Saturday Miscellany—9/9/23

Three-day weekends can really mess with you, you know? Monday afternoon, I sketched out a plan for the week that saw me productive on the reading and blogging front. And then Tuesday came along and everything else in my life collectively chuckled and said, “no.”

Without my research collaborator, Peat Long, this would be a very short list. Be sure to check out his Friday Favorites for more goodness along these lines.

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:
‘A Plague on the Industry’: Book Publishing’s Broken Blurb System: Do authors actually like the books they endorse—or even read them? Writers, literary agents, and publishing workers take Esquire inside the story of a problematic “favor economy.”—Great piece from Esquire
Stephen King Once Played “Mambo No. 5” So Much His Wife Threatened Divorce—I’ve never clicked with King’s fiction (and stopped trying decades ago), but I always enjoy hearing about King the person and writer.
When Teens Play Detective: The Influence of Golden Age Detective Fiction on YA Mysteries
The 75 Essential Books For Gen Xers: These are the books that entertained us, taught us, shocked us and molded us into who we’ve become—not necessarily the best, but those that shaped a generation. The fact that this is a relevant topic to the AARP’s site has cost me some sleep. (I got my membership card earlier this year, for the record, which didn’t cause me to lose sleep because it made me put a big dent in a bottle of bourbon)*
Too Much Information! Two Big Reasons Not to Over-explain Your Novel—Naturally, Paul Goat Allen nails this. I haven’t read him much lately…I need to fix that.
Let’s Get Honest About Reading (And Blogging)—some wisdom here
Author vs Author and Author with Author is Complicated—good thoughts from Mr. Long
Cyberpunk: The Truth Behind the Shades—in the mid-90s, I got really into Cyberpunk, but since then I really have only dabbled. This piece “fact check[s] some assumptions about the genre” and rekindles my interest.
Why I Enjoy Reading Negative Reviews of the Books I Love – & Mid-July Thoughts—I did snicker a lot at some of these featured reviews
How I Select Books to Read—I can relate to a lot of this. I don’t know that I’ve ever broken down my reasoning like this (not sure I can), but I enjoyed reading it.

* I feel compelled to stress that I’m joking about the sleep and drinking.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Story Craft CafeThe Western Renaissance With Craig Johnson | SCC 113—Craig Johnson telling stories about whatever is almost more reliably entertaining than his books (like I said about a Story Craft Cafe episode last week, the audio quality on Johnson’s part isn’t great, but it’s not that distracting)
The Thriller Zone Episode 147: Lee Goldberg, author of Malibu Burning—Goldberg gets on a roll here and I challenge you not to chuckle

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson—There’s a chance I get to start this today, and I can’t wait. I have no idea what this is about—something to do with an old case and digging into Walt’s relationship with his grandfather.
Sleep No More by Seanan McGuire—I haven’t written anything about last year’s Toby Daye novel because I’m very conflicted about the ending—and am almost never satisfied with the kind of story it set up. So now…here we go with part one of the payoff. I trust McGuire, but now it’s time to put it to the test. (click the link there to get an actual idea of the premise)
It Ends with Knight by Yasmin Angoe—I can’t imagine that the conclusion to this trilogy is anything but fantastic.
Spider-Man’s Bad Connection by Preeti Chhibber—I had a lot of fun with Chhibber’s take on young Peter Parker and figure the same is in store for her follow-up.
Look Out for the Little Guy by Scott Lang—the autobiography of Ant-Man. Yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes that I mention this. Roll them even harder when I say that I bought the hardcover.