Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 49 of 62

Skimpy week, but . . .

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 My Bookshelf Says About Me
• EW‘s The 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017
• The Authors of the Year’s Best SF&F Share Their Favorite Books of 2016 — from B&N’s SF&F blog
• 10 Authors Share the Fictional Families They Want to Spend the Holidays With
• 8 Printable Literary Bookmarks — also from Bookish, I liked a couple of these

Didn’t see any New Releases this week to catch my eye — I guess unless you’re in Iceland, you don’t buy books this week.Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to wildpuppies and Lowlife Magazine for following the blog this week.

The last few Fridays and Saturdays have been so busy, that it feels like this round-up has become an afterthought. It hasn’t — really, it just feels and looks that way. 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:

• Kids start YouTube concert for Worldbuilders — If this doesn’t warm your heart a little, you should consult a cardiologist.
• Rediscovered Books is hosting a book trailer contest — My favorite local indie shop is doing something pretty cool
• I Stopped Tracking My Reading (and Why I’ll Probably Start Again in 2017)
• I Read 52 Books This Year. Here’s What I Learned. — (I know for many readers of this blog 52 seems like a cute little number, but really it’s pretty impressive)
• “Cyber World” anthology brings darkly alluring sci-fi back to the future — The Denver Post gives us a nice profile on that anthology I posted about recently.
• Audible’s Highest Rated Audiobooks of 2016 — #12 is a particular favorite of mine.
• 16 Top Covers for 2016 — well, from those on NetGalley, anyway. Some nice looking books there.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates — ” an anthology of short stories, poetry, and essays . . . Over two dozen authors, ranging from NYT-bestsellers and award winners to debut writers, chose a tired trope or cliche to challenge and surprise readers through their work.” Including several favorites from these parts, like Michael R. Underwood and Anton Strout.

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

Ugh, this has just been a bad week for me keeping things up here — and I’m not sure why, hopefully things will be better this week. By the way, I’m trying the Litsy thing for those who want to see me there — especially those who are fed up with a site that will go unnamed, but rhymes with LookBikes. Look me up by the username IrresponsibleReader.

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:

• Are small publishers doing all the hard work for the big ones? — Interesting.
• California Today: Booksellers See a Threat in New Law — this is the third time I’ve mentioned this since September (or so I think), why do I keep talking about it? Because too often what starts as lunacy there, becomes policy everywhere.
• When You Get to the End of Your Reading List — A struggle I won’t be sharing any time soon — but a nice essay (and nice mention of Tiffany McDaniel’s The Summer that Melted Everything)
• Interview: Alex Bledsoe
• Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2016 — so much TBR fodder.
• 11 Fictional Heroes And Heroines Who Are Actually Terrible People — some of these entries are more amusing than defensible. But amusing works for me.

I actually didn’t see anything that caught my eye on this week’s New Releases lists that caught my eye. Which probably means that I’m overlooking something that’s pure gold.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to duskrider3740 and Shitijsharma for following the blog this week.

Whoops, been silent here for a couple of days and then this thing goes up more than 12 hours late — no, I haven’t abandoned this blog. Just didn’t have a lot of time near my keyboard. 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:

• Anti-racist novel To Kill A Mockingbird and children’s classic Huckleberry Finn are withdrawn from Virginia schools after a parent complains that they contain racial slurs — that’s a really long headline that sums it up pretty well. David Simon’s comment is dead on: ” We are going backwards”
• Bad sex award goes to Italian novelist Erri De Luca — Read on at your own peril — not just for the sex-talk, but man…bad writing. I usually look at the short-list for this award anyway, but having the guys at Two Crime Writers and a Microphone read selections just underlined how bad these were. De Luca deserves this award.
• Speaking of TCWaaM, they talked about this on the most recent episode: A Jane Austen Row Erupts in Britain — good grief.
• Reading Blind is Best: One author on why you should avoid reading the flap copy. — there’s much to be said for this
• Another week, another list: The best crime books and thrillers of 2016 — from The Guardian. Looks like a good list.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham — I liked her semi-autobiographical novel a couple of years ago, I expect I’ll enjoy this volume, too.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to amecipraba, Larissa N. Takahassi, julianrichmonds, Manuel Antao, BrokenTune 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:

• Most Independent Book Stores are small businesses. It’s Small Business Saturday — do the math
• So You Want to Read Urban Fantasy: Here’s Where to Start — Shawn Speakman offers some good (not perfect) advice
• 10 of This Year’s Finest Criminous Tales — From Kirkus Reviews
• 10 Literary Fan Theories That Will Have You Seriously Questioning Everything You’ve Ever Read

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Operator by Kim Harrison — if there’s a version of Earth in the Multiverse where this blog is a force in publishing, Harrison’s Peri Reed Chronicles is a best-selling juggernaut (hopefully, it’s neither the one that Walter-nate or Dr. Zoom is from). Anyway, book 2 is out now, and you should read it.
• The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher — I’m not sure I need another memoir from Fisher after Wishful Drinking, but then again — why not? I’ve also read most of her novels — Fisher’s a far better writer than an actress, and is one of the funniest authors around. I have no idea what she’ll say in this one beyond the Harrison Ford stuff, but it’ll provoke more than a few laughs.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to annmariemcqueen1.

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:

• Worldbuilders 2016 — Patrick Rothfuss announces the beginning of his annual fundraiser for Heifer International.
• You can’t judge a book by its cover – if you’re a robot — The Guardian has a less optimistic take on the algorithm than we saw last week.
• Michael Chabon Is An Underdog On Top Of The World — Chabon is one of those writers whose work fascinates me — I either love the book, or can’t force myself to get to page 50. As a person, he’s about as interesting as the best of his writing.
• Jeff Kinney: ‘I bought a typewriter to try to beat back the distractions of the internet. That lasted about 20 minutes’ — Kinney writes about his process.
• The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2016 — It’s that time of year, apparently. B&N’s SFF blog puts out their year’s best lsit.
• Tom Gauld on literature as the new rock and roll

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon
— and one I missed last week:
• Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken by D. G. Hart — heard about this a couple of days ago, but should’ve mentioned it last week — Hart’s a long-time admirer (well, appreciator) of Mencken, this book is sure to be a provocative (and good) read.
• Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells — a satire about a health and beauty company that makes the ultimate beauty product, or the ultimate weapon.
• Good Behavior by Blake Crouch — the collected adventures of Letty Dobesh were a pretty fun read. (not that anyone asked, but I liked the first episode)
• Then Tweets My Soul: The Best of the Church Curmudgeon by David Regier — should elicit a few chuckles

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to resterrestern (a very thought-provoking blogger) and juliahuynhs (a blog that makes me think of leaving my Hobbit-hole) 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:

• Deep Neural Network Learns to Judge Books by Their Covers — Technologically, this is pretty cool. A little troubling, too.
• How to Care for Old or Valuable Books — BookRiot has some handy advice
• Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, With Horrifying Book Curses — or this might be more your style 🙂
• Ted Chiang, the science fiction genius behind Arrival — Never read Chiang, but a friend was talking him up the other day — apparently, he’s not alone.
• By the Power of Rockstar…I have the POWER! — Oh, we all know this struggle
• 8 Mindbending Facts About Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency — not terribly mindbending, really, but worth a read. I’ve recently read the two Gently novels, need to get my posts up about them, soon.
• You Should Be Reading These Literary Comics: Ideal for That Case of Thinkpiece Fatigue You Just Can’t Shake — from LitHub.com

