Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 44 of 62

The last two weeks have been fairly quiet around here, sorry about that. I’ve been bizzarely and inexplicably tired lately — literally fell asleep writing 2-3 times this week (and last week, come to think about it). Will try to turn the tide this week…

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:

• Turkish Garbage Collectors Open Library Full of Discarded Books — The feel good story of the month, right there. (also, this website in general looks like a great way for me to lose a few hours)
• Prize launched for thrillers that avoid sexual violence against women — How sad is it that there’s an award for this? Still, good idea. There are times when this kind of story seems to be well-done and non-exploitative, but generally it comes across as a lazy approach to showing how evil someone is.
• Sci-Fi Doesn’t Have to Be Depressing: Welcome to Solarpunk — huh.
• 5 Ways to Give Your Friends the Reading Bug — (starting a book blog works, too)
• Is There Such a Thing as a Good Book Review? And how in the world do you write one? — there’s a reason I try to avoid the “R” word for my blog posts. Good stuff here, really.
• On Themes and the Tufa, Part 1 — I don’t know if I’ll ever tire of talking about the Tufa series, thankfully, Bledsoe likes writing about it, too.
• Judging books by their covers: Five publishing design cliches — Great post (although unfair to Child’s books, which over here don’t fit into #1)
• “She was murdering the language – so he murdered her!” — I less-than-three this so much. I want a print of it hanging somewhere in my house.

No New Releases caught my eye this week, which gives me a chance to catch up/get less-behind (however you want to look at it)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Paula Bardell-Hedley and BookieWookie 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:

• Breaking My Library Habit and Reading My Own Books — I think I can safely admit to having travelled to this location, performed the same actions, and posses the same souvenir garment.
• Speaking of Libraries: Libraries and Authors: A Match Made in Heaven
• These authors risk the wrath of readers to keep book franchises alive — .tucked away in this nice piece about authors continuing series, is the news that Parker’s Sunny Randall series will get a new installment this year from Mike Lupica. Not the guy I’d have gone with, but the Estate seems to know what it’s doing. Honestly, I haven’t read the guy, I know one of my kids had a few of his books
• New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Crais Agrees To New Three-Book Deal With G.P. Putnam’s Sons — Headline tells you pretty much everything in the story (other than the fact that the next novel will be a Joe Pike book)
• Tom Straw, the Author Behind “Castle” — I saw someone called this the worst kept secret in mystery fiction, but the news hadn’t gotten out to my neck of the woods. I didn’t think the books were that great, but I know I’m in the minority. Glad to see him be able to write something with his name on it, though.
• Childhood Adventures in Late-Night Reading — Book Riot again writes the piece I should have. Twice this week.
• Don’t Freak Out, But You Should Probably Read These 729 Books — Whoa! Shades of the Royal Library of Alexandria! This is a huge recommendation list. Whoops! Those who clicked earlier got a quick trip to 404ville. But I fixed the link thanks to Murder by Death.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Darkside Earther by Bradley Horner — The blurb is too long to try to compress, here’s something the author said to sum it up: “It’s Space-Opera, a YA romance, full of virtual worlds and Space Battles.” Also, I can say that Horner knows his stuff –I read his reviews regularly and he knows his genre fiction — if that familiarity is reflected in this story, it’ll be good.
• Iron Gold by Pierce Brown — I thought the Red Rising trilogy ended well, I really didn’t need more in this world — and I”m a little afraid that this is trying to squeeze more out of this story than is good for it. Still, there’s no way that I”m not going to read something that Brown puts out at this point. This takes place a decade or so after Morning Star and has to do with how things turned out after that. I don’t want to know anything else until I read the book, so that’s all I can say 🙂

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Amy Sparks and lynnm2018 for following the blog this week (neither of them had a URL to share, either…not often that happens), hope you like what you read.

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.