Category: Books Page 51 of 159

Saturday Miscellany—6/10/23

On June 10, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

If anyone sees this today and then sees me at the event I’m at this afternoon. The image at the bottom is totally coincidental and is in no way a commentary on what I think this afternoon will be like.

(but, yeah, I will be).

Also, because I seem to be in that kind of mood: For the record, I only picked up one link here from Peat Long’s Friday Five–the others in common we found independently from one another. He doesn’t do all my research.

Enough of that…here’s the 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:
bullet Every Country’s Highest-Rated Book by a Local Author—an impressive bit of data analysis.
bullet The Battle of the Book Cover: Britain vs America—The folks at Electric Lit rank a few recent US and UK covers of the same books.
bullet The release S.A. Cosby’s much-anticipated new book this week brings with it a couple of great interviews. This one with Friend of the Blog, Nick Kowlakowski, and this one with Maris Kreizman.
bullet M.W. CRAVEN on his new thriller FEARLESS—Craven talks about the origins of his new novel, Fearless (coming soon!), and the series it launches.
bullet Lit Hub has several Summer Reading lists for those of you still considering yours, among them are: The Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List Or, the Count of Melty Crispo and The 28 Novels You Need to Read This Summer: The Lit Hub Staff Recommends Books for Beaches, Benches, Backyards, and BBQs
bullet Or, if you’re trying to help out a younger reader build their list Library Reads: Summer Reading Recommendations for Middle Grade & Teen Readers—(if you happen to be a younger reader yourself reading this Miscellany, let me know, I’m glad to know you exist)
bullet 63 Best Historical Fiction Books Ever Written
bullet Do You Ever Stop and Think About Paragraphs?—Yes. Ever since a professor wrote about worrying about my “anemic little paragraphs” blowing away in the wind on a paper. (think I still got a B on it) But I like seeing other people stop and do it, too.
bullet Author Interview: JCM Berne, author of “Wistful Ascending”—Eclectic Theist has a good Q&A with Berne.
bullet Does Everyone Need to Have a Love of Reading?—No, and Pages Unbound does a good job answering why. Just don’t tell my kids or grandkid that I said that 🙂
bullet Having Read vs Reading—I may have to adopt this myself.
bullet Why Do I Give Books 4 Stars Instead of 5 Stars?—a great job trying to explain what can feel like a slippery difference.
bullet Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub Presents: The Hero’s Journey and Modern Fantasy—Beth Tabler from Before We Go Blog, David (Book Meanderings) from FanFi Addict, Peatlong from Peat Long’s blog, and Filip Magnus from The Grimoire Reliquary join Jodie for a discussion. Earlier in the week I called this “the only blog post you need to read this week.” Here at the end of the week, I agree with myself.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Fiction Fans Author Interview: Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel—Cartmel talks about his new series for a bit, and convinces me that I should move it up on the TBR pile

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby—”The first Black sheriff in a small Southern town faces a questionable shooting, a Confederate pride march, and a serial killer.” That’s good enough for me. I was sure I’d ordered this, but I seem to have forgotten to. I’ll have to wait until next week to have it sitting neglected on my shelf. But man, it looks so good.
bullet Charm City Rocks: A Love Story by Matthew Norman—”When a single dad meets the former rock-star crush of his youth, everything they thought they knew about happiness and love is thrown into chaos in this hopeful, heartwarming romantic comedy.”
bullet Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel—the first in a new series, The Paperback Sleuth. Cordelia is a rare paperback collector/dealer who burgles an elusive set from one of the most dangerous men in London. Things ensue.

Highlights from May: Lines Worth Repeating

By HCNewton

On June 8, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations

Highlights from the Month
I was shocked as I put this together that I only had one selection from The Winter of Frankie Machine, but all the other bits only work in context (and you might argue the same of this one). At the same time, I assure you I exercised restraint with both Russo and Harrow (and, yes, I typed that Russow and Harro initially).

The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow

He finds the boat, the Becky Lynn. The name tells the story—two guys finally get their wives’ permission to buy a boat together and name it after both wives so they don’t get jealous. Not of each other, of the boat.

Which never works, Frank thinks.

Women and boats mix like…

Women and boats.

