Category: News/Misc. Page 33 of 233

WWW Wednesday—March 26, 2025

On March 26, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,

Is not supposed to be a motto or mission statement or anything like that. But I sure seem to have adopted it as such. But I have got some solid reading in.

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?


Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler	Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld

I’ve only read 30 or so pages of Butler’s book–it’s not going to be a feel-good read.

By the time this posts, I’ll be an hour or so into Serpent & Dove, hopefully I’m enjoying myself.

What did you recently finish reading?


Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto	Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

These two were simply delightful, everything I’d hoped they’d be, and maybe more. Vera Wong’s second investigation is heartwarming, sweet, and endearing. Brown’s essays were…I’d say “chef’s kiss,” but he had this great rant about the overuse of “Chef.”

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Price of Power by Michael Michel	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

The plan is to talk a lot about The Price of Power in the next week or so, buckle up for it! (step 1: reading the thing)

A Little History of Music is back in this spot–and will almost certainly not be delayed again.

How are you wrapping up the month?

HC Chats with Paul Regnier about Monster Therapist and the Warlock’s Citadel and some other stuff

By HCNewton

On March 26, 2025

In HC Chats, Literary Locals, Miscellany, News/Misc.

HC sat down with literary local Paul Regnier (https://www.pauljregnier.com/) to talk about his books, influences, and things of that nature.

Some of the books we mentioned were:
Paul’s books/writing:
Space Drifters trilogy
Luke and Bandit cozy mysteries
Bard Tidings
Monster Therapist and the Warlock’s Citadel
Almost the Chosen One Substack by Paul Regnier

Other books we mentioned/discussed:
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks
Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold! by Terry Brooks
MythAdventures by Robert Asprin series
Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix
The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine by Lindsay A. Franklin
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

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Saturday Miscellany—3/22/2025

By HCNewton

On March 22, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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:
bullet EveryLibrary launched SaveIMLS.org—to take action and make your voice heard about the recent Executive Order targeting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), amongst others.
bullet The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: And The Winner Is…—not really a surprise, but the worst of the worst (or the best of the worst?) has been named.
bullet The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem: Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here.
bullet How an American Radical Reinvented Back-Yard Gardening: Ruth Stout didn’t plow, dig, water, or weed—and now her “no-work” method is everywhere. But behind her secret to the perfect garden lay other secrets.—this barely qualifies for this post, but they do talk about her books a bit–and there’s discussion of her more famous (at least then) brother, Rex Stout. And you all know I’ll reflexively put anything about Rex Stout here.
bullet Tell Me a Differently Shaped Story: SFF That Plays With Form: If not traditional narrative, why book shaped?—(I’m with Templeton re: House of Leaves)
bullet Tackling the TBR: Strategies for Managing Your “To Be Read” List—It was just a day or two ago that I learned that TBR’s can be managed and not just cowered under. The things Science can do these days…
bullet Why I Like The Term ‘Trad Fantasy’—a quick take from Peat Long
bullet I’m kinda done with being treated like an idiot by authors—I expect a lot of us will agree with the notion behind The Orangutan Librarian’s post. I just wonder how many of us all would agree about the authors who do it?

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson
bullet I mentioned the releases of: The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen; The Deception Artist by Fayette Fox; The Last Days of Video: A Novel by Jeremy Hawkins; and Less Than Hero by S. G. Browne. I only read The Stolen Ones, which remains one of the more chilling books I’ve read in a decade or so.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Library by Gigi Pandian—Tempest Raj and her pals are back for another fun locked-room mystery. I talked about it (hopefully enthusiastically) a day or two ago.
bullet Friends Helping Friends by Patrick Hoffman— “A young man must infiltrate his own family’s white nationalist group, or go to prison himself… Part crime novel, part portrait of friendship, extremism, and inherited trauma, celebrated novelist Patrick Hoffman is at his brilliant best in these pages. Bunny never wanted any trouble. So how the hell did he end up at a white supremacist compound in rural Colorado?”
Welcome to the Lands of Luxury by Jon Tilton—escaping from their home on a (literal) trash pile is one thing, but adjusting to life in a super-affluent world brings a whole new set of challenges in this sequel.

Image credit: Grammarly

WWW Wednesday—March 19, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 19, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

Hey, I managed to get this up! (didn’t get anything else done today, but let’s accentuate the positive)

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?


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

Bennett is knocking it out of the park again. I may be enjoying this one more than last year’s, but that’s just because I know what to expect from these characters. I certainly don’t know what to expect from this world, which is even stranger this time out. I got to the part of the book where a character utters the title today, which is always worth a cheer. It wasn’t used the way I initially took it, either, which is perfectly satisfying.

Speaking of satisfying…Alton Brown reading this essay collection is my front-runner for Audiobook of the Year. It’s just ridiculously entertaining.

What did you recently finish reading?


