I think this sequel to Divine Rivals was longer than it needed to be (or maybe the series needed to be a trilogy), but I enjoyed more time in this world with these characters.

The Song of the Lioness was one of my all-time favorite series growing up, so I was thrilled to hear a graphic adaptation was in the works! I really enjoyed returning to this story in a very thoughtful and well-executed graphic format for middle grades, from nonbinary Afro-Puerto Rican comic book writer Vita Ayala and fantasy artist Sam Beck. Can‘t wait to share this with my godchild!

A new Rachel Hartman book is cause for celebration in this house! Set in Goredd centuries before Seraphina or Tess of the Road, Among Ghosts is a Decameron-inspired tale of plague, memory, religious violence, and the courage it takes to pursue freedom, truth, peace, and community.

This beautiful exploration of the essential queerness of nature gave me one of those deliciously transformative reading experiences where it feels like the book‘s in conversation with your life, from a passage about caterpillars‘ imaginal cells, amazing to hear after using the same metamorphic metaphor for my own life recently to a chapter about cicadas and “queering time,” the day after finding a beautiful fresh cicada husk! Euphoria, indeed.

I‘m still having a good time on Not-Hoth, but I‘ve got to space these out. The line-by-line writing quality started to get me in this one, which just felt more drawn out than the first two, though I loved the more active plot in this one and am curious to read the next when I get to it.

A recent bookplate book curse, from a 1928 first edition of Bells: Their History, Legends, Making, and Uses offered in a recent issue of our monthly rare book newsletter at UndergroundBooks.net 🔔📖🤬

As a rare bookseller, I‘ve encountered book curses, mostly in kids‘ scrawls and bookplates, and we even tried to deter a bout of theft by posting some in our open shop! This charmingly packaged, if unillustrated, collection of anti-theft book curses spans across history, from ancient Babylon to Medieval manuscripts to 20th-century America—offering a unique perspective on the history of the book and its (sometimes overzealous) ownership.

One of the most inventive, clever, and spellbinding fairy tale retellings I‘ve read in years—grown up fans of Ella Enchanted, T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and Rachel Hartman will be delighted by the knock-out potion Freya Marske has concocted out of a very rightfully enraged Cinderella, haunted houses, fairy curses, murder, sorcery, swoony queer romance, and the power of being seen.

In this encouraging and reflective guide, a chorus of voices respond to 20 of life‘s essential questions, like Why am I like this?, How do I figure out what I want?, and How do I go on? I was delighted to encounter writers like adrienne maree brown, Stephanie Foo, Alok Vaid-Menon, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Ocean Vuong among many more here. There were chapters I connected to more than others, but overall I recommend for anyone struggling.

I‘m having a GOOD TIME.

Soulful and raw, wise and whimsical, Something in the Woods Loves You is a memoir of severe depression, therapy and recovery, and the transformative power of our relationship with nature—a living invitation of kinship with and inspiration from the world around us. A new all-time favorite, full of passages I underlined to return to in times of need—highly recommended for fans of Mary Oliver!

The aching queer romance, found family, and representation of the challenging dynamics of being a woman astronaut are what I loved most about Atmosphere…but I found myself looking for a more pronounced sense of time (the 1980s) and place (NASA). I would recommend this to fans of Lessons in Chemistry that I would like to convert into fans of The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal!

A dark and beautiful fable, this graphic novel follows the orphaned daughter of witches whose debt to a magical well requires she fulfill three of the wishes cast into its depths. Recommended for fans of K O‘Neill!

While this graphic memoir offers a unique, distinct, and compelling account of growing up and becoming politically active in post-Soviet Poland, it also often reads like a series of breadcrumbs to shape back into a loaf—it can be fractured and hard to follow.

I had a good ass time and already picked up the second book—fans of Morning Glory Milking Farm will find this sweet and spicy, but with significantly more snow, survival, and alien threats.

Powerful, expansive, clear, compellingly told, heartbreaking, and yet hopeful, by the end of this short yet transformative read, you‘ll be agreeing with John Green: everything is tuberculosis.

If you wrote “NEW ALI HAZELWOOD BOOK IN HERE” on the outside of a wishing well then you came there at night with a flashlight and looked down in there, I‘d be there. Having pursued an older man as a trauma-surviving independent college student, and being married to that man for 11 years now, Problematic Summer Romance was practically fan service and it‘s me, I‘m the fan. 💃

A short, delightful, and inventive trip back to the world of Holly Black‘s Folk of the Air series!

This is a useful, relatively quick-reading resource for those delving deeper into fairy tales, their history, and most of all, their critical and popular reception. A bit dated (a couple of unnecessary references to Harry Potter, for instance) and I wish the author had spent more time on Les Conteuses of the 17th century and their use of the literary fairy tales as resistance, but I found a lot of useful context too!

This whimsical, warm-hearted, wonder-filled fantasy is full of found family, grumpy x grumpy romance, old spell books, the magic of home—and one conniving fox! Sangu Mandanna is a sorceress of cozy, steamy romantasy with heart and I will happily follow her to the warm hearth and unexpected lemon tea showers of Batty Hole Inn—and beyond!

