Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 22 of 25

I somehow managed to get three posts up this week—don’t think this means that there’s a return to normal on the horizon, there was another post I wanted to get up this week and now I’m hoping it arrives by Friday. Stress and the time pressure have let off a little, but not that much. I did manage to finish 2 of the 3 books I started at the end of September, though, and may finish the third today. So that’s something…

Thanks for sticking around during my semi-hiatus, see ya soon.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Cheap Writing Surfaces and Medieval Bureaucracy Helped Popularize the Alphabet: Judith Flanders Explains Why the Alphabet Was Used on a Whim—probably stretching things a bit to include this one, but, hey, they’re my rules, I can stretch them for something as interesting as this.
Dungeons & Dragons Publisher Sued by Dragonlance Co-Writers Over Scrapped Book Trilogy—Dragonlance was a formative influence on me, and the idea of new works in that world interests me. This, on the other hand… (Hat Tip to Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub for this one)
Suspect by Robert Crais named Best Novel of the Decade—couldn’t happen to a nicer book.
A Playlist for ‘Not Famous’—A reader made a playlist for Matthew Hanover’s book about an indie musician and the guy who fell for her. This is just cool. (it’s also a nice way for me to remind you all that this is a book you should read, or at least buy).
The Westing Game may be a murder mystery—but it’s also a ghost story.: On remembrance, inheritance, and legacy in one of the most beloved children’s novels of all time.—I’m not sure I agree with all of this, but I’ll take any excuse to post something about The Westing Game
Graphic artist Art Spiegelman on Maus, politics and ‘drawing badly’—Good piece on Spiegelman…
The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time—Time Magazine and a panel of writers who know a thing or five about Fantasy compiled a really good list.
NIGHT OF A THOUSAND AUTHORS Live Event to be Hosted by K.J. Howe and The Real Book Spy’s Ryan Steck—This looks like a great event.
Blogger Statistics: a quick look.—The Tattooed Book Geek shares a few demographic results from Twitter Surveys. As a male in an older segment than he is, I feel even more like an outlier than he does…

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Say Goodbye When I’m Gone by Stephen J. Golds—a noir thriller set in 1960’s Honolulu

Back for my almost-the-end of the week check-in. Man, I can’t wait until I can spend time on this blog without feeling guilty for not working on the move. There’ve been some very positive things happening on that front this week. It’s still going to be a few weeks before I can get back to normal, but I see light at the end of the tunnel.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
How the Debut Authors of 2020 Are Coping
10 of the best… last lines in fiction—great first lines get all the attention, but last lines stick with you a bit longer. Here are some of the best.
25 Writers On The Books That Inspired Them To Write
Neil Gaiman: ‘Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick’—hard to go wrong with a Gaiman Q&A
Top 10 Apps for Writers and Bloggers
7 Audiobooks for People Who Struggle with Audiobooks…—some good ideas here.
Why I Rarely DNF Books—#3 & #4 are big ones to me
Do you reread?
Should Novels Carry Trigger Warnings?—Good question, good discussion, too.
I Failed My Blogging Goals—yup.

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
David Tennant Does A Podcast With…Neil Gaiman

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Fools Gold by Ian Patrick—I am so excited to start this one, Sam Batford #3 brings everyone’s favorite shady Undercover detective infiltrates armed robbers and continues to dodge a superior out to get him.
Dead Perfect by Noelle Holton—another book 3 I can’t wait to dive into.
Kitty’s Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn—a great collection of short stories in the Kitty Norville-verse. I had a little to say about it back when I did that regularly.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toThe Spellbound Librarian, Mina @Stacked, and ravensprouts who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Not much time for surfing/blog hopping/reading/writing again this week. I’m still reading the same books as I was on the last day of September! I have managed to finish three audiobooks—can do those while packing and working, but still, three is a small number for myself in that time frame. And, only a couple of posts this week. I’m hoping for one or two more next week, but I’m not making any promises. Stay tuned…

In the meanwhile, I have a little bit for you this week…
that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Fighting for Life – Indie Publishing in Unprecedented Times—As (beyond) tired as I am of the overused phrase, “unprecedented times,” you can’t deny that these times are unprecedented. It’s an Indie Book Blog talks about the challenges facing (and, sadly, defeating some) indie presses.
For Local Bookstores, The Next Chapter In The Pandemic Is Survival—indie stores, too.
From cut-out confessions to cheese pages: browse the world’s strangest books—huh. Books I don’t want. Good to know such a thing are possible.
Blogging: How Do You Blog Hop?—well, how do you?
The Art of Writing Book Reviews
Negative Book Reviews — Why I Write Them—one of the best approaches to this evergreen topic that I can remember
My Perfect Library—a fun post

