Category: Books Page 120 of 164

Gotta make this quick, off to the Boise Library!’s annual Comic Arts Festival to hopefully not spend all my spare change.

After a blunder last week that probably caused a little unintentional offense, I’ve tweaked my template for this post (specifically, the placeholder text). Invariably, when I do that, something goes awry—if something looks odd, would someone drop a line?

A pretty eclectic mix this week, hope you enjoy these odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• ‘My nerves are going fast’: The Grapes of Wrath’s hard road to publication—As with many books that have entered our zeitgeist, it’s hard to imagine that they didn’t exist/weren’t published easily and with great fanfare. Interesting read about a book I’ve read at least two too many times (and probably won’t again).
• In defense of reading the same book over and over again—As someone who finished the Potter series (again) last week, maybe this seems a little self-justifying, but whatever. I also just finished a re-read of a book I don’t remember liking at all (liked it somewhat this time…).
• We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books—This is a great list, I should make this a reading list for 2020. 99 of them, anyway—gotta skip the Jeeves/Wooster.^*
• ” A thread on why book snobbery isn’t cool, how it harms the publishing industry, and why it discourages reading.”—Some good stuff here (a little flummery, too)
• Curing Homesickness with Crime Fiction: Crime fiction can take us outside ourselves—and in resolution, return us home.—The central premise here is fantastic. Gonna have to add Elkay Ray to my TBR list.
• Narrator Interview: Kathleen Wilhoite—In honor of Where’d You Go, Bernadette hitting theaters, Libro.fm reposted this great interview with Wilhoite, the narrator of the audiobook (one of my all-time favorite audiobooks, I’ll add)
• Ender’s Game – Where Do We Go From Here?—I bet my list of issues with OSC is different than Tabler’s, but she raises an important question in our current climate. There are a myriad of people you could insert the name of here rather than OSC, too. If I only read/bought/blogged about people I agreed with/liked/would vote for/would let my daughter marry, I’d have more money and a lot more time on my hands…
• Why Hype Is Overrated and Unpopular Opinions Are Not That Unpopular—thanks to a recent follow, I’ve spent some time on Bookidote.com this week (and could easily spend a lot more). Things like this are why.
• Defining Terms: “I liked it, but didn’t love it.”—I try not to use this phrase, but I do (and could much more frequently).
• Book Characters That I’d Like as Best Friends—I’ve only read one of these on the list (and I don’t think we’d be good friends, but great acquaintances), but I like the idea of the post.
• How Do You Remember What You Read?—something from Bookidote that was on my list for this week before I realized it was on Bookidote (not trying to stuff the ballot box)

^*Yes, I threw that in just for Bookstooge’s reaction. To play along, watch the comments.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Episode Eighty Five – Steve is Live from North Carolina with Adrian McKinty—I shouldn’t have listened to this at work, I probably got a couple of strange looks from laughing. It’s one thing to read Adrian McKinty’s story about The Chain, it’s another to hear him tell it. He is a riot (and, as usual, when Steve Cavanagh isn’t increasing my blood pressure through his prose, he’s laugh-inducing, too)

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Warehouse by Rob Hart—The Real Book Spy says: ” Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business–and who will pay the ultimate price.” and that it has ” has legit best-book-of-the-year potential.”

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tammy (great site logo), Curled up with a good book, Kathryn Speckels and ChadeeMañago for following the blog this week.

I just had to mark 3 comments as Spam today, I’d like to thank those kind people looking for ways to make me money from the bottom of my heart (for reminding me why I moderate comments). How do people with real traffic on their blog handle it?