I loved the historical context and the #development and relationship between the Luna sisters, but it didn‘t do a lot for me as a romance, with some instant attraction and pacing issues.

Wow I feel personally attacked by getting sent this ARC—everyone on our staff laughed, they got me HARD! I have to say there wasn‘t a lot new to me in this book, but it made an impactful, concise, and accessible summary of my past 10+ years in therapy—so if you have noticed fawning or people-pleasing as a theme in your life, you should absolutely read this book. It will help you and heal you, you are not alone (and no one‘s mad at you). ❤️

Though sprawling, this book is a testament to the “ability of small groups of outsiders to challenge huge powers precisely because they have strengths that those powers see as weaknesses,” demonstrating how “the very people Hitler‘s Reich sought to exclude or destroy were singularly equipped to defeat him,” contributing their diverse backgrounds and scholarly skills to the newborn US intelligence service and playing a pivotal role in winning WWII.

If you‘re interested in delightful, revelatory, queer historical romance starring lovable characters with fascinating period-informed passions, then I‘m thrilled if I get to introduce you to Joanna Lowell! The love, adventure, and fulfillment aspiring archaeologist Elfreda and nonbinary performer Georgie discover is rich and precious indeed, and I relished learning about queerness, archaeology, and theatre in the Regency era through their romance!

Dive deeper into the world of A Study in Drowning, into the dreams of Preston Héloury and the lore of the Sleepers, as Ava S. Reid‘s Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy continues! With the lush literary romance of Divine Rivals and the incisive magical dark academia of Babel, this series is a must-read, and A Theory of Dreaming only swept me further off my feet and out to (a palace beneath the) sea.

Sarah Kay‘s poems are a balm and boon companion for those of us who often find ourselves “ever-clumsy footing through the haze of this humanness…” Read and return to this radiant book when life is unbearably messy and tender, and you‘ll find a friend who will sit beside you and mirror the Little Daylight Yet into new prisms and perspectives.

The cozy small business story of Legends & Lattes meets the progressive sci-fi of Becky Chambers, with a flavor entirely its own, in this fresh, heartwarming tale about a motley crew of robots launching a restaurant amid PTSD, prejudice, and review bombing in a future post-war San Francisco. I ATE this UP and already miss the team at Automatic Noodle and the friendship, pride, and love found at the bottom of a bowl of their biang biang noodles!

I‘ve read all of India Holton‘s books, and this is another pleasant, humorous Victorian romantasy that made for light and easy listening! But, although the characters, romances, and magic is different in each one, I also find myself getting progressively bored with them, I‘m sad to say 😕

T. Kingfisher‘s spellbinding dark fairy tales never miss! Hemlock & Silver is a mysterious, surprising, and satisfying twist on the classic fairy tale of Snow White, in an immersive world all its own, starring a mid-30s spinster poison expert, a gruff bodyguard, the scientific method, and the most unsettling magic mirror you‘ll ever face! I loved this one and think it will please fans of Nettle & Bone like me! 🍎🪞🤢

This one is for everyone who grew up reading Tamora Pierce—but especially for the generation after. In Lorel, we have a courageous and tender-hearted transfemme lead disguising herself and going after her dream of joining an order of witches. The characters, world-building, and magic were wonderful—but I expected more depth and complexity from a bildungsroman marketed to adults vs a YA novel. Maybe the sequel will bring more, I‘ll be waiting!

For being such a quick listen, this is a satisfying, spicy trademark Ali Hazelwood romance, perfect for sidestepping a book hangover from LOVING Deep End! I really enjoyed the setting—rival video game developer firms at a forced retreat to test if they can handle a meaningful and compelling installment of a beloved game. Fantastic!

This is the first Ali Hazelwood I didn‘t read the second I could get my mitts on it, and that will never happen again. I was put off by some marketing that this was darker, and I didn‘t love the drama in Not In Love and worried it would be similar, but this is a new all-time fav, exploring a dominance and submission kink in a super hot, emotionally complex, and still giggle-and-kick-your-feet worthy way—trademarks of all my favs by this author!

Suzanne Collins gives us another revelatory, thought-provoking, tragic, and hopeful piece of Hunger Games history in this prequel starring our favorite, inebriated mentor from District 12, in his own lethal Quarter Quell, when he was 16 and in love with a daring Covey girl of his own. The insights and character origins we get are more than worth the read on their own, but young Haymitch‘s powerful examination of propaganda is even more valuable.

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders casts her most powerful spell here—transforming the raw ingredients of grief, generational trauma, smear campaigns, and transphobia, with queer love, community organizing, and the heart‘s truest desires to craft a deeply relevant, resonant, painful, and healing masterwork, charged through with unwavering realism and unwieldy magic, and an 18th century literary mystery bubbling up from below!

An absolute masterpiece, this book-within-a-book follows a disabled Nigerian-American author as she skyrockets to fame—and the main character of her book, Ankara, a “rusted robot” and android scholar on a post-human Earth. Disability, identity, family, fame, what it means to be the author of your own story, Okorafor offers a rich and razor sharp exploration of it all in Death of the Author, with an ending that made me want to start all over again!

