Saturday Miscellany—5/20/23

So, I saw Craig Johnson at a local bookstore last night, I’ll probably say more about that soon–but I’ll just leave it with, if you have the opportunity–take it. Even if you’ve never read him (or watched the show based on his novels). The man is a natural-born storyteller.

Before the Miscellany, let me ask one more time for questions to answer as part of my upcoming 10th Blogiversary commemoration. I’ve got some great ones already, but why not add yours to the stack?

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Public Libraries Deserve Better Than Thistitle
Intellectual Freedom and Why We Must Fight For It
Patrick Rothfuss announced a new novella—this great bearded glacier has something coming out this year! Sure, it’s focused on a character I really don’t understand the fascination with…but so what? I’m beyond excited for this.
The Work of the Audiobook
All the Monsters in Jane Eyre—I don’t buy all of this piece…but I’m not sure how much I disagree with it, either. Regardless, a good read about a great book.
Samantha Irby Refuses to Organize Her Piles of Books—Irby remains on my “should get around to trying list” but for some reason I clicked on this brief Q&A and really enjoyed it
How To READ Audiobooks! (In 6 EASY Steps)—a handy video from Shelf Centered
How Junie B. Jones Saved Dinnertime—how one book series really connected with one young reader
James Cook Artwork—barely connected to the subject here…but this artwork created on typewriters is a must-see
Molly Templeton has put together a list of A Few Reading Suggestions for When You Really Ought To Stop Playing Tears of the Kingdom—I thought about passing this along to one of my sons, but I think it might make him stop talking to me if I suggested something as preposterous as stopping playing it.
Into Reading – The Hunger Games—1. Good post on The Hunger Games. 2. A fantastic idea for a series of posts over on Fi’s Bibliofiles…
SFF Book Recs for Autism Acceptance Month—Justin Gross knows his SFF and shows it in this post
5 Reasons To Read Middle Grade Books As An Adult—I wish I’d read this post earlier in the week than I did–I tried saying some of the same things in my first abandonded post for The Manifestor Prophecy, I could’ve just referenced this and maybe saved the post.
Arthurian Retellings Reading List—I’m tempted to turn this into my 2024 TBR
How to Read More
I feel like I should be linking to as many Wyrd and Wonder posts as I can…but why duplicate the efforts of Dear Geek Place and The Book Nook when I can just link to their Quest Logs instead?
Why do moms get sidelined in SFF?—A great question that more people need to answer

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Only Truly Dead by Rob Parker, Narrated by: Warren Brown—the Audible Original Thirty Miles trilogy wraps up. I had to stop about an hour from the ending yesterday–which drove me nuts, but I knew if I kept going I wouldn’t be able to stop until it was done and the friend I was meeting for dinner probably would’ve been annoyed by that. If you’ve been sleeping on this series, you have no reason to any more.
Harold by Steven Wright—a stream-of-consciousness novel from the POV of a 3rd grader in the 1960s over one day of school. Looks fantastic.
Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon—the tagline sells it, “She escaped a serial killer. Then things got weird.” A funny (?) novel about a woman who is rescued from a serial killer, ends up in legal trouble, and runs to Vegas while being pursued by a killer. Or something along those lines…
The Dog Sitter Detective by Antony Johnston—the first in a series of cozy mysteries about a retired actress turned dog-sitter/amateur detective (with a promise that nothing bad will happen to the dogs)