The Compound

 

The Compound

by Aisling Rawle

Random House, 2025. 292 pages. Fiction

Lily, a disillusioned young woman, competes in a high-stakes reality show on a desert compound where personal bonds, hidden desperation, and escalating challenges blur the lines between game strategy and survival amidst a crumbling outside world. 

For all of my fellow reality TV lovers and haters, this one is for you! Particularly the Love Island variety. The book starts out innocuously enough, but once it picks up, it is hard to put down. Recommended for readers who enjoy suspenseful, character-driven fiction and reality TV social commentary. 

If you like The Compound you might also like:

The Book of Luke
by Lovell Holder
Grand Central Publishing, 2025. 394 pages. Fiction

Following the car accident that ended his football career and left his body scarred, 22-year-old Luke Griffin joins the cast of Endeavor, a new competition-based reality show that pits the tabloids' darlings against one another in tasks of endurance and problem solving. Soon a series of betrayals leads to irreversible tragedy, changing the course of his and his felllow contestants' lives forever. Ten years later, Luke is now a father of two and the stay-at-home husband to America's only openly gay senator. When his husband's serial cheating is exposed, Luke impulsively joins the cast of Endeavor's latest season in a desperate bid to earn some fast cash. 

Patricia Wants to Cuddle
by Yumei Kitasei
Flatiron Books, 2025. 376 pages. Fiction

On this season of The Catch, a Bachelor-style show, contestants must compete for love...and their lives. 

RBL 

All Systems Red

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)

by Martha Wells

Tom Doherty Associates, 2017. 152 pages. Sci-Fi.

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.

I looooove a fun robot story. Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot and The Positronic Man are on my personal “best books” list, I always sympathized more with C-3P0 than Luke Skywalker, a Lego model of Johnny 5 sits on my desk at this very moment, and Star Trek’s Mr. Data is my all-time favorite fictional character, hands down. That said, I don’t know how I completely overlooked Martha Wells’ hit series The Murderbot Diaries before now! But I finally took notice and am working to rectify my error. Book 1 is already a winner in my eyes. Murderbot, as the narrator, is a snarky delight. It has named itself for its potential to be an unstoppable killing machine now that it is free to make its own choices. It’s plain from the start, though, that Murderbot has much more in common with Data and Andrew Martin than with The Terminator, possessing an innate sense of right and wrong and a real “heart” buried beneath the circuits. (Its favorite pastime is binge-watching terrible TV shows, it's practically human already!) All Systems Red is a fast-paced origin story, introducing us to the Company-controlled future of humanity and setting Murderbot up for further adventures. I’m looking forward to seeing where my grumpy new robot friend goes next!

If you like All Systems Red, you might also like: 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

by Becky Chambers

Harper Voyager, 2016. 443 pages. Sci-Fi.

Rosemary Harper doesn't expect much when she joins the diverse crew of the aging starship Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers a bed, a chance to explore the galaxy, and some distance from her past. The crew is offered a job tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet. It's a lucrative job, but a host of unexpected mishaps force the crew to depend on each other.

Automatic Noodle

by Annalee Newitz

Tor Publishing Group, 2025. 163 pages. Sci-Fi.

You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food--the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around--for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. 

Moss’d in Space

by Rebecca Thorne

Bramble/Tor Publishing Group, 2026. 360 pages. Sci-Fi.

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.

-LAH

We Burned So Bright

We Burned So Bright

By T.J. Klune

Tor, 2026. 169 pages. Sci-Fi.

Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they've experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world. Now, the world is ending for real. A rogue black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they've ever known will be gone. Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They're in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington state to take care of some unfinished business before it's all over. On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how--impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends. And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough. Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?

I want to preface this review by saying I am a very emotional person who cries very easily, so, perhaps, you will not have as strong of a reaction to this book as I did. With that said, I have to be honest with you: this book made me cry a concerning amount. For entirety of the last forty or so pages, I was absolutely weeping. I know that doesn't necessarily sound fun. I know that might not sound appealing. I know you're wondering to yourself: "Why would I want to read a book that makes me cry so hard I nearly pass out?" I know! Trust me, I get it! But, yet, here I am recommending this book to you, anyway, despite my near brush with unconsciousness from crying too hard, because I can promise you that this book is so worth it. Klune handles the heavy topics -death, fear, mental health, the end of the world, grief- so tenderly and with compassion. While the story never shies away from heartbreak, Klune also balances the heaviness with humor, hope, and love in all its forms. He highlights both the bad in humanity (war, greed, violence) and the good in humanity (kindness, art, music, laughter, empathy) and shows how life in general contains both great terribleness and great beauty. This book is short at only 169 pages, and I flew through it, but it wasn't necessarily an easy read. It was, however, an incredibly rewarding one. If you're looking for a book that will make you feel deeply and leave you reflecting on life -and on how you choose to spend your brief and precious time on Earth- We Burned So Bright is the book for you. 

