Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 23 of 25

Saturday Miscellany—8/15/20

So, last week I started off talking about an interesting message I received with some valid critiques about my blog theme and mused about tweaking it in the future. Before the day ended, my friend who helped me move hosts recently gets a hold of me. “You know, I was thinking about this during the move…” and bam! By the end of the day, I have a shiny and new look. Which is by far my favorite iteration of The Irresponsible Reader.

Which leads me to this week’s musing, I recently received an email suggesting I add a couple of thousand dollars to my saving account…..

Seriously, I want to thank my correspondent (who likes the new look) and Micah for all the work.

And I think we have made some serious progress in the Comment woes I’ve had the last couple of weeks.

Annnyway,
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 Show Kids the Joy of Reading
bullet An Expert’s Guide to Finding and Listening to Amazing Audiobooks While Social Distancing
bullet Now you’re talking! The best audiobooks, chosen by writers—I haven’t listened to any of these, but I’ve heard some of the narrators. Look like good choices, and I like the way the narrations are described.
bullet The Joys of Mystery Fiction’s Most Enduring Tropes—one of the best recurring things in Crime Fiction
bullet Followed by one of the worst…It’s Time to Demystify the Serial Killer—(which doesn’t mean a well-written serial killer isn’t a real pleasure, but, man…we’ve got too many of them
bullet Ace Atkins on writing Mississippi noir in terrible times—a little bit about The Revelators, a little about the series as a whole
bullet The World of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser and the Birth of the 1970’s Private Detective: The hardboiled protagonist who navigated both crime fiction’s progressive and reactionary strands.—I quibble with Lee over some of this–mostly the way she evaluates the strands. But this is one of those aspects of Parker’s writing that has appealed to me.
bullet Stephenie Meyer: ‘I’d like to be remembered for writing The Host – but it’ll be Twilight’—Yeah, Meyer’s not a go-to of mine, and I have no intention whatsoever of picking up the new one. But I clicked on this one on a whim and actually enjoyed reading it.
bullet Why Escapism is Important
bullet 6 things I love about blog tours!
bullet Beginner’s Guide to Blog Tours—This is a very handy guide
bullet Tips for Battling Reviewer Writer’s Block

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Lone Jack Trail by Owen Laukkanen—The sequel to Deception Cove, this time the ex-con is a murder suspect, and one of the investigating officers is his girlfriend.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toconsideringthebibletogether who followed the blog this week. Who hoped to see you around.

Saturday Miscellany—8/8/20

I got the most detailed and unexpected critique of my blog theme/graphics this week from someone–sandwiched in a very complimentary email. I think there’s a lot of merit to what this new reader had to say (although I didn’t understand most of what he said about the main site graphic). At the same time, it made me sort of defensive toward whoever designed the theme for WordPress and my friend who made the graphic (one comment he made has a lot of merit, and I’ll probably never be able to unsee, despite not catching it for years).

Beyond that, and only having limited time to read this week (am about 2.5 days behind my ideal schedule, 1.5 behind the realistic one), it’s been a good and largely productive week around here (self-discipline pays off). How’s August treating all of you?

Only one New Release for the first week of a month? Clearly, I missed a few–help me out, friends.

That’s a lot of blather, I’d better move on with things.

