Saturday Miscellany — 2/16/19

Busy, busy, busy week around here…not much time for grabbing links for this. And I’m so far behind on the blogs I follow that I don’t want to think of it. Still, I’ve got a few 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:

• Rebecca Solnit’s Lovely Letter to Children About How Books Solace, Empower, and Transform Us
• All the sad young literary fakes — on Dan Mallory and his predecessors
• These Are The Book and Reading Statistics That Show Who Readers Are — the average US male reads for 13 minutes a day. I can’t wrap my brain around that number. That’s less than I do on a coffee break. Not all of the statistics in this BookRiot piece are as depressing.
• “A Novel”: An article — huh. Why we use that stupid phrase on book covers.
• A Sacramento crime reporter compares notes with Scotland’s top crime novelist — A good interview with Ian Rankin.
• ‘Not Famous’ … One Month Later — Matthew Hanover looks back at the first month since he published Not Famous
• Craig Johnson’s 15th Longmire Novel Announced — some details about Land of Wolves, which thankfully brings Walt back to Wyoming.
• Road to Publication — Benedict Jacka gives an update on Fallen, the next Alex Verus book, and a few other things.
• Official Book Trailer for Killer Thriller — Lee Goldberg’s new one looks fun.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon, but we’ll start with one I forgot last week – which is really strange because I’d purchased it a couple of hours earlier that day (primarily for my wife, but still…):
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas — the follow-up to something you probably heard of. The Hate U Give, about a sixteen-year-old would-be rapper. It looks promising — I’m assured by my wife that it’s almost as good as her previous. Works for me.
• Dead Is Beautiful by Jo Perry — I’d hoped to be finished with this by now, but I’m only about one-third done. It’s really, really good. It involves Charlie, his lousy brother, his brother’s horrible wife, a protected tree and a protected owl. Oh, and another ghost that’s mean to Rose. A whole lotta nastiness in this one, but the book itself is good.
• Killer Thriller by Lee Goldberg — Ian Ludlow, the thriller writer whose plots became the inspiration for actual terror attacks is in Hong Kong doing research. But the Chinese government believes he’s a spy working to thwart their plans. Hijinks ensue. Looking forward to this.
• Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker — yes, Tom Baker. I’m guessing this adventure won’t be focusing on Tennant’s or Whittaker’s Doctor (to pull 2 names at random out of the thirteen possible).

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Kanwarpal Singh, sara, Tony H, Simon Veith and K. Alice Compeau for following the blog this week (some interesting links attached to those names…).

(from The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen