Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 5 of 51

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Gamification of Reading Is Changing How We Approach Books—”Since its inception in 2007, Goodreads has been a place where people can come together and rate their favorite books, find new authors, and more. This writer juggles the greater implications of the site with our current reading culture.”
Online book clubs are exploding. Let’s find the right one for you.
The Wrath of Goodreads: Authors are at the mercy of people who don’t bother reading their work.
Hyperion Avenue to Debut New Marvel Crime Series—I initially rolled my eyes at this idea, the last thing i really need is more Marvel content. But then I read “S.A. Cosby…will tackle Luke Cage.” Also mentioned were Lisa Jewell (Jessica Jones) and Alex Segura (Daredevil). So I stopped the rolling and started waiting in anticipation. (Seanan McGuire and Mike Chen being tapped for the What If… series is also ensuring my interest).
‘Things started getting weird’: why my novel caused a storm in my small town—this literally sounds like the plot to a novel or three that I’ve read. And suddenly those seem a lot more plausible now🙂
How Hardboiled Whodunits Have Given Way to the Psychological Thriller: Chris Narozny on trauma as mystery and the evolution of the genre.—hmmm.
A brief cultural history of crying while reading.
21 Thoughts (Not Rules) About Reading Habits—even if you don’t agree with all of these, you’ll find yourself nodding with most of this list.
To wrap up Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week (probably the last time I mention it this year),
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club penned a nice A Letter to Self-Published Authors that I’d like to co-sign
A Weird West Author Turns 54—Jonathan Fesmire looks back at his last year of writing
Women Who Kill : links to reviews of twenty novels by thirteen authors—if you’re in the mood to read about a female killer, you’d do well to start browsing Mike Finn’s list
If you like the idea of a young person who has caught the reading bug and is starting to blog about books be sure to check out Little Reader’s Favourite Books
Your Paper Quest: a New Sort of Book Subscription Box—this is a great idea!

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Person Behind the Pages JCM Berne Interview – Hopepunk, Optimstism, & Sawing in half a literary giant’s desk

I really didn’t think I took the time this week to do much online to provide fodder for this post—looks like I was wrong about that. Which is kind of cool.

It’s been a strange week in general—as anyone who subscribes to/follows this blog in any form has noticed—I have been busy with the posts. Also, my big plan for getting all of those posts prepped early to give me a catch-up week was derailed by forces outside my control (including a bonus day with the grandcritter, in which I could care less about this space). So instead of catching up on everything these last five days, I’ve managed to dig a bigger hole for myself. At this point, I’ve given up on the notion of catching up. (or so I tell myself)

I also received my first offer to get paid for reviewing books this week, so I feel like I’ve truly arrived (no, not by a magazine or anything, but by one of those scam-my groups).

I promise that next week will be quieter on the posting front. I think I’ve overwhelmed everyone. (hope you all found something you like, though!)

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The untold story of California’s most iconic outdoor bookshop—I’ve gotta check this place out
Gotta get back in time: The current explosion of time travel novels goes beyond sci-fi and fantasy
10 Novels that Borrow, Sample and Remix Found Texts: Tom Comitta, author of “The Nature Book,” recommends literary supercuts
Weird, funny, dark children’s books that I can recommend (as an adult, however).—this is a shopping list I didn’t need (but will likely start working on soon)
How to Assemble the Perfect Cozy Mystery Meal—Olivia Blacke demonstrates her knowledge of Cozy Mysteries with this fun post.
Read W. H. Auden’s 1954 review of The Fellowship of the Ring.—to commemorate the anniversary of Fellowship‘s publication, LitHub revisited Auden’s review of the book. Because who else would you turn to? Anyway, I love reading this poet in the 50s sound like a fanboy/fangirl blogging today.
Fictional World We’d Love to Be A Part Of—Bookstr has a nice listicle of places that sound better to live in than this oven of a planet
What Do We Want From the Bookish Internet?—I think Templeton asks all the right questions here…who is going to answer them?
In case you hadn’t noticed, this week was Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week—Most/All of the posts are listed here—if you missed any, here’s the way to fix that.
I’m tempted to post links to all the entries, but no one has time for that (although most of them deserve it). So I’ll just pick one post that I want to focus on from that series is Bookblogger Novel of the Year and Self-Published Books—a listing of all the self-published entries in the competition
Five Year Blogiversary!—Congrats to Sifa Elizabeth Reads for the achievement—I enjoyed this way of commemorating it, too.
Blogiversary #6—Reading Ladies Book Club also just hit an anniversary. This mix of lessons learned, advice, and stats is the kind of thing I can dig deep into.
How and Why I Built a Bookselling Monster—you gotta check this out. I love it (and really don’t want to see it IRL (both can be true)).
Meet The Bloggers: Beth from Before We Go
Guest Post: Insiders by Shannon Knight—to commemorate the book’s 6 month anniversary, Knight dropped by The Shaggy Shepherd to talk about Insiders

