Category: News/Misc. Page 183 of 229

The last two weeks have been fairly quiet around here, sorry about that. I’ve been bizzarely and inexplicably tired lately — literally fell asleep writing 2-3 times this week (and last week, come to think about it). Will try to turn the tide this week…

Meanwhile, here are the 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:

• Turkish Garbage Collectors Open Library Full of Discarded Books — The feel good story of the month, right there. (also, this website in general looks like a great way for me to lose a few hours)
• Prize launched for thrillers that avoid sexual violence against women — How sad is it that there’s an award for this? Still, good idea. There are times when this kind of story seems to be well-done and non-exploitative, but generally it comes across as a lazy approach to showing how evil someone is.
• Sci-Fi Doesn’t Have to Be Depressing: Welcome to Solarpunk — huh.
• 5 Ways to Give Your Friends the Reading Bug — (starting a book blog works, too)
• Is There Such a Thing as a Good Book Review? And how in the world do you write one? — there’s a reason I try to avoid the “R” word for my blog posts. Good stuff here, really.
• On Themes and the Tufa, Part 1 — I don’t know if I’ll ever tire of talking about the Tufa series, thankfully, Bledsoe likes writing about it, too.
• Judging books by their covers: Five publishing design cliches — Great post (although unfair to Child’s books, which over here don’t fit into #1)
• “She was murdering the language – so he murdered her!” — I less-than-three this so much. I want a print of it hanging somewhere in my house.

No New Releases caught my eye this week, which gives me a chance to catch up/get less-behind (however you want to look at it)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Paula Bardell-Hedley and BookieWookie for following the blog this week.

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:

• Breaking My Library Habit and Reading My Own Books — I think I can safely admit to having travelled to this location, performed the same actions, and posses the same souvenir garment.
• Speaking of Libraries: Libraries and Authors: A Match Made in Heaven
• These authors risk the wrath of readers to keep book franchises alive — .tucked away in this nice piece about authors continuing series, is the news that Parker’s Sunny Randall series will get a new installment this year from Mike Lupica. Not the guy I’d have gone with, but the Estate seems to know what it’s doing. Honestly, I haven’t read the guy, I know one of my kids had a few of his books
• New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Crais Agrees To New Three-Book Deal With G.P. Putnam’s Sons — Headline tells you pretty much everything in the story (other than the fact that the next novel will be a Joe Pike book)
• Tom Straw, the Author Behind “Castle” — I saw someone called this the worst kept secret in mystery fiction, but the news hadn’t gotten out to my neck of the woods. I didn’t think the books were that great, but I know I’m in the minority. Glad to see him be able to write something with his name on it, though.
• Childhood Adventures in Late-Night Reading — Book Riot again writes the piece I should have. Twice this week.
• Don’t Freak Out, But You Should Probably Read These 729 Books — Whoa! Shades of the Royal Library of Alexandria! This is a huge recommendation list. Whoops! Those who clicked earlier got a quick trip to 404ville. But I fixed the link thanks to Murder by Death.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Darkside Earther by Bradley Horner — The blurb is too long to try to compress, here’s something the author said to sum it up: “It’s Space-Opera, a YA romance, full of virtual worlds and Space Battles.” Also, I can say that Horner knows his stuff –I read his reviews regularly and he knows his genre fiction — if that familiarity is reflected in this story, it’ll be good.
• Iron Gold by Pierce Brown — I thought the Red Rising trilogy ended well, I really didn’t need more in this world — and I”m a little afraid that this is trying to squeeze more out of this story than is good for it. Still, there’s no way that I”m not going to read something that Brown puts out at this point. This takes place a decade or so after Morning Star and has to do with how things turned out after that. I don’t want to know anything else until I read the book, so that’s all I can say 🙂

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Amy Sparks and lynnm2018 for following the blog this week (neither of them had a URL to share, either…not often that happens), hope you like what you read.

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:

• Trump, Oprah, Zaphod Beeblebrox: Why We Love Celebrity Overlords — I had some similar thoughts last time I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide, but not as concrete (it was pre-Trump or Oprah-speculation), but this piece puts it all better.
• An announcement about The Fairies of Sadieville — Alex Bledsoe has some sad news about his upcoming Tufa novel (although I get the reasoning)
• Why We Shouldn’t Shield Children From Darkness — a Newberry Award winner discusses how much darkness is appropriate for children’s books.
• Why Children’s Books Should Be a Little Sad — the great Kate DiCamillo responds.
• On a related topic, NPR asks: What’s The Difference Between Children’s Books In China And The U.S.?
• Dead Good asked several Crime Fiction writers What’s your all-time favourite crime novel? — I picked up a little bit of a theme . . .
• Frosting Sugar and Forgotten Stories — Seanan McGuire talks about Portal Fantasies over at Powells.com
• speaking of which, The Portalist lists: 12 Portal Fiction Books That Will Transport You

This Week had just one New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon, but it’s a good one:
• Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire — the third volume of McGuire’s Wayward Children series is out and is fantastic. The only reason I haven’t posted about it was that I wrote so much that it didn’t make much sense and needed to get trimmed down significantly. It’s just wonderful.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to 500words, Ethan Bayes and Haden Clark for following the blog this week.

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:

• Sales of Print Books Increased, Slightly, in 2017 — “Slightly.”
• How to read more books in 2018 — I can’t imagine that anyone reading this post needs these ideas, but you never know.
• They Tried to Ban Fahrenheit 451 and Replace It With. . . My Book — I think Mr. Williams and I would disagree on some of the issues he brushes up against, but by and large, I can’t help but agree with him about the Bradbury classic. And the horror of your own work replacing it? Gah.
• A few tributes/obituaries for Sue Grafton that I appreciated: S is for Sad by Lee Goldberg, A Is For Appreciation: How Sue Grafton Helped Transform The Mystery Genre by Fresh Air’s Maureen Corrigan, and The Guardian’s Sue Grafton obituary.
• Between the Lines: Robert Crais — a very nice profile of Robert Crais, with an eye to The Wanted (naturally)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry — a great looking thriller about a bomb maker targeting bomb technicians.
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce — is on the other end of the spectrum — a sweet looking story about music, love and healing.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Thomas Neil, JW Bowe, Mar G.-Amorena and Wolfe Butler for following the blog this week.