Gav Reads

A Web Log of Reading

Tag: Sunday Summary

  • Sunday Summary: 5th Oct 25 Edition

    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:

    1. Victorian Psycho by Virgina Felto
    2. A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F.H. Petford
    3. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
    4. Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson 
    5. Model Home by Rivers Solomon
    6. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry 
    7. Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver
    8. What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
    9. How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe
    10. Reignclowd Palace by Phillipa Rice
    11. Cold Eternity by S.A Barnes 

    And now the physical books…

    1. All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
    2. Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey
    3. The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin
    4. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi
    5. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
    6. To Clutch a Razor (Curse Bearer #2) by Veronica Roth
    7. Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
    8. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
    9. The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish
    10. The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson
    11. 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.

    “The StoryGraph reading wrap-up summary for @gavreads, September 2025. Four books read, totaling 1,352 pages, with an average rating of 4.5 stars. Highest-rated titles: The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Caitlin Rozakis and The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso, both at 4.5 stars. All books were fiction, spanning science fiction, fantasy, and LGBTQIA+ sub-genres. Average book length: 357 pages; average time to finish: 15 days. Compared to August: books unchanged, pages up 11%. Formats: 75% digital, 25% print. Layout includes charts and icons visualizing stats.”

    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?

  • Sunday Summary: 28th Sept 25 Edition

    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.

    Let’s start with this stack of… I’m genuinely not sure what to call it… books?

    A stack of books that contains: 1. Direct Descendant – Tanya Huff 2. Valid – Chris Bergeron 3. Seascape – Benjamin Wood 4. The Undead Complex – Courtney Smyth 5. The Two Lies of Faven Sythe – Megan E. O’Keefe 6. Of Monsters and Mainframes – Barbara Truelove 7. The Incandescent – Emily Tesh 8. Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil – Oliver Darkshire 9. A Song of Legends Lost – M.H. Ayinde 10. A Granite Silence – Nina Allan 11. Hammajang Luck – Makana Yamamoto 12. The Starving Saints – Caitlin Starling 13. Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superhero Detecting – Piotr Cieplak 14. The Listeners – Maggie Stiefvater

    It was inspired by Roseanna Pendlebury

    Thinking about the things I would love to have read by the end of the year, and pulling together a few piles to drawn from as an aspirational to do list.I will not read all of these. I mean, I possibly theoretically could. But I doubt it. They're just the ones I really want to get in, if I can.

    — Roseanna Pendlebury (@chloroformtea.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T12:44:56.787Z

    and then Niall Harrison

    Right then, excluding review copies, here's my pile of aspiration/despair.

    — Niall Harrison (@niallharrison.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T18:31:44.781Z

    I badged mine as “the stack of books it would be nice to have read by the end of the year.” I added three caveats:

    But since I’ve made the pile with the intention of prompting myself to read them, I’ve started with The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater. One chapter in, I’m intrigued—but also wondering why I haven’t heard much about it from others.

    I haven’t reviewed my recent reads:

    • The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso [2024]
    • Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells [2017]
    • The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis [2025]

    If I get the time, a joint review of The Last Hour Between Worlds and The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association might be fun. Both are excellent, and both explore parenting in a fantasy setting—though in very different ways. Each had great twists and turns, and both had me emotionally gripped. I highly recommend them.

    And if you’re looking for something cosy in an SF setting, The Murderbot Diaries is turning into just that. Nice to see that Martha Wells has the adventures of Murderbot well under control.

    It’s October this week. The clock is ticking to get my reading in before the World Fantasy Convention 2025 announces the various award winners. I’m seriously going to need to weave in some novellas alongside the anthologies.

    The issue I’m having with Heartwood is that all the stories centre on the mythos at the heart of the wood—and speeding through them would do them a disservice.

    I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

    The dive into my BookTok bookmarks is going to have to wait until next week.

    This week’s Wombling along contains:

    • A review of Network Effect by Martha Wells, which I’m going to avoid until I’ve got to it myself.
    • A takedown of The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand. I read the last paragraph, as I still hope to finish The Stand and then read the anthology.
    • More praise for Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
    • An older, very serious discussion on the absolute canon to read
    • And so much more!

    Next week, I may wade into “what’s a reviewer for?”—as that was today’s hot topic on Bluesky.

    Until then, Happy Reading!

  • Sunday Summary: 21st Sept 25 Edition

    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.

    Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you’ve managed to get some reading done this week.

    I kind of did—and kind of didn’t.

    I finished the excellent The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso. It sets itself up perfectly for a sequel and absolutely delivered on what I was hoping for. But it also got me thinking about the formula it used to get there.

