

Let's start off with the obvious. I'm publishing a comic novel this fall (Dadolescence, Turnstone Press) about a pop-culture-obsessed middle-aged man who desperately needs to grow up and find a purpose. How could I not be a Nick Hornby fan? In his latest novel, he focuses on Annie, the wife of Duncan, a typically Hornbyesque music obsessive who treats an obscure 1980s rock album called Juliet with religious devotion. Like the rest of Hornby's books, it's funny, sad, hopeful, and honest.

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Footnotes In Gaza by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan Books)

A truly remarkable accomplishment by graphic novelist Joe Sacco. It is hard to imagine how he will ever top the epic scale of this book. Footnotes in Gaza tells the long-forgotten story of the massacre of 111 Palestinians in Gaza in 1956 by Israeli soldiers. We follow Sacco as he searches for the truth from the remaining witnesses still alive. He sifts through their conflicting memories and uncovers what really happened on that terrible day. All the while, he must contend with Palestinians who just don't see the point in dredging up old history when what's happening now in Gaza is so much more important. But Sacco makes a compelling case as to why the past matters.

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