Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
Something about not being able to focus for the last three nights (thanks, neighbors) have made me think about this song…
Category: News/Misc. Page 74 of 228
Here’s a quick check-in for this challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.
So far, I’ve read 4 2/3—which puts me a little behind last year (still far ahead of 2021, though). I should read at least 1 1/3 this coming week, so I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. Since one of those four that I have finished was The Ink Black Heart and that took a week or so, I’m not that worried. None of the rest of these are nearly that much of a commitment.
(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).
It seemed like my dogs were conspiring against me completing this post today—but if you’re reading this, it means I outsmarted them.
That seems like a low bar to overcome, but some days I swear they’re smarter than me (I realize I’m opening myself up to some fun in the comments here).
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:
Is This the Oldest Book in the World?—from a “notebook recording tax accounts for beer and oil in Greek around 260 BC.” Of course it has to do with taxes.
On the Pitfalls of Book Promotion in the Internet Age—as with most things by Tom Rachman, this is a good read. “Promoting a book can derange you. After years of quiet toil and noisy typing, you clutch a published book, and step forth to meet the public, eight billion humans who, mystifyingly, seem not to know that your new novel just came out.”
Speaking of book promotion, Goodreads Has No Incentive to be Good
Holding Out for More Heroes—I’ve never understood the anti-Paladin stance, personally. Sign me up for more, too.
Amazon Product Names for Famous Literary Objects
5 SFF Books Whose Plot Is Centered Around Music—When I saw the headline, I assumed Tabler was goig to overlook Year Zero (like seemingly everyone but the bookseller that hand sold it to me years ago)—instead, she lead off with it! The rest of the list is populated by books I’ve been meaning to get to, and probably should.
Witty & Sarcastic Book Club has another series definitely worth the time to check out: Poetry and Song in SFF—I’m not saying this is going to turn me into one of those people who don’t skip those bits, but it might.
Featuring J.E. Hannaford
Featuring Michael Williams
Featuring T.R. Peers
Featuring K.R.R. Lockhaven—(I actually do read most—maybe all—of the verse in his books)
Featuring Joshua Gillingham
Featuring Ashley Anglin
Engagement: Bringing Authors and Reviewers Together—a must-read for bloggers/authors (IMHO)
What are Graphic Novels: An Introduction for Beginners
Five Ways to Tackle Your TBR—I’m not sure I understand the last method…people do this?
Should Adults Recommend Older Books to Kids?
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Whiskey & Publishing with Nicholas Eames & Peter McLean—a fun chat about publishing with Eames and McLean (with a little bit from Sara and Lilly)
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn—probably the best prose released this week, and likely the most heart-breaking book, too. And I don’t even know anything about the book, it’s just what you expect from Chorn.
The Imposters by Tom Rachman—As with Chorn, I know I want to read it without knowing anything about it, but I went ahead and read the description, which starts: “Dora Frenhofer, a once successful but now aging and embittered novelist, knows her mind is going. She is determined, however, to finish her final book, and reverse her fortunes, before time runs out. Alone in her London home during the pandemic, she creates, and is in turn created by, the fascinating real characters from her own life.”
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson—the title sells it. “Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in this captivating adventure that throws an amnesiac wizard into time travel shenanigans—where his only hope of survival lies in recovering his missing memories.”
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis—a Rom-Com featuring alien abduction and a theme wedding? Hard not to be curious.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to NovelLives and danigarciagimenez who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.
RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.
from Page 56 of:
The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman
Who could turn away from a movie with a title like They Saved Hitler’s Brain in hopes of seeing Hitler’s brain at some point? (It paid off, as you got to see his whole head in that one.) As much as everyone ridiculed Plan Nine from Outer Space, who among us wasn’t somehow charmed by the oddball dialogue? (“The saucers are up there. And the cemetery’s out there. But I’ll be locked up in there.”) Who could forget sitting through the Japanese monster movie without monsters, Attack of the Mushroom People, and yet be stunned by the downer ending?
Happy τ Day, everyone! Or at least for those who write their dates like we do in the States. Happy 28/6 everyone else, I guess. I’d better shut up about number things, because while I’m not The Worst with them, I can see it from where I’m standing. Let’s just move on to books.
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?
Easy enough, right?
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman and fighting the urge to do nothing but watch MST3K for the next week. And I just started the three-week voyage* that will be listening to Dark Age by Pierce Brown narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Moira Quirk, James Langton & Rendah Heywood on audiobook so I can be ready for Light Bringer‘s release next month.
* That’s hyperbole.**
** I hope.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished Reed Farrel Coleman’s Sleepless City (and am still reeling!) and the perfectly pleasant Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes, Kirby Heyborne (Narrator) on audio.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be the UF Pure of Heart by Danielle Parker, a Literary Local, and my next audiobook should be Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire, Emily Bauer (Narrator), I’ve gotten behind a bit in my re-listening.
How’re you wrapping up June?
We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art and we all do judge them that way). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I like to throw it up here. This one grabbed me with the voice, the perspective, and the attitude. Gagnon tells you everything you need to know about the book–nasty things will happen, and the protagonist is going to be snarky about it the whole way.
from Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon:
The worst part was that I felt stupid.
Well, that’s not entirely true. The real worst part was that I was tied up in the back of a van with a hood over my head, and based on recent news reports, something truly horrific was about to happen.
But feeling stupid was definitely second worst.
Book Blogger Hop
This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:
What questions would you ask any author if you had the chance?
