Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 44 of 61

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:

• Cover versions: why are UK and US book jackets often so different? — Frankly, I disagree with the story’s take on Clinton’s US cover, but the rest of this is quite interesting. Love reading this kind of thing.
• What Writers Can Learn From Goodnight Moon — Don’t know much about Ng, but I enjoyed this.
• 12 Words with Luca Veste — 1. I think this interview “style” is pretty cool, and I want to go read more of them just for this and 2. Veste is always entertaining. Put the 2 of them together, and you’ve got something.
• 13 Literary Takes on the Lives of Animals — haven’t heard of any of these, but might track a few down
• 10+ Times Writers Took Book Dedications To Another Level —

I wish I knew who was behind some of these, but they’re all worth a read. I knew Derek Landy was funny, didn’t realize he didn’t keep it just to the stories.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen:
• Mysterypod with Ace Atkins — Atkins talks to Stephen Usery about his latest Quinn Colson and Spenser novels, and race relations in the South and Boston.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Paradox Bound by Peter Clines — looks like a fun time travel novel through US history.
• Horizon by Fran Wilde — which serves as a good reminder that I’ve inexplicably not read Cloudbound.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to nishlovepink, foodlove16, Scarletpiper, georgederringer and youngadultallegiance 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:

• How Books Designed for Soldiers’ Pockets Changed Publishing Forever — the more you know . . .
• The Gumshoe Site reports that Reed Farrel Coleman’s Where it Hurts and Joe Ide’s IQ (and 2 things I haven’t heard of) won 2017 Shamus Awards
• Matthew Norman: How I Write — some good snippets from Norman
• The Name’s Wolfe, Nero Wolfe: Rex Stout’s Influence on Ian Fleming — 2 weeks in a row with Wolfe pieces. Do I know how to attract readers or what? Possibly interesting to non-Wolfe readers as well.
• Why You Should Read More Than One Book at a Time — not sure I buy it all, but this is good

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen:
• SYFY25: Origin Stories Podcast with Neil Gaiman — thanks to very effective YouTube advertising, I tried a couple of episodes of Syfy’s Origin Stories podcast. I thought this one with Gaiman was just great.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Web Development (probably not the name he goes by), mitchavanza33, bigpetetafemd75 and One Stop Literary Services 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:

• Indie Booksellers Report Solid Summer Sales — Yay.
• Why Books and Reading Are More Important Than Ever — am not certain More Important is true, but it’s a nice little post.
• Do celebrity book blurbs ‘blackmail’ readers? — good grief.
• Cover Reveal: THE HIDDEN FACE — Friend of the Blog, S. C. Flynn, has a new book coming out and the nifty new cover has been revealed.
• Supanova TV Episode 10 — a nice chat with Patricia Briggs
• In The Spotlight: Don Winslow’s The Dawn Patrol — a good look at my favorite Winslow book.
• 10 Books That Were Written on a Bet

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Hangman’s Sonnet by Reed Farrel Coleman — Coleman continues his excellent run on the Jesse Stone series. Here’s what I had to say about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to The Lyrictrotter 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:

• Claire Messud: ‘Maybe in 50 years there won’t be novels’ — “As her fifth novel is published, the American writer warns that shrinking attention spans could prove the death of long fiction” yeah, okay.
• Seanan McGuire on What She Learned From October
• In the wake of the Game of Thrones finale, indulge in the nostalgia of Dragonlance — I’m not sure I agree with this, but anyone talking Dragonlance gets me happy.
• A Better Place — Jamie Schultz tweeted this link to his new short story. Dug it.
• Reverend Spooner, Father of the Spoonerism — as is the case with every article on Spooner/Spoonerisms, this piece would’ve been better with more examples. Still — a good read.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen:
• Author Stories at Dragon Con – Jim Butcher Q&A Panel — on The Author Stories Podcast this week, they’ve posted a few episodes related to Dragon-Con — including this very entertaining Q&A with Jim Butcher. Got a couple of nice tid-bits about upcoming books, too.

