Saturday Miscellany—10/4/25

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:
This has been covered by everyone and their brother, but it’s so fun: Reading Rainbow is Coming Back, with the best host (short of bringing back Burton)
Merriam-Webster’s NEW Large Language Model is coming next month. I’m more interested in this than I would’ve thought.
How to Build a Dictionary: On the Hard Art of Popular Lexicography
‘Buffalo Fluffalo’ Adds to the Herd—another story I’m suprisingly excited for.
As per usual, Jo Linsdell’s September 2025 Book Blogger Posts Round Up—has some good reads
Book Recommendations for Each US State—Book Girls’ Guide has completed their list of books per state. Looks like some good choices, too.
I appreciated @Linfootwrites’ Self-Pub Appreciation post

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Hexomancy by Michael R. Underwood
As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson
Make Me by Lee Child
And I talked about the release of The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher—which was really the only thing I remember caring about that week

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Silver and Lead by Seanan McGuire—Toby et al. adjust to the new normal following the events of the last three books. This is (unsprisingly) good–and I was supposed to have my post finished last week. tldr; version: Go get it.
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman—I have no idea what it’s about (some sort of fortune, I guess), all I know is that The Thursday Murder Club are back.
Death Dance by Michael Michel—the sequel to the prequel novella, War Song. But still a prequel to the Dreams of Dust and Steel series.
The Librarians by Sherry Thomas—four Texan librarians have to band together to solve some murders.
Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel—a group works to save a very particular kind of library: “The hours are from seven o’clock to midnight. The library exclusively stores books by deceased authors, and none of them can be checked out – instead, they’re put on public display to be revered and celebrated by the library’s visitors, making it akin to a book museum.”
Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa—”a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labor, and class, an intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner [a retired boxer, no less] as she toils away for the privileged clients who don’t even know her true name.”