Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 37 of 61

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.

So I was awakened at shortly after 5 this morning with my wife telling me our 20-year-old had severe abdominal pains and needed to go to the ER, 11 hours later, we were home, one appendix lighter. 1. That’s really incredible. 2. That’s my best excuse for not getting this posted on time that I’ve ever had ? 3. I read more today than I typically do on a Saturday, so, that’s a nice bonus.

I did manage to accumulate a few 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:

• ‘I can get any novel I want in 30 seconds’: can book piracy be stopped? — How is this still a question?
• Famous Writers and Their Addictions — I should probably read more Balzac (maybe any?), it seems we have a lot in common.
• My Library Card Made Me Less of a Picky Reader — from BookRiot
• FX To Turn Don Winslow’s Epic Cartel Drug War Novel Trilogy Into TV Series — ooh!
• The Rook | Official Teaser — I really don’t know if this a good idea, but that trailer is promising.
• Who Would Win in a Great Literary Bake-Off? It’s Madeleines vs. Gingerbread vs. Eternal Cakes. — some great entries here.
• Understanding and handling your bookworm: A guide.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• That Ain’t Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire — The 8th InCryptid novel and the 3rd featuring Annie — after the way the last one ended, I’m very eager (and a little apprehensive) to dive in.
• A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself by William Boyle — “A funny, gritty, touching narrative about the strength of three New York women caught in a world of abusive men, broken families, and mob violence,” as NPR so helpfully summarizes it. Their review is worth a read.
• Another Kingdom by Andrew Klavan — a screenwriter finds himself in a fantasy kingdom — and in trouble. Then he finds himself back in L.A. And then back and forth. Something tells me that Klavan’s approach to a portal fantasy ain’t that typical.

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

I didn’t have much time for social media, blogs, etc. this week (sadly, it does recharge me), but I was able to scrape up a few links for this here post. Hope you enjoy 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:

• Sad news to start with, Janet Asimov died this week — I wish I could find a better obituary. I really enjoyed the Norby novels that I read (almost half of them, it turns out — I wish I knew I had more to read back then, and a way to get them. Ahhh, the 80s.) and the anthology of “lite SF” she edited with her husband blew my mind — at the time, I didn’t know people not named Adams and Aspirin could write that kind of stuff.
• Chinbeard announces the 3rd (and, alas, final) Derek & Dave Philpott book — this will reportedly be focused on 1990’s British(ish) artists. Which means a lot of it will fly by me, but the stuff that doesn’t will probably be golden.
• Writers with a Badge: Two Retired Female Cops Talk Fiction vs. Reality — I haven’t read either of these authors, but I’ve often wondered what police officer/detective turned writers.
• Let’s Make A Murder: A Quick & Dirty Guide To Crafting A Whodunnit — Duncan MacMaster writes a great guest post on The Beardy Book Blogger. I know my site skews more to the reader then the writer, but this is a worthwhile post even for us non-practitioners.
• Don Winslow: The Making of a Drug War Epic: A Powerhouse Crime Trilogy Takes on the War on Drugs — another great piece on The Border, a book I’m working really hard to get to.
• What To Do When Your Crazy Thriller Plots Come True: An Author Wrestles With Fiction Becoming Truth — Lee Goldberg talks about his fiction hitting a little to close to home
• Authors, do you know what book bloggers actually do?
• The book of the show of the book – 11 top crime shows, 11 great reads — books based on shows, shows based on books.

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 575 | Elaine Shannon Interview — I haven’t listened to this yet, but how an interview with the writer of Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire be anything but fascinating?

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Border by Don Winslow — the end of the Winslow’s Cartel Trilogy. Looks fantastic. Hope to get to it soon.
• Circle of the Moon by Faith Hunter — The fourth Soulwood novel brings the action. I loved it when I talked about it a few weeks back
• Death & Honey by Deliah S. Dawson, Kevin Hearne, Chuck Wendig — includes novellas by all three. The only one I care about (which might be a mistake) is the Third Oberon’s Murder Mystery!

