Category: News/Misc. Page 36 of 230

Reading with Wrigs 2024 Challenge—Well, that’s a miss.

On December 31, 2024

Rising from the ashes of the While I Was Reading Challenge, came Reading with Wrigs. I’ve done pretty well with While I Was Reading most of the I participated, and I thought this would be the same—but it wasn’t meant to be this year. I just assumed I’d come across some of these without going out of my way to look for anything. Ah well, I’ll do better next year.

Probably.

Anyway, here are my incomplete results:

A Book with a Dragon: Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
A Book with the word “leap” in the title: Couldn’t think of one.
A Book with the Olympics: Running and Jumping by Steven Kedie
A Book with an Election or Politician: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
A Work of Fiction with an Eclipse: Missed it
A Book by an Author Who Has Written Over 24 Books: Dream Town by Lee Goldberg
A Book Set in a Different Culture Than Your Own: I have an idea or two.
A Book of Poetry: Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
A Book with Time Travel: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
A Book with Antonyms in the Title: I really thought I’d get this one, but, alas
A Book Told from the Villian’s Point of View: Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart kind of applies.
A Book With a Purple Cover: Abnormal Ends by Bryan McBee

MUSIC MONDAY: “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” by Johnnyswim

By HCNewton

On December 30, 2024

In News/Misc.

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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—12/28/24

By HCNewton

On December 28, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

It’s that magic time of year when I find myself being very strategic in what books I choose to pick up–not in a stats-padding way–but in a “can I reasonably expect to finish this by Tuesday night” sort of way (which turns out to look and act like stats-padding), so I can enter 2025 with a clean slate.

Oh, it’s also magic because of all the time I get to spend with family, the general bonhomie in the air, the wonder in my grandchild’s eyes, and all that other stuff, too.

One more thing before I forget–anyone have any recommendations for a decent reading tracker spreadsheet going into the year? Trying to shake things up and trying something new (and I’m not so sure my usual source is going to put one out). I’m thinking of just making my own (again), but I’m also kind of lazy.

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 Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery—A treasure trove of “over 2000 illustrations taken from the most important (and interesting) illustrated editions of Charles Dickens’s works from 1836 to 1912 (the centenary of Dickens’s birth).”
bullet A Critic on Swearing in Fantasy—been too long since I had a good Peat Long rant here. (FWIW, I agree with it. Except the bit about “kids” I hadn’t noticed that before, but I probabaly will now)
bullet The 2025 Fantasy/SF Badge Collection—Spells & Spaceships makes the coolest looking virtual badges.
bullet A Huge Round Up of 2025 Year Long Reading Challenges—a near-overwhelming collection of 2025 Challenges to help plan your year.
bullet Oh Come All Ye Fantasy—Santa Womble brings has a bag-full of fantasy recs.
bullet Ten Recommended Superhero Novels—I keep meaning to do a list along these lines, until I do, I’ll point people at this one.
bullet Quotables: Words that Stuck with Me in 2024—A post I look forward to every year on Witty and Sarcastic Book Blog

It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these to embiggen your 2025 TBRs (or to give you fodder to think about). I’ve made purchases/placed library books on hold from these.
bullet I’ve only read one book from CrimeReads lists (and some of the runner-ups for Best of the Year), but am very inpired to pick up a lot of these:
bullet The Best Debut Crime Novels of 2024
bullet The Best Speculative Crime Fiction of 2024
bullet https://crimereads.com/the-best-crime-novels-of-2024/
bullet Reads of the year for the HIP (Harried Intellectual Parent): 2024—(just in case there are any reading this)
bullet A Fictional Escapists Top 5 Reads of 2024!
bullet Worlds Unlike Our Own’s Best of 2024
bullet Novel Deelights’ Favourite Series of 2024
bullet A few more lists from FanFiAddict:
bullet Tom Bookbeard’s Top Indie Sci Fi and Fantasy Reads of 2024
bullet Matt’s Top Reads of 2024
bullet Harry’s Top 10 Reads of 2024
bullet @LordTBR_FFA ‘s Top 15 Reads of 2024
bullet My Top Ten Reads of 2024—from Hooked from Page One
bullet Books of the year: 2024 edition—from reader @ work
bullet Coe’s Oddly Specific Book Awards
bullet Top Five Memorable Endings I Read In 2024

MUSIC MONDAY: “King Santa” by Nolan Lynch

By HCNewton

On December 23, 2024

In News/Misc.

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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—12/21/24

By HCNewton

On December 21, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

No trip down memory lane this week—I posted nothing 10 years ago. A move I can appreciate (and almost replicated).

The first link I have to share has nothing to do with books or reading, but was so interesting that I’m sharing it anway:
bullet A List of 1,065 Medieval Dog Names: Nosewise, Garlik, Havegoodday & More—I strongly encourage clicking the links within the short post and the Related Content.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled focus.
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 Hartford high school graduate who claims she can’t read sues board of education
bullet Every AI Copyright Lawsuit in the US, Visualized—For those who have lost track of them all (like me)
bullet Snap! Criticism: De Marcken and Kramnick—literary criticism and the idea of “quality”
bullet Interview with M. W. Craven about the Ben Koenig series
bullet Speaking of Craven, he showed up on CrimeReads this week with An Englishman in New York—as one who frequently complains about British authors flubbing Americanisms, I appreciate this.
bullet Nice Place to Visit, But…: Johnny D. Boggs’ Bloody Newton—I had to take a second look at this review. (the title of the book could also be what some British authors call me when I comlain about their flubbed Americanisms)
bullet The Art of Buying Books for Other People—some very good advice (especially about keeping lists)
bullet Bookstr put together this handy The Best Book Deals as We Say Goodbye to 2024
bullet Let Children Read What They Want—please
bullet Out with the Old, In With the New – End of Year Review—A Little Book Problem takes a look at 2024 and looks toward 2025
bullet A Year Spent Rereading – Some Highlights and Lowlights—The Orangutan Librarian looks back

It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these. Your TBR will grow, I should warn you.
bullet The Ultimate Best Books of 2024 List—I really appreciate Emily Temple’s annual List of Lists
bullet The Empty Bookshelf’s Top 10 Novels of 2024—I’ve only read one of these (his top pick), but the rest look pretty appetizing
bullet Pages Unbound’s Krysta gave her
bullet Favorite Books Read in 2024
bullet Top Twelve Graphic Novels Read in 2024
bullet FanFiAddict posted:
bullet C. J. Daley’s Top Reads of 2024
bullet Anna’s Favorite Reads of 2024—many of these will appeal to people who aren’t me, but I can see why horror readers would dig them.
bullet Ryan’s Favorite Reads of 2024
bullet I’ve Read 26 Bookish Books in 2024—not really a Best Of, but it’s a good list, so it fit here better than above.
bullet A.J.’s Completely Random Book Awards: 2024—Were I more creative, this is the approach I’d to take. But I’m not, so I’ll just enjoy people like A.J. Calvin who are.
bullet Along those lines, I really enjoy the way that Steven Writes breaks down his lists:
bullet Top Five Powerful Books I Read In 2024
bullet Top Five Most Dramatic Twists I Read In 2024
bullet Top Five Character-Driven Books I Read In 2024
bullet Top Five Beautiful Covers I Held In 2024

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet SFF Addicts Ep. 135: Our Favorite Reads of 2024 LIVE (with Greta Kelly, The FTF Podcast & OWWR Pod)—this was fun and TBR embiggening.
bullet Crime Time FM Alison Gaylin In Person With Paul—I really enjoyed this chat with Gaylin and hearing her take on Sunny Randall

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Suppression of Powers by JCM Berne—Turn Six of the Hybrid Helix looks like it’ll put Rohan through the wringer (shock) as the second arc of the kicks off.

WWW Wednesday—December 18, 2024

By HCNewton

On December 18, 2024

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

Running late with this again. I’m still trying to shake the COVID symptoms and life’s been busier than I’m used to–I’ve fallen asleep with my leptop open and a post in the works for four nights in a row. I’m trying to focus on just getting something up for the next couple of days without much reference to time.

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 Big Empty by Robert Crais	Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

On the one hand, I wish Crais wrote faster. On the other hand, whatever he’s doing to bring us stuff like The Big Empty is so good that I don’t want him to mess with his M.O.

I’m really enjoying getting back into the world of Whispers Under Ground and remembering all the things I forgot since my last trip through it.

What did you recently finish reading?


Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire	Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

Ohhh, McGuire did everything right with her newest Wayward Children novel.

The gut punch at the end of Grave Peril hit just as hard as I remembered, I figure it will no matter how many times I revist this one.

What do you think you’ll read next?


A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay	The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner, read by Cindy Piller

Mackay’s US debut will make three NetGalley reads in a row for me, which is more than I like to tackle at once, but I want to clear the decks there.

I’d been curious about the Waggoner book, but it was Mike Finn’s post about it that pushed me to get on the wait list. Looking forward to diving in.

What’ve you been reading lately?

MUSIC MONDAY: “You Don’t Have to Be a Santa Claus” by Ben Folds

By HCNewton

On December 16, 2024

In News/Misc.

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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—12/14/24

By HCNewton

On December 14, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

So I can be afk for a couple of days, I’m putting this together a couple of days early, so if you’re wondering why I skipped over the tremendous/scandalous/tremdendously scandalous/scandaldoulys tremendos bookish news that came out over the previous 48 hours…well, I’ll cover it next week (assuming we all remember).

But for now, let’s move on to:
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 Call to acknowledge all writers behind celebrity books—The UK’s trade union for writers, illustrators and translators calls “for celebrities, publishers and agents to acknowledge the writers behind celebrity books, particularly for children.”
bullet Brandon Sanderson’s Materialist Fantasies—I don’t know enough about Sanderson to really appreciate this, but contrasting his approach to the genre/magic to Lewis and Tolkein was pretty interesting (I’d like to hear what others say about this)
bullet Small Press SFF Might Sometimes Be Harder to Find — But It’s More Than Worth the Effort—Molly Templeton makes the case for putting in the effort to get Small Press SFF
bullet Do You Enjoy When Your Library Receipt Says How Much Money You Saved?—I did enjoy when my library gave me this number, sadly they haven’t for a year or so (but I’d love to see it again)

It’s the Time of Year for Gift Guides/Best of Lists like these:
bullet These gifts are the way to a book lover’s heart – part 2—Never Judge a Book by its Cover has a great list
bullet The CrimeReads 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
bullet The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024—This list from LitHub is always one of my favorites
bullet Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2024—from Reactor Magazine
bullet The best books of 2024 – recommended by Ian Rankin, Mick Herron, Mary Beard and others—The UK’s best writers name their best of the year. There some great choices here, and some that look great, too.
bullet Top Five Books of 2024—from the Staff at LibraryThing
bullet The Best Crime Novels of 2024—according to CrimeReads
bullet Chasing Destino’s Favorite Books in 2024
bullet P.L.’s Top Indie & Trad Pub Books for 2024—over at Before We Go Blog

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
(It was a really quiet week a decade ago, so I only have one thing share)
bullet Hostile Witness by William Lashner

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Ghosts Stations by M.D. Presley—This is a strong second novel in the Inner Circle series (at least the beginning of it is). Corbin finds himself in New York on the hunt for a drug designed for magicians.

WWW Wednesday—December 11, 2024

By HCNewton

On December 11, 2024

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

It’s Wednesday. Might as well do this, eh?

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?


Ghost Stations by M.D. Presley	Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

I really dug Rites of Passage, so it took me maybe 30 seconds to decide I wanted to jump when Presley offered me this follow up, his website says, “Think if Buffy and her Scooby gang went up against the Barksdale Corp from The Wire.” And even if I hadn’t been waiting for the second book in the series, that comparison alone would’ve got me.

