Thin Man Novellas

Our 2011-12 Campus Read selection was The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.  If you liked that book and that genre, you may want to read two never-before-published Thin Man novellas by the "legendary master of hard-boiled fiction."

Check out Return of the Thin Man: the Original Screen Stories by Dashiell Hammett and edited by Richard Layman and Julie M. Rivett.  It is currently on the New Book display shelves at the BSC Library.  Editors Layman and Rivett visited our campus in November 2011 as part of our Campus Read activities. Layman is a Hammett scholar and Rivett is Hammett's granddaughter.

The Return of the Thin Man includes two novellas that Hammett wrote as screen stories for the celebrated films, After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man, which were sequels to the adaptation of his 1934 novel, The Thin Man. All told, there were six movies in the Thin Man series starring William Powell as Nick and Myrna Loy as Nora and Skippy as their beloved wire terrier, Asta.

Announcing the Campus Read for 2011-12

The 2011-2012 Campus Read selection is:

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

About the BSC Campus Read

In the fall of 2004, BSC established its first Campus Read, a project in which all faculty, staff, and students read and discuss the same book. We believe that the Campus Read builds community, gives everyone a common talking point, demonstrates the power and importance of reading, builds a culture of reading at BSC, promotes lifelong learning, and supports BSC’s philosophy of putting learning first.

We've had quite a history of good reading at BSC:

• 2004-05 - Montana 1948 by BSC alum Larry Watson. This novel deals with family relationships, racism, coming of age, crime, punishment, and justice.


• 2005-06 - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, a book that explores age, aging, death, dying and one man's struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).


• 2006-07 - Nickel and Dimed : On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The author of this book goes undercover to explore if it is possible to survive in America on minimum wage.


• 2007-08 - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a compelling non-fiction account of a young man who renounces wealth to match wits with the Alaskan bush.


• 2008-09 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, which won the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature. In the voice of a 14-year-old boy living on the Rez, the author shares a semi-autobiographical look at life caught between the Indian and white worlds.


• 2009-10 - The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a memoir of a girl growing up in revolutionary Iran. This graphic novel was made into a 2007 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.


• 2010-11 - Outcasts United: an American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John. Outcasts United is the story of a group of teenage refugees from war-torn countries who have been relocated to Clarkston, Georgia, and are involved with a soccer team under the direction of Luma Mufleh.