Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 57 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:

• Indie Bookstores Are Finally Not Dying — The Daily Beast has a bit of rare good news for Indie bookstores.
• In a Mother’s Library, Bound in Spirit and in Print — here’s something that e-books can’t do.
• A favorite around here, Ace Atkins was on Authors on the Air with Pam Stack talking about his upcoming Spenser novel. Haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet, but I’m chomping at the bit to.
• Speaking of Atkins, Mystery Scene posted a little piece by him about Elmore Leonard, Let Your Characters Do the Talking.
• Fantasy must shake off the tyranny of the mega-novel — Damien Walter makes a good case against the monster-sized approach to fantasy stories. While I like a good, weighty tome, some of my favorites are the smaller works.
• Trailer For “The Magicians” — Syfy’s put out a trailer for the upcoming adaptation. I’m cautiously optimistic.
• 20 Reasons Book Nerds Lead a Better Life — Ginni Chen has an entertaining post up on the B&N blog.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz — doesn’t look like your typical Lisa Lutz novel, but at this point, I don’t care. I’m in.
• Dry Bones by Craig Johnson — a new Walt Longmire. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably get to it in November.
• Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll — I’ve heard nothing but great things about this one, looks great.
• Goddess of Buttercups & Daisies by Martin Millar — one of the odder looking books I’ve seen lately. Should work on tracking it down rightaway.
• Rumrunners by Eric Beetner — this looks like it could be a fun read.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to facetioussoup for following the blog this week (possibly the greatest moniker I’ve come across online), and to Nothing better than a good book… for following the BookLikes clone (which I really wish I could make look nicer…). Thanks to Injoy’s Blogs + Book Reviews for the signal boost to a post at said clone. Lastly, big thanks to Joseph Finder for bothering to read my post about his book and for responding on Twitter — don’t think I’ll ever get used to someone doing that.

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 Magicians’ Is The Grown-Up ‘Harry Potter’ You’ve Always Wanted — Whoo-hoo! Brakebills is coming to TV!
• 3 Reasons Why Booknerds Love the Smell of Books — yeah, seems right.
• 20 Books That Made You Fall in Love with Reading — Goodreads compiled a list of first favorite books
• Should You Read Middle Grade Books? A Flowchart — Karina Glaser put together a handy little flowchart for BookRiot
• Just in time for Mother’s Day: 7 Literary Moms Everybody Can Learn From

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Unseemly Science by Rod Duncan — didn’t realize the sequel to strong>The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter was this close to being released when I read it recently. This should be really good.
• The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry — an MG book by Barry about a field trip gone bad? Should be a fun way to kill an hour or so.
• Revision by Andrea Phillips — this looks to be a trippy read.
• Corsair by James L. Cambias — Computer hackers and space pirates, sounds like a winning combo
• Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond — Lois Lane in high school (and, thankfully, not the version from Smallville).
• Burning Down George Orwell’s House by Andrew Ervin — the tagline, “A darkly comic debut novel about advertising, truth, single malt, Scottish hospitality—or lack thereof—and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four” is enough to get me looking for it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to legalreader for following the blog this week — and the tip — check out her blog, there’s some good stuff there. Thanks also to andrewknighton for the interaction.

slim pickings this week, but here’s a few 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:

• Five Fascinating Facts about Harper Lee — “Fascinating” might be pushing it a bit, but there might be a tidbit or two here that’s new for you.
• ‘Maus’ Book About Holocaust Is Removed in Russia — File this under “Very Unfortunate/Ironic Unintended Consequences”
• Celebrating 85 Years Of Nancy Drew, The Girl Who Started It All — 85 years ago this week, Nancy Drew first appeared in print. Theodore Jefferson pays tribute to the classic strong girl hero.
• Five Books Where Music is Practically a Character — an interesting list and TBR List fodder. I can’t believe Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver didn’t make the list, probably would’ve been #6.

Just one New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon for you this week.
• Darkened Blade by Kelly McCullough — the sixth installment of McCullough’s Fallen Blade series. Wait? Sixth? I knew I was behind, but not that behind.

