Category: Books Page 3 of 163

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

Has reading a fantasy book ever inspired you to do further research into something else?

Not really–I mean, Fantasy is pretty much about beyond reality, right? I mean, occasionally, I’d do a quick web search to check for a detail or two on a notable fae or mythological figure–just to make sure I remembered them correctly. I did that with Grossman’s The Bright Sword when it came to a knight or two, and some of the characters in Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw. That’s as close as I can think of when it comes to research.

Well, I mean–there’s looking into the backlist of a new-to-me author.

This prompt did made me think of How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages by Cait Stevenson.

What should you ask a magic mirror? How do you outwit a genie? Where should you dig for buried treasure? Fantasy media’s favorite clichés get new life from How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages, a historically accurate romp through the medieval world. Each entry presents a trope from video games, books, movies, or TV—such as saving the princess or training a wizard—as a problem for you to solve, as if you were the hero of your own fantasy quest. Through facts sourced from a rich foundation of medieval sources, you will learn how your magical problems were solved by people in the actual Middle Ages.

Divided into thematic subsections based on typical stages in a fantastical epic, and inclusive of race, gender, and continent, How to Slay a Dragon is perfect if you’re curious to learn more about the time period that inspired some of your favorite magical worlds or longing to know what it would be like to be the hero of your own mythical adventure.

Were I the sort to be inspired, I think that many of the questions I’d want to research were touched on by this book. Honestly, I was disappointed in the book–I really didn’t think it lived up to the premise. But still, there were some entertaining bits. Obviously, your results may vary. It wasn’t research per se–but it’s me looking into various and sundry fantasy tropes.

I’m really looking forward to some of the other posts in response to this prompt, if only because I expect a good recommendation or six.

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Saturday Miscellany—5/2/25

By HCNewton

On May 2, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Does reading do us any good?—”Stripped of easy moralising, literature makes us relish the search for truth in an age when many believe truth to be dead.” This is one to chew on.
bullet MAGA Is Confused About Animal Farm—it makes for a good headline, but Wired suggests it’s not just MAGA that doesn’t.
bullet 2026 Edgar Allan Poe Awards—were announced this week. I really dig a lot of the choices here (especially Best Novel)
bullet If it’s Edgar’s season, it’s also time for CrimeTime’s “State of Crime Novel” series, something I look forward to. Part 1: Routines, Problem-Solving, and Faithful Companions and Part 2: Issues and Recommendations
bullet So you want to read digital comics—Fantasy Book Nerd has put together a nice round-up of some of the bigger apps for them.
bullet Indie Blog Off Remnants (IBOR) released their Round 1 Champions—If they’re all in the same class as the two of these that I have read, I don’t envy the judges (well, it looks like they’re in a good time reading, but a hard time in judging)

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
Uncle Victor died the way he lived: running from the provincial highway patrol with a car full of weapons, because his car wasn’t made to be quite that airborne, and it definitely wasn’t made for the impact of hitting the ground. —“A Serious Track” by by Krystle Matar, from The Book of Spores

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet There Will Always Be a Max by Michael R. Underwood—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet The Absconded Ambassador (Audiobook) by Michael R. Underwood, Mary Robinette Kowal—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet Off to See the Wizard by Clay Johnson—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet And I mentioned the releases of Arf by Spencer Quinn and The Worst Night Ever by Dave Barry

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper—This is just fantastic. I’ve been trying to write something about this since Tuesday, and…words are failing me so far. Don’t wait for me to get my act together, just go get it.
bullet Crownfall by Michael Vadney—”The gritty underworld and razor-edged found family of Six of Crows collide with the mysterious magic and sweeping intrigue of The City of Brass, all against the vivid industrial backdrop of Arcane in Michael Vadney’s nobledark fantasy debut.”” I’m eager to see what this is.
bullet Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto—”A nearly divorced trophy wife enrolls in culinary school to win back her husband, only to find a fresh start in the unlikeliest of places.” Which really doesn’t sound like a book to necessary appeal to me. But when you say “Jesse Q. Sutanto”…
bullet Jen & Gary’s Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements by Nick Gregorio—”Gary Leslie broke the universe… by confessing his love to his best friend, Jen Scott. Now he’s tumbling through the multiverse, waking up as everything from a tyrannosaurus to a murderbot, a sentient island with volcanic ex drama, a mooman (that’s moose-man, obviously), and even a coffee mug. In every reality, one thing stays the same: Jen…. Wildly funny, heartbreakingly human, and utterly bizarre, Jen & Gary’s Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements is a romantic comedy where love takes on infinite forms… and destroying reality might just be the easy part.”
bullet A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas Didomizio—a “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”

