Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
It’s my daughter’s birthday, and while this isn’t the pony or plastic rocket that she asked for, maybe seeing that she’s having an impact on her old man’s musical taste will give her a quick dopamine hit.
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:
Why Ban Books When You Can Ban Book Awards?: Suburban Illinois District Cancels Caudill Awards—The Caudill Awards of all things?
A Letter to the Editors of Literary Magazines—I’ve seen variations of this idea before, it never fails to make me smile. Here, a writer offers some critiques of the rejection letters she’s received.
Reimagining Nonfiction—a local library here will be closed for two days (shudder) to reorganize their Adult Nonfiction section, getting rid of Dewey Decimal. On the one hand, I like the concept. But it feels sacrilegious to monkey with Dewey Decimals, right?
Speaking of the Nampa Public Library, their Treasure Valley Book Fair is just around the corner! There are some familiar names on their list, but many that aren’t. I’m looking forward to meeting some new people—and hopefully featuring some of them soon.
The Weirdness of Ambrose Bierce: From “Owl Creek Bridge” to Horror and Satire—I’m always happy to read about Ambrose Bierce, and this is a good piece on him. It’s also a good reminder that I should open the new copy of The Devil’s Dictionary that I recently picked up.
P.L.’s TOP 25 INDIE SFF AUTHORS—P.L. Stuart, who knows a thing or two about Indie SFF, lists his top 25.
Books I’ve Read With Animals In The Title—a good list (and a good list idea for those who need one)
Tough Questions with A Literary Escape—W&S Bookclub puts a favorite under the harsh lights.
My Wife Reacts to My Favorite Books—author Dave Lawson gives his wife’s impressions of some covers. Fun idea.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Interview: Translations with Nevena Andrić—questions I’ve always wanted to ask a translator
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
None. It was an entirely dead week here except for a Monday Miscellany because my schedule was just that messed up. I did note the release of Night Broken by Patricia Briggs, and a couple of news-y or silly items that are pretty much dead links now. Fun week around here, eh?
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Girl in the Dark by Zoë Sharp—Blake & Bryon team up again to look into the murder of someone who saved Blake’s life.
A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian—this release snuck up on me, I should’ve been waiting for it instead of hearing about it days later. Tempest Raj suspects that her family’s business is being framed, and it’s up to her to beat the killer at their own game.
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband by Alexia Casale—based on the title, this is a book I will obviously keep from my wife. Based on the description, this sounds like a dark comedy with a lot of heart.
Kill For Me, Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh—Swapping murders for revenge, in a straight-out-of-Hitchcock move, but with a Cavanagh twist. I’m far behind on my Cavanagh reading, this looks like it might be enough to force me to catch up.
The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic by Daniel de Visé—a look at the Ackroyd and Belushi from childhood, to SNL, to the creation of the band and then the beloved movie. How can I resist this? Why would I try?
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Laure, who subscribed to the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
I saw this over at bookforager a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed fun. I’ve been wanting to do another Book Tag, too. So here we go…
This was created by Liesl Brunner at Quote, Unquote and it has a few rules:
I’m certain I could’ve listed about half of “The Western Canon” here (probably much more, but let me live in that river in Egypt), but I went for this one, as the only “classic” I own and haven’t read. (I typically buy classics when I plan to read them) The precursor of much of American detective fiction, you know I’ve got to read this one, (so why haven’t I?)
I’ve been looking forward to it for ages (since the Kickstarter to fund it), so I’m not quite sure why I didn’t dive in immediately. I’m a little intimidated to read this, I guess. It’s literally the densest book on my TBR shelf (really thick, high quality paper, it weighs a ton). My goal is to be able to post about it on Towel Day now.
I’ve been told by two very different people (yeah, yeah, everyone’s different, but you know what I meant) separately recommended this to me within a few weeks of each other. Saw it at a bookstore a couple of weeks later, and now, I’m hoping to finish it before Memorial Day.
This is the oldest unread book I own–I read the first Mick Oberon Job, Hot Lead, Cold Iron and thoroughly enjoyed it. Bought this sequel back in January 2016. And then kept putting it off long enough that I can only remember the broadest outlines of the first one. I do need to get around to it (and the 2 following)
Actually, my friend Micah more than recommended this one to me, he gave it to me. As this came out in 2015 and book 2 has yet to see the light of day (a fact I just looked up), I’m thinking I may have made the right call on not reading this one (Renshaw’s reasons are incredibly understandable, but I’m still going to hold off a little longer). But since I’ve enjoyed and/or loved (mostly loved) every book Micah’s ever recommended to me, I probably would like this one, if I ever got around to it.
