Category: Blog Series Page 115 of 230

Saturday Miscellany—7/9/22

On July 9, 2022

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 How to read: a guide to getting more out of the experience: Most of us can read, but is there a way to do it better? Faster? With more comprehension or even … joy?—This kind of thing typically comes out in January, but I’ll take it now. 🙂
bullet Publishers, Internet Archive File Dueling Summary Judgment Motions in Scan Suit
bullet ‘There’s obviously a market’: why are there so many children’s books about anxiety?—Pretty sure the fact that there is a market says a lot about the state of…everything?
bullet Song Exploder Is Exploding Books Now—I’ve never listened to an episode of Song Exploder, but I’m about done with Hrishikesh Hirway’s West Wing Weekly podcast, and if he approaches books with the same kind of analysis, I’m in…
bullet Exclusive Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Vampire Weekend Is a Punk Rock Tale of Found Family—Chen’s tackling vampires next? Color me excited.
bullet Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novels are set for TV adaptation—I’ll believe it when I see it (and I think Aaronovitch said something similar in an interview I heard a couple of months ago). Still, I want to believe—and see it.
bullet Rex Stout: Logomachizing—a great essay on Stout and Nero Wolfe.
bullet Why We Love Horror—I mean, I don’t love horror, but for those who do…
bullet Book Blogger Stats Survey Results: 2022—a good look at the state of book blogging
bullet Book Relaxation—on rediscoveringreading

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Law by Jim Butcher—a new Dresden Files novella dials down the magic to remind everyone that it doesn’t take a lot of power to ruin someone’s life. I had a couple of things to say about the audiobook
bullet Holy Chow by David Rosenfelt—Andy Carpenter defends the accused murderer/step-son of a friend I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago.
bullet The Ballad of Hanging Lees by David Nolan—1. Buy this for the cover alone. 2. It’s the third in Nolan’s “Manc Noir” trilogy. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit intimidated going in. Nolan pulls no punches, and if this is the end? A lot of nasty things could happen.
bullet Celebromancy by Michael R. Underwood—the second Ree Reyes novel gets the reissue treatment by Underwood, and it looks snazzy. If you missed this series the first time through, get on it now.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to a new follower Sheri Dye (who I think has a blog I should link to here, but I can’t seem to find it). Don’t be a stranger!

The Friday 56 for 7/8/22: The Self-Made Widow By Fabian Nicieza

By HCNewton

On July 8, 2022

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 of:
The Self-Made Widow

The Self-Made Widow by Fabian Nicieza

At 7 in the morning on Monday, Kenny sat in a makeup chair before his segment on Fox & Friends. He had been on the network often enough that he’d lost any sense of the jitters. The segment went smoothly. The negative was that clearly none of them had read the advance galley of his book, but the positive was that they let him do the bulk of the talking during his segment.

As he left the studio on Sixth Avenue, Kenny got a text from Albert congratulating him on a job well done. He pocketed the phone and entered the subway station. He didn’t really care. Insofar as it would help the book sell, he was satisfied, but Kenny had gotten to the point where appearing on other people’s shows wasn’t enough. He wanted his own show.

Not on a stupid cable news channel talking about the hot air of the day. Something more. A Vice meets adorable but serious Jacob Soboroff meets Columbo magazine type of thing. But for a streaming platform, with episodic storytelling, blowing the lid off unsolved murders, corporate crimes, political scandal.

He didn’t want to wait any longer. He felt he had been waiting his whole life.

Book Blogger Hop: Favorite Movie Adaptations

By HCNewton

On July 7, 2022

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Cheryl @ I Heart Fictional People:

What is your favorite movie adapted from a book?

Immediately, I thought of The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, then Goodfellas jumped to mind. Those three have to be contenders, right? Stardust is a lousy adaptation, but a movie I can’t get enough of. There’s Jurassic Park, of course. I loved the first three of Jackson’s Tolkein adaptations, and I think it’s best if we don’t talk about the others. To Kill a Mockingbird is practically perfect. I was trying to decide among all of these, and wasn’t getting very far. I could talk about great movies that are adapted (I could really talk about movies of various qualities that are bad adaptations), but my favorite? That’s hard to narrow down.