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 16 Ways to Celebrate National Book Lovers Day—Tomorrow is National Book Lovers Day here in the U. S., and NetGalley’s Bookish blog has compiled a list of ways to note it. I’ll be taking a pass on it this year for religious reasons, but honestly, who needs a label on the calendar to do any of these, I tend to tick off a lot of this list on a day that ends in “y”.
bullet Mental Illness Can Make It Hard to Read. Here’s Why — and What You Can Do
bullet What I Learned From the Worst Novelist in the English Language
bullet From Victorian demons to the Beijing night bus: why we tell each other urban legends
bullet The Evolution of Dennis Lehane—I’m not as taken with Lehane’s later work as many/most, but that’s largely taste and temperament (mine). But he’s forever near the top of my list for the Kenzie and Gennaro books, and when I do get around to reading something he’s written, it never fails to impress.
bullet The Last Lines From 19 of the Most Beautiful Books Ever Written—(Lashaan should probably avoid this piece, Gatsby and Old Man and the Sea warning)
bullet A Guide to Stanning Book Blogs // What Are Book Blogs, How & Why You Should Support Book Bloggers, & More
bullet You Are a Book Blogger and You Are a Reader.—the working title, “It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Blog, You Are a Blogger and It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Read, You Are a Reader” summarizes it best
bullet Should You Read the [SF/F] Classics?
bullet Wonderful and Whimsical Fantasy Worlds to Get Lost in This Summer—Yet another great list from The Orangutan Librarian.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet The Worldshapers Episode 58: Faith Hunter—a great conversation Hunter shared on Facebook, after I listened to this, I’ve downloaded several other episodes (and listened to most of those), this is a pretty good podcast in a similar vein to The Once and Future Podcast and Author Stories, I also really appreciated Episode 47: Carrie Vaughn.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Heirs of Locksley by Carrie Vaughn—this novella checks in on Robin and Marian’s kids four years after the last one. Just fun books, as I wrote (especially compared to most modern Robin Hood stories).

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to ilaria.muzzi, bookshelflife, and angelicreader who followed the blog this week. Hope to see you around.

Saturday Miscellany—8/1/20

I had a potential of 14 things I was going to post this week–it was ambitious, and I didn’t think I’d actually get all of it accomplished, but it was something I actually thought I might accomplish. I got 6 things posted. One was a repost, four of them I wrote last Saturday. So, yeah, I composed 2 posts this week. Every day this week after work, I sat down to do something and then I ended up closing the laptop with only a paragraph or two written (or re-written, if I’d tried to finish my abandoned post from the day before). I slept a little more than usual, but mostly I just stared at my screen not accomplishing anything (including finding things for this post). In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal–but man, it was really demoralizing.

But, tomorrow is another day. fiddle-dee-dee, and all that. (Also, it’ll shave a couple of minutes off of compiling my July report later today)

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 Trouble with Reading Multiple Books at Once—I can juggle a few at once, but rarely want to anymore. Anyone out there enjoy doing this?
bullet Making the most of your reading time—Nothing new here, but good advice.
bullet ‘Kingkiller Chronicle’ Editor Believes Author Hasn’t Written Anything for Years—I haven’t seen if Rothfuss has responded to this (and looked a little bit), and am fairly surprised at how little attention it received on Twitter, etc.
bullet THE LAST OF US PART II, COWBOY BEBOP, and Letting Go of the Past—I’ve never played the game or watched the series, but what it says about the end of a series is something that we can all appreciate.
bullet The Name’s Wolfe, Nero Wolfe: Rex Stout’s Influence on Ian Fleming—you know me, I’ll drop a link to a Stout/Nero Wolfe piece any day. It’s easier when they’re as fun as this.
bullet Guest Post: Which Generation Reads the Most Infographic by Best By the Numbers.—I’m also always a sucker for an infographic, this guest post at The Tattooed Book Geek is a good one.
bullet Discussion – What Book Bloggers Love To Talk About—yeah, pretty much.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter—Nell and PsyLED face off against a magical virus. I really dug this one.
bullet Chaos Vector by Megan E. O’Keefe—one of the things I didn’t write about this week was the first book in this series (I didn’t realize it was going to be a series when I started it, nor that the second one was coming so soon). Space battles, an AI with an agenda, and some scrappy heroes. Can’t wait to find out what happens next.
bullet Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection by Ben Aaronovitch—I had completely forgotten that this collection was coming out until it appeared on my Kindle yesterday, what a pleasant surprise!

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tannie LowA.C. Stark, and Mike Finn who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you (assuming it’s working, which it may not be)?

Saturday Miscellany—7/25/20

How’re we already on the brink of the last week of July? Who’s ready for that?

I really don’t have anything to say here, I guess, on with the links.