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Crime Time FM VERN SMITH In Person With Paul—they talk about Jacked (a favorite anthology), Scratching the Flint (that fantastic read), writing in general, and so much more.
Fiction Fans podcast marks its 100th episode by looking at The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien—which didn’t inspire me to re-read the book/series only because I went through them last year. Otherwise, it would’ve.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
I apparently was so excited about this one that I mentioned it last week. Whoops. For the sake of accuracy: Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn—A septuagenarian heads to Romania to get her money back from phone scammers. That premise and Quinn’s knack for writing has to make this a winner.
Not Prepared by Matthew Hanover—A bachelor takes in his eleven-year-old-goddaughter when her mother skips town, and maybe finds love, too. This’ll steal your heart. I enthused about it recently (and will at the drop of the hat). =
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown—the sixth installment in the Red Rising saga is out, and will surely get me overusing the word “brutal” when I think about/write about it. I really want to read it, and am stressed out about it, too. (no joke)
A Fatal Groove by Olivia Blacke—involves no stress at all—it’s simply a fun time looking into the murder of a town’s mayor and trying to solve a decades-old bank robbery. Okay, that sounds like it should be stressful, but Blacke wouldn’t do that to her readers. I talked about it some last week.
Death on the Beach by Steph Broadribb—the Retired Detectives are back to prove that a realtor was murdered (and uncover the killer) while dealing with internal stressors of their own.
Speech Team by Tim Murphy—”a literary mashup of The Breakfast Club and The Big Chill.” “A funny, gossipy and ultimately poignant novel about four Gen X teen friends turned 21st-century adults who awkwardly come back together to confront an influential teacher whose brutal remarks have haunted them all for years.”

I come across as a little grumpy in my comments this morning–and maybe I am (probably a good thing that I’m not trying to write posts about books today). Don’t let my demeanor put you off, I enjoyed all of the things I linked to.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Rise of Tech Worker Fiction: Novels about Big Tech’s working class are popping up like push notifications. What can they tell us about the labor movement and late-stage capitalism?—I’ve apparently missed all these “popping up” lately, that’s on me, I guess. But Copeland’s Microserfs told us this stuff in 1995, didn’t it? These new ones still look pretty good…
After robbery, ‘Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge’ involves getting on a motorcycle and taking action—Didn’t read much of this, because I want to dive in with it fresh. Good to see Quinn getting some attention.
Michael Connelly on His Path to the Top of the Crime Fiction World—the last thing that Connelly needs is more attention, but I’m always down for more from him.
A Typical Day for a Protagonist in a Young Adult Fantasy Book—Yeah, it’s a little like picking low-hanging fruit, but Augusta Chapman’s piece made me grin.
Step-by-Step Tutorial For Recovering from a Book Hangover—I’ve linked to a few Book Hangover Recovery posts over the years, this contains a few things most don’t.
Can you guess these famous writers by their childhood nicknames?

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Thriller Zone Bruce Borgos, author of The Bitter Past—a fun chat with Borgos about his writing and this book. David Temple sounds every bit the fanboy as I would’ve in his shoes.
Speaking of Mysteries Episode 251: S.A. Cosby—I was already champing at the bit to read his newest, but that’s gone into overdrive now. I’ve heard a few interviews with Cosby and each one makes me want to sit down and have a beer or two with him and talk fiction.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos—Longmire meets The Americans in this great series debut about a Nevada Sheriff. I had few things to say about it recently (and several things I didn’t say because I didn’t want to ruin it for anyone).
Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn—A septuagenarian heads to Romania to get her money back from phone scammers. That premise and Quinn’s knack for writing has to make this a winner.

Anyone else use Evernote? If so, is it working for you? Everything I’ve tried to do with it today has failed–which really concerns me, as every non-published thing I have in the works is saved there. I had to assemble this in Notepad of all things.

