Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 3 of 22

I typically like to start these with an introduction of sorts (probably because I read too many recipe blogs and think I need to begin everything with a rambling essay), but I can’t think of anything to say 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:
The pages of life keep turning—awwww
My Year in Reading Children’s Books
Rereading My Childhood: Author Timothy C. Baker examines how our childhood reading shapes our memories and the way we see the world.
What better way to follow up three pieces about Children’s Books than with The Enduring Appeal of Murder and Mystery: A Brief History
S.A. Cosby was on The Daily Show this week, which is just cool to see.
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 The After Show Party—a good wrap-up of the series that has been called “the highlight of your bookish year.”
It’s that time of year, “Best Of” List Season. Here are a few that got my attention. I either agree with at least one thing on each of these lists (or added at least one book to my list from them)
The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2023—from Lit Hub’s BookMarks
The Best Fantasy Books of 2023—from Paste magazine (didn’t realize they cared about Fantasy books, but it’s a good list)
The 38 Best Books We Read in 2023: Lit Hub Staffers on the Year’s Best Reading Experiences
FanFi Addict brings us: DB Rook’s Top Reads of 2023
Ed’s Top Reads of 2023
Top 12 Favorite Books of 2023—from John Mauro at Before We Go Blog
My Top 10 Reads of 2023!!!—from Out of This World SFF
The End of All Stories: Bidding a Fond Farewell to The Great C.S. Lewis Reread—I didn’t read this series as faithfully as I could have, but I thought it was a great idea that was frequently executed well (except from when Mikalatos was just wrong in his opinions, obviously).
What’s The Best Book In A Trilogy Edition One – Tolkien, Feist/Wurts, Barker, Eddings, Lackey, De Bodard—I enjoyed the approach to this piece (have only read 2 of these trilogies, but I agree with the rankings). My gut says this conclusion is where I’d land, but I should probably try this myself.
Beginner’s Guide to Fantasy—how to get started—I always enjoy pieces like this. If only for the good recommendations they bring for non-beginners like me and/or reminders of books I haven’t thought of in too long
On Fantasy and Whores—yeah, a Peat Long twofer this week. I’d honestly never thought about this before, and probably should’ve
Let’s start on the same topic we started on with It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas: Picture Book Edition 2023—they’re all (or mostly all) a bit too old for Grandpappy’s Corner, but not for long. I anticipate adding many of these to my shelves soon.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Meet the Writers talked to Kevin Jon Davies about 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams and the man himself
Functional Nerds Episode 604-With Alex Bledsoe—a fun chat about his new short story collection and more
Crime Time FM MATT PHILLIPS In Person With Paul —not only a great talk about A Good Rush of Blood but their discussion about the essence of noir is great.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Mayors of New York by S.J. Rozan—because I needed a fresh reason to not finish my reading plans for 2023, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin hunt for the runaway son of NYC’s mayor.
Murder Crossed Her Mind by Stephen Spotswood—In their latest, Parker and Pentecost are also hunting a mising person in NYC.

You would not believe how many times I’ve tried to get this posted today…I barely do, and I was there for all of them. But, life has interfered (as it so often does). But it’s still Saturday, so I can live with it (the two posts I also planned on scheduling today, on the other hand are going to wait a week or more for attention).

But you didn’t come here for my whinging. You came here for this:

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:
Wisconsin libraries would have to notify parents about the books their kids check out under GOP proposal—I’m not fond of this, but I’m not sure it’s horrible. The other bill talked about in this story, on the other hand…
When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars—a little BTS action
This Is Your Brain on Books
The big idea: should we abolish literary genres?
Webtoons and Webcomics Keep Scrolling into Print
Do You Believe in Magic? On The Timeless Charm of Children’s Books 
It’s getting to be that time of year, isn’t it? Libro.fm’s Top 10 Audiobooks of 2023
S.A. Cosby lists His favorite books of the year—have read a couple of these and have several others sitting on a stack in my office, glaring at me
And looking in the other direction, FFA’s Most Anticipated Reads of 2024
Scaring Myself: The Story Behind How & Why I Wrote CALICO…—Lee Goldberg talks about the background to his latest novel (that I will write about ASAP, but you should read)
The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket—I thought this was interesting and had planned on putting it here in the first place, and then:
Molly Templeton responded with What Do You Want to Know About a Book Before You Read It?—what are your thoughts?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 wrapped up this week, so I only have a few more TBR add-ons for you:
…with Donna of Retirement Reflections
…with Rae of Rae Reads
…with Ayo Onatade of Shotsmag Confidential—
…with Sarah Hardy of bytheletterbookreviews
…with Jo of Jo’s Book Blog
Announcing Solstitia: a Fiction Fans Magazine—the brains behind Fiction Fans are launching a zine/litmag. Looking forward to some good reads.
Similarly, JCM Berne is starting up Grimdwarf Magazine—and is worth looking into
Managing my TBR—The Narratess talks about getting her TBR slimmed down. No offense intended, but having read her numbers, I’m feeling better about mine. But still…
Is It Easier to Write Negative Reviews?—Not for me, no. But I can see where Krsyta is coming from.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Joined Up Writing Podcast 204: S.A. Cosby—Cosby chats about All the Sinners Bleed and much more. I love listening to this guy.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica—Lupica takes up the Spenser torch from Atkins, and is much better than I assumed. (I’d planned on finishing this today, but, life intervened). PI Fans would be smart to pick this up.
Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto—okay, a YA take on You’ve Got Mail with gamers and a private school, isn’t really my cuppa. But I really liked Sutanto’s style at first contact. So, I’m going to give this a shot (as I try to work older books into my schedule, too).

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Taylor @ Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

I’ve thrown this up on a couple of the social media platforms, but I thought I’d ask here, too. I’ve been using Evernote for drafting blog posts, to-do lists, shopping lists, mental notes, etc. for over a decade–but I need a replacement. Any recommendations?

Moving along to the point of this post, the 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:
Censoring Kids’ Worlds: Laurie Hertzel on the Danger of Banning Books for Children
Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Loose of Earth” by Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn: We spoke to the designer and the author about the design process for the book—Yup. I’m still a sucker for a look at cover design
Your definitive guide to Goodreads ratings. (Or: why does your favorite book have 3 stars?)—probably my favorite link of the week (no disrespect to any of the others)
Using Popular Culture in Crime Fiction by Lee Goldberg
Audiobooks Have Taken Over My Life, and I Love It—many of us can relate, no?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 continues, so I continue linking to them (and adding to my TBR):
…with Sam Johnson of My Cosy Book Nook
…with Mags of @magslouisethebookworm
…with Anne Coates, author of the Hannah Weybridge series
…with Karen of Hair Past A Freckle
…with Yvonne of The Coycaterpillar Reads
…with Deb of dds_book_reviews
…with Babs Wilkie of Book Escapes with BabsW67
Vote Now for Fantasy-Faction’s Best SFF Books of 2023!—looking forward to these results
When You Don’t Feel Like a “Real” Bookworm
Let’s Discuss Bookworms vs Readers and Bookish Phobias

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Patrick Rothfuss interview: Part two (of three)—Grimdark Magazine’s overgrown interview with National Treasure, Patrick Rothfuss

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to JK Joy, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

3 weeks in a row posting in the afternoon? I’m not crazy about this trend… Don’t really have anything to say, just getting that off my chest. Hopefully, I get my act together.

