(late, I know) Saturday Miscellany—4/5/25 (or Weekend Miscellany or Sunday Miscellany…)

I spent the day at the Nampa Library’s 3rd Annual Treasure Valley Book Fair and dealing with family stuff, so it’s taken me a bit to get the time for this.

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:
The Book Business Prepares for Tariff Turmoil —this is going to hurt
“Reading builds empathy”: The case for saving America’s libraries: America needs “third places” like our libraries more than we ever have, both functionally and philosophically
A Mini Train Just for Books? NYPL’s New System is a Must-See—ohhhh, I wanna watch this in action
Who Killed the Omniscient Narrator? A Brief History of POV
The White Male Writer is Fine, I Promise—a nation breathes a giant sign of relief, I’m sure—we were all so worried.
Narratess Indie April Sale—is this weekend
My Recommendations for Narratess’ Indie Sale April 2025 from JamReads.
The Curious Case of Literary Confusion: Guest Post by Andrew McAleer
Book Worlds We’d Like To Visit—this list from LibraryThing is bringing back a lot of memories for me, and adding a few ideas to my TBR
World Autism Awareness Day: Why Authentic Autistic Representation Matters – a personal perspective—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
Best Amazon Alternatives for Book Lovers

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire
Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson—the book that turned me from the occasional reader of Johnson into a devoted fan
Dead to Me by Cath Staincliffe
And I mentioned the release of The Diamond Conspiracy by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett—A fantasic sequel, and an even better mystery in this fantasy series, as I tried to say earlier this week
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto—I was supposed to write about this sequel a week ro so ago, but I couldn’t quite get my act together enough. Short version, this is everything that fans of the first Vera Wong will want.
The Price of Power by Michael Michel—This is the first volume in a fantasy saga that is destined to be fanstastic. I talked about it some on Friday (and am going to have to eat my words on more than one prediction)
Rex Stout: Killer Conversations with Edgar Winner John McAleer by by Andrew McAleer—the son of Rex Stout’s biographer has brought us this collection of interviews between the two. I have to spend some time pouring over this.
Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter—”With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns”
I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney—”Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a ‘far more interesting’ man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living.”