3. I was not confident until I saw the illustrations as well as the title that I had really read, in the same elementary school library that introduced me to Alan Garner and Peter Dickinson and Madhur Jaffrey, Leon Garfield's Mister Corbett's Ghost (1968). I am intrigued by the starrily cast television film which may not have existed my first time around with it.
P.S. Via sholio: I had no idea the musk ox was a megagoat. I am delighted.
Current Music:Hen Ogledd, "Dead in a post-truth world"
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is $4.99! This is Bardugo’s first adult fantasy novel and I want to warn of some graphic depictions of violence and body horror. The first chapter or so should give you a good picture on whether it’s for you. Book two, Hell Bent, is also on sale!
The mesmerizing adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter is $2.99! This is a paranormal romance that got a romantasy cover upgrade for a rerelease (which I think is an odd choice). I read this one when it was first release and it’s very much of its time in terms of pop culture references.
As Michael’s eyes lit on a female not twenty feet away, he knew without a doubt that it was her blood that called to him and her scent that had awakened him. This female had tethered his soul and returned it to him.
Soul Survivor
He is the last of his race. The one true king of the vampires. Michael Aristov roams the nightclubs of L.A. after dark, haunted by his past and driven by his hunger. The last of the Ancient Ones, he alone has survived the destruction of his race at the hands of the slayers. Now he is forced to hunt and feed like a common vampire, a creature of lust. Nothing in this world can fulfill his needs…until he meets a woman who’s everything he’s ever wanted. And more.
Sweet Salvation
Her name is Claire Thompson. Her blood is so sweet, so intoxicating—the smell alone draws Michael to her like a moth to the flame. Sly, sexy, and seductive, Claire seems to be the only mortal who can satisfy his craving and seal his fate…forever. Can she be trusted? From their very first kiss, the last true vampire sweeps Claire into a world in which darkness rules desire—and where falling in love is the greatest danger of all…
Love on a Bookshelf by Kiah Thomas is 99c! This is a standalone contemporary romance between a bookseller and an author. Reviews mention that this is a slow burn, but I also saw some readers say this felt more like a YA romance.
A deliciously bookish romance about finding what you need in the place you least expect…
What if a gorgeous, grumpy author dedicated his new bestseller to the stranger who inspired him – and that stranger was you…?
Clarrie Brooks isn’t just having a bad day – her life seems to be falling apart. She’s struggling to keep her beloved grandmother’s bookshop afloat, her boyfriend has just dumped her and now it’s, quite literally, raining inside her run-down apartment.
To top it off, the bookshop loses power for the tenth time this week . . . just as new author Declan Archer walks in to sign stock. Declan advises Clarrie to invest in better lighting. Clarrie suggests to him that he write a better book…
Two years later, Declan’s new book is on its way to becoming a bestselling cult classic – and he’s dedicated it to the bookseller who told him to write a better one. As speculation builds over the identity of the bookseller, Clarrie finds herself thrown into the spotlight. Could it be time to open her heart and draft a brand-new love story?
A Study in Scoundrels by Christy Carlyle is $1.99! I don’t like this cover; the dress color washes the model out. In this one, the heroine is a secret author and the hero is an actor. This is the second book in the Romancing the Rules series, but can be read as a standalone.
Sophia Ruthven is the epitome of proper behavior. On paper at least, as long as that paper isn’t from one of the lady detective stories she secretly pens. She certainly isn’t interested in associating with the dashing Jasper Grey, the wayward heir to the Earl of Stanhope, and one of the stage’s leading men. But when she learns Grey’s younger sister Liddy has gone missing, she can’t deny her desire to solve the mystery…or her attraction to the incorrigible scoundrel.
Responsibility isn’t something Grey is very familiar with. On the boards and in the bedroom, he lives exactly how he wants to, shunning all the trappings of respectability and society. Grey knows he should avoid the bewitching Sophia, but he’s never been able to say no to what he wants. And having Sophia in his arms and his bed is quickly becoming the thing he wants the most.
As Sophia and Grey’s search for Liddy continues across the English countryside, can this scoundrel convince a proper lady that he’s actually perfect for her or will their adventure leave them both heartbroken?
Thank you for all the birthday wishes. It was a very chill day. My partner bought me one of those Kindle/phone/gaming stands, that will prop your device up in front of your face, leaving you with the ability to snuggle under the blankets with your controller or page turner.
Last year’s Cherrywood Quilting Challenge was themed “the abyss.” They have a virtual gallery of all the amazing entries, and a calendar for the traveling exhibit. Some beautiful work on display! The 2026 challenge has started and the theme is “storytime.”
Lastly, Sarah and I were having a similar discussion about reading levels and romance, AND LO AND BEHOLD, this popped into my Reddit feed. It’s such an interesting convo around historical romances and anti-intellectualism.
…
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Jinwoo Park, Oxford Soju Club (2025): character-centric spy thriller from a Canadian publisher, which I picked up while glancing at a different library epub (by someone who blurbed Soju Club). Subject line is from ch. 5.
