Tag: Miscellany Page 134 of 179

This has been a strange week, I kept running out of steam in the evenings and was honestly and pleasantly surprised to find that I’d played around on social media enough to actually have anything to post today. How I got anything written this week is beyond me. I did do more reading than I expected to—still, I have a need to be reading 5 books right now rather than writing anything (and I don’t mean reading a chapter or two and then switching, I literally mean reading 5 simultaneously). When I say that I overcommitted for Sept./Oct. I really mean it. (and that’s not counting the two books I pre-ordered months ago that arrived in the last 10 days and are sitting ignored on my shelf).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this list of odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye—I did:

• Study finds that learning to read enhances the brain in more ways than one: Reading sharpens parts of the brain without overriding the system.
• Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers: A lot rides on how parents present the activity to their kids.
• 50 books, 50 days and a car named Thunder: Columbus native takes cross-country trip to nation’s bookstores—I’m sure there’s a reason why this story is printed twice—once without paragraph breaks—on the page, but scroll down to help your eyes a lot.
• Celebrity Book Clubs Are Actually Selling Books—This is an interesting phenomeon, not one that has much of an influence on a reader like me, but it’s interesting to see. Also, I’m not a Sportsball guy at all, but I do know who Andrew Luck is. Glancing at his book club picks over the last few months, I think I might check back on it from time to time, I like his taste.
• Book clinic: can you recommend modern fiction to replace my love of classics?—I thought this was a rather odd question, but…interesting answer
• Expectation Vs Reality: My Self-Publishing Debut—a fascinating guest post from Off the TBR (love the blog name).
• Where have all the good men (and women) gone? Favourite heroic heroes!—another good list from The Orangutan Librarian
• Author-pay in Tacos per Copy—In response to a tweet about selling ARCs, Kevin Hearne breaks down how authors get paid by the taco (scroll down to see audiobooks and used books)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories’ Episode 724 | Craig Johnson Returns With Land Of Wolves—Hank Garner’s fifth chat with Johnson. Pleasant chat about a great installment in the series (my post about the book will be up soon, I think)

Among an interesting looking crop the this week’s only New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon is:
• Fallen by Benedict Jacka—the tenth in the Alex Verus series is out now, and I’m hoping I can squeeze it in soon. Incidentally, I like the fact that the US covers are starting to be multi-colored. I can’t give an abbreviated single-sentence synopsis, because I like walking into these without any idea what’s going to happen. It’s enough that it’s a new Verus.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Aqsa haleem, OwlBeSatReading, and bryan_lunsford for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Been a busy, busy day, just now had time to sit down and list off 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:

• Let’s start off with: ALA denounces new Macmillan library lending model, urges library customers to voice objections
• and then: ‘What Should I Read Next?’: How publishers’ increasingly restrictive e-book policies could undermine a key public library reference service
• before moving on to more upbeat things, like: Lad Lit: The Subgenre the Man in Your Life Needs—Nice to see Matthew Hanover and Ian Shane get some good press.
• Like many, CrimeReads was horrified by The Princess Bride reports this week, and it led them to thinking about the career of the writer, William Goldman
• Some Of The Best Scottish Crime Writers—The title says it all
• A Crime Author Grapples With the Old Question: Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?—Reed Farrel Coleman describes the inspiration for The Bitterest Pill and others.
• Authors Share The Worst Advice They’ve Ever Received..—There’s some bad advice here…and one very common thread
• How do you write negative reviews?—I’ve shared a handful of “should you write a negative review” posts over the years, I think this is the first to ask “How”. Important question.
• Catching Up On My Review Backlog [or, How I Write Reviews When I Barely Remember the Book]—Nice process piece, and I recognize a few of my own tricks here. Reassuring to see I’m not alone.
• My reading journey: Why audiobooks are lifesavers

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson—I’m looking forward to seeing how life is doing for Walt back in Wyoming. After the (IMHO) less-than-successful Depth of Winter, I think this could be a turning point for the series.
• System Failure by Joe Zieja—The Epic Failure trilogy concludes. I’m expecting to laugh a whole lot when I start this (hopefully Wednesday). Some of the best humorous SF, I’ve ever read.
• A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie—the generation after The First Law seems to be just as messed up as their forefathers. Gotta be a blast.
• Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart—Constance leaves the jail behind and trains for WWI service

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to agnieszkaweiner
(say that fives times fast) and Bill for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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:

