Tag: Miscellany Page 97 of 179

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf


The topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesdays is the Ten Most Recent Additions to my Bookshelf.

I apparently showed some strong control lately, I had to go back weeks to come up with ten entries. That’s over with, however, if I did this post again in 2 weeks, only 2 books (maximum) would be on both lists. By the time this posts, I’ll have at least started all but one of these (and will likely start that this week). That’s an astounding bit of discipline on my part.

I should probably go reward myself with a couple of books for that kind of restraint, right? Some positive reinforcement to keep that kind of discipline cooking.

10 The Nutcracker
Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman

If you’re curious, here’s what I had to say about it.

9 Why Did Jesus Have to Live a Perfect Life?
Why Did Jesus Live a Perfect Life? by Brandon D. Crowe

8 Mistletoe and Crime
Crime and Mistletoe by Author

If you’re curious, here’s what I had to say about it.

7 Risen
Risen by Benedict Jacka

If you’re curious, here’s what I had to say about it.

6 The Hobbit
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator)

5 A Private Investigation
A Private Investigation by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

4
The Story Retold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament by G. K. Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd

This was the ONLY book I was given over this past holiday season. (sending a glare to friends and family). I’ve been looking forward to getting into this for months, it’s going to be a project-read for a bit.

3
Curious Dispatch by Chris McDonald, Stephen Armstrong (Narrator)

If you’re curious, here’s what I had to say about the print version.

2
And Your Enemies Closer by Rob Parker, Warren Brown (Narrator)

1 Where the Drowned Girls Go<
Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Saturday Miscellany—1/8/22

(really quick—I could still use a recommendation or two for the 12 Books Challenge, if you’re in the mood to help a guy out)

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 Never Donate These Books to Little Free Libraries (or Anywhere Else)—Some of this seems like common sense. Probably those parts need to be emphasized.
bullet Public Domain Day 2022—a list of some of the works that hit Public Domain this year, it’s not just Winnie-the-Pooh.
bullet Noah Hawley Keeps Changing Lanes—a profile of Hawley and his new novel
bullet #R3COMM3ND3D2021 The After Show Party—A look back at #R3COMM3ND3D2021 (a truly impressive number of books got mentioned in these posts—if you’re looking for a 2022 TBR list, you could do worse than working your way through these.
bullet Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with Darran Handshaw—Lockhaven’s series continues—and includes a fire safety tip!
bullet These are probably the last of the 2021 Wrap Up posts (although I might not be the only one taking too long to do theirs), those that caught my eye:
bullet Raven’s Yearly Round Up 2021 and Top 10 Of The Year—plenty of good recommendations here
bullet Bookworm Blues lists their 25 Best Books of 2021
bullet Bookforager’s 2021 Progress Report
bullet The Bookwyrm’s Den brings us something from the other end of the spectrum comes To All the Books I DNF’d (2021 Edition), which is a much nicer way of dealing with this idea than I’d come up with.
bullet 2022 Reading Challenge for Overwhelmed Book Readers—for those who need something like this
bullet Why I’m ditching star ratings in 2022—I keep circling back to this idea myself
bullet 10 Reasons to Read Indie and Self-Published Books

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet And Your Enemies Closer by Rob Parker—the first (fairly disturbing) book in this Audible Original series was my introduction to Parker, and this follow-up is just as riveting as the predecessor. Former detective DI Foley kicks off a war between criminal factions. (I almost wrote my post about the book right here…oops. No one has time for that right now)
bullet Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire—a non-reading/blogging project this week sucked up more time than I expected, which is the only reason I didn’t start (and likely finish) the 7th Wayward Children book two days ago.
bullet Anthem by Noah Hawley—”An epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life—and might end up saving us all.” Yeah, that’s pretty vague, but it’s as good as I can do right now.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to MaureenBaks who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!

The Friday 56 for 1/7/21: Bloodlines by Peter Hartog

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56% of:
Bloodlines

Bloodlines by Peter Hartog

“What the f*** are you doing, Holliday?” Deacon hollered from the kitchen.

He leaned against one of the tables with arms folded across his chest.

“It’s what we police-types like to call ‘looking for clues,’” I retorted, irritated by the question. “Shake down the premises, go through his sock drawer, locate the virtual workstation, and mine it for information. You should try it sometime.”

“I get that,” he replied amiably. “But I doubt a vampire’s gonna hide its secrets inside an office, do you?”

WWW Wednesday, January 5, 2022

It’s already Wednesday? Where has the year gone?? (I’m not proud of that, but I was struggling to come up with anything else). Let’s put that weak attempt at humor behind us and get on with the WWW Wednesday, okay

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?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading the SF/Urban Fantasy combo, Bloodlines by Peter Hartog, and am wrapping up Gone Missing by Linda Castillo, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator) on audiobook.

