Hello Star and Galaxy members! Since it seems like the last post didn't notify all of you, I've decided to make this a double feature!

Below you'll find the form link to opt-in for the JUNE + JULY Mail Club and provide your mailing address <3

This month's mail club will be a double feature for June and July that includes a letter from Jananie, a set of journal prompts, a print of the cover for our next Boundless Press title, BEFORE I BOW (an exclusive reveal just for you!!!), and a sneak peek at Jananie's book, PUBLISHERS SUPPER. Galaxy Members will receive an additional surprise item. Mail will be sent via stamped lettermail around July 15th. It will take up to 3 weeks to arrive.

FORM LINK

*this perk is available to International (i.e. non US or Canada) members BUT keep in mind that lettermail can get severely delayed and replacements will not be sent due to the monthly nature of the content

PREVIOUS MAIL CLUB DIGITAL VERSIONS:

December 2025
January 2026
February 2026
March 2026
April 2026
May 2026

Since this month started on a Wednesday, it's been a whole week without new releases for July! But a lot of books I've really been looking forward to come out this month, and I've gotten my grubby little golem hands on a few ARCs, so I can tell you that some of them lived up to the hype!

The Delivery: A Novella by Gregg Hurwitz (Thomas & Mercer- Amazon's Mystery Imprint, July 1) - An AI butler is designed to anticipate what a family wants. But when inexplicable tragedies strike in the neighborhood, the family realizes that their AI companion is executing their darkest desires, and they must stop him.

The Bird Tribe: The Dreambird Chronicles, Book 3 (Tor, July 7) - I'll tell you about the first book to avoid spoilers! In this post apocalyptic Unites States, a new slave trade is started in the ashes. Ji-ji was bred and raised under this subjugation and must win an annual competition in which the first prize is freedom.

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire, July 7) - Chuck Tingle always rocks my socks off, and I'm not even a gruesome horror girlie, his writing is just GRIPPING. In his latest book, a social media influencer by day and grave robber at night meets her match when her Elton John-like idol dies and she is hired to steal his body...only he's not all the way dead, and he has a mission, and he is forcing her to help him complete it. If you were a Goosebumps kid, I promise you that you're a Chuck Tingle adult. And if you've already read anything by Chuck? Well, you won't be dissapointed.

Formula Zero by Meredith Lanzen (Penguin Random House, July 7) - A formula one romcom but make it in space, with childhood friends turned competitors, back in each others orbits.

The Memory Bookshop by Song Yu-jeong, Translated by Shanna Tan (Harper Collins, July 7) I will never list an author without their translator after reading Babel! That shit is important! If you're grieving, you might come across the Memory Bookshop, or at least, it might find you. After losing her mother, Jiwon is offered the chance to travel back in time 3 chapters of her life if she gives up time in her future. Jiwon must decide if the past can be rewritten or if the magic is in the life she has yet to live.

Icefall: The Rise of Nine by Michael Newman and Jon Land (Permuted Press - Indie, July 14) - A team of superbeings placed on Earth a million years ago by intergalactic colonizers that seeded our planet to create human life are awakened from their long slumber to protect Earth from a predatory alien threat. Sounds very Transformers meets superhero.

Misery's Wife by Joan Tierney (Macmillan, July 14) - A queer cli-fi fantasy retelling about a young trans woman who must save her closest sister from the King of Misery. On the way she receives help from her other sisters, who have married the King of the Air and the King of the Sea. And perhaps on the way she may find a love of her own.

Not With a Bang by Temi Oh (Simon & Schuester, July 14) - A doomsday tale of a family who must fight their way back together amidst an extinction level event. But this isn't a surface level tale. This family is already in crisis as the father's doomsday prepping causes his daughters mental health disasters and the mother's health declines.

Null Entity, The Volatile Memory Duology Book 2 by Seth Haddon (Tordotcom, July 21) - I read the Volatile Memory novella last year and it was so unique. The premise is that an AI lives in masks that scavengers need to survive. But a mask one finds has the last scavenger's personality still in it, which is not supposed to be possible, but this mask is special. She forms a relationship with the person in the mask and must escape from everyone else who wants the mask. I have this sequel sitting in my TBR for up next.

