Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 36 of 54

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:

• Trump, Oprah, Zaphod Beeblebrox: Why We Love Celebrity Overlords — I had some similar thoughts last time I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide, but not as concrete (it was pre-Trump or Oprah-speculation), but this piece puts it all better.
• An announcement about The Fairies of Sadieville — Alex Bledsoe has some sad news about his upcoming Tufa novel (although I get the reasoning)
• Why We Shouldn’t Shield Children From Darkness — a Newberry Award winner discusses how much darkness is appropriate for children’s books.
• Why Children’s Books Should Be a Little Sad — the great Kate DiCamillo responds.
• On a related topic, NPR asks: What’s The Difference Between Children’s Books In China And The U.S.?
• Dead Good asked several Crime Fiction writers What’s your all-time favourite crime novel? — I picked up a little bit of a theme . . .
• Frosting Sugar and Forgotten Stories — Seanan McGuire talks about Portal Fantasies over at Powells.com
• speaking of which, The Portalist lists: 12 Portal Fiction Books That Will Transport You

This Week had just one New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon, but it’s a good one:
• Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire — the third volume of McGuire’s Wayward Children series is out and is fantastic. The only reason I haven’t posted about it was that I wrote so much that it didn’t make much sense and needed to get trimmed down significantly. It’s just wonderful.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to 500words, Ethan Bayes and Haden Clark 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:

• Sales of Print Books Increased, Slightly, in 2017 — “Slightly.”
• How to read more books in 2018 — I can’t imagine that anyone reading this post needs these ideas, but you never know.
• They Tried to Ban Fahrenheit 451 and Replace It With. . . My Book — I think Mr. Williams and I would disagree on some of the issues he brushes up against, but by and large, I can’t help but agree with him about the Bradbury classic. And the horror of your own work replacing it? Gah.
• A few tributes/obituaries for Sue Grafton that I appreciated: S is for Sad by Lee Goldberg, A Is For Appreciation: How Sue Grafton Helped Transform The Mystery Genre by Fresh Air’s Maureen Corrigan, and The Guardian’s Sue Grafton obituary.
• Between the Lines: Robert Crais — a very nice profile of Robert Crais, with an eye to The Wanted (naturally)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry — a great looking thriller about a bomb maker targeting bomb technicians.
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce — is on the other end of the spectrum — a sweet looking story about music, love and healing.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Thomas Neil, JW Bowe, Mar G.-Amorena and Wolfe Butler 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:

• “…the alphabet now ends at Y” — Sue Grafton’s daughter broke the news to her fans that Grafton died this week, a heckuva shock, a heckuva loss.
• Naturally, tributes to Grafton have started appearing — and will continue to do so. Few will be as good as Brad Parks’ was.
• The Wingfeather Saga Short Film — I’ve read the first half of these books (it’s only because I didn’t have money at the time that I didn’t finish it), and it’s delightful. This animated short is almost as good.
• In Praise of Rereading — I’m doing better at this, but not as good as I used to be.
• Just Trust Me: In Praise Of Strange Books
• Raymond Chandler’s 10 Tips For Writing a Detective Novel — By and large, these still apply (and I wish more people wrote like this)
• 15 New Year’s Resolutions for Book Lovers — there’s some fun items here

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen:
• The Liars Club Oddcast # 048 — The Liars Club interview Robert Crais about his background and career.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Wanted by Robert Crais — the newest Elvis Cole novel is out! Which I clearly dug.
• Operation: Endgame by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris — the final adventure in the rollicking Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series. Gonna miss this one.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to netbij (but, dude, that website is impossible to read).

It’s still technically Saturday (MST in the US) — I was really tired last night (fell asleep with my laptop on my lap and this post open and empty) and super busy today. But now, just under the wire: 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 Ultimate List of Fiction Books You Should Read At Least Once in Your Life — Literary Titan brings us the ginormous list that This is Writing assembled. I haven’t had a chance to dig deep on this list — but it’s thought-provoking at least.
• Why Teens Find The End Of The World So Appealing — NPR has an interesting idea or two about why Teens dig Dystopian novels
• Say My Name: A pronunciation guide to 15 tongue-tripping names in Fantasy and Sci-Fi — there’s a couple in here that helped me (would’ve helped me more years ago . . . )
• Matt Shakman To Direct TriStar’s ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ Adaptation — No slight to Shakman, but man . . . this idea makes me nervous.
• Do not f*** with Jane Austen Twitter — AV Club talks about some of the responses to the Washington Post’s unfortunate recent tweet about Austen
• 50 Hilariously Honest New Titles For Your Favourite Books — I think I posted an abbreviated version of this list a couple of weeks ago, but I’m too tired to see if that’s the case. Either way, you probably missed a chuckle or two the last time you went through these.