• Why It Matters That Amazon Shipped Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” a Week Early—I am honestly indifferent to Atwood’s success and inherently suspicous about the novel (for reasons I’ll leave to myself and I know I’m in the minority about); nevertheless this move by Amazon, and what this indie bookseller says about it, truly disturbs me.
• Almost Everything About Goodreads Is Broken: Despite Amazon’s innovation elsewhere, Goodreads has stagnated for 12 years, and its problems are endless—this is somewhat overblown, and I’ve seen a lot of pushback about it. But, it’s worth a read. What do ya’ll think?
• We asked for your favorite crime-fiction authors. Boy, did you respond.—from The Seattle Times. “Boy, did you respond” made me smile—there’s not a lot to chew on here, but I liked the piece and it pairs nicely with:
• Is crime fiction the new working-class novel?: Perhaps genre books are so popular because they speak to the people who buy them—from The Irish Times
• The Crime Hub—launched this week and I predict I’ll use it frequently
• Eating waffles in San Antonio – with a real-life fictional character—Andy Martin, who has turned writing about Lee Child in to a cottage industry^*, sits down and talks to someone who won one of those charity auctions to get your name in a book.
• The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Defies Easy Genre Categorization—Yes. I know nothing/next-to-nothing about the works discussed here, but yes.
• Strong Women Are Taking Over the Thriller: 7 Badass Female Protagonists Helping to Redefine Modern Thrillers—A piece from last year that popped up on a social media feed this week, not sure how I missed it last year. Anyway, some decent TBR fodder and one great point about the plethora of “psychological thrillers featuring unreliable female protagonists”
• It’s not recreation, it’s research!—Even if you’re not a fan of Nero Wolfe (I pity you), am sure most people reading this can enjoy the piece and maybe even feel envious.
• How I Fell In Love With Reading || Ft. Bedtime Tales and A Magical Storybook
• Eight Reading Habits to Increase Your Reading Speed Plus Some Bonus Tips to Tackle your TBR!—A fun piece including some decent tips, a couple I’m not sure of and then: “Don’t Purchase Any More Books Until You Are Done With Your Current Ones” because the writer is some kind of monster.
• What Reading Has Taught Me, and Why it’s Still Important Today
• Five things that can make you dislike a good book—#1 is a big one for me.
• Ten Problems Only Booksharks Have—1. I like the term “bookshark,” it may quickly replace “bookwyrm/bookdragon” as my go-to. 2. I’m not sure these are problems, aren’t they just a thumbnail sketch of my personality?
• A Protest Sign I’d Carry/T-shirt logo I’d wear/Bumpersticker my Car Needs

^* Which I heartily endorse and enjoy.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Drinks with Tony: Robert Crais – #49—On Facebook, Crais said: ” This is one of my favorite podcast interviews, gang. I think you’ll agree.” I do agree—not just regarding interviews with Crais, either.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Bitterst Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman—Coleman’s (sniff)last (sniff)Jesse Stone (sniff)novel (not the last in the series, I should stress). Opiods in Paradise—a strong one to go out on. Now I live in fear about the state of the series. Here’s what I said about the book.
• An Orc on the Wild Side by Tom Holt—I need to make room for this on my schedule. In the meantime, here’s what Paul’s Picks had to say.

Can’t think of an intro at the moment, so, no ado today, just 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:

• Boise bookstore Rediscovered Books reconnects you to the community—this is a nice feature on my Bookstore of Choice
• Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn’t Matter—this won’t stop the “Is listenening to an Audiobook really reading” debate, but it might add a little variety to it.
• Reader, I Googled It: Amid fears about the death of books, finding new ways to bring them to life.
• The Children’s Book Map That Led Me Out of Depression—The power of The Phantom Tollbooth
• Rex Stout: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics: Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, and a Crime Fiction Legend—a great post about one of Crime Fiction’s GOATs.
• Lorraine Mace interviews Russell Day—a nice interview with IR favorite Russell Day.
• Lisa Lutz on Creating Iconic Female Protagonists—My time management (or lack thereof) has prevented me from blogging about The Swallows, so here’s a placeholder until then.
• Loss and Norms in Seanen McGuire’s “One Salt Sea”—I would’ve appreciated this post anytime, but I listened to this audiobook a month or two back and the material talked about here is still ringing in my ears so the post really spoke to me.
• A pair of posts about getting into SF/F: I Know Science Fiction and Fantasy Can be Daunting and Gateway Sci Fi Books
• Are Tropes Truly As Terrible As We Think?—I’ve never understood the anti-trope sentiment I’ve seen so much of in the last couple of years. I’ve always seen the benefit of them, and appreciated how various authors use them (that’s why they exist). This is a good exploration.
• Discussion: Humongous Books and Do You Read Them?
• Another nice bit of timeline synchronicity: Kitty Marie asks: When To DNF A Book? and The Next Best Book Blogger talks about a memorable DNF (I couldn’t have done it at that point, I think I admire Lori for this…or I’m convinced she’s insane. Maybe both)
• Book Blogger Starter Kit—this should elicit a snicker or wry smile

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to1800PetsAndVets®, Global Books, and neoverttun for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Gotta make this quick, off to the Boise Library!’s annual Comic Arts Festival to hopefully not spend all my spare change.