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 New Era of Book Launches—Social Distancing Edition
bullet Growing Up Surrounded by Books Could Have Powerful, Lasting Effect on the Mind: A new study suggests that exposure to large home libraries may have a long-term impact on proficiency in three key areas
bullet What 100 Writers Have Been Reading During Quarantine—interesting mix of writers and books
bullet There Have Always been Fantasy Novels For Adults – Article by Author Ryan Howse—I saw so many tweet reactions to this stupid article, “Finally: A Grown-up Fantasy”, and figured there’d be at least one good longer response. Howse knocks it out of the park (others may have, too, but I only saw this one—and it’s enough)
bullet 5 Things I’ve Learned in 5 Years of Blogging—Bookidote’s Lashaan has been blogging for 5 years now, and drops some wisdom (and Looney Tunes .gifs) to celebrate.
bullet Glossary for the Bibliophile—”a nifty list of words for all you book lovers out there”

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood—It’s been two years since I’ve had anything from Underwood to talk about. He’s back with the first book in a Space Opera series, “an adventure of galactic subterfuge, ancient alien lore, a secret resistance force, lost civilizations, and giant space turtles.” Here’s his Big Idea about it.
bullet The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan—This looks like a lot of fun, a fantasy about “dead gods, a pirate queen, shapeshifting mages, and a Sherlockian teenager determined to upend her society.”

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toNewDogNewTricks, francescocat, penelopeburns, tensecondsfromnow, and beyondthecryptsandcastles who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Saturday Miscellany—7/18/20

Small collection this week—just didn’t have a lot of online time (literally, ISP went down twice and I lost a couple of days of surfing). C’est la vie, eh? On the plus side, I appreciate saving the time, it’s a family holiday here—the second anniversary of my son’s kidney transplant, and we have a little celebration planned.

A lot of my time has been on the tech side of this blog the last couple of weeks (I didn’t realize that would entail so much “how do I get access to the Internet?” time), but most of the effort was made by a friend, who took over for my stumbling efforts in moving to a self-hosted blog—and did a lot more than I realized needed/should be done. Still, if you see something out of whack, it probably is (especially the categories/menus—am working on that, but it’s going to take a while), and I likely haven’t noticed. Please mention it.

Now, on with the links.
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 Do You Translate a Comic Book Into Audio? Ask Neil Gaiman—that’s a question I’ve asked frequently. This (at least, I’m not sure about some of the other comic-to-audio treatments) is a pretty cool answer.
bullet HBO to Develop Drama Series Based on Quinn Colson Novels by Ace Atkins—As long as the Colson material is treated with more respect that Atkins’ Spenser material was, I’m very excited about this.
bullet Speaking of Colson and Atkins, Ace Atkins on 10 Years of the Quinn Colson Ranger Series—a nice little interview from Mystery Scene
bullet The Great Fantasy Debate series concludes with: Is a Degree from Hogwarts Worth It? with authors Pierce Brown and Naomi Novik
bullet A Beginner’s Guide to Audiobooks—there’s some really good advice for people looking to get into (or more into) this format.
bullet 10 steps to posting a book review—A Rambling Reviewer breaks it down…yeah, 10 steps for each. No wonder they take more time than I realize
bullet Fantasy Worlds I Would Love to Live In…—Pretty sure my list wouldn’t look like this (Hyboria never seems like a fun place to be), but this is a fun list

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Peace Talks by Jim Butcher—I’m currently trying to figure how to post something about Dresden’s long-awaited return. Fans are rejoicing all over about this (for good reason)
bullet The Revelators by Ace Atkins—the tenth Quinn Colson novel promises to be explosive.
bullet Venators: Legends Rise by Devri Walls—came out in ebook and audio (narrated by Daniel Thomas May) this week, paperback to follow.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Morgan, who followed the blog this week (also, the first to use my new widget, which I was afraid wasn’t working). Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Saturday Miscellany—7/11/20

Thanks to my last #ARMEDWITHABINGO check-in, I won a copy of Parting Shadows by Kate Sheeran Swed. It arrived this week, with some friends—she included the rest of the trilogy! A very cool and generous move by her, I just wanted to say a public thanks to her for that! These look very cool and I’m looking forward to dipping in.

This has been a crazy week behind the scenes—I may talk about that some later—posts appearing/disappearing, ditto for comments. And don’t get me started with various tech support representatives wanting to talk about anything other than the simple question I asked (one time that led to something helpful, though…) Then to top it off, yesterday, Spencer Quinn tweets this:

Yup…while intending to tweet my post about Of Mutts and Men (a post that I really liked), I actually linked to my post about last year’s book. I’m such the professional. I know it’s not a big deal (and actually kind of funny), but at the end of this week, I just felt like such a doofus.

