Category: News/Misc. Page 38 of 232

Saturday Miscellany—1/4/25

On January 4, 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 January 1, 2025 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924!—While the list of some of the more prominent titles is interesting, it’s a good piece on copyright, public domain, and even some of people behind the works
bullet Support an indie author by leaving reviews—An Evergreen Reminder
bullet New You? Or Old Books? Here’s a resolution: Craft a personal canon
bullet 20 Years of Old Man’s War—Scalzi looks back at the publication of OMW, the book that changed his life
bullet Robert Crais: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics—You read this, and you never have to read another word about Robert Crais again. It’s just that good. (the last section is a must read)
bullet Reading Ladies’ Carol has a few 2024 Blog Reflections to kick off 2025
bullet She also posted: Best of the Best: 2015 to 2024—a nigh-Herculean task
bullet Lashaan’s A Year in Review — 2024 at Roars and Echoes. I’m so tempted by just about everything mentioned in this wrap up (except for the very tiny amount of things I’ve already read/watched)
bullet State of [Pete Long’s] Delirium 2025
bullet Fictionophile’s SEVEN Bookish Resolutions 2025—some good, SMART, goals.
bullet Politics in SFF: Yes or No? Book Berne-ing 18!—Berne delivers what will be come to known as the definitive take on the subject for years to come. (okay, probably not, but it should be a contender if such a thing were possible)

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/planned purchases/placed library books on hold from these. One title in particular keeps showing up on these lists (including what I’ve posted the last few weeks). It’s going to be on my list, too. Which just makes me feel better about including it–I knew what I was doing. 🙂
bullet Biblionerd Reflections’ My Favorite Backlist Reads of 2024 and My Favorite Books of 2024
bullet The Fantasy Hive 2024 Year-End Awards—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet 2024 Book RoundUp —The Voracious Reader has some great taste.
bullet 2024, A Year in Reading: Best Books of the Year—from Asking the Wrong Questions. The third sentence is one of the most relatable things I’ve read in the last few months.
bullet Spells and Spaceships’ My Books of the Year 2024.
bullet The Shaggy Shepherd’s Most Memorable Reads of 2024
bullet Top 10 Books Read in 2024—from Pete Long. My TBR can’t handle this kind of pressure.
bullet Stephen Writes continues to put out good lists (and make me feel better about all the year-end lists I have planned)
bullet The Best Settings I Read In 2024
bullet Top 10 Books I Read In 2024
bullet MIke Finn’s My 12 Favourite Reads of 2024
bullet 746 Books has three lists to tempt you:
bullet My Favourite Books of the Year: Part One – The 746!
bullet My Favourite Books of the Year: Part Two – The Irish!
bullet My Favourite Books of 2024: Part Three – New to Me!
bullet reader@work’s Books of the year: 2024 edition—made me reconsider a book I’d previously decided against
bullet My Top Ten Books for 2024!—from The Orangutan Librarian
bullet Dillon Michael White’s Top Books of 2024 is a quick watch well worth your time

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Endsinger by Jay Kristoff—the disturbing, yet satisfying, (as I recall) conclusion to the Lotus War trilogy
bullet Broadchurch: A Novel by Erin Kelly—I cannot get enough of Broadchurch‘s first series in any format (I will not comment on the rest).
bullet Broken Soul by Faith Hunter
bullet As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden—I should revisit this one
bullet And I mentioned the release of Low Midnight by Carrie Vaughn.

2024 Plans and Challenges: Year-End Look

By HCNewton

On January 2, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them as I expected.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? Well, I bought very few books in February, so that helped, but overall…?

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read
End of 2023	6	46	68	153
End of 1st Quarter	4	50	64	154
End of 2nd Quarter	3	54	79	162
End of 3rd Quarter	5	58	75	166
End of 4th Quarter	3	68	78	167

Goodreads Challenge
I topped it by 1, but Goodreads won’t give me the silly graphic for 2024 for some reason. So you’re going to have to take my word for it.

12 Books

I didn’t touch any of these, and I’m really annoyed with myself.

Reading with Wrigs

Like I mentioned the other day, I didn’t finish this one, either.

