Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 48 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:

• Publishing industry’s ‘Super Thursday’ to see more than 500 books published — Wow. Hope this is limited to the U.K. — don’t think my wallet could handle it if this happened here.
• ‘Ready Player One’ Author Ernest Cline Seals Monster Deal For Next Book — Cline’s making the big bucks for his next book, and the movie rights. It’d be easy to be cynical here, or make the cheap joke — but you know what? Good for him. Not a lot of people (other than John Scalzi or Richard Castle) seem to be making money these days writing books, glad someone is.
• 7 Little Known Facts About William Goldman’s The Princess Bride — Goodreads blog post has a few nice nuggets — haven’t done #7 yet, but looking forward to it.
• What I learned from reading debut novels — the exercise helped young writer Harry Connolly, but it’s important for readers to understand the same point when picking their reads.
• 50 Things You Can Skip So You Can Read More — handy and helpful

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire — the good folks from the ATI Management Bureau continue their fight against memetic incursions. Which is more fun than it sounds.
• You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day — It’s Felicia Day. Do I need to say more? eh, I’ll let Patrick Rothfuss’ review do the talking.
• Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner — B&N Reads gives 4 Reasons to Fall for Jennifer Weiner’s Who Do You Love
• The End of All Things by John Scalzi — The Old Man’s War saga continues.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to The Historical Diaries, Justin Whitehouse and Sarah Johansson for following the blog this week.

Image credit: Grammarly

So, I’ve done a little more site maintenance/upgrades this week — I’ve posted a blogroll. If yours is there, I hope it generates a view or three for you. If yours isn’t, and you want it there — just let me know (and I apologize in advance). Also, I’ve started writing little “Author 101” type entries for the authors I seem to spend a lot of time/attention on (linked in the menu above). So far, I’ve completed the V-Z section. All two authors.

As part of this work, I’ve been looking over old posts, seeing what I’ve written about Author X and so on. I keep noticing things that blow my mind — for example, I find it hard to believe that I’ve only blogged about 3 books by Rick Riordan, when I’ve read 20! There are several other authors like that — but then I have to remember that I’ve only been doing this for a couple of years, and I’ve been reading him for 7 years or so.

Enough blather from me, let’s get on to 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:

• Husband Gives Away Beloved Book, Judy Blume Saves the Day — Because everybody didn’t already love Judy Blume.
• Meet the male writers who hide their gender to attract female readers — Huh. Really?
• How Sex Talk in Literature Has Changed Over 200 Years
• Can a Virtuous Character Be Interesting? — an interesting debate
• Speaking of character, Michael Koryta has a good Note on Character and Voice
• 8 Nonfiction Recommendations for Fiction Fans — I need to work more NF into my reading, these look promising
• 7 TV Characters I Want to Write Books — Yes. I’d read all of these. I’d buy all of these — in hardcover.
• 5 Common Reading Mistakes You’re Making That Could Ruin Your Literary Life — A good mix of nonsense and good advice
• 12 Signs You’ve Been Binge-Reading — Or, 12 signs you’re me.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Kitty Saves the World by Carrie Vaughn — Time to say good-bye to Kitty. (Sniff). But what a way to end a series — if you missed it, I reviewed it here.
• Veiled by Benedict Jacka — looks like things are getting serious in Alex Verus’ world (not that I thought life was unicorns and rainbows for him before)
• Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat by Anastacia Marx de Salcedo — This book looks great, but man…I tell you, I’m not sure I want to learn what she has to say.
• School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough — something lighter from McCullough should be fun, and I like the premise. It’s YA, so I’ll have to get it for one of my kids as a cover 🙂
• Con Academy by Joe Schreiber — a couple of years ago, I read one of Schreiber’s books in one sitting — was fast, action-packed and fun. This looks like it’ll have a lot of the same things working for it. Should be a quick, entertaining read.
• Whirligig by Magnus Macintyre — amusing-looking mystery set in the Scotland.
• A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories by Paul Cornell — It’s Cornell, these have to be worth a glance.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to enthrallingdimple for following the blog this week. Thanks to sp for the interaction – not long to wait, sp! And a big thanks to Andy Abramowitz for the kind words and signal boost.

