Ryan's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 13 Sep 2026 14:25:12 -0700 60 Ryan's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain]]> 127280349 Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.

"Can the University be a place of both training and transformation?"

The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out amongst the stars.

His whole world changes―literally―when he is yanked "upstairs" to meet the woman he will come to call “professor.” The boy is no longer one of the Chained, she tells him, and he has been gifted an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.

The woman has spent her career striving for acceptance and validation from her colleagues in the hopes of reaching a brighter future, only to fall short at every turn.

Together, the boy and the woman will learn from each other to grasp the design of the chains designed to fetter them both, and are the key to breaking free. They will embark on a transformation―and redesign the entire world.]]> 128 Sofia Samatar 1250881803 Ryan 0 currently-reading 3.68 2024 The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
author: Sofia Samatar
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)]]> 40916679
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth…?]]> 433 Holly Jackson 1405293187 Ryan 4 mystery-crime Glad I didn't watch the Netflix show because I wouldn't want to see some of this on screen. ]]> 4.27 2019 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)
author: Holly Jackson
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/13
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
This was really good--had me reading straight through.
Glad I didn't watch the Netflix show because I wouldn't want to see some of this on screen.
]]> <![CDATA[A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping]]> 123029113
Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Aunt Jasmine run an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep the talking fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost.

When she learns about an old spellbook that holds the secret to restoring her power, she turns to Luke Larsen, a gorgeous historian who might just be able to help her unlock the book’s mysteries. Luke, who has his own reasons for staying at the inn, never planned on getting involved in the madcap goings-on around him and certainly had no intention of letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing .

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone... and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.]]> 352 Sangu Mandanna Ryan 4 adult-fantasy
I'm totally going to be that person that lets the review get taken over by one scene I didn't like, but I think it is important to talk about.

There's a common trope for movies, TV, and books where the two romantically flirting main characters will stop in the middle of a heist or fight or otherwise climactic spot and banter, kiss, etc. That happens here, where Sera removes her cloak at a fancy ball heist to reveal her sexy dress. This drives Luke to lust and he rushes to kiss her without permission with an erection between them. Far from funny or sexy, this just reinforces the sexist stereotype tat men can't control themselves round women they are attracted to and that romance is kissing without consent. Honestly, this creeped me out. I trust Mandanna enough to know they weren't going for this, but sometimes it is best to let patriarchal tropes die and find another way to advance the romance. ]]> 3.89 2025 A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/10
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
Often hilarious, always big-hearted, this was mostly a delight to read.

I'm totally going to be that person that lets the review get taken over by one scene I didn't like, but I think it is important to talk about.

There's a common trope for movies, TV, and books where the two romantically flirting main characters will stop in the middle of a heist or fight or otherwise climactic spot and banter, kiss, etc. That happens here, where Sera removes her cloak at a fancy ball heist to reveal her sexy dress. This drives Luke to lust and he rushes to kiss her without permission with an erection between them. Far from funny or sexy, this just reinforces the sexist stereotype tat men can't control themselves round women they are attracted to and that romance is kissing without consent. Honestly, this creeped me out. I trust Mandanna enough to know they weren't going for this, but sometimes it is best to let patriarchal tropes die and find another way to advance the romance.
]]> The Hitch 234100982 From the author of the cult classic Treasure Island!!!, a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world 

Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose mistakes this behavior as repressed grief over the corgi’s death, but Nathan insists he isn’t grieving, and the dog isn’t dead. Her soul leaped into his body, and now she’s living inside him. Now Rose must banish the corgi from her nephew before the week ends and his parents return to collect their child.  

With the ferocious absurdity of Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch and the dark, brazen humor of Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, The Hitch is a tantalizingly bizarre novel about loneliness, bad boundaries, and the ill-fated strategy of micromanaging everything and everyone around you. ]]> 304 Sara Levine 0802165923 Ryan 4 novel
In the end, its simple anyway. ]]> 3.41 2026 The Hitch
author: Sara Levine
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/09
date added: 2026/09/13
shelves: novel
review:
This is funny as hell but a bit scattershot as to what or who is being satirized. Which is fine: the off-balance approach adds to the should we believe it or not aspect of events.

In the end, its simple anyway.
]]> <![CDATA[Backtalker: An American Memoir]]> 203931801 New York Times Bestseller

One of the most influential public intellectuals in the world and the architect of the two biggest ideas to reshape the American conversation about fairness offers the intimate story of how her life gave birth to these ideas.

It is not very often that someone comes along and permanently reshapes the way Americans think about two of the most important issues of the day. In this race and gender. But that is what Kimberlé Crenshaw did when she articulated two concepts that would forever change national and global debates about intersectionality and critical race theory.

Backtalker is the powerful and intimate story of how a little girl from Canton, Ohio, came up with a new way to look at the world. Crenshaw’s memoir traces the way her lived experience made her see things others didn’t as the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and a pathbreaking public servant, and as the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother. She starts to talk back, and that backtalking has continued throughout her life. It happens when she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launches My Brother’s Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw is there for all of it.

In the vein of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bryan Stevenson, Crenshaw evokes each time and place like a gifted novelist with extreme honesty and specificity, making her book a series of awe-inspiring, deep revelations. As a result of her work, Crenshaw has become a force to be reckoned with across America—at schools, in the workplace, at dinner tables, and, of course, in our public square.]]> 377 Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw 1982181001 Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.60 Backtalker: An American Memoir
author: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Ryan 4 novel 4.03 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/07
date added: 2026/09/07
shelves: novel
review:
Oh, well done. Highly recommended.
]]> As You Wake, Break the Shell 246522091 Explore a universe of stubborn survival and found family, of persistent danger and quiet wonder in the first installment of a heartfelt new duology from Hugo Award–winning author Becky Chambers.

Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.

Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.

Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.

It is that threat—the “mindbleed,” a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it’s soon apparent it’s not just about losing her license—this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.

Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.]]> 480 Becky Chambers 0062936069 Ryan 0 to-read 4.45 2026 As You Wake, Break the Shell
author: Becky Chambers
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Taipei Story 247546631 From R.F. Kuang, the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author of Katabasis and Yellowface, comes a wryly humorous and profoundly moving coming-of-age novel that grapples with grief, language, and culture shock—all set against the backdrop of an unforgettable summer in Taipei.

College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her, hoping to connect with the culture she inherited but never fully understood. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate is driving her insane, and a reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon has her classmates viciously gossiping. She feels adrift, a foreigner in a country she thought would feel like home.

Then shocking news Lily’s grandfather has passed away. The loss forces her to grapple with now-unanswerable questions about her family history. As Lily grieves, she’s drawn into a journey of self-discovery—piecing together memories, stories, and silences over a series of hilarious and devastating attempts at connection.

Taipei Story What if the diaspora fantasy of homecoming never comes true? What if learning a language can’t bring you any closer to the people you’re trying to reach? What if you search for your family’s history, but your family doesn’t want to share? What if you wait too long to ask the right questions? As Lily struggles for answers, her summer becomes a poignant search for understanding—of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.]]> 288 R.F. Kuang 0063473747 Ryan 0 to-read 3.64 2026 Taipei Story
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Midnight Taxi 233717189 When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera.

Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving.

When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected.

Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.]]> 336 Yosha Gunasekera Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.50 2026 The Midnight Taxi
author: Yosha Gunasekera
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/05
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
A lot to like in this--is this the first locked taxi cab murder mystery?--but the un-romanticized look at how the police and courts treat poor people of color was a refreshing change from a lot of mystery books.
]]> Punk Like Me 215581670 A queer coming-of-age story, about best friends, first love, family conflicts, and following your heart

It's the 1980s and punk rock is blowing up in New York City. Young people from all five boroughs flock to CBGBs in Greenwich Village to see the latest band and be a part of the scene. On Staten Island, just a ferry ride away, sixteen-year-old Nina Boyd is into punk rock and comic books. She plays guitar, is a straight-A student, a champion swimmer, and is in love with her best friend.

But her best friend Kerri is a girl, and Nina knows her family would never approve. They've sent her to a conservative Catholic high school and they're already suspicious of any of her friends who aren't straight enough. As Nina's crush grows stronger, she must choose between her family's dreams for her and her own.

A powerful, emotional queer graphic novel about navigating rejection from family while figuring out your dreams.]]> 328 J.D. Glass 1951491394 Ryan 5 glbt, graphic-novel, punk 3.92 Punk Like Me
author: J.D. Glass
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2026/09/05
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: glbt, graphic-novel, punk
review:
Love punk rock coming of age tales and this one is very good.
]]> <![CDATA[Nobody's Baby (Dorothy Gentleman, #2)]]> 231127477 Becky Chambers meets Miss Marple in the second entry of this cozy sci-fi mystery series, helmed by a formidable no-nonsense auntie of a detective

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty's most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

A wild baby appears! Dorothy Gentleman, ship detective, is put to the test once again when an infant is mysteriously left on her nephew's doorstep. Fertility is supposed to be on pause during the Fairweather’s journey across the stars—but humans have a way of breaking any rule you set them. Who produced this child, and why did they then abandon him? And as her nephew and his partner get more and more attached, how can Dorothy prevent her colleague and rival detective, Leloup, a stickler for law and order, from classifying the baby as a stowaway or a piece of luggage?

Told through Dorothy’s delightfully shrewd POV, this novella series is an ode to the cozy mystery taken to the stars with a fresh new sci-fi take. Perfect for fans of the plot-twisty narratives of Dorothy Sayers and Ann Leckie, this well-paced story will leave readers captivated and hungry for the next installment.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 136 Olivia Waite 1250342260 Ryan 4 3.82 2026 Nobody's Baby (Dorothy Gentleman, #2)
author: Olivia Waite
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/09/02
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: mystery-crime, science-fiction
review:
I love some genre mash-ups, especially mystery and space stuff. Another quality short space cozy.
]]> <![CDATA[Moss'd in Space (Moss'd in Space, #1)]]> 240019758 USA Today Bestselling author Rebecca Thorne delights in a brand new cozy science-fiction series...for fans of Martha Wells and Olivia Waite! Features original inside art!

Torian Razner finally bought a starship, and contrary to Amelia’s assessment, it was not “a meteoric sign of stupidity.” Sure, the alien starship may have been abandoned for a century, and it may be covered in moss now… but it’s Torian’s ticket to freedom, regardless of what her ex… ah, captain… said.

Except Torian’s first flight reveals a surprise passenger: the moss is actually an organic computer with a snarky attitude and serious abandonment issues. The target of its loathing? The immortal alien who built it (and then parked the starship, with Moss inside, and forgot about it). The same alien who just found Torian and accused her of “stealing” the ship.

It’s entirely possible that Amelia was right about this meteoric stupidity.]]> 368 Rebecca Thorne 1250414148 Ryan 5 science-fiction 4.16 2026 Moss'd in Space (Moss'd in Space, #1)
author: Rebecca Thorne
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/09/01
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: science-fiction
review:
So much good stuff here, but one could argue this is comedic writing just as much as SF.
]]> The Last Contract of Isako 123163998
LIVE BY THE CODE. DIE BY THE KNIFE.

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow—to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her death. But when she's offered a final mission, she can't refuse, especially when she realizes who lies at the center of it Martim, her last—and worst—apprentice, who's somehow made his way to the top. As she's thrust into a world of corporate espionage and shadowy secrets, what she uncovers could forever change humanity's existence among the stars.

The Last Contract of Isako is epic science fiction like only Fonda Lee can write it—set in a world where money trumps loyalty, the elite have the power to extend life or end it, and one woman in the twilight of her calling must decide what's ultimately worth living—or dying—for.]]> 528 Fonda Lee Ryan 4 3.96 2026 The Last Contract of Isako
author: Fonda Lee
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/27
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves:
review:
Great, grim world building. Intriguing mix of ideas and genres, if a tad long.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts (The Marlow Murder Club, #5)]]> 223649340
Two dead celebrities. One village full of secrets.

Someone is killing celebrities in Marlow. First, it's a famous soccer player. Then, a bestselling thriller writer. When two shocking deaths rock their quiet riverside town, Judith, Suzie, and Becks―the unstoppable Marlow Murder Club―must untangle a dangerous web of blackmail and scandal to catch a killer.

But with their trusted police ally DI Malik suddenly suspended, and Judith's own past threatening to resurface, the women are on their own. Suspects are multiplying like tabloid headlines, secrets are stacking up, and time is running out.

Can the Marlow Murder Club crack the case before the killer strikes again―or will this be the end of their crime-solving adventures?]]> 313 Robert Thorogood 0008567409 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 4.00 2026 The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts (The Marlow Murder Club, #5)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/20
date added: 2026/09/05
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Another good entry, this time with more about Judith's past.
]]> <![CDATA[Deadly Nightshade (Gardening Mystery, #2)]]> 747193 211 Mary Freeman 0425171965 Ryan 3 mystery-crime 3.61 1999 Deadly Nightshade (Gardening Mystery, #2)
author: Mary Freeman
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2026/08/29
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Decent cozies set in a town not unlike Hood River Oregon. I read these before we moved to the Columbia River Gorge. She wrote them before HR became the hella expensive place it is now, but right when it was on the verge.
]]> Furious Violet 243689370 From the author of the bestselling phenomenon Dietland comes a razor-sharp, subversive thriller about motherhood, obsession, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

Violet “West” Shelley has unwillingly spent her life in the spotlight as the only daughter of a legendary poet and feminist icon who died tragically young. Now, as the self-described “lowbrow” crime journalist approaches fifty—burned out, creatively blocked, and far older than her mother ever was—she retreats to her hometown in the Colorado mountains hometown to finish a long-overdue book about the “Crying Killer,” a notorious serial killer who sobs for his mother after committing his crimes.

But what begins as a bid for solitude quickly spirals into something far more sinister. A stalker emerges—mysterious, relentless, with accusations disturbingly this invisible stranger insists that West is their long-lost mother, though West has never had children. As the threats escalate and her carefully defended privacy starts to shatter, West is drawn into a chilling psychological web where the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to collapse.

Is she being watched? Hunted? Or is her own mind turning against her?

Gripping, provocative, and laced with pitch-black humor, Furious Violet is a psychological thrill ride and a fierce exploration of mothers (real and imagined), fame, and the question of who can lay claim to women’s bodies of work—and their bodies themselves. Once again, Sarai Walker has delivered a subversively brilliant heroine unlike any damaged, defiant, and utterly unforgettable.]]> 352 Sarai Walker 0063437872 Ryan 0 to-read 3.75 2026 Furious Violet
author: Sarai Walker
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mad Mabel 231127044
Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?]]> 352 Sally Hepworth 1250284546 Ryan 0 to-read 4.34 2025 Mad Mabel
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Tender Age 243974178 “Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?”—The Los Angeles Times

"He has redefined not only what it means to be American, but the fabric of the Great American Novel itself." —Jhumpa Lahiri

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence.


A spellbinding exploration of American masculinity and family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a prepubescent child of immigrants, A Tender Age joins the rich tradition of the American bildungsroman. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caufield, Korean-American Jeon-Gi is torn between competing ideas of himself. At home, his working-class parents dote on him. Outside, he is part of a roving pack of kids with dominion over a derelict baseball field, weedy parking lot, and rusty jungle gym. Getting into and out of trouble is all-consuming. But the summer he turns eleven, he becomes embroiled in a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond himself and his family.

Devastating in its emotional precision, A Tender Age captures a family and community in striking distance of the American dream, and a young person on the precipice of adult knowledge, looking at his own culpability and looking away—then thinking about it for the rest of his life.]]> 368 Chang-rae Lee Ryan 0 to-read 3.73 2026 A Tender Age
author: Chang-rae Lee
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moonlight Murder (Detective Aunty Investigates, #2)]]> 239744798 Kausar Khan, the Detective Aunty, returns in a new case about the mysterious death of a young man in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood, which draws her back to the unresolved death of her son twenty years ago . . .

When Kausar Khan decided to move back to Toronto to be closer to her family, she didn’t expect to have another murder investigation on her hands so soon—or rather, she didn’t expect to have another murder investigation on her hands ever. But when a young man named Mateen is found dead in their Golden Crescent neighbourhood, and when it turns out Mateen was close with Kausar’s granddaughter, Maleeha, what’s a grandmother to do but try to solve the case?

And it’s not just a heartbreakingly devastated Maleeha that is spurring Kausar on to find answers; it’s also how much the circumstances of Mateen’s death remind her of her own teenage son, Ali, and his mysterious death nearly twenty years before. Kausar knows first-hand what a difference closure could make to a grieving parent—and the more she seeks to find that for Mateen’s parents, the more she begins to realize that perhaps it’s time she find it for herself as well.

As Kausar conducts parallel investigations into both Mateen’s and Ali’s deaths and her “aunty” skills continue to bring information to light, she can’t help but wonder if the similarities in the two cases are more than just mere coincidence—but how could two deaths, twenty years apart, possibly be related?

Detective Aunty is determined to find out . . .]]> 336 Uzma Jalaluddin 0063434962 Ryan 5 mystery-crime 4.10 2026 Moonlight Murder (Detective Aunty Investigates, #2)
author: Uzma Jalaluddin
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/16
date added: 2026/08/16
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Detective Aunty is the best. An engaging mystery embedded in a community that doesn't often get center stage in North American storytelling. Written with kindness and compassion. Highly recommended.
]]> <![CDATA[A Deadly Episode (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #6)]]> 240612262 From the global bestselling author of Moonflower Murders and Close to Death comes an unputdownable new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.


‘Easily the greatest of our crime writers’ Sunday Times
'Nobody does this crime fiction better than Anthony Horowitz’ Crime Time FM
'Anthony Horowitz is a national treasure' Ragnar Jónasson

---------

The Word is Murder, the first book in the Hawthorne series, is about to be made into a major feature film.

The actors have been cast, the script written, and filming has already started in Hastings.

But when Hawthorne and Anthony visit the set, they find a far from happy family.

The director’s pretentious, the screenwriter’s an eco-warrior, the two stars hate each other, and the producer has run out of money.

And things are about to get much, much worse.

In the middle of shooting, the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed – which leaves the real Hawthorne with no choice. He has to step in and investigate his own murder.

Because the killer may not have got the right man. Was it Hawthorne himself who was meant to be the target?

A Deadly Episode is a wild ride through a world that the author knows only too well, and the most personal case Hawthorne has had to deal with so far.]]> 373 Anthony Horowitz 0063305747 Ryan 5 mystery-crime Excellent as usual! 3.89 2026 A Deadly Episode (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #6)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/11
date added: 2026/08/16
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Excellent as usual!
]]> <![CDATA[The Disaster Gay Detective Agency]]> 240468383 From award—winning, critically acclaimed crime writer Lev Rosen comes a punchy, hilarious mystery—thriller. Meet the disaster gays: They're messy. They're queer. And they're about to solve a murder… Or die trying.

Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty—somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it?

When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.

But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder—and sees Jon fleeing the scene.

Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity…they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.]]> 389 Lev A.C. Rosen 1464252858 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.26 2026 The Disaster Gay Detective Agency
author: Lev A.C. Rosen
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/08
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
While there are some weak parts, overall I loved this farcical spy meets rag tag group of friends in their 20s who need to grow up or figure it out. Having hardly any straight characters makes it extra fun!
]]> <![CDATA[Ignore All Previous Instructions]]> 241272872 A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing, and a space pirate who smuggles inappropriate stories.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: She precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Reenter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Em, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something . . . illegal. So, now Kelli has to decide: Will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about censorship, forbidden love, and growing up.]]> 320 Ada Hoffmann 1616964561 Ryan 5 science-fiction 3.67 2026 Ignore All Previous Instructions
author: Ada Hoffmann
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/08/07
date added: 2026/08/09
shelves: science-fiction
review:
What SF can and should be. Works beautifully on multiple levels. Yes, go get it now!
]]> <![CDATA[A Trade of Blood (Ana and Din Mysteries, #3)]]> 102615935
Brilliant detective Ana Dolabra must prove a man's innocence to stop a civil war in the third book of the series that began with The Tainted Cup, named an Edgar, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award Finalist and one of the best books of the year (New York Times Book Review, NPR, Elle)—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos.

To de-escalate matters, someone must do the impossible: prove that one family’s eldest son is innocent of a gruesome and unforgivable murder, despite the incontrovertible evidence against him.

It is with this undertaking that the great detective Ana Dolabra is tasked, her assistant Din at her side—and the two find themselves racing with great speed and little dignity to the scene.

As ever, the impossible proves little obstacle for the deadly combination of Ana’s intellect and Din’s keen eye, and mere hours after riding into the dusty town, Ana glimpses the greater pattern behind the crime. A deeper, subtler web of death is being woven in plain sight, by a mastermind with an ancient magical technology at his disposal.

