Tag: Miscellany Page 4 of 171

The topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesdays is the Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2025

I’ve done this (or something similar) the last few years (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), and have come to look forward to it. It’s one more chance to talk about people I quite enjoy talking about. Hopefully, these names get to continue to pop up on this here site for years to come. I just enjoyed getting to know these authors via their work. I’d love to interact with them, too–if any of those listed here read this and want to participate in anything with me. Please let me know.

I typically say something about each author, but I ran out of time/energy. I hope to finish this soon, but for now–here are the names. Click the links to learn more about 9 of them.

Here’s this year’s list.

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2025

(alphabetically)

	Katherine Addison
	Ryka Aoki
	Mai Corland
	Z.S. Diamanti In case you’re curious about what I said about the book that put them on this list, click here.
	Adrian M. Gibson In case you’re curious about what I said about the works that put her on this list, click here.
	Michael Michel In case you’re curious about what I said about the books that put him on this list, click here.
	Jason Pargin
	Sadir S. Samir
	Zephaniah Sole In case you’re curious about what I said about the book that put him on this list, click here.
	Thomas Trang In case you’re curious about what I said about the book that put her on this list, click here.

Saturday Miscellany—1/24/26

By HCNewton

On January 24, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I thought this was going to be a beefier list this week, but apparently I didn’t save all the things I meant to. Or I spent more time reading books than surfing than I thought I did (very likely). Quality over quantity, let’s say.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Libro.fm Reports Growth in 2025, Launches Annual Subscription—some promising news from my audiobook dealer of choice. While I’m thinking of it, feel free to use this referral link if you decide to subscribe or buy a book, would help me out a bit.
bullet The world’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok—I was actually tempted to use the app now just so I can watch this guy. Resisted, but was tempted.
bullet The Best Book Covers of the Last Decade—You all know that I’m a sucker for “Best Cover”-type posts. This is no exception.
bullet INTERVIEW: with author Jim Butcher—Beth Tabler and Jim Butcher, who can resist the combo? Who would want to?
bullet How Psychological Thrillers Critique the American Dream
bullet Your To-Be-Read Pile Might Be Lying to You—worth reading if only for the Deliah Dawson e-book TBR wisdom
bullet Ranking Classic Children’s Picture Books—someone has the guts to say what we’re all thinking about Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Goodnight Moon (other helpful stuff here, too…)
bullet Arty Picturebooks!—Another good Picture Book post, this one from The Orangutan Librarian

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet SFF Addicts Ep. 186: Scott Lynch talks the Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Heists, Mental Health & More—I enjoyed this one so much I might listen again. (and not just to hyperfixate on the hints Lynch gives about future news)

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week :
bullet “There are moments in your life that are perfect. You know they won’t last long, you know they’re rare, you know that they might not ever come again. If you pay attention, you can feel those moments happening to you.”—Twelve Months by Jim Butcher

and…(this one got stuck in my head)
bullet “All three of us twitch-jumped except for Molly and Lara.”—Twelve Months by Jim Butcher

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet The Next to Last Word by Michael P.V. Barrett
bullet Nightwing, Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows
bullet The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez
bullet I mentioned the releases of strong>Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz (and I should really get around to books 2-11 someday) and The Rogue Retrieval by Dan Koboldt

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Twelve Months by Jim Butcher—because I don’t think I’ve mentioned it enough in the last three weeks, the new Dresden Files novel dropped this week. I’m in fanboy heaven. If you’re a Dresden-fan, you don’t need to be reminded (I assume) that it’s out. If you’re not, I don’t know that this is a book for you–but let me tell you, the 17 books you need to read first will knock your socks off. (might just be easier to read them barefoot)
bullet There Be Dragons Here by S.L. Rowland—The latest Cozy Fantasy Adventure from Rowland looks very promising, a 182 year-old former adventurer is tasked with taking an old friend’s ashes to their final resting place.
bullet Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief by T. Kingfisher—Nine goblins find themselves behind enemy lines and have to face just about every fantasy race you can think of (humans worst of all) to get home.

(the cat is absolutely not necessary)

Book Blogger Hop: Book Blogger Hop: Book and Snack Combinations

By HCNewton

On January 23, 2026

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Which book pairs perfectly with a certain snack in your opinion?

