Lynne M. Thomas's Blog

A picture of a slightly unhinged looking crocheted toy bear in a striped onesie where the stuffing is coming out of it vertically at the neck, on a blue background with confetti.

I received this as an eARC from NetGalley. I’ve enjoyed several of her other books, so when I saw a new one was coming, I snagged it immediately and plowed through it. Preorder link.

I grew up on the Muppets, and it warped/shaped enough of my personality and sense of humor that when I find a Muppet in human form who writes, I’m going to read the shit out of it. When my brain is not cooperating, I will liken it to three over-caffeinated squirrels in a trench coat. It won’t shut the fuck up, no matter how much I need it to. Jenny’s prose style frames that feeling like a superpower rather than a drawback. This book made me feel better just by being willing to be that weirdo friend that will sit with me when I am also feeling like I am that weirdo friend. The thing about that weirdo friend is that I can be that weirdo friend for myself, too.

Not every tip and trick will work for me, and that is FINE. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that for the length of this book, I felt like I wasn’t alone in my weirdness, my struggles to function some days, and in the attempts to motivate myself that only make sense in my own brain and no one else’s.

If you, too, have a brain that never shuts the fuck up, Jenny’s work is for you. At the very least, you will find new and inventive ways to convince yourself that you’re allowed to occasionally win the arguments, try something new, or just chill for once.

Highly recommended.

I received this anniversary edition as an eARC via Netgalley.

A somewhat abstract silhouette of a woman surrounded by plants in shades of blue with a red moon and gown.

This is a great example of a novel that I read back in college closer to when it was initially published, but revisiting it again is a significantly greater pleasure. When it came out it was groundbreaking, and this edition acknowledges that. I remember reading this and liking it, but beyond Lesbian! Vampires! I didn’t remember a whole lot about beyond “it was good.” I remember it being sold as erotic for its time, too, although on re-read it is nowhere near as spicy as current approaches to vampire erotica by a mile. Not quite fade-to-black, but it’s not super-explicit by any means.

Plot wise, this is a bildungsroman story of a young girl who escapes from slavery, becomes a vampire, and lives for a few hundred years. While it’s not strictly first-person, think of it as “Interview with the Vampire” but not as horror: with a protagonist who is actually thoughtful, caring, and careful in her choices. I mean, Lestat is fun and all, but do you really want to hang out with him? Hell, no. He’s a sociopath. Gilda, though…she is a character that you want to spend time with. These vampires have an actual moral code and approach to existing that is focused on trying to find ways to co-exist, meet needs, and minimize harm. Gilda spends the entire novel navigating being both part of and separate from humanity while trying desperately to build community both among her preferred humans and her vampire family. These are characters that stay with you, and you want to hold them in your heart, because you know they will treat it carefully.

Here’s the thing. This novel is actually beautiful, not just in storytelling, but in execution. It deserves every accolade, every “classic” designation that it has earned. In retrospect, I don’t think that it has had enough accolades for how beautiful it is; it feels as though it has been sidelined in the literary conversation it’s actually in because of the vampiric elements. We should be reading Jewelle Gomez with the same attention and care as we give to Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, and Gayl Jones. Each leap forward in time over Gilda’s lifetime provides a sharp, particular snapshot of its setting that is unwaveringly clear about the complexity of being Black in this world, in all of its pain and joy.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of reading this novel, well, you’re about to have a great experience.

Cover for The Infinite Loop: Archives and Time Travel in the Popular Imagination by Lynne M. Thomas and Katy Rawdon. The title and author text are black text on a white background. Above and below the title block is a pattern of bright pink concentric circles.

BEHOLD! The cover for The Infinite Loop! It is now live and preorders are available on the ALA website: https://alastore.ala.org/infiniteloop. Publication date: Spring 2026.

In addition to Katy and I talking a WHOLE LOT of Doctor Who, Loki, Kindred, and more… did I mention that it has a foreword by Connie Willis?

It’s REAL, and it’s coming. Buckle up!

The cover of A Philosophy of Thieves by Fran Wilde, which features a masked female character leaping with style from an ornate window.

I received this as an eARC via NetGalley. Purchase link

This is a delightful YA heist novel. Roosa Carnarvier (Vane) and her family are professional thieves, who, in post-apocalyptic Washington DC, perform heists (with strict contracts and rules) as entertainment for the wealthy.

Only we all know what happens with heists: things go sideways, and you have to improvise.

Roo and her brother Dax have to work together and decide what really matters, where their loyalties lie, and who they want to be to save their father when he goes missing mid-heist. The stakes get higher and higher, and the thieves are not the only ones with major secrets.

Full of twists and turns, this is a rollicking adventure. My one minor complaint is that Roo only had one major scene showing off her skills with aerial silks.

Strongly recommended.

The cover of The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott. Two characters nearly but not quite hold hands while looking at a fog that seems to envelop everything.

I received an eARC of this title via NetGalley.

