Saturday Miscellany – 7/21/18

I didn’t spend much time on social media this week — or anything really (see Wednesday’s Programming Note or this longer post on my other blog for details), but I was still able to find a decent list of 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:

• How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books — I’m not sure I buy this, but, hey, it’s nice to think.
• Why You Should Read a Book With a Stranger — Great idea, but…I cannot imagine doing this.
• Why the ‘hero’ is the ultimate myth: Is he a Marvel-esque superhuman or an SAS daredevil? Or is he Ed Sheeran? Whatever the answer, it’s clear the public imagination is still holding out for a hero — It’s Andy Martin, so…you’re going to think and you’re going to have a good read.
• Why It’s So Hard to Stop Reading Books You Don’t Even Like — blah
• The World of Raymond Chandler and ‘The Big Sleep’: How Chandler Reinvented Himself and the Crime Novel
• It’s High Time You Read The Big Sleep — Megan Abbott and Jonathan Letham weigh in.
• THE SINNERS: Five Questions with Ace Atkins — Atkins talks about Quinn Colson and a little bit about Netflix’s Spenser movie.
• The Big Sleep: 25 Classic Covers, Ranked: Raymond Chandler’s Noir Has Inspired Some Truly Strange Art — I’ve never read a version of the book with one of these covers, but there’s some great ones here (and some others)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Episode 421 | Ace Atkins Interview on Hank Garner’s Author Stories Podcast.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Sinners by Ace Atkins — the 8th Quinn Colson/Tibbehah County novel is sure to be a good one. Sadly, my copy is hundreds of miles away from me, I’ll get to it when I can.
• Kill The Farm Boy by by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne — Part fantasy satire, part celebration of fantasy tropes, all fun and strong fantasy. I blogged about it a few weeks back.
• Constance Verity Saves the World by A. Lee Martinez — I’ve never read a Martinez sequel before, I don’t know what to expect. But…it’s going to be good.
• The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler; edited by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson and Anthony Rizzuto — This is also hundreds of miles from me, but one of my kids opened the box and described it to me. Sounds like so much fun.
• Rescued by David Rosenfelt — Andy Carpenter defends a man he wants to be very far from Here’s what I had to say about it.
• The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn –the sequel to Bannerless a Vaughn book that has somehow not moved from by TBR Tower, this dystopian mystery novel looks just as good as its predecessor.
• Degrading Orbits by Bradley Horner — another sequel is out before I’ve had the opportunity to read the first in the series. Whoops.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to figlia dei fiori, Deb / Being Aunt Debbie, Dog Training Guidance, Cristian Mihai, pitchstory,and Jordan Peters for following the blog this week.