This Week’s New Release I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Twisted Path by Harry Connolly — I liked this a whole lot, a new novella in the Twenty Palaces series, one of my favorites and I love seeing a bit of new life in it. Which you can read more about here, in yesterday’s post

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Scarlett Brodie and Maria Bardyukova for following the blog this week (okay, Scarlett actually started last week, and I overlooked her — sorry!).

When I posted Thursday about my lack of posting this week, I wasn’t sure what else to say, but for those who are curious about distractions of this past week —read this from my other blog.

Meanwhile, 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:

• ‘Women are better writers than men’: novelist John Boyne sets the record straight — I think there are many problems with this, but it’s still nice to see as an alternative to things written saying the opposite (equally problematic).
• Why Write Fiction in 2017? — Interesting (but as problematic as the above).
• The Craft of Fiction: Lee Child and Andy Martin in Conversation — A fun, if long, chat between the two.
• Where do you write? — this video clocks in at less than 3 minutes. Nice to put a face to some names if nothing else.
• This Delightful Letter Shows Conan Doyle’s True Feelings Toward Sherlock Holmes headline says it all.
• How Indie Presses Are Elevating the Publishing World
• Elon Musk’s Mars-Bound Tesla Roadster to Carry Towel and “Don’t Panic” Sign — Hitchhiker’s Guide in space. How fitting is that?
• Ready Player One Author Ernie Cline Confirms He’s Writing A Sequel — I’d prefer he play in another sandbox, but I’ll read this with pleasure.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to bloggerfingers and MladenR 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:

• Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read — not that I needed the excuse . . .
• Dear Broke Reader: Your Sense of Entitlement is Killing Me — Yeah, it’s a year and a half old, but still good. I’m not sure why I’m reading all these anti-piracy pieces lately — but there’s probably a need.
• Netflix Grabs Hold Of John Scalzi’s Sci-Fi Novel ‘Old Man’s War’ For Jon Shestack, Madhouse — It’s not my favorite Scalzi book, but by far the most adaptable (I think). Oh, yeah, it also left to one of the more amusing tweets I read this week.
• PC Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch — Books are My Cwtches gives a nice overview of that fun series.
• These Parody Book Covers Of Famous Classics Will Make Any True Literary Nerd Laugh Out Loud — There are some good ones here.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Flame in the Dark by Faith Hunter — the third installment of the Nell Ingram series is just great. I had a lot to say about it recently.
• The Defense by Steve Cavanagh — Cavanagh’s debut novel about a con man turned lawyer is out in paperback here in the States — a great series to jump on at a decent price.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Anushka for following the blog this week.

Running a bit late today . . . okay very late today. Mrs. Irresponsible Reader had me far away from my keyboard and wifi signal for most of the day. Still, got a couple of things I want to encourage you to read . . . So 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:

• What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men? — something many of us are thinking about lately . . . Thanks to Nathaniel Barber for putting this in front of my eyeballs a couple of times.
• When Making Books Was As Much Of An Art As Writing Them — a coworker told me about a class he took that did much of this a few years ago. If I only had the time/money/ability to do anything with my hands . . .
• At what point do we give up on books? Big data has the answer — This is creepy. And interesting.
• Rise Of The Angry Robot — a nice piece on that great publisher

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Squirrel on the Train by Kevin Hearne — It’s the second of Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries! Which I liked a lot — listened to most of the audiobook today, too — which was also very entertaining — the Force is strong with Luke Daniels.
• Briefly Maiden by Jacqueline Chadwick — the follow-up to this year’s fantastic In the Still. It’s dark, twisted, and so much fun while telling a tragic and horrifying story. I checked in on that Thursday — sooo good. I’ll expand on that in a couple of days.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to annebonnybookreviews, thehuntandpeckblog, Richard Klu, and The Cable Denning Fan Club 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:

• Yeah, Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago, but I thought these first two were interesting, regardless: 22 Famous Writers Told Us About The Book They’re Most Thankful For
• B&N Survey Finds Thanksgiving Eve ‘Busiest Reading Day of the Year’
• An Author Photo Is Worth a Thousand Words
• Science fiction triggers ‘poorer reading’, study finds — huh
• All the Known Portal Worlds in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children Series — This is a handy piece.
• Kate Neilan brings us this helpful reminder
• 22 Reasons We’re Thankful For Independent Bookstores

(typically slow for a holiday week here, so . . . )This Week’s New Release That I’m Excited About:
• The Hidden Face by S. C. Flynn is scheduled to release today, so that counts, right? I think there’s a strong chance you can grab it for pretty cheap, too. A good book at a good price. Jump on it. In case you missed what I said about it yesterday, just click here.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Mr and Mrs NW, abokrose and LizScanlon 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:

• Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the Kindle’s launch — which would change so much of the book business. The Guardian has a pretty good piece on its impact: Amazon’s Kindle turns 10: have ebooks clicked with you yet?
• And Mashable lists The most popular books on the Kindle
• Little House, Small Government: How Laura Ingalls Wilder’s frontier vision of freedom and survival lives on in Trump’s America. — I’m not saying I buy everything in this piece, but it’s an interesting read
• Not at all surprisingly, I loved Don’t Panic: Paying Tribute to Douglas Adams
• Andy Weir on Ernest Cline, Doctor Who, and More — from Unbound

A couple of Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen:
• Hank Garner’s The Author Stories Podcast had two strong episodes this week: Episode 260: Andy Weir was great — he talked about a novel he had to shelve, his one problem with The Martian movie, and the genesis of Artemis.
• Episode 262: Janet Evanovich — I’ve actually never read/heard an Evanovich interview before (that I recall, anyway). This was great to hear.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Artemis by Andy Weir — Can Weir follow The Martian with anything but a let down? I finished this last night, and my answer is YES! Also: Phew!! Basically, it’s a heist novel set in the first city on the Moon. And it’s great.
• Deep Blue Trouble by Steph Broadribb — Lori Anderson, the wonderful single-mom/bounty hunter from Deep Down Dead (and possibly my favorite new character this year) is back for more. I’m pretty sure I knew this was coming out this week, but I’d forgotten it, so seeing it show up on my Kindle really screwed up my reading schedule for the rest of the month. How much do I care? Not one whit.
• Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant — None of Seanan McGuire’s alter ego’s books have appealed to me yet (beyond being written by one of the best around). This one just might get me to give Grant a shot. For those more open to the horror or SF-Horror type of read, you should probably consider this one.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to theartdive and M.L.S.Weech 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:

• What Flannery O’Connor’s College Journal Reveals — O’Connor’s a long-time favorite of mine, I could read things like this all the time.
• The secret of how to write a bestseller — “The one thing that stops people being good writers is the myth that there is such a thing as good writing, says Andy Martin. The point of the creative writing course is to get you over the delusion”
• 10 Novels Agents Have Already Seen a Billion Times
• Why Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Didn’t Aim to Make Anyone “Likable” in His New Novel

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Midnight Line by Lee Child — In the wake of Make Me (which still gives me the heebie jeebies), Reacher goes on a hunt to indulge his curiosity (and we all know he’s going to end up doing a lot more)
• Communication Failure by Joe Zieja — this funny follow-up to last year’s Mechanical Failure will get you laughing at the brink of Interplanetary War. It’s great, as I discussed here.
• Bonfire by Krysten Ritter — Ritter’s first novel is a suspenseful, solid read. Here’s what I wrote about it last month.
• The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt — another comedic space opera this week — sounds like a pretty good trend.
• A Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford — it’s a cute premise, and different enough from the typical UF that it looks worth a try.
• A Burdizzo For A Prince by Mark Rapacz — J. J.’s a hitman on the run from his former colleagues after he dishes out some justice on the boss’ son. Look up the word “Burdizzo” and you’ll get an idea why J. J. probably doesn’t want anyone to catch him.
• Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner — It’s Matthew Weiner, what else needs to be said?