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames	That’s Not Right by Scott Meyer, read by Luke Daniels

As I said last week, Bloody Rose is not Kings of the Wyld. While that’s somewhat disappointing, but it’s good that it wasn’t. I put off reading this for far too long, I’m so glad I got to dip back into this world.

I opened the “wrong” audiobook last week, so I’ll have to circle back to A Little History of Music, after I clear off a few Library reserves (why do they insist on becoming available in stacks?). Instead, I had some quirky fun with Scott Meyer. This was not his best, but not his worst either (and his worst, it should be noted, is still plenty of fun). Solid fun, some really good lines, and (as you expect) some great performances from Luke Daniels.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto	Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld

Do I know what this return to the world of Vera Wong is about? Nope–and I don’t care. I just want to watch her meddle some more.

Serpent & Dove is one of those I’m listening to based on a recommendation (name withheld in case I don’t like it, no need to shame the lad). I’m really not sure this is my bag, but I hope to be surprised.

What’s keeping you up at night/filling your day?

HC Chats with M.D. Presley about Laurel K. Hamilton

By HCNewton

On March 18, 2025

In HC Chats, JCM Berne, Miscellany, News/Misc., The Hybrid Helix

Last year, you’ll have seen the name M.D. Presley here a few times–thanks to the first two books in his Inner Circle UF series. We had a fun chat last week that I bring to you today. Matt introduced me to the work of Laurel K. Hamilton and her influence on the genre.

Of course, better than that, would be checking out her site and work for yourself. But you might as well start with this chat.

M.D. Presley Links:

Website ~ Bluesky ~ Facebook ~ Rites of Passage (Inner Circle book 1) ~ Worldbuilding Nonfiction

Are you a Reader of Things and want to chat with me about an author/series/something other than promoting your own work (which we will do, just not primarily)? I’d love to keep trying this, but I’m not ready to start pestering people about it. So please let me know.

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MUSIC MONDAY: “Feeling the Pull” by The Swell Season

By HCNewton

On March 17, 2025

In News/Misc.

The Irresponsible Reader's Music Monday logo

Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.

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Saturday Miscellany—3/15/25

By HCNewton

On March 15, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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:
bullet The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: The Final Showdown—this is not who I expected to see in the final bracket, but it really makes sense. Also, if you haven’t been checking in, all the bracket posts (and other things posted on the theme of literary villains this week) are worth your time.
bullet Terry Brooks announced his “semi-retirement” this week—at one point in my life this would’ve been devasting news. Now I can see it as the smart move it is—I hope he enjoys a long time of not-writing-that-much.
bullet A Lifelong Love of Field Guides: A celebration of field guides, the little books that changed the way we interact with nature
bullet How To Manage Your Reading Habit When You’ve Got No Money- A Book Bloggers Guide to The Cost-Of-Living Crisis
bullet The Art of Reading Aloud
bullet Marching Through MORE Inspirational Books!
bullet The Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library asks, Every 2 seconds, a book is rescued from captivity. Will you be a hero for a library item in need?

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Crime Time FM NICK KOLAKOWSKI In Person With Paul—was a great conversation about writing in general and Kolakowski’s new book.
bullet SFF Addicts Ep. 145: John Scalzi—was great
bullet The Thriller Zone Episode 217: Marshall Karp’s Killer Secrets: Writing Thrillers that Pack a Punch

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Uneasy Relations; Skull Duggery; Dying on the Vine by Aaron J. Elkins—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet I mentioned the releases of: Anti-Hero by Jonathan Wood; World Gone By by Dennis Lehane; The Mirror World of Melody Black by Gavin Extence; What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World by Cat Warren [wonderful read]; and Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire—The war with the Covenant heats up and everyone’s favorite Nanny has to step up again. I had a few things to say about it recently.
bullet Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski—Kolakowski brings his best for this contemporary L.A. noir about a traumatized ex-fixer trying to solve an old murder. I did a better job of talking about it earlier this week.

WWW Wednesday—March 12, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 12, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

INTRO

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?


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames	Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya, read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

Bloody Rose has been on the top of my To Be Read pile since it was published in 2018, but I wasn’t sure it could live up to its predecessor, so I put it off, and off, and off, and off…I have to stop running from it. The first 100 pages don’t live up to Kings of the Wylde, but what does? It’s still plenty of fun (as I expected)–and there’s plenty of time for it to get better.

When this posts, I’ll be about 30 minutes into Bibliophobia, so I really don’t know much about it. But how do I not get sucked in? I mean, look at this first paragraph from the blurb:

Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners”.

This book is a memoir about her life with some Life Ruiners. I don’t know that I can think about books that way (check with me in 7 hours of this), but it sounds fascinating.

What did you recently finish reading?


Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs	Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg, read by Eric Conger, Nicol Zanzarella

Breaking Bread with the Dead is another stack of reasons that I want to be Alan Jacobs when I grow up.

As I said about Ashes Never Lie last week, Sharpe & Walker + Eve Ronin = fun.

What do you think you’ll read next?


