Category: News/Misc. Page 16 of 232

WWW Wednesday—November 19, 2025

On November 19, 2025

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

I finished my Goodreads Challenge last week, which was a nice little dopamine hit–the books I’ve been reading have basically been nothing but dopamine hits, but who doesn’t want more of that?
2025 Goodreads Challenge

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


A Judgement of Powers by Benedict Jacka	Turn Coat by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

Jacka’s new series keeps going in places and directions I don’t expect. I’m eager to see how he confounds me this time.

I remember Turn Coat having one of the more powerful endings in the Dresden Files (nothing compared to a few others, but still). I’m steeling myself already.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Last Colony by John Scalzi	The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks, read by Emma Gregory

The Last Colony is yet another of those books that I intended to read years ago (since 2011, according to Goodreads). I am so angry at myself for wasting all that time not being able to re-read it.

I’m honestly not sure what Brooks was going for in his book. There were some interesting bits, some decent writing, and solid characters–but I need to think a little more about it to know if it was worth it.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis	Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox & Nelle Fortenberry

Caspian might be my favorite Narnian book, so this is going to be fun.

Speaking of fun, Fox (and Fortenberry) writing about that strange period in his life when he was shooting Back to the Future and Family Ties and then narrating it? Sure thing.

How’ve you been sourcing your dopamine lately?

Kickstarter Announcement: Book Blasts: Short, Thrilling Fiction for People on the Go

By HCNewton

On November 18, 2025

In Fiction, Miscellany, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc.

I’ve talked about some of Troy Lambert’s over the last couple of years, and now he’s teaming up with Vincent Zandri for a new project.

Book Blasts: Short, Thrilling Fiction for Readers on the Go

A year-long journey of bite-sized, heart-pounding stories delivered straight to your hands.

What if you could unwrap a brand-new thriller every six weeks?
With Book Blasts, bestselling authors Troy Lambert and Vincent Zandri bring you fast-paced, short fiction duets designed for busy readers who still crave excitement, intrigue, and unforgettable characters.

This Kickstarter makes you part of the action from the very beginning—and guarantees your seat at the front of the ride.

What Are Book Blasts?

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Duets of short stories (two per release) every six weeks throughout 2026.

Thrilling, noir-inspired tales for readers who love quick but powerful fiction.

Multiple formats available—digital, paperback, or collectible hardcovers.

Think of it like a literary subscription box: always fresh, always thrilling, always on time.

This campaign is going for another 6 days (until November 24 at 7:29am MST), and it could use the support. If you think the idea is as promising as I do, kick that start and throw some money at the project!
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MUSIC MONDAY: “Wildflowers” by The Wailin’ Jennys

By HCNewton

On November 17, 2025

In News/Misc.

The Irresponsible Reader's Music Monday logo

Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.

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Saturday Miscellany—11/15/25

By HCNewton

On November 15, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I really thought I had a long list for today, but…not so much. I do have an eclectic one, however. And that makes me just as happy. Hopefully there’s something here that strikes your fancy. (and if not, come back in 7 days)

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 Steve Hofstetter recently gave a speech to the American Association of School Librarians that’s worth your time (in my non-humble opinion). He was nice enough to provide both the full video and the text version.
bullet Bones & Betrayals: A Chat with Andi Ewington, Erica Marks and Calum Alexander Watt—loved this.
bullet Caffinated Reader’s 13th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Sign-up—may intrigue some of you
bullet Eileen Mueller and several other fantasy authors have a dynamite-looking giveaway up: November 2025 Win Deluxe Edition Epic Fantasy Books Giveaway—(and yes, you entering via that link gets me more entries, so, you know…help a guy out)
bullet EVEN MORE Unusual and Riveting Retellings!—The Orangutan Librarian has tempted me to take the rest of the month off to work through this list
bullet I Have An Agent—I know there’s a long gap from this to us getting to hold a Peat Long tome in our hands, but this is a great step.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Crime Writers of Canada Joel Nedecky, The Broken Detective—I enjoyed it, you might to. Also, let me remind you to read The Broken Detective

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Indexing: Reflections, Episode Seven: False Love’s Kiss by Seanan McGuire
bullet X by Sue Grafton
bullet The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
bullet Never Tell by Alafair Burke
bullet And I mentioned the releases of: The Promise by Robert Crais; Winter by Marissa Meyer; Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke; Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker; Home by Matt Dunn; Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion by Matt Zoller Seitz

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree—by far the least cozy of the series, but fans won’t mind. Greatest breadknife in literary history. I finished this yesterday and relished every second of it.
bullet Guns Of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill—Fahrenheit Press has this great looking book out in it’s Pocket Noir series (I need to do a separate post just about that series one day). How do you turn down “a hard-boiled black comedy packed with crooked cops, washed-up crooks, and the kind of dialogue that snaps like a switchblade.” in an attractive package? (I sure don’t)
bullet There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm—”Humanity is under assault by malevolent ‘antimemes’—ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself—in this whip-smart tale of science-fiction horror, an entirely reimagined and expanded version of the beloved online novel.”