I’ve talked about drinking while reading before, and attempted to come up with some pairings of drinks and books. But if I’ve done snacks/foods before, I’ve forgotten it.

There’s a danger in pairing some things with books. Silence of the Dead pretty much makes you want pie—having some handy would probably lead to overindulgence. Brownies/cookies with a Mercy Thompson book would lead to that, too. A Dresden Files novel could make you want Burger King. Spenser novels will make you want Dunkin’.

Really, I could go on like that. Maybe it’s just a reflection of my self-control (or lack thereof)—a good pairing between book and snack is going to lead to problems.

Which isn’t to say I’m not a fan of snacking while reading—in moderation, of course*—but you’ve got to be careful. You don’t want anything too greasy, buttery, sticky, or that will otherwise damage the cover/pages. It should be something that you don’t need both hands for (you need one to hold the book/eReader, right?). It probably should be pretty simple—nothing you have to focus on, just mindlessly grab and move mouth-ward, without losing focus/taking your eyes off the book.

* In case my physician is reading this, I have to say this.

Of course, I could be wrong, and I’m looking forward to seeing what others are thinking/saying.

WWW Wednesday—January 21, 2026

By HCNewton

On January 21, 2026

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

I’m sure it wasn’t the most appropriate way to commemorate the day, but I really enjoyed the bonus reading day on Monday — and, for a change, I took advantage of it. I’m at least one book ahead of where I expected to be today. I’m not going to be able to pull all of it off–but my January TBR is feeling largely doable. For today, anyway.

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Twelve Months by Jim Butcher	The Librarians by Sherry Thomas, read by Louisa Zhu

The fact that I’m posting this, or working, or acknowledging I have a wife and dogs while I have Twelve Months to focus on is rather surprising. I’m just in full geek-out mode.

I’m still getting a sense of The Librarians, the setting and characters are charming as all get out–but I’m still waiting for the plot to start. We’ll see how it goes from there.

What did you recently finish reading?


Lit by Tim Sandlin	Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor

Sandlin’s cozy doesn’t feel all that cozy, but technically is one. It’s a hoot. Idaho does not come off well in this book, I will recommend it soon regardless.

Oh wow. This audio version of Ozark Dogs is just as powerful as the novel–only losing a bit of its punch because I revisited it. Cranor is a fantastic narrator, I should add.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson	The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard, read by Stephanie Németh-Parker

I’m looking forward to seeing for myself how Anderson’s book lives up to the description (click the link) or to the good things that people are saying about it (like Jodie did)

I don’t remember what it was about Chouinard’s book that got it put on my hold list–I’m just going to trust that former me knew what he was doing. It’s been a minute before I dabbled in a light-hearted serial killer book.

Any book(s) have you excited lately?

Fantasy with Friends: What Do You Think of Romantasy as a Category?

By HCNewton

On January 19, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

What do you think of romantasy as a category? What makes something romantasy vs. a fantasy book with a romance?

As for the subgenre as a whole, it’s not for me. I’ve got nothing against it, but it’s not something I seek out or would. But I have friends who love it—I have family members who love it—and I’m glad they have something that entertains them.

There are individual works that I’ve read and enjoyed—some I didn’t realize fit into that category until after I’d read them, and one or two I’ve been specifically recommended. So yeah…I don’t see myself as a fan of the subgenre, but that doesn’t mean I will run away from a good one. I just won’t go looking for one.

For me—and I’m looking forward to reading more informed definitions—a Romantasy is a Romance Novel that takes place in a Fantasy world (the way that the Eddie LaCrosse novels are Detective Novels that take place in a Fantasy world, or The Midsolar Murder books are Murder Mysteries on a Space Station, etc.). These are distinguished from books that are solid Fantasy novels with a love story (The Bright Sword, for example); or a Detective Novel with a touch of the mystic (or at least possibility of it) like the Walt Longmire series; or a Science Fiction novel where someone is murdered like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Given that understanding, my typical disinclination to reading Romance is the same as disinclination to reading Romantasy.

I’m sure some of the other posts in response to this prompt will be more thoughtful. I’m looking forward to reading them. Do you have responses to this? (either for the comment section below or from your own post)

Saturday Miscellany—1/17/26

By HCNewton

On January 17, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Best Sci-Fi First Contact Adventures—a nice little stack of goodies. I can speak for 2.4 of the 7, and agree with Peloquin’s choices–and the rest look just as good.
bullet Willow Wraith Press is starting to host a promising series of articles about Self-Publishing, they kick it off (aptly) with What is Self Publishing?
bullet Beauty With Teeth: What I Want From Fae Fantasy—this is a lot of what I wanted to say Monday, and didn’t quite manage to.

