Saturday Miscellany: 11/14/15

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Worldbuilders 2015 — It’s that time, folks. Who’s ready to make the world a better place while winning fabulous prizes?
• Unpublished Charlotte Brontë Works Discovered — sure, they might be the 19^th Century equivalent of Go Set a Watchman, but they might not be…
• Raymond Chandler Didn’t Care About Plot — I found this fascinating, and something I’m going to have to read a few times — Chandler on American English, plot, and detective fiction.
• Why You Should Read for 20 Minutes Every Day — drawing upon research we’ve looked at before, but you can never read this kind of thing often enough
• The End Of The End Of The World — “Everyone loves a good apocalypse. But some writers are opting for optimistic, solution-oriented sci-fi instead.”
• Similarly, New Republic ran this piece: The New Utopians — “Kim Stanley Robinson and the novelists who want to build a better future through science fiction.” I’m not sure I buy all this, but it’s food for thought.
• On the other end of the spectrum, closer to our time, and a lot less optimistic, Free Beacon ran Mizzou and the Master of Our Universe — how Tom Wolfe is the right filter to see current events through. Not just a great look at Wolfe, but some pretty sharp thinking, if you ask me.
• After all that heavy stuff, we turn to Bustle’s 11 Books That Will Put You In A Good Mood
• The books of our souls — on Rereading and what it tells us. I really like this one, wish I’d written something very much like this

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Promise by Robert Crais — is finally out and was worth the wait. Trying to finish my post on this one now, just what his fans wanted.
• Winter by Marissa Meyer — The Lunar Chronicles concludes and from what I hear, it goes out strong.
• Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke — this looks fascinating
• Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker — An epistolary memoir, I guess is what you’d call this. If only for style, this looks interesting.
• Home by Matt Dunn — you can’t go home again, right? But why?
• Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion by Matt Zoller Seitz — some of the best writing you’ll find on one of the best shows you’ve seen.

Thanks to Dessa for the interaction — you need to check out her series Cover to Cover (and the rest of the blog, too). Also, thanks to Obsidian Blue and Dany Spike for the conversation over on the BookLikes version
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