2026 mini-review thread! Longer versions of these can be found on Storygraph: app.thestorygraph.com/profile/Watry

Book 73. Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld (ARC)--Gauld's comics are delightful in a very literal way; I am delighted by them. Mildly surreal, funny because it's true comics about academia and science. Comics frequently include scientists who aren't white men. I did laugh aloud once or twice. 💙📚

A quick reminder that people using the word 'degeneracy' or 'degenerate' are waving a red flag. They may not know the background of the word, lots of people don't, but tread carefully.

Book 37--Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (ARC). Amazing prose, amazing character study. An extended metaphor and very literary, and I know a lot of people don't like that in their fantasy, so use your judgment.

Book 32--New Voices of Fantasy, ed. Peter S Beagle. Each separate story in this anthology is freaking great, even the ones that weren't to my taste. I heavily recommend NOT reading all the stories at once, as they can begin to feel samey in tone, and that wrecked the experience some. (1/2) 💙📚

Book 31--Saffron Alley by AJ Demas. A rare case of book 2 in a trilogy being better than the first, which was already good. That said, I was about to strangle the leads if they didn't Do A Communication, and I'm hoping for less of that in book 3. I'm really enjoying the series! 💙📚

Book 30--A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. Strangely propulsive; I read it in one day. The twists at the end weren't exactly shocking if you're genre-savvy, but it doesn't matter while you're reading. (1/2) 💙📚

Book 29--Persuasion by Jane Austen. Many people much smarter than me have said intelligent things about this book. I thought the characters were better-drawn than P&P, but P&P still has my heart. Occasionally, though, I use an audiobook with classics to help me find the rhythm. (1/2)📚💙

Book 28--I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons, Peter S. Beagle. I would have LOVED this book at 10 years old. I still had a lot of fun at 35! I really enjoyed the multiple twists about Robert's identity. I less enjoyed the love triangles, but that sort of thing is a lot more annoying to an adult, I think.

Book 27--More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. A sequel but it's fine to start here if you want, the first book gets a recap (and it's not the sort of book that gets very detailed). Not much to say about the book (it's fine). (1/2) 💙📚

Book 26--The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein. Very 80s. I felt the Steerswoman values are those modern scholarship ought to hold (and often does, but not always). (1/3) 💙📚

Book 25--Sword Dance by AJ Demas. I liked this one. I liked how Damiskos' reaction to finding out there's plotting and assassinations is essentially shrugging and thinking "well, this might as well happen". Good balance of plot and romance too. 💙📚

Book 24--Troubled Waters, Sharon Shinn. A quiet book, especially considering some of the events. I enjoyed Zoe as a character, though I wish we'd gotten some more examples of her supposed character traits. And elements of the romance bothered me (spoilers to follow, 1/3) 📚💙

Book 24, The Corner That Held Them, Sylvia Townsend Warner. Third time's the charm on this book about a medieval convent, shoving roughly a lifetime into 400 pages (minus ch1, which covers the founding). (1/2)

22. Paladin’s Grace, T. Kingfisher–hilarious, I actually laughed out loud several times. Awkward4Awkward romance navigates a serial killer and political nonsense. Surprisingly light-toned considering the brutal murders. 💙📚

20. Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer–Loved this. Palmer really picked a through line (history has the same scholarship and biases as anything) and ran with it through lots of history, historiography, and mini-biography. The conversational tone also really helped. 📚💙

19. Words are My Matter, Ursula K LeGuin–if you like or even just respect LeGuin’s fiction, try her essays. Amazing. 💙📚

18. The Last of the Wine (reread), Mary Renault–I first read this book because of a Buffy fanfic, and I’m still glad I did. The last part drags some and gets a bit depressing (realistically) but most of it is somewhere between slice of life and roman a clef in ancient Athens. 💙📚

11-13 The Thessaly Trilogy (rereads), Jo Walton–probably Walton’s books I hear about the least in the wild except the Sulien books, but the ones I’ve read the most. Full of characters just trying to find out how to best live their lives. 💙📚Also a look at working with flawed material in good faith.

10. Too Like the Lightning (reread), Ada Palmer–Even better on the reread! Characters move in and out of view in these books at speed, and I’m using this series read to follow a particular character more closely. 📚💙

3 and 5–His Secret Illuminations/His Sacred Incantations (rereads) by Scarlett Gale–These books are wildly silly, and I love them. Everybody except the Designated Bad Guys is wonderful and caring and willing to teach and do the right thing. Everything comes fairly easily. Wonderfully soothing. 📚💙

Black Ink (reread), edited by Stephanie Stokes-Oliver–a very strong collection of essays from Black people about Black literacy and writing. Not an academic book, so it’s an easier read than one might think. 💙📚

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older–the good bits of a cop procedural, replacing the will they/won’t they with will they again. I’ll probably read the sequels eventually. 📚💙

Lost the will to do my mini book reviews last year in, like, March. Trying to kick it up again, so I'm about to post a bunch in a row. Leaving out comics and trashy romance. 📚💙

I am reading a fantasy romance novel (it is not very good but my brain craves it) and ever since @karidru.bsky.social talked about the stew thing I can't unsee it. It takes so much longer than they've been at this campsite to make stew!

My first colorwork knit! I'm so proud of it! 🧶

Knit my first sweater! Some rough bits, but I learned a lot and the baby won't care.🧶

Weird things that happened immediately post 9-11: does anyone else remember the kids' TV channels playing constant news just like the non-kids' ones? Sometimes at the same time as the cartoons? I wasn't allowed to watch TV for like a week, as I was 11 and a pretty sensitive child.

Book 23: The Manuscripts Club by Christopher de Hamel. Probably the only person who can get me to read about books as objects. Very reliant on your ability to visualize. Strangely, provides translations for every language except French. Very good, but only pick up if you know you'll be interested.📚💙

Book 21: All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows. Avoids all the things I hate in this subgenre, with problems that actually feel like problems. I love these idiots. Hoping for a third book or a connected one for two of the secondary characters. Read A Strange and Stubborn Endurance first. 📚💙

Book 20 of this year is The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. If you like fantasy Sherlocks, get thee to a bookstore/library, it's really well-paced and the characters are fun and not totally archetypal. 📚💙

The fact that after a month-ish I have become a Bluesky elder is bizarre

Thing that sucks about chronic illness #30214: Job decisions are made on the basis of the illness, not what an actually good job is

Just finished Perhaps the Stars by @adapalmer.bsky.social. Pretty sure this series has changed my brain. How did it take me this long to hear about it? 📚💙