Book: Yes, I'd forgotten you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now. Got your next heist planned? Simon: No. But I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

'War Stories'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


-t - May 16, 2023 2:10:01 pm PDT #27654 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I think I got burned by trying a couple of cozy fantasies that had good titles but were not good books (or perhaps it's just the itch they are meant to scratch is not mine, but I did not enjoy them) and now I'm all cautious about anything that looks too whimsical. Which is rough because I generally am infavor of whimsy!


Calli - May 17, 2023 11:54:52 am PDT #27655 of 27912
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

Cozy fantasies can get a bit twee, it's true. Cozy mysteries, too, although the body count (older definition) can work to mitigate that.


-t - May 17, 2023 12:58:19 pm PDT #27656 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I bought Baking Bad: A Cozy Mystery with Dragons because a negative review complained that it wasn't as "clean" as they expected a cozy to be. I Haven't read it yet, but I feel like books whose target audience are that reviewer are the kind I really don't like.


erikaj - May 17, 2023 3:59:28 pm PDT #27657 of 27912
If Scooby Doo taught me anything, it's that the only thing to fear is real-estate developers.Lisa Simpson

I've also done this, especially with books and movies that get reviews about "Why so much cursing?"(Where clearly The Wire has boosted my tolerance.)


-t - Jun 07, 2023 6:07:40 pm PDT #27658 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I am listening to Translation State (god I love Ann Leckie) and it is making me weirdly happy that one of the characters follows an entertainment called Pirate Exiles of the Death Moon. I’m imagining it as some kind of hybrid between OFMD and Sanctuary Moon (Probably not really spoilery)


meara - Jun 08, 2023 2:44:35 pm PDT #27659 of 27912

Does anyone have a source for sci-fi or fantasy recommendations they like? I’m having a hard time finding stuff I enjoy that isn’t the same authors over and over, but especially because I’m more picky with these genres than trashy romance, where I will read a lot of crap (and where if I want good stuff I generally can weed it out from SBTB or something)


DavidS - Jun 08, 2023 4:49:13 pm PDT #27660 of 27912
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Does anyone have a source for sci-fi or fantasy recommendations they like?

I was looking at a shelf of Tanya Huff the other day and thinking that's the kind of thing you would read. Have you read all her stuff?

Naomi Novik?


-t - Jun 08, 2023 5:38:10 pm PDT #27661 of 27912
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I’ve been getting my new author recs mostly from the book review columns in Azimov’s and the Mag of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Which may not help, but sometimes those things are available on the website?

Oh, hey, I have new issues to read.

I did read The Adventures of Amina al-Serafi and enjoyed it very much. Thanks for mentioning it, Susan!

Scrolling through my kindle library to see if there are any exciting new to me authors I should mention and seeing all the books I have either gotten samples of or actually bought but haven’t opened yet…oops.


Susan W. - Jun 08, 2023 5:57:43 pm PDT #27662 of 27912
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

I get my recommendations all over the place, but a lot of them come from the tor.com website and NPR's Books We Love page. Recently I've enjoyed Nicola Griffith's Spear, Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe series (at least the first two books--I've got book three on hold now) albeit with a content warning that it's about teenage Grim Reaper apprentices so there's a lot of dying going on. I also really liked Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens, which is just an adorable queer YA fantasy with strong romantic elements.


Jesse - Jun 08, 2023 6:41:54 pm PDT #27663 of 27912
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Some book recs from Harvard library staff, including a bunch of fantasy: [link] I saw at least a blurb from someone we know!