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’ve posted a couple of times about the delays for the next Robert Crais. Doesn’t look like I have to do that again. He posted a picture of the reformatted bound manuscript to Facebook this week. Phew!
• How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health — The only thing more interesting than this piece (for me) is how many people I’ve seen linking it from all sorts of walks of life. In case you’re thinking it’s a bit too long to read, David Murray summarizes it.
• We’ve got a few lists this week:
  • BookBub runs down 14 Must-Read Novels About Books — I need to read more of these.
  • The Twenty Five Best Crime Novels of All Time — I’ve done better with this list (still could do better)
  • 12 Contemporary Novels Inspired by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ — some of these seem like a stretch when it comes to “inspired by”, but…what do I know? I’ve read only one of them.
  • 19 famous writers who came alive on film — I’ve got a couple of others that I’d throw on this list, but…hey, it’s good.
  • Let’s Celebrate the Best Morons in Literature — short list, but some good morons. Can we still safely use that word?

• The Drake & Zeke Show from 07/20/15 — This interview with Ace Atkins is supposed to be really good. Hoping to get into it soon.
• Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita by Robert Roper – review — Not sure I’m up for an entire book along these lines, but this review is a good read
• 8 Reasons Ernest Cline’s Armada Is Nothing Like Ready Player One (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing) –This is a good list-y review of Armada.
• A photo of Tolkien’s first page of The Lord of the Rings — not sure which is more impressive, Tolkien’s talent or his printing. I envy both.
• Memorable Animals from Literature — this infographic is a good start, but I’d like to see it expanded.

Just a couple of New Releases This Week that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Crooked by Austin Grossman — Lovecraftian Nixon? I’m not sure this is my thing, but I’ll probably give it a shot.
• Half a War by Joe Abercrombie — The Shattered Sea concludes. Still meaning to read the first volume of this series; and I guess volume two, too.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Themis-Athena’s Garden of Books, Grimlock ♥ Deadpool, Paul Read or Dead, Constantly Moving the Bookmark (which might be my favorite blog name in weeks), The Primroses Were Over, Book Cupidity, and Jessica’s Book Thoughts for following the booklikes version of blog this week – quite the bumper crop, actually.

Been reading a book this week that I’m really not enjoying. Which has made it hard to write — it has helped me spend more time tweaking the coding and features, etc. of this site, though. Anything rather than read that book. You ever have weeks like that? Worst of it is, I think it’s probably a really good book. I just couldn’t stand it.

Anyway, in response to some reader suggestions and requests (okay, one suggestion and one request), I’ve made it easier to find books by rankings, now and I’ve made some real headway on better organizing reviews by author (at least the ones I talk about frequently) and I’m also going to include a little introduction to each.

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:

• To Parents: Keep Reading Out Loud — Short. Sweet. To the Point. Oh, and right as rain.
• Getting Medieval on George R. R. Martin — Michael Livingston takes a quick stab at answering the question: How medieval is Game of Thrones?
• Weapons and Tactics in Fantasy Warfare — as long as we’re getting analytical with Fantasy, might as well go full-bore. I’m not sure how much of this I really understood, but it’s good.
• Mary Shelley: Meet The Teenage Girl Who Invented Science Fiction — a nice profile of Shelley
• 10 of the Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time — Goodreads lists some really nice listening material. I should probably grab some of these.
• Along those lines, Bookbub (haven’t dipped into their pool for awhile) lists 12 Movies That Actually Lived Up To Their Books
• A few nice interviews this week:
• Ace Atkins: The Deep South’s True Detective
• Sue Grafton: By the Book
• Working Girl: Janet Evanovich
• An interview with Alex Bledsoe, author of Long Black Curl (Tufa) — might as well throw in a fantasy author while we’re at it, right?
• A Modest Proposal for 7 Alternative Shelving Systems — I know this is a humor piece, but some of these give me hives.
• Music As Magic by Alex Bledsoe — Long Black Curl is on the top of my “Finish the Post” list (sadly, has been for awhile), you should all read it. Really. As proof, read this. The man knows what he’s talking about.
• Back to drafting new fiction — Connolly’s working on something new? Best news I read this week.
• 20 Surprisingly Profound Quotes From Fantasy & SciFi — some good lines here.

Small list of New Releases this week. Phew! My TBR pile is huge after the last couple of the weeks, need a light one (and I’m not just talking that impossibly long list I keep on Goodreads and Amazon — I’m talking my literal pile, too). But what we have is going to be so, so good. Here’s This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Redeemers by Ace Atkins — Quinn Colson returns and finds some sort of trouble — couldn’t tell you what, not going to bother reading the blurb, just going to jump in.
• Who Let the Dog Out by David Rosenfelt — uh oh, trouble at Andy and Willie’s dog rescue operation?
• Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by David Rosenfelt — because why should Rosenfelt only publish one book this week? Some of what the real Tara taught Andy Carpenter’s creator.

This is one of those weeks where I’ve been working a lot here — and frustratingly enough, you can’t see it. I’ll try to finish a few things next week. Reading so many good things lately, I want to share them with you.