If you like We Burned So Bright, you might also like: 

The Spear Cuts Through Water

by Simon Jimenez
Del Rey, 2022. 522 pages. Sci-Fi.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace. But that god cannot be contained forever. With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined. Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you. 

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar
Simon & Schuster, 2019. 198 pages. Sci-Fi.
 

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them.

The Measure

by Nikki Erlick
HarperCollins, 2022. 352 pages. Fiction.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn't have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

ND

Japanese Gothic

Japanese Gothic 

By Kylie Lee Baker 

Hanover Square Press, 2026. 344 pages. Fiction 

 Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls. 

 October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window. One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie. Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it. 

‘Tis the season for spooky, summer reads and Japanese Gothic rings it in with aplomb. This deeply atmospheric novel had me looking over my shoulder and hearing whispers in the wind. The parallel stories are driven by compelling characters that had me invested, but absolutely did not trust. This book was mysterious, gothic, and a little out there and I just couldn’t get enough. 

 If you like Japanese Gothic, you might also like: 

 

Nothing but Blackened Teeth 

By Cassandra Khaw 

Nightfire, 2021. 125 pages. Fiction 

 A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It's the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt. Effortlessly taking the classic haunted house story and turning it on its head, Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions. 

The Hacienda 

By Isabel Cañas 

Berkley, 2022. 345 pages. Fiction 

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz's father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife's sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz's sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo's sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz's fears--but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano? Beatriz only knows two things for certain. Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her. Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, it will take Andrés's skills as a witch to battle the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda. 

 

The Children 

By Melissa Albert William 

Morrow, 2026. 398 pages. Fiction 

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods. In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother's world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother's readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they've made their playland. As Edith Sharpe's books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame--until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith's series unfinished and her children the sole survivors. Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere's childhood begin to surface

CB

Homebound

Homebound
by Portia Elan
Scribner, 2026. 304 pages. Science Fiction

Lives are entangled across time by one unfinished story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries.

1983: Becks is nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, and the only person who understood her, is dead. Luckily, he left her a half-finished video game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

2078: Dr. Portman works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics, wrestling with her responsibility to Earth's precarious future. But increasingly, it seems an exceptional project may transcend everything she believed to be possible.

2586: After decades of life on the sea, Yesiko knows a scavenger's work is rife with moral compromise. Yet when a long-lost piece of technology walks aboard her ship, she is set on a path toward a sacrifice even she may be unwilling to make.

Linking these women across the centuries is a chain reaction of love, longing, and creativity that reveals our deep interconnectedness.

I admittedly enjoy books that are a little melancholy but also a bit hopeful, with beautiful writing and thought-provoking questions. For me, Homebound definitely fits the bill. This book contains four storylines connected across time, intricately woven together. Each storyline has fully realized characters that I wanted to root for, so I wasn't more connected to one story over another. Since most of the storylines occur in the future, the main thread and feel of the story reminded me of lyrical dystopian travel stories (like some of the ones listed below). The addition of the past storyline and a somewhat mysterious fourth narrative is what ties the plots together into a cohesive whole. This story touches on themes of friendship, identity, found family, grief, climate change, artificial intelligence, and more. The result is a moving, unique story that will stay with me for a while.

If you like Homebound you might also like:

Station Eleven
by Emily St John Mandel
Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 333 pages. Science Fiction

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve as the story moves back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains.

Saltcrop
by Yumei Kitasei
Flatiron Books, 2025. 376 pages. Science Fiction

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find her.

Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr
Scribner, 2021. 626 pages. Fiction

Follows four young dreamers and outcasts through time and space, from 1453 Constantinople to the future, as they discover resourcefulness and hope amidst peril.

 

 

MB 

Land

Land

By Maggie O’Farrell

Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. 383 pages. Fiction 

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and the lives of those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás, and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping and get them both home? 

This summary is only the beginning of this epic family saga that takes place after the potato famine in Ireland. This work of literary fiction has a very strong sense of place. The land is one of the main characters of the story. O’Farrell’s writing is very vivid and I could easily imagine the landscape in Ireland and the copse that sets the story on its path. That being said, this isn’t a quick read nor is it light hearted. But if you’re looking for a book that takes you on a journey of a family and their relationship to the land and each other, you’re in for a treat. I think this book is going to be on many best books of 2026 lists.