Literally everything in this post or the 270+ other books I’ve got on one list or another? That’s not helpful. Let’s go with:
I’ve used this as tag answers before. And, at the rate I’m going, I’ll continue to do so. But…here we are. I’m a little worried that if I get around to it later, my TBR shelf might fall over. It’s gotta be weight-bearing by now.
I’m pretty sure the next one I’m reading will be this one, before it becomes one of those “I’ll get around to it” books (I’m not sure why InCryptid books tend to get this way, but they do). Actually, I’m hopefully reading it by the time this posts (but something tells me I won’t be). Otherwise, it’ll be this book (because I’m determined to have read everything I bought at the Nampa Library Book Fair last year before I show up to this year’s.
As usual, I’m not tagging anyone in this—but I’d like to see what you all have to come up with.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
It’s still, Wednesday, right? Well…it is here, anyway.
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:
I’m reading Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn, (I cannot believe I waited 6 years to open this!) and am listening to Heaven’s River by Dennis E. Taylor, read by Ray Porter on audiobook. It’s been too long since I listened to Book 3, love getting back to this world.
I just finished the rather fun The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams and Soul Taken by Patricia Briggs, read by Lorelei King on audio.
My next book should be Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire and my next audiobook should be Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg. I really enjoy the way Duhigg tells a story, and hopefully, I can learn from this one.
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Doesn’t get better than this…
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:
Is It A Betrayal To Publish Dead Writers’ Books?: Inside the ethically thorny world of posthumous publishing.
I didn’t get the credit for my bestselling book: the secret life of the celebrity ghost writer—Liam Pieper describes the reality that’s close to what I expected, but is nice to see confirmed.
Not Just Covers, But Every Page: Why Writers Should Talk About Book Design Early On: Debbie Berne on the Intricacies of Literary Interior Design
Why Are These 90s Young Adult Books So Irresistible?—For readers of a certain age, this is a fun collection of posts/articles from Pocket.
Famous Works of Irish Literature as Limericks—what better way to note St. Patrick’s Day than with Amanda Lehr’s latest post to McSweeny’s?
Bookish Death Cleaning: On What We Keep, and What It Means
Page Turners vs. Screen Scribes: The Endless Debate of Physical Books vs. Ebooks—nothing revolutionary here, but that’s not neccesarily a bad thing.
Breaking into the indie market with the Break-Ins! —Over at Before We Go Blog, The Fictional Escapist has a great interview about a great idea.
Bookmark Chat: Guess Who’s Back…—The McBooknerd is back!
A Voracious Reader was under the pressure of handling Witty & Sarcastic Bookclub’s Tough Questions this week (I really need to get on my answers)
Thoughts From A Grumpy Year Of Reading—2024 isn’t treating our pal Peat too well…
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Conversation with Nadine Matheson 2.58 S.A. Cosby: We Tell Lies To Tell The Truth
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Red Rising by Pierce Brown—the beginning of a beautiful book friendship for me…
And on the other end of the tonal spectrum…Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Ballad of Sprikit The Bard (And Company) by Sean O’Boyle—I’ve seen this described as “A ‘Discworld’ meets ‘Lies of Locke Lamora’ Adventure.” Which is enough for me. Hearing a lot of good about it, too.
Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet—a “darkly comic” book about a Pitbull imitator (the rapper, not a canine) teaming up with a magical orca to become a real-life Tony Montana with shades of Moby Dick. The novel sounds so strange that it just might work.
Black Wolf by Juan Gómez-Jurado—This thriller looks so good that I’m getting the first in the series from the Library today. Click the link, I’m not going to try to summarize it.
Well, today got away from me. Let me get this up and I’ll try again tomorrow.
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:
I’m reading still A Blight of Blackwings by Kevin Hearne, as with the first in the trilogy, as much as I’m enjoying the book, I need to take a break from it every now and then. but hopefully I finish it before next week’s post. I’m also listening to a very odd take on Peter Pan, Darling by K. Ancrum, read by Angel Pean, on audiobook.
I just finished a couple of very entertaining books: Olivia Blacke’s Rhythm and Clues and Dead Ground by M.W. Craven, read by John Banks on audio.
My next book should be the ARC of The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams (soooo many ARCs lately, how am I ever going to make TBR progress?) and my next audiobook should be a quick trip to Painter’s Mill, Ohio (the most crime-ridden Amish community in the States) in A Hidden Secret by Linda Castillo, read by Kathleen McInerney .
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
I’ve had this stuck in my head for a few weeks now, might as well pass it along:
The last few weeks have been heavy on non-reading/blogging tasks/events/changes. And (to me anyway), that’s been clearest when it comes to these posts. But yesterday was (theoretically) the last tweak, so I should be able to start adjusting to things soon and things will return to some form of normal in the next couple of weeks.
Huge thanks to Peat Long for the return of Friday Five, so I could add a couple of items to beef this list up.
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:
Your new literary dream job: reader-in-residence.—I’ve spent the last couple of days fighting the urge to move to Fort Collins to chase my dream.
Counterfeit Books Are a Growing Problem, but a Solution May Be Near—the biggest question here is how long it’ll take pirates to work around it.
This Facebook post from the NYT about Worcester Public Library’s March Meowness will bring a smile to your face even without going beyond the paywall
Wander into This Miraculous Miniature Library with Thousands of Books Made Entirely by Hand—oooooohhhhhhh (said best in Toy Story’s LGM voice)
When Indie Publishing Meets Corporate Bookselling: Michele Herman on the Challenges of Getting—and Keeping—Her Book on the Shelves
IBPA Publishing MAP (Models and Author Pathways)—this looks handy for the writers who are looking at this post
Chinese Science Fiction Before The Three Body Problem
“Longmire” series author Craig Johnson talks about its development and its future—I’m always down to read/listen to/about Johnson
A Punk Noir Interview with M. W. Craven—there’s a lot to enjoy here, I loved the last answer from someone else I’m always down to read/listen to/about.
AC/DC’s Back in Black Inspires New Book of Murder Mysteries, Including New Jack Reacher Story—sure, the wrong Child is writing the Reacher story, but some of the rest sound promising (Coleman and Eldridge in particular)
Genres Are Historical and Cultural, Not Scientific: why rigid rules for genres never quite work—Lincoln Michel has many good things to chew on here (as per usual)
We got two new entries in Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub’s Tough Questions series this week, you should see how JamReads and Featuring Fantasy Book Nerd handled the pressure.
Weaving some Wyrd & Wonder—it’s almost time for the TBR expanding celebration of Fantasy. This year’s theme is really appealing.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week? (clearly a slow week)
Death Without Company by Craig Johnson—here’s where I decided to get serious about reading Walt Longmire books
and I noted the releases of: The Player by Brad Parks (I know he’s doing well with his stand-alone thrillers, but I miss Carter Ross), Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire (the third InCryptid novel and the first narrator switch), and Notes from the Internet Apocalypse by Wayne Gladstone (something I never got around to reading, but still looks amusing)
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire—Aunt Mary, the baby-sitting ghost, takes center stage in this new InCryptids installment. I cannot wait to dive in (but must for a little bit)
Rift in the Soul by Faith Hunter—Soulwood #6 brings readers action, love, family, answers, and more questions. I yammered on about it some yesterday (and really wanted to keep going on)
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano—Finlay and Vero hit Atlantic City and (almost certainly) chaos ensues.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to AndOnSheReads, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
Waiting in the MOC’s Foyer
Patterns at my feet drew my eye. The foyer had been refloored in white marble. In the center, tiny pieces of gray marble, brass, and glistening steel had been inlaid and formed a pair of blades, the mosaic marble handles crossed. The single-edged blades themselves had been embedded in the floor; they appeared real but were strangely shaped. One blade looked as if an ax had been crossed with a machete and then a dragon had taken a bite out of the unsharp edge. I knew nothing about fighting with blades, but even I could tell the dragon-bitten section was for snagging an opponent’s blade out of their hand. The other blade was similar but without the snagging-dragon-bite, and a longer cutting edge. They were different but they were also clearly a pair of blades intended to be used together. The ends of the blades, where they should have attached to real handles—hilts?—were made of brass or gold and were shaped like dragon snouts, as if the steel was erupting from their mouths. Above and between the crossed blades was a green, faceted square.
“Ingram,” FireWind snapped. There was an edge of “pay attention” in the tone.
“What’s that?” I pointed at the floor.
“Ming’s new crest,” FireWind said, his tone still sharp. “Since she became MOC.”
As if my up-line boss hadn’t just snapped at me, I holstered my weapon and started taking pictures, sending them back to HQ. Aya grunted in approval. I was learning how to read him. I flipped on more lights and took shots of the parlor to the left and the hallways leading off into darkness. According to county records the clan home of the Master of the City was nearly twelve thousand square feet, so I wasn’t getting much of the house, but it was the first time I’d been in a position to film it.
As I worked, Rick explained to me, still a newbie, “It’s customary for the Master of the City, the most powerful Mithran in the territory, to have their crest inlaid in the entry floor of the city’s Council Chambers headquarters, to remind friends and visiting enemies alike who they would have to fight and conquer. Ming is both the MOC and head of the only vampire clan in Knoxville, so her home does double duty.”
Ming had been given MOC status by Jane Yellowrock. I remembered that. When I had taken photos of everything I could without wandering around, I pulled the psy-meter from my pocket and quickly took a reading of Ming’s foyer. The readings were all over the place.
At a warning signal from Rick, I slid the device away.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ Copyright Faith Hunter
My thanks to Psst…Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
