Category: Books Page 17 of 159

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Most parents don’t enjoy reading to their children, survey suggests—might as well start on a down note, right? Can only go up from here…
A Fifth of American Adults Can’t Read. Here’s How To Teach Them.—well, maybe not. (I don’t know enough to comment on the “how to teach” bit, as inclined as I am to agree). There’s probably a link between these two pieces.
People who buy books faster than they can read them usually share these 7 traits—This’ll lift your mood a bit (I think this also applies to people who check out too many library books at once)
Premodern Chinese Literature Can Be Trendy Too—Sure, why not? I’m mostly posting this for the one friend who will despair that one of his niche interests is trendy, but this did make me wish I had a little room on ye olde TBR.
So, You Want to Write a Cookbook?—huh.
Triumph of the Undead: The Public Domain as Horror Hero
Scholars Have Lost the Plot!—This showed up as a sidebar link to the Public Domain piece, and I’m a little obsessed with it now. I’d like to take 2-3 weeks off to read the materials he’s interacting with and interact with this piece.I probably won’t. Okay, I definetly won’t, but it was a nice daydream.
The Edgar Awards were given this week, which means it’s time for CrimeReads to post their roundtable discussions with the nominees. I love these annual posts. The State of the Mystery, Part 1: Craft Lessons and Favorite Reads and The State of the Mystery, Part 2: Issues, Concerns, and The Long Road Ahead.
Speaking of the Edgars, I might as well share the list of the winners: 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Nabokov’s Favorite Color, Stephen King’s Adverb Bullshit, Language’s Value Only As A Measure of Time—I really wish I remembered whose link I followed to this.
What’s the deal with dystopian picturebooks?—I didn’t know this was a thing. There’s at least two of these that I had to fight the impulse to buy. (for now)
Remembering the Average Reader—Yes. The phrase “average reader” is accurate but has a strange tone to me (I know Krysta wasn’t being pejorative—that’s the whole point). My friends tend to phrase it as: “people who aren’t like HC” or “normal readers.”
3 Truly Odd Protagonists & Why We Really Really Like Them—Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Dent, and Quentin Coldwater in the same piece. Worth reading just for that interesting combo.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Fairest by Marissa Meyer—that was 10 years ago??
Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig—That was only 10 years ago??
Dark Heir by Faith Hunter—a turning point in my appreciation for the series
I mentioned the release of Darkened Blade by Kelly McCullough

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Mystery of the Crooked Man by Tom Spencer—”Fraudulent cozy mystery expert Agatha Dorn is cancelled — and severely ticked off! — in this quirky homage to Golden Age detectives, lost manuscripts, and famous authors.” I dig the premise here, if the execution matches, it’ll be a winner.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker—”In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic.” There’s no way I’d make it through this horror novel—but, man, it sounds great. Someone read it and tell me what I missed, okay?

Did I spend too much at the Independent Bookstore Day event I attended? Yes. Am I bothered by that? No, because I actually showed restraint–I could’ve easily spent 2 or 3 times as much. And, I did cut myself off from going to multiple bookstores. Don’t tell me I don’t have self-control.

I also found the time to put this post together before I go to celebrate the Grandcritter’s 2nd Birthday (boggles my mind that he’s that age already). We start with a couple of links that aren’t technically bookish, but I appealed to the owner/manager of this site, and he agreed to let me post them anyway.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Thursday Murder Club movie has released production photos!—sure, they’re just photos. But hard to imagine them getting the look better. Makes me feel hopeful about the rest.
May the Fourth Gift Giving Guide—This Dad Reads is providing an essential servce here
Ten Recommended Superhero Novels II—C.T. Phipps has put together a really nice list over at Before We Go Blog.
5 Year Blogiversary: Half a Decade of Cozy with Books—Congrats to Cozy with Books for making it to 5!
Books About Books: A List—Witty & Sarcastic Book club commemorated World Book Day with this list and some great quotations about books.
The Nicest Characters in Fiction—characters that need to be celebrated
Andr3wsky has one of my favorite takes of the week

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson
The Diamond Conspiracy by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
And I mentioned the releases of Second Olympus by K. A. Stewart and The Mad Apprentice by Django Wexler—two books that I never got around to reading and completely forgot about (and I think I regret both…still look pretty good)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg—the arson investigators, Sharpe and Walker hunt for a serial torcher on a spree (with a little help from Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone)
Death Rights by Shannon Knight—Knight follows up Grave Cold with this sequel that ramps up the stakes in a very satisfying way. (well, the beta version I read was very satisfying, and from what I can assume from the changes Knight described, it’s even stronger).

