Category: Calendar Items Page 22 of 25

On June 1, 2015

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

Have seen a few folks do a month-end wrap-up, sorta liked the idea (it is more work than I thought, so I’m not sure what I think of it now). So anyway, here’s what happened here in May.

Books Read:

Still Reading:

Reviews Posted:

The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter by Rod Duncan
Goodbye Ginny Madison by Dave Gehrke
The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by W. Bruce Cameron
Thicker Than Water by G.M. Ford
The Younger Gods by Michael R. Underwood
Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson
Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder
Review Catch Up: Rolling Thunder; Fun House; Free Fall by Chris Grabenstein
“Concussion Cover-Up” & “NSA Priest” by Carac Allison
Kickback by Ace Atkins
The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
Woof by Spencer Quinn
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
Attack the Geek by Michael R. Underwood

How was your month?

Towel Day ’15

On May 25, 2015

In Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

One of my long-delayed goals is to write up a good all-purpose Tribute to Douglas Adams post, and another Towel Day has come without me doing so. Next year . . . or later. Adams is one of those handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel (I’ve only been able to get one of my sons into Adams, he’s the taller, thinner one below).

TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day, this year were able to post this pretty cool video, shot on the ISS by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Today in MYSTERY HISTORY

On April 6, 2015

This post, 4/6/1950 Nero Wolfe lurches toward the Reichenbach, was shared on one of the Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe Facebook groups today. I really like this kind of post — it’s the kind of thing (at least in the ballpark) I’d like to be doing along with the review-y things, I just can’t find the time to work on them.

Anyhow, check it out, and enjoy this piece of Wolfean history.

My Most Anticipated Books of 2015

Inspired by other sites, I thought I’d look to 2015 and compile a quick list what I’m really looking forward to, but that list is pretty much just the next installments my favorite series (The Dresden Files, Spenser, Jesse Stone, Mercy Thompson/Alpha and Omega, The Iron Druid Chronicles, Elvis Cole/Joe Pike, Rachel Morgan’s farewell, the new thing in Myke Cole’s world, Red Rising trilogy, Kitty Norville, Carter Ross Mysteries, etc., etc. ), new series/work from guys I really like (Butcher’s Cinder Spires leaps to mind), and a bunch of stuff that’s not even on my radar at all (like Pierce Brown and Wes Chu were at this point last year). That last batch is the most exciting, the big unknown.

Outside of that, the book I’m most looking forward to is:

Armada

by Ernest Cline
I’m pretty sure this is coming out in 2015 (thought 2014, but these things happen), and I will drop just about anything else I’m reading to jump in when it comes out.

On the other hand, the book I know I’m going to read that I’m least looking forward to is:

Archie in the Crosshairs

by Robert Goldsborough
My Review
Not to keep beating up on the guy, because I realize I’m becoming (have become?) one of the jerks from The Missing Chapter — but from the title to the expected execution of the novel, this is just painful.

But I will read every word at the earliest possibility.

The Worst Reads of 2014

I don’t want to do this kind of thing — but as I was looking over the books I read this year, I was either angry at the book or really disappointed with myself for wasting time with these three — so I figured I’d say something. Here are my Worst Novels/Biggest Disappointments of 2014 (in alphabetical order):

Poison Fruit

by Jacqueline Carey
My Review
This one just disappointed me so much, I’ll spare the rant. It could’ve been really, really good and it turned into a wreck.

Murder in the Ball Park

by Robert Goldsborough
My Review
It’s just wrong. Goldsborough had 1.5-2 strong Nero Wolfe novels in him, and it started to go downhill. But his last two are a whole new level of rotten. He needs to move on.

The Diner: Why is Church Important?

by Shane Sowers
My Review is forthcoming
The bits of this that are theological dialogues like The Pearl of Christian Comfort or Easy Chairs, Hard Words, are really good — sometimes great. But when it tries to develop (or show) character, when it tries humor? It’s bad. When it tries for plot? It’s just horrible.

Some Honorable Mentions of 2014

The Day of Lists continues:

Here are the books I wanted to include on my best of, but something kept me from it.

Honorable Mentions should go to (in alphabetical order):

He Drank, and Saw the Spider

by Alex Bledsoe
My Review
You could substitute Wake of the Bloody Angel here. This series has long-surpassed the gimmick of a hard-boiled detective novel in a generic fantasy setting. Pigeon-hole it however you want, it’s just a good book.

