Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 29 of 54

Happy Star Wars Day!

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:

• Why Harry Potter and Paddington Bear are essential reading … for grown-ups — sure, why not?
• The real story behind Harper Lee’s lost true crime book — sure, we don’t get this and we get Go Set a Watchman? Life is cruel.
• Hi. We’ve redesigned Lit Hub, launched a blog, and added a podcast network. — so, they’ve been busy. Looks pretty cool.
• Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Mysterious Author: Donald J. Sobol created a mystery icon and sold millions of books. But who was he? — This might be my favorite piece to link to all year. I cannot overstate the impact that Sobol & Encyclopedia had on me and what I read. Hmmm . . . been wondering what kind of mystery lit tattoo I could maybe get. That first volume’s cover . . . Sorry, got distracted there for a second (but am keeping my random typing up here as a reminder).
• Speaking of mysteries, this week, The Writer Magazine touched off spot of controversy with one of the most wrong-headed pieces I’ve read in a while about male dominance and female characters in Crime Fiction. The reactions were immediate, sometimes hilarious, and all negative (that I saw, anyway). Gerald So, typically, was even-handed in his response, as were the group Sisters in Crime (H/T: @crimethrillergirl). Alafair Burke (someone the article could’ve talked about) was a tad more blunt. Honestly, my favorite response was from Nick Kolakowski — although his angry tweets about it are a bit more amusing (like this one)
• An interview with Steph Broadribb, author of the Lori Anderson bounty hunter series — a good interview with someone else that could’ve been discussed by The Writer Magazine.
• Vital Crime Fiction: Main Bad Guy by Nick Kolakowski — this week, coincidentally, brought a nice new interview with the aforementioned Nick Kolakowski.
• Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s Stolen Picture To Adapt Ben Aaronovitch’s Epic Fantasy Drama ‘Rivers of London’ — Other than the mis-use of “Epic” here, there is nothing in that headline that doesn’t bring me joy.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Venators: Promises Forged by Devri Walls — the second in the Venators series is finally out — and the first 100 pages are really good. I’ll probably talk about the next 250+ early next week.
• Not Famous by Matthew Hanover — is now an audiobook!

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to SED MADDY, The Happy Book Blog and Justine @ Bookish Wisps for following the blog this week.

This is an odd mix of odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week — a lot of them from CrimeReads, too. The odd (for me, thing) is I saw multiple references to them, it’s not like I just hung out at that site for inspiration last night. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Jake Lacy Joins Hulu Adaptation of ‘High Fidelity’ — 1. I somehow missed the news that Hulu was doing a High Fidelity; 2. Gender-flipping the main roles? I think my reaction to both is summed up in three little letters (and a bunch of punctuation): WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!???
• Bosch Is Bosch: Appreciating a Masterful Adaptation — Reed Farrel Coleman on the Bosch adaptation (not surprisingly, Coleman has a very strong and good take on it).
• The 2019 Edgar Award Nominees Address the Genre’s Most Pressing Questions for CrimeReads this week. I haven’t had a chance to read all of this yet, but what I have is really good. The State of the Mystery: Part 1 of a Roundtable Discussion and The State of the Mystery: Part 2 of a Roundtable Discussion
• On My Mind: To DNF Or To Not DNF — a lot of this feels like something I could have written. Which isn’t the primary reason I liked it.
• Why I’ve done away with Star Ratings for Reviews on my blog — I’m pretty close to this myself, for pretty much what she said here.
• Science Fiction Clickbait is a nice dash of fun
• 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Work In A Bookstore
• Tom Gauld on new words for bookworms

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• William Shakespeare’s Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher — the Shakespearean takes on Star Wars that Doescher has done previously never really spoke to me (but I flipped through a couple and they seemed well done) — but for some reason this one has me intrigued. Anyone read this or his previous works?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Crystal Grasso (Ward) and Jocelyn for following the blog this week.

