Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Category: News/Misc. Page 24 of 240
I really thought I had a long list for today, but…not so much. I do have an eclectic one, however. And that makes me just as happy. Hopefully there’s something here that strikes your fancy. (and if not, come back in 7 days)
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Steve Hofstetter recently gave a speech to the American Association of School Librarians that’s worth your time (in my non-humble opinion). He was nice enough to provide both the full video and the text version.
Bones & Betrayals: A Chat with Andi Ewington, Erica Marks and Calum Alexander Watt—loved this.
Caffinated Reader’s 13th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Sign-up—may intrigue some of you
Eileen Mueller and several other fantasy authors have a dynamite-looking giveaway up: November 2025 Win Deluxe Edition Epic Fantasy Books Giveaway—(and yes, you entering via that link gets me more entries, so, you know…help a guy out)
EVEN MORE Unusual and Riveting Retellings!—The Orangutan Librarian has tempted me to take the rest of the month off to work through this list
I Have An Agent—I know there’s a long gap from this to us getting to hold a Peat Long tome in our hands, but this is a great step.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Crime Writers of Canada Joel Nedecky, The Broken Detective—I enjoyed it, you might to. Also, let me remind you to read The Broken Detective
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Indexing: Reflections, Episode Seven: False Love’s Kiss by Seanan McGuire
X by Sue Grafton
The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
Never Tell by Alafair Burke
And I mentioned the releases of: The Promise by Robert Crais; Winter by Marissa Meyer; Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke; Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker; Home by Matt Dunn; Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion by Matt Zoller Seitz
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree—by far the least cozy of the series, but fans won’t mind. Greatest breadknife in literary history. I finished this yesterday and relished every second of it.
Guns Of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill—Fahrenheit Press has this great looking book out in it’s Pocket Noir series (I need to do a separate post just about that series one day). How do you turn down “a hard-boiled black comedy packed with crooked cops, washed-up crooks, and the kind of dialogue that snaps like a switchblade.” in an attractive package? (I sure don’t)
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm—”Humanity is under assault by malevolent ‘antimemes’—ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself—in this whip-smart tale of science-fiction horror, an entirely reimagined and expanded version of the beloved online novel.”
That lack of an “s” on “BOOK” is really going to drive me nuts
As the title implies, I’m in the middle of this book, so this is not a review, just some thoughts mid-way through. This time, however, I’m not reading the book, my good friend, Lawrence Gale is. These are actually a series of texts he sent me recently about this book–it’s things like this that keep me from making progress on my TBR. (also, who texts like this?)
When he’s not sending oddly articulate and grammatically correct text messages, Lawrence has been known to write over at his substack: Keep the West, Honor the Rest.
The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century
Book Blurb:
In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate—even progressive?
In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidt’s journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt’s life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes of the day; the medical practice that he felt was his true calling; and his lifelong struggle to reconcile his craft with his religious faith.
In this groundbreaking and intimate portrait, Harrington shows us that our thinking about justice and punishment, and our sense of our own humanity, are not so remote from the world of The Faithful Executioner.
Imagine minding your own business, then a tyrannical German prince points to you and demands you execute three criminals because there are no executioners around. You realize the second you do that, society will declare you an executioner and your family is permanently ostracized from society and will lose all standing you have. You refuse. Prince then says, you’ll get executed too if you refuse. You don’t want to leave your wife and kids without their protector and provider, so you do the deed and now society has branded you as a necessary evil they don’t want anything to do with.
You then teach your son how to be the most professional and best executioner he can be, and then this son spends the next 50 years of his life being the most above board, skilled, and faithful executioner/citizen he can be in an attempt to free the rest of his family from being executioners and restore their honor before the eyes of society and be formally elevated by the government on your retirement.
My heart will ache if I reach the end and his honor wasn’t restored despite all his efforts.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
| The World Entire by Jo Perry |
Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan with songs by Jens Lekman, read by Jefferson Mays |
A year-and-a-half late on The World Entire, which has bugged me all along. Now that I’m almost halfway in and can say with a degree of certainty that this is Jo Perry’s best work to date, it really annoys me that I let this slip through the cracks repeatedly. It’s just excellent on several levels–and probably more than I’ve seen yet.
Levithan’s latest is wonderful–flawed, but wonderful. I’m finishing it today (and not just because Libby is taking it away this evening).