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:
Why We Need Public Libraries Now More than Ever: Who needs libraries, anyway? Turns out, we all do.
The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
What Does Being “well-read” Look Like to You? Dismantling Elitism in Reading Spaces—hard to argue against this (although I realize I just invited some to do so…)
Inheritance of Magic – Series Health—Benedict Jacka talks about early sales/reviews of his new series and compares it to Alex Verus
It’s that time of year:
The CrimeReads 2023 Holiday Gift Guide: 30+ cozy, mystery-ish, book-adjacent gifts for your crime-obsessed loved ones!—some interesting ideas here. Incidentally, if any family members are reading this—I would wear both caps very frequently (particularly the one while flying).
33 Bookish Gifts for Every Reader on Your Holiday List—from NetGalley’s We are Bookish
Pay It Forward: Fahrenheit Book Bank—Doing this is just one of the things that makes Fahrenheit one of my favorites
This Week’s Punctuation Power Rankings
The Books That Keep Us Company for Decades—Molly Templeton’s latest
It’s time to check in on #R3COMM3ND3D2023 as it recaps favorites from 2023:
…with Bookstagrammer Louise Geoghegan of LouiseReads_UK
…with Kate of The Quick and the Read
…with Bookstagrammer Lynda Checkley of @lyndas_bookreviews
..with HC, The Irresponsible Reader—who let him opine?
…with Author Joy Kluver
…with Hayley of The Lotus Readers
…with Lynne of Fictionophile
Are you making art or making a product?—a related question for us non-authors: are we reading art or a product?
My Literary DNA—oh, this is good
Short Books You Can Read In A Day
4 years of Spells & Spaceships: the journey so far and my 10 favourite books.—Only 4?
I Am Pro Prologues!—hear, hear!
Ten Books about Books—a nice little list to work through (I’ve read one from this list, so plenty for me to work on )
M&M’s choose my tbr for December—I love this concept

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
SFF Addicts Ep. 79: Jim Butcher talks The Olympian Affair, The Dresden Files, Mentors, Cats & More—am sure no one is surprised that I enjoyed the heck out of this
An Interview With Patrick Rothfuss—not technically a podcast, but I’m putting this interview from Grimdark Magazine here anyway. Also, I haven’t watched yet–but how can it be anything but good?

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss—I cannot wait to dive into this novella about Bast (the character I’m least interested in from the series), because I will take any new Rothfuss I can get.
The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg—”Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks.”
The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child—back to 1992 to see MP Reacher at work. I’m trying to get hyped about this, but the fact that I’m #80 or so on the Library’s wait list doesn’t bother me at all suggests I just can’t.
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow—Something tells me I’m going to have significant problems with some of this book, but the premise (that I won’t try to summarize here) intrigues me

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Amy Rice, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

We’ve got a bumper-crop of new books this week, and a few other things that show me more than my memory does how little time I spent online this week.

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:
Book bans backfiring? Study reveals increased readership for prohibited books
Is Traditional Fiction Publishing Broken?
What’s the Future of Books? Amid historic disruption in the publishing industry, big questions are—rightfully—being asked. Here, experts weigh in on how books (and the ways we discover them) are going to change.
No, I Don’t Want to Join Your Book Club—some non-traditional book clubs
Has It Ever Been Harder to Make a Living As An Author?
Book Thieves Take the Story and Run with It
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 continues to look at favorites from 2023:
…with Nicki Mags of Secret Library Book Blog
…with Karen Kingston of KarenKisreading
…with Author Rachel Sargeant
…Gill of A Good Book ‘n a Brew
…with Joanne of Portobello Book Blog
…with Carol of Reading Ladies
…with Davida Chazan of The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club’s Dragon Week wrapped up this week, so you can read all of the goodness there now.
To celebrate the publication of Femme Fae-Tales anthology, Peat Long conducted Femme Fae-Tales Interviews with all of the authors, like this one.
An Important Reminder from Chuck Wendig

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Partial Function by JCM Berne—”If Taken starred Michelle Yeoh and was set on a Jurassic Park-inspired Cradle.” As I said recently, I had a lot of fun with this concept and its execution
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly—Mickey Haller + Bosch. I’m sure there’s more to say, but who cares beyond that?
The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher—Yes, it took Butcher an eon to give us the second Cinder Spires book, but something tells me most readers will forgive him for that once we get to dive in.
Noodle Conquers Comfy Mountain by Jonathan Graziano, illustrated by Dan Tavis—this follow-up to Noodle and the No Bones Day is aDORable. I’ll have more to say about it soon (mostly consisting of rephrasing of that sentence).
Calico by Lee Goldberg—a murder mystery and a Western in modern California. That’s really all I know so far, but I can’t wait to learn more.
Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty—a murder among a new batch of human visitors to the sentient space station, a conflict between alien races, and an attack from without? Things don’t get boring in this Midsolar Murder sequel.
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree—this prequel to Legends & Lattes contains all the warm fuzzies of its predecessor, a dash of action, and a more overt romantic arc.
A Curse of Krakens by Kevin Hearne—the much-anticipated conclusion to the Seven Kennings trilogy is out, which means it’s time for me to read the second volume any day now.
Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan—Detective Inaya Rahman investigates a pair of officer-involved killings. I’m guessing neither of these will turn out to be what they seem at first glance.

