It Was Sad & It Was Beautiful

Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian. Finished July 17, 2026; paperback

I read chapter one of this weeks ago, but got distracted and didn’t pick it up again until yesterday and then proceeded to devour it in one day. In true Cat Sebastian fashion, this one was heartfelt and warm and real. It’s an m/m romance with an Agatha Christie-like murder mystery in an English village right after WWII. James is the country doctor suffering from PTSD and trying his best to be a useful member of the community and keep his demons at bay. Leo is a spy working for the government and going undercover to try and find out what shady dealings are going on at the local aristocrat’s house after a mysterious death. I just love how James and Leo quickly start seeking each other out and ignoring all the things that are against them as they develop genuine feelings for each other. There’s a second book following James/Leo that I’ll be starting soon no doubt. Cat Sebastian strikes (Cupid style) once again.

Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler. Finished July 9, 2026; audiobook on Everand

Okay here’s the blurb for this book from Goodreads, because that’s all I needed to see to pick this one up. That and the reference to the Rolling Stones song in the title:

“East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.

Renata has other problems, too. There's something strange happening in her neighborhood, advertisements for paranormal 'exterminators' who promise to clear out bad energy keep showing up. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts as part of a city-wide gentrification plot to make downtown safe for Reaganites. Told with humour and pathos, Waiting on a Friend is a genre-bending retelling of Queer history that manages to be both heartbreaking and healing.”

The narrator was great, the storytelling was told in what felt like vignettes about all the main character’s circle of people, but it also had a kind of beatnik attitude about it all. It was really good and I had to take some contemplation time after finishing, it didn’t feel right to seek out another story immediately after this, I needed to sit with it for a few hours.

Desert Star by Michael Connelly. Finished July 7, 2026; audiobook on audible

Look, I can’t get enough of the back and forth narration of Christine Lakin and Titus Welliver, it’s like candy or potato chips. Snackable narration. Anyway, old man Bosch was off the rails in this one. Not much else to say except I listened to this over maybe a day and a half, like I said snackable. There’s one more Bosch and Ballard book left after this one.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin. Finished July 5, 2026; audiobook on audible

Not Rob Inglis narration growing on me though lol. But I’m also happy to see that Jenny Sterlin does narration later in the series as she is one of my favorite narrators. Dude this book was so much darker than I imagined it would be. The scenario that takes Tenar to the tombs, the life she lives there, the radicalization she undergoes during her time there, and the difficulty of breaking out of that mindset, super dark stuff guys. I did enjoy the POV switch from the first book and I like that each book might be a new POV with Ged continuing to appear. On to the next..

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Finished June 30, 2026; audiobook on Spotify

I started the Earthsea books on a friend’s (long-awaited) recommendation. I admire Ursula K. Le Guin and have read a few of her books (Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed), which were amazing, but I don’t know much about her career outside of one insane podcast episode about her family/early life and the (on-point) quotes that float around the internet. This first book could be a standalone, you get everything you need from a fantasy story here, but you can also see the potential for more. I really liked how the world-building was done as a complement to the characters’ stories. It doesn’t feel like oh I have a great idea for a fantasy world, let me show you through these characters, but more like here are some interesting characters and the world they inhabit. I continued on to the 2nd book right away. And shoutout to Rob Inglis for pronouncing evil like he was channeling Christopher Lee lol.