After a blunder last week that probably caused a little unintentional offense, I’ve tweaked my template for this post (specifically, the placeholder text). Invariably, when I do that, something goes awry—if something looks odd, would someone drop a line?

A pretty eclectic mix this week, hope you enjoy these odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• ‘My nerves are going fast’: The Grapes of Wrath’s hard road to publication—As with many books that have entered our zeitgeist, it’s hard to imagine that they didn’t exist/weren’t published easily and with great fanfare. Interesting read about a book I’ve read at least two too many times (and probably won’t again).
• In defense of reading the same book over and over again—As someone who finished the Potter series (again) last week, maybe this seems a little self-justifying, but whatever. I also just finished a re-read of a book I don’t remember liking at all (liked it somewhat this time…).
• We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books—This is a great list, I should make this a reading list for 2020. 99 of them, anyway—gotta skip the Jeeves/Wooster.^*
• ” A thread on why book snobbery isn’t cool, how it harms the publishing industry, and why it discourages reading.”—Some good stuff here (a little flummery, too)
• Curing Homesickness with Crime Fiction: Crime fiction can take us outside ourselves—and in resolution, return us home.—The central premise here is fantastic. Gonna have to add Elkay Ray to my TBR list.
• Narrator Interview: Kathleen Wilhoite—In honor of Where’d You Go, Bernadette hitting theaters, Libro.fm reposted this great interview with Wilhoite, the narrator of the audiobook (one of my all-time favorite audiobooks, I’ll add)
• Ender’s Game – Where Do We Go From Here?—I bet my list of issues with OSC is different than Tabler’s, but she raises an important question in our current climate. There are a myriad of people you could insert the name of here rather than OSC, too. If I only read/bought/blogged about people I agreed with/liked/would vote for/would let my daughter marry, I’d have more money and a lot more time on my hands…
• Why Hype Is Overrated and Unpopular Opinions Are Not That Unpopular—thanks to a recent follow, I’ve spent some time on Bookidote.com this week (and could easily spend a lot more). Things like this are why.
• Defining Terms: “I liked it, but didn’t love it.”—I try not to use this phrase, but I do (and could much more frequently).
• Book Characters That I’d Like as Best Friends—I’ve only read one of these on the list (and I don’t think we’d be good friends, but great acquaintances), but I like the idea of the post.
• How Do You Remember What You Read?—something from Bookidote that was on my list for this week before I realized it was on Bookidote (not trying to stuff the ballot box)

^*Yes, I threw that in just for Bookstooge’s reaction. To play along, watch the comments.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Episode Eighty Five – Steve is Live from North Carolina with Adrian McKinty—I shouldn’t have listened to this at work, I probably got a couple of strange looks from laughing. It’s one thing to read Adrian McKinty’s story about The Chain, it’s another to hear him tell it. He is a riot (and, as usual, when Steve Cavanagh isn’t increasing my blood pressure through his prose, he’s laugh-inducing, too)

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Warehouse by Rob Hart—The Real Book Spy says: ” Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business–and who will pay the ultimate price.” and that it has ” has legit best-book-of-the-year potential.”

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tammy (great site logo), Curled up with a good book, Kathryn Speckels and ChadeeMañago for following the blog this week.

I just had to mark 3 comments as Spam today, I’d like to thank those kind people looking for ways to make me money from the bottom of my heart (for reminding me why I moderate comments). How do people with real traffic on their blog handle it?

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:

• Independent booksellers and the future of Western thought—there’s some dross here, but some good ways to think, too.
• These Classic Books Are Surprisingly Fresh—and They’re Free—Started this week talking classics, might as well wrap it up that way.
• Continuing that thought: The Classic Novel That Is Most Often Abandoned By Readers—(although there’s a lot of contemporary stuff in the piece)
• Too busy? Distracted by your phone? How to love reading again
• Awkwafina to Star in Adaptation of ‘The Last Adventure of Constance Verity’—She wouldn’t have been my first choice (not that I can think of a credible choice, come to think of it). But I’m just happy that the criminally under-noticed A. Lee Martinez is seeing some success.
• A guide to Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series
• Lawyers in Fiction: It’s Time to Question the Archetype—I’m not in agreement with this too much, but I enjoyed the piece (maybe if I read more legal thrillers I’d have more to say).
• Meet the Author: Noelle Holten—A nice little interview with Noelle Holten, Crime Fiction blogger, writer of one of 2019’s best, and unofficial Irresponsible Reader publicist.
• The Top Ten “Buts” Of Fantasy And Science Fiction—one of those “why didn’t I think of this?” kind of posts
• Jenia’s Ultimate Guide For Getting Your Girlfriend Into Fantasy—works for spouses, friends, and strangers, too.
• 38 Americanisms the British Can’t Bloody Stand: To Some of Us, Grammar Feels Personal—This is more of a Word-Nerd post than a Book/Reading post, but I figure there’s a decent amount of overlap. (as an American, I agree with a lot of this, and think Brandreth is insane the rest of the time)
• A thread about Book Bloggers from Books, Bones & Buffy (@tammy_sparks).
• What I’ve learned from ten(ish) years of reading
• 10 Fictional Schools Even Worse Than Ones We Went To—my youngest two return to school Monday (already?!?!?!), thankfully, to something better than these (most days)
• Collective Nouns For Book Genres—there are some fantastic ideas on this thread started by Waterstones Swansea (a galaxy of Science Fiction, a Pretension of Literary Fiction, Reader’s dozen – 14 books, and a floppiness of paperbacks were a couple of my faves)
• Top 10 Rules of Etiquette for Drinking while Reading—there’s some real wisdom here
• Bookish parties I’d love to attend—parties aren’t my thing 96.4% of the time, but I might make an exception for these

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

• Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh—the U. S. release of Eddie Flynn dealing with a Serial Killer on the jury of his latest case. I raved about this a couple of weeks ago. You don’t have to know the previous novels in the series to appreciate this one, I should stress.
• Hacked by Duncan MacMaster—MacMaster is one of the best at combining fun and great mysteries at work today. As I assume this sequel to Hack will demonstrate.
• The Swallows by Lisa Lutz—A dark past comes back to haunt the woman running from it (one of Lutz’s specialties) as she accidentally kicks off a gender war at a New England Prep School. Last Saturday, I discovered I won a copy of this when it arrived on my doorstep. It’s been sitting on my desk since, calling my name…

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Kitty Marie’s Book Reviews Blog, rashidul.huda, Lashaan Balasingam @ Bookidote, Naba Kumar Garai, Psychotherapist ,Counsellor, Film Screenwriter,Playwright,Producer – LONDON.UK and Sonam Sangpo Lama for following the blog this week. (WHERE did you all come from!?)

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:

• Comeback story: A new chapter for indie bookstores—”While their numbers aren’t what they once were, independent bookstores are reclaiming their place in society. Behind their surprise resurgence is renewed emphasis on fostering community.” Yeah, I’ve posted a variation on this story before, and I’ll keep posting them as long as they are written.
• A #thread about #preorders.—A great thread about the business side of publishing.
• The Radical Transformation of the Textbook—Textbooks aren’t really the kind of thing I tend to talk about here (although, I can think of a few that I could have, if this existed in the 90’s), but this is pretty fascinating.
• Last Stand in Lychford—Paul Cornell announces (well, echoes Tor’s announcement) that next year’s Lychford novella will be the end. Which is a shame, but I never expected the series to, well, be a series. We got three or four more of what I expected, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he wraps things up (and what happens right before that, actually).
• Megan Abbott on the Difference Between Hardboiled and Noir: In Conversation with the Author of Give Me Your Hand—I haven’t read a lot of Abbott, but I liked what I have—but this discussion about the distinction between hardboiled and noir is fantastic. I’m going to refer to it a lot (I should probably track down her dissertation).
• Why Hacking is the Future of Crime Fiction—sure, it’s a bit self-serving, “hey, my novel is the future!”, but it’s a great point. And his book seems promising. But so often (on screen and in print) hacking in fiction is so . . . hacky?
• Cartoonist Randall Munroe Will Be Your Answer Man—Not sure this book is for me, but I’ll probably try it, Munroe rarely disappoints.
• Summer Flings – 5 Fantasy Standalones—cute idea for a list, at least two good books on the list (have heard good things about at least one other).
• Classically Cool- Let’s Talk Classics!—I dig this post from the Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub (incidentally, I don’t see that much sarcasm there — wazzup with that, pal?). I’ve been trying to find the time to write a similar post myself, but in the meantime go read hers.
• Are books still relevant today?—Obviously, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”, but you should still read the post.
• The Ultimate Summer Playlist to Inspire Your Summer Booklist—I’ve never heard (to my knowledge) any of the songs on this list, and probably wouldn’t like most of them. But, I thought this was a cool idea, so am passing it along. What songs/books would you add?

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 692 | Robert Crais Talks A Dangerous Man—fun, quick moving, interview with Crais.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais—possibly Crais’ best since Suspect, loved this novel about Joe Pike running errands and stumbling onto a kidnapping. I’ll talk more about this early next week.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Vee Aozoraa, happytonic, Elizabeth Ruggiero and adiswings for following the blog this week.