Blog Archives
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.
The Butcher of Tariffs – The April 2025 Bibliofiles
We just had a rather significant election in Canada, so I’ve been reading a bit more about tariffs and publishing woes. But I did also manage to find time to read Robert Jackson Bennett’s second book in the Din and Ana series, which takes things to a new level of creepy yet beautiful horror — which also applies to Premee Mohamed’s Butcher of the Forest. I also read KJ Aiello’s The Monster in the Mirror, which looks at the construction of mental illness in fantasy and science fiction — timely given our Instagram Live together!
I hope you check out some of these reads and enjoy them as much as I did.
Fiction
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
Veris is a survivor. She’s managed to keep herself alive under the rule of the merciless Tyrant, who has taken over her land and killed many of its residents. She’s also the only one to have entered the mysterious forest known as the Elmever and come back out alive. But when the Tyrant’s children go missing in the Elmever, he turns to Veris to rescue them. It’s certain death to go into those woods a second time. But it’s also certain death to fail the Tyrant. So Veris has no choice but to venture into the Elmever once more in search of the children.
The Butcher of the Forest is an eerie story that captures the spirit of fairy tales but leaves behind all the trappings meant for children. It’s as if the Brothers Grimm met up with Alice in Wonderland in a cosmic horror story. Haunting, weird and beautiful.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127281143-the-butcher-of-the-forest
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
The charming detective pair of Din and Ana are back to solve a new mystery in A Drop of Corruption, the second in one of the best fantasy series I’ve read in ages. Din is an engraver, a sort of enhanced human who has the ability to memorize pretty much anything. He’s the field agent for Ana, a Holmes-like detective who is as brilliant as she is eccentric. Together they are sent to Yarrowdale, a kingdom on the edge of the empire where fallen Titans are dismantled for the magical blood that helps to power the empire. An officer of the empire has disappeared into thin air and only Ana and Din can solve the mystery. But things quickly grow complicated when they realize the disappearance is related to a string of murders, and the killer is a mad genius who moves between the kingdom and the wild lands at its borders, spreading a strange sort of contagion that threatens everything.
A Drop of Corruption is a riveting followup to the first book in the series, A Tainted Cup. It’s the sleuthing mysteries of Sherlock Holmes meeting the biohorror and weirdness of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, with the political intrigue that Bennett is known for. I can’t wait to read the next book!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213618143-a-drop-of-corruption
Idle, Inc. by Benjamin Parzybok
A customer support representative at a tech startup that sells free time to people discovers exactly where that time comes from and at what cost. Another delightfully bizarre story from Bourbon Penn.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/35/idle-inc-by-benjamin-parzybok
Labbatu Takes Command of the Flagship Heaven Dwells Within by Arkday Martine
Sci-fi space pirate smut!
Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/labbatu-takes-command-of-the-flagship
Non-fiction
Values by Mark Carney
Wherever you stand on Canadian politics, it’s probably worth reading Value(s) by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who was also a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada. It’s an informative history of how we have determined value and shaped financial systems over the ages, with a disquieting move from market economies to market societies. Carney suggests we need to realign our values so they’re not just about financial worth and profitability. It’s hard to argue against that in the age of Trump and tariffs.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54503528-value-s
The Monster and the Mirror by KJ Aiello
Part memoir, part analysis of mental illness in the fantasy genre, The Monster and the Mirror is a unique and powerful book that defies categorization. It’s also a necessary call for us to reimagine how we approach mental illness, from the health care system to the media in all its forms. A timely and important read.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211765623-the-monster-and-the-mirror
Bookish and World Woes by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia reflects on the Canada-U.S. tensions and how things will likely be dire this coming year and beyond for writers, publishers and bookstores. This really is a time for everyone to support their communities.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bookish-and-woes-124982811
The Science of Romance: Young, in Love, and Enthralled by Biochem by Kristi Charish
Kristi Charish writes about living beside wetlands, which means every spring she witnesses a practical orgy among wildlife and teenagers. It’s sexy material for another column about the science of writing and how to use real-world science to flesh out your tales.
Could Tariffs Collapse Canadian Publishing? by Wolsak and Wynn
Most of the books sold in Canada come from the U.S. The multinationals that dominate Canadian publishing spend fortunes on marketing campaigns that independent Canadian publishers cannot compete with, which tilts demand toward U.S. books. So what’s to be done? Support those indie presses that are genuinely Canadian.
