Category: Books Page 101 of 164

It’s January 2nd, which means I’m inducing anxiety with my 2020 Best-Ofs list (too many good things…). Hope you’re all enjoying the last little drips of this holiday season as we all gear up for a return to Regular Life (COVID Edition) on Monday.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Thursday came with grim news about the death of Anton Strout, author and podcaster. He was on my short-list of authors I really wanted to meet in RL. I’ve read almost everything he wrote (everything I could get my hands on, for sure), and interacted a little with him online. I’m pretty sure his podcast was the first one I listened to, too, now that I think of it. Anyway, he seemed like a great guy—supportive of other authors (both in his day job and personal life) and was always super-friendly to this fan (and all others I saw him interact with). More importantly, he was a devoted family man and leaves a wife and seven-year-old twins, a GoFundMe has been set up to help them out, if you’re in the position to chip in.
On a similar note, Literary Hub has compiled Notable Literary Deaths in 2020: An Incomplete List of the Writers, Editors, and Great Literary Minds We Lost This Year
Book sales are up, but is that helping independent sellers?
2021 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—Last year, I abandoned the home-brewed Spreadsheet I’ve been honing since 2010 or so in favor of Kal’s far superior one. This one looks a smidgen better. I highly recommend it.
Favorite Things About Book Formats—Cozy with Books breaks down the best of each format.
2021 Reading Challenge for backlogged books—If I hadn’t forced myself into abstaining from almost every challenge this year, I’d be diving into this Challenge from Entertainingly Nerdy. Looks like a great way to force yourself out of a rut or three.
What Makes a Good Coming-of-Age Story—for some reason, it’d been a while since I dropped by The Bookwyrm’s Den, missing out on posts like this one. Who doesn’t love a coming-of-age story?
#R3COMM3ND3D2020—For weeks, I have left reminders for myself to link to this series from the great Emma at damppebbles, and ignored them all. It’s a place for “authors, book bloggers and bookstagrammers to shout about three (yes, only three) books they love” published in 2020. There are some great reads here—and the books they link to aren’t shabby, either.
Favorite The Write Reads Tour Books of 2020—I’ve done a few tours with The Write Reads last year (and have one scheduled for this new one), and while I didn’t participate in this poll, I’d have been pulling for 3 out of the 4 listed here. Also want to echo the compliments about The Write Reads in the post.
2020 Recap – A Year in Blogging—I really liked Way Too Fantasy’s approach to the Year-End Wrap-Up post.
Ditto for Bookstooge Reviews 2020
This post would be freakishly long if I didn’t exercise some restraint here, but how’s about some Best-Of 2020 Posts?
My Favorite Reads of 2020—we’ll kick things off with this one from Witty & Sarcastic Bookclub
The damppebbles Top Ten (sort of!) of 2020—(also a nice Wrap Up, but not even Emma gets listed twice for the same post)
My Top Ten Novels of 2020—Char’s too horror-centric for me to really get into their recs, but when our reads overlap, we’re usually on the same page. So if you’re looking for a horror read, here’s some doozies.
Raven’s Yearly Round Up 2020 and Top 10 Books—anyone else worried about their bank balance after these lists? I think Raven could push me over the limit.
Top 20 for 2020!—The Orangutan Librarian won’t be limited by an arbitrary 10!
Top Twelve Books of 2020—neither will A Little Book Problem
My 2020 Notable Book List—from the Fantasy Book Nerd
Favorite Reads of 2020 by Month (Ft. More Than 12 Books Because Choosing is Hard)—Bookwyrm’s Den tries an approach that would drive me to all sorts of anxiety in a particularly good month.
Best Books of 2020—Books, Bones & Buffy does in one post what it’ll take me four or so to accomplish

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Black Canary: Breaking Silence by Alexandra Monir—the latest in the DC Icons finally moves away from the Big 3 (Catwoman’s still Batman-adjacent, so she doesn’t count), and I’m eager to see how they deal with Dinah Lance.

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

Hope you all are doing okay as we approach the last few days of this unusual year, and that your planning for 2021 and look-backs at 2020 are going well.

