August 2026 Reading (will be deleted once posted)

The Game Master’s Book of Adventures on Demand by Ben Egloff. Filled with adventures that look like they’re going to be a lot of fun to run. The only issue is that all of them (or just about) involved planar travel, which I have specifically locked down in my campaign right now. (That’s what the players are doing, fixing it.) So, it’s not specifically very useful right now, but I’m looking forward to the future. 4 stars.

Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous by Autumn K. England. Slight fantasy, but enjoyable look at recovery from trauma and ethics of belonging to a mostly-good organization. Not sure if it’s a reread, but pleasant and cozy. 4.5 stars.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. It’s nice to read a series in which, even if it isn’t the main point of the series, the characters grow. It’s also nice to read a story about those over sixty who haven’t stopped living. Otherwise, nice little mystery with some interesting twists. 4.5 stars.

Everyone in this Bank Is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson. The latest (last?) book in the Ernest Cunningham series, it highlights the fact that Ernest isn’t just a writer. He’s a risk-taker and more than a little criminal himself. Ernest does make you want to join Juliette in smacking him upside the head to have him think things through a little. 4 stars.

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. A reread, although the initial time I read it was long enough ago that I’d forgotten most of it. It’s primarily a novel watching a young woman who exists on the borders (half-noble, half-wise woman) growing up and understanding the world around her. There are some romantic subplots, although not enough that I think it would fit into the current “romantasy” subgenre. An enjoyable book, and worth the reread. 4 stars.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. A reread, because the most recent book in this series has just come out. A fascinating look at Yale and all of its privileges from two characters who mirror what those privileges mean. The main character, Alex Stern, is a young woman with none of the standard Yale privileges—she’s female, brown, poor, and poorly educated—but she’s smart and she understands people and power. Darlington, her foil and mirror, appears to be everything she isn’t and, in many ways, he is. But . . . Watching these two navigate what appears to be a simple murder mystery, and all of its fallout, is delightful. This is much darker than I usually enjoy, but I did enjoy it. 4 stars.

The Best of All Possible Planets by Alex Shvartsman. First, note what this is described as. This is not a character-driven story. There is a little character growth, a very little character growth, but the story is not driven by them. It’s also not really a plot-driven story. The book is spent with the characters searching for a MacGuffin, which is helpfully labeled a MacGuffin, but it’s not really about the search. It’s described as being like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is kind of true. It seems to be aiming for the same kind of humor, but it misses that mark. Dhawan is not an everyman character wandering through the universe trying to figure out how to survive; he’s an idiot who needs a major plank applied to his head to figure out what’s going on. (I spent the first part of the book practically enraged by him; the simulation planet does make him better.) What this book really is is a scavenger hunt of references, mostly science fiction, but also musical theater, movies, religious texts, and general fiction. It’s supposed to be funny; I started to smile by the end of it, but I nearly didn’t get that far. If you can handle Dhawan’s privilege and assumption that his world is the best (that is straight from Candide, as the title references), you might find it funny. I found it a waste of time. 2 stars (I did manage to finish it.) Not reviewed on Goodreads because I don’t think it would be helpful.

Level 1 Innkeeper by Jason Ritter. An LitRPG novel. A perfectly adequate novel; however, I found the LitRPG aspect of it too intrusive to want to read any more of these. 3 stars.

Alien Olympus by Glynn Stewart. A perfectly acceptable next chapter in the series, but not much more to say about it. 3 stars.

My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse. I’m afraid I’m either too far from the time period or too much not in the demographic of idly wealthy single white male with butler, but I found these stories mostly annoying rather than funny. 3 stars.