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

The 2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

All 12, plus two stretch goals. Fourteen off the TBR. Sure, it’s just a drop in the bucket. But a step is a step.
January – Lucky Dip: Randomly choose a book by someone you’ve never read before: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Stretch Goal – In the same spirit I give you permission to read the last book to enter your TBR pile. Actually read something you’ve got yourself to recently read: Hacked by Duncan MacMaster
February – Lovers Meeting: No not romantasy focused – this challenge is somewhere in TBR is a delayed treat. Read an author you’ve loved and held back from reading because the time was not right. Its time for you two to get re-acquainted. Enjoy yourself! Return of the Griffin by JCM Berne
March – Spring :You know that first book of a series you bought and have now realised is now finished? You have my permission to read this at last. And you know what? Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
April – Diamond Anniversary: Diamond is the birthstone of April so your challenge is to read something over 60 years old: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
May – The Fourth…May the force be with you and I permit you to read a SF themed tale: Grave Cold by Shannon Knight
June – The Longest Days: You may choose the longest book in your TBR pile the days are long so go for it: The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
July – The Ides have it In an ongoing tribute to Julius pick a tale of intrigue and scheming: The Last King of California by Jordan Harper
August – Travel Broadens the Mind: Choose a Book that is from an author from a different country to yourself: The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong. I’ve read all from other places that aren’t from this year, so…Canada (which doesn’t seem to count, but does)
September – Back To School: Choose a Book about a character learning something – be it in school, a new power or something about themselves: Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier
October – Yep Its Halloween Time: Find a spooky themed read!: My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby (a murder mystery focusing on a mortuary worker, as creepy as I could come up with)
November – Short but Sweet: Four Novellas – and you cna do this in a month: 1-800-CallLoki by Dawn Blair
Stretch Goal – I test you – I want eleven short stories read – magazine, collection or anthology!: Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology by L. J. Hachmeister
December – Parting Gifts: Read a Book gifted to you – before Christmas comes and you realise you’ve still not read it!: Shadow of Hyperion by JCM Berne

Backlist Bingo 2024

I did get a bingo, but not the blackout that I hoped for.

✔ 1. This is Who We Are Now by James Bailey (my post about it)
✔ 2. Blood Reunion by JCM Berne
✔ 3. Ways And Truths And Lives by Matt Edwards
✔ 4. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
✔ 5. Grammar Sex and Other Stuff: A Collection of (mostly humorous) Essays by Robert Germaux (my post about it)
✔ 6. The Camelot Shadow by Sean Gibson
✔ 7. Last King of California by Jordan Harper
✔ 8. Steam Opera by James T. Lambert (my post about it)
✔ 9. The Glass Frog by J. Brandon Lowry (my post about it)
✔ 10. The Legendary Mo Seto by A. Y. Chan (substitution) (my post about it)

✔ 11. Curse of the Fallen by H.C. Newell
✔ 12. Heart of Fire by Raina Nightengale (my post about it)
✔ 13. Detours and Do-overs by Wesley Parker (my post about it)
✔ 14. Bizarre Frontier Omnibus #1 by Brock Poulson (my post about it)
✔ 15. Howl by e rathke (my post about it)
✔ 16. Bard Tidings by Paul J. Regnier
✔ 17. Panacea by Alex Robins
✔ 18. Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland (my post about it)
✔ 19. Big Trouble in Little Italy by Nicole Sharp (my post about it)
✔ 20. The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong (my post about it)

In sum…while I read a lot of great stuff this year (and even more good stuff), I didn’t do so good with my goals. Oh well.

(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

The Irresponsible Reader in 2024: Thoughts, Thanks, and Stats

By HCNewton

On January 1, 2025

In Miscellany, News/Misc.

Programming Note: As is my custom, over the next week I’ll be looking back over the year that was—but I’ll try to come up with some new material, too. Many/most others have already done their best-of/year-end wrap-up posts, but I’m a stickler—I can’t start doing this kind of thing ’til the year is over. My brain doesn’t allow me to work that way (I just hate projecting things in general—and some years ago when I just read irresponsibly but hadn’t adopted the name, the last novel of the year was so far beyond the rest that I can’t start looking back until 12/31 at the earliest).

As we kick off 2025, I wanted to take a glance back at 2024—276 books finished—a little less than some years, but given all the Life Stuff™ in my life this year, I expected that number to be far lower. That’s over 82,000 pages (too many audio-only things and beta reads to get an accurate count); with an average rating of 3.7 Stars. The page count is likely a little higher than last year, as is the stars. So, yay for consistency.

On the blog front, I put up 573 posts—a drop from last year, but not huge. Thanks have to be given for all the contributors I hada couple of series of posts this year that made that possible (I’ll get to this below). I had another year of solid gains in traffic—views and visitors—I’m not big-time (never going to be), but those numbers consistently weird me out (which is why I only look every 6-12 months). My follower count (here and on social media sites) is encouraging and humbling, I really feel like I ought to do more to earn them. Maybe there’s a book on how to be more interesting as a person that I should grab.

