Becky Chambers has written the science fiction novel of the year. As You Wake, Break the Shell is incredible. A review.

I've written before (multiple times)...I'm not crazy about enemies-to-lovers. For starters, I think it is actually the most unrealistic trope going (in terms of real life). In real life, enemies don't become lovers. They don't snipe at one another and fall in love. No...they snipe at each other and hate each other forever. That's just what happens with real people. I've never met anyone who 'fake dated'...and yet...the idea of sleeping with an 'enemy' just seems ludicrous to me. To actually become lovers, you can't have been enemies. Rivals...maybe. Coworkers with competing agendas?

I saw a post the other day on Insta where a person who's taste I generally agree with went through some bookish "hot takes" that rubbed me the wrong way. Not because they were necessarily wrong (I strongly believe everyone is entitled to their opinions) - indeed, I mostly agreed with them. Heck - most of them weren't really hot takes at all. Tepid takes. But that a couple of her takes just didn't sit well with me. And I began to wonder...what are my "hot takes" in the book world.

ALT: First Time? Meme from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

I don't do a whole lot of horror. This isn't because I disrespect the genre. Indeed - some of the most inventive films of late have been horror (at least, so I understand - like I said...I don't do a lot of horror). Indeed, some established big names have made their name in horror first because it is such an easy and welcoming genre, particularly in Hollywood. A horror movie is one of the major movie successes of 2026 - I'm not going to doubt that. And I obviously don't disrespect people who love it.

ALT: Cobra No Mercy Scene

There's an old quote by Guy Gavriel Kay (quite possibly my favorite fantasy writer) that every fantasy author has to deal with Tolkein's shadow - finding their way either within or out from under his influence. I'm butchering it here, but that's the gist of it. Maybe it is my imagination creating a pattern where none exists, but there seems to be a run these days on novels that serve both as genre novels and also "meta commentaries" on the genres they exist in. They run the gamut of quality and content and yes, I'm well aware this is a trend within genre books that goes back a long long long long way.

Tom Perrotta is a fascinating writer. For years, I've thought that the absolute worst thing that ever happened to Tom Perrotta was the viral success of Election - the book and then the movie. No, not really, because it made him a lot of money and I don't begrudge him that at all. It made his name. But that has been a double-edged sword. Because for decades, people have thought of him as a "satirist" who writes funny satire novels when in all of the ways that count...that's selling him short.

The Faith of Beasts marks the second (sorta - more on that below) entry in "The Captive's War," the sprawling science fiction series written by James S.A. Corey, otherwise known as the writing duo of Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, creators of The Expanse. The first book came out a couple of years ago and I raved about it here. This is more of the same. TLDR? If you liked the first book, you'll like this one. This is definitely a novel where you need to read Book 1 (

Way back in 2023...I went to Iceland with my family. It was a great trip - one of the best vacations we've ever had. Iceland isn't a huge country, but we basically drove around it in a giant circle and your speed is heavily restricted (true story...blew a tire on the last day...so I know what I'm saying...be careful on the roads). Now, TheWife and I have for a long history of listening to audiobooks on road trips. We prefer fiction - something that we can lose ourselves into. For this trip, I took a flyer on an audiobook by Benjamin Stevenson called…

I stumbled into B.K. Borison. I was new to NetGalley and just blindly asking for books. Hoping for the best. And when I got approved for the first Heartstrings #1 (First-Time Caller, which I freaking adored), I was absolutely floored at the quality. Here was someone who was writing rom-coms who "got it." Who didn't overly rely on the usual tropes. Who was working within and around them, but not slavishly following them. And even better, she was writing in a city I love (Baltimore) and featuring characters that aren't the typical ones you find in books like this.

Ever read a book that was at the same time trying to do too much and too little...but you sorta loved it, flaws and all? Yeah...that's how I felt reading Jitterbug, the newest novel by scifi standout Gareth Powell. I've been a big fan of Powell's for a long long time. I haven't necessarily loved everything, but even the items I didn't love...I liked. I absolutely loved his trilogy of novels featuring the crew and ship of Trouble Dog. I found his attempt at scifi horror last year a mixed bag, but...still pretty good.

I was a late-comer to Dungeon Crawler Carl. I read the first one because there was a new reprint that came out awhile back and it was an ARC I got an opportunity to read. Fell in love with it and I've now finished the second book. I realize the series is having "a moment" right now, with lots of things on Instagram and Booktok and the like where it is recommended and that's great. It's litRPG, which is a genre I've always had mixed results with, but the rare combo of comedy, a bit of social commentary and a gameish atmosphere really worked well for me.