Tag: Miscellany Page 141 of 175

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:

• 9 Weird Literary Relics People Spent Serious Money On: $15,000 for an X-ray of Ernest Hemingway’s foot? Don’t mind if I do! — Once again, Electric Lit, puts out something I never thought I’d read.
• Bill Clinton: By the Book — say what you will about his previous career (just not in my comments), but this is an interesting post about a debut novelist. I remember reading about the impact he had on Dennis Lehane’s profile/sales, too. He knows what he’s talking about, it seems.
• ‘Kingkiller Chronicle’ Author Patrick Rothfuss Doesn’t Believe in Writer’s Block — coming from one of the reigning champs of Authors not producing things, this carries a some weight.
• Why Dead Blind Is Such a Personal Book — I read a killer review for this a couple of weeks ago, and bought it immediately. Hoping to read it soon — this piece by the author makes me want to move it up even quicker.
• Have you ever broken the law to read a book? Here’s my story… — For The Dragonlance Chronicles in the late 80’s? I absolutely would have. I didn’t. But I get where Paul’s coming from.
• Lastly, there’s a couple of TBR-related tweets I found very amusing this week: this one from @MeredithIreland and this one from CG Drews/@PaperFury — both elicited a firm chuckle from me

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

• Brief Cases by Jim Butcher — New collection of short stories from The Dresden Files. I started this Wednesday and cannot believe that I haven’t finished it yet. I will be expressing my deep love for this soon. (A quick update 1 hour after posting, I’m done and I had no idea an hour ago how much I loved this book. Probably my favorite thing to date in 2018)
• The Puppet Show by M. W. Craven — introducing Washington Poe. I heard a review of this on the latest Two Crime Writers and a Microphone episode. Sounds great, sounds creepy and with great lead characters.
• Free Chocolate by Amber Royer — I’ve been seeing raves about this for so long, I can’t believe it’s only been released now — a Space Opera with a sense of humor about a Galactic struggle to control the Earth’s chocolate. Of all the reasons I’ve seen for going to war lately, I’ve gotta say this ranks at the top.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to glenn van nostrand and T.Jaye for following the blog this week.

It’s the last week of the month (or it was…), plus the holiday — which always makes for a short post for me. Still,there’s some good stuff here (including, but not limited to, one that I forgot to post last week). Without further ado, 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 crime fiction is booming — There’s a lot of good insight here, particularly this line: ” Good crime fiction is necessarily a reader-centred experience, because it only works if the reader is willing to engage with it – other genres can see the author be (for want of a better word) pretentious, and focus on what they want to get out of it. In crime fiction, the author wants a reader to try and solve their crimes.”
• An Audio Addict’s Guide to Audiobook Mysteries — I haven’t listened to any of these, but I’ve read some of the novels and agree with her take on them, and she’s right about George Guidall (his Longmire work is great).
• The Brothers Goldberg: Tod Goldberg interviews Lee Goldberg — probably the best Lee Goldberg interview possible — even if you’re not a Goldberg reader, this is worth a read.
• 10 Small Press Books to Read this Summer — some good TBR fodder.
• A facebook post from Jim Butcher — in response to readers thanking him for saving their lives. Honestly, if I ever met the man, I’d be tempted to say something like that to him, too. This post was just great.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff — just click the link, I’m not going to try to summarize. Killer concept from a killer author. Im sure it’ll be a blast, I have no idea when I could possibly fit it in.
• The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865 edited/compiled/transcribed by Janet E. Croon — history from a ground-floor perspective. It’s just great, as you can read here

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Eva Newermann for following the blog this week.

Hope you all had a great Towel Day! And for you U. S. types, I hope you’re having a good Memorial Day.I got knocked out by a stomach virus this weekend — spent most of it unconscious, and the time I was awake, I couldn’t focus enough to write anything — even this. Reading was straight out — this is the longest I’ve gone without reading in years — Friday afternoon through…I dunno, really — I need to spend some time today reshuffling my schedule so I can make all the deadlines I have in the next 8 days. So anyway, I’m just saying, there’s a reason this is two days late.