An unexpectedly long (good) day — after a very unexpectedly long and full week results in this being posted when it’s no longer Saturday…eh. Best I can do…

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:

• Gene Wolfe by Neil Gaiman — I’ve read a lot about the Gene Wolfe following his death this week — almost all laudatory. This — written years ago — might be the best.
• Check out this great thread from Raven Book Store that went viral this week about the cost of books and why you should shop indie.
• Speaking of which, Champions of Indies –is a good post — even if it’s pretty much a thinly disguised advertisement for libro.fm. Still a good post, and libro.fm is a service I don’t mind showing advertisements for.
• You Should Always Support Your Independent Bookstore — a better post.
• Hey, did you know that next Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day? I’m sure you did, it just seems like a good time to mention it.
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy Author Fonda Lee Criticizes Barnes & Noble Stocking J.R.R. Tolkien & Robert Jordan Books: ‘We Are Competing With Dead Guys’ — I see a lot of her point, but . . .
• Five Years On, There’s Still Nothing Like Patrick Rothfuss’ The Slow Regard of Silent Things
• Your Favorite Fantasy Magic Systems, Rated

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

• No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne — the second in The Tales of Pell a funny, funny fantasy novel with a lot of heart and other stuff. I’m tired, that’s as good as you’re going to get from me…if you want moreread my full post about it.
• Going Dark by Neil Lancaster — an undercover cop infiltrates a Serbian mob. Written by a former covert specialist Detective Sergeant — looks so good. It’s currently waiting patiently for me on my Kindle.
• Differently Morphous by Yahtzee Croshaw — an offbeat-looking fantasy novel about the hunt for a magical serial killer.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Ciidagale Raad, KayCKay and BookaholicBrittany
for following the blog this week.

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:

• US Independent Bookstores Thriving and Growing — I’ve posted variations on this theme before, but it’s always encouraging to read.
• Fast-Growing Independent Publishers, 2019 — don’t think I’ve brushed up against any of those mentioned here, but this is encouraging, too.
• Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Tom Holland, and Others Stand Against Piracy
• Publishing 2025: a vision — From The Bookseller
• Publishing Killing Libraries? — a thought-provoking thread
• Traditional Books vs. Ebooks: A Comparison — I’m not sure there’s anything new here, but a nice post nonethelss.
• Beowulf the work of single author, research suggests — I didn’t realize this was a thing (I think we covered Beowulf in 3 lit classes in college, too — where it should’ve come up). Still, I find this kind of thing fascinating.
• To the Librarian Who Changed My Life — awwww
• 5 Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book — fun post. (and a great blog name/tag line, too…)
• How I write book reviews — another nice BTS book blogger post — thanks to the Tattooed Book Geek for retweeting it.
• Tell Us Your Drinking Preferences, We’ll Tell You What Genre You Are! — Other than identifying me as a Horror lover (check the archives here, see how wrong that is), fun dumb quiz
• Fantasy Book Covers Intimidate Me—Here’s Why — I get this. Been there.
• Nero Wolfe — the detective who loves his grub
• Hilariously Honest Book Titles (Adaptations Edition) and Hilariously Honest Book Titles (Part 4) both have some really winners.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Occidentally Orthodox (who may not like a lot of what I post, but I hope he comments) and whovinawrites for following the blog this week.

Seriously, if Real Life would just shut up for a minute and let me focus on my blog/prep for my blog, it’d be nice. And I’m not talking about huge, important things like — my kid had life saving surgery, or I was distracted by the tragic events unfolding in [insert important sounding city], or whatever. It’s just been busy and I find myself very tired lately. I really look forward to compiling these weekly posts, and the last few have just seemed . . . empty?