Affairs of State by Calvin James (Titan Books, July 28) - The MC is named Levar Boylan so I'm already in because I know Calvin James is as obsessed with Levar Burton as me. High stakes cut throat politics in the stars. Levar, a junior supply officer is pulled to the front lines to serve a diplomat during peace talks, but the Emperor they are negotiating with is his ex, and of course, there are still sparks.

Biological War by Annie Jacobsen (Dutton, July 28) - A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. This book isn't really fiction though, it's an examination of how the government, mediacl world, and military would react to this very possible scenario.

Daggermouth by HM Wolfe (Simon & Schuester, July 28) - Set in a corrupt surveillance state ruled by the masked elite, this dystopian romance features a presidential heir entagled in secrets that could topple the regime and a mercenary hired to kill him. I'm holding the ARC to this book and it's next up after I finish Null Entity and Dreamland, Olivie Blake's new genre bending horror that comes out in August.

The Red Woman on Mars by Claire Barner (Diversion Books, indie, July 28) - I'm going to be an asshole here and shit talk another book, Pride & Prejudice in Space, which I hated, in order to talk about how much I'm looking forward to a REAL retelling of Jane Austen's classic. P&P in Space should have been everything I wanted in a book, my favorite classic retold in my favorite genre. But the author only changed the setting and nothing else in the story. She never addressed why women were still essentially chattel property in the space traveling era. She literally just changed everything about locations and used all the same original wording. THIS book is about a climate refugee contracted as a birth mother to genetically modified Mars children. It's almost impossible to get an ARC from an indie publisher but you can bet your sweet ass I'm about to try!

Star Wars: Legacy by Madeline Roux (Penguin Random House, July 28) - Set between Episodes VIII and IX, Rey and Leia embark on a quest to repair Rey’s lightsaber and rekindle the legacy of the Jedi.

See you next month. Or, hear me out, subscribe and hear from me more often if you actually made it to the bottom of this, because presumably that means you like reading...whatever this is.

— Zee

If you liked this and want more of whatever THIS is (unhinged book analysis, barely contained rage at the state of the world, and occasional Tamsyn Muir references and em dashes that I will never apologize for) consider subscribing for $5/month. Every cent goes to people who actually need it, because I have a day job and a cause, not a brand deal. This is my middle finger to Big 5 publishing, dressed up as a book blog. Come hold it up with me.

One of my favorite things about science fiction is how broad the genre really is.

Some books are essentially space operas with incredible adventures and unforgettable characters. Others use futuristic settings to explore philosophy or politics. Some barely explain how anything works at all.

And then there's hard sci-fi.

This is the part of science fiction that looks at the laws of physics and says, "Okay...but what if we actually followed them?"

Hard sci-fi doesn't ask you to suspend disbelief quite as much. Instead, it invites you to believe that everything you're reading could happen if humanity had just a little more time, a little better engineering, or one more scientific breakthrough.

That's what makes the genre so fascinating.

🚀 What Is Hard Sci-Fi?

Hard sci-fi is science fiction that's grounded in real science. Physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering: these are the foundation the entire plot is built on.

That doesn't mean every prediction ends up being correct. Science evolves all the time. What matters is that the author is trying to build a story that plays by the rules of the universe as we currently understand them.

Instead of asking readers to simply accept impossible technology, hard sci-fi asks: "If this were possible...how would it actually work?"

🔬 Why Readers Love It

Hard sci-fi scratches a very specific itch. It's for readers who love solving puzzles alongside the characters and who get excited when an author explains orbital mechanics, genetics, artificial intelligence, or quantum physics without talking down to them.

The science isn't there to slow the story down. The science is the story.

Some of the most satisfying moments in hard sci-fi happen when a seemingly impossible problem is solved not through magic or luck, but through logic, creativity, and a deep understanding of how the universe works.

There's something incredibly rewarding about watching intelligence become the hero.

