What I’m reading
- in print / on screen
October is a huge month for publishing, and a reason I’m doing something I rarely do: double-teaming ARCs for Shelf Awareness reviews. The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a new novel by Gina B. Nahai, out on October 7. I’ve read two of her earlier novels, Cry of the Peacock andMoonlight on the Avenue of Faith; her niche in writing about Iranian Jews, both in Iran and in exile in America, is pretty specific. The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey Through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri by Avi Steinberg is nonfiction about an entirely different religious group. I’m hoping to get to at least one more of the ARCs they sent me for next month, and most of the galleys I brought back from Book Expo America in May are starting to ripen right abut now, too. It’s nice to have so many things I want to read, even if it is tough to decide among them.
- on audio
I’m about one-third through How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer, read by her friend Joshilyn Jackson; they made a great team on the audio of Netzer’s debut novel, Shine Shine Shine. I’m not entirely sure what I think of this one yet, but I’m curious to see where we go with it, which is pretty much the same way I felt at this point during my first experience with the author; she’s doing interestingly odd things with fiction. I’m not really loving some of Jackson’s character voices here, but am amused by how much one of them sounds like Milhouse Van Houten.
What I’m watching
It’s September, and the new TV shows are coming! Most of the ones I watch are still a few weeks away from new episodes—except for Doctor Who, which has been back for three episodes as of last night—and I still cannot find out when Season 9 of Supernatural will start streaming on Netflix. (We’re putting Season 10 in the DVR rotation anyway, and we’ll just let it pile up till we’re caught up.) Netflix is filling the gap in other ways, though—we started watching Orange is the New Black last week.
What I’m writing
I took an extra day off last weekend to get my book reviews and a couple of related “think pieces” done for the blog. One of those went up last Thursday, and the second is scheduled for this Tuesday—come by and talk about one or both with me!
What caught my eye this week
I’m way backlogged on blog reading. so I don’t have much to pull from my saves-and-shares lists this morning. But there’s this:
”I published all four of my books through traditional publishers, so you may not think there is anything I could possibly say about self-publishing. But I’ve thought about the world of self-publishing a lot, and about how it relates to traditional publishing, for a long time.
”There are a few reasons why traditional publishing still has an edge over self-publishing, but there is one very simple thing self-publishing could do to turn the tide…
“Self-publishing needs a review space that the mainstream population looks at as a trustworthy place…rather than shunting self-published books to the side on separate sites, we need to bring all the good self-published books into the same mainstream places that traditional publishers get to use.”
—“I’m Grateful My Book is a Kindle Daily Deal Today (and I Wish Everyone’s Book Could Be)”, by Melissa Ford on BlogHer.com
And this:
”There are two groups of individuals that (hypothetically) benefit from a well written negative review. First, and who I’m most concerned about, are my readers. If every review that I write is sunshine and lollipops, how can my readers tell what it is that I actually like, versus what’s just okay – or flat out bad? In other words, for me, it’s a matter of credibility. If I read a book I dislike, but am unable to put my distaste down into words – how valuable are my positive reviews?
”This is not to say that bloggers that don’t write negative reviews lack credibility, but if I don’t know the blogger on a personal level, then I’m more apt to search out another review on a book before making a decision on whether or not to read the book.”
—“The Necessary Evil of the Negative Review”, by April at The Steadfast Reader
What Else is New?/Gratuitous Photo of the Week
On Labor Day, I did something for the first time. It was a fun thing that I most definitely intend to do again.
Yes! That is @florinda3rs behind me on Amelia (my #motorcycle). First time. So happy she enjoyed it! http://t.co/pBlVbUcrsc
— Paul Vasquez (@RamsesTMagnum) September 1, 2014
