Tag: Miscellany Page 128 of 175

Thanksgiving 2019

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On November 28, 2019

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day/Thursday

When I think about all the great things that have happened around the blog and behind the scenes this year leaves me at a loss for words, let me list a few things I’m thankful for—a very incomplete list, I assure you:

          bullet The readers of this blog, the authors who’ve corresponded with me/provided books for me to read/encouraged me—even promoted this here project.
          bullet The publicists, publishers, book tour hosts, etc. I’ve been working with this year who’ve especially made things great—I typically hesitate to mention any by name, so as to not inadvertently miss anyone and cause offense (and make me feel bad). But I want to mention a few by name this year—Lola’s Blog Tours, iREAD Book Tours, Bloodhound Books, Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers, Love Books Group, Let’s Talk Promotions, Lori Hettler of TNBBC Publicity and Emma at damppebbles blog tours. You have expanded (and pushed) my boundaries this year, exposed me to some great reads I’d have not tried, and put up with my quirks and memory lapses with grace.
          bullet Books
          bullet Authors!
          bullet Books
          bullet Coffee (and other beverages both caffeinated and adult)
          bullet Books
          bullet Time to read
          bullet Books
          bullet Easily finding an appropriate image for this post for the third year in a row—actually, two of them! (it was oddly difficult before)
          bullet Books
          bullet Audiobooks and talented narrators
          bullet The Nampa Public Library (and The LYNX! Consortium)—and their generous grace period, which is now late fine free!
          bullet Books
          bullet Rediscovered Bookshop, Rediscovered Bookshop – Caldwell and Libro.fm
          bullet Books
          bullet Goodreads, WordPress, NetGalley, BookLikes
          bullet Books
          bullet Evernote
          bullet Books
          bullet Organ Transplants and the good people at St. Luke’s Lifestyle Medicine (just to get serious for a moment)
          bullet Authors!
          bullet Authors!
          bullet My supportive, understanding and encouraging wife and kids who do a pretty decent job pretending to care when their old man drones on and on about what he’s reading or what’s going on with the blog.
          bullet Again, all of you who read, follow, like, tweet, comment, email, etc. this page—you have no idea how much every little bit is appreciated.

New Bookstore! Rediscovered Bookshop in Caldwell

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On November 27, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

I’ve mentioned Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise a time or three (or more)—it’s my go-to Independent Bookstore and has been for a long time. Well, last week they opened a new location—in my county, about 11 miles closer to me (but it seems closer than that). Which is good, I’ve been trying (and not really succeeding) to do a better job of shopping indie and doing less online, but it’s just too inconvenient to get into Downtown Boise as often as I want to. I expect (hope?) that this new location will make it easier for me to stick to my resolution.

I managed to stop by tonight for the first time, and walked away with a nice little haul (sorry for my poor photo quality):

I saw The White Man’s Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon out of the corner of my eye—kudos to whoever shelved it. This looks like a lot of fun. And what’s a trip to a bookstore without a good impulse buy?

And a 1975 hardcover edition of Rex Stout’s A Family Affair—it’s a book club edition, not the original printing, but it’s close enough. Best of all, I got it for a song. I’d have paid 5x what they asked for without blinking (Mrs. Irresponsible Reader probably would’ve blinked, though).

Lastly—and this is the personal touch that makes local indie stores invaluable—I was trying to special order a copy of Tom Jones, but one of the clerks insisted they had a copy. Their inventory didn’t show one, but he went off and looked through books that hadn’t been entered yet and came back with this spiffy hardcover in a slipcase. No online store is going to do that.

The location is fantastic—there’s a coffee shop right across the street, and right now there’s an ice skating rink, too. The space is great—and you can’t ask for friendlier, more helpful staff. It’s got it all.

Saturday Miscellany—11/23/19

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On November 23, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

Phew. It’s been another week where I’m surprised that I’ve surfed around enough to have any fodder for this post. Clearly I need to work on self-awareness. There’s some good stuff here, chums.

Here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon — a couple of these helped me have a great reading week:

  • Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins—Spenser returns to L.A. and gets to work with Sixkill again. And, yeah, everything you remember from Spenser and the City of Angels is discussed and old friends/allies are visited. I’ve read it and will be saying some very positive things about it soon.
  • The Lights Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell—The fourth Lychford novella is a high-point of the series, as I talked about this week
  • Going Rogue by Neil Lancaster—the follow up to Going Dark is a fast-paced mix of procedural and action-hero thriller. I said a little more about it here.
  • The Dead Don’t Sleep by Steven Max Russo—Another great thrill-ride. I talked about this last month. By the way, I have a Q&A coming early next week with Russo that you should definitely check out.
  • Twenty-one Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks—It’s been a few years since I’ve read a Dicks novel (nothing against him, I just haven’t gotten to them), this looks good enough that I’m going to dip back in.
  • Firefly: The Sting by Delilah S. Dawson and a pack of artists—Yo-Saf-Bridge teams up with River, Zoë, Kaylee and Inara? Say no more.
  • Sabbath by Nick Mamatas—An 11th Century warrior in modern Manhattan to save the world? What could go wrong?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to tracy cole, lidija.biskup, Notes Kecil, Beth Tabler, and R. for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

