Saturday Miscellany—9/2/23

It’s a long weekend here in the U.S. and I (like many) really need it. I’m torn between a desire to disappear into some books, catch up on blogging—or to simply ignore everything and stare at the ceiling until it’s time to go to work on Tuesday. We’ll see what happens. Hope you’re having a decent day however long the weekend is in your world.

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:
Fahrenheit Fighting Fund—watching too many indie publishers close up lately (RIP Red Dog Press), Fahrenheit’s looking for readers to help them stay alive a little longer.
The Coming Enshittification of Public Libraries—just in case you were clinging to any sense of hope for the future today.
The ultimate heroes of children’s books—this BBC piece will remind you of better days and hopefully shake off some of that reality nastiness that the last link induced.
How brothers Lee and Tod Goldberg turned crime fiction into a family business—I’ve read a criminally small amount of Tod’s material, but I keep meaning to. Still, a fun profile.
On the Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books—what’s up with all of these pieces on getting rid of books lately? No one tell my wife that this is a thing, okay? (I will say that I do appreciate this approach as much as I will resist applying it to my own too-small shelves)
The Mysterious Artist of This Classic A Wrinkle in Time Cover Has Been Identified—Back in May, I linkedto a post talking about people trying to identify the artist. They’ve been found—after a lot of work.
Bookstr Picks: Weirdest Times and Places We’ve Read Books—I’ve done most of these. What about you?
Should We Think Of Fantasy More Regionally And Chronologically?—I think Peat’s onto something here (I typically do, but that doesn’t change anything)
On My Radar: August 2023—Over at A Literary Escape, Celeste collects the best of the blog posts you didn’t read in August (and probably some you did)
August 2023 Book Blogger Round Up—Jo Linsdell has another great group of posts from the month

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Story Craft Cafe Episode 110: Writing Fantasy And Urban Fantasy With Jim Butcher—the audio quality on Butcher’s end is less-than-good, but it’s worth putting up with for this interview.
The Thriller Zone Episode 146: Eli Cranor, author of Ozark Dogs—I really think I could just listen to Cranor interviews all the time.

Two New Releases from Last Week that I forgot to mention. I’m really embarrassed about that—I’ve corresponded with both authors about these books and totally blanked on their release.
Ostler by Susan Grossey—the first in a mystery series about a Cambridge University constable in 1825. I’m going to learn a lot of history in this one, I know.
Abnormal Ends by Bryan McBee—A cyberpunk serial killer novel. How do you say no to that?

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg—A Heist novel in the midst of California wildfires. (that’s an inadequate summary, but I haven’t read it yet. Go read Mike Finn’s take on it for something better).
The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium Set 1 by Bill Watterson—”The first set of books collecting Bill Watterson’s timeless Calvin and Hobbes comics in a compact, portable format designed to introduce the timeless adventures of a boy and his stuffed tiger to a new generation of readers. Featuring nearly 500 comics from the strip’s debut in November 1985 through March 1987, this is the first set in a series of seven.” I didn’t really like the look of (or, from what I heard the binding of) the two-volume set, and I can’t track down all the original paperbacks. This looks like a great way to collect the classics.