Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got new releases and some very cold reads for you. The good news is I survived the weekend and didn’t freeze! I praise past me’s wisdom of looking at the weather and thinking, no, I will arrange my life so that I do not have to leave my house for at least four days. I hope those hit by the cold snap have stayed equally toasty! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
Europa National Park T-shirt by WhereWeWanderArt
This cute T-shirt has a nice retro design, so you, too, can pretend you’ve been to the national park we’ll someday have on Europa! $23+
New Releases
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Five years ago, Faron channeled the power of the gods to free her island home from the Langley Empire and their dragons. Since then, there has been nothing more to fight, and she’s found there’s no ordinary life to return to for someone such as her. But when she and her sister, Elara, are sent to a peace summit, things go quickly south as Elara bonds with one of the dragons that once darkened the skies of their home. And worse, the gods that once used Faron as their instrument tell her that the only way to break that dragon bond is to kill Elara.
Unbound by Christy Healy
Rozlyn ó Conchúir is a woman cursed, the daughter of a king exiled to a tower who must wait patiently for a man to arrive and free both her and her land. When the promised suitor arrives—a man named Jamie, who is far too charming for his own good—she begins to hope she will have her freedom…only to quickly face betrayal and greater threats coming toward her. Perhaps some curses are best left in place.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
We’ve been having “Stock Show Weather” in Colorado, which means it’s cold as heck. The snow hasn’t been deep, but the chill will bite your nose off…so I’ve been thinking about SFF where freezing to death is a real possibility.
We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen
This sci-fi/horror/thriller takes place on a ship that’s bound for an ice planet named Eos. Their mission is to investigate the three-man crew that went missing before them, but like in all ships, sea or otherwise, headed into an icy unknown, interpersonal crew conflicts and mental health deterioration are almost inevitable…
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Miryem comes from a family of moneylenders, except that her father is terrible at it: he hasn’t been collecting on debts. She sets out to claim what is owed to her family, which earns her a reputation for metaphorically turning silver to gold… but it’s a reputation terrifying fey creatures of ice and frost called the Staryk take quite literally.
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.