Category: News/Misc. Page 221 of 242

Only two posts this week, and three half-written drafts. That’s primarily due to: The Van by Roddy Doyle being harder to write about than I expected, a higher-than-normal level of short-attention span from me, and my daily schedule’s shifted recently and I’m sleeping more. Which is good for me, bad for writing.

But who cares about that? 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:

• Not like I need to be convinced, since it’s basically been a part of every day of my life since I can remember, but it’s always nice to have some justification: The Hidden Benefit of Reading Before Bed.
• In light of the continuation of Stieg Larsson’s series, the CBC asks: The Girl in the Spider’s Web: Is it OK to resurrect a dead author’s fiction? — all in all, a pretty decent and balanced take on the topic as a whole
• BookBub blog has a nice run-down: Here’s How Much the ‘Harry Potter’ Covers Have Changed Over the Years, and once again, I’m tempted to go run out and buy the 15th anniversary set, just for the artwork.
• Speaking of covers, have you Played Judgey?
• MysteryPeople has a Q&A with Brad Parks — for some inexplicable reason, I haven’t read his new one. Still, good interview, worth reading while I wonder what’s wrong with my reading schedule.
• National Dog Day was a couple of days ago, and by an amazing coincidence, I stumbled upon a couple of lists of books about dogs:
  • The Guardian’s Top 10 dogs’ stories — has a bunch of the more literary variety.
  • BookBub Blog has 12 Books That Will Make You Love Dogs Even More — more popular-level, and probably more heart-tugging. I’ve read some of these, I’ve wanted to read a couple more, and have just added a couple of others to my TBR pile.
• Chuck Wendig and The Once & Future Podcast have an important reminder for us all.
• (this is possibly my favorite link that I’ve posted:) An Absolutely Serious Analysis of BUT NOT THE HIPPOPOTAMUS — Once upon a time, I had this book memorized. My two oldest kids lived off of this book.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• X by Sue Grafton — among other things, this answers the question I’ve been asking for years (even before I started the series), “What ‘X’ word is she going to use?”. I’m sure there’s a decent mystery novel involved, too. #24 is here, folks.
• Randoms by David Liss — A Cline/Scalzi-ish YA SF adventure. Looks pretty cool.
• Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea — this looks like a lot of fun, wish I’d seen the release of the first in this series last year. Time to catch up.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Lagniappe Literature for following the BookLikes version of 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:

• Let’s start with a nice piece from The Guardian: Why do books still exist, asks a teenager — and answers a teenager, as well.
• How One Misunderstanding in the 1870s Created an Entire Sci-Fi Subgenre — title says it all. Interesting stuff.
• How Long to Read — is an interesting looking tool. I’ve played around with it a little — seems on target, a fun distraction if nothing else.
• Carrie Vaughn Podcasts Kitty Saves the World — a good looking entry from Authors on Tour, hope to get to that soon.
• Matthew Norman tweeted some long awaited news (if you haven’t read Domestic Violets yet, get to it)
• 50 Inspirational Quotes from Literature — in handy Infographic form
• Book Riot compiled a nice list of the Best of Bookish Art from Tumblr.
• 9 Words About Reading That Every Book Nerd Needs to Know, Because “Bibliophile” Just Isn’t Enough — fun vocabulary builders

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Hallow Point by Ari Marmell — who-hoo! Mick Oberon’s back.
• Zero World by Jason Hough — SF Spy-Thriller? Sign me up. Check out this great graphic review from Kevin Hearne.
• Last Words by Michael Koryta — the beginning of a new series from Koryta is good news, anyway, but this one looks particularly strong.
• Zeroes by Chuck Wendig — This Hacker/Cyber Espionage adventure looks good. But it’s by Wendig, so I’ll either dig it or hate it, no matter what it looks like. Still, the writing will be great.
• Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by soandso — A follow-up to last year’s Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, which I’ve flipped through, but haven’t actually read much of. Nicely written and gorgeous. Bonus — big and heavy enough to kill an intruder if used correctly.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to E.S. Wesley, G. E. Gallas (who could probably improve my Seconds post), and Kent Wayne 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:

• Publishing industry’s ‘Super Thursday’ to see more than 500 books published — Wow. Hope this is limited to the U.K. — don’t think my wallet could handle it if this happened here.
• ‘Ready Player One’ Author Ernest Cline Seals Monster Deal For Next Book — Cline’s making the big bucks for his next book, and the movie rights. It’d be easy to be cynical here, or make the cheap joke — but you know what? Good for him. Not a lot of people (other than John Scalzi or Richard Castle) seem to be making money these days writing books, glad someone is.
• 7 Little Known Facts About William Goldman’s The Princess Bride — Goodreads blog post has a few nice nuggets — haven’t done #7 yet, but looking forward to it.
• What I learned from reading debut novels — the exercise helped young writer Harry Connolly, but it’s important for readers to understand the same point when picking their reads.
• 50 Things You Can Skip So You Can Read More — handy and helpful

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire — the good folks from the ATI Management Bureau continue their fight against memetic incursions. Which is more fun than it sounds.
• You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day — It’s Felicia Day. Do I need to say more? eh, I’ll let Patrick Rothfuss’ review do the talking.
• Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner — B&N Reads gives 4 Reasons to Fall for Jennifer Weiner’s Who Do You Love
• The End of All Things by John Scalzi — The Old Man’s War saga continues.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to The Historical Diaries, Justin Whitehouse and Sarah Johansson for following the blog this week.

Image credit: Grammarly

So, I’ve done a little more site maintenance/upgrades this week — I’ve posted a blogroll. If yours is there, I hope it generates a view or three for you. If yours isn’t, and you want it there — just let me know (and I apologize in advance). Also, I’ve started writing little “Author 101” type entries for the authors I seem to spend a lot of time/attention on (linked in the menu above). So far, I’ve completed the V-Z section. All two authors.

As part of this work, I’ve been looking over old posts, seeing what I’ve written about Author X and so on. I keep noticing things that blow my mind — for example, I find it hard to believe that I’ve only blogged about 3 books by Rick Riordan, when I’ve read 20! There are several other authors like that — but then I have to remember that I’ve only been doing this for a couple of years, and I’ve been reading him for 7 years or so.

Enough blather from me, let’s get on to 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:

• Husband Gives Away Beloved Book, Judy Blume Saves the Day — Because everybody didn’t already love Judy Blume.
• Meet the male writers who hide their gender to attract female readers — Huh. Really?
• How Sex Talk in Literature Has Changed Over 200 Years
• Can a Virtuous Character Be Interesting? — an interesting debate
• Speaking of character, Michael Koryta has a good Note on Character and Voice
• 8 Nonfiction Recommendations for Fiction Fans — I need to work more NF into my reading, these look promising
• 7 TV Characters I Want to Write Books — Yes. I’d read all of these. I’d buy all of these — in hardcover.
• 5 Common Reading Mistakes You’re Making That Could Ruin Your Literary Life — A good mix of nonsense and good advice
• 12 Signs You’ve Been Binge-Reading — Or, 12 signs you’re me.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Kitty Saves the World by Carrie Vaughn — Time to say good-bye to Kitty. (Sniff). But what a way to end a series — if you missed it, I reviewed it here.
• Veiled by Benedict Jacka — looks like things are getting serious in Alex Verus’ world (not that I thought life was unicorns and rainbows for him before)
• Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat by Anastacia Marx de Salcedo — This book looks great, but man…I tell you, I’m not sure I want to learn what she has to say.
• School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough — something lighter from McCullough should be fun, and I like the premise. It’s YA, so I’ll have to get it for one of my kids as a cover 🙂
• Con Academy by Joe Schreiber — a couple of years ago, I read one of Schreiber’s books in one sitting — was fast, action-packed and fun. This looks like it’ll have a lot of the same things working for it. Should be a quick, entertaining read.
• Whirligig by Magnus Macintyre — amusing-looking mystery set in the Scotland.
• A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories by Paul Cornell — It’s Cornell, these have to be worth a glance.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to enthrallingdimple for following the blog this week. Thanks to sp for the interaction – not long to wait, sp! And a big thanks to Andy Abramowitz for the kind words and signal boost.

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:

• I’ve posted a couple of times about the delays for the next Robert Crais. Doesn’t look like I have to do that again. He posted a picture of the reformatted bound manuscript to Facebook this week. Phew!
• How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health — The only thing more interesting than this piece (for me) is how many people I’ve seen linking it from all sorts of walks of life. In case you’re thinking it’s a bit too long to read, David Murray summarizes it.
• We’ve got a few lists this week:
  • BookBub runs down 14 Must-Read Novels About Books — I need to read more of these.
  • The Twenty Five Best Crime Novels of All Time — I’ve done better with this list (still could do better)
  • 12 Contemporary Novels Inspired by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ — some of these seem like a stretch when it comes to “inspired by”, but…what do I know? I’ve read only one of them.
  • 19 famous writers who came alive on film — I’ve got a couple of others that I’d throw on this list, but…hey, it’s good.
  • Let’s Celebrate the Best Morons in Literature — short list, but some good morons. Can we still safely use that word?

