Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-winter-2025-2026-to-read-list/
amreading
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
#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."
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
Currently halfway through KJ Charles’ queer gothic romance All of Us Murderers and having a grand time! @bookstodon #bookstodon #amreading #mmromance
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
I've finished: The Ragpicker by Joel Dane
It is not easy to do something innovative in the post-apocalyptic sub genre.
Humans surviving in enclaves, hunted by robots inhabited by broken uploaded minds is nothing new. But Joel Dane manages to explore these themes in a very humanizing manner.
As Ysmany partners with the ragpicker, to save a baby from the military twitch that dominates her enclave, they go on a journey that will form a new partnership that will change the relationship between the remaining humans and the remnants of the uploaded.
For this is a found family novel, though it is in no way cozy. Filled with danger, pain and trauma, while there is a healing process, and the new partnership builds a safer community, it is an incremental improvement.
I like it when the authors don't forget that life is hard when they write about a healing journey.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2f165f4f-d323-4ed4-beee-d0d1ccd945d1
@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #postApocalyptic #FoundFamily #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBook
I've finished: Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
Lucky Day dresses a well worn fantasy trope: you can't cheat lady luck, and dresses it in science fiction clothes.
It is interesting to see a statistician have to deal with probability defying events on the personal, philosophical and investigative levels.
However this novel must come with a body horror content warning. Tingle absolutely delights in graphic descriptions of injury and death.
If you want a more family friendly novel that deals with the implications of impossible phenomena manifesting in our world, try When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7690dede-bb83-45a7-98cf-28dd75493055
@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #BodyHorror #bookstodon #AudioBooks #amReading
Book Promotion: When a world is broken who or what can put it back together? Not Miralees she's just an acrobat with her family troupe but is that all?
Read "Dragons of the Wounded Land"
#romantasy #fedibookfair #dragons #heroines #lesbian #monsters #romancelandia #fantasy #epic #goodbooks #phantastik #sapphic #amreading #wlw #writing #sorcery #audiobook #readers #reading #secondaryworld #magic #lesfic #legendary #boost (a457) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FCDHT9RF?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
I've finished: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
This is not what I'm used to from Robert Jackson Bennett,
A hard hitting, near future, techno-thriller, parody of American gun culture.
It is not the funny sort of satire, it is the tragic, tense drama kind.
Published in 2019 it hit's a bit too close to home in 2025.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/08c7b0e6-cf4b-4405-8219-5d51dd7b8095
@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #dystopia #satire #NearFuture #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #robertjacksonbennett
Delightfully dark, a good winter read.
"I don’t need you,’ I say, ‘I want you. That should be enough. That should be better because it means I’ve made a choice."
― A.G. Slatter, All the Murmuring Bones
#Horror #Fiction #HorrorBooks @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @bookstodon #amreading
I started reading Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines this weekend and will share what I thought of it after I finish it. So far I’m enjoying the fact that the three protagonists are all between the ages of about 56 and 99. That’s cool.
It reminds me a little of what Buffy the Vampire Slayer might have been like after Buffy retired from saving the world and grew old enough to have some health troubles.
If you’ve read it, did you like it?
All the books. . .
Here's my list of all the #fiction I read in 2025. It's mostly #mystery, of course, but there are some other genres represented as well.
I hope you find something on this list that YOU would love to read!
I've finished: GogMagog by Jeff Moon & Steve Beard
Set in a dark world full of bizarre people and phenomena, GogMagog is lead by a grumpy foul mouthed old woman, but her heart is in the right place.
This is a very British book, steeped in British culture history and national trauma.
Thankfully, despite it's title, it has nothing to do with the bible.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/f1864bfc-1e8e-448b-8b1f-2e19c8499363
Made a list of all the 2026 fantasy and sci-fi book releases that I’m excited for:
https://youtu.be/oRaNxr3Uoj0
#bookstodon #booktube #amreading
Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-most-anticipated-books-releasing-in-the-first-half-of-2026/
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
Guess what? CHORDS OF DECEPTION, book 2 in the Lily Gallagher Mysteries series, is ready for beta readers.
shttps://open.substack.com/pub/susannasullivanauthor/p/whats-coming-next-for-my-lily-gallagher?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
#AmWriting #mystery #edgycozymystery #AmReading
#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