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis |
Small Favor by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters |
I’m a few months behind schedule on my Chronicles of Narnia read, but revisiting this first volume was just as good as expected. And yes, I’m reading them in the (correct) order by publication.
Thanks to a wonky work schedule, Small Favor is still my last audiobook (that’ll hopefully change later today)
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| And to All a Good Bite by David Rosenfelt |
The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks, read by Emma Gregory |
There are few pleasures more certain than an Andy Carpenter book.
As it is wont to do, Libby dropped a bunch of audiobooks on me last week, so I had to derail my planned next book. This one looks promising, and like it should tick a lot of boxes. Looking forward to diving in.
You have any recommendations from your recent reads? Any big “must get to”s before the calendar flips to 2026?
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Two Ways of Disliking Poetry—I would’ve guessed there were more…
Fisher the Bookseller Explains How Bookstores Decide Which Books to Sell: The ins and outs of how books are bought and sold in bookstores
In Conversation with Susan Grossey, Author of Historical Crime Fiction
Manual Labor: A new generation of deaf writers reimagines language, text, and sound
The Accidental Completionist—that last paragraph…
7 fantasy book villains more terrifying than Sauron from The Lord of the Rings—I haven’t run into any of these villains, I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
Eight Ways to Celebrate Bram Stoker on his November 8th Birthday by LindaAnn LoSchiavo—a Guest Post over at Witty & Sarcastic Book Club for those who are still making plans for Bram’s Big Day (or want to get an early start for next year)
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Bookish Diaries Podcast Season 2, Episode 6: Cozy fantasy or Dark Fantasy: Pick your Poison!
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
The Lobster Boy And The Fat Lady’s Daughter by Charles Kriel—the beginning of my beautiful friendship with Farenheit Press
And I mentioned the releases of: The Crossing by Michael Connelly; Made to Kill by Adam Christopher; The Builders by Daniel Polansky; The Ark: Children of a Dead Earth Book One by Patrick S. Tomlinson; Black Wolves by Kate Elliott; and Mystic by Jason Denzel
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
A Judgement of Powers by Benedict Jacka—Not that this series has been filled with brightness and breeze, but it looks like things are getting a little more serious for our friend, Stephen.
Love the Stranger by Michael Sears—Boy howdy, this sequel delivers on all the promise of its predecessor–and then some. Out in paperback this week, I just finished and need to talk about it soon. Don’t wait for me, though, just go get it.
The Christmas Tree Killer by Chris Frost—DI Tom Stonem is sure to be very unwelcome around the holiday season (for people he works with/serves anyway) if he keeps finding himself entwined in murder cases like this one. Creepy Christmas Crime, if you’re in the mood.
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite—”A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer“
Bruised Not Broken: The Autobiography of Katie Hodges by Katie Hodges—This Literary Local has been through a lot and is here with a story of perseverence and hope.
I Am a Highly Dangerous Warrior! by Raquel D’Apice, illustrated by Heather Fox—”a hilarious take on developmental leaps exploring the bravery it takes to tackle the next big thing–with some help from the things in life that make us feel safe.”
Yeah, I’m running late…sleep has been too attractive this week, and the blog is suffering. No promises that I’ll turn it around this week, but one can hope.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
|
| Love the Stranger by Michael Sears |
Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan with songs by Jens Lekman, read by Jefferson Mays |
I’m having a lot of fun with Sears’ follow up to Tower of Babel–which came out in paperback yesterday. I’m a little annoyed at myself for missing the hardcover release last year, but am glad I’m catching up now.
I’m not that far in Songs, but it’s good to be back in a world Levithan created.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
|
| The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison |
Small Favor by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters |
I don’t think I can put my thoughts about The Goblin Emporer into a pithy sentence or even paragraph. I hated to finish it, I just wasn’t ready to leave that book.
At a certain point, I did actually remember everything that happens in Small Favor and then spent hours trying to talk myself out of it, as if I could convince the audio to change and several events not happen until another book, so I didn’t have to listen. I’m not sure that makes sense.
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| Second Lies the Son by Matt Phillips |
What If…Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? by Rebecca Podos |
All I needed to see was “by Matt Phillips” to jump on this ARC. Can’t wait to learn what it’s about.
Kitty Pryde and Phoenix force? ‘Nuff said.
What’s been grabbing your attention lately?
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Case for Whole Books: You can’t get better at reading until you care about a text.—Part advertisement for a new book, part critique of what Common Core has done to English classes, part argument for how things should be. All the kind of thing I could read about for hours.