Straight Man by Richard Russo

I couldn’t understand her failure to grasp what was happening. It was my opinion, then and now, that two people who love each other need not necessarily have the same dreams and aspirations, but they damn well ought to share the same nightmares.

One of the nice things about our marriage, at least to my way of thinking, is that my wife and I no longer have to argue everything through. We each know what the other will say, and so the saying becomes an unnecessary formality. No doubt some marriage counselor would explain to us that our problem is a failure to communicate. But to my way of thinking, we’ve worked long and hard to achieve this silence, Lily’s and mine, so fraught with understanding.

The student newspaper contains a lot more humor, though most of it is unintentional. Except for the front page (news) and the back page(sports), the campus rag contains little but Letters to the Editor, which I scan first for allusions to myself and next for unusual content. Which in the current climate is any subject other than the Unholy Trinity of insensitivity, sexism, and bigotry, which the self-righteous (though not always literate) letter writers want their readers to know they’re against. As a group they seem to believe that high moral indignation offsets, and indeed outweighs, all deficiencies of punctuation, spelling, grammar, logic, and style. In support of this notion, there’s only the entire culture.

There’s no bad side of the tracks in Railton, also no good side. The rule is, the closer you get to the tracks, the worse.

You may not believe me, but I’ve always liked you, Hank. You’re like a character in a good book–almost real, you know?

The world is divided between kids who grew up wanting be their parents and those like us, who grow up wanting anything but. Neither group ever succeeds.

Perhaps no man should possess the key to his wife’s affections, what makes and keeps him worthy in her eyes. That would be like gaining unauthorized access to God’s grace, we would not use such knowledge wisely.

The Rhythm of Time by Questlove with S.A. Cosby

Kasia spun around on her work stool to face him. There was tape on the bridge of her glasses, but they weren’t broken. Kasia called it an affectation.

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

“Justice served with a side of pineapple. That’s what I’m here for.”

“Do you ever worry about anything?” I ask him, dropping into a chair. I eye the table sadly. It has been cleared and no further refreshments have been set out.

“My next bottle of wine,” Kenta says with mock seriousness. “When I’ll meet my heart’s companion.”

I snort. “Aren’t they the same thing?”

I slam against the wall, collapsing in a heap on the floor. Now would be a good time to black out, I think groggily. But I don’t.

The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas

Dad hates books about magic. He calls them “fabricated tales written for profit.” Technically, all fiction books are fabricated tales written for profit, but I let the dude have his moments.

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

So what if the lyrics were a bit on the nose. Isn’t that the great thing about songs? They give voice to thoughts, and feelings, and urges one might hesitate to reveal some other way.

“Have you ever noticed that there are way more sad love songs than happy love songs?” I said after a silence.
“No,” she signed, ” but I’ve done a tally. I suspect you’re right though.”
Which might explain why I haven’t come up with anything great yet song-wise. But I am trying. I’m beginning to think happiness as an emotion is an anathema to song writing.

Did I just use “anathema” correctly? It’s one of those words that can suddenly feel wrong. Like “pulchritude.”

“Music is a conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy to commit beauty.” — Jose Antonio Abreu

To calm myself, I imagined my future creative life in Oxford with Tom, my very own Rochester. Except not rich. Or arrogant. Or twice my age.

“Life is but a dream. Except it’s a lucid dream and you’ve got the oars… Okay, so maybe you’re in some tiny, wooden rowboat in the middle of a great, big ocean. But you can still steer the thing. You can go anywhere, do anything.”

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

“Oh.” Juniper feels the hot flare in the line between them, fierce and defiant. Is that what mother’s love is like?a thing with teeth?

“What, like fate?” It’s the first thing Agnes has said since they stepped outside, and both her sisters flinch from the venom of it. “Like destiny?” Fate is a story people tell themselves so they can believe everything happens for a reason, that the whole awful world is fitted together like some perfect machine, with blood for oil and bones for brass. That every child locked in her cellar or girl chained to her loom is in her right and proper place.

She doesn’t much care for fate.

An officer arrives twice a day to hang a pail of something whitish and congealed inside her cell. Grits, Juniper thinks, or the aggrieved ghost a grit might leave behind if it was murdered in cold blood.

