Tag: Miscellany Page 155 of 175

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. I didn’t find a lot this week — I guess I was busier than I thought. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• 5 Reasons You Should Read a Damn Book — from Grammarly Blog.
• Caution! Reading is Dangerous — then again . . .
• 7 Awesome Things About the October Daye Series — I’m not so sure about that count, but I’m I like the rest of it

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Children of the Different by S. C. Flynn — Friend of the blog, S. C. Flynn’s first book is released today. Expect to see a lot more about it here soon 🙂
• Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire — a new Toby Daye!
• Chapel of Ease by Alex Bledsoe — Time to go back to the land of the Tufa
• TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz — some stellar writing by two of the best people to ever discuss the medium
• Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart — one of the rare sequels that’s more fun than the original (I blogged about it here)
• The Question of the Felonious Friend by E. J. Copperman/Jeff Cohen — an amusing mystery (I blogged about it here)
• MJ-12: Inception by Michael J. Martinez — post WWII superpowered super-spies.
• Necrotech by K. C. Alexander

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Canary 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:

• My fave Brick ‘n Mortar Bookstore Rediscovered Books is celebrating 10 years in business. I haven’t spent nearly as much time and money there in the last couple of years as I should’ve, but am very happy to see this. Here’s the local paper’s bit on it.
• Does Reading Literary Fiction Make You a Better Person? I’m Skeptical — BookRiot’s Teresa Preston does a much-needed response to the article I linked to last week (and more could be done, too)
• Author and critic Lev Grossman on why there are no good books — Grossman’s thought is not as provocative as the title of this article (and his talk), but it’s good. Wish I could make the lecture.
• ‘Book ninjas’ are hiding free books on Melbourne’s trams, trains and buses to get commuters reading — Random Acts of Kindness
• Tom Wolfe has a new (non-fiction) book out! (that’s a very emphatic exclamation point) CBS News has a short piece/video about it (and him) (I hope to read that next book he mentions soon) and The Millions has this scathing, yet celebratory, review by Brian Hurley.
• Michael R. Underwood just unveiled the cover to Genrenauts Season One Collection by Thomas Walker. Looks sharp.
• The Art of Wreaking Revenge — a nice little feature on Coleman and the latest Jesse Stone book
• Emily Brontë may have had Asperger syndrome, says biographer
• I haven’t had time to read (much less review) A Mint Condition Corpse, as much as I’ve wanted to (I did buy it, so that’s one step done). Thankfully, friend of the blog, Jo Perry did review it, so I can just share her work.
• How Larry Hama Made Comics History One Issue At A Time — It’s been ages since I read him, but seeing the name “Larry Hama” on a scan of Twitter a few days ago made me stop. I had to read this, the name meant that much to me (even if it took me a few seconds to remember why it did) — and I can’t tell you how many times I read the issue that top panel is from. I could probably tell you the entire story from the issue.
• If you have a few extra pennies, there’s a Kickstarter campaign for Drive — Dave Kellet’s fantastic SF comic.
• The 15 Best Places On The Internet For Book Lovers

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe — ’nuff said
• Curioddity by Paul Jenkins — Urban Fantasy’s version of Warehouse 13?
• The Key to the Coward’s Spell by Alex Bledsoe — an Eddie LaCrosse short story. Our favorite sword jockey is on the hunt for a missing kid and finds more than he bargained for.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to drjohnpatrickkeefeii, Char’s Horror Corner and BrokenTune for the new follows 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:

• Physical-book sales are staging a comeback after many years of decline — I’ve posted this kind of thing before, but it’s still good to see
• Literary fiction readers understand others’ emotions better, study finds — the details on this are important, and I’m wondering what genre titles were used. Still, intriguing.
• Why I Review Everything I Read — I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, almost to the letter — which is kind of scary. One author asked me why I do the book blog thing, and I’ve been trying to answer her. Will just forward her this (and the next) link.
• Amateur book reviews – my thoughts — Fictionfile nails it.
• 6 Reasons Why It’s Important To Read Books You Hate — Co-sign, especially #5

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Barista’s Guide To Espionage by Dave Sinclair — Fahrenheit Press has another off-the-beaten-path crime/thriller novel out this week, champing at the bit for this one.
• I mistakenly listed this earlier in the month, whoops! Here’s where it belongs: Repo Madness by W. Bruce Cameron — I did not expect The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man to get a sequel, it didn’t need one. But I’ll gladly read it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Real Tasty Pages for following the blog this week. Thanks to katknit for the interaction.