    That’s definitely more of a me problem than a book problem. Maybe writing a review will help get my thoughts in order. I am going to read the sequel, The Last Soul Among Wolves, at some point in the future—by which I mean, when the paperback drops.

    I got some train time this week and made more inroads into The Devils and I’m up 6% from last week’s update.

    I also picked up Artificial Condition by Martha Wells as my paperback, and I’m enjoying the cosy nature of it.

    As a reminder to me, The Murderbot Diaries chronology is:

    • “Compulsory”
    • All Systems Red [I’ve read this]
    • Artificial Condition
    • Rogue Protocol
    • Exit Strategy
    • “Rapport”
    • “Home”
    • Fugitive Telemetry
    • Network Effect
    • System Collapse

    I’ve just started Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology but from what I’ve read so far the authors are embracing the spirit of the original but putting on their own twists. The bar is now high for the rest of the anthology.

    Did you know that Bluesky now has bookmarks?

    I just counted—I’ve collected 62 in the last two weeks!

    I’m trying to be better about revisiting the bookmarks I’ve saved, periodically going through them and actually using them for their intended purpose: reminding me to check something later.

    Reactor has an article on All the New Horror, Romantasy, and Other SFF Crossover Books Arriving in September 2025, and here are a few that stood out to me:

    1. Moonflow — Bitter Karella (Run For It) *
    2. The Haunting of William Thorn — Ben Alderson (Angry Robot)*
    3. House of Idyll — Delilah S. Dawson (Titan)
    4. Play Nice — Rachel Harrison (TItan)*
    5. The Macabre — Kosoko Jackson (Harper Voyager)
    6. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human — Andrew Joseph White (Daphne Press)
    7. Exiles — Mason Coile, Andrew Pyper (Baskerville)
    8. Veil — Jonathan Janz (Blackstone)
    9. Spread Me — Sarah Gailey (Nightfire) *
    10. Midnight Timetable — Bora Chung, tr. Anton Hur (Dialogue Books)
    11. What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier #3) — T. Kingfisher (Titan) *
    12. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre — Philip Fracassi (Run for It)

    Apart from the ones marked with a *, I think the rest will have to wait until I get my physical TBR under control… though, by my calculations, I may need to shorten the time it takes me to finish a book from my current 16-day average to… something a lot shorter.

    I do and I don’t like a stat. Added more books to @thestorygraph—my physical TBR is now over 400. Maybe I’ll just do the ’25 releases? Only 48! If I read one every 2.5 days and never sleep again, I could do it? Any bets on me crying on New Year’s Eve, still buried in unread books?

    — @gavreads (@gavreads.co.uk) 2025-09-20T11:57:57.293Z

    The author & editor, Trip Galey, shared a link to his appearence on the Trope-ology Podcast:

    I stopped by the Trope-ology Podcast with @themythofchris.bsky.social to natter on about Goblin Markets! Have a listen if you fancy!Available in the usual places!open.spotify.com/episode/1cfs…

    — Trip Galey (@trip.bsky.social) 2025-09-14T08:01:28.453Z

    And Simon of Savidge Reads, shared his September Reading Horizons:

    #booksky let’s chat about what we’ve all read, are reading and what we may well read next over hereyoutu.be/u_Rg-FvETLk

    — Simon Savidge (@savidgereads.bsky.social) 2025-09-12T17:43:57.242Z

    SciFiScavenger has asked a great question about rereading:

    I was asked earlier how many books I re-read. Answer not v many, much as I'd like to, I have too much exploring to do, too many other books on my shelves, even more not yet acquired. I worked out that my re-read rate this year so far is around 3%.🪐📚 #scifbooks #sciencefiction

    — SciFiScavenger (@scifiscavenger.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T13:53:24.101Z

    My answer was:

    I’m at 10% for the year. I re-read two books from the Rivers of London series. I’d love to revisit a few more—there are always plans to do so—but I’ve never made the time.

    Finally, I want to share Niall’s stack of books:

    And here it is with some other recent acquisitions

    — Niall Harrison (@niallharrison.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T09:24:41.441Z

    He always gives me book envy—his picks are often ones I’d never have considered on my own.

    Next week, I’ll talk about my TikTok Bookmarks, which currently stands at 236…

    This week’s Wombing Along is here and is a A lovely write-up of their week which includes: A reminder of The Scour by Richard Swan (a prequel novella) Writing The Magic hasn’t been dispatched yet Slow Gods is one to look forward to And an answer to Why Anthologies? Plus lots of other temptations and insights.

    This week’s Wombing Along is here—a lovely write-up of their week, which includes:

    • A reminder about The Scour by Richard Swan (a prequel novella to An Empire of the Wolf )
    • News that Writing The Magic hasn’t been dispatched yet
    • Slow Gods is one to look forward to
    • An answer to “Why Anthologies?”
    • Plus lots of other temptations and insights

    Until next week—happy reading!