If you know which Korean surnames are border-straddlers, you'll find them well represented amongst Soju Club's associates, either directly or via central-casting allusions to kpop/kdrama stars' names (including the voice actress for Meitantei Conan's Korean dub, if I'm not mistaken). One character totes around a copy of The Golden Compass, thus named. The Oxford around Soju Club and another pub is barely sketched in, a liminal space for crossings, as though to assert that there's no need for the Arctic; southern England is unlikely enough.
Soju Club is the type of novel that, while layering secret-handshake refs that most readers wouldn't see (I caught the doublings related to Sacheon in Yeongnam, but I know I've missed a bunch), tries suggesting that it doesn't matter that gyopo Park did his homework for those resonances and evocations as though preparing for a Suneung he never took. If you catch the Korean bits, you won't catch the UK-related or NorAm-related ones.
All you need are the sense that you won't catch everything Park has learned while touring himself out of some boxes, and the fact that he did a master's at Oxford and then some writing/managing for computer games. The latter furnishes the novel's vignette-driven scrambled sequence: turn the page or tap the screen to find the next puzzle-segment.
I think that Park, with this debut novel, doesn't imagine the author to be dead.
I logged off yesterday around 4:30 and started the process of making whipped ganache, and as per usual, the amount of time it takes to get the temperature of the ganache down to 75°F is RIDICULOUS even when I put the bowl on the window sill with the window open (there is a screen) and a cold breeze coming in. I guess the one good part about how long it took was that I was able to make and eat dinner in the middle of it, so I didn't have to do the whole thing hungry. Then I loaded those dishes into the dishwasher and started separating eggs to make vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. And got some yolk in with the whites so had to start over. And then cracked an egg and it was frozen, so unusable for my purposes.
I did eventually get 4 egg whites in a bowl with a cup of sugar and set it over the pot of simmering water so I could whisk it until it heated to 160°F because aside from my own fear of salmonella, the whole point here was to celebrate my pregnant co-worker so I absolutely needed to make sure everything was safe. It's always amazing to me how they double in size as you whisk and heat them and eventually they hit the temp, so I whipped them into stiff peaks (not by hand), which took about twice the amount of time it normally does (physics! always working against me!), but did eventually happen. All was well as I added in the butter, but then I added the vanilla bean paste (gotta have the specks!) and it curdled. So I had to reheat it to melting, chill it, and whip it while adding another 1/4 cup of butter, but it did eventually whip up beautifully. Both frostings piped like a dream, too, since they were not cold. Pics are here. And they were much appreciated by my co-workers! At the end of the day, when I went into the lunchroom to put the leftovers in the fridge, I found someone packing them up to take home. She was like, did you want them? And I was like, no, I was just going to put them in the fridge for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she did not know I was the person who made them, but that's okay.
Work itself was fine - we spent most of our team meeting eating cupcakes while everyone else talked about their cats - but I was 3/4 of the way there this morning when I realized I'd left my ID badge in my old bag (I got a new bag for work recently, and used it for the first time today, and I think I like it. It is quite large but the strap is the perfect length for a large crossbody, imo), but thankfully they have guest ID cards so I was able to go about my day without interruption. I did make myself a note to remember my ID card next month when I go in. (well, unless there is a LIRR strike, but there probably won't be.)
***
Today's poem:
The Thing Is
to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you down like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.
—Ellen Bass, from Mules of Love, 2002.
***
Current Mood:tired
Current Music:switching btwn the Mets and the hockey
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming is $4.99! This is book one in the Comic Chaos series and came out last February. Book two is due out in August of this year.
A hilarious and sexy romance about a woman who gets dropped on a strange planet only to fall for not one, but two, aliens, from the author of I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf.
Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she’s attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she’s saved! On the not-so-bright side, it’s because they’re abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has…dinosaurs?
Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can’t resist the attraction that’s developing in their trio….
As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they’ve all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined (she imagined…zero), and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp.
Overall I loved reading this book. I literally gasped and clapped my hands over my mouth periodically, like a silent movie star. It’s so gripping, so beautifully written, and such a powerful homage to women’s voices and the need to unify against a common enemy.
In 1893, there’s no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the Eastwood sisters–James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna–join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There’s no such thing as witches. But there will be.
RECOMMENDED: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn is $1.99! This book and series has been mentioned quite a bit on the site. Elyse recommended it if you like historical mysteries. Reader StacieH4 mentioned it for those who prefer their romance light on sex, and Reader Tina Chaney said on a podcast that the book has one of her favorite opening lines. Have you read it?
“Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.”
These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
Prepared to accept that Edward’s death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.
Determined to bring her husband’s murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward’s demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.
A Fine Scottish Time by Maeve Greyson is $2.99 at Amazon! This is time travel romance and it’s the first book in the The Magical Matchmakers of Seven Cairns series.
