Hola sweaty book dragons! It's the final week of June already, and soon we'll be into the heart of summer, July, followed by the dog days of summer with sultry August, one of my least favorite months of the year (My mother actually likes temps in the 80s and 90s, but I consider anything above 75 degrees hellish, and much prefer cooler temps and gray skies). Meanwhile I woke up today with another Crohns flare, so I've been attempting to get things done while feeling like I'm encased in concrete and my abdomen is being kicked by someone in steel-toed boots. Not fun.
However, here's some juicy tidbits and 4 reviews of recent reads.
I would LOVE to attend BookCon at the Javits Center in NYC. It's been on my bucket list forever. All those book people, authors and publishers in one place! What a thrill.
Guess
Who’s Back?
After
shuttering in 2020, BookCon,
the reader-focused convention originally conceived as a companion to
the now-defunct
BookExpo professional conference ,
is making a comeback. (YAY!) Scheduled for April 18-19, 2026 at New York’s
Javits Center, the “wholly reimagined event” promises author
appearances, book signings, workshops, panels, and even crafting zones
aimed at “bringing our online world into a real-world space.”
Details remain TBA, but I think it’s fair to assume that, given the
fan-service-meets-marketing fever dream vibe of fan conventions,
we’ll see a lot of BookTok faves, big-budget summer titles,
photo-friendly special editions, and, yes, probably some influencer
activations. What are publishers prioritizing and how do they
conceptualize what readers want? Event and speaker announcements will
offer an interesting glimpse.
Ooooh, a Podcast! How exciting! I bet its going to be great...kudos to the ever popular and smart Reese W for adding to her wins with this.
Reese’s
Book Club Steps Up to the Mic
Reese
Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has partnered with iHeartMedia to
launch
a podcast for Reese’s Book Club. Debuting
June 24 as an iHeartPodcast, “Bookmarked
by Reese’s Book Club” will
feature “irresistible conversations with celebrities, tastemakers
and authors from Reese’s Book Club and beyond.” While
Witherspoon, who sold
Hello Sunshine in a monster $900 million deal in
2021, will not be hosting (that duty goes to journalist and TV host
Danielle Robay), she will serve as one of the executive producers.
Reigning queen of the rom-com, Emily Henry, will appear on the first
episode alongside Yulin Kuang, who is directing the adaptation of
Henry’s Beach
Read and
whose own novel How
to End a Love Story was
a Reese’s Book Club pick in 2024.
I've also noticed that a lot of books, new and old, are coming out all fancy with beautiful illustrated cover art and pretty styled/colored edges. It makes me want to add them to my collection for the visual drama alone...but when the book lives up to the glam cover and art work...chef's kiss!
The
Other Big Book Cover Trend
Sure,
you’ve noticed that all
romance covers look the same these days,
but had you picked up on the
lit fic trend of bright lettering over a (usually old) painting?
It’s not a totally new concept, of course, but it is A Thing right
now in a way that feels noteworthy. The NYT‘s
Elisabeth Egan digs into the fad’s origins and explores the stories
behind eight recent examples. That’s all interesting enough, but
what really caught my attention is this bit of analysis:
These
covers are the new signifiers of stylish literary fiction,
telegraphing gravitas, wit and cool. They make a bid for a certain
kind of reader — more city than suburb, more pét-nat than
chardonnay. They wouldn’t be caught dead alongside a volume decked
out in pop art or, god forbid, metallic lettering.
I
hadn’t considered that this design trend might be a conscious
choice to contrast literary fiction with the
ubiquitous sprayed edges, foils, and stencils of romantasy .
Whether intentional or not, it’s interesting to note, and I know
I’ll be seeing it everywhere now.
I actually watched all of the shows mentioned in this article, and like the commenter here, I really thought most of them were popular. I was a huge Farscape fan, and loved the wit and the Henson creatures, particularly the ribald and stinky Rigel, who was hilarious in his arrogance. Also like the person who wrote the graph below, I didn't watch Robocop, due to its violence and comic-book like storylines.
7
Great Sci-Fi Shows From The 1990s Nobody Talks About
ComicBook.com
recently
posted this list
about sci-fi shows from the 1990s that nobody talks about. And while
I completely agree with numbers 2-7, I am perplexed by the number 1
choice: Farscape
.
I love that show! I always thought it was a big success. Am I alone
in thinking this? I’ve watched it multiple times over the years and
was always under the assumption it was a hit. Space and Henson
creatures? How could it not be? It certainly didn’t get the respect
or huge viewership it deserved, but I don’t know if it should be on
this list.
I
remember almost all the other shows, but didn’t watch them. The
exception is the Robocop
show.
I had no idea that even existed, probably because it was on in 1994,
and I was busy graduating and being sad about Kurt Cobain and stuff.
I also need to watch Earth 2 now that I know that three of my
favorite character actors were in it (Terry O’Quinn, Clancy Brown,
and Tim Curry). Did you watch any of these shows?