It hurts even to think it. They came back for me. She feels something snap in her chest, as if her heart is a broken bone poorly set, which has to break again before it can heal right.

The problem with saving someone, Bella thinks, is that they so often refuse to remain saved. They careen back out into the perilous world, inviting every danger and calamity, quite careless of the labor it took to rescue them in the first place.

That evening Miss Lee feeds them a cabbage-and-ham stew which Juniper doubts has done more than meet a ham once in passing.

She thinks how very tiresome it is to love and be loved. She can even risk her life properly, because it no longer belongs solely to her.

Questland by Carrie Vaughn

She chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I suppose we all like to think we’ll be Captain America, but most of us are just on the street trying to dodge falling buildings.”

“Why not be Captain America?” I said, too tired to be angry but too annoyed to keep my mouth shut. “He was just a guy on the street, at the start.”

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

A new wound can take a body. Opening an old one can claim a soul.

“It is my duty as a free man to read so I’m not blind being lead around by my nose.”

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven.

I feel like a kid who wished for a lizard and woke up to a dragon sitting on the lawn.

“I know it may be impossible to believe now, when everything is dark and broken, but you will survive this pain, little one. Pain is a memory. You will live and you will struggle and you will find joy. And you will remember your family from this breath to your dying days, because love does not fade. Love is the stars, and its light carries on long after death.”

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)

Book Blogger Hop: What Would the Title of Your Autobiography Be?

By HCNewton

On June 7, 2023

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

What would the title of your autobiography be?

This is a tough one, beyond thinking that I’d ever write an autobiography. Still, I enjoyed trying to come up with something fitting. Here are a few scattered ideas that I’ve gathered over the last few days:

bullet The Irresponsible Reader—hey, I’ve got a brand (of sorts), lean into it, right?
bullet …That Reminds Me of Something I Read—I’ve started noticing how often I can derail a conversation into being about something I read, something I remember my conversation partner mentioning reading lately, some book I’ve seen on a blog somewhere that the conversation reminds me of. If I were to write an autobiography, it’d end up being filled with these kinds of things. It’s probably the best title I can think of.
bullet A Life In Books—it feels a bit pretentious and would be better for a librarian, bookseller, or prolific writer.
bullet Pax, Amor, et Lepos in Iocando—this is a reference to one of my favorite children’s books, the name of my little-used personal blog, and what I hope I focus on
bullet I Can’t Imagine Anyone Wants to Read this, But… —self-deprecation may be the kiss of death in an Autobiography title, but it’s honest.

What would you call your life story?

WWW Wednesday, June 7, 2023

By HCNewton

On June 7, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

Here we are on the 159th day of 2023 and I’m still trying to catch up on my plans for February. This is not so much a complaint on my part as an observation about how bad I am at planning. A true sign that I either need to do less of it, or a whole lot more of it to improve with practice.

It’s also a Wednesday, so that makes it time for WWW Wednesday, so let’s get on with that.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith and I feel like I’m going to be reading it for the rest of the summer. I’m listening to The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, Scott Brick (Narrator) on audiobook, which is both considerably shorter and a charming little novel that I can’t believe Scott Brick is narrating (it’s working, but he’s about the last guy I’d have thought of).

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What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Adam Holcombe’s A Necromancer Called Gam Gam and The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford, narrated by Lauren Patten and Graham Halstead.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the comedic The Worst Man by Jon Rance, Rance is an author I’d been wanting to return to—now’s as good a time as any, right? My next audiobook should be Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, I just stumbled across it yesterday and it struck me as interesting.

Blank Space

Have you been reading anything good, or at least interesting, lately?

May 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On June 5, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I read 18 titles (9 down from April, 6 down from last May), with an equivalent of 5,634+ pages or the equivalent (1,160 down from last month), and gave them an average of 3.67 stars (.08 up from last month). Not the best stats, but…whatever. I read some really good books and had a lot of fun.

I posted a lot of non-review-ish posts this month, which is nice, and something I need to do more of. But man…I’m so far behind on the review-ish front that I don’t even know how far I’m behind. I have some ideas to help (at least one of them semi-creative), but mostly I just need to take the time to get it done. I’m not too bothered by it, but I’d be fibbing if I said it didn’t bug me.

