Rainey Morehouse

My favourite twist? The creature we only *think* is paranormal… 😀

Cover art for Premee Mohamed’s “The Annual Migration of Clouds”. A black and white bird—possibly a magpie?—has its wings partially spread, on a warm cream background.

I read Premee Mohamed’s post-apocalyptic novella “The Annual Migration of Clouds” for my in-person book club.

A deep and poetic consideration of climate change, set in Alberta.

Cover art for “Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz. A giant robot hand uses chopsticks to hold up thick noodles, while various smaller robots are clustered around a building. The colours are day-glo bright.

I read Annalee Newitz’s “Automatic Noodle” in advance via NetGalley.

A robot team reboot in post apocalyptic San Fran to discover that their ghost kitchen has been shuttered.

Deciding to restart the restaurant with significantly better food, their success is threatened by a robophobic campaign.

Cover art for Barbara Truelove’s “Of Monsters and Mainframes”. On a black background flecked with stars, an enormous fanged mouth rendered in rainbow colours. A spaceship wends its way through the fangs.

I read “Of Monsters and Mainframes” by Barbara Truelove.

The AI spaceship Demeter awakes approaching her destination and discovers all her passengers are dead.

This ridiculously delightful romp features unknown vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal creatures in a science fiction world.

Cover art for “Shorted” by Alex Irvine. In the lower right corner, a human figure in pink and purple moved through a wood, while in the upper half, drones attack a city.

I read “Shorted” by Alex Irvine, a novelette recently published on Reactor.

A social media influencer in a near-future dystopia seeks to solve his own murder.

reactormag.com/shorted-alex...

Cover art for T. Kingfisher’s “What Feasts at Night”. On a deep but true red background, a horrific partially skeletonized horse.

I read T. Kingfisher’s “What Feasts at Night”, second in her Sworn Soldier series. I’m slowly getting to the point of appreciating horror fiction outside the human-on-human variety, and I do enjoy this gothic horror series. I appreciate the non-binary representation and the vivid exploration of PTSD

Cover art for Sarah Gailey’s “Magic for Liars”. The cover is red, with the title in yellow wrapped around the top left, top, and top right edges. The central image is a hand in black facing downward with fingers crossed. An in teal and yellow appears on the hand’s wrist.

I read Sarah Gailey’s “Magic for Liars” and had a great time. Noir detective meets magical academy, with a very satisfying murder mystery to explore.

A non-magical private investigator is hired to investigate the horrific death of a teacher at the magical academy where her estranged twin teaches.

Cover art for Y M Resnik’s “The Elysium Heist”. Two female silhouettes appear against a pink-to-yellow gradient reminiscent of a sunset. An enormous roulette wheel appears in the background, with playing cards flying around it.

I read Y M Resnik’s “The Elysium Heist” in advance through NetGalley. (It will be released at the end of July.)

An adventurous casino heist novel set on a sentient space station, this features five viewpoint characters, all female and all queer. Recommended if you are okay with the POV switching!

Cover art for Vanessa Ricci-Thode’s “The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts”. In the foreground, there are three young adventurers, one with a ghostly appearance. Silhouettes of dragons appear on either side of them, while a huge skull with ghosts crowded in its eye sockets makes up the background.

I read “The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts” by Vanessa Ricci-Thode.

This middle-grade fantasy focuses more on adventure than spooky or creepy content and should appeal to its intended young audience.

It recently won the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction.

Cover art for “Kitty Cat Kill Sat” by Argus. A black and white cat holds a paw up to a curved window. A large planet hangs in space behind her.

I read “Kitty Cat Kill Sat” by Argus, a post-apocalyptic SF adventure.

Lily the uplifted house cat has been the lone occupant of a heavily-armed satellite for hundreds of years, and has a self-appointed mission to protect the remnants of humanity.

Adventurous, emotional and surprisingly touching.

Cover art for Carol Taylor’s “Capturing Crime”. The art is a roughly coloured line drawing of a courtroom, with the human figures appearing mostly in black and white.

I read “Capturing Crime”, a collection of Carol Taylor’s New Brunswick courtroom drawings over three decades, with text by Greg Marquis. The text is inexpertly edited, but I enjoyed the discussion of the experience of being a courtroom artist and the discussion of several of my childhood bogeymen!

Cover art for the novelette “The Name Ziya” by Wen-Yi Lee. A female figue with flowing hair and robes is silhouetted against a pastel landscape, with zeppelins or other airships overhead.

This year, I’m making a point to check out the short fiction published in “Reactor Magazine“ each month.

Published in June, check out “The Name Ziya” by Wen-Li Lee, a fantasy novelette treating education and assimilation, cultural identity and appropriation: reactormag.com/the-name-ziy...

