I just love Rachel Harrison‘s bitingly comic blend of social commentary and feminist horror. This one‘s special though, because it‘s for the religious trauma girlies like me—and a potent reminder that, as dark and isolating as it can be, it‘s better to be a black sheep than a sacrificial lamb. 🤘

American cemeteries have inspired landscape architecture, poets like Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, and famous parks like Disneyland. They‘re also potent political tools & symbols, from Arlington to the separate African American Graveyard at Monticello. The strange, surprising story of the American cemetery comes alive in this tour across the country, from Savannah to Sleepy Hollow to Hollywood, with a journalist/veteran/grave digger at the wheel!

Jane Austen acolytes & Bridgerton besties, I must insist you add this darling graphic novel to your dance card. Set in a diverse, inclusive alt-Regency-era, a marriage of convenience between a reputation-ruined lady and a financially-ruined gentleman settles into surprising contentment, but will it survive the chance for more? Sexy and satisfying, moving and romantic, this pitch-perfect read is a quick one, but you‘ll savor it like a spiced tea.

Shapeshifting from gory horror to cozy fantasy and back again as quickly and inventively as its monstrous heroine changes form, this utterly unique story about found family, queer love (with Ace rep!), generational trauma, and modern parenting will make a nest in your heart if you‘re not careful! Recommended with no rationale for fans of T. Kingfisher, Tamsyn Muir, and Andrew Joseph White!

A lake monster, a witch, and a hobgoblin go on a quest to save their home from a malevolent force in a pastor‘s cassock in this darkly cozy fantasy that draws on British, Celtic, and Arthurian folklore. The slow pace had me skimming, and I didn‘t find the central plot the most compelling—I loved the parts that explored the challenges of friendship between the disparate companions, and I wish we‘d gotten more of that, especially from Brackus.

A new spin on “listen and learn”! If you can‘t hear your favorite album again for the first time, you can listen with ears newly informed by a 33 1/3 book, a vast series of pocket-size deep-dives on a single album. Here, the iconic, cloudbusting, and complex Hounds of Love is skillfully and sonically explored by music professor Leah Kardos, from the fine details of its production and reception to the big sky of its lore, lyricism, and beyond.

The author of Tender Is the Flesh returns with a post-apocalyptic cult of unholy terrors. As literary horror, I appreciate the disturbing and grotesque connections drawn between climate change, religious extremism, the oppression of women, the mutilation of the natural world, and the renewing and transformative power of love in action…but, as dystopia…to me, this felt derivative of The Handmaid‘s Tale and Oryx & Crake, without the political depth.

This one-night-stand accidental pregnancy romance between two friends of friends, both with limb differences, is sweet, moving, and satisfying, but I also didn‘t feel a pressing urge to return to the story. Recommended for when you‘re in the mood for a heartwarming, nicely spiced, gently-paced journey to a happy ending!

If you thought grumpy Cambridge scholar Emily Wilde‘s research into faerie-kind and their mysterious realms was enchanting, intense, or quite seriously ill-advised before…just wait until she becomes the queen of one! This series is so clever, delicious, and fantastically conceived—I‘ll walk through any faerie door on the heels of Emily, her dandy of a faerie prince, and their expanding world of colleagues, companions, beasts, friends, and foes!

Gross, shocking, and full of science, this collection of snack-size essays on macabre subjects is a blast to read! From the studies behind pee in pools to pets eating their owners to psychopaths and plenty more, there‘s something for every curious mind and strong stomach here. One of my favorites is about an heiress who used her fortune to create disturbingly accurate doll house murder scenes to train homicide investigators, still used today!

I loved Charlotte Stein‘s When Grumpy Met Sunshine and forthcoming My Big Fat Fake Marriage, even though I‘m more of a fantasy reader, so I really didn‘t want to give up on this one but 30% in, I cannot forgive the love interest for the fatphobic high school prank he pulled on the heroine in the opening chapter and it‘s taking too long to get a reason to forgive him, for me. I think the book‘s tone is a mismatch for how I took the incident.

This cozy, spicy romantasy is inspired by Peruvian culture and folklore and is highly recommended for fans of talking animals, mythical creatures, and lots of small town charm! The romance in here was sweet but didn‘t excite me—I think there was too much insta-attraction for me, but still a fun, gentle read to enjoy!

A sapphic Jewish fantasy featuring academic rivals on a magical dark academia quest amidst political intrigue in a setting inspired by an obscure period of history (the unification of Germany)? Yes, please! I especially loved how the jaded Lorelei related to each character through the folklore they reminded her of. I wish there was more to the story, especially in the end, politically, but there‘s still much to love in this lyrically told tale.

