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 Let’s kick this week’s list off with the essay about Charlotte that you didn’t realize you were missing from your life: Unexpected Friends: A Wandering Review of Charlotte’s Web
bullet The Space That Ships Are Built For—I’ve never given much thought to cargo ships/crews in SF…but I clearly should’ve.
bullet Why Taverns Remain SFF’s Most Venerable Cliché
bullet Goodreads Choice Awards voting kicked off this week. Wow, am I out of whatever zeitgeist these nominees tapped into. Most are probably worth the nomination, but my desire to read is just about zero for the majority of them.
bullet Yes, Some Books are Better Than Others—The Orangutan Librarian gets something off their chest. Words that shouldn’t have to be said, but….
bullet A Bookworm’s Guide: Cultivating Your Best Reading Life Yet

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Reservations by Richard Paolinelli
bullet The Chemist by Alan J. Field
bullet I mentioned the releases of: Night School by Lee Child; Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow by Jason Heller, Joshua Viola (eds.); The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer; and Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonestell.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Everything Happens So Much by Andrew H Murray—”[A]fter a workplace incident that could have happened to anyone, Esme unintentionally becomes the most important person in this–or perhaps any–universe. We don’t have time to get into exactly why this is, but to remedy it, Esme must find an uncharted land and fulfill a prophecy that has been on hold since the dawn of time. She has spent her whole life trying not to become a main character. Now, a lot of things are about to happen to her: in fact, everything, and so much.”
bullet Prudence Marsh Is Not a Nobody Anymore by Emily Krempholtz—”A musician leaves her quaint town in search of a bigger life, only to get tangled up with a mischievous bandit and a royal heist.” I enjoyed the first book, I figure this is worth a shot (also I liked Prudence a bit more than the central characters in it).
bullet Roverpowered, Volume 1: Ruff Start by Drew Hayes—”a coming-of-age fantasy adventure” “of an aspiring alchemist and her overwhelmingly powerful dog familiar”
bullet Exile by A.J. Calvin—the first volume of Calvin’s The Caein Legacy is in audiobook now. Time to dive in, folks!

an image of text 'Number of book outages since 1768: Zero' superimposed on a black and white photo of library stacks
image source: The Leeds Library