Saturday Miscellany—10/19/24

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:
Bookselling Out: How the market transformed American bookstores—a fascinating article/review about what looks like an equally (or more) fascinating book on the history of American bookstores
Quiz: Can You Identify These Last Lines of Classic Mystery and Crime Novels?—I did not do well with this one…
“I Enjoy capturing the time we live in in my writing.” :Buzzkill’s Alison Gaylin—a good Q&A with Gaylin about her latest book.
Why Do Bad Adaptations Scare Us? Cashgrabs, Fandoms and the Terrifying Prospect of When He Was Wicked—I have no opinion on about When He Was Wicked/the prospects thereof, but I enjoyed the rest of it.
Sharpen Your Fangs: A Guide to Vampire Fall—”Vampire Fall”??? This list of books about vampires could make for a year’s TBR (well, if you augmented it a little)
The Magic-Wielding Characters Bracket Challenge—I typically list every entry when Witty & Sarcastic Book Club does a series, but I’m going to lose track if I try. So I’ll just put this link here and tell you to go read these.
Incoming: The ScifiMonth 2024 Challenge, Read-along and Buddy Reads—Bookforager provides a list of prompts for ScifiMonth 2024, it’s going to be a god one, folks. (I might even stick my foot in a little bit this year instead of just reading the posts)

This is just cool
Jeffrey Speight announced this week that this month’s profits from his books Paladin Unbound and Mystic Reborn will go to the Hurricane Helene Relief Fund. I’ve only heard good things about them (particularly Paladin Unbound). Get some good reading and do a little good, too.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Incarnate by Anton Strout
One Kick by Chelsea Cain—I’m still irked we never got a follow-up
L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais—sharing these posts lately about this re-read really makes me want to do another. Particularly when I think about this book.
I noted the release of The Younger Gods by Michael R. Underwood, too.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The More the Terrier by David Rosenfelt—I’m glad Rosenfelt puts out multiple books a year, or the fact that this is the 30th Andy Carpenter book would make me feel older than I already do. Still, as I recently wrote, this holiday installment is every bit as entertaining as the first books were.
An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka—the second book in the Stephen Oakwood series. I’m so excited to jump back into this world and learn a bit more about it—I’m seriously tempted to go without sleep for a couple of days so I can finish my current read so I can get to it.
Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin—Rebus, Rankin. ’nuff said.
The Waiting by Michael Connelly—Bosch. Ballard. Connelly. ’nuff said again.
Billy the Kid: The War for Lincoln County by Ryan C. Coleman—Billy the Kid is one of those characters that I’ve always been drawn to. Everything I’ve seen/heard about this book makes me certain that I’m going to relish this telling.
Dogs and Monsters: Stories by Mark Haddon—”eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love.”
Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris—the daughters of Jonathan Harker and Professor Moriarty investigate gruesome deaths in turn-of-the-century Paris