I journeyed to the Newton Public Library this noontime, a trip that had originally been planned to soothe myself after what I imagined might be a particularly vexing event. The morning proved not to be as difficult as I thought, and even though I was relieved and happy, I ducked work and headed to the library anyway.

Although I found several treasures, I had been hoping to find Kate Atkinson's Case Histories, which was reviewed in a number of the Sunday newspaper book review sections. Atkinson, a British writer, now lives in Edinburgh (a city that's becoming quite the literary mecca). She won the Whitbread Award in 1995 for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a novel about dark, dysfunctional relationships between women, a book that's still prized by book groups. She also had an acclaimed volume of short stories shortlisted for the Whitbread last year, entitled Not the End of the World. Case Histories, though, is her first work of crime fiction, a genre that she loves reading but has not attempted to write prior to this. Anyway, aside from the Washington Post, the book is getting alot of attention and some good reviews.

I do feel for her, though. She says she's unable to read while she's in the middle of writing a book. Her brain is so full of the story and characters that she can't keep the characters straight in another book. Now that Case Histories is published, I hope she's enjoying a few good reads.