Nightmare Magazine, Issue 125 by Wendy N. Wagner My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another issue of Nightmare Magazine I bought to read and discuss with the wife. I bought it thinking she’d prefer Who The Final Girl Becomes (having only read the synopsis), but our favorite ended up being Home. Who the final girl…

Spelunky by Derek Yu My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have enjoyed many of the books in the Boss Fight Books series. They’re each unique in their own way, but this is the only one (that I know of) written by the creator of the game. It was fascinating to read Yu’s thought process…

Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw My rating: 4 of 5 stars I bought this book as part of a story bundle collection. I haven’t read any of the other books in the “Gods and Monsters” universe, but (as one of the ads at the back of the book says) it’s somewhat similar to…

Continue? The Boss Fight Books Anthology by Gabe Durham My rating: 4 of 5 stars This whole collection of essays makes me think a lot about the semi-gonzo video game reviews that Tim Rogers is known for. The shorter format allows the authors to be much more creative than they can be in the full-size…

Witches Be Crazy: A Tale That Happened Once Upon a Time in the Middle of Nowhere by Logan J. Hunder My rating: 1 of 5 stars Ever since I put this book on my shelf “digital-on-deck” – most likely somewhere around 2019 – I’d been looking forward to reading it. The title seemed interesting and…

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 4 of 5 stars A love letter to New York meets Lovecraftian Horror and you get this book. I believe this is probably one of those love or hate books with very little room in between. As someone who married into a NYC family, I was…

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher My rating: 5 of 5 stars Well, that was incredible and deserving of all the praise it got. I was already a fan of T. Kingfisher from when my eldest daughter convinced me to read A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, but this was just so perfect to me.…

The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett My rating: 1 of 5 stars This is my second time reading. I dropped the rating from 2 to 1 star The first time I read this book, I thought, “I’m done with Rincewind stories”. And this second time around cemented that. The book is essentially Pratchett riffing on…

The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories by Tara Moore My rating: 3 of 5 stars Thoughts as I first read through this collection:Boy, modern English is so dumbed down. I love to read and read voraciously and still found it so laborious to read some of these short stories. Everyone speaks in purple…

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars As a Kickstarter backer on this campaign, I was able to read this book immediately on the first day of the year and I bet it will be tough to find another book that I will love more this year. As…

Dead Man’s Hand by James J. Butcher My rating: 4 of 5 stars This first book by Jim Butcher’s son has prose that reads like a combination of his father’s prose and John Scalzi’s prose. It’s fun and sarcastic, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t serious stakes. I was actually quite happy that Butcher tends…

A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi My rating: 4 of 5 stars A great collection of Scalzi short stories and flash fiction about Christmas. If you like his sense of humor, you’ll enjoy the book. Depending on your reading speed, probably a little over an hour to complete. View all my reviews

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang My rating: 4 of 5 stars It will be very interesting to compare this book to Seize the Stars when I get to it next year. Both involve the seeming impossibility of pushing for justice against a society…

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness by Zach Weinersmith My rating: 2 of 5 stars I was more of a fan of the abridged Bible, but that’s probably because I have more familiarity with the Bible than Shakespeare. Still, it’s interesting to see how old negging is. View all my reviews