BloodlinesBlank SpaceGone Missing

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished S.J. Rozan’s Family Business—what a great way to start the year—and The Case of the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer, Katherine Kellgren (Narrator) on audio.

Family BusinessBlank SpaceThe Case of the Left-Handed Lady

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire and my next audiobook will probably be The Finders by Jeffrey B. Burton, Matt Godfrey (Narrator).

Where the Drowned Girls GoBlank SpaceThe Finders

How are you kicking off 2022?

2022 Plans and Challenges

Thanks to Facebook’s On This Day, today I was reminded of my 2014 New Year’s Reading Resolutions. Boy Howdy, did I do a lousy job with those. Of the 12 specific resolutions, I still need to accomplish at least 5 (there’s room for interpretation on a couple of them)—I still want to accomplish 4 of them. Maybe this reminder will help?*

* Yeah, I’m not counting on that, either. But it’s nice to dream.

So, I’m reticent to get into calling my shots, as it were, too much anymore—there’s a project from 2020 still hanging over my head, too. And a few others, too, I’m sure—I just don’t want to go spelunking through the archives to find more personal failures (minor, to be sure, but technically failures).

So, here’s what I’m going to shoot for around here in the next 12 months.
bullet Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but I made some strides last year)—one of the Book Challenges this year should be a fun way to help.
bullet I’m going to finish my Classic Spenser series and maybe find another Classic to do a project read-through. We’ll see about that. (I added this one after scheduling this post, but you know what? I’ve been kicking myself for ages for dropping this…)
bullet Be pickier in the Book Tours I participate in—I’ve already started this (Damp Pebbles Blog Tours ceasing operations helped, too—no slight intended to the Tour Organizers I still enjoy working with, but Emma was better at getting me to take risks). I still like Tours, they expose me to things I wouldn’t normally read—and I’m going to keep doing them. But I’m going to be pickier about them.
bullet Similarly, I’m doing fewer Book Challenges. I like the ones I’ve picked out—but they’re concrete things, no more of these “Read as Many of X as You Can” challenges. They don’t move the needle one bit for me as far as picking books—I read as many as I’m going to anyway, just with a count. But Challenges with specific targets can be fun. I’ll talk about those in a minute.
bullet Get better at proofreading—apparently, there’s a need.
bullet Try to interview more authors (maybe others, too?), and get better at that, too.
bulletThere are a few other ideas, but they’re harder to explain than to just do. You’ll know them if you see them.

2022 Book Challenges

12 Books
Perhaps you’ve seen this on everyone’s timeline this last week or so—12 months to read 12 books recommended by 12 friends. This looked like a great way to read something out of my wheelhouse—and so far, it should be. Only 1 of the 9 recommended so far is something that I’d have really considered. I still need 3 more recommendations—so hit the comments, folks!
12 Books Challenge


2022 “Support Book Bloggers” Challenge
Support Book Bloggers Challenge
This just looks like fun, mostly things I should be doing anyway. Go check it out.


2022 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I’ve done this one for the last few years—and Ramona’s done a great job of stretching me. And will continue to do so—this year’s categories are more challenging than I’m used to (I have to figure out authors’ astrological signs?).


Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I dig the way this one is organized—if nothing else, my TBR should go down by 12. 🙂


I’ll also undoubtedly do the 20 Books of Summer Challenge…that’s been pretty fun.


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!


(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

Saturday Miscellany—1/1/22

Happy New Year, readers!

I don’t have a lot to say this week—so let’s just get on with things, okay?

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 What’s the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide.—From the NYT. I can’t argue with the results, I guess I could, but I won’t.
bullet The 36 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2021—Not your typical year-end post.
bullet Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with L.L. Stephens—another in Lockhaven’s series on humor.
bullet Building a fantasy world map using Adobe Illustrator—never read Jackson’s work, but this was fascinating
bullet Speaking of maps, this is impressive: Alex Verus Map Project—a valiant Alex Verus fan has created a google map of every location in the Verus novels.
bullet Alcoholic Drinks to Pair With Favorite Fantasy and Horror Books—I attempted a post like this a couple of years ago, this is the way to do it.
bullet The Simple Guide to Netgalley—A Handy Guide from Tales from Absurdia.
bullet Of the making of Year-End Posts There Is No End (well, it just seems that way—there probably will be an end in a couple of weeks). Here are a few more that I found interesting:
bullet The Best Reviewed Crime Novels of 2021—From CrimeReads
bullet The Fantasy Hive 2021 Year-End Awards
bullet FanFiAddict’s Justin’s Top 10 Reads of 2021
bullet Ben from Literature & Lofi’s Favorite Books From 2021
bullet Yearly Roundup & Favourite Books: 2021—from Spells & Spaceships
bullet Reader Voracious has released their 2022 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—if you’re looking for a tracker, you should give it a shot
bullet 2022 “Support Book Bloggers” Challenge—this seems like a really neat idea
bullet What Book Series Did I Finish Reading in 2021?—quite the feat.
bullet Out of Order Reading Methods—clearly, this is the work of a monster. This is not the kind of thing that should be normalized! (just kidding, this is a fun post)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Beth Tabler who followed the blog this week.