🌌 Wonder Without Magic

One misconception about hard sci-fi is that it's cold or emotionless. The opposite is often true.

Many of these novels create a profound sense of wonder because the universe itself is already astonishing.

• The scale of space.

• The fragility of human life.

• The complexity of evolution.

• The mathematics hidden inside nature.

Hard sci-fi reminds us that reality is already pretty incredible. Sometimes you don't need to invent impossible worlds; the real one is fascinating enough.

🛰️ Why It Feels Different

Most science fiction begins with a fantastic idea and asks readers to go along for the ride.

Hard sci-fi starts with reality:

• Every challenge has constraints.

• Fuel matters.

• Distance matters.

• Gravity matters.

• Time matters.

• Communication delays matter.

Those limitations create a different kind of tension because there isn't always a convenient piece of technology waiting to save everyone.

The characters have to think their way out. That's one reason engineers, scientists, and readers who love problem-solving are often drawn to the genre.

📖 If You Usually Read Other Genres...

One of the biggest myths about hard sci-fi is that you need a science degree to enjoy it.

You don't; there are plenty of fantastic entry points depending on what you already love reading.

🚀 Space Opera Readers

Start with: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you love stories set in space but want a little more scientific realism, this is one of the best bridges into hard sci-fi. It balances accessible science with humor, heart, and one of my favorite friendships in modern science fiction.

👽 First Contact Readers

Start with: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Instead of focusing on alien conflict, Clarke builds suspense through exploration and discovery. The mystery comes from trying to understand something truly unknown.

🌍 Climate Fiction Readers

Start with: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is less about space travel and more about the future of Earth. Robinson combines climate science, politics, economics, and technology to imagine one possible path forward.

🔍 Thriller Readers

Start with: The Martian by Andy Weir

The tension in this novel is all about surviving Mars using nothing but science, engineering, and stubborn determination.

📚 Beginner Pick

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This is the book I recommend to almost everyone who's curious about hard sci-fi.

Why it works:

• approachable scientific explanations

• unforgettable characters

• constant problem-solving

• balances big ideas with humor and heart

It proves that scientifically accurate doesn't have to mean difficult.

📚 Advanced Pick

Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

If you want to experience what hard sci-fi can do at its most ambitious, this is a fantastic next step.

Why it works:

• one of the most imaginative uses of real physics I've ever encountered

• explores life evolving under extreme conditions

• rewards readers who love big scientific ideas

• constantly challenges the way we think about intelligence and civilization

This is the kind of book that changes the way you look at the universe.

🌙 Final Thoughts

I think hard sci-fi reminds us that reality is often stranger than fiction.

The universe already contains black holes, neutron stars, quantum mechanics, evolutionary miracles, and galaxies so large our brains struggle to comprehend them.

Hard sci-fi simply asks what happens if we stop treating those ideas like background information and let them become the adventure.

If you've always been curious about science fiction but worried it would feel too technical, I'd encourage you to start with one of the beginner-friendly books.

The fall I moved back to Brooklyn after finishing my MFA program, The Cut published an article that sent a shiver through the city. It recounted how a family in a Jersey suburb received mysterious and sinister letters, so sinister that they abandoned their expensive home and sued the former owners. 

While many readers launched into speculation about who wrote the letters, I was investing my energy elsewhere. Desperate to start my literary career, I spent my days sending my first novel Psycho Loser out to countless agents while juggling two substitute teacher jobs. Although I understood most people’s desire to identify the letter-writer (I love a good whodunnit), what intrigued me was the writer's talents. I mean, look at these lines.

"Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me." 

Positively gothic! 

"The house is crying from all of the pain it is going through. You have changed it and made it so fancy. You are stealing it’s [sic] history. It cries for the past and what used to be in the time when I roamed it’s [sic] halls.” 

I would have killed to have written these words.

.

Sometimes, the possibility of discovering a sparkly new voice feels like the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Now I don't even need to leave bed to get my fix. I hold my phone up to my face, and social media takes care of the rest.

Cathleen Allen a.k.a. timeline.alchemy, a self-proclaimed oracle, materialized on my feed this past fall.

