Saturday Miscellany—11/23/19

Phew. It’s been another week where I’m surprised that I’ve surfed around enough to have any fodder for this post. Clearly I need to work on self-awareness. There’s some good stuff here, chums.

Here are 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 First Annual Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award!—was announced this week. This is an international “competition for indie authors (both self-published and published by small indie presses).” Both bloggers and authors should check it out!
• I stopped reading novels last year. I think you did too.—this brought out my inner-Sherman T. Potter — “That is grade-A, 100% bull cookies!” A primer on fallacies could be written from this one source.
• B&N Cuts Freelance Writers from Its Teen and SFF Blogs—I saw a number of people tweeting/retweeting about losing their gigs from this. I feel bad for them, but am interested in seeing what happens to the site next.
• ‘Your throat hurts. Your brain hurts’: the secret life of the audiobook star—One of my favorite reads this week. Thanks to Portable Mistletoe for this one!
• The Best Thing You Can Do to Support a New Book—from Lifehacker.
• Best Strategy to Support a New Book—Ilona Andrews differs.
• A Word Museum Is Opening In Downtown D.C. Next Spring—I dig this idea.
• Why You Should Re-Read Paradise Lost—hmmm…maybe.
• How to be a Book Blogger…and not lose your mind—There’s some really good stuff here (some things I should heed, too).
• Why Should We Read the Classics?—Like, maybe, Paradise Lost? I’ve posted a few things along these lines lately, but Ramona makes a point or two I don’t think have been covered.
• 10 Up and Coming Indie Fantasy Writers to Watch Out For—I’ve only read one of these, and probably should get to at least 3 others.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Once & Future Podcast, Ep. 201: Cherie Priest—Live from Gen Con 2019.
• NovelSuspects’s podcast—Okay, I haven’t listened to anything from this new podcast yet, but there are some really good looking episodes here that you’d probably enjoy.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon — a couple of these helped me have a great reading week:
• Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins—Spenser returns to L.A. and gets to work with Sixkill again. And, yeah, everything you remember from Spenser and the City of Angels is discussed and old friends/allies are visited. I’ve read it and will be saying some very positive things about it soon.
• The Lights Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell—The fourth Lychford novella is a high-point of the series, as I talked about this week
• Going Rogue by Neil Lancaster—the follow up to Going Dark is a fast-paced mix of procedural and action-hero thriller. I said a little more about it here.
• The Dead Don’t Sleep by Steven Max Russo—Another great thrill-ride. I talked about this last month. By the way, I have a Q&A coming early next week with Russo that you should definitely check out.
• Twenty-one Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks—It’s been a few years since I’ve read a Dicks novel (nothing against him, I just haven’t gotten to them), this looks good enough that I’m going to dip back in.
• Firefly: The Sting by Delilah S. Dawson and a pack of artists—Yo-Saf-Bridge teams up with River, Zoë, Kaylee and Inara? Say no more.
• Sabbath by Nick Mamatas—An 11th Century warrior in modern Manhattan to save the world? What could go wrong?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to tracy cole, lidija.biskup, Notes Kecil, Beth Tabler, and R. for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?