In the meantime, 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 Art and Science of the TBR Pile — Alexandra Gekas has a nice piece on creating a To Be Read pile. I have one physical and two virtual lists. All of which are so long, I need her advice. Or more hours in the day. Or unemployment.
• Yes, that last one was a test to see if Mrs. Irresponsible Reader reads this post.
• On a related note, SF Signal’s Mind Meld this week asks the question: How Do You Choose Your Next Read?
• The Guardian reviews The Brontë Cabinet — interesting looking.
• The Vikings are Coming! — it’s not really news, but it’s nice to see someone other than Riordan/his publisher talking about his upcoming series. Time to get ready.
• Interview with Ernest Cline on His New Book “Armada” — You (hopefully) noticed that I liked this book, this is a nice interview to go along with it.
• Questions From a Kid: Norton Juster — a nice little kid interviews The Phantom Tollbooth‘s author
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy Family Feud Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2015 — Patrick Rothfuss, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Ernest Cline, Chuck Wendig, Leigh Bardugo, and Austin Grossman get together for a nerd version of Family Feud at San Diego Comic Con 2015. I haven’t watched it all yet, but it’s fun so far.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee — maybe you’ve heard of it
• Armada by Ernest Cline — Loved it — you should buy it (and read my take on it)
• Scents and Sensibility by Spencer Quinn — Just finished this — so, so good. Chet and Bernie are at their best here.
• Hostile Takeover by Shane Kuhn — I frankly didn’t see the need for a sequel to The Intern’s Handbook, but man I’m looking forward to it.
• Last First Snow by Max Gladstone — The looks just as good and unconventional as the rest of this sequence.
• Cold Iron by Stina Leicht — wasn’t that interested (not disinterested, mind you) until I read her Big Idea over at Whatever, and now it’s on my short list.
• Alive by Scott Sigler — Book One of the Generations Trilogy. Looks interesting, I know at least one of my kids is going to be wanting this
• Once Upon a Crime: by P. J. Brackston — Gretel (of Hans and…) is a P.I. Huh.
• Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor — this First Contact tale looks a little…different.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Michelle Kim for following the blog this week, and to The Reader Who Lives a Thousand Lives for following the ugly BookLikes version.

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:

• With June behind us, Paste has compiled lists of the Best (so far) of 2015 in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Book Covers. There’s more overlap between those lists than you’d expect. Oddly enough, I’m more drawn to the Non-Fiction list than the Fiction.
• Books You Can’t Bring Yourself to Read — there’s a lot to Elizabeth Bluemle’s piece that resonates with me.
• I saw a couple of interviews for favorites around here this week: Wesley Chu over at Fantasy Faction.
• Then, Lee Goldberg talks about his start.
• Famous schools from fiction — a nifty infographic
• 11 Charts That Accurately Sum Up Being A Book Nerd — My mind in chart form.
• The Book Nerd’s Guide to Avoiding Social Engagements — Another helpful post from B&N Reads. I’m not saying I’ll employ some of these today, but I’m also not saying I won’t.

A good crop of New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon — but next week’s list is gonna be a killer (literally, if I was able to get my hands on everything I want next Tues.):
• Splintered by Jamie Schultz — the really strong second volume of the Arcane Underground series. I got wordy about it here.
• The Fraud by Brad Parks — the 6^th Carter Ross mystery looks to be a great read — Parks has become one of those authors I just grab automatically — don’t care what the book is about, I’m reading it if he wrote it.
• Time Salvager by Wesley Chu — I have little patience for time travel stories (with a couple of notable exceptions), but Chu’s setup is one that really appeals to me. Will be diving into this one ASAP. Check out his Big Idea from Whatever.
• Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine — love the premise. Am eager to see if the book can live up to it.
• Letters to Zell by Camille Griep — this alternative take on fairy tales looks promising.
• The Six by Mark Alpert — there looks to be a hard-SF bent to this YA SF about terminally ill teens piloting combat robots.
• Bum Rap by Paul Levine — I was a huge fan of Levine’s Solomon vs. Lord series, but was never inclined to check out the Jake Lassiter books. This crossover between the two just might give me the excuse.
• Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer — looks to be as inventive and fun as his Magic 2.0 series.