Where do I even start with Allen’s voice? One caption reads: I’m a Connecticut hedge fund wife whose lifestyle was obliterated by sudden onset clairvoyance that started showing me evil spirits behind the veil.

Where else have you seen “hedge fund” in the same sentence as “evil spirits behind the veil"?

Her life didn’t her change. No, her “lifestyle” was “obliterated.” There’s an intensity to her words — “LIFETIMES of horrific karmic abuse” she writes in another reel — that clashes with the serene imagery she chooses to accompany them. Her visual aesthetic is rooted in realism (okay, luxurious realism, but still realism) yet she nonchalantly mentions exorcists and third eye openings. 

This practice of confidently mixing lingo from different worlds is a feature of some of my favorite writers’ voices. George Saunders is the first that comes to mind. This passage from his short story "Sea Oak" about a male stripper in a near-future dystopia is a good example:

Lloyd's finished. We give him a round of applause, and Frendt gives him a Farewell Pen and the contents of his locker in a trash bag and out he goes. Poor Lloyd. He's got a wife and two kids and a sad little duplex on Self-Storage Parkway…

…What a stressful workplace. The minute your Cute Rating drops you're a goner. Guests rank us as Knockout, Honeypie, Adequate, or Stinker. Not that I'm complaining. At least I'm working. At least I'm not a Stinker like Lloyd. I'm a solid Honeypie/Adequate, heading home with forty bucks cash.

Tobias Wolff explores the obsession with voice in his short story "Bullet to the Brain." The main character, Anders, a book critic, spends his dying moments remembering a turn of phrase he heard as a boy: 

Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final two words, their pure unexpectedness and their music…

…The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end, it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can’t be helped. But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, they is, they is.

My "They is" might be this line from Denis Johnson's short story "Two Men." The story's narrator, the incorrigible Fuckhead, shares that he made aggressive sexual advances towards a woman right before her husband showed up. Then out he comes this gem: 

The rest of the evening I wondered, every second, if he would come back with some friends and make something painful and degrading happen. 

This line is so special to me. I often post it to my Instagram stories with no context. Because it needs none. It encapsulates what I believe lies at the heart of every worthwhile fictional protagonist: a titillating cocktail of equal parts yearning and fear that life will have its way with them. "Oh, please don't let something painful and degrading happen to me. Not something that would change me forever. Not me. Please no."

.

In the process of writing this essay, I’ve tried to formulate a definition for voice. Something like: voice is how the impact of all the forces in your life - where you’re from, who educated you, what traumatized you — trickles out when you attempt to communicate with the world. Voice is psychological leakage.

My professor Steve Erickson told me George Saunders advised that writers should put all of themselves in their first novels. That your manuscript must be “demented by you." I agree. Whatever story pours forth from you should feel like it can’t have been wrought on this earth by anyone else but you. 

.

During the pandemic, I started following the account of a college student who worked part-time as a baker and spelled her name Isobel with an o instead of an a. I didn't covet her life, but I found myself enraptured by how she told the story of her daily routine. Her selection of moments from her day turned the mundane poetic. Driving to work before sunrise. Her pensive, unadorned face. Her puffy eyes scanning the road. Her red fingers drumming her steering wheel. Tying her apron behind her back then adjusting her messy bun. Egg yolk bubbling from the breakfast sandwich she made herself after she finished her shift. She never spoke, but her voice was unmistakable to me. Irreplaceable. I couldn't get enough.

This inspired me to approach social media as a new medium of narrative. Since 2020, I've created two interactive narratives. You can find them here and here. I hope more writers start to embrace social media's narrative potential.

But social media is performative and curated!

You mean like a novel?

Yes, but social media purports to capture real life.

Early epistolary novels used improbable framing devices to package their narratives. "Look at this intact stack of letters I stumbled upon! Let’s take a peek and see if there’s anything of interest within?"

Yes, but social media is voyeuristic! It's parasocial! Creepy!

Call it what you will. I hope I never lose my insatiable curiosity about other people. Not just what has happened to them. But how they choose to conceal and reveal this information whenever they open their mouth.

