Category Archives: Reading List
Malevolent babbling: The November 2025 Bibliofiles
This month saw me reading some heady, intellectual historical fantasy while at the same devouring a book about vampire kangaroos and other strange creatures. Plus a bit of weird fiction and weird journalism!
Fiction
Babel by RF Kuang
Babel by RF Kuang is a complex and multilayered novel that defies easy description — which is befitting, given its subject matter.
Equal parts historical fantasy, dark academia, anticolonial manifesto and coming-of-age tale, Babel relates the tale of Robin Swift, a Chinese child orphaned by a plague and whisked away to Oxford to study the secret arts of magic.
In the world of Babel, magic is generated by the sort of imaginative gaps that occur when words are translated from one language to another and their meaning changes, creating a sort of linguistic loose energy. This energy is in turn channeled through silver bars — the physical manifestations of empire and power. It’s a compelling and utterly unique magic system that is well developed by Kuang, and there are echoes of, well, Eco here in the book’s linguistic and historical awareness.
The wonder of the magic system, which is used to transform every element of western society, is put into stark contrast with the abuses of the colonial system. The enchantment that Oxford holds for Robin soon fades as he realizes it is but another tool for sustaining the colonial machine — and he and his friends are but a cog in the machine.
Things inevitably come to a head when a war with China looms, driven by false pretences, and Robin joins an underground rebellion that strikes at the heart of the empire’s power.
The coming of age elements are layered everywhere throughout these events, as Robin confronts what it means to grow up in a place that was never meant for you, where you can never belong, and which uses you while abusing your people. It’s an interrogation of empire that examines more than colonialism and stretches wide to include capitalism itself. It’s all the more timely because of it.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57945316-babel
The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien de Castell
Deranged mercenary war mages, scheming celestials, diabolical infernals, dark magic, black humour and vampire kangaroos. Enough said.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223758590-the-malevolent-eight
Doctors HATE Her!! Local Woman Is NOT Cursed by Bree Wernicke
A woman starts coughing up Lego blocks and then instructions for a town. After that things get strange.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/37/doctors-hate-her-local-woman-is-not-cursed-by-bree-wernicke
Non-fiction
How the Fight to Save Canadian Publishing from the American Market Shaped my 50-Year Career by Scott McIntyre
“Books are not mere merchandise. Books are a nation thinking out loud.”
Link: https://thewalrus.ca/i-was-warned-theres-little-money-to-be-made-in-publishing/
Forget Running Groups and Work Socials. Find a Book Club by Janna Abbas
Are book clubs the new way to make connections in an increasingly lonely world?
Link: https://thewalrus.ca/find-a-book-club/
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era by Nicholas Hune-Brown
Who was the writer Victoria Goldiee? Did she even exist?
Magical Motels and Labyrinthian Libraries: The October 2025 Bibliofiles
This month saw some monstrous reads: supernatural shenanigans on spaceships, goblin libraries, medieval massacres and insider tales of the publishing industry. Enjoy?
Fiction
Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel by Andrew Kaufman
The Shamrock Motel is a magical place that can only be found by those who are lost — both geographically and emotionally. The tales in this collection follow an eccentric cast of characters who all reach some crossroads in their life and end up checking in to the Shamrock Motel.
That’s when things get weird.
A woman embarks on an affair with a bear, a child lives inside a piece of furniture, a man’s penis turns into an extension cord, a woman is confined and cleaned by hundreds of smaller women and so on. It’s as if Schitt’s Creek was directed by David Lynch as an X-rated movie.
Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel probably won’t appeal to those who take comfort in a Best Western. But those who have a little more eccentric tastes will never want to check out.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216838651-enjoy-your-stay-at-the-shamrock-motel
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
Of Monsters and Mainframes is a fantastic mashup of space opera, quirky AIs and pulp horror — like if Murderbot had a dream of Halloween.
The tale follows the voyages of Demeter, a sentient spaceship that hauls passengers around the galaxy. But something goes wrong on one of Demeter’s voyages and hundreds of passengers die. Only Demeter knows the truth — the passengers were killed by Dracula!
If that’s not bad enough, Demeter’s next voyage features a werewolf running amok and killing most of the passengers. And the voyage after that has a strange bunch of cultists hijack the ship in an effort to find their sleeping god. And after that… well, you get the idea.
If it sounds absurd, that’s because it is. Of Monsters and Mainframes delights in playing genres against each other — science vs. supernatural, cold corporate bureaucracies vs. emotional AIs, and so on. Yet it’s also an intriguing mystery about consciousness — what can a ship actually perceive, and what if the AI is delusional — as well a warm found family tale.
If you’re looking for a little supernatural in your sci-fi, then this one is a monstrously good read!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216540053-of-monsters-and-mainframes
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
A lyrical nightmare of a tale that follows a disgraced knight wandering through an apocalyptic, plague-ravaged Europe that is populated with genuine monsters and demons — and angels?
Buehlman is one of the most creative and original fantasy writers of this generation and perhaps ever. While he may be best known for The Blacktongue Thief and its prequel, The Daughters War, Between Two Fires is a masterpiece of psychological horror and visionary madness.
