Saturday Miscellany — 3/30/19

Another week of slim pickings . . . odd. Is it just end of month malaise? But there’s some good stuff here nonetheless. The 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:

• The Best Bookstores in All 50 States — according to MentalFloss. I’ve posted similar lists in the past, but who can resist a new version — especially if you are curious about nearby bookstores. I can sign off on 2 of the 3 Idaho bookstores mentioned.
• How a Fourth-Grader Turned Me Into a Book Detective — awww
• Crime Reads had an interesting twitter thread this week about authors who could bench press Jack Reacher, because who doesn’t think about that??
• Books Whose Endings Made-Up for Their Lackluster Start — I’ve only read one of these, and I disagree with almost everything this post said about Persepolis, but it’s an interesting idea. Can you think of anything that fits the headline?
• Official: Perry Mason gets full series order from HBO — I posted about this when it was still in the “maybe” stage, but now it’s official. I’m still incredibly skeptical about taking Mason out of the courtroom, but will likely end up giving this a chance.
• Bookdragon Lingo: A [Short] Guide to Bookish Talk — is a fun, and informative, post. Most of these I knew, some I even use. But I still learned a thing or three.

Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen to, both from Hank Garner’s Author Stories:
• S3E06 Ben Aaronovitch and James Swallow of Book Off! (“A literary podcast with a difference…”)This is the first I’ve heard of this podcast, but it’s a cool concept and I’ll take any excuse to listen to Aaronovitch (and I need to track down Swallow’s series).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow — a short story collection with some fantastic writing — and a couple of good stories. My longer take on it is here.
• My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing — this tale of a husband and wife serial killer team is fun, and almost as good as I’d hoped. I really did like it, but had a reservation or two.
• Ruff vs. Fluff by Spencer Quinn — Quinn gets controversially inclusive here by having a cat as one of his protagonists in his new MG series. This is likely pretty cute, and I am curious how he’ll handle a feline lead, but is only a placeholder in my mind until we get a new Chet & Bernie book this summer.
• Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by sRajeev Balasubramanyam — I wish I could remember how this ended up on my radar, but it looks like it’ll appeal to the Maria Semple, Fredrick Bachman, etc. side of me. Probably you, too.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to amiiiesbooks for following the blog this week.