WWW Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Time for the final WWW Wednesday of 2021! It’s been quite a year, right?

 

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?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m finally reading Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck and am listening to Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi, Wil Wheaton (Narrator) on audiobook—it’s as fun as I remember when I read it a decade or so ago.

AnonymousBlank SpaceAgent to the Stars

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished the very odd The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux and Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant on audio.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás CubasBlank SpaceStuff You Should Know

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Family Business by S.J. Rozan (been waiting for this one!) and my next audiobook should be another trip to Amish country in Gone Missing by Linda Castillo, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator).

Family BusinessBlank SpaceGone Missing

How are you all wrapping up the year?

2021 While I Was Reading Challenge

2021 While I Was Reading Challenge

Earlier today, I finished my fourth annual While I Was Reading Challenge. Well, I thought I did, anyway. As I was putting this list together, I realized that the entry I’d pencilled in for “An essay or short story collection” was published last Fall. In fact, every short story collection I thought of as “recent” was from 2020. I somehow managed to make it through this year without a single short story collection, same with most of the essay collections I could think of. I guess this is why I keep a reading log, I just need to pay more attention to it.

Oh, well the important thing is, that it’s done, right?

2021 Reading Challenge Categories

  1. A book published before 2000: The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Earle Stanley Gardner
  2. An essay or short story collection: Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) by Mindy Kaling
  3. A book you’ve been looking forward to: Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
  4. A book you’ve been avoiding: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
  5. A book of magical realism: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
  6. A book with alliteration in the title: Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker
  7. A book with food or drink on the cover: Love by Roddy Doyle
  8. A cozy mystery: The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello by Chris McDonald
  9. A book with a dog on the cover: The Keepers by Jeffrey B. Burton
  10. A memoir: A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds
  11. A book by an author who has written more than 10 books: Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg
  12. A debut novel: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Saturday Miscellany—12/25/21

I cannot believe anyone’s actually reading this today, but stranger things have happened, I guess.

Eh, maybe you need a break from the festivities, here’s a little to occupy your mind. It’s not much, I think everyone was lightening up on content this week.

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 Libraries enlist states in fight over ebook rules
bullet The Most Popular Books and Audiobooks on NetGalley in 2021
bullet The most popular US library books of 2021
bullet 2022 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—2022 will be my third year using this template from Reader Voracious—I still don’t use all the features, but those that I do are more than worth it. Even if I wasn’t blogging, I think I’d prefer this to what I came up with on my own.
bullet It was the last week for The #R3COMM3ND3D2021 series over at Damp Pebbles. The posts over the last week were by:
bullet Podcast Audiobookish
bullet BookBlogger Karen Cole
bullet BookBlogger Rae
bullet Author Joy Kluver
bullet BookBlogger Emma—the proprieter of Damppebbles herself chimes in to wrap up the series
bullet A few more installments of this year’s Best Of Lists…
bullet 12 Authors Share the Best Books They Read in 2021—from the We Are Bookish blog
bullet from FanFiAddict: Tom’s Top 10 Reads of 2021
bullet Witty and Sarcastic Book Club declares the year a win: Operation 2021: Success! (or Favorite Books from this Year)
bullet Why I’m not seeing a numbered reading goal for 2022…
bullet Blogging VS. Social Media: why having a book blog still matters—I’ve seen a little of this conversation online, but this is a pretty full response to the idea that book blogs are obsolete.
bullet Why Book Blogs are Relevant & Valuable Marketing Tools—okay, the above was a full response, this is…um…fuller I guess.
bullet The Die Hard Book Tag—a holiday-season Book Tag I can get behind.

The Friday 56 for 12/24/21: A Dream About Lightning Bugs by Ben Folds

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
A Dream About Lightning Bugs

A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds

A few years ago, I volunteered to be a substitute teacher for my kids’ seventh-grade music class. Just for a day. That’s all I had to do. I knew most of the kids in the class anyway. It should have been a breeze.

It wasn’t.

If I didn’t fully appreciate the public school music teachers of my youth before 11 a.m. that day, by noon I damn well did. As I stood before the class, a lifetime of experience performing in front of people went straight out the window. The forty-five-minute affair was absolutely exhausting. Kids, 1—Folds, 0. Animals, every one of them! I am no music teacher and I bow to each and every man and woman who is. I especially bow to the ones who can see that these children are not animals and recognize which ones could use a push, or a hand, like I did when I was younger.

Page 97 of 179

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