And then I glimpsed a cover…a stupid, ugly, movie tie-in cover of a book I’ve read so many times that the cover could fall off it the next time I open it. I love the book, and the movie is one I can watch and enjoy at the drop of a hat. And how can I not? It’s got a little of everything…fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…

The Princess Bride Poster
William Goldman is one of the best screenwriters of the 20th century, and his novels were pretty good, too. His adaptation of his own novel is just fantastic. I could go on for a bit here, but who has that kind of time?

I’d be remiss while talking about this movie to not mention As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden. Fans of the movie need to read this.

What’s your favorite adaptation?

WWW Wednesday, July 6, 2022

By HCNewton

On July 6, 2022

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

It’s time for WWW Wednesday already? I think I said something like this a couple of weeks ago, but the third 3-day weekend in 6 weeks is really messing with me. I’m glad we get a couple of months without one. I don’t remember being this discombobulated by an extra day off as I have with the last two. Okay then, let’s get this taken care of, try to get me on some more solid footing.

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?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading The Botanist by M.W. Craven (and am having a really hard time putting it down) and I just started listening to My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett, Katherine Parkinson (Narrator) on audiobook. Yeah, last week, I said it was going to be my next one—but between the holiday and the way that Harry Dresden trumps anything else for me…

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla—which was amusing, educational, and (for some) provocative. Yesterday, I listened to the new Dresden Files novella The Law by Jim Butcher on audio.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the collection Short Tails by Spencer Quinn and my next audiobook should be Long Lost by Linda Castillo, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator), another novella. I seem to be hitting some quick reads at the moment (maybe my brain is making up for the week it took me to get through Don Winslow)

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Tell me what you’re reading!

Saturday Miscellany—7/2/22

By HCNewton

On July 2, 2022

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 most beautiful bookshops in the world—I’m not the traveling type, but I like pretending I’m the kind of guy who’d travel around to browse at places like this
bullet What Happened? Banned Books in Nampa—A few weeks ago, I talked about a local bookstore’s response to a school district’s book ban. They provide an update.
bullet How Did Shakespeare Kill (And Heal) His Characters?—I meant to include this a couple of months ago, but after seeing it again this week, I got a second chance.
bullet From Criminal Lawyer to Criminal Writer—Nadine Matheson describes her shift from the former to the latter
bullet Why Does It Take So Long to Publish a Book?—Lincoln Michel responds to the recent Twitter conversation about how long publishing can take
bullet Overheard At Bookstr: Confessions Of A Bookworm
bullet Witty & Sarcastic Book Club continues their tour of Fantasy Sub-Genres with Fantasy Focus: Historical Fantasy with these interviews:
bullet Historical Fantasy Featuring N.C. Koussis
bullet Historical Fantasy Featuring Angela Boord
bullet Historical Fantasy Featuring G.M. White
bullet Historical Fantasy Featuring J.T.T Ryder
bullet Historical Fantasy Featuring Marian L. Thorpe
bullet YA Fiction Snobbery Needs to Stop. Right now.—I think I’d quibble a bit with a point or two, but yeah, it needs to stop.
bullet Why I still like using ratings (even if they’re imperfect)—Spot on.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Short Tails by Spencer Quinn—a small collection of short stories featuring Chet and Bernie to tide readers over until the next novel. They look pretty fun to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to KarensWildWorld who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!

The Friday 56 for 7/1/22: Short Tails by Spencer Quinn

By HCNewton

On July 1, 2022

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Short Tails

Short Tails by Spencer Quinn

(it might help people to know that the narrator is that handsome guy on the cover)

I barked my low rumbly bark. Bernie rose and followed me to the top of the ridge. We gazed into the distance, a hilly distance with everything so clear in the early morning light: giant red rocks, tall saguaros like green men stuck in the ground, a tiny black blur of circling buzzards. The bubble gum smell grew stronger. I started making my way down the ridge.

