New Books and ARCs, 1/29/21
Posted on January 29, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments

Is it already the end of January? Just about! But we can’t leave the first month of the year without a stack of new books and ARCs that have come into the Scalzi Compound. What here would you like to take with you into February? Share in the comments.
— JS
Definitely looking forward to reading the Subterranean Press Caitlin Kiernan “Comes a Pale Rider” and bonus novella. My copy just arrived.
“Writers’ Most Memorable Meals,” that sounds like fun.
For fiction, I’d first grab the one by Caitlin Kiernan – whom I’ve read before and liked.
Thanks, John!
I think this is the first batch where I cannot pick a book I want to read from title alone. I will have to read the backs.
Does anybody else think the top book colour scheme combo was a bad choice if they want people to be able to read the title and author easily? Admittedly I am slightly colour blind. Come to think of it do they think of the most common types of colour blindness when designing covers?
Will
Caldwell Turbull is a must-read for me. And the title “Folklorn” makes me happy, so definitely checking that out. And yeah, authors’ favorite meals? Intriguing.
“Does anybody else think the top book colour scheme combo was a bad choice if they want people to be able to read the title and author easily?”
I peered at it and thought, “The Fugees? Caitlin Kiernan wrote something about the Fugees?”
Peered closer. “Oh.”
kdb
My impressive cookbook collection really wants to check out Eating Authors.
I’m onto Eating Authors as well, hoping there are recipes. In a collection of short stories by Anthony Boucher, a bonus at the end was a recipe he had submitted for a cookbook by SF authors, I think, called curry de luxe. I call it California curry and I make it two or three times a year, with my own additions and substitutions. Might this book contain similar gems? Or is it just talking about food without the essential hand-on elements?
PS, I agree completely with the colorblind comments–I can see colors in the usual way but I have big complaints about some of the combinations, also of type fonts. I want to be able to read the title and the author and be able to tell which is which. The designers should restrain their creativity to within practical bounds.
Other than the third-in-series, I’d abscond with the stack if I thought I could get away with it.
Cadwell Turnbull’s new book! (Full disclosure, he and I are in the same writing group. Which is why I know how good it is.)
“Does anybody else think the top book colour scheme combo was a bad choice if they want people to be able to read the title and author easily?”
Might just be a trick of the light — there seems to be a lot of glare on the bottom half of the letters all across the spine. The ink seems excessively shiny. Blame the photographer. ;-)
Amen about the spine colors and fonts. They’re the most most people will ever see of most books.