Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 49 of 62

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:

• Revealing A Plague of Giants — A cover for Kevin Hearne’s upcoming epic fantasy. Oooooohhhhh….
• Michael Connelly to publish next Bosch book and begin new series in 2017 — if that headline isn’t enough to get you clicking, nothing I say will
• Patrick Rothfuss Announces The Name of the Wind Tenth Anniversary Edition and Shares Updates on The Kingkiller Chronicle Book 3 — if that headline isn’t enough to . . . . etc.
• Editor Anne Sowards On Working With Patricia Briggs — about Briggs, Mercy and the upcoming Mercy . . .
• FIVE HABITS of an Efficient Reader — The best part of the Confessions of a Readaholic blog joining Facebook is that he’s posting links to old posts like this one that I haven’t seen before.
• The Book That Scared Me — Brad Parks talks about his upcoming book — which I’ve been trying to write about for a week (stupid Influenza B, etc.) IT’S (almost) INDESCRIBABLY GOOD. This essay by Parks should get you interested in his book.
• Top 3 Reasons Why Thrillers are the Ultimate Comfort Read — blah
• Breaking Barriers: Against Restoring Monarchy in Epic Fantasy — I didn’t mean to lean on Tor.Com so much this week, but Thoraiya Dyer’s piece was good enough I had to.
• The Two Sides of Every Heart a Doorway/a> — I had very similar thoughts a time or two while reading McGuire’s book — but then got swept up in the story and forgot about it. Really wish I’d written 94% of this post myself. Thankfully Alex Bledsoe did.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch — Peter, Nightingale, Walid, Bev and the rest of the whole gang are back (plus some new faces). In case you missed it, here’s my $.02 about it .
• Wires and Nerve: Volume 1 by Marissa Meyer — a graphic novel about Iko from the Lunar Chronicles.
• Six Wakes by Mur Laferty — a gripping (looking) murder mystery in space. With clones. ’nuff said.
• Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough — I can’t stop hearing great things about this thriller (especially from the folks at Two Crime Writers and a Microphone who devoted an entire episode to talking about the book).

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

Thanks to those who left comments/got a hold of me about that update earlier this week — he’s doing better now, and was discharged.

Here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — I’m on a hotel wifi, which is spotty (is that a tautology?), so between the distractions this week and the wifi, this might be brief. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• The husband of best-selling author Patricia Briggs died unexpectedly early Monday morning — simply tragic.
• ‘New York Times’ Cuts a Range of Bestseller Lists — hmm
• When Books Die, All at Once — which is not really related to the above
• The Physical Book Will Surely Endure: But Will It Endure for the Right Reason? — worth the click if only for the pull quote at the top of the page
• Anaïs Nin on How Reading Awakens Us from the Slumber of Almost-Living
• Hi, I’m a Book Addict — I doubt anyone reading this can identify
• 10+ Cool Bookends We Made For Cool People Who Love Books
• 10 Reasons People Who Read Books Are Just Better

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to bettybookreviews and BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BOOK BLOG for following the blog (in one form or another) this week — both look like nifty book blogs. Thanks also to Nothing better than a good book… for the encouraging words.

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 Edgar® Awards’ Nominees — there’s some really good reads/watches here.
• 5 Things My Six-Month Long Reading Slump Taught Me
• Kevin Hearne revealed the spiffy cover for Besieged, a collection of Iron Druid short stories, coming this summer.
• Next week, I’ll be hosting a Book Tour stop for Carrie Vaughn’s new book, Martians Abroad, but here’s are couple of reviews for the book to tide you over one from NPR and one from B&N’s SF&F blog.
• Going Big, Going Home, and Missing the Point: The Casual Hatred of Fun — A good post from Harry Connolly
• Awesome Book Events in Every State — a handy list from BookRiot.
• Infographic: How to Read 100 Books in a Year — ummm, really? Sure, there’s some decent ideas here, but . . .

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn — YA-friendly SF about a couple of Martian kids coming to school on Earth. Lots of fun from one of my favorite authors.
• Heartstone by Elle Katharine White — Austen + Dragons in a way that isn’t Novik’s Temeraire books. (if that sounds snide, it wasn’t intended to be — this looks inventive and cool)
• Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth — this looks very non-Divergent, and pretty interesting.
• Escaping Infinity by Richard Paolinelli — if Don Henley and Glenn Frey wrote a SF novel instead of a song.