We gave out copies of books our late friend loved at his memorial, and I picked this one. Introduced by Aldous Huxley and written by his wife, this unconventional 1963 self-help book contains a series of “recipes,” embodied psychological practices to aid in living life well. I trust, although the title recipe is a bit dated, these recipes can make a difference, but they‘re so involved and wacky that I would only use them in a crisis, to be honest!

Another Wayward Children adventure? Reader, I couldn‘t wait to take the plunge! This time, a door of pussy willows and pond ripples leads to Belyrekka, a Russian water-lore world full of fearsome frogs and courageous turtles, an underwater home that calls to Nadya, a Drowned Girl with a limb difference you may remember from the quest to The Halls of the Dead in Beneath the Sugar Sky. I loved exploring Belyrekka and can‘t wait for the next quest!

A Hugo and Nebula Award winning series of historically informed hard sci-fi with progressive themes, diverse characters, and women in STEM front and center? Join me in the Lady Astronaut universe already! In this fourth book, Dr. Elma York must pilot her way through a bumpy first year on Mars, amid possible sabotage, a secretive past expedition, physical changes, and more, as she and her fellow inhabitants find their rhythm on the Red Planet.

This witchy retelling of Anne of Green Gables is utterly charming and stars Grace, an orphan who must complete a grimoire full of spells to become the witch of the wood‘s apprentice…or lose her magic. I loved the culturally diverse cast of characters, the magical twists on the classic story, and that more readers will encounter one of my favorite characters in literature! Highly recommended for fans of Netflix‘s Anne with an E, of course!

I can‘t remember the last full-length book I finished in one day! I really enjoyed the first in this series inspired by the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Grumpy Meets Sunshine, where the love interest was based on Roy Kent, but this wholesome, filthy romance between an earnest, kind, inexperienced literary editor a la Ted Lasso and a jaded aspiring novelist was even hotter and even more fun! Charlotte Stein‘s rom-coms are now must-reads for me!

A must read for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Spellshop, this cozy, inclusive fantasy follows a foreign-born fortuneteller who flees home only to find it on the open road with an aspiring baker, a reformed thief, and the father of a missing girl. Read for a heartwarming, heart-opening story, pleasantly paced like a donkey-drawn cart full of baked goods, found family, and all kinds of magic, rolling on toward adventure—and you‘re welcome aboard!

This enlightened eco-mystery is set in Ibiza and stars a retired math teacher on an inspiring adventure about healing, feeling, self-forgiveness, and a transformative love for the natural world. While this didn‘t speak to me personally like The Midnight Library did, it won me over in the end. I really appreciate Matt Haig‘s distinctive voice and his earnestness about mental health, so much.

Fans of Braiding Sweetgrass, rejoice! Robin Wall Kimmerer has blessed us with a compulsively shareable contemplation of nature‘s exquisite gift economy and how it can inspire us to imagine and act toward a saner, more sustainable, equitable, and joyful biophilic economy. As I was reading, I kept feeling that a new classic had arrived in the nick of time, one I imagine becoming an annual tradition to read, revisit, and grow from each time.

I love the fairy tales of Mary De Morgan (1850-1907), a socialist and women's suffragist whose politics informed her remarkable fairy tales, known for their feminism, criticism of mass production, and deviations from the traditional "happily ever afters.” Though the relative sparseness of primary material and resultant reliance on tangential accounts didn‘t always make for riveting reading, this biography is a real gift and invaluable resource.

With the everyday terrors of chronic pain, unhelpful doctors, sleepwalking, and sleazy exes giving way to something far more sinister…This chillingly paced horror will leave you unsettled indeed. I do wish the ending wasn‘t quite so obscure, but I think fans of The Last House on Needless Street will dig this one!

The tenth most banned book in America this past year is a skillfully and sensitively told story, based on interviews with real survivors, of a 13 year old Nepali girl sold by her stepfather into prostitution in India. This important, inspiring, and very moving book, published in 2006 to critical acclaim, exemplifies the words Lakshmi‘s beloved mother tells her, “Simply to endure…is to triumph,” and celebrates survival, love of learning, and hope.

A marriage of convenience with a Minotaur, a Conquest Moon-inflicted mating frenzy, *TRAINING MONTAGE*, monster sex and sabotage, knotting beneath the ground in the ruins of an ancient magical civilization…what else do you need to know? Some of the writing may have occasionally gotten an eye roll or two out of me, but this was an ultimately satisfying, super spicy, and off-beat romantasy worth digging into.

