Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 47 of 62

Man, I don’t know why I’ve been so quiet lately. I’ve been trying to finish posts this week, but haven’t managed to get anything ready to publish. Which is bad, because I have a backlog of things that I’m very excited to talk about, and I can only do so much at a time.

In the meantime, I did manage to cobble together a list 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:

• The American Writers Museum — opens in Chicago next week. Sounds pretty cool
• Um, what? Bill Clinton And James Patterson Collaborate On A Novel — would’ve loved to have been watching that one being pitched: “Patterson’s got another co-writer? Like he needs another . . . wait, what? Who?”
• Last week, Gibson talked about his upcoming book about her winning in 2016, and this week the headline is: Curtis Sittenfeld is writing a novel about Hillary Rodham not marrying Bill Clinton.
• Here’s What Andy Weir’s New Book ARTEMIS is All About (Exclusive) — Nerdist.com has all the details on Weir’s follow up. Can’t imagine the pressure he’s feeling to try to match the success of The Martian.
• Speaking of high expectation: Presenting Beneath the Sugar Sky, the Third Book of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children Series — before #2 is released, we get the announcement of #3.
• {Aside} Rating On Goodreads Before You’ve Read It. — hear, hear.
• Why You Should Buy A Book Right Now

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Nearly Nero: The Adventures of Claudius Lyon, the Man Who Would Be Wolfe by Loren D. Estleman — a fun, and quirky tribute to Nero Wolfe — and some interesting stories, even without the Wolfe. See my complete thoughts here
• Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart and Spectacular by Mayim Bialik — Okay, I probably won’t read this one, but my daughter might. It could be an interesting (and problematic) take on things.
• The Vinyl Detective – The Run-Out Groove by Andrew Cartmel — this looks quirky enough that I should probably grab it and it’s predecessor. Also, if Ben Aaronovitch recommends it . . .
• Blackwater by GJ Moffat — the latest from Fahrenheit Press looks like a winner.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Abinotronix, martyn james, and Jeyran Main 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:

• Ebooks undermine your freedom and privacy — some thoughts on the problems and disadvantages of ebooks, some I shrugged at, others . . .
• Why you like the smell of old books — “the odors of the past are part of our ‘cultural heritage,’ as important to our understanding and connection with history — and as worthy of preservation — as the relics we can see and touch.” The number of articles on the smell of books I’ve read in the last couple of years is truly mind-boggling, and yet I keep finding them interesting.
• 2 startup founders quietly created the new ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ for millennials — and the publishing industry is obsessed
• Colts Andrew Luck has started a podcast – to talk about books — I know precious little about Luck (except for his appearances on Parks and Recreation), but this sounds pretty cool.
• Brontë Essentials: Six Modern Books Inspired by ‘Jane Eyre’ — This left off a couple (including my favorite — although Jane Steel is on my shelf, so who knows, I may have a new favorite).
• Dennis Lehane Can Relate to His Restless Characters — a nice little profile just before the new book hits shelves.
• 9 Ways Reading Is Good For Your Mental Health — blah
• How Long Did it Take Authors to Write Your Favorite Book?

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen:
• The Once and Future Podcast Ep. 152: Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant was very interesting — two of my faves on one episode.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies by Ace Atkins — one of Atkins’ best Spenser novels, my blog post on it
• Cold Reign by Faith Hunter — Jane Yellowrock’s latest really rocked. Read my take on it.
• The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan — the 2nd installment of the Apollo’s search for redemption.
• The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion — I had serious problems with this one, as you can read here, but there’s no denying that Simsion can write a compelling character (or two).
• Tune Up by Joe Klinger — Klinger was the 2nd author I interviewed, and his answers remain one of my favorites. I’ve had the predecessor to this sitting on my Kindle for over a year. Hopefully having this one on the Kindle, too, will get me moving.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to J. A. Allen 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:

• It’s Independent Bookstore Day — go support your local store!
• Granta’s list of the best young American novelists — have heard of some of these, but I haven’t read any. I probably should — and might — but not yet. LitHub added 10 More of the Best Young American Novelists who are somehow even more obscure. The Guardian asks what does Granta’s best young authors list say about America? I am not that convinced, but it’s interesting to think about
• The 13 Books Adults Are Most Likely To Lie About Having Read, According To A New Study
• Déjà lu — on the pleasures of rereading
• Michael Mann Sets Bestselling Author Reed Farrel Coleman To Co-Write ‘Heat’ Prequel Novel — whoo-hoo!
• Sci-Fi Writer William Gibson Reimagines the World After the 2016 Election — ehhh, not so sure about this…
• An Interview with Jonathan Tropper
• Method writing: walking in Lori Anderson’s shoes — about the writing of Deep Down Dead
• Bookstore Trolls Piers Morgan, Tweets Entirety Of ‘Harry Potter’ At Him — I somehow missed this back when it happened — but at least I got to chuckle about it now.

