Category: News/Misc. Page 229 of 242

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:

• Two Novelists Launch Brash Books, New Crime House — Yeah, I wasn’t impressed with their first title, but the idea behind Brash Books — and the men behind it, do have me very interested. I hope this works out.
• Margaret Atwood’s new work will remain unseen for a century — this project is either one of the coolest or one of the stupidest ideas I’ve run across. Either way, it reeks of hubris
• The best mixtapes in fiction — The Guardian talks about the trend of writers coming up with mixtapes/playlists and some of the best mixtapes in British fiction.
• Checking Out America’s Libraries — H&R Block (of all people) put together this infographic of interesting facts and figures (some dismaying. . . 7 books checked out a year by the average user?!?). I liked the comparison of libraries to McDonald’s (even if I have a hard time believing it)
• Pfui on Fair Play: Rex Stout on Rules for Writing Detective Fiction — Stout has problems with the supposed rules for mystery writers, and on the one hand he’s right (far be it from me to disagree with the master), because it works so often when they break this rule. But man, it bugs me as a reader when they do it.
• Longmire’s Cancellation Makes No Sense — Oline Cogdill is more angered than I am by this, but I’m pretty rankled. I really don’t get the thinking here. Thankfully, we still have the books.
• 10 Things That Happen When You Can’t Put Down A Good Book — blah
• Wilson’s got a lot of interesting things on her blog, but these Writers Laughing posts are great.

(My TBR pile got a massive injection this week thanks to) This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Hidden by Benedict Jacka — It’s been far too long since I spent time with Alex Verus.
• The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire — but it’s been longer since I’ve read a Toby Daye novel. Not sure how I decide which to read first.
• Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs — a collection of Mercy Thompson short stories? Yes, please.
• Maplecroft by Cherie Priest — Cthulu stuff has never really spoken to me, but . . . something about this take makes me think I could like it. Here’s her Big Idea piece on the book.
• Personal by Lee Child — Jack Reacher goes to Europe. Should be relaxing, no?
• The Drop by Dennis Lehane — a return to the world of Mystic River? Sounds great — and probably, pretty messy.
• What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe — title kinda says it all. From the brain behind the xkcd webcomic.

For the last day or so, one of the top “Trending” stories on Facebook has to do with George R. R. Martin, the headline reads: George R. R. Martin Teases Lots of Death in the next ‘Game of Thrones’ Books. Yeah? No kidding. Death, never would’ve suspected lots of that. Need to prepare for the next headline “George R. R. Martin Warns that Next ‘Game of Thrones’ Books Will Be Very Long.”

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:

• The Princess Bride You Didn’t Meet In The Movie — I’m not sure I’d agree with everything Leslie Kendall Dye says about the book in her little essay, but — it’s thought-provoking, and anything that gets people to read this book works for me. Love the movie, love the book more.
• 23 Contemporary Writers You Should Have Read by Now — Reader’s Digest lists 23 critically acclaimed writers that supposedly deserve more attention. Now, I admit I don’t read as much “serious” fiction as I ought, but I figured I’d have read a couple off this list. Nope. Had only even heard of one of these. Humbling.
• Speaking of “serious” fiction: Jennifer Weiner: why I’m waging war on literary snobbery — Another piece about Weiner’s quest to get “chick lit” (and herself) taken more seriously
• Adult Fiction? — huh, whaddyaknow? Adults reading books about teens — you know, what’s marketed as YA today, and which so many look down on adult’s reading — has quite the long and impressive pedigree. Teresa Michals’ essay is well worth the read, no matter what you think of YA books.
• In what’s becoming a regular feature on this list, Patrick Rothfuss’ review of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making — This has been sitting on my TBR pile since 2011, and on my daughter’s bookshelf since then, too. I need to buckle down and just read the thing, don’t I?
• The Wisdom of Hounds — Mark Mason’s musical tribute to Oberon, the true star of the Iron Druid Chronicles. Also worth checking out if you’ve never read IDC, but appreciate things from a dog’s point-of-view.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• One Kick by Chelsea Cain — am hearing good things about this, assuming those are right, with this premise? Should be a good read.
• Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan — it looks pretty funny and informative — what D’Aulaires’ was for me, but with Percy’s snark. And, apparently, huge. Huge as in abnormally tall, not thick.
• What Might Have Been by Matt Dunn — whoops! — should’ve listed this one last week, this looks like a fun read.

