Category: Books Page 154 of 160

A quick personal note: As we have for 7 or so years, my kids took part in our local library’s Summer Reading Program — for my family, it’s never actually increased our reading, but it’s a fun little thing for the kids to do (and it gets them a free book). The last few years, they’ve added a program for adults — also, doesn’t do anything to increase my reading, still I like to participate. Turns out that I won one of the drawings from the program this year — a Kindle Fire — and a free book (Fannie Flag’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion). I’d like to give a shout out to the Nampa Public Library as well as a hearty thanks for my new tablet. Remember to support your local library.

Just a couple of 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:

• Italo Calvino Offers 14 Reasons We Should Read the Classics — This review of an essay from the 80’s offers some very compelling reasons to read (or re-read) the classics. I need to do better at this, and I have more reasons to do so now.
• The Phantom Tollbooth took me into fantasyland — Lucy Mangan describes how Juster’s fantastic classic changed her.
• 8 Famous Authors On The First Book They Ever Loved — we all started somewhere. Kinda interesting to see where these first loves took them.
• Rainbow Rowell’s Best Book Quotes on Love — One of my worst kept secrets is my Rowell fascination. Here’s some great lines that help explain it.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells — the sequel to the promising, but not as good as I’d hoped, Dirty Magic
• We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory — this could be a fun and trippy read

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:

• 7 Ways J.K. Rowling Changed Childhood For A Whole Generation — title pretty much says it all
• Archie and Me — Sort of an oddball one for this space, but the other day when I was making sure I had the wording for a Nero Wolfe quotation correctly, this came up on my google search. I love Crais’ work almost as much as Wolfe novels. His tribute to them is just great.
• Ace Atkins: The Story of the Returning Soldier — nice interview with Ace Atkins about Spenser, Quinn Colson and more. I’ll be putting up my review of his latest in the next week — spoiler: it’s very, very good.
• Defining Steampunk — Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (a couple of faves around here) help us understand just what is meant by Steampunk
• A Field Guide to Book Nerds — The good people at Barnes & Noble Book Blog have assembled this handy field guide. Do you recognize yourself here?
• How To Play Fantasy Football, Only With Authors — over at Book Riot, Greg Zimmerman, outlines a fun alternative for those of us not that into Sportsball.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch — The newest Gentleman Bastards is in paperback. Yay!
• Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale — pretty much a no-brainer (even without the Fillion forward)
• Bravo by Greg Rucka — this’ll prove to be an action-packed way to kill a couple of hours. Won’t change your life, but it’ll entertain you.
• Tigerman by Nick Harkaway — seems fun and mind-bendy. Check out The Big Idea he wrote about it.

Thin week overall, but what I have to offer, I really liked.

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:

• Things I Understand Now that I’ve Finally Read the Harry Potter Series — It’s nice to see an adult who didn’t read these back then tackle the series and respond. I found it a good reminder of what I liked about the series — good incentive, also, for adults who haven’t taken the time to read these books.
• Favorite Crime-Fighting Duos — Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, noted for their new Fox & O’Hare series list their favorite duo’s — I don’t know 1 off each list, and other than Evanovich’s last item, I’d second every word of those I do.
• The 20 Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Last Decade — I’ve read a lot of these, and while I might quibble with the placement of a couple items on the list, this is a pretty good line-up. I do not understand, nor share, Allen’s estimation of Harrison’s Hollows series — that aside, good list, good place to start if your interested in the genre.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Hounded by David Rosenfeldt — The newest Andy Carpenter book will feature dogs, banter, legal tension, humor, and more dogs. Just a hunch, really, all I know is that there’s a new Andy Carpenter book, the rest is just a guess.
• The Forsaken by Ace Atkins — Book 4 of the Quinn Colson series. Atkins is becoming a real favorite of mine, and the only thing he does better than aping Robert B. Parker is write these Colson books. Can’t wait to get my hands on this.