I had never had the pleasure of reading one of Kate Elliott’s novels (despite enjoying her short work), mostly because my time for leisure reading was so limited that I spent over a decade shying away from “doorstop” novels for the most part. Long books were a commitment and I didn’t feel as though I had the bandwidth to really engage.

The thing is, commitments are often very worthwhile. It’s a matter of picking the right one.

The Nameless Land is the second book in the Witch Roads series. I had not read the first, but there is enough backstory provided to ensure that I understood what was going on nonetheless.

The worldbuilding in this novel is fabulous. The Pall (a deadly, poisonous fog that permeates the lands of this novel after a cataclysmic event) is a character, a catalyst, and an implacable villain of the highest order, because it cannot be reasoned with, thwarted, or defeated. At best, one can survive it. The sense of dread and fear from the Pall is palpable, and the world Elliott has created shows a wide variety of responses to the Pall among multiple peoples, societies, and social strata. There is court intrigue; there is pointed social commentary; there is mutual aid and efforts at understanding.

The characters in this novel are complex, nuanced, and fascinating, even when they aren’t particularly likeable (looking at you, Prince Gevulin). Elen, our protagonist, is world weary and grieving the loss of a partner. She’s also resilient, quietly thoughtful, and fiercely protective of her people. The novel features a cast of characters who all approach their lives — and their choices — in ways that feel true and real and solid. They don’t always choose well or correctly; but their choices make sense based on who they are, and what they know and value. Loyalties are tested, divided, and restored. While the plot is well-constructed and has enough twists to be satisfying without being annoying, what I savored the most about this novel was the opportunity to spend time in this world, and with these characters.

Strongly recommended.

A dark haired woman wearing a black and white dress. The background is bright pink with white flowers.

Really enjoyed this one. I’ve long been a fan of Kleypas. This one has the first female doctor in England, Garrett Gibson, and Ethan Ransom, a former Scotland Yard detective working for a governmental agency.

Garrett is wonderfully straightforward, logically inclined, action oriented, and exasperated with anyone who cannot handle the fact that she is who she is. She saves her energy for the people who SEE and appreciate her, while leveraging her skills for anyone who needs it. So this is one of those stories where she actively struggles about having actual feelings about Ethan. Ethan is the hopeless romantic who assumes their love is doomed because of their differences. It doesn’t keep him from wanting to keep Garrett safe, even if that means *personally* teaching her how to fight dirty in a couple of scenes that are :chefs kiss: chemistry.

Strong character work, dialogue, and excellent action scenes. Adventure with heart. Strongly recommended.

The cover of Bad Reputation by Emma Barry, featuring a bright pink background and navy palm trees, with the book title in bright orange/yellow.

This was a decidedly fun plane read. I picked it up a while back because someone on Bluesky had mentioned it as having a “himbo” male lead.

Cole is a midlevel actor often cast as a himbo–he is more known for his abs than anything else. Maggie is the new intimacy coordinator on set. The tv series is Waverley, which lands here as a cross between Bridgerton and Outlander. In the good way.

Waverley is Cole’s big opportunity to actually earn some respect as an actor rather than being treated like a piece of meat. It’s Maggie’s chance to start a new career after being unfairly railroaded out of being a drama teacher. They… should absolutely NOT be dating. Nope. Definitely not.

But the chemistry? Undeniable. Cole is a golden retriever of a person (complimentary) who ends up having a wonderfully solid moral backbone once he realizes what he has failed to notice before. Maggie is whip-smart and incredibly kind. You root for both of them, hard, and this is a deeply satisfactory contemporary romance.

Strongly recommended.

The cover of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill.

Another entry in my “I’d meant to read this for AGES” listing.

It does what it says on the tin: women transform into dragons. And that is only the tiniest bit of what this book is about.

This book is about feminine rage, silence as a method of suppression, the abandonment of anyone who doesn’t “fit” the most restrictive version of 1950s society, the ruptures that tear families apart, and the perseverance of Alex, a young woman who has developed incredible resilience after the loss of her mother, the abandonment of her father, and years of single-handedly raising her cousin as her sister. It is about kindness from strangers, and local librarians who help keep entire communities afloat because they can and it’s the right thing to do.

This is a beautiful book, and it made me feel very, very seen. I cried in the airport when I was finishing it.

Highly recommended.

The cover of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, featuring a robot hand holding chopsticks pulling noodles out of a container with San Francisco and assorted robots at the bottom.

I received this as an eARC via Netgalley. Preorder link.

This is a delightful, thoughtful novella. Set in post-war/post-apocalypse California (which is no longer part of the US), San Francisco to be precise, a group of intrepid robots start a restaurant serving biang biang (hand-pulled) noodles.

Come for the discussions of sentience, survival, and mutual aid. Stay for the delightful autonomous robots working through their trauma and creating a community where humans and robots alike are valued and can thrive.

This is exactly the kind of story we need right now. And, also, hand-pulled noodles.

Highly recommended.