But even Ana's uncanny insight is of little use when each new suspect she uncovers ends up dead--with each new killing calculated to bring tensions between the two rival clans past the boiling point. And as Din pursues their adversary through the canton's wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses, he finds his loyalties divided in unexpected ways.]]> 400 Robert Jackson Bennett Ryan 0 to-read 4.55 2026 A Trade of Blood (Ana and Din Mysteries, #3)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/08/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bird with Flaming Red Feet: Seasons with an Uncommonly Common Seabird]]> 239557353 208 Maria Ruth 1680517252 Ryan 4 4.11 The Bird with Flaming Red Feet: Seasons with an Uncommonly Common Seabird
author: Maria Ruth
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2026/08/02
date added: 2026/08/02
shelves:
review:
Informative and readable with a great structure and no small amount of humor. Community science rules almost as much as birds!
]]> Moderation 221251742
Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: she’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction.

Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. She doesn't have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer) and slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.]]> 320 Elaine Castillo 0593489667 Ryan 5 Captures so much, provides such depth to this strange character called Girlie and shows us how embedded she is in her community despite her apart-ness. Did not see the ending coming. ]]> 3.40 2025 Moderation
author: Elaine Castillo
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/20
date added: 2026/08/02
shelves:
review:
I mean, I won't be able to do this justice here so just go read it.
Captures so much, provides such depth to this strange character called Girlie and shows us how embedded she is in her community despite her apart-ness. Did not see the ending coming.
]]> <![CDATA[The Librarian of Crooked Lane (Glass Library, #1)]]> 60054210
Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she’s descended from magicians, she’s skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she’s just an ordinary girl who loves books. She seeks the truth from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won’t be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.

War hero Gabe is gifted with wealth, a loving family, and an incredible amount of luck that saw him survive four harrowing years of a brutal war without injury. But not all injuries are visible. Burying himself in his work as a consultant for Scotland Yard, Gabe is going through the motions as he investigates the theft of a magician-made painting. But his life changes when he unwittingly gets Sylvia dismissed from her job and places her in danger.

After securing her new employment in a library housing the world’s greatest collection of books about magic, Gabe and Sylvia’s lives become intwined as they work together to find both the painting and the truth about Sylvia’s past before powerful people can stop them.

But sometimes the past is better left buried…]]> 284 C.J. Archer 1922554200 Ryan 2 mystery-crime 3.83 2022 The Librarian of Crooked Lane (Glass Library, #1)
author: C.J. Archer
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2026/08/01
date added: 2026/08/02
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
I quite liked the way magic worked in this universe but the overall story was flat. Repeated fat phobia bothered me too.
]]> When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]> 326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Ryan 4 science-fiction 3.73 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/19
date added: 2026/07/24
shelves: science-fiction
review:
Great example of starting with an absolutely absurd premise and then playing it straight up. More of a multiple points of view/reaction assembly than a classic narrative, this was often delightful.
]]> <![CDATA[This Story Might Save Your Life]]> 231126887


The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander’s one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple’s disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy’s memoir. Benny will stop at nothing to find them, even as the police zero in on him as their prime suspect.


Millions of devoted listeners think they know the “real” Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world—and from each other.

]]> 357 Tiffany Crum Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.86 2026 This Story Might Save Your Life
author: Tiffany Crum
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/20
date added: 2026/07/24
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Good debut with interesting characters, great pacing, and a remarkable restraint when it came to not making fun of podcasters.
]]> The Keeper of Magical Things 223854454 An almost-mage discovers friendship—and maybe something more—in the unlikeliest of places in this delightfully charming novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Teller of Small Fortunes.

Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to anyone. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Nevermind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her.

The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere safe: Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, corral an unruly little catdragon who has tagged along, and above all: avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical incident.

Still, as mage and novice come to know Shpelling’s residents—and each other—they realize the Guild’s hoarded magic might do more good being shared. Friendships blossom while Certainty and Aurelia work to make Shpelling the haven it could be. But magic is fickle—add attraction and it might spell trouble.]]> 368 Julie Leong 0593815947 Ryan 5 adult-fantasy 4.13 2025 The Keeper of Magical Things
author: Julie Leong
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/23
date added: 2026/07/24
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
Just a delight to read. Highly recommended.
]]> The Book Tour 52655096 A page-turning, Kafkaesque dark comedy in brilliant retro style, this graphic novel watches one man try to keep it together while everything falls apart.

Upon the publication of his latest novel, G. H. Fretwell, a minor English writer, embarks on a book tour to promote it. Nothing is going according to plan, and his trip gradually turns into a nightmare. But now the police want to ask him some questions about a mysterious disappearance, and it seems that Fretwell's troubles are only just beginning...

In his first book for adults in many years, acclaimed cartoonist Andi Watson evokes all the anxieties felt by every writer and compresses them into a comedic gem of a book. Witty, surreal, and sharply observant, The Book Tour offers a captivating lesson in letting go.]]> 272 Andi Watson 1603094792 Ryan 4 graphic-novel 3.45 2019 The Book Tour
author: Andi Watson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/23
date added: 2026/07/24
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
A slyly built examination of a writer's worst fears constructed within a noir murder mystery. Looking forward to book two.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book Tour (Book 2): A Lack of Alibi]]> 247998111 284 Andi Watson 1603096027 Ryan 0 to-read 3.13 The Book Tour (Book 2): A Lack of Alibi
author: Andi Watson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.13
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)]]> 52381770
It worries about the fragile human crew who've grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they're only a professional obligation, but when they're captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

Illustrator cover artist: Micah Epstein]]> 350 Martha Wells Ryan 5 science-fiction
July 2026 re-read--not padded at all, just setting up the next one while expanding the relationship between ART and Murderbot.]]> 4.42 2020 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2026/07/19
date added: 2026/07/19
shelves: science-fiction
review:
At first, the narrative felt padded but as the action progressed I realized I didn't care because I want to spend more time with Murderbot!

July 2026 re-read--not padded at all, just setting up the next one while expanding the relationship between ART and Murderbot.
]]> <![CDATA[I'm a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I've Been]]> 243594473 In this witty, absurd, and surprisingly moving memoir-in-essays, comedian Alison Leiby unpacks the multitudes women are told to be—and the joy of refusing to pick just one.

Have you ever frozen when someone asks, "So, tell me about yourself?" If so, take a page from I'm a Lot. Alison Leiby proudly embraces many Housewives stan. Discount shopaholic. Former jock. Happily single. Childless by choice and proud cat mom. Through these different roles and identities, Leiby reveals her hard-earned wisdom about what it's like to be a woman who does it all (except the things that make her say "uh, no thank you.")

When she was nineteen years old, a complication from back surgery left Leiby on her deathbed. After a surprising recovery, you might assume Leiby was ready to seize life by the you-know-what's. But instead of letting this one miraculous experience define her, Leiby's brush with death made her realize there is nothing more beautiful in this life than just getting to be yourself. And while women are still expected to conform to many patriarchal labels, Leiby ignores the pressure to be palatable and instead champions all the joyful, weird, and complicated selves she brings to the world.

In fourteen personal essays full of deadpan jokes, tender moments of candid introspection, and insightful social commentary, Leiby explores what it really means to occupy various identities in the modern age. She ditches the manufactured Instagram persona to show that sometimes the puzzle pieces don’t always fit to create a perfect picture but that doesn't mean we are incomplete.]]> 304 Alison Leiby 059373162X Ryan 0 to-read 3.73 2026 I'm a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I've Been
author: Alison Leiby
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Land and Its People 244934769 The Land and Its People, his first collection since Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend. He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails. He buys his sister a cape and discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of “Countries I Have Been To,” he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest’s cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo.

There is sadness here—scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased—but also delight: he revels in author’s biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, and pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog. A train passenger vomits in his face. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn’t. Look how hard it is to be alive!

Throughout these essays—at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound—Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.]]> 272 David Sedaris 0316264830 Ryan 3 modern-essay
That can be a mild annoyance when he sounds like a reactionary centrist writing for The Atlantic about woke language--is he just being funny or is he piling on people who give a fuck about stuff?

Or it can undermine his story when he reaches for poignant family or friend moments. Ok, he doesn't do that a ton and he mostly undermines the touching with something gross or snarky anyway!

]]> 4.27 2026 The Land and Its People
author: David Sedaris
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2026
rating: 3
read at: 2026/07/15
date added: 2026/07/18
shelves: modern-essay
review:
Sometimes I was laughing out loud; other times I was cringing at the off-key exaggeration for humor. Sedaris is a bit of an unreliable narrator--like all humorists--so it is hard to tell when he's serious Sedaris or tongue-in-cheek.

That can be a mild annoyance when he sounds like a reactionary centrist writing for The Atlantic about woke language--is he just being funny or is he piling on people who give a fuck about stuff?

Or it can undermine his story when he reaches for poignant family or friend moments. Ok, he doesn't do that a ton and he mostly undermines the touching with something gross or snarky anyway!


]]> <![CDATA[Home Time, Vol. 1: Under the River (Home Time, #1)]]> 33275415 228 Campbell Whyte 1603094121 Ryan 4 graphic-novel
Looking forward to book two, which I already have on hold at the library. ]]> 3.61 2017 Home Time, Vol. 1: Under the River (Home Time, #1)
author: Campbell Whyte
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/15
date added: 2026/07/18
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
Inventive and original while building on the genres, this is so well thought out and detailed that I could look past the weirdly drawn noses of the kids!

Looking forward to book two, which I already have on hold at the library.
]]> A Murder Most Camp 238940774 The Guncle meets Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies in this fun, twisty mystery following a spoiled nepo baby forced to work at a struggling summer camp who stumbles into a real-life murder mystery he has no choice but to solve.

Rustic cabins. Lakefront bonfires. A painfully hot lifeguard. And a murder? Summer has never been this camp.

Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party's finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn't involve throwing cash at his problems—he'll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.)

Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove that he can "do good" alongside his twelve-year-old aunt. (Yes, aunt.) But Mikey isn't sure he'll be able to survive the camp's ramshackle living conditions, let alone the gaggle of preteens who won't leave his side. And when his campers become obsessed with a local legend set at an abandoned cabin on the grounds, Mikey's chances of not making it through the summer become dangerously real—because it turns out there's a murder hidden beneath Camp Lore. And someone there will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

Solving a decade-old cold case will surely be enough "good" for Mikey to earn his inheritance. He just has to stay alive long enough to do it…]]> 350 Nicolas DiDomizio 1464250065 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.77 2026 A Murder Most Camp
author: Nicolas DiDomizio
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/07
date added: 2026/07/18
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Fun mystery in a great setting. Managed to turn an entitled, rich trust-fund jerk into a sympathetic character.
]]> <![CDATA[Home Time, Vol. 2: Beyond the Weaving (Home Time, #2)]]> 52589575 Return to the astonishing world of talking peaches, magic tea, frightening wildlife, and threatening lizard tribes! The fantasy adventure too epic for one graphic novel finally reaches its conclusion.