Image credit: Grammarly

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:

• A New ‘Wrinkle in Time’ — The WSJ got their hands on 3 cut pages of L’Engle’s classic. I read the trilogy (that’s all it was at the time) repeatedly, can’t remember a lick of it (I’m do remember a general sense of unease settling in a few times). Reading this makes me want to give it another shot.
• Object Lesson: Why we need physical books — I loved William Giraldi’s piece for the New Republic.
• When I Discovered Books Are My Home — I liked Eleanora Buckbee’s Read it Forward piece just as much.
• On this week’s The Once & Future Podcast, Anton Strout talked to Benedict Jacka. Good stuff.
• I’m guessing it’s due to World Book Day, but this week brought a whole lotta love for books. Including this one from Interesting Literature: 45 Great Sourced Quotes about Books
• 15 Authors You Wish You Could Have Dinner With
• 9 Of The Worst Habits Of Book-Lovers That Leave Us Broke, In Pain, And Lonely (But It’s All Totally Worth It)
• 12 Things Every True Book Lover Can Agree on

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Second Olympus by K. A. Stewart — I’ve liked Stewart’s stuff before, and this Percy Jackson for grown-up looking book seems like a good read. (and that’s just trying to describe it in less than a sentence, not trying to unfairly caricature the thing)
• The Mad Apprentice by Django Wexler — heard Wexler talking about this series (of which this is volume 2) on The Once and Future Podcast recently. Sounded like a fun read for the MG crowd.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to smithnskarry and paynepills for following the blog this week. Ditto to Books Direct for following the 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:

• Harper Lee’s new book gets readers — under lock and key — It’s been a bit since we checked in on the saga of Go Set a Watchman.
• Encouraging Teenagers to Read, by Choosing Books From the Non-Y.A. Shelves — some good (and some self-evident) advice from the NY Times
• What Should a Book Cover Do? — Covers are a lot more important than they should be, this look at the process is really fascinating.
• Film Franchise Based on Gregory Mcdonald’s Fletch Series Moves to Relativity — am not enthused by this. But who knows? Maybe they’ll do it right.

This Week’s New Releases that look interesting. A couple of YA titles caught my eye this week:
• Hit by Delilah S. Dawson — the underlying concept of this book is so good, it almost doesn’t matter what Dawson does with it.
• The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy — looks like the silly kind of fun that could make for a pleasant evening.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to byclarkellis for following the blog and Injoy’s Blogs + Book Reviews for following the uglier mirror at booklikes 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:

• ‘The Great Gatsby’ Turns 90: Five Things You Might Not Know About the Classic Novel — a good tribute to Fitzgerald’s best. I can’t help shake my head at Mencken’s take — and laugh at the comparison of Gatsby parties to . . . well, read it yourself.
• In My Younger and More Vulnerable Years: On First Reading The Great Gatsby — Scribner got 12 authors to talk about their first exposure to the novel.
• 100 Best Books of the Decade So Far — this is a daunting task, and frankly, the guys at Oyster Review are dead wrong on a few of these. Still, an impressive list and good TBR fodder.
• My Underrated List — Kevin Hearne reacts to ending up on a Buzzfeed list and offers his list of underrated titles
• What Kids Want in Books — some interesting data from Scholastic
• B&N Reads’ advice columnist attempts to answer the question, How Many Books is Too Many?
• Don Draper reviews children’s books — what better way to celebrate the last few episodes?

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu — the trilogy concludes. I have high hopes for this.
• Dark Heir by Faith Hunter — Jane Yellowrock is back.
• Scent of Murder by James O. Born — a K-9 policeman on the hunt for a kidnapper

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 11 greatest children’s books — BBC Culture surveyed experts from around the world about the best children’s books (in English). Can’t argue with any of these — surprised more by what didn’t make it than what did.
• Speaking of children’s books, B&N Reads lists The Top 10 Scenes We Hope to See in the New Illustrated Harry Potter.
• Little Black Classics carry Penguin to new heights — I don’t know if these books are available on this side of the Atlantic, but like the subtitle says, what these books say about modern reading habits is interesting.
• Tee Morris on The Evolution of Steampunk — Co-author of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences books responds to the idea that Steampunk is dying.
• How to Kill Off Characters — BookRiot’s Preeti Chhibber offers some interesting thoughts on this idea.
• How Robert Goldsborough Became Nero Wolfe — I’ve often said I have problems with post-Bloodied Ivy Goldsborough books, but can’t begrudge him this.
• 5 Baseball Books Full of Wonder, Defeat, and Triumph for Opening Day — another from B&N Reads. This looks like a good list of TBR fodder. Everything she says about Underworld is spot-on.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Diamond Conspiracy by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris — Books and Braun and the rest of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences are back, tho’ it doesn’t look too good for the Ministry. Which means good things for readers.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Man of many thoughts for following the blog this week.

