Category: News/Misc. Page 26 of 193

Late again…but I have a good excuse. I was meeting a prospective/probable new member of the household, a sweet lab/boxer mix. So…this takes a back seat.

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:
On the Difficulty of Giving Books as Gifts
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2023—from BookMarks. I’m feeling much better about all my negative reviews.
The best book covers of 2023 are the ones you’ll never see: The most interesting book cover designs are often left on the cutting room floor.
10 Things We Learned in 20 Years of Writing Mysteries—from the writers behind “Cleo Coyle”
Ian [Rankin]’s end of year round-up: 2023
Kevin Hearne also posted a Year-end roundup
FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Lee Goldberg—Goldberg shares Non-Fiction and Fiction recommendations
The Biggest Literary Stories of the Year: 50 to 31—(at least according to LitHub)
How about some more Year-End Best Of lists? (in no particular order). Several of my TBR reads are here and not enough things that I have read are, oh and the TBR has been made longer by these, too.
CrimeReads’ The Best Crime Novels of 2023—Some great ones here (and in the Honorable Mentions!)
The 139 Best Book Covers of 2023
My Ten Favourite Reads of 2023—from Grab This Book
FanFiAddict’s The Bookwyrm’s Best Reads of 2023
Also from CrimeReads, The Best Debut Novels of 2023
Also from FanFiAddict, Charlies Top Reads of 2023
Top Five Powerful Books I Read In 2023—Stephen continues his trend of categorizing his lists in the best way
And one more from FanFiAddict, Lord TBR’s Top Reads of 2023
Rethinking the End of Year Book List—What better way to follow those up than with a reconsideration of the idea?
How do You Measure a Year in Reading?—I’ve read this a couple of times now, and will probably do it a couple of more
Maybe the Greatest Fantasy Standalones Ever—Not content with just looking at 2023, Peat Long tackles the Entirety of Human History
Ideas For 2023 Book Gifts—for the second week in a row, I’m starting on the same topic I began on. I’d like to say I’m clever enough to keep this up, but we all know better.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fully Booked Best Middle-Grade Books of 2023 with Zach Weinersmith—before digging into Kirkus Review’s Best Middle Grade books of the year, the episode features a chat with Weinersmith about Bea Wolf, Beowulf, and MG books in general. I really enjoyed this one

I typically like to start these with an introduction of sorts (probably because I read too many recipe blogs and think I need to begin everything with a rambling essay), but I can’t think of anything to say today.

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 pages of life keep turning—awwww
My Year in Reading Children’s Books
Rereading My Childhood: Author Timothy C. Baker examines how our childhood reading shapes our memories and the way we see the world.
What better way to follow up three pieces about Children’s Books than with The Enduring Appeal of Murder and Mystery: A Brief History
S.A. Cosby was on The Daily Show this week, which is just cool to see.
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 The After Show Party—a good wrap-up of the series that has been called “the highlight of your bookish year.”
It’s that time of year, “Best Of” List Season. Here are a few that got my attention. I either agree with at least one thing on each of these lists (or added at least one book to my list from them)
The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2023—from Lit Hub’s BookMarks
The Best Fantasy Books of 2023—from Paste magazine (didn’t realize they cared about Fantasy books, but it’s a good list)
The 38 Best Books We Read in 2023: Lit Hub Staffers on the Year’s Best Reading Experiences
FanFi Addict brings us: DB Rook’s Top Reads of 2023
Ed’s Top Reads of 2023
Top 12 Favorite Books of 2023—from John Mauro at Before We Go Blog
My Top 10 Reads of 2023!!!—from Out of This World SFF
The End of All Stories: Bidding a Fond Farewell to The Great C.S. Lewis Reread—I didn’t read this series as faithfully as I could have, but I thought it was a great idea that was frequently executed well (except from when Mikalatos was just wrong in his opinions, obviously).
What’s The Best Book In A Trilogy Edition One – Tolkien, Feist/Wurts, Barker, Eddings, Lackey, De Bodard—I enjoyed the approach to this piece (have only read 2 of these trilogies, but I agree with the rankings). My gut says this conclusion is where I’d land, but I should probably try this myself.
Beginner’s Guide to Fantasy—how to get started—I always enjoy pieces like this. If only for the good recommendations they bring for non-beginners like me and/or reminders of books I haven’t thought of in too long
On Fantasy and Whores—yeah, a Peat Long twofer this week. I’d honestly never thought about this before, and probably should’ve
Let’s start on the same topic we started on with It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas: Picture Book Edition 2023—they’re all (or mostly all) a bit too old for Grandpappy’s Corner, but not for long. I anticipate adding many of these to my shelves soon.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Meet the Writers talked to Kevin Jon Davies about 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams and the man himself
Functional Nerds Episode 604-With Alex Bledsoe—a fun chat about his new short story collection and more
Crime Time FM MATT PHILLIPS In Person With Paul —not only a great talk about A Good Rush of Blood but their discussion about the essence of noir is great.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Mayors of New York by S.J. Rozan—because I needed a fresh reason to not finish my reading plans for 2023, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin hunt for the runaway son of NYC’s mayor.
Murder Crossed Her Mind by Stephen Spotswood—In their latest, Parker and Pentecost are also hunting a mising person in NYC.