Home Time: Under the River ended with a disastrous tea ceremony which left six kids lost, scared, confused, and even burnt. Now, the second half of the Home Time saga picks up from that nerve-wracking cliffhanger, as the children leave the relative safety of Peach Village in search of medicine, answers, and hopefully, a way home.

Equipped with a living map, a flask of hallucinogenic tea, and a plan so stupid it just might work, Lily, Amanda, Ben and Nathan will have to pull together at the very time they've drifted the furthest apart.

Award-winning graphic novelist Campbell Whyte is back, with his signature kaleidoscope of art styles, to cast a new spell wrapping up the most whimsically fantastical journey in ages.]]> 220 Campbell Whyte 1603094644 Ryan 0 to-read 4.17 Home Time, Vol. 2: Beyond the Weaving (Home Time, #2)
author: Campbell Whyte
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #3)]]> 211721809
The top 10 list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.

The Iron Tangle. An impossibly complicated subway system built out of the world's subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.

But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly useless book.

Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.]]> 532 Matt Dinniman 0593820282 Ryan 0 to-read 4.30 2021 The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #3)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics]]> 220161135 From Pulitzer Prize finalist and historian Micki McElya, the first complete, in-depth look at a critical but overlooked moment in our history—the road to the September 1968 dual protests of the Miss America and Miss Black America pageants in Atlantic City—and its lasting impact on the women’s rights movements in America.

Of the many pivotal years in United States history studied and recreated by historians, journalists, and filmmakers, 1968, in particular, is widely recognized as a major turning point in the country’s social and political trajectory. In just twelve months the US experienced the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, the Tet Offensive and the rising intensity of the Vietnam War, the deadly riots at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and the election of Richard Nixon, a president whose tenure would ultimately erode trust of government and authority to an uncomfortable degree. But these narratives usually omit another, equally important moment in the story of that unprecedented the summer that defined and determined the future of the women’s liberation movement, culminating in the dual protest of the Miss America and Miss Black America Pageants on the boardwalks of Atlantic City.

Now, for the first time, Liberation Summer corrects this written historical record, offering a detailed account of the months of planning, debates, and decisions that led to the demonstrations, as well as the broader social and political landscape that gave rise to some of the most iconic women on both sides of the ideological spectrum, from Betty Friedan, Carol Hanisch, and Florynce Kennedy to Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly. A sweeping saga of American history and culture, Liberation Summer presents a kaleidoscopic view of our nation on the brink of change, amidst the continuing quest for justice and gender equality.]]> 544 Micki McElya 1982166762 Ryan 0 to-read 4.19 2026 Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics
author: Micki McElya
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Tuxedo Society 242974714 If Guy Ritchie directed an episode of Queer Eye, it might look something like this hilarious and action-packed spy thriller by Paul Rudnick, acclaimed screenwriter and author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, that blends espionage and social commentary, with an elite, gay secret society.

They are fierce patriots. They are licensed to kill. And they are really, really gay. Welcome to democracy’s secret weapon, the Tuxedo Society.

When Andrew Birnbaum, a struggling actor making ends meet by working in a candle shop, gets invited to have dinner with the exclusive Tuxedo Society by his best friend, Brock, his life takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a group of wealthy socialites gathering for gossip and cocktails quickly spirals into a world of espionage, danger, and hilarity.

Andrew soon meets Reggie O’Malley, a Navy SEAL with a penchant for black tie, who recruits Andrew to join the society’s covert mission to protect national security. Armed with gadgets like an inflatable life raft backpack, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle, and, of course, an AMEX Black Card, Andrew quickly finds himself tackling spies, thwarting assassinations, and facing a host of unexpected threats in settings from the White House to the Vatican to the Summer Olympic Games.

The stakes escalate when Andrew and his comrades are sent on a jet-setting mission to uncover the truth about an ancient artifact. Along the way, they clash with oligarchs, crooked senators, and a smarmy televangelist with sinister plans for world domination.

Packed with Paul Rudnick’s signature wit, The Tuxedo Society is a wild ride through decadence, danger, and unexpected heroism, as Andrew discovers that saving the world might just be the role he’s been waiting for.]]> 288 Paul Rudnick 1668212617 Ryan 0 to-read 3.33 The Tuxedo Society
author: Paul Rudnick
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)]]> 36510196
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.]]> 318 John Scalzi Ryan 4 science-fiction 4.23 2005 Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/04
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: science-fiction
review:
Continuing my reading of the Scalzi oeuvre.
]]> <![CDATA[Ironwood (Catalina, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #42)]]> 243772777 Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in.

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.
 
Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.
 
An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.
 
While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard.
 
Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined.
 
Page-turning, packed with intrigue, and bringing together an unstoppable investigative team, Ironwood continues the Catalina series with all of Michael Connelly’s signature “relentless narrative drive…evocative atmosphere, realistic dialogue, and well-developed characters” (Washington Review of Books).]]> 327 Michael Connelly 0316595381 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 4.13 2026 Ironwood (Catalina, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #42)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/01
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Connelly is just better than everyone else. Even a middle-of-the-pack offering like this is more engaging and well-written than most.
]]> <![CDATA[Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail]]> 225118121 A practical call to action against oppression

 

Across the globe, millions of people have participated in protests and marches, donated to political groups, or lobbied their representatives with the aim of creating lasting social change, overturning repressive laws, or limiting environmental destruction. Yet very little seems to improve for those affected by rapacious governments. Replace the State brings new hope for social justice movements by looking to progressive campaigns that have found success by unconventional, and more direct, means.

 ]]> 176 Sasha Davis 1517919525 Ryan 4
Practical, well-written, and a great starting point for organizers and activists.

It took me so long to read because I read a few minutes each morning before commuting to work. You could probably knock this out in half a day. ]]> 3.57 Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail
author: Sasha Davis
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.57
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2026/07/05
date added: 2026/07/05
shelves: anarchy, guide-books, political-category
review:
A highly readable explication of counter-occupation tactics that strive to produce a viable alternative to state or corporate control of our environments. Davis has crafted what he calls "relational governance" for the running of the occupied space--sort of like consensus decision making but one that takes a holistic and embedded approach to not only the people, but to the place, the animals, plants, land, and water. I would best describe this as a melding of anarchist practices with indigenous people's way of being.

Practical, well-written, and a great starting point for organizers and activists.

It took me so long to read because I read a few minutes each morning before commuting to work. You could probably knock this out in half a day.
]]> The Stars Turned Inside Out 176443161
Deep beneath the ground outside of Geneva, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes subatomic particles at breathtaking speeds, a startling discovery is made when the tunnel is down for maintenance: the body of Howard Anderby, a brilliant and recently arrived young physicist, who appears to have been irradiated by the collider. But security shows no evidence of him entering the tunnel, and for all of the lab’s funding, its video surveillance is sorely lacking.

Eager to keep the death under wraps until more is known, CERN brings in private investigator Sabine Leroux, who has her own ties to the lab’s administration—and more than a passing interest in particle physics. Meanwhile, Howard’s colleague and budding love interest Eve, shattered by his death, determines to reconcile what she knew of Howard with his gruesome fate, wondering if she could have done something to stop it.

As Sabine digs into petty academic rivalries and personal secrets, an escalating international physics arms race heightens tensions and fuels speculation of a mole at the lab—throwing into question loyalties and revealing what sort of knowledge may be worth killing for.]]> 320 Nova Jacobs 1668018543 Ryan 0 to-read 3.41 2024 The Stars Turned Inside Out
author: Nova Jacobs
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Drunk on All Your Strange New Words]]> 58724601 A locked room mystery in a near future world of politics and alien diplomacy.

Lydia works as translator for the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. They work well together, even if the act of translating his thoughts into English makes her somewhat wobbly on her feet. She's not the agency's best translator, but what else is she going to do? She has no qualifications, and no discernible talent in any other field.

So when tragedy strikes, and Lydia finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident, her future employment prospects look dire--that is, if she can keep herself out of jail!

But Lydia soon discovers that help can appear from the most unexpected source...]]> 277 Eddie Robson 1250807344 Ryan 0 to-read 3.85 2022 Drunk on All Your Strange New Words
author: Eddie Robson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Heather 240019660 For readers of Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, a small-town detective reopens an unsolved case, sending shock waves across generations of women in this gripping new mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author of Please See Us.

1994. In the myth-riddled woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, sixteen-year-old Annabelle Riley’s twin sister, Sabrina, has been having an affair with a mysterious older man, and Annabelle is determined to uncover what’s going on. Then, inexplicably, both sisters disappear.

In this same town years later, newly instated Police Chief Callie Hauser makes an arrest that unexpectedly resurrects details from a heartbreaking cold case. As she digs deeper, the past and the present collide, challenging everything Callie believes about right and wrong, about who she is, and about the town she’s always called home.

A propulsive mystery as incisive as it is forgiving, Heather bears a visceral reminder that the truth of a woman’s life is often complicated and unknowable—to those on the outside, and sometimes even to herself.]]> 352 Caitlin Mullen 1250400570 Ryan 0 to-read 3.78 2026 Heather
author: Caitlin Mullen
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Astral Library 235289973 From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.

Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.

The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?]]> 304 Kate Quinn 0063244780 Ryan 4 adult-fantasy













That The Big Bad in the novel is a bureaucratic board that doesn't understand how libraries work is genius and all too real. ]]> 3.52 2026 The Astral Library
author: Kate Quinn
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/22
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
Really enjoyed this. Spoiler below.














That The Big Bad in the novel is a bureaucratic board that doesn't understand how libraries work is genius and all too real.
]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang Ryan 5 novel 3.67 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2026/06/21
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: novel
review:
Absolutely kills! Vicious satire that doesn't just wave a hand at nuance and complexity but takes it seriously. Funny as hell, insightful--I mean, I could go on but that would delay you going to read this.
]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 172 Martha Wells Ryan 4 science-fiction

2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!]]> 4.36 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/27
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: science-fiction
review:
A coming of age, SF adventure saga that stars a killing machine instead of an angst-y teen--as fun as it sounds.


2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!
]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

Cover illustration by Jaime Jones]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Ryan 4 adult-fantasy

2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!]]> 4.19 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/27
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
The Evolution of Murderbot is quite a fun ride. Get on board, check your feed, and prepare for launch.


2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!
]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 original cover of ISBN 9781250186928

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself Murderbot. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the A stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks...

Cover illustration by Jaime Jones]]> 158 Martha Wells Ryan 4 science-fiction

2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!]]> 4.21 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/27
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: science-fiction
review:
You'd have to have a heart of steel not to love Murderbot.