Highlights from March: Lines Worth Repeating

By HCNewton

On May 1, 2026

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations

Highlights from the Month
Sure, what better day for this than May 1?

Head Fake by Scott Gordon

“In moments like this, Shay, we realize how funny life is. We must get the joke. We have to.”

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

Freedom, Alabama, wasn’t really the middle of nowhere. We had big fields and the woods, sure, and horses and cows, but if we drove half an hour to Auburn we had a mini-golf course, a mall, and both a Waffle House and a Red Lobster. We had a bowling alley and the water park, even if the water park had been closed last summer, and we had the second-largest zoo in Alabama. It wasn’t like we were Laura Ingalls Wilder or anything.

I’d figured out by now that death never makes sense, no matter how someone dies: murder, accident, old age, cancer, suicide, you’re never ready to lose someone you love. I decided death will always feel unexplained; we will never be ready for it, and you just have to do the best you can with what you have left.

I wondered how many world records had gone unrecorded. How did you really know yours was the world record and not just the only one someone had bothered to write down?

City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

There was no treasure more precious than a man’s unstretched neck, after all.

Her name was Lemya. She was fresh out of the provinces. She was, Ruslav could tell, one of those who de/ieved in things. She’d already spent a night in the cells because some idiot students had refused to leave some idiot place when the Turncoats had told them to. Not even Occupier patrols, just the locals in their uniforms that were literally a pale imitation of the Pals’. Ruslav knew about that, because he’d been in the cell across the way after being too slow to get out of a punch-up. He heard her and her idiot friends arguing about morals and ethics and other things you couldn’t eat or stab someone with.

In the Pallesand Archipelago, there were no executions. That would imply criminal acts, and everyone knew that the Palleseen were sailing into their Thousand Years of Perfection. Even the persistence of the Temporary Commission of Ends and Means was entirely focused outwards. Of course, plenty of people disappeared across the Archipelago. They just weren’t there, and all reference to them was removed. Their name would only ever be found in one place, a carefully curated list of all the people who didn’t exist and should not he mentioned. The list was necessary when prosecuting anyone gauche enough to mention them, because you had to have something to refer to, to know what it was to which nobody was permitted to refer. But these weren’t executions. This was just the operation of perfection. Outside the Archipelago, however, the officials of the Sway tended to retain the crude local forms of punishment.

Her look suggested she saw through him as though he was no more than the evaporating fog…

He didn’t think of the war anymore. Which wasn’t true. He woke from dreams of it, fighting his blanket. The gas, the wire, the hungry dark that descended at midday. The shrill scream of demon artillery, the bellows of monsters in torment. But he didn’t think about whether it still raged on (doubtless it still raged on) or who was winning (nobody was winning).

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.

If you’re going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance, you should make it a good one.

Falling didn’t bother me. I could fall forever and not be hurt. It’s stopping that’s the problem.

Surely it isn’t illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

It wasn’t that she didn’t like people, it was only that she liked books more. They didn’t fuss, or judge, or mock, or reject. They invited you in, fluffed up the pillows on the couch, offered you tea and toast, and shared their hearts with no expectation that you’d do anything more than absorb what they had to give.

She didn’t really know anything about running a shop, or magic, or jam. “But I do know books,” and that meant there was nothing she couldn’t know…eventually. That was a magic in and of itself.

Opening the notebook, she stroked the smooth, crisp, blank page. There was something so very beautiful about a notebook without a single note in it. It felt like touching pure potential.

Return to Sender by Craig Johnson

“Nobody smiles anymore.”

