The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through ..read more

With the year halfway over, I thought it would be fun to reflect on books read this year so I’m considering myself tagged and doing this survey I saw on Lady Business. If you see this here and also want to do this overview of your own 2024 reading so far, you can consider yourself tagged too! I wasn’t sure how much I’d have to discuss at first since I’ve basically read only 3 new-to-me standout books this year, but there was enough variety here that I managed to cover more than just the books I thought were excellent (even if some of those did come up more than once). It hasn’t even been an es ..read more

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through ..read more

The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent 480pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 5/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.31/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.33/5   As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The Serpent & the Wings of Night is the first book in The Nightborn Duet, the first of three related fantasy romance duologies in The Crowns of Nyaxia series. After seeing a lot of praise for this novel and reading a bit of the beginning, I was looking forward to it. (I may have also been a bit more intrigued by vampire books than usua ..read more

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through ..read more

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through ..read more

Thank you so very much to all of this year’s guests for the amazing essays and making April 2024 another wonderful Women in SF&F Month! Also, thank you to everyone who shared their posts and helped spread the word about this year’s series. It is always very much appreciated! Although this year’s series has ended, I wanted to make sure there was a way to find all of the guest posts from 2024 for anyone who missed them during April. This was the thirteenth annual Women in SF&F Month, which is dedicated to highlighting some of the many women doing fantastic work in speculative fiction ge ..read more

This week I’m sharing about some series I love that I think deserve more readers and more discussion in bookish/SFF communities. Today I’m gushing about The Warchild Mosaic by Karin Lowachee, a science fiction series that currently contains the novels Warchild, Burndive, and Cagebird; the collection Omake: Stories from the Warchild Universe; and the novella Under the Silence. This is my favorite science fiction series, and Karin Lowachee is a master of voice, characterization, and ripping my heart out. (Yes, I consider the latter a positive quality.) Karin Lowachee’s Warchild Mosaic ..read more

This week I’m sharing about some series I love that I think deserve more readers and more discussion in bookish/SFF communities. Today I’m raving about Swords and Fire by Melissa Caruso, a Venetian-inspired epic fantasy trilogy containing The Tethered Mage, The Defiant Heir, and The Unbound Empire. This is one of my favorite somewhat recent series for a lot of reasons, but basically, the first book kept me up reading until 2:00 AM and the next two books were even better. The Swords and Fire trilogy is a well-paced, entertaining series with heart, humor, and sharp dialogue. I think i ..read more

This week I’m sharing about some series I love that I think deserve more readers and more discussion in bookish/SFF communities. Today I’m gushing about Mirage by Somaiya Daud, a Moroccan-inspired young adult science fiction duology containing the books Mirage and Court of Lions. In particular, I want to highlight the wonderful protagonist and the complicated female friendship that lies at the heart of both books. Mirage and Court of Lions are gorgeous novels, and they are some of the first books that come to mind whenever I think of books I’d love to see recommended and discussed mo ..read more