  • Sunday Summary: 14th Sept 25 Edition

    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.

    And I thought I’d join in.

    I’m curious about a few things:

    • Whether I’ll be able to keep it up.
    • What looking back on these posts will feel like in a year or two.

    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.

    Let’s start with a recommendation from one of my favourite BookTokers, Claire Linney. She recommended Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker. To borrow and paraphrase a bit of her summary — because that’s what got me hooked:

    Two 16-year-old twins are part of a magical bloodline, but a murder has doomed their name and stripped their mother of her throne. The story is told from the perspectives of both the twins and their adversaries. It features a magic system that’s used to comment on race, and the politics and policing around it.

    Please check out Claire’s full review here.

    I have downloaded it and it’s now on my overflowing ereader ready to read.

    @claire_linney

    Blood Debts and Blood Justice by Terry J Benton Walker – young adult for ages 13+ #diversebooks #blackauthors queerbooks #youngadultbooks #fantasybooks

    ♬ original sound – Claire Linney Author

    On Bluesky two posts on criticism have been shared:

    • One by New York Magazine
    • One by Reator Magazine (formly Tor.com):

    Do reviews draw readers? Boost subscriptions? Sell ads? And if the answer is ‘no,’ what then? Charlotte Klein explores the precarious state of cultural criticism.

    — New York Magazine (@nymag.com) 2025-09-08T09:10:36.872Z

    In the latest Mark As Read, @mollytempleton.com places The Death of the Critic into context. For how long has criticism has been dying, and how do we engage with discussions about art?reactormag.com/its-not-the-…

    — Reactor Magazine (@reactorsff.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T15:37:43.114Z

    I’m bookmarking these to digest later, but Niall Harrison pointed out a quote from Christine Smallwood that really interests me:

    Criticism is an act of autobiography. The work of making an argu­ment, coming to a judgment, or simply choosing which books or objects to give time and attention to is inevitably, helplessly, an expression of values

    And borrowing an item from Womble:

    A Bluesky post by Zach that says: I've been working on embracing the critic's version of this, which is "life is too short to tackle a book about which you don't have something interesting to say, good or bad" Zach is quoting Sonora Taylor: For anyone who needs to hear this: life is too short to finish a book you're not enjoying. Prose is annoying you? Don't finish it. It feels like a chore to pick up and read? Don't finish it. Just not feeling it? Don't finish it. We're not in class. There won't be a test. Read for *your* enjoyment.

    I need to ponder this some more. If you’re a media outlet (like Locus) or a specialist blog, you’ll likely be commenting on ‘significant’ or potentially ‘significant’ books in your area of interest. But more generally, I think we’re in the age of influencers — and influencers should be more willing to step back from the flow and share what’s important to them. Claire and Womble are both great examples of that philosophy.

    As an aside, I’m enjoying reading anthologies for my BFA challenge. However, I’ve given myself permission to skip those that don’t resonate from the start or that I fizzle out with. I’m unlikely to have anything interesting to say about them—unless the number of skips ends up reflecting something about the anthology as a whole.

    Don’t tell anyone, but I’m struggling to find time to listen to audiobooks — which is why I’ve been reading The Devils by Joe Abercrombie since the 7th of May and I’m only 46% through. It’s frustrating because I’m really enjoying Steven Pacey’s performance, and I want to listen to Let the Bad Times Roll by Alice Slatter.

    I’m going to have to just read the ebook versions of both, which will be great — but not quite the experience I was hoping for.

    Lastly, what are my plans for the rest of September? Well, I need to crack on with World Fantasy Award novellas:

    • Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (Tor Nightfire / Titan Books)
    • In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark (Grimdark Magazine)
    • Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
    • The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom)
    • The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom / Titan Books UK)

    And finsih the remaining British Fantasy Awards Best Anthology nominees:

    • Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology, edited by Dan Coxon – PS Publishing
    • The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2023), edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Chinaza Eziaghighala – Caezik SF & Fantasy
    • Bury Your Gays – An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited by Sofia Ajram – Ghoulish Books

    I can guarantee you that I’m not looking forward to Bury Your Gays—it’s exactly the type of tales I tend to avoid—but I’ve committed myself now, so wish me luck when I get there.

    Apart from those, I’m planning to finish The Devils and The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso, as I keep pushing them aside for the anthologies. My last experience with The Last Hour Between Worlds had me sitting there gasping at something she had cleverly woven in. Like The Devils, The Last Hour Between Worlds is proving to be very entertaining.

    Until next week—happy reading!