Just a few odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye — and not one word about Harper Lee (phew!). You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum — this sounds like a cool place to visit when completed.
• 9 Teen Titles Adults Shouldn’t Miss — a promising list from Kirkus.
• 5 of Our Favorite Celebrity Book Nerds — from B&N Reads (yeah, I told you I couldn’t find much this week)

A little note first: As far as possible, I find the original source of infographics, stories, memes, etc. that I post and/or link to. Occasionally, I miss. One such time was back in September with the handy infographic, How Long Will It Take to Read? I received an email from someone from the site I should’ve linked to the other day asking to fix that — which I gladly did, and figured they deserved another link or two in return. It’s a nice site, which deserves all the clicks and views I can send their way.

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:

• Spain finds Don Quixote writer Cervantes’ tomb in Madrid — For the life of me, can’t figure out why anyone cares about the location of his bones. But, man, the process is fascinating.
• And because I have to talk about Harper Lee every week (apparently), this New Yorker piece is one of the best articles I’ve read in awhile: Harper Lee’s Abandoned True-Crime Novel and then David L. Ulin’s response to this in the LA Times is a great chaser: Harper Lee: What’s wrong with a one-hit wonder?.
• Nowhere near as insightful, controversial, or antying. Just slavishly full fanboy/fangirl gushiness: 10 Famous Authors on To Kill Mockingbird — blah
• There’s No Such Thing as a Fake Reader
• Helpless in the Face of Your Enemy: Writers and Attack Novels — Harry Connolly talks about the novel he had to write. His talk about the big UF taboo is interesting/troubling. And I will get to my blog post on this one soon. Really.
• 10 of the Best Books about Literature — Good TBR List fodder
• Chuck Wendig is writing a Star Wars novel??? — I’m intrigued and scared. Mostly intrigued. As usual, his blog post announcing it is more enjoyable than many books.
• Lev Grossman, S.E. Hinton, and Other Authors on the Freedom of Writing Fanfiction — huh. Really?
• Here’s a Real Photo Of the Mars Location of Andy Weir’s The Martian — io9 gets the peanut butter of reality into the chocolate of Weir’s fiction
• 23 Struggles Only Book Nerds Will Understand — I’ve posted very similar lists before, but this is still fun.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen — this is sitting on my library’s reserve shelf for me, and I’m literally^* salivating.
• The Deception Artist by Fayette Fox — It was the cover that caught my eye and made me take a look at this — kudos to the designer — looks like an interesting read.
• The Last Days of Video: A Novel by Jeremy Hawkins — this looks like a lot of good, odd fun.
• Less Than Hero by S. G. Browne — this one looks appealing, too. Read a little — not enough — of Browne before. Need to read more.

^* And by literally, I mean figuratively.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to K. L. Register for following the blog this week. Big, big thanks to Jennifer Reed/bookjunkiez for the reblog/signal boost!

Image credit: Grammarly

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

A few odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Sir Terry Pratchett has died — which everyone knows (well, everyone who reads fantasy and is online). I couldn’t really get into his stuff, but he was clearly a class act and a great writer.
• Continuing this seemingly never-ending saga, this week started with reports that the State of Alabama was making sure everything was alright with Harper Lee, and ended with statements that their investigation is over. What a mess. I hope this last one is true.
• The Once & Future Podcast talked with Kevin Hearne this week about the Iron Druid Chronicles, his new bestseller about Luke Skywalker, and a little about his upcoming epic fantasy series.
• John Anealio, who “performs geeky anthems for writers, librarians, lovers of Sci-Fi, Best Buy customers & robots” also puts out a newsletter with Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Recommendations, it’s worth singing up. You should also check out his music.
• 6 Gritty Reboots of Children’s Classics will probably induce a smile.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Anti-Hero by Jonathan Wood — years back I read the first two in this series, which have thankfully been re-released, and really dug them. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one.
• World Gone By by Dennis Lehane — I have got to read this series. I don’t know why I haven’t started — I even bought the first one as soon as I came out! And now we’re at #3?
• The Mirror World of Melody Black by Gavin Extence — I ultimately didn’t like Extence’s prior book, but man . . . while I was reading it, I was hooked. Gotta give this one a shot.
• What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World by Cat Warren — just came out in paperback. There’s a bunch of books on the topic, I don’t really know how to evaluate one against another — but Robert Crais blurbed this one, so it has to be excellent, right?
• Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough — after the last two books by Goldsborough, I’m dreading this. But, confound it, it’s a Wolfe book. I have to read it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to jrhehl for following the blog this week. Thanks to Ryan Harris for the interaction — hope we can continue it.