Started reading this after Putin invaded Ukraine because I thought it would give a little insight into why, and I was right. Gripping journalism paired with sweeping geopolitics and an astronomical amount of money in this incredible work from Maddow. Definitely worth the read.

A book for lovers of history, New Orleans, ghosts, and the fantastic, frail beauty of the human condition! One of the most effective pieces of literature I've read in a long time!

Written in tight, present-tense prose, this gut-punch of a novella peers over the shoulders and into the minds of conspirators, loyalists, pawns, and victims as the titular assassination of Rizzio and the attempted overthrow of the queen unfolds. As she has shown time and again with her other works, Mina is an author who knows how to captivate and keep her audience, and Rizzio is no exception.

What strikes hardest about Tupac Shakur's writing is how inescapably young he was, how heartbreaking it is, all over again, that such youth and promise was cut down too soon. Each poem is in here 2Xs - 1st as an image of the original scribble, complete with the illustrative doodles, misspellings, & abbreviations you would expect from a teenager's notebook, & then again as a typed poem. The juxtaposition is sharp and delightful.

Step out of the wings & strike a pose with C.W. Lovatt‘s indominable Delores “Dolly” Pleasance, a 19th century actress born to take the London stage by storm. Written with wit and warmth, & a firm historical grasp on some of the darker aspects of being among the most vulnerable in 19th century England, Dolly Pleasance is sure to delight fans of the theater, fans of history (& historical Easter eggs), & fans of powerful leading ladies all at once.

It‘s a lot of fun to watch Butch and Sundance get out of scrapes, into hijinks, & up to no good. Whether blowing up mines, or robbing stagecoaches unarmed, there is delight in watching them work. The great shame of this story is that the women read like they were written by men. Their characters don't receive quite the same nuance as the men, their actions aren‘t as interesting & the attachments as heartfelt as the bond between the men themselves.

Where this could easily be a romp through an improbably explosive landscape full of hot lead and one-upmanship, instead Paterson gives his readers a meditation on war, trauma, and the people who get caught up in it.

Absurd at times, intense, and heartrendingly human throughout, An Idle King is a knockout in ways I was not anticipating and is all the stronger for it.

Cromby‘s Axiom reads like the classic science of last century, with all the awareness that living today can bring. Sharp, twisty, and clever in unexpected ways, Kirchner has brought to life a brave new world of possibilities with this novel, and the results are a modern masterpiece sure to delight longtime fans of the genre, and newcomers alike.

Listened to AA on Audible and had a blast with it! Witty characters, a fun premise, and an excellent narrator in Julia Motyka combined for a stellar experience in a pretty fast listen!

There is a fabulous energy to Kill Karma. Yes, it reads like a first novel: the plot is a little messy, the mythology could stand more explaining, & the characters don‘t always quite act like the teenagers that they are supposed to be, but all of that can be laid aside because Kill Karma is pretty darn fun.

Written with a infectious energy, Kill Karma is not flawless, but is definitely fun enough to keep a reader hooked from start to finish!

Few people know that Mary Shelley pioneered two great science fiction genres, rather than just one. Frankenstein, her first novel, stands still as a pillar in the pantheon of genre fiction, but The Last Man is perhaps her true science fiction masterpiece. Masterfully crafted, and riddled with Shelley's personal grief over the loss of her loved ones, TLM is possibly my favorite from her oeuvre and easily one of my favorite texts to teach.

A fairytale version of a world, but not without risk – bears & ogres lurk in the forest, a cruel mistress waits in the manor, & far worse threatens beyond Ruska‘s borders. It takes more than brute strength to win these battles, & more than pure wit to outsmart these enemies. Lucky then that we have a courageous heroin, as determined & strong as she is tricksy, to walk us through this first, spectacular entry into Farb‘s Hearth and Bard Tales!

Nwokeji‘s work revels in the specifics. Poems like “Kensington Street” and “Boulevard Wall” and “Through a Child's Eyes“ stand out as bright, tangible pieces of verse. Obviously intended for a Black readership, but accessible to all, Pamela Nwokeji sought to share something deeply personal when she chose to publish this collection. Her stated intention is to start conversations that have gone too long unvoiced and in that, I pray she succeeds.

Harrowing to listen to, as I'm sure it was harrowing to write, there are no easy solutions to this issue. No silver bullets or magic pills, and Grillo shows the conflict as such. This is a big messy problem, one that has effected generations in Latin America and the rest of the world, and Grillo's work reads like a call to action.

Lush in details, rich in characterization, and written with (forgive me) heart, Heartless Hette is far more than just another rewritten fairytale. This is many fairytales woven into an epic quest, one that will test Farb‘s characters and delight readers for generations to come.

Delightfully modern in pace, characterization, and mystery. Very glad that I picked this one up just based on the interesting title and gave it a go, because this was fun!

Skew! I'm not from quite as deep in the hollers as these boys, but Texas still makes rednecks and I still identify with a lot of what's in this sucker. Hysterical and heartfelt by turns, and fabulous as an audiobook because they read it themselves, this is one I'll definitely return to... and give as a Christmas gift to the other liberal rednecks on my list!