Link: https://www.wolsakandwynn.ca/blog/2025/03/27/could-tariffs-collapse-canadian-publishing
The America I Loved Is Gone by Stephen Marche
“Canada is a country that disillusions you. America is one illusion after another, some magnificent, others treacherous or vicious.”
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/20/american-dream-trump-canada
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
Rituals, Hope and Ancillaries: The February 2025 Bibliofiles Edition
My reading list was varied this month. I finally finished Nick Cave’s Faith, Hope and Carnage, which I’ve been reading slowly over the course of several months. It’s the sort of book that needs you to take your time with it. The same goes for Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals. And I finally got around to reading Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice after all these years! Thanks, book club!
Fiction
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Breq is a soldier on a mission of vengeance on a frozen planet at the edges of the Radch, the galactic empire that has conquered much of the galaxy.
Breq is also one of many ancillaries — victims of the empire that have had their minds wiped and been replaced with a collective artificial intelligence that is Justice of Toren, the ship the ancillaries serve.
Only Justice of Toren has been destroyed and Breq is the last ancillary.
Ancillary Justice is not only a stunning first novel, it’s also an instant sci-fi classic. The book mixes history, politics, class, tech and philosophy — and throws in some action as a bonus!
Largely told in two storylines, it’s initially confusing as we see Breq in the present contrasted with the multiple POVs of countless ancillaries in the past. There are wonderful scenes in the past in which the narrative POV bounces from one ancillary to another and even the ship itself, telling part of a larger story. The scenes set in the present are a compelling counterpoint to these scenes, where we are confined to the POV of the surviving ancillary, who has much more agency and is driven to get payback for what happened to her ship.
The storylines begin to fuse together seamlessly as the book goes on, until readers are caught in a tale of political intrigue and covert warfare that leads Breq all the way to the head of the empire — or heads, in this case, as it is run by a cabal of clones that have their own agendas.
This is not your standard space opera with big ship battles and heroics. Instead, it’s an interrogation of humanity itself and thus one of the most compelling sci-works in ages.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324-ancillary-justice
World War Jake by Brad Dehnert
Jake works for an alphabet agency (think CIA but more tech) helping to edit the world order through use of misinformation and AI bots. When his work to install a Russian puppet goes wrong, Jake has to figure out a way to undo the nightmare he has created. A clever and timely look into how AI and disinfo is changing our world.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227005603-world-war-jake
Non-fiction
Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan
I’ve long been a fan of the musician Nick Cave because, well, he’s Nick Cave. If you like your music dark, with blends of twisted romance/lust, poetic songwriting, biblical and literary themes, sheer irreverence and gospel meets rock meets punk, then Nick Cave is your musical fallen angel.
But I never really expected Cave to also become a sort of modern-day prophet of uncertain, contingent faith and perhaps the most important philosopher of grief alive today.
Faith, Hope and Carnage is a must-read for any fan of Cave, but it’s also an important read for anyone concerned with spirituality in our troubled age, the role of music in an increasingly sterile society, the mysteries of artistic creation, how to grieve and live at the same time — and how all of these things come together.
The book chronicles a series of phone conversations between Cave and journalist Sean O’Hagan to record some of Cave’s thoughts on life. Much of it focuses on the tragic loss of Cave’s son Arthur, and his ghost very much haunts these conversations. How does one cope with such an event? In Cave’s case, he turned even more to music and spirituality.
“Things happen in your life, terrible things, great obliterating events, where the need for spiritual consolation can be immense, and your sense of what is rational is less coherent and can suddenly find itself on very shaky ground,” he says. “We are supposed to put our faith in the rational world, yet when the world stops making sense, perhaps your need for some greater meaning can override reason. And, in fact, it can suddenly seem the least interesting, most predictable and least rewarding aspect of your self. That is my experience, anyway. I think of late I’ve grown increasingly impatient with my own scepticism; it feels obtuse and counter-productive, something that’s simply standing in the way of a better-lived life.”
In his interrogations of spirituality, Cave has parallels with poet Christian Wiman’s meditative essays collected in My Bright Abyss. Both seem to share a sensibility that rejects any concrete truisms about spirituality while embracing the impulse toward it.