“Chet? We haven’t finished breakfast.”

I kept going.

“You know we’re on vacation?”

Vacation was what again?

“Hang on. It’s steep.”

It was? Somehow I’d missed that, and now it was too late, what with me already at the bottom, the making my way down part having turned into a sort of bounding.

WWW Wednesday, June 29, 2022

By HCNewton

On June 29, 2022

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

Here we are, knocking at the end of June, preparing for that wonderful time of the year where it seems like half of the people in my subdivision are trying to terrify my dogs into moving to Canada. Why don’t we commemorate it with a WWW Wednesday? My current book is taking a lot out of me–and it’s cutting into my audiobook time, so I’m not making a lot of progress with those, either. I’m not complaining (much), because it’s such a good book–but man, it’s taking a lot out of me.

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?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m making slow and steady progress through the monumental The Border by Don Winslow. I’m listening to Songbird by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackon (Narrator) on audiobook, it’s a spin-off or sequel or continuation or…something to the DC Smith series and it’s very strange listening to this next phase with these characters (good! but strange).

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I most recently finished Lee Goldberg’s Movieland and Daughter of the Morning Star by Craig Johnson, George Guidall (Narrator) on audio.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla and my next audiobook should be My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett, Katherine Parkinson (Narrator) (I largely checked this out for the title).

Blank Space

What about you?

Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 books of 2022… so far

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2022

In Books, News/Misc., Top X List

This week’s topic is, “Yes, we are halfway through 2022. So tell us your fave books of the year ― so far!” I haven’t done one of these in a minute, this seemed like a good time to get back to it. This list was easier than I thought it would be—but that’s because I only had to pick five. At this point, if I had to do a Top 10, it would’ve taken me a week. I think there was a 10-way tie for #6, as I looked over my 2022 log.

Huh…2 of these books also showed up on my Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 books I will definitely* read in 2022. That’s an interesting coincidence.

In alphabetical order by author:

	Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby by Ace Atkins The fiftieth Spenser novel is also the last one in Ace Atkins’ run. It’s hard for me to separate my thoughts and feelings about this book from my thoughts and feelings about that run. This wasn’t his best Spenser novel, but it was better than his worst (which really wasn’t that bad). In this book Spenser acts as a bodyguard for a libral minority congressperson and investigates the threats behind her. It’s an entertaining time with some characters I’ve spent decades with. My full take on the book can be found here.
	Don’t Know Tough by Elic Cranor This was a hard, grim read. In brief, an idealistic, young High School Football coach brings a troubled, angry, and violent player into his home to help him escape home and get back on the right track. And well, you know what they say about the road paved with good intentions. As difficult as the material was, Cranor’s skill with writing, rich characterization, and dynamite prose made this a sheer pleasure to read—while putting you through the emotional wringer. My full take on the book can be found here.
	Reconstruction by Mick Herron An MI6 accountant is brought in to negotiate with a young man who has taken some hostages in a nursery school (2 children and 3 adults). But how did all of these characters get to this point? Why are they here? What’s going to happen after they get out of the school? This novel examines all these things—putting the pieces of the puzzle together so that by the end (and I’m talking the end), the reader is able to put all the pieces together and can construct a pretty clear understanding. This is one of the best structured and written novels I’ve read in a long time. My full take on the book can be found here.
	The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi The previous two books on this list were pretty heavy and intense reads. This is anything but. This popcorn movie in a handy book form. It’s about a food delivery app driver who joins up with a group who travels to a parallel dimension to study and protect Kaiju. There are tense and action-filled moments, but given the premise—how heavy can it be? It’s filled with a catchy, irreverent narrative; snappy dialogue; and a first-person narrator you click with almost instantly (or not at all)—it just took me a few pages to know that I was going to find nothing but joy in these pages. My full take on the book can be found here.
	Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman If the last three years have taught me anything (and it’s likely that it hasn’t, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it did), it’s that Abbi Waxman will make me laugh, warm my heart, maybe even get me misty—while telling a story full of great and quirky characters, with dialogue as good as you’ll find anywhere. That’s what you get here in this story about a young woman who came to LA to get a fresh start on life. But before that start, things have to get a little worse for her—thankfully, she finds herself among a great group of (mostly) women who decide to become her friends. My full take on the book can be found here.

