Category: Blog Series Page 1 of 190

Saturday Miscellany—3/29/25

On March 29, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Quiet week here, too quiet, I know. Here’s hoping the next week will be calmer and more productive. I’ve got some good stuff due/lined up for the next few days. Be sure to come back and check it out.

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 Flannery at 100—and Forever: O’Connor’s work, fiction and not, is Catholic, gothic, Southern, and timeless.—something tells me that I’m going to be reading, and suggesting, a lot of O’Connor this year. Maybe I should try to squeeze in some re-reads, too.
bullet Why Is Everyone Reading ‘Lonesome Dove,’ an 858-page Western From 1985?—I didn’t realize this was a thing. But it’s pretty cool that it is.
bullet Interview: Miles Joyner—this interview over on Crime Fiction Lover sparked my interst in Joyner. Maybe it will do the same for you.
bullet Every Hunger Games book gets blunter about the messages fans keep missing: Collins’ narrative is also about how the series itself is received—Now I kind of want to go read the new one.
bullet The 50 Best Norwegian Harry Potter Character Names EXPLAINED—Have you, like me, never wondered how the Norwegian translator of Potter changed the names of major characters? This video will convince you that you should’ve.
bullet Considering the cosy turn in SFF: who gets to be comforted?
bullet Narratess’ Indie Sale is back April 5-7. Start counting your pennies now.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi—It’s hard to describe how much I’m looking forward to this…the Moon suddenly turns into cheese. “For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now… something absolutely impossible.”
bullet When Shadows Fall by Neil Lancaster—DS Max Craigie wrangles with a serial killer
bullet Bazaar by Miles Joyner—assassins, the Dark Web, Washington D.C., security contractors…sounds like a great ingredient list for a thriller.
bullet Space Brooms! by A.G. Rodriguez—”A fun, sci-fi romp where custodian – or space broom – Johnny Gomez teams up with smugglers and is thrust into an unforgettable adventure.”

WWW Wednesday—March 26, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 26, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,

Is not supposed to be a motto or mission statement or anything like that. But I sure seem to have adopted it as such. But I have got some solid reading in.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler	Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld

I’ve only read 30 or so pages of Butler’s book–it’s not going to be a feel-good read.

By the time this posts, I’ll be an hour or so into Serpent & Dove, hopefully I’m enjoying myself.

What did you recently finish reading?


Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto	Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

These two were simply delightful, everything I’d hoped they’d be, and maybe more. Vera Wong’s second investigation is heartwarming, sweet, and endearing. Brown’s essays were…I’d say “chef’s kiss,” but he had this great rant about the overuse of “Chef.”

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Price of Power by Michael Michel	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

The plan is to talk a lot about The Price of Power in the next week or so, buckle up for it! (step 1: reading the thing)

A Little History of Music is back in this spot–and will almost certainly not be delayed again.

How are you wrapping up the month?

HC Chats with Paul Regnier about Monster Therapist and the Warlock’s Citadel and some other stuff

By HCNewton

On March 26, 2025

In HC Chats, Literary Locals, Miscellany, News/Misc.

HC sat down with literary local Paul Regnier (https://www.pauljregnier.com/) to talk about his books, influences, and things of that nature.

Some of the books we mentioned were:
Paul’s books/writing:
Space Drifters trilogy
Luke and Bandit cozy mysteries
Bard Tidings
Monster Therapist and the Warlock’s Citadel
Almost the Chosen One Substack by Paul Regnier

Other books we mentioned/discussed:
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks
Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold! by Terry Brooks
MythAdventures by Robert Asprin series
Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix
The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine by Lindsay A. Franklin
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

