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Swords and Spaceships

Can You Sign My Tentacle?

Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got a couple new releases for you, and some speculative poetry you ought to check out! I cannot believe we are already past the midway point of December. My housemate pointed out to me this weekend that we were one week from Christmas and I honestly had to sit down because I couldn’t handle it. It’s been one heck of a year, eh? Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!

Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge is in its ninth year, with a set of 24 tasks that invite readers to expand their worldview through books. Read one book per task, or do some multi-tasking by counting one book for multiple tasks. It’s all fine! The point of the challenge is to push yourself to expand your horizons. Thank you to Thriftbooks for sponsoring Read Harder 2023.

To find the tasks and subscribe to our newsletter for tips and recommendations, visit Read Harder 2023.

Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.

Bookish Goods

picture of the hand-painted love bots

Love Bots by GaryHirschartshop

The Love Bots are described as “tiny domino robots that love you unconditionally,” and as cute as that description is, it doesn’t capture how freaking adorable I find these. They’re hand painted, cute, unique robots on dominos that are easy to carry with you, where they can keep you company and remind you that you are loved! $25

New Releases

Cover of Witcha Gonna Do? by

Witcha Gonna Do? by Avery Flynn

What happens when you take the only non-magical member of a family of powerful witches and keep setting her up on dates with her (unfortunately very hot) nemesis? A lot of annoyance… until our heroine makes her sister’s spell go awry, cursing her entire family by accident, and the only person who can help her untangle the mess is that very guy.

Cover of The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng

The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng

This collection of darkly fantastic and horror poems about misunderstood monsters, pandemics, aliens, and twisted fairy tales is by a Bram Stoke Award winner.

For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.

Riot Recommendations

One good speculative poetry collection deserves a couple more — so check these out!

cover of Can You Sign My Tentacle by Brandon O'Brien

Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O’Brien

Brandon’s brand of speculative horror poetry could be characterized as Lovecraft meets hip-hop (Lovecraft would be scandalized, good) and explores both monsters we know and the ones who cloak themselves with racism, sexism, and violence.

Cover of Radio Heart by Margaret Rhee

Radio Heart; or, How Robots Fall Out of Love by Margaret Rhee

The title says it all, really. Margaret uses her lyrical poems to humanize the relationship with technology that we have, as well as the loneliness and humor of millennial life.

See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.