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Independent booksellers and the future of Western thought—there’s some dross here, but some good ways to think, too.
• These Classic Books Are Surprisingly Fresh—and They’re Free—Started this week talking classics, might as well wrap it up that way.
• Continuing that thought: The Classic Novel That Is Most Often Abandoned By Readers—(although there’s a lot of contemporary stuff in the piece)
• Too busy? Distracted by your phone? How to love reading again
• Awkwafina to Star in Adaptation of ‘The Last Adventure of Constance Verity’—She wouldn’t have been my first choice (not that I can think of a credible choice, come to think of it). But I’m just happy that the criminally under-noticed A. Lee Martinez is seeing some success.
• A guide to Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series
• Lawyers in Fiction: It’s Time to Question the Archetype—I’m not in agreement with this too much, but I enjoyed the piece (maybe if I read more legal thrillers I’d have more to say).
• Meet the Author: Noelle Holten—A nice little interview with Noelle Holten, Crime Fiction blogger, writer of one of 2019’s best, and unofficial Irresponsible Reader publicist.
• The Top Ten “Buts” Of Fantasy And Science Fiction—one of those “why didn’t I think of this?” kind of posts
• Jenia’s Ultimate Guide For Getting Your Girlfriend Into Fantasy—works for spouses, friends, and strangers, too.
• 38 Americanisms the British Can’t Bloody Stand: To Some of Us, Grammar Feels Personal—This is more of a Word-Nerd post than a Book/Reading post, but I figure there’s a decent amount of overlap. (as an American, I agree with a lot of this, and think Brandreth is insane the rest of the time)
• A thread about Book Bloggers from Books, Bones & Buffy (@tammy_sparks).
• What I’ve learned from ten(ish) years of reading
• 10 Fictional Schools Even Worse Than Ones We Went To—my youngest two return to school Monday (already?!?!?!), thankfully, to something better than these (most days)
• Collective Nouns For Book Genres—there are some fantastic ideas on this thread started by Waterstones Swansea (a galaxy of Science Fiction, a Pretension of Literary Fiction, Reader’s dozen – 14 books, and a floppiness of paperbacks were a couple of my faves)
• Top 10 Rules of Etiquette for Drinking while Reading—there’s some real wisdom here
• Bookish parties I’d love to attend—parties aren’t my thing 96.4% of the time, but I might make an exception for these

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

• Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh—the U. S. release of Eddie Flynn dealing with a Serial Killer on the jury of his latest case. I raved about this a couple of weeks ago. You don’t have to know the previous novels in the series to appreciate this one, I should stress.
• Hacked by Duncan MacMaster—MacMaster is one of the best at combining fun and great mysteries at work today. As I assume this sequel to Hack will demonstrate.
• The Swallows by Lisa Lutz—A dark past comes back to haunt the woman running from it (one of Lutz’s specialties) as she accidentally kicks off a gender war at a New England Prep School. Last Saturday, I discovered I won a copy of this when it arrived on my doorstep. It’s been sitting on my desk since, calling my name…

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Kitty Marie’s Book Reviews Blog, rashidul.huda, Lashaan Balasingam @ Bookidote, Naba Kumar Garai, Psychotherapist ,Counsellor, Film Screenwriter,Playwright,Producer – LONDON.UK and Sonam Sangpo Lama for following the blog this week. (WHERE did you all come from!?)

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Comeback story: A new chapter for indie bookstores—”While their numbers aren’t what they once were, independent bookstores are reclaiming their place in society. Behind their surprise resurgence is renewed emphasis on fostering community.” Yeah, I’ve posted a variation on this story before, and I’ll keep posting them as long as they are written.
• A #thread about #preorders.—A great thread about the business side of publishing.
• The Radical Transformation of the Textbook—Textbooks aren’t really the kind of thing I tend to talk about here (although, I can think of a few that I could have, if this existed in the 90’s), but this is pretty fascinating.
• Last Stand in Lychford—Paul Cornell announces (well, echoes Tor’s announcement) that next year’s Lychford novella will be the end. Which is a shame, but I never expected the series to, well, be a series. We got three or four more of what I expected, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he wraps things up (and what happens right before that, actually).
• Megan Abbott on the Difference Between Hardboiled and Noir: In Conversation with the Author of Give Me Your Hand—I haven’t read a lot of Abbott, but I liked what I have—but this discussion about the distinction between hardboiled and noir is fantastic. I’m going to refer to it a lot (I should probably track down her dissertation).
• Why Hacking is the Future of Crime Fiction—sure, it’s a bit self-serving, “hey, my novel is the future!”, but it’s a great point. And his book seems promising. But so often (on screen and in print) hacking in fiction is so . . . hacky?
• Cartoonist Randall Munroe Will Be Your Answer Man—Not sure this book is for me, but I’ll probably try it, Munroe rarely disappoints.
• Summer Flings – 5 Fantasy Standalones—cute idea for a list, at least two good books on the list (have heard good things about at least one other).
• Classically Cool- Let’s Talk Classics!—I dig this post from the Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub (incidentally, I don’t see that much sarcasm there — wazzup with that, pal?). I’ve been trying to find the time to write a similar post myself, but in the meantime go read hers.
• Are books still relevant today?—Obviously, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”, but you should still read the post.
• The Ultimate Summer Playlist to Inspire Your Summer Booklist—I’ve never heard (to my knowledge) any of the songs on this list, and probably wouldn’t like most of them. But, I thought this was a cool idea, so am passing it along. What songs/books would you add?