Basically, I was satisfied—even pleased—with the month. Here’s what happened here in May.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to



	</a

	</a

Still Reading

Ratings

		Average =	3.67
	1		1
	4		0
	5		0
	3		1
	3

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read
End of 2022	5	45	42	143
1st of the Month	3	45	54	144
Added	4	5	1	2
Read/ Listened	2	1	3	1
Current Total	5	49	52	145

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 15
Self-/Independent Published: 3

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	11 (9%)
Fantasy	3 (13%)	12 (10%)
General Fiction/ Literature	3 (13%)	10 (8%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	5 (21%)	36 (30%)
Non-Fiction	2 (8%)	9 (8%)
Science Fiction	2 (8%)	12 (10%)
Theology/ Christian Living	2 (8%)	13 (11%)
Urban Fantasy	1 (4%)	13 (11%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Swamp Story by Dave Barry: Florida. Just say it’s Florida.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: Are You Not Entertained?
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 21: Turn Around by R. T. Slaywood: The Aftermath
What is Love? by Kyle Borg: A (too?) Brief Look at a Deep Topic
Tower of Babel by Michael Sears: Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of
The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade, Tor Freeman, Jarvis Cocker, Lydia Fox: In Print or Audio, It’s Just Delightful
Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh: Bree Taggert’s on the Hunt for a Killer Out for Revenge
Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani: This Will Hit You Like a Bolt of Something
Grandpappy’s Corner: God, Right Here: Meeting God in the Changing Seasons by Kara Lawler, Jennie Poh (Illustrator): A Little Dose of Natural Revelation
Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire: Now, Where Were We? Oh, Right…
The Rhythm of Time by Questlove with S. A. Cosby: Not a Flux Capacitor in Sight, but There Might as Well Be
Ten Reasons to NOT Read Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 22: Animals Instinct by R. T. Slaywood: A Quick but Satisfying Episode
Non-Toxic Masculinity: Recovering Healthy Male Sexuality by Zachary Wagner: A Good Step in the Right Direction
The Only Truly Dead (Audiobook) by Rob Parker, Warren Brown: This Trilogy Ends as Strongly as it Started
Douglas Adams’ London by Yvette Keller: The Map of London I Never Knew I Needed
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 23: Grift or Die by R. T. Slaywood: Without a Paddle
Church History in Plain Language, Fifth Edition by Bruce Shelley, Revision Editor Marshall Shelley: Gets Too Much Wrong
100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings: The Tour Guide No One Wants, But Everyone Needs
Man on a Murder Cycle by Mark Pepper: Move Over SAMCROW, You’ve Got Nothing on This Biker

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

20 Books of Summer 2023: This Summer I Settle All Family Business

By HCNewton

On June 3, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy

Cathy at 746 Books is hosting 20 Books of Summer again. This challenge has been fun the few years and has proved to be a good way for me to actually focus on things I’ve gotten distracted from and/or impulse buys. This year, my personal theme is “This Summer I Settle All Family Business.” “All” isn’t quite right, but it’s close. I’m using this to take care of another reading challenge, to catch up on my Literary Locals reading, and to put a major dent in my Mt. TBR. It’s an ambitious list in a sense, but, I think I can do it. I mentioned the 3 Jackson Ford books on 2 posts last year as things I wanted to finish in 2022–and well, here they are. So I can at least catch up with some of my ambitions from last year (blech).

As usual, I’m going with the unofficial US Dates for Summer—Memorial Day to Labor Day (May 29 through September 4th), just because it’s easier for me to think that way. And I’ve needed those first few days of September more than once, but let’s not think about that. The mildly observant among you will note that I’m posting this after May 29, so I’m already late. At the earliest, I’ll start reading for this on June 5. We’ll make it interesting (I think it was last year or the year before I barely started before July, I will do better than that this year. Most likely).