If you like Land, you might also like: 

Bog Queen

By Anna North 

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025. 264 pages. Fiction 

When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. Agnes has always been more comfortable with the dead than the living, but this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. The mystery of the Iron Age body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests : the archaeologists who want to study the surrounding bog, the peat-cutters who want to profit from the land's resources, and a group of environmental activists and neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place and that the moss-layered bog -- a marvel of carbon capture on a warming planet -- be left undisturbed. Then there's the moss itself ; a complex repository of artifacts and remains, with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes is drawn into the controversy stirred by the body and its habitat, she must face not only the deep history of what she has unearthed, but also the relationships she has forsworn in her bid for independence.

 

Librarian Review

This is Where the Serpent Lives 

By Daniyal Mueenuddin 

Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. 343 pages. Fiction 

Set in urban and rural Pakistan, this novel follows the interconnected lives of multiple characters whose experiences reflect the country's feudal, political, and social structures. The narrative traces the rise and struggles of individuals shaped by poverty, power, loyalty, and ambition, including servants, landowners, and political elites. Through their personal relationships and moral choices, the novel examines issues of class, authority, corruption, and survival within contemporary Pakistani society, combining intimate.

JK

Lore Olympus

Lore Olympus, Vol. 1

by Rachel Smythe

Del Ray, 2021. Unpaged

Graphic Novel

Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love--witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology.

Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she's allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods. When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld. Now Persephone must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place--and her own power.

I love Greek mythology and this modern retelling is so interesting! Persephone is fresh and new to the outside world (Olympus) and is eager and excited to take advantage of all it has to offer. Hades is handsome and brooding, just like Mr. Rochester or Mr. Darcy, so of course you fall in love with him right away. The artwork is gorgeous and I find I'm just gazing at the images until I get anxious and move on with the story. It's definitely dramatic and gritty (*language) but I'm invested enough to continue the series.

If you like Lore Olympus, you might also like:

Hera

by Jennifer Saint

Flatiron Books, 2024. 388 pages

Fantasy

Even the gods must have their queen. When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother Zeus overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world? In this enthralling retelling, Greek mythology's most famous and maligned goddess finally tells her own story, as power, passion, and divine strength collide in the heart of Olympus.

Aphrodite

by Phoenicia Rogerson

Hanover Square Press, 2025. 470 pages

Fantasy

Aphrodite saw the gods on Mount Olympus and decided she wanted a piece of what they had. Only problem is, she's not a goddess, just a lowly being who's supposed to remain in a distant cave, keeping the threads of Fate woven neatly. But Aphrodite's never let anyone tell her what to do ... Weaving herself a web of lies and careful deceptions, she convinces everyone she's the goddess of love and that her rightful place is among the Olympians, who lord it over everyone else at the top of the world, but under the stifling rule of Zeus. For the first time, she has the best of everything, as well as friends, peers, even loved ones. Only, being a goddess isn't quite like she thought. Those who oppose Zeus tend to disappear, or worse. And one day, Aphrodite decides she's had enough.

I, Medusa

by Ayana Gray

Random House, 2025. 320 pages

Fantasy

Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In Athens' colorful market streets and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, a drunken night between girl and god ends in violence, and the course of Meddy's promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. Her locs transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--not as a victim, but as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the cross currents between her heart's deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.

Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes

Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes

By: Eleanor Houghton

Bloomsbury Visual Arts 2026. 355 pages. Nonfiction

Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life - the clothes that she once wore. These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre , as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard. Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes, finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe. Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss. These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected.

This is a fascinating, tangible history of the famed and mysterious Charlotte Brontë, throwing light on her brief and fascinating life. An added element to this account is Houghton's meticulously hand-drawn depictions of the dresses and clothing accessories - there are no photographs. This makes this book a unique biography, and the beautiful art compliments the era, and Charlotte Brontë and her sister's lives. As the author points out, photographs of the items are available, and if you're able to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum, you can see them in person. Houghton's drawings bring beauty and a sense of intimacy in this unique and highly recommended biography, emphasizing that the domestic details - what we wear day to day - is part of our story too. 

If you like Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes, you might also like: 

The Brontë Cabinet

By Deborah Lutz

Norton & Company, 2015. 310 pages. Nonfiction.