.

In his interview for the book The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark, John Waters shares the line from Wizard of Oz that had a profound impact on him:

When they throw the water on the witch, she says, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”

That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.

.

I'm not saying that, as a writer, you should consume social media.

I'm asking, as a writer, how can you resist?

Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again. Here we go again.

Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it. Let's see if this does it.

We are reading Sistah Samurai: A Champloo Novella, Tatiana Obey's Indie Ink Award winning novella and the first entry in The Champloo Mixes series. It is a feudal Japan inspired action fantasy that wears its anime influences proudly, an homage to Afro Samurai and Samurai Champloo, filtered through a voice that is unmistakably Black, unmistakably funny, and unmistakably tired of everybody's foolishness.

It's the first day of July and I know many of you are just getting started so this is a quick check-in on how it's going!

• What was your first impression of the protagonist?

• Which line made you laugh?

• Did the opening immediately hook you?

If you haven't done so already please join our Discord. If you are a BGN Sanctuary member, we are planning a virtual chat with Tatiana Obey herself. This will be scheduled in August.

This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last. This needs to be the last.

And here we go...

Test!

Happy July everyone!! We have our two winners for our July reads!

We will be doing a Hunger Games reread for the “fantasy/dystopian” category!! You’re also welcome to join if it’s your first time reading the series. It will be so fun to watch everyone read it for the first time too. It’s been around 15 years since I read these books so I am so excited to dive back in and then hopefully read the prequels for the first time afterwards!

Our horror pick for this month will me MOLKA!!! I am SO EXCITED!!

Please make sure to join my discord so that we can all discuss!! Happy reading

The Curse is real.

Here is the second line.

And another line.

And another line.

And another line.

And another line.

Hello friends!

I'm so excited to share my interview with Sara, the owner of Judging By The Cover. Located in San Dimas, California, Judging By The Cover is a cozy and welcoming woman- and Latina-owned independent bookstore that champions inclusivity and community. The bookstore celebrated its first anniversary on June 6th.

Q: What inspired you to open Judging By The Cover?

A: The catalyst was hearing that San Dimas Cake Co. might be closing.

I remember thinking it would be a shame to lose a small business, and it got me wondering what would happen to the space. I've always loved books, so I started looking into what it would take to open a bookstore. At first it was really just curiosity. I wasn't actively planning to open one, I was just exploring an idea that I couldn't get out of my head.

The more research I did, the more excited I became. Not just about books, but about what an independent bookstore could mean for a community.

I've worked behind a chair for years (I was and still am a full-time hairstylist, doing about 40 hours a week behind the chair), and one thing I've learned is that people are looking for connection. Some of the most meaningful conversations have happened when a service was technically over, but nobody was quite ready to leave because the conversation was too good.

I realized a bookstore could create those same opportunities for connection. People come in for books, but they stay for book clubs, author events, story times, workshops, and most importantly, conversations with other readers.

So while my love of books is what got me interested in opening a bookstore, creating a space where people could gather, connect, and feel welcome is what made me decide to actually do it.

Q: What has been one of your favorite and one of the most unexpected moments as a new bookstore owner?

A: One of my favorite things has been watching customers become friends with one another. We've had people meet at book club, exchange numbers, start attending events together, and build relationships outside of the store. That's incredibly gratifying because it means the bookstore is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

The most unexpected thing has been how quickly people made us part of their lives. We have customers who stop in every week, bring visiting friends and family, or tell us, "I was driving by and just wanted to see what was new." I knew people liked books. I didn't realize how many people were looking for a place that felt like a home away from home.

Q: What books have your customers been most excited about?

A: It depends on who you ask! Our customers have pretty wide-ranging tastes, which keeps things fun.

Our romantasy readers are a force of nature, so authors like Callie Hart, Sophia St. Germain, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Rachel Gillig are always generating excitement. On the romance side, Abby Jimenez, Ali Hazelwood, Carley Fortune, Melissa Marr, and Lana Ferguson are always being recommended from one reader to the next. Our thriller readers are always looking for the next book that's going to keep them up way too late.

