Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 33 of 62

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?

No time for an intro this week—too much to read before Jan. 31 to bother rambling on. (mostly a joke)

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:

• George RR Martin opens bookshop next to his cinema in Santa Fe—great, another distraction, just what he needs. That was too sarcastic, I think it’s cool that he’s doing it, and would absolutely love to check it out.
• These are the 10 best-selling books of the decade.—I’ve seen some people react to this like it’s a sign of the Fall of American Culture (which actually ties into the Collins and Roth work), but outside of #s 1-3, I don’t see this as too bad. (and have contributed to the success of four of these in my own, small, way)
• Speaking of Collins and Roth (and others listed above): The Decade in Young Adult Fiction: As a publishing phenomenon, YA literature entered the decade like a lion. Now it seems to be eating itself alive.
• Notes from the Winter Solstice Meeting—Rick Riordan gives hope to legions and legions of readers with this talk about a better adaptation of the Percy Jackson books. Also, just an entertainingly-written post.
• The Best Books of the 2010s—Several lists of goodness from the editors of Paste.
• Typically this time of year, I post links to various “Best Of” lists, and have done so a couple of times this year, but on the whole, I haven’t been that inspired by/interested in those from the usual suspects. However, most book bloggers are putting out their lists now, and they’re resonating more with me, so…let’s look at a few of them, shall we? (not an exhaustive list, and one that we’ll revisit soon)
  • 2019 Best Books Read and Reviewed on Beforewegoblog
  • Best Books of 2019—from Books, Bones & Buffy
  • What were my top crime reads of 2019?—from Crime Book Junkie (there’ll be some good overlap between this list and mine when I get around to compiling it, I wager)
  • Top Reads of 2019—from Fan Fi Addict’s David W
  • PaulsPicks Best Books of 2019 and PaulsPicks Best Graphic Novels of 2019—which also demonstrates that I’ve been putting an extra space in the blog name. Whoops.
  • Best of the Best: My Favorite Books from 2019—from Witty & Sarcastic Book Club
• Why Is Reading so Unpopular?
• How was the book? – Describing the Reading Experience—Armed with a Book trumps the 5-Star System with Data Analysis (I found this fascinating)
• Happy Holidays and 365 Posts in a Row—Yeah, third PaulsPicks post this week—no, he didn’t pay me for clicks (but he could…, just sayin’), I think the dude deserves a tip of the cap for 365 Posts in a row. More than that, he deserves the break he’s giving himself…
• David S’ Non-Comprehensive and Entirely Unrealistic List of Completed Series to read in 2020—If you’re like me, you’re coming up with reading plans for 2020, David S is at least honest enough to realize his is entirely unrealistic (unlike mine, which is going to be totally doable and not cause me any undue stress or sleepless nights in December)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Under a Pile of Books’ Episode 43 – SPECIAL EPISODE: Top Coverart of 2019—Calvin Parks attempts (and largely succeeds) to convey his favorite bits of cover art on an audio podcast. This is a heckuva feat.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Mental Health •Lifestyle •Finance, Kelly Curtis, and brainyjaney (also, welcome to the weird world of book blogging) for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

It’s clearly the end of the year—I’ve got a bare-bones collection this week. But who has time to read things that aren’t books right now between the hustle and bustle of December—not to mention the rush to finish off your reading goals of the 2019? (or is that just me?)

Here’s the handful of 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:

• Moments in Reading That Salvaged an Often Sour Year—I didn’t think the year was that sour, but okay . . .
• Perfect Gifts for Bookworms: For those who can’t get enough of book culture.
• I’ve got a pair of M. W. Craven reads this week: Writing is a Form of Magic—Everything you never realized you wanted to learn about Craven and his writing process.
• Desert Island Crime with M.W. Craven—Craven answers: “If you were stranded on a desert island and had to choose 8 books to take with you, what would you pick and why?” This is a great list, made even better by his choice of Darkness, Take My Hand over Hannibal Lecter.
• The Music of Harry Bosch—The Michael Connelly Facebook page shared this spotify list this week. Good writing/reading music (even if I really never think Jazz when I read Bosch. Sorry, Harry!)
• 12 Insightful Quotes About Plot—from Before We Go Blog
• How To Crush Your TBR List
• Fifty @ Fifty—Tracy Fenton commemorated her 50th birthday with this list of her favorite 50 books from the last ten years.
• Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template (2020)—I think I’m replacing my (increasingly clunky) spreadsheet with this one next year.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Gehad Gamal, Anton Michaux, and Brandi Robbins for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Shorter list this week, with less of the other stuff than usual. Hope I’m not missing anything, and that it’s just the end-of-the-year-blahs. I can understand not a lot of things being put out there in the world this week—you likely noticed that I was pretty quiet. I had big, semi-ambitious (yet attainable) goals for the week and hit none of them. I did get three posts partially written, however, so . . . yeah. That’s pretty lame, actually. Non-blog life was just weird this week and the results (or lack thereof) were plainly visible in my posting. Onward and upward though.