You would not believe how many times I’ve tried to get this posted today…I barely do, and I was there for all of them. But, life has interfered (as it so often does). But it’s still Saturday, so I can live with it (the two posts I also planned on scheduling today, on the other hand are going to wait a week or more for attention).

But you didn’t come here for my whinging. You came here for this:

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:
Wisconsin libraries would have to notify parents about the books their kids check out under GOP proposal—I’m not fond of this, but I’m not sure it’s horrible. The other bill talked about in this story, on the other hand…
When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars—a little BTS action
This Is Your Brain on Books
The big idea: should we abolish literary genres?
Webtoons and Webcomics Keep Scrolling into Print
Do You Believe in Magic? On The Timeless Charm of Children’s Books 
It’s getting to be that time of year, isn’t it? Libro.fm’s Top 10 Audiobooks of 2023
S.A. Cosby lists His favorite books of the year—have read a couple of these and have several others sitting on a stack in my office, glaring at me
And looking in the other direction, FFA’s Most Anticipated Reads of 2024
Scaring Myself: The Story Behind How & Why I Wrote CALICO…—Lee Goldberg talks about the background to his latest novel (that I will write about ASAP, but you should read)
The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket—I thought this was interesting and had planned on putting it here in the first place, and then:
Molly Templeton responded with What Do You Want to Know About a Book Before You Read It?—what are your thoughts?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 wrapped up this week, so I only have a few more TBR add-ons for you:
…with Donna of Retirement Reflections
…with Rae of Rae Reads
…with Ayo Onatade of Shotsmag Confidential—
…with Sarah Hardy of bytheletterbookreviews
…with Jo of Jo’s Book Blog
Announcing Solstitia: a Fiction Fans Magazine—the brains behind Fiction Fans are launching a zine/litmag. Looking forward to some good reads.
Similarly, JCM Berne is starting up Grimdwarf Magazine—and is worth looking into
Managing my TBR—The Narratess talks about getting her TBR slimmed down. No offense intended, but having read her numbers, I’m feeling better about mine. But still…
Is It Easier to Write Negative Reviews?—Not for me, no. But I can see where Krsyta is coming from.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Joined Up Writing Podcast 204: S.A. Cosby—Cosby chats about All the Sinners Bleed and much more. I love listening to this guy.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica—Lupica takes up the Spenser torch from Atkins, and is much better than I assumed. (I’d planned on finishing this today, but, life intervened). PI Fans would be smart to pick this up.
Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto—okay, a YA take on You’ve Got Mail with gamers and a private school, isn’t really my cuppa. But I really liked Sutanto’s style at first contact. So, I’m going to give this a shot (as I try to work older books into my schedule, too).

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Taylor @ Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.