Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 25 of 54

I had high hopes for output this week, but didn’t get to them all. Nor did I get to surf around as much as I’d expected. C’est la vie—but I got extra sleep this week (that I apparently needed, about a bonus night’s worth). Still, we’ve got some good 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:

• Whatever next? How plot grips us, from Dickens to Line of Duty—Yes, this is geared toward TV, but what it says about plot should appeal to readers.
• Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?: Literature’s evolution has reflected and spurred the growing complexity of society.—Not a question I ever had, but it’s an interesting piece.
• When My Mom Gave Me a Library Card—This is just great
• Have we Murdered the Apostrophe?—BBC.com asks this provocative question. Some of this piece is annoying (not everything in the world is about class and power, folks)—but mostly this appeals to my inner language geek.
• How to Get Started with Comic Books and Graphic Novels—I wouldn’t have picked everything on this list (even among those I’ve read), but it’s great TBR fodder. And, frankly, given the Comics/Graphic Novels I talk about here, who’d ask me for such a list? Stick with the folks who know what they’re talking about (many are listed at that link)
• When the Detective Is Also a Protective Parent—When family life becomes a plot complication for the protagonist. Great angle to look at things from.
• 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Audiobooks (maybe 2 or 3 things, really, but that’s beside the point)
• Behind the Scenes at a Library Book Sale
• Do you think too much about your reviews?—Well, yeah. Good advice that I probably won’t take.
• Book Lovers Share Their Absolute Favorite Opening Lines—Some personal favorites on this list from GeorgeTakei.com

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 801 | Eoin Colfer Interview—this was a fun one (that might have influenced my post about Colfer’s new book a bit, but I think I’d have made the same points without it.)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• False Value by Ben Aaronovitch—I’m about 1/3 of the way into the new Rivers of London novel and it’s a doozy! Good jumping on point for those wanting to check out this series.
• Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire—the latest InCryptid novel is 1. the thickest so far, 2. features Sarah (who we haven’t seen enough of for…years, I guess), making it 3. a sure-fire win.
• The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold—” A former soldier turned PI tries to help the fantasy creatures whose lives he ruined in a world that’s lost its magic.” ‘Nuff said. (for me, anway, if you want a bit more, check out this post from The Witty & Sarcastic Book Club)
• Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore—a young woman starts experiencing her life at random ages.
• Finna by Nino Cipri—a couple of minium-wage employees on an adventure across the multi-verse.
• Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold—a promising looking modern Red Riding Hood retelling.
• For many not in the US Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh came out this week. But because I’m envious of them, I’m not going to provide a link to it. It’s a childish and useless gesture, I realize. But if I have to wait a year+ for this book, they’ll have to wait that long to get a link from me.

Running late today, my normal time for assembling this post was taken up by a valiant attempt at a little DYI around the house. The results speak loudly about my fitness to spend my time reading and talking about books and far away from tools.

But from the better late than never department, here are 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:

• 125 Books We Love—The New York Public Library lists 125 books from the 125 lives they’ve been around “that inspire a lifelong love of reading.”
• How Reading Books Helps Your Brain Recharge
• How to Curate the Ultimate Home Library—There are some really good tips here
• Should You Stay Up Late to Finish Your Book? The Pros And Cons—hmmmm
• Spinning Silver author Naomi Novik to launch epic new trilogy this fall—this one looks pretty cool (no surprise given the source, really)
• Dragons, Wizards, and Other Story Distractions—A. Lee Martinez opines about what really matters in fiction
• The Best Small Presses Publishing Crime Fiction Today: A celebration of the indie presses keeping crime fiction weird.—alas, a few of my favorites didn’t make this list (Fahrenheit Press, for example), but still a good place to start. From this list, I’d start with Down & Out and Polis Books. Haven’t read a bad book from Hard Case Crime, either.
• BBNYA (Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award) – Prizes + Author Interview—Some more info on the BBNYA.
• Are Classics Relevant?—I can’t believe people have to keep saying this, but if we have to, we should do it like The Organgutan Librarian does here. Along the same lines, this week she posted Books That I Think Will Be Future Classics #2. What do you think of that list?
• 7 Reasons why I Love Audiobooks
• My Fictional Dinner Party—just a fun idea for a post.
• AND HALT!: The Things That Get Us to STOP Reading—a good list. Any you’d add?
• When should you buy books?—Beth from BooksNest asks this important question.
• Let Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Detectives Choose Your Next Mystery Read—I’m not sure Holt would enjoy the book associated with him, but I liked the argument. I won’t argue with the rest of this (and have added a couple of things to my TBR).

