Nothing new here today, spending the day reading. I should probably be spending the day writing, but this sounds more fun. And my TBR list/stack/pile/mountain isn’t going to take care of itself.
Back tomorrow.
Category: News/Misc. Page 223 of 242
Have seen a few folks do a month-end wrap-up, sorta liked the idea (it is more work than I thought, so I’m not sure what I think of it now). So anyway, here’s what happened here in May.
Books Read:
Still Reading:
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- The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter by Rod Duncan
- Goodbye Ginny Madison by Dave Gehrke
- The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by W. Bruce Cameron
- Thicker Than Water by G.M. Ford
- The Younger Gods by Michael R. Underwood
- Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson
- Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder
- Review Catch Up: Rolling Thunder; Fun House; Free Fall by Chris Grabenstein
- “Concussion Cover-Up” & “NSA Priest” by Carac Allison
- Kickback by Ace Atkins
- The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
- Woof by Spencer Quinn
- Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
- Attack the Geek by Michael R. Underwood
Reviews Posted:
How was your month?
This has been a fairly quiet week here, I know… it’s the kid’s first week out of school, and we’re all adjusting to new schedules at Irresponsible HQ — time for reading and writing were down considerably. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I’ll get in a new stride.
Still, there’s a little to share this week, I found a few odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
- Judy Blume’s New Book Might Also Be Her Last — Haven’t read Blume since I read the last of the Fudge novels to my kids, and am in no rush to change that. Still, the idea of her not writing? Just seems wrong.
- Technology Of Books Has Changed, But Bookstores Are Hanging In There — NPR offers a rare (but growing more common) optimistic look at the state of Indie Bookstores
- Lovereading.co.uk and Google Maps Mash-Up
- Some Good Reads for Summer — Rick Riordan put out another one of his recommended reads lists — this one for children’s books for this summer.
- Interview With Author Alex Bledsoe — Steven Stack, a playwright (I guess), interviews Bledsoe on the release of Long Black Curl
- Speaking of interviews, Gerald So (who knows a thing or two about Spenser) posted An Interview with Ace Atkins for Crime Spree Magazine. Good stuff.
- Seven Literary Quotations We Suggest You Memorize — a handy list from B&N Reads
- This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
- Long Black Curl by Alex Bledsoe — very excited to get to this one, the third Tufa novel. There’s something special to these books that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I honestly don’t care if I identify what makes them work the way they do as long as I get to see it.
- I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest — not that it’s easy to pigeon-hole Priest’s work, but if you could — I don’t think this would fit in it, which really makes me look forward to it. Looks like a lot of fun, too, which doesn’t hurt. Here’s a note Priest wrote about the book.
- The Last Drive and Other Stories by Rex Stout — some of Stout’s early work — including the story that grew up into Fer-de-Lance.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to soireadthisbooktoday for following the blog this week.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
One of my long-delayed goals is to write up a good all-purpose Tribute to Douglas Adams post, and another Towel Day has come without me doing so. Next year . . . or later. Adams is one of those handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel (I’ve only been able to get one of my sons into Adams, he’s the taller, thinner one below). 
TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day, this year were able to post this pretty cool video, shot on the ISS by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
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:
- David Nicholls: Google v old-fashioned legwork – how to research a novel — title pretty much says it all, but this is pretty interesting.
- The Bookstore Built by Jeff Kinney, the ‘Wimpy Kid’ — good for him. There’s more to this story than just Kinney and his new store, but about indie bookstores in general and the writers who are helping them.
- Top 10 ways to be evil in children’s books — Starting with the premise that villains in kid’s books get to be more evil than adult villains, William Sutcliffe gives some pretty entertaining examples of it
- Patricia Park talks about her Korean American spin on Jane Eyre — the author of Re Jane talks about her book — not that I need another retelling of the book, but … gotta say, this looks pretty good.
- Some interesting tidbits on upcoming titles:
- Wil Wheaton and Ernest Cline reunite for Armada audiobook — am tempted, strongly tempted, to just buy the audiobook rather than the hardcover after Wheaton’s work on Ready Player One
- Ben Aaronovitch’s series is getting a comic series: here’s a preview of Rivers of London #1
- Ditto for Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently! A preview of IDW’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency #1
- This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
- Kickback by Ace Atkins — If you’ve stopped by the blog for even half of a second this week, you’ll have noticed that Spenser’s back for number 43 (and #4 by Atkins). I think it’s safe to say that I liked it.
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik — looks really good. Here’s The Big Idea behind it.
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson — just your typical, 5,000 year epic, end-of-the-world SF tale. OR something like that. Stephenson talks about the genesis of the book and B&N gives 7 Reasons to Read it.
- Boo by Neil Smith — Not even sure how to summarize what I’ve read about this without reading it — but there’s an afterlife, there are 13 year olds, and social awkwardness. I dunno — just click the link there and read about it.
We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I’ll throw it up here. Dare you not to read the rest of the book
On the first day of February, the coldest day of the year so far, I took it as a very good omen that a woman I’d never met brought be a sandwich. I had my pair of steel-toed Red Wings kicked up on the corner of my desk, thawing out, when she arrived. My morning coffee and two corn muffins were a distant memory.
