Saturday Miscellany—9/20/25

Just for funzies, I included one blatant lie in my comments below. Let me know if you can spot it!

Meanwhile, John Scalzi will be giving a talk at a local library. In case anyone wondered what I was going to be up to tonight.

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:
We start this week with the sad news that Thomas Perry died.
Publishers Weekly’s The 2025 Freedom to Read Issue is out, highlighting the local work being done on the book banning/library defunding/etc. front.
Banned Books Week Read-In—Libro.fm and Silent Book Club have paired up with nearly 450 independent bookshops and libraries to protest
Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books—Sigh. Of course they are.
But what about works that actually do exist? The Great Stories Are Out There—But We Need To Connect Creators To Audiences —”Reinforcing why indie storytellers and audiences must forge a new creative ecosystem together.”
HarperCollins to Reissue 35 ‘American Classics’—”HarperCollins has announced plans to “commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence” with its new American Classics series, to be published next spring…the series will feature 35 special-edition trade paperbacks of some of the most influential titles HC has put out since its 1817 founding.” You can see the list here. And, no, I will not be buying new copies of anything just because of the covers.
Horror Books to Read This Halloween Season—I won’t be reading any of these (no offense, Books of Brilliance), but I know some of you get into this kind of thing.
Thriller tropes: What are my favorites—a good overview of some big tropes

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
SFF Addicts The Shifting Landscape of Epic Fantasy—Recorded live at WorldCon, this panel features George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson, Rebecca Roanhorse and Ryan Cahill. I haven’t made it all the way through yet, but I’m really loving this discussion.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Covenant’s End by Ari Marmell
Last Words by Michael Koryta
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
And I mentioned the release of three books I remember having fun with: Hexomancy by Michael R. Underwood, The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, and Yes, My Accent Is Real And Some Other Things I Haven’t Told You by Kunal Nayyar

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay—a debut mystery from the doctor turned author. Looks promising.
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi by Angie Thomas—Been wondering when we get this sequel. Looking forward to dipping back into this MG world.
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach—”explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings”
The Summer War by Naomi Novik—”a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.”
I Killed the King by Rebecca Mix, Andrea Hannah—YA Knives Out in a fantasy setting. Should be fun.