1. The Dream Hotel by Laila L 2. Bitter Root vol. 3 3. Bitter Root vol. 4 4. Night Blooming by Chelsea Quinn Yabro 5. 2312 Kim Stanley Robinson 6. Omens by Kelley Armstrong 7. Don't Let Her Stay by Nicola Sanders. 8. The Conjuring of America by Lindsey Stewart 9. A Djinn Waits 100 Years. 10. Melancolia by Sumiko Saulson 11. The Reformatory Tannarive Due. 12. The Girl Called Cthulhu 13. The Desert Peach

February Reads #BookSky #AmReading
Standout books:

*The Conjuring of America
*A Djinn Waits One Hundred Years
*The Dream Hotel

Sumiko Saulson's Melancholia continues my poetry reading goal for the year.

I'll miss Minky Woodcock (The Girl Called Ctlhulu)

Reread: The Reformatory

1. We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad. 2. Planetfall by Emma Newman 3. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch 4. All Fours by Miranda July 5. Cages by Dave Mckean 6. Eat the Ones You Love 7. Wild Faith by Talia Lavin 8. Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten by Lisa Ungar 9. Bitter Root vol. 2 10. Is My Chainsaw a Heart: 13 Centos by Elizabeth McClellan. 11. A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall 12. The Unveiling by Quan Barry. 13. Morbidly Curious by Coltan Scrivner

January Reads #BookSky #AmReading

Standout reads:
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad
All Fours by Miranda July
Catching Big Fish by David Lynch

Is My Chainsaw a Heart: 13 Centos by Elizabeth McClellan (one of my goals is to read my poetry this year and this collection was amazing)

Year wrap up info graphic from Story Graph. 1st book read One perfect couple, last: everyone is lying to you, longest: Les Miserable, Shortest: Hunchback

My 2025 reading wrap up according to StoryGraph

I read a total of 158 books.

I re-read a few from my past. Most re-reads were for a book club.

But I did revisit a half-remembered book from my teen years.

#BookSky #AmReading

1. Make Me Famous by Maud Ventura 2. Katabasis by RF Kuang 3. Deviant vol 1. 4. Deviant vol 2. 5. Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris 6. Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda 7. The Red Knot by Monique Asher 8. Why Are People Into That by Tina Horn 9. People of the Wolf by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear 10. Long Haul by Frank Figliuzzi 11. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer 12: What Waits in the Woods by Teri Parlato 13: Murderland 14. Clermont 15. Everyone Is Lying to You

My final reads for 2025
#BookSky #AmReading

Standout reads:
Katabasis
Annie Bot
Murderland
Deviant vol 1&2

1. Model Home by Rivers Solomon 2. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewelle 3. Scream with Me by Eleanor Johnson 4. Exposure by Ramona Emerson. 5. I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones 6. Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman 7. The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King 8. The Vampire of Vourla edited by Edited by Álvaro García Marín 9. Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead 10. Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza 11. The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass 12. Bitter Root vol. 1 Family Business 13. A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger 14. Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S Carroll

November Books - Top Reads:
Scream w/ Me by Eleanor Johnson

Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction & the Alt-Right by Jordan S Carroll

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza (I do feel like I missed something reading this in translation) #BookSky

A book cover collage. 1. Old Soul by Susan Barker 2. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher 3. Vantage Point by Sara Slinger. 4. Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read 5. The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica 6. LIsten to Your Sister by Neena Viel 7. Dark Renaissance by Stephen Greenblatt 8. The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce 9. Platonic by Marisa G Franco 10. Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly 11. The House of Quiet by Kerstin White 12. Mouse Guard Fall 1152 by David Petersen 13. The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

September Books

I read some awesome books this month.

All the nonfiction I picked up was outstanding

For fiction the standout books were:

Old Soul by Susan Baker

The Haunting of Room 905 by Erika T Wurth

The Unworthy by Augustina Bazterrica

#BookSky #AmReading

I chatted with a couple of other professors - all of them are going to message me about their work on monsters.

Plus a kid from the local community college interviewed me. He's going to send me the interview when it's done.

What I'm saying is I spent a day with my people and it was glorious
3/3🧵

And I got paid.

Y'all I offered to do this talk thinking it was a favor to a friend.

It never occurred to me that I'd get paid.

It was an academic talk, so it's not big money... But I'm buying my partner dinner.

2/3 🧵

A friend invited me to speak at a horror event at her library. I wasn't expecting so many people (I must have had 50 people - standing room only!!)

I had a blast talking about monsters with an audience who loves them as much as I do. 1/3 🧵

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1942-2025) Author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 82, died August 31, 2025. She was a prolific author who wrote more than 80 books, most in the horror, SF, and mystery genres, and was best known for her sprawling Saint…

Yarbro has long been one of my favorites. The depth of her historical research was astounding.

I don't know how could balance her research and writing time (and her St. Germain books are massive).

She created some of my favorite vampires.

locusmag.com/2025/09/chel...

I'm adding that to my list.

The only thing I read last month you might be interested in is "Hunchback"

A collage of book covers. 1. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo 2. Never Whistle After Dark (anthology) 3. The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes 4. Dark Restraint by Katee Robert 5. Snakes by Sadie Jones 6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 7. The Future by Naomi Alderman 8. The Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagnor 9. Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa 10. Smile for the Camera 11. Grommets 12. Mask of Deer Woman by Laura Dove

August Reads
#AmReading #BookSky

This month was a mix of books I'm trying to clear from my hold list at the library & others are for book clubs.