Yeah, this is later than usual. I spent the morning at the Boise Library!’s Boise Book Faire 2023 getting to chat with several local authors about their works. I got to renew acquaintances with a few authors who have shown up here over the last 12 months or so—and met a few who I hope to feature soon.

But that’s for the future (or, I guess, the past), let’s move on to today’s 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:
Banned books often get circulation bump, new study finds—a silver lining? Or fodder for conspiracy?
Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love With Reading: Hint: It’s not just the screens
Make Humanities Fun Again
How Has Big Publishing Changed American Fiction?: A new book argues that corporate publishing has transformed what it means to be an author.
Does Reading Improve Health?
Robert B. Parker: The Master of Crime Fiction
The Story Behind the Story: “A Good Rush of Blood,” by Matt Phillips—I’m so glad I put off reading this until I’d written about the book—I’d have spent far too long working in responses to it. Secondly, I’m so glad Phillips stuck to his guns and gave us the book that he did (wouldn’t have liked it nearly as much if he’d buckled)
Language and translation in Insiders – Shannon Knight—a nice little BTS about Knight’s newest book.
The Science Behind Steampunk and Retrofuturistic Technology—from Jonathan Fesmire
Partial Function Unboxing!—Who doesn’t like a good unboxing video? Watch JCM Berne get the first Partial Function hardcopy! (available Tuesday—order it today!)
Self Published Fantasy Releases – November 2023—In case you needed to do some shopping for yourself/others. Good looking offerings here.
Eternally Fascinating, the Vampire Endures—Author LindaAnn LoSchiavo stopped by Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub to talk about Blooksuckers/vamps/Fangheads/or whatever you want to call them
#R3COMM3ND3D from Damppebbles is back with #R3COMM3ND3D2023. This celebration of the best new books of 2023 is guaranteed to add to your TBR.
BookBlogger David of Blue Book Balloon
Lisa from Owl Be Sat Reading
Book Blogger Carla of Carla Loves to Read
Emily Quinn of A Quintillion Words (which is just a brilliant blog name)
Witty & Sarcastic also kicked-off Dragon Week 2023—Who needs “Shark Week” anyhow? I’m not going to link to every piece here, but you need to go check it out.
Spells and Spaceships is yet again hosting Norsevember, where you can read fun things like The Norns and the Weaving of Fate and The Dwarves of Norse Mythology
And there’s one more November-celebration—SciFiMonth! Some great-looking stuff there, too.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Hacker by Duncan MacMaster—Jake Mooney, a ghostwriter turned reluctant amateur-sleuth, gets pushed into solving another murder–this time of an old nemesis.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to cchittom and Ashleigh Mordew who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

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:
How many books Americans own — and how they organize them—fun with statistics (which is good, because what those stats represent isn’t so fun)
A New Fantasy and a 20th Anniversary for Christopher Paolini—I didn’t read past Eragon (but had one kid who got obsessed). But it’s hard to deny the impact he had.
Addicted to Scarcity—Book Publishing’s Retail Price Problem
A Big Year for Little Golden Book Bios—(not the point, but some of these look really cute)
Q&A: Bruce Borgos, Author of ‘The Bitter Past’
Magic to Serve, Not Solve, a Story: KJ Dell’Antonia on Magical Rules in Literature
How Do You Manage Reading Expectations?

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire—the 18th Toby Daye novel gives Tybalt’s perspective on recent events. Given that we know how things go after reading the 17th novel, I’m curious about how this will keep my attention (but assume it will)

A little bit of catch-up from last week, a little bit of stuff I found this week, and just a touch of things I will have found next week.

