May reading
My reading pace slowed down a bit this month, since I’ve still got all of June and July to finish my Hugos reading. I still finished 14 books, which is a nice pace, and I finished my first three books toward the 2026 Seattle Public Library Adult Book Bingo summer reading program.
Also, my husband just started reading Moby Dick, which honestly sounds more daunting to me than all the 150-175 books I expect to finish in 2026.
Serving Up Scripture by Jennifer Garcia Bashaw and Aaron Higashi. An IMHO excellent guide to reading and interpreting the Bible for progressive Christians of various stripes and/or people deconstructing from more conservative/fundamentalist approaches.
The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor. Hugo finalist, Graphic Story or Comic. A sweet, imaginative middle grade graphic novel wherein Periwinkle the cat (inspired by the author's real-life cat of the same name) has adventures in space and battling alien invaders on earth while his humans are sleeping.
They Bloom at Night by Thang Thanh Tran. Hugo finalist, Lodestar YA award. Once again the Hugo and Nebula lists have me reading more horror than I ever would've touched on my own. I feel like more horror has been finaling relative to SF and fantasy in recent years, though that may be biased by the fact I've only recently joined SFWA and started attending WorldCons and therefore trying to read as much of the list as I can. Anyway, this is hella atmospheric (and set in a hellish dystopian Louisiana bayou), so I'm sure a real horror fan would love it.
The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo & John Picacio. Now, I may not love horror, but spooky I am fine with, as long as there aren't too many spiders involved. This children's picture book about a girl whose deep grief for her beloved grandfather is causing her to withdraw from the world, but who begins to come to a place of healing and acceptance via Dia de Muertos, is full of skeletons and graveyard imagery while also being gentle and comforting.
Platform Decay by Martha Wells. The newest Murderbot novella, released today. I confess to being a little disappointed that it was mostly about Murderbot and some new humans, when I could happily read infinite stories about Murderbot, ART, and my favorites among its existing sets of humans (Mensah, Pin-Lee, Ratthi, Gurathin, Amena, etc.). But I love Murderbot regardless.
Built on Bones by Brenna Hassett. A chatty, rambling overview of the impact of urbanism on the human body from the Neolithic forward.
Cinder House by Freya Marske. Hugo finalist, Novella. I have no idea how I'm going to rank the finalists in this category, because they're all so good. This is a Cinderella retelling with both Gothic and romantasy elements, and I loved it.
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher. Hugo finalist, Novella. OK, I will continue to make an exception to my non-love of horror for T. Kingfisher, and I'm going to have to go back and read the first two books in this series. I love the narrator and the voice. And wow, in my admittedly limited experience of reading all the finalists for a particular literary award, this year's Hugo novellas are the best. Uniquely yet uniformly amazing.
The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans. First in a trilogy, this history looks at Germany from roughly the end of the Bismarck era through 1933, growing more granular the closer we get to that fateful date. It's obviously not a happy fun read, but it's informative and thoughtful. Also, the fact it was published over 20 years ago makes certain present-day parallels all the more striking--the ineptitude of mainstream parties and politicians, the willingness of many voters to take a shot on a problematic outsider due to dissatisfaction with a genuinely broken status quo, right-wing bias across the justice system from the police up to the highest courts, etc. Though I do take comfort in the fact America has been doing democracy, however imperfectly, for a lot longer--we've got traditions and muscle memory around protest and free speech in particular that just weren't available in Weimar Germany.
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. SPL Summer Book Bingo, Historical category. After these last two books, I mainly hope the 2020s won't look as dreadful as the 1930s after time for hindsight. I hope we are doing and will continue to do better, but the jury is still out.
Love Wins by Rob Bell. SPL Summer Book Bingo, Eye-Opening category. I'm counting this as eye-opening because, after having basically deconstructed my evangelical faith and found my way into the Episcopalian form of progressive Christianity, I'm finally starting to read more theological works from my new perspective (as opposed to memoirs and cultural critiques). I found this one thoughtful and fitting my understanding of a loving God, though Bell's chatty-poetic writing style isn't really my cup of tea.
Web of Love by Mary Balogh. SPL Summer Book Bingo, Unplug category. (The definition for this category was "Step away from your devices and read distraction-free," and this book fit as a very rare paperback read for my ebook-loving self.) This is one of Balogh's earlier works, dating to 1990, and I think she grew stronger as a writer later in her career. With that said, I did like the old-school aspect of a romance with a large cast of characters and a longish time frame, almost a historical novel with a romance in it rather than a historical romance.
Adulthood is a Gift by Sarah Andersen. I happened to see this book in either my LT or local library's recommendations and picked it up as a much-needed light and relaxing weekend read.
Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch. Hugo Finalist, Novelette, and also SPL Summer Book Bingo, Under 150 Pages category. Wherein a well-intentioned but baffled alien sea monster tries to stop nuclear proliferation during the cold war era.