I review White Feathers, Crimson Leaves by Josh Reynolds on my reading blog. It's his new Legend of the Five Rings tie-in series and while it can't replace Daidoji Shin for me, it's interesting and atmospheric horror fantasy. Out today.
https://susannashore.blogspot.com/2026/04/white-feathers-crimson-leaves-by-josh.html
bookreview
finished reading The Grand Sophy 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Georgette Heyer.
A irrepressible cousin comes to stay and causes a great upheaval, but between cunning plans and good luck it all works out neatly. More wit than romance, but it does that well.
finished reading Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Ed Conway.
A high-octane tour through the materials that underlie our civilisation: sand, salt, steel, copper, oil & lithium. So many intriguing side notes that sent me off down rabbit holes (African ghost miners!). Really brings home the mammoth scale, complexity & interconnectedness of these critical industries that we take for granted. But also highlights their fragility, the environmental damage they cause, and the immense difficulty of reforming them to be sustainable.
#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #NonFiction #MaterialsScience
Edited 1y ago
I’ve written a few thoughts on Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, 2022, tr. Sophie Roberts. A brilliant critique of the Instagram generation, it’s endlessly quotable, I loved it! #bookstodon #BookReview #reading #audiobook @bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/1e5bf325-0a66-4eae-b4d0-c74bc6eedc03
A Review of Love Bug: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-love-bug/
#ValentinesDay #YoungAdult #Books #Bookstodon #BookReview #Fantasy
finished reading Mind of My Mind 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Octavia Butler.
The god-like mutant Doro finally breeds his race of super-powered telepaths. Can they hold it together, and can he tolerate them? Not much narrative tension or interesting characters, and not a lot happens.
finished reading Anxious People 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Fredrik Backman.
A bunch of charming idiots (i.e. everyday people) get thrown together and muddle their way through a crisis in the only way humans can: messily, and hilariously. Occasionally heavy-handed but the portrayal of people and their idiosyncrasies is a joy.
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My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, and spectacular #horror #books far and wide.
Folk-horror tinged, strange stories of compulsions, sacrifices, and the uncanny, COME SING FOR THE HARROWING is filled with uniquely sinister, striking, & spooky tales. Dan Coxon masterfully weaves stories wrought with atmosphere and ambiguity that leave you pondering and unsettled. (Clash Books)
#FolkHorror #book #review #bookstodon
@bookstodon #mothersuspiriareview #MSReview @bookstodon@toot.community
I’ve just finished reading a fascinating book about 3 women who rose to the top of the fashion retail business in the U.S., my favourite being Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel’s who brought the store back to life as a place for exclusive fashion in the 1960s #bookstodon #BookReview #reading #Storygraph #audiobook #NonFiction @bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/51547c6d-601e-4d56-af35-7f9e9c567326
finished reading My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Sam Vincent.
After an unsettled life of freelance writing, the author takes on the family farm. A memoir of his father and the land, an ode to regenerative agriculture, and an example of how to connect with Traditional Owners. The author is only two degrees of separation from me, so I found it easy to imagine myself in his shoes, going down a route that appeals but was not available.
#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #Autobiography #Farming #RegenAg
Edited 1y ago
A Review of Beach House on the Moon: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-beach-house-on-the-moon/
finished reading The Tainted Cup 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Robert Jackson Bennett.
A murder mystery fantasy novel - why is this a first for me?! Fairly standard whodunnit which escalates to political intrigue, made distinctive by very cool world-building: an empire built to defend against leviathans attacking from the sea, whose bodily fluids enable a raft of fantastical bio-enhancements. Interesting characters and the potential for more fleshing out give the series much promise.
#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #MurderMystery #CrimeFiction #Fantasy #SFF
Edited 1y ago
On my reading blog, I review Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell. A compact near-future space opera.
https://susannashore.blogspot.com/2026/02/jitterbug-by-gareth-l-powell-review.html
finished reading Nervous Conditions 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Becoming a familiar refrain in African literature: girl fights for education & freedom against patriarchy & colonialism. This one, set in pre-independence Zimbabwe, might be the original (?) and the best, with carefully crafted & evolving characters. Ends very suddenly, though.
