Tag: Miscellany Page 161 of 179

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:

• Science or magic? UK scientists test reality of Harry Potter spells — You have got to be kidding me. People wasted time on this? (actually, the whole Borrowers thing disturbs me even more)
• Why Reading Makes You a Better Person — a nice looking infographic
• In honor of Towel Day a couple of days ago (and yes, I know I failed to post something…been one of those weeks):
  • PW’s The 10 Funniest Books — not so sure I buy this list, but some of them look mildly humorous.
  • Fighting Post-Hitchhiker’s Disorder: 6 Essential Books for Douglas Adams Fans — I may have posted this last October, but it’s worth another look.
  • B&N tweeted this awesome fact
• ‘It needs more public-spirited pigs’: TS Eliot’s rejection of Orwell’s Animal Farm — what a great letter.
• Title Fights: Who gets to name an author’s book? — I love behind-the-scenes stuff like this.
• Along those lines By the Cover: Meet Kirk Benshoff — and another BookRiot post on cover designs
• jay Posey and James L. Sutter tweetedthese important reminders for readers
• The 16 Most Misleading Book Covers Of All Time — this was hilarious (and horrifying).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Mint Condition Corpse by Duncan MacMaster — a geek-centric mystery. Okay. I’ll bite. From Fahrenheit Press, who else?
• The Last Star by Rick Yancey — Loved The 5th Wave, was less into the sequel — but am really looking forward to this.
• Dietland by Sarai Walker — this looks fun. ” Part coming-of-age story, part revenge fantasy, Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying.” Check out the trailer.
• Dark Run by Mike Brooks — a space opera about smugglers, con artists and thiefs. Sounds good to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Senna and Beth from Hello Beautiful Book Blog 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:

• 11 best things we saw at BookExpo America 2016 — EW takes a look back at BEA 2016 and a look forward at the rest of the year in books.
• Goodreads Offering Personalized Daily E-book Discounts — I’m not sure this is a good thing or not, I like the deals, but do I really need another email telling me about books to buy?
• No Genre Ever Dies: On Loren D. Estleman and the Pulp Tradition
• Not-So-Civil War, or Embracing Polyfanory — not a shock that I like something Anton Strout says, but this piece is really good.
• The Rook Is a Delightfully Weird Twist on Urban Fantasy — B&N Reads makes the case that you should read (or re-read) The Rook in the month we have until the sequel comes out. Sounds like a solid plan, The Rook was good. Don’t take my word for it, click the link.
• White Noise is an outsider’s look inside small-town Americana — I never turn down an excuse to read about, talk about, think about DeLillo’s book. Neither should you.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Highwayman. by Craig Johnson — a Longmire novella.
• Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell — the third Shadow Police novel — I can’t tell you how much I want to read this one. If you’re not reading this series, here’s a great hopping on place. Check out his Big Idea post about it.
• This Damned Band also by Paul Cornell and Tony Parker — is out in collected form now. This is a demented looking story.
• Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life by Steven Hyden — going behind the music to look at pop music’s best rivalries
• The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton — could be the start of a heckuva series, getting a lot of good buzz, too.
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix — described by the author as “basically Beaches meets The Exorcist.”

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:

You may remember my post about
• Elphie and Dad go on an Epic Adventure — it was just featured on the Youtube channel Storytime Pup. Very cute.
• HC Starts Bookstore Development Program — There may be a catch to this, but at least at first glance, this sounds pretty nice.
• School Principal Says Reading ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ Causes Brain Damage — um, what?
• Dear J.K. Rowling: Stop Apologizing! — I wanted to write something like this when I saw Rowling apologizing for killing characters. The choices she made about character deaths were part of what made the series what it is. But Vanessa Willoughby says it better than I would’ve.
• Ace Atkins talks about SLOW BURN, THE INNOCENTS — because you can never have enough Atkins…

Only One of this Week’s New Releases caught my eye:
• The Vagrant by Peter Newman — I heard Newman recently on The Cornell Collective, and look forward to getting to read this release

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

Before I get going today, I’d like to take a moment to say congrats to my oldest son, who is getting his AA today, well done, sir.

Now on to 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:

• The Novel Still Exists — The Millions Interviews Don DeLillo
• The LA Times also has A rare interview with Don DeLillo, one of the titans of American fiction
• And lastly, Don DeLillo’s Total Art of Memory — Jonathon Sturgeon talks DeLillo himself, his new book, and connections to his old ones.
• What Two Forgotten Pieces Tell Us About Harper Lee — from the New Yorker
• Bestselling novelist Ace Atkins appears Wednesday for ‘Beer & Books’ — a nice profile on Atkins and his two series.
• Crime pays for crime-fiction writer Michael Connelly — a nice profile of Mr. Connelly
• Five Literary Worlds That Smacked Me in the Face — I’m not Charlaine Harris’ biggest fan, but she knows what she’s talking about.
• All Different Kinds of Strong, by Gail Z. Martin — this is just good.
• The 10 Fiercest Mothers in SF/F — a good list for Mother’s Day, and some of these are really good choices. BTW, hope the Moms out there have a good one.
• The Money of Dogs: A Conversation with The Dog Merchants‘ Author Kim Kavin — a book I almost don’t want to read, it’ll probably depress me.
• The 7 Stages of Hate-Reading — seeing this the week that I posted about Songs in Ordinary Time seemed really fitting.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. I DO NOT HAVE time for all these:
• Zero K by Don DeLillo — It’s DeLillo, the very definition of a Must Read.
• Everybody’s Fool by Richard Russo — wasn’t the biggest fan of Nobody’s Fool, but I don’t know that I’ve really stopped thinking about it in the 2 or 3 years it’s been since I read it. So yeah, will have to get to this one
• Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn by Ace Atkins — You know it’s a big week when Atkins is #3 on my list. This was another strong one — will try to get my post up next week about it.
• The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan — a new series in the Percy-verse. Apollo is sent to earth as a regular teen, trying to get back to Olympus.
• Blood Defense by Marcia Clark — the first of a new series by Clark. This time the hero’s a defense attorney.
• Double Down by Gwenda Bond — I enjoyed the first book about Lois Lane, teen reporter. Expect this one’ll be better.
• The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde — don’t care what this novella is about, really. Fran Wilde’s Updraft earned her enough credit to just get whatever has her name on it for a year or two.
• Outriders by Jay Posey — Military SF with a synopsis that starts with the line, “Captain Lincoln Suh died on a Wednesday. And things only got harder from there.” How do you not give it a chance?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to J. L. Gribble and Looseygoosey for following the blog this week.

(I looked and looked for a source on this one…would love to link to it)