Victorian literature scholar Deborah Lutz illuminates the complex and fascinating lives of the Brontës through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home in Haworth, Lutz immerses readers in a nuanced re-creation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward through the major biographical events: the death of their mother and two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses, and their determined efforts to make a mark on the literary world. From the miniature books they made as children to the blackthorn walking sticks they carried on solitary hikes on the moors, each personal possession opens a window onto the sisters' world, their beloved fiction, and the Victorian era. A description of the brass collar worn by Emily's bull mastiff, Keeper, leads to a series of entertaining anecdotes about the influence of the family's dogs on their writing and about the relationship of Victorians to their pets in general. The sisters' portable writing desks prove to have played a crucial role in their writing lives: it was Charlotte's snooping in Emily's desk that led to the sisters' first publication in print, followed later by the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Charlotte's letters provide insight into her relationships, both innocent and illicit, including her relationship with the older professor to whom she wrote passionately. And the bracelet Charlotte had made of Anne and Emily's intertwined hair bears witness to her profound grief after their deaths. Lutz captivatingly shows the Brontës anew by bringing us deep inside the physical world in which they lived and from which their writings took inspiration.

The Dress Diary

By Kate Strasdin

First Pegasus Books, 2023. 303 pages. Nonfiction

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments - some her own, others donated by family and friends - she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages, and the lives of the people within. Her findings are remarkable. Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry. This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: not the grandees of traditional written histories, but the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

The Age of Homespun: objects and stories in the creation of an American myth

By Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. 501 pages. Nonfiction

They began their existence as everyday objects, but in the hands of award-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, fourteen domestic items from preindustrial America-ranging from a linen tablecloth to an unfinished sock-relinquish their stories and offer profound insights into our history. In an age when even meals are rarely made from scratch, homespun easily acquires the glow of nostalgia. The objects Ulrich investigates unravel those simplified illusions, revealing important clues to the culture and people who made them. Ulrich uses an Indian basket to explore the uneasy coexistence of native and colonial Americans. A piece of silk embroidery reveals racial and class distinctions, and two old spinning wheels illuminate the connections between colonial cloth-making and war. Pulling these divergent threads together, Ulrich demonstrates how early Americans made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert their identities, shape relationships, and create history.

MGB

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl 

by Matt Dinniman 

Dandy House, 2020. 433 pages. Science Fiction & Fantasy. 

The apocalypse will be televised! A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style. You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big. You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game--with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy. They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game. 

Yes, this book is as good as everyone says it is. It’s the kind of book that once you read it, you need everyone around you to read it because it’s so fun and you need to talk to someone about it. While it takes a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief to get into this book, the author makes it easy. It’s a fun, fast-paced read with detailed worldbuilding, distinctive characters who you fall in love with, a large amount of tabletop RPG and other game mechanics, pop culture references galore, and a writing style that keeps you hooked. This book is recommended for anyone looking for a good time. 

If you like Dungeon Crawler Carl, you might also like: 

Solo Leveling 

by Ch'ugong 

Yen Press, 2021. 311 pages. Graphic Novel 

Known as the the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line. So when an opportunity arises for a bigger payout, he takes it... only to come face-to-face with a being whose power outranks anything he's ever seen! With the party leader missing an arm and the only healer a quivering mess, can Jinwoo somehow find them a way out? 

Space Opera 

by Catherynne M. Valente 

Saga Press, 2018. 294 pages. Science Fiction 

Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny. They must sing. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented by the remnants of civilization. Something to cheer up everyone who was left. Something to celebrate having escaped total annihilation by the skin of one's teeth, if indeed one has skin. Or teeth. Something to bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, understanding, and the most powerful of all social bonds: excluding others. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for Galactivision--part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part, a very large, but very subtle part, continuation of the wars of the past. Thus, a fragile peace has held. This year, a bizarre and unsightly species has looked up from its muddy planet-bound cradle and noticed the enormous universe blaring on around it: humanity. Where they expected to one day reach out into space and discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of grave aliens, they have found glitter. And lipstick. And pyrotechnics. And electric guitars. A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock. 

Delicious in Dungeon 

by Ryoko Kui 

Yen Press, 2017. 191 pages. Graphic Novel 

When young adventurer Laios and his company are attacked and soundly thrashed by a dragon deep in a dungeon, the party loses all its money and provisions ... and a member! They're eager to go back and save her, but there is just one problem: If they set out with no food or coin to speak of, they're sure to starve on the way! But Laios comes up with a brilliant idea: "Let's eat the monsters!" Slimes, basilisks, and even dragons ... none are safe from the appetites of these dungeon-crawling gourmands!