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Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — apparently I spent more time at io9.com than I realized. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Has modern technology killed the spy thriller? — As I read older mysteries/mysteries set in decades past I’ve thought about this a lot — and, of course, it makes sense that it applies to spy thrillers, as well.
• Here’s the Shiny Cover of William Gibson’s New Novel! — io9 revealed the cover to William Gibson’s upcoming SF novel about, well, who cares? It’s a new William Gibson SF!
• 31 Essential Science Fiction Terms And Where They Came From — I thought this was a pretty interesting list.
• Other Middle-Aged Harry Potter Books J.K. Rowling Has Planned — an amusing little gallery inspired by last week’s short story (which I still need to read . . . what kind of fan am I?)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon a.k.a: Half a King and a couple of other things:
• Half a King by Joe Abercrombie — one of my favorite epic fantasy writers steps into YA, and it sounds great.
• Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell — This one sounds like a good time. Read the Big Idea about it here
• MindWar by Andrew Klavan — this first installment of the trilogy of the same name may not be my thing, but I’m sure I’ve got a couple of teens who’ll eat it up (as they did his Homelander’s series)
• The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice by Tom Holt — this sounds like a hoot and a half

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:

• Rowling writes story about 30-plus Harry Potter — You probably didn’t hear about it, but a children’s author released a short story this week as a follow-up to an older series. Maybe a news site or two mentioned it. Probably worth a read (I haven’t yet, not sure why).
• A couple of good extra-Internet pieces this week: First, last week’s Face the Nation featured a discussion with several mystery/thriller writers, including Lee Child: Mystery writers discuss their favorite summer reads — During this discussion, Child said, “The best book is not watching the detective work on a crime, it’s watching the crime work on the detective.” Something about that really registered with me, and I’m going to write something in response to this soon. I hope.
• The second is a nice NPR piece prompted by Landline: Rainbow Rowell Does Romance With A Subversive (Read: Realistic) Twist
• When I’m not reading, I’m generally watching TV (or working or sleeping, or spending time with that group of people I live with and share a name with — I think you call them a family). This week it was announced — after years of rumors and bad starts — that Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is getting a Syfy pilot and that Terry Brooks’ Shannara is getting a full season on MTV. I’ve seen a lot of backlash about the MTV part of the deal — but I don’t see why. They’ve done some pretty good scripted stuff lately. And, most importantly — Shannara’s going to be on TV. Who cares where?
• Five Plum Reasons to Read Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich — The other day, I wondered why I keep reading this series. Paul Goat Allen gives me 5 reasons. (well, not me, really — but I can pretend, can’t I?)
• Map of the City Where Every Novel Takes Place — Well, not every Novel. But a whole lot of them. Great concept, great execution. *cough*165 shopping days ’til Xmas*cough*
• Top ten fictional bookshops — Who doesn’t love bookstores? They’re not reading this blog, for sure. Sure, I’d have included Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But still, fun list.
• Speaking of Grossman, The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman Book Trailer This trailer features a few (I’m guessing) paragraphs from the upcoming book read by fans/fellow authors, taking a sentence or so each. It’s just a great section, don’t care what book it is. But as it’s this one? Just makes it better. I’ve watched this a few times already.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Tail of Vengeance by Spencer Quinn — a Chet & Bernie short story. Wa-hoo.
• The Competition by Marcia Clark — The fourth Rachel Knight book, this time Knight and the gang are dealing with a school shooting.
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell — Can a magic telephone fix a troubled marriage? (There’s a sentence I never expected to write.)

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:

• Recent Reads: The Great Way — You may remember I was pushing the Kickstarter campaign for Harry Connolly’s The Great Way awhile back — well, fantasy author C. E. Murphy’s read it and offered a very positive review. Can’t wait!
• One-Star Book Reviews — This tumblr is a very funny collection of bits from one-star reviews found online. Have to admit, that I agree with a couple of them — the one linked here is my favorite.
• The Lock In Audiobook: Two Versions, Two Narrators — John Scalzi’s The Lock In will be released next month, as well as two versions of the audiobook. Scalzi assures us that it’s appropriate for this novel for reasons we’ll get later. Very intriguing. I don’t normally think about getting audiobooks as new releases, but mayyyyyybe this time.