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 692 | Robert Crais Talks A Dangerous Man—fun, quick moving, interview with Crais.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais—possibly Crais’ best since Suspect, loved this novel about Joe Pike running errands and stumbling onto a kidnapping. I’ll talk more about this early next week.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Vee Aozoraa, happytonic, Elizabeth Ruggiero and adiswings for following the blog this week.

A very diverse batch for ya this week, but there are some gems here among the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Online book-selling scams steal a living from writers—An Op-Ed from the LA Times
• Why Don’t I Read All My Books? Karen Olsson on the Ghosts on Her Shelves
• The Perils of Designing a Cover for a Novel You Truly Love—I’ve never heard of this designer or the book, but this was pretty neat.
• The Backwards Bookshelf: Aesthetic or Abominable?—there are strange people in the world
• We Asked 13 Novelists, From Lee Child to Ruth Ware, ‘What’s the Best Murder You Ever Wrote?’—it’s from the New York Times, so there’s a paywall you may have to contend with, but it’s a good use of your 1 free article per whatever…
• The Fictional Foods We Wish Were Real—I thought this was a re-run, but can’t find it in the archives. A fun thing I should have posted last year.
• Finding Our Way Into Fantasy Fiction—I really dug this post.
• 25 Literary Characters Sorted Into Hogwarts Houses—a fun little post from the deluge of posts in honor of this week’s birthday of a certain Boy Who Lived and his author.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Chances Are . . . by Richard Russo—this seems out-of-the-norm for Russo, but should still be worth the read
• Dark Age by Pierce Brown—another installment in the Red Rising saga, this one is huge and looks good. A little daunting, really.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to lindajacksonblog and Self Development for following the blog this week.

Unexpected fatigue and dadding kept me from being as productive this week as I’d thought I would be six days ago — I spent an entire day without touching my laptop! Practically un-heard of.

Still, I managed to find a few odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Barnes & Noble’s fate rests in the hands of a British indie bookstore owner — It’s just as convenient for me to go to an actual independent book store as it is to get to B&N, so I really don’t have much of a dog in this race — but still, I know a healthy B&N is good for publishing in the States.
• 14 Great Readers’ Advisory Tools You May Not Know — I should use some more of these, but I tend to lose hours when I look at, say TVTropes.
• Raymond Chandler: The Art of Beginning a Crime Story: The 10 Greatest Opening Paragraphs from a Noir Master — In honor of Chandler’s 131st birthday, they shared some of his openings (which are just about the best opening paragraphs ever)
• Behind the Scenes: The Making of the Heart of Barkness Cover! — Maybe not the most enlightening of posts, but it’s fun. And I’ll always take an excuse to link to something about Chet and Bernie.
• Nick Kolakowski – A BOLO Books Composite Sketch — a nice interview with blog fave Kolakowski.
• Crime writers mystified by Colm Tóibín’s criticism: Literary author’s dismissal of genre fiction provokes backlash — Last week Colm Tóibín (a literary writer of some note, apparently),who I was introduced to by this brouhaha, said the typical snobbish things about genre fiction. Which is really just an excuse for genre writers to fire back, which is generally amusing. Not surprisingly, Steve Cavanagh had one of the best responses (all are good, Stephen Fry and Declan Burke in particular).
• The Silence of the Lambs: The Seminal Serial Killer Novel, and Still the Best — Title says it all. Great post.
• Time to switch genres. Seanan McGuire’s Personal Top Ten Urban Fantasy Books For Adults — I wouldn’t include some of these on my list, and should check out a couple of the others. Still, McGuire knows her subject, it’s good fodder.
• Author Myke Cole talks writing hard science fiction in his space-set Coast Guard novel Sixteenth Watch — Cole’s typically a good interview subject. This really makes me want to read the new one
• 10 High Fantasy Books to Read If You Hate High Fantasy — haven’t read any of these, but I probably should
• A Food Guide To Middle Earth — snicker-worthy

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry — Literary characters being pulled from their books into our world, sounds like a great idea. Until someone starts pulling the villains out for their own ends. Killer concept. Read what my pal over at Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub had to say about it
• The Last Astronaut by David Wellington — in a future where humanity has given up on space exploration, something unknown shows up in our solar system so the last person trained to go into space is called into action. Interesting concept, seeming great execution. See what Char’s Horror Corner had to say.
• The Wolf’s Call by Anthony Ryan — second week in a row for a fantasy title that makes me think about diving into the world some more.
• Jade War by Fonda Lee — I liked Jade City (just not as much as the collective reading community did), an am intrigued by the second volume in the trilogy. Looking forward to seeing what people say about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to brian2010, TooFullToWrite and fionac13 for following the blog this week.