What if you combined Johnny Mnemonic and Total Recall but the data in Johnny’s brain is a sentient “personality upload” of a bio-engineered war bear with 12+ PhDs? Also, there’s SuperTrump who’s using his infinite charisma to put chips in people’s brains to get them to comply with anything and everything he wants (yikes).

That’s Bear Head.

What if you combined:

The Running Man-esque gladiatorial combat as entertainment with some Battle Royale with some pro wrestling theatrical vibes sprinkled on top with some Naked and Afraid and light it all up?

You get Chain-Gang All-Stars, that’s what you get.

A cat goes on a journey of self-discovery, teaching and being taught the philosophy of Zen Buddhism.

The art is great, the text is well written. It’s a philosophical picture book for all ages. What’s not to like?

This was the first romance novel I’ve read. Sometimes you have to unleash your inner mom and read a book by a mom for moms.

I’m about as far from a mom as you can get but despite that, Cesca Major pulled me in with her writing in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

Madeline Miller, the first and the greatest of the authors writing Greek mythology fan fiction, like the hammer of Hephaestus, strikes again.

Circe rewrites the story of, well, Circe who you may have seen in Homer’s Odyssey. It was fantastic and I’m excited to read her previous novel, the Song of Achilles.

Feels like an Arthurian legend, a mix of fairy tales but grounded in a reality somewhat like our own with some fantastical twists layered into it.

Short and sweet, deserving of all the praise it has received.

It’s short and sweet (and sour) and that’s what makes this novel so special. It’s got one of the most unsettling POVs I’ve read in a while. It starts weird and only gets weirder from there.

It’s a great Halloween read. It’s got an Adams Family aesthetic (weird family in a mansion ostracized from their community) but with a less comedic tone.

A short magical realism novel about a girl, her mother and her step father who’s a human size crane, the bird that is.

Hijinks ensue.

Big robots,

fighting off aliens,

piloted by pairs of young men and women (mostly boys and girls), with the men draining the life force from the women (often killing them in the process).

Wu Zetian, eventually becoming the Iron Widow, is sold to the army by her family to become a concubine-pilot. She has a plan to avenge her sister, burn the system to the ground and build it back up again.

Dayummmmmm this was good.

I’m deathly allergic to cats (especially unneutered cats) so despite liking them in theory, I can’t spend much time with them.

I’m not allergic to philosophy though. This book talks about cats, talks about philosophy and uses the promise of cats to ease you into thinking about philosophy.

At least, that’s what I think it’s trying to do?

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a science fiction novel about a diverse cast of characters from all over the galaxy, stuck at an inter-planetary truck stop for an indeterminate span of time, getting to know one another and helping each other overcome (or make peace with) problems in their personal lives.

As the characters learned about each other and gradually opened up about themselves, I started to see parts of myself reflected in them making me feel invested in the mostly low stakes interactions occurring between the characters.

I guess this is what happens when a tremendously successful author with a single published novel to her name spends 16 years writing another one.

I read Susanna Clarke’s first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, as a kid and, now, I’ve forgotten what it was about and if I enjoyed it (or not).

After reading Piranesi, I’m unlikely to forget this one and how I felt reading through it.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (a.d. 121–180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in a.d. 161—and in his Meditations he provides insights, wisdom, and practical guidance on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity to interacting with others. It’s surprising how much of his advice has aged well but given his position of supreme power and the changing times (eg. slavery is bad), some of his meditations have not aged so well.

The Odyssey is a classic and there’s more stories that have been inspired by it than I can count. After reading it, you’ll be able to see it echoed everywhere you look.

Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths is more of an encyclopedia about everything related to the Greek myths rather than a pure retelling of the myths themselves. It’s not meant to entertain, it’s meant to inform. Although, if learning everything there is to know about Greek myths sounds entertaining to you then this is the book for you.