Cover art for N.K. Jemisin’s “The City We Became”. A dark cityscape with highlights in bright yellow, pink, and blue against a grey background.

I read “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin for an upcoming book club, and I’m so glad I did! The powerful language and mythic storytelling caught me from the start, and although it took time to gel with the multiple viewpoint characters, I got there by the end. Recommended!

Cover art for Emmeline Duncan’s “Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding”. Black silhouettes of a dancing couple, a dog, trees and bats are layered over a giant white pumpkin on a bright green background.

I read “Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding” (Halloween Bookshop Mystery #2) in advance via NetGalley. (It will be published on July 29th.)

Bookstore owner in a year-round Halloween-themed town, Bailey is helping arrange the Halloween wedding of a college friend when all goes wrong.

Cozy and charming 🎃

Cover art for “Detective Aunty” by Uzma Jalaluddin. A woman’s arm is in the foreground, stirring a cup of chai. A cookie and an ornate sheathed knife rest in the cup’s saucer. The background is vividly pink.

I got a bit too much heat today, so I’m celebrating Canada Day by reading a Canadian new release 🍁

“Detective Aunty” by Uzma Jalaluddin was published in May. It is a mystery set in the desi community of Toronto, featuring a mature woman investigating after her daughter is suspected of murder.

5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!

Good Science

xkcd.com/3101/

carrot = 🥕

carat =💎

karat = 🥇

caret = ^

Cover art for “The Passengers” by John Marrs. The cover is primarily a close-up of a sleek car going down a highway. If you look closely, you can see a hand pressed against the passenger window.

I read “The Passengers” by John Marrs and was blown away! This near-future thriller focused on hacked self-driving cars is *really* fast-paced: I read it cover to cover before lunch this morning!

Former astronaut, federal minister Marc Garneau dies at 76 OTTAWA - Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space who went on to become a high-profile federal politician, has died at 76 years old.

RIP to the first Canadian in space - Marc Garneau. Garneau was also a former MP and federal minister who represented a Montreal-area riding between 2008 and 2023. 🚀🍁

www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

Cover art for Helene Tursten’s An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. The cover resembles a cross-stitch sampler with red and black motifs on a cream background. The red motifs are hearts, but the black ones are skulls-and-crossbones.

I can’t remember who recommended Helene Tursten’s “An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good”, but I loved it!

Translated from Swedish, these stories relate the adventures of Maud, 88-years-old and not above a little serial murder as a method to solve the problems in her life.

I had a lot of fun!

Cover art for “Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green. The background is yellow and the primary illustration is an orange circle with yellow microbes swimming in it. There is a green triangular shape above it. (I don’t know what it is meant to represent, but it does not appear to be merely decorative.) The words “Signed Edition” appear in black inside a small circle.

Last night, I finished reading John Green’s “Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection” and recommend it highly. I learned a ton about both the historical context and the present reality of the disease and John Green writes passionately about the subject.

Cover art of “What Moved the Dead” by T. Kingfisher. The black cover features a horrific, bloody hare covered with several types of mushrooms.

I just finished reading “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher and I’m really glad it’s for a book club next week, because I really want to dissect it with someone!

This reinterpretation of The Fall of the House of Usher has amazing characters, atmosphere to spare, and tons of nightmare fuel. 5⭐️!

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses ebook by Malka Older - Rakuten Kobo Read "The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses" by Malka Older available from Rakuten Kobo. The next entry in the multi-award-nominated cozy space-opera mystery series The Investigations of Mossa and Plei...

THE POTENCY OF UNGOVERNABLE IMPULSES comes out JUNE 10, which is however many days from now, in any case NOT MANY! It's getting fantastic reviews and is longer than the first two Mossa and Pleiti books, pre-order now!

New Brunswick government installs rooftop beehives on World Bee Day The New Brunswick government has announced the installation of beehives on the roof of the Departmental Building in Fredericton.

New Brunswick government installs rooftop beehives on World Bee Day - Departmental Building in Fredericton #NewBrunswick #WorldBeeDay #Canada

Around 50,000 bees live in the hives; in the fall, the honey produced will be bottled and labelled as ‘Speaker’s Honey.’

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new...

I see once again I’m going to have to beg pundits who haven’t lived outside of Toronto in decades to stop opining on how useful Canada Post is.

I don’t care how little you personally get or send mail. A public postal service with a mandate to get mail to every address in Canada is a public good.

Closeup of the CN Tower at night lit in rainbow colours

Tonight’s bottom of the hour rainbow show will be in honour of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia and in support of Rainbow Railroad.

I’ve rewatched the first episodes of the Murderbot show a silly number of times, and I’m so very pleased with the adaptation!

Make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel.

“Lentils and Beans and Quinoa, Oh My!”

Upload the third image from your photo album, no matter what it is.

(The odds were good that mine would be either a cat or a book.)