Looking for some soft, comfy reading to ring out this hard old year? You're sure to find something delightful in my whimsical fantasy story collection. Elves, gargoyles, mischievous young magicians, heroic aunties, brave doggo, and much more.
#fantasy #wizards #monsters #fae #witches #sorcery #elves #heroines #FoundFamily #GoodBooks #reading #writing #AmReading #FediBookfair @bookstodon
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK2DG8T8
-and-
Bookshop
https://bookshop.org/p/books/relics-from-a-traveling-show-k-m-herkes/0abf2118b4e0a1c2?
amreading
I've finished: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Narrated by the wonderful Bahni Turpin
I thought I was getting a new angle on the vampire trope, I got so much more.
The Southern Book Club's Guide isn't a fantasy where the protagonists are gifted the tools they need to beat the evil power.
It is about a group of housewives, with the their talents, background and idiosyncrasies facing a malevolent supernatural force while hampered by their marginalized position in society.
The Southern Book Club's Guide placed most other fantasy I've read in perspective. The fantasy isn't just about the worlds the stories take place in. It is that these worlds also contain the special powers necessary to win the day.
This isn't escapism, it's realism and it hit me hard. Most of the horror is about existing as a woman in a white man's world.
Oh, the gaSsliGhting, SO MUCH GASSLIGHTING!
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/fd616997-43d2-4170-8eba-05c09578a5a1
@bookstodon @audiobooks #fantasy #vampires #feminism #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
I #AmReading Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life -- but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7e8262d9-508e-478f-bbd4-21434d4d1b2f
Finished At Midnight Comes the Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming. As I feared, its well-meaning anti-racism elements get a bit cringey at times but it's a good nail-biter of a suspense story. It could be an entry into the series, though romance fans would want to start at the beginning.
#AmReading Patience and Sarah, a classic lesbian historical romance. It's based on a true story: https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/wilson-brundage/account
The first person narrative voices are so distinct and alive, I feel like I'm there.
#AmReading The Grapes of Wrath and OMFG. It's all there in these classic books, everything we need to know, and yet we keep doing the same things decade after decade...
"We're sorry. It's not us. It's the monster. The bank isn't like a man.
Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
No, you're wrong there--quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It hapens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it."
Did the Christmas shopping on the weekend and came home with a mini book haul. I'm loving the botanical gothic vibes of these covers.
I've finished: When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson
This is a story about a Soviet style East European dystopia. As someone who grew up in the late 80s it really appealed to me.
An ideology turned into an authoritarian nightmare and the people that get ground up in the wheels.
It is Sharpson's ability to personalize those people as they get crushed in the gears that makes this a great novel.
It's a bit strange to read a novel in 2025 where the AI future is viewed in a positive light. But it was published in 2021, before AI became synonymous with LLMs.
It was interesting reading When The Sparrow Falls at the same time as The Ragpicker, a novel where the digitization of human consciousness and virtual reality are the cause of the apocalyptic nightmare.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/50271032-ec89-41c3-87ad-ac67855b8417
@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #dystopia #AI #bookstodon #amReading #AudioBooks
3 weeks. . . but available for pre-order now. If you love to read #mystery, it'll be a nice way to relax after Thanksgiving.
I've finished: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
As someone who has recently finished T. Kingfisher's back catalog I was glad to discover Heather Fawcett's work. It scratches a similar itch.
I loved the academic angle, it takes me back to my years at university.
I do wish the solutions Emily finds were based on events we were told about in advance rather then a moment of inspiration. She has a vast amount of knowledge that comes in handy, but I want to see her work towards a solution using the clues she found along the way.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1735e2b1-a9df-4923-bbbf-825297721654
@bookstodon @audiobooks #fantasy #cozy #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Last week I read an ARC that — well, to say it wasn’t ready for prime time is a huge understatement. It was sad, because the story had so much potential, but the ARC, which is supposed to be basically publication ready, looked more like a messy draft. So here’s my promise: I will never, ever do that to my readers.
I pulled all my e-books off Kindle yesterday because of this. It effectively ends my writing career because, despite everyone complaining that Amazon is evil... nobody buys books from the many other stores my books are available on.
I am sad. I am angry. I am *exhausted*.
I am ONE indie author. I am nobody. My protest is utterly meaningless in the face of this ever-expanding AI takeover. Unless all indies do this, and all tradpub authors pressure their publishers to fight Amazon, my pulling my books is not going to do a damned thing to make Amazon stop doing this. All it will do is end whatever tiny little chance I might still have had at having a real writing career.