As a huge fan of the Murderbot books, I'm surprised at how much I am loving the streaming series of the books, particularly because I'm not a fan of Alexander Skarsgard. He's perfectly cast, surprisingly, dry wit and bland expression and all...though in my imagination he was much more muscular and hot, like Pedro Pascal mixed with a bit of Jason Momoa and Gerard Butler.
Yes,
More Stuff About Murderbot
The
New Yorker talked to Martha Wells
about Murderbot,
adapted from her fantastic Murderbot
Diaries series,
as well as AI, being a "thirty-year overnight success," and
lots of other great stuff.
"The
most popular latecomer to this canon is a character who calls itself
Murderbot. Whereas those antecedents invoke the cosmic stranger as
fundamentally unknowable, Murderbot’s novelty lies in its relative
scrutability—it’s aloof to people as a matter of preference.
Murderbot has been realized in fleshly form in the sculpted body of
Alexander Skarsgård, on the new Apple TV+ series of the same name.
But it—always “it,” and never “he”—was first the
invention of a sixty-one-year-old fantasy writer named Martha Wells.
Wells seems to like humans, or at least some of them, just fine. But,
she asked me recently, ‘why would a machine want
to
be one?'"
I
continue to love the series adaptation and highly recommend it. It’s
really funny and, while I will admit to being skeptical when he was
announced as Murderbot, Alexander Skarsgård has completely won me
over. The rest of the cast is wonderful as well. If you haven’t
picked the series up yet, there’s no time like the present!
Wow, just, wow...this is so sad. I hope that the courts can manage to get around some of this nonsense so authors don't get railroaded by AI stealing their prose. I have a feeling that a one-percenter paid someone off to try and make this kind of theft legal.
Judge
Rejects Authors’ Claims that Meta Violated Copyright Law
Books
are having a tough week in court. A
federal judge in California has rejected 13 authors’ claims that
Meta violated copyright law when
it used their books to train AI tools without their permission. Bad
news, but there’s a big catch: the ruling is limited to the authors
who participated in the case and "does
not mean that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials is lawful."
In contrast to a
different California judge’s decision earlier this week that
use of copyrighted material to train AI is permissible as long as the
materials are acquired legally, the judge in this case determined
simply that the plaintiffs "made the wrong arguments" and
"did not present sufficient evidence that Meta’s use of their
books was harmful."
Two
wins for big tech in one week is a hard pill to swallow, but/and we
should take note that both decisions came with caveats that may
provide useful direction for future suits. The
Anthropic case establishes use of pirated books to train AI as
illegal ,
and this case against Meta allows that using copyrighted books
without permission, no matter how they’re obtained, may
cause "market harm"
of which authors must provide sufficient evidence. Technology has so
far outpaced the law that this these cases are likely to move in fits
and starts, wins and reversals, for longer than any of us want it to
take. Hold onto your butts, folks.
How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley is a delightful and often hilarious British "romp" of a novel that revolves around a 70 year old woman who kicks arse and takes names! I loved it, not just because its rare to see a protagonist over the age of 40, but also because it was concisely written, "short and sweet" as we Yanks would say, and the plot whizzed along faster than a Japanese bullet train. Here's the blurb: A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from author Clare Pooley
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.
The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.
The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.
The over 55 (in age) characters in this wonderful novel had me laughing in one chapter and crying in the next. Their lonely exploits and their grief at how the world dismisses them, and doesn't see them as human beings most of the time was tragic and poignant, and, as I approach 65, all too familiar. I actually had a "book hangover" after reading about Daphne and the gang, because I just couldn't imagine that my next read would be half as satisfying (turns out I was right). I desperately wish that there were more novels like this, but so far I've encountered less than 12 in the past 10 years or so, and that makes me sad, as I know that there are a ton of senior aged Baby Boomers like myself out there who are looking for books that reflect our lived experiences. Its sad that teen-focused "romantasy" has exploded in popularity, as has "dark romantasy," which is just another way of saying horror fiction with a romantic through line (one in which the female protagonist is usually heinously abused in every bloody way possible, which is supposed, I gather, to make her sexier...ewwww), so books like this are often overlooked. I'd give this witty and wildly fun book an A, and recommend it to everyone, because people over 55 should not be invisible.
The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong was a paranormal historical mystery that, despite a few problems, was a good read. Here's the blurb:What they neglect o mention in the blurb is that Dr Duncan Gray is a black man, and as a POC in that era, was barred from using his medical skills on live people, so he ends up working as a coroner/medical examiner. This wasn't even mentioned until halfway through the book, and though its the second book in a series, I think the author would have made things easier and more comprehensible for the reader if she would have mentioned this fact, so readers could understand why everyone treated the doctor badly and why it was a bad idea for Mallory to start having romantic feelings for him, as his young white maid/assistant. The plot was intricate, though there were more than a few info-dumps on Scottish history of the era, which slowed things down, they didn't last too long before we were able to get back to the mystery, which, since it was in Victorian times, was similar to the Jack the Ripper murders. The old, well worn trope of the female protagonist falling for the "unsuitable" male protagonist got a bit tedious after awhile, though you can tell Armstrong was attempting to handle it with delicacy. Both the first and second book in this series have a general air of melancholy that leaves the reader with a bad taste in their mouth, but despite that I'd give this tome a B, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in Victorian era Scotland, and how it differed from England and the USA.