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Spellbound Librarian who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

So…things are going to be quiet around here for the next 4 weeks (at least). But we learned this week that we have to move. So, when I’m not at work, I’ve been looking for a new place and starting to pack. I’m trying to look at this as a chance to do a thorough reorganization of my bookshelves (and everything else in the house).

So not only have I not written a whole lot this week–most of what was posted was prepared weeks ago (the post Friday was the result of 4 nights of plugging away a bit at a time), I didn’t even have the time and energy to get the September report out, short version: 26 books, I think I liked all of them). I’ve read even less. This week I’ve read 3 essays, 3 short stories, and the same page of an ARC for 4 straight nights as I fell asleep. That’s a bad day’s worth of reading. For a week, that’s unthinkable. I got my copy of Battle Ground on Tuesday and haven’t read the first line. I may not stay sane for long at this rate (not just over Dresden, all of it).

I have 1 book tour this month (and one at the beginning of November), 3 books an author has asked me to talk about (1 read, 2 unread)—and I’m going to try my best to get those posted, and anything else I can manage to squeeze in. We’ll see.

I did manage to steal a couple of minutes here and there this week to look at my feeds to find a thing or two for this. So, 25 hours after I started this, I can now post it. Yeah, gonna be one of those months.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
American classics among most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US: Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird among works protesters have tried to get removed from schools and libraries—yeah, this is the end of Banned Book Week, and the article was written for the beginning of it. Still…
How to Determine the Personal Value of a Book in a Few Simple Steps: What to Do When You Have Too Many Books—too many books? I guess it could happen. No one let Mrs. Irresponsible Reader see this for the next couple of months, okay?
Author Interview: Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager on The Writer’s Library—from LibraryThing
INTERVIEW: Ian Rankin on turning 60, not being able to hug his son in lockdown and why Rebus is finally venturing out of Edinburgh
12 Book Bloggers Share How They Find Time to Read—some good ideas here
Goodbye 5 Star Rating System. Hello Book Vagabond Badges.—here’s an interesting alternative.
RATING SYSTEM—Book in Hand has a new rating system, too
Being Objective About Some of My Favourite Books—The Orangutan Librarian talks about some problems with some of her favorite reads
What am I even doing?—The Fantasy Inn’s Kopratic talks about book reviewing
Comfort in books

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher—Peace Talks set the stage for something huge. It’s now here.
Just Like You by Nick Hornby—Hornby tackles the tale of a 42-year-old mother falling for a 22-year-old.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik—the beginning of a series about a sentient school for young magic users, featuring a dark magic practiitionner who has enough power to kill every other student. Or Something. I think I’m going to have to read it to come up with a better summary.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toChar, I.F, and BookerTalk who followed the blog this week. Keep coming back, there’ll be new stuff, eventually!

No introduction this morning, I’m watching a bookstore event with Luca Veste (from Bethany Beach Books) and am too distracted to say anything.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Johnstown-based literacy bank nourishing minds worldwide through magazines—adding a literature bank to a food bank? Brilliant idea.
Would you find this bookstore beautiful or terrifying? Or both.—LitHub asks this provacative question about a new Chinese bookstore design (“bookstore” seems inadequate to describe this structure). Personally, I think both, but lean to the latter.
A Brief History of the Juvenile Mysteries You Checked Out of the Library Eight at a Time: How young sleuths like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys became literary icons for generations.—Keith Roysdon takes readers on path down memory lane with the Hardys, Drew, and more.
Why I’m addicted to self-help books—I don’t share this addiction, but I get it. And had fun reading this piece.
Things I Learned About Blog Tours in 6 Months—a look back at 6 months of organizing blog tours. I’ve linked to things from the blogger’s POV recently, this look from the other side is interesting.
Critical Art of Reviews—thoughts about over-used words and phrases when talking about books.
Unlikeable Characters: Why is likability Even a Question?
Let’s Talk About Spoilers—Wish I’d written about 90% of this first.
Hiu, possibly sentient cabbage over at The Fantasy Inn, recently posted a thread about “the Feels behind book reviewing and blogging”, which is a good reminder that all of us go through the same thing (to varying degrees, anyway).