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week :
bullet “I’m not saying pain is what defines us as human beings. But it is, in many ways, what unites us.”―Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Sex & Violence in the Bible by Joseph W. Smith III
bullet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams—to be fair, when am I NOT talking about this?
bullet In Defense of the Moth or A Meaningless Dance in Blinding Heat and Light by Johnny Newport
bullet Indexing: Reflections Episode Twelve: Never After by Seanan McGuire
bullet Hidden by Karen E. Olson
bullet The Odd Fellows Society by C. G. Barrett
bullet I mentioned the releases of: Once a Crooked Man by David McCallum; Reflections by Seanan McGuire; and Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet First Do No Harm by S. J. Rozan—Somehow this slipped by me last week. “Lydia Chin and Bill Smith face a dangerous task: they must unlock a hospital’s many secrets in order to save an innocent man.” That sentence only needs the first five words to get me interested, but the rest works, too.
bullet Forbidden Waters by Rob Parker—Cam Killick is back and this time he “has found is a murder weapon from a very recent crime – but how do you solve a murder without a body?”
bullet Godfall by Van Jensen—”In this riveting small town thriller, Sheriff David Blunt is faced with a string of murders following the arrival of an alien life form”
bullet The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta and Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Translated by Jeffrey Angles—following up on his translation of the Godzilla novellas, Angles brings us the original Mothra story.

2026 Plans and Challenges

By HCNewton

On January 15, 2026

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Finally it’s time to stop looking at 2025 (as fun as I hope that is’s been) and to start focusing on 2026.

Last year was a disaster for my plans and goals…both those stated and unstated. That only bothers me a little–I had too much fun with what I did accomplish, and was so tired because of everything else in life that perspective is easy. This is a hobby–I didn’t hobby the way I wanted to. But, still, hobbying was done.

This year

I do have things I want to accomplish here over the next 12 months for a variety of reasons—and listing them like this helped last year (although, you’ll see a lot of echoes here from that post. But most of those echoes are of a “continue doing this” nature). So, here’s what I’m going to shoot for around here in the next 12 months.
Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but 2024 was not good for the size of that stack)—I’m going to talk about that more in a minute.
Any book that I buy this year, I want to read this year (unless I buy it for a 2027 project). I will fail at this. But I’m going to try.
I’m going to continue to be picky in the Book Tours I participate in. I still like Tours, they expose me to things I wouldn’t normally read—and I’m going to keep doing them. But if I’m picky, it helps me focus on other things.
I’m cutting back on the Reading Challenges I’m going for.
Try to interview more authors (maybe others, too?), and get better at that, too. The Literary Locals series is helping with that. Hopefully that also means more of the HC Chats, too.
I want to continue the Literary Locals.
I plan on pressing forward with Grandpappy’s Corner, and hopefully do posts for it more frequently. One of my challenges (below) will help.

2026 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

Last year, I lowered this goal, and am sticking with it. This is mostly an attempt to shift my attention away from the numbers–I honestly don’t care about them, I talk about them just as an indicator of how I spend my time (for myself), although it often comes across as something else. I’m also planning on tackling some more thought-provoking and slower reads this year, so this might help me not care about that. We’ll see how that works.

My TBR Range Challenge

I’ve been joking about Mt. TBR for a couple of years now, and then I saw some meme recently talking about some having TBR Piles and others having a mountain range. Of course, I liked that image. Around that time, I started thinking about how my pile has grown a lot over the last couple of years specifically. And I decided to look at the list by year (well, I took a few by aggregate because the numbers were so small). I found the results disturbing–but a little heartwarming for 2021-23, to give myself a little credit. I’m going to attack things here.

(thankfully, it’s hard to tell that there are slivers of yellow for Audiobooks, but it’s there)

Reading with Wrigs
The Tradition continues. I finished this one with room to spare last year–far better than the year before when I missed it for the first time. Gotta make it a streak.

The 2026 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

I really appreciate the way this one is put together, and it’s pretty easy—just 1 book a month and my TBR should go down by at least 12, more if I can squeeze in some of the stretch goals. This has been pretty helpful the last few years, and I expect the same this year.