• The Drake & Zeke Show from 07/20/15 — This interview with Ace Atkins is supposed to be really good. Hoping to get into it soon.
• Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita by Robert Roper – review — Not sure I’m up for an entire book along these lines, but this review is a good read
• 8 Reasons Ernest Cline’s Armada Is Nothing Like Ready Player One (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing) –This is a good list-y review of Armada.
• A photo of Tolkien’s first page of The Lord of the Rings — not sure which is more impressive, Tolkien’s talent or his printing. I envy both.
• Memorable Animals from Literature — this infographic is a good start, but I’d like to see it expanded.

Just a couple of New Releases This Week that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Crooked by Austin Grossman — Lovecraftian Nixon? I’m not sure this is my thing, but I’ll probably give it a shot.
• Half a War by Joe Abercrombie — The Shattered Sea concludes. Still meaning to read the first volume of this series; and I guess volume two, too.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Themis-Athena’s Garden of Books, Grimlock ♥ Deadpool, Paul Read or Dead, Constantly Moving the Bookmark (which might be my favorite blog name in weeks), The Primroses Were Over, Book Cupidity, and Jessica’s Book Thoughts for following the booklikes version of blog this week – quite the bumper crop, actually.

Been reading a book this week that I’m really not enjoying. Which has made it hard to write — it has helped me spend more time tweaking the coding and features, etc. of this site, though. Anything rather than read that book. You ever have weeks like that? Worst of it is, I think it’s probably a really good book. I just couldn’t stand it.

Anyway, in response to some reader suggestions and requests (okay, one suggestion and one request), I’ve made it easier to find books by rankings, now and I’ve made some real headway on better organizing reviews by author (at least the ones I talk about frequently) and I’m also going to include a little introduction to each.

So, 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:

• To Parents: Keep Reading Out Loud — Short. Sweet. To the Point. Oh, and right as rain.
• Getting Medieval on George R. R. Martin — Michael Livingston takes a quick stab at answering the question: How medieval is Game of Thrones?
• Weapons and Tactics in Fantasy Warfare — as long as we’re getting analytical with Fantasy, might as well go full-bore. I’m not sure how much of this I really understood, but it’s good.
• Mary Shelley: Meet The Teenage Girl Who Invented Science Fiction — a nice profile of Shelley
• 10 of the Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time — Goodreads lists some really nice listening material. I should probably grab some of these.
• Along those lines, Bookbub (haven’t dipped into their pool for awhile) lists 12 Movies That Actually Lived Up To Their Books
• A few nice interviews this week:
• Ace Atkins: The Deep South’s True Detective
• Sue Grafton: By the Book
• Working Girl: Janet Evanovich
• An interview with Alex Bledsoe, author of Long Black Curl (Tufa) — might as well throw in a fantasy author while we’re at it, right?
• A Modest Proposal for 7 Alternative Shelving Systems — I know this is a humor piece, but some of these give me hives.
• Music As Magic by Alex Bledsoe — Long Black Curl is on the top of my “Finish the Post” list (sadly, has been for awhile), you should all read it. Really. As proof, read this. The man knows what he’s talking about.
• Back to drafting new fiction — Connolly’s working on something new? Best news I read this week.
• 20 Surprisingly Profound Quotes From Fantasy & SciFi — some good lines here.

Small list of New Releases this week. Phew! My TBR pile is huge after the last couple of the weeks, need a light one (and I’m not just talking that impossibly long list I keep on Goodreads and Amazon — I’m talking my literal pile, too). But what we have is going to be so, so good. Here’s This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Redeemers by Ace Atkins — Quinn Colson returns and finds some sort of trouble — couldn’t tell you what, not going to bother reading the blurb, just going to jump in.
• Who Let the Dog Out by David Rosenfelt — uh oh, trouble at Andy and Willie’s dog rescue operation?
• Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by David Rosenfelt — because why should Rosenfelt only publish one book this week? Some of what the real Tara taught Andy Carpenter’s creator.