Audio: Finally getting to The West Passage by Jared Pechaček. Intrigued by the unique world building. Paper: Just finished Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison, which was a lot of fun and a biting social commentary.

Smoke sky, Greater Boston area this evening

Congratulations to all the Hugo Award finalists! Looking forward to diving into the works I haven’t experienced yet. Also, this is where I was when the shortlist was announced this year. Didn’t plan it that way, but it seems appropriate. www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/

Currently reading The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. It’s Physics for Poets, but not in the usual sense of being dumbed down. It’s written using literary, artistic, and musical metaphors that increase accessibility and interest to people who may not usually be drawn to hard science

What type of Artificial General Intelligence would you get extrapolating from the current state of LLMs? I think it would be something like the AI in Awakened by @aeosworth.bsky.social. Also a good read if you want to support a trans author on this particularly miserable day in trans history.

If you enjoyed The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, I highly recommend getting immersed in the dark secrets of the fictitious Warren University in An Arcane Inheritance by @wordsiren.bsky.social

Currently reading The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. A woman is detained indefinitely because the surveillance algorithm predicts future crimes. It’s excellent so far and way too real at the current moment.

I received these, and now I have both the audio and physical versions of We Will Rise Again, which is great because I love it. My husband was bummed I’d already read it (“What?? It just came out like 2 weeks ago!”), but that means he picked something exactly right!

Exhibit way further down the list than A: my Dad, born 1947, an engineer who found his passion in amusement park safety regulation. This was one of the (many) notebooks he kept to track his FreeCell games.

Good morning! Current read: We Will Rise Again, Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope. This is a brand new and timely anthology. Recommended.

You got a much better picture, but my cats didn’t even let the tree get out of the box before they were on it.

Please enjoy my teenager’s charcu-turkey

Lessons in Magic and Disaster is my favorite work by @charliejane.bsky.social so far, and one is my favorite books of the year. The intimate focus on one family and their relationships reminds me of @sarahpinsker.bsky.social’s We are Satellites. The magic in it feels like a real part of our world.

Good morning! I just started Katabasis by R.F. Kuang! I also wanted to shout out a recent read I think would be a good pick for Best Related Work Hugo: Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris. It’s a biography of Octavia E. Butler, and also includes analysis of each of her works.

Currently enjoying Motheater by Linda Codega, a debut novel where a young Virginia woman teams up with a mysterious amnesiac witch to figure out why Appalachian Coal Miners are dying.

Wow, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase is so good and is absolutely gutting me every other scene. I’ve been taking frequent stops to recover.

Currently reading Luminous by Silvia Park, set in a future Korea, reunified after a second war. Society is grappling with the implications of robots who can pass as human, and robotic solutions to human injuries and illnesses. Many interweaving storylines, all fascinating. Loving this one so far!

I read Godkiller by Hannah Kaner this week, and it won my anti-monarchy-in-fantasy-and-reality heart. If you are a feeling a No Kings kind of way today, what’s a book that resonates with that feeling? #BookSky

Good morning! Current fiction: Reread of The Disposessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. The non-SFF member of our podcasting team asked for an SFF rec, and we’re planning an episode to see what she thought. Non-fiction: Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, which is delightful and thought provoking.

My daughter got the spreadsheet gene. She would like you all to know that she is currently creating an inventory of every book in our house. She finished my fiction section this weekend.

Happy Pride Month, friends! Please enjoy a Rainbow Beast. One of my favorite pieces of my children’s art from Kindergarten, suddenly relevant.

That time I discovered my husband had used sharpie to make sure the kids left me a pomelo, one of my favorite fruits. I hear you about the despair.

Happy Sunday! Currently reading on paper: Timebound, 3rd in Heather Albano’s underrated Keeping Time trilogy, a steam punk alternate history time travel adventure. Currently listening: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole, Lodestar nominated (so, YA) secondary world fantasy with dragon riding.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by @scalzi.com was fun! It felt like an extended Randall Monroe What If scenario (except with characters), so much so that I kept having vivid mental images of the characters as XKCD stick figures. #BookSky

Restarted in the light of day. That was incredibly disturbing and well worth it. #BookSky

Just finished Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias, which was a heartbreaking read, but so worth it. It’s about an apocalypse, and also about family dynamics and connections between people. Now starting These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs.

Good morning! Just finished Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. Wow, a master class in both setting up reader expectations and highlighting expectations a reader already has. Loved it.

My first book read in 2025 was a worthy choice: These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by @izzyxen.bsky.social. There’s mystery, action, an anarchist commune in a dystopian future, evil corporations, a great trans MC with a terrible parent, all in the space of a novella. #BookSky

Good morning! I’m currently listening to Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao, out next week. It’s great so far! Look for a release day review episode on Narrated.

A post-Halloween kindness from my ten year old. 😍 (Was Halloween really last week? It feels like months have passed since then.)