25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years
When I saw Slate’s 25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years list last Fall, I decided it needed to be a personal challenge for this year. And, hey, I read one of them a couple of years ago. This has gotta be in the bag.

2026 Speccy Fiction Challenge
I was going to call it enough with the above (and probably the below), but then shelleyrae @ Book’d Out invited me to participate in the 2026 Speccy Fiction Challenge, and I can’t resist. Also… it looks fun.

20 Books of Summer
Assuming that this is done again–hopefully last year’s hosts are up for it–I’ll be there. It’s a fun tradition.

That’s everything I have planned, I can’t wait to see what unplanned things happen around here. Hope you’re around to join in the fun!

The image for the Picture book list is taken from the article. The Book stack image by yeliao521 from Pixabay

WWW Wednesday—January 14, 2026

By HCNewton

On January 14, 2026

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

No intro today, let’s just get to business:

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky	Battle Ground by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Tchaikovsky’s book, but am eager to get going deeper.

Well, I remember why Butcher is officially dead to me. Which is not to suggest that I’m not casting aside eerything else that I’m doing when the Twelve Months comes out next week. But I’m not sure I’ll forgive him for one of the events of this book.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Hunted by Steven Max Russo	Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters

You can always count on Russo for a rousing Thriller–great story.

Just couldn’t shake the sense of impending doom with Peace Talks (and just wished Dresden took two opportunities to just talk to people and spare himself a lot of grief).

What do you think you’ll read next?


Lit by Tim Sandlin	Everyone in the Group Chat Dies by L.M. Chilton, read by Kimberly Capero

champing at the bit to get at it since I first read about it last Fall.

I liked Chilton’s Swiped, and wonder what she does with this Thriller about a “TikTok true crime investigator, a ’90s serial killer that may not be as dead as everyone would like, a text thread from hell, and long buried secrets that just won’t stay in the grave where they belong.”

What’s on your nightstands/side tables/eReader/etc.?

MUSIC MONDAY: “End of You” by Poppy, Amy Lee, Courtney LaPlante

By HCNewton

On January 12, 2026

In News/Misc.

The Irresponsible Reader's Music Monday logo

Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

Fantasy with Friends: What Are Your Favorite Depictions of Fae?

By HCNewton

On January 12, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

Fae have been popular in fantasy the past couple years. Do you have a favorite portrayal of Fae? What aspects do you think are important to Fae characterization? Do you prefer traditional representations or unique takes?

As with many things, my favorite is the one I’m reading or most recently read. I’ve read so many Dresden Files recently that that’s my answer for now. The Fae Courts that Harry has to navigate (and now represents one of) are a great setup, ripe with drama; to learn (as we do in drips and drabs) what the Courts are up to—and aren’t telling people about—and the details about their inner-workings are just delicious.

But I have a large soft-spot for Toby McGuire’s world, too. And the…oh, wait, the prompt says favorite, not favorites.

What aspects of the Fae are important in a depiction? The impossible beauty, the power (obviously), the inability to lie (and the ever-so-fun ways they devise to deceive with the truth, or carefully selected portions of it), and the danger of iron.

It’s tough to say if I prefer “traditional representations” or something unique. Because I honestly don’t know anymore what’s a “traditional” representation anymore. Everything I can think of falls into unique.* But I’d probably say something unique anyway. That’s the fun thing, isn’t it? Butcher’s take on Wizards, Fae, Vampires, Werewolves, etc. are different than Faith Hunter’s, Drew Hayes’ or Patricia Briggs’. Or, let’s focus on fae: Seanan McGuire’s, Patrick Rothfuss’, and Heather Fawcett’s couldn’t be more different—throw in George MacDonald and you might as well be talking completely different species. It’s great to see the commonalities that all of these share, and the distinctives, too. The idiosyncrasies of each depiction are where the magic lays. You take the “traditional” approach, shave off those aspects you aren’t interested in (or don’t help the story you’re trying to tell), add whatever bits of contemporary feel you want…and bang. You’ve got yourself a wonderful world for story telling.

* This means, as soon as I hit “Schedule” on this post—or, at best, within 24 hours of this posting, I’ll think of at least a half-dozen things I should’ve said here about traditional representations.