Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know what books you are reading or listening to this month, October 2025. Which ones do you recommend? And which ones don’t you recommend? Any “on the fence” reads this month? Enquiring minds want to know!

All genres welcome here!

I started Shroud with another group last month and did not complete it. I had lots going on and kept having to stop reading and then sometimes start over. Then (view spoiler)[ a person who was reading it told me that it was mostly about rapacious corporations (hide spoiler)] so I decided I didn't need to read about that right now. Maybe I might try again by the end of the month

Re Raven Tower, I read it when it was pretty new, and I really don't remember much about it.

The Wastelands with you guys. Looking forward to it

In other groups I am going to be reading:
What Stalks the Deep which is Kingfisher, so I expect to really love it
Murder by Memory which I know little about, but I have read good things by this author before
Esperance, which has sucked me right in. I really liked this author's Braking Day, so it figures
Some old SFF:
The Computer Connection, which I started a few days ago and am liking so far - but need to get back to before I forget. It's pretty jumbled. On purpose. Some of the characters are a hoot, and the worldbuilding, which seems to be an outgrowth of the last 60's early 70's social scene, is also a hoot
Tower of Glass - sometimes I like Robert Silverberg and sometimes not, so we shall see
How to Survive a Fairy Bargain book 2 of a series and the first book was really good

Some of Black Company by Glen Cook (finish book 6 and read 7, 8, and 9) (yeah right I'm gonna struggle through all of that)

Then I have some series I want to continue etc Lisa Edmonds Alice Worth series (quick! before I forget!!) and Jennifer Estep's Bigtime series, which I have had hanging around for years

Ta Da!

Started my month with a couple short story collections. A Way to Be Happy & Other Worlds: Stories. Neither of which l really liked, though both were very well written and wrote good short stories. I always think short stories are their own art form, lots of authors write them but most don't really do it well.

New York 2140 was really good, I liked the world building a lot. Maybe helps that I love New York, such a great city. I also like the finance and history and environmental parts to the story.

Bad Land wasn't great at all. Kinda tired of weird messed up families that somehow end up all right even though they do weird stuff that no normal person would do.

I'm on a mystery, The Frozen River, right now, then I have A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking lined up to start next while I wait not-so-patiently for my library loans for the group reads to come in. I've also got The Waste Lands on hand for the group series read.

I'm reading A Hat Full of Sky with my daughter. My son is too busy for me to read to him at bedtime these days (sniff).

1) Penric and the Bandit by Lois McMaster Bujold. 5*. This is like book 12 of the novella series and I love the series and I love Bujold always (almost, there's one early standalone fantasy I was not too crazy about)
2) The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester 4*, much better than I expected. It's got weird worldbuilding that is apparently a skewed forecast of the future from the social milieu of the late '60s/early 70's and ending up now or a bit later. Try it if you like strange but funny and engaging.
3) Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. 2* Boring. Didn't like the characters. Race relations with androids v people. I have to live through today's dreary politics, I don't want to read about dreary future politics. Glad it's over. I often like Silverberg, but not this one.

Halfway through Black Company 6. It's next and also Esperance which I am also about halfway through. It's really good so far.

Finished By Way of Deception. A book about the Mossad. Interesting and well done

Started something new
Through Struggle, the Stars

Week 1: The Artist of Blackberry Grange by Paulette Kennedy

This is a buddy read with three friends--the ones I read Broken Country with last month. This is a new book, and the premise seems a good start for kicking off October.

Week 2: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

This one had so much praise last year; comparable to The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters' War. I'm looking forward to this Black Death road trip through Hell. lol

Week 3: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

"This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice."

My gut feeling is that this is my favorite read for October!

Week 4 and Week 5:

This will depend on mood and time constraints. These are books I own and will likely pull from:

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery
Equal Rites
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
Dracula
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Welcome to Lovecraft
Weaveworld
The Reformatory