The traditional magic British boarding school like you‘ve never seen it before—through the eyes of the highly competent, over-worked Director of Magic who has to keep a centuries-old campus and its reckless students safe from the demons her own power runs off. I loved seeing one of my all-time favorite tropes turned on its head, with a badass bisexual magician at the helm! Highly recommended for fans of the Scholomance trilogy & Magic for Liars.

Don‘t let the serene cover fool you—nor the accessibility or beauty of Mary Oliver‘s poetry—this celebration of the beloved poet is as multifaceted, wry, sharp, and fearless of the depths as Mary Oliver was herself. The reverent, nature-loving, queer, chain smoking mystic of forest, stream, and shore is vividly remembered in this gift of an audiobook, featuring celebrated poets, Mary Oliver‘s students, stars, activists, and more.

Do you want to know what madness feels like? Or maybe you already do, but seeing your experience reflected in a modern classic might make you feel less alone or give you a new perspective? The Bell Jar is a complex, vivid, and beautifully, painfully wrought masterpiece, at turns scathingly funny, uncomfortably ugly, blazingly honest, and unbearably real. If you‘ve worked hard, followed the rules, only to realize it‘s all phony, this is for you.

A C.M. Nascosta monster romance is always a good time! This one has a slow start, but once our somewhat immature werewolf, back home in Cambric Creek under his esteemed family‘s paw, meets the divorcée who wants his baby…things start shape shifting up! The spice is top shelf as always, and I really appreciated this story line‘s spin on the tropes!

This follow up to one of my favorite fantasies follows the librarian who created The Spellshop‘s sentient spider plant. When Terlu wakes after years in statue form, she finds herself on an island of magical greenhouses, full of powerful plants, singing flowers, and tiny pollinating dragons, but empty of anyone except a reclusive gardener with a baking talent. A little long, but a lovely and heartening story about loss, loneliness, and community.

This second book in the Carls duology dramatically expands the roles of its diverse, flawed, and lovable supporting characters, as well as the plane of action and the stakes—from first contact to corporate espionage and far beyond. I took my time with this one because I‘d rather be in Hank Green‘s dystopic world than this one.

This reader will follow R.F. Kuang anywhere, even to Hell and (hopefully) back, hot on the heels of two rival Cambridge students who must bring their advisor back from the dead to graduate. Katabasis is the ultimate dark academia fantasy about the denial of the flesh, hellish demands, deals with the devil it can take to ascend the ivory tower, to live “the life of the mind”—but above all, a romantic revelation about what really makes life magical.

A wryly funny, complex, and lovable queer cast of characters ground this ambitious and engaging exploration of how humans respond to the unknown and to the crucible of social media celebrity—ultimately resonating deeply as a celebration of curiosity, found family, and online community. Recommended for fans of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow!

8 fairy tales by the woman who coined the term are presented in a fresh translation by foremost fairy scholar Jack Zipes and reinterpreted in full color illustrations that vary from enchanting to grotesque by Natalie Frank. At their best, you can easily see the line from Marie-Catherine d‘Aulnoy to Angela Carter and beyond, but some definitely feel more relevant and provocative than others.

A lady left with only half a soul by the High Fae meets a grumpy sorcerer with a heart of gold in this utterly charming and delightfully unexpected Regency-era fairy tale. Sorcery, social justice, slowburn romance, found family, and an encouraging message about what makes life worth living in an unjust society makes this highly recommended for fans of The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, & The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk!

Welcome to the Fairweather, a generation ship whose passengers regenerate new bodies when they die, or let their minds rest, literally, in the library. When a real death occurs, shrewd ship‘s detective Dorothy Gentleman finds herself back in a body—and it might be the murderer‘s. If you love to solve a mystery, this may not be for you, but as more of a sci-fi fan, I didn‘t mind letting Dorothy do all the hard work while I enjoyed the stellar view!

Inspired by the history of 15th century West Africa and the myth of Persephone, this well-plotted and rivetingly-told historical fiction is for fans of women‘s rights—but more importantly women‘s wrongs, troubled mother-daughter relationships, court intrigue, and underdogs who bite back. I do wish we‘d gotten more of Òdòdó‘s backstory so her character development was deeper and richer.

A temp takes her many jobs to mythic proportions—pirate, assassin, purveyor of pamphlets, and more—in this quirky, absurd, moving, and ultimately devastating meditation on the ways humans strive for permanence and stability in a world that‘s ever changing.

Brief yet astonishingly beautiful, this Booker Prize winner follows 6 astronauts from around the world, as they travel not to the moon or Mars or galaxies unknown, but around our own planet. Aboard the International Space Station, they witness 16 sunrises and sunsets over just 24 hours, reflecting on their lives, loved ones, borders, time, and space. Slightly less substantial or radical than I‘d like, but a worthwhile trip all the same!

My father-in-law recently asked me why I cry. I burst out laughing— isn‘t it obvious? Then I picked up The Art of Crying! This illustrated work of graphic nonfiction blends history, science, and memoir to explore why, in a world of over 2 million animals, humans are the only species who shed tears emotionally. It turns out that asking why we cry is a great question—with an extraordinary answer that reveals the beauty, mystery, and power of tears.