#reading

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Looking for some soft, comfy reading to ring out this hard old year? You're sure to find something delightful in my whimsical fantasy story collection. Elves, gargoyles, mischievous young magicians, heroic aunties, brave doggo, and much more.
@bookstodon
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK2DG8T8
-and-
Bookshop
https://bookshop.org/p/books/relics-from-a-traveling-show-k-m-herkes/0abf2118b4e0a1c2?

3D mockups of a paperback and ebook for Relics From a Traveling Show by K. M. Herkes on a green background with dancing gingerbread figures wearing top hats in the foreground and strings of vintage holiday bulbs hanging overhead. The cover of the book shows a figure in a green and blue traveling cloak, shown from the rear, seated at a desk gazing out an arched window at a carnival tent bathed in sunset light. The figure has short brown hair, and they are petting the ears of a dog sitting beside them. The dog's mouth is open in a happy doggy grin. An eldritch lamp decorates the desk, beside a binder labeled "DPS Orientation Guide." At the left stands a tall bookshelf filled with artifacts, books, and knickknacks. A bonsai tree sits on the windowsill, and a pair of sinister glowing eyes lurk in the shadows behind the chair.

📚 The Match by: Harlan Coben

After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he's known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life.

Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde clo...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-match

@bookstodon

After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he's known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life. Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he's ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare. Was his cousin's downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a treacherous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time? Named a Best Book by USA Today - Wall Street Journal - Publishers Weekly A shocking genetic match exposes a family's darkest secret in this gripping thriller from the creator of the #1 hit Netflix series Stay Close.

📚 Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick by: Jason Pargin, David Wong

Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. After inheriting a criminal empire, the twenty-three year-old finds herself under threat from all sides as a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life enemies think they smell w...

https://bookblabla.com/book/zoey-punches-the-future-in-the-dick

@bookstodon

Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. After inheriting a criminal empire, the twenty-three year-old finds herself under threat from all sides as a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life enemies think they smell weakness. On the eve of the world's most lavish and ridiculous Halloween celebration, a steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door and she is shocked to find that it contains a disemboweled corpse. She is even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises and goes on a rampage through the house. Speaking in an electronic voice, it publicly accuses Zoey of being its murderer. This is the kind of thing that almost never happened at her old job. The city was already a ticking time bomb of publicity-hungry vigilantes with superhuman enhancements and Zoey knows this turn of events is unlikely to improve the situation. Now, she and her team of high-tech tricksters have to solve this bizarre murder while simultaneously keeping Tabula Ra$a from descending into chaos. Biting humor and blatant digs at modern society overlay a subtly brilliant and thoughtful plot” (Publishers Weekly) in John Dies at the End author Jason Pargin’s first installment of the Zoey Ashe Series, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Now, one of today’s great satirists (Nerdist) is back with Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, the second installment in a Technicolor tomorrowland. (Kirkus Reviews) THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER New Yo

I'm now about halfway through Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Ruin" after having read his "Children of Time" and I'm enjoying it a lot! Can't quite put my finger on how he does it, but somehow he just reads very comfortably despite using quite a few words I have to look up. David Brin's uplift novels also had switching between characters, but that still felt very different. I suspect it has something to do with how he constructs his sentences. Has anyone analyzed how he manages that?

A friendly reminder; Humble Bundle has a deal on Murderbot ebooks. I personally love the series and can't wait for the next one to arrive next year.

Ugh! Feelings.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/martha-wells-murderbot-and-more-tor-books-encore

📚 Vanishing World by: Sayaka Murata

Amane is ten years old when she discovers she's not like everyone else. Her school friends were all conceived the normal way, by artificial insemination, and raised in the normal way, by parents in 'clean', sexless marriages. But Amane's parents committed the ultimate taboo: they fell...

https://bookblabla.com/book/vanishing-world

@bookstodon

Amane is ten years old when she discovers she's not like everyone else. Her school friends were all conceived the normal way, by artificial insemination, and raised in the normal way, by parents in 'clean', sexless marriages. But Amane's parents committed the ultimate taboo: they fell in love, had sex and procreated. As Amane grows up and enters adulthood, she does her best to fit in and live her life like the rest of society: cultivating intense relationships with anime characters, and limiting herself to extra-marital sex, as is the norm. Still, she can't help questioning what sex and marriage are for. But when Amane and her husband hear about Eden, an experimental town where residents are selected at random to be artificially inseminated en masse (including men who are fitted with artificial wombs), the family unit does not exist and children are raised collectively and anonymously, they decide to try living there. But can this bold experiment build the brave new world Amane desires, or will it push her to breaking point?

📚 Service by: John Tottenham

What's this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what?

Still a bookseller in his late forties, Sean knows that the worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there's the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the Yelp reviews. The overwhelming ...

https://bookblabla.com/book/service

@bookstodon

What's this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what? Still a bookseller in his late forties, Sean knows that the worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there's the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the Yelp reviews. The overwhelming sense of self-loathing after another day of not writing a novel yourself. While Sean's book remains unfinished, his city has changed around him. As have friends and acquaintances, at least the ones who keep in touch. The service industry is different, too. But what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham's debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of gentrification, friendship, jealousy and the role of literature in a digital age. 'Highly accomplished, deeply satisfying ... I marked up almost every page' TLS 'Laugh-out-loud funny' DAILY MAIL 'My favourite nihilistic romantic' RACHEL KUSHNER 'A brutally honest, insightful, intelligent and absolutely hilarious novel' MICHAEL IMPERIOLI

If someone (why would you think it's me? I'm really asking for a fried) thought that "Uprooted" and "The Goblin Emperor" were perfect vacation comfort reads, what other book will this person like?

Personal recommendations please based on the above two. [Standalones or books that can be read as standalones preferred but not required.]

Boosts very welcome.

📚 Project Hail Mary: A Novel by: Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very,...

https://bookblabla.com/book/project-hail-mary-a-novel

@bookstodon

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING RYAN GOSLING AND DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER LORD AND PHIL MILLER From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this propulsive (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science. HUGO AWARD FINALIST, ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, Ga

Thanks for hosting , @neve

My books, low-key fantasy with romance, mostly queer, are currently in the annual end of year sale — they’re already affordable but now they’re extra affordable, all 25% off:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

but you’ll also find them on or , or any of your favourite ebook retailers. They’re not for everyone…but the readers who like them…REALLY like them 😊

@bookstodon