All posts by trav

At the heart of it all, I’m a fan. A fan of books and bookstores. A fan of fiction and non-fiction. A fan of authors and publishers. And most of all I’m a fan of great conversations sparked by books. All that to say - I really need more bookshelves.
Book Talk, On the TV

SILO, based on Hugh Howey’s WOOL, is coming to AppleTV+

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Hugh Howey’s SILO book series is coming to AppleTV+, and the first teaser trailer dropped today. Anyone can watch the teaser trailer below:

Howey became one of the first hugely successful self-published authors when he took his debut story Wool, which he wrote while working as a bookstore clerk and first published by a small press in 2011. He then independently published each chapter on Amazon’s Kindle platform. Things took off from there. After Wool grew into a novel, it became a trilogy that spawned Howey’s meteoric career.

silo tv show movie poster

Wool takes place during a post-apocalyptic period on Earth. What’s left of the human race is living in a Silo that stretches 144 levels underground. Eventually, the main characters discover the truth of their situation and unravel the hidden secrets proving just how far some people will go to stay in control.

I always look forward to Hugh Howey’s writing, and while the SILO trilogy gets all of the press, his other stories are also fun. His books and stories scratch the same itch as John Scazli’s books.

I read Sand a few years ago. While it was fast-paced and imaginative, it did not have the same depth as the Wool trilogy. So I am glad that Wool is the first of Howey’s series headed to the small screen. Though, I still have Across the Sand about halfway down my ‘to be read’ pile and look forward to reading it.

I thought AppleTV+ did an excellent job with their new Foundation series based on Isaac Asimov’s book series. The visuals and production quality were amazing. I’m not a purist, which is probably why I liked it as much as I did. Not being a purist will likely serve me well, too, with the SILO series. 

silo is based on the wool books
The box set covers designed by Heads of State. Beacon 23 design by Hugh Howey. Half Way Holme cover designed by Carly Miller. Across the Sand cover art by M.S. Corely.

Rereading is something that I have never been very big on. There are just too many good books and fresh ideas to take in. I did enjoy my Asimov reread for the Foundation series, so I may have to go back and pick up the books and spend some more time with Holston, Juilette, and the world’s last human survivors as they try and make a life down in the silo.

Authors, Book Talk, Upcoming Titles

More Terry Pratchett Stories Have Been Found

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I love stories like this one. In the 1970s and 1980s, Terry Pratchett wrote under a different name. Now someone has connected the dots, and 20 of his “lost to time” stories are being brought back and published in a new book.

Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett from WikiPedia

The publisher is Pratchett’s longtime publisher Transworld, though none of these stories are set in Pratchett’s well-loved Discworld universe. It sounds like the new book is titled A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories.

Pratchett died in 2015, and it’s exciting to think about new-to-us stories being released.

Pratchett’s career spanned decades. Officially he was Sir Terry Pratchett, and he penned more than 41 novels, plus short stories, plus articles, plus essays… the man was prolific.

According to The Guardian story, the twenty-story collection will be released on October 5th. They have some tidbits to share about what kinds of stories have been found. You’ll have to click through to that news story to read about those.

Terry Pratchett cover
This is not the final cover design.

My favorite part of this whole saga is that it was fans that did the digging and connected all the dots to find these once-published-but-lost stories.

And since these stories have technically been published before – they’re “free game” and not covered by Pratchett’s wishes that “no unpublished works be released after his death.” A final wish that his assistant carried out by running a steam roller over Pratchett’s hard drives.

This whole discovery is undoubtedly one for the Sir Terry Pratchett fans. Here is hoping the novelist’s early short stories are as interesting as his longer speculative writings!

You can pre-order Terry Pratchett’s new book here.

Alabama, Authors, Birmingham, Book Talk, Events

Join Wayne Flynt as he talks about his new book & friend Harper Lee

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Hey Birmingham, AL book readers and history buffs… I just saw that Wayne Flynt is speaking this weekend at the Avondale public library. It’s a free event (Flynt is on a 40-city book tour) where he’ll discuss and answer questions about his book Afternoons with Harper Lee. 

