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dawid

Dawid Piaskowski

I create stuff. BookLikes.

 

Productz

Reblogged from A--:

Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book

http://parajunkee.rocks/

;-)

Hugo Winners Announced!

Reblogged from Saturdays in Books:

This is old news by now, but I was driving home from Indianapolis during the ceremony and haven't had a chance to post it yet. To make up for that, I'm providing links again (to the piece/excerpt/description of winning works, as applicable, and the website or interview of winning people), and a link to the ballot statistics.

 

BEST NOVEL - Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK) [Excerpt]

 

BEST NOVELLA - “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

 

BEST NOVELETTE - “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013) [If you aren't familiar with the events referenced in the intro, here is a link.]

 

BEST SHORT STORY - “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

 

BEST RELATED WORK - “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

 

BEST GRAPHIC STORY - “Time” by Randall Munroe (xkcd)

 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM - Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films;Warner Bros.)

 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM - Game of Thrones “The Rains of Castamere” [links to wiki summary of episode, spoilers, duh] written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

 

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM - Ellen Datlow

 

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM - Ginjer Buchanan [links to interview excerpt with the recently retired Buchanan]

 

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST - Julie Dillon [note: still a few hours left to back her KickStarter]

 

BEST SEMIPROZINE - Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki

 

BEST FANZINE - A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher

 

BEST FANCAST - SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester

 

BEST FAN WRITER - Kameron Hurley

 

BEST FAN ARTIST - Sarah Webb

  

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER - Sofia Samatar

 

As behind as I am, I see quite a few winners haven't yet updated their websites with the news. Somehow that makes me feel better about the world.

 

Ballot Statistics for each place in each category, and with a list of nominating votes that extends beyond the ones on the ballot.

 

Some thoughts on that link:

 

 - Ancillary Justice didn't just win - it freaking destroyed the competition. Remember this next time someone declares a subgenre dead, claims women don't write science fiction, or dismisses the idea of a significant fan base existing for stories not staring white dudes. This novel has been racking up the awards, and I couldn't be happier.

 

 - Fandom voted No Award over Beale's story. Enough said.

 

 - Shining Girls only just missed being on the novel ballot. Holy shit. Actually, only one of the novels I nominated didn't make the list included in the report. But this one was 2 votes short of the final ballot!

Google and Barnes & Noble Unite to Take On Amazon

Ten Books to Hold You Over Until True Detective Comes Back

The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock North American Lake Monsters: Stories - Nathan Ballingrud The Conspiracy Against the Human Race - Thomas Ligotti, Ray Brassier The Imago Sequence and Other Stories - Laird Barron 2666 - Roberto Bolaño Natchez Burning - Greg Iles The Last Policeman - Ben H. Winters Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto Fugue State - Brian Evenson, Zak Sally One Foot in Eden - Ron Rash
Reblogged from Quirk Books:
 
The first season of True Detective was more than just a pop culture phenomenon. It was a literary phenomenon, as well. Sales of Robert W. Chambers’s unbelievably creepy, all-but-forgotten collection of weird fiction, The King in Yellow, skyrocketed as fans of the HBO series dissected every reference to Carcosa and the Yellow King.
 
With Season 2 details just around the corner, here are 10 more books for fans of True Detective’s weird, gritty, place-based mystery and mythology.
 
 
1. The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock: If Cohle and Hart ever made a trip to Pollock’s version of backwoods Ohio, they’d sure have their hands full. A married couple who takes vacations to murder hitchhikers. A preacher who eats spiders. Animal sacrifices and lawns soaked in blood. The Devil All the Time is a chilling American masterpiece in the Southern grotesque style.
 
2. North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud: Ballingrud’s brilliant debut collection, which just won the Shirley Jackson Award for short fiction, features a True Detective-esque combination of blue-collar, Gulf Coast bleakness and otherworldly strangeness.
 
All of your favorite supernatural creatures from horror fiction--vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, Lovecraftian monsters, ghosts, you name it--inhabit Ballingrud’s heartbreaking, psychologically realistic takes on the rural South.
 
 
3. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti: Ever wondered where Rust Cohle got his nihilistic view of the universe? Show creator Nic Pizzolatto lifted it straight out of this nonficton book of philosophy from horror-master Ligotti.
 
He said as much in his interview with the Wall Street Journal: “For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writer’s ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.” So...don’t expect any light reading with this one.
 
4. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron: When the Wall Street Journal asked Pizzolatto about True Detective’s literary influences, the show’s creator said “Laird Barron’s first collection alerted me to this whole world of new weird fiction that I hadn’t known existed.”
 
That collection, The Imago Sequence, will fuel your nightmares for weeks. Rituals, serial killers, and Lovecraftian horrors abound.
 
 
5. 2666 by Roberto Bolano: The mysterious, real-life murders of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico provide the narrative mulch for Bolano’s masterpiece, at heart a detective story with poetic flourishes that Rust Cohle would no doubt admire.
 