A Couple of Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen:
• On the latest Crime Time Podcast, Lee and Eddie end the show with the beginning (I hope) of a discussion on writers focusing on the gory parts of murder scenes — particularly featuring female victims.
• This week’s Two Crime Writers and a Microphone has an interview with novelist, and first-time Crime writer, Harry Brett. Brett also teaches in MFA programs and hearing his thoughts on the genre is thought-provoking (and the kind of thing I want to shove down the throats of all my “don’t you read real literature” friends?).

There was only one New Release This Week that caught my eye, but next week has a bumper crop — don’t despair:
• A Rare Book Of Cunning Device by Ben Aaronovitch and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith — an audio-only Peter Grant/Rivers of London short story. I listened to it yesterday and thought it was pretty fun.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to passmethatbook (am sure with a moniker like that there’s a blog attached, but I didn’t get a URL with the follow notification) and Tannat for following the blog (in one form or another) this week.

Another long week — so this is late again. Hopefully back to normal last week. Maybe even with more things to read for you here. Still, here are the ddds ‘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 Write About Family, Men Write About War
• Fictional Drugs of Literature, Ranked — The bookish way to commemorate 4/20 (not that I’m suggesting anything). I forgot all about Gun, With Occasional Music and Dylar.
• 13 Authors Who Hit the Big Time (After they Died) — this week’s infographic is pretty interesting.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Lois Lane: Triple Threat by Gwenda Bond — not only does this look good, but it reminds me that I never got around to reading Double Down last year. Oops. YA Lois Lane is back in action — and maybe gets to meet SmallvilleGuy in the flesh.

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

Just 3 things in the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. Only 3? I guess everyone’s doing their taxes or something (I was sure I had more things in the queue, but . . . ) You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Let’s Talk (in Library Code)! — been awhile since I shared something from BookRiot, this was cute enough to be sure to pass along./li>
• Simpletons Make the Scariest Villains of All — I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by this, but Klingborg is on to something here.
• How Long Does It Take to Read Popular Books? — a nifty infographic

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (and one I forgot about last week):
• Betrayed by Karen E. Olson — Tina Adler — hacker turned fugitive turned . . . well, we’ll see — is back for her third adventure. Really looking forward to this one.
• Black Fall by D, H, Bodden — the first of the Black Year series — a YA Urban Fantasy that impressed me. Hopefully you’ll see a post about it early next week!

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to nzfnmblog and writerlady 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 I’m really thinking: the failed novelist — what a whiny, entitled piece. I actually have a lot more I want to say (like everyone online who’s read this), but I think Joe Zieja probably summed up the reactions best in his post.
• The Longest Winter: Or Why It Took Me 15 Years to Finish My Novel Max Winter wasn’t writing in reaction to the Guardian piece, but he might as well have.
• Coming Soon: Shadow Ops: Reawakening Nocturnal Media announces a miniature based strategy board game based on Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops novels!
• The Dresden Files – A Wizard And The World Around Him — I’m not sure I can disagree with this
• The 20 Most Popular Books Throughout History — from Electric Lit

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Bound by Benedict Jacka — yahoo! The 8th Alex Verus novel is here — the worst thing I can say about the last two books I’ve read is that they’ve blocked me from this one (library due dates and whatnot). There are few (2, maybe 3) Urban Fantasy series out there as compelling as this one — if you haven’t tried them, you really should.

The last week of the month is so difficult now to find stuff worth posting, I’m not sure why that is. 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:

• The World’s Highest Paid Authors — Most of these seem like no brain-ers, but there are a couple of names that surprised me. I knew Riordan was a big deal, but Martin/Dan Brown numbers? Nice. The real eyebrow-raiser is the gap between Patterson and the rest.
• Dames, detectives and dope: why we still love hardboiled crime — one writer’s take on why the current cultural climate is seeing a resurgence of hardboiled fiction
• 15 of Your Favorite First Lines from Books Published in the Last Five Years — assembled by Goodreads (odd to see …and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone listed as a classic)
• I Will Never Hire Children Living in a Boxcar to Solve a Mystery Again — McSweeny’s brings us this by Kathleen Toohill — funniest thing I read all week, easy. (HT:Fahrenheit Press
• The Write Stuff — The semi-biographical semi-true story of a fantasy writer’s journey into madness. A Webcomic by blog favorite, Anton Strout.

There was only one New Releases that caught my eye this week:
• The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History by Jon Morris — 100 of the strangest/silliest Supervillains in the history of comics.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Adam Harkus (a blog my two young guitarists will love), Christy Luis (nice blog to browse, btw), and kirilson for following the blog this week.

Yeah, it got quiet around here this week — I’ve got 2 books that I’m excited to talk about, a couple of more that I really want to talk about . .. and a couple of “contractual obligation” books (even if the contract’s just with me). Basically too many books to blog about to be quiet — but man, I’m tired. Inexplicably so. Anyway, keep checking, I’ll get underway again soon. I do have a handful of partially written posts, just have to figure out how to end them.