That’s not what we’re here for today (but seriously, if you are an Evernote user, speak up if you’re having issues, too)…let’s get on with the Miscellany.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Why Indie Bookstore matter, especially on Prime Day—sure, Prime Day is over, but this still applies. (It’s also focused on one indie store in particular, but I’m willing to bet most of it applies to your local store)
The Merch-ification of Book Publishing: BookTok and Bookstagram have given rise to a new form of book publicity. Is it tearing the literary community apart? asks Esquire
Inspiration and Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn!—a quick and fun essay
How Literature Lasts (and Popular Myths of Popularity): On what books remain, fade, or return
BOOKS ACROSS AMERICA: a documentary—”Prepare for the craziest literary road trip of your life. Books Across America is an upcoming documentary following one intrepid young writer as he travels to 50 states, reads 50 books, and interviews 50 authors—all in 50 days.” Sounds intriguing, right? The Kickstarter’s live now to get this made. (although, I have to admit that I’ve never heard of the Idaho author until now).
Read the very first reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird.—In honor of the 63rd anniversary of this classic, LitHub posted excerpts from early reviews.
Garland County Library hosted Author Talk: Eli Cranor this week, and it was a great conversation. I love being able to watch/participate in something like this from Arkansas from my desk in Idaho.
A Parent’s Guide to Your Teenager’s Linguistic Distillation of Classic AP Lit Titles—from McSweeny’s
How Many Genres Is Too Many?—Molly Templeton talks microgenre, categories, and the like.
What I’d Like to See from the New Narnia Film Adaptations—I’d personally prefer a “one-book-a-season” series to a film, but am in lockstep with everything else Krysta wishes for here.
Why DNF’ing a book Is Actually Good For You!

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Fearless by M.W. Craven—I loved this debut of a Reacher-esque character who is literally incapable of feeling fear, and I’m looking forward to reading him for years to come. You can read more of my gushing here.
Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman—Coleman’s new series about the cop called into “fix” sticky situations for the NYPD also has me ready for a long-term relationship. It’s a great ride, as I try to describe here.

I didn’t find as much fodder for this post as I expect this week—I’m guessing the holiday mid-week in the US didn’t help. Or maybe it’s the excessive heat frying everyone’s brains. Or maybe everyone spent too much time trying out Threads. Or maybe I was looking in the wrong places.

That last one is likely the case.

Anyway…quality over quantity this week.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
How Novellas Became Novels
Books about books are catnip for avid readers. This week there’s a bumper crop—The L.A. Times helps us all spend money/add to our TBR with this one
How To Balance Between Imagination and Facts: Or, a look at the difference between “based on” and “inspired by”
We Need to Tell a Different Kind of Love Story—An argument for friendship stories. Yes, a hundred times, yes.
Why Cozy Mystery’s Amateur Sleuths Are Not Just Busy-Bodies—the key to a cozy is this point, I think.
Key/Egg Reviewed in the Current Issue of F&SF, Eight Years After Publication—Harry Connelly talks about an unexpected and late review of one of his novels (my personal favorite)
Why Harry Potter’s Hedwig Would Make a Terrible Pet—another bubble is burst.
Witty & Sarcastic Book Club continued this great series: Poetry and Song in SFF
…Featuring Ricardo Victoria
…Featuring Rowena Andrews
…Featuring Carol Carman
…Featuring A.R. Witham
…Featuring Steven McKay
Meet The Blogger: Nick Borelli from Out of this World—a nice interview with Borelli
Book Things I’m Bored Of—Monstrumology sounds off

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Crime Time FM MW ‘MIKE’ CRAVEN In Person With Paul—a great chat with Craven. I loved hearing the two talking about Bazell’s Beat the Reaper, a personal favorite.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Flop Dead Gorgeous by David Rosenfelt—Andy Carpenter defends an old and now famous friend. I had a lot of fun with this one (as per usual).
The Last Dance by Mark Billingham—I’ve enjoyed Billingham for years as a podcast host and guest, but I’ve never read him. The launch of this new series puts an end to that.

It seemed like my dogs were conspiring against me completing this post today—but if you’re reading this, it means I outsmarted them.

That seems like a low bar to overcome, but some days I swear they’re smarter than me (I realize I’m opening myself up to some fun in the comments here).

