Category: Books Page 130 of 167

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:

• First You Write a Sentence by Joe Moran review – how good writing makes sense of the world — A good review of and some interesting things to think of.
• Dealing with Taboos: Is Anything “Off Limits” in Crime Writing? — PJ Parrish focuses on Crime Fiction in this post, but frankly, I think this applies to fiction in general.
• One person who embodied Parrish’s point was Elmore Leonard, the 93rd anniversary of his birth was this week. In honor of that, CrimeReads gave us Elmore Leonard’s Greatest Opening Lines, a ranking of his best 25 openers.
• Here’s the real value of book bloggers and online book tours — You probably saw the kerfuffle on FB and Twitter this week over someone talking about Book Blog Tours being a waste of time and money. I really enjoyed most of the responses to that thesis that I saw. Pamreader gives one of the best responses.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Wrecked by Joe Ide — IQ is back for his third novel — and I can’t wait to see what Ide has in store for him.
• The Blue Kingfisher by Erica Wright — Kat Stone, undercover cop turned PI with identities to spare investigates an apparent suicide. Here’s what I had to say about it.

Yup. It’s late — but still Saturday. Spent some quality time with the Mrs. instead of with my laptop. But that’s over, priorities back to where they usually are. Here are 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:

• Boys Don’t Read Enough: Girls read more than boys in just about every developed country, and it’s a big reason they have better educational outcomes. — I’m not sure this is news, but, you never know.
• Let’s twist again, like we did last summer…or let’s not! — Great post from The Beardy Book Blogger.
• Good Reading: The Initial October Daye Trilogy — Aaron Golden has a good post about the Toby Daye books.
• Why Agatha Christie Is Still the Queen of Crime: The Deeply Human Puzzles of Mystery’s Famous Master — a little secret just between us: I’ve never read Christie. This reminds me I really should.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang — an action-packed novel introducing a math genius hero? Give Paul’s Picks post about it a read for more.

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye (yeah, it was a slim week — unless you’re into Reed Farrel Coleman). You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• The Strange Writing Habits of Famous Authors — blah
• Raised in South Central, Joe Ide Expands the Territory of L.A. Noir — blah
• The Cartel author Don Winslow says The Border sequel ‘is going to make some people angry’ — Some details on the end of Winslow’s Cartel trilogy, coming in February. Which gives me enough time to read the first two.
• The Writing Dead — The NYT talks about Reed Farrel Coleman and Colorblind
• . . . as does The Big Thrill: Between the Lines: Reed Farrel Coleman (but in greater detail)
• Why Alcoholism and Crime Fiction Are Still Entwined: Reckoning with a Long Legacy of Drinking and Noir — and then Coleman talks about Alcohol, Crime Fiction and his recent moves with Jesse Stone
• Superheroes in Prose by Kristen Brand — Some good recommendations here.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Black Moss by David Nolan — an award-winning reporter takes a swing at fiction in this dark-looking mystery.
• The Agony House by Cherie Priest, Tara O’Connor — looks like a ghost story told in a way reminiscent of I Am Princess X, which sounds pretty cool.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to francestaylorblg, ingrid baker, and blgkaelabl for following the blog this week.

Not my most productive (reading or writing) week, but have had fun with it. Last night I was told I could pass for Rothfuss if I grew my hair out (I’ll take that as a compliment) and I got to see and meet Craig Johnson (post to come) — nothing wrong with an evening like that.

Lacking a segue, here are 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:

• “It was, and remains, not a book that you happen to read, like any other, but a book that happens to you: a chunk bitten out of your life.” Says Anthony Lane in this great piece about The Hobbit, which was published 81 years ago today (the book, not the piece, which was from 2001).
• Ace Atkins reminds us that Robert B. Parker would’ve been 86 this week with some nice words and great pic of one of the authors that changed my life/aesthetic.
• Books nobody can read
• Audible vs Libro.fm: Which Audiobooks Option Should You Choose?
• Either way, you may want to get your hands on this audiobook: Tatiana Maslany to narrate special-edition Hunger Games audiobook: First listen — which doesn’t technically make Katniss a seestra, but it’s close.
• A book by any other name: why does the US change so many titles? — amusing to read, but not super-informative
• Speaking of that . . . What 10 Classic Books Were Almost Called

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Lethal White by “Robert Galbraith”– the fourth novel in the Cormoran Strike series — a mystery novel that’s the size of an epic fantasy (enjoying it, but wishes the point could get cut to a bit more often).
• How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North — in case you time travel to the far past and accidentally wipe out civilization, this book will show you how to rebuild civilization. Which sounds handy.
• Soulless (Illustrated Hardcover Edition) by Gail Carriger — I rather enjoyed the books in this series that I read before getting distracted. Maybe this new edition will help me get back into it.
• Battlestar Suburbia by Chris McCrudden — humorous SF, I’m not going to try to summarize in a sentence. Click the link.
• The Queen of Crows by Myke Cole — the middle, and likely darker, novel in the Sacred Thrones trilogy.

