Caro

"Fancy Dogs" by Tini Malina, has basically become a staple in our house. My daughters ask for it constantly, and honestly I don't even mind rereading it because the rhymes are just fun to say out loud. It's a picture book about dogs that look super elegant and put together, sweaters and all, but who still roll in mud, drink out of the toilet, and wreck your favorite shoes the second you look away. That gap between fancy and feral is where all the humor comes from.

Four stars from me. It's not gonna blow anyone's mind but it doesn't need to, it's exactly what a bedtime or afternoon read should be: quick, funny, and easy to love. If you're a book lover with kids, or just a book lover who likes dogs, this one's worth having on the shelf.

I read Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati in two days and I am not even exaggerating when I say I physically could not put it down. This is a full reimagining of the queen of Mycenae, from her childhood in Sparta running around with her sister Helen to the woman who ends up murdering her own husband. Casati takes a character who has basically been the villain of Greek myth for thousands of years and just gives her an entire interior life, reasons, grief, rage that actually makes sense. I went in expecting a decent mythology retelling and came out completely wrecked by it.

Paradox Inc. by Forrest Brazeal is one of those tech satires that could only exist right now, in this 2026 crazy timeline. The premise is basically the funniest and saddest thing ever: a startup invents the first consumer time travel device, the Bleb 1, and instead of using it for anything remotely meaningful, people are stealing discontinued 90s Doritos with it or killing their past selves for TikTok clout. Yeah. It is dystopian sci fi but filtered through a very specific, very cynical understanding of startup culture, the kind where growth at all costs matters more than whether the product should even exist.

What kept me reading was the structure more than anything, honestly. The story switches between three points of view, an engineer, a rival executive and a journalist, and it is told almost like a documentary.

As someone who reads a ton of sci fi, I really appreciated that the author cared more about the social and ethical mess of the invention than the mechanics of time travel itself, which is usually where these books either shine or fall apart completely.

I give it a soft 5 but a 5 nonetheless. It had some pacing problems but I had a complete blast reading it, absolutely recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Preaching to the Choir was a decent read but not what I expected from Tchaikovsky. I picked it up because I love his sci fi stuff and I was hoping for something twisted and gory in that gothic old money mansion setting. The atmosphere is definitely there, the Enderbough family estate is creepy and the vibes are on point, but the horror stays pretty tame the whole way through. If you are going in expecting real gore or shock value you will be a bit let down like I was.

The setup is fun though. Elena tagging along to her boyfriend's once in a generation family reunion and slowly realizing something is very wrong with this "old money" family works well as a premise. The family dynamics and the sarcastic British old money insults were honestly some of the best parts for me. Tchaikovsky is good at building that slow dread and the mansion itself feels like its own character.

Where it fell short for me was the payoff. The reveal felt a little underwhelming and safe, especially coming from an author who usually goes all in on wild sci fi concepts. It is not a bad novella at all, just more restrained gothic horror than the visceral gore I was hoping for. Solid but not his best work in my opinion, 3.5 stars.

Female Life on Planet Earth by Laleh Khadivi follows Heti, who after her mother's death finds photos revealing a violent past as a militant in the Iranian Revolution, someone completely different from the woman she thought she knew. From there the book moves between generations of women, secrets, and the daughters and mothers who never fully see each other.

I went in expecting something closer to The Lion Woman of Tehran, so the first chapters left me a bit unsure. But once I settled into it I got really pulled in. What stayed with me most is how it handles relationships between women, and that truth that we never really know our parents, not the whole of them anyway. It also has moments that are genuinely funny, which caught me off guard given the subject matter.