“Excuse me?”

“Have you noticed? Nobody smiles anymore.” Mike adjusted himself in the tiny postal Jeep, setting his back against the passenger-side door as he sat on the floor beside Dog so no one would see him in the September early morning light. “Remember when we were growing up how you were taught that when you walked down the street and you met a stranger, that you smiled or said hello?” He sighed, staring at the plethora of mail and packages in the back as if it were a weight he could no longer bear. “People don’t do that anymore.”

Mike Thurman, my late wife’s cousin, was in a bad mood, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a point.

There’s a part of I-80—or, as the locals call it, the Snow Chi Minh Trail—that’s spoken of as the Highway to Heaven that, when atmospheric conditions are right, gives the appearance as though the Interstate goes straight up into the heavens. But that wasn’t the part that I was on. I was on the soul-leeching part that seems to go on forever; a life-eroding slab of concrete that tears the very hours from your life at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Or maybe that’s just me.

The Highway to Heaven between Evanston and Lyman doesn’t go to heaven but rather to the Bridger Valley, which is pretty nice.

So, maybe it was just me.

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)

Fantasy with Friends: Today’s Fantasy Books I Think Will Become Fantasy Classics

By HCNewton

On April 27, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

What fantasy books do you think will be classics in the future?

This question is making me stumble. That’s not Pages Unbound’s fault. It’s just the way my brain works.

First, I’m stumbling over the idea of “contemporary.” Are we talking about the last couple of years, the 21st century, or something else? And, yes, I’m certain that the way this question is phrased is that it’s up to me to decide for the purpose of this post. I’m sticking with this century, although I’m squeamish about calling it contemporary.

For the purposes of this post, I’m not going to define classic as anything more than “you know it when you see it.”

The other problem I’m having with this question is that I don’t know how many people can predict what’ll become a classic. How many people e reading about that band in the Mines of Moria back in 1954 were thinking, “There will be an entire genre that’s largely defined by people reacting to/reacting against/building from this book?” Did Peter S. Beagle’s editor know the impact that little book about a unicorn would have on countless readers for decades?

Who knows what effect the events in the world and what’s being published are going to have on the aesthetics of generations to come? It’s so hard to guess what books will be read in 2060, what books that writers of 2090 will resonate with. How many of those things we’re throwing awards at will be punchlines to our great-grandkids?

Isn’t that part of the fun? Reading something and having no idea what people who aren’t on social media are thinking about it? What’s going to get passed on to a child/grandchild—and what percentage of that will actually get read? (I know full well what my kids do with the books I give them, but that doesn’t stop me from trying). I love it when I stumble onto someone younger than me stumbling onto The Prydain Chronicles and feeling what I felt in elementary school. I imagine a lot of Tolkien’s early fans felt a sense of satisfaction and surprise seeing his work captivate their children and grandchildren. I’m eager to look around in my dotage and see what I recognize on bookstore shelves—or the shelves in people’s homes (I’m one of those people who spend half their attention as a guest scoping out the titles on my host’s shelves to really understand them)

And lastly, I know that no one is going to bring up my guesses in 25 years to point and laugh at me. No one is going to Nelson Muntz me. (Will anyone in 25 years know Nelson Muntz?) This is, of course, assuming I live to my mid-70s. (get your mockery in early, folks—you don’t know what this sedentary lifestyle is going to do to my longevity).* Still, I hate giving an answer I can’t feel reasonably sure is correct.

My big prediction is that there are going to be fewer White European Dudes (percentage-wise) in the Fantasy Canon. We’re going to see a lot of non-Europeans, a lot of Women, and read a lot of voices that will make Tom Bombadil say, “That’s a little strange.” There are plenty of future classics that aren’t making a lot of Best Seller lists here in the States/UK, and my grandkids are going to go wild over them and shake their heads at me for missing.

