Category: News/Misc. Page 228 of 243

Saturday Miscellany — 1/3/15

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:

  • Pulp’s Big Moment: How Emily Brontë met Mickey Spillane. — The Birth and Early History of Pocket Books (paperbacks).
  • Phew, only 2 more Best of 2014 lists to post here — I’m working on mine, wanted to have it up yesterday, but . . .hopefully Monday (and by saying that, I’ve doomed it ’til Friday)
  • How to Write a Book Review — Author J. S. Morin provides some handy (and pain-free) guidelines
  • 31 New Year’s Resolutions for Book Nerds — I really liked — even admired — some of these resolutions from the B&N editors — some I thought were just wrong.
  • Speaking of resolutions, How To Read More — A Lot More — Ryan Holiday has some really helpful advice if this is one of your goals. There’s a thing or two here I should incorporate. (I may have posted this one already, but I’m too lazy — and have too much to read — to go check).
  • How to read more — Austin Kleon was inspired by Holiday’s list and has some other useful suggestions.
  • In an odd coincidence, the other day I came across another reference to Kleon’s blog — a post he put up in 2009 about Nancy Pearl’s “The Rule of 50”, which is so good that in addition to the link, I’m just going to copy here:

    Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by slogging their way through a book they aren’t enjoying but think they ought to read. I live by what I call ‘the rule of fifty,’ which acknowledges that time is short and the world of books is immense. If you’re fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100. The result is the number of pages you should read before deciding.
    from Book Lust

    Only 1 New Release I’m Excited About this week — but it’s a great way to close out 2014. January’s new releases just might kill me, but we’ll get to that next week:

  • Low Midnight by Carrie Vaughn — Cormac takes over! Well, at least for one book. Psyched to read this one.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Manny Rutinel for following the blog this week.

Thanks for a Great 2014

So, that’s 2014, eh? 169 books read (short of my goal by 21), 211 posts (short of my goal by a couple hundred), almost triple the traffic over last year.

I did a quick breakdown of how my reading broke down by genre over the last few years. There were a few anomalies this year (what’s up with my Urban Fantasy and General Fiction numbers?) which makes it interesting for me, anyway — don’t know about the rest of you.

Genre 2014 2013 2012 2012-2014
Fantasy 11 (7%) 15 (8%) 12 (6%) 38 (7%)
General Fiction/Literature 7 (4%) 30 (16%) 30 (14%) 67 (12%)
Humor 3 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (1%)
Mystery/Suspense 62 (37%) 63 (33%) 73 (35%) 198 (35%)
Non-Fiction 4 (2%) 2 (1%) 11 (5%) 17 (3%)
Science Fiction 17 (10%) 14 (7%) 11 (5%) 42 (7%)
Steampunk 3 (2%) 3 (2%) 11 (5%) 17 (3%)
Theology/Christian Living 42 (25%) 37 (19%) 10 (5%) 89 (16%)
Urban Fantasy 20 (12%) 26 (14%) 48 (23%) 94 (17%)
Western 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0%) 1 (0%)

Hopefully everything will be higher next year — books, posts, and traffic. We’ll see — I’m doing the Goodreads Challenge again (same goal as the last 2 years, 190) and I think I’m going to try to work in The Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge
. I might throw in a couple other “projects” that I’ve been thinking about.

Saturday Miscellany — 12/27/14

Two whole weeks with nothing reviewed. Was two paragraphs away from having one up yesterday. Actually, I’m about two – four paragraphs away from having a bunch go up. Need to buckle down and finish those.

Anyway, 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 too surprisingly, very, very little was released this week — and nothing that caught my eye. There’s at least one thing I know will come out next week (I ordered it months ago, and will hopefully get to read it this year).

Saturday Miscellany — 12/20/14

Hey, remember when I reviewed things here? Posted fairly frequently, too. Honestly can’t tell you why this month or so has been so dry. I promise, I’m trying. Spent a part of each of the last few weeks thinking I was going to get ahead of the game, and each one has found me further behind.

Anyway, I did get a really big list of 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:

    A big, fat goose egg with New Releases this week — there’s at least one next week to close out the year.

