Category Archives: On the TV

Book Column, Book Talk, On the TV

H is for Hawk: A New Chapter

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Tonight, PBS will air the first episode of H is for Hawk: A New Chapter which could loosely be billed as a “follow up” to Helen McDonald’s best-selling book H is for Hawk. 

H is for Hawk is a book that’s been in the middle of my TBR pile since it came out in paperback. I’ve heard so many good things about this memoir, but I’ve just never gotten around to moving it to the “excited to read next” pile. I’m not 100% sure why that is, but I think I’m going to pick it up and read (that is after my current read Want Not by Miles) before I watch the show.

In the book, McDonald trains a goshawk as part of her coping with the death of her father. The show starts next week, which is about 10 years after the events in the book. And again she’s back to raising and training birds.

Here’s a 41-second preview to watch:
The movie rights to the book have also been sold. They were bought by Lena Headey who plays Cersei in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

The show has the potential to add some great visuals and color to what has already proven to be a great selling book. I’m looking forward to diving into both.

Book Column, Book Talk, On the TV, Upcoming Titles

Scalzi on TV & in Print

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Science-fiction author John Scalzi is having a big year. Just a few weeks ago he inked a multi-book multi-million dollar publishing deal. And his new book The End of All Things will be out August 11.

You can read excerpts from the first four chapters (Chapter 01, Chapter 02, Chapter 03, Chapter 04) of The End of All Things, which is the second book of the Human Division, set in the Old Man’s War universe.

EndofAllThings_Scalzi_cover

The whole Old Man’s War universe/storyline  revolves around John Perry, a 70+ man who who enlists in the army and transfers his consciousness into a younger, more battle-ready body.  So the wars rage on among the stars with troops in enhanced bodies while having the wisdom and humor of “old men”. Parts of it borderline on cute. But the books are fast paced and just plain fun to read.

Which is why I think it’ll make a great TV show on SyFy. At the end of last year, it was announced that the Ghost Brigades TV show was in development. It gets its title from the 2006 book by Scalzi.

So a new book, a new contract, and a new TV series. No doubt John Scalzi is staying super busy this year.

Have you read any of John Scalzi’s books?

Book Column, Book Covers, On the TV, Upcoming Titles

The Expanse is Expanding

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The universe of the duo-author team, James S.A. Corey, is expanding with more books and a planned television series (this is all a good thing, as the books rock).

Corey_Expanse_series

There is a certain vein of science fiction called ‘space opera’. These are usually pretty lengthy story arcs (running multiple books) and are driven by a strong plot. You get to know all the spacemen and aliens because you spend so much time with them. All this to say – you have to get involved. So it takes a special kind of story to keep you going book after book after book. The books making up The Expanse series are just such books.

cibola_BurnI’ve only read books one through three. The fourth book, Cibola Burn just came out and new books have been announced that will take the series through nine books. I hope they keep the same cover artist as well. They’re done by Daniel Dociu and are wonderful.

And if that wasn’t cool enough, the SyFy channel is planning a television series based on The Expanse books. Sounds like the pilot is already written, but I can’t find when they think the show would start shooting. I’m always nervous when the folks at SyFy get their hands on a good book. These books deserve to be done right and I hope they will take the time to do so. Hopefully they’ll go more Battlestar Galactica and less Sharknado with it. I’m excited to see what they do.

So if you haven’t picked these up yet, check them out. I’m willing to bet that the books will be better than the show anyway.

Book Collecting, Book Column, Book Talk, library, News, On the TV

Rare Print Discovered in Library Book

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I love stories like this… The NY Times published the recent account of a Brown University archivist finding, what is believed to be one of only five copies of a print done by revolutionary heavyweight Paul Revere himself. No doubt the chance of this happening increases if your job is handling books from the 1700’s. But it’s still pretty cool to think that such a unique rarity was just stuck in the back of a book on physics. Revere was quite the engraver and printer, flooding the colonies with pamphlets and political information. He’s certainly not known for any kind of iconic or religious art, which ups the “cool factor” of the find. Be sure to click through to read the article on the library archivist and see the photos.

If nifty old archives of historical significance interest you then you should tune into Book TV (on CSPAN2) this weekend. At noon, on Saturday, they will be touring old bookstores and the Nichols Collection at the University of Oklahoma. They have books going back as far as the 15th century! They also have a History of Science Collection with papers and books from Galileo, Copernicus and other famous people in white lab coats. I think it’ll be fun to watch.