Audio book: The Hocus Pocus Handbook

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by Ann Aguirre
Read by Nikki Grey and Sebastian York
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some mild swearing (maybe an f-bomb, but I don’t think so) and some mild violence. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Thea Winter is a changeling in the Winter Faerie court. She’s always kept her head down, mostly, and stayed out of trouble. But all of a sudden, she’s roped into court politics, being forced into marrying someone from Summer, in hopes of stopping a war. However, that person has disappeared, and Thea and Winter’s Hound, Kerboros, are sent off to find the person and make good on Thea’s marriage. Which is inconvenient, since Thea is developing feelings for Kerboros and (honestly) doesn’t want to be married. As they search through the lands, and collect a wide array of friends and companions, their attraction grows. But what will happen when the Lord of Winter finds out.

First, the complaint I had all the way through: a book titled Hocus Pocus should not be about fae. It’s a bad title. And secondly: There is a magical handbook, one that Thea’s foster father made her, that is much too conveniently tied to the chapters. Every chapter started with a spell (or a description of an art piece, if it was Kerboros’ chapter), and it just dragged after a while. And then there was no chemistry between the characters. At. All. This would have been better as a friendship story, just a plain road trip story, something that didn’t lead with expectations of romance. Because, there was none. Oh, she told me there was, but I just didn’t feel it. At. All.

That said, I liked the narrators, I liked the side characters and I was interested enough to finish it. Just not to like it.

The Wild Season

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by Dashka Slater
First sentence: “One night in June 2023, someone approached a small park in San Francisco carrying bunnies.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: It’s pretty simple text and dotted throughout with illustrations. It’s in the Middle Reader NonFiction section of the bookstore.

This sweet little Middle Grade Nonfiction book covers the summer when a neighborhood in San Francisco came together to rescue domesticated bunnies that were dumped in a neighborhood park. It’s simply told – it is for younger readers, after all – but it’s a compelling story about passionate people doing things together. It follows a group of kids who formed The Bunny Club to look for them, as well as a teenager who was in the right place at the right time to catch a couple, and adults, including one who started a bunny rescue organization.

I learned a lot reading this – from how to catch bunnies to the reasons why domesticated bunnies really don’t survive well in the wild. The most astonishing fact was the overrunning of bunnies in Australia because some English guy wanted to hunt them, so his friend brought them over. It was simply told, but incredibly engaging – it reads like a fiction story, although it’s not. It’s simple without being simplistic, and appropriate for younger readers without talking down to them.

A surprisingly good book.

Audiobook: The Blonde Identity

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by Ally Carter
Read by Emily Ellet & Andrew Eiden
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs; violence; and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

In Paris, in the middle of a blizzard, a woman wakes up with a headache and no memory of who she is. She finds herself caught up with spies – mostly because she looks like her identical twin sister, Alex, who IS a spy. She ends up teaming up with Sawyer, Alex’s partner, to help her 1) figure out who she is and 2) find Alex. What they didn’t expect was that sparks would fly between the two of them.

I’ve had this one on my shelf since it came out, but I just never got around to reading it. I was looking for a new audiobook, though – after I started and bailed on several (as well as print books! Gotta love a reading slump), and I realized that this one might be fun. And I was right: it was the perfect mix of action/adventure, of women being smart but also being vulnerable, and romance. I’ve loved Carter’s YA books, and this is – like she pitched it when it came out – just a grown up Gallagher Girls book. And I adored it.

It was exactly what I needed at exactly the time I needed it. (See? THIS is why I have shelves of TBR books. So I can pick them up when it’s the “right” time!)

The Year I Stopped Drawing

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by Grant Snider
First sentence: “The year I stopped drawing was the year my parents started yelling.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher
Release date: November 10, 2026
Content: There is mention of adult alcoholism, parental fighting, and bullying. It’ll be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Adam’s always been the best artist in school, but seventh grade is different. His parents are fighting, he’s struggling at school, and he’s lost his desire to draw. He doesn’t know who he is without drawing, and at the encouragement of a school counselor, he spends the year trying to find himself (and his love of drawing) again.

It’s a simple novel, but I do love the way Snider tells it. It’s peppered with his art, in many different styles, as Adam tries to figure himself out. As I’ve only read Snider’s comic strips, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this and how well he captured what it means for a kid to have their life in flux. It caught the turmoil and uncertainty of middle school especially well.

Highly recommend this one.

Rising Thunder

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by Neal Shusterman
First sentence: “The Mona Lisa was dead.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: December 1, 2026
Others in the series: Scythe, Thunderhead, The Toll
Content: There is talk of assisted suicide and of murder – including mass events. There is also some mild swearing. It will be in the YA section of the bookstore.

In this prequel to the Scythe series, we follow a diverse group of (mostly) young people in the world as it struggles to figure things out. There’s Aziz, who programs a couple of AIs that are given competing directives (not by Aziz). There’s Renz, who was an eco-nihilist until he destroyed the Mona Lisa. There’s Lizzie, who has taken it upon herself to release people who are put into stasis (there’s a place called Twi-Life where, when someone gets too close to death, they can choose to go there to “wait” for a cure) against their will. There are a lot more characters – almost too many – to relate here. The book takes place over several years, as the world comes closer to immortality, and this group of people – who don’t know that they are the ones in this online message board (for lack of a better term) talking about the problems of immortality – becomes more and more invested in what the future will hold.