2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!
]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Ryan 4 science-fiction
The voice is unmistakably that of a young adult protagonist encased in ennui and classically introverted--to put that character in a deadly robot is brill.


2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!]]> 4.08 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/27
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: science-fiction
review:
A short yet sweet adventure story with a security cyborg self-named Murderbot--having hacked their own system to be free of control, they prefer the introverted slacker life of bingeing content and only doing the job half-assed. But when things start to go wrong on a scientific/corporate mission, Murderbot reluctantly steps up despite just wanting to be left alone.

The voice is unmistakably that of a young adult protagonist encased in ennui and classically introverted--to put that character in a deadly robot is brill.


2026--Decided to re-read the series after finishing Platform Decay to see how we wound up where we are. Still rules!
]]> Villa Coco 241483206 A coming-of-age novel, a love story and a tale of life-enhancing Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer showcases his wit, sophistication and deep knowledge of focaccia in this magical tale set amidst the Tuscan hills.

Broke and directionless, our young man takes a job in the Italian countryside as the all-purpose assistant to Lisabetta, known to her friends as Coco - a strong-willed, wealthy widow of great local renown.

Trained as an archivist, he thinks he's been hired to catalogue the contents of the beautiful, crumbling mansion nestled in the green Tuscan hills... but what are his actual duties? Days are spent ridding the house of a marten - whatever that is - locating the antediluvian septic system, entertaining an endless carousel of guests (from bohemian painters to elderly princesses to unnervingly handsome nephews), attending a funeral in order to make off with the urn, and not inadvertently sabotaging Coco's great and final plan-to locate the lost love of her life and be reunited before it's too late.

As summer turns into autumn and the Italian countryside begins to work its magic on our protagonist, the secrets of Villa Coco and its inhabitants are slowly brought to light - and with them, an unforgettable story of the enduring power of friendship.]]> 288 Andrew Sean Greer 0385551975 Ryan 0 to-read 3.53 2026 Villa Coco
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Bad, Bad Place 235697464 A gritty and poignant debut about a young working-class girl in 1979 Glasgow who happens upon the body of a murdered woman—and must face an insular community desperate for answers, as well as herself.

Glasgow, 1979: If it hadn’t been for her wee stupid dog, Sid Vicious, twelve-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she’d still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn’t be so worried all the time. And maybe Billy “The Ghost” Watson, a notorious gangster, wouldn’t be on her tail—for it’s Billy’s daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers.

Fear and gossip have spread through the tight-knit community of Possilpark, and while Janey swears she can’t remember the details of that morning, the cops think she’s hiding something—and indeed, there’s something she knows that she’s not quite ready to tell anyone, not even her nana, who won’t rest until this whole thing is behind them.

Shot through with remarkable humor, Frances Crawford’s stunning debut is a coming-of-age whodunit, an intimate portrait of a working-class neighborhood that weaves Janey’s innocent candor and her nana’s hard-earned wisdom into a sweeping tale of grief and survival that marks the arrival of a major new voice in crime fiction.]]> 352 Frances Crawford 1641297859 Ryan 0 to-read 3.87 2026 A Bad, Bad Place
author: Frances Crawford
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brawler 236381987 One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida.

Each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. They hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.

“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.

Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.]]> 288 Lauren Groff 0593418425 Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.25 2026 Brawler
author: Lauren Groff
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance]]> 223362288
It’s the summer of 2020, and downtown Philly is up in flames. “You’re not out in the streets with everyone else?” Ronnie asks his ambivalent son, Ben, shambling in with arms full of used books: the works of Malcom X, Robert F. Williams, Assata and Sanyika Shakur, among others. “Black liberation is your fight, too.”

So begins Black Arms to Hold You Up, a boisterous, darkly funny, and sobering march through Black militant history by political cartoonist Ben Passmore. From Robert Charles’s shootout with the police in 1900, to the Black Power movement in the 1960s, to the Los Angeles and George Floyd uprisings of the 1990s and 2020, readers will tumble through more than a century of armed resistance against the racist state alongside Ben—and meet firsthand the mothers and fathers of the movement, whose stories were as tragic as they were heroic.

What, after so many decades lost to state violence, is there left to fight for? Deeply researched, vibrantly drawn, and bracingly introspective, Black Arms to Hold You Up dares to find the answer.]]> 224 Ben Passmore 0593316126 Ryan 4 graphic-novel 4.27 Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance
author: Ben Passmore
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/25
date added: 2026/06/18
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
One of the most unique graphic novels to come along--highly recommended!
]]> <![CDATA[To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other]]> 217446823 From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer (now an HBO series) comes a moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms of otherness and a bold call for expansive political solidarity.

Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California, where the author grew up, attending UC-Berkeley in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Vincent Chin, which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans.

The essays here, delivered originally as the prestigious Norton Lectures, proffer a new answer to a classic literary What does the outsider mean to literary writing? Over the course of six captivating and moving chapters, Nguyen explores the idea of being an outsider through lenses that are, by turns, literary, historical, political, and familial.

Each piece moves between writers who influenced Nguyen’s craft and weaves in the haunting story of his late mother’s mental illness. Nguyen unfolds the novels and nonfiction of Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, until aesthetic theories give way to pressing concerns raised by war and politics. What is a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence? Should we celebrate fiction that gives voice to the voiceless—or do we confront the forces that render millions voiceless in the first place? What are the burdens and pleasures of the “minor” writer in any society? Unsatisfied with the modest inclusion accorded to “model minorities” such as Asian Americans, Nguyen sets the agenda for a more radical and disquieting solidarity with those whose lives have been devastated by imperialism and forever wars.]]> 144 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0674298179 Ryan 5 4.08 2025 To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/06/07
date added: 2026/06/18
shelves: modern-essay, personal-writing, on-writing
review:
Collection of his Norton Lectures--one of the most important, insightful, and compassionate writers working today.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer (Helgi, #2)]]> 222376939 Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press.

As he interviews the people closest to her – a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge – he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of a very unexpected life . . .]]> 320 Ragnar Jónasson 1250408261 Ryan 2 mystery-crime 3.53 2023 The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer (Helgi, #2)
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2026/06/06
date added: 2026/06/18
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Tried a second one and it has been decided that I do not enjoy his novels.
]]> <![CDATA[The Silent Appeal (The Appeal, #2)]]> 242986127
Welcome back to Lower Lockwood. The Fairway Players return with Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald as committee cochairs. This year, they have chosen to stage Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. But auditions aren’t their only problem: Sarah-Jane’s sister, Nicky-Rose, is suddenly back in town under mysterious circumstances, having sold her home in Barbados, left her business providing entertainment on cruise ships, and moved back into their mother Carol’s house.

As always, they’re short on men, and new Player Fran Elroy-Jones enlists a young married couple and the husband’s cousin to join. But no one wants to play the part of the hated Gerda, leaving Kevin and Sarah-Jane with no option but to reach out to an old member they know would be happy to perform in any role.

As with any production, tensions run high, and our intrepid lawyers Femi and Charlotte are tasked with uncovering exactly what happened on the opening night of The Hollow—and whether the correct person has taken the blame.]]> 480 Janice Hallett 166808371X Ryan 0 to-read 4.23 2026 The Silent Appeal (The Appeal, #2)
author: Janice Hallett
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Brimstone Hollow (Annie Gore, #2)]]> 240019799
There isn’t much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn’t seen. Before she joined the Air Force, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie's cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she’s ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she’s about to enter unknown territory.

Katie May has been estranged from her father―one of Appalachia’s last infamous snake handling preachers―for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he’s been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie’s doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of herself: a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.

As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client―and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie’s investigation to stop―by any means necessary.]]> 294 Archer Sullivan 1250338719 Ryan 0 to-read 4.06 2026 Brimstone Hollow (Annie Gore, #2)
author: Archer Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Plant Lady 243596348
Will you dare to disrespect her plants?

Tucked away in the corner of a neighborhood in Dosan, South Korea, is the Plant Shop. Shop owner Yoohee has started anew, and her meticulously grown foliage thrives under her tender care. To both her customers and herself, Plant Shop is a refuge, where petunias and marigolds bloom and the air itself is like an elixir of peace.

By day, Yoohee dispenses advice on gardening, but she also finds herself offering a special service off the clock. Women who are at their wits’ end come to her about a man they hope might disappear from their lives. Pulling extra hours is taxing, but Yoohee has encountered—and dealt with—these kind of men in her own life, men who treated her (and her beloved plants) with utter disrespect. So as night falls, Yoohee trades her apron for a shovel and a hoe and disappears into her moonlit garden. There, she buries not just the remains of the day, but also the bloody remnants of a few unfortunate encounters.

As men begin to disappear…will anyone ever suspect the Plant Lady?

A highly acclaimed novel from South Korea, Plant Lady brings atmospheric tension and delicate humor to a story of obsession and misogyny that will keep you rooted right to its simmering last page.]]> 208 Minyoung Kang Ryan 0 to-read 3.75 2024 Plant Lady
author: Minyoung Kang
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Murder Bites 243597269 A city transplant in a dog-obsessed small town becomes the prime suspect when the local dog walker is murdered in this delightfully quirky cozy mystery.

A LITERARY HUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR

Margot Cartwright is not exactly blending in with the residents of Glenville, South Carolina. An unwilling transplant from Washington, D.C., Margot feels like a fish out of water among the Lululemon-wearing, tiny-dog-owning, non-New Yorker-reading locals who are clamoring to have their fur babies star on Pawsh, a reality TV show about couture canines. (Sure, Margot loves her dog, but Sid Vicious is far too cool of a mutt for a show like that!) She even feels like an outcast amongst her family, and after she’s caught channeling her inner “Robin Hood” by stealing her neighbors’ pro-Pawsh signs, further cementing her title as the neighborhood pariah, she thinks things can’t possibly get any worse, right?

Wrong. When the local dog walker is killed in a bizarre incident involving an over-the-top Halloween display featuring multiple Home Depot skeletons, all eyes turn to Margot. To clear her name and save her family from falling apart, Margot vows to find the real killer before they strike again—but she can’t do it alone.