Book Blogger Hop: Fiction or Non-Fiction?

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2022

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

What is your reading preference – fiction or nonfiction?

I’ve unintentionally taken a couple of weeks off, thankfully, this is an easy way to come back—because it’s essentially crunching a few numbers. By Non-Fiction, I’m including history, biography, autobiography, memoir, humor collections, essays, science, literary/film criticism, theology…eh, pretty much anything that’s not in the 800s in the Dewey Decimal system (and even some of it). With Fiction, I’m including novels, novellas, short stories, children’s picture books, and comics/graphic novels (other than things like Maus and Persepolis).

It helps that I do a year-end table (and monthly for a while now, too) showing the breakdown by genre, so it didn’t take too much work to tweak it into a Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Graph.

If you ignore 2012 (and I don’t know what I was doing there with only 10% Non-Fiction), I average out at 21% Non-Fiction, 79% Fiction. I’d like to think I read more Non-Fiction than that, but honestly, I’m happy it’s that much.

On second thought, that’s not what the question asked, is it? The question wasn’t “What do you read more of?” was it? It was “What is your reading preference?” There’s little better in the world than a well-written Non-Fiction book. I’ve re-read The Right Stuff and The Last Chance to See innumerable times—ditto for The Big Picture by A. Whitney Brown. The books I’ve listed in Just a Spoonful of Sugar—Non-Fiction to Smile With and Learn From* are a real pleasure to read. A well-written biography is dynamite. And so much of the theology that I read does more for my heart and soul than my mind. I could go on here, but I guess I’m trying to say that I love reading a good Non-Fiction book.

* An updated version is due in a few months, but I’m giving myself a chance to add a couple more entries to it first.

Now, I did say “there’s little better in the world than a well-written Non-Fiction book.” Chief among that “little” would be a well-written novel. My preference is definitely fiction—my practice reflects my preference.

The danger in writing these Book Blogger Hop responses in a pretty stream-of-consciousness fashion is that it ended up taking me 421 words and a bar graph to get to the point rather than saying, “Fiction,” and moving on.

What do you want for nothin’? A Rubber Biscuit?

What about you—what’s your poison?

Saturday Miscellany—6/25/22

By HCNewton

On June 25, 2022

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 Whither Children’s Bookselling? asks Publishers Weekly
bullet In Defense of Unsympathetic Protagonists
bullet Copywriter Slash Novelist: How My Career in Advertising Helped Shape Me as a Novelist—Matthew Norman talks about some of the lessons he carries with him today
bullet Summer Reading Assignments for Grown-Ups
bullet “Dance” like no one’s watching, but for bookish types
bullet Canva 101: How to Use Canva as a Book Influencer—I really need to play around with this post next time I try to display my lack of graphic design ability
bullet The NeBUloUs Topic of ARCs—a dose of sagacity from The Orangutan Librarian
bullet Novels with Terrific Opening Lines—Jami Fairleigh shares some of her favorites
bullet Book Quotes to Love in 2022—Read Betwixt Worlds shares some favorites from this year

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Page Break with Brian McClellan Ep 44 – Scott Lynch—Good conversation about mental health, writing, Lynch’s plans, and more.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Self-Made Widow by Fabian Nicieza—Profiler-turned-suburban mom and recently-no-longer-disgraced journalist team up on a murder investigation again. I am very excited about this follow-up to one of last year’s best debuts.
bullet Movieland by Lee Goldberg—the strongest outing yet for rookie detective Eve Ronin, as she and her partner investigate a killing in a State Park.
bullet One Decisive Victory by Jeffrey H. Haskell—I won’t look at the description of this one until I read the second book in a couple of weeks here, but as much as I enjoyed Book 1, I’m happy to see that it’s out.