There’s still time to join in the fun–if you’re into this kind of thing. (there are 10 and 15 book versions, too)

This summer, my 20 are going to be:

1. The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
2. Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3 by Kate Baray
3. The Lemon Man by Ken Bruton
4. The Flood Circle by Harry Connolly
5. Barking for Business by E.N. Crane
6. Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford
7. Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford
8. A Sh*tload of Crazy Powers by Jackson Ford
9. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
10. Stone of Asylum by Hilarey Johnson

11. Proxies by James T. Lambert
12. Teaching Moments by Troy Lambert
13. Stray Ally by Troy Lambert
14. Cutthroat Cupcakes by Cate Lawley
15. Shadow Ranch by Rebecca Carey Lyles
16. Pure of Heart by Danielle Parker
17. The Worst Man by Jon Rance
18. However Long the Day by Justin Reed
19. Klone’s Stronghold by Joyce Reynolds-Ward
20. Fuzzwiggs: The Switcheroo by Amy Maren Rice

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

20 Books of Summer '23 Chart

Saturday Miscellany—6/3/23

By HCNewton

On June 3, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

This week started off strong for me and then fell apart quickly (6 posts left undone and unposted). The non-blog life got interesting, no horrible events occurred just a couple of things that were ill-timed and long. So today I’m going to scramble to get as caught up as I can. Also, this blog’s really dull Instagram page got suspended because someone claimed I was harvesting user data or something like that. Pshaw. Even if I wanted to, I don’t possess the know-how. Sounds like too much work. (really easy fix, but it was just one other thing I didn’t need)

I do want to take a moment and thank all the readers for the texts, comments, tweets, etc. about the 10th Anniversary. They meant a lot to me–I think I’ve thanked you all individually, but just in case. Thanks for being around and reading.

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:
bullet Here’s a Way to Make Sure You Actually Read the Books You Buy—This might actually work. Odds that I’ll try it? Extremely low.
bullet Publisher Drops Author After TikTok Backlash and GoodReads Review Bombing—I saw the author’s video retweeted a few times–and IF Stusek was joking as she claims, that should be the last time she jokes in public, because she’s just not good at it. I’m not sure the Goodreads bombing and the publisher’s reaction was warranted, but it is 2023, Stusek had to know it was coming.
bullet 1,001 Novels: A Library of America—An interactive map of the novels that depict the USA. I’m linking to the introduction, you need to take a moment and check out the map itself (and find yourself taking more than a moment). Actually, I’m thiiiis close to spending the rest of the morning on the site itself and never finishing this post or anything much else today.
bullet 10 Things You Might Not Know About NetGalley
bullet 10 Screen Adaptations Much, Much Worse Than The Books They’re Based On—I’ve only seen The Hobbit movies (sometimes because they seemed to be lousy adaptations). But this looks like a good list. Anyone have one to add? Anyone want to defend one of these? I’m curious.
bullet 2023’s Wyrd & Wonder is over, here are the last week Quest Logs from Dear Geek Place and The Book Nook. A lot of good material was produced this year, and I’m so glad that Peat Long pointed me to these Quest Logs so I could sorta keep up with some of it.
bullet Book Blogging in 2023 Survey: Book Blogger Survey Results and Statistics
bullet Step by Step Guide On How to Win a Booker Prize—It’s pretty clear that The Booker Prize isn’t really the Orangutan Librarian’s thing, but that doesn’t mean that this post isn’t chock-full of great advice for aspirants
bullet I’m Not Convinced Book Bloggers Need AI—I should’ve realized that this was a thing to think about, but I didn’t until I read this post.
bullet On Fantasy as the Genre of Recovery—Good ol’ Peat nails it here. To his point: I’ve done a little thought-experiment to see if I could write a companion piece on Detective/Crime Fiction and the answer is: not really (Urban Fantasy, which is so frequently a mashup of Detective and Fantasy, straddles the line).
bullet On My Radar: May 2023—if you’re not checking in on A Literary Escape frequently, you ought to at least take a peak at their monthly On My Radar posts. (but checking in on the blog frequently would be a good idea)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Man on a Murder Cycle by Mark Pepper—a vengeful motor cycle rider, a violent plagiarism scheme, and a week’s worth of surprises await you in this thriller. I had a bit to say about it earlier this week.
bullet A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe—It’s a book with the word “necromancer” in the title and it’s described as cute. That’s almost enough reason to read this right there. The early reviewers singing the praises of this novella seal the deal. I’m 10% in and think my voice will be one of that choir soon.

WWW Wednesday, May 31, 2023

By HCNewton

On May 31, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

The day I’ve long-dreaded has arrived–I don’t mean a WWW Wednesday, or the end of May. The last episode of Ted Lasso is released today, and I’m just not ready for it*. I’d best distract myself by talking some books.