WWW Wednesday, 20-November-2019

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On November 20, 2019

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

Welcome to 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 working reading Paul Cornell’s The Lights Go Out in Lychford (it’s a blast), and An Accidental Death by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator).

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins and Artemis by Andy Weir, Rosario Dawson (Narrator) on audio.

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book will either be Not So Common People by T Gamache or Dawn of Dreams by Bronwyn Leroux. I have no idea what audiobook is next for me…scrambling for ideas atm.

Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments! (no, really, do it!)

Saturday Miscellany—11/16/19

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On November 16, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

Good reads, but just a few odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • You Must Have A Death Wish by Matt Phillips—Phillips’ Know Me from Smoke was so good that I don’t care what this is about, I’m excited. (oh, it’s about a rookie hitman, if you must know).
  • Action At A Distance by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Brian Williamson, Stefani Renne—the newest Rivers of London comic paperback looks into Nightingale’s WWII past.
  • Paradox by Jeanne C. Stein—It’s been six years (wow! six years??!?) since Stein has published an Anna Strong novel. Can’t wait to see what brought her back.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to babblingstories, Zoé O’Farrell and kerrimcbooknerd for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

The End of The Year Book Tag

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On November 13, 2019

In Book Tag, Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc.


This book tag has been floating around the last couple of years, having been started (as far as I can tell) by Ariel Bissett on her vlog. It seemed like a nice pairing with my post on Monday.

bullet Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?
I’ve got two more weeks in my Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 5: Ecclesiology, the Means of Grace, Eschatology by Geerhardus Vos schedule (which will finish off the set), but that’s about it.

bullet Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?
I honestly have never thought of a book in these terms. In the last month or so, it seems like 60% of the blogs I read and at least half of my Twitter feed is talking about Autumn/Fall books. I assume there’s something wrong with me.

bullet Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?
There are four this month alone…Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins; The Lights Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell; You Must Have a Death Wish by Matt Phillips; and The Hero by Lee Child (non-fiction!). There might be one or two in December, too. But I can’t think of them off the top of my head.

bullet What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?
Well, there are those four for starters. But if I don’t finish The Cartel by Don Winslow, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer, and The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle by Dec. 31, I’ll be really annoyed with myself.

bullet The Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?
A few years ago, my best of the year was something I started on Dec. 28, so, yeah, there’s a strong possibility. The Cartel is the likeliest contender, but the Beagle book could be a dark horse contender.

Dark horse…unicorn…HA! I kill me…

bullet Have you already started making reading plans for 2020?
Still very sketchy at this point, but yeah…I’ve started. Just trying to decide what’s the middle ground between a cake walk and overly-ambitious.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Bookmarks

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On November 12, 2019

In News/Misc.


As I’ve been making a point of trying to do more non-review(ish) posts, I’ve been thinking about trying some of these Top Ten Tuesdays that I’ve seen other bloggers doing. And looking over the upcoming topics, this one piqued my interest — do I even have 10 favorite bookmarks? Can I approach that number? So I had to give it a shot.

Turns out that, yes, I had precisely 10 Bookmarks to use. Phew.

10
This used to be the most common one for me (although #1 has replaced it) — random bits of paper, preferably heavier stock. Movie tickets and coffee (or other) shop punchcards were the best, but whatever receipt/used envelope nearby would do in a pinch.
9 Online bookstore freebie. Love these. Amazon used to send me so many of them, I threw them away or lost track of them (regret that, they were good quality). Thankfully, as they’ve moved past being a “mere” bookstore, there are others out there that haven’t.
8 Better are the ones that authors give away, because, hey — cover art and it’s just good advertising.
7 Not as heavy, and easier to lose — pages out of pocket notebooks are decently sized — and you can write on them. I HATE writing in my books, so this is a major plus.
6 #8, but signed. Who doesn’t like a good autograph? (Anton Strout’s autograph here is blurred, to be nice)
5 Front and back of this one, a nicer take on #6 because I just love the receipt from Atticus’ bookstore being one side of this. (Kevin Hearne’s autograph here is blurred, to be nice)
4 Left over shopping lists (text blurred because I really don’t need you mocking my family’s handwriting), decent sized, room for writing.
3 Yeah, this is technically a repeat of #9. However, these are nicer. I have two of them and use them frequently. WTS bookstore used a nicer paper, heavier than other bookmarks I have, and a little textured. Perfect size. Probably technically the “best” I have.
2 A few years back, my library started using sheets like this for the books on reserve. Minus: it’s a really staticy paper, and super thin, so it’s easy to “lose” the bookmark inside the book. Have wasted too much time hunting for the things. Pluses: Plenty of room for writing (some inks and pencils don’t do well given the paper type); the title is on the sheet, so you can return the book and have an easy time identifying what the notes are about.
1 (I assure you, there is a bookmark imaged there)
My favorite. Get yourself some printer paper that’s perforated (if you’re lazy, or too inaccurate with scissors) into thirds. Plenty of room for taking notes (on both sides), good size (unless you’re reading a mass-market paperback). Not pretty, but ever so handy.