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Next to Last Stand by Craig Johnson—I had a great time with the latest Walt Longmire book, I’ll probably be talking about it early next week. In the meantime, you should just go read it.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots—Here’s what sold me: “Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine.”
Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold—seemingly the whole blogiverse is buzzing about the sequel to The Last Smile in Sunder City (probably for a good reason)

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Books Are 42 (possibly the greatest blog name ever) and The Godly Chic Diaries who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Yesterday, I did something I almost never do–I looked at one of my posts on my phone. I didn’t really see paragraph breaks—for those who read this on their mobile devices, is that common now? Do I need to tweak things a bit to restore paragraphs?

Anyway, this is a short list this week—as I mentioned last week here, my ISP went down when I was supposed to be posting the Saturday post. It didn’t come up until mid-day on Wednesday. And then I spent the rest of the week trying to catch up on things. So, I really didn’t do a lot of surfing, bloghopping, Social Media, yada yada yada. But I did stumble on a couple of good things to read.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Words we think we know, but can’t pronounce: the curse of the avid reader—We’ve all been there, or at least we’ve all seen that “Oh really?” look a Jeopardy! contestant gives when Trebek gently corrects them.
The Dispatcher (Theme Song for “Murder By Other Means” by John Scalzi)—I think I both forgot to mention last week that the Audible Original sequel novella to Scalzi’s odd and dark Urban Fantasy, The Dispatcher, came out. Turns out there’s a theme song for it. We need more books with theme songs..
Nick Hornby: ‘I can quote more Molesworth than I can Shakespeare’—a fun interview with Hornby on the verge of his new book’s release at the end of the month. Surprising amount of McMurty love here.
Lee Child on Why He Edited a Book Dedicated to Nicotine: A Faulty Delivery System—I remember quirking an eyebrow at the title when I saw it a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t follow up on it. Glad I read this post–I bet his penultimate sentence is on the money.
Why this author is taking a stand against Amazon’s audiobook dominance—This is a good piece about Cory Doctorow’s audiobook strategy–would be cool if more people did things like this. Here’s a Twitter thread where he covers it in a bit more depth.
How On Trend Am I? Looking at Whether My Taste Follows the Crowd When it Comes to YA—An interesting bit of data-driven self-reflection by The Orangutan Librarian.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith—the latest, and fairly controversial, Cormoran Strike novel. This thing is a beast, 900+ pages for a mystery novel? Everyone worried about their house being swept up by a Tornado should keep a copy of the hardcover in their house.
The Nicotine Chronicles edited by Lee Child—16 essays about various aspects of America’s second-favorite stimulant.

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

Running a little late today, my ISP is down, and I waited to see if it’d clear up without me having to burn a bunch of data using my phone. Oh, well. It’s a short list this week, which helps with the whole data thing.

Today’s the anniversary of the day one of my favorite literary couples, Archie Goodwin and Lily Rowan, met—a truly momentous day.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Why Goodreads is bad for books: After years of complaints from users, Goodreads’ reign over the world of book talk might be coming to an end. —am sure this won’t stir up any controversy at all.ce
How Nightly Reading Helped Cure My Insomnia
The Improbably Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes—Parker just can’t be boring, even after death. (Hat tip: Jo Perry, who can always be counted on for links to good articles about the dead)
Blogging: Why Are Reviews So Unpopular?—Bookidote’s Lashaan asks a good question
My Thoughts on the Block Editor.—Last week I shared Bookstooge’s rant about Block Editor, this week, The Tattooed Book Geek sounds off. Anyone have anything positive to say about the thing? Anyone think that WordPress cares?
How I Take Reading Notes—I could never be this organized…

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Two Crime Writers And A Microphone Episode One Hundred and Six – Bad People Doing Bad Things – with Steve Cavanagh—Cavanagh becomes a guest and answers questions about his career and new novel. Just his description of what happened to his Eddie Flynn series between books 3 & 4 makes this worth a listen…unbelievable.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Fool’s Paradise by Mike Lupica—Lupica takes the reins of the Jesse Stone series in this novel about the past coming back to haunt us. I had a few things to say about it earlier this week
Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs—”The modern solution to our problems is to surround ourselves only with what we know and what brings us instant comfort. Jacobs’s answer is the opposite: to be in conversation with, and challenged by, those from the past who can tell us what we never thought we needed to know.”