Busy week around here — heading into the last week of Fahrenbruary and have a few really good books left to talk about. But man, I need to read out of the genre. Still, 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:

• AAP Reports E-Books Sales Fall, Audiobooks Rise — not news to anyone, really (at least anyone who cares about book sales), but worth a glance. 3 years of double-digit growth for Audiobooks? That’s impressive.
• With ‘The Border,’ Don Winslow closes modern literature’s most important crime saga
• ‘The Border’ is Don Winslow’s final chapter in a chilling, timely and seminal drug war trilogy — “The central question of crime fiction is how do you live decently in an indecent world” is a great line. (shocking, I know, that Winslow has great lines)
• See the Cover for Lee Child’s Next Jack Reacher Novel
• Michael Connelly’s Next Harry Bosch Novel Announced (with Details)
• Thrillers and Humor? — Lee Goldberg, who knows a thing or two about both topics (and merging them) — talks at The Poisoned Pen
• Clues That You Are the Unorthodox Detective in a Murder Mystery — I enjoyed this a bit more than I should’ve
• The 23 most unforgettable last sentences in fiction — Opening lines get all the attention, but a good last line? Priceless (but hard to talk about often without ruining a moment for a reader)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Seraphina’s Lament by Sarah Chorn — A beautiful and brutal fantasy about a world dying while ruled by a Stalin-esque figure. I had a few things to say about it earlier this week.
• Immoral Code by Lillian Clark — High Schoolers plan a heist to send a friend to college. I enjoyed it, if you’d care to read more about that.
• Batman: The Court of Owls by Greg Cox — I haven’t read one of these new Batman novels, but have read some good things about them — this one in particular. I’ve always enjoyed the Court of Owls stories, I need to get on to these, tout de suite.
• Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire by Elaine Shannon — a non-fiction account that’s getting praise from the writer of Black Hawk Down, Don Winslow and Dennis Lehane. Reading the description sounds like an overblown crime novel, but knowing it’s not, you may not sleep well after reading this. Go click the link on this one.

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

Busy, busy, busy week around here…not much time for grabbing links for this. And I’m so far behind on the blogs I follow that I don’t want to think of it. Still, I’ve got a few 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:

• Rebecca Solnit’s Lovely Letter to Children About How Books Solace, Empower, and Transform Us
• All the sad young literary fakes — on Dan Mallory and his predecessors
• These Are The Book and Reading Statistics That Show Who Readers Are — the average US male reads for 13 minutes a day. I can’t wrap my brain around that number. That’s less than I do on a coffee break. Not all of the statistics in this BookRiot piece are as depressing.
• “A Novel”: An article — huh. Why we use that stupid phrase on book covers.
• A Sacramento crime reporter compares notes with Scotland’s top crime novelist — A good interview with Ian Rankin.
• ‘Not Famous’ … One Month Later — Matthew Hanover looks back at the first month since he published Not Famous
• Craig Johnson’s 15th Longmire Novel Announced — some details about Land of Wolves, which thankfully brings Walt back to Wyoming.
• Road to Publication — Benedict Jacka gives an update on Fallen, the next Alex Verus book, and a few other things.
• Official Book Trailer for Killer Thriller — Lee Goldberg’s new one looks fun.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon, but we’ll start with one I forgot last week – which is really strange because I’d purchased it a couple of hours earlier that day (primarily for my wife, but still…):
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas — the follow-up to something you probably heard of. The Hate U Give, about a sixteen-year-old would-be rapper. It looks promising — I’m assured by my wife that it’s almost as good as her previous. Works for me.
• Dead Is Beautiful by Jo Perry — I’d hoped to be finished with this by now, but I’m only about one-third done. It’s really, really good. It involves Charlie, his lousy brother, his brother’s horrible wife, a protected tree and a protected owl. Oh, and another ghost that’s mean to Rose. A whole lotta nastiness in this one, but the book itself is good.
• Killer Thriller by Lee Goldberg — Ian Ludlow, the thriller writer whose plots became the inspiration for actual terror attacks is in Hong Kong doing research. But the Chinese government believes he’s a spy working to thwart their plans. Hijinks ensue. Looking forward to this.
• Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker — yes, Tom Baker. I’m guessing this adventure won’t be focusing on Tennant’s or Whittaker’s Doctor (to pull 2 names at random out of the thirteen possible).

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Kanwarpal Singh, sara, Tony H, Simon Veith and K. Alice Compeau for following the blog this week (some interesting links attached to those names…).

(from The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

So the lateness today is intentional, I had to take care of Main Bad Guy‘s post (which you should read, not because I think the post is so good, but the book I’m talking about is). Busy week around here — but good, on the whole. Hope yours is as well. Getting our first real snow of the season right now — odd for it to come so late, but I’m glad we finally got some (I’ll be less glad when I have to leave the house in a couple of hours, but . . . )

On with things — 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:

• There’s no shame in reading whatever books you want – literary snobs be damned — I find a lot of the argumentation here problematic, but it should be talked about. And I agree with her conclusion.
• Meet the Guardian of Grammar Who Wants to Help You Be a Better Writer — the subtitle alone sells me: “Benjamin Dreyer sees language the way an epicure sees food. And he finds sloppiness everywhere he looks.” I’m going to have to track down this book
• Advice to New Bookbloggers — Mrs Blogs the Average Reader has some uncommonly sage advice that even established bloggers might profit from.
• Blog Tours – The Basics — speaking of great blogging advice, this is a very useful post.
• Let’s talk Trigger Warnings. — because what week doesn’t need some controversy from The Tattooed Book Geek?
• Coincidentally enough, a couple of days before I read this, I’d not read but bookmarked this: It’s Official — Trigger Warnings Might Actually Be Harmful
• Black Summer: Cover Reveal! — I honestly don’t care what the cover looks like, as long as I get to spend more time with The Puppet Show‘s Poe and Tilly (one of my favorites from last year), but it is a cool cover — and the blurb is even better.
• The Top 15 Most Lethal Ladies in the Thriller Genre Right Now — very few of these would end up on my list, but this looks like a pretty good one.
• Brilliant Crime Fiction Detectives With Disabilities — A nifty idea for a piece from Novel Suspects, inspired by a longer (and even niftier) piece at Beyond Rivalry
• 50 Fictional Writers, Ranked: The Best and Worst from Literature, Film, & TV — I’m pretty sure I shared this last year when Lit Hub first posted it, but I was reminded of it this week, and its a fun one to go through again.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste — yeah, it was published last year, but the U. S. Edition is available for people who don’t like ordering books from the UK. Neat new cover, too. I talked about it here last year.
• Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond — The true story about what happened to Eleven’s mother. I had this in my hand and put it down today. I’m very curious, but not sure I want to try this. I’m going be looking for reviews on this one. Feel free to point me at some — especially your own!
• One Fatal Mistake by Tom Hunt — another one that I’m curious about, it could be really good. A mother and son cover up an accidental killing, and then things get out of control…

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Kara Skinner, Blood Rose Books, libarah and Matilde Mbulo for following the blog this week.

No intro today — no time for love, Doctor Jones — so let’s cut to it: 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:

• Don’t @ Me: Authors have a good case against people who bad-mouth their books on Twitter, then drag them into the conversation — how is this something we have to say again?
• For Sale: Letters and Illustrations From Dr. Seuss — a collection from 1957 — the year of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat. Now I can’t imagine anyone reading this will be in the market for things like this, but you might want to read about it.
• William Goldman’s Strange, Sad, Captivating Children’s Book About a Girl and Her Blanket — I know I haven’t read everything by Goldman, but I thought I’d heard of almost all of it. Not this one though, would be fun to read.
• How Elan Mastai time-warped his way to a debut novel — if you haven’t read All Our Wrong Todays yet, what is wrong with you? Go read this — maybe this will convince you.
• The Dark and Dreamy Noir of The Great Gatsby: A Crime Reading of Fitzgerald’s Classic — huh
• How Many Books Will You Read Before You Die?
• The Evolution of Harry Bosch — another great Crime Reads piece
• Benedict Jacka has revealed the cover of Fallen, the 10th Alex Verus book. More colors than the first 9. I dig it.
• You Know Your Friends are Readers When… — BookRiot’s list is cute but too short.
• Steve Cavanagh talks about his new book on Ireland AM

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen — One of my favorite of 2019 (which isn’t saying much, I realize, as early as we are) — I can’t stop talking about this one, here’s how I started talking about it on the blog — and if you’re silly enough to talk to me in Real Life, you’ll hear a lot more about it.

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

I almost had this one up in time — but like two other nights this week, I woke up hours after I started a sentence to read utter gibberish on my screen. Maybe next week? (and yes, I’m probably the only one who cares about the time this posts, I realize.)

This week’s list is light on news-y posts and primarily features authors I greatly appreciate sounding off about interesting topics and updates for their fans/readers/etc. Honestly, I prefer weeks like this — a lot of stuff to think about/debate. 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:

• Book clinic: what contemporary literary fiction is uplifting? — on the one hand, I’m not sure I need my literature to be “uplifting” — but I do like the idea of it. Regardless, some interesting looking reads here.
• The Pressure to Continue the Story After the Story — some good stuff from typical font of good stuff, Harry Connolly
• I Write Fiction About Border Crime, But Unlike Trump I Tell the Truth. — The political stuff in this piece by Don Winslow is easy to ignore (I’m not suggesting you should ignore it, but for the purposes of this blog, we’re going to focus on other bits).
• While reading the above, I saw this: If I Hate Violence So Much, Why Do I Love Writing About It? by Adam Sternbergh. I’ve loved his novels — which do feature a lot of violence, so I had to read this (although I could’ve guessed almost everything he said about himself — but still, the “why” is intriguing).
• Lots of Lee Coming Your Way — some updates from one of the favorites around here, Lee Goldberg.
• Exciting news to share on publication day! — M. W. Craven, a new favorite since last summer, has a lot of good news to share on the day his The Puppet Show (which featured prominently on my 2018 wrap up posts) came out in paperback (at least in the UK).
• Ranking Jonathan Tropper’s Novels — Matthew Hanover discusses and ranks Jonathan Tropper’s novels. I could feel Tropper’s influence in Hanover’s work, so this was in my sweet spot (am hoping to do a Tropper re-read later this year, btw). I’d argue about #4’s place on the list, but I think Hanover could convince me to keep it that high. However, he’s dead wrong about #1 and #2 and should flip them after publicly repenting. No sackcloth and ashes required, but . . .