Enough about me, 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 mystery of the steak sauce in the library (hint: Make it A.1.)
• ‘Untalented’ crime writers respond to their No 1 critic — blah Fahrenheit Press‏’ response might be the best.
• How celebrity deals are shutting children’s authors out of their own trade
• The Best Bookstore in Every State — They got Idaho’s right (but there is some good competition). How’d they do in your state?
• How Many Books Will You Read Before You Die? — LitHub has answers to this vital question
• This Bookstore’s Clickbait Headlines on Facebook Are Actually the Plots of Classic Novels

A Couple of Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen:
• Reed Farrel Coleman – What You Break — Stephen Usery’s interview with Reed Farrel Coleman is great.
• This week’s Two Crime Writers and a Microphone is loads of fun — starting with the interview with Russel D McLean. I can’t imagine anyone can listen to his pitch for his new novel, Ed’s Dead and not rush to buy it. I couldn’t.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Chalk by Paul Cornell — there’s magic, bullying and a look at Thatcher’s England from the pen of one of the better authors around.
• The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi — the beginning of a new space opera series

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Let’s Read Something New and publishquest2017 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:

• J.K. Rowling sends fans on hilarious hunt for new Cormoran Strike book title
• Celebrate indie bookstores with ‘Kindred Spirits’ — A nifty sounding Rainbow Rowell Star Wars-fan story will be available on Independent Bookstore Day
• title — First: I find the idea behind this blog fantastic and really wish I’d come up with it myself. Second: this post with Alex Bledsoe about casting the Tufa is great (but Melissa Benoist and Mandalay? Really??!?! I mean, it’s hard to say that an author’s wrong about his creation, but, dude . . . . )
• Speaking of casting, Michael Connelly talks about Bringing Bosch to Life which did a pretty good job of casting (and other things)
• Danielle Steel Loves the Weather and Elmore Leonard Hates Exclamation Points: Literature by the Numbers — I linked to another article about Ben Blatt’s new book last week, this is a bit more in-depth, and underlines the message to me: I need to read this book.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Hack by Duncan MacMaster — very excited about this Mystery novel about a Ghost Writer who watched as his client was murdered and found himself a target as well. I blogged about this yesterday, and the author was nice enough to A a few of my Qs.
• The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone — I was excited when I saw this on the release list this week — the first book in this series was so fun, I hope this is almost as good.
• Dragonwatch by Brandon Mull — Really, the last thing the world needed was a sequel to the Fablehaven series. But something tells me that if Mull’s returned to the series after this long, it’s going to be worth it. My kids who read Fablehaven are too old for this, I’m going to have a hard time justifying this, but curiosity is a strong thing . . .
• Got Hope by Michael Darling — Goethe “Got” Luck is back for Round 2 in the Urban Fantasy series. The debut rocked, I have high hopes for this.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Genre Book Reviews and gencyazarlarklubu for following the blog this week.

Been one of those days, but it’s still Saturday, so posting it still counts 🙂

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 the Hitchhiker’s Guide can make the world a better place
• One other way to help make the world a better place, at least a little: comes from this tweet reminder — from Harry Connolly
• From ‘alibi’ to ‘mauve’: what famous writers’ most used words say about them — a fun little read
• Interview: the Lucky Nows — Alex Bledsoe talks about getting someone to write a song for the new Tufa novel and then interviews them.
• 10 Characters in the Mercy Thompson Series You Absolutely Must Meet — B&N’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog has a good piece in honor of the new Mercy book this week.
• INFOGRAPHIC: The Salaries of Famous Fictional Characters — an odd selection of characters in this Infographic featured on Electric Literature.

A Couple of Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen:
• Alan Dean Foster was interviewed on Hank Garner’s Author Stories podcast this week — some fascinating stuff from an author I’m sure you’ve read a little of.
• The Writers Panel #319: Christine Lennon/Bob Daily, features some good stuff — I really liked what Daily said about characters/scenes (have used it a little already in looking at books). The story about getting his job on Frasier is pretty good, too, albeit off-topic for this blog.

After a couple of slow weeks on the New Release front, we get hit with this one…leading to: Bledsoe’s right. Get to work, people. This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon are a good place to start:
• Gather Her Round by Alex Bledsoe — the fifth Tufa novel looks to be the darkest so far. Really looking forward to this.
• Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs — I’m almost halfway done with this, and it’s a good one, folks (shock). Mercy’s kidnapped by a vampire, and well, Adam’s trying not to kill everyone in sight.
• Magic for Nothing by Seanan McGuire — the new InCryptid novel is from Antimony’s point of view, and she’s getting to deal with the fallout from Verity’s live television surprise at the end of Chaos Choreography.
• How the Hell Did This Happen? The 2016 Presidential Election by P. J. O’Rourke — title says it all, don’t it?
• Say Nothing by Brad Parks — Parks’ first stand-alone is fantastic. Read my full take here.
• Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells — SF world, Biker Gang, and some strange sort of magic. Cool book. My full take on this one is right here.

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