I managed to review Alchemised by SenLinYu without too many spoilers. I think.
https://susannashore.blogspot.com/2026/04/alchemised-by-senlinyu-review.html
finished reading Every Secret Thing 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Marie Munkara.
Mission mob vs bush mob in the Top End. Crude & cutting humour, with occasional glimpses of the raw, traumatic truth of dispossession & cultural genocide.
finished reading The Man Who Died Twice 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
by Richard Osman.
More fun times with the crime-solving (& committing!) pensioners. The stakes are higher but doesn't feel so fresh. A bigger role for the inscrutable Bogdan is welcome. Laughs off some pretty substantial abuse of the justice system.
My review of the 2025 Free Comic Book Day issue of Conan the Barbarian just went up! My 60th review at Grimdark Magazine.
The prelude to this fall’s Scourge of the Serpent event will weave together three Robert E. Howard classics.
(As always, boosts are appreciated!)
#BookReview #Books @bookstodon #Comics @comics #Conan #SwordAndSorcery @fantasy #Fantasy
New sapphic audiobook review: Kiss of Seduction by Rawnie Sabor, narrated by Allie Shae
https://judeinthestars.com/2025/06/12/kiss-of-seduction-by-rawnie-sabor-narrated-by-allie-shae/
Video review: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKzoL-VCAsR/
#book #books #LGBTBooks #lgbt #sapphic #BookLover #BookAddict #BookRecommendations #wlw #SapphicReads #BookReview #lesfic #BookReviewer #SapphicBookReview #QueerLit #BookToot #Bookstodon #SapphFic
finished reading Wifedom 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
by Anna Funder.
Biography of George Orwell's impressive wife, Eileen, and how he and his biographers erased her contribution from history. Masterfully shows how the infrastructure provided by women is kept invisible. The fictionalised sections made me uncomfortable, being based on so little source material - how much of herself has the author put into this? But that is the very point she is making about biography. Also: Orwell was a mysogynistic lecher.
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, and spectacular #horror #books far and wide.
THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER is both a stunning, unique epistolary novel and a subversive, sly nod to the most famous one. Stephen Graham Jones again shows his mastery as a storyteller by crafting a genuine modern Classic filled with Horror, Tragedy, Truth, and Blood. It should be required reading.
#book #review #bookstodon
@bookstodon #mothersuspiriareview #MSReview @bookstodon@toot.community
New sapphic audiobook review: Reverence by Milena McKay, narrated by Abby Craden
https://judeinthestars.com/2025/05/27/reverence-by-milena-mckay-narrated-by-abby-craden/
Video review: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKKK5GkxyoX/
#book #books #LGBTBooks #lgbt #sapphic #BookLover #BookAddict #BookRecommendations #wlw #SapphicReads #BookReview #lesfic #BookReviewer #SapphicBookReview #QueerLit #BookToot #Bookstodon #SapphFic
Book Review: Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
Playing with language, tone and contrast to make something that feels familiar and new at the same time.
@chloroform_tea has our review at the NOAF blog
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/05/book-review-harmattan-season-by-tochi.html
finished reading The Odyssey 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Homer (trans. Emily Wilson).
Travel back in time for a little insight into the worldview & values of the ancient Greeks. Fickle meddlesome gods, male honour, rampant war and liberal violence, slavery & female subjugation. Easy flowing translation, though I sometimes lost the rhythm.
finished reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Sangu Mandanna.
A lonely witch finds family & love when she is sought out to tutor three young witchy girls. A cosy romantic fantasy. Some enlivening characters and fun use of magic. Very 'House by the Cerulean Sea'.
#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #Romantasy #Romance #Fantasy #Witches