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 810 | Roxanna Elden Interview—I read a little about this book a few months ago (as I recall), but had forgotten about it until this great chat with Garner. I really appreciated her take on the audiobook narrator.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Deeper Song by Rebecca Bradley—the newest DI Hanna Robbins, the last two in this series have been among the best procedurals I’ve read in the last couple of years, I expect this will join the list. Bradley’s last novel is still collecting virtual dust on my Kindle, but I might read this one first.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Wednesday Reads, Eamon, Graphic Design Eye and ARJung for following the blog in some format this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Not much to say, I’m 604 miles away from home this weekend and haven’t been able to write more than three sentences so far, which is about two posts under my goal (have read more than a few, however). Thankfully, this post doesn’t require a lot of writing. It’s probably the elevation, because that’s a thing, right? (or maybe it’s just spending time with my wife and daughter…)

Anyway…here are 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 way we read now: The thrill is gone for lovers of fiction. Joseph Bottum on the strange death of the novel—Thought-provoking read.
• Did Amazon Throttle My Sales After I Criticized Them in the New York Times?: Danny Caine on the Transparency and Responsibility of the World’s Largest Bookstore—Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
• He Courted Me Through My Favorite Novel
• Toward a Philosophy on Book Collecting—A philosophy that’s more complicated than “As Many My Wife Will Let Into the House?” huh.
• Sleuthing With Spenser for Hire—some nice memories about Robert B. Parker
• Read like a champion: ‘Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time’ winner Ken Jennings shares his literary picks—think I’m going to pass on his recommendations, but it’s an interesting list
• Don Winslow Discusses His Latest Book, The Border
• Nick Hornby: Why a ‘High Fidelity’ Reboot Made Perfect Sense—Haven’t had a chance to watch any of this yet, but this makes me more inclined
• ‘Bosch’ Renewed for Seventh and Final Season by Amazon Studios—all good things… (Rats!)
• Speaking of which: The Difficult Art of Ending a Crime Fiction Series: Two authors—working from opposite ends of Florida—bring epic noir series to a close, and live to tell the tale.—Not authors I’ve read (yet), still interesting to see them talk about this.
• Things I Love: Book Recaps!—if only more authors gave them
• How Reading Has Improved My Mental Health—I’ve been there or can see the appeal
• Along those lines, Witty & Sarcastic Book Club has been posting about Mental Health in Literature this week, starting with: Mental Health in Literature: a Conversation
• Recommending Books I Didn’t Like
• Here be Dragons!—Spells and Spaceships has a great post about Dragons with a TBR-filling post of Dragon Recommendations!

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• The Once & Future Podcast, Ep. 204: Jeanine Cummins—Anton Strout talks to his old friend about American Dirt in an interview recorded before the controversy about the book (and promotion of it) got as big as it has. I had a suspicion that many of her critics didn’t know that much about Cummins/her work before I listened to this. Now I’m convinced.

I’m sure I missed some, but there weren’t any New Releases that caught my eye this week.

A lighter load after last week’s mega-list. This ended up being one of those weeks that I had no energy at all after work, and I ended up writing/surfing less than I’d expected to. There’s probably a link there. I’m not sure why so many things about kids and reading popped up on my feeds this week, but I always enjoy reading/sharing these articles.

Anyway, here are 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:

• Naming a Kid for a Fictional Character Is High Stakes: The Jolenes and Daeneryses of the world have some baggage to contend with.—I didn’t do this (Mrs. Irresponsible Reader wisely vetoed the idea), but I see the danger (and would’ve gone for something less trendy anyway). Glad I didn’t, the prospective Archie Goodwin Newton would turn out to be a very non-Archie kind of guy.
• How to raise a reader—In my not-so humble opinion, the last point is the key (and I know I could’ve done better with it myself)
• Why you shouldn’t censor your teen’s reading (even the sex and violence)—I’m not absolutely sold on the argument, but on the whole, it’s a good point.
• Book clinic: stories to captivate reluctant boys
• Interview with Joseph Finder—CrimeSpree Mag interviewed Finder about his new book, and more. Incidentally, I’m about 60% done with the book and it’s a solid thriller, am enjoying the heck out of it.
• The Great Los Angeles Crime Novel—And the Women Who Are Revitalizing It
• I Listened to an Audiobook and Here’s What Happened—I really enjoyed this post from Books, Bones & Buffy.
• A Day in the Life of a Book Blogger || Let’s Slay Some Misconceptions—The only point I’d demur from is her time estimates. “Neverending” for Bloghopping seems like a pretty significant underestimation.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Blight of Blackwings by Kevin Hearne—the second of the Seven Kennings trilogy. Sadly, it’s going to be a month or so before I can get to it (barring some calamity that makes me bedridden and unable to go to work for a month, I should say. If that happens, it’ll only be three weeks before I can get to it).
• Shadow of the Batgirl by Sarah Kuhn, Nicole Goux—a fresh take on Cassandra Cain. Looks spiffy to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to waytoofantasy, Betty, Matt Kaster and jellyfishentity for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Okay, I’m back with a mega-list that comes from two weeks of saving ideas. Lots of good stuff to be read in these odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Your 2020 Literary Events Calendar: For All Your Literary Planning Needs—granted, this would’ve been more useful a month ago, but it still may be of interest.
• Lee Child letting go of his creation is a tale told by other bestsellers—more reaction to the Child announcement (and why others won’t follow suit)
• The Power of Books to Help Us Cope in Our Darkest Times—who hasn’t been there?
• In 2019, more Americans went to the library than to the movies. Yes, really.—I wonder if that has more to do with less of us going to the movies…but hey, it’s a fun stat.
• My Lifelong Love Affair with Libraries</
• 8 Comfy And Cozy Idaho Book Shops To Get Lost In On A Snowy Day—of little use to anyone who doesn’t live in/near Idaho, but it’s a fun list. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never been in the one in my own city, but I’ve visited a couple of the others.
• 5 Tips for Tackling a Long Book—should have read this before starting Tom Jones, but I think I’m doing a lot of this anyway.
• Rediscovering the Lost Power
  of Reading Aloud—longer read, but worth it.
• Raising Strong Readers: Strategies for parents and educators to encourage children to read — from infancy to high school
• Writing Tips From the Don Winslow Universe—also serves as a “Features of Winslow’s Writing that Should Make You Interested in Reading Him”
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Seanan McGuire—My list would differ and I’m indifferent to some of these, but it’s a good read anyway.
• I enjoyed Chuck Wendig’s tweets about Prequels—as well as the replies from MattOK, Kyoko M., and Dennis R Longo Jr³³º¹.
• One Man Reviews and Discoverability—Harry Connolly looks back on the first month of One Man sales and reviews. My goal had been to read this in January, didn’t happen. February will be tough, but I’m going to try.
• How to Pick What to Read Next: 5 ways to find your next favorite book—for those who don’t have their next 20 reads picked.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Audiobooks
• Paperback Protectors: Book Sleeve Gift Guide—On the one hand, the last thing I need is another accessory to my books. But some of these look really cool. (also, I wouldn’t have torn my The Cartel cover in my desk drawer if I’d had one, I just realized)
• Finding time to read—one blogger’s approach to the problem
• Tricks to Make Time for Reading—this post from Netgalley’s new Bookish blog shares some of the above and adds a couple others.
• 5 Reasons Why Your Reading Goals Don’t Really Matter: Hey, you. Stop worrying so much about how many books you’re reading in a year.—Yes, but…
• Why I’m Not Doing A 2020 Reading Challenge—I totally get this…
• My TBR Monster Is Wounded But Still Alive—I love the strategy here.
• The thing about ‘must read’ lists—Most/all of this seems self-evident, but many of us still need to hear it anyway.
• Four Things I’d Like to See More of in SFF—Good ideas.
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Approaching Book Bloggers with Review Requests—yes.
• People Don’t Have to Read Your Book to Support It—How nice of Publishers Weekly to say this
• I’m Just Going to Leave This Here..—I can relate to so much of this.
• It’s OK to Take a Break.—Hear, hear. (still, not reading for more than a few hours gives me the willies, but I get his point)
• Wrapping up this monster list with a bit of silliness from BookRiot: The Best Bookish Versions of the Dolly Parton Challenge

Some Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen to:
• Authors on a Podcast Talking Books Ep. 11 – Marc Thompson—I don’t think I’ve heard an audiobook by him before, but I enjoyed hearing about his process and career. Also, listening to Daria’s Mr. DeMartino reading an Amazon review was wonderful, could just that be a half-hour bi-weekly podcast?
• The Author Stories Podcast Episode 793 | Mike Chen Interview—a great chat with Chen, I particularly enjoyed his Hornby discussion.
• Authors on a Podcast Talking Books Ep. 12 – Mike Chen—much of the same territory as the previous link, but they’re both worth listening to. A lot of bonus Star Wars discussion.

