Saturday Miscellany—9/14/24

My friend Tony has been really good about finding errors in these posts the last few weeks—as much as I appreciate someone editing me, I think I’ve checked this well enough that he won’t have to send me any notes. But I look forward to the texts showing me that I’m rwong.

(I made that typo and decided to keep it in so that he’d have an excuse to text)

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:
How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon
Doom scrolling: We may be close to rediscovering thousands of texts that had been lost for millennia. Their contents may reshape how we understand the Ancient World.—this brings out a geeky side in me. It also makes me very glad that I didn’t pursue this field, I cannot imagine the patience it takes.
Language and Leonard Michaels: On the current state of literature and literary culture—a provocative bit of writing
The Not-So-Nice Origins of ‘Bookworm’
Empathy and Crime Fiction: How Do You Make Readers Root for the “Unrootable”?
A Literary Map of South Asian America—because my TBR wasn’t long enough…
“…I Grew As A Writer To Make It Work.”: Blind to Midnight’s Reed Farrel Coleman—a good interview with Coleman (not that I’ve come across a bad one with him…)
Writing Action with Nick Kolakowski—were I a writer looking to hone my action scenes, I know I’d want advice from Kolakowski. (I’m tempted to sign up as a non-writer)
A Goodbye to 20 Books of Summer (in more ways than one!)—awww, man…..I’ve come to depend on this challenge as a way to get me back on track on some reading goals (sure, I could just, you know, exercise discipline without an outside force…). But more 10 years sounds like a good time to take a break and relax.
Tips for Requesting Book Reviews From Book Bloggers
A Fantasy Fan’s Guide: Understanding the Subgenres
Your Literary Analysis Can Be Wrong (With a Defence of Paddington Bear)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Tea, Tonic & Toxin Longmire Novels: First Frost by Craig Johnson

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Voodoo River by Robert Crais
The Scriptlings by Sorin Suciu
The Forsaken by Ace Atkins (nice to see that even a decade a go I could get ridiculously behind)
And I mentioned the release of five books that I really wanted to read, but only have made time for two of them: Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman (speaking of Coleman); The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison; City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett; Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg; and Yesterday’s Hero by Jonathan Wood (the three I didn’t get to are still calling my name!)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Buzz Kill by Alison Gaylin—I enjoyed Gaylin’s first Randall novel (as you can tell from all the nothing I’ve said about it), and am looking forward to see her stretch her legs with it
Nightmare of a Trip by Maureen Kilmer—a horror-comedy about a family’s road trip. Kilmer doesn’t even need to bring in anything supernatural to make the horror bit stick.
Thinking Through Writing: A Guide to Becoming a Better Writer and Thinker by John Kaag & Jonathan Van Belle—I can’t see myself reading/working through a textbook at this stage of my life. But I should. Regardless, this looks like a good one.