Much like the Scythe series, in this one Shusterman tackles the ethics of immortality and curing all disease, as well as the ethics of creating AI. I know in those books, the Thunderhead is an all-knowing, wise creation, but in this one, the competing AI – Overcast and Securis – are not that. And I found it fascinating to see the process of how the Thunderhead became what it is in the books. In fact, this is one of those prequels that’s best if you read the original series first. It gives background and worldbuilding that deepens and expands the story, which is always a good thing. I’m pretty sure this is going to be at least a duology (if not a trilogy), because the story doesn’t end; it just stops, which is a little frustrating. That said, this is as good as any in the original series, and I’m happy to be back in this fascinating world.

Monthly Round-Up: August 2026

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I got through the month reading lots of short books on audio. I don’t know why August seems to drag (probably the heat), but I haven’t really had the attention span for something really long since I finished Victorious. Ah, well. It’s the end of summer; one must give oneself grace.

My favorite this month:

Radio Free Texas

It’s the Libba Bray of the 2010s that I love, mixed with great music. I hope others will enjoy it as much as I did. As for the rest:

Adult Fiction:

Kill All Wizards (audiobook)
Victorious
Free Falling
Rasputin Swims the Potomac (audiobook)
Moon Called (audiobook)
Eric (audiobook)
Carmilla (audiobook)

Graphic Novels:

Hometown
Mexidkid Dreams

Non-Fiction:

First Light

What was your favorite this month?

Audiobook: Carmilla

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by Sheridan Le Fanu
Read by Katherine Press
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There’s not much, though there is talk of death by vampires. It’s in the Horror section of the bookstore.

In Austria in the late 1800s, Laura leads a solitary life with only her father for company. That is, until a stranger happens upon their isolated schloss and needs her daughter to stay with them to recover from her illness. This daughter, Carmilla, becomes Laura’s closest companion, her bosom friend (as Anne of Green Gables would put it). The problem is that deaths among the peasants from a mysterious disease start happening, and then Laura starts succumbing to it as well. The thing is: Carmilla is a vampire.

The tagline on the book is “the story that inspired Dracula”. I’m not sure if that’s the case, but it’s definitely a vampire story in the vein of Dracula. It’s all insinuation (it’s very sapphic – Carmilla doesn’t just want Laura for her blood, but also for herself) and conjecture. Its narration is in the form a recollection by Laura after the fact, so you know going in that she survives. It’s not gory or graphic. But it is compelling. I think that helps because of Press’s narration: she is very good at what she does. She gave the text an ominousness that helped with the vibe, and kept me interested in listening to it.

It’s also short, which is kind of what I want right now. Even though I don’t think I’m much of a vampire person (or werewolf, really), I did like this one.

Audiobook: Eric

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by Terry Pratchett
Read by Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz & Bill Nighy
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: It’s in Discworld, and the fourth in the Unseen University series. But, like all of Discworld, you can read it out of order.
Content: It’s Sir Terry. There’s nothing objectionable. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Eric is your typical demon summoner, except that he’s 14 and not very good at it. He’s attempted to summon a demon to grant him three wishes, and all he got was Rincewind, who isn’t a very good wizard at the best of times. And, in attempting to grant Eric’s wishes, they unravel time and space back to the beginning. Before ending up in hell, of course.

There’s really not much to say about this, mostly because it’s Terry Pratchett. It’s funny, it’s sweet, the footnotes (read by Bill Nighy!) are hilarious, and it’s an utterly pleasant way to spend 4 hours on a road trip. Highly recommended, especially if you’re driving somewhere.

Audiobook: Moon Called

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by Patricia Briggs
Read by Lorelei King
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, as well as violence with a pretty high body count. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifter, but she was raised by werewolves, so she knows a lot about them. And so when a newly changed wolf shows up at her garage in the Tri-Cities, Washington, she knows there’s going to be trouble. And she’s right. She teams up with the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Wolfpack, Adam, but when he’s severely injured, she returns home to Montana and her first love, Samuel, for help.

First off: this is much more world-building than actual story. There was a lot of explaining (no, please: sum up!) about wolf habits, wolf law, and pack politics. (The words “I’m not pack” were uttered more times than I cared to hear.) It was a decent mystery: who was at the heart of kidnapping kids and turning them into wolves, and how they were developing tranquilizers that worked on werewolves, was interesting. But, it wasn’t a romance. Not really. Sure, there were hints of a love triangle between Mercy, Adam, and Samuel, but it didn’t really go anywhere (yet). I liked Mercy as a character – she was smart and resourceful and didn’t let the men push her around. So, there’s that. But will I read more? Probably not. It was fine, but not exactly something I really want to spend a lot of time with.

Mexikid Dreams

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by Pedro Martín
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date 9/1/26
Others in the series: Mexikid
Content: There is some general sibling rivalry and teasing, plus a raid by La Migra. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section.

Martín picks out another story from his childhood, this one of the time that his family were sharecroppers and worked in the strawberry fields in California. He writes about the early mornings, the stained fingers and knees, and the backbreaking work they did. But he also talks about the good times, the music in the fields, the time with his family, and the way they all worked together. He also writes about the financial challenges of being a sharecropper, and the desire of Martín and his siblings to not have to do this for the rest of their lives. It’s about dreaming, working, and finding oneself.

I liked this one a lot. I think it’s important – it’s good to tell the stories of the people who pick our food, so that kids know where strawberries come from, but it’s also got Martín’s trademark humor. It’s a very funny story, as well as a touching one, at its heart.

Another excellent graphic novel.