Recommended Reading List: April 2025

Still operating from behind here, because these past two years were insane. At least I found time to read again, even when conducting a workshop or working with student manuscripts. I didn’t find a lot to like, though, in April. I read a number of books that either didn’t end well or…
https://kriswrites.com/2025/08/28/recommended-reading-list-april-2025/

#Fantasy #freenonfiction #historicalfiction #RecommendedReading #AaronCouch
@indieauthors

Recommended Reading List: March 2025

I had some strange experiences in my March reading. I taught a Gothic class in May, with an emphasis on Gothic romance. I loooove Gothic romance, and am not horribly fond of Gothic horror. But I chose a couple of books I hadn’t read before…and one of them! OMG! It started okay, had great…
https://kriswrites.com/2025/07/25/recommended-reading-list-march-2025/

#freenonfiction #OnWriting #RecommendedReading #Amazon #BarbaraBroccoli
@indieauthors

Modern Mill touts $84M raised, but this round has generated just $1.1M. No profits, high debt, and capped returns, raise several red flags.

#RecommendedReading

https://www.dailydac.com/worthy-investment-no-potential-opportunity-nonetheless-maybe-depending-on-what-you-do-for-a-living/

This Should Radicalise You (on AI porn)

#recommendedreading

https://helenaaeberli.substack.com/p/this-should-radicalise-you

Recommended Reading List: February 2025

I mentioned in January’s list that I had fewer books to recommend in February and March. I read a lot but didn’t finish some of the books, and the ones I did finish, I didn’t really like well enough to recommend. As I tell my writing students, you…
https://kriswrites.com/2025/05/31/recommended-reading-list-february-2025/

#freenonfiction #RecommendedReading #AlyssaCole #AshleyRuthMBernier #BestAmericanMysteryandSuspenseStories
@indieauthors

#WhatWereReading : Marie loves a good thriller, and really enjoyed the latest Stuart MacBride, House of Burning Bones & Michael Connelly's Nightshade. Cracking thrillers from both sides of the Atlantic!

#books #livres #StuartMacBride #MichaelConnelly #CrimeFiction #PolicierRoman #TheHouseOfBurningBones #Nightshade #Thriller #bookstodon #RecommendedReading #bookshops #librairies

April is the Cruelest Month, but not for my Reading List

Reader, in an attempt to break out of my writer’s malaise (sounds far better than “writer’s block,” doesn’t it?), I am going to break one of my cardinal rules as a blogger: not reviewing books. See, once you start reviewing books, it becomes an expectation. And once something is expected of you, it stops being fun.

Still, I’ll chance it, because I’ve actually been enjoying my reading list and feel as though sharing it could be fun. For, dear reader, I, an inveterate and uncompromising history nerd, have been delving into the weird world of fiction. And in the interest of fairness, I will share my entire reading list – I will not be shamed for my obsession with Agatha Christie, dammit.

By the way, all links are to Bookshop, which supports local bookstores and not Gilded Age wannabes. I don’t get a commission, but I do get a great feeling of joy at the thought of small bookstores thriving. So let’s get started, then, shall we?

Most Thought-Provoking Read

The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman

Yeah, so, I know I said I was going to be fiction-heavy, and we’ll get there, but this was my first read this month. And whoo boy, was it timely. Tuchman posits “why do nations do things that are obviously against their best interests and then keep doing them?” and if that isn’t pertinent to the now, I don’t know what is. She makes a compelling case for the prevalence of human folly, bias, prejudice, and pride over reason, virtue, and humility in her series of case studies from ancient Troy to the not-so-ancient U.S. conflict in Vietnam. In the course of the book she touches on some lesser-known follies, such as the Papal States doing some dumb stuff in the Renaissance (whomst amongst us tho?) and King George III making a whoopsie in his American colonies. This latter is well-timed with the 250th anniversary of said whoopsie and holds some very cautionary tales about hubris for our own Republic. Is it somewhat depressing? Totes. Is it a great read filled with Tuchman’s classic pith and one-liners? Also yes. Highly recommend.

Most Enjoyable Read

This month, I can’t pick just one. And that is due to a good friend saying, “Read Naomi Novik.” Reader, they were not wrong. Which is why I have filled this section with a whole series and the beginning of another.

The Scholamance Series

A Deadly Education: A Novel The Last Graduate: A Novel The Golden Enclaves: A Novel

Not entirely sure how I started and finished all these in April. Wait, no, I know exactly how: these are entirely addictive. A magical school and a group of misfit friends? Think Harry Potter but without the cutesy charm and instead all the logical problems with magic which that series lightly glosses over. And way more monsters. Literally horrifying monsters. And the kind of plot you can sink your teeth into, and still be left picking bits of out of your teeth for days afterwards. Yeah, I know it’s a bad metaphor, but I’m on a roll. The series follows the protagonist through her last years in an insane magical school and then out into the real world, where throughout she battles monsters, a dooming prophecy, and truckloads of teen angst. A massively enjoyable read, throughout.

And for some bonus Novik, I present…

His Majesty’s Dragon is basically, “Hey, what if you mashed up Sharpe’s Rifles and Master and Commander, but then, wait – what if also, dragons?” And if that doesn’t hook you right off the bat, I have no clue what will. I am an absolute sucker for the Napoleonic Wars (baby ASO did his undergrad senior thesis on Napoleonic tactical reforms) and equally a sucker for well-written alternative fantasy historical fiction, or whatever the hell this genre is called. Do I want to read about the formation of the Royal Flying Corps, its tactical development in comparison to the French and Prussians, as well as organizational history? By god, sir, you know I do. And Naomi Novik, bless her, absolutely delivers. An utterly fantastic read, and with nine books in the series, it promises to be a gift that keeps giving.

Brain Candy Read

For my brain Doritos this month, I went with some good old Agatha Christie. Parker Pyne Investigates is a collection of short stories that require very little brain power to absorb but are also entertaining and present AC’s remarkable ability to find new and creative ways to kill people. In Murder in the Mews we get our favorite mustachioed Belgian, Hercule Poirot, in four short stories that will entertain your little gray cells. Fun fact: Christie cast Poirot as a Belgian refugee to the UK during World War I in part to destigmatize the plight of refugees. Some 250,000 Belgians fled to the UK during the Great War.

Also Read

Ohio at Antietam: The Buckeye State’s Sacrifice on America’s Bloodiest Day

Throwing an honorable mention to a little niche history I got into this month after meeting one of the authors at a conference. As a proud scion of the Buckeye state, I couldn’t pass this one by. It doesn’t break any new scholarly ground as far as the 1862 Maryland campaign, but it does deliver on what it promises: an overview of Ohio at Antietam. While I would have liked it to include a little more on Ohioans in the whole campaign, the book did a great job of following the battle through the eyes of the Buckeye staters. One can read it and get a pretty good understanding of the battle as a whole. It also covers monuments and memorialization, which I find fascinating. Thankfully, you get a good rundown on everyone’s favorite monument at Antietam: the bas relief of a dude bringing coffee to troops under fire. Sure