Think The Road meets Hieronymous Bosch and you’ll have an idea of what lurks between the covers of this book, waiting for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543121-between-two-fires
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library by Chris Willrich
If your ideal fantasy tale is a magically written, literary labyrinth infused with Calvino, Borges, Lovecraft, necromancy, demons and supernatural libraries, then check out “A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library” by Chris Willrich.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-random-walk-through-the-goblin-library/
Nonfiction
The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem by Tajja Isen
Is publishing’s obsession with sales numbers hurting publishing?
Link: https://thewalrus.ca/the-publishing-industry-has-a-gambling-problem/
Distribution and the Terror of the Backorder by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What happens when a book is popular but there are no copies available? Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses how distribution trends are hurting writers.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/distribution-and-141904814
Meditations and menace: The August 2025 Bibliofiles
My reading this month covered it all, from meditations on how to improve your mental state to terrifying tales of meaningless existence. Which pretty much sums up the time we’re living in, I suppose.
Fiction
Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Meditations for Mortals is Oliver Burkeman’s follow-up to the powerful book Four Thousand Weeks and is just as life-changing as that modern classic.
Meditations is structured as a four-week mental retreat with daily instalments on such topics as healthy productivity, scruffy hospitality and self-compassion. Like Four Thousand Weeks, its core lessons are about being really present in the moment and reconceptualizing our anxious relationship with productivity and other 21st century demands. Burkeman offers ways to rethink everything from our plans for perfect futures to the to-do lists that dominate so much of our present. One of my favourite takeaways from Meditations is his suggestion to reimagine to-do lists as streams to dip into rather than buckets to empty.
If you’re constantly struggling with anxiety and burnout, then Meditations for Mortals may be the read you need at this moment in your life.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205363955-meditations-for-mortals
Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan Howard
Police officer Daniel Carter retires and becomes a private investigator after a strange and horrific case that results in the suicide of his partner. But his life is turned inside out again when he inherits a bookstore run by Emily Lovecraft, a descendant of HP Lovecraft — yes, that HP Lovecraft.
Things take an even weirder turn when a series of impossible murders take place, and Carter and Lovecraft are drawn into a mystery that rewrites everything we know about our universe and hints that HP Lovecraft wasn’t writing fiction after all.
It’s a dark and eerie new series from Howard, the author of the Johannes Cabal the Necromancer series. But while the Cabal series is blackly comic, Carter and Lovecraft is blackly noir and infinitely more terrifying.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848134-carter-lovecraft
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
If Wishes Were Retail is the charming tale of Alex, a teen who can’t find any other job but working for a genie who has opened a mall kiosk selling wishes to mall-goers. The genie has little understanding of this world and is constantly offended by it, so he requires Alex to act as his guide. Alex hardly has it all together, though, as she is from a dysfunctional and disintegrating family and just wants to get the hell out of town and off to university and a new life. Of course, it’s never that easy when families — or genies — are involved.
If Wishes Were Retail is surprisingly complex under its surface world of laughs and ridiculous situations. There’s a whole subplot involving gnomes that touches on capitalist exploitation and the precariousness of work, as well as the main story’s exploration of family dynamics and community. To say that the genie changes everyone’s lives — including his own — would be an understatement.
I wish there were more books like this!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217535769-if-wishes-were-retail
The Hammer by KJ Parker
Like most KJ Parker works, The Hammer is a dark and witty tale grounded in logistics, engineering, manipulation and clever plots with long payoffs. It follows Gignomai of the met’Oc clan, an exiled noble family living in a distant colony where they are separated from the other colonists by a history of violence. Both groups are also wary of the natives who live farther inland, who appear to believe the colonists aren’t real — until they do and things get ugly.
Gignomai acts as a sort of hub for all the different groups when he exiles himself into the wilderness to build a factory that will allow the colony to gain independence from the homeland. It all seems very rational and simple, but life rarely works out way.
The Hammer is darker than Parker’s other works and takes the reader to an inevitable and horrifying outcome, where Gignomai’s actions turn out to be motivated by vengeance and the world of the colonists and natives alike is forever changed.
The Hammer probably isn’t for everyone. But if you like your fantasy grim, clever and merciless, this may be the read for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8241571-the-hammer
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia impossibly keeps getting better as a writer with each book — which bodes well for readers given she seems to write a book a year. The Bewitching is one of her finest yet — a slow burn of story that combines a multigenerational saga with dark academia infused with witchcraft, folklore, class struggles and even a bit of Lovecraft.
The story is told from three points of view across different ages — Alba, a young woman in 1908 rural Mexico; Beatrice, a graduate student in 1930s New England; and Minerva, a graduate student and dorm warden in the present. Minerva is studying the writing of Beatrice, who wrote a novel about the disappearance of her roommate. The stories of all three become intertwined with a supernatural threat that reaches across the generations.