But that meandering is not what the question asked for. So here’s my stab at it…just a stream of consciousness here, totally not binding. I hope that The Name of the Wind will be seen with affection by a bunch of people who can’t be bothered to care about the fate of The Doors of Stone. I don’t know if I’d put money on The Lies of Locke Lamora standing the test of time, but I’d love it if it would. It’s possible that all/part of A Song of Ice and Fire will be considered a classic—see TNotW, but all of them feel less stand-alone-ish than Rothfuss’ book is, so we might actually need a conclusion. I’m sure something by Jemisin—if not her entire oeuvre—will be a classic, I don’t know that I can choose one. Brandon Sanderson almost has to have a future in the canon—if only because of volume. Terry Pratchett, too (but will people find him funny?) R.L. Kuang? John Gwynn? Nnedi Okorafor? S.A. Chakraborty?

As much as I adore some of Gaiman’s works** I’m guessing his stuff is doomed to obscurity***. I don’t know if Joe Abercrombie is going to last longer than this generation (I hate to say that, I hope he does), ditto for Seanan McGuire or Jim Butcher. I’m not trying to throw shade on the subgenres, but I don’t know that the best Romantasy or Cozy Fantasy authors are going to be remembered, much less celebrated.

I cannot wait to see what titles and authors are mentioned by the less cautious bloggers–a.k.a. those who don’t have to issue paragraphs of disclaimers before their anxiety will let them publish–have to say. Check out this post for links to the braver-than-me-souls.

* Wow, this is taking a dark turn.

** Stay with me here.

*** Deservedly.

Do you have responses to this? (either for the comment section below or from your own post)

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Saturday Miscellany—4/25/26

By HCNewton

On April 25, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Happy Indie Bookstore Day 2026! I hope you can get out and show your local some support.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet No, Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive: Let’s Explore a Little Math—Joel J. Miller pokes at the “book affordability crisis” idea going around social media. Turns out we’re getting bargains (even if it doesn’t feel like it). I, for one, am embracing this idea today when I go celebrate Indie Bookstore Day–look how much money I’m actually saving, dear!!
bullet Bookshop.org’s Sales Grew 55% in 2025, Sparked by Romance and E-books—Publishers Weekly reports: “Six years on, the online bookseller continues to grow at a remarkable pace”
bullet Dragonlance: Selling the Dream—Tracy Hickman talks a little about the origins of the series. (Hat Tip: Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub
bullet Star Wars Day 2026 Gift Giving Guide—This Dad Reads’ annual guide (I’ve yet to part with actual money after reading these posts, but I’ve mentally spent hundreds each time)
bullet Imagining Future Book Titles by AI… The Future is Bright!!—The Organgutan Librarian gets speculative…
bullet Monthly Manga Mania Featuring Firsty Duelist: Seven Deadly Sins by Nakaba Suzuki —The Firsty Duelist gets mildly critical…
bullet Ten Recommended Indie Fantasy/Scifi Novels—C.T. Phipps gives a list of knock-out titles (I’ve read 2 of these, and can see why they make the list for sure)

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
“There is always more after the ending. Always the next morning, and the next. Always changes, losses and gains. Always one step after the other. Until the one true ending that none of us can escape. But even that ending is only a small one, larges as it looms for us. There is still the next morning for everyone else. For the vast majority of the rest of the universe that ending might as well not ever have happened. Every ending is an arbitrary one. Everything ending is from another angle, not really an ending.”—Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire—I’m still talking about this book…
bullet Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
bullet Fate Ball by Adam W. Jones—the title brings back near-visceral memories. This one did a number on me.
bullet And I mentioned the releases of: The Drafter by Kim Harrison (in paperback); Dead is Best by Jo Perry; Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Brewslaw; and Almost Infamous by Matt Carter

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen—”A starship captain and her crew face conspiracies and betrayals as they clash with various factions of a galactic civil war in a thrilling space adventure.” It’s been too long since I’ve read Mike Chen, this looks like a great way to end the drought.
bullet Don’t Die Dave by A.R. Witham—JCM Berne vouches for this, that’s good enough for me. “A death game where the prize isn’t power or money — it’s health insurance.”
bullet Gods & Comics by Kat Cho—about “a teen whose life is upended when the gods in her anonymous viral web comic inspired by a forgotten Korean myth come to life and the hero falls in love with her.”

