Saturday Miscellany—3/14/20

I crashed hard last night minutes before I was supposed to write my Fridays with the Foundling post (which means I didn’t do the reading for next week’s, either). But apparently, I needed it.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
           9 Ways to Support Your Independent Bookstore During Coronavirus—Yeah, I agree, many of the ways Americans are reacting to this are silly. But small businesses (and those who work for them) are getting hit hard. If I talked about things other than books, I’d talk about helping them. But I don’t. So, here, go help a bookstore.
           Need cheering up right now? Try reading a romance novel: Bestseller Milly Johnson calls the genre ‘aloe vera on anxious lives’ – and it has kept me going sometimes. Here are my favourites to swoon over—I won’t be doing this, but I appreciate the approach.
           How Flawed is Acceptable?—I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get the same result as this Book Riot piece does, but it’s a good thing for people to talk about
           When Not to DNF—This Book Riot piece, on the other hand, I think is a pretty good approach.
           Why Slow Reading Is Perfectly Okay: The author of Do Nothing calls for enjoying words as a luxurious meal, rather than a hurried buffet.—Sure, as someone who can’t stop obsessing about how much/little I read in a month, this may seem hypocritical, but Headlee is on to something here. I should probably try her book…
           Jeremy Billups—I’ve talked about his children’s books (click here), and now you can read them for free (before buying them and helping the guy out, is what I’d recommend).
           Did I miss the announcement that this is Historical Fiction Week? I kept stumbling across things about it, like: Adventures in Historical Fiction: History is Everywhere (And Full of Surprises)
           And: How historically accurate does historical fiction have to be?—Personally, I like extremely accurate, or not at all. The stuff in the middle annoys me.
           And again (sure, same blogger, but…) Some Fun Alternative History I Actually Like
           BOOK TROPES—A Fangirl gives her Personal Opinions…most of which I agree (especially the Miscommunication bit…). However, when done really, really well, I won’t complain about any of these.
           Where I’ve Been—the Tattooed Book Geek took a breather recently and talks about it here.

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
           The Guardian’s books podcast featured Ben Aaronovitch on Rivers of London—great interview

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
           Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten—Her arrest led to his conviction and imprisonment already, so why are his victims dying now? I blogged about it yesterday
           Madam Tulip and the Serpent’s Tree by David Ahren—Derry and Madam Tulip dip their toes into a pop musician’s life and find a whole lotta trouble. I blogged about it Monday
           The Starr Sting Scale by C.S. O’Cinneide—A retired(?) hitwoman helps the police. I talked about it on Tuesday.
           Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole—”The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history”. Cole brings his real-world experience in the Guard to SF in what looks to be a great read. I couldn’t even to begin to guess when I’ll talk about this.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to imyril, KetoJENic Vibe, Shreya Roychoudhury, tiffosaur, *Flora*, posssumpapaya, and Shayleene MacReynolds for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?