Busy week on the homefront, my third child moved away for college yesterday, and a lot of this week was devoted to last-minute things to prepare for that (followed by a road trip to help deliver her to said college yesterday that took about 150% of the estimated time. Traffic was not my friend. Although that gave us enough audiobook time for my wife get one book closer to catching up on Mercy Thompson).

Anyway, I still found some time to do some recreational stuff and found a few things I wanted to share.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Can You Tell an Author’s Identity By Looking at Punctuation Alone? A Study Just Found Out.—I think Nero Wolfe did this in Murder by the Book by Rex Stout (okay, he used vocabulary and style more, but I think punctuation played a part). If not, he probably could have. I’m pretty sure that my em dashes would lead someone to my doorstep.
Expand Your Vocabulary With This Site of Untranslatable Words—Word Nerds can have a great time with this site.
Self-Published Fantasy Month—kicked off this week, “a month-long celebration highlighting the best of what the self-published fantasy community has to offer.”
Why We Read Scary Stories During Covid: And why young people need books to get them through the pandemic, too.
10 Things You Might Not Know About NetGalley
Things That Make Bookworms Mad—one of Bookstr’s latest listicles
The Block Editor ….. Beaten into Submission?—Like so many others, Bookstooge has had…issues, shall we say, with WordPress’s Block Editor. I’m so glad for the Classic Editor Plug-In. My Tech Guy has been trying to talk me into switching over (and honestly, what he’s shown me I could do is very tempting…), but people like the ‘stooge make me reticent.
Songs I Wish Were Books—what a creative idea
Self-Published Fantasy Month: Some Book Suggestions—Witty & Sarcastic Book Club has some recommendations to help you kick off your own SPFM reading.
How I Came To Love Audiobooks By Speeding Them The Hell Up—entertaining and good tips
Unlimited Audiobooks: Find the Best Subscription for You!
What Do Ratings Really Mean—The Bookwyrm’s Den sounds off on 3 Star Ratings.
Which reminds me, have I mentioned that I recently tweaked my own “About My Ratings”? Didn’t make any changes to to how I rate, just hopefully made the page a bit more interesting.

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Under a Pile of Books Episode 81 – SPFM Special – Hostcast—a chat with the hosts of the Self-Published Fantasy Month

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire—Toby sets out to invite Simon Torquill to her wedding? Yeah, there’s nothing “fraught with peril” about that at all. This is literally three feet away, calling my name…
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes—” Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why – or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.” I’m part of a Book Tour for this one here in a week or two, really looking forward to it.
Teen Titans: Beast Boy by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo—they’re back with a follow-up to their revisioning of Raven’s story with Garfield Logan, who taught me most of what I know about bad jokes back in the 80’s. I’ve been waiting for this one for about a year.
Crackle and Fire by Russ Colchamiro—This SF PI novel is another I’ve been waiting for…I’m never gonna survive September at this rate.
The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie—that’s just a great title, isn’t it? Book two in the follow-up to The First Law
The Silver Law by Lev Grossman—a Lewis/Dahl-esque MG novel from Grossman? Sounds good to me…

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toT.Tazaki, samfsm, and S.D. McKinley who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Who’s got two thumbs and lost a couple of hours this morning by foolishly saying okay to a Windows Update before finishing this post?

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case (a lot of lists this week, I’m not sure why):
It’s a (slightly belated/resheculed) Independent Bookstore Day!—do what you can to support your local!
11 Ways Audiobooks Boost Literacy in Young Readers—I’ve had moderate success with some of these ideas personally. Enough to keep at it with one of the young readers I’m trying to raise.
Ink & Sigil—It’s been a bit since I’ve posted a cover art/design piece, longtime readers know I’m a sucker for them. Sarah J. Coleman’s description of her process for both the UK and US versions of Hearne’s new novel is a good one.
Learning to Write From My Mother—Peter Abrahams (best known on this site as Spencer Quinn) tells us what he learned from his mother about his craft.
Tracking Down Pre-Fandom Science Fiction Readers—What were SF books called before that term was applied? How did readers find them?
17 Books That Sell Way Too Fast at Used Bookstores—I think I would’ve guessed some of these titles (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, for example, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a new copy of it), but others kind of surprised me.
Five Pocket-Sized Paperbacks and the Art of Sneaky Reading—I don’t know anything about these books, and don’t see me picking them up anytime soon (but you never know), but I enjoyed the piece.
24 of the Best Feel-Good Books, According to Readers—who doesn’t need something like this right now?
Books About TV: For Book Lovers and TV Fiends Alike—the first one on this list is one of the books I never wrote about, and it really bugs me. The others look like something I’d enjoy, you may, too.
Must Love Dogs! Authors Share Their Canine Companions—National Dog Day was this week, what better way to commemorate it?
6 Things that None [sic] Readers Don’t Understand about Books and Reading…