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me — I do like what we have for this week by way of the odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Blackstone & Story Factory Deal Pulls Bestselling Authors Steve Hamilton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Meg Gardiner Away From Penguin Random House — I don’t like what this means for Jesse Stone, but I do like what it means for Nick Mason, Hamilton, Coleman and Gardiner. Blackstone, too, come to think of it. The dollar amounts being thrown around here boggle the mind — I didn’t think numbers like this existed for mystery writers not portrayed by Nathan Fillion.
• Vonda N McIntyre obituary — I won’t say I was the biggest McIntyre fan in the world — I barely read any of her stuff. But I bought two novels in high school by her, and read them an unhealthy amount of times. She perhaps shaped more of my impression of Kirk, Spock and McCoy than anyone else (including Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and Roddenberry). Seeing her death announced this week hit harder than it should’ve for someone I haven’t read in decades.
• ‘I can write in that American voice quite easily. For everything else I cheat’ — a very nice profile of blog favorite author and podcast host Steve Cavanagh.
• How to Cuss Like No One’s Listening: Katherine Dunn on the Importance of Specificity in Swearing — I cuss/swear more than I should and wish I didn’t (and have friends who won’t believe that I do at all). But I get its use as a narrative and character-building tool. I rather enjoyed this piece.
• My Time on West Thirty-Fifth Street — one writer’s fictional and real experiences with Nero Wolfe, and Archie Goodwin (one of the best paragraphs on Archie ever written!). I will not stop posting about Wolfe and Goodwin until everyone who follows this blog reads them. And then I still won’t, because you’ll want to read more about them.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Postgraduate by Ian Shane — Recovering from a divorce, a former college DJ reconnects with his roots and maybe finds a path forward. I gushed about it yesterday.
• You Die Next by Stephanie Marland — To be honest, I groaned when this showed up on my Kindle Thursday because I’d just finalized my reading schedule for the rest of the month and we feeling pretty good about life. I have no idea when I can fit it in, but I really want it to be now. Anyway, this follow up to last year’s My Little Eye is gonna be great.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Madam Mim, Sonam Tsering and indianeskitchen for following the blog this week.

Another week of slim pickings . . . odd. Is it just end of month malaise? But there’s some good stuff here nonetheless. 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 Best Bookstores in All 50 States — according to MentalFloss. I’ve posted similar lists in the past, but who can resist a new version — especially if you are curious about nearby bookstores. I can sign off on 2 of the 3 Idaho bookstores mentioned.
• How a Fourth-Grader Turned Me Into a Book Detective — awww
• Crime Reads had an interesting twitter thread this week about authors who could bench press Jack Reacher, because who doesn’t think about that??
• Books Whose Endings Made-Up for Their Lackluster Start — I’ve only read one of these, and I disagree with almost everything this post said about Persepolis, but it’s an interesting idea. Can you think of anything that fits the headline?
• Official: Perry Mason gets full series order from HBO — I posted about this when it was still in the “maybe” stage, but now it’s official. I’m still incredibly skeptical about taking Mason out of the courtroom, but will likely end up giving this a chance.
• Bookdragon Lingo: A [Short] Guide to Bookish Talk — is a fun, and informative, post. Most of these I knew, some I even use. But I still learned a thing or three.

Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen to, both from Hank Garner’s Author Stories:
• S3E06 Ben Aaronovitch and James Swallow of Book Off! (“A literary podcast with a difference…”)This is the first I’ve heard of this podcast, but it’s a cool concept and I’ll take any excuse to listen to Aaronovitch (and I need to track down Swallow’s series).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Not Everyone is Special by Josh Denslow — a short story collection with some fantastic writing — and a couple of good stories. My longer take on it is here.
• My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing — this tale of a husband and wife serial killer team is fun, and almost as good as I’d hoped. I really did like it, but had a reservation or two.
• Ruff vs. Fluff by Spencer Quinn — Quinn gets controversially inclusive here by having a cat as one of his protagonists in his new MG series. This is likely pretty cute, and I am curious how he’ll handle a feline lead, but is only a placeholder in my mind until we get a new Chet & Bernie book this summer.
• Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by sRajeev Balasubramanyam — I wish I could remember how this ended up on my radar, but it looks like it’ll appeal to the Maria Semple, Fredrick Bachman, etc. side of me. Probably you, too.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to amiiiesbooks for following the blog this week.

Busy week for me — not much screen time, alas. So this post will be short. Can’t promise sweet.