Enter Anne, a glamorous septuagenarian widow determined to maintain her reign over the HOA, and Sally-Claire, a "Mom Life" sweatshirt-clad member of the “Mommy Mafia” who might not be as perfect as she seems. Together, the unlikely trio (along with their canine companions) dives into the mystery, navigating the quirky and secretive world of Glenville’s residents. Can they solve the case before it’s too late, or will Margot’s reputation be permanently dog-eared?]]> 309 Mimi Montgomery Ryan 0 to-read 3.57 2026 Murder Bites
author: Mimi Montgomery
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Mandarin 240019855
In a fast-paced, all-too-real thriller co-written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny and award-winning journalist Mellissa Fung, global politics become personal for two unlikely heroines. Alice Li, a first-generation Chinese-American, is an erstwhile food blogger who has lived in the shadow of her mother, Vivien Li. A Chinese dissident who escaped China after Tiananmen Square, Vivien is now a globally recognized human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China.

When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, Vivien and Alice are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can decode the Chinese intentions.

While it makes some sense that the President would turn to Vivien, since she regularly advises world leaders on the actions of today’s Chinese government, what isn’t clear is why they’d want to talk to Alice.

After looking at the evidence, Vivien says that the only thing worse than the Chinese government being behind it, is if they are not. It would mean, she explains, that some clandestine element within China is calling the shots. That the President of China has lost control. And an unstable China cannot be good for anyone.

Or perhaps that’s exactly what the shrewd old politician wants everyone to think.

Caught up in the chaos, Vivien and Alice are uniquely placed to stop the next, cataclysmic attack. But there are forces deep within both the American and Chinese governments intent on stopping mother and daughter. The estranged pair, who excels at misunderstanding each other, must figure out how to work together.

The increasingly frantic search for answers takes the women from the Oval Office to an office building in Akron, Ohio, from the noodle shops of Hong Kong to the necropolis of the first emperor. Along the way they must decode an old legend, and an old language invented by women, for women.

The Last Mandarin is an electrifying study of absolute power and voracious greed, political terror and personal conviction. But it is also, as to be expected from the minds of Louise Penny, beloved author of the Gamache novels, and Mellissa Fung, an acclaimed international journalist, an intimate examination of choice, of sacrifice, of memory and myths, both cultural and personal. It is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down.]]> 392 Louise Penny 1250412528 Ryan 0 to-read 3.69 2026 The Last Mandarin
author: Louise Penny
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder]]> 231266757 A bold, inventive, and fiercely original debut novel that begins with an uncle dead and his tween niece’s private confession to the reader—she and her sister killed him, and they blame the British.

Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—into their house in rural Wyoming where they’ll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it’s time for their uncle to die.

According to Georgie, the British are to blame. And to understand why, you need to hear her story. She details the violence hiding in their house and history, her once-unshakeable bond with Agatha Krishna, and her understanding of herself as an Indian-American in the heart of the West. Her account is, at every turn, cheeky, unflinching, and infectiously inflected with the trappings of teendom, including the magazine quizzes that help her make sense of her life. At its heart, the tale she weaves is:
a) a vivid portrait of an extended family
b) a moving story of sisterhood
c) a playful ode to the 80s
d) a murder mystery (of sorts)
e) an unexpected and unwaveringly powerful meditation on history and language,
trauma and healing, and the meaning of independence

Or maybe it’s really:

f) all of the above.]]> 204 Nina McConigley 0593702247 Ryan 4 novel
1) Didn't actually research what this book was, saw the title and peeled that sticker
2) Is trying to trick mystery readers into expanding their reading palette.

Either way, I can recommend this highly, even if some of the subject matter is difficult. ]]> 3.40 2026 How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
author: Nina McConigley
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/24
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: novel
review:
Whoever works at my public library and slapped a "Mystery" sticker on the spine of this intense, beautifully structured novel did one of two things:

1) Didn't actually research what this book was, saw the title and peeled that sticker
2) Is trying to trick mystery readers into expanding their reading palette.

Either way, I can recommend this highly, even if some of the subject matter is difficult.
]]> Redshirts 13055592 Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that:
(1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces
(2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations
(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.]]> 320 John Scalzi 0765316994 Ryan 4 science-fiction
I had an idea for creative work--in writing or TV--that told the stories of ancillary characters from random TV shows or stories. The working class guy who's delivery truck gets hit by a cop chase--what happens to him after that? The red herring suspect who is interviewed then dropped for the rest of the mystery show--what's her deal? The last three stories in this book felt like a got a little of what that could look like.

I made this all about me, but I'm sure you've heard of this novel as I am late to its party!]]> 3.85 2012 Redshirts
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/23
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: science-fiction
review:
Funny and engaging, but my favoritist part is the three Coda at the end that extends the story to three characters who come later in the book.

I had an idea for creative work--in writing or TV--that told the stories of ancillary characters from random TV shows or stories. The working class guy who's delivery truck gets hit by a cop chase--what happens to him after that? The red herring suspect who is interviewed then dropped for the rest of the mystery show--what's her deal? The last three stories in this book felt like a got a little of what that could look like.

I made this all about me, but I'm sure you've heard of this novel as I am late to its party!
]]> <![CDATA[Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, #8)]]> 240019874 Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for... eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)]]> 244 Martha Wells 1250827000 Ryan 4 science-fiction 4.15 2026 Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, #8)
author: Martha Wells
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/20
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: science-fiction
review:
It's Murderbot. What else do you need to know? Go!
]]> <![CDATA[Cowboys and East Indians: Stories]]> 231681782 WINNER OF THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD AND THE HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARD ● For fans of Jhumpa Lahiri and Maile Meloy, a collection of stories about Indian immigrants in the rural American West full of “such grace and understated power that you know you are in the presence of an incredible new voice in fiction” (Kevin Wilson).

“We were the wrong kind of Indians living in Wyoming. There were Arapaho, Shoshone, even some Crow. And then there were us.”

Richly textured, compassionate, and at times hilarious, Cowboys and East Indians traces a journey from India to Wyoming and back again, introducing us along the way to characters who seem not quite to fit the circumstances in which they find themselves, but who nevertheless search for belonging—through unexpected common ground with their human neighbors or the abiding, if isolating, openness of the vast landscape of the West.

There is the woman newly arrived in Laramie, asked by her husband’s cowboy co-worker to help him cross-dress in her saris. The foreign exchange student who succumbs to kleptomania. A young Indian-American woman reckoning with her life in Casper with her white father, following the death of her Indian mother. And the American woman traveling to Chennai in the hopes of scoring discount Accutane for her chronic cystic acne. Seamlessly moving from character to character with empathy and unexpected connection, the stories in Cowboys and East Indians show us the not-often-mentioned rural immigrant experience, communities in which identity is shaped not just by personal history, but by place, the very land on which they must build a home.]]> 208 Nina McConigley Ryan 0 to-read 4.11 2013 Cowboys and East Indians: Stories
author: Nina McConigley
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dispatcher (The Dispatcher #1)]]> 33910936
Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher - a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death's crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge a supposed wrong.

It's a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it's too late...before not even a Dispatcher can save him.]]> 130 John Scalzi 1596067861 Ryan 4 mystery-crime
Of course the library doesn't have #2, sigh.]]> 3.85 2016 The Dispatcher (The Dispatcher #1)
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/16
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Feels like a throwback novella one would find in an anthology. Loved the premise, the execution (pun intended), and how much thought clearly went into how society would change if murdered people didn't stay dead.

Of course the library doesn't have #2, sigh.
]]> Celestial Lights 232234360 A beautiful, heartbreaking novel about ambition, love, and space from the award-winning author of the Women’s Prize longlisted Wandering Souls

January 28, 1986: Soon after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls out of the sky and into the sea. At the same time, Oliver Ines is born. Celestial Lights is his story.

Ollie spends his childhood in an English village where his bedroom is covered in glow-in-the-dark wallpaper bearing the planets and stars. Decades later, he has become one of the most renowned astronauts of his time. When an enterprising billionaire taps him to lead a landmark mission to the distant moon Europa, Ollie makes a choice that will send his whole world spinning.

As the mission advances deeper into unchartered territory, Ollie finds himself retreating into the past: his university days in London and years in the navy, relationships found and lost, becoming a husband and father. But will the world he remembers still be waiting for him when he returns?

Cecile Pin’s novel is a portrait of a complicated man whose unparalleled understanding of the universe doesn’t always translate into stellar relationships on Earth. A breathtaking tale of memory, personal choices, and the relationships that define us, Celestial Lights is an unforgettable story of fate, love, and sacrifice that questions what we owe ourselves and our loved ones when our ambitions and loyalties collide.]]> 256 Cecile Pin 125086349X Ryan 4 novel 3.84 2026 Celestial Lights
author: Cecile Pin
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/11
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: novel
review:
I loved the condensed epic feel of this--nearly a whole life during which great leaps forward in technology happen and a narrator who never comes right and says exactly what every else knows about him and his desires. It is a quiet narration, Ollie almost comes off as listless and adrift even as he describes a hard working, focused career path. The end, well, you tell me what you thought.
]]> The Ending Writes Itself 236447384
One private island.

Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.

Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.

Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus.

Starting is often the hardest part. But getting to the end could be murder.]]> 343 Evelyn Clarke 0063444615 Ryan 3 mystery-crime 3.43 2026 The Ending Writes Itself
author: Evelyn Clarke
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2026
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/17
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
My second murder mystery on an island novel in a week! There was a lot to like here but it was more horror than mystery. Satirizing striving writers is evergreen but the bark beetles have been at these old characters.
]]> <![CDATA[The Murder at World's End (Stockingham & Pike, #1)]]> 231126827 Knives Out meets Downton Abbey! Secrets, murder, and mayhem collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo—an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian—hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world, in this locked-room mystery by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ross Montgomery.

Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley's Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom—every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within... By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.

All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall's newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn't commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she's been waiting for.]]> 336 Ross Montgomery 0063458772 Ryan 5 to-read, mystery-crime 3.98 2025 The Murder at World's End (Stockingham & Pike, #1)
author: Ross Montgomery
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/05/11
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: to-read, mystery-crime
review:
Absolutely hilarious; slyly satirizing the genre while remaining faithful to it. Highly recommended!
]]> The Payback 220160561 When Jada Williams is relentlessly pursued by the Debt Police, she is left with no choice but to take down her student loan company with the help of two mall coworkers—from the author of the “lethally witty” (The New York Times Book Review) The Survivalists.

Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall.

When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back.

The Payback is a razor-sharp and hilarious dissection of race and capitalism from one of the most original and exciting writers at work today.]]> 256 Kashana Cauley 1668075539 Ryan 3 mystery-crime 3.29 2025 The Payback
author: Kashana Cauley
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/10
date added: 2026/05/17
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Enjoyable, if a little uneven. The premise is solid as is her ability to illustrate the desperation of debt. The Debt Police are over-the-fucking-top in order to show the absurdity of the system and highlight cop violence, especially against Black folks.
]]> On Morrison 232207640 An illuminating, electrifying exploration of the work of Toni Morrison by an award-winning novelist and Harvard professor

Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, “she is our only truly canonical black, female writer—and her work is highly complex.” In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form.