Grave Peril is one of those Butcher books I feel bad about forgetting the details of–I keep coming across scenes, characters, events and think they belong to another book. And one of my all-time favorite Butcher lines is in this (and I’d have guessed it was from a later book). But none of that matters, because right now, I’m having a blast–even though I know what the last chapters contain and all the fallout that will ensue from them. (seriously, I’m already flashing forward to Changes)

What did you recently finish reading?


The Killer’s Christmas List by Chris Frost	What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, read by Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, Winson Ting, and Shiro Kawai

Chris Frost’s debut under that penname was a rollicking read. I hope a sequel is forthcoming. if not, I’ll be ready for whatever Frost/McDonald has in store. More to come on this.

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library was utterly okay. There were some pleasant characters, some sweet moments, and the book as a whole is a nice tribute to the power of books and how the right one can trigger a needed change in someone’s life.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire	Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Seanan McGuire. Wayward Children.Not sure there’s much else to say.

I have a similar problem with the third Rivers of London novel as I do with the third Dresden Files novel. I can remember a couple of scenes, a couple of characters that are introduced…and not much else. Am looking forward to the reminders.

Do you have something special grabbing your attention?

November 2024 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On December 10, 2024

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

I don’t know if any of ya’ll have heard of this COVID-19 thing, but I’m on day 2 or 3 of it, and I have to say that I’m not a fan. 0/5 Stars, for sure. Anyway, coming up with a post that requires thought seemed like a lot to ask of myself. But hey, I haven’t found time to do my November write-up yet. Might as well tackle it now, right?

Well, these numbers aren’t promising: I finished 19 titles (5 down from last month, 5 down from last ZZZ), with an equivalent of 6,012 pages or the equivalent (593 down from last month), and gave them an average of 3.53 stars (.17 down from last month). And while I’m not crazy about my number of posts–it’s actually an improvement over last November.

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

Still Reading

Ratings

		Average =	3.53
	0		0
	3		0
	6		0
	3		1
	6

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2023	6	47	68	153	5
1st of the Month	5	62	78	167	9
Added	3	6	7	0	4
Read/ Listened	3	2	4	0	2
Current Total	5	66	81	167	11

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 14
Self-/Independent Published: 5

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	1 (5%)	8 (3%)
Fantasy	3 (16%)	35 (15%)
General Fiction/ Literature	3 (16%)	24 (10%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	5 (26%)	72 (30%)
Non-Fiction	2 (11%)	22 (9%)
Science Fiction	2 (11%)	20 (8%)
Theology/ Christian Living	1 (5%)	25 (10%)
Urban Fantasy	1 (5%)	26 (11%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	1 (5%)	6 (3%)

Review-ish Things Posted

On the Christian Life: A New Translation by John Calvin, Raymond A. Blacketer (Translator): A Shiny New Translation of Gold Standard
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 58: Into the Night by R. T. Slaywood: Two Steps Back? Or is it a Step Forward?
Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy by John McGuckin: More Than You Thought You Wanted to Know about the Nestorian Controversy
The World According to Cunk by Philomena Cunk: The Story of the World (abbreviated and only accidentally accurate)
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 59: Guilt by R. T. Slaywood: Meal, Interrupted
Grandpappy’s Corner: The Box by Jo Linsdell: Imagination + Cardboard
PUB DAY POST: King Arthur & The Ladies of The Lake by Vincent Pompetti: The Once and Future Graphic Novel For Our Time
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 60: Keys by R. T. Slaywood: An Awfully Convenient Meeting
Nobody’s Hero by MW Craven: More Shockingly Violent Events in Koenig’s Increasingly Violent Life
Bullet Points about Spook Street by Mick Herron: All the Exciting Stuff Happens Around River
Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson: Even in The Arctic, Nature’s Red

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd), and 30th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your November?