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

As intimidated as I was to start Bloody Rose, I’m even more intimidated by A Drop of Corruption. The first in this series is one of the two best books I read last year. I doubt I’ll say the same about this one, but I bet it’ll be in teh running.

As for A Little History of Music? Eh, I was in the mood to learn a little something. Seemed like a good fit. (although I have a few library books on hold, if one of them comes through I can remain a little ignorant a bit longer)

CLOSING QUESTION?

Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 books with a place in the title

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2025

In Books, News/Misc.

This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books with a place in the title. Any location or place in a title is fine — just share your top five with us.” I’m adding the proviso that these are the first five that I could think of with favorable memories, there are likely some I liked better (in a true Top 5 version), but these are all solid reads that tell us a lot about the location, where the place is important–even integral to the plot (which is probably why they occurred to me when thinking about place).

	The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams The universe is a place, it’s actually all the places. So it’s a good one to start with (in addition to the whole alphabetical thing). Sure, it’s kind of depressing to think of it ending, but at least you get a good meal beforehand. Even if it’s sentient, it’s at least tasty. And then you get to see all of Creation come to it’s timely end.
	Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell We go from evereything everywhere to a tiny town in England. Sure, it’s a very important town, playing a vital supernatural role–so that makes up for the change in size. It’s a cliche to describe a city as a character in a book/movie/etc. But it really is true here, still, it’s a cliche, so I won’t say it..
	6 Ripley Avenue by Noel Holten 6 Ripley Avenue is not a place anyone wants to be. Including most of the people who work there. And that’s before the murders start. It’s a probation hostel for violent criminals (for Americans, think of it as a half-way house for parolees). In addition to the staff (some of which should not be trusted, some of which should not be in this particular line of work), eight of these parolees live at the titular location. And then, as I said, people start to be killed. And the Airbnb rating really starts to tank.
	Perelandra by C.S. Lewis Yeah, the Venus we can see is beautiful (hence the whole “Venus” thing). It’s captured imaginations for centuries now. But underneath the clouds, the planet known as Perelandra is exponentially better than our wildest imaginations. You could almost call it Edenic. (arguably you should call it that). Ignore the plot if you wanted to (I’m not sure you should, but you could), the descriptions of the planet, the animal and plant life there, the geography…it’d be perfectly worth your time.
	The Black Mountain by Rex Stout Is this the best Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin novel? It’s not even in the running. But it is striking in its singularity (it largely takes place in Montenegro, near or under the shadow of the Black Mountain). It centers on regional politics, regional history, and leaves our poor American narrator out in the cold of most of the action. I really enjoy it because of the differences, at least 70% of what I know about Montenegro (particularly pre-1990s Montenegro) comes from this book (this says more about me and my education than it says about the book).

Joel and the MST3K Bots asking What Do You Think, Sirs?

February 2025 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I finished 25 titles (6 up from last month, 3 up from last February), with an equivalent of 6,424 pages or the equivalent (1,116 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.4 stars (.4 stars down from last month).

My late 2024 slowdown in posting continues, and I’m getting better with accepting that, while still trying to figure out how to get around it. But basically, I’m reading a lot and enjoying talking about that–that’s good enough for me.

So, here’s what happened here in February.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Still Reading

Cover of Wisdom for Life by Michael P. V. Barrett

Cover of A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel by John Colquhoun

Cover of Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski

Ratings

		Average =	3.4
	0		3
	1		2
	7		0
	10		0
	3

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
1st of the Month	4	68	80	168	9
Added	1	3	4	3	4
Read/ Listened	2	20	6	0	4
Current Total	3	69	78	171	9

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 20
Self-/Independent Published: 5

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	3 (12%)	9 (4%)
Fantasy	2 (8%)	9 (4%)
General Fiction/ Literature	3 (12%)	9 (4%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	4 (16%)	9 (20%)
Non-Fiction	4 (16%)	7 (16%)
Science Fiction	3 (12%)	11 (5%)
Theology/ Christian Living	3 (12%)	0 (0%)
Urban Fantasy	3 (12%)	6 (14%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)

Review-ish Things Posted

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis: His First Apologetic Work is a Mixed Bag
I Have Too Many Things to Say About Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets by Christopher Farnsworth
The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis: Everyone Has to Start Somewhere
Grandpappy’s Corner: Little Aiden: A Big Kid Book for Toddlers by Albert and Anna Choi, Bettina Braskó (Illustrator): Aiden’s a “Big Kid” Now (well, bigger)
Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire: Things Get Serious
Grandpappy’s Corner: Goodnight Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown: Han Snored First
Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People by Nicholas G. Piotrowski: Looking At The Heart of the Bible’s Narrative
Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp: The Last Days of Maggie Dunn
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis: What Can Happen When a Bad Review Copy Falls Into the Right Hands
Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire: G-G-G-Ghosts!
(slightly updated) REPOST: Buddy the Knight and The Queen of Sorrow by Peter David: A Tale of Friendship, Devotion, Bravery and Heart

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?