Literary Locals logo

Saturday Miscellany—3/22/2025

By HCNewton

On March 22, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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 EveryLibrary launched SaveIMLS.org—to take action and make your voice heard about the recent Executive Order targeting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), amongst others.
bullet The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: And The Winner Is…—not really a surprise, but the worst of the worst (or the best of the worst?) has been named.
bullet The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem: Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here.
bullet How an American Radical Reinvented Back-Yard Gardening: Ruth Stout didn’t plow, dig, water, or weed—and now her “no-work” method is everywhere. But behind her secret to the perfect garden lay other secrets.—this barely qualifies for this post, but they do talk about her books a bit–and there’s discussion of her more famous (at least then) brother, Rex Stout. And you all know I’ll reflexively put anything about Rex Stout here.
bullet Tell Me a Differently Shaped Story: SFF That Plays With Form: If not traditional narrative, why book shaped?—(I’m with Templeton re: House of Leaves)
bullet Tackling the TBR: Strategies for Managing Your “To Be Read” List—It was just a day or two ago that I learned that TBR’s can be managed and not just cowered under. The things Science can do these days…
bullet Why I Like The Term ‘Trad Fantasy’—a quick take from Peat Long
bullet I’m kinda done with being treated like an idiot by authors—I expect a lot of us will agree with the notion behind The Orangutan Librarian’s post. I just wonder how many of us all would agree about the authors who do it?

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson
bullet I mentioned the releases of: The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen; The Deception Artist by Fayette Fox; The Last Days of Video: A Novel by Jeremy Hawkins; and Less Than Hero by S. G. Browne. I only read The Stolen Ones, which remains one of the more chilling books I’ve read in a decade or so.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Library by Gigi Pandian—Tempest Raj and her pals are back for another fun locked-room mystery. I talked about it (hopefully enthusiastically) a day or two ago.
bullet Friends Helping Friends by Patrick Hoffman— “A young man must infiltrate his own family’s white nationalist group, or go to prison himself… Part crime novel, part portrait of friendship, extremism, and inherited trauma, celebrated novelist Patrick Hoffman is at his brilliant best in these pages. Bunny never wanted any trouble. So how the hell did he end up at a white supremacist compound in rural Colorado?”
Welcome to the Lands of Luxury by Jon Tilton—escaping from their home on a (literal) trash pile is one thing, but adjusting to life in a super-affluent world brings a whole new set of challenges in this sequel.

Image credit: Grammarly

WWW Wednesday—March 19, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 19, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

Hey, I managed to get this up! (didn’t get anything else done today, but let’s accentuate the positive)

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

Bennett is knocking it out of the park again. I may be enjoying this one more than last year’s, but that’s just because I know what to expect from these characters. I certainly don’t know what to expect from this world, which is even stranger this time out. I got to the part of the book where a character utters the title today, which is always worth a cheer. It wasn’t used the way I initially took it, either, which is perfectly satisfying.

Speaking of satisfying…Alton Brown reading this essay collection is my front-runner for Audiobook of the Year. It’s just ridiculously entertaining.

What did you recently finish reading?


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames	That’s Not Right by Scott Meyer, read by Luke Daniels

As I said last week, Bloody Rose is not Kings of the Wyld. While that’s somewhat disappointing, but it’s good that it wasn’t. I put off reading this for far too long, I’m so glad I got to dip back into this world.

I opened the “wrong” audiobook last week, so I’ll have to circle back to A Little History of Music, after I clear off a few Library reserves (why do they insist on becoming available in stacks?). Instead, I had some quirky fun with Scott Meyer. This was not his best, but not his worst either (and his worst, it should be noted, is still plenty of fun). Solid fun, some really good lines, and (as you expect) some great performances from Luke Daniels.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto	Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld

Do I know what this return to the world of Vera Wong is about? Nope–and I don’t care. I just want to watch her meddle some more.

Serpent & Dove is one of those I’m listening to based on a recommendation (name withheld in case I don’t like it, no need to shame the lad). I’m really not sure this is my bag, but I hope to be surprised.

What’s keeping you up at night/filling your day?

HC Chats with M.D. Presley about Laurel K. Hamilton

By HCNewton

On March 18, 2025

In HC Chats, JCM Berne, Miscellany, News/Misc., The Hybrid Helix

Last year, you’ll have seen the name M.D. Presley here a few times–thanks to the first two books in his Inner Circle UF series. We had a fun chat last week that I bring to you today. Matt introduced me to the work of Laurel K. Hamilton and her influence on the genre.

Of course, better than that, would be checking out her site and work for yourself. But you might as well start with this chat.

M.D. Presley Links:

Website ~ Bluesky ~ Facebook ~ Rites of Passage (Inner Circle book 1) ~ Worldbuilding Nonfiction

Are you a Reader of Things and want to chat with me about an author/series/something other than promoting your own work (which we will do, just not primarily)? I’d love to keep trying this, but I’m not ready to start pestering people about it. So please let me know.