So little to say this week, and not much to link to. But I enjoyed these, and hope you do, too.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
This Christmas, read a story aloud – you’ll be surprised by the joy it brings—Thinking back on when I used to do this regularly with my kids, this is a decent idea for other times of the year, too.
I appreciated this thread from Ethan M. Aldridge on how libraries benefit authors
Who wore it better? US book covers vs. their UK counterparts.—a fun look at the differences in covers from Lit Hub
The Worst Literary Adaptations of the Century (So Far)—I’ve only seen half of this list, can’t argue with them.
<a href=”https://www.tor.com/2020/12/17/the-only-right-and-proper-way-to-read-the-chronicles-of-narnia/ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The Only Right and Proper Way To Read The Chronicles of Narnia—Am pretty sure I’ve posted this before, but it bears repeating.
I’ve seen some really good creative approaches to the Year’s Best theme this year, like:
Top Five Backlist Reads of 2020—from Realms of My Mind
Steven Writes posted both Top Five Memorable Endings I Read In 2020 and Top Five Most Dramatic Twists I Read In 2020—excellent ideas, both
TBR Tackle Challenge Announcement—yeah, I know last week I said something about cutting back on challenges. This one could be helpful, though. I’m considering it, you might benefit from it, too.

The unboxening has wrapped up, now I just have to organize all the books. This is going to be rough. I picked up a nice little corner shelf to help alleviate some of the overcrowding I know is impending. Well, it has enough room for the As (I alphabetize by author), with a little left over. Although, if Ace Atkins and Ben Aaronovitch keep up their pace, that won’t be true by Spring 2022* at the latest. I think I’m in trouble.

* It just feels wrong to be thinking about Spring 2022 as just around the corner.

But anyway, on with the miscellany:
that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Publishing saw upheaval in 2020, but ‘books are resilient’—AP’s summary of the year in publishing. Best line: “‘A lot of what has happened this year — if it were a novel, I would say that it had a little too much plot,’ said Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp.”
How to Plan for Your 2021 Reading Challenge—whatever that challenge may be.
Walter Mosley on Devil in a Blue Dress, Thirty Years Later—I didn’t like this as much as I expected to years ago, I think I need to give it another shot.
Roddy Doyle on writing The Commitments: ‘Whenever I needed a name, I used the phonebook’—A little look back at the creation of one of my all-time favorit desert island novels.
Reacher, Prospero, and Child: The links connecting two writers—William Shakespeare and Lee Child—run deeper than you might think.—Child biographer, Heather Martin, dives deep with this one.
Audible Alternative Libro.fm: Audiobooks from Indie Bookstores—A great post about Libro.fm and why you should give it a shot.
Why I’m (mostly) Giving Up Reading Challenges For 2021—Yeah, me, too.
That said, I think this is going to be one of the exceptions: The 2021 SFF Badge Collection—How do you not want to collect those badges?
Books I want to read but don’t want to read—a great tag post from The Orangutan Librarian
The LibraryThing Tag—as is this one from the Bookstooge

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Vigilante Game by Meghan Scott Molin—really curious to see how Molin wraps up the Golden Arrow Mystery trilogy.
The Fey and the Furious by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Lee Sullivan, Mariano Laclaustra—the eighth collection of the Rivers of London comics delivers a lot of fun.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome toAnjana, Dr. Ndubuisi E. Ojo, and Miss Katherine White who followed the blog this week (a formal sounding group this week, eh?). Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

I’m still not quite at the production level I want to be at around here, but I’m getting there (especially on those nights when I sit in an uncomfortable chair…there’s a lesson or two for me to take away from that). As we stumble through the last month of 2020, that’s good enough for me. Hope you all are having a decent month and are reading plenty of good things.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Saving Bookstores: How Independent Shops Cope Against COVID And E-Commerce Giants—Yeah, I’ve been posting a lot about this in 2020, why? See below.
Powell’s permanently closes its Home & Garden store on Hawthorne
Little Free Libraries Are A Good Idea That’s Taken On New Meaning Now
The Bigger the Publishers, the Blander the Books—”The Penguin Random House–Simon & Schuster deal threatens the values that the book business champion”
Bad sex award cancelled as public exposed to ‘too many bad things in 2020’—Oh, come on now. Haven’t we suffered enough in 2020? Reading the candidates is one of the most painful/hilarious things I do each year.
How to Read More Books in 2021 [and other topics], With The Root’s Danielle Belton and Maiysha Kai
It Isn’t Genre That Matters—It’s Story.: Characters, writing, and tension make or break a book. You can step over the genre fence and still appeal to your readers.—Yes, yes, and yes.
Quotes About Books That Truly Speak to Bibliophiles
As I delay thinking about my Top Lists for the year, it’s time for me to share other people’s lists, like My top 10 reads of the year—from M. W. Craven (who will almost certainly end up on mine), there are some great looking ones here.
The Reasons One Should Still Review Backlist Books—I didn’t realize this was a question, but yeah, these are (at least some) of the reasons why people should

Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Crime Fiction Friday with Emily Webb’s From probation officer to crime author: Noelle Holten

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