Cold November Reads

Now that things are calming down a little (only two more events this month!) I’ve picked up a few books to get me through the holiday. Some are my purchases, some are from the library where I work to support my habit, some are loans and a few are gifts. I hope to be posting reviews of all of these as I finish them and passing the gifts on to Austin Gragg for his possible use in his column GraggonSpeak. No promises there. He gets a lot of books.

Also, you may notice the Space and Time website is a little confused at the moment. Our editorial assistant decided to have a baby in the middle of updating it so it’s between Autumn and Summer right now. But hey! That’s 2020 for you.

FAs far as the reviews, first it will be Whitechapel Rhapsody by Alessandro Manzetti, because I’ve finished it last month. Lush, lush and gorgeous poetry about Jack the Ripper. Alessandro uses details from news reports and medical reports to fill in the morbid details of one of the most notorious killers on record. I highly enjoyed this work and was also privileged to do some English edits on it.

After that will be Spineless by Amy Langevin (not pictured here because I’m reading the ebook) since I just finished it. Another serial killer theme but with an unexpected twist. As I loved Amy’s The Man Who Married Death, I expected nothing less from her newest work.

My current RIP (is read in progress a thing?) is The Ninja Daughter and The Ninja’s Blade, both by Tori Eldridge. Fun fact #1: my grandmother’s family migrated to Honolulu from Okinawa and that’s where my mother and Tori Eldridge were both born and raised. Maybe they knew each other? Fun fact #2: the heroine in the books is named Lily Wong, and my middle name means water lily in Japanese. So you see, I have to read both of these to expand my cultural horizons.

After that… who knows? Right now it’s between The Bury Box by Lee Forman or Bad Bloods November Snow by Shannon A. Thompson or Shadow’s Lament by Ryan Aussie Smith. I did the edits on Ryan’s book (a.k.a. my husband) so now I just want to read it for the story… and hopefully not find anything I missed. Regardless of which I move on to, they will all be read this month as I enjoy a much needed staycation after a mad-busy October.

What do you think I should read after Tori Eldridge? Let me know in the comments or hit me up with new suggestions for December. Sunday I’ll be posting progress on Soft Deadlines, my own WIP. Tonight I should be passing the 20k mark… if I go get writing.

By Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

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