That lack of an “s” on “BOOK” is really going to drive me nuts

A Special Guest Post In Medias Res: The Faithful Executioner by Joel F. Harrington

By HCNewton

On November 13, 2025

In Currently Reading, History, In Medias Res, Non-Fiction

As the title implies, I’m in the middle of this book, so this is not a review, just some thoughts mid-way through. This time, however, I’m not reading the book, my good friend, Lawrence Gale is. These are actually a series of texts he sent me recently about this book–it’s things like this that keep me from making progress on my TBR. (also, who texts like this?)

When he’s not sending oddly articulate and grammatically correct text messages, Lawrence has been known to write over at his substack: Keep the West, Honor the Rest.

The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century

by Joel F. Harrington

Book Blurb:

In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate—even progressive?

In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidt’s journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt’s life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes of the day; the medical practice that he felt was his true calling; and his lifelong struggle to reconcile his craft with his religious faith.

In this groundbreaking and intimate portrait, Harrington shows us that our thinking about justice and punishment, and our sense of our own humanity, are not so remote from the world of The Faithful Executioner.

Imagine minding your own business, then a tyrannical German prince points to you and demands you execute three criminals because there are no executioners around. You realize the second you do that, society will declare you an executioner and your family is permanently ostracized from society and will lose all standing you have. You refuse. Prince then says, you’ll get executed too if you refuse. You don’t want to leave your wife and kids without their protector and provider, so you do the deed and now society has branded you as a necessary evil they don’t want anything to do with.

You then teach your son how to be the most professional and best executioner he can be, and then this son spends the next 50 years of his life being the most above board, skilled, and faithful executioner/citizen he can be in an attempt to free the rest of his family from being executioners and restore their honor before the eyes of society and be formally elevated by the government on your retirement.

My heart will ache if I reach the end and his honor wasn’t restored despite all his efforts.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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WWW Wednesday—November 12, 2025

By HCNewton

On November 12, 2025

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

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


The World Entire by Jo Perry	Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan with songs by Jens Lekman, read by Jefferson Mays

A year-and-a-half late on The World Entire, which has bugged me all along. Now that I’m almost halfway in and can say with a degree of certainty that this is Jo Perry’s best work to date, it really annoys me that I let this slip through the cracks repeatedly. It’s just excellent on several levels–and probably more than I’ve seen yet.

Levithan’s latest is wonderful–flawed, but wonderful. I’m finishing it today (and not just because Libby is taking it away this evening).

What did you recently finish reading?


The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis	Small Favor by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

I’m a few months behind schedule on my Chronicles of Narnia read, but revisiting this first volume was just as good as expected. And yes, I’m reading them in the (correct) order by publication.

Thanks to a wonky work schedule, Small Favor is still my last audiobook (that’ll hopefully change later today)

What do you think you’ll read next?


And to All a Good Bite by David Rosenfelt	The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks, read by Emma Gregory

There are few pleasures more certain than an Andy Carpenter book.

As it is wont to do, Libby dropped a bunch of audiobooks on me last week, so I had to derail my planned next book. This one looks promising, and like it should tick a lot of boxes. Looking forward to diving in.

You have any recommendations from your recent reads? Any big “must get to”s before the calendar flips to 2026?

MUSIC MONDAY: “Red, White and Blue” by The Lost Dogs

By HCNewton

On November 10, 2025

In News/Misc.

The Irresponsible Reader's Music Monday logo

Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.

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Saturday Miscellany—11/8/25

By HCNewton

On November 8, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday 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 Two Ways of Disliking Poetry—I would’ve guessed there were more…
bullet Fisher the Bookseller Explains How Bookstores Decide Which Books to Sell: The ins and outs of how books are bought and sold in bookstores
bullet In Conversation with Susan Grossey, Author of Historical Crime Fiction
bullet Manual Labor: A new generation of deaf writers reimagines language, text, and sound
bullet The Accidental Completionist—that last paragraph…
bullet 7 fantasy book villains more terrifying than Sauron from The Lord of the Rings—I haven’t run into any of these villains, I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
bullet Eight Ways to Celebrate Bram Stoker on his November 8th Birthday by LindaAnn LoSchiavo—a Guest Post over at Witty & Sarcastic Book Club for those who are still making plans for Bram’s Big Day (or want to get an early start for next year)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet The Bookish Diaries Podcast Season 2, Episode 6: Cozy fantasy or Dark Fantasy: Pick your Poison!