New Releases from the Last Two Weeks that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Slow Bear by Anthony Neil Smith—Noir on an North Dakota reservation, looks brutal, intense and good.
• When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald—A nice little coming-of-age story. I talked about it some in December.
• High Fire by Eoin Colfer—I typically enjoy Colfer’s stuff and I only needed to read “high-octane adventure about a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who’s been hiding out from the world – and potential torch-carrying mobs – in a Louisiana bayou” to grab it. I’ve yet to read a review, but they seem positive.
• House on Fire by Joseph Finder—The New Nick Heller novel has him taking on one corner of the opiate crisis. Gonna be good.
• Hi Five by Joe Ide—Isaiah Quintabe is back, which is all i need to know. If you want more, Lashaan at Bookidote has a few things to say.
• Buzz Kill by David Sosnowski—a couple of teenage hackers unleash an AI on the world.
• The Bard’s Blade by Brian D. Anderson—a promising looking epic fantasy that I’m trying hard to find time for soon.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to travelingcloak, clareblanchardbooks (no URL, can’t follow-back), Store Of Unicorns, jamesdeeclayton and fluffyluggage for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

I’ve been knocked out by a nasty cold this week (which seems to be returning) and couldn’t focus enough to read anything for a horrible three days. I don’t think anything I posted suffered from lack of focus (but I had to do a lot of re-writing to make them coherent). Thankfully, I recuperated enough that I could focus on the best thing that Steph Broadribb has written (see this space on Monday…I think).

While I couldn’t read, I could surf a bit and this ended up as one of the longest entries in this series that I’ve compiled (I believe). But there was a moment today when I thought this would be my shortest post yet–my browser and Pocket decided to stop cooperating (as they’re under the same corporate roof, this is doubly problematic). I prevailed, sort of, but I’m beginning to wonder if I need to find an alternative. Suggestions to replace Pocket, anyone?

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:

• Jack Reacher series author Lee Child ‘quits and lets brother step in’—I actually read (and enjoyed) Andrew Grant before I tried Lee Child, and hope this move works out for both of them (and expect it will). But I have to say, this is the saddest headline I’ve read in a long time.
• People who read books are nicer than those who don’t, study finds.
• The New York Public Library Has Calculated Its Most Checked-Out Books Of All Time
• Take a look behind the ‘small doors to imaginary spaces’ within bookshelves
• Is this the most powerful word in the English language?: The most commonly-used word in English might only have three letters – but it packs a punch.—A whole lotta words about “the”
• 20 Things Overheard In Bookshops—I enjoyed this one enough that it almost makes up for the trauma of the first item.
• ‘Nobody in Tesco buys spy books by women’: how female authors took on the genre
• “As an author, I hate and fear Goodreads. As a reader, I just hate it.”—a thread from Seanan McGuire.
• Are Crime Writers as Twisted as Our Characters?: Authors Weigh In On Their Creepy Creations
• William Gibson: ‘I was losing a sense of how weird the real world was’—A good interview/profile with the SF master.
• A Narrator In Every Port—Harry Connolly talks about Narrator Voice, one of those things you never think about that is so important for the reading experience.
• My Rules For Writing A Novel—Matthew Hanover shares his rules for writing.
• To My Friends With Reading Tastes Opposite from Mine—I’ll second this one.
• The 16 Best Science Fiction Books of All Time by Global English Editing—The Tattooed Book Geek posted this snazzy infographic in a guest post this week.
• What determines reading speed?—asks Paul’s Picks
• TTBG’s Fifteen Blogging Tips.—I’m reasonably certain that I’ve linked to this before. But we could all probably use a reminder.
• Short Series vs Long Series: Which Do I Prefer?—I don’t know that I’d thought about things in this way before, and may end up posting my take on this soon. Fun to think about anyway.
• Bookworm Problems #1—should make you grin
• I typically try to close with a laugh, or something unusual, but today calls for something else. I’ll just steal Ace Atkins Facebook post from this morning

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Beginning At The End by Mike Chen—A SF Family Drama set 6 years after a global pandemic changes everything.
• The Wild One by Nick Petrie—Peter Ash brings his brand of action to Iceland. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever read anything that takes place there, this should be a great way to fix that.
• Burn the Dark by S. A. Hunt—I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I’ll have time to get to this, but it’s a fun concept: “a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction.”