* Yes, I know that Season 3 has had its detractors, and I haven’t loved every moment of it, but I’ll just tell you now, keep your negativity about the show away from me.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron (it only took me 6 months since the last one) and I’m still listening to Iron Gold by Pierce Brown, Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Julian Elfer, and Aedin Moloney on audiobook.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Mark Pepper’s Man on a Murder Cycle, a fast and furious read. The last audiobook I finished is still The Only Truly Dead by Rob Parker, Warren Brown (Narrator), a great way to end the trilogy.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe, a book I have to try based on the title alone. My next audiobook should still be a revisit of The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind Narrated by Lauren Patten and Graham Halstead.

Blank Space

What about you?

How Has Book Blogging Changed the Way I Read? (Blogiversary ruminations)

By HCNewton

On May 29, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, News/Misc.

This was originally published for my 8th Blogiversary, and I liked it enough that I figured it was worth reposting today. There’s some unfortunate overlap with other posts from today, but I’m feeling self-indulgent enough to do it anyway.

I started this thing on May 29, 2013, with no real idea of what I was doing—or getting myself into. At this point, I’m still not sure what I’m doing. But, I’m apparently doing it for a while.

A few months ago, one of the blogger prompt/meme things asked “How has book blogging changed the way you read?” As per my norm, I over-thought it and didn’t get around to writing anything for that particular day/week’s prompt. But that question has lingered in the back of my mind. So here are some thoughts about it—I’d have preferred to polish this some more. But I’m pretty sure if I polished/reworked this to the extend I want, there’s no way it’d go up today. It might be ready for my 9th Blogiversary (almost certainly my 10th).

How Has Book Blogging Changed the Way I Read?

I think about what I’m going to read more

I decide to read a book largely by whim (or I picked a book in a series or by an author months/years/decades ago by whim and have to keep going), but the question of when is given thought. But it’s kind of the same thing—did I just read something in a similar genre? Do I have time due to library due dates, blog tour, publication date?

Pros: Thinking about reading is almost as good as actually reading, and I generally enjoy the thinking.
Cons: I feel a little silly when I think about how much effort I put into this. Also, I can slip into spending too much time on this to the neglect of other things—like a youtube hole. I’m not talking about hours or anything. But I can spend a ridiculous amount of time on it. Deciding what to put for the “What are You Going to Read Next” part of a WWW Wednesday post can easily take 3-5x longer than assembling the post itself.

I’m better informed about selecting what I read

I almost never go into a book blind anymore—I know something about the book, the author, or the publisher. Someone—not an algorithm—has done something to bring it to my attention.

Pros: Forewarned is forearmed, right?
Cons: Even before the pandemic eliminated this possibility, it’s been forever since I just browsed my library’s New Release shelf (or any other shelf) just to see if something caught my eye. I’ve stumbled onto real gems that way.

I think about what I read more

The origin story of this blog focuses on this point. I used to just read constantly, one book from the next, and would barely give what I read any thought. Just put one book down and pick up the next. It bugged me, but I couldn’t do much about it. My family would only put up with so much book talk from me—my eldest was a young teen when I started this and my youngest was in early elementary school, just not the right ages to talk about most of what I read, and my wife did/does listen to me prattle on, but even her eyes glaze over at a point. So writing about every (or almost every) book I read helped me stop, think about, consider, evaluate, and spend more time in each book.

I should note that there are now four people in “Real Life” I can chat with about books—which is nice. Thanks, Paul, Nicole, Tony, and Adrianne.

Pros: I stopped feeling like I was short-changing myself and the effort the authors put into what I read. Sure, I’d think about what I read a little, but not much—at least not enough to satisfy myself. I know I’m getting a lot more out of what I read.