Time Travel, Tarot, and Fated Love in the Highlands
Jessa Tamson desperately needs a win. Her three-year relationship ended in heartbreak, her dream job evaporated, her car was stolen, and her rent just skyrocketed. She’s about ready to tell the universe exactly where to go—until a strange tarot card dating app starts popping up on her phone. It’s persistent, mysterious, and downright annoying, but when it promises an escape from her current mess of a life, she decides to take a leap of faith—and a flight to Scotland.
Grant MacAlester has no time for love—or meddling witches. It’s been forty years since his clan barely survived the Jacobite uprising in 1746, and between smuggling runs and keeping the peace, he’s got his hands full. The last thing he needs is old Mairwen and her apprentice scheming to marry him off again. His first marriage taught him one women bring trouble.
But when Jessa suddenly lands in Grant’s 18th-century Highlands—quite literally—everything changes. Their meeting isn’t just a coincidence; it’s the work of the immortals of Seven Cairns, who have declared them fated mates. Together, they hold the key to strengthening the Highland Veil, a mystical barrier protecting all creation from chaos.
—Magic, time travel, and destiny can lead to wonderful things—if a person’s brave enough to embrace them.
This HaBO is from Christelle, who wants to find this romance:
I’m looking for the title of a book, the second in a series.
The story takes place in a small town. A military hero returns home with a back injruy. A night in a bar, he meet a beautiful woman named Charlotte but refuses to go home with her.
Later, he meets his nurse Charlie, assumes she’s a man, but her real name is Charlotte and she is the woman from the bar.
He is a grumpy hero and I don’t remember much else…I hope someone can help…
When two history professors and best friends are forced to fake hate to protect their reputations, chaos ensues, in the next rollicking historical-fantasy rom-com from beloved author India Holton.
Magical-antique experts Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been best friends forever, although lately each has begun secretly wishing for more than friendship. But when rumors about their relationship spread, they’re forced to fake being enemies to protect their reputations and keep their jobs.
The resulting arguments spark havoc across Oxford University, and when they cause an explosion while fighting over a magical antique, it’s the final straw for their exasperated faculty head. He dispatches them to a job in Cumbria where even they can’t get into trouble.…
Which proves just how wrong one man can be. In a stormbound old manor house, Amelia and Caleb face magical mayhem and rampaging ghosts that make the previous havoc look mild in comparison. Most troublesome of all, though, is the secret of how they feel about each other. When it comes to tackling deadly antiques, hiding the truth in their hearts could destroy them for real.
Faeries disappeared over one hundred years ago, as suddenly as slipping through a doorway. It was only the very foolish, or the very determined, who held out hope for their return.
Welcome to Thistlemarsh—a ramshackle estate where an impoverished orphan and a beguiling Faerie collide in an enchanting novel of love, revenge, and ruin.
In the wake of The Great War, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams.
When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s If Mouse does not rehabilitate the crumbling house in one month’s time, she will forfeit her inheritance and any hope of caring for her brother.
It quickly becomes clear it’s impossible to repair the manor in the allotted time, until a mysterious Faerie appears with a proposition. He offers to restore Thistlemarsh…for a price. Mouse knows better than to trust a Faerie—especially one so insufferably handsome and arrogant—but she is out of options. There are dark and magical forces at work in the house, and Mouse must confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her heart or lose Thistlemarsh, and herself, in the process.
Amanda: The dreaminess of this is getting me.
Lara: I’m incredibly picky about books featuring the fae, but I’m hopeful that this one will scratch that itch.
Author: Savannah Stephens Released: April 21, 2026 by Ace Genre:Urban Fantasy
A reclusive witch who fled the burden of her bloodline rises to be the greatest among them in this lush and haunting fantasy debut.
For New Orleans witchkin, there is no greater honor than to become the Prime—chosen to rule. But the title is meant to pass between two rival Houses of magic, not to the wayward daughter of the former Prime who died under mysterious circumstances.
As a girl, Seraphine Barreau was dubbed the Tick Witch for her ability to feed on magic and make it her own. Even among those who alter fate and manipulate reality, she was a powerful outcast feared and misunderstood by her people. Now dragged back to continue the legacy that nearly destroyed her, Phine has her work cut out for her. She must earn the respect of her people, navigate the politics of the paranormal communities residing in her city, and heal a broken heart, all the while battling a parasitic curse poisoning witchkin. Between her werewolf ex, power-hungry vampires, and the skeletons in her family’s closet, Phine must learn to make peace with her past to save her—and all of witchkin’s—future.
Amanda: Can we get a round of applause for this cover?
Author: Jessica Gadziala Released: April 23, 2026 by Avon Genre:Paranormal, Romance
Iris loves being a mermaid. So, when her Mom, Queen of the Ocean, declares that she’s to be wed to a human, she’s furious.
Finn wants to be the first human mayor of magical New York. He needs a magical wife as part of his PR strategy to win over his constituents, and he’s fine with a loveless marriage.