Not too many odds ‘n ends over this week about books and reading that caught my eye — a combination of the end of the month and the holiday weekend, I think. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Sunset and Sunrise on Bleak Horizons: The State of the Revisionist Western — Electric Literature looks at that most American of genres — the Western and modern takes on it. Not enough to get me all that interested in any form of the Western, but I might try one or two of these.
• Patrick Rothfuss and Max Temkin launched a podcast this week — not sure what the future will hold, but given the hosts, it should be interesting. The first episode was good. Also, I posted the trailer for this last week, but the first episode of The Cornell Collective was posted yesterday, I’m about half done and am enjoying it.
• Sherlock Holmes: examining the evidence – in charts — The Guardian posted a very nice looking — and thorough — set of infographics on everyone’s favorite consulting detective.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms — It’s described as “a superhero novel, a pulp fantasy novel, with lashings of kung fu, immense kick-ass dragons and an unfailingly sympathetic heroine.” What more do you want?
• Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer and August Cole — sounds fascinating, but, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep again if I read it. Here’s The Big Idea from Whatever.
• Linesman by S. K. Dunstall — nifty looking SF. We’ve got another The Big Idea post for this one, too.

Been one of those weeks where it doesn’t look like I’m doing much here, but really, it’s just a few posts that were harder than I expected. Still, should’ve scheduled the Longmire post for later in the week to spread things out. I expect next week to go better (still, am hoping for a couple of good, but simple, books to blog about).

Here are the odds ‘n ends from this week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• The crisis in non-fiction publishing — I didn’t realize (probably should have) things were that grim for NF publishing. Still, there’s a silver lining here.
• Bookstores Won’t Go the Way of Video Stores — Need this post after the last.
• Outstanding paper on the impact of ebook DRM on readers, writers, publishers and distributors — Cory Doctorow points to a paper on DRM.
• A Book Buyer’s Lament — Amen.
• A History of Noms De Plume — this week’s infographic focuses on Pen Names. Interesting stuff.
• The Cornell Collective – Trailer — Paul Cornell is going to have a podcast, great, don’t have enough of those.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Cartel by Don Winslow — I haven’t read The Power of the Dog, but man…this sequel sounds great.
• Tin Men by Christopher Golden — Looks like this military SF novel is full of action and style.
• The Leveller by Julia Durango — just a killer premise, not sure the novel itself would be my cup of tea, but the setup sounds fantastic.

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:

• Penguin Random House COO on What Has Changed in Book Publishing and What Has Stayed the Same
• Telling Stories About Magic In A World Of Science — Who other than Forbes magazine would put up this fascinating look at magic in UF/Fantasy and how it relates to science. Wait a second, Forbes?
• Available only in bookshops – a magical voyage of discovery — A nice tribute to real bookstores
• Killer timing: why comedy and crime writing share a secret weapon — another Guardian piece, this time on the link between writing crime and comedy, not something people usually think of in those terms.
• 5 Gateway Science-Fiction Books for Non-Fans — at Kirkus, SF Signal‘s John DeNardo lists some accessible titles for non-SF fans (including Clines’ The Fold)
• Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series lives on — another Parker fan happy about Atkins’ work
• 50 Shades from the man’s point of view? Now let’s hear Moby Dick’s side of things — The Guardian has a small wish list of books from other perspectives
• Lastly, we recently looked at an infographic about how long it takes to read some well-known books. The same people have come along with How Long It Takes Kids to Read Popular Books. Looks nifty, and I was surprised by a few of these, actually (I vastly under- or over- estimated).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flett-Giordano — TV comedy writer turns to mystery novels, looks promising.
• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari — a combination of research into modern relationships and Ansari’s humor, I’ve been hearing about this one for awhile.
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins — his take on a magic library sounds… fascinating and disturbing. Here’s his Big Idea post.
• Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow — a series of conversations between Apatow and some of the funniest people in contemporary comedy

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 Blame Amazon For Dumbing Down Literature — I know a few of you took umbrage with the Le Guin piece I posted last week. Stephen L. Carter (among others) did, too. Here’s his response.
• Can Reading Make You Happier? — This New Yorker piece takes a stab at that question
• How the Modern Detective Novel Was Born — Edwards’ article whets the appetite for the book on the same subject
• A Crib Sheet of Classic Literary References — handy little list from the B&N Blog
• Let’s Talk Numbers: Reader Retention Rates Across a Series — Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach and her husband get all analytical about sales numbers for series.
• Rowling Reveals U.S. Version Of Wizards’ School — yeah, this is pretty empty, really — just buzz for the upcoming flick. But hey…it’s nice to know she thought of us.
• Tufa Tales: Appalachian Fae — an album inspired by the great Tufa novels by Alex Bledsoe (probably see a post about the new novel next week, if I can allow myself to finish it — I sort of never want the book to end)

I didn’t notice any New Release this week that really piqued my interest. Next week looks good, though.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Never let the truth get in the way of a good story for following the booklikes version of the blog this week.