SoA calls for transparency around ‘unsung’ ghostwriters behind celebrity-authored children’s books—an overdue idea.
Sounds like George R.R. Martin’s OpenAI suit is going pretty well for him—(and for other authors, too, but Martin’s name will bring more readers, I guess)
The Infection is Coming…—AJ Calvin talks about the upcoming Kickstarter for The Book of Spores and the book in general.
How to build a reading routine for fall that actually sticks—some good advice here
Yeah, it’s November, but we can still talk about creepy/spooky reads, right? Like Sara Reads did in a few posts: Halloween.1, Halloween part 2., and Halloween part 3.
The Womble has some, too, in: Tis the season of Terror!
Captivating Characters of October—Once again, I’ve forgotten to get anything written for this particular blog party/linkup thing. So I’ll just point to the mothership.
My Blogging Anniversary: The Seven Year Itch—The Witty & Sarcastic Book Club is 7?? (also, how is it only 7?). Regardless, congrats on the milestone!!
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Chronicles of Prydain – Fantasy’s Forgotten Epic —I haven’t watched this yet, but I really enjoyed Ezekat’s short video on Prydain, so I can’t wait to dive in. And you know me, this is one of those topics I have to share any think I stumble across that covers it.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie
Indexing: Reflections, Episode Six: Frostbite by Seanan McGuire
Reflecting the Sky by S. J. Rozan
The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone
And I mentioned the paperback release of The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Locks & Keys: A Fantasy Anthology by Bill Adams, Tom Bookbeard, L.M. Douglas, Bella Dunn, Dave Lawson, Sean O’Boyle, R.E. Sanders, R.A. Sandpiper, Alex Scheuermann, G.J. Terral—(at least) 8 banger short stories and 2 that are worth your time. Overall, a strong anthology (as I wrote recently)
Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD by Keith R.A. DeCandido—I always enjoy time in DeCandido’s worlds, this “When a drug-dealing wizard dominates the city, only one squad can stop them”
![A goodreads Facebook post pop quiz which one is the scariest:
ghost stories
horror novels
the size of my unread book collection [which is checked]](https://www.hcnewton.com/irrreader/2025images/ScariestPopQuiz.jpg)
Just a couple of days until candy-pocalypse, anyone else dreading the leftovers (and on-sale leftovers at local stores) ruining health/resolutions? Don’t get me wrong–I rather enjoy seeing all the trick-or-treaters and passing out candy. I just wish they’d do a better job of cleaning us out. (if they’d clean us out quickly, so I could actually read something, that’d be even better).
You have enough pre-post banter? Good, me too.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
| The Broken Detective by Joel Nedecky |
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future by Maria Ressa, read by Maria Ressa & Rebecca Mozo |
Am cracking Nedecky’s book open later today. I skimmed the cover a couple of weeks ago when I got it, but remember nothing that I read. All I know is that Run Amok books hasn’t let me down yet. I assume the trend will continue.
I saw Ressa interviewed recently and thought “I want to learn more about her.” And what do you know? She has a memoir (that’ll probably shift into something else later on). I think we’re only into her mid-20s right now, and I’m fascinated. Not that surprisingly, given her career in journalism and activism, she’s a strong audiobook narrator, so bonus points for that.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| Front Desk by Kelly Yang |
The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Takami Nieda, read by: Naruto Komatsu, Kenichiro Thomson, Susan Momoko Hingley, Yuriri Naka & Ami Okumura Jones |
Last night, I read the very charming (yet honest about race and immigrant struggles in the mid 90s) Front Desk for a reading challenge. I don’t know that it needs two (at least) sequels, and I doubt I’ll get to them, but I was very satisfied with this MG read.
The Healing Hippo has convinced me that Michiko Aoyma and I should part ways. There’s nothing bad about the book, but I just don’t get the appeal.
What do you think you’ll read next?
|
|
| The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison |
Small Favor by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters |
The Goblin Emperor is the last Fantasy Book Club read of the year–and it looks like we’re going out strong. Hope so, anyway.
And it’s time for another installment of “HC scrambles to listen to the existing Dresden Files books before Twelve Months is released.” I’m embarassed to admit that I conflate a lot of Small Favor with the next book, Turn Coat, so I’m eager to get some clarification on it.
How are you closing out October?
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.