This question got me going in a few different directions—if we defined “any author” as a particular one: what would I ask? Like what do I want to ask Jim Butcher about? What would I ask Lisa Lutz?, and so on (although we do know what I’d ask Nick Kowlakowsi, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Noelle Holten, etc.). Or are these generic questions you’d ask any author you found yourself talking to?
Then I started thinking—is this for publication or for my own benefit? (in other words—can I get into spoilers and further details?)
I think if I started coming up with fantasy questions for a particular author, this post would be too long to finish (for you or me). Once I got past the Chris Farley stage with Seanan McGuire, for example (You remember that time that Toby got stabbed in Rosemary and Rue? That was cool…Remember that time Toby got stabbed in [virtually any other title]?…) I could go on for hours with her.
So let’s go with the questions I find myself asking just about everyone—because I like hearing the variety of answers (not because I’m lazy*). I know authors get tired of answering, “Where do you get your ideas?”, even if most of them don’t react as antagonistically as Rachel Wallace does, so I ask, “What was it about the idea behind [insert title here] that made you want to spend X months with it?” I also like hearing answers to, “What challenges did you experience in writing [insert title here], and are those particular to this book, or is it the same stuff you struggle with all the time?” I borrowed those notions from Anton Strout’s podcast, the answers he got from those were some of the more interesting in the interviews. Honestly, at the end of the day, just sitting down and talking to an author about any/all parts of the process would be rewarding. I’ve done it once outside of the Q&As I do for the blog and had a great time.
* Well, I am…but it’s not applicable here.
I’m not sure I actually answered this week’s prompt, but I talked around it a lot. Good ’nuff.
What would you ask an author?
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:
23 Wonderful Benefits of Reading to Empower You—I’ve linked to posts in the past that mention most of them, but not as many of these benefits in one place before. (you can also use these benefits as justifications for your habit when you don’t want to just say “I like it”)
The Western Gothic in Film, Music, and Literature: A Primer
The Challenges of Blending History and Steampunk—this is a good post from Jonathan Fesmire—can probably apply to other genres as well.
LordTBR’s How-To Guide: Using NetGalley as a Reviewer—a handy-dandy guide I could’ve really used when I started with NetGalley (and can still profit from).
Don’t Save Books!—hear, hear
When Writers Seemingly Don’t Trust Their Audience—Krysta raises a lot of good points here.
Can We Read Books With ‘Bad’ Themes?—Eustacia follows up that post with this one.
A Legacy of Reviewing? Random things my dad taught me about books
Fantastic Fae: Books with Faeries, Changelings and Pesky Pixies—Witty & Sarcastic Book Club looks at the spectrum of Fae portrayals in Fiction.
I can’t remember how I came across Mark Lawrence’s Goodreads review of Green Eggs and Ham, but I’m so glad I did. It was so good I almost bought all of his books in response (I do really need to get around to trying his fiction one day…)
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Evidence Pool by Ian Robinson—the long-awaited (by me, anyway) fourth book in the Nash & Moretti series. Our Met detectives have to solve a locked-house mystery in the London home of a Russian oligarch.
Junkyard War by Faith Hunter—the third novella in the Shining Smith trilogy (?) is out in print for those who weren’t into the Audible Original format.
Because the Night by James D.F. Hannah—”Backed with campaign funds from the owner of the local strip club, ex-state trooper and recovering alcoholic Henry Malone’s running for sheriff. But because he can’t say no to a bad idea, he also agrees to look for a pregnant woman’s missing ex-con boyfriend. With his well-armed AA sponsor Woody in tow, Henry’s search for the boyfriend soon connects with a homicide investigation run by Lt. Jackie Hall—probably the last cop in West Virginia who still likes Henry.” This sounds great—and it’s the sixth in a series, so I’ve got a whole new series to dive into. (thanks to Nick Kolakowski for this tip—incidentally, Kolawkowski’s got a store set up on his website now, so you can easily dive into all the goodness he has there)
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to holley4734 of chasing destino, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.
RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.
from Page 56 of:
“Here you go.” The kid slid the box across the count handed me a huge collector’s mug. “I gave you the SpongeBob one.”
I put a hand to my chest. “SpongeBob’s my favorite!”
“Mine too.” His face had gone so red it practically matched his polyester uniform.
I slid my carefully folded twenty across the counter, “I’ve only got a hundred, can you break it?”
“Um, sure. I got enough.” He was already pushing buttons on the register.
“So how long have you worked here?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you before.”
“Yeah, I just started a few weeks ago.”
“Lucky me.”
Hey, it’s the first day of Summer, an oddly cool one around here. The change of seasoned doesn’t impact my lifestyle too much–it just means a different kind of weather I’m avoiding by being inside most of the time. I mean, as long as there’s a functioning Air Conditioner and/or heater.
Wow, this might be my dullest opening yet. I’d best move right along to the WWW Wednesday.
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?
Easy enough, right?
What are you currently reading?
I’m wrapping up reading Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford and just started listening to Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes, Kirby Heyborne (Narrator) on audiobook.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished a couple of mixed bags: Jon Rance’s The Worst Man and Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes, narrated by Neil Patrick Harris and Simon Vance on audio.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon—I hope it turns out half as amusing as it sounds because I’m going to need something lighter to help me deal with my next audiobook, Dark Age by Pierce Brown narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Moira Quirk, James Langton & Rendah Heywood.
How are you kicking off the summer?