I always have trouble picking favorites, so here are the three I most enjoyed:

• The Crows by C.M. Rosens - 90s chick lit crossed with eldritch horror: a young woman buys a house in a seaside town, unaware that some of the townsfolk are secretly eldritch monstrosities, or that the house is more than it seems. Suffers a little bit from self-published editing in places, but the awfulness + fluff combo works surprisingly well; I devoured this.
• Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko - dark academia fantasy with cosmic horror elements: a teenager is coerced into attending a mysterious institute, where the main coursework is incomprehensible, and nobody will explain what the students are learning. Despite this being much too slowly paced for me and not my typical subgenre, the magic system was fascinating.
• Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm - short story collection focusing on scifi technology. I’m not a huge short story fan, but I read a few collections for bingo, and this is the only one I liked as a whole.

What kinds of things do you enjoy reading? I’d rather recommend stuff you’re actually interested in.

Without being able to see it (and I’m no expert anyway), it’s hard to recommend anything specific, but whatever you end up using (glue, tape, etc.), make sure it’s labeled “archival”. That’ll ensure it won’t discolor or whatever down the line.

I’m between books again.

Finished Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (fantasy, novella) | bingo: creature, short, steppin’ up HM

The youngest son of a minor noble house unwittingly becomes host to a long-lived magical being.

Set in the same universe as The Curse of Chalion. I’m not sure I’m interested in reading the rest of the series, but it was enjoyable, well paced, and managed to cram a good amount of story into its short page length.

Currently reading Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold. I’m glad I’m reading it after The Curse of Chalion, since that provides a lot of context the novella format doesn’t have space for.

__

Finished The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard (secondary world urban fantasy mystery adventure novella collection) | bingo: short HM, x of y, steppin’ up HM

A master thief turned honest bookseller is strongarmed into helping a Captain of the Watch solve cases.

At first I was kind of whelmed by this, as the world and characters felt very generic (maybe a nod to classic stuff I haven’t read?); nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end. I would have put a sequel on my TBR, except there isn’t one. D:

Tesseract is my favorite UI; thank you for continuing to work on it!

I spent most of the week craving a specific vibe, so I tried and put down a bunch of things that weren’t quite it. Ended up settling on The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard, even though it’s not what I wanted either; it’s holding my interest, though, so I’m satisfied.

__

Finished The Secret Servant by Gavin Lyall (Cold War thriller) | bingo: different continent, motion picture, war, alliterative, steppin’ up HM, political

An Army Major is seconded to the Prime Minister’s office, where he’s directed to look into rumors surrounding a new member of the nuclear advisement committee.

Outside of the unusual premise, which I liked, this felt pretty bog-standard old-school spy thriller. Some chapters near the end could have been condensed into a few paragraphs, and a couple of bits haven’t aged super well (but no slurs, for a change!). Overall, I found this ‘fine’, but nothing I’d recommend.

Should be wrapping up The Secret Servant by Gavin Lyall tonight.

__

Finished All Systems Red by Martha Wells (comfy scfi) | bingo: motion picture, short, award HM, steppin’ up HM, late to the party HM

A secretly self-aware android must protect a team of scientists against an unexpected threat.

Especially considering its novella length, this is very well-plotted, well-paced, well-characterized, and well-ended. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t grab me enough to want to immediately add the next entry to my TBR (blasphemy, I know).

My headcanon Murderbot also leans toward the feminine, so you’re not alone. It would’ve been cool if the show had cast someone super androgynous (although I’m not surprised they didn’t).

I’m about 2/3 of the way through All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first Murderbot story. I can see why it’s so well-liked.

__

Finished:

Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi (historical fiction with elements of myth) | bingo: minority author, based on folklore, steppin’ up, political

A lowly blacksmith adjusts to her new life as the future bride of a powerful ruler.

According to the blurb, this is based on the myth of Persephone, but even clarifying that as “loosely” is generous. That said, outside of a couple of minor quibbles, I enjoyed this, and now I feel like I know a tiny bit about traditional West African culture. There is a brief glossary in the back, but I spent some time on Wikipedia, too.

Dead Cert by Dick Francis (mystery thriller) | bingo: different continent, motion picture, saddle up, game

A jockey investigates the death of his friend.

First in a series. Lots of horse racing, has that 1960s-era writing feel. This was decent, although the romance wasn’t great, and it hasn’t aged well in a couple of places (an understatement in one case).

It may have been because I chose to make ‘horror’ a subcategory of ‘suspenseful’, since there’s plenty of horror that doesn’t have speculative elements.

Probably (except without the “fiction” part). I feel like there was a reason I didn’t call it that, but I don’t remember why. I’ll make a note!

‘Fantastical’ includes pretty much anything with a speculative element, so fantasy, scifi, post-apocalyptic stuff, magical realism, cli-fi, mythology, supernatural stuff, etc. (Note to self: design the tags diagram more clearly next time.) It’s kind of a big lump of a tag (suggestions welcome for next year!), but when I tried making the top-level categories more specific, it got significantly harder to classify a work into just a couple tags or figure out where subcategories belonged.

Aww, that’s very kind! I like sorting through data, so it was actually pretty fun.

I haven’t read the newly-released revised edition (mainstream published, de-SCPed), but I did enjoy the original (still available on the SCP wiki as the parts listed in the description).

Awesome, thanks!

Currently partway through Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi.

__

Finished Shutter by Ramona Emerson (supernatural crime thriller) | bingo: minority author, orange, steppin’ up

A Navajo crime scene photographer that can see ghosts is haunted by a victim seeking justice.

This ended up being more about how the MC’s ghost-seeing and interest in photography impacted her childhood, rather than the thriller plot or other characters. Not terrible for a debut novel, but I don’t think I’d recommend it. (Also, skip if you don’t handle gore well: the crime scenes are described in vivid detail.)

I had Midnight Rooms on my TBR list for a while at one point (I really liked the cover, and it sounded interesting), but your impression lines up with the reviews I read. Idk if you read Gothic often, but if you have any recommendations for good Gothic novels, I’d love to hear them!

Sounds like you’re well on your way; grats in advance!

It’s good to hear that you’re enjoying it. Thanks for joining in!

A lot of people use a pressure cooker to significantly reduce the cooking time and energy cost. However, that obviously requires a pressure cooker/instant pot, and being comfortable using one.