“Maybe the search is the religious experience,” Cave says in an echo of Wiman. “The desire to believe and the longing for meaning, the moving towards the ineffable. Maybe that is what is essentially important, despite the absurdity of it. Or, indeed, because of the absurdity of it. When it comes down to it, maybe faith is just a decision like any other. And perhaps God is the search itself.”
Cave sees a similar wonder in artistic creation: “You have to operate, at least some of the time, in the world of mystery, beneath that great and terrifying cloud of artistic unknowing. The creative impulse, to me, is a form of bafflement, and often feels dissonant and unsettling. It chips away at your own cherished truths about things, pushes against your own sense of what is acceptable.”
And then there are the conversations on grief, which connect many of the strands of the book and are sure to offer something deeply personal to every reader. “In grief, you become deeply acquainted with the idea of human mortality,” Cave says. “You go to a very dark place and experience the extremities of your own pain – you are taken to the very limits of suffering. As far as I can see, there is a transformative aspect to this place of suffering. We are essentially altered or remade by it. Now, this process is terrifying, but in time you return to the world with some kind of knowledge that has something to do with our vulnerability as participants in this human drama. Everything seems so fragile and precious and heightened, and the world and the people in it seem so endangered, and yet so beautiful. To me it feels that, in this dark place, the idea of a God feels more present or maybe more essential. It actually feels like grief and God are somehow intertwined. It feels that, in grief, you draw closer to the veil that separates this world from the next.”
I couldn’t help but think as I read these conversations that Cave has become as much a sort of prophet as a musician — a prophet of creativity, a prophet of spirituality, a prophet of grief. The church of Nick Cave is a church that more of us should attend.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59851730-faith-hope-and-carnage
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals gives a glimpse into the working habits of pretty much any historical creator you can think of. Franz Kafka, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens — if you can name them they’re probably in this book. There are many interesting insights into these creators collected here — and many anecdotes of sheer eccentricity! For instance, Currey describes Jonathan Franzen writing while wearing earplugs, earmuffs and a blindfold and Ayn Rand as going on writing binges fuelled by Benezdrine. (Substance abuse is a common theme among artists found in the collection.)
If you’re looking for tips to help you develop your own rituals, however, Daily Rituals will be of limited use. Often the creators featured here tend to be driven by some psychological quirk, addiction or even madness — hardly something to cultivate. Many others are able to lead a life of creativity because of family wealth — more desirable than madness, perhaps, but also more difficult to cultivate. The book is more interesting as a collection of trivia than a how-to guide.
If you’re curious about the lives of famous artists, though, Daily Rituals is worth the read. Think of it as a Lifestyles of the Eccentric and Famous.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15799151-daily-rituals
Poetry
Northerny by Dawn Macdonald
I was delighted to read Northerny by poet Dawn Macdonald because I was in the same writing group with her back in my university days. Dawn has always been one of the most unique souls I’ve ever met, and I urge all poetry lovers to read her book. It’s part examination of myths of the north, part memoir, all genius.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/183935565-northerny
See also Dawn’s interview with poet rob mclennan about publishing her book in the midst of chaos, both cultural and personal: http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2024/06/12-or-20-second-series-questions-with_0623544362.html
Weird Fantasy – The January 2025 Bibliofiles edition
I leaned toward fantasy reads this month — the weirder the better. And there were some real weird reads in this edition of the Bibliofiles.
Fiction
Sycamore by Ian Rogers
I’ve always loved Ian Rogers’ tales of The Black Lands, an eerie and deadly realm that intersects with our own and provides PI Felix Renn with supernatural creatures to investigate. So I was delighted to read Sycamore, which follows Renn to small-town Ontario and a mystery involving a string of murders, a missing man, a mysterious librarian, an eerie child — and a hidden portal to the Black Lands. Weird lit at its finest. You’ll be afraid of the dark all over again.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220978924-sycamore
We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle
What happens when the bad guys win in a fantasy novel and take over the world? The resistance fights back, of course. This is the premise of We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle. The land of Jia is overrun by the Egril hordes, which have united under a mysterious leader with powerful magic. Jia falls instantly to the Egril forces, which rule the land through a puppet government. But not everyone is willing to accept their rule. Brutal, bloody and action-packed, this is a nice twist of the blade for the fantasy genre.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42602296-we-are-the-dead
Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch
A well-meaning but increasingly monstrous kaiju goes head to head with politicians in this blackly comic and delightful tale.
Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/kaiju-agonistes/
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett presents one of the most original worlds to ever hit the fantasy genre. The city of Tevanne is ruled by merchant houses that use a hybrid of magic and technology to maintain their power and live a near godlike existence. The entire society is built upon the practice of scriving — altering reality by inscribing objects with enchanted sigils to convince them to act in ways contrary to their nature. Scrived pieces of wood can be hard as stone, swords can hit much harder than they should be capable of, lights can burn forever and so on.
The only problem is no one truly understands how it works. The technology comes from an ancient race long gone who had attained the power of godhood, and the people of Tevanne are trying to understand it as they slowly piece the remains together.
But Foundryside is not just an impressive piece of worldbuilding. It’s also a clever heist tale, as the thief Sancia steals an artifact that turns out to be from that ancient race — and is itself sentient. Sancia is a unique character herself, as she is a scrived human being that can essentially hear the thoughts of inanimate objects — the result of unthinkable experiments by the rulers of Tevanne.
It’s also very much a political novel as it depicts deep divides between the wealthy and the poor, between those who aspire to godhood and those who are trapped in the worst gutters of humanity. There are more than a few parallels to our own society here.
There’s even a philosophical element, as Foundryside explores what is to be human — and what it is to be a god. And there’s an interesting angle in our AI age of what it means to be a sentient object.
All of these things come together over the course of the book, as the secrets of the dead race are discovered and the story shifts from being a clever fantasy novel to a near existential horror. If you’re looking for a truly different reading experience unlike anything else in the genre, then Foundryside is the book for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant by Jeffery Ford
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant is one of the weirdest and best collections I’ve ever experienced. Humans on a strange planet dress as old movie stars for celebrity-obsessed aliens. An interviewer has tea with a very odd Jules Verne. A writer obsessed with a mysterious Kafka story finds himself at odds with the writer Jeffrey Ford. And many more tales straight out of Twilight Zone episodes written by Borges.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39748.The_Fantasy_Writer_s_Assistant_and_Other_Stories
The Wish Doctor by Arlen Feldman
A charming tale about an expert in contracts for binding djinn who finds himself summoned to the royal palace to study the most important contract of his life and find the hidden trap.
Link: https://www.baen.com/wish_doctor
Non-fiction
The Big Five Publishers Have Killed Literary Fiction by Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings
Is consolidation among the big publishers slowly killing off literary fiction? And can the small presses save it?
Link: https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-big-five-publishers-have-killed
New Star Pushed Over the Ledge
The world of CanLit was shocked and puzzled when publisher New Star suddenly announced it was shutting down. Now it seems a dispute with the BC Arts Council may have led to the closure.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/new-star-pushed-over-the-ledge
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
Dark lords, dragons and angels – The Bibliofiles November 2024 edition
November was a light month for reading for me — both in content and quantity. I didn’t read many stories, but I did manage to finish a few books I’ve been wanting to read for some time. It seemed a good month for fantasy and escapism….
Fiction
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
If you’re in the mood for a cozy, fun fantasy with some raunchy elements, then Django Wexler’s How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying may be the book for you. It’s a sort of Groundhog Day meets fantasy novel, in which the heroine Dani has died over and over in trying to defeat the Dark Lord’s forces. At the beginning of the novel she decides she’s had enough and sets out to instead become the Dark Lord in her latest life. She’s remarkably successful, gathering an army of fantastic creatures — orcs and yetis and stone golems and the like. Along the way she has flings with some of her army and confuses pretty much everyone with pop culture references from our world. That last bit may make or break the book for readers, as it seems Dani is somehow from our world, but the circumstances are mysterious and largely unexplained. The plot drives this wannabe Dark Lord toward the Convocation, where she must compete against other contenders for the title of Dark Lord — including some nasty characters that have killed her in past lives. It’s all very light and charming and, best of all, the first book in a Dark Lord series.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198493860-how-to-become-the-dark-lord-and-die-trying
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle
I don’t quite know how to describe I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter Beagle other than to call it charming. It follows the tale of young Robert, a dragon exterminator who is called to the palace to get rid of an infestation of dragons as the king and queen try to marry off the princess Cerise. The princess is uninterested in marrying anyone, until Crown Prince Reginald turns up — although it quickly becomes clear he is uninterested in being a crown prince. Oh, and Robert isn’t exactly happy being a dragon exterminator either. In proper fairy tale fashion they decide Reginald has to hunt down and slay a dragon to prove his valour, and that’s when things start to go awry. They cross paths with larger and meaner dragons as well as a scheming wizard, and everyone’s plans are ruined. It’s a weird little book that falls somewhere between YA and more traditional fantasy, and it’s often more cerebral and philosophical than it is action-packed, but that may not be a bad thing. It’s certainly unlike anything else out there on the genre shelves right now, so if you’re looking for something a little different and you’ve got a thing for dragons, then this may be the book for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798488-i-m-afraid-you-ve-got-dragons
Pulling the Wings Off Angels by KJ Parker
A theological student in a fantasy land owes the local crime boss more than he is able to pay, so the crime boss decides to settle for an angel in return. Not just any angel, though — he wants the one the student’s grandfather kidnapped and locked up in a chapel years ago.