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
bullet The Lobster Boy And The Fat Lady’s Daughter by Charles Kriel—the beginning of my beautiful friendship with Farenheit Press
bullet And I mentioned the releases of: The Crossing by Michael Connelly; Made to Kill by Adam Christopher; The Builders by Daniel Polansky; The Ark: Children of a Dead Earth Book One by Patrick S. Tomlinson; Black Wolves by Kate Elliott; and Mystic by Jason Denzel

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet A Judgement of Powers by Benedict Jacka—Not that this series has been filled with brightness and breeze, but it looks like things are getting a little more serious for our friend, Stephen.
bullet Love the Stranger by Michael Sears—Boy howdy, this sequel delivers on all the promise of its predecessor–and then some. Out in paperback this week, I just finished and need to talk about it soon. Don’t wait for me, though, just go get it.
bullet The Christmas Tree Killer by Chris Frost—DI Tom Stonem is sure to be very unwelcome around the holiday season (for people he works with/serves anyway) if he keeps finding himself entwined in murder cases like this one. Creepy Christmas Crime, if you’re in the mood.
bullet Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite—”A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer“
bullet Bruised Not Broken: The Autobiography of Katie Hodges by Katie Hodges—This Literary Local has been through a lot and is here with a story of perseverence and hope.
bullet I Am a Highly Dangerous Warrior! by Raquel D’Apice, illustrated by Heather Fox—”a hilarious take on developmental leaps exploring the bravery it takes to tackle the next big thing–with some help from the things in life that make us feel safe.”

WWW Wednesday—November 6, 2025

By HCNewton

On November 5, 2025

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

Yeah, I’m running late…sleep has been too attractive this week, and the blog is suffering. No promises that I’ll turn it around this week, but one can hope.

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Love the Stranger by Michael Sears	Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan with songs by Jens Lekman, read by Jefferson Mays

I’m having a lot of fun with Sears’ follow up to Tower of Babel–which came out in paperback yesterday. I’m a little annoyed at myself for missing the hardcover release last year, but am glad I’m catching up now.

I’m not that far in Songs, but it’s good to be back in a world Levithan created.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison	Small Favor by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

I don’t think I can put my thoughts about The Goblin Emporer into a pithy sentence or even paragraph. I hated to finish it, I just wasn’t ready to leave that book.

At a certain point, I did actually remember everything that happens in Small Favor and then spent hours trying to talk myself out of it, as if I could convince the audio to change and several events not happen until another book, so I didn’t have to listen. I’m not sure that makes sense.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Second Lies the Son by Matt Phillips	What If…Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? by Rebecca Podos

All I needed to see was “by Matt Phillips” to jump on this ARC. Can’t wait to learn what it’s about.

Kitty Pryde and Phoenix force? ‘Nuff said.

What’s been grabbing your attention lately?

Saturday Miscellany—11/1/25

By HCNewton

On November 1, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday 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 The Case for Whole Books: You can’t get better at reading until you care about a text.—Part advertisement for a new book, part critique of what Common Core has done to English classes, part argument for how things should be. All the kind of thing I could read about for hours.
bullet SoA calls for transparency around ‘unsung’ ghostwriters behind celebrity-authored children’s books—an overdue idea.
bullet Sounds like George R.R. Martin’s OpenAI suit is going pretty well for him—(and for other authors, too, but Martin’s name will bring more readers, I guess)
bullet The Infection is Coming…—AJ Calvin talks about the upcoming Kickstarter for The Book of Spores and the book in general.
bullet How to build a reading routine for fall that actually sticks—some good advice here
bullet Yeah, it’s November, but we can still talk about creepy/spooky reads, right? Like Sara Reads did in a few posts: Halloween.1, Halloween part 2., and Halloween part 3.
bullet The Womble has some, too, in: Tis the season of Terror!
bullet Captivating Characters of October—Once again, I’ve forgotten to get anything written for this particular blog party/linkup thing. So I’ll just point to the mothership.
bullet My Blogging Anniversary: The Seven Year Itch—The Witty & Sarcastic Book Club is 7?? (also, how is it only 7?). Regardless, congrats on the milestone!!

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet The Chronicles of Prydain – Fantasy’s Forgotten Epic —I haven’t watched this yet, but I really enjoyed Ezekat’s short video on Prydain, so I can’t wait to dive in. And you know me, this is one of those topics I have to share any think I stumble across that covers it.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie
bullet Indexing: Reflections, Episode Six: Frostbite by Seanan McGuire
bullet Reflecting the Sky by S. J. Rozan
bullet The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone
bullet And I mentioned the paperback release of The Burning Room by Michael Connelly

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Locks & Keys: A Fantasy Anthology by Bill Adams, Tom Bookbeard, L.M. Douglas, Bella Dunn, Dave Lawson, Sean O’Boyle, R.E. Sanders, R.A. Sandpiper, Alex Scheuermann, G.J. Terral—(at least) 8 banger short stories and 2 that are worth your time. Overall, a strong anthology (as I wrote recently)
bullet Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD by Keith R.A. DeCandido—I always enjoy time in DeCandido’s worlds, this “When a drug-dealing wizard dominates the city, only one squad can stop them”