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Is This the Oldest Book in the World?—from a “notebook recording tax accounts for beer and oil in Greek around 260 BC.” Of course it has to do with taxes.
On the Pitfalls of Book Promotion in the Internet Age—as with most things by Tom Rachman, this is a good read. “Promoting a book can derange you. After years of quiet toil and noisy typing, you clutch a published book, and step forth to meet the public, eight billion humans who, mystifyingly, seem not to know that your new novel just came out.”
Speaking of book promotion, Goodreads Has No Incentive to be Good
Holding Out for More Heroes—I’ve never understood the anti-Paladin stance, personally. Sign me up for more, too.
Amazon Product Names for Famous Literary Objects
5 SFF Books Whose Plot Is Centered Around Music—When I saw the headline, I assumed Tabler was goig to overlook Year Zero (like seemingly everyone but the bookseller that hand sold it to me years ago)—instead, she lead off with it! The rest of the list is populated by books I’ve been meaning to get to, and probably should.
Witty & Sarcastic Book Club has another series definitely worth the time to check out: Poetry and Song in SFF—I’m not saying this is going to turn me into one of those people who don’t skip those bits, but it might.
Featuring J.E. Hannaford
Featuring Michael Williams
Featuring T.R. Peers
Featuring K.R.R. Lockhaven—(I actually do read most—maybe all—of the verse in his books)
Featuring Joshua Gillingham
Featuring Ashley Anglin
Engagement: Bringing Authors and Reviewers Together—a must-read for bloggers/authors (IMHO)
What are Graphic Novels: An Introduction for Beginners
Five Ways to Tackle Your TBR—I’m not sure I understand the last method…people do this?
Should Adults Recommend Older Books to Kids?

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Whiskey & Publishing with Nicholas Eames & Peter McLean—a fun chat about publishing with Eames and McLean (with a little bit from Sara and Lilly)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn—probably the best prose released this week, and likely the most heart-breaking book, too. And I don’t even know anything about the book, it’s just what you expect from Chorn.
The Imposters by Tom Rachman—As with Chorn, I know I want to read it without knowing anything about it, but I went ahead and read the description, which starts: “Dora Frenhofer, a once successful but now aging and embittered novelist, knows her mind is going. She is determined, however, to finish her final book, and reverse her fortunes, before time runs out. Alone in her London home during the pandemic, she creates, and is in turn created by, the fascinating real characters from her own life.”
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson—the title sells it. “Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in this captivating adventure that throws an amnesiac wizard into time travel shenanigans—where his only hope of survival lies in recovering his missing memories.”
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis—a Rom-Com featuring alien abduction and a theme wedding? Hard not to be curious.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to NovelLives and danigarciagimenez who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
23 Wonderful Benefits of Reading to Empower You—I’ve linked to posts in the past that mention most of them, but not as many of these benefits in one place before. (you can also use these benefits as justifications for your habit when you don’t want to just say “I like it”)
The Western Gothic in Film, Music, and Literature: A Primer
The Challenges of Blending History and Steampunk—this is a good post from Jonathan Fesmire—can probably apply to other genres as well.
LordTBR’s How-To Guide: Using NetGalley as a Reviewer—a handy-dandy guide I could’ve really used when I started with NetGalley (and can still profit from).
Don’t Save Books!—hear, hear
When Writers Seemingly Don’t Trust Their Audience—Krysta raises a lot of good points here.
Can We Read Books With ‘Bad’ Themes?—Eustacia follows up that post with this one.
A Legacy of Reviewing? Random things my dad taught me about books
Fantastic Fae: Books with Faeries, Changelings and Pesky Pixies—Witty & Sarcastic Book Club looks at the spectrum of Fae portrayals in Fiction.
I can’t remember how I came across Mark Lawrence’s Goodreads review of Green Eggs and Ham, but I’m so glad I did. It was so good I almost bought all of his books in response (I do really need to get around to trying his fiction one day…)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Evidence Pool by Ian Robinson—the long-awaited (by me, anyway) fourth book in the Nash & Moretti series. Our Met detectives have to solve a locked-house mystery in the London home of a Russian oligarch.
Junkyard War by Faith Hunter—the third novella in the Shining Smith trilogy (?) is out in print for those who weren’t into the Audible Original format.
Because the Night by James D.F. Hannah—”Backed with campaign funds from the owner of the local strip club, ex-state trooper and recovering alcoholic Henry Malone’s running for sheriff. But because he can’t say no to a bad idea, he also agrees to look for a pregnant woman’s missing ex-con boyfriend. With his well-armed AA sponsor Woody in tow, Henry’s search for the boyfriend soon connects with a homicide investigation run by Lt. Jackie Hall—probably the last cop in West Virginia who still likes Henry.” This sounds great—and it’s the sixth in a series, so I’ve got a whole new series to dive into. (thanks to Nick Kolakowski for this tip—incidentally, Kolawkowski’s got a store set up on his website now, so you can easily dive into all the goodness he has there)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to holley4734 of chasing destino, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The big idea: do we need to dismantle the literary canon?—it’s a perennial question, that almost perennially renders interesting ideas, like this one.
Why you should read horror (even if it scares you)—I’m not sure I’m convinced, but…
AI Writing Proves The Author Is Very Much Alive
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the TBR Pile—something I need to read every time I start to feel bad about my mountain
The great Gail Simone asked “What was the first novel that you felt taught you something meaningful?”—the resulting Twitter thread is great to read #ThisBookTaughtMeSomething
When Counting Gets You Nowhere—for a guy who spends time every month thinking about numbers, it may seem strange for me to say how much I liked this post. I’m still going to talk about numbers because it scratches a particular mental itch, but Bookforager is right about what counts.
My Ideal Summer Reading Program—Similar point, just as good.
5 Ways to Spend More Time Reading—most of these ideas aren’t new to the topic, but Amanja’s spin is good enough to read. #5 is so, so, true.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Let Me Tell You a Story Podcast 140: The Irresponsible Reader—features this guy doing his best to sound interesting