Anyway, that’s far too much prattling on—time for some links!

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 Crime fiction boom as book sales rocket past 2019 levels—for anything not PPE or disinfection-related to boom this year is a marvel. I wonder how things are faring over here?
bullet How Hollywood is using a book club approach to adapt hit novels—I grant you, I’m not interested in any of these adaptations/novels, but this is interesting.
bullet Fantasy Humor Flowchart—by David Milton Samuels is a Pratchett-heavy good place to start if you’re looking to chuckle with your fantasy.
bullet How the Flavia de Luce Series Investigates the Traditional English Village Murder Mystery—I keep inadvertently slipping away from this series, Rutigliano reminds me to get back on it. And maybe encourages you to give it a try.
bullet The Strange Deaths of Authors—Spells and Spaceships asks a good question
bullet Can we improve our enjoyment of a book by altering our approach?—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet Six Months In – Book-Blogging, The Good and the Bad—Bookends and Bagends looks back at his first six months (which has produced stuff that some of us with years under our belts envy)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet The Blood Brothers Podcast Episode 16 with Neil Lancaster—lots of fun, and it’s got me excited for the next couple of Lancaster projects (pretty much all you have to do is say there’s a new Lancaster project to make me interested, though—so I guess that’s a low bar)

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (soon-ish, despite my efforts to the contrary for this summer, I’ve slipped and have committed myself to the breaking point for the next 4 weeks):
bullet Random Sh*t Flying Through The Air by Jackson Ford—It’ll be at least a month before I can get to this, which bothers me greatly. I had so much fun with the first novel about Tegan Frost, the telekinetic would-be chef but actually secret agent, that I can’t wait to see what Ford has in store for her now.
bullet Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy—I enjoyed the Faith comics I read, but had questions about her backstory, which this novel looks like it could answer.
bullet Haunted Heroine by Sarah Kuhn—the fourth book in this super-hero series looks pretty fun.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toEvelina @ AvalinahsBooks, Crystena’s Books, Afrin and leighhecking for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Saturday Miscellany—4/25/20

Hope everyone endured this week of the pandemic/Stay at Home/Isolation/whatever-you’re-calling-it and is healthy and sane. Things at Irresponsible HQ are good, but I hope the end of this is near (I’m going to have to get used to shoes again, however). I can’t believe that we’re in the Home Stretch of April

I simply ran out of oomph by the end of this week, I sat down the last couple of nights to get some blogging done, wrote a paragraph or two and then…nothing. Oh well, a backlog of stuff to write about will come in handy when I start Winslow’s The Border.

No new releases caught my eye this week—which probably means that I missed something. Add your fresh recommendations in the comments!

I think I’ve rambled enough, on with the links:

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 A Flowchart for Making Impactful Purchases at Your Indie Bookstore—a handy flowchart (minus that pesky “chart” bit)
          bullet When “Serious” Writers Write Books For Kids
          bullet He’s written 32 books, all while surrounded by a pack of dogs—There’s no actual discussion of David Rosenfelt’s books or writing, but it’s a nice look at the great work he and his wife do with rescue dogs. Love watching the sea of fur around them.
          bullet The Top 10 Most Lethal Characters in the Thriller Genre Right Now
          bullet From Atticus Finch to Saul Goodman: The Evolution of Lawyers on Screen and Page—No surprise here, Paul Levine pens an entertaining answer to the question, “How did heroic lawyers turn into dirtbag defenders?”
          bullet Book Series for the Long Haul

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
          bullet Under a Pile of Books Episode 69 – Sarah Chorn Interview—Sarah Chorn talks about her upcoming novel, Of Honey and Wildfires, and her mind being a weird place.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Chiddicks Family Tree, ginnymalbec (great blog concept!), and Narun Garg for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Saturday Miscellany—3/28/20


I wanted to start with that, because…man, that’s exactly where I am. (although I know not all of us book nerds can do that, I’m so sorry for them that their typical escape isn’t working–hope that passes than the crisis does).

