Category: Books Page 143 of 162

Saturday Miscellany – 6/25/16

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:

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

  • The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg — The 5th installment in the Fox and O’Hare series. It’s one of the most entertaining series going, and I can’t imagine that this is anything but good.
  • Play Nice by Michael Guillebeau — how do you not want to read something described as “an Elmore Leonard-style Nancy Drew story”?
  • Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen — a thriller with SF elements and a sense of humor. Sounds Perfect.
  • New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey — killer concept.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and thanks to bensbitterblog and Karen for the feedback — I really appreciate that.

Saturday Miscellany – 6/18/16

Only 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:

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

  • The Ghost Rebellion by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris — Yay! The 5th Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novel is here. I enjoyed this one, I think you will, too. (I posted about it last week)
  • The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez — Martinez is writing a series, which is enough to get me interested. Add in the hero who’s been saving the world for about 30 years, and just wants to be normal, and I’m beyond interested.
  • Shadowed by Karen E. Olson — so, Nicole Jones’ attempt to lie low on Block Island failed. What do you want to bet her Canadian location works out better? Yeah, me neither.
  • Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley — This is sitting on my TBR shelf (literally), and it’s driving me crazy that I can’t fit it in for a couple of weeks.
  • Man On A Rock by Grant Sutherland — Fahrenheit Press’ first novella looks like the kind of thriller summers are designed for. (you know, if summers were designed for people who read)
  • Escapology by Ren Warom — looks like a classic cyberpunk novel, just brand spankin’ new.
  • Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja — SF with action and humor. I’m reading comparisons to Scalzi and Adams. Even without those, this looks fun.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Alois Larc and greatestcatpics for following the blog this week.

Saturday Miscellany – 6/11/16

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:

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

  • Infomocracy by Malka Older — post-cyberpunk, political-technological thriller.
  • The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar — Angry Robot republished this Victorian adventure that I always meant to get around to. Good reminder.

Lastly, I’d like to thanks to a href=”https://thereadingdesk.wordpress.com/” target=”_blank”>Vijayalakshmi Harish for all the encouragement this week, check out her pretty nifty blog, too.

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Saturday Miscellany – 6/4/16

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them (especially if you read BookRiot a lot), but just in case:

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

  • The Cupid Reconciliation by Michael R. Underwood — The bestest
    Genrenaut
    story yet. I hope you all are reading this series (or at least buying them).
  • We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman — Norman’s follow-up to Domestic Violets is a strong candidate for my year-end list. Probably a stronger candidate if I ever get around to reading it. Still, it looks nice on my TBR shelf.
  • The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman — do I really need to say more than just the author’s name?
  • Death by Cliché by Bob Defendi — “Death by Cliché is a heartwarming tale of catastrophic brain damage. Share it with someone you love. Or like. Or anyone at all. Buy the book.” The Big Idea about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and thanks to Sidney (in case you’re reading this) for the very nice and helpful email this week.

May 2016 Report

So, here’s what happened here in May.

Books Read:

Still Reading:

Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 2 Revelation and Reason From the Finger of God

Reviews Posted:

How was your month?

Saturday Miscellany – 5/28/16

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:

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

  • A Mint Condition Corpse by Duncan MacMaster — a geek-centric mystery. Okay. I’ll bite. From Fahrenheit Press, who else?
  • The Last Star by Rick Yancey — Loved The 5th Wave, was less into the sequel — but am really looking forward to this.
  • Dietland by Sarai Walker — this looks fun. ” Part coming-of-age story, part revenge fantasy, Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying.” Check out the trailer.
  • Dark Run by Mike Brooks — a space opera about smugglers, con artists and thiefs. Sounds good to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Senna and Beth from Hello Beautiful Book Blog for following the blog this week.

Guest Post: 5 Books about Time by Michael Landweber


I’m a little obsessed about the concept of time in my writing. My first book, We, was about a man who travels back in time only to get stuck as a parasite inside the head of his seven-year-old self. In my latest novel, time stops completely, except for one 17-year-old kid. I suppose the recurring theme is that we have no control over time, even when it gets a little bit wonky. In honor of my obsession, I have created a list of five time-related books (or more precisely that have the word “time” in the title) that I’ve enjoyed over the years.

1) The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The one that started it all. The original time travel story. Without it, there never would have been Timecop. Seriously though, it is a little hard to imagine that we’d have more than a century of time travel related books, movies, TV shows, etc. if Wells hadn’t had the idea that a time machine was the way to travel to different eras. Of course, unlike most modern time travel fiction, which focuses on the ways that traveling through time can change the present, purposefully or not, Wells had his protagonist travel into the far future where he encountered a parable about class and society. Still, the guy coined the phrase “time machine.” That’s pretty cool.

2) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
We don’t need no stinking time machine. In L’Engle’s classic children’s book series, the characters travel through space by “wrinkling time” by means of the tesseract. Most writers now call it a wormhole. No vehicle required. That freed a lot of writers to just zap characters from place to place without tricking out a Delorean. The book also is about how children can save the world without the help of the adults around them, particularly parents. Hello, Harry Potter!

3) A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
OK, this one has the least to do with manipulating time though it is a story about how past family narratives can help soothe present pain. A young woman in Tokyo considers suicide, but researching the stories of her feminist Buddhist nun great-grandmother and her disgraced WWII pilot great-uncle lead her to some surprising revelations about herself.

4) Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
Amis uses a unique device to write about the horrors of the Holocaust. The narrator is a consciousness inside the head of a former Nazi who is now living a new life in America. But the story is told in reverse chronological order. Time in the book literally runs backward, so we start with the war criminal as an old man and travel unavoidably to his horrific past. It is an unusual and difficult book that allows the reader a new window into understanding the inconceivable cruelty that people are capable of.

5) Time Bandits
OK, I’m totally cheating here. Time Bandits is a movie. But it also happens to be my favorite movie. And it is about traveling through time. So there. One of Terry Gilliam’s earliest films, this one follows a young boy who falls in with a group of dwarfs who previously worked for the Supreme Being until they stole the Big Guy’s map of time holes and decided to use it to steal from the rich throughout history. That only begins to describe how gloriously messed up this movie is.

Thursday, 1:17 PM Book Tour

Thursday, 1:17 PMTime stopped. You didn’t. Now what?

Duck is 17. He will never be 18.

Tomorrow is his birthday. It will never be tomorrow.

Time stopped at 1:17 p.m. on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Washington, DC. Duck is the only person moving in a world where all other living beings have been frozen into statues in an endless diorama. Duck was already in limbo, having lost his mother to cancer and his father to mental illness.

Now, faced with the unimaginable, he approaches his dilemma with the eye of an anthropologist and the heart of a teenager trying to do the right thing under the strangest of circumstances. Ultimately, he realizes that while he doesn’t understand the boundaries between friendship and love, that uncertain territory may be the key to restarting the world.

Trade Paperback – Available now
Publisher: Coffeetown Press
ISBN13: 9781603813570
208 pages

Coming up: We’ve got a Guest Post from Michael Landweber, a Q & A with him, too — and finally, my $.02 about the book. Come back and check these posts out (the links will work when the posts go up) — or just go get the book. Whatever.

Saturday Miscellany – 5/21/16

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:

Saturday Miscellany – 5/14/16

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:

    Only One of this Week’s New Releases caught my eye:

  • The Vagrant by Peter Newman — I heard Newman recently on The Cornell Collective, and look forward to getting to read this release

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to extraordinarydog for following the blog this week.

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