Saturday Miscellany — 12/13/14

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 didn’t see a single new release this week that interested me, continuing the general sluggishness of the month, and giving many of us a chance to play catchup.


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Saturday Miscellany — 12/6/14

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:

    Only one New Release caught my eye this week — in what looks to be a slow month. But it should be a good one:

  • Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler — the eleventh installment in the series featuring the weirdest batch of detectives you’ll run across in fiction.

Saturday Miscellany — 11/29/14

First off, on this week of Thanks — I wanted to say thanks for everyone who has read, followed, and liked this blog. And to those who’s commented, retweeted, interacted with me about this here blog. Those authors/publicists who’ve made contact with me because of this? Mind blowing and I cannot thank you enough. Seriously, I am grateful.

Anyway, on to the small list of 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:

    This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About:

  • Endsinger by Jay Kristoff — Book 3 of The Lotus War — the YA Japanese Steampunk/Mythology mix. I’m looking forward to this, but something tells me there’s a lot of pain and suffering ahead for the characters (and country!).

Saturday Miscellany — 11/22/14

A pretty light load this week, it’s like there’s a holiday around the corner or something. Bet things pick up next month.

Still, there were 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:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle by Kaja Foglio and Phil Foglio — the third novelization of the webcomic. I’ve only read the comics up through the 2nd novel (no, there’s no good reason for this), so this will be all new material for me. Looking forward to it.
  • The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg — Evanovich. Goldberg. Fox. O’Hare. That’s all I need to know.
  • Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne — looks to be an entertaining take on Superheroes

In Medias Res: Us by David Nicholls

House of Hades
Us

by David Nicholls Typically, I use an “In Media Res” post to check in on a book I’m really excited about, usually about the halfway point. But, thanks to some poor time management on my part, I’ll check in here, as I had to take this back to the library today. I’m on page 120, just a couple pages into Part 2.

In a thumbnail, this is Rowell’s Landline from the male perspective, but without the magic phone. Similarly to Landline, we examine the beginning of the relationship from the protagonist’s present POV, as well as how things progress from the time that his wife tells him she thinks their marriage might be done. In a few months, their child will be leaving home, so she considers their work done — and maybe they will be, too.

This comes out of nowhere (as far as he’s concerned), and strikes poor Douglas like a load of bricks. He latches on to the probability she’s expressed rather than the certainty. He still has a chance, he just needs to make certain changes. He has no idea what those are, but he’s going to try to make them.

At this point, I can see why 1980’s Douglas would be attracted to 1980’s Connie, and maybe why he’d fall for her. I’m not convinced present-day Connie is worth that much effort (but I’m not married to her, so it’s hard for me to say). As for their work as a couple? On behalf of the people of Earth — you’ve done a lousy job. Albie is a questionable human being and a lousy ingrate of a son.

This is well-told — with heart, with wit (frequently a bumbling wit, but that’s Douglas’ charm). As much as I loved Nicholl’s One Day, I couldn’t finish Starter for Ten, so I was a little worried about dipping my toe into this one. But, I have every intention of plowing through this one, as soon as I climb back on top of the library wait list.

When I do, I’m sure I’ll learn to like present-day Connie a bit more, and find out what happened between 1980’s Douglas and present-day Douglas to turn him into someone Connie’s not sure she wants to stick with. I fully expect it to be understandable and may even result in my not liking Douglas too much for a bit. Will he figure out what needs to change and do so? Maybe. I’m not sure Nicholls is going for a happy ending. Who knows? I might even find a redeeming quality in Albie. That will come as a surprise, but I’m open to the possibility.

Good start — I can imagine this book getting 5-stars from me. Also can imagine it getting 3. Who knows?

Saturday Miscellany — 11/15/14

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:

    This Week’s New Release I’m Mostly Interested In (next week looks like a strong/wallet killing week):

  • Sons of Anarchy: Bratva by Christopher Golden — I’m mostly over this show, but I’m curious about the tie-in idea, and this one features Trinity and Opie, so I’ll end up giving it a shot.

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