The cover of "The Stranger Prince," by Margaret Irwin, showing a family crest with two lions.

I found this sometimes frustrating, often amazing. Overall, it's engaging and informative. 4 stars.

My brief thoughts: inspeculation.blogspot.com

This author was unknown to me, and the novel comes from an era I have mostly overlooked. But I'm glad I chanced on this 1937 book. Worth a look.👍

My Canadian MIL brings me aero bars for my Christmas stocking. 🙂

The cover of the thriller "Decipher," by Stel Pavlou. It shows some kind of rune against a blue water background.

For me, a 3-star read. Wild ideas patched together in an entertaining but not very believable way, stretched between bull-session exposition, enacted by characters I never differentiated in my mind.

My brief thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

It at least kept me reading.

It’s the opposite case of petted and pet. I know Benjamin Dreyer comes down firmly on the side of petted while lots of people say pet as the past tense. But they both sound right to me… 😄

Theodora Goss Guest Post and Book Giveaway | Fantasy Cafe Guest post on writing as witchcraft by speculative fiction author Thedora Goss with a book giveaway of her collection LETTERS FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY.

New guest post and book giveaway! "Writing as Witchcraft" by @theodoragoss.bsky.social with a chance to win a copy of her short story collection LETTERS FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY, coming out next week!

#Books #BookSky 📚💙 #Fantasy #SciFi #SpecFic 📚🪐

www.fantasybookcafe.com/2025/11/theo...

The cover of the historical Mystery, "A Play of Isaac," showing a church and graveyard at the top and a theater troupe at the bottom.

My first book by Margaret Frazer. I liked it very much. 5 stars

My brief thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

Good mystery, good setting, fun characters--I'm looking forward to finding the other titles in this series.

Recommended.

A fill in cover for THE LAST CONTRACT OF ISAKO by Fonda Lee.

New Fonda Lee did not disappoint! Who knew that a corporate samurai space opera on a terraforming world was exactly what I needed. Out Spring 2026 but you can preorder now (or add to your tbr.) Your future self will thank you!

I think this is true, if counterintuitive. Makes it hard to fight.

I guess the best we can do to fight the spread of propaganda is to say “I saw something nasty in the tool shed” and never reveal exactly what… 😄

Today’s starter list. Anyone read some of these Margaret Frazer books? This is my first one, almost finished, and I’m digging it. 👍 The one about Rabbi Lowe’s golem is really cool, too—“the Book of Splendor.” Lucky find at the library book store.

The cover of Mary Balogh's novel, "Remember When," showing a middle aged man and woman in Regency clothing beneath a tree, face to face.

Reading out side my usual genres--and enjoying it. Very entertaining. 4 stars.

My brief thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

Being unfamiliar with the author, I'm amazed at the number of books she's written. Wow. Clearly I should have known the name. 😂

Good Regency novel. Recommended.

I’m really a fantasy/science fiction reader. Mystery and historical novels are my change of pace reads. 🙂

A stack of books—historical, historical mystery, ~literary historical, thriller, steampunk, romance, non-fiction science, pulp.

Today’s reading order—a little of each. We’ll see how far I get through the lineup. The older I get, the shorter my attention span… 😄 But I never have reading slumps anymore. I just change the batting order. 😎

My timeline is very LOTR heavy. 😄 Nice.

We had a cat named Elbereth once. Called her Elbe. 🙂

It’s the perfect mix of elements—water and sky and woods—and blue and white and green. All my pictures are desert and mountain—none of them look like this. 😎 (Here’s one of my Arizona dog-walking photos.)

The cover of the novelization of the Wednesday TV show, season one, showing Wednesday, arm's crossed, in front of the stained glass window in her dorm room.

I'm a big novelization fan--Willow, Star Wars, Galaxy Quest--and I was glad to see the first season of Wednesday got adapted. And it's awesome. Excellent writing, great 1st person narration, well worth reading on its own.

My thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

Funny, dark, clever, 5 ⭐. 👍

Giveaway: The Essential Patricia A. McKillip | Fantasy Cafe Giveaway of fantasy/speculative fiction collection THE ESSENTIAL PATRICIA A. MCKILLIP, which also contains 2 nonfiction pieces and an introduction by SWORDSPOINT author Ellen Kushner.

