If you’re not already familiar with Sarah Pinkser’s work, then heave yourself out from under that giant rock, and brace yourself. Lost Places is Pinsker’s latest collection of stories, all of which are beautiful in their own way. The collection starts with Two Truths and a Lie, Pinsker’s amazing Nebula and Hugo-winning novelette, about a … Continue reading Review: Lost Places, by Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer Press)
Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster, by Lucy A. Snyder (Tor Nightfire)
No matter how awful your experience of COVID-19 was, in Sister, Maiden, Monster, Lucy A. Snyder goes all out to speculate how it could have been so, so much worse. Sister, Maiden, Monster follows the progress of a deadly pandemic, from the perspective of three different women. Erin, recently engaged to Gregory, is quarantined due … Continue reading Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster, by Lucy A. Snyder (Tor Nightfire)
My Week in Reading – Feb. 14th, 2023
Happy Valentine’s Day! Unfortunately, my husband gave up on buying books for me many years ago, so no exciting gift news to share. Let's get to the good stuff. Episode Thirteen Riding high on the wave of awesomeness that is Grady Hendrix’s How to Sell a Haunted House, I decided to give another male-authored modern horror … Continue reading My Week in Reading – Feb. 14th, 2023
Review: My Men, by Victoria Kielland (Astra House)
If you are looking for a novel about a broken woman going on a murderous rampage, this isn't the book for you. This is a poetic, heartbreaking novel about a woman, Belle, who has endured a brutal act of misogynistic violence, and emigrates from Norway to America to start a new life. Once there, she … Continue reading Review: My Men, by Victoria Kielland (Astra House)
My Week in Reading – Feb. 7th, 2023
How to Sell a Haunted House Oh my sweet lord, this book! Grady Hendrix has written so completely disturbing and hilarious. What a ride! Hendrix really takes the time to establish his characters before launching into all-out mayhem; it's an incredibly well-written novel. There was a moment when I literally screamed "OH NO!" I listened … Continue reading My Week in Reading – Feb. 7th, 2023
Review: Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
Chain-Gang All-Stars is the frankly staggering debut novel from Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the phenomenal short story collection, Friday Black. Welcome to an America where prisoners are used for savage entertainment. CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment) is a fighting league, where the incarcerated are pitted against each other in a literal battle to the … Continue reading Review: Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
My Week in Reading – Jan. 31st, 2023
I'll be honest, reading has been slooooooow this week. I'm pretty stressed out about various life things. Reading is my safe space, but sometimes my brain just says, "nope". Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar After their 2021 entertaining/depressing book, You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, these amazing sisters are back with The World Record … Continue reading My Week in Reading – Jan. 31st, 2023
My Week in Reading – Jan. 23rd, 2023
Wayward Children As I mentioned last week, I finally started Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. I am not a big series reader at all, but I love the concept of children finding random doors to other worlds, and then having to essentially go to rehab to deal with how awful the real world is in … Continue reading My Week in Reading – Jan. 23rd, 2023
Review: The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, by Tananarive Due (Akashic)
New Tananarive Due book klaxon!! Okay, some of these stories have already been published elsewhere, but any new work from Due is cause for celebration. Due has broken this work into sections; Wishes, The Gracetown Stories, The Nayima Stories, and Future Shock. The Wishes section contains my favorite stories; tales with a hint of the … Continue reading Review: The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, by Tananarive Due (Akashic)
My Week in Reading – Jan. 16th, 2023
I had two cracking finds in my local library bookstore this week. Will found the first one. I’ve wanged on previously about how Roald Dahl’s short story The Hitchhiker opened me up to the wonderful world of short stories. Strangely, I don’t see too many of his books “out in the wild”, so I was … Continue reading My Week in Reading – Jan. 16th, 2023
California Reading 