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Gatsby @ 100: American Classrooms, American Dreams?
Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby Turns 100. Time To Admit It’s Crime Fiction.—I’m not sure that I buy this, but I can’t argue against it.
Mark Twain Died Famous, Not Happy—this review of a new biography of Twain really makes me want to carve out a couple of weeks to get it
The Joy of Inefficiency: Teaching My Kids How to Read—wish I’d done it in a way more like this. Good read even without the whole “road not taken” vibe.
Why Being the Child of a Crime Writer Made It Inevitable I Would Become One—Abbi Waxman on her new (and very good) crime novel, her first in the genre
Digging Up Sam Spade: What’s the point of writing ‘your take’ on a famous character?—I get his point—and agree with it, but I’ll probably keep buying some books that fall into this category (I’m a sucker for certain characters).
I skipped this week’s Top 10 Tuesday because I didn’t think I could come up with ten Unpopular Bookish Opinions, but after reading the lists that Damppebbles and Carol put together, I really probably could’ve (especially if I’d done the post late in the day and “borrowed” about half of each of theirs). Give ’em a read! (for bonus points*, guess where I agree with them)
I really appreciate Beth Tabler posting this recipe: The Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—I have enough time to assemble ingredients by Towel Day.

* Not redeemable for cash or goods, just the warm glow of self-satisfaction.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Thriller Zone Episode 220: From Celebrity Journalist to Crime Thriller Writer: Meet Nick Kolakowski

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs
Dark Digital Sky by Carac Allison—(if Allison is out there using a pen name now, I’d love to find out)
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle—I just love this book, I could probably write a post about it now without picking up a copy
I talked about the releases of Hit by Delilah S. Dawson (a gritty, violent read that’ll stick with you–in a good way) and The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman—Think Hacks plus Rebel (the Katey Segal show), and you’ll have the gist of this. “A cranky former actress teams up with her Gen Z sobriety sponsor to solve the murder that threatens to send her back to prison.” I had a blast with this, and hope to tell you more about it soon.
The Fact Checker by Austin Kelly—1. Great cover. 2. Promising premise: “Mirthful, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly philosophical, The Fact Checker is a brilliant debut novel featuring a missing woman who might be perfectly fine, and a single-minded investigator yearning for meaning, morality, and accuracy in an increasingly post-truth world.”
Benny on the Case by Wesley King—”A boy with Mosaic Down syndrome navigates entering a mainstream classroom, making new friends, and standing up to bullies all while trying to catch a thief and save his home in this thrilling middle grade mystery.” I was rather charmed by King’s OCDaniel, betting this will be pretty good, too.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
National Library Week wraps up today (something I should’ve said something about earlier), so today is your last chance to take advantage of this. However, if you donate $15+ to a local library, you can get an audiobook credit from libro.fm click the link for details.
Carla Crane Osborne uses her Idaho childhood as a muse—a Literary Local talks to a local news station. Yup, I got her to talk to me before TV did.
The Comic-Book Artist Who Mastered Space and Time—Art Spiegelman on the late Jules Feiffer
Pace Yourself—Molly Templeton makes the case reading slowly
The Magic of Sci-Fi: Exploring the Unknown and Imagining the Future—a nice look at Science Fiction over at Adventures in Lit
INTERVIEW: Voice Artist Jeff Hays—Over at GrimdarkMAGAZINE, Beth Tabler talked to the voice behind Dungeon Crawler Carl and many, many other books.
Thematic music from lauded Game of Thrones composer, Will Musser—Micheal Michel’s The Price of Power gets its first piece of fan art from this guy (pretty good way to start)

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy
The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen
Vanished by Joseph Finder
I mentioned the releases of The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu; Dark Heir by Faith Hunter; and Scent of Murder by James O. Born

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
My Documents by Kevin Nguyen—One of the best things I’ve read this year. I’ll probably be saying that in December, too. In the late twenty-teens, the U.S. Government starts detaining Vietnamese-Americans, and this harrowing-yet-frequently-amusing novel follows four siblings. If I say more than that, we’re going to be here for awhile. Hopefully I can get something together in a day or two.
24-Hour Warlock by Shami Stovall—in the third Chronos Chronicles novel, Finch (and his new team) takes on a demonologist to save his sister-in-law
Big Chief by Jon Hickey—a provocative-looking political thriller set in the days leading up to a reservation’s election