Book Recs for Very Specific Moods

Based on my faves from 2023

I read some books this year. Here are some of my favorites.

*Where marked, what I actually read this year was the sequel or even the entire series, but I’m just recommending the first book because I’m assuming you’re not gonna start in the middle.

Just Tell Me What’s Good for Me

Don’t ask questions, just read these and thank me later.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities. What Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

If you’ve been paying attention to social media you know these books made me lose my shit. This year for Christmas I’m giving them to a fourteen-year-old girl and a woman in her thirties and I feel sure they will both love them.

*The Murderbot Diaries (series of novellas) by Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Recommending these books is like recommending ice cream; I almost don’t feel like I need to do it because duh, who doesn’t like ice cream? (I know, I know, some people don’t. But we do not speak of them here.) Anyway they’re excellent, funny, sometimes heart-breaking (poor Murderbot!) and the audiobooks are particularly good.

I Just Really Want to Spend Time There

Not sure how a book can feel cozy when people are getting murdered or there are literal monsters afoot, but these do.

*The Luminaries by Susan Dennard

Hemlock Falls isn't like other towns. You won't find it on a map, your phone won't work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you.

Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie's town—and the rest of humanity—from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night.

Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal—and restore her family's good name. Or die trying.

But in order to survive, Winnie enlists the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should. Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for.

These books are set in a fictional town that’s very insular, so there’s a kind of warm, lived-in feeling to them despite the constant creep of danger. Also the “a long time ago, we used to be friends” vibe of Winnie and her ex-friends contributes to that feeling of history. Kudos to Susan Dennard, because building that kind of feeling— that a place has existed long before the first page of the story— is not easy.

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces.

One of the nice things about an author transitioning from YA works to adult is that they tend to give themselves permission to settle into a world a lot more; this one is lush and I really enjoyed being there. It was like that whole section of the Witcher 3 where you first get to Novigrad, aka my favorite section.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.

CAN WE PLEASE GET A CRUISE THROUGH SPACE IN MY LIFETIME. I will see you all at the pool. But I guess in the meantime, this book will let me go there in my mind. It’s a murder mystery, it’s in space, there are cocktail recipes scattered throughout— this book is a puzzle set in a place you’ll wish existed.

Earth Is Trash, Space Sounds Nice

Do I really need to explain this sentiment?

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.

The best kind of locked-room mystery is the one where, outside of said “locked room,” you will lit’rally die in the vacuum of space. I actually had to stop listening to this on audiobook and rustle up an old ARC because the audio just was not fast enough.

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.”

She knows they’re humanity's last chance.

I’m sure J.S. Dewes is tired of this comparison, but if you ever played Mass Effect and loved it and wished you could just kind of live in that story forever, these books will scratch that itch without being too similar. It was action-packed with lovable characters and I pretty much immediately read the second one after the first was done, which is rare for me.

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, she escapes from everything she’s ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.

This book is about someone getting out of a cult, basically, only the cult is in space and is wrapped around the worship of Earth. Kyr’s POV is claustrophobic in the best way, and I enjoyed watching her see through the haze in her mind more and more as the story progressed.

I Just Want to Watch A Good Person Do Well

And if a part of you is like “goblins, though?” just tell that part to stfu.

Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend... and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.

I confess that I didn’t really understand the appeal of “cozy fantasy” until I read this book. (No shade, this is just how I’m wired.) It helps that this story isn’t nonstop good vibes— my mind does not trust nonstop good vibes— but it’s about a good person navigating a complicated political situation and ultimately succeeding through his innate goodness, and I really could have just kept reading it forever.

Me & A Friend Wanna Screech At Each Other in the Text Chain

HAVE YOU GOTTEN TO THE PART WHERE—

*The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

It was the sequel that I read this year, but like, have you read the Atlas Six yet? It’s basically CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER: intense annoying girl that you either knew or were yourself in college, or possible-sociopath-with-a-conscience, or irritable plant lady who just wants to be left alone (Reina, are you me?). And it’s also WHO’S GONNA MAKE OUT WITH WHO, in the best way, and the answers will surprise you. Seriously, read this with a friend; I screamed at my friend Laurie when I read this and it really enhanced the experience.

Oh, I Know This One… Wait. No I Don’t.

Your classic “orphan plucked from obscurity by a wealthy benefactor attends a fancy school” story, except then SHIT. GETS. WILD.

The Will of the Many by James Islington

The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

There are a lot of familiar beats here— that’s not a criticism, because it can be a real pleasure to know where you’re going in a book and then to put yourself in the hands of a capable author to go there— but what it’s building toward, world-building wise, and how…is a real joy. I am so, so interested in where the sequel will go.

I Need to Have Something In Common with My Dad

Listen: it was published in 1989 and you gotta be ready for some old school sci fi vibes, but it blew my mind a little. I probably just made a science fiction enthusiast shudder with horror at that description.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

I wouldn’t recommend this to just anyone— you have to be someone who is so enamored of science fiction and fantasy world-building that you’re willing to just surrender to an entire book’s worth of it. But this book is brilliant (coldest take ever; its brilliance is well known). It’s structured like the Canterbury Tales in that it’s a group of people on a journey, each of whom tells a story, and the way their stories build on each other, fleshing out other parts of the world but also piecing together a mystery, is really interesting and satisfying.

What to Add To Your TBR

I mean, it’s my newsletter. May 14th, people!

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Step into a city where monsters feast on human emotions, knights split their souls to make their weapons, and witches always take more than they give.

Pain is Dymitr’s calling. To slay the monsters he’s been raised to kill, he had to split his soul in half to make a sword from his own spine. Every time he draws it, he gets blood on his hands.

Pain is Ala’s inheritance. When her mother died, a family curse to witness horrors committed by the Holy Order was passed onto her. The curse will claim her life, as it did her mother’s, unless she can find a cure.

One fateful night in Chicago, Dymitr comes to Ala with a bargain: her help in finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga in exchange for an enchanted flower that just might cure her. Desperate, and unaware of what Dymitr really is, Ala agrees.

But they only have one day before the flower dies . . . and Ala's hopes of breaking the curse along with it.

Trust me. You’ll love it.