I want to live inside this exciting, enchanting, cozy fantasy graphic novel for kids—by the author of one of my staff picks for adults, The Very Secret Society for Irregular Witches! All her life, Jupiter has dreamed of attending The Seven Schools of Magic, but…it isn‘t what she expected. It‘ll take discovering a special gift she didn‘t know she had and a living magic open to us all for Jupiter to save the day and find where she truly belongs!

Old high school pals Shiloh and Cary‘s achingly slow burn and poignantly realistic friends to lovers romance reminds us that some of the best love stories take the scenic route to their HEA and some of the greatest romances are ordinary, come with kids, aren‘t the first marriage, take time and talking through, and are transcendent and miraculous, worth fighting for and worth swooning over. Just enjoy every single step of this Slow Dance.

This surprise fourth novel in the Earthsea Cycle tells a dark, gentle, and redemptive story set in the aftermath of Ged and Arren‘s heroic feats in The Farthest Shore. I was spellbound by this sad, yet spiritually powerful installment in a way I wasn‘t with the original trilogy—the pages turned easily. I was so happy to see Tenar again, just loved her adoptive daughter Therru, and was satisfied with the ending for these favorite characters.

I wasn‘t expecting this collection of essays and poetry from women on the frontlines of the climate movement to be so energizing and symphonic…My favorite contributors were a climate scientist who had to convince her husband that climate change was real, a Black church leader hosting community discussions, a student suffering from climate grief, a supermodel addressing fossil fuel CEOs, and a poet imagining the lush beauty of the eerie end.

🌊💀✨

Okay, THIS is what I thought Earthsea would be! An epic, timeless familiarity with Narnia & Middle Earth yet completely original, fresh, and wise. There were several passages like this one I had to stop to treasure. I loved Arren (and his crush) and his (denied) influence on Harry Potter was clear to me. I think he makes a better entry point to the series. Unpopular opinion: this should be the first book in the trilogy and the first two prequels.

Following a young sacrificial priestess of an underground labyrinth and her life-changing encounter with a thief, I liked this second book in the Earthsea series more than the first and am very curious how the next book will put the first two into perspective somehow.

I feel like this trilogy is the most “me” book I *haven‘t* read. While I more respected than enjoyed this first introduction to the world of Earthsea and the hero Ged, I‘m holding off judgment until I finish the series. As for this first book, I enjoyed the Star Wars Jedi vibe, Jungian psychology, and linguistic magic system.

This history of the US bookstore begins with Benjamin Franklin, bookseller, spans the Strand and specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, the big box Barnes & Noble, and Amazon‘s brief brick and mortar stint, coming home to roost at Ann Patchett‘s Parnassus. What I most enjoyed were the characters—“the tsarina,” a trendsetting book buyer for a Chicago department store or the iconic, avant-garde Frances Steloff behind Gotham Book Mart.

A nonfiction account of the 17th Century French women writers that coined the very term “fairy tale,” overshadowed by male counterpart Perrault and later the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Disney, this book doesn‘t actually dwell on the biographies of Madame d‘Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne L‘Héritier, and Charlotte-Rose de La Force, but rather explores the long term cultural, literary, and feminist legacies of their classic “contes de fées.”

Intricate and dazzling, this sharply crafted novella offers a multi-faceted presentation of the world and writings of Charles Perrault, Madame D‘Aulnoy, and their circle of influential and unfortunate fairy tale writers. It‘s no coincidence they coined the term fairy tale during the court of King Louis XIV, a period of history when enchanted palaces, beastly husbands, imperiled princesses, and bloody plots weren‘t confined to “once upon a time…”

Macho bicycle jousting, trans joy, a super steamy bathtub scene, seaweed inspections—What a delight! This charming romp of a queer Victorian romance will have you cycling across the British seaside with an enterprising botanist and the rakish artist she needs to illustrate her upcoming lecture. This is what I love to have in a historical romance: tender and fun, smart and sexy, with utterly lovable characters and an enriching historical context!

A unique magic system and excellent world-building undergird this dark academia fantasy about colonialism and complicity that follows the first female highmage of Tiran and the Kwen janitor her peers assign her as an assistant as the two uncover the shocking truth behind magic. As brilliant as I found Blood Over Bright Haven, it was also a bit predictable and very heavy-handed. Babel Jr.—a less subtle little sibling to one of my favorite books.

