Hey!

Happy post-holiday food coma to my fellow Americans. This has been a whirlwind week, so I’ve been indulging myself in some rereads. As usuals, there’s lots of reviews, plus new podcast episodes and author news.

A-Side

What I Get Out of Three-Star Reads
Can you teach yourself to love a genre? I think so, if you are predisposed to the things that genre does that interest you. I am still on my literary fiction journey, but I think about the literary fiction I’ve read and enjoyed that I wouldn’t have if I were more aggressive about DNFing books. I think about it in the way where, because I know at least a few literary fiction books I love, I can find more common ground as a genre reader with non-genre readers, and we can trade recs more easily. And everyone knows how I feel about recs.

Short & Sweet: Pals for Robots
One of my co-editors at Lady Business, forestofglory, used to do a short fiction column for recs, which was my primary way of getting short fiction recs I liked because we were on the same wavelength re: community-focused short fiction. On this list from a few years ago is, of course, The Murderbot Diaries, but also a lot of other short fiction on similar topics that series covers.

Reccing as Critical Practice
Another essay from forestofglory, this one about reccing. I have probably linked this before, but as we reach the end of the year, I wanted to highlight it again. I’ve thought a lot about recs this year as I solicited them from friends and mixtape readers, only to discover for a lot of people reccing is harder than ever. Some of this I challk up to the rise of the churn of Just Another List, which feels pointless in our age of endless short form video and massive sites made of nothing but lists. Another is that writing online is fraught, with genAI slurping everything up and discoverability of community harder than ever. But I hope to see more personal rec lists this year (you can send yours to me)! As this essay says, “if you rec things, take a moment to be proud of yourself! You are doing important criticism!”

How to Get Nominated For a Nebula or Hugo
As we approach a new Awards Season, this post in my archives caught my eye. It’s geared toward authors and others who might have done some creative work they want the community to consider. I reread it mostly for the sections on slates, which is still good advice to this day. You can really tell those of us who have some Trauma over slates, but I hope people talking more openly about their nominations will become the norm again.

Reviews/Discussions

Artificial Truth by J.M. Lee, translated by Sean Lin Halbert (Rachel @ SF in Translation)
Blood of The Old Kings by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur (Niko’s Book Reviews)
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang (Stewart Hotston)
A Covenant of Ice by Karin Lowachee (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Bonnie McDaniel @ Red Headed Femme)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Sara Landaverde @ The Nerd Daily)
The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman (Only the Best Fantasy Novels)
Frankenstein (2025) (Overinvested Podcast)
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (Nils and Beth @ The Fantasy Hive)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Trish Matson @ Skiffy and Fanty)
Project Hanuman by Stewart Hotston (Fiction Fans Podcast)
Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce (Alex Brown @ Locus)
The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (Andrew Liptak @ Transfer Orbit)
Slow Gods by Claire North (Hebe Stanton @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (Ian Mond @ Locus)
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (Rose R. @ The Lesbrary)
Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop (Rob Bedford @ SFF World)
What Stalks The Deep by T. Kingfisher (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves
Wicked: For Good (2025) (Ann Michelle Harris @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)

B-Side

It’s been a slow week. I ran a book sale for my local Friends of the Library chapter, so I was online a little less. If you have a Friends group in your area (it’s mostly an American thing, I think?), I highly recommend supporting them. They always need donations and volunteers, especially in rural areas. If you’re not sure, ask at your local library. The staff can usually connect you. :)

At the end of the year, I often sink into familiar rereads and this year I’m pretty sure I’m going to spend December reading nothing but romance. This rec list on arranged marriage fantasy from Samantha was timely, and several books I already like are on there, which bodes well.

Alex Brown has a recap of some of the stand out speculative short fiction from October at Reactor. Roseanna has another installment of her close reading of the Lord of the Rings, which was worth it just so we could get the phrase “concentrated force of sheer elven bullshit”.

After Nerds of a Feather announced their new contributors, profiles have started to roll out. Available now: Maya Barbara and Stew Hotston. In awards news, the Sidewise Awards have some new judges: Andrea Horbinski, Alana Phelan, and Arturo Serrano. The judges for next year’s World Fantasy are also out: Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, Tamsyn Muir, Madeleine E. Robins, Richard Thomas, and Ann VanderMeer. Not to be That Guy (authors should get to take however long it takes them to finish a book), but reading for awards seems like a lot of work and not something you’d do if your next book wasn’t close to done? But I will not tempt the universe with further speculation.

Locus has their New Books video out. I’m behind on my podcast listening, but Breaking the Glass Slipper has a new episode about conventions. On Wednesdays, We Read discussed the Murderbot adaption. Sword & Laser dropped episode #523 and covered lots of topics, including a discussion of The Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis. Octothorpe recorded Episode #148 live at a con, an incredible feat that impresses me a lot, as someone with Massive Social Anxiety.

In author happenings, Charlie Jane Anders was given the Imagination in the Service of Society, and shared her acceptance speech. It’s a beautiful read about the power of creativity in hard moments. T. Kingfisher is at The Nerd Daily with a short Q&A and Nerds of a Feather has their Six Books feature with Stew Hotston. Caskey Russell has a guest post over at The Fantasy Hive. Sarah Raasch, one of my new favorite fantasy authors, was on The Functional Nerds. Fonda Lee dropped the cover for her next book, The Last Contract of Isako.

For more links, don’t miss Wombling Along from last week.

Art recs: Sailor Scout Stickers by gdbee (you’ve seen the art if you’ve seen my art recs before, now get the sticker version!); unclench your jaw by Ethan M. Aldridge; Happy possum by pikaole; dragon by Ello

Outro

That’s it for this week! Have a great weekend. :)