Month: February 2026

I read 12 books in January:

• The Carter of La Providence by Georges Simenon
• Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing with David Naimon
• Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• Elevation by Stephen King
• The Man Who Japed by Philip K. Dick
• Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
• Absolute Batman Vol 1: The Zoo by Scott Snyder et al.
• Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
• What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
• Time and Again by Jack Finney
• The Flash: Book One by Mark Waid et al.

I read 39 short stories in January. These were my favorites:

• “The Sun Globe” by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw (PodCastle)
• “Give a Dog a Bone” by Richard E. Dansky (PseudoPod)
• “The Versions of Yourself That You’re Better Off Without” by Aimee Ogden (Nightmare)
• “Body? Glass” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu (Nightmare)
• “Stairs for Mermaids” by MM Schreier (Flash Fiction Online)
• “The Doorkeepers” by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny)
• “Sing” by Jules Bly (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• “Mother’s Hip” by Corey Jae White and Maddison Stoff (Lightspeed)
• “The Orchard Village Catalog” by Parker Peevyhouse (Strange Horizons)
• “The Stars You Can’t See by Looking Directly” by Samatha Murray (Clarkesworld)
• “Speaking for Those With Obsidian Tongues” by Wendy Nikel (Small Wonders)
• “The Spindle of Necessity” by B. Pladek (Strange Horizons)
• “Symbiote” by Diana T. Chiu-Chu (kh?ré?)
• “Baron Quits the Payloaders” by Renan Bernardo (Escape Pod)
• “The Peculiarities of Hunger” by Woody Dismukes (kh?ré?)
• “Joiner and Rust” by Lavie Tidhar (Reactor)

I watched 6 movies last week:

• Black Fury is a well directed and rousing story of union solidarity, but Paul Muni’s terrific performance really takes center stage.
• Give everyone involved in The Werewolf of Washington this much credit, they’re all in on the joke. I just don’t think it’s an especially funny joke.
• Nia DaCosta’s lush and sensual Hedda feels very much like a reimagining of the original Ibsen play that it almost doesn’t matter how little I remember of that one production I saw back in college.

• They should have sent a poet. I knew Andrea Gibson’s poetry only in passing, having seen them perform their 2023 poem “MAGA Hat in the Chemo Room.” But their final years, captured so soulfully and beautifully in Come See Me in the Good Light make me understand the beauty of language and life that I was missing.
• The Sorcerers feels a little cheaply made, a goofy but interesting idea fleshed out only insofar as the budget and performances will allow.
• I can see why The Trail might seem too slow and not scary to a lot of people, but I thought it worked really well, especially with what was obviously almost no budget. The movie isn’t necessarily subtle in being a metaphor for trauma and its lingering fear, but I think that simplicity actually works very much in its favor.