A quick personal note: As we have for 7 or so years, my kids took part in our local library’s Summer Reading Program — for my family, it’s never actually increased our reading, but it’s a fun little thing for the kids to do (and it gets them a free book). The last few years, they’ve added a program for adults — also, doesn’t do anything to increase my reading, still I like to participate. Turns out that I won one of the drawings from the program this year — a Kindle Fire — and a free book (Fannie Flag’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion). I’d like to give a shout out to the Nampa Public Library as well as a hearty thanks for my new tablet. Remember to support your local library.

Just a couple 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:

• Italo Calvino Offers 14 Reasons We Should Read the Classics — This review of an essay from the 80’s offers some very compelling reasons to read (or re-read) the classics. I need to do better at this, and I have more reasons to do so now.
• The Phantom Tollbooth took me into fantasyland — Lucy Mangan describes how Juster’s fantastic classic changed her.
• 8 Famous Authors On The First Book They Ever Loved — we all started somewhere. Kinda interesting to see where these first loves took them.
• Rainbow Rowell’s Best Book Quotes on Love — One of my worst kept secrets is my Rowell fascination. Here’s some great lines that help explain it.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells — the sequel to the promising, but not as good as I’d hoped, Dirty Magic
• We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory — this could be a fun and trippy read

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:

• 7 Ways J.K. Rowling Changed Childhood For A Whole Generation — title pretty much says it all
• Archie and Me — Sort of an oddball one for this space, but the other day when I was making sure I had the wording for a Nero Wolfe quotation correctly, this came up on my google search. I love Crais’ work almost as much as Wolfe novels. His tribute to them is just great.
• Ace Atkins: The Story of the Returning Soldier — nice interview with Ace Atkins about Spenser, Quinn Colson and more. I’ll be putting up my review of his latest in the next week — spoiler: it’s very, very good.
• Defining Steampunk — Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (a couple of faves around here) help us understand just what is meant by Steampunk
• A Field Guide to Book Nerds — The good people at Barnes & Noble Book Blog have assembled this handy field guide. Do you recognize yourself here?
• How To Play Fantasy Football, Only With Authors — over at Book Riot, Greg Zimmerman, outlines a fun alternative for those of us not that into Sportsball.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch — The newest Gentleman Bastards is in paperback. Yay!
• Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale — pretty much a no-brainer (even without the Fillion forward)
• Bravo by Greg Rucka — this’ll prove to be an action-packed way to kill a couple of hours. Won’t change your life, but it’ll entertain you.
• Tigerman by Nick Harkaway — seems fun and mind-bendy. Check out The Big Idea he wrote about it.

Thin week overall, but what I have to offer, I really liked.

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:

• Things I Understand Now that I’ve Finally Read the Harry Potter Series — It’s nice to see an adult who didn’t read these back then tackle the series and respond. I found it a good reminder of what I liked about the series — good incentive, also, for adults who haven’t taken the time to read these books.
• Favorite Crime-Fighting Duos — Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, noted for their new Fox & O’Hare series list their favorite duo’s — I don’t know 1 off each list, and other than Evanovich’s last item, I’d second every word of those I do.
• The 20 Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Last Decade — I’ve read a lot of these, and while I might quibble with the placement of a couple items on the list, this is a pretty good line-up. I do not understand, nor share, Allen’s estimation of Harrison’s Hollows series — that aside, good list, good place to start if your interested in the genre.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Hounded by David Rosenfeldt — The newest Andy Carpenter book will feature dogs, banter, legal tension, humor, and more dogs. Just a hunch, really, all I know is that there’s a new Andy Carpenter book, the rest is just a guess.
• The Forsaken by Ace Atkins — Book 4 of the Quinn Colson series. Atkins is becoming a real favorite of mine, and the only thing he does better than aping Robert B. Parker is write these Colson books. Can’t wait to get my hands on this.

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