@philipcardella
Thanks for the recommendation. There's so much I'm learning, reading on my own that I never learned as an actual history student. I appreciate recommendations that can help me bring those blindspots into sharp focus.

@MotherDucker np

Btw my go to is Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman. It's about violence in Congress in the antebellum period. It's ... Much more interesting than that sounds. Lol. Masterfully written.

@KevyKevY2K11 that certainly sounds like an important and *conspicuously inconspicuous cough* timely read. Thanks for the rec.
I'm gearing up to re-read Red Clocks by Leni Zumas. Because... Ya know. Forthcoming tyranny over repro rights... 😥

@GypsyGirl I'm definitely into history and badass women overshadowed by HIStory finally getting their overdue recognition. I'm adding it to my list. Thanks for the rec!

Hey there, @mindbat thanks for asking!
1. A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
2. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (a re-read)
3. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

Is this your first go round with a Stephen King, or are you familiar with many of his works? My favorite of his is one of his shorts called Elevation.

@MotherDucker Ooh, Alix Harrow’s on my TBR…sounds like I should move it up in the list?

It’s my first go-round with King’s horror. I loved his Gunslinger series back in college :)

Last year I decided to work my way through all his books I missed out on earlier, starting with Carrie and going forwards from there. It’s been…interesting, seeing how his writing style evolves over time.

@mindbat absolutely yes! Alix Harrow can do no wrong in my book. (The Once and Future Witches is also just chef's kiss perfection.)

That's what I forgot to mention, Elevation isn't horror. Unpopular opinion maybe: but his non-horror works are... better. There I said it!

@MotherDucker *slots Once and Future Witches and Elevation into TBR pile*

Thanks for the recommendations!

And no worries re: King’s non-horror 😅 Certainly seems to me his later work drifted away from horror and more into detailed portraits of small towns (and the people that live in them) and is the better for it. Both Under the Dome and 11/22/63 were fantastically well done!

@ianthealy I'm loving the dedication to out-of-this-world themed reads and recs. I am recently having a renaissance of my love of Sci-fi. Have you read the Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin?

@MotherDucker I read the first one and couldn't decide if I liked it well enough to read the next, which ultimately meant I didn't. Life's too short to read books you're ambivalent about. That's a main reason I write: to write the stories I wish people had written for me to read.

@ianthealy
Hell yes, well said. I may catch some flack for this... But I felt the same about the Wheel of Time. Will I just watch it when season 2 comes out? Absolutely.... But I don't feel invested enough to read all eleventy-billion books after The Eye of the World.

@Nerienis your current read is the one that has me the most intrigued. It sounds a bit like a more specific The New Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. I love that dad and your guy are reading it with you.

@MotherDucker It’s a fascinating read so far, and complements another book we read recently - David Reich’s Who We Are And How We Got Here - which is a survey of the current understanding of prehistoric human migration based on fossil DNA analysis. (Our books aren’t all science and/or history, but they mostly are! 🤓)

@misslovelymess let me know how you feel about The Candy House. I keep seeing it boosted everywhere. (BookPage and various other book nerd publications...) Let me know if it lives up to the hype!

@bluesbaby
Excellent recommendation, A Prayer for Owen Meany... That ending... 💔

I lean toward fiction too, as it's a nice escape... Lately, though I'm having a hard time finding fiction that's as suspenseful as the reality we living. Hence my recent slew of pandemic themed, speculative fiction reads. 😅

@bluesbaby @MotherDucker A Fine Balance is a gem. One of those stories that stays with you forever.

@LiseL @MotherDucker

I agree. It was my first Book Club book we did many many moons ago. I was sold on it and book clubs.

@ReadingIsMyJam
Yes! I love a good epistolary novel. I haven't read We Contain Multitudes, but if you like those genres (epistolary and queer) I highly recommend This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

@MotherDucker
Epistolary novels are some of my favorite! And I've been reading a ton of queer books, mostly YA right now. I haven't read that one but I'll check it out, thanks! If you like audiobooks then you may want to try the Illuminae Files. Full cast audio and the best audiobook I've ever listened to. It's an unconventional format and they did it masterfully.

@ReadingIsMyJam ...you had me at full cast audio.

@MotherDucker

Please let me know what you think!! It's a 3 book series and each one is performed masterfully! It feels like an old radio show in a way.