Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 56 of 62

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.

I don’t know if it was a slow week, I’m just pickier than usual, or maybe I’ve been too busy to look around, but I only have a couple 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:

• Up the Amazon with the BS Machine — Ursula K. Le Guin fires off another volley in her one-writer war against that website you may have heard of. (I don’t disagree with her…much)
• 50 short books for busy people — I don’t know about you, but I’m behind the pace I need to make my reading goal for the year. I should raid this list to help.
• The A. V. Club asked Patrick Rothfuss 11 Questions
• 21 Ways You Know You’re a Goodreads Member — for those who can’t remember what social networks they’re part of, I guess? Eh, still a funny list for those of usyou who spend too much time there.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Fold by Peter Clines — I should have a review for this one up early next week. Sounds like quite the read.
• Stay by Victor Gischler — looks like a good combination of action and humor. The cover sold this one for me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to erinfischer23 and bookshelfbattle for following the blog this week. Also, a hearty welcome to Old Rocker’s Mad Mumblings for following the booklikes version of this blog. Thanks again to to Cat Warren for the gracious comment.

Image credit: Grammarly

This has been a fairly quiet week here, I know… it’s the kid’s first week out of school, and we’re all adjusting to new schedules at Irresponsible HQ — time for reading and writing were down considerably. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I’ll get in a new stride.

Still, there’s a little to share this week, I found a few odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Judy Blume’s New Book Might Also Be Her Last — Haven’t read Blume since I read the last of the Fudge novels to my kids, and am in no rush to change that. Still, the idea of her not writing? Just seems wrong.
• Technology Of Books Has Changed, But Bookstores Are Hanging In There — NPR offers a rare (but growing more common) optimistic look at the state of Indie Bookstores
• Lovereading.co.uk and Google Maps Mash-Up
• Some Good Reads for Summer — Rick Riordan put out another one of his recommended reads lists — this one for children’s books for this summer.
• Interview With Author Alex Bledsoe — Steven Stack, a playwright (I guess), interviews Bledsoe on the release of Long Black Curl
• Speaking of interviews, Gerald So (who knows a thing or two about Spenser) posted An Interview with Ace Atkins for Crime Spree Magazine. Good stuff.
• Seven Literary Quotations We Suggest You Memorize — a handy list from B&N Reads

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Long Black Curl by Alex Bledsoe — very excited to get to this one, the third Tufa novel. There’s something special to these books that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I honestly don’t care if I identify what makes them work the way they do as long as I get to see it.
• I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest — not that it’s easy to pigeon-hole Priest’s work, but if you could — I don’t think this would fit in it, which really makes me look forward to it. Looks like a lot of fun, too, which doesn’t hurt. Here’s a note Priest wrote about the book.
• The Last Drive and Other Stories by Rex Stout — some of Stout’s early work — including the story that grew up into Fer-de-Lance.

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

• David Nicholls: Google v old-fashioned legwork – how to research a novel — title pretty much says it all, but this is pretty interesting.
• The Bookstore Built by Jeff Kinney, the ‘Wimpy Kid’ — good for him. There’s more to this story than just Kinney and his new store, but about indie bookstores in general and the writers who are helping them.
• Top 10 ways to be evil in children’s books — Starting with the premise that villains in kid’s books get to be more evil than adult villains, William Sutcliffe gives some pretty entertaining examples of it
• Patricia Park talks about her Korean American spin on Jane Eyre — the author of Re Jane talks about her book — not that I need another retelling of the book, but … gotta say, this looks pretty good.
• Some interesting tidbits on upcoming titles:
  • Wil Wheaton and Ernest Cline reunite for Armada audiobook — am tempted, strongly tempted, to just buy the audiobook rather than the hardcover after Wheaton’s work on Ready Player One
  • Ben Aaronovitch’s series is getting a comic series: here’s a preview of Rivers of London #1
  • Ditto for Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently! A preview of IDW’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency #1

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Kickback by Ace Atkins — If you’ve stopped by the blog for even half of a second this week, you’ll have noticed that Spenser’s back for number 43 (and #4 by Atkins). I think it’s safe to say that I liked it.
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik — looks really good. Here’s The Big Idea behind it.
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson — just your typical, 5,000 year epic, end-of-the-world SF tale. OR something like that. Stephenson talks about the genesis of the book and B&N gives 7 Reasons to Read it.
• Boo by Neil Smith — Not even sure how to summarize what I’ve read about this without reading it — but there’s an afterlife, there are 13 year olds, and social awkwardness. I dunno — just click the link there and read about it.