But after his reluctant fiancé Iris douses him with seawater at their first meeting, Finn finds himself wanting this romance to be more than a business arrangement.
Iris can’t stand Finn on principle, but no matter how far she pushes him, Finn just won’t break off their engagement. In fact, he keeps going out of his way to make her life easier. And soon, this mermaid is left wondering if life might be better in Manhattan than under the sea…
It was cold enough in the intermittent late sun that I should have worn gloves, but I walked out and photographed the flowering things of my neighborhood.
It was a delight to run into Elana Lev Friedland on North Street. We talked cosmic horror and capitalism until my hands stiffened up. I dove for the bag of bagels as soon as I got home and made myself one with cream cheese and lox, the latter eagerly shared by Hestia. She has taken to leaping onto the top of the washing machine at the slightest rustle that might suggest deli meats. I fell asleep in the evening, but spatch cooked me scrambled eggs and afterward rushthatspeaks and I talked over our days. I am fascinated by the blue-based earthtongue.
A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon (2023): Did not finish, through no active fault of the book's own. The author does her absolute best to present a whole lot of misogyny with humor and clarity, but it does not hide the fact that this is all a lot of misogyny being presented. I skipped around, read a few chapters, and just couldn't stomach it. But what I read of it was good!
The Lady With the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Story Collection by Kerry Greenwood (2022): Did not finish. These are short stories, some very short. It poses an interesting question to the reader of what, precisely, makes a mystery/detective book. Should we see the process of the mystery being solved? Should we be able to solve the mystery? Do we need interiority in the solving process? This book has none of that! The stories are stories, very short, as we watch Phryne Fisher encounter a crime/confusing event (I hesitate to even call them mysteries) and then relay the solution, with a minimal amount of detectiving. Some stories have more than others. Some are just essentially lists of events. The short stories are not bad, in of themselves. And not all of them are murder mysteries! They are, however, not at all what I want in my quest for "can I please have a mystery book that isn't a murder mystery".
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (2025): I have gotten this out from the library twice and had to return it before getting more than a chapter or two into it. I may have to accept the fact that I don't find it very interesting or gripping. But maybe... maybe the third time out from the library... I'll actually read it.
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson (2023): DNF. Speaking of acceptance of my literary tastes, I likely must also accept the fact that I don't find Brandon Sanderson books entertaining to read. I read some of it. I flipped to the end, and the ending part did not clearly follow at all from the beginning, so I am certain many many things happened in the meanwhile to get from point A to point B. However, I don't really care. I guess I was hoping for something more like the Tough Guide To Fantasyland or Discworld or something, you know... funny, based on the title. It's a shame because this is, iirc, the third Sanderson I was "meh, this is boring" on, and if I could like his stuff, there would be so many books for me to read.
Strange Houses by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion (2025): I finished a book! I liked it! This is a "murder mystery" book told via The Author getting interested in a floor plan, talking to someone who is convinced it means the house was being used to murder people, then a bunch of interviews/discussions with people about floor plans of multiple houses and if the floor plans mean that the house must have been used to murder people. This started off as a really convoluted, very "why would they go to all that effort of hiding a child's existence" and then swerved into fantastic "wait so what actually happened" territory, including how much do you trust various sources and various documentary evidence, and ends with a great highlight on "yeah we don't actually know how much of what was presented here is true and what was fabricated and if so by whom and when". There's this hanging plot hole that the epilogue sort of jumps on top of as well, to wit: ( Read more... )
This book is pretty short, which is contributed to by when it refers back to a floor plan, it shows that part of the floor plan, which makes it really easy to follow along but also, frankly, pads the page count. Quick, zippy read, more of a puzzle-that-never-gets-solved book than a murder mystery.
There was some good hockey over the weekend, though given some of the match-ups, I am rooting for teams I have never rooted for before. It's very disconcerting! I mean, some of it is just, I guess I hate this team less than that team (e.g., Pens vs Flyers, and I guess it's cool that Crosby is making what may be his final Cup run but ugh, Pittsburgh; otoh, the only thing the Flyers have going for them is Gritty, and that is not enough, considering everything else about them) or I hate this team so much more than I hate that team (I am rooting for Montreal, my friends. The Habs! I don't even know who I am anymore! But Ryan McDonagh notwithstanding, I do not like the Bolts at all). And as much as I'd like to see Kreider win (a hilarious rebuke to Drury and Dolan), I can't root for Joel Quenneville (and also Anaheim is not making a run).
In some cases, the choice is easy (I still have not forgiven the Kings for 2012 and I have a fondness for the Avs; I root for Dallas because of angelgazing, and also because while I'd love to see Mats Zuccarello win a Cup, Bill Guerin can go fuck himself, as can VGK and Carter Hart, so Mammoth all the way, there - plus the ZAMMOTH (or the Mammboni, if you're nasty)).
