Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a “Wombling Along” post for the last few weeks, highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.
This is mostly going to be about books and book-ish things that have come to my attention — and possibly serve as my own public bookmarking system.
We all understand that acquiring books to read later and actually reading books are two entirely separate hobbies, don’t we? Good.
Here is a curated selection from my recent acquisitions, starting with ebooks — some of which were irresistible deals priced between £1.99 and 99p:
- Victorian Psycho by Virgina Felto
- A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F.H. Petford
- An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
- Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
- Model Home by Rivers Solomon
- The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry
- Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver
- What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
- How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe
- Reignclowd Palace by Phillipa Rice
- Cold Eternity by S.A Barnes
And now the physical books…
- All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
- Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey
- The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin
- The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi
- House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- To Clutch a Razor (Curse Bearer #2) by Veronica Roth
- Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
- Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
- The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish
- The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson
- Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
Have you read any of these, or are there any you’d like to read?
2025 Lammy Award Winners have been announced.
The 2025 Lammy Award winners have been announced!
Selected by a panel of 80 literary professionals, the winners were chosen from over 1,300 book submissions representing more than 300 publishers.
For over 30 years, Lambda Literary has championed LGBTQ books and authors. We believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer literature is essential to preserving our culture — and that LGBTQ lives are affirmed when our stories are written, published, and read.
Fiction and poetry
- Bisexual Fiction: How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster by Muriel Leung
- Gay Fiction: Henry Henry by Allen Bratton
- Lesbian Fiction: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
- Transgender Fiction: Firebugs by Nino Bulling
- Bisexual Poetry: Interrogation Records
- Gay Poetry: How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters by Saúl Hernández
- Lesbian Poetry: Song of My Softening by Omotara James
- Transgender Poetry: Girl Work by Zefyr Lisowski
- LGBTQ+ Poetry: Cowboy Park by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva
- LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke
Nonfiction and memoir
- Bisexual Nonfiction: You’re Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan
- Gay Memoir/Biography: Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch
- Lesbian Memoir/Biography: My Withered Legs and Other Essays by Sandra Gail Lambert
- Transgender Nonfiction: Pretty by KB Brookins
- LGBTQ+ Nonfiction: The Other Olympians by Michael Waters
That’s a lot of books — and there’s more, since each category also has a shortlist.
I do want to share the LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction one:
- Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (Erewhon)
- The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis (Primero Sueño)
- Markless by C.G. Malburi (Levine Querido)
- The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach (Saga)
- Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (Tor)
The good news for UK readers like myself is that Solaris will be publshing Metal From Heaven at the end of the month — and should be available in any good (or even not-so-good) bookstore.
Good News About Two Lovely People
ONE: Let’s start with a book that’s been years in the making—one I had the privilege of beta reading twice. Both times, it made me cry.
What’s it called, and who wrote it?
Everything Not Saved by N. M. J. Coveney.
What’s it about?
It’s a debut Queer YA novel that blends the emotional power of video games and the magic of young love with elements of horror and the supernatural.
You can pick up a signed limited edition from Gay’s the Word, or order physical and ebook editions from any good bookshop.
I hope you’ll grab a copy.
TWO: Historian Sacha Coward has a new publisher—Manchester University Press! That means Queer As Folklore: The Hidden Queer History Of Myths And Monsters is returning to shelves in December 2025.
‘Queer as Folklore’ takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new. Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way.
I’m going to buy another copy, because the original publisher—despite securing crowdfunding and the book becoming a Sunday Times bestseller—didn’t fully pay out the royalties owed to him. I’m also more than happy to gift a few copies!
It’s been a bit of a busy reading week
I’ve made some progress on The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater (I’m reading the hardback, so it limits when and where I can read); I listened to more of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, but not as much as I would like; I got a good chunk of Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology read, but I did get thrown by the novella by John Langan, as I was reading the ebook and didn’t know that I’d made a longer-reaching commitment and thought it was a bit slow (it was ultimately excellent). I also started and finished a reread of Crypt of the Moon Spider, and now I’m reading In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael R. Fletcher & Anna Smith Spark.
And if you’re curious this my The StoryGraph reading round-up for September.
I do need to revisit and share some of my bookmarked items—like the 116 genre books being published this month—but I’ve run out of Sunday. Maybe next week?
Gav Reads 