If you‘re concerned about democracy and curious about comparisons to 1930s Germany, this worthwhile read follows America‘s first ambassador to Nazi Germany & his family‘s response—particularly his daughter, whose dalliances included the Gestapo chief and a Soviet spy—to the rise of Hitler. A revealing, disturbing, and relevant depiction of moral complicity & political complexity and a dire warning about unexamined biases and underestimating evil.

I have no idea what to say about this surprise fourth novel in Jeff Vandermeer‘s iconic Southern Reach trilogy except “What did I just read?” You may discover more questions than answers here, but, with three narrators spanning 20+ years in over 400 pages, this new entry point (not starting point) offers ever more mesmerizing, uncanny, and extreme views of Area X before Annihilation. Who could resist?

I loved the light academia background of this new rivals-to-lovebirds series-starter from India Holton, whose whimsical Victorian romantasies are always a good time! The magical weightlessness of these British imperial fantasy worlds is starting to weigh on me a bit though, and I find myself itching for more from this writer—more diverse or status quo-questioning characters would be welcome!

This gentle yet deeply felt portrait of an extraordinary yet often overlooked creature was a true pleasure to spend time with. If you need encouragement to slow down and take in the wonders around you—or to feel your kinship with a strange and living world, pick up this peaceful yet powerful science memoir about the author‘s time confined to a sickbed and the extraordinary companionship of a simple snail. 🐌

Take the magnificent train of Murder on the Orient Express, put the menacingly otherworldly landscape of Annihilation right outside the cabin windows, and you‘ll get a sense of this remarkable debut novel. I highly recommend braving a journey through the Wastelands aboard the Great Trans-Siberian Express—you‘ll discover mysterious stowaways, first class liars, a dangerous friendship with a world we have changed and which now seeks to change us…

As a fan of Welcome to St. Hell, I was thrilled to find out a sequel dropped! This installment of Lewis Hancox‘s graphic memoir sees him starting hormone therapy, leaving home, starting college, dating as a trans man, and, above all, learning that being a man doesn‘t mean putting on a winning persona, but being himself. It was a bit tedious watching Lew frequently make the same mistakes, but it made him finding his way all the more satisfying.

Dive into the dragon‘s hoard through this dense but enticing exploration into the medieval imagination—in religion, from the Bible to the legend of Saint Margaret bursting from a dragon‘s belly; in science, through the different classes of dragon in the medieval encyclopedic tradition; in folklore through the story of the Dragon of Mordiford; and in literarure—in Beowulf, Bevis of Hampton, the story of Sigurd and the dragon Fafnir, and more.

Two sisters, friendly oddball Beatrice and fiercely unhappy Magnolia, seek something from the forbidden forest, coming face to face with its magic silk-spinning monster and learning about environmentalism, labor rights, and anti-capitalism along the way, in this creepily-cute and razor-sharp fable that has all the old-school deadly morality of the Brothers Grimm. A challenging, dark, yet adorable picture book for fans of Jon Klassen‘s The Skull.

This is a soft pick for me. This memoir by comedian and celebrity memoir podcaster Chelsea Devantez was entertainingly told, but also so frenetic, which is not entirely the author‘s fault—due to legal issues, she was effectively gagged from discussing the domestic abuse at the center of her story, which greatly disrupts the structure of the book. A moving and powerful and comical story all at once that struggles against a fragmented structure.

A dazzling constellation of science and poetry that will spark your curiosity and leave you in awe, The Universe in Verse sends us on a voyage through space and time on a vessel made of verse by Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, Tracy K. Smith, and more, about mycology & octopus intelligence, floriculture & the Hubble telescope, radioactivity & SETI, & more, each one scientifically contextualized by Maria Popova and wondrously illustrated by Ofra Amit.

A Regency-era monster romance by the author of Morning Glory Milking Farm? Yes, please! The disgraced and penniless Eleanor Eastwick has one last chance to secure a marriage and save her family from financial ruin—seduce a match at the Monsters‘ Ball—and a notorious rake, the gargoyle Marquis Silas Stride, has been volunteered to teach her the art of seduction. Fun, spicy, and perfect for those who‘d like their Bridgerton boys with bat wings.

Thank you to Libro.fm for making this audiobook free for Juneteenth! In this brief but sprawling and powerful exploration of Juneteenth, native Texan and Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian Annette Gordon-Reed weaves together history with her own experience growing up in Texas, uplifting the impact Black people have had on Texas history and providing a larger, more complex, and utterly alive historical and cultural context for the holiday.