It’s another masterpiece from Moreno-Garcia that will leave you awake at night — partially because you want more but mostly because you’re keeping an eye on the shadows.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220458657-the-bewitching
Non-fiction
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s New Gothic Novel Is Bewitched, Bothered, and Emboldened
“My great-grandmother told me a story about how her uncle went missing and he was taken away by witches. That was one of the originating stories.
“She also told other stories about witches and what they did and how dangerous they were, how to defend yourself from witches, that sort of stuff.
“Then I went and I looked at some of the folk studies that have been done around witches in different parts of Mexico. I was comparing the knowledge that I had, my own personal family knowledge, to folk tales that I know and seeing how they mapped out. They map out really well—my great-grandmother could have been a folklorist.”
Goodreads interviews Silvia Moreno-Garcia about her new novel, The Bewitching.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/1595.Silvia_Moreno_Garcia
All you leave behind comes with you: On travel, nostalgia and reading Calvino by Thomas Wharton
Thomas Wharton on why he takes a copy of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities with him whenever he travels.
Link: https://thomaswharton.substack.com/p/all-you-leave-behind-comes-with-you
Lovable monsters: The July 2025 Bibliofiles
I recently moved homes in the suburbs of Vancouver, which left me wishing I could trade my body in for something better. This somehow got reflected in my reading choices this month, which were all lovable monsters and suburban nightmares. Or maybe it’s just the times….
Fiction
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
How to describe Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell? Weird horror meets romantasy meets queer love coming of age story meets… well, you get the idea.
There’s a lot going on in the tale of Shesheshen, a shapeshifting monster (think gelatinous cube with bodily agency) who’s being hunted by a family of monster hunters and their minions. There’s a romantasy plot where Shesheshen falls in love with one of the humans but doesn’t quite know how to get around the part where she’s a monster that just wants to lay her eggs in someone. There’s a queer love story, complicated by the whole eggs business and a dash of asexuality. There’s a neurodivergence angle where Shesheshen desperately tries to make sense of the quirks of human society (think Murderbot or even Frankenstein’s creature). There’s enough trauma and abuse from parents to fill an entire YA series. Mix them all up and you have a fun and genuinely unique tale that will have you yearning for a sequel.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182506390-someone-you-can-build-a-nest-in
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik promises to be a reimagining of the Rumplestilskin myth, but it is so much more than that. Set in a vaguely eastern European land at the edge of woods where the mythical and murderous Staryk race dwell, the tale mainly follows three women: Miryem, the daughter of an inept moneylender; Wanda, a peasant girl from a sundered and violent family; and Irina, a noblewoman’s daughter who may hold the key to uniting several realms. It’s a cold, bitter world where treachery and death wait behind every tree and in every home, but these women are determined to rewrite the narratives that have already been foretold for their lives.
Spinning Silver has all the classic elements of a fairy tale — a love story with a brooding king, shapeshifting monsters, a land that is harsh and without mercy — retold for modern audiences. It’s a tale not just of fantastic creatures but also of unyielding defiance in the face of mundane oppression. It’s also a masterclass in storytelling, with its multiple POVs, interweaving narrative threads and deep knowledge of fairy tales and myth.
A word of caution, though: Spinning Silver is a dense and very layered book, so read it when you have the time to give it the attention it deserves.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36896898-spinning-silver
Lost You Again by Ian Rogers
A creepy ghost story with a twist, and then another twist, and another. A truly haunting tale from one of Canada’s finest horror writers.
Link: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/lost-you-again/
Employee of the Month by Alex Irvine
Government employees in a Michigan industrial park try to reconcile their suburban lives with their professional careers as interrogators and torturers. But the lines between the two become increasingly blurred and soon bodies start showing up in the wrong places.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/36/employee-of-the-month-by-alex-irvine
Foreign Tongues by John Wiswell
An alien believes ice cream is the highest form of life on Earth and is determined to free it from its human wardens. Butterscotch mayhem ensues.
Link: https://www.flashfictiononline.com/article/foreign-tongues/
Non-fiction
What if Tom Bombadil had written The Lord of the Rings? by Thomas Wharton
“This was Middle-earth with nobody in it! No Men, no Ringwraiths, no Elves or Dwarves or Orcs, no conflicts or battles or rousing speeches or hobbity wisecracking or escapes in the nick of time. This was just nature. Growth, decay, wind and rain. The Sun rising and going down. The moon coming out. An eagle soaring in the sky. The rivers flowing and the trees swaying in the night. An eerie, wild strain of Illuvatar’s great music of creation.”
Thomas Wharton revisits Lord of the Rings with an eye toward the nature rather than the quest.
Link: https://thomaswharton.substack.com/p/what-if-tom-bombadil-had-written
Why You Can’t Finish Writing That Novel by Thomas Wharton
Are you a writer who needs an outline to figure out the tale before you’ve started? Or do you write to actually figure out the tale? I’m a little of both myself.
Link: https://thomaswharton.substack.com/p/why-you-cant-finish-writing-that
What good is making art at all when the world is on fire? by Paul Vermeersch
“Art makes nothing unthinkable.”
Link: https://theampersandreview.ca/new-page-82
It’s the Natural Thing to Do: A Conversation with Stuart Ross
A great interview with Canadian icon Stuart Ross (also one of my favourite writers!).
