Saturday Miscellany—9/26/26

It’s still Saturday in the Mountain Daylight Saving Zone…

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:
Which Big Fall Book Should You Read?—a handy, dandy flowchart
One Staff Member, One Budget, One Community: How Rural Libraries Really Build Diverse Collections—by The Association for Rural & Small Libraries Staff and Members
The 6 Best Crime Books Released Since 2010, Ranked
There’s too much violence in fantasy.—something to chew on
Grand Theft Automaton: Ur A Slave 4 Me—Cat Valente has a nice rant on AI
On the Difficulties of Bookish Influencers Becoming Authors
Michael Vadney has a list of D&D books “for the next time your adventuring party gets wiped out by the most powerful boss in all of TTRPGs: Scheduling.”
Behind the Book: When One Story Becomes Four with Patricia Furstenberg—the latest in Gina Rae Mitchell’s series
Details to Add Realism in Fantasy—I didn’t have time (or ideas) enough for this week’s Fantasy with Friends, but this post and the other participants’, are worth your time.
Florence: Captivating Characters of September 2026—another good one from Reading Ladies Book Club

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Fool by K.R. Lockhaven—Fiction Fans follow up their chat last week with Lockhaven by discussing the book in question. Some really good stuff here (especially in teh spoiler section)

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
“They’d been in there. They were fast, obviously, and the room was in chaos. Papers were strewn across the floor. His desk chair was upended, and it seemed like half of the books on the shelves had been pulled down and now lay like dead birds, their wings open among the other debris on the floor.”— The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glen Dixon

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Ascent by M. T. Miller
Catch & Neutralize by Chris Grams
The Heart of Henry Quantum by Pepper Harding
Biblical Authority after Babel by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
As Wings Unfurl by Arthur M. Doweyko
Children of the Different by S.C. Flynn
And I mentioned the releases of: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley; The Family Plot by Cherie Priest; and Hungry Heart by Jennifer Weiner

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by soandso—A tale of assistants, sidekicks, and familiars trying to get a little respect (and preventing the world from ending). This was a lot of fun and just sweet enough, which I tried to convey earlier this week.
Actually, Nevermind by Taylor Tomlinson—”As she approaches thirty-four—the same age her mother, Angela, was at her death—Tomlinson grapples with fear and ambition, identity and doubt, and all the ways her mind has changed since the day her mom died.”
Die Famous by Michael Koryta—”follows a remarkable family as they race toward an impossible reunion–and asks us to consider where our own loyalties lie when ambition, devotion, and truth mean something different to each person telling the story.”