My annual reading round-up post. This year’s Random Classification System is that everything comes in threes.

Romance

House of the Red Balconies by AJ Demas

Lovely wistful slow burn m/m romance in immersively created ancient alt-Mediterranean world. AJ Demas is one of my favourite romancers and this is a lovely minor key book.

Dulhaniyaa by Talia Bhatt

Indian f/f romance with a woman going into an arranged marriage, and her trans woman dance teacher. The first two thirds are a truly delightful, delicate slow burn of pining and longing, and then we switch gears into full Bollywood madness. Gleeful.

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Absolutely terrific. Ezra is trans, queer, Jewish, anxious, a chronic middle child of a dysfunctional family, and sees ghosts. A glorious story of loss, love, kindness, and grounding yourself. Hugely recommended. Run do not walk.

Fantasy series (I hope)

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan

Book 1 of The Mirror Realm, 2 is out now and I’m saving it for my holiday. Wonderfully immersive, engaging Middle Eastern/Persian/Jewish fantasy, with politics, pain, family, and queer love. Hugely readable and wildly imaginative.

The Bone Ship’s Wake by RJ Barker

Book 3 of The Tide Child, do not start here you oaf. Nautical fantasy that often teeters on the edge of too grimdark for me, but pulls it back. I was a bit alarmed starting this last part, but courage: it’s full of hope, defiance against all odds, courage, and solidarity, and the ending is absolutely worth it. Big rec for the series.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

I’m living in hope this is a series because book 2 is still ‘untitled’ on Goodreads. Incredible take on Sinbad the Sailor, with a middle-aged lady pirate having wildly exuberant adventures on a fantasy Indian Ocean. Just fabulous entertainment.

Fantasy standalone

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher

I described this book as an ongoing anxiety attack. It’s basically about coercive control in a fantasy setting. It’s terrifically done, with a wonderful alliance of women and a stand-up and cheer ending, but wow you work for it: the tension makes it hard to breathe.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Marvellous Western fantasy about a Black woman homesteader in Montana at the turn of the century. Family secrets, racism, isolation: the message is absolutely ‘here be monsters’. Great writing and a heart-pounding story.

Dazzling by Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ

Nigerian fantasy with the apparently separate but slowly intertwining stories of two girls mistreated after their fathers’ losses. Wonderful description, powerful emotion, and the way the stories come together is fabulous. A compelling read.

Murder Mystery

This Body’s Not Big Enough for the Both Of Us by Edgar Cantero

Completely hatstand noir novel with the private eyes AZ Kimrean, a pair of extremely conjoined twins (ie two personalities sharing a single brain and body, not chummily). It’s mad as a spoon, the author bulldozes the fourth wall at every opportunity, and somehow the mystery is both fair and thoughtful. Amazing.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

I glommed the first three of these delightful, absurd, weirdly timeless legal murder mysteries (the fourth, written just before the author’s death, is hard to get hold of and not so enjoyable). Fiercely clever, genuinely funny, insouciant about gender, and hugely recommended. I wish there could have been more.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

Murder on Jupiter, with a f/f Holmes and Watson. Highly entertaining novellas in a series I’m delighted to see continuing, with a wonderfully drawn world and crackling dialogue.

Non Fiction

The Lion House by Christopher de Bellaigue

Fabulous novel-like account of palace politics in the era of Suleyman the Magnificent. Wildly readable and absolutely fascinating.

Some Men in London by Peter Parker

Fantastic and comprehensive account of queer male life in London from 1945 to 1967 (in two volumes) told in extracts from newspapers, letters, diaries, legal documents, literature, censors etc. A lot of the content is hideously homophobic, obv, but the anthologist and his annotations make this a defiant, humane, and often very funny read.

Super-Infinite: the Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell

The best biography I’ve ever read. Tons of cultural and historical context woven through the analysis of the poems. Incredibly readable and engaging, often funny. Makes Donne’s character, his work, his whole era feel accessible. A triumph.

Books by me this year: The Duke at Hazard, Regency m/m romance with an incognito duke and the disgraced gentleman who accompanies him on a road trip, and Death in the Spires, an Edwardian murder mystery set in Oxford.