Link: https://theampersandreview.ca/new-page-26
Poetry
Turn of the Page by George Murray
If you want to feel old and wise (or maybe just old or wise), here’s a poem for you.
Weird Blood – The March 2025 Bibliofiles
My reading has been a little weird this month — weird westerns, weird SF, weird horror and so on. But hey, it’s a weird time!
Fiction
Blood Rush by Ben Galley
A young Merion Hark is sent to the wild west to live with a mysterious aunt after his father, Prime Lord Hark, is found murdered. Used to a life of luxury and power, Merion is out of his element in the rugged town of Fell Falls, where the railway is being expanded into the territory of those who don’t want it there and strange railwraiths terrorize everyone.
But Merion is not alone. A faerie warrior named Rhin has accompanied him to this new land and watches over him. But Rhin has secrets of his own that follow him to the new world and threaten to unleash chaos upon everyone.
In fact, everyone has secrets in Fell Falls, including Merion’s aunt, who collects the blood of different creatures, and her companion Lurker, who drinks blood to give him mystical powers.
But perhaps no one’s secret is greater than Merion’s, for it turns out he, too, has the ability to gain power from blood, but he is so much more powerful than Lurker or any others. So powerful, in fact, he draws the wrong sort of attenion.
A great start to a very weird west series!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23956571-bloodrush
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Breq, the ancillary that is all that is left of the ship Justice of Toren, is given command of a new ship by the emperor (or one of the emperors anyway, as it’s more or less a bunch of clones) and travels to the distant Athoek Station. The mission puts her in the middle of intrigue, as the station is near a strange Ghost Gate that periodically spits out strange artifacts and is watched over by a military ship that is clearly hiding something, while there’s also an ambassador of the alien Presger aboard the station.
The mission also puts Breq in contact with the family of a soldier she once knew — a soldier that Breq herself killed. Somehow, all of these stories become intertwined, along with a storyline about the a plantation planet and the exploitation of its workers. This isn’t a blasters and battle stations space opera — it’s a political mystery steeped in class struggle. It’s more Jane Austen and Downtown Abbey than Star Wars or the Expanse. It’s an interesting flavour but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20706284-ancillary-sword
10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days by Samantha Mills
“There is a future where a hellgate opens off the coast of California.”
Things get weird and worse after that. An unfortunately timely tale.
Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/10-visions-of-the-future-or-self-care-for-the-end-of-days/
The Vermillion Guestbook by Andrew Zhou
A front desk clerk at an apocalyptic hotel where time makes little sense records notes about ever stranger guests and reveals secrets about his own past. It’s equal parts black comedy, weird SF and tragic romance.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/35/the-vermillion-guestbook-aug-13-1998-by-andrew-zhou
Non-fiction
Transcendence in Horror by Simon Strantzas
“Horror is, of course, about how all love will end, how all lovers will die, how all plans will fail, how nothing will survive; but it can also be about how we deal with adversity and our fears and pains and not just persevere but how we can rise above them and be changed by them.”
Can horror be positive?
Link: https://www.weirdhorrormagazine.com/on-horror-10
Twenty-one Ifs by Thomas Wharton
If your inner voice could have a celebrity cameo for a day, who would you choose to narrate your thoughts? Werner Herzog? Margot Kidder? James Earl Jones? How might this guest voice change your behaviour and decisions?
If your anxieties had a customer service phone line, what would be their “please hold” music?
If every ordinary object had a hidden purpose completely unrelated to its usual function, what would be the most mind-boggling hidden purpose you could imagine for your toothbrush? Your favourite hat? That cracked slab of sidewalk down the street from your place?
If you could live inside a painting or work of art for a day, which painting or artwork would it be?
And so on.
Link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-158612818
A Weak and Misshapen Industry by Kenneth Whyte
Do Canadian publishers need to be more like U.S. and U.K. publishers? I think the emphasis on every cultural field turning more commercial is deeply misguided, but there are some interesting points here nevertheless — especially about how publishers embracing niches.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/a-weak-and-misshapen-industry
The Science of Fantasy: Respecting the Ecosystem by Kristi Charish
A great new column by Kristi Charish, author and science PhD, on what fantasy creatures would really be like in real life. First up, the charming fairy — which would likely be much less charming in reality!
Link: https://www.kristicharish.com/news/2025/3/8/the-science-of-fantasy-respecting-the-ecosystem
Productive Goblins – The December 2024 Bibliofiles edition
I went on a bit of a Christopher Buehlman binge in December, reading The Daughters’ War and then re-reading The Blacktongue Thief to compare them. Each of them is a brilliant read, as is Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup. I hope you like the books in this edition of the Bibliofiles as much as I did.
Fiction
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
The thief Kinch finds himself sent on a mission by the Takers Guild to accompany Galva, a hardened veteran of the Goblin Wars, to a distant city that has been attacked by giants to… well, he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do there. But he knows better than to cross the Takers Guild, which seems to have its hands in everything behind the scenes.