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Two Crime Writers and a Microphone Episode One Hundred and Four – What Happened To Those Eyebrows? with S.A. Cosby—there’s very little about books or writing here, but man, this was a fun conversation.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne—Hearne kicks off a new UF series in the Iron Druid-verse, it’s fun, it’s action-packed, it’s…pretty different I said a few things about it recently (about 1/3 of what I wanted to say)
Game of Cages by Harry Connolly, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)—Book 2 of the Twenty Palaces series came out on Audio this week. So glad to get these books in this format—you’ve gotta check them out.
Sound Of The Sinners by Nick Quantrill—the latest Joe Geraghty novel, and first in years, is out. Looks good.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to ankushmaster, samfsm, and Elias Graves who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

It was a pretty quiet week around here—got a lot read (although work wasn’t conducive to audiobook listening, I’m a book and a half behind where I expected to be…). August is slipping by a little too quickly for me (especially when I stop and think about my daughter moving out of state in early September). How about you?

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Harmful Impact of Audible Exclusive Audiobooks—I’ve somehow forgotten to post this one in the weeks since it came out (despite leaving reminders for myself to do it). Yes, it’s a little self-serving for libro.fm to post this, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. There’s a lot of good in this piece. (I’m saying that as someone who has listened to his share of Audible exclusives, and will probably continue to do so, it’s complicated)
10 Reasons Why Reading Books Will Save Your Life—maybe the title’s a slight exaggeration…
Fiction readers have made best leaders in Covid-19 crisis, says Val McDermid: Crime author argues ministers who read only political biographies are limited in vision—On the one hand…she might be overstating things. On the other…my gut says she’s probably on to something.
Feeling Burned Out Lately? Try Reading Your Favorite Books!—not only works in COVID-burnout, but life in general, or (this is where I lean on it the most) when sick.
Jack Reacher and The Grand Unified Theory of Thrillers—A nice piece by Malcolm Gladwell about Lee Child’s creation (no, really, he’s talking about Reacher!), but more than that, I love his Grand Unified Theory of detective/mystery/thriller fiction and started (easily!) slotting some of my favorites into his categories.
My First Thriller: David Morrell—about Morrell’s pathway to John Rambo. Man…this makes me want to re-read the book, it’s been decades, and I wonder what grown-up me would think about it (I remember scenes vividly from the first time I read it when 11 or 12 and couldn’t believe I’d hoodwinked my uptight grandmother into buying it for me).
Speaking of books I haven’t read in a while, What’s So Great About ‘Lolita’?—this piece is too short, it should be called “A Small Sample of What’s So Great…”
Sometimes no review IS the review—Some comments about an author about the role of reviews. (it does contain some grim news about a book I’ve been waiting for…after reading this post, you should all go buy his last two books so he’ll have the motivation to finish the trilogy)
10 Reasons We Love The Write Reads—as the crew of a certain Battlestar would put it, “So say we all.”
Why I Read Widely—a quick look at my annual/now-monthly genre breakdowns show that I don’t read nearly as widely as I like to think I do (but widely within genres, maybe), but this post really resonated with me.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel—McDaniel’s gorgeous prose is back in this dark coming-of-age tale. I had a little bit to say about it recently
Going Back by Neil Lancaster—Tom Novak goes home and gets neck deep in international intrigue. I had a few things to say about it, too.
Bang Bang, You’re Dead by Evan Baldock—a sixty-five year old woman becomes an unlikely vigilante. This one looks really good.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toFaith’sPen and terreirorocadeobalue (I don’t think I just linked to something horrible, but I don’t read Portuguese, so…) who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?