This week was one of those overwhelming weeks with just too much to keep up with — I’d have been sunk if I hadn’t read a couple of these early. Here are the latest batch of New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire — the 11th Toby Daye novel (and 1st Hardcover!) starts a whole new story arc, and . . . wow. It was just so good. Stop reading this and go get it.
• The Western Star by Craig Johnson — have heard Johnson talk about this one in a couple of interviews while writing it, been looking forward to it for months.
• Skyfarer by Joseph Brassey — This Space Opera knocked my socks off — and it will do the same for you, probably. See my original post here.
• Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart — not my favorite of the three Kopp Sisters novels, but that’s more about how good the others were, this story about Constance trying to save three very different young women is worth your time. My post about it is here.
• Sourdough by Robin Sloan — I’ve tried and failed for the last two years to talk about Sloan’s last novel, hopefully I do better with this one. Having seen what he can do with a font, a bookstore and Google — I can’t wait so see what he does with a sourdough starter, the Bay Area and technology.
• Luck Favors the Prepared by Nathaniel Barber — a good collection of short non-fiction stories that are as funny as they are well-written. See the book tour stop promoting the book from this week here.

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

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — fair warning, these are basically all about things I fanboy over. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Teaser Trailer for Plague of Giants — Audiobook narrator extraordinaire Luke Daniels cut together a teaser trailer for the upcoming Kevin Hearne epic fantasy.
• An Addictive Author — Lawrence De Maria has discovered Nero Wolfe and, as all right thinking people do, has become a fan. I loved reading this.
• https://www.eater.com/2017/8/31/16216310/20th-century-detectives-food — Speaking of Wolfe, here’s a very intriguing look at what his food obsession (and that of Wimsey and Poirot) say about the character
• A Journalist at Heart — an interview with Michael Connelly by Alafair Burke (who knows a thing or two about writing mysteries)
• 15 Things You Might Not Know About Dorothy Parker — blah

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo — after the splash the movie made this summer, it’s no surprise that this book is showing up everywhere on all my social media feeds. Oh, and the book looks good, too.
• Kiss The Devil Goodnight by Jonathan Woods — the latest from Fahrenheit Press. I’m not going to even try to say anything about it until it gets read. Just click the link in the title there.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Vinayak Gupta and Matt Cowper for following the blog this week.
(not true about me, it’d ruin the larger book’s binding. . . . philistines)

(I have no explanation for the messed up date in the post title, I’m tempted to try some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey would be-Doctor Who thing, but… Who has time for that? Not going to change it, either, for the sake of external links) 

 Sorry this is late (for those of you waiting on tenterhooks), just one of those days where things got away from me. Thanks in part to taking in The Boise Library Comic Con 2017 with my daughter (who was one of two teen girl cosplaying Castiel there). 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:

• How I Rebuilt My Childhood Library, Book by Book
• ‘Y Is For Yesterday’: Sue Grafton’s Penultimate Mystery Series Novel — NPR interviews Grafton
• Crime Fiction: Sue Grafton Nears the End of Her Alphabet Mysteries — a couple of quick reviews for the new Kinsey Malone and The Driver.
• Seanan McGuire Tells Us Where Dragons Come From — a good little interview
• Twenty Questions with Jeff Noon — another good interview. (note to self: get the new Noon book)

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

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to shellinoutreviews, Nici Copywriter, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Mrinalini Raj and Shelfleigh for following the blog (in one incarnation or another) this week. So many new people, I’m hoping performance anxiety doesn’t set in.

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:

• 2017 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Winners — the worst of the worst.
• The search for the Great American Read is on (again)
• Want Teens To Stop Hating Literature? Let Them Read ‘Filthy’ Books — well this rife with problems or stereotypes.
• How to Read an Entire Book in a Single Day — this seems overly complicated.
• The House at Allen Cove — E. B. White’s house is being put up for sale — looks like the kind of place he should’ve lived. Probably out of my price range.
• Why We Read and Why We Write

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh — Set inside ” a dusty town in the Texas Panhandle cut off from the outside world and populated entirely by former criminals and witnesses put in protective custody. The twist: None of these people know who they are, because all of them have had their memories of their pasts erased.” In this quaint little town, not surprisingly, trouble erupts.
• After On by Rob Reid — his Year Zero was a fun humorous SF look at music and piracy, this Silicon Valley novel about an evil social network looks to be equally fun.
• Urban Enemies edited by Joseph Nassise — short stories from the villain’s point of view from series such as The Dresden Files, Iron Druid Chronicles, Kitty Norville, Toby Daye, Faith Hunter and more.
• A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon — a couple of decades ago, Noon’s Vurt blew my mind, and I haven’t picked up anything by him since. This will hopefully be the end of that annoying trend.

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