This Week in Books – 26-11-25

This Week in Books is a feature hosted by Lipsy at Lipsyy Lost and Found that allows bloggers to share:

• What they’ve recently finished reading
• What they are currently reading
• What they are planning to read next

A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words.

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It’s been another quiet week on the blog, but at least I’ve kept up with my reading! I finished Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books and then moved on to Darker Days by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Lia Belt. I really enjoyed both of these!

From the author of The Change, comes a novel about book banning and those brave enough to stand up against this censorship.

IT’S TIME TO RISE UP

In Troy, Georgia, local woman Lula Dean has campaigned to cleanse the town’s reading habits. All the ‘disgusting’, ‘pornographic’ and downright ‘un-American’ books have been removed from public spaces. Now, the townspeople are only allowed to read ‘appropriate’ books from Lula’s personal lending library.

But a small group refuse to be told what they can and cannot read and, unbeknownst to Lula, her personal collection is slowly restocked with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, spell books, and more.

One by one, each person who borrows the books from Lula’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. And as they begin to reveal their new selves, it’s clear that a showdown is fast approaching – one that will change the town of Troy forever …

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In Lock Haven, a quiet little town in Washington State, there is a very special street.
Bird Street. The residents of Bird Street are all successful, wealthy, healthy and happy. And their children are all well-mannered and smart and high achievers.

At least they are for eleven months of the year.

In November, however, the ‘Darker Days’ begin. For November’s the month when things take a turn for the worse: accidents, bad luck, familial conflict and illness take hold. And it is in November that a stranger comes to Bird Street to collect the debt owed by the residents.

Because, you see, there is a price that must be paid for all the happiness and good fortune they enjoy for the other eleven months of year. And that price is one human life. Every November. Without fail.

And so it has been for over a hundred years. To ease their guilt, the residents of Bird Street seek out individuals – usually the elderly or the terminally ill – who wish to die with dignity and are content to be helped on their way.

But this year, things don’t go to plan. This year events take a terrifying turn . . .

Propulsive and haunting, Darker Days is a devastating modern take on the Faustian pact, and begs the question: how far would you go for your own happiness?

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I’m currently reading Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey.

Sometimes the fate of entire worlds can be decided by a woman with nothing to lose, and the smartest gun in the multiverse in her hand . . .

This is the story of Bess – or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It’s the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It’s the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it’s the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero.

This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war – one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

This is how Bess learned the truth about her world. Came to it the hard way, through pain and loss and the reckless spilling of blood, and carried it with her like a brand on her soul. And once she knew it – knew for sure how badly she’d been used – she had no option but to do something about it.

From one of science fiction’s most original and revolutionary voices comes a tale like no other. Vengeance always comes with a price . . .

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My next book will see me start Doorstoppers in December, but which book to choose? So many of you recommended The Raven Scholar, but Katabasis is calling to me…

She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with murder.

After twenty-four years on the throne, it is time for Bersun the Brusque, emperor of Orrun, to bring his reign to an end. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders will compete to replace him.

Trained at rival monasteries, each contender is inspired by a sacred animal – Fox, Raven, Tiger, Ox, Bear, Monkey, and Hound. An eighth – the Dragon proxy – will be revealed only once the trials have begun. Eight exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists – the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to the brilliant but idiosyncratic Neema Kraa to investigate. But as she hunts for a killer, darker forces are gathering.

If Neema succeeds, she could win the throne – whether she wants it or not. But if she fails, she will sentence herself to death – and set in motion a sequence of events that could doom the empire . . .

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Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.

But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.

That’s if they can agree on anything.

Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

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And that’s my week in books! What are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments! 😎