What follows is a crazed and absolutely fantastic adventure where they make their way across a most hostile land, encountering monstrous goblins, strange magicians, a very cunning kraken, and a very peculiar blind cat. Kinch falls in love with a young witch and tries to redeem his troubled past, but nothing is what it seems in this book.
And the storytelling, oh gods, the storytelling! It’s equally dramatic, horrifying and comic, as Buehlman always hits the right notes to keep the reader reading on. Kinch is one of the best narrators to ever tell a fantasy tale, and this tale is as original as it is inventive on every single page. Every character has a great backstory and wonderful arc, the magic is weird and captivating, the action scenes are unpredictable and real, and you never know where the story will take you next.
The Blacktongue Thief is one of the best fantasy books to ever grace the genre. I can’t wait to read whatever comes next from Buehlman.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077697
The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buhelman
Goblins. Guts. Glory.
The prequel to Christopher Buehlman’s absolutely magical The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughters’ War is set in the Goblin Wars that form the background of the first Blacktongue book. The Daughters’ War follows the warrior Galva from The Blacktongue Thief through the bloody conflict that nearly ended humanity at the hooked claws of the goblins. It’s a very different book, however, as it falls more into grimdark or even horror fantasy than the fantasy caper of The Blacktongue Thief. Perhaps that’s fitting for a book about humanity’s desperate struggle against a race of hungry goblins that want nothing more than to enslave and eat them.
As different as it is, though, The Daughters’ War is another brilliant read from Buehlman, who has quickly become the envy of every other writer in the field. His invention of the war corvids used to fight the goblins — fierce giant birds created through dark magic — is one of the best additions to the fantasy genre in decades. And this is the best invocation of the horrors of war since Joe Abercrombie’s Heroes. As the army of Galva and her fellow dams — female warriors as the goblins have killed most of the men — move through ravaged cities and witness the devastation of the goblin hordes, the tension grows and grows until the inevitable battle. This is no Tolkien fantasy where a handful of noble hearts prevail against the horde, though. It’s war at its ugliest and most brutal, and sometimes the good guys — or good dams — don’t win. An absolute masterpiece of the genre.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790571-the-daughters-war
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Sherlock Holmes detective stories meet fantasy in this tale of murder, contagion and leviathans. The Sherlock Holmes part is played by the quirky Ana, an intellectual who doesn’t leave her quarters if she can help it and instead lets her assistant Din do all the legwork for her. Din, the narrator, is an engraver, which means he can remember everything he encounters, even if he doesn’t understand it. The two are one of the most memorable pairings in fantasy fiction since Frodo and Sam. Or maybe Frodo and Gollum….
Ana and Din are brought in to solve the mysterious death of a military officer in a mansion where he doesn’t belong, after a plant has erupted from his body and torn him apart. It turns out he is not the only one to suffer such an affliction, and the deaths lead to a breach in a fortification that keeps the strange and deadly leviathans out of the land. Their investigation takes them deep into the intrigues of the empire, and the murder mystery also becomes a political thriller and class critique, with a touch of horror thrown in.
The Tainted Cup is an incredibly layered tale, where every detail is memorable — and every detail matters. It’s one of the smartest and most intriguing fantasy books ever written. I’m looking forward to following all the future adventures of Ana and Din!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150247395-the-tainted-cup
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
What happens when Dread Lord Gavrax wakes in his castle/lair/laboratory with no memories of who he is but with an army of goblins at his disposal, an untrustworthy second-in-command, a captured princess in the dungeon, a village full of frightened servants and a group of other dark wizards that want him to take part in a ritual to summon something even worse than them? You get a fun, cozy fantasy that keeps you guessing while never taking itself too seriously.
Dreadful is a perfect read for these troubled times. The only real drawback is you’ll likely finish it too quickly and leave yourself wanting more.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63051209-dreadful
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
Are you suffering from burnout or overwhelm? Struggling to be productive in a world where pseudo-productivity seems to be the only thing that matters? (You know, looking busy rather than producing actual meaningful work.) Maybe you need to embrace slow productivity instead.
Newport looks at a handful of historical and contemporary figures to reveal their secrets to getting things done — Jane Austen, Steve Jobs, even Jewel. It all boils down to carving out periods of intense focus by eliminating distractions and other demands on your time. In short, focus on quality rather than quantity.
Of course, this is easier said than done depending on how you are trying to apply this to your life. There are a few strategies suggested here, but overall it’s more of a philosophical approach than it is a how-to guide. Newport presents the big picture of how much focus matters and then leaves it to the reader to determine how to change their lives to create a more focused approach to their projects that matter.
It’s not exactly new material — Newport has covered much of this ground before in his other books, particularly in Deep Work. But if you’re a fan of his work or you’re looking for ways out of the overwhelm cycle, then Slow Productivity should be on your reading list.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197773418-slow-productivity
Grey work – The October 2024 Bibliofiles edition
Killer angels, 1950s Hollywood intrigue, the power of deep work, haunted pirate ships and more. Check out my recommended reads from the past month!