Overall, I would like to see Buffalo win it all, and I enjoyed their game, but if it has to be a Canadian team, at this point, I would pick Montreal over Ottawa (disqualified due to Brady Tkachuk) or Edmonton (ugh, McDavid's vibes are rancid, imo). At least I like Martin St. Louis, and their kids seem fun and their game was also entertaining.
And as I said on bsky last night, Henrik Lundqvist looked like an ANGEL in his silver suit. He just gets more handsome every time I see him. *dreamy sigh*
Anyway!
Today's poem:
White Noise by Alice Pettway
I ordered silence online, from the makers
of that robot vacuum, the one that terrifies cats.
They claim it will ricochet through my life, siphoning
the mewling of the computer in its dark cubby, the shiver
of leaves, even the snap of fish beaks against coral, the air conditioner
accelerating endlessly around its distant track.
I asked customer support if there was an attachment
to suck the cacophony out of my head. For this,
I said, I would pay extra, whatever they asked, really.
No response came. I lay on the rug. The machine
ran along my legs, the side of my face. I imagined
as loudly as possible, waiting for the indicator to switch on,
for the whir and pinch of suction. The room is quiet now.
Even the stuffing in the couch does not exhale beneath my weight.
*
Current Mood:amused
Current Music:Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 - Frederic Chopin
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is $5.99! This came out last summer and was a big release. If you’re still waiting on that library hold, maybe grab this one.
From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.
This is a story about hunger. 1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.
This is a story about love. 1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.
This is a story about rage. 2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.
This is a story about life— how it ends, and how it starts.
I read this book in a day. A delicious day. A work day! In between meetings and emails I was reading this book. (Sorry, boss.)
For Landon Stackhouse, being called up from the Calgary farm team is exciting and terrifying, even if, as the backup goalie, he rarely leaves the bench. A quiet loner by nature, Landon knows he gives off strong “don’t talk to me” vibes. The only player who doesn’t seem to notice is Calgary’s superstar young winger, Casey Hicks.
Casey treats Landon like an old friend, even though they’ve only interacted briefly in the past. He’s endlessly charming and completely laid-back in a way that Landon absolutely can’t relate to. They couldn’t have less in common, but Landon needs a place to live that’s not a hotel room and Casey has just bought a massive house—and hates being alone.
As roommates, Casey refuses to be defeated by Landon’s one-word answers. As friends, Landon comes to notice a few things about Casey, like his wide, easy smile and sparkling green-blue eyes. Spending the holidays together only intensifies their bromance-turned-romance. But as the new year approaches, the countdown to the end of Landon’s time in Calgary is on.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is $2.99! I hesitate to call this one “recommended” but we hadan amazing guest post about this book. Be warned, it will definitely make you cry.
From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.
Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, can they trust each other enough to protect one another—and the precious seeds in their care? And can they finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together?
A novel of heart-stopping twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.
Book People by Jackie Ashenden is 99c! This contemporary romance was mentioned on Hide Your Wallet. This was also our third bestselling book of last year.
Don’t miss this utterly charming, spicy, enemies-to-lovers rom-com from Jackie Ashenden!
When Kate, a fledgling bookseller, decides to open a bookshop that celebrates the kinds of genre fiction she loves to read (popular and fun!), she’s surprised to find that not everyone in the town is as excited as she is.
Least excited of all? Sebastian, owner of the highbrow bookshop across the road, who has rules for everything: the kind of books he sells, the clothes he wears, and the people he dates (no-one local).
When the pair find themselves working together on the town’s literary festival, their growing attraction becomes harder and harder to ignore. Professional rivalry aside, just one steamy kiss can’t mean anything, can it?
There are many reasons that I choose not to finish a book and then subsequently am compelled to write about the experience in a review. Sometimes it is irritation or anger or frustration. Sometimes, like now, it’s because I’ve stumbled across a book that will be someone’s catnip; it’s just not my catnip. I can’t force myself through the rest of the story, but I’m desperate for Thistlemarsh to find its readers. So much so that I wish I could add an asterisk to the ‘DNF’ at the top of this review and somehow flag that this is not an ordinary DNF.
Mouse inherits Thistlemarsh, a manor house, from her uncle but she has to fix up the house in a month or the house goes to Carlyle, someone she hates A LOT. She needs the house because it is where she is going to care for her brother who is deeply traumatised by World War One and can’t fend for himself at the moment or perhaps ever again.
While walking to visit her childhood friend who became the village vicar, she accidentally frees a faerie, Thornwood, from a statue in the woods around the house. In return for a (minor) sacrifice on her part, he agrees to fix up the house for her. Only it doesn’t go smoothly.
Here is my first problem with the book (that might not be a problem at all for other readers): not a lot happens. That smidgen of plot summary takes you bang up to 31% of the book, so it is slow going. In my current personal circumstances, I need something more strident and dynamic in a plot, but I can absolutely see how a slow, gentle story like this could be very comforting for a reader.
