I was late to the game in discovering, This Is How You Lose the Time War. Sometimes, when a book comes out that I think looks absolutely brilliant, I put it on my “to-be-read-list”, but it will stay there until I have the necessary brain space to process something brilliant. I don't want to read it just to check it off the list. I want to read it to enjoy it, to savor it, to give it the attention it deserves. I want to relish a story, not rush a narrative. And so, at the beginning of 2024, I decided the brain space had become available and I decided that I was going to choose the audiobook format.

When I was thirteen years old, I decided to dip my toes into classic literature. I started with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen because it's supposedly beginner-friendly.

I ordered a cheap copy online; when the parcel arrived, I was thrumming with excitement as I tore it open. But even with a hefty dictionary beside me, trying to read the first line had me intimidated and lost.

One of my favorite things to do during the coziest of seasons is to curl up with a good book in my armchair by the window, sip on a mug of hot apple cider, and watch the snow falling through the soft lamplight.

But what to read?!

Spooky runs through my veins (literally – ask any haunted house designer or movie-magic maven, blood is super spooky). For many, a list of their favorite things would include raindrops on roses or maybe whiskers on kittens. But for me? It’s darkened halls and a shadow moving where it shouldn't…

Horror fans of the world, our time is approaching. Fall is here, and soon spooky season will be in full swing. I’m always on the hunt for new horror media in the fall, and if you’re like me in this regard, you’ll want to check out Caitlin Starling’s new book from St. Martin’s Press, Last to Leave the Room.

I’ve recently read three otherwise amazing novels that have all disturbed me for the same unusual reason: they used sexual assault as a surprise-subplot or weird character journey late in the story.

The translation of grief into language has been a site of frustration for generations of writers. As British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in his poem In Memoriam, “I sometimes hold it half a sin / To put in words the grief I feel; / For words, like Nature half reveal / And half conceal the Soul within.”

My favorite books have a larger-than-life character lurking in the background of every scene, influencing every plot point, every character arc: the physical setting.