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Night School by Lee Child — a new Reacher finds him in the late 90s and up to his usual shenanigans
• Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow by Jason Heller, Joshua Viola (eds.) — simply a great anthology of cyberpunk (or just cyber-whatever) stories. My post on it from this week. (link corrected…you’d think I could manage getting my own links right)
• The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer — a Jason Bourne-esque thriller from the lady who wrote some series you may have heard from. I’m not sure I’m going to read this one, but man, I’m intrigued.
• Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonestell — this, and its predecessor, look to be a great combo of SF, military tale and mystery. Why haven’t I been reading these?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to My Thoughts 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:

• Goodreads Choice Awards’ voting is underway, already. Any nominees you really like? (I’m writing in Tiffany McDaniel’s The Summer that Melted Everything for Best Fiction and Best Goodreads Debut)
• The Bronx Loses Its Only Bookstore
• Faith Hunter: 5 ways writing abused … er, changed my life
• Thomas Morris tweets some good (and amusing) advice for those feeling intimidated by great authors
• My Top Five Onscreen Bookworms — good list from BookRiot

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Curse on the Land by Faith Hunter — Great second book in the series. If you missed me blathering on about it, or the book tour stop from a couple of weeks ago, you should check them out.
• The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell — possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve read this year (with the exception of US election coverage), a more developed post is coming.
• Shadowed Souls by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes — looks like a great collection of UF short stories — includes a new Dresden Files story — and a Simon Canderous tale. w00t!
• Burke’s Last Witness by CJ Dunford — Fahrenheit Press’ new release looks like an interesting take on Burke and Hare. Check out the book trailer

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Canary (love the blog’s tag line) and William Duarte 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:

• Not the Booker prize 2016: Tiffany McDaniel wins with The Summer That Melted Everything — Friend of the Blog, Tiffany McDaniel, won The Guardians’ Not the Booker. Congrats!
• What Barnes & Noble Doesn’t Get About Bookstores
• The Sellout rips up rulebook for what award-winning fiction looks like — Does it make me horrible that I’d never heard of this book until this week? I’d say I’d make an effort to fix that soon, but there’s no way it’ll be soon.
• How Paul Beatty’s win shakes the Jonathan Franzen-loving US literati — I’ve read many reactions to this win, this is among the best/most thought-provoking.
• Crime fiction is finally getting the critical respect it deserves — this was written a little earlier, but I appreciated it.
• Otto Penzler: By the Book — If you’re speaking of crime fiction nowadays, the name Otto Penzler should be familiar to you.
• Beyond the Book: Nero Wolfe — I appreciated this quick look at Nero Wolfe and Rex Stout — even if the author called him Nero.
• How The Book World Almost Killed My Love Of Books, and How I Bounced Back
• Author Interview: Michael R. Underwood — blah
• HBO Picks Up ‘Cormoran Strike’ Drama Based On J.K. Rowling’s Crime Novels — I knew BBCOne was working on this, glad to see HBO is involved — will make it easier to watch.
• Awful Titles Famous Authors Almost Gave Their Novels — Wow, some of these titles are horrendous (really, Fitzgerald?)

This Week’s New Release that I took note of:
• The Terranauts by T.C. Boyle — Like every T.C. Boyle book for the last decade and a half or so, this looks like something I want to read and probably won’t.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Laine The Librarian for following the BookLikes version of 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:

• You have one last chance to weigh in: Not the Booker prize 2016: your final judgments, please — Tiffany McDaniel’s The Summer That Melted Everything could use some support.
• The Big Five US Trade Book Publishers — If you want to get an idea how your favorite imprint(s) relate to the Big 5, this’ll help. Fascinating.
• Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers are massive bestsellers. Here’s why they deserve it — Yes.
• The List of Books That Saved My Life
• How Much Beer Does it Take to Get a Hobbit Drunk? — Emily Asher-Perrin answers this vital question
• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency — BBCAmerica’s take on this series premiers tonight — hoping this is good and that it connects with viewers. I had no major problems with (and enjoyed, but didn’t love) the last TV version of this that almost no one seemed to watch, but this one shows promise.
• Bernie Bookworm’s Reading Rules — If you’re reading this post, you can probably relate to much/all of this.