She laid down the sandwich wrapped in wax paper and asked if my name was Spenser.
“Depends on the sandwich.”
“A grinder from Coppa in the South End,” she said. “Extra provolone and pickled cherry peppers.”
“Then my name is Spenser,” I said. “With an S like the English poet.”
“Rita said you were easy.”
“If you mean Rita Fiore, she’s not one to judge.”
from Kickback by Ace Atkins
(technically, not the opening lines, but this is the beginning of Chapter 1, so it sorta counts)
Just as soon as I start to make headway on my backlog, I pull something like this…
No post today, unless something big happens — yesterday, I received the latest Spenser novel, Kickback by Ace Atkins and well…nothing’s happening ’til I’m done with that.
Even if you don’t like Spenser, or Atkins, if you’re reading this blog, I trust you understand the impulse.
See you tomorrow.
add atkins to the authors, tag this with current reading, etc.
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:
- Indie Bookstores Are Finally Not Dying — The Daily Beast has a bit of rare good news for Indie bookstores.
- In a Mother’s Library, Bound in Spirit and in Print — here’s something that e-books can’t do.
- A favorite around here, Ace Atkins was on Authors on the Air with Pam Stack talking about his upcoming Spenser novel. Haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet, but I’m chomping at the bit to.
- Speaking of Atkins, Mystery Scene posted a little piece by him about Elmore Leonard, Let Your Characters Do the Talking.
- Fantasy must shake off the tyranny of the mega-novel — Damien Walter makes a good case against the monster-sized approach to fantasy stories. While I like a good, weighty tome, some of my favorites are the smaller works.
- Trailer For “The Magicians” — Syfy’s put out a trailer for the upcoming adaptation. I’m cautiously optimistic.
- 20 Reasons Book Nerds Lead a Better Life — Ginni Chen has an entertaining post up on the B&N blog.
- This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
- How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz — doesn’t look like your typical Lisa Lutz novel, but at this point, I don’t care. I’m in.
- Dry Bones by Craig Johnson — a new Walt Longmire. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably get to it in November.
- Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll — I’ve heard nothing but great things about this one, looks great.
- Goddess of Buttercups & Daisies by Martin Millar — one of the odder looking books I’ve seen lately. Should work on tracking it down rightaway.
- Rumrunners by Eric Beetner — this looks like it could be a fun read.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to facetioussoup for following the blog this week (possibly the greatest moniker I’ve come across online), and to Nothing better than a good book… for following the BookLikes clone (which I really wish I could make look nicer…). Thanks to Injoy’s Blogs + Book Reviews for the signal boost to a post at said clone. Lastly, big thanks to Joseph Finder for bothering to read my post about his book and for responding on Twitter — don’t think I’ll ever get used to someone doing that.
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 Magicians’ Is The Grown-Up ‘Harry Potter’ You’ve Always Wanted — Whoo-hoo! Brakebills is coming to TV!
- 3 Reasons Why Booknerds Love the Smell of Books — yeah, seems right.
- 20 Books That Made You Fall in Love with Reading — Goodreads compiled a list of first favorite books
- Should You Read Middle Grade Books? A Flowchart — Karina Glaser put together a handy little flowchart for BookRiot
- Just in time for Mother’s Day: 7 Literary Moms Everybody Can Learn From
- This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
- Unseemly Science by Rod Duncan — didn’t realize the sequel to strong>The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter was this close to being released when I read it recently. This should be really good.
- The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry — an MG book by Barry about a field trip gone bad? Should be a fun way to kill an hour or so.
- Revision by Andrea Phillips — this looks to be a trippy read.
- Corsair by James L. Cambias — Computer hackers and space pirates, sounds like a winning combo
- Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond — Lois Lane in high school (and, thankfully, not the version from Smallville).
- Burning Down George Orwell’s House by Andrew Ervin — the tagline, “A darkly comic debut novel about advertising, truth, single malt, Scottish hospitality—or lack thereof—and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four” is enough to get me looking for it.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to legalreader for following the blog this week — and the tip — check out her blog, there’s some good stuff there. Thanks also to andrewknighton for the interaction.
slim pickings this week, but here’s a few 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:
- Five Fascinating Facts about Harper Lee — “Fascinating” might be pushing it a bit, but there might be a tidbit or two here that’s new for you.
- ‘Maus’ Book About Holocaust Is Removed in Russia — File this under “Very Unfortunate/Ironic Unintended Consequences”
- Celebrating 85 Years Of Nancy Drew, The Girl Who Started It All — 85 years ago this week, Nancy Drew first appeared in print. Theodore Jefferson pays tribute to the classic strong girl hero.
- Five Books Where Music is Practically a Character — an interesting list and TBR List fodder. I can’t believe Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver didn’t make the list, probably would’ve been #6.
- Just one New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon for you this week.
- Darkened Blade by Kelly McCullough — the sixth installment of McCullough’s Fallen Blade series. Wait? Sixth? I knew I was behind, but not that behind.
Image credit: Grammarly