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REPOST: Grandpappy’s Corner: Saint Patrick the Forgiver by Ned Bustard: Patrick’s Story Told for Wee Ones

By HCNewton

On March 17, 2025

In (Auto)Biography, Grandpappy's Corner, Non-Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

Pretty much have to do this today, right?

Grandpappy's Corner logo featuring the cover of Saint Patrick the Forgiver by Ned Bustard

Saint Patrick the Forgiver:
The History and Legends of Ireland’s Bishop

Written and Illustrated by Ned Bustard

DETAILS:
Publisher: IVP Kids
Publication Date: February 21, 2023
Format: eARC
Length: 32 pg.
Read Date: February 17, 2023

What’s Saint Patrick the Forgiver About?

Drawing on both legends about him and Patrick’s Confessions, this book tells the life story of Patrick of Ireland for the youngest set.

It starts off with his childhood and touches briefly on his period of slavery before moving into his return home and the call to Ireland. It doesn’t gloss over the hard parts of his life, but it doesn’t dwell on them, either. The focus is on Patrick forgiving those who wronged him, spreading the gospel—and even teaching the Trinity via the shamrock.

The book even covers some of the myths that arose around Patrick—baptizing a giant, driving out the snakes, etc.—working that in seamlessly with the book and not distracting from the main point.

Let’s Talk about the Art for a Minute

This art is great—it’s friendly and cartoonish, with great colors and details. Bustard also weaves in traditional Celtic knots and Christian art (like elements seen in The Book of Kells, etc.). So we’ve got a pretty modern feel with a lot of Irish elements thrown in to ground it in Patrick’s history.

Are kids going to get that? Nope. Will the adults reading it with/to the kids? Quite likely. And if not, I think they’ll still appreciate it the art, even if they’re not familiar with the influences Bustard is drawing from.

Click here for a two page sample (picture and text) on the Publisher’s site. I’m not sure it’s the image I’d have used, but it’s representative.

How is it to Read Aloud?

It’s pretty fun—the rhythm is easy and the rhymes are nice (and only one or two of them seemed like stretching things to make the rhyme).

The Grandcritter isn’t around yet to listen to me read this, but I still read most of it aloud just to see how it went—I think it went pretty smoothly and I could have some fun with it.

So, what did I think about Saint Patrick the Forgiver?

This was a great way to give an age-appropriate lesson in forgiveness while telling the story of one of the heroes of the faith. I was entertained, and even chuckled a couple of times.

It’s a great combination of story, art, rhyme, and lesson. I can see this winning over little audiences as much as it did me. Hopefully, it’ll lodge in their minds enough that they’ll want to learn more about Patrick as they grow older and through him the Three-in-One that Patrick spent his life teaching about.

I strongly recommend this quick little read.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
Grandpappy Icon

Saturday Miscellany—3/15/25

By HCNewton

On March 15, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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 The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: The Final Showdown—this is not who I expected to see in the final bracket, but it really makes sense. Also, if you haven’t been checking in, all the bracket posts (and other things posted on the theme of literary villains this week) are worth your time.
bullet Terry Brooks announced his “semi-retirement” this week—at one point in my life this would’ve been devasting news. Now I can see it as the smart move it is—I hope he enjoys a long time of not-writing-that-much.
bullet A Lifelong Love of Field Guides: A celebration of field guides, the little books that changed the way we interact with nature
bullet How To Manage Your Reading Habit When You’ve Got No Money- A Book Bloggers Guide to The Cost-Of-Living Crisis
bullet The Art of Reading Aloud
bullet Marching Through MORE Inspirational Books!
bullet The Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library asks, Every 2 seconds, a book is rescued from captivity. Will you be a hero for a library item in need?

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Crime Time FM NICK KOLAKOWSKI In Person With Paul—was a great conversation about writing in general and Kolakowski’s new book.
bullet SFF Addicts Ep. 145: John Scalzi—was great
bullet The Thriller Zone Episode 217: Marshall Karp’s Killer Secrets: Writing Thrillers that Pack a Punch

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Uneasy Relations; Skull Duggery; Dying on the Vine by Aaron J. Elkins—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet I mentioned the releases of: Anti-Hero by Jonathan Wood; World Gone By by Dennis Lehane; The Mirror World of Melody Black by Gavin Extence; What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World by Cat Warren [wonderful read]; and Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire—The war with the Covenant heats up and everyone’s favorite Nanny has to step up again. I had a few things to say about it recently.
bullet Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski—Kolakowski brings his best for this contemporary L.A. noir about a traumatized ex-fixer trying to solve an old murder. I did a better job of talking about it earlier this week.