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence by Alison Gaylin—Gaylin takes the baton from Lupica for this series and has Sunny protect a social media influencer. I’ll hopefully have something posted about this soon.
100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings—an entertaining and informative tour guide through afterlifes. I had a lot of fun with it.
George the Bannana: Book Two by Elliott Linker—George and Elliot return to take on the bad guys from Book One. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the local 9-year-old creator handles this follow-up.
The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman—I cannot read that title without singing “la! la! la!” Looks good.
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis—a satire about reality TV, billionaire-funded space travel and environmentalism, and maybe more.
On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane—a novel about First Contact and contemporary American culture
Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me by Aisha Harris—pop culture and cultural critique

If anyone sees this today and then sees me at the event I’m at this afternoon. The image at the bottom is totally coincidental and is in no way a commentary on what I think this afternoon will be like.

(but, yeah, I will be).

Also, because I seem to be in that kind of mood: For the record, I only picked up one link here from Peat Long’s Friday Five–the others in common we found independently from one another. He doesn’t do all my research.

Enough of that…here’s the miscellany:

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Every Country’s Highest-Rated Book by a Local Author—an impressive bit of data analysis.
The Battle of the Book Cover: Britain vs America—The folks at Electric Lit rank a few recent US and UK covers of the same books.
The release S.A. Cosby’s much-anticipated new book this week brings with it a couple of great interviews. This one with Friend of the Blog, Nick Kowlakowski, and this one with Maris Kreizman.
M.W. CRAVEN on his new thriller FEARLESS—Craven talks about the origins of his new novel, Fearless (coming soon!), and the series it launches.
Lit Hub has several Summer Reading lists for those of you still considering yours, among them are: The Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List Or, the Count of Melty Crispo and The 28 Novels You Need to Read This Summer: The Lit Hub Staff Recommends Books for Beaches, Benches, Backyards, and BBQs
Or, if you’re trying to help out a younger reader build their list Library Reads: Summer Reading Recommendations for Middle Grade & Teen Readers—(if you happen to be a younger reader yourself reading this Miscellany, let me know, I’m glad to know you exist)
63 Best Historical Fiction Books Ever Written
Do You Ever Stop and Think About Paragraphs?—Yes. Ever since a professor wrote about worrying about my “anemic little paragraphs” blowing away in the wind on a paper. (think I still got a B on it) But I like seeing other people stop and do it, too.
Author Interview: JCM Berne, author of “Wistful Ascending”—Eclectic Theist has a good Q&A with Berne.
Does Everyone Need to Have a Love of Reading?—No, and Pages Unbound does a good job answering why. Just don’t tell my kids or grandkid that I said that 🙂
Having Read vs Reading—I may have to adopt this myself.
Why Do I Give Books 4 Stars Instead of 5 Stars?—a great job trying to explain what can feel like a slippery difference.
Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub Presents: The Hero’s Journey and Modern Fantasy—Beth Tabler from Before We Go Blog, David (Book Meanderings) from FanFi Addict, Peatlong from Peat Long’s blog, and Filip Magnus from The Grimoire Reliquary join Jodie for a discussion. Earlier in the week I called this “the only blog post you need to read this week.” Here at the end of the week, I agree with myself.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Author Interview: Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel—Cartmel talks about his new series for a bit, and convinces me that I should move it up on the TBR pile

