Book Description: For fans of Naomi Novik and Kerri Maniscalco, “a slow-burn dark academia filled with delicious yearning, dripping with atmosphere, and a compelling mystery” (Ellis Hunter, author of Blood Bound) about a death mage who hates her magic and a poison mage who hates her that are forced to work together to stop a killer before one of them is next. Everything about Sylas Archyr feels like a sin. Born with the ability to speak with the dead, Viola’s […]

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along […]

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along […]

If you missed the second of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can watch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction, I’m primarily focusing on fantasy book recommendations this year. (But if you’re looking for more science fiction books this year, Elizabeth Bear has you covered!) This time, I highlighted the following: A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde, an epic science […]

One week from today, I’ll be doing the second quarterly virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts of this year. If you followed last year’s recommendations, both fantasy and science fiction books were covered. This year, I’m focusing on fantasy books and author Elizabeth Bear is covering science fiction recommendations. (She just did her second recommendation event last night, which made me want to start a couple of books on my shelves I still need to […]