This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with contextual guidance, archival discoveries, and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence.]]> 384 Namwali Serpell 059373291X Ryan 5 a-class-of-its-own
Toni Morrison has been my favorite novelist since I was a freshman in college in 1992 when I took a first year literature course and we read Jazz right when it came out. Serpell's book opened up so much that I never saw, understood, or could have understood given my life experiences.

Can't recommend this enough. ]]> 4.32 2026 On Morrison
author: Namwali Serpell
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2026
rating: 5
read at: 2026/05/07
date added: 2026/05/09
shelves: a-class-of-its-own
review:
Absolutely essential reading. Serpell is a genius explicating and expounding on another genius.

Toni Morrison has been my favorite novelist since I was a freshman in college in 1992 when I took a first year literature course and we read Jazz right when it came out. Serpell's book opened up so much that I never saw, understood, or could have understood given my life experiences.

Can't recommend this enough.
]]> The Keeper (Cal Hooper, #3) 238227104 Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Oprah Daily, Today, BookPage, and Goodreads

From the iconic crime writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People), comes the third and final book in the million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy.

On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.

In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.

“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) crafts a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.]]> 496 Tana French 059349346X Ryan 4 mystery-crime 4.09 2026 The Keeper (Cal Hooper, #3)
author: Tana French
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/05/04
date added: 2026/05/09
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
By the end of this trilogy, I'd say we are dealing with a series of novels, not mysteries really. That's okay because it's Tana French!
]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 S.A. Chakraborty Ryan 0 to-read 4.23 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)
author: S.A. Chakraborty
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Canon 240381441 “A scorchingly brilliant, wildly funny, and deeply moving epic.” —John Green, #1 globally bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars

Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!

Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.

Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.

As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.]]> 480 Paige Lewis Ryan 0 to-read 3.65 2026 Canon
author: Paige Lewis
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Five 239779272 Five lives. Five stories. Four will live—one will die. Who it will be? In this slow-burn masterpiece of psychological fiction, the choice is all yours.

Have you ever tried to pass the time by imagining the lives of the strangers standing next to you? Ilona Bannister’s Five introduces readers to five seemingly random people waiting for a train. But these are not just any five people. From the beginning we know that one of them is going to die soon. Very soon. In five minutes the next train to London will arrive, killing one of them. But before this happens you will learn their stories.

None of these people are saints. Readers might fall in love with the beautiful young man who is on the verge of gambling his life away. They may pity the cantankerous old woman who has fallen to the ground yet is refusing help. Perhaps readers will look away from the child throwing a tantrum. Or judge his mother, who must surely be to blame. And some will be curiously compelled by the successful and damaged businessman orbiting them all.

These are the candidates for this morning’s misfortune. But they don’t know it. Only you know. And you, our complicit reader, will not be able to resist deciding who deserves to walk away, and who deserves only five more minutes to live.

An incredibly original novel that breaks the fourth wall and asks the reader to be judge, jury, and executioner, Five looks at some of the most complicated issues of contemporary life: motherhood, disability, addiction. Every stranger has a story. And in Ilona Bannister’s skillful hands, five people’s stories come together to create an unforgettable novel.]]> 240 Ilona Bannister Ryan 0 to-read 3.72 2026 Five
author: Ilona Bannister
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hill 231126807
At home, Suzanna is raised by her grandmother, who is entirely unforgiving of her daughter’s crime and refuses to visit the prison. Surrounding Suzanna are her grandmother’s friends, who know one another from their years in the Communist Party and still spend extended cocktail hours debating the Hitler-Stalin pact. Though these women once insisted on changing the world, they are torn between teaching Suzanna how the world works and shielding her from it.

Suzanna vows to return to the prison forever but her mother wants her to be free. Harriet Clark’s The Hill is an incandescent novel of a child growing up between worlds, the last of three generations whose fates have been tied to punishment. It is the tale of a family broken apart by the desire for change, told with irreverent wisdom and visionary force. The Hill brings new music to American fiction.]]> 288 Harriet Clark 0374614547 Ryan 0 to-read 3.38 2026 The Hill
author: Harriet Clark
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Absolute Batman, Vol. 1: The Zoo]]> 223329645 Without the wealth, without the cave, he’s still the Absolute Dark Knight!

Meet Batman as you’ve never seen him before, reimagined with a modern origin story at the hands of superstar creative team Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta!

An astonishing new version of DC’s iconic characters is here! In the Absolute Universe, familiar heroes have been reinvented from the ground up with origin stories that completely reshape both their abilities and their circumstances but maintain the core characteristics that fans have known and loved for decades!

Bruce Wayne comes from nothing. He’s not the scion of a wealthy empire in Gotham City, he’s the son of a public school teacher who he experienced the unimaginable horror of random gun violence as a child, changing the trajectory of his life forever. With no limitless resources, no billions to fund him, no mansion, and no butler to care for him, Bruce has shaped himself into an entirely different breed of Batman, one that is equal parts brain and brawn, who exists exclusively in the grittiest and most underserved parts of Gotham with no high society mask to fall back on.]]> 192 Scott Snyder 1799505251 Ryan 4 batman-et-al, graphic-novel 4.35 2025 Absolute Batman, Vol. 1: The Zoo
author: Scott Snyder
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/04/26
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: batman-et-al, graphic-novel
review:
I do like it when they mess with the traditional characters and their backstories. I love a working class Batman too.
]]> Vigil 238873074 A wise, playful, electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next.

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.

She has performed this sacred duty three hundred and forty-three times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?

Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of an epic, complicated life. Crowds of people and animals—worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead—arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, a black calf grazes on the loveseat, a man from a distant drought-ravaged village materializes, two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s post-death future.

With the acuity and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.]]> 174 George Saunders 0525509623 Ryan 4 novel 3.39 2026 Vigil
author: George Saunders
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/04/28
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: novel
review:
This was great. Funny as hell, too.
]]> <![CDATA[Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #2)]]> 56377548
The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.

They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.

Carl still has no pants.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it's anything but a game.]]> 400 Matt Dinniman Ryan 4 adult-fantasy 4.52 2021 Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #2)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2026/04/27
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
Still gross but also still fun. Guess I'm along for the ride.
]]> All of Us Murderers 222476094 Who will survive Lackaday House?

When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative's remote Gothic manor, he is horrified to find all the people he least wants to see in the world: his estranged brother, his sneering cousin, and his bitter ex-lover Gideon Grey. Things couldn't possibly get worse.

Then the master of the house announces the true purpose of the gathering: he intends to leave the vast family fortune to whoever marries his young ward, setting off a violent scramble for her hand. Zeb wants no part of his greedy family―but when he tries to leave, the way is barred. The walls of Lackaday House are high, and the gates firmly locked. As the Dartmoor mists roll in, there's no way out. And something unnatural may be watching them from the house's shadowy depths…

Fear and paranoia ramping ever-higher, Zeb has nowhere to turn but to the man who once held his heart. As the gaslight flickers and terror takes hold, can two warring lovers reunite, uncover the murderous mysteries of Lackaday House―and live to tell the tale?]]> 343 K.J. Charles 1464227527 Ryan 3 mystery-crime 3.64 2025 All of Us Murderers
author: K.J. Charles
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/04/16
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
I had a good time with this winking Gothic concoction. The main characters are a delight and manage to have sex three times while their lives are probably in danger!
]]> The Librarians 223120401 Murder disrupts the peaceful, predictable daily routine of life for four quirky librarians who must protect their life-altering secrets in the first contemporary mystery from USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas.

Sometimes a workplace isn’t just a workplace but a place of safety, understanding, and acceptance. And sometimes murder threatens the sanctity of that beloved refuge....

In the leafy suburbs of Austin, Texas, a small branch library welcomes the public every day of the week. But the patrons who love the helpful, unobtrusive staff and leave rave reviews on Yelp don’t always realize that their librarians are human, too.

Hazel flees halfway across the world for what she hopes will be a new beginning. Jonathan, a six-foot-four former college football player, has never fit in anywhere else. Astrid tries to forget her heartbreak by immersing herself in work, but the man who ghosted her six months ago is back, promising trouble. And Sophie, who has the most to lose, maintains a careful and respectful distance from her coworkers, but soon that won't be enough anymore.

When two patrons turn up dead after the library’s inaugural murder mystery–themed game night, the librarians’ quiet routines come crashing down. Something sinister has stirred, something that threatens every single one of them. And the only way the librarians can save the library—and themselves—is to let go of their secrets, trust one another, and band together....

All in a day’s work.]]> 354 Sherry Thomas 0593640454 Ryan 3 mystery-crime 3.24 2025 The Librarians
author: Sherry Thomas
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/04/14
date added: 2026/05/02
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
A slightly unusual approach to a mystery, with a disparate crew coming together to solve things. While it was often wryly funny and a worth-while read, it didn't bowl me over.
]]> <![CDATA[The Cursed Hermit (Hobtown Mystery Stories #2)]]> 43548798
It’s not just that the Headmaster and the Headmistress are unusually strict, it’s that they seem to be controlling the students, transforming them into idiots and bullies. Isolated from their fellow sleuths, our intrepid young investigators have to rely on a lady ghost, a crazy hermit, and a mysterious mini-man to lift a curse that has plagued the good people of Hobtown for centuries!

Bizarre, funny, frightening, and heartwarming, this latest installment of the Hobtown Mystery Stories brings our teens one step closer to uncovering the haunting truth of their funny little east-coast village.


Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes are childhood friends who trained in separate disciplines in order to reunite as adults and make comic books. Alexander Forbes is an artist and graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and Kris Bertin is the author of the short story collection Bad Things Happen (Biblioasis, 2016). They are both from Lincoln, New Brunswick, and both live in Halifax, Nova Scotia]]> 188 Kris Bertin 1772620300 Ryan 4 graphic-novel 4.16 2019 The Cursed Hermit (Hobtown Mystery Stories #2)
author: Kris Bertin
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2026/04/06
date added: 2026/04/11
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
The supernatural mystery madness continues in Hobtown. The mix of old adventure comic tropes with outre story lines works--I don't know why, because I normally don't enjoy this stuff.
]]> <![CDATA[No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain]]> 216526680 No Straight Road Takes You There, is an evocation and a declaration. Highways tend to be built across the easy routes and flat places, or the landscape is cleared away - logged, graded, levelled, tunnelled through - or the roadway lifted above it to streamline the journey. But to stick to these roads is to miss what else is out there. In her writing and activism, Rebecca Solnit has sought the back roads and the pathless places in order to celebrate indirect and unpredictable consequences, which, she argues are key to understanding power and the possibilities of change.

