Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 32 of 35

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?

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)

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
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?
Making the most of your reading time—Nothing new here, but good advice.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.
Discussion – What Book Bloggers Love To Talk About—yeah, pretty much.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter—Nell and PsyLED face off against a magical virus. I really dug this one.
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.
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!

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)?

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.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The New Era of Book Launches—Social Distancing Edition
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
What 100 Writers Have Been Reading During Quarantine—interesting mix of writers and books
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)
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.
Glossary for the Bibliophile—”a nifty list of words for all you book lovers out there”

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
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.
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.”

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?

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.
that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
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.
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.
Speaking of Colson and Atkins, Ace Atkins on 10 Years of the Quinn Colson Ranger Series—a nice little interview from Mystery Scene
The Great Fantasy Debate series concludes with: Is a Degree from Hogwarts Worth It? with authors Pierce Brown and Naomi Novik
A Beginner’s Guide to Audiobooks—there’s some really good advice for people looking to get into (or more into) this format.
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
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

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
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)
The Revelators by Ace Atkins—the tenth Quinn Colson novel promises to be explosive.
Venators: Legends Rise by Devri Walls—came out in ebook and audio (narrated by Daniel Thomas May) this week, paperback to follow.

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?

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!

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
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?
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.
Fantasy Humor Flowchart—by David Milton Samuels is a Pratchett-heavy good place to start if you’re looking to chuckle with your fantasy.
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.
The Strange Deaths of Authors—Spells and Spaceships asks a good question
Can we improve our enjoyment of a book by altering our approach?—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
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)

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
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)

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):
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.
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.
Haunted Heroine by Sarah Kuhn—the fourth book in this super-hero series looks pretty fun.

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?