An example of the slowness is that there is just over a page talking about how Mouse is making her supper. No thoughts or things happening aside from that. Just a description of her making and eating an egg sandwich and drinking a pot of tea. That’s all that happens for a page. While this is a dealbreaker for me personally, it isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker for someone else.
The writing is lovely. Yes, it’s slow, but the description is rich and creative, especially descriptions of the magic that Thornwood does in the house. Here’s an example of it:
The shape the magic created was massive, a spiderweb of overlapping strands that crisscrossed between portraits, tables, and doors. In the entry way, tangles clustered along the tapestry, in the great elk antlers, and above the doorways.
The Faerie men stalked the lines like cats. Thornwood’s jacket sleeves bore long, dark scorch marks that reached his elbow. He raised his right hand, and Mouse gasped. His hands were clawed.
He snapped his fingers, and the glow of his magic fell away from the threads. Lines of gold remained suspended in the air, the bars of an immense birdcage. With her pinky, Mouse plucked at the closest string. It hummed like a harp. The sound echoed through the hallway, and the other lines joined in harmony where they crossed.
Mouse herself is intrepid and determined. She has some baggage from a childhood that was mostly unhappy, but she is deeply committed to her brother. Thornwood is cantankerous which I always enjoy in a character. But both characters for me lacked depth though. That might well be because I stopped reading at 31%, but life is too desperately short to force my way through a book that isn’t holding my attention.
Nonetheless, Thistlemarsh deserves readers who will be made immensely happy by this cosy fantasy. If you do pick it up, please share in the comments how you found it.
It was very nice to be told by the ophthalmologist this afternoon that I do not need surgery on my eye. I had been given some reason for concern. It was aggravating to be told that I should persist in spending hours of my time with a warm sheep, i.e. the cereal-filled microwaveable hot pack that lives in our freezer applied to my face, but at least it's working.
I read like a medical diary. Yesterday had social interludes in the form of rushthatspeaks and selkie and genarti who dropped unexpectedly by with a lifetime supply of bagels and other heymishe staples from Mamaleh's. I paused Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (宮本武蔵 完結篇 決闘巌流島, 1956) in order to show spatch that Kōji Tsuruta lived up to his character's billing of looking more like an actor than a swordsman, which had sounded self-referential until he stepped onscreen as if exactly out of an ukiyo-e print. This evening I felt so set on fire that I curled up in bed for an hour and Hestia snuggled herself under the covers and pushed her head kitten-fashion against my knee. I made myself a sesame bagel with chopped liver and watched another of the Warners B-pictures written by Raymond L. Schrock that TCM has been running to more than fast-cheap effect so long as they do not contain Ronald Reagan. I feel as though I measure my time by what I can do in between managing my health.
I cannot manage the state of the world and it remains exhausting. Nearly a decade of my life seems to have folded itself like a tesseract of the Echthroi and it is hard at the moment not to feel that all that happened in the interval is that people died.
This time, it’s about information behaviours: by the fans, for the fans
The clickbait title of this post would have been: gatekeeping in fandom. Fandom’s information behaviour is of much interest to scholars as
(…) cult media fans are seen to be an information-intensive group in many respects, with a variety of sophisticated online and offline information practices.
Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089
These sophisticated practices might involve the role of information gatekeepers.
These gatekeepers seem to have a network that extends outside of the immediate social structure and as such they seem to possess strong ties even to external resources. They are able to filter the flow of information when passing the knowledge on to others. This kind of gatekeeper or information provider can be observed within the context of the game, either at a low level, like in a guild, or at a high level, like someone who for one reason or another has earned acclaim and thus earned credibility.
Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].
Nyman here talks about gaming environments and it would be dangerous to generalise based on that, but some takeaways might be warranted. Gaming is based on voluntary and active participation, the communities are collaborative and not based on fixed hierarchies, these are presupposed for the purposes of this post.
Then, Nyman expected to see that the information needed for this participation (how to complete a quest) was gathered through the personal relationships in the game (from the people the gamers are already raiding with, for example).
Well, close enough.
The most common way to gather the information needed (to complete in-game tasks) was by visiting a third-party website.
Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].
Nyman’s speculation was based on how information sciences gather the most effective ways to gather information. Then, the result could also suggest that third-party websites are, in some way, more effective in providing information.
The game is taking place online, as such Internet is but a few clicks away. So even if the knowledge exists withint he social structure to resolve many of the needs, the quickest path to a satisfactory result is to use a website for research.
Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].
In their description of a gatakeeper, the acclaim can be earned either in the game or outside of the game world, while still related to the game. There is reason to think that that acclaim (or social capital) could be earned through contributing information to third party websites.
Furthermore, the voluntary participation of gaming communities is interest-based. While they might not be interpretative communities in the same way fandoms are, it can be speculated that information resources for gamers by gamers will organise and disseminate information in ways that makes sense for these gamers, therefore, making these resources close to as effective, as if they were personally tailored to the information seeker.