But I am so sick of AI being shoved into every aspect of my life and not even having the right to opt out of it. This is the ONLY protest I CAN make. So that's what I'm doing. And at least I know they won't be able to use my books this way.
#books #bookstodon #reading #readingCommunity #AmReading #amazon
Edited 9d ago
I #AmReading The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen as the October #BrownAjahsBookClub pick.
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Emily Benedict has come to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. But Emily soon realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/ecb6dfbe-2b00-473e-bda5-a97a2a7588e3/editions
Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-winter-2025-2026-to-read-list/
Really pleased my wife didn't know this rule 32 years ago, and that she didn't decide to wait for when I grow up - whenever that might be. #AmReading #bookstodon #Mystery @bookstodon
Looking for some soft, comfy reading to ring out this hard old year? You're sure to find something delightful in my whimsical fantasy story collection. Elves, gargoyles, mischievous young magicians, heroic aunties, brave doggo, and much more.
#fantasy #wizards #monsters #fae #witches #sorcery #elves #heroines #FoundFamily #GoodBooks #reading #writing #AmReading #FediBookfair @bookstodon
Bookshop.org
https://bookshop.org/p/books/relics-from-a-traveling-show-k-m-herkes/0abf2118b4e0a1c2?
Other booksellers:
https://books2read.com/RelicsFromATravelingShow
I've finished: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
I was a bit worried about the premise of this novel, I don't usually like when cliche historical monsters are recycled into a new setting. Many times it is just name dropping.
I was pleasantly surprised by Of Monsters and Mainframes. The monsters are characters in their own right and are more than a place marker for evil antagonist.
The AIs are the traditional kind, expert systems rather than the LLM type, finding human interaction difficult rather than built to simulate human interaction. For this is essentially a found family story, and the AI is coded autistic.
It is fun and funny, but also dark, there are cozy elements but I hesitate to categorize it as cozy.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/df12836a-b0dd-416c-b75f-32f0d6f390db
@bookstodon @audiobooks
#ScienceFiction #humor #dark #bookstodon #amReading #AudioBooks
I've finished: The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
When I purchased a novel translated from Arabic I was expecting something more local. What I got is a universal appeal to the power of imagination and the role of stories in our humanity.
I learned about Zorba the Greek, Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland as they struggle to survive in the grip of 1984.
I watched a man and his daughter struggle to retain their humanity in the face of a totalitarian regime.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8b7e9b13-a81e-44c4-9bc7-e46b5142e1ae
@bookstodon @audiobooks #SFF #dystopia #books #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBook
I #AmReading Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman as the November #BrownAjahsBookClub pick.
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Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms -sky, stone, fire, and water- then vanished. Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms and forgot the others. Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/14f5115f-7cc1-4ed3-8a36-50843355b827
I #AmReading Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer.
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With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn's most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/1607db39-78a7-418a-9091-e2019213ade5
My ninth FANuary boost for a person or account on Mastodon that makes my Mastodon experience a little better goes to –
Project Gutenberg (@gutenberg_org), and I'll include Project Gutenberg New Books (@gutenberg_new).
Project Gutenberg posts author profiles as well as links to books; today's profile is Elizabeth Gertrude Britton.*
Project Gutenberg New Books announces new books daily. Tsundoku!
* Link: https://mastodon.social/@gutenberg_org/113799062662611573
An Austen relative I’ve never heard of, but she seems like a hoot!
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/history/dirt-vulgarity-after-jane-austens-10110403
#AmReading #AmWriting @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Regency #Georgian #JaneAusten @romancelandia
#VirtualJaneCon is happening July 19-20. Didn't make previous cons or want to catch up? All videos are on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/virtualjanecon #AmReading #AmWriting @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Regency #Georgian #JaneAusten @romancelandia
THE EYE OF THE WORLD Chapter 3: The Peddler
I've been putting away clothes that were LONG overdue for being put away (including a garbage bag of clothes from the move) and listening to The Hills of Tanchico (from #WheelOfTimeTVshow) on repeat bc it's been stuck in my head, when I suddenly realized: I could be listening to my audiobook!
Padan Fain you horrible creep, let's meet you!
@bookstodon #TheWheelOfTime #WheelOfTime #bookstodon #audiobookstodon #audiobooks #AmReading #AmReadingFantasy
sometimes you have to choose a book by its cover. found this one while reshelving at the library this morning and greatly looking forward to reading it.