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

• Are ebooks dying or thriving? The answer is yes
• What’s Going On In Your Child’s Brain When You Read Them A Story? — huh
• What Does A Goodreads Three Star Rating Mean to You? — I don’t get this — 3 is good. Not every book can be mind-blowing, right?
• The 5 books Bill Gates thinks everyone should read this summer — For that species of people who don’t have stacks of things to read all times, “Summer Reading” is a thing — for those who are looking to come up with their list for the upcoming season, Bill Gates (noted literary critic?), has some ideas.
• The Mystery Buffs in the White House — inspired by the upcoming Clinton/Patterson novel, a look at Chief Executives with a thing for mysteries.
• Speculative Noir: 10 Classic Sci-Fi Thrillers That Tore Down Genre Borders — Crime Reads lists 10 SF/F-Crime hybrid novels.
• What Exactly is a Cozy Mystery?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Eva Newermann for following the blog this week.

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:

• Anne Frank’s ‘dirty’ jokes found on diary pages she covered over — When I first saw this headline, I figured it was from The Onion or McSweeney’s, but no. This is an actual thing.
• Why a Daily Habit of Reading Books Should be Your Priority, According to Science — We’ve seen all this before, but what member of the choir doesn’t like being preached to?
• I wanted to write something about the death of Tom Wolfe, he had such a huge impact on me, starting in junior high and continuing until…well, now. But I just didn’t have the time, also, I just didn’t know what to say rather. Thankfully, these people did:
  • Tom Wolfe, ‘New Journalist’ Turned Literary Icon, Dies at 88 — from Publisher’s Weekly.
  • Tom Wolfe, 88, ‘New Journalist’ With Electric Style and Acid Pen, Dies — The New York Times
  • Tom Wolfe, ‘Right Stuff’ Author and New Journalism Legend, Dead at 88 — Rolling Stone
  • Tom Wolfe: The writer who dissected and deconstructed America’s absurdities — Andy Martin writing for the Independent
• How and Why I Became a Book Blogger
• The Best Gifts for Bookworms (That Aren’t Books)
• Unpopular Bookish Opinions — there’s some merit to some of these. And the others . . . wellllll…
• A couple of different takes on this odd topic:
  • Librarians of Twitter List the Very Weird Items People Use as Bookmarks — from Bookstr
  • Bacon, cheese slices and sawblades: the strangest bookmarks left at libraries — and The Guardian

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• How It Happened by Michael Koryta — Just reading the pitch for this — and knowing what Koryta can do with suspense — makes me think about doubling up on the blood pressure medication the day I start this.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Sritha Bandla, James Remmer and moviewarden for following the blog this week.

So, as Bookstooge commented yesterday — I seem to be in a bit of a slump — “meh”ish books and “meh”ish posts. Even the book I liked this week didn’t get my real best writing. Not sure what’s up with that. Better books to write about next week (mostly) — that should help. I’ve read two things this week that knocked me for a loop, looking forward to writing about them. Anyway . . .

Whoops! Going into this post, I thought I had a pretty good selection — turns out that it was mostly variations on a few themes. Most of which I ended up bailing on, so I can present to you only the most interesting of odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — even if it is a short list. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Social Media and whatnot has been abuzz lately about Faleena Hopkins and her new Trademark. Now, I’m not a Romance reader (clearly), but you can see how some might try to learn from her example in other genres — and, it’s just a fascinating story regardless. Typically, there’s a lot of dross in the coverage. Here’s a couple of more trustworthy sources talking about it:
  • This Romance Novelist Trademarked the Word ‘Cocky’: And now she’s threatening other writers with legal action if they don’t change their book titles — from Electric Lit
  • Romantic novelist’s trademarking of word ‘cocky’ sparks outcry — from The Guardian
• Otto Penzler, noted expert on Mystery/Crime Fiction, has started a series of posts on CrimeReads helping readers understand the sub-genres of Mystery. Informative, helpful and great TBR fodder to boot:
  • What Is a Traditional Mystery?
  • What Is a Hard-Boiled Novel?
  • What Is a Thriller?
  • What Is a Police Procedural?
  • What is a Crime Novel?
• Friday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book: PLOT IT YOURSELF (1959) by Rex Stout — I don’t think I like this particular Wolfe/Archie novel as much as this blogger does, but it is a good one — and (more importantly), anyone drawing attention to this series should get some attention itself.
• Stupid reasons to read books even if you never did before — a good list from Cristian Mihai over on Irevuo.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• For Those Who Know the Ending by Malcolm Mackay — an awesome looking Tartan Noir crime novel.
• Uncharted by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt — Lewis and Clark in an alternate-history/fantasy novel. Looks pretty cool to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to jstlouise for following the blog this week.