Plus, 2666 is in the running for best book of the century, and it’s unlikely to be unseated anytime soon.
 
6. Natchez Burning by Greg Iles: If you think Pizzolatto’s Louisiana is rough, try visiting Iles’s version of Mississippi. When his father is accused of a grisly murder, Southern lawyer Penn Cage uncovers a wide-reaching conspiracy of wealthy KKK believers, not unlike the powerful ring of creeps at the center of True Detective’s rituals. 
 
 
7. The Last Policeman series by Ben H. Winters: Like True Detective, this groundbreaking trilogy is a small-town police procedural with existential leanings and an intriguing genre twist. New Hampshire Detective Hank Palace doesn’t have much time to solve the mystery of a suspicious death, because the world’s going to end in six months. Astronomers have determined a giant asteroid is headed straight for earth.
 
As civilization crumbles around him, Detective Palace keeps his head down and solves a series of riveting mysteries.
 
8. Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto: Pizzolatto has also tried his hand at fiction, most recently with a debut novel that revisits the dark underbelly of the Gulf Coast rendered so iconically by his TV series. Galveston lacks True Detective’s overt supernatural flirtations, but the characters and evocation of place make the book a nice companion piece.
 
 
9. Fugue State by Brian Evenson: A master of genre-bending short stories, Evenson is perhaps best-known for this brutal collection of psychological horror. He’s often compared to Kafka, Poe, and Ligotti. Fugue State is a staple among forward-thinking university creative writing programs around the country thanks to Evenson’s ability to evoke an atmosphere of visceral dread.
 
10. One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash: In the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolinas, a small town’s most infamous bully is murdered in the 1950s, but the local sheriff, a war veteran named Will Alexander, can’t find his body. And in a few days, the whole valley will be underwater, thanks to the opening of a new dam.
 
Sheriff Alexander’s race to uncover evidence before it disappears forever is a haunting, gothic tale, a one-man, period version of True Detective set in Southern Appalachia.
Source: http://quirkbooks.com/post/ten-books-hold-you-over-until-true-detective-comes-back

10 lessons from veteran book cover designers

Bot Wars - J.V. Kade
Reblogged from Kate says:

OMG! I just died laughing. And I cannot stop! Awesomely cool! :-) :-)

25 unconventional business books you won’t see on most bookshelves (but should)

Win a Custom Booklikes Design from Parajunkee Design

Reblogged from Parajunkee:

 

It is that time again! Time for a chance to PIMP your booklikes blog. You know you want it!!!

 

Win a Custom Booklikes Blog Desgin

 

 

ust enter the giveaway using the hand-dandy rafflecopter widget. Check below for all the deets.

 

Extra bit of awesome. If this giveaway reaches 1900K entries - (there were 1899 entries on last giveaway) another winner will be added. That means two people will have their booklikes blog pimped. Here is hoping, right? If I only get 100 entries, I will form a support group for rejected designers. Anyone can join...

 

The rafflecopter widget does not show in Booklikes dashboard so click the button below or the title of this post:

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Need more info?

Check out the three other winners:

Winner 1

Winner 2

Winner 3

 

Design Giveaway Deets:

 

  • $150 Value
  • Contest ends 07/07/2014 12am CST
  • Can not be exchange for another design
  • Design will be completed with specs provided by winner
  • Design will be installed by me, but I will need access to your booklikes account
  • There is no follow or purchase necessary, but it is offered to gain extra entries
  • A winner will be picked within 48 hours of content ending and will be messaged in the Booklikes DMs, if no response is given within 48 hours, another entry will be picked
  • If entries pass 1900k another booklikes design will be added.

Independent Booksellers Mount Offensive Against Amazon's Dominance

The Winged Watchman - Another look, 70 years after WWII

Reblogged from JT Marlin on Books :
The Winged Watchman (Living History Library) - Hilda van Stockum

I am at the BookExpo America looking at books available for children on World War II now that D-Day is a week away. There are surprisingly few, alhough Goodreads has 171 such books listed. Many of these books are multiple titles of the same basic text, such as Anne Frank's Diaries, which always rank near the top on this list, deservedly so. Right now it ranks #3.

 

Among the top 15 books are two by Hilda van Stockum. The Winged Watchman is one. It is about a family that lives in a windmill, and is deeply involved in the Resistance to the Nazi occupation. The heroes are two boys in the family, young teens. A local Dutch boy goes over to the Nazis and becomes a Landwatcher, meaning a traitor. The job of the two boys is to keep track of the traitor, Leendert.

 

The book is based on true stories. The author (disclosure: my mother) is Dutch-born and many of her relatives were in the Resistance.  

 

 

BEA Bloggers Conference 2014
BEA Bloggers Conference 2014

Tormund from Game of Thrones :-)

(I still prefer the book)

Move Over Scandinavian Noir, Here Comes the Polish Gumshoe

The New York Times