Standouts:

*Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
*Never Whistle at Night
*The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
*Grommets (entirely for the nostalgia)

Collage of book covers. 1. Blood Over Bright Haven M L Wang (book club) 2. The White Guy Dies First 3. Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla Cynthia von Buhler 4. The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft 5. Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley 6. Algorithms of Oppression 7. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter Stephen Graham Jones 8. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green 9. This Wretched Valley 10. Stray Dogs 11. Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert 12. Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson 13. Stone Heart by Katee Robert

July's books (top reads)

Stephen Graham Jones delivered (as usual)!

Katee Robert always a delight.

Stray Dogs (book club) was unexpectedly charming

The White Guy Dies First: great collection

The Girl Who Electrified Tesla was another fun installment in the collection

#BookSky #AmReading

Collage of book covers for my June reads. Titles: Autonomous, Foul Days, The Chrysalids, The Man in the High Castle, The Locked Ward, American Rapture, Wuthering Heights, Social Creature, On a Quiet Street, Berlin, Interior Chinatown, Hangsaman

I read a mix of things in June, most of them for bookclubs.

I've gotten off track for my goals: read what I own (which doesn't include buying new books, finishing series, & 1 nonfiction a month)

standout reads:

Interior Chinatown
Hangsaman
Berlin

#AmReading #BookSky

Very much. It was very well done. Thank you for the book.

A collage of book covers. Titles L-R. Bury Your Gays, Chuck Tingle. First Lie Wins. Traveling to Mars. Bright I Burn. The Venetian Secret. My Favorite Thing is Monsters 1. The Good of the Woods. Hammajang Luck. The Favor, Nicci French. Dead Dead Girls. In a Dark Dark Wood. The Solar Temple. The Astrology House. The Vampires of El Norte. Don't Sleep with the Dead. True Believers. Invisible Library. The Centre.

May books
Hammajang Luck and Bury Your Gays: delightfully fun.

Don't Sleep with the Dead was as beautiful as I expected.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters vol 1 was visually fantastic. And the story is great.

The Order of the Solar Temple is a fascinating essays on a cult

#BookSky #AmReading

Saw "Sinners" tonight with one of my favorite people. The movie was even more than I'd hoped for.

Plus we got to dissect the movie afterwards.

My partner is out, so it's horror movie night 🔪🩸. I opted for The Invitation (the vampire one). I have thoughts... They aren't positive 🤣 🦇

Mood Machine. Velvet Was the Night. Normalman. The Ghost Pirate Gambit. Careless People. Bad Summer People. Private Rites. Semiosis. The French Honeymoon. Sunny Places for Shady People. Out There. City of the Lost

April Reads
#BookSky #amreading #amwriting

I had a dream about Merlin last night. I'm certain it was partly from learning about the new manuscript that was discovered, and partly my anxiety brain acting up.

Regardless, I've been thinking about it all day

Book covers for: Beowulf:a new translation, drowning house, les miserables, invader, the villa, butch hijab blues, the island, zero days, flapper queens, creation lake, one of us knows, laziness does not exist

March Reads

Butch Hijab Blues is amazing

Flapper Queens is a bit of comic and women's history I didn't know enough about.

Creation Lake... I'm still thinking about it, so I think I liked it

The Villa had so much going for it, but it missed it's mark & the ending didn't land for me. #BookSky

A collage of book covers. Remote Control by Nnedi Okafor. Boys Weekend. Other Minds. Other Terrors. Son of Rosemary. Of One Blood. Sistah Samurai. When She Woke. Academy for Liars.

What I read in February
#BookSky
Some hits, some were ok... And yikes Son of Rosemary was bad.

The book, yes. But here's a look at the poem (plus some interesting play with it)

anmly.org/ap26/m-l-mar...

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE | M.L. Martin Learn about the history of the enigmatic, pre-10th c. poem known as "Wulf ond Eadwacer," and the radical features that make the original poem so compelling on the one hand, yet so difficult for schola...

There's this new translation of Wulf & Eadwacer, one of my favorite Anglo Saxon poems.

It's like 5 seconds of the class... But I spent an hour reading new translations and research.

www.m-l-martin.com/translator-s...

Just got lost in literary rabbit hole that won't end up in my class, did very little to help me prep the class (that starts in a week), but damn did it bring me joy.

James Baldwin - Death of the heart YouTube video by yoav meri

James Baldwin.

#BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth

youtu.be/qluqpvjqsiI?...

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of twentieth-century African-American literature. Hurston was closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance and has influenced such wri...

Zora Neale Hurston, like Hopkins, became a forgotten writer until she was rediscovered. Plus she was an early anthropologist.

#BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth
www.zoranealehurston.com

The Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society Biography of Pauline E. Hopkins (1859-1930) Biography courtesy of Ira Dworkin, Department of English, Texas A&M University. Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, who was born in Portland, Maine, in 1859, …

While Pauline Hopkins is better known for her romances, her novel "Of One Blood" is a glorious early science fiction adventure novel, full of mesmerism and spiritualism
(sciences of the times)
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackAuthors

www.paulinehopkinssociety.org/biography/

Of course you are :) I try to teach her everywhere I can.

Audre Lorde - There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppressions YouTube video by AfroMarxist

Continuing Black History month. The poet and activist Audre Lorde.

When I first read her in college both her sexuality and politics were removed from her bio and her poems her currated to avoid both.

It was only by reading her on my own that learned who she was

youtu.be/-CPAlSVaiL8?...