The Lives of Tao

by Wesley Chu
My Review
Despite the buzz around this, I wasn’t sure I was terribly interested — nor did I really know what to expect. So, so glad I took the chance. A barrel full of exciting, gun-blazing, snarky fun.

Bad Little Girls Die Horrible Deaths and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy

by Harry Connolly

My Review
I’m not normally a short story reader, but more collections like this might make me one. Different types of fantasy, all well written, even in the stories that aren’t my cup of tea I found something to enjoy.

The Severed Streets

by Paul Cornell
My Review
Audible.com has provided a sample of the audio book version. Give it a shot, I’m betting 30 minutes won’t be enough.
I was impressed by the first in this series, London Falling, but this kicked it into a different gear. It’s about London as an entity as much as it is about these characters and their opponents — it’s dark, twisted and a little hopeful. Some fine writing here.

The Intern’s Handbook: A Thriller

by Shane Kuhn
My Review
Hyper-violent, comic commentary on corporate cultures with heart. Or something like that.

The Humans

by Matt Haig
My Review
Haig’s got this gift for making us look at ourselves with the oddest type of outsider. Ultimately, I realize I’ve read and watched this story before, but I was either finished or nearly finished before I had that insight. Either way, didn’t care, because no one had told it like this.

The Westing Game

by Ellen Raskin
My Review is forthcoming
I’ve sat down to write the review of this one I don’t know how many times. I read this dozens upon dozens of times as a kid — loving the characters, the story, the strange little puzzle. And then walked away from it for decades. Reading it this summer was a wonderful blast from the past, and although I felt like I could recite the thing en toto I couldn’t, it still filled me with joy. Not just for nostalgia’s sake, either. This was probably one of my 3 favorite reads of the year, but it felt like cheating to put it on the main list, so here it is.

Landline

by Rainbow Rowell
My Review
A marriage on the rocks, a career on the brink, a magic telephone and Rainbow Rowell’s charm and heart. What more can I say?

Where’d You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple
My Review is forthcoming
First book I finished in 2014, and it’s stuck with me the whole year — even as I struggle to write a review. A strange, impossibly strange and entirely believable world, populated with people I’m convinced could exist — and maybe do. I don’t know what else I can say about this (probably explains the year delay). It’s good. Funny, heartfelt, tragic.

The Best Novels I Read in 2014

In Authors, Books, Calendar Items, Fiction, Jim Butcher, News/Misc., Pierce Brown, Red Rising, Robert B. Parker, Science Fiction

I somehow failed at this exercise last year, but I managed to pull it off for 2014. Phew, starting the year off with one in the Win column! Before we get to The Best of, if you’re really curious, here’s a list of every book I read in 2014.

While compiling the best, I started with what I’d rated 5 stars — just 11 novels. I could take just the best 10 of those — piece of cake, right? Wrong. There were titles I expected to see there that weren’t, and a couple that I was surprised to see listed. So I looked at the 4 and 4½ books — and had a similar reaction.

Now, I stand by my initial ratings — for honesty’s sake as much as laziness. But I did put some of my lower rated books in the best, knocking some 5-star books out. They might have been impressive workds, doing everything I wanted — but some of these others stuck with me in ways the 5’s didn’t — emotional impact, remembering details/stories in more vivid detail, that sort of thing.

Eh, it’s all subjective anyway, so why not? I did try to account for recency bias in this — and pretty sure I succeeded, but I may owe an apology or two.

Later today, I’ll post the Honorable Mentions list and the Worst of List — as well as what I’m looking forward to most in 2015. The Day of Lists, apparently. With one exception, I limited these lists to things I hadn’t read before (it shows up in the Honorable Mention post). Enough jibber-jabber, on to the Best Novels I read in 2014:

(in alphabetical order)

Red Rising

by Pierce Brown
My Review
This was exciting, compelling, devastating, thrilling, and occasionally revolting. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve recommended this one to this year.

Skin Game

by Jim Butcher
My Review
It almost feels like a cheat to put this on the list, but I don’t know if any of the books since Changes would’ve made a year end list, so it’s not like Butcher/Dresden owns a spot here. I laughed, I got pretty darn misty a time or two, I’m pretty sure I audibly reacted to a victory also. Best of this series in awhile.