Fiction
The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Two women vie for the same starring role and the same lovers in a 1950s swords and sandal Hollywood production. The Seventh Veil is a complex dark romance that turns its camera lens on issues of race, gender and socioeconomic status, all while building to an inevitable clash. Rich with intrigue and historical detail, it’s one of Moreno-Garcia’s best books yet.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199927990-the-seventh-veil-of-salome
Genre Fiction
Grey by Ian Rogers
The last human soul has been stolen, which means the end of humanity is near. The angels seem powerless to do anything about it. So who do you turn to when the angels aren’t up to the job? Grey, a dangerous soul caught in Limbo somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Think John Wick pulled into a battle between God and the Devil, and you’ll have an idea where this novella will take you.
Link: https://www.ian-rogers.com/grey/
. . .
Hunt for the Grey Lady by Chris Willrich
I’m always delighted to see a new Chris Willrich tale, and “To Hunt the Grey Lady” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies is no exception. An enchanting story of a pirate captain’s attempt to capture the elusive ship Grey Lady, it features magic sea battles, enigmatic krakens, a sentient ship or two, some very complicated relationships and utterly fantastic prose. I read this one in pretty much one sitting but it’s so rich and layered that I can’t wait to read it again.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/to-hunt-the-grey-lady/
. . .
Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachel K. Jones
Only 600 words or so, but what a payoff.
Link: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/five-views-of-the-planet-tartarus/
. . .
Nine Tenths of the Law by KJ Parker
KJ Parker is one of my favourite living fantasy writers because his tales are so unlike any other fantasy stories out there. They often feature unlikely protagonists — clerks, engineers, battlefield salvage experts and the like — and are less traditional three-act structure and more elaborate twists and double-crosses, followed by more twists. “Nine Tenths of the Law” is no different and stars a lawyer possessed by a demon who helps possess others so they can carry out various crimes. What happens when one of his clients double-crosses him? Ah, well, that’s why you’ll want to read the story.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/nine-tenths-of-the-law/
. . .
Unfinished Basement by A.R. Capetta
In a housing market where every place is haunted by ghosts, what happens when a couple move into a home that has ghosts but is somehow worse? A delightfully weird and unsettling story by A. R. Capetta.
Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/unfinished-basement
Non-fiction
Deep Work by Cal Newport
We live in a world of constant interruption and distraction — emails, status notifications, TikTok trends, news alerts, you name it. Is it any wonder then that we’re all perpetually stressed and feeling as if we can never catch up on all our work? So what’s the antidote? Newport argues it’s deep work – finding ways to turn off all those distractions and focus deeply on one thing at a time. It’s the only way to do something meaningful, Newport suggests, and our only true path to fulfillment in a world that fragments our attention so ruthlessly that we often lose our very sense of self.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work
. . .
The Jack David Master Class: What it Takes to Survive Fifty Years as an Independent Bookseller
Canadian publishing: A house of cards where banks call in loans at the worst times, distributors collapse, printers print books on promises to pay — and a single title can mean the difference between bankruptcy or living to publish for another season.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/the-jack-david-master-class
. . .
Live Like an Artist – The Why by Shawna Lemay
“In the end though, it always come back to the why. If you can make delight the why of your art making process, if you can delight in the work of it, this helps make everything make sense. If you can remember that you get to do this, in whatever slivers of time you’ve made work for yourself, that helps. If you can remember that this is what makes a good life, a rich life, this helps. If you can go on being curious and delighting in these things you make, and create a few sparks and delight others, that’s a bit of gravy, isn’t it?”
Link: http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/thewhy
. . .
Against Rereading by Oscar Schwartz
As a lifelong rereader, I am offended by the very existence of this essay. So much so that I read it twice.
Link: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/09/04/against-rereading
Making CanLit a little more CanFantastic
Space vampires, murderous monks, Vancouver valkyries, zombie actors and aboriginal superheroes? This isn’t Susanna Moodie’s CanLit.
I’ve published a roundup of Canadian writers that have taken CanLit into CanFantastic territory over at the Wolsak and Wynn blog. Give it a read and share it with those you think may be interested. And suggest your own additions to the list! I’m always looking for new CanLit reads, so I’d appreciate any tips.
Thanks for reading!
– Peter
Welcome to the chaos machine – Bibliofiles August 2024
Murderous monks, creepy suburbia, giant brains, social media chaos machines — this month’s Bibliofiles of my latest reads is as weird and fantastic as it gets! Let me know if you have any tips about what I should read next.