Picking up where Hope in the Dark left off, collected together here are Solnit's best recent essays about the climate crisis, as well as her broader reflections on women's rights, the fight for democracy, the trends in masculinity, and the rise of the far right in the West. Incantatory and poetic, positive and engaging, these essays argue for the long-term view and the power of collective action, making a case for seeding change wherever possible, and offering us all a path out of the wilderness.]]> 176 Rebecca Solnit Ryan 5 4.17 2025 No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/01
date added: 2026/04/11
shelves: environment, feminism, fight-like-hell, modern-essay
review:
In dark times like these, turn to Solnit for a perspective that will motivate, make you think, and encourage community-minded action.
]]> <![CDATA[History Lessons (A Daphne Ouverture Mystery)]]> 219850879 A college history professor must solve her superstar colleague's murder before she becomes the next target in this funny, romantic debut mystery, perfect for readers of Janet Evanovich, Kellye Garrett, and Ali Hazelwood.

As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, working on her next academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies.

The rising star of Harrison University’s anthropology department was never one of Daphne’s favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn’t prevent Sam’s killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam—something the killer will stop at nothing to get.

Between grading papers and navigating her disastrous love life, Daphne embarks on her own investigation to find out what connects her to Sam’s murder. With the help of an alluring former-detective-turned-bookseller, she unravels a deadly cover-up on campus.

This well-crafted, voice-driven mystery introduces an unforgettable crime fiction heroine.]]> 384 Zoe B. Wallbrook 164129552X Ryan 5 mystery-crime
]]> 3.64 2025 History Lessons (A Daphne Ouverture Mystery)
author: Zoe B. Wallbrook
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/04/07
date added: 2026/04/11
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
Hell of a debut mystery novel! There's a lot going on here--and some things that are tough to read --but the overall melange of cozy mystery, academic satire, romance, ode to book reading and women's friendships along with the political and social issues make this ambitious and well worth your time.


]]> Pretty as a Picture 46064313
Some girl dies.

It's not much to go on, but the specifics don't concern Marissa. Whatever the script is, her job is the same. She'll spend her days in the editing room, doing what she does best: turning pictures into stories.

But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it's supposed to be--or as it seems. There are rumors of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. Half the crew has been fired. The other half wants to quit. Even the actors have figured out something is wrong. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace.

Then she meets the intrepid and incorrigible teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject, and before long, Marissa is drawn into the investigation herself.

The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.]]> 352 Elizabeth Little 067001639X Ryan 0 to-read 3.44 2020 Pretty as a Picture
author: Elizabeth Little
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Game Is Afoot (Mavis Miller #2)]]> 220239073 A clever and hilarious new mystery about a mother who thinks she has to do it all—even solve a murder—from the author of It's Elementary

After rage quitting her job, Mavis finally has time to get all the rest she’s been putting off. Or she should have the time. Hypothetically. Except she’s taken on a new  Supermom. Her hours are filled with chauffeuring her daughter, Pearl, around to her extracurricular activities, somehow ending up class mom, and…investigating another mystery?

When Coach Cole, the director of the kids’ soccer program, drops dead on a sunny Saturday morning, no one suspects foul play. However, the police soon discover something suspicious left on the field, making it clear that someone had it in for the coach. But who? Sure, parents got mad when he made their precious star athletes sit on the bench, but not that mad.

Mavis is determined to find out, even if it takes her into the dark, dangerous underbelly of gentle parents and MLM girlbosses. Plus, it’s an easy distraction from everything else going on. Like the panic attacks she keeps brushing off. Or the fact that she’s unemployed and totally lost as to what her purpose and path in life should be. And then there’s her ex-husband who’s back in town and doing everything she’s ever wanted, just as she’s beginning a new relationship. Mavis knows a murder investigation probably isn’t the self-care she needs right now. But how exactly are you supposed to take care of yourself when you don’t even know who you are anymore?]]> 368 Elise Bryant 0593640802 Ryan 0 to-read 3.74 2025 The Game Is Afoot (Mavis Miller #2)
author: Elise Bryant
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter]]> 234352814 A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal turns to a grouchy but charming wizard to help save the shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life—and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.

But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front—for an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the disorganized—not to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsome—Havelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelock’s illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes's charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.

Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?]]> 353 Heather Fawcett 0593973259 Ryan 4 adult-fantasy 3.85 2026 Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2026
rating: 4
read at: 2026/04/03
date added: 2026/04/05
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
A delightful concoction with interesting magic, a time-honored love story, and cats! Worth your time. Only criticism is that the voice isn't different enough from her other protagonist, Emily Wilde, so that Agnes doesn't stand out as a new character.
]]> The Witch's Orchard 217387630 A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch’s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old—it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.]]> 308 Archer Sullivan 1250338689 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.90 2025 The Witch's Orchard
author: Archer Sullivan
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/03/31
date added: 2026/04/05
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
A very good debut that makes great use of place even if the plot strains credulity by the end. The ominous folk tale about the titular witch is a nice touch, as different characters have heard variations on it and it helps the sleuth figure things out. I also like that Sullivan just has here detective come right and and say that she just pokes people and stirs up trouble and sees what happens.
]]> <![CDATA[We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope]]> 223524087 From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transformative visions of the future, fantastical alternate worlds, and inspiration for the social justice movements of tomorrow.

In this collection, editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Exploring topics ranging from disability justice and environmental activism to community care and collective worldbuilding, these imaginative pieces from writers such as NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias center solidarity, empathy, hope, joy, and creativity.

Each story is grounded within a broader sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, including adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology. Using the vehicle of ambitious storytelling, We Will Rise Again offers effective tools for organizing, an unflinching interrogation of the status quo, and a blueprint for prefiguring a different world.]]> 384 Karen Lord 1668095955 Ryan 5 anthology, science-fiction
Recommended. ]]> 4.05 2025 We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope
author: Karen Lord
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/27
date added: 2026/04/05
shelves: anthology, science-fiction
review:
While every collection like this has stories that hit or miss for each reader, the intent behind this collection is fantastic: pairing activists wit fiction writers to discuss issues and create a story. The mix of fiction, interview, and non-fiction is another fine aspect.

Recommended.
]]> The Mountain in the Sea 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses’ advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Ryan 0 to-read 3.83 2022 The Mountain in the Sea
author: Ray Nayler
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art]]> 236005720 An irresistible and enchanting journey through human history—from mankind’s earliest fires to the latest smart phones—that tells the surprising and untold story of storytelling.

Joan Didion told us, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” And yet, the story of stories has never been told until now. MIT technology pioneer Kevin Ashton was at the forefront of the digital revolution that led to the invention of the smartphone, the ultimate storytelling device. This latest technology in the long arc of human storytelling allows anyone, for the first time in history, to tell stories to everyone. In The Story of Stories, Ashton tells the untold story of storytelling. The result is an eye-opening, compelling journey through the eight great revolutions of storytelling, all of which follow a simple each major new storytelling tool increases the number of people who can share stories and the number of people with whom those stories can be shared.

Our first night-fires created the earliest audiences for spoken stories. Language did not lead us to stories; stories led us to language. In time, the development of rhyme, song, and other mnemonic devices allowed those spoken stories to be preserved for generations; pictures drawn on cave walls turned preservation into permanence, telling stories we still experience thousands of years later; writing enabled storytellers to spread tales to faraway places; the Chinese invented printing with moveable metal type around 700 CE; the Toltecs independently invented it at about the same time; 750 years later Gutenberg independently invented it again, adding a converted wine press to create the mass production of mass communication. Over time, printing presses increased the number of storytellers and the size of their audiences by many orders of magnitude, a trend which led us to great revolutions, and electric, then electronic, then digital storytelling and all our storytelling tools of today—and tomorrow’s.

In this remarkable book, more than twenty-five years in the making, Ashton looks at the development of human storytelling to help us understand where we are in the latest iteration that is the digital era. Drawing on examples from art, literature, music, and pop culture, from the Bible to Bon Jovi, Aristotle to Artificial Intelligence, Frederick Douglass to Facebook, and cave paintings to cinema, The Story of Stories is a passionate and crucial exploration of how stories and the tools we use to tell them continue to change us, cause revolutions, and connect us to each other and give our lives meaning.]]> 400 Kevin Ashton 0063438720 Ryan 0 to-read 3.99 2026 The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art
author: Kevin Ashton
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book Witch 238226952 She can hop into any novel, but she just can’t stay there.

Come along with the Book Witch in this magical and inspiring love letter to reading from the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game.

Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew.

Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.

Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.

But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.]]> 301 Meg Shaffer 0593983580 Ryan 0 to-read 4.02 2026 The Book Witch
author: Meg Shaffer
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Kaiju Preservation Society]]> 57693406
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389126 Ryan 0 to-read 3.91 2022 The Kaiju Preservation Society
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Katabasis 210223811 Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.]]> 559 R.F. Kuang Ryan 5 adult-fantasy 3.69 2025 Katabasis
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/23
date added: 2026/03/24
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
This ruled! I'm not here to unpack everything in this, but it is low-key brilliant and well worth your time.
]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi Ryan 5 adult-fantasy 4.07 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2026/03/09
date added: 2026/03/24
shelves: adult-fantasy
review:
Now this was a good time! While it is hilarious it was rarely obvious, given the premise, and I highly recommend it.
]]> Heartwood 220259184 Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.]]> 309 Amity Gaige 1668063603 Ryan 4 novel 3.81 2025 Heartwood
author: Amity Gaige
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/03/20
date added: 2026/03/24
shelves: novel
review:
While one keeps expecting a twist or two as this reads like a thriller, it is really a novel about three women who forged their own paths accepting what makes them content. Check it out.
]]> <![CDATA[It's Elementary (Mavis Miller #1)]]> 202102044 A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.]]> 368 Elise Bryant 0593640780 Ryan 4 mystery-crime 3.72 2024 It's Elementary (Mavis Miller #1)
author: Elise Bryant
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2026/03/10
date added: 2026/03/24
shelves: mystery-crime
review:
A good debut cozy that has some hefty messages underneath the humor. While it doesn't side-step the missteps of many debut mysteries (too long and repeats the same scenes unnecessarily for one) I quite liked it.
]]> Dial H #1 19642477 25 China Miéville Ryan 3 graphic-novel 3.51 2012 Dial H #1
author: China Miéville
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2026/03/11
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
Haven't decided whether to follow this series or not, but it will be intriguing to see if such an inventive (often frustratingly so) author translates to comic books.
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