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to aloysius5, writingeatingwalking, Dora , Hâf, Susan, and Shell-Shell’s for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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:

• Living in the future.—The good people over at Fahrenheit Press (actually, they’d probably prefer being referred to as rabble-rousers and ne’er-do-wells) outline their plans for 2020.
• ‘People are so happy we exist’: indie bookshops grow despite retail slump
• Q&A with Mike Craven—A nice Q&A with one of the best in the biz
• Too Many Thoughts About Genre—Over on Charles Stross’s blog, Harry Connolly drops by to talk about genre and the set up for his new novel.
• The Collective Culture of Fiction—an interesting post by author Kit Falbo.
• 2020 books to movie—upcoming adaptations
• The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020: Part I—the editors at Crime Reads talk about the books they’re looking forward to in the first half of 2020. Daunting (but appetizing)
• New Year’s Resolutions—I liked this approach to the looking back/looking forward post.
• Book Series I will be reading before 2020 ends—someone’s gonna be busy (I could never be this well-organized, but I’d like to be)
• Blogging: Quality, Quantity or Something Else?—Lashaan gives some good reminders/lessons for we bloggers.
• 10 Bookish Hashtags To Follow on Instagram—thinking you don’t spend enough hours a day on Social Media? Or, maybe you just want to be more efficient in those hours? Ramona Mead has the post for you.
• 2020 in books: a literary calendar

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire—It took less than a paragraph (maybe less than a sentence) for me to fall in love with the latest Wayward Children book. Jack and Jill are back and worse than ever? More to come on this one!
• Deep Dark Dead by Steph Broadribb—Bounty Hunter Lori Anderson is going to get beat up (I’m betting) in a whole new city! The ebook came out in the UK this week, but for some reason, it won’t release until next week in the U.S. (it takes awhile for the electrons to cross the Atlantic, I guess). It’s the next novel I tackle (assuming it doesn’t get held up in e-customs?).
• Born in a Burial Gown / Body Breaker by M. W. Craven—the first two books in his Avison Fluke series have been updated, revised, and re-released in the world. Not a new Washington Poe/Tilly Bradshaw, but probably the next best thing. Don’t take my word for it, see what Noelle Holten, the Crime Book Junkie, has to say.
• QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling—a satire about life run by algorithms—I’ll do a better job describing it after I’ve read it. I hope. Go click the link in the meantime. (I’ll confess to a moment of panic about this release this morning, until I found the email saying the blog tour has been rescheduled for next month, and I wasn’t actually four days late with my posts (and even further behind in reading it)).
• The Heap by Sean Adams—”Blending the piercing humor of Alexandra Kleeman and the jagged satire of Black Mirror, an audacious, eerily prescient debut novel that chronicles the rise and fall of a massive high-rise housing complex, and the lives it affected before – and after – its demise.”

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to penelopeburns, TL Wright, and Mugilan Raju for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

For some entirely predictable reason, most of what I saw this year was a look back at 2019 or a look ahead to 2020, so you’ll see a real theme to these 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:

• What’s Happening In 2020?—Michael Connelly’s Facebook page gives his fans plenty to look forward to.
• The Best Books of 2019: Debut Fiction—from CrimeReads, some of these look really good. I only read one of these, Magic for Liars, and while I wouldn’t have put it on this list, it’s worth your time. American Spy keeps popping up on my radar, not sure why I haven’t tried it yet.
• The #damppebbles Top Ten (sort of!) of 2019—Second only to my whim, Emma’s responsible for a lot of what I read last year, so it’s not surprising that I think this is a great list. I’ve only read her top pick, but have heard nothing but raves about the rest. And her top pick? She’s absolutely right.
• My Top 20 Books of 2019—The Tattooed Book Geek shows us all up with a Top 20 that looks fantastic.
• Raven’s Yearly Round Up 2019 and Top 10 Books—Raven Crime Reads finds some of the best-looking stuff.
• Char’s Horror Corner lists her Top Ten Novels of 2019, Ten Story Collections/Anthologies of 2019, and Top Ten Novellas of 2019—she reads a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t (and probably vice versa), but when we happen to read the same thing we usually end up echoing each other’s thoughts. So if you like your fiction a bit further on the creepier/horror-ish side than I do, you’ll love these lists.
• If you’ve plundered the above lists (and what I posted the last couple of weeks) for TBR material, you’ll want to read Find More Time to Read—from Sarah Anne Carter and Super Readers Share Their Best Tips to Read More in 2020—from the Goodreads blog
• Book Stress—This post seems like a good thing to bear in mind after everything else I’ve posted so far. Also, I’m glad that The Read Writes link to his blog this week, if for no other reason than I love the blog design.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 783 | Lee Goldberg Interview—One of Garner’s best episodes, partially because Goldberg talks fast so you get more content than usual ?

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg—a new series from Goldberg about a rookie homicide detective learning the job. It’s waiting not-so patiently on my Kindle and I’m tempted to skip a couple of things so I can get to it faster.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz—I’ve been waiting since 2015 for something new from Abramowitz, and this family drama looks like it’ll be worth the wait.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Lou des Anges, Don Jimmy Reviews, and Žygimantas Krungolcas for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?