Somehow no books were published this week that piqued my interest. At least not that I saw. Good. Catch up time.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to allmyheroesareweirdos, ladolceamara, William J. Fulton, Shawn P. B. Robinson, Davida Chazan, wanderingminds2019 and Elle for following the blog this week (I think this is my biggest week ever — thanks, guys & gals!).

Remember when this was posted at about the same time every week? Yeah, me neither. On the other hand, I slept well last night. Even if that started well before I was ready/aware of it.

Oh, btw, the whole “Block Editor” thing that WordPress is trying to get me to use — I don’t see the point and man, there’d better be a whole lotta very accessible help files ready to go when they impose this on us w/o the option to go back to the Classic Editor.

With no further ado or delay, 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:

• 7 Reasons Why Reading as a Kid Was the Best: Adult-free reading nooks, never-ending series, school book fairs. What could be better? — this made me think of a comment I saw on a recent post where someone said that as a kid they’d read “all the books in X series” several times as a kid. I couldn’t help thinking — that series started in the 50’s, was still being published in the 80’s (when I “grew out of” them). Yeah, you may have read several — but not the whole series. Kinda miss those kind of series (he says, until he whines about Stephanie Plum again . . . )
• Book Sales Are Soaring—And Not Just the Digital Kind
• The Villainous Bitch Has Become the Most Boring Trend in Literature — I think this has a lot of good things to say, but I don’t quite buy it. What do you think?
• Do you trust bloggers who don’t post negative reviews? — the topic that never dies
• Staying Quirky With Quirk Books — a nice profile of the niche-y publisher
• The Edgar Awards Revisited: The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (Best Novel; 1955) — I’ve mentioned Criminal Element’s new series recently — this is a great example of the value of the series (even if this particular author wasn’t quite as enamored of the book as he “should” have been).
• Michael Connelly’s Five Favorite Crime Novels of All Time — I honestly forgot that Connelly mentioned The Long Goodbye until this moment. A good list, regardless.
• Five Favourite Finished Fantasy Series — good grief — another post from The Tattooed Book Geek this week?
• Friday Favorite Five: Urban Fantasy Series
• 19 Kinds of Reading I’ve Done (that You’ve Done, Too) — blah

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Back Door To Hell by Paul Gadsby — a couple of amateurs try to steal from a crime lord to start their lives. Am thinking the title gives a hint about how that goes.
• Marked by S Andrew Swann– what a fantastic premise — click the link to read it. A detective, magic, time travel and extra-dimensional bad guys.
• Tear It Down by Nick Petrie — my goal of catching up on the Peter Ash series this year just got 384 pages harder.
• Night School: A Reader for Grownups by Zsófia Bán — Click the link to read the description, I can’t do it justice. I’ve only heard good things about this and can easily see it living up to the hype.

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

Just a few 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:

• Lin-Manuel Miranda buys bookshop to save it from closure — sweet little story.
• The Art of the Pan: What’s the Point of a Bad Review in 2019? — Not technically about books/reading — but anyone looking at this space thinks about reviews in general at least a little bit.
• I somehow at various points of the week stumbled onto a theme. We’ll start with: On the Heartbreaking Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books: Summer Brennan Attempts Marie Kondo’s Approach to Tidying Up Her Library — I may have actually shared this back in 2016, I’m too lazy to check.
• What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’ — Anakana Schofield had a very different reaction to Kondo’s advice.
• And finally — try not to get jealous at some of these pics: 10 Famous Book Hoarders — another one I might have shared before, but I ran across it this week again.
• Seanan McGuire‏ prompted fans to hit her up with Toby Daye characters brought to life by memes from The Good Place, which was very fun.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire — the 4th Wayward Children novella, a wonderful story about a very serious girl. I gushed about it a little earlier this week.
• The Burglar by Thomas Perry — a young burglar stumbles onto a murder scene and ends up running for her life. A heckuva thrill-ride. I talked about it last fall a bit.
• The Fall of Io by Wesley Chu — we finally get to return to the war between Prophus and Genjix via Ella and Io. I need to find time to read this soon.

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