One thing that makes me especially happy is seeing customers get excited about local authors. During our first year, about 10% of the books we sold were written by local authors, which is something I'm incredibly proud of. Watching readers discover authors from their own community has been an incredibly rewarding part of owning the bookstore.

Q: What are some of your go-to book recommendations?

A: This is the question every bookseller dreads because the answer is always, "it depends."

My favorite recommendation isn't a specific book, it's the process of figuring out what someone is looking for. Two people can ask for a thriller and want two completely different experiences.

That said, I find myself recommending What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall quite a bit. I loved Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and have been putting it into a lot of readers' hands lately. And if someone wants a romance recommendation, you can expect me to recommend anything by Ali Hazelwood, Alexis Daria, or The Best Worst Thing by Lauren Okie.

Honestly, though, if you ask me this question next week, you'll probably get a different answer. That's part of the fun.

Q: What are your hopes for the future of Judging By The Cover?

A: I hope we continue growing into an even bigger part of the community.

Of course I'd love to bring in more authors, expand our events, support more local writers and artists, and continue introducing people to books they might not have found otherwise.

But more than anything, I hope we remain a place people feel comfortable walking into.

Whether you're an avid reader who finishes a hundred books a year or someone who hasn't picked up a book since high school, I want Judging By The Cover to feel like a space where you belong.

If people continue to think of us as part of their routine and part of their community, I'll consider that a success.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone looking to expand their bookish community?

A: I'd encourage people to take a chance on attending something by themselves.

That might be a book club, an author event, a writing group, or even just spending a little extra time chatting with someone at their local bookstore (hint, hint) or library.

I know that can feel intimidating, but some of my favorite bookstore stories started with someone saying, "I almost didn't come tonight."

As a lifelong Pride & Prejudice fan (and therefore, naturally, a Bridget Jones's Diary fan), I joke that one of my talents is making introductions. Not necessarily in the matchmaking sense, but in the "you should meet this person, and here's a thoughtful detail about them" sense. Some of the best friendships I've watched form at the bookstore started because two people realized they loved the same genre, author, or book.

Books are a wonderful conversation starter. You don't have to become best friends overnight. Sometimes community starts with a single introduction and grows from there.

Q: You've said that Judging By The Cover is not only a bookstore but also "a place to belong." How have you approached crafting a warm and welcoming storytelling space?

A: Honestly, I think a lot of it comes down to the people.

I have an incredible team, and they're genuinely warm, welcoming people. We like talking about books, we like getting to know our customers, and we care about helping people find stories they'll love. I think customers can tell the difference between someone who's being friendly because it's their job and someone who's being friendly because they genuinely enjoy connecting with people.

At the same time, we've been intentional about creating a space that doesn't feel intimidating. We greet people when they come in, but we don't hover. We offer recommendations, but we don't make people feel judged for what they read. Whether your favorite book is a literary classic or a gargoyle romance, you're welcome here.

I've always believed there's no right way to be a reader. Some people read a hundred books a year. Some people listen exclusively to audiobooks. Some people are just getting back into reading after years away. All of them belong here. Books bring people through the door, but it's the people inside the store who make it feel like a place to belong.

Q: How do you approach curating your bookstore's selection?

A: I pay attention to what customers are requesting, what people are talking about in book club, what my booksellers are recommending, what local authors are writing, and what conversations are happening in the broader book world.

Of course we carry new releases and popular titles, but I also think a bookstore should create opportunities for discovery. There's something really rewarding about watching someone discover a book they never would have picked up on their own.

A bookstore owner's job isn't to convince people to read what she likes. If that were the case, this store would be primarily made up of psychological thrillers, rom-coms, and the most depressing nonfiction you've ever seen. My goal is to create a collection that reflects our community, introduces readers to new voices, and gives people plenty of opportunities to discover their next favorite book.

Q: Would you share more about connecting your community through your bookstore's events?

A: The events have become a huge part of what makes Judging By The Cover feel like Judging By The Cover.