The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack is an historical fantasy/mystery that leaps backward and forward in time with great agility. Here's the blurb: From the author of The Memory Painter comes a sweeping and suspenseful tale of romance, fate, and fortune.
Semele Cavnow appraises antiquities for an exclusive Manhattan auction house, deciphering ancient texts—and when she discovers a manuscript written in the time of Cleopatra, she knows it will be the find of her career. Its author tells the story of a priceless tarot deck, now lost to history, but as Semele delves further, she realizes the manuscript is more than it seems. Both a memoir and a prophecy, it appears to be the work of a powerful seer, describing devastating wars and natural disasters in detail thousands of years before they occurred.
The more she reads, the more the manuscript begins to affect Semele’s life. But what happened to the tarot deck? As the mystery of her connection to its story deepens, Semele can’t shake the feeling that she’s being followed. Only one person can help her make sense of it all: her client, Theo Bossard. Yet Theo is arrogant and elusive, concealing secrets of his own, and there’s more to Semele’s desire to speak with him than she would like to admit. Can Semele even trust him?
The auction date is swiftly approaching, and someone wants to interfere—someone who knows the cards exist, and that the Bossard manuscript is tied to her. Semele realizes it’s up to her to stop them: the manuscript holds the key to a two-thousand-year-old secret, a secret someone will do anything to possess.
Semele Cavnow appraises antiquities for an exclusive Manhattan auction house, deciphering ancient texts—and when she discovers a manuscript written in the time of Cleopatra, she knows it will be the find of her career. Its author tells the story of a priceless tarot deck, now lost to history, but as Semele delves further, she realizes the manuscript is more than it seems. Both a memoir and a prophecy, it appears to be the work of a powerful seer, describing devastating wars and natural disasters in detail thousands of years before they occurred.
The more she reads, the more the manuscript begins to affect Semele’s life. But what happened to the tarot deck? As the mystery of her connection to its story deepens, Semele can’t shake the feeling that she’s being followed. Only one person can help her make sense of it all: her client, Theo Bossard. Yet Theo is arrogant and elusive, concealing secrets of his own, and there’s more to Semele’s desire to speak with him than she would like to admit. Can Semele even trust him?
The auction date is swiftly approaching, and someone wants to interfere—someone who knows the cards exist, and that the Bossard manuscript is tied to her. Semele realizes it’s up to her to stop them: the manuscript holds the key to a two-thousand-year-old secret, a secret someone will do anything to possess.
I felt that this book would have been better without the weird and somewhat soppy romance between Semele and Theo. Womack's ability to add in suspenseful layers was masterful, and the international insight into the various eras in various countries, and their reactions to "magic" or paranormal abilities was fascinating in a chilling sort of way. The prose was vigorous and the plot turned on a dime, though at times it was difficult to figure out what era readers had landed in, and I was always on tenterhooks because it seemed that the famed Tarot deck and its owners were on the verge of extinction. The ending left me somewhat bereft, as there was only one Tarot card left, but it was satisfying that the manuscript survived and the mystery was solved, as per the prophecy. I'd give this goose-bump inducing novel a B+, and recommend it to those who like paranormal psychic stories with a romantic through line.
Second Chance Dance by Laney Hatcher is a historical romance that appears to have been written by someone for whom English is a second (or third) language. Typos and grammatical mistakes abound. It was either translated poorly or written (horrors!) by AI. Anyway, here's the blurb: The prose reads like fan fiction and the plot plods at times, but the biggest problem here is that the trope of enemies to lovers romance is so well-worn that you know what will happen from chapter to chapter at the beginning of the novel, especially if you are a romance reader. So it feels like the author is doing a "paint by numbers" version of an historical romance. There's the requisite banter between the two main characters, there's the inevitable seduction scenes and lots of spicy love scenes with, again, the inevitable "discovery" by the female protagonist that oral sex gets her off faster than a lightening bolt...in these kinds of romance novels, they also always act like the male protagonist, who is always more "experienced" at sex, practically invented cunnilingus and digital stimulation. This assumption makes little sense, since I'm sure that people in the past several hundred years figured out ways to "get off" without getting the woman pregnant. When the couple finally do have penetrative sex, it is made clear that the female protagonist has trouble, or takes a long time to conceive, conveniently. Though the ending was sweet, I'd still give this ebook a C+ and recommend it only to those looking for some spicy beach reading that doesn't tax the brain cells too much.