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 8 Ways To Support Your Local Bookstore While Quarantining—3rd straight week that I’ve started with something like this, but at least this week it’s from a different source (and I’m not planning on stopping this streak…)
          bullet When Libraries Close, It Feels Like the End of the World
          bullet Digital Library Cards—My local library has started this, which is a great idea. Have yours been doing something similar? Or equally helpful?
          bullet How to Catalog Your Book Collection—I know at least one person who’s taken the opportunity of sheltering to tackle this project.
          bullet Quarantine Book Club: It’s been impossible for me to read lately. Then I got in the bathtub
          bullet The Guardian has some handy posts this week: Tackle that to-be-read pile: the books to try if you’re self-isolating: From Nora Ephron to Thomas Mann, here are 12 books to entertain, challenge and inspire if you’re confined at home due to Covid-19; Got 150 hours? Great audiobooks to listen to on lockdown; and Let’s move to Mars: the best books about our future in space (for those ready to get off this crazy planet)
          bullet As does Read it Forward: 9 Books to Escape Into While You’re Stuck at Home: As you’re practicing social distancing, we’ve got your quarantine reading list right here.
          bullet Reading YA Books May Increase Empathy and Integrity—I’ve read (and linked to) this claim for reading in general before, but this is the first time I’ve seen it focused on one type of reading.
          bullet Sorry, but “you read too much YA” isn’t an insult
          bullet How Do You Define Genres : SciFi, YA, Fantasy, etc.—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
          bullet 6 books I had to be talked into reading (that I’m so very glad I read).
          bullet Hyped Books I’ll Never Read – Spring Cleaning My TBR
          bullet Congratulations, You’re Moving In With A Reader!—closing things off with a little bit of levity (like anyone’s moving in with anyone right now…)

This Week's New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
          bullet The K Team by David Rosenfelt—the Andy Carptenter series has spun-off a promising new PI series I blogged about it last week.
          bullet The Last Human by Zack Jordan—a space opera about the last member of a species that the rest of the universe decided was too dangerous to be left alone.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to J.R.Spiker, Caffeinated Reviewer (my first non-p0rnbot follow from Bloglovin’ in months!!), Odah Ebubechukwu Nelson, ontheshelfbookblog, and Rajesh khanna for following the blog (in one format or another) this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Saturday Miscellany—3/21/20

In the words of @Fred_Delicious, “what’s the most annoying thing that’s happened to you this week? for me it’s the global coronavirus pandemic”.

So let’s try to distract ourselves for a moment, all right? (although, looking over my open browser tabs, I’m going to end up talking about it a lot…hmmm, maybe I should re-write that intro)

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 start with the good news: Amid Pandemic, Libro.fm and Bookshop.org Sales Skyrocket—Yay! Indie shops get a boost!
          bullet And the bad news: Emily Powell on bookstore’s future: ‘I am doing everything within my power to keep Powell’s alive’—truly depressing.
          bullet Independent Bookstore Day Has Been Postponed—because what hasn’t?
          bullet Narnia to Wonderland: Oxford’s Story Museum brings kids’ books to life—a cool place to visit, if, y’know, you could visit places now.
          bullet How to Support Indie Bookstores During COVID-19—I posted a very similar article from We Are Bookish last week. Still a good idea.
          bullet We Are Bookish remembers the authors, too: How to Support Your Favorite Authors When You Can’t Go to Events
          bullet And one more from that blog: 2020’s Virtual Bookish Events—this should be helpful
          bullet Paterson’s David Rosenfelt launches a new series and talks dogs with New Jersey Authors—Ahead of next week’s release of The K Team
          bullet Lee Child: Not “The Man”—Lee Child on a PBS show I’ve never heard of before (if you’re familiar, hit me with must-watch episodes in the comments)
          bullet Book Riot lists 20 Must-Read Feel-Good Fantasies
          bullet The 19 Best Crime-Solving Writers in Fiction, Ranked—I enjoyed this more than I probably should have (it also gave me something to think about for one of Monday’s posts…stay tuned)
          bullet Fun Things to do at Home that go with Audiobooks—a good start for a list…you have any you’d add?
          bullet How Can We Get Others to Read?—Bookidote’s Lashaan suggests some drastic measures to correct “people not picking up a book for whatever reason they got.” Also, Robert DeNiro gifs.
          bullet No, it’s not YA—The Orangutan Librarian tackles one of my pet peeves.
          bullet My top 5 tips to interact with the book blogging community—(I really need to pay more attention to #2)
          bullet 10 Biggest Disasters for Any Bookworm—I think I’ve fallen prey to all of these…you?

