My main beef with Orbital by Samantha Harvey? It’s not a novel. And I don’t mean it’s a novella, either, though it’s definitely short enough to be that. No, it is a book of vignettes, so maybe a book of connected short stories? Not really even that. Also, it’s something akin to creative nonfiction—the characters…
When I received my requested ARC for Land by Maggie O’Farrell, I knew I had arrived in the big leagues of ARC-ing. (That doesn’t mean I always get what I ask for, but still.) And I was thrilled. I have now read three O’Farrell books and have two more on my shelf. I imagine I…
I started dabbling with reading in the romance genre maybe half a dozen years ago. Mostly, I tolerated adequate writing so that I could have an easy, breezy book that was fun and low commitment. I enjoyed many that I read. But then I came across India Holton last year. Now, I’m not going to…
I was in a mood. I’ve read a lot of “serious” literature this year and had been on a literary fiction streak. Which is fine. It’s great! I love literary fiction. But I just wanted to read something that I could fly through and would take me no time at all—right in the middle of…
The Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-awarded Hamnet is causing some contentiousness (okay, that’s going too far) among my friends. Half of us watched the movie first and liked the movie better. The other half of us read the book first and are loyal to the book, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Hamnet was the first O’Farrell I…
First things first, I guess; the title and the promise of The Drowned Woods (by Emily Lloyd-Jones) doesn’t work. There are no drowning woods. There is a city that goes underwater, mostly off-screen. Once you get past that (which I invite you to do right now), it’s smoother sailing. Blurb: Mer plans to live the…
Yes, I know it’s now March 1. Hush. I had been looking forward to Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino, another one of those lauded, literary sci-fi reads like The Ministry of Time (which it turned out I didn’t love). Where did I land on this one? I don’t know. I feel torn. I liked it. It…
Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel #1) by Josiah Bancroft might have been the first book I was excited about in 2025, like as I was reading it. I just somehow didn’t expect it. I suppose the cover doesn’t give much (including the mood) away. I don’t hate the cover, but the overall impression is…
Not to be confused with Night Watch (Discworld #29) by Terry Pratchett. Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024, which was how it caught my attention as a giant doorstop of a hardcover book. Then it caught my attention again when it went to paperback, because what the heck?—it was…
This is largely a story of first-in-a-series. It’s also a long story because the most yet-unreviewed book of 2025 (for me) is speculative fiction. Let’s jump right in. It feels like I read The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley forever ago, maybe in a different life. Or maybe I was yanked through a wormhole…
Still continuing the multi-book reviews so that I can catch up. It’s difficult for me to believe I haven’t reviewed the first of the two books in this category because it feels like years ago (and it was several months). (There will be plenty more YA in the speculative fiction review, which will be about…
If I’m ever going to catch up with my reviews, I am going to have to post multiple reviews at once and make them a little (read: a lot) shorter than normal. Maybe you’ll like that? Or maybe you want all the juicy deets? It is what it is. Let’s begin with my Christmas reads.…
I have had this ARC sitting on my shelf for a lot of 2025. However, I wanted to wait till closer to Christmas to read and review it. I like everything in its season, and I balk at people who film holiday content in the summer, etc. I mean, they kinda have to, but I…
I am in a book club that just throws a book at you at a club meeting, and it’s the book you’re meant to read for the next club. There is no preamble, no warning, no sneak peek. Sometimes this works for me, and sometimes it baffles me: should I read this book? I know…
Earlier this year, I discovered that I might not hate Pulitzer Prize winners. For years, I had been reacting to The Goldfinch, which I reviewed here and am not a fan of. Also, I don’t get people’s love of it. So I had written off the Pulitzer. (Maybe there was more to that emotional decision,…
I have been shoving a couple books down people’s throats in 2025, each one after I read it. One of them I’m about to introduce to you, and I can confidently say introduce because it’s not a widely known or distributed book (or author). But it should be. And he should be. At least for…
This book came out of left field, but I am so glad it did. I am in this one book club (out of seven) that reads kinda whatever these two guys (okay, they own the bookstore) choose, at least most months. They don’t reveal the next month’s read until everyone is sitting around discussing the…
Oh, I have some things to say about Kerri Maniscalco’s Stalking Jack the Ripper. The first thing is that I did not actually finish this book. I’m being honest. But I read more than half and attended a book club, listening to lots of other opinions (plus reading reviews online). (I also skipped ahead and…
Number two in my reading-Hamlet-adaptations is Ann Leckie’s The Raven Tower, a stand-alone and her first fantasy (as opposed to sci-fi) book (from 2019). She’s a Hugo-Nebula-Arthur C. Clarke-BSFA award winner. The Raven Tower is not one I hear mentioned frequently (or ever), and as I said, I started reading it because it was listed…
Perhaps I should have DNFed this one and put it in the ALC (advanced listener copy) graveyard where it could have avoided any scathing reviews. But I didn’t. As some of you may recall, I have been listening to advance reader copies of books as a bookseller, which allows me to weed out some books…
the starving artist 