I read more widely

Sure, if you look at my genre breakdowns, it may not look like it. But from my point of view, I’m reading a greater variety of things than I think I would’ve. For example, I can’t imagine I’d have heard of, much less purchased from, 95% of the indie presses/authors I follow now. That goes for a lot of non-indie authors, too. This goes along with the being better informed—I’m reading other readers’ blogs/tweets and whatnot, and people I’ve never heard of are asking me to read their stuff (I’m still getting used to this idea, and that’s been happening for 7 years). Sub-genres, perspectives, settings, you name it—there’s a greater variety to my menu. (even bigger if I throw in the “I should get into that one day” list)

I re-read less

I have a hard time spending time with a book unless I can think of something to do with it for the blog. Which means fewer re-reads. No one wants to read bi-annual posts about Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout—and I probably can’t find things to say about it every few months.

Pros: I’m sure there are some.
Cons: I miss re-reading. I’d do it because I love the world, the characters, the author, whatever. And I like revisiting them. I like getting to know them better, understanding more, finding details I’d missed and/or forgotten. It used to be when I got sick, I’d grab a random Nero Wolfe book for some comfort to go along with the chicken soup, but I haven’t done that in, well at least 6 years (hmmm, that’s 2 Wolfe references on this point, I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something).

The best part

When I actually get to the reading. When I get the couple of minutes-a few hours to read, all of the above stops mattering. I don’t think about blogging, I don’t think about my reading schedule, or any of the other paraphernalia. I’m just lost in a book, I’m really no different than the seven-year-old kid on his first out-of-state road trip with his parents who didn’t realize how mind-numbingly dull riding in a car would be so didn’t bring anything to read. He ended up complaining so much that his parents stopped, bought a couple of books at a grocery store, and shut him up for the next week or so as he read the two books—Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective and Sugar Creek Gang: Screams in the Night*—multiple times, perfectly content to be lost in the worlds created by Donald J. Sobol and Paul Hutchens**, while his family was having fun in this one***.

At the end of the day, that’s what counts, right?

* More than four decades later I still have both of those books.
** Mysteries and a thriller. Pretty easy to see the effect of that on me, isn’t it?
*** Make no mistake, when we got to Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc.—I put the books down and had fun. Even I’m not that strange.

Saturday Miscellany—5/27/23

By HCNewton

On May 27, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

No real time for an introduction today (“No blather,” you all cheer) for what feels like a very miscellany list. Hope you enjoy and have a good long* weekend!

* From what I can tell this applies to almost every reader that stops by location, if not by current vocation. If this doesn’t apply to you, I hope you have a good regular-sized weekend, or at least one day off.

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:
bullet Independent bookselling expanded again in 2022, with new and diverse stores opening nationwide—groovy news.
bullet I’ve read almost 50 books so far and the year is not halfway over. Here’s how.
bullet The State Of Being A Published Writer In 2023 Is Really Weird, And A Little Worrisome—Chuck Wendig has a few things to say (and do keep reading through the end)
bullet The big idea: why you should embrace your inner fan—Not about reading per se, but it applies
bullet How do You Write Compelling Characters? Find the Source of Their Pain—I’ve read a few books by Copperman, and “pain” isn’t the first word I’d associate with his material. But reading this, it makes a lot of sense.
bullet Do You Know Who Illustrated This Classic Wrinkle in Time Cover?—I don’t know how I’d managed to forget this cover (I likely spent as much time looking at this cover as I did reading the book the umpteen times I did read it as a kid).
bullet Dos and Don’ts for Reading Outside—the last “Don’t” is where I always failed until I got a backyard, and, well…
bullet Place and Tome: On Two Kinds of Unforgettable Reading Experiences
bullet CrimeBookJunkie turned 8 this week!—Congrats to Noelle Holten for hitting this landmark! Hope it’s just the beginning.
bullet I missed this last week, but Beth Tabler has assembled a great list of 100 Fantastic Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories Written by Women #100 – 70, #69 – 34, and #33 – 1
bullet Hanna’s Holy Grail or White Whale—a bookseller’s hunt for a beloved childhood novel
bullet Book Confessions: I’ll Never Outgrow YA Books
bullet This worked out so well last week, I’ll just repeat it. Check out the Week 3 Wyrd and Wonder Quest Logs at Dear Geek Place and The Book Nook
bullet The Fantasy Hero Blues—Peat Long’s latest contribution to Wyrd & Wonder

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (I have the impression that I’m forgetting one or two…):
bullet The Moonshine Messiah by William Johnson—this looks too good. A woman sheriff in WV has to tangle with an anti-government militia led by her brother.