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:
bullet Is a Bad Jane Austen Adaptation a Victimless Crime?—Some really good thoughts on adaptations in general here
bullet Are We in a Reading Monoculture?—seems to be hot article this week.
bullet The 2026 Shamus Award Winners—a couple of favorites got some laurels this week—including well-deserved award for friend of the blog, Nick Kolakowski
bullet A World That Feels Lived In 500 Years From Now: An interview with Thomas Trang about the Asteroid Savage trilogy of novels—a trilogy I will definately try to finish this year (book was was great!)
bullet SPFBO Finalist Sale 2026—50+ ebooks from award-nominated authors on sale for $2.99 or less, throug the 26th.
bullet Is Everyone Reading the Same Thing? (And Is That Even New?)—Briana at Pages Unbound finds the Elle article above less than convincing.
bullet Why Adults Love Young Adult Fiction—yeah, this is a year-and-a-half old, but I just came across it. (somehow, I don’t remember where)
bullet 7 Bookish Pet Peeves

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
“It’s the job of fourteen-year-olds not to be great at things, the only expectation they have to live up to is to be morons, they’re put on this earth so their moms and dads will support the headache-pill industry. It really, really isn’t the job of fourteen-year-olds to be geniuses.”—My Friends by Fredrik Bachman

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet John Bunyan and the Grace of Fearing God by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley
bullet Operation Cure Boredom by Dan Martin
bullet Elphie Goes Trick or Treating by Hagit R. Oron, Or Oron
bullet This Damned Band by Paul Cornell and Tony Parker
bullet Madam Tulip and the Knave of Hearts by David Ahern
bullet Raining Embers by Jessica Dall
bullet Before the Fall (Audiobook) by Noah Hawley, Robert Petkoff

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Key to a Killer by Olivia Blacke—”A woman and her ghost roommate investigate their most personal case yet.” I talked about is recently.
bullet Mortality Gauntlet by JCM Berne—It’s Rohan vs. Hyperion again, will it be the last time? Find out in the ninth of the series.
bullet Split Screen by Lee Goldberg—”When Erin Casey, the actress who plays LASD detective Eve Ronin on TV, is gunned down after a ride-along, the intended target is obvious: the real Eve. What isn’t obvious is why.”
bullet The Christmas Carol Killer by Chris Frost—”It’s December and Durham is bustling with shoppers and visitors, as carollers fill the air with festive cheer – until a chilling murder shatters the peace. Retired teacher Alistair Morley is found dead, sheet music crammed down his throat, while The Coventry Carol plays in the background. DI Tom Stonem is called and soon thrust into a sinister investigation that reveals Morley was formerly choirmaster at the now-closed St. Bartholomew’s Academy.”
bullet Letters to Our Sons collected by Stephen Graham with Orly Klein—”Featuring letters from Olympian Tom Daley, actors Javier Bardem and Riz Ahmed, and documentarian Louis Theroux, as well as other fathers from all walks of life, this raw collection of advice, anecdotes, regrets, and joys, offers a powerful and inspiring look at father-son relationships and the true value of healthy masculinity.”
bullet Goblin Market by A. J. Hackwith—”A goblin changeling caught between the human and fey worlds must find a way to save her home in this warm and heartfelt fantasy.”
bullet Devil’s Advocate: The Anti-Divine Comedy by Amanda DeWitt—”The Devil went down to Georgia—and started a media conglomerate. Ada Faust’s dad isn’t just kind of an asshole, he’s the Devil himself, and he’s been bringing about the end of days for millennia. But even the Devil must adapt to thrive, and nothing will look better for the bottom line than if oil-executive-turned-politician Nelson Campbell wins the US Presidency. In fact, the world will get so apocalyptically bad that the Devil can retire and appoint one of his heirs to take over as Antichrist.”
bullet Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter by J. S. Barnes—This is either a gread idea or one of the worst of the year, “Seven years have passed since the events of A Christmas Carol, seven years since the night when Ebenezer Scrooge took to a life of philanthropy and kindness. But there is another side to Scrooge. Those afflicted by spirits and hauntings know of him as a man who can help rid them of the unquiet dead. Alongside his trusted companion and friend, Captain Ambrose, Scrooge faces off against malevolent poltergeists and supernatural wickedness.”

Superimposed on a picture of a computer motherboard is the text 'Reading, his therapist had suggested, had likely been his first drug.' - William Gibson, Zero History
image source: @PRHSciFiFantasy on Twitter