It has been observed that fandoms
are saturated and defined by distinctive information behaviours, affecting all aspects of the information communication chain, from creation and dissemination, to organisation and use.
Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089
So fandoms can provide information effectively to fans specifically because of the distinctive information behaviours, but they are distinctive in what ways? This is something to be further discussed.
I realize I never followed up on the vanilla cupcakes and they did stay moist for 4 days in an airtight container and didn't get that weird texture where you can tell they're going bad, nor did they dry out, so. A++ on the hot milk method. So I am making them today, as well as my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe (it is actually a cake recipe but it makes 40 mini cupcakes as written) and then tomorrow I will make whipped ganache for the vanilla and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream for the chocolate, and bring them to work on Tuesday, since one of my attorneys is pregnant, and this is likely the last time she'll be in the office with us until the fall. She was all, "no need to make a fuss!" but my boss was like, "Cupakes? :D :D :D" so of course, I was also like, "Cupcakes! :D :D :D"
*
Today's poem:
Mother, Kitchen By Ouyang Jianghe (Translated from the Chinese by Austin Woerner )
Where the immemorial and the instant meet, opening and distance appear. Through the opening: a door, crack of light. Behind the door, a kitchen.
Where the knife rises and falls, clouds gather, disperse. A lightspeed joining of life and death, cut in two: halves of a sun, of slowness.
Halves of a turnip. A mother in the kitchen, a lifetime of cuts. A cabbage cut into mountains and rivers, a fish, cut along its leaping curves, laid on the table still yearning for the pond.
Summer's tofu cut into premonitions of snow. A potato listens to the onion-counterpoint of the knife, dropping petals at its strokes: self and thing, halves of nothing at the center of time. Where gone and here meet, the knife rises, falls.
But this mother is not holding a knife.
What she has been given is not a knife but a few fallen leaves. The fish leaps over the blade from the sea to the stars. The table is in the sky now, the market has been crammed into the refrigerator, and she cannot open cold time.
The start of Lorkowska's Scarflette sits, for now; I've been asked to make something smaller and have begun Good Winds. There's enough yarn for both.
(Nixed: Hazel, too wintry. Honorable mention: Mae, too customizable; this time I'd like to knit to the end of a row, then knit the next row.)
Capsa remains quasi-meditative and slow, with its long rows of aran-weight yarn and heavy, warm result.
This post-draft began weeks ago, while I was struggling with a sequence-oriented pattern, one of these. Campochiaro's design effects are lovely; for me in 2026, nope.
While looking for another pattern that uses 3-5 colorways in rather small amounts, I found a few that don't quite match my parameters:
* Hapkerchief, also by Johnston, for people with small heads
* Asti, Natasja Hornby---though my post-#2020 eyes couldn't handle her larger-format shawl a few years ago, a neckwarmer-sized amount would probably be okay, except that my yarn amounts don't fit
What I chose is simpler and barely needed looking at, ChrisBerlin's V (little) (with a nod to Nimm Vier, a band I don't know). The fifth colorway has become an applied icord selvedge, to balance things and help hide the yarn-ends. It's drying now, almost kite-shaped---triangular delta style, similar to a wide, short Starfleet insignia, I suppose, except balanced left/right.
Carrie: Fellow Smart Bitch Shana has been trying to get me to go with her on the JoCo Cruise for years, and she finally succeeded. I joined Shana and two other roommates (Heather and John) on JoCo Cruise 2026 and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it.
JoCo Cruise is named after its founder, Jonathan Coulton. Coulton is a singer-songwriter who is best known for his songs that are science fiction/fantasy adjacent. His most famous songs are probably “Still Alive” from the game Portal, “Redshirt” which was inspired by a John Scalzi book which was inspired by Star Trek, and “Re: Your Brains” which must be heard to be believed.
Here’s a video set to Jonathan Coulton singing his song “I Feel Fantastic” that gives the general vibe – not shown is crafting, discussions with authors, and general introverting (also it’s from 2012, so we had different guests):
JoCo was co-founded by Paul and Storm, a comedy duo who are known for organizing W00tstock and for Mystery Theater 3000 among other things, and Drew Westphal. JoCo Cruise has all kinds of special guests, but there’s a real sense t hat mostly Coulton, Drew, Paul and Storm invite all their friends and see who has time to attend.
Hallway decoration – one of many
For instance, Aimee Mann, a singer-songwriter, usually comes on this cruise , having just finished a tour with Coulton as her opening act. Author Mary Robinette Kowal has been an unofficial guest on four JoCo Cruises (counting this one). Author John Scalzi has been on eleven of these things, while sing-songwriter-ukelele player Mollyele has been on every single one since 2011!
You get the idea – there’s always a lot of new guests (mostly writers and performers of comedy and/or music) but there’s also a lot of regulars who put on a great show but also seem to just really like hanging out on a boat, and this sense of a gathering of buddies pervades the entire experience.