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 Book Clubs Matter in the Age of Tablets — I’m way too introverted to take part in one, but Book Clubs sound pretty cool.
• Then again…How to Start a Parent-Child Book Club
• A Message to Students: Don’t Forget Reading Is Fun — I’m making my kids read this (irony alert), you should, too
• The Sad, Strange Histories of Some of the Most Famous Kids in Literature — learned a thing or three here.
• Breaking up with books is so very hard to do for those who are avid readers — yup
• A Literary Drinking Game — I think some of these could literally kill you.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Rise the Dark by Michael Koryta — Koryta’s fantastic and the predecessor to this blew me away, this is going to rock.
• Dead to Rites by Ari Marmell — 1930’s Urban Fantasy — just a fun series
• The Eternity Fund by Liz Monument — something a little “out there” even by Fahrenheit’s standards
• Invasive by Chuck Wendig — techno-ish thriller that sounds like it could be an episode of Fringe, but stranger.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to BusinessandBook and DPNews for following the blog this week.

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — skimpy list this week, but what’re you gonna do? You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Why reading with your kids is more important now than ever — Kate DiCamillo has some really good insights here (and some less-good ones).
• No, you can’t borrow that book, and no, I don’t want to borrow yours either. — I’m more willing to borrow/lend than Mr. Clark is — but I get his thinking.
• Homage to George Orwell: BBC statue wins planning permission
• Lauren Graham reveals Talking As Fast As I Can book cover — not really sure why I’m including this, but I only had 3 items on the list, so might as well (and yeah, going to read the thing — her semi-autobiographical novel was pretty good, this probably will be, too).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• How to Party With an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings — a new book from The Descendants‘s author
• I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but apparently it was released this week. Whoops. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff — after The Lotus War I’ve gotta give whatever he puts out a shot. Doesn’t hurt that this looks really good.
• Killer Instincts by Linden Chase — a creepy looking mystery from Fahrenheit Press

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:

• Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience — Brain Pickings walk us through the highlights of a Gaiman piece from his new collection. You want to read this.
• Read Books, Live Longer? — I’d like to see the details on this research, but . . . living longer sounds good — about the only way I can start to catch up on my TBR pile.
• How To Read A Book And Walk At The Same Time — I’ve done this (it can be tricky), used to do it a lot, really. But I never put this much thought into it. Probably should have.
• Reading Lessons I Learned from GILMORE GIRLS — Cute, but not exhaustive. I’m sure there are many more lessons that Rory could teach us all.
• Imagine There’s No Fiction — This post from Mysteristas needs more eyeballs.
• 10 Famous Writers Reimagined as Professional Wrestlers

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. Okay, that’s a lie — I don’t have time for all these this month (ignoring the stack of things on my shelf and Kindle I do need to get to) — you probably won’t see these soon, you’ve either seen them here, or maybe later this year. But I’d like to read them all now.:
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production Special Rehearsal Edition by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany — Good thing that I mentioned this, right? None of you has heard of it. Picked up my copy today, I may get to it this coming week (assuming I have the time and my daughter lets me near it)
• Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter — I blabbed about this before, if this isn’t the best thing that Hunter’s done, it’s in the running. I just hope book 2 is almost as strong.
• Repo Madness by W. Bruce Cameron — I did not expect The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man to get a sequel, it didn’t need one. But I’ll gladly read it.
• Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia — No, that’s not my placeholder text, that’s the actual title. It’s supposedly Gossip Girl meets House of Cards, but looks better than that.
• Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky — a subversive traditional fantasy. If it’s 60% as good as Jeff Somers says that it is, I’ve gotta give it a shot.
• Amaryllis and Other Stories by Carrie Vaughn — I like non-Kitty Norville Vaughn stuff, just not as much. Still, this collection of her shorter works from across genres seems pretty appealing.
• The Hike by Drew Magary — Wired says: “It’s kind of a more cynical version of The Phantom Tollbooth mixed with a game of Dungeons & Dragons.” ‘Nuff said.
• The Bad Decisions Playlist by Michael Rubens — a little more YA material. I liked Rubens’ SF work from a couple of years ago, will give this a glance when I can.
• The Coaster by Erich Wurster — Again, I’ve already talked about this, so read that if you’d like. This first novel is promising enough to make you want more from Wurster.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to alittlebirdtweets, kmelerine , and Peter Ranger for following the blog this week.