Saturday Miscellany – 5/21/16

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:

• 11 best things we saw at BookExpo America 2016 — EW takes a look back at BEA 2016 and a look forward at the rest of the year in books.
• Goodreads Offering Personalized Daily E-book Discounts — I’m not sure this is a good thing or not, I like the deals, but do I really need another email telling me about books to buy?
• No Genre Ever Dies: On Loren D. Estleman and the Pulp Tradition
• Not-So-Civil War, or Embracing Polyfanory — not a shock that I like something Anton Strout says, but this piece is really good.
• The Rook Is a Delightfully Weird Twist on Urban Fantasy — B&N Reads makes the case that you should read (or re-read) The Rook in the month we have until the sequel comes out. Sounds like a solid plan, The Rook was good. Don’t take my word for it, click the link.
• White Noise is an outsider’s look inside small-town Americana — I never turn down an excuse to read about, talk about, think about DeLillo’s book. Neither should you.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Highwayman. by Craig Johnson — a Longmire novella.
• Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell — the third Shadow Police novel — I can’t tell you how much I want to read this one. If you’re not reading this series, here’s a great hopping on place. Check out his Big Idea post about it.
• This Damned Band also by Paul Cornell and Tony Parker — is out in collected form now. This is a demented looking story.
• Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life by Steven Hyden — going behind the music to look at pop music’s best rivalries
• The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton — could be the start of a heckuva series, getting a lot of good buzz, too.
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix — described by the author as “basically Beaches meets The Exorcist.”