Captivating Character of April: Baru Cormorant

By HCNewton

On April 24, 2026

In Books, Miscellany, News/Misc.

It’s the last Friday of the month, so it’s time for my Most Captivating Character of the Month post. This month, I don’t think I have any choice but to select Baru Cormorant, who is likely the most captivating character I’ve read this year. She’s the protagonist from The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, I posted about it earlier today.

Please note that I said, “captivating.” Not: heroic, likeable, sympathetic, honorable, valorous, fun, or anything else. She is those at some times, but generally, “captivating” is the appropriate word. She’s also, according to the title of the book we meet her in, a traitor. Later titles suggest that she becomes a monster, a tyrant, and something to be disclosed in the title of book four. I bet none of those take away from the captivating.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When Baru was a child, an Empire came and took over the island she and her family lived on–and had for generations. Without a lot of fanfare or violence, the Empire established its power by bringing medicine, fiat currency, vaccines, dental care, clean water, education, and a particularly strict form of morality–and all the people of Taranoke had to do was to embrace the benefits and let their culture be methodically wiped out.

Baru is an exceptionally bright child and is enrolled at a local school–despite what that does to her family–and through that education, she understands what’s happening. She decides to destroy the Empire, who “could not be stopped by spear or treaty, she would change it from within.” She’s bright and she also has a pretty good ego. And a vengeful streak wider than her body.

I’m not going to walk you through what happens after school in detail–she’s sent to another conquered land to act as the Imperial Accountant. And she does a great job of manipulating the economy to the benefit of the Empire, and does many, many other things to prove that she deserves to get close enough to the center of Imperial power that she can change it from within. She cuts herself off (almost as much as she thinks she does) from emotions, concern for others, and basic decency to accomplish her goals.

But Baru doesn’t do this through the traditional means of a Fantasy novel–she takes a quiet (at least for her), cerebral approach. The book is full of places where she’s quietly thinking by herself. The reader gets to know some of her thoughts and feelings–but not all of them (especially her thoughts). She seems always to be a few steps–if not miles ahead–of her opponents. She has the driven focus of Darrow of Lycos and the cunning of Darrow of Lykos, Sand dan Glokta, Zhu Chongba, and Baldrick combined. That’s probably underselling it–but it’s the best I can come up with. Basically, do not cross her. Your doom won’t come from her hand–but she’ll be behind it, I can promise you.

She’s not perfect. Baru frequently stumbles–part of that is due to her (young) age and lack of experience, part of that is due to her ego, and part of it is that she frequently forgets that other people will not necessarily act the way she thinks they will or that she wants–more than once, she forgets to account for the agency of others. Watching her recover (mostly) from those moments and pivot to a new plan is really quite something.

One quick quotation from one of her biggest times of self-doubt shines a lot of light on her as a character:

The terror that took Baru came from the deepest part of her soul. It was a terror particular to her, a fundamental concern—the apocalyptic possibility that the world simply did not permit plans, that it worked in chaotic and unmasterable ways, that one single stroke of fortune, one well-aimed bowshot by a man she had never met, could bring total disaster. The fear that the basic logic she used to negotiate the world was a lie.

Or, worse, that she herself could not plan: that she was as blind as a child, too limited and self-deceptive to integrate the necessary information, and that when the reckoning between her model and the pure asymbolic fact of the world came, the world would devour her like a cuttlefish snapping up bait.

(a few pages later, and you’ll have trouble believing she ever thought this)

Now, I’ve only read one book of the three published (with at least one to come) about Baru–so I don’t know where all she’s going. But the deepness, the richness, the unique way she’s depicted all makes her my captivating character of the month.

What character would you name for last month?

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WWW Wednesday—April 26, 2026

By HCNewton

On April 22, 2026

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I’m dealing with a stupid cold this week–nothing like a cold to make me feel like I’m 12 again. Snot-nosed punk. It’s messing with me–I have a different kind of post that was supposed to go up yesterday or today–and now I’m hoping I can get it together by tomorrow. We’ll see if I can stay awake long enough.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine	The Book of Spores edited by Frasier Armitage, Eleni Argyró, Adrian M. Gibson & Ed Crocker	Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie, read by Adjoa Andoh

I’m having some trouble getting into Martine’s book (yesterday, I couldn’t get my eyes to focus…stupid cold). But what I’ve read, I’ve really dug. This world is fascinating.