The blog series continue to go–mostly. I (yet again) didn’t get back to my Classic Spenser series (which is grating), and I got too caught up in other stuff and abandoned my monthly Highlights: Lines Worth Repeating series (it’ll be back soon). But on the positive side, my Literary Locals series slowed a bit, but it’s still chugging along. Grandpappy’s Corner, slowed a bit. My contribution to Self-Published Author Appreciation Week, Spreading the Self-Pub Love, ended up taking more effort than I thought, but the results were worth it. Lastly, there was the return of Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books series of guest posts, which I particularly enjoyed. The YouTube channel hasn’t quite taken off as I hoped, but I had fun doing what I’ve done, and have some ideas to keep at it (and those who’ve given me feedback has been positive, so, that’s all good for me)

As is my habit, here’s my breakdown of books by genre—I tweaked the table a bit, so it actually fits on the screen (or should). Genre labeling continues to be more difficult as I’m reading a lot of hybrids (most of us are, they’re being produced more), but I tend to go with the overarching genre. Once again, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—my tastes (and the series I follow) stay the same as is to be expected. The growth in Fantasy and SF makes sense, but I didn’t expect it to be that noticeable. The decrease in Children’s books is odd–but, I do tend to only count the ones I read by my choice (not the Grandcritter’s) and that I’m going to write up–and I did less of that than I expected to in 2024.

Genre	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2012-17
Children’s	9 (3%)	25 (8%)	5 (2%)	2 (1%)	5 (2%)	7 (3%)	11 (4%)	12 (.95%)
Fantasy	41 (17%)	34 (11%)	32 (10%)	20 (7%)	35 (13%)	28 (10%)	30 (11%)	93 (7%)
General Fiction/ Literature	27 (11%)	26 (9%)	24 (8%)	22 (7%)	16 (7%)	21 (8%)	22 (8%)	140 (11%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	80 (33%)	90 (30%)	114 (37%)	117 (38%)	90 (34%)	105 (38%)	107 (38%)	425 (33%)
Non-Fiction	22 (9%)	22 (7%)	29 (9%)	22 (7%)	28 (10%)	25 (9%)	22 (8%)	46 (4%)
Science Fiction	10 (23%)	34 (11%)	28 (9%)	20 (7%)	20 (8%)	30 (11%)	25 (9%)	122 (10)
Theology/ Christian Living	31 (13%)	30 (10%)	45 (15%)	38 (13%)	23 (8%)	34 (12%)	25 (9%)	194 (16%)
Urban Fantasy	32 (13%)	33 (11%)	34 (11%)	49 (16%)	42 (16%)	25 (9%)	29 (10%)	194 (16%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	8 (3%)	9 (3%)	2 (1%)	12 (4%)	4 (2%)	6 (2%)	7 (3%)	34 (3%)

Here’s a few more stats I typically share. I find them interesting, and maybe you will, too.
Re-Read Chart That’s a 3% uptick in re-reads. Which is nice (I expect that next year will see a big jump, but we’ll see how that works out. I’m neither a prophet or a son of a prophet and my predictions tend to demonstrate that. Source of my Books
“Bought” went down (phew) and everything else went up–which is nice to see.
Format of the Book The percentage of Hardcovers and Audiobooks went up, and everything else went down. I felt like I read more eBooks than the numbers say, which is interesting.

Enough about me. Now we get to my favorite part—I want to talk about you, who keep me going and show an interest in what I’m doing here, and give some thanks to people for their impact on The Irresponsible Reader (the blog and the person) in 2024:

Thanks to everyone for your comments/feedback—texts, emails, comments here/Goodreads, tweets/Twitter-replacement posts, FB comments, even the occasional Face-to-Face conversation. Keep it up! I really appreciate the time you took to leave feedback. Hopefully, you can tell that you’ve shaped the conversation here—it has, I assure you. Many of you are pushing me to be a better writer—some of you push me to read better books. I’m going to give a particular thanks to Robert Germaux, The Write Reads, Allyson Johnson (you really push me to think about what I’m reading!), W&S Bookclub, Lashaan, Emma, and Noelle for their encouragement, retweets, and interaction.
A hearty thanks to all the authors, editors, illustrators, translators, and other people behind the production of the books I spent time with this year—this blog would be nothing without your efforts, your blood, sweat, tears, fears, work, love, dreams, hopes, art, and words. Your books were my companions throughout this year, and I can’t thank you enough for them (and I hope I get to spend time with many of you again soon!).
More thanks to all those who requested that I read and talk about your (or your clients’) books. I know how much work, effort, heart, and everything else that went into your books. It’s super humbling, I know you all didn’t like what I said, but, I am grateful for the opportunity.
I cannot thank every participant in the Q&As from this year enough. I got to ask “A Few Quick Questions” to: Steven Max Russo, Armanis Ar-feinial, Marilyn Peake, T. Olsen, Savanna Mayer, Shannon Knight, Jocele Skinner of Shared Stories, M.D. Presley, and J.M. Gulmire.
Beyond those, I really want to thank R.M. Scott, Norelle Smith, Jerome Goettsch, Carla Crane Osborne, Arnold Ytreeide, Sarah Hill, Christi Nogle, Melaney Taylor Auxier, and Steve McGill for answering my questions about writing in Idaho.
And I do have to thank Adrian M. Gibson, John Simons, JCM Berne, and Jodie from Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub for sitting down with me on camera.
I also hosted a record number of Guest Posts this year. Many thanks to Shannon Knight (and again), Robert Germaux, Mary Kendall, Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club, and Mary Camarillo.
My son Owen provided a lot of the technical support I needed this year. Owen’s my best editor (sadly, it’s largely after I post something…), too, and he’s saved me from looking stupid on more than one occasion.
All my kids have acted as sounding boards this year—helping with some graphics, jokes, themes, etc. They (and Owen) do a solid job of pretending to care about what I’m saying about books, reading, and whatnot. A hat tip to Calvin, Katrina, Carleigh, Taylor, and Machen, too.
A lot of thanks need to go to the Grandcritter, and my pack—Tanny and Athena. Not only have you brought me joy and inspired some reading, you’re also great at reminding me to stop all this nonsense and pay attention to life around me.
A special thanks to my wife. Without your support, indulgence, and patience this thing wouldn’t exist—and I’d read a lot less (the horror!). Thank you. I love you.
And thank you all for reading. This may feel obligatory and insincere. It is not. Honestly, each time I get a notification of a comment, or a like, or a share, or a follow, etc. it makes my day. To know that someone took a couple of seconds or more out of their day to glance at this? It means the world to me. Thanks.

Have a great 2025, and I hope you find plenty of good things to read!

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

By HCNewton

On January 1, 2025

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

I finished 35 titles (16 up from last month, 10 up from last December), with an equivalent of 9,369+ (finished 2 beta reads, so I don’t have a decent page count) pages or the equivalent (3,357+ up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.9 stars (.33 up from last month). Wrapping up a couple of project books helped with that (not much, but a little), I’m not sure really what accounts for the extra pages–but I’m not turning up my nose at them.

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


















		7



	r

Ratings

		Average =	3.9
	5		2
	4		0
	7		0
	10		0
	7

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	66	81	167	11
Added	1	7	5	1	0
Read/ Listened	3	5	8	1	3
Current Total	3	68	78	167	8

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 24
Self-/Independent Published: 11

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	1 (3%)	9 (3%)
Fantasy	6 (17%)	41 (17%)
General Fiction/ Literature	3 (9%)	27 (11%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	8 (23%)	80 (33%)
Non-Fiction	0 (0%)	22 (9%)
Science Fiction	3 (9%)	10 (23%)
Theology/ Christian Living	6 (17%)	31 (13%)
Urban Fantasy	6 (17%)	32 (13%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	2 (6%)	8 (3%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Word and Spirit: Selected Writings in Biblical and Systematic Theology by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.: Righteous Gems
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman: Money Does the Funniest Things to People
Running and Jumping by Steven Kedie: The Problem with Flying
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 61: Chains by R. T. Slaywood: A Negotiation
The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher: The Core of the Gospel
Sizar by Susan Grossey: Another Trip through Cambridge’s Underbelly
Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker: Songs in a Minor Key
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 62: Contract by R. T. Slaywood: After All That?
Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka: Second Verse, Same as the First (in a good way)
What Were You Expecting? by Cameron Spires, Grace Cho (Illustrator): A Grown-Up Board Book
The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 64: Mourning Meeting by R. T. Slaywood: Looking Back and Looking Forward
The Fundamentals of Sacred Theology by Campegius Vitringa, Sr., Levi Berntson (Translator): A Thousand Points of Light
Grandpappy’s Corner: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Audiobook) by Dr. Seuss, read by Walter Matthau: A Great Read by One of the Greats
The Real Festivus by Dan O’Keefe: An Explanation for the Rest of Us!
The Killer’s Christmas List by Chris Frost: There’s Nothing Holly and Jolly About This Christmas
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien: It Must’ve Been Great to Grow Up a Tolkien
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire: Water Loves Falling
Ghost Stations by M.D. Presley: Corbin’s Vagabond Shoes Are are Longing to Stray

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

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

By HCNewton

On December 31, 2024

In Books, Kevin Hearne, News/Misc.

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.

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.

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

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.

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.

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

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.

Category: News/Misc. Page 38 of 232

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What’ve you been reading lately?