House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski I’d heard about this book for years as being a unique book that was dark and trippy. It’s been compared to Lovecraft, which is the name people always dredge up when they want to say “horror, but literary.” The only thing I knew about the plot was that …

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter If you’ve ever wondered why English doesn’t act like other Germanic languages, this book is for you. It’s more than just “here’s all the stuff we stole from the Norman French” but goes into why we say “do you have the time” instead …

The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza This is the first in a long-running series that a dear friend recommended, so I’d hoped it would really capitvate me. It’s a rough start. No cliche left unexplored in this police procedural. What at first seems like a simple murder investigation of the daughter of a …

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers This is charming, and easy to read, but frustratingly short. It’s technically sci-fi, but it’s more philosophy than anything, and a good balm for the dystopia we’re so often saturated with. It doesn’t really have a plot though, and the fact that it’s #1 in a series …