So begins the latest intellectual and philosophical caper by KJ Parker, who is perhaps the smartest fantasy writer in the genre today. To say any more would be to give it all away. Just read it and then go read all of Parker’s other books when you’re done.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807972-pulling-the-wings-off-angels
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark
Eveen the Eviscerator is one of the best assassins of the city of Tal Abisi. She also happens to be undead with little memory of her former life — part of the deal when you work with the assassins guild. She only has a few rules to follow in her profession, chief among them that you always finish the job. And Eveen hasn’t failed yet.
But when she’s contracted to kill a young girl, she finds herself at odds with the guild and winds up on the run while hunted by other assassins who are just as deadly as she is. Her flight becomes a journey into her mysterious past as it turns out Eveen and her intended victim have more than a few things in common.
It’s another delightfully weird tale by P Djeli Clark, full of memorable action scenes and even more memorable characters, scientific experimentation and philosophy straight out of Frankenstein, and more cosmic twists and turns than a Marvel movie. One of the most original voices of our generation!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305606-the-dead-cat-tail-assassins
Things Lost Forever by Auston Habershaw
A creepy yet beautiful tale of a master craftsman who is tasked with making a new throne for a vampire lord, even though it will likely mean his own end. But he is no mere victim. It’s court intrigue meets quiet horror in a dying world, but it breathes fresh life into the vampire genre. One of the best stories I’ve read all year.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/things-lost-forever/
Dragons of Paris by Michael Swanwick
A battle for Paris fought with tanks and artillery and necromancers and giants and dragons — actually, you had me at necromancers. This is the first Mongolian Wizard story I’ve read by Michael Swanwick, but I’ll definitely check out the others after this.
Link: https://reactormag.com/dragons-of-paris-michael-swanwick/
Non-fiction
The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers
Any parent of young boys has probably heard the argument that our school systems are failing boys if they haven’t already experienced this failure directly. Boys tend to perform worse than girls in schools, are more likely to have behavioural difficulties and wind up with IEPs, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and so on. So what is the problem? Is it just boys are wired for failure? Or are modern schools simply not accommodating their nature?
Sommers takes a tour through the education system and highlights the ways in which boys’ physical, mental and emotional differences are ignored, suppressed or outright pathologized, often to the detriment of boys. For instance, Sommers looks at how the rough and tumble play of boys is typically discouraged as aggression rather than a critical component of male socialization that simply needs appropriate guidance, or how male stoicism is cast as a psychological weakness to be addressed rather than a trait to be encouraged.
Sommers looks at alternative models of education where boys are thriving, such as all-boys schools where competition is encouraged and rowdiness is accepted as part of daily life or schools that have a focus on typically male activities such as mechanics and engineering. But these examples are clearly in the minority in today’s world — and Sommers argues they are under threat from those opposed to any form of segregation, formal or otherwise.
While the book does largely identify real problems with how the modern education system handles boys, it does get bogged down in trying to pin the blame on specific feminists that she sees as having anti-male agendas. Sommers does try to make it clear that she is not indicting feminism itself, however, and argues that this matter is much a female issue as a male one for how we raise boys matters to everyone.
So what is to be done? It’s clear that boys and girls learn very differently and have very different needs from the education system, particularly at the younger ages. Yet segregation according to gender is not a practical answer and comes with its own drawbacks that are likely equal to any benefits. But something must be done for it’s clear that schools are failing too many boys. Which raises the question: Are the boys that are succeeding in our schools doing so because of or despite the education system?
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27996.The_War_Against_Boys
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
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/
peter darbyshire 