Category: Books Page 19 of 136

We’ve got a bumper-crop of new books this week, and a few other things that show me more than my memory does how little time I spent online this week.

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:
Book bans backfiring? Study reveals increased readership for prohibited books
Is Traditional Fiction Publishing Broken?
What’s the Future of Books? Amid historic disruption in the publishing industry, big questions are—rightfully—being asked. Here, experts weigh in on how books (and the ways we discover them) are going to change.
No, I Don’t Want to Join Your Book Club—some non-traditional book clubs
Has It Ever Been Harder to Make a Living As An Author?
Book Thieves Take the Story and Run with It
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 continues to look at favorites from 2023:
…with Nicki Mags of Secret Library Book Blog
…with Karen Kingston of KarenKisreading
…with Author Rachel Sargeant
…Gill of A Good Book ‘n a Brew
…with Joanne of Portobello Book Blog
…with Carol of Reading Ladies
…with Davida Chazan of The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club’s Dragon Week wrapped up this week, so you can read all of the goodness there now.
To celebrate the publication of Femme Fae-Tales anthology, Peat Long conducted Femme Fae-Tales Interviews with all of the authors, like this one.
An Important Reminder from Chuck Wendig

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Partial Function by JCM Berne—”If Taken starred Michelle Yeoh and was set on a Jurassic Park-inspired Cradle.” As I said recently, I had a lot of fun with this concept and its execution
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly—Mickey Haller + Bosch. I’m sure there’s more to say, but who cares beyond that?
The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher—Yes, it took Butcher an eon to give us the second Cinder Spires book, but something tells me most readers will forgive him for that once we get to dive in.
Noodle Conquers Comfy Mountain by Jonathan Graziano, illustrated by Dan Tavis—this follow-up to Noodle and the No Bones Day is aDORable. I’ll have more to say about it soon (mostly consisting of rephrasing of that sentence).
Calico by Lee Goldberg—a murder mystery and a Western in modern California. That’s really all I know so far, but I can’t wait to learn more.
Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty—a murder among a new batch of human visitors to the sentient space station, a conflict between alien races, and an attack from without? Things don’t get boring in this Midsolar Murder sequel.
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree—this prequel to Legends & Lattes contains all the warm fuzzies of its predecessor, a dash of action, and a more overt romantic arc.
A Curse of Krakens by Kevin Hearne—the much-anticipated conclusion to the Seven Kennings trilogy is out, which means it’s time for me to read the second volume any day now.
Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan—Detective Inaya Rahman investigates a pair of officer-involved killings. I’m guessing neither of these will turn out to be what they seem at first glance.

Yeah, this is later than usual. I spent the morning at the Boise Library!’s Boise Book Faire 2023 getting to chat with several local authors about their works. I got to renew acquaintances with a few authors who have shown up here over the last 12 months or so—and met a few who I hope to feature soon.

But that’s for the future (or, I guess, the past), let’s move on to today’s Miscellany.