This Week's New Releases
That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
          bullet Lenny by B.R. Stateham—the tried-and-true story of a military vet turned local law enforcement. Put this one in a Texas border town facing a narcotics cartel, add in the Fahrenheit 13 spice, and this is guaranteed to be a great read.
          bullet Last Couple Standing by Matthew Norman—a couple goes the extra mile to save their marriage when all their friends divorce. Norman’s third novel promises to continue his winning streak.
          bullet Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs—Mercy’s on the hunt from an escapee from Underhill, the fae’s abandoned prison.
          bullet Agatha H and the Siege of Mechanicsburg by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio—It’s been four years since the last novel about Agatha Heterodyne, I hope I can remember enough of it. Fun steampunk fantasy novels (and comics, which I gave up trying to catch up on ages ago).

Lastly
I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to beyondthecryptsandcastles, Uniquely Portable Magic, and Daniel MacKillican for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

(I don’t have a source to link this to, wish I knew where this came from, but…

Saturday Miscellany—3/14/20

I crashed hard last night minutes before I was supposed to write my Fridays with the Foundling post (which means I didn’t do the reading for next week’s, either). But apparently, I needed it.

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 9 Ways to Support Your Independent Bookstore During Coronavirus—Yeah, I agree, many of the ways Americans are reacting to this are silly. But small businesses (and those who work for them) are getting hit hard. If I talked about things other than books, I’d talk about helping them. But I don’t. So, here, go help a bookstore.
          bullet Need cheering up right now? Try reading a romance novel: Bestseller Milly Johnson calls the genre ‘aloe vera on anxious lives’ – and it has kept me going sometimes. Here are my favourites to swoon over—I won’t be doing this, but I appreciate the approach.
          bullet How Flawed is Acceptable?—I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get the same result as this Book Riot piece does, but it’s a good thing for people to talk about
          bullet When Not to DNF—This Book Riot piece, on the other hand, I think is a pretty good approach.
          bullet Why Slow Reading Is Perfectly Okay: The author of Do Nothing calls for enjoying words as a luxurious meal, rather than a hurried buffet.—Sure, as someone who can’t stop obsessing about how much/little I read in a month, this may seem hypocritical, but Headlee is on to something here. I should probably try her book…
          bullet Jeremy Billups—I’ve talked about his children’s books (click here), and now you can read them for free (before buying them and helping the guy out, is what I’d recommend).
          bullet Did I miss the announcement that this is Historical Fiction Week? I kept stumbling across things about it, like: Adventures in Historical Fiction: History is Everywhere (And Full of Surprises)
          bullet And: How historically accurate does historical fiction have to be?—Personally, I like extremely accurate, or not at all. The stuff in the middle annoys me.
          bullet And again (sure, same blogger, but…) Some Fun Alternative History I Actually Like
          bullet BOOK TROPES—A Fangirl gives her Personal Opinions…most of which I agree (especially the Miscommunication bit…). However, when done really, really well, I won’t complain about any of these.
          bullet Where I’ve Been—the Tattooed Book Geek took a breather recently and talks about it here.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
          bullet The Guardian’s books podcast featured Ben Aaronovitch on Rivers of London—great interview

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
          bullet Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten—Her arrest led to his conviction and imprisonment already, so why are his victims dying now? I blogged about it yesterday
          bullet Madam Tulip and the Serpent’s Tree by David Ahren—Derry and Madam Tulip dip their toes into a pop musician’s life and find a whole lotta trouble. I blogged about it Monday
          bullet The Starr Sting Scale by C.S. O’Cinneide—A retired(?) hitwoman helps the police. I talked about it on Tuesday.
          bullet Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole—”The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history”. Cole brings his real-world experience in the Guard to SF in what looks to be a great read. I couldn’t even to begin to guess when I’ll talk about this.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to imyril, KetoJENic Vibe, Shreya Roychoudhury, tiffosaur, *Flora*, posssumpapaya, and Shayleene MacReynolds for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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