The Book of Spores features a lot of stories that are not in a genre I read much of, but on the whole, they’re working for me. I think I’m going to end up being really impressed.

I haven’t found a lot o time for an audiobook this week, but the third book in Leckie’s trilogy is really strong. I’m having more fun with it than I did with the other two–which makes me pretty sure that things are going to get dark before it’s over.

What did you recently finish reading?


Worse than a Lie by Ben Crump	This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

Crump might be a great attorney, but he’s no novelist. Do yourself a favor and bypass this one.

On the other hand, Page’s book is a celebration of the life-changing power of the right book at the right time, a tribute to readers, and a love story to independent bookshops. The story might be a little on the predictable side (still, she zagged a couple of times I expected a zig–including with the resolution). A sweet read.

What do you think you’ll read next?


A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper	The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, read by Amber Faith

I have no doubt that I’m going to be in awe over A Violent Masterpiece–which is a pretty good tagline for Harper’s novels in general.

I read The Naturals a few years back, but didn’t finish the series–I think I want to tackle that this year, better start with a revisit. Okay, I just checked…”a few years” is 11 in this case. Yeah, I’d better revisit.

How are you all feeling? Is that helping or hindering your reading?

2026 Plans and Challenges—1st Quarter Check-In

By HCNewton

On April 20, 2026

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

I thought I’d get this up no later than the 3rd. Oh, well.

Last year was a disaster for my plans and goals…both those stated and unstated. That only bothers me a little—I had too much fun with what I did accomplish, and was so tired because of everything else in life that perspective is easy. This is a hobby—I didn’t hobby the way I wanted to. But, still, hobbying was done.

This year, I think my plans (at least the stated ones) are more achievable…I fell back on the ol’ SMART Goal model, and cut myself a lot of slack (see below)–even stating upfront that I expected to fail with at least one goal. I do really wish my Literary Locals thing had a bit more life to it–I’ve got three Q&As in the works and hope for more soon. I’ve got some pitches for HC Chats, too–I just need to actually send them out. Grandpappy’s Corner has gathered more dust than I like–but I have a stack of those I need to make time for. I’m thiiiis close to just devoting a week to them.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? It could be better, but overall…?

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2025	4	89	112	192	11
End of the 1st Quarter	4	88	118	202	10
End of the 2nd Quarter	2	–	–	–	–
End of the 3rd Quarter	1	–	–	–	–
End of the 4th Quarter	4	–	–	–	–

2026 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

I honestly don’t care about them, I talk about them just as an indicator of how I spend my time (for myself), although it often comes across as something else. I’m also tackling some more thought-provoking and slower reads this year, but it’s not reflecting in that number (so far). I’m okay with that.

My TBR Range Challenge

As the table above suggests, there’s not really a lot of change on the pre-20206 heights—and that 2026 bar is higher than I want. Still…

Reading with Wrigs

A book with a building or cityscape on the cover: City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A book with a color in the title: Black Bag by Luke Kennard

I could be doing better on this one—but I’ve read two this month, and I have the titles for some of the others already picked. I’m feeling okay.

The 2026 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

January–It’s a classic task for a reason: Read the very last book to enter your TBR pile. TBRs come from the habit we have of not reading books because we put them off. You have my permission to indulge yourself—Lit by Tim Sandlin
February–Partners in crime?: For the month of Valentines you can choose a book about a partnership be it friends, lovers or whatever combination comes to mind—Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg
March–First Bloom: As Spring arrives for this change I’d like to read a book that is the debut of an author. Who knows this may become someone you’ll follow forever!—Nav’Aria: The Marked Heir by K.J. Backer

Haven’t hit a stretch goal yet, but there’s still time.

25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years
Whoops, I stumbled a bit here. But I’ve recovered this month.

