Books and Ghosts

Tagged by @thiswaitingheart :) thanks!!

Number of books you’ve read so far:

66! 23 manga, 5 nonfiction, and 38 fiction!

Best book you’ve read so far in 2026:

There isn't one that really punched me in the brain yet, here's a few contenders... The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz, The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip, and Chalice by Robin McKinley

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2026:

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad, On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle, and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (I'm loving the whole Murderbot series but this is my favourite so far).

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

I have a few, but my next "new" read is a toss-up between Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay and The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke. Electric Sheep looks WILD but I also don't want to let another V. E. Schwab (co)authored book rot on my shelf for ages

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

Victorious by V. E. Schwab and Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo. Finally the conclusions to some long-running series! (there was so much time between Hell Bent and Dead Beat that I actually was surprised to learn there would be a third book). Also As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers, which I just found out about recently.

Biggest surprise favourite new author (debut or new to you):

Was surprised how much I liked There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm! Also, an oldie, but I love Eve Babitz's chatty, diary-style short stories.

Newest fictional crush:

Laura from The Incandescent

Book that made you cry:

Our Wives Under the Sea was ROUGH

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received):

My clothbound, embossed edition of The Silmarillion

Book that made you happy:

Delicious in Dungeon was a delight.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I don't remember my exact 2026 goals, but here's a vague list of hopes and dreams:

Read the new releases I insisted on buying brand-new and expensive (Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay, Sublimation by Isabel J Kim, The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke)

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab, which have sat on my tbr for far too long (also, I want to reread Shades of Magic before I read Threads of Power)

Prairie Fairies by Valerie J Korinek (hoping to finish this by the end of summer. reading for 15 mins/about 10 pages per day has been surprisingly successful)

5 more nonfiction books

at least 1 more Charles de Lint (I'm thinking Memory and Dream, which has been on my tbr the longest)

finish Murderbot (only the 3 novels left!)

catch up on Frieren (currently on book 8/15)

reread Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce and maaaaybe the Beka Cooper series, or else starting the Circle of Magic series (I was planning to reread all of Tortall and then start Emelan but now I miss my Emelan fwiends...)

COVER REVEAL! our talented designer, Miss Nat Mack, had to fit in a lot of discordant imagery such as: spider centaurs, medieval times, beetle aliens, goddesses, spaceships, tentacled brain slugs, and of course, m/m erotiscism.

the book's not out until next March, so pre-order links are still going live, but I'll list the early ones under the readmore:

“The Perfect Heist Hack”

Fun Fact: I modified a pair of pants for this sketch so I could hold 30 feet of rope and a full-sized grappling hook in the pant leg. Useful!

here's mickey, goofy, donald, and chip & dale. yeah they turned mickey & friends into anime boys. they're an idol unit or something. they're technically not anime boy versions of the source characters, they have different names. mickey's guy is "Neo Michel". not michael, michel, like he's french. chip & dale are "Ruska Moncrief" and "Ranka Monk", they have different last names, they're not brothers anymore so that they can be yaoibait instead, anyways this post isn't actually about these guys I'm just setting the stage for the actual humanizations I wanted to show you

They also did monsters inc. And. Well it's obvious from the designs who mike and sully are. but you will also notice. the blonde one on the left. with glasses. monsters inc is kind of famously about just the two guys so they didn't really have a lot of other non-villain characters to take anime boys inspiration from, I guess, so, well,

Children placed in residental schools were abused, murdered, and sold into arranged marriages with white men. More recently, children "adopted" out into white households are often also subjected to the same, as well as forcibly converted to Christianity.