When people think of bookstores, they often think about shelves full of books. I spend a surprising amount of time thinking about what happens beyond the shelves.

That's why we host book clubs, story times, author events, workshops, book swaps, walking clubs, local author markets, and what sometimes feels like an infinite number of other events. The goal isn't just to connect people with books, it's to create opportunities for people to connect with each other.

What I've learned is that books are often the starting point. Someone comes to a book club because they liked the book, but they come back because they enjoyed the conversation. Someone attends an author event and leaves with a new favorite writer, or a new friend.

The best indicator that an event was successful is when it technically ended twenty minutes ago and people are still standing around talking because nobody is quite ready to leave yet. That's usually when I know we've done something right.

Thank you so much to Sara for joining me in chatting about Judging By The Cover! 🫶

These are my thoughts.

Mordew. 

What - and I cannot stress this enough - the hell did I just read? In the best possible way, I have absolutely no idea. I love a weird book, this is not a secret. This book? I think Mordew maybe takes the weird book cake for me. 

I expected something completely different than I ended up getting, but my expectations being torn asunder in a way I wasn’t prepared for is always a delight for me. This book was a lot of things and no things at once. Phelby is, truly in the best way, a madman. If we put him and Hiron Ennes in a room, I’m not sure which one of them would blow the room up first. His brain and how he conceived of this story is something I am going to be so curious about for years to come. 

The story follows Nathan Treeves through this gritty, gothic world full of stratification and grim and visceral forms of magic I can’t really explain. Nathan’s father is gravely ill with lungworms slowly killing him, his mother tries to ship him off to a mysterious man only ever called The Master. A dead God imbues magic into everything making it dead-yet-alive. There are flukes, creatures living in the dead mud that can become anything, including people. Ghosts are real and they have strong opinions about our behavior. We have gillmen who are these froglike guards and the sister city of Malarkoi and the Mistress and firebirds slamming into a sea wall held fast by magic. 

This is the story of a young boy who never, from the start of his life, has any agency. He is always doing what he must and always kept in the dark. There are things about him he wants to know, but nobody will tell him. When he has enough, we watch this boy’s anger manifest in total destruction as a way to cope with loneliness, betrayal, and being used by people who were supposed to love him. Yet somehow, he still desperately wants to remain kind.

I’d liken this to Oliver Twist meets Tim Burton meets Alice in Wonderland then dip it in mud and scream into the sky. It’s such a bizarre cluster of things that it’s many things and none of those things all at once. The first two parts build out how this wild city of Mordew is kept moving through the magic of the Master. We see Nathan struggle with his father's illness, the rejection of his mother, and his found family of friends give him purpose. Then, the third introduces a new character after an event I fully expected to be the end of the book, only for it to split into one final breathless catapulting part I did not anticipate. 

And I haven’t even talked about Anaxomander the talking dog and his brother, the loyal Sirius. 

Anaxomander was a fascinating inclusion in this story and probably the one I enjoyed following the most. His very direct, matter-of-fact way of thinking and the insight Phelby gives us into how we anthropomorphize animals was such a wild ride. Every twist he set up paid off and made me gasp - though half the time I couldn't explain it if I tried. When I realized how Phelby leveraged language? I thought my brain was going to fall out of my ears. I love when authors dive headfirst into such an inventive use of words and comprehension to add depth to the story. 

I will say that it being so out there and full of strangeness did make it occasionally hard to follow at parts. Some scenes felt longer than they needed to be and I never felt like I fully understood exactly what was going on. What I anticipated from the blurb ended up not really being as essential to the story as I thought it might be, but that’s alright because blurbs are rarely accurate to the full story anyway. This is the first in a trilogy, so I am trying not to say that I didn’t get answers to all my questions because that’s the point of the other two books in a series. 

What I did get, however, was exactly what I asked for. A wild, bizarre story with a character trying to be soft in a hard, gritty world. Witnessing Nathan’s constant betrayal, his effort to stay a good person, the conflict between wanting to do right and being compelled to not was so interesting. It was a fantastic tension between young men as they want to be and young men as the expectation of society forces them to be. 