The title says it all. Skwarecki devotes a few pages each to 50 different epidemics through the centuries, from leprosy in the 12th century, to the seemingly endless rounds of smallpox, to Ebola more recently. And a haunting line about coronaviruses in the SARS chapter.

Anyway, a good overview of myriad plagues and epidemics across history without bogging the reader down on any single one.

If you‘re looking for mystery and tense, upper-crust intrigue, this isn‘t exactly it, but, if you‘re looking for a nice little read on a sunny afternoon, Miss Wetherham‘s Wedding might just be your cup of tea.

Very much of its time, so - you know, racism, sexism, etc., but all that aside, still a comedy gem! Madcap from top to tail, MASH is definitely a must read for fans of the TV show, and fans of funny in general!

Let go and roll with the madness, dear readers, because that is the kind of ride you are in for with Creation! Tongue firmly in cheek, Larssen riffs on godhood, omnipotence, and what would happen if a few drunk uncles went on a bender on the blank canvas of the universe.

Spoilers, they'd invent chickens!

If you are looking for a tidy fantasy world full of straight forward character relationships, motivations, and resolutions, look elsewhere. Thomas deftly weaves her narrative through court intrigue, fell magic, and a young woman‘s growing understanding of her own, perilous position. Crackling with energy and full of complex characters, Asperfell is a knockout first novel and a compelling opener for what promises to be a powerful trilogy.

Grounded in the very real turbulence of young love, friendship, and consequences, Denham takes a teenage drama, lobs a single, magical grenade into her story, and lets her characters‘ lives explode. That grenade, the titular sin eater with her ability to wipe memories by accident and intention, causes a blast that ripples through every aspect of the story, twists the ordinary into something truly extraordinary.

Written with an ear toward regional dialect, and an obvious intimate familiarity with the North Carolina coast, its history, and the people who make it special, Letters to Bizzy slips by as easy as an ocean-side afternoon. Funny at times, heartbreaking at others, I can only be grateful that Tabor gave me the chance to spend a little time on Bogue Banks with Robert and his neighbors; hours spent with them isn‘t time I‘ll forget any time soon.

Dense in atmosphere, rich in characters, brilliant in concept and haunting in execution, This is Our Undoing is a fantastic first outing from an author whose work I cannot wait to see more of!

Dead Letters alternates between Claudia Rose, a professional handwriting analyst like Lowe herself, and her niece Monica Bennett as they are pulled into a plot of international proportions after Monica goes missing in Egypt and Claudia begins her pursuit. A satisfying thriller full of memorable characters, rich settings, and a tightly paced plot, Dead Letters is exactly the kind of novel to fill out your end of summer reading list!

Reads like a blend of Inception and The Hate You Give, with a surprising mythological twist just when you think you know where the text stands. Nadia and her allies are drawn with precision and inhabit a fully-realized city, complete with its own internal laws and logic, twisted as they are. Rich in detail and imaginative in execution, American Dreamer offers a terrifying glimpse into what might have been and plays on the fragility of history,

A beautiful collection! I picked it up because I love Lozada-Oliva's “The Women in my Family are Bitches“ poem, and was not disappointed with the other works included. Look out especially for her Wolf Girl Suite towards the end of the collection, and the biting “AKA What Would Jessica Jones Do“ towards the middle.

Lyrical in places, absurd in others, James Tyler's journey spans the seven seas and a Forrest Gump-ish number of strange encounters with the sea-faring and the sea-adjacent. Deliciously idiosyncratic, definitely fit for the salty seadog in your life, or just someone looking for a good time.

Beautiful and harrowing, Sunflowers Under Fire is a novel about loss, love, and a mother‘s resolve to carry on in the face of unimaginable odds. It is stunning work from a master storyteller, and a novel I look forward to returning to again and again.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Probably not the book for everyone, there‘s a graphic rape and too much gore for the everyone should read this stamp, but definitely one for anyone looking for a little something demonic on their shelves.

Not quite gritty enough to be Bogart, not quite suave enough to be Bond, Plummer‘s titular Pelham Hardimann is just plain fun to watch as he blusters & boozes his way through this adventure. Along for the ride are friends, enemies, dames, & housekeepers of dubious allegiance. Multiple cars will combust, suits will be ruined, & brandies will be consumed before this ride is brought to its breathtaking conclusion.

I promise you, it‘s worth the trip.

The Fallen starts fast and runs at a breakneck pace from start to finish. Bodies are dropping, an anonymous texter is sending cryptic clues, & Detective Keegan caught in the middle trying to sort the whole thing out.

Deliciously written, brilliantly paced, & chock full of colorful characters, The Fallen is definitely one to recommend for the detective thriller reader in your life, while still being accessible to dabblers in the genre like me.

There's a specific kind of delight in reading a retold story like John Eyre. What's different? What's the same? What's this I hear about vampires and gender flipped protagonists? And most importantly, can the author make this experiment work?

In this case, the answer to all of those questions is yes! Resoundingly, yes!

Excellent all the way around, Matthews proves that no story is so sacred it can't be retold if the right person comes along.

I get to blurb on my own book? That's kinda cool.
Anyway, I wrote it, I enjoyed writing it, I hope you enjoyed reading it.
See you on the flip side.