Saturday Miscellany — 7/27/19

Unexpected fatigue and dadding kept me from being as productive this week as I’d thought I would be six days ago — I spent an entire day without touching my laptop! Practically un-heard of.

Still, I managed to find 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:

• Barnes & Noble’s fate rests in the hands of a British indie bookstore owner — It’s just as convenient for me to go to an actual independent book store as it is to get to B&N, so I really don’t have much of a dog in this race — but still, I know a healthy B&N is good for publishing in the States.
• 14 Great Readers’ Advisory Tools You May Not Know — I should use some more of these, but I tend to lose hours when I look at, say TVTropes.
• Raymond Chandler: The Art of Beginning a Crime Story: The 10 Greatest Opening Paragraphs from a Noir Master — In honor of Chandler’s 131st birthday, they shared some of his openings (which are just about the best opening paragraphs ever)
• Behind the Scenes: The Making of the Heart of Barkness Cover! — Maybe not the most enlightening of posts, but it’s fun. And I’ll always take an excuse to link to something about Chet and Bernie.
• Nick Kolakowski – A BOLO Books Composite Sketch — a nice interview with blog fave Kolakowski.
• Crime writers mystified by Colm Tóibín’s criticism: Literary author’s dismissal of genre fiction provokes backlash — Last week Colm Tóibín (a literary writer of some note, apparently),who I was introduced to by this brouhaha, said the typical snobbish things about genre fiction. Which is really just an excuse for genre writers to fire back, which is generally amusing. Not surprisingly, Steve Cavanagh had one of the best responses (all are good, Stephen Fry and Declan Burke in particular).
• The Silence of the Lambs: The Seminal Serial Killer Novel, and Still the Best — Title says it all. Great post.
• Time to switch genres. Seanan McGuire’s Personal Top Ten Urban Fantasy Books For Adults — I wouldn’t include some of these on my list, and should check out a couple of the others. Still, McGuire knows her subject, it’s good fodder.
• Author Myke Cole talks writing hard science fiction in his space-set Coast Guard novel Sixteenth Watch — Cole’s typically a good interview subject. This really makes me want to read the new one
• 10 High Fantasy Books to Read If You Hate High Fantasy — haven’t read any of these, but I probably should
• A Food Guide To Middle Earth — snicker-worthy

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry — Literary characters being pulled from their books into our world, sounds like a great idea. Until someone starts pulling the villains out for their own ends. Killer concept. Read what my pal over at Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub had to say about it
• The Last Astronaut by David Wellington — in a future where humanity has given up on space exploration, something unknown shows up in our solar system so the last person trained to go into space is called into action. Interesting concept, seeming great execution. See what Char’s Horror Corner had to say.
• The Wolf’s Call by Anthony Ryan — second week in a row for a fantasy title that makes me think about diving into the world some more.
• Jade War by Fonda Lee — I liked Jade City (just not as much as the collective reading community did), an am intrigued by the second volume in the trilogy. Looking forward to seeing what people say about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to brian2010, TooFullToWrite and fionac13 for following the blog this week.