Phelby brought in wealth disparity and how the ability to suffer is, in itself, a power that many well-off people do not learn and cannot survive when it comes for them. Not in a noble sacrifice way, either, which I loved. He spoke of this disconnection as the thing that gives a religion power and if the poor and struggling turned that ability to survive towards the oppression of the merchant class, they would be unstoppable against them. He writes in such an effervescent way that makes the world feel tongue in cheek, horrible, and grotesquely whimsical with a way of making the storytelling itself feel like it breaks the fourth wall at poignant, thoughtful moments.

I really got hit with the heartbreak Nathan endured at the betrayals he experienced and how those shaped him into what he became, then also opened the door to him becoming something new again. The Mistress was such a wild character and the designs for these people in this horrible world are unlike anything I’ve ever read. My favorite part, though, is that still I have no idea who I am rooting for or who is in the right. This is a world without heroes, only a small handful of people who are trying to do their best and survive. 

Officially, the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.

Practically, it's a TBR for those of us who read sci-fi with purpose, with intent, with a critical reading eye looking for "the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope." (-a quote from Ursula herself)

So without further ado, here's the shortlist for this year.

Audition by Pip Adam (Coffee House Press, June 10, 2025)

Three rom-com quoting MCs travel from incarceration to exile to a place beyond punishment. Audition explores carceral politics and the psychology of violence, and what healing from the harm of those systems might require in a world where embodiment and identity have lost all familiar forms.

Sunward by William Alexander (Saga Press. Sept 16, 2025)

What if robots needed to be raised? Weaving comedy with a vision of parental care that encompasses beings built as well as born, Alexander considers caretaking and community alongside power and resistance. In his future, another way of living is possible—though getting to it is never easy.

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock, Oct 14, 2025)

Caldwell's speculative and fantastical stories are grounded in the realities, dreams, struggles, and relationships that animate queer lives. Each tale takes seriously the interconnections of class, race, geography, gender, and sexuality—while making striking imaginative leaps into history, the present, and the future.

Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Algonquin, Sept 4, 2025)

This novel in ghost stories, with its haunted shoes and sheep and cats, gently suggests the degree to which humanity’s efforts to control the world are themselves figments and fantasies. Chung’s deep understanding of haunting—and of hierarchies, class, and gender—reminds us that we are a society haunted by its own cruelty, and, crucially, that we have other options.

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (Tor Books, Oct 14, 2025)

This story of revolution takes place in a city riddled with strange vermin, their exterminators, and a wealthy ruling class who are all but inescapable. Ennes's novel explores resistance, repression, cycles of violence, and the way art and culture are the materials of social change—but can also be key to the consolidation of power.

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (Tor Books, April 15, 2025)

Notes from a Regicide is a multilayered, intimate history of two generations of trans characters in the distant (but strangely familiar) future. As Griffon Keming tries to understand his deceased and beloved second parents, Fellman’s narrative twines around art, revolution, disability, love, history, and the specific, often physical, cost of every kind of change.

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (DAW Books, Sept 9, 2023)

Using myth, fictional scholarship, alchemy, folktales, and animism, Mehta creates a quantum form of storytelling that follows the relationship between two sets of sisters, generations and worlds apart. Mad Sisters of Esi builds upon itself, layer by rich narrative layer, weaving together an all-encompassing saga of grief, love, legacy, and creation.

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp, Feb 11, 2025)

In four loosely connected tales, Mohamed explores the way people—soldiers and civilians, bureaucrats and gallows-builders—live during wartime, occupation, and colonization. In one story, ghostly soldiers fight the destruction of their traditions; in another, a young woman finds resistance in the practice of her craft.

Slow Gods by Claire North (Orbit, Nov 18, 2025)

Admittedly the only one I've even heard of and read, this galaxy-spanning space opera explores the fraught, connected roles of power and love as a series of worlds face destruction. Through the perspective of Maw, who was once human but is now something else, capitalism, collective choice, fascism, gender, freedom, the necessity of art collide with the question of how we decide what—and who—matters.