The event is:

  • Sunday, February 26, 2023
  • 2:00 pm–3:00 pm
  • Avondale Library
  • 509 40th Street South

The folks from Thank You Books will be there too, selling Flynt’s book so you can walk out with a signed copy as well as get to hear from one of Alabama’s best historians and storytellers. Flynt’s books are always some of the best-researched and poignant. 

wayne flynt book about harper lee
Cover design by Randall Williams

Wayne Flynt and Harper Lee were longtime friends, so he knows the very private novelist well enough to write a book like this. It sounds like most of the stories and reflections come from his visiting Lee during the last years of her life (she died in 2016). No doubt Flynt has some unique insights to share from all of his discussions with Lee.

Afternoons with Harper Lee is published by New South Books which was recently acquired by the University of Georgia Press. While it’s sad that Alabama lost a publisher it is great to see that they have landed somewhere as srong as the UGA Press program is.

I love this praise quote that is inside the book:

“Wayne Flynt is the great Talmudic scholar of Alabama, and this vivid, affecting deconstruction of his friendship with Harper Lee through the history that produced them both is a huge reward and pleasure for those of us who understand that, unaccountably, all roads seem to lead to our grand and terrifying state.”
– Diane McWhorter, author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama–The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Book Reviews, Book Talk, Recommendations, Upcoming Titles

2023 is Off to a Good Start

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Things are still a tad chilly, wet, and gray, but I’ve bagged a few great reads at the start of 2023.  Here are a few short reviews as I’d love the chance to chat with folks about any of these books.

River of the Gods by Candice Millard.

Jacket design by John Fontana

This book is a straight-up history of the search for the source of the Grey Nile portion of the Nile River. River of the Gods is one of those books I would never have picked up had it not been selected as a book club pick. In less skilled hands (which many history books suffer under), this would have been bone dry and b-o-r-I-n-g. Still, Millard did a masterful job weaving in the characters, the political and social climate of the times, and the expeditionary journeys. It was time well spent. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

This Isn’t Going to End Well: the True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew by Daniel Wallace. 

Nothing I’ve read online about this book has done this one justice. Coming out in April 11, 2023, Wallace’s book is a unique first-hand account and dive into what it means when we find out those we love, learn from, and share life with, are flawed and have real struggles of their own. 

Cover design by Steve Godwin

Up front, Wallace shares that his brother-in-law William Nealy committed suicide. The rest of the book explores the lives, the stories, and the conditions that were to this tragic event. Much of This Isn’t Going to End Well is set in Birmingham, AL. Nealy was an artist, author, handyman, paddling instructor, and adrenaline junkie. He was a master of everything he attempted. Memoirs are pretty standard. People using primary source materials in writing about others is pretty standard. 

But, finding a memoir that tackles some of the most challenging topics, filled with the primary source material, plus having first-hand knowledge of the subject AND being in the skilled wordsmith-y hands of an author like Daniel Wallace is unheard of. 

This book is a fast read. It hits you in the head and the heart. Sometimes at the same time. Throughout this rollercoaster the book shows off some of Nealy’s more famous as well as lesser known comic illustrations.

This book is for you if you like Hollywood memoirs about larger-than-life folks. If you enjoyed Big Fish, this book is for you. This book is for you if you enjoy reading about creative people, art, and the creative process. If you now live in or lived in Birmingham, AL, in the 1980s-2000s, this book should be required reading. 

It’s my first 5-star read of 2023, and I can’t wait to be able to talk with other local folks about this book. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

Zevin’s newest novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was an entertaining read. The cover is excellent, and the story lives up to the hype. The story follows some college buddies who code a video game together and build a gaming company. Zevin (The Storied Life of AJ Fickry) creates some characters here that are so fun to follow. Their conversations are sincere, and with some much love and closeness, their losses feel natural to the reader as well. The whole story is dripping with techie talk and retro video game references. So all that was fun for someone my age. 

Cover design by John Gall

This book scratches the same itch as Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, combined with the charm of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One—lots of fun. It is definitely worth picking up. This is a 4 out of 5 stars read.

How about you? Have you read anything worth recommending lately?