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby—”The first Black sheriff in a small Southern town faces a questionable shooting, a Confederate pride march, and a serial killer.” That’s good enough for me. I was sure I’d ordered this, but I seem to have forgotten to. I’ll have to wait until next week to have it sitting neglected on my shelf. But man, it looks so good.
Charm City Rocks: A Love Story by Matthew Norman—”When a single dad meets the former rock-star crush of his youth, everything they thought they knew about happiness and love is thrown into chaos in this hopeful, heartwarming romantic comedy.”
Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel—the first in a new series, The Paperback Sleuth. Cordelia is a rare paperback collector/dealer who burgles an elusive set from one of the most dangerous men in London. Things ensue.

This week started off strong for me and then fell apart quickly (6 posts left undone and unposted). The non-blog life got interesting, no horrible events occurred just a couple of things that were ill-timed and long. So today I’m going to scramble to get as caught up as I can. Also, this blog’s really dull Instagram page got suspended because someone claimed I was harvesting user data or something like that. Pshaw. Even if I wanted to, I don’t possess the know-how. Sounds like too much work. (really easy fix, but it was just one other thing I didn’t need)

I do want to take a moment and thank all the readers for the texts, comments, tweets, etc. about the 10th Anniversary. They meant a lot to me–I think I’ve thanked you all individually, but just in case. Thanks for being around and reading.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Here’s a Way to Make Sure You Actually Read the Books You Buy—This might actually work. Odds that I’ll try it? Extremely low.
Publisher Drops Author After TikTok Backlash and GoodReads Review Bombing—I saw the author’s video retweeted a few times–and IF Stusek was joking as she claims, that should be the last time she jokes in public, because she’s just not good at it. I’m not sure the Goodreads bombing and the publisher’s reaction was warranted, but it is 2023, Stusek had to know it was coming.
1,001 Novels: A Library of America—An interactive map of the novels that depict the USA. I’m linking to the introduction, you need to take a moment and check out the map itself (and find yourself taking more than a moment). Actually, I’m thiiiis close to spending the rest of the morning on the site itself and never finishing this post or anything much else today.
10 Things You Might Not Know About NetGalley
10 Screen Adaptations Much, Much Worse Than The Books They’re Based On—I’ve only seen The Hobbit movies (sometimes because they seemed to be lousy adaptations). But this looks like a good list. Anyone have one to add? Anyone want to defend one of these? I’m curious.
2023’s Wyrd & Wonder is over, here are the last week Quest Logs from Dear Geek Place and The Book Nook. A lot of good material was produced this year, and I’m so glad that Peat Long pointed me to these Quest Logs so I could sorta keep up with some of it.
Book Blogging in 2023 Survey: Book Blogger Survey Results and Statistics
Step by Step Guide On How to Win a Booker Prize—It’s pretty clear that The Booker Prize isn’t really the Orangutan Librarian’s thing, but that doesn’t mean that this post isn’t chock-full of great advice for aspirants
I’m Not Convinced Book Bloggers Need AI—I should’ve realized that this was a thing to think about, but I didn’t until I read this post.
On Fantasy as the Genre of Recovery—Good ol’ Peat nails it here. To his point: I’ve done a little thought-experiment to see if I could write a companion piece on Detective/Crime Fiction and the answer is: not really (Urban Fantasy, which is so frequently a mashup of Detective and Fantasy, straddles the line).
On My Radar: May 2023—if you’re not checking in on A Literary Escape frequently, you ought to at least take a peak at their monthly On My Radar posts. (but checking in on the blog frequently would be a good idea)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Man on a Murder Cycle by Mark Pepper—a vengeful motor cycle rider, a violent plagiarism scheme, and a week’s worth of surprises await you in this thriller. I had a bit to say about it earlier this week.
A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe—It’s a book with the word “necromancer” in the title and it’s described as cute. That’s almost enough reason to read this right there. The early reviewers singing the praises of this novella seal the deal. I’m 10% in and think my voice will be one of that choir soon.