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:

• BBNYA – The Book Bloggers’ Novel of The Year Award – Coming in 2020—A few weeks back, I shared a post announcing the BBNYA, but here’s another one — a bit more detailed.
• 30 Seconds With Your Favorite Author: Book Signing Conversation Tips—Tips that could come in handy (I could’ve used them at least once)
• 7 Things Crime Readers Will No Longer Tolerate: Crime fiction is getting harder to write—and that’s a good thing.—I’m not so sure I’m as intolerant as Christopher Fowler thinks I should be, but . . .
• NPR had some good articles lately: Not A Regular Reader? 4 Strategies To Make Reading A Habit and How To Read More Books
• Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse: Alyssa Hull Tries to Find Optimism in Teaching Cli-Fi to Terrified Students—While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with a lot of what’s said here, I’m intrigued by the ideas of Hopepunk and Solarpunk (particularly the former)
• Black Orchids 2019 , plus a Nero and a BONA—The Wolfe Pack (a society for the appreciation of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin series) gave out the Nero Award and the Black Orchid Novella Award
• 2020 – Hot New Books – January – March—Compulsive Readers has put together a list of first quarter releases that could probably fill a schedule by itself.
• The 78 Best Book Covers of 2019: As Chosen by the Experts, the Designers Themselves—LitHub assembled some designers to compile this list of very eye-catching covers.
• My Visit To Harper Collins—Must have been a blast.
• My Top Five Book Blogging Omissions—Reading this makes me think Stephen is Wiser than I am.
• The Books I Gift Most Often—Better than “Who’s your favorite author?”/”What’s your favorite book?” Ramona Mead answers “What books do you give the most?” (which is also easier than the others).

Also, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Maya’s Musings, David W, Rain Alchemist, alittlebookproblem, forwarddog and Tim Onayemi for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye—Lithub and BookRiot are heavily featured this week. Been awhile since I dipped into those so hard, but I really liked what I saw this week. I wish I could figure out a way to get a kickback (or sponsorship—I’m open to negotiation, folks!) from one/all of them for this… You’ve probably seen some/most/all of these, but just in case:

• Game of Thrones: George RR Martin FANTASTIC Winds of Winter release date news—I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about this, which means it’s full of bunk or everyone in the world is as cynical as I am about it. Also, I’m not sure I care at this point (I’m going to have to re-read everything prior to the release just to remember, and I’m not sure I have that much energy. Is there a decent re-cap site?)
• I was nominated for the Bad sex award. Don’t laugh—I disagree with almost everything Gough says about the award/culture around it. But I do find his experience interesting to read about. Also, this means that Two Crime Writers and a Microphone might actually release a new episode of their sadly infrequent podcast soon.
• 20 Ways to Read More Books in 2020—19 of these are good ideas. Skimming, though? Barbarians.
• What Was the First Book You Fell in Love With?: The Center for Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize Authors Weigh In—I’m probably not going to read most of these authors first novels, honestly, but I always enjoy reading about what book got people hooked on books.
• The Life Cycle of a Library Book
• Most Anticipated Reads of 2020—for those of you who’ve started planning.
• Women in Historical SFF
• Venators: Legends Rise (Venators #3) By Devri Walls Cover Reveal—The Cover for Walls’ Third Novel is her Spiffiest Yet
• One Man at One Week—Harry Connolly writes a very honest post about the first week of One Man sales. If there was one author I could make you all read, I think it’d be him. If not One Man (which is coming up on my TBR soon), then find something else on his site that strikes your fancy.
• The Guide to affordable Audiobook Binge-Listening—this could prove handy.
• Tips for Writing Speculative Detective Fiction: How can you keep a commitment to reason and procedure when rules of reality no longer apply?—I love it when Detective/Crime fiction blends with SFF, here’s some tips on how to pull it off.
• 26 Books From the Last Decade that More People Should Read: Our Favorite Writers Recommend Some Underappreciated Gems—LitHub’s editors have come up with an interesting list of things I’ve never heard of.
• Speaking of LitHub, they bring us the first Best-Of for 2019Our 50 Favorite Books of the Year: Highlights From a Year in Reading by the Literary Hub Staff
• Bernardine Evaristo, Lee Child and more pick the best books of 2019—The Guardian assembled a handful of authors for their picks.
• The December issue of Envie, a Magazine for the Literary Curious—features a profile ofour pal, Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub.
• The Tattooed Book Geek shared his Blogging Plans for 2020—I’m seeing a lot of plans for 2020, his is probably the most likely to be accomplished (maybe that’s projection on my part—but I look at some of these lists and am boggled)
• Tropes in YA Fiction that Do Not Butter My Croissant—I’d co-sign this and I need to work “Do Not Butter my Croissant” into my everyday conversation.
• A History of… The Hobbit—Probably my favorite blog post of the week—Bookstooge, longtime Friend of IRR, talks about his personal history with the classic.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Authors on a Podcast Talking Books Ep. 3 – Jonathan Wood—David Walters (FanFiAddict.com) talks to Jonathan Wood. I read Wood’s first two books forever ago, and loved them. Don’t ask me why I haven’t read on. That ends in 2020, thanks to this episode. BTW, isn’t this the best podcast title? Tells you exactly what it is.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (I’m sure there were others that I should’ve spotted, but…):
• Perfect Murder by Rebecca Bradley—A mystery writer tries to pull of the perfect murder—a plot that I’m sure made none of Bradley’s family/loved ones/friends nervous at all.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Freedom is the luxury I seek and APB813 for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?