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

The last couple of weeks have been the snowiest here since the 1890s — which is a pretty long time. The kids have had an extra week of break, I’ve not been able to make it into work 3 days in the last 2 weeks (and I’m doing better than some). Which has played havoc with posting/reading schedules for ye olde blog, too. One of those things that I’m the only one who notices, probably.

Still, it’s Saturday, so time for some links and whatnot. 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:

• Employee-Free Bookstore offers a place to rest, and leisurely read — A little bit neat idea, a little bit horror.
• Publisher’s Weekly reports that: Print Book Sales Rose Again in 2016 and http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/72452-independent-booksellers-end-year-on-high-note.html — both good signs
• How ‘Sherlock of the library’ cracked the case of Shakespeare’s identity
• Better Late Than Never: On Blooming as a Reader — Sonya Chung pens a nice little essay on The Millions.
• Thank You, Ned Vizzini — Nicole Lewis pens a nice tribute to the late writer (who is absolutely worth reading).
• Future House Publishing: A Young Press Off to a Bright Start — I’ve read a few of Future House’s books — hope to read more.
• In many ways, Fahrenheit Press couldn’t be more different from Future House. But they’re more alike where it counts — putting out good books that otherwise wouldn’t find a home. Here’s a nice piece from Writing Magazine about them: Global Crime Market – Keep the temperature rising.
• Carrie Vaughn on Martians Abroad and Crossing a New Frontier — I’m part of a book tour for this coming up soon, but this should whet your appetite. I’m looking forward to what Vaughn’s up to post-Kitty Norville.
• Hey, Matthew Norman, Why’d You Do That in Your Novel Domestic Violets? — a nice interview with Norman.
• The Night Before “Night School” — Andy Martin (author of Jack Reacher said nothing writes about the creation of Night School — and brings up a point I meant to mention in my post about the book earlier in the week (my point would’ve been speculative, his is authoritative and more clearly written than mine would’ve been), which makes me feel good knowing I was on to something.
• How to Deal When a Book Falls Short

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Big Law by Ron Liebman — where big business and law intersect, you find all sorts of nasty machinations. This looks promising.
• The Silver Skull by Anne Renwick — book two of The Elemental Web Chronicles, the first book of which was a lot of fun.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to littlemissnosleep and charmingkitties 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:

• Ask a Literary Lady: I Need a Better New Year’s Resolution Than “Read More” — New Year and reading resolutions are sort of a theme this week. Some pretty good ideas here.
• BookRiot has 20 Reading Challenges for 2017 to help with that.
• I Failed at the Goodreads Challenge Again, and I Feel Fine — because not everyone succeeds with their resolutions.
• And because BookRiot had a great week of posts, one more from them: How To Be Well-Read
• You have been asking… — some great Faith Hunter news.
• Which Books Are Coming to TV in 2017? — Electric Lit has the answer
• How to Tell If a Guy Likes You (According to Classic Literature) — is good for a chuckle or two

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Old Man by Thomas Perry — a 60 year-old widower and his dogs in a thriller set in Vermont. Sounds fun.
• The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams — I fully intended on getting the first book in this series, and never got around to it — this one makes me want to set aside a week for both.
• The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser — a YA take on Tuesday Next, Libriomancer, etc.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to vihasi shah, ravencrimereads , and JL’s Bibliomania for following the blog (or the BookLikes version) this week.

Surprisingly small batch of links for this week — holidays messing with my normal haunts, I think. Hopefully, things pick up in the new year.

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:

• Carrie Fisher the writer: Witty and vulnerable, she took us to the edge of our comfort zone — Naturally, loved Fisher as Leia, trying to kill Jake Blues, and Harry Burns’ worst blind date; but through her novels and Wishful Drinking, I really learned to appreciate her. Am glad Scalzi got to focus on this part of her career.
• Self-Publishing: An Insult To The Written Word — This is just . . . wow. Ignorant? Horrible?
• The Books That Will Make 2017 More Interesting — suddenly, I’m liking 2016 a lot more.
• Our Bloggers’ Favorite Reads of 2016 — from B&N’s SF&F blog
• The 11 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2016 — The Verge’s list has some titles in common, but many that aren’t.

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.