Book cover, THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, by Grady Hendrix. Berkley, 2021.
BOOK #20, 2026
THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, Grady Hendrix (2021)
Vastly entertaining homage to one specific horror trope; the “final girl,” the lone female survivor of a slasher film. There seems to be a lot of slasher-inspired fiction lately; this one is a stand-out.💙📚
Okay, you’re WAAAAYYY behind the curve. I reach Stage Curmudgeon when I was eleven. I currently sit at Stage Get Off My Lawn.
God I miss being 50. So much more idealistic than I am at 56.
“Solar and wind, now the cheapest forms of energy, account for just under nine per cent of electricity generation in Canada, well below the G7 average of 19 per cent.”
www.cbc.ca/news/science...
Book cover, LOOK AT THE BIRDIE, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dial Press, 2009.
BOOK #19, 2026
REREAD #5
LOOK AT THE BIRDIE, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (2009)
As witty, deceptive, & idiosyncratic as you’d expect from one of the finest writers of the past 1000 years. While unpublished in his lifetime, these stories show an author already struggling with the basic insanity of humanity. 💙📚
Book cover, 1922, by Stephen King. Scribner, 2025.
BOOK #18, 2026
1922, Stephen King (2025)
Spooky novella from a maestro. A farmer murders his wife with his son, leading them down a path of fear & guilt. As is customary in such tales, the outcome is a foregone conclusion; the treat is King’s excellence at creating mood and character development.💙📚
Book cover, NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, by Orrin Grey. WordHorde, 2025.
BOOK #17, 2026
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, Orrin Grey (2025)
A fine collection of Canuckian strange. Grey leads readers on a trek into the Hollow Earth, combining the pseudo-science of Jules Verve with beetles, cults, body horror, and pulpy Lovecraftian evils from beyond. It’s very effective. 💙📚
Elon Musk had DOGE defund USAID, the largest humanitarian organization in the world, causing HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of deaths from starvation and disease - and Trump GLEEFULLY approved it. It’s the single most evil act in US history. Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Seeing this tomorrow!
Book cover, GARTH MARENGHI’S THIS BURSTED EARTH, by Garth Marenghi. Coronet, 2025.
BOOK 16, 2026
GARTH MARENGHI’S THIS BURSTED EARTH, Garth Marenghi (2025)
As you’d expect from a man who said, “I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards,” Marenghi relays his tales through abundant asides & adverbs, repetition, and enough run-on sentences to give Bulwer-Lytton pause.💙📚
Book cover, 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, by Henry Slesar. BearManor Media, 1957, 2013.
BOOK #15, 2026
20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, Henry Slesar (1957)
Fairly rote adaptation of a classic creature feature. Still, it’s not so disposable as to deserve the shoddy release it gets from BearManor Media: nary a page passes without an error in spelling, punctuation, and/or formatting. 💙📚
Nice!
Book cover, THE UNMOTHERS, by Leslie J. Anderson. Quirk Books, 2024.
BOOK #14, 2026
THE UNMOTHERS, Leslie J. Anderson (2024)
After a report of a child born to a horse, a journalist discovers a town ruled by a ancient forest entity. Anderson creates a cosmic dread that lingers. Not quite WICKER MAN + horses, but it’s a tense dive into existential weird. Plus horses.💙📚
‘hits it out of the park’ is *especially* nice to see given that baseball’s Opening Day is this week!
Book cover, WRITTEN ON THE DARK, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ace, 2025.
BOOK #13, 2026
WRITTEN ON THE DARK, Guy Gavriel Kay (2025)
Twisty espionage thriller. A poet becomes a player in a web of conspiracies, assassinations, & war. Based loosely on events of medieval France, Kay hits it out of the park with intricate world-building, rich characters, & graceful writing.💙📚
Advocate: J.K. Rowling uses Harry Potter wealth to fund anti-transgender organization.
You absolutely cannot separate the artist and the art without contributing to the persecution of trans people. Boycott everything Potter.
NYT on Feb. 13, 2026: The visit also demonstrated the relative foreign policy inexperience of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who has made a few overseas trips since taking office but does not sit on any House committees devoted primarily to world affairs. She struggled at times to formulate succinct answers at a nighttime panel session, during which she was asked probing and specific questions about how to respond to international crises. Questioned about whether the United States should send troops to defend Taiwan if China invaded the island, she stalled for roughly 20 seconds before offering a substantive response. “I think that, uh, this is such a, a — you know, I think that — this is a, um — this is of course, a, uh, a very longstanding, um, policy of the United States,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said, before saying that the country should try to avoid reaching that point with China in the first place.
NYT on March 16, 2026: On Monday, Mr. Trump claimed that “numerous countries have told me they’re on the way,” noting that President Emmanuel Macron of France would most likely help in the Strait of Hormuz and was an eight out of 10. “Not perfect, but it’s France,” he said. Others are not demonstrating sufficient enthusiasm for his demands, he said.
Last month the NYT said AOC "struggled" to give an answer on Taiwan and quoted her with "uhs" and "ums" to make her look stupid
Yesterday talking about Hormuz Trump claimed he's heard from "numerous countries" and said "uh" four times. The NYT deleted the "uhs" and paraphrased him to look smarter:
41 people have died in ICE detention since the start of the second Trump administration. 12 of those deaths have occurred since January 1, 2026, roughly one every six days. Adam Sawyer and I mapped every death. Here's what the data shows. 🧵
Book cover, JACKAL, JACKAL: TALES OF THE DARK AND FANTASTIC, by Tobi Ogundiran. Undertow Publications, 2023.
BOOK #12, 2026
JACKAL, JACKAL, Tobi Ogundiran (2023)
Fascinating dark fantasy stories. Drawing on African folklore, Ogundiran’s tales are a marvellous mix of magic realism, fables, and horror. This is a sterling, imaginative collection by a talented author.
💙📚
"[T]he Lemkin Institute believes that the United States is squarely within the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against trans people, the goal of which is to completely erase transgender people not only from public life but also from existence in the U.S. and globally."
Hmmm, why would a guy not doing crimes need to hide so much?
Once again, Alberta proves itself the Canadian hotspot for ignorance, repression, and intolerance.
writersunion.ca/news/alberta...
Hegseth said there would be no stupid rules of engagement for Trump's war against Iran.
So they blew up a school full of children and have shown no remorse. How Christian.
Trans and queer writers review thirteen essential queer books (that weren’t covered by the New York Times Book Review during Pamela Paul’s reign).
In America, people are regularly forced to crowdfund cancer treatment.
Book cover, SLICE THE WATER, by PP Wong. Goose Lane Editions, 2025.
BOOK #11, 2026
SLICE THE WATER, PP Wong (2025)
A fractured dystopia only seconds away from the dystopia we’re in. We follow Fred, a boy of the island nation of Mahana, swept up in an underground political movement. Part coming-of-age tale, part satirical fable, part prescient warning.
💙📚
Agreed, LOVED it, it takes big swings like few movies do nowadays.
