Penguin Ponders

Book Cover for The Weird Sisters by Helen Whistberry A bloody hand, obviously attached to a corpse, lays on the ground, hidden behind a tombstone. Nearby grave markers are blood spattered. A giant moon fills the background, partially covered by clouds. At the top of cover, the series name and a fedora float.

The Weird Sisters by Helen Whistberry

The blurb says 'a touch of the paranormal', but I'd say, more like a faint whisper. Set in the 50s, with a gumshoe reporter, a possibly haunted cemetery, and a soap opera level plot. A light read.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff ⏳📚⚡️

Yeah, it's so eye catching. Art by Khadijah Khatib

Book Cover for The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley A young black woman wields two swords while walking on a tightrope, high above a flaming London. She wears a halter dress with fluffy skirt, hair pulled back in a tight bun, looking with quiet towards the viewer.

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

This is very comic book to me, with the cast of unique superpowers, the super villainy (and regular villainy) and secret society, and all the dramatics and scenery chewing.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎

Who's reaching out to capture a moment?

<.<
>.>

A - completely normal - amount.

Yay Patreon decided to accept my credit card again.

I feel like had I read it a decade ago, it might have hit me differently, as entirely unique. But I'm reading it after Murderbot and The Splinter in the Sky and A Memory Called Empire, and they all seem to be part of the same constellation or conversation.

I'll read the rest of the series.

2/fin

Book Cover for Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Justice will come to the empire Two space ships, somewhat resembling fighter jets, fly over a large metallic structure - another spaceship? a space station? One is red with white accent, the other white with red accent, flying slightly behind. Filling the background space is a large moonlight object.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

This is twisty, with the various flashbacks and slow reveals, and the ambiguous relationship between Seivarden and One Esk. The world building is complex, and I appreciated how integrated the religious aspects were.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎 🌈📚 🌈🚀💫 1/

Never give up.
If you wish to convert a fleet of buses into traveling taverns & bookmobiles and set off on the open road, spreading the drunken joy of literature across the land, I know you can do it.
I believe in you.

I believe they did say there would be a sequel.

I want one with that nice chewy crust. I don't get it often though because the non white bread options are all mid.

Also the most quotable

Book Cover for A Puzzle of Poppies by Renee Edwards A Sherwood and Jarvis Novella He expected magic. What he got was murder. The title floats over a red line drawing of a poppy plant, with both buds and a single bloom. Above and below are metallic scrolls with the author and series. The background is grey damask, looking like wallpaper.

A Puzzle of Poppies by Renee Edwards

I picked this up for the fae realm setting and half-fae Sherlock. While do get some descriptions of the city, most of the focus is with the humans, so I didn't get as much divergence from the original as I'd hoped.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff ⏳📚

The art's by Jody Lee :)

This is one of my favorite ADF books

Relaxation tips:
- take a deep breath
- put down your phone
- find a sinister fog on the edge of town
- enter the fog and let it enter you, until you become one
- travel the countryside with the other fog spirits, spreading fear and wonder in equal measure
- have some tea

🧵Spotted on Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand:

A young human (10?) reverentially pulls two brand new paperback fantasy tomes from a crisp paper bag. He examines the covers in fine detail before carefully stowing them away again. Magnificent treasures to read later. (1)

Inhuman from the perspective of some - there's a lot of fear from the people.

Non-human from the LI, he's mostly a trickster

Wouldn't call it 'monster', mostly he's a guy with a tail and a different skin color

Two drawings and two small photos of the cat, Pyaari. The drawing on the left is wearing a blue dupatta. The drawing on the right is in a gold sari with a dupatta on the head.

Pyaari is so decent 🥺

I really enjoyed Hobs Bargain, but it never occured to me to think of it as Beauty & the Beast. Definitly a inhuman groom story though.

Those are the only Salvatore books I've read :)

I can hear this meme

paced not placed, arggg

Book Cover for The Wild Road by Michelle West Book 2 of The Burning Crown A young woman in a green dress and checked shawl stands facing the viewer, hands up and elbows bent. Her hair is floating in the strands of wind flowing behind her, scattered with yellow leaves. She is light with a subtle glow. Behind her are closely grown trees, and a grassy hill leading up to a set of circus tents, glowing light visible through the openings, and small lights floating in swags between them. Above it all, filling the sky are giant dragons, far larger than the trees, black scaled and snarling. The glowing wind circles above them, and a full moon glows behind in the night sky.

The Wild Road by Michelle West

This is a very slow placed book. All the action scenes are interspersed with a lot of character introspection, and it kinda drags. I'm heavy invested in the series, 18 books in, but this isn't gonna be a favorite book.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley and Byrony and Roses by T Kingfisher

Neither are smutty though

Patreon won't accept my credit card anymore??

*sigh* hopefully it's a glitch so I can support people.

Kobo likes it just fine

Depends on the book, though I do sometimes get the 'ooh shiny' when a new cover style starts making the rounds

*spoilers*

As a detective I'd rate this guy high on enthusiasm and low on actual clue finding. He seemed far more interested is previous and potential romantic relationships than anything else, though supe lore was second. I didn't feel the pairing had any real chemistry.

2/fin

Book cover for Five Dead Herrings by E. J. Russell A silhouetted seals head pokes up from the bottom of the cover, black against a background of stylized green fished on a watery blue background.

Five Dead Herrings by E. J. Russell

This has an interesting world, with hidden supes and the lone human approved to know about them. It sounds like it's an expansion from other series, so there were some estiablished characters with backgrounds.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎 🌃📚 🌈📚 🌈🚀💫 1/

emotions and relationships here. While the world is fantastical - fairy rings and ghosts and monsters - it's equally grounded in our reality, with lost knowledge and histories, difficult family relationships, and struggles to get by.

Also I need to reread Elatsoe.

2/fin