Literary fiction
Satellite Image by Michelle Berry
A city couple move to a small town after one of them is assaulted, hoping for a quieter and safer life. But small towns have their own secrets, and the couple is soon haunted by a satellite image of a potential body in their yard and strange incidents happening within the home, to say nothing of a cast of curious neighbours. It’s a psychological thriller that cranks up the tension with each chapter. You’ll be checking the locks over and over on your own home during your sleepless nights after finishing this book.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214982605-satellite-image?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_15
Genre Fiction
Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K.J. Parker
Saevus Corax makes a living scavenging the dead of battlefields with a band of not-so-merry men and business is good. As it turns out, Corax is using his job to hide the fact he killed off his former self, but his past just won’t stay dead and soon he is forced to leave the battlefields for even more dangerous realms. It’s classic Parker, with smart and double-crossing antiheroes and enough twists and turns to throw out your back. Better buy the full series so you have something to read while you rest.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61030541-saevus-corax-deals-with-the-dead
Crucible of Chaos by Sebastien de Castell
The clever and wisecracking Greatcoat Estevar Borros arrives at an ancient abbey where the monks have gone mad, demons run amok and the dead gods may not be as dead as everyone thinks. This may be my favourite Greatcoats novel yet by de Castell.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197664774-crucible-of-chaos?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_17
Across the Street by Greg Van Eekhout
An office drone decides to try a new route on his lunch excursions and finds himself in a strange version of our reality – a pet shop with a dragon, a meat shop with human corpses, a manhole with a mysterious creature, a church with actual angels and more. A wonderfully bizarre daydream that will speak to all of us who spend in our days in cube farms.
Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/across-the-street/
Median by Kelly Robson
A care aide provider in a broken-down car on the highway starts getting emergency calls from people who need help – but she doesn’t know any of them. When she stumbles upon a different and fatal accident, as well as a three-headed dog, things get weird. Another delightfully strange story from Kelly Robson.
Link: https://reactormag.com/median-kelly-robson/
“Gold, Glory, and the McCorry Boys” by Christopher O’Halloran
The best lyrical weird western heist father-son zombie story I’ve read this year.
Link: https://kaleidotrope.net/summer-2024/gold-glory-and-the-mccorry-boys-by-christopher-ohalloran/
“How to Kill the Giant Living Brain You Found in Your Mother’s Basement After She Died: An Interactive Guide” by Alex Sobel
A fun little story about mother-daughter relationships, emotional baggage, and of course giant living brains in basements.
Nine Recordings of Grief by by Zachariah Claypole White
When the world ends, it probably won’t be with zombies or supernovas or alien invasions or something we understand. It’ll likely end with something weird and incomprehensible, something we simply can’t fathom. If an enigmatic apocalypse appeals to you, then I think you’ll like “Nine Recordings of Grief.”
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/nine-recordings-of-grief-by-zachariah-claypole-white
Non-fiction
The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher
Why did Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms transform over time from hubs of connection to engines of radicalization and misinformation? The easy answer, as always, is to blame it on the algorithm. But how does code lead to conflict? The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher is an informative but chilling look inside the social media networks to reveal how they turn user feeds into echo chambers of infectious content designed to outrage and mobilize — but most of all to increase clicks/views. Nothing drives engagement like ragebait, after all.
But the algorithm is just code created by workers in shiny tech campuses, so it should be easy to correct this problem, right?
This is where Fisher reveals the more disturbing issue underlying the problem with the social media networks: there’s money to be made in chaos. The Chaos Machine provides example after example of Facebook and YouTube insiders coming up with ways to stop their platforms from encouraging murder, genocide and civil war, only to be overruled by leaders who would rather maximize profits than minimize the death and destruction caused by their products. The end result of this is the world we now live in.
The Chaos Machine should be required reading for anyone who uses social media, no matter what your political ideology, for it reveals how we’re all being manipulated to enrich the lives of a handful of tech barons. We’re not just the audience in the attention economy or even the product. We’re also the victims.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58950736-the-chaos-machine
Why are debut novels failing to launch?
There was a time when a young writer could publish their first book and have a chance at success on the writing alone. Do you have to be a social media influencer to have a shot at a writing career now?
Link: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a60924704/debut-fiction-challenges/
The Bibliofiles – June 2024
I’ve been riding the train a lot lately, which has given me more time to read. I leaned a bit toward non-fiction in June, but I did manage to read some pretty stellar fiction as well — and interstellar fiction! And whatever the hell Total Party Kill is….
Check out my latest recommended reads below. I hope you like them as much as I did.
Genre Fiction
The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud
I think The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud may be the best space western weird horror literary novel I’ve ever read. The tale of teen Annabelle venturing into the Martian wastelands to recover a recording of her missing mother after it was stolen in a robbery, it’s got quirky robot sidekicks, desperate and doomed settlers, outlaw societies, eerie ghosts, and hidden treasure that is as dangerous as it is alluring. A truly mad and visionary work from Ballingrud, as always.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61272810-the-strange
“In Bludd” by Jeffrey Ford
“In Bludd” is as if Raymond Carver’s stories had been written in a demonology tome. It’s a suburban dystopia of sorts, with the usual lost love and lonely souls. Only here one of the lonely souls is Hartly, who spies on his lost love, Verbena, in her house by means of a monstrous servant named Abelard (who has his own sad suburban back story). There’s a gun, a dangerous ex-husband, and ample amounts of alcohol, but the story is more emotional twists and turns than action tale. (Truth be told, it feels as if Harold Pinter snuck into one of the drafts and started moving things around.) I’m new to Ford, but he’s quickly become one of my favourite writers because of the way he turns our world inside out to reveal its weird, alien insides.
Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/in-bludd
“Shepherd Not Sheep” by Simon Strantzas
What happens when trolls maybe move in under some bridges of a strange town and children begin to disappear? Well, lots of council meetings, of course. And suspicion and conspiracy theories. And a curious encounter with one of those trolls. If you like weird lit, it doesn’t get much weirder than “Shepherd Not Sheep” by Simon Strantzas.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/32/shepherd-not-sheep-by-simon-strantzas
“Sever and Bind” by Amanda Helms
A beautifully eerie tale of a young witch, her scheming mother, the Lord of the Dusklands, dead gods and a ghost dog. To say more would be to say too much. Just go and read it.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/sever-and-bind/
“A Magician Did It” by Rich Larson
An absolutely enchanting tale about a couple of petty crooks hired by a mage’s cockroach familiar to break the mage out of a prison for magicians. Of course, nothing is what it seems when dealing with magicians — including the prison, the guards, the mage and even the job itself. Magical!
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-magician-did-it/
Non-fiction
Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger
Does someone in your life have you “walking on eggshells” because of their volatile behaviour? If they lack emotional regulation, are disassociated from reality, see the world through feelings rather than facts, are estranged from most of their former friends and family, have substance use issues, engage in risky sexual behaviour, and fly into a rage over inconsequential things, then you may be dealing with someone who has borderline personality disorder (BPD). If your personal situation is hitting more than a few of the checkboxes here, then you’ll likely want to read Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger to educate yourself about BPD and learn how to navigate this confusing and often frightening scenario.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/188013.Stop_Walking_on_Eggshells
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport lays out the challenge faced by all of us in the attention economy: how do we have a healthy relationship with technology that is increasingly designed to hijack our minds to keep us glued to apps? The answer is not to stop using technology — who can really manage that, after all? — but to be more intentional and focused in our use of tech. That involves taking a digital detox in order to figure out which devices and services you actually need, then using them in a mindful and deliberate fashion to serve those needs (when too often we serve the needs of the tech companies). In other words, use the apps and don’t let them use you. Ideally, the resulting transformation should allow you to use tech effectively and efficiently, giving you more time to be present in the real world and your own life. Digital Minimalism should be required reading for everyone that owns a phone or has ever logged into social media.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism
Apples on a Windowsill by Shawna Lemay
A collection of beautiful and thoughtful essays from one of my favourite writers, Shawna Lemay — who is also the publisher of Transactions With Beauty. The essays in Apples on a Windowsill cover topics such as still lifes, Springsteen, creativity, marriage, photography and so much more. The subjects are all deeply personal to Lemay but at the same time thoughtful meditations on art – process, history, motivation and even technique. Lemay’s writing is so powerful and transcendent that you’ll find your own life reflected in these essays over and over again — I feel like I’m sitting at the kitchen table with her or walking the streets of Venice with her and her husband (the incredibly talented artist Rob Lemay). A warning, though: read each essay slowly as they are like sinking into a warm bath made of words. Savour the moment.
Link: http://www.shawnalemay.net/applesonawindowsill
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
Do you choose to be happy no matter the circumstances or do you wait for something external to make you happy (a lover, a good job, a lottery win)? If it’s the former, you are operating at an advantage over most people. If it’s the latter, then you should probably read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. The book has echoes of Stoicism, in that it says you can’t control the world but you can control how you react to it, and you should always be trying to find ways to be grateful, positive and optimistic no matter what your circumstances. According to Achor, happiness really is an advantage — we perform better in every aspect of life when we are happy, we have more friends (and a strong social network boosts your happiness in a nice feedback loop), we are more motivated and resilient, we are better at problem solving and more creative, and so on. Meanwhile, those who wait for happiness to come to them tend to be more stressed, more likely to be lonely or have anxiety, less productive and motivated, and stuck in a fixed mindset vs. the growth mindset of happiness.
The book isn’t just observations, though. Achor also has some tips on how we can learn to embrace happiness: see the opportunity in setbacks and learn from defeat, focus on changing the world in a small circle around you and then gradually expand that circle, learn how to decatastrophize, embrace “active leisure” where you must participate (games, sports) over mindlessly doomscrolling social media or binge watching Netflix, increase your social connections, and work to make those around you happy to better the mood and ability of everyone.
In short, choose happiness and you will indeed be happy.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9484114-the-happiness-advantage
“More reading, more books”
Read more, just read more. It’s good for your soul of whatever you want to call your inner self.
Link: http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/morereadingmorebooks
“This Business Is Crazy”
Did you know that more than half of all books published sell less than a thousand copies? You may have thought publishing was a crazy business before, but you’ll really think it’s crazy after reading this SHuSH post.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/this-business-is-crazy
Poetry?
Total Party Kill by Craig Francis Power
I don’t even know how to describe Total Party Kill by Craig Francis Power. The cover says “poems” but it’s more a collection of dungeon crawls through the soul. Total Party Kill fuses Dungeons & Dragons adventures with addiction memoir with trauma chronicle with pop culture fever dream and the result is as brilliant as it is indescribable. A natural 20 of artistic accomplishment.
peter darbyshire 