Last performance brought everyone together to sing Sloop John B by the Beach Boys because of COURSE they did
I’ve been to a lot of conventions, large and small. But I have never had an experience like JoCo Cruise. Being on the ocean is incredibly healing – and on top of that (literally, harr harr), there is gaming and crafting and reading and various panels and performances. If you want to do something that isn’t on the schedule, you can form an impromptu, unofficial gathering, which is why I turned a corner once and ran into twenty or so people playing instrumental Irish music.
When I went, I was in a bad emotional and physical place in my life. When I came home, I was so rejuvenated, so fully myself again, that when my daughter saw me, she cried happy tears. This was such a healing and inspiring event. Here are my two favorite memories, which I have selected largely because they occupy different spot on the “tranquil – wild” spectrum.
Iced tea with a little buddy on the Lido Deck, I did a lot of reading here!
There was an area called The Crow’s Nest that has floor-to-ceiling windows with cushioned, comfy reclining chairs lined up facing them. The Crow’s Nest was usually fairly quiet. One day I got comfortable on a chair. I fell asleep looking at the ocean and I woke up looking at the ocean and I felt that deep sense of calm that comes with knowing what you want from life, which in my case is to see the ocean waking and sleeping as many days as possible.
My other favorite memory was at the opposite end of the ‘tranquil – wild’ spectrum. Shana, Heather and I went to ‘John Scalzi’s Nerd Prom’, at which I danced so ecstatically (with my arms, since I use a wheelchair) with the whole group singing “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Titanium” in a state of pure joy, that I had a sort of tranced-out moment. Instead of the trance state taking me out of my body, I felt fully and deeply in my body (which is literally largely titanium at this point and I’m about to add more) and felt this surge of both communal and individual defiance and joy. I’ve carried that joy in my heart since.
CarrieS, photo by Shana, at the Nerd Prom
Shana: Dancing with you at Nerd Prom was one of the favorite moments!
My first JoCo Cruise was in 2020 right before the first Covid lockdown. I met NK Jemisin, took a writing class by Rebecca Roanhorse, read on the beach for hours, and knit by the pool with a bunch of people who patiently answered my embarrassing new knitter inquiries. It was bliss. For months after, while other people were learning to make sourdough during the lockdowns, I started dreaming about how to get back to that nerdy summer camp.
I’d hoped you would love it as much as I did!
This was my fourth JoCo Cruise and it felt like a snacking plate with little bits of my favorite things—crafting, music, comedy, board games, food, and of course, books. The world is dark right now, and laughing till my face hurt at Ron Funches’ stories about being wildly unsuccessful on The Traitors, was just what I needed.
John Scalzi helps organize the writers track and every year some of my favorite women authors are on the Boat. This year I got to meet Amal El-Mohtar, one of the coauthors of my favorite sapphic sci-fi romance, This is How You Lose the Time War.
Shana and Amal El-Motar
Linda Holmes was there too, and when I met her I blurted out that Evvie Drake Starts Over was my favorite romance I read in 2025 about white people. And then I walked away quickly.
There honestly aren’t a lot of places where I feel like I can be my most authentic self, and I’m glad I found this one. Every year I reconnect with some new part of my younger self on the JoCo Cruise. Last year it was playing card games, and this year it was dress up. I did cosplay for the first time, as Maru from Stardew Valley.
My first day on my first JoCo Cruise, I watched people sing karaoke with varying degrees of skill while receiving resounding applause and cheers. Another Black woman sitting near me saw my first time cruiser pin and told me, “This is a great place. Yes, there are a lot of White people, but people are kind and you can be as weird as you want to be.”
I’ve found that to be true, so while I unpack all the random swag I got during my cruise, I’m missing Boat fiercely and looking forward to being back, soon.
CarrieS at the Crow Party at which everyone wears black and trades shiny trinkets
Carrie: The feeling of being able to be your most authentic self was certainly something I felt, and I heard it stated in various ways by different people on the trip and actively encouraged by staff and volunteers.
I saw it encouraged by our name tags that said “Ask me about…” which not only allowed but encouraged people to wax eloquent about their special interests.
I saw it expressed by everyone’s generosity – I’ve never seen so many people give so many things away! Not promotional swag, just little presents, often handmade, given for no purpose other than to spark joy in the recipient!
I was most touched to hear the sentiment reflected in a discussion I attended about living as a transgender person in America. I’m paraphrasing, but basically the moderator stated that the JoCo Cruise is the version of the world we all want to live in, a world in which we are allowed to be fully ourselves and in which we are accepted as our authentic selves.
Boat gave me the chance to remember myself again, and that was probably the best thing about the trip. As I learned while solving a treasure map, the real treasure was the friends we found along the way (and also the chocolate coins).
Impromptu Irish music, anyone? Not pictured: author talks, panels, karaoke, gaming, crafting, eating, drinking, dancing, napping, legos, treasure hunts, swimming, making friends, sea chanties, stargazing, yelling at the moon, more napping…
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Happy Wednesday!