2026 Speccy Fiction Challenge

A speculative novella (less than 250pgs)—Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
The first book in a speculative fiction duology/trilogy/series—Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Speculative fiction that features a creature (animal/monster)—Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson
A fantasy based on myth, legend or folklore—The Lost Daughter of Sparta by Felicia Day, Rowan MacColl
A scifi that takes place on a spaceship or space station—Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cutting Myself Some Slack

I added one goal after the year started. My “To Write About” pile was out of control–seriously. And it was eating away at the back of my mind. So I did two things–I started those Monthly Leftover posts–requiring myself to write a catch-up post at the end of the following month for the books I haven’t gotten to yet (e.g., At the end of February, write about January books; at the end of June, write about the May). I also removed every book from 2003-5 from that list–unless I’d promised someone (an author, publicist, NetGalley) a much-overdue post or the Lewis books from last year I hadn’t tackled yet.

That cut 252 books from my list, and so much anxiety. It’s down to 29 at the moment–which is still daunting, but it’s really doable if I focus a bit (and a couple of those are going to be three-fers, tackling an entire trilogy in one post, etc.) Who knows, I might be back saying the same thing at this point next year…but hopefully not.

20 Books of Summer
Assuming that this is done again—hopefully last year’s hosts are up for it—I’ll be there. It’s a fun tradition.

How’re your reading goals/plans going so far this year?

The image for the Picture book list is taken from the article. The Book stack image by yeliao521 from Pixabay. The “finger scissors” image is from Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay.

Fantasy with Friends: My Favorite Fantasy Subgenres

By HCNewton

On April 20, 2026

In Books, Fantasy with Friends, News/Misc.

Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.

This week’s prompt is:

Do you have any favorite subgenres of fantasy such as urban fantasy, historical fantasy, etc.?

Well, I think cozy fantasy is becoming a real favorite—cozy/cozy adjacent books. There’s the pure escapism, the warmth of friendship, family, the nigh-obligatory romance (not always that heavy, so even gruff guys like myself can handle it).

Shining Examples: Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons (etc.), Legends and Lattes (etc.), The Guard in the Garden, Cursed Cocktails (etc.); Mrs. Covington’s.

Are portal fantasies considered a sub-genre? If so, I’d say I have a real soft-spot for them, ever since I read what happened to Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace after they got sucked into that painting of a ship. I can’t say that I’ve read a lot of them—but they’re practically an automatic-like for me.

Examples that jump to mind: The Great Way series (it’s a portal fantasy involving two non-Earth realities, which adds to the cool-factor), The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, The Guardians of Aandor series, The Blackwood Saga, the Nav’Aria series, and the Wayward Children series.

But really, when it comes to sub-genres, it’s all about Urban Fantasy for me. Those who spend too much time looking at the Fiction categories at the top of my page will note that I have 2 for Fantasy—Urban and everything else. I read some things as a child that I think qualify (don’t ask me what—I wish I could remember, I want to re-read them), but moved on to “regular Fantasy” because there wasn’t a lot of options. Then TV’s Buffy Summers came along and reminded me just how great the idea was. A few years later, I met Harry Dresden, and that was so much better than anything Buffy could do (no UPN/WB budget constraints)—and I discovered the genre had a name. Harry was quickly followed by Rachel Morgan and her crew, then Kitty Norville, and a few others I’ve largely forgotten. Soon after that I met Simon Canderous, Mercy Thompson, Toby Daye, Peter Grant and the Folly; the Iron Druid Chronicles, Alex Verus, The Twenty Palaces, InCryptid, The Spellmason Chronicles, Jane Yellowrock/Soulwood; Fred, the vampire Accountant; An Inheritance of Magic series, The Unorthodox Chronicles, The Chronos Chronicles, The Inner Circle…and so many others. One of my sons got me hooked on Skulduggery Pleasant, I should hasten to add—UF is a thing even in the Middle Grade world.

Why does it have an appeal? I think a lot of it comes from the way they ultimately become some sort of detective novel—which is my first love when it comes to storytelling in any format. Throw in magic and the other goodies that come along with fantasy, and I’m as happy as a well-fed ogre.