The lists of new releases for the week that I looked at were long (and next week looks like a doozy, too), so I’m probably overlooking some winners, but here are This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Premonitions by Jamie Schultz — Seanan McGuire described this as Leverage meets InCryptid. Which basically means this is a must read for me.
• Artful by Peter David — “the previously untold story of the Artful Dodger, hunter of vampyres and other nasty things.” David’s strongest when he’s putting his own spin on something we already know. This should be a really good one.

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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:

• How Amazon and Goodreads are changing literary criticism — Headline says it all. Interesting read.
• How a Book Becomes the Book of the Summer — Lev Grossman — whose upcoming book should be, but honestly won’t be, a contender for Book of the Summer — talks about the phenomenon
• Brash Books co-founders channel self-publishing success to publish other authors — Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman talk about their imprint, Brash Books
• Zak Penn to Rewrite Script for Ready Player One Film Adaptation — If someone has to rewrite Cline, am glad it’s someone like Penn
• The Convoluted Calculus of Rating Books — I think rating books is a littler simpler than this Book Riot piece suggests, but, this is entertaining enough.

This was another of those weeks with only one release that caught my eye:
• The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (wink, wink) — Galbraith and Cormoran Strike are back for another go ’round. I wasn’t blown away by Galbraith’s debut, but I really enjoyed it. Expect the same here.

(not sure where I found this — obviously something about goodreads — if you know, let me know so I can attribute it properly)

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:

• How I Turned Neil Gaiman Into A Fictional Character For My New Novel — I kept his name out of my review, but Paul Cornell seems to be cool revealing his celebrity guest-star. This story is as good as you hope it would be.
• What’s in a Book Title? — Tom Rachman talks about titling books. Not surprisingly, it’s an interesting piece.
• New Publisher, Simon & Schuster — A. Lee Martinez talks about his new publisher and his new project — his first trilogy/non-stand alone. This is my excited font!
• I read books. Does that make me a nerd? –a teen ponders this for the Guardian, which ties into:
• This is the absolute worst way to teach your kids to read — I don’t use an app, but this is very similar to the way I get my kids to read. I’m not so sure that this piece gets it right (or that I do), but it’s something to think about. Comment away just below the picture!
• 11 Author Quotations to Help Reluctant Readers Find Their Way — who doesn’t enjoy quotations about reading? I love knowing I’m not alone in my obsession. These, about getting non-readers into books are really good. (no app required)
• 26 Of The Greatest Book Dedications You Will Ever Read — there are some really good ones here (including some from books I read and somehow managed to overlook teh dedications)
• Lee Child & Jack Reacher Roast — At the RT Booklovers Convention this month, Tess Gerritsen, Alafair Burke, SJ Rozan, Kat Richardson and Duncan Munro roasted Lee Child. Haven’t watched it all yet, but it’s pretty amusing for fans of Child (and fun for fans of the authors to see them do this kind of thing)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Shattered by Kevin Hearne — The only reason I haven’t read the latest Iron Druid novel already is that UPS is taking forever to get it to me. Harry Dresden and Atticus in less than a month? (and Spenser a couple weeks before that!) It’s like Christmas, but better!
• All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner — I just read the info on this one right now, and while I knew I would be reading it (Weiner’s an automatic buy for my wife, and I’ve started reading them after her) — I’m really interested in this story of addiction and struggle. Drugs + Jennifer Weiner? This could be really, really good.
• Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich is out in hardcover, so I’ll get to it next year. But that means, that Takedown Twenty is out in paperback. Since I caught up with the series last year, it’s been a long time (for me) since I’ve spent time with Stephanie and the rest, has absence made my heart grow fonder?
• Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt — was originally published as a Kindle serial, now in hardcopy. Looks interesting, I’ll likely track it down.