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:

• Harper Lee letter condemns home town for making her into a ‘tourist attraction’ — a couple of years ago, it seemed like I had a Harper Lee link or two a week for a stretch. Good to have her back on the list.
• Francis Spufford pens unauthorised Narnia novel — The article is right, it seems inevitable that someone will do it. Why not Spufford? Especially if it’s as Lewis-esque as it seems? But I’m apprehensive.
• Not as apprehensive as Lance Parkin is, however (but close): C S Lewis’s story has already been told: why we don’t need a new Narnia book
• Speaking of portal worlds, Syfy Nabs ‘Wayward Children’ Book Series for TV
• Joe Ide’s Next IQ Book Announced (with Details) — have to wait for a new Spenser and now a new IQ? grumble, grumble, grumble. Whatever happened to predictability, indeed. Am sure it’ll be worth the wait.
• Featured Book Trailer: Gregory Mcdonald’s Fletch Mysteries — Anything to bring a few more eyeballs to Fletch. Glad to see this reprinting, in general. I’ve also thought for years that it’d be nice to have a nice matching set of Mcdonald books (more than half of which were very used copies when I bought them). Maybe I should crowd fund it — would any of you contribute? 🙂
• BEST OF CRIME with Brad Parks — this is a fun post in general — moreso for Parks fans. And his choice of best detective? I love Parks all the more.
• DNF’ing Books! — I have a hard time DNF’ing, but this book blogger just did.

There weren’t any new releases that caught my eye this week — which is a double-edge sword. I feel like I probably missed a few things, but it also gives me a chance to catch up. The struggle is real, my friends.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Blair Leftly, upstateasb and vickyofficiallyofficial for following the blog this week.

Story behind this late post isn’t as interesting — but nicer — than last week’s. If you’re curious, check out my other blog in a bit (bit = 1-48 hours). Otherwise, 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:

• Last December, I hosted a guest post about Literary Road Trips that I recommend taking a peek at if you haven’t yet (or if you have). I was reminded of it when I read How to Take a Literary Pilgrimage in the Real World: First get lost in the pages, then get lost in the places. — from Atlas Obscura this week.
• Man Threatened With Eviction for Having ‘Too Many Books’! — I can see myself in this Brooklynite’s shoes. (H/T: Jo Perry)
• Douglas Adams’ Legacy — a nice tribute from Sindrelf on Adams’ 67th birthday.
• Spenser and Hawk: A Study of Good and Evil in the Fiction of Robert B. Parker — I don’t think I saw what prompted Gerald So, the essay’s author, to tweet the link to this essay this week but it’s such a good read for Parker readers new and old, I figured I’d take the opportunity to post it, too.
• Facing Down Old Ghosts: An Interview with William Boyle — the way this year is going, I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to read this book, but this is a good interview.
• Stats Transparency Post & Lessons Learned from One Year of Blogging — interesting and thought-provoking deep dive into one bloggers stats.
• The number of views behind the reviews. — The Tattooed Book Geek’s was a bit more lively — but when isn’t it? I was one of the people who voted in the bottom tier of his poll, btw.

Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen to, both from Hank Garner’s Author Stories:
• The Author Stories Podcast Episode 583 | Brad Parks Interview — Hank brings Parks back to talk about Hardees, writing and The Last Act.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Last Act by Brad Parks — an out of work actor goes undercover in prison. Not really the Feel Good Novel of the Year, but what else do you expect from Brad Parks? I had a bit more to say about it recently.
• Titan Shade by Dan Stout — Alien Nation + whatever that Will Smith Urban Fantasy Netflix movie was + Life on Mars (UK version). Or something. UF about a homicide cop in the 70s. Looks like it could be fun.
• Instant Karma by Todd Morr — disgraced ex-cop becomes a security advisor to the underworld. Also looks like fun — it’s on my Kindle, hoping to get to it before the end of the year (I wish that was a joke…)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Erwin Wensley, dragonflybooks, virgoebooks and BOOKVENGER-44 for following the blog this week.