There was a time—shortly after Rachel, Ivy, and Jenks joined Harry, Murph, and Bob in my “I have to read more like this” list that UF is all I looked for—new-to-me Urban Fantasies—in bookstores and in my library. This led me to read a lot of things that I’d just as soon forget (and largely have)—but it also got me to read some things I really enjoyed, and wish I could remember. But it’s the series that really stuck with me—the way they all deal with the same ideas in very different ways. For example—the Dresden files has 3 types of werewolves, Kitty Norville has multiple lycanthrope species, Mercy Thompson/Alpha and Omega have just one—and they don’t match Dresden’s (but do come close to Kitty’s werewolves); the Iron Druid’s weres seem more like Kitty’s, but aren’t quite; The Cronos Chronicles‘ are along those lines—but significant differences remain. There’s also the way that they depict the non-supernatural world around them. Are some/all of the types of magical/fantasy types known to normies? How do they react/relate to them? Can electronics survive in the presence of a mage/wizard? And so on. Don’t even get me started on the variety of Fae represented by the above, or we could be here a long time. You can get that variety in Fantasy—you can’t come close in the muggle-world detective novels.

So there you go–my favotie subgenre is Urban Fantasy, but it has some competition. Especially if that Nobledark thing takes off.

I’m really looking forward to some of the <a href=”https://pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/my-favorite-fantasy-subgenres-fantasy-with-friends/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener>other posts in response to this prompt–if only because I expect a good recommendation or six.

Do you have responses to this? (either for the comment section below or from your own post)

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

Saturday Miscellany—4/18/26

By HCNewton

On April 18, 2026

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Three things make a list, right?
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet The Rise of Nobledark Fantasy and What It Says About Us Right Now—Please, oh please, let this subgenre blossom.
bullet The Book News Isn’t All Bad—Molly Templeton points out the good news under the bad headlines
bullet In the same vein, Bookish Diversions: Anything Better than a Bookshop?

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
”…the entire building burst into flames. It was not a gradual combustion. One second, the building was a normal not-on-fire warehouse. Then it was all fire, as if it were the head of a match that had been struck.”—Soul Fraud by Andrew Givler

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
bullet Once a Crooked Man by David McCallum
bullet Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire
bullet And I mentioned the release of Strike by Delilah S. Dawson.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Cat on a Hot Tin Woof by Spencer Quinn—”Chet the dog is less than enthusiastic about the Little Detective Agency’s next case. Chet and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, have been hired to find a missing person—only the missing person is a cat. Miss Kitty, an internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong.” I enjoyed talking about it recently.
bullet Electric City Switches by M.D. Presley—Corbin has his hands full trying to track down a thief, keep her safe from bounty hunters and her (estranged) family, while his mentor is confined to their hotel. I tried to talk coherently about it yesterday.
bullet Paranormal Payback edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes—A solid collection of Urban Fantasy revenge tales. I wrote something about it earlier in the week–and forgot to mention that the last story is a must read for the names of the two protagonists alone! (the rest of the story was pretty good, but I want an explanation of the names)
bullet First Mage on the Moon by Cameron Johnston—An “innovative space fantasy, where wizards race to be the first on the moon – also known as the land of the gods.”
bullet Go Gentle by Maria Semple—I don’t know what it’s about (honest!), all I need to read is “Maria Semple.”
bullet Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell—”[A] breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn’t sure she wants it back.”
bullet The Signal Beneath the Sand by Hank Garner—I’ve spent so much time listening to Garner talking to authors of every stripe, I’m eager to see what he can do. Also, who doesn’t like a first contact SF adventure?
bullet Spies and Other Gods by James Wolff—A “darkly funny”, possibly Mick Herron-esque, “cat-and-mouse spy thriller, an anonymous whistleblower sends British Intelligence into a frenzy, threatening to reveal secrets that could bring the establishment to its knees.”
bullet Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse, translated by Florian Duijsens—”In this zen and zany crime debut, a shady lawyer transforms his life through mindfulness—and uses his newfound techniques to kill his way to the top.” Oh, and it’s apparently on Netflix.