Book giveaway! Enter to win a copy of THE ESSENTIAL PATRICIA A. MCKILLIP, which contains "The Gorgon in the Cupboard," one of my favorite short stories ever, and more. (US only.)

#Books #BookSky 📚💙 #Fantasy #SpecFic 📚🪐

www.fantasybookcafe.com/2025/10/give...

The cover of Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist," showing a drawing of a man talking to an alchemist who is reading a book.

I'm out of the mainstream. Other readers kinda hated this, but I though it was pretty fun. Three scammers in 17th century England tricking people out of their money? It's clever and witty and has a happy ending.

My thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

4 stars from me.

The cover of the novel "Jane and the Barque of Frailty" by Stephanie Barron. It shows a woman in white laying on the cobblestones, her throat slashed, letters and other clues all around her.

This is the 9th book in the series (I think) and takes place in London when Jane is staying with her banking brother and his French wife. There's a bit more scandal in this one than most, which is, you know, good.

My thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

These are all great. 5 stars.

The cover of the novel "A Tip for the Hangman," showing some Elizabethan-looking men at court beneath an inset showing Queen Elizabeth, with images of death behind that.

This is a very engaging and thought-provoking novel, the fictional version of Christopher Marlowe and his spy work. Very well written. Excellent action novel, but with beautiful prose.

My thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

5 stars.

The cover of the Penguin edition of the Voyage of the Argo, by Apollonius of Rhodes

I gave this 3 stars--that's about how fun I felt it was. But you're probably gonna read it for some other purpose. Curiosity, maybe? Or for a lit course? Maybe because you're snowed in at a B&B and it's on the shelf? Anyway, it's *kinda* cool.

My thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

Oh hey, I'm giving away a free paperback of Death's Disciple! Open worldwide. 😁

October

#October Jane Austen's novels, life, & world. Sit back & enjoy ☕️
#JaneAusten
open.spotify.com/episode/6hzX...

Rain Checks and Homeless Dogs This isn't my best look Just thinking about the all the random stuff I've learned in the last ten or twenty years, all the varied life-lessons--like about diet and exercise, self-care, money, meal prep, managing conflict, organization--it strikes me how much it all would have come in handy earlier in life. Good stuff. Helpful stuff. All kinds of stuff I wish I had known when I was a kid or young adult in order to navigate life a little better.

Rain Checks and Homeless Dogs

This isn't my best look Just thinking about the all the random stuff I've learned in the last ten or twenty years, all the varied life-lessons--like about diet and exercise, self-care, money, meal prep, managing conflict, organization--it strikes me how much it all…

The cover of Harold Lamb's biography of Suleiman the Magnificent, showing the sultan riding his horse, dressed in rich Ottoman clothing.

Harold Lamb does a fantastic job popularizing historical figures with his biographies and novels about important men and women. This is quite good--though it's more bio than novel, and I wish it leaned the other way.

Still good. 3 stars. ~3.5.

My brief thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

Fairies, Piano Lessons, and Three-Legged Dogs

It's so incredibly hard to get up off the mat sometimes. Imma just stay here. It's fine. I'm fine. Everybody go home. That's universal, unfortunately. Everybody gets knocked down sometimes--breakup, lost job, grief--and anyone can feel like just…

He was horrible. I won’t mourn him. We shouldn’t have to say anything kind about a racist xenophobe.

I wish they did. 🤬 It’s shocking to me how many don’t.

I’m looking at TikToks and I can’t believe *how many* conservatives are claiming that it’s not censorship, that Jimmy Kimmel said something inappropriate, that “you” (us—all democrats/the left) shot CK and literally celebrated, and that CK was a good Christian and not a white supremacist. OMG. 🤬

Looks like Michigan’s lower peninsula. 😎

The cover of Project Hail Mary, showing an astronaut doing a space walk.

I finally had to break down and buy a brand new book--couldn't get it any other way. Good choice. It's as good as everyone said it was, and I loved it.

It doesn't always work that way!

My brief thoughts are here: inspeculation.blogspot.com

All 5 stars. Fun, touching, humorous--it's a great book.