The Girl With All the Gifts

by M.R. Carey
My Review
This probably would’ve gotten 5-star rating from me if it hadn’t had to overcome genre/subject prejudice. Still, freakishly good.

Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot

by Reed Farrel Coleman
My Review
Coleman knocked this one out of the park, erasing the bad taste that his predecessor had left, and making me look forward to reading this series in a way I hadn’t for years. As good as (better in some ways, worse in others) Parker at his best.

Those Who Wish Me Dead

by Michael Koryta

My Review
Not the best Koryta book I’ve ever read, but something about this one has stuck with me since I finished it. Solid suspense, exciting stuff.

Endsinger

by Jay Kristoff
My Review
I knew going in that this was going to be a. well-written, b. brutal and c. a good conclusion to the series (well, I expected that last one, expected tinged with hope.). It didn’t let me down. I admit, I shed a tear or two, felt like I got punched in the gut a couple of times and didn’t breathe as often as I should’ve while reading. Such a great series.

The Republic of Thieves

by Scott Lynch
My Review is forthcoming
Can’t believe I haven’t finished this review yet — it’s 80% done, I just can’t figure out how to tie the paragraphs together in a way to make it coherent and (I hope) interesting. A lot of this book is a prequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora and yet there was genuine suspense about those parts. Lynch had a big challenge introducing us to a character here that had achieved near-mythic status, and she ended up living up to expectations. Just a gem of a book.

The Winter Long

by Seanan McGuire
My Review is forthcoming
Again, I’m not sure how I haven’t finished this review yet. McGuire takes a lot of what Toby’s “known” since we met her (all of which is what we’ve “known,” too) and turns it upside down and shakes the truth out. Every other book in the series has been affected by these revelations — which is just so cool. There’s also some nice warm fuzzies in this book, which isn’t that typical for the series. McGuire’s outdone herself.

Wonder

by R. J. Palacio
My Review
Heart-breaking, inspiring, saved from being cliché by the interesting narrative choices Palacio made. Yeah, it’s After School Special-y. So what? Really well done. I have no shame saying this kids’ book made me tear up (even thinking about it know, I’m getting bit misty-eyed).

The Martian

by Andy Weir

My Review
Very science-y (but you don’t have to understand it to enjoy the book); very exciting; very, very funny. Only book I’ve recommended to more people than Red Rising — I think I’ve made everyone over 12 in my house read it (to universal acclaim). Not sure why I haven’t made my 12-year old, yet.

Saturday Miscellany — 1/3/15

On January 3, 2015

In Books, Calendar Items, News/Misc., Quotations

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:

Pulp’s Big Moment: How Emily Brontë met Mickey Spillane. — The Birth and Early History of Pocket Books (paperbacks).
Phew, only 2 more Best of 2014 lists to post here — I’m working on mine, wanted to have it up yesterday, but . . .hopefully Monday (and by saying that, I’ve doomed it ’til Friday)

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2014 — Hadn’t even heard of most of these — and honestly, our tastes rarely overlap. But I keep coming back to this blog.
The Epic Best Books of 2014 List — Bookworm Blues has a really good SF/F list

How to Write a Book Review — Author J. S. Morin provides some handy (and pain-free) guidelines
31 New Year’s Resolutions for Book Nerds — I really liked — even admired — some of these resolutions from the B&N editors — some I thought were just wrong.
Speaking of resolutions, How To Read More — A Lot More — Ryan Holiday has some really helpful advice if this is one of your goals. There’s a thing or two here I should incorporate. (I may have posted this one already, but I’m too lazy — and have too much to read — to go check).
How to read more — Austin Kleon was inspired by Holiday’s list and has some other useful suggestions.
In an odd coincidence, the other day I came across another reference to Kleon’s blog — a post he put up in 2009 about Nancy Pearl’s “The Rule of 50”, which is so good that in addition to the link, I’m just going to copy here:

Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by slogging their way through a book they aren’t enjoying but think they ought to read. I live by what I call ‘the rule of fifty,’ which acknowledges that time is short and the world of books is immense. If you’re fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100. The result is the number of pages you should read before deciding.
from Book Lust

Low Midnight by Carrie Vaughn — Cormac takes over! Well, at least for one book. Psyched to read this one.

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

Thanks for a Great 2014