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:
Banned books often get circulation bump, new study finds—a silver lining? Or fodder for conspiracy?
Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love With Reading: Hint: It’s not just the screens
Make Humanities Fun Again
How Has Big Publishing Changed American Fiction?: A new book argues that corporate publishing has transformed what it means to be an author.
Does Reading Improve Health?
Robert B. Parker: The Master of Crime Fiction
The Story Behind the Story: “A Good Rush of Blood,” by Matt Phillips—I’m so glad I put off reading this until I’d written about the book—I’d have spent far too long working in responses to it. Secondly, I’m so glad Phillips stuck to his guns and gave us the book that he did (wouldn’t have liked it nearly as much if he’d buckled)
Language and translation in Insiders – Shannon Knight—a nice little BTS about Knight’s newest book.
The Science Behind Steampunk and Retrofuturistic Technology—from Jonathan Fesmire
Partial Function Unboxing!—Who doesn’t like a good unboxing video? Watch JCM Berne get the first Partial Function hardcopy! (available Tuesday—order it today!)
Self Published Fantasy Releases – November 2023—In case you needed to do some shopping for yourself/others. Good looking offerings here.
Eternally Fascinating, the Vampire Endures—Author LindaAnn LoSchiavo stopped by Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub to talk about Blooksuckers/vamps/Fangheads/or whatever you want to call them
#R3COMM3ND3D from Damppebbles is back with #R3COMM3ND3D2023. This celebration of the best new books of 2023 is guaranteed to add to your TBR.
BookBlogger David of Blue Book Balloon
Lisa from Owl Be Sat Reading
Book Blogger Carla of Carla Loves to Read
Emily Quinn of A Quintillion Words (which is just a brilliant blog name)
Witty & Sarcastic also kicked-off Dragon Week 2023—Who needs “Shark Week” anyhow? I’m not going to link to every piece here, but you need to go check it out.
Spells and Spaceships is yet again hosting Norsevember, where you can read fun things like The Norns and the Weaving of Fate and The Dwarves of Norse Mythology
And there’s one more November-celebration—SciFiMonth! Some great-looking stuff there, too.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Hacker by Duncan MacMaster—Jake Mooney, a ghostwriter turned reluctant amateur-sleuth, gets pushed into solving another murder–this time of an old nemesis.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to cchittom and Ashleigh Mordew who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

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:
How many books Americans own — and how they organize them—fun with statistics (which is good, because what those stats represent isn’t so fun)
A New Fantasy and a 20th Anniversary for Christopher Paolini—I didn’t read past Eragon (but had one kid who got obsessed). But it’s hard to deny the impact he had.
Addicted to Scarcity—Book Publishing’s Retail Price Problem
A Big Year for Little Golden Book Bios—(not the point, but some of these look really cute)
Q&A: Bruce Borgos, Author of ‘The Bitter Past’
Magic to Serve, Not Solve, a Story: KJ Dell’Antonia on Magical Rules in Literature
How Do You Manage Reading Expectations?

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire—the 18th Toby Daye novel gives Tybalt’s perspective on recent events. Given that we know how things go after reading the 17th novel, I’m curious about how this will keep my attention (but assume it will)

A little bit of catch-up from last week, a little bit of stuff I found this week, and just a touch of things I will have found next week.

(two out of three ain’t bad).

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:
Dispatch From the Ghosts of Bookstores Past
We Don’t Talk About Harry Potter: The perils of publishing a diverse magic school series in the shadow of a juggernaut
Bros Are Coming for BookTok. These TikTokers Aren’t Having It
The Man Who Invented Fantasy: All those wizards, ogres, and barely-clad elf queens in the bookstore? You have Lester del Rey to thank.
How to Exclaim!—varied thoughts on !
Agony Editor: Judging your own book’s cover design – and what to do about it
What Makes Some Long Books Feel Too Long?—Templeton again asks the important questions
How Far Afield Can Sci-Fi and Fantasy “Fake Swearing” Get Before You Feel Uncomfortable?—honestly, I enjoy the fake swears. But, whatever…fun post anyway.
Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free—yup
Worlds Unlike Our Own and The Strawberry Post both recently celebrated their 5th Anniversaries. Each in an interesting fashion.
Why Shakespeare still matters—odd that this needs to be said, but…
10 Books That You Must Read Once in Your Life—yeah, maybe. I wonder if I put off reading a couple of these for a few more decades, do I get to live longer? How authoritative is that “must”?
The Five 2013 Reads I Remember Best—I enjoy Finn’s premises almost as much as his posts
The SciFiMonth Challenge—it’s right around the corner, are you participating?
On Writers, Reviewers, and a Pointless Tangle—tempted to just post this link on social media every so often for the next decade

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Lone Wolfe – Steve Hockensmith – Episode 32—a fun chat with the author of the Holmes on the Range series about fiction, Nero Wolfe, his own material and more. Couldn’t agree more with everything he said about The Big Sleep, incidentally.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Up on the Woof Top by Spencer Quinn—a new Chet and Bernie book? Sign me up. Based on the last “Christmas” novel for these two, the holiday will be part of the setting, but it could be read without regard to the season.