How can an honest #BookReview be a bad thing? Well, this. . .
amreading
"You're arresting *Unmentionables*?"
"No uniform. No badge. Carrying weapons. Let's have a bit of law around here, shall we?" said Vimes. "Snouty, where's that cocoa?"
"We'll get into trouble!" Knock shouted.
Vimes let Knock wait until he'd lit a cigar. "We're in trouble anyway, Winsborough,' he said, shaking out the match. "It's just a case of deciding what kind we want."
#AmReading Night Watch. History always rhymes when I'm reading Terry Pratchett.
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?
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.
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.
In The Defense, Nabokov’s language is, as always, rich, sharp, and full of vivid imagery and wordplay.
The characters, however, feel strangely soulless and do not inspire sympathy. It even seems that the author treats them with a kind of superiority bordering on contempt.
#Nabokov #TheDefense #books #reading #bookreview #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #literature #novel #booksky #amreading #chess #readingcommunity #BookTok #Bookwyrm #bookish #booklovers #readers #review
My Favorite Books I Read in 2025: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-my-favorite-books-i-read-in-2025/
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
#AmReading "Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness" by Michael Koresky. Not very far in, but I think it's going to be fascinating. It's about finding value in older film depictions of queerness. Seems to be a bit in response to "The Celluloid Closet."
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.
Finished reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.
A very practical book for anyone who wants to change something in their life or move closer to a goal.
The ideas are simple, clear, and easy to apply. Some of them I was already using intuitively, but a few insights felt genuinely fresh — and definitely worth much more than the time spent reading the book.
#JamesClear #AtomicHabits #nonfiction #book #books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #selfimprovement #amreading
Happy weekend, everyone! I have a nice stack of library books to work my way through.
How about all of you? Any good reads?
Bamboo can barely be seen for the first five years as it builds extensive root systems underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks.
James Clear
#JamesClear #quote #quotes #AtomicHabits #nonfiction #book #books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #selfimprovement #amreading #booktok
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
Old Nana, the wise Chihenne war leader, had held forth two coins, one of gold and the other of silver, and offered a solemn prophecy: “The Mexicans and the greedy White Eyes [Anglo Americans] are superstitious about this stuff. The love of life is strong in all people, but to them it is not so strong as their greed for gold. For it, they risk their lives.”
– THE APACHE WARS by Paul Andrew Hutton, Chapter 3: The Lost Boy
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
#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