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

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:

• The Top 10 Books Everyone Lies About Reading — Reader’s Digest hits us up with a list — I don’t know why anyone would bother lying about reading these, they’re all pretty easy reads (Hawthorne excepted).
• The Magical First Reviews of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US in 1998 — 20 years since Potter invaded our bookstores? Whoa. This collection from some of the initial reviews is pretty fun — and at least one was pretty prescient (if underestimating things a bit).
• What is a Review Worth? — One author and blogger’s take on the value of reader reviews.
• Along those lines, Book Riot brings us: How to Support a Book or Favorite Author: 6 Easy Tips (Including Many Free Ones)
• And Aunty Fox reminds us that it’s not just authors/books that need our help, but Small Publishers, too.
• A Reader’s Guide to K-9 Mysteries: 7 Crime Novels Featuring Working Dogs
• How To Read More Than One Book At A Time, According To Reddit Users Who Do It — some handy tips.
• 21 Ways to Organize your TBR Pile

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Episode 461 | Reed Farrel Coleman Interview on Hank Garner’s Author Stories Podcast. A lot of this I’d heard before, but not all of it. I also assumed Coleman got the Jesse Stone gig the way he did and was surprised to learn otherwise — great story.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About:
• Colorblind by Reed Farrel Coleman — a pivotal book for the series/character and a plot that’s eerily timely (but unintentionally so, if you listen to the podcast above). Here’s my take on the book

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:

• Is social media influencing book cover design? — huh.
• A Letter to Burt Reynolds: Why you meant the world to a young kid growing up in the South — TBH, I’ve never been the biggest Reynolds fan, I think mostly it was age and what my parents allowed me access to when it would’ve been easier for me to see his work (not arguing with that, for the record). Reading this, by Ace Atkins (in case you were wondering why I was linking to it) makes me wish I’d watched more of his films.
• How to Talk About Policing In Crime Fiction: Good Cops, Bad Apples, and Finding the Nuance in Between
• Murder Book Podcast — Michael Connelly gets back to his roots in this upcoming podcast.
• Craig Johnson on Westerns, Decency, and Longmire Days — a great interview that shouldn’t be read by anyone who isn’t up to date with at least The Western Star — unless you’re still needing convinced that you should read Johnson. Then you won’t care about the spoilers and may find a reason to pick up one of his books.
• Night and Silence: 3 reasons this may be the best October Daye book yet — I’m about halfway through, and I agree with everything said here.
• The Big Idea: Greg Van Eekhout — this particular Big Idea post is probably the most effective that I’ve read in this series.
• So, this past Thursday was National Read a Book day, which I didn’t realize until it was 8 pm or so. I mean, I still read, but I’d have liked to mark the day somehow. Here are a pair of lists that will help track those kinds of dates: A Calendar of Book Holidays To Celebrate Reading All Year Long, from Book Riot and Flavorwire’s Ultimate Literary Calendar: A Bookish Event for Every Day of the Year — blah

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire — my favorite ongoing UF series (until Butcher starts publishing regularly again) gets a new installment, it’s intense, it’s good. I’ll probably be a wreck when I finish it.
• Depth of Winter by Craig Johnson — I’ve been waiting on the edge of my seat since about 30 seconds after reading the last page of The Western Star. This is gonna be huge. Johnson’s doing a reading in town at the end of the month, and a book comes with the ticket, so I have to wait a little longer before I dive in. On the plus side, I didn’t have to choose between this and Night and Silence (that’s a choice that could turn me into Chidi Anagonye)
• The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos
• The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette — a UFO lands and does nothing for 3 years?
• Voyage of the Dogs by Greg van Eekhout — Homeward Bound in space? Whatever, read that Big Idea article linked above and you’ll see why I feel like I have to read this.

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

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:

• Rediscovered Books, Boise’s best bookstore, is 12 and is throwing itself a party today. I’ll try to make it down, I highly recommend local readers do the same.
• Is Literature Dead? — asks The Paris Review
• Friday essay: the meaning of food in crime fiction
• Deeper and Deeper — I’m not sure I agree with this take on the state of Crime Fiction in the past, but I appreciate his take on the present state of it.
• The Indisputably Best Dogs in (Contemporary) Literature: Beyond Lassie, Cujo, Marley, and Other Very Good Boys — there are some significant lacunae here, but it’s a dandy list.
• Quiz: Would You Survive A Thriller Novel? — According to this quiz, I would — because I thought about my answers. If I had taken the quiz honestly, I’d probably be dead between questions two and three.
• Nicole Hewitt speaks for us all

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames — this follow-up to Kings of the Wyld has a LOT to live up to, but something tells me that Eames is going to pull it off.
• Stoned Love by Ian Patrick — Similarly, Patrick’s Rubicon is going to be hard to match. Enemies on both sides of the law come after this undercover cop, and while I expect he’ll survive, it won’t be easy — but it’ll be done with a certain bit of flair. Fahrenheit Press continues to mess up my well-laid reading plans with their surprise releases.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Cali’s bookcamp, lifecanbebeautifulyolo and wisdomfromafather for following the blog this week.