Trying to Plan the Rest of 2019/Cutting Myself Some Slack

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On November 11, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

I’ve been feeling really under the gun lately—I’ve mentioned (I think) that I over-committed for Sept./Oct. I still have 2 books I told authors I’d read in October (and one other to write about). Plus a few new releases that I meant to read this fall that aren’t so new anymore. I still have one book that I’m committed for this month, and a short one next month (maybe one more in there…I’ll check my calendar later). Plus a handful of things that are on my “I will read this in 2019” list.

For some reason that I have trouble articulating (and I know that some of you get this, and many of you don’t understand), between some of those goals and the 50 days remaining in 2019, I’m feeling a lot of pressure.

All self-imposed, I realize, but that doesn’t change it.

So you know what I did this weekend? I took a look at a few of the things on my “Must Read in 2019” list and put them on the “Probably Get to in 2020” list. Including 5 library books—one habit I fell into (pre-blogging even) is that a library due date trumps just about anything else when it comes to reading. And I don’t take things back to the Library until I’ve read them. These are on their way back, though. I would’ve taken care of them Saturday, but it was too late by the time I decided this.

Fewer books on the “Must Read” list equals fewer books on the “Must Write About” list. Which is good—because that list is still ridiculously long. But I’ll do what I can, I’ll be a little briefer about some things than I want to be (some things), and probably do a few more “Quick Takes” posts.

You know what? I felt so much freer just by giving myself that option. And yeah, I realize that I’m probably not still going to be able to finish everything on my “Must” lists this year, but it seems a little more attainable.

I’m not saying that feeling is going to last, or that I’m not going to find a new way to apply stupid pressure to myself. But for now…I’ll take it.

Right after I scheduled this post (naturally), I saw these tweets from David W at FanFiAddict:

Which tie in nicely to this post on their blog (also, one I didn’t see until after I wrote this). Followers and ARCs aren’t my hangups (well, occasionally that ARC thing, but I get over it pretty easily). It’s the reading and writing pace (as people who’ve been here for a bit know all too well). “Just remember: THIS ISN’T YOUR JOB. You started a blog to share your enjoyment of books with others…Don’t fret over what you can’t do, but be excited about what you can.” That’s exactly what I was trying to tell myself. It was reassuring to see someone else say that about the same time. Thanks, David!

Saturday Miscellany—11/9/19

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On November 9, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski—Post-apocalytic heist novel (well, more mid-apocalyptic), is just a blast. I tried to titlesummarize my thoughts about it yesterday.
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Illustrated Edition) by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Elise Hurst—I got this a few days ago, it’s just gorgeous. I don’t need another copy of this fantastic book. But I don’t care. This trailer gives you a feel for the illustrations.
  • The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge—”An action-packed thriller about a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja with family issues who fights the Los Angeles Ukrainian mob, sex traffickers, and her own family to save two desperate women and an innocent child.” How do you say no to that?
  • The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker—An investigation into space mutiny. Looks like a winner.
  • Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky—I’ve been wanting to try Tchaikovsky for a while now, this might be the one that gets me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tom Gamache, proofreadingebooks (the name is making me nervous about my content), Yvonne and Fragilistic for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

WWW Wednesday, 6-November-2019

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On November 6, 2019

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

Welcome to 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 working through the audiobook of The Right Stuff by Cornelia Funke and Lynn Redgrave (Narrator) and I’m reading Stephen Clark’s Hands Up.

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished The Night Fire by Michael Connelly and Monday I finished Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs and Joe Manganiello (Narrator) on audio.

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book will be Fallen by Benedict Jacka (5 weeks after its release…what is wrong with me?), my next audiobook will be Undeath and Taxes by Drew Hayes and Kirby Heyborne (Narrator)

Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments! (no, really, do it!)

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