(two out of three ain’t bad).

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:
Dispatch From the Ghosts of Bookstores Past
We Don’t Talk About Harry Potter: The perils of publishing a diverse magic school series in the shadow of a juggernaut
Bros Are Coming for BookTok. These TikTokers Aren’t Having It
The Man Who Invented Fantasy: All those wizards, ogres, and barely-clad elf queens in the bookstore? You have Lester del Rey to thank.
How to Exclaim!—varied thoughts on !
Agony Editor: Judging your own book’s cover design – and what to do about it
What Makes Some Long Books Feel Too Long?—Templeton again asks the important questions
How Far Afield Can Sci-Fi and Fantasy “Fake Swearing” Get Before You Feel Uncomfortable?—honestly, I enjoy the fake swears. But, whatever…fun post anyway.
Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free—yup
Worlds Unlike Our Own and The Strawberry Post both recently celebrated their 5th Anniversaries. Each in an interesting fashion.
Why Shakespeare still matters—odd that this needs to be said, but…
10 Books That You Must Read Once in Your Life—yeah, maybe. I wonder if I put off reading a couple of these for a few more decades, do I get to live longer? How authoritative is that “must”?
The Five 2013 Reads I Remember Best—I enjoy Finn’s premises almost as much as his posts
The SciFiMonth Challenge—it’s right around the corner, are you participating?
On Writers, Reviewers, and a Pointless Tangle—tempted to just post this link on social media every so often for the next decade

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Lone Wolfe – Steve Hockensmith – Episode 32—a fun chat with the author of the Holmes on the Range series about fiction, Nero Wolfe, his own material and more. Couldn’t agree more with everything he said about The Big Sleep, incidentally.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Up on the Woof Top by Spencer Quinn—a new Chet and Bernie book? Sign me up. Based on the last “Christmas” novel for these two, the holiday will be part of the setting, but it could be read without regard to the season.

If you’re reading this, I’ve discovered that my fears have been realized and I couldn’t figure out how to format this post on my phone.(well, not really “fears” I didn’t really think I’d pull it off)

So, you’re going to have to do the work this week, sorry! I’m willing to be that things worth reading have been posted at:
The Hub
CrimeReads
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
The Write Reads’ Blog Of the Day—the whole feed, too, probably. But those are more on brand for this post.
Peat Long’s Blog
A Literary Escape
Mark As Read

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Mysteries by Bill Watterson, Illustrated by Bill Watterson and John Kascht—We’ve all been wondering what Bill Watterson has been up to since that last sled ride into the unknown. Well, here’s part of the answer. Can’t wait to dive in!
An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka—I just loved this entry to a new UF series and think you will, too. As I opined earlier.
‘Twas the Bite Before Christmas by David Rosenfelt—Andy and co. bring the warm fuzzies (and murder). I talked about it recently.
Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher—I cannot wait to see how the second book in this series builds on it’s very strong predecessor.
The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu—I jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago, so I’m going to repeat myself: the sequel to The Art of Prophecy is one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I honestly have no idea when I’ll be able to get to it. Possibly January (at least 2024 will get off to a strong start).
A Grimm Decision by Jeffrey H. Haskell—depending how my reading went this week, this publication will either put me one or two books behind in this very solid SF series. (but I’m so behind I refuse to look at the blurb)

I thought I had a little more for this post, but I’ve apparently been as busy this week as I felt. Still, it only takes 3 items to make a list, so I have two to spare.

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:
The Most Popular Book the Year You Were Born—kind of interesting
An Interview with K. R. R. Lockhaven—a great interview from Spells & Spaceships with a Friend of the Blog.
On Dead Dogs and Other Reading Dealbreakers—Molly Templeton talks about having those boundaries about books we won’t read.
29 Best Classic Books actually worth reading for Adults—some great Classics were listed here
Book-to-Screen Adaptations: Fantasy Edition—some good thoughts on Fantasy adaptations

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama, translated by Jeffrey Angels—two novellas written by one of the creators of everyone’s favorite kaiju, showing what the movies were intended to depict. Now in English for the first time—it’s just a great look at his background. I had a good time with this.