Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Tag: Miscellany Page 42 of 178
As is typical of a holiday week, this is a short post. Less to distract you from your Saturday reading, right?
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:
This is Why Book Marketing Doesn’t Work
‘Really I just want to stay home and make art about my dog’: An interview with Sara Varon—I’m pretty sure I’ve never run across Varon before, but this interview makes me interested in checking out her stuff.
7 Thrillers With Shocking Twists
10 Must-Read Authors for Fans of First-Person Adult Urban Fantasy—This is a very narrow category…but can’t argue with most of this picks.
Tough Questions with Left on the Shelf—the latest in the Tough Questions series
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week? (not much, really)
Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto by Matt Kibbe
I noted the release of Premonitions by Jamie Schultz and Artful by Peter David
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Broiler by Eli Cranor—I dunno…it’s by Cranor, isn’t that enough? It’s about revenge, power, economic disparity in the most American of places—a chicken processing plant.
Dog Day Afternoon by David Rosenfelt—Marcus asks Andy for a favor and gets him to represent a suspected mass-shooter. I really enjoyed this one, as I said recently.
Breaking the Dark: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel by Lisa Jewell—Jessica Jones travels to England to investigate some teens who are too-perfect. It’s hard to explain in a phrase or two…but these are creepy kids and something has to be making them that way.
Boise Longpig Hunting Club by Nick Kolakowski—the new edition of this explosive thriller
The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song—a new retelling of the story of Mulan.
Junkyard Roadhouse by Faith Hunter—Shining Smith is neck-deep in trouble—that’s nothing new, sure, but it’s a different kind of trouble.
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?
I’m reading Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs, and am listening to A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen, read by Jesse Vilinsky on audiobook–it’s a very strange semi-zombie Fantasy novel. Thankfully, there’s only one zombie-ish thing wandering around. (still, I shook a virtual fist at the friend who recommended it to me).
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished Bruce Borgos’s Shades of Mercy–and Borgos was not messing around with this sequel. The last audiobook I finished was Labyrinth by Kat Richardson, read by Mia Barron.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be for The Last King of California by Jordan Harper and my next audiobook should be Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell, read by Helen Laser. I’ve been wanting to read this Harper book for ages, meanwhile, I didn’t know anything about the audiobook until yesterday. But I’m curious about what Marvel’s trying on the novel front, might as well start here, right?
You got anything explosive on your hands for tomorrow?*
* Yeah, I should do better. Sorry.
Book Blogger Hop
This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:
Which do you enjoy doing more on the 4th of July: watching fireworks light up the sky or reading an inviting book?
I know when I was younger, I enjoyed fireworks—but that ended at some point in my teens. Outside of one night at Disneyland about 18 years ago—I don’t get the appeal of them anymore. I can appreciate them for about 40 seconds nowadays.
Even if I enjoyed them, I think anyone who knows me would expect me to say “reading an inviting [or even simply not-unappealing] book” is what I enjoy more. That’s pretty much the case when the choice is “X or reading” for most values of X, truth be told.
However, on Thursday, I’ll be commemorating—as has been my habit for the last several years—Scare-The-Crap-Out-of-Your-Dog Day. It’s not that fun—and it frequently leaves me in rough shape for work the next day. But, good quality time with my dogs (even if they’re certain the word is ending) is one of those values of X that can beat reading.
Do you prefer pyrotechnics, the printed word, or perhaps another option?
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Here’s a quick check-in for this challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.
So far, I’ve read 4—which puts me a 2/3 of a book behind last year. I should read at least 1 more this coming week, but I’m a little intimidated about my picks for the rest of the summer. A little. Really 8 books a month doesn’t sound that bad for the rest of the summer, but I know full well that other things are going to pop up to distract me. It’s a self-inflicted problem—and one I fully predicted. But still…
I’m more intimidated by the fact that I haven’t written about any of these four yet—am hoping that I can get at least one posted about by Friday. (stranger things have happened, I hear).
Let’s take a quick look at my progress in June:
(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).
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:
Kinky Friedman, Alt-Country Musician and Celebrated Humorist, Dies at 79—from his mysteries to his music and beyond, Friedman was a unique voice (that should’ve been heard by more)
How the ‘Owner’s Guide’ Became a Rare Book
How to Tell a Great Campfire Story
The Literary Power of Hobbits: How JRR Tolkien Shaped Modern Fantasy
Rob Hart on ‘Assassins Anonymous’ and the Dark Appeal of the Assassin Genre—Nick Kolakowski chats with Hart about his latest book, the genre, and the sequel (squee!!!!)
The Joy of Reading Books You Don’t Entirely Understand: It really should be acceptable and normal to say “I don’t entirely understand what I just read, but I loved it.”—There’s a few books I’ve read in the last few years that fall under this category. Glad to see I’m not alone (and I know that I really should read more things like this, but do enjoy the comfort of understanding things)
Traditional publishing vs. Self-publishing: Should There Be A Conflict?—I haven’t finished this yet, but there’s some good stuff to chew on in this conversation
2000th Post and 6 Years Blogiversary Q&A—Sifa Elizabeth Reads celebrates two landmarks with a Q&A (and some decent advice)
Bookmark Chat: Organization
Idle Thoughts on Fantasy Stereotypes: The Big Man—a good follow up to the Idle Thoughts on The Mentor
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Little Tiny Teeth by Aaron Elkins—Gideon Oliver and John Lau enjoy an Amazon River cruise (until the obligatory dead body shows up)
The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy—the second in this very fun MG Fantasy series
Dead Connection by Alafair Burke—I remember really liking this first Ellie Hatcher book (and, sadly, almost nothing else about it).
I also noted the release of The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Don’t Let the Devil Ride by Ace Atkins—”A Memphis woman hires a PI to find her missing husband, only to discover that he is involved in a dangerous web of international intrigue–and she and her children are now at risk.” I think the promo line, “S.A. Cosby meets Don Winslow,” is a bit odd (kinda seems like using too many words to say “Ace Atkins”), but eh…it is catchy.
The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman—Galva’s backstory in “set during the war-torn, goblin-infested years just before The Blacktongue Thief.” The prequel nature of this really doesn’t intereste me. But I do like the concept, I really enjoyed my first exposure to Buehlman early this year, and that podcast I featured last week did pique my curiouslty. Which is me using too many words to explain why I’ll be listening to this soon (probably explaining to myself more than anyone…)
Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell—”An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands.” If this wasn’t described as a black comedy, I’d stay far away from it (while understanding why others race to it). But I gotta admit, I’m intrigued…
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?
I’m reading The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti, translated by James Christian Brown, and am listening to Labyrinth by Kat Richardson, read by Mia Barron on audiobook.
What did you recently finish reading?
Yesterday I finished Wesley Parker’s Detours and Do-overs and Robert Germaux’s Grammar Sex and Other Stuff: A Collection of (mostly humorous) Essays. I most recently finished The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, read by Wil Wheaton on audiobook, and at least temporarily set aside One in the Chamber by Robin Peguero, read by Zion Jang because it just wasn’t working for me (but I can see why it would for many people).
>
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be the ARC of Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos—I think this series has legs, and I’m eager to be proven correct. My next audiobook should be A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen, read by Jesse Vilinsky, assuming the friend who is currently listening to our library’s copy (and recommended it to me) finishes before I finish Labryinth.
Tell me what you’ve been reading lately—or what neat thing is coming up on your TBR.
This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books of 2024… so far!…What does your top 5 list look like at our halfway point??” I haven’t done one of these in a minute, this seemed like a good time to get back to it. Whittling down my list to a Top 10 was a piece of cake at this point (a pleasant surprise)–but trimming that to a Top 5 took some work. I think I’m satisfied with the result. Although beyond that this post could’ve been easier, if I’d only finished my posts on three of these by now.
In alphabetical order by author:
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 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett This Fantasy-Mystery hybrid (with a decent amount of other-worldly science thrown in) was my first five-star read of the year, and it’s one I’m still thinking about. The world was great, the characters were complex and well-executed, the story and atmosphere were stunning. I could go on and on about this one, but am going to force myself to be pithy here. |
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 The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher Yes, part of the appeal of this novel was that we finally got something new in this series after years of silence. But I’d have had a blast with this no matter when it was released. Butcher very carefully gave his fans more of just about everything they enjoyed in the first book without duplicating it in any sense. He also deepened and expanded our knowledge and understanding of this world, its magic and politics, and all of the major characters (white hats, gray hats, and black hats). At least two of the new characters had better be back. There’s a character death that I’ll eventually forgive Butcher for, but I’m not there yet. This one just ticked every box for me. |
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 The Mercy Chair by M.W. Craven This is the darkest M.W. Craven novel–well, I haven’t read his second book yet, so I should qualify this as the darkest Poe and Tilly novel. And that’s no mean feat. The two are called in to help investigate the death of a cult leader and end up discovering much more–murders that no one realized had happened, torture sessions disguised as education/treatment, some twisted emotional and spiritual abuse–and more. Both Poe and Tilly are at there best here–and the rest of regular characters are as well. This will stick with readers for a while. |
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 Smoke Kings by Jahmal Mayfield Speaking of dark…Smoke Kings tells the story of a group of friends who decide to take social justice into their own hands and become vigilantes acting out against those who’ve benefited from lynchings or other racially-motivated crimes their families participated in decades ago. Internal and external pressures start to overwhelm the group and then things get deadly. There’s a whole lot of evil done in the name of righteousness here (by people that others would deny were anything but righteous). The number of heroes–or at least people who were actually accomplishing good things–are far outweighed by those using others. If you’re not disturbed as you’re gripped by this, you’ve missed something. |
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 Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman The first 87 pages of this book might have been my favorite 87 pages this year. The rest of them were pretty good, too. The central premise was a little out there, but Waxman pulled it off–and the rest of the book was so good you didn’t mind anyway. I laughed, I was moved, my heart was warmed—all the typical reactions to Abbi Waxman. I loved being in this world, surrounded by Waxman’s words and I cannot wait for the next excuse I have to do it again. |
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.