WWW Wednesday—March 12, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 12, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

INTRO

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames	Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya, read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

Bloody Rose has been on the top of my To Be Read pile since it was published in 2018, but I wasn’t sure it could live up to its predecessor, so I put it off, and off, and off, and off…I have to stop running from it. The first 100 pages don’t live up to Kings of the Wylde, but what does? It’s still plenty of fun (as I expected)–and there’s plenty of time for it to get better.

When this posts, I’ll be about 30 minutes into Bibliophobia, so I really don’t know much about it. But how do I not get sucked in? I mean, look at this first paragraph from the blurb:

Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners”.

This book is a memoir about her life with some Life Ruiners. I don’t know that I can think about books that way (check with me in 7 hours of this), but it sounds fascinating.

What did you recently finish reading?


Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs	Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg, read by Eric Conger, Nicol Zanzarella

Breaking Bread with the Dead is another stack of reasons that I want to be Alan Jacobs when I grow up.

As I said about Ashes Never Lie last week, Sharpe & Walker + Eve Ronin = fun.

What do you think you’ll read next?


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

As intimidated as I was to start Bloody Rose, I’m even more intimidated by A Drop of Corruption. The first in this series is one of the two best books I read last year. I doubt I’ll say the same about this one, but I bet it’ll be in teh running.

As for A Little History of Music? Eh, I was in the mood to learn a little something. Seemed like a good fit. (although I have a few library books on hold, if one of them comes through I can remain a little ignorant a bit longer)

CLOSING QUESTION?

Opening Lines: Miracles by C.S. Lewis

By HCNewton

On March 9, 2025

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Opening Lines, Quotations

We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art and we all do judge them that way). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I like to throw it up here. In these few paragraphs, you see exactly how he argues for the rest of the book.

from Miracles by C.S. Lewis:

In all my life I have met only one person who claims to have seen a ghost. And the interesting diing about the story is that that person disbelieved in the immortal soul before she saw the ghost and still disbelieves after seeing it. She says that what she saw must have been an illusion or a trick of the nerves. And obviously she may be right. Seeing is not believing.

For this reason, the question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say. What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. It is therefore useless to appeal to experience before we have settled, as well as we can, the philosophical question..

If immediate experience cannot prove or disprove the miraculous, still less can history do so. Many people think one can decide whether a miracle occurred in the past by examining the evidence “according to the ordinary rules of historical enquiry.” But the ordinary rules cannot be worked until we have decided whether miracles are possible, and if so, how probable they are. For if they are impossible, then no amounnt of historical evidence will convince us. If they are possible but immensely improbable, then only mathematically demonstrative evidence will convince us: and since history never provides that degree of evidence for any event, history can never convince us that a miracle occurred. If, on the other hand, miracles are not intrinsically improbable, then the existing evidence will be sufficient to convince us that quite a number of miracles have occurred. The result of our historical enquiries thus depends on the philosophical views which we have been holding before we even began to look at the evidence. The philosophical question must therefore come first.

Here is an example of the sort of thing that happens if we omit the preliminary philosophical task, and rush on to the historical. In a popular commentary on the Bible you will find a discussion of the date at which the Fourth Gospel was written. The author says it must have been written after the execution of St. Peter, because, in the Fourth Gospel, Christ is represented as predicting the execution of St. Peter. “A book,” thinks the author, “cannot be written before events which it refers to.” Of course it cannot–unless real predictions ever occur. If they do, then this argument for the date is in ruins. And the author has not discussed at all whether real predictions are possible. He takes it for granted (perhaps unconsciously) that they are not. Perhaps he is right: but if he is, he has not discovered this principle by historical inquiry. He has brought his disbelief in predictions to his historical work, so to speak, ready made. Unless he had done so his historical conclusion about the date of the Fourth Gospel could not have been reached at all. His work is therefore quite useless to a person who wants to know whether predictions occur. The author gets to work only after he has already answered that question in the negative, and on grounds which he never communicates to us.

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