Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
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Tag: Miscellany Page 7 of 182
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:
Why the Canon Is Worth Conserving—R.V. Young makes a good case here. Maybe not convincing, but good to chew on.
The Written Word Is Having A Rough Week—”Rough” is putting it mildly.
Common Readers: BookTok’s critical values
The most famous crime writer you’ve never heard of – prepare to be hooked—a heckuva piece on Peter Grainger. About time he got some attention.
Waterstones livestreamed Brandon Sanderson in conversation with Joe Abercrombie—I haven’t watched yet, but I imagine it’s more than worth the time.
Scalzi’s recent BlueSky post about AI sums up what a lot of us SF fans have been thinking. Just phrased better.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Authors on the Air Global Radio Network Jordan Harper discusses A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE—a great conversation about the book and more. Every exposure I have to this writer makes me like him more.
My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
Having a teenage daughter is like Choose Your Own Adventure, a constant set of junctures in the road. She’s in a mood? How do you respond? Do you snap? Do you sympathize? I chose my go-to: ignore.—Go Gentle by Maria Semple
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Burned by Benedict Jacka
Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs
And I mentioned the releases of: The Highwayman. by Craig Johnson; Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell; This Damned Band also by Paul Cornell and Tony Parker; Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life by Steven Hyden; The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton; and My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Hawai’i Rage by Tori Eldridge—”A suspicious death on a Kohala Mountain ranch draws ranger Makalani Pahukula into a tangled family tree.” It’ll be a minute before I can dive into this, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this builds on Kaua’i Storm
True Romance: A Noir Anthology editby by Troy Lambert & Vincent Zandri—the author list alone is enough to get me to shell out a couple of bucks. In this anthology, “passion isn’t red roses and candlelight. Instead, it’s obsession, betrayal, revenge, and the kind of desire that leaves bodies in its wake…From quiet suburban rot to organized crime empires, from calculated seduction to explosive violence, these stories explore the dangerous intersection where love and darkness meet. Because in noir, love isn’t salvation. It’s motiv”
It’s Hard to Be an Animal by Robert Isaacs—”a funny, magical, and tender novel following a lonely, conflict-averse man whose sudden ability to understand animals sends him on a wild romp around NYC, and ultimately helps him discover his own voice. “
Ironwood by Michael Connelly—the sequel to Nightshade (which I need to read soon) brings Detective Sergent Stilwell into contact with Renée Ballard and a violent drug deal.
Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz
Even secrets told at a whisper grow wings.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
“You can’t go home.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. Because it’s gone.” Aminata frowned, finished her drink, and nodded, “You can’t find it again. Even if you go back, it’s not there anymore. That’s history, that’s how it works! Someone’s always changing someone else.”
The terror that took Baru came from the deepest part of her soul. it was a terror particular to her, a fundamental concern—the apocalyptic possibility that the world simply did not permit plans, that it worked in chaotic and unmasterable ways, that one single stroke of fortune, one well-aimed bowshot by a man she had never met, could bring total disaster. The fear that the basic logic she used to negotiate the world was a lie.
Soul Fraud by Andrew Givler
…the entire building burst into flames. It was not a gradual combustion. One second, the building was a normal not-on-fire warehouse. Then it was all fire, as if it were the head of a match that had been struck.
Cooking has always seemed so magical to me. Two things can be made from the same five basic ingredients yet taste wildly different. It may only have been a day since I learned magic was real, but part of me always thought cooks were secretly wizards.
When you’re a kid, your mother tells you not to let your friends peer-pressure you into drinking, doing drugs, and other stuff. But she never covered what do if an acquaintance offered to help you summon a demon. Or at least mine didn’t. She completely skipped that chapter.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I gasped as I was pulled from sleep’s dark, peaceful embrace. The process of waking up is a surprisingly accurate measure of how close your life is to rock bottom. For some people, the ones with everything clicking exactly as it should be, waking up is the worst thing that happens to them in a day. Because sleep is amazing. It’s mornings that are evil. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, fat or Mr. Universe. Sleep is the lesser equalizer after death. We all get to enjoy it, and it eventually finds us all. Waking up is a shared pain for all of us. Even those freakish morning people.
“What is it you mortals say? Ah, yes, time flies when you’re having fun,” he said with a twitch of his lips. “I’ve always liked that mental picture, time flying, when obviously it actually swims.”
Guns of Brixton by Paul D. Brazill
‘How is he?” said Kenneth to the fresh faced young policeman who’d been sat outside Bernie’s private room reading the Guardian.
‘Well, he’s been in and out of consciousness for most of the day. It was touch and go at one time,’ said the uniformed plod, ‘and he’s not out of the woods yet.’
He’ll go far with that degree in clichés, thought Kenneth. Officer material, no doubt about it.
Frog and Toad are Doing Their Best by Jennie Egerdie, illustrated by Ellie Hajdu
“Friends do not let friends dress like internet trolls,”
“Toad,” said Frog, “the older I get, the less I understand time.”
“Time means nothing,” said Toad. “Time is just the thing that happens between snacks.”
Moving the Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion by Dave Eggers, illustrated by Júlia Sardà
Like all of the best stories, this takes place in Idaho.
While Annie was gallivanting about Europe—which is what you do in Europe, by the way, you gallivant; it is a kind of traipsing—Henry was determined to build his new wife a lavish new house.
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
Getting back into reading feels like stepping back into the house of a beloved friend she hasn’t seen in a long time. It feels like coming home.
Tilly wasn’t sure she was expecting the trip to be fun. She was going because Joe had asked her to and it turnsed out that it’s very difficult to say no to the dead love of your life.
The right book in the hands of the right person at exactly the right moment can change their life forever.
Book shops aren’t just book shops, they’re places fo rbook lovers to come together, like-minded souls meeting among the stacks. They’re the hubs of community, the arena for heated conversations about the latest must-read series. They’re safe spaces to step in out of the rain, no matter who you are. They need our support now more than ever.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
The problem with sending messages was that people responded to them, which meant one had to write more messages in reply.
She hadn’t lied once. And yet they were trusting her.
Poetry is for the desperate, and for people who have grown old enough to have something to say.
Grown old enough, or lived through enough incomprehensible experiences.
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
There is always more after the ending. Always the next morning, and the next. Always changes, losses and gains. Always one step after the other. Until the one true ending that none of us can escape. But even that ending is only a small one, larges as it looms for us. There is still the next morning for everyone else. For the vast majority of the rest of the universe that ending might as well not ever have happened. Every ending is an arbitrary one. Everything ending is from another angle, not really an ending.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I lost my notes to this, so started flipping through the book to find things to include…and realized that I was going to be flipping for hours if I didn’t stop. So, I’ll just go with these samples:
Smart cookie. I am smart, but I am not a snack object dispensed from a packaged food machine. What a preposterous thing to say.
Some trees aren’t meant to sprout tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying.
There is one topic of conversation humans never exhaust, it is the status of their outdoor environment. And for as much as they discuss it, their incredulity is . . . well, incredible. That preposterous phrase: Can you believe this weather we’re having? How many times have I heard it? One thousand, nine hundred and ten, to be exact. One and a half times a day, on average. Tell me again about the intelligence of humans. They cannot even manage to comprehend predictable meteorological events.
(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)
After an annoying run of having to return library books before I can read them, I’m 3 for 3 this month (well, 2.2 at the moment, but it’ll be 3 in a day or two). That’s a relief–also, they’ve all been worth prioritizing. My wallet also appreciates that.
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?
 |
 |
 |
| The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen |
The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love edited by Alice Hoffman |
The Final Vow by M.W. Craven, John Banks |
The Photonic Effect starts out as Chen’s SF-iest book yet.
It’d be really nice if more of the essays about the love of/from a dog weren’t eulogies. Surely these people can talk about fantastic living dogs, right? (still, it’s such a good one)
Still early into revisting The Final Vow, but we’re just at the point where things are starting to pick up.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| Go Gentle by Maria Semple |
The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander, read by Words Take Wing Repertory Co |
Go Gentle wasn’t as good as Where’d You Go, Bernadette (few things are), but it was much better than Today Will Be Different. So I’m calling that a win. I truly spent most of the novel trying to figure out where Semple was going next–and I was always, always wrong. Her choices were far better than I could’ve guessed.
The Arkadians wasn’t Alexander at his best, but it was plenty of fun.
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| Robert B. Parker’s Booked by Alison Gaylin |
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell, read by Ann Marie Gideon |
It’s time to check-in on Sunny Randall.
I’m not really sure what Cultish is beyond the subtitle, but Mrs. Irresponsible Reader just finished it and told me I’d probably really appreciate it.
Okay, that’s my list–what do you have?
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
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:
Do you like reading fairy tale retellings? What, in your opinion, makes a good retelling?
I don’t know that I have a real passion for fairy tale retellings, but more often than not, I enjoy them when I run into them.
I break them into two varieties–straight retellings. I’ve only got one example that comes to mind–Hansel and Gretel by Stephen King and Maurice Sendak (which I didn’t write about, which bothers me, I liked what I thought I wrote). There’s an emphasis here or there that the author brings to mind, or a certain amount of their own style, while retaining a Straight Outta Grim feel. I’ve read others like it, but they’re not coming to mind.
The other type is a reinvention–tweaking the setting, updating, gender-flipping, setting them in the future or whatever. With those…the necessities are that you retain enough of the original that it’s recognizable, but the author throws more than their emphasis or style. But then, you throw it into the future with cyborgs, like Marissa Meyer. Or make Cinderella a secret agent along with some of the other princesses after their “happily ever after”s, like Jim C. Hines did. Or, you take all the Prince Charmings (who really aren’t that impressive when it comes down to it) and throw them into an effort to save all their kingdoms from a common foe. Or–last example–you play with the Fairy Tale tropes and the power of narrative, throw in some guns and crime, like Seanan McGuire did in her Indexing series. I’m waiting to see how M.K. Felix goes beyond her Robin Hood/Snow White mashup before I try to summarize–but I’m eager to see what she does. But the basic elements need to be there–Red Riding Hood should wear red–it’d be great if there was a hood–some sort of wolf-figure and a grandmother; from there, the author can do what they want, as long as it’s interesting.
Or you take a couple of elements/characters and throw them into some larger work–like when the Gruffs show up in the Dresden Files (and Harry can only wish they were billy goats), or Snow White shows up as one of Toby Daye’s most dangerous foes. That works pretty well, too.
I’m really looking forward to some of the other posts in response to this prompt, I ended up not having as much time as I intended to write this and am looking forward to some thoughtful posts.
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:
New Adult: A New Category for a New Generation of Readers—I thought NA was already a thing (that really didn’t work out), but other than the use of “New” in the headline, I appreciate this call to use the category more. I think it’d help.
A Beloved Children’s Book Author Said Most Children’s Literature Is “Crud.” It Has Not Gone Well.—I’d seen some people cursing Barnett’s name on Threads (and maybe other places), but didn’t see a lot of context, just mid-conversation screeds. The man’s got himself a point, I have to say. (and now I have to read the book…)
Can Men Write Romance? The Problem With Assuming Men Can’t Write Women—Matthew Norman (who is a man who can) kicks off his substack with this lil’ essay. I wondered if I just spoiled the essay, but I’ve been saying it for years, so I don’t feel too bad.
Tough Questions with Firsty Duelist—As a former subject/victim(?) of this, and appreciator of the series in general, I’m glad to see Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub dust it off. Particularly to focus on this particular blogger.
My Top 40 Fantasy Series/Books—Peat Long revises and expands his list–which is a great big ball of inspiration and intimidation.
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club wrapped up another great mini-series of posts this week, “Looking for the Helpers: Small Roles, Big Influence in SFF.” Its focus is “smaller roles in SFF books and how they can nonetheless play big parts.” You can go see last week’s Miscellany for more (or just go to the blog and find them yourself)
…Featuring Ashley Cape
…Featuring Joel C. Flanagan-Grannemann
Announcing 20 Books of Summer – #20BOS26—AnnaBookBel is bringing it back again. For those who haven’t participated before, it’s a fun way to give your goals a little mid-year boost. I’ve almost got my list finalized (I need to trim two books from it, we’ll see if my May can help me with that)
Are books really that expensive?—Nadezh Frank has a pretty convincing answer.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Perfect Family by H. Lovelyn Bettison—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
Giovanni Goes To Med School by Kathy Bryson
Slow Burn by Ace Atkins
The Old World by Roy M. Griffis
Shadow Rites by Faith Hunter
And I mentioned the release of The Vagrant by Peter Newman
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Booked by Alison Gaylin—”Boston PI Sunny Randall investigates a popular book critic on a mean streak . . . only for her to wind up dead.” It should be noted that I’ve only said good things about Gaylin’s work.
I’m having another one of those weeks where everything is taking approximately 50% more time to do than it should, and I’m distracted from doing everything 70% more than usual. Put the two of those things together, and you get…silence on this here blog. So, here I am trying to make a little noise.
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?
 |
|
 |
| Nice Places by Vicent Chu |
The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love edited by Alice Hoffman |
Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames, Katherine Fenton |
I haven’t made much progress in Nice Places, and I’m really not sure where Chu’s going with this. But I’m really enjoying the journey.
I’m tackling an essay each evening for the next couple of weeks from The Best Dog in the World. Bonnie Garmus has convinced me to give Lessons in Chemistry a try because of hers. I’m assuming she won’t be the last one to do so.
Following on the heels of Kings of the Wyld, I decided to tackle Bloody Rose on audiobook (if only to reduce Mt. TBR by a hair). Putting the two so close together, I’m doing a better job of understanding and appreciating the differences in tone and focus between the two.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames |
The Terminal List by Jack Carr, read by Ray Porter |
Kings of the Wyld had everything I remembered–humor, heart, action, and fantastic fantasy creatures. It’s one that I’m glad to see holds up to multiple re-reads.
Well, The Terminal List proved that I will listen to Ray Porter read anything. That’s all I can say about it.
What do you think you’ll read next?
|
|
| Go Gentle by Maria Semple |
The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander, read by Words Take Wing Repertory Co |
The library due date for Semple’s new book is looming, time to jump on it.
I forgot I had The Arkadians waiting for me. Ooops. So, it’s again the next one on my list 🙂
Tell me something good about a book you just finished and/or are working through.
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
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:
Is there a particular fantasy that got you interested in the genre? Do you remember any of the earliest fantasy books you read?
I think one of the earliest–maybe the earliest–fantasy novels I read was Jane Yolen’s The Wizard of Washington Square. I’m not positive it’s the right one, I spend a good amount of time looking for it this weekend, and it feels right. And I have a strong memory for where it was on the library shelves–and Yolen fits for alphabetical by author placement.
Several others followed–those that stand out the most are Julie Edwards’ The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (an all-time favorite), Robert C. O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was something I read a dozen or more times. A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet were in heavy rotation (the fourth book in the series wasn’t released until I’d moved on from “Juvenile” fiction). The Phantom Tollbooth…what can be said about it that hasn’t been several times before? I’m not going to say anything about Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, because the emotional scars are still raw. I have strong memories of reading Below the Root by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (not just because it didn’t help me at all with the Commodore 64 game), although I couldn’t find the rest of the trilogy in bookstores or the library.
Also, how cool is the name Zilpha?
There are two big series in my mind, though. John Christopher’s The Sword of the Spirits. I sadly remember very little of it–but I remember reading it often, and that it was one of the earlier books I remember that had a lot of morally gray moments and protagonists who weren’t to be admired all that much.
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again (and again, and again, knowing me)–the big one for me is The Chronicles of Prydain. The Chronicles of Narnia and/or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader turned me into a C.S. Lewis reader, but the saga of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper, Princess Eilonwy, the ex-king/would-be bard, Fflewddur Fflam, and the oracular pig, Hen Wen…that’s what turned me into a Fantasy reader. The stories based on Welsh-mythology, tapped into my imagination–shaped it, too, actually. Life, love, laughter, and loss–it’s all there. I’ve read the series twice in the last decade, and it still works. It’s my favorite from my childhood, and it’s one of my favorites still.
A few years after that, I came across the DragonLance Chronicles, DragonLance: Chronicles, the original Shannara trilogy and Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold, and…well, we’ve left “earliest.”
I’m really looking forward to some of the other posts in response to this prompt, iT’s fun looking back on what early books shaped the readers we become.