Category: News/Misc. Page 219 of 229

The end of last week rolled away from me before I could assemble this for Saturday. So, rather than dusting something off, I figured I’d throw up the odds ‘n ends from last week about books and reading that caught. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• 5 Reading Rules for Book Lovers of All Ages — A nice little piece from Reading Rainbow, didn’t even know that was still around.
• There Is Reading, and There Is Looking at Letters — ever since stories about Spritz started hitting the web, I’ve been sounding like a cranky old man to any of my friends who’ve sounded even a little interested. But come on!! The headline says it all, but the post that follows does a good job explaining it.
• The 25 Best Tumblr Accounts for Book Nerds — I’d seen a couple of these before, but not many — and there’s some real fun feeds here.
• David Nicholls moves on from One Day with new novel — Like many others, I really liked One Day, (couldn’t finish Starter for Ten, though). Hope this is more like the former.
• Ernest Cline is the luckiest geek alive — Great profile about Cline — consider me a huge fan, and I expect Armada will only cement that.
• title — blah

There Was One Release Last Week that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Night Broken by Patricia Briggs — a new Mercy Thompson! Know nothing about it, but that it’s sitting on my desk waiting to be taken on a road trip with me this week.

Still in the midst of the reading/writing lull I mentioned last week — working really hard at shaking it. In the meantime, here are some 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:

• The Strongest Brand In Publishing Is … — Fascinating look at publishing, book/author branding, etc.
• 19 Quotes That Will Make You Fall in Love With Books All Over Again — The headline oversells it a bit, but, there are some great lines here that will likely resonate with anyone who reads this blog. Favorites include: “The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defense.” – J.A. Langford and “I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough… The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.” – John Adams
• An Interview with Author Jonathan Wood — I thoroughly enjoyed the ebook versions of Wood’s first two novels — No Hero and Yesterday’s Hero. Very glad to see him get the better exposure that paper copies will bring — and that there’s a third volume next year.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Player by Brad Parks — the newest in the series about a mystery solving member of that very endangered species, newspaper reporter. I expect that it’ll be tense, amusing, and well-crafted.
• Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire — the third InCryptid novel. I’ve got this sitting on my desk, waiting for the road trip I’m taking in two weeks. I might be able to wait that long to tear into it.
• Notes from the Internet Apocalypse by Wayne Gladstone — this looks pretty funny.

You ever have one of those weeks, where despite your best efforts/intentions, you just can’t find the time or energy to read? (or, write about what you read?) I’ve had two of those in a row here. Hope that changes soon. In the meantime, 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:

• The first item this week was linked by Lee Goldberg, who tweeted it was “A monumentally stupid essay from a struggling author: If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It. Since then I’ve seen it a few places, never once mentioned positively. One of the better responses as An Open Letter to JK Rowling: Please Don’t Stop Writing (somehow I have a hard time believing such an open letter was necessary, even if Rowling somehow heard of the first essay).
• Doors of Stone sketching comic — Someone made a comic depicting what’s going on in the minds of all Rothfuss’ fans.
• The Endangered Art of the Movie Novelization — I loved movie novelizations as a kid, and will still pick the occasional one up. This piece makes a lot of sense.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. After a lean week or two, I’ve got a bunch this week:
• Hammer of Angels by G. T. Almasi — the first in this series as such a blast, I can’t wait to get my hands on this
• The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg — two of my favorites are back with their new Fox & O’Hare series, should be fun
• Honor’s Knight by Rachel Bach — And one more second in a series. As long as this is almost as good as the first, I’ll be happy
• The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison — the series gets one step closer to the end here. I’m ready for it to be over, but I also know as soon as the paperback hits the shelves, I’ll be diving in.

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:

• Harper Lee settles museum lawsuit — A bit of good news on this front
• A couple of weeks ago, I posted a reaction to Isabelle Allende’s view on her mystery novel. Here’s some more. Now she’s apologized.

Only one new release caught my eye this week (I’m super excited about one next week):
• Grimm: The Chopping Block by John Passarella — There are Grimm tie-in novels? Huh. I just might have to check these out. The premise on this one works for me.

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:

• Correctly pronounce tricky author names with this handy cheat sheet — I’m not going to admit how much I needed this.
• Why Dragonlance should be the next fantasy film franchise — Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Dragonlance was the thing that turned me into a fantasy reader (no disrespect intended towards The Chronicles of Narnia or Prydain).
• Jennifer Weiner talks ‘All Fall Down’ and reveals the cover — If cover reveals are your thing, here ya go — I’m mostly putting this up here so my wife will see it (I will inevitably forget to tell her about it, and now I don’t have to try to remember)

Only one new release caught my eye this week:
• The Martian by Andy Weir — I’m not sure this is really up my alley, but it looks interesting, and I’m seeing a lot of good things about it.

Ugh. 2014 has just not been working the way I expected. Not reading much, (obviously) writing less. What I’ve read has been great, and hopefully I’ve got things figured out on the writing end. Still, here are the latest odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• 2014 The Edgar Awards nominees — as much as I like to think of myself as a mystery reader, I don’t recognize much on this list at all. Probably a lot of good TBR list fodder here.
• A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013 — These stats from the Pew Research Council are pretty darn fascinating
• The Top Ten Books People Lie About Reading — you guilty of any these?

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley — the new Flavia de Luce adventure. I predict shenanigans, mischief, murder and restrained sass.
• He Drank and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe — How can you not love sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse? Elvis Cole in a fantasy world.
• Switchblade by Michael Connelly — a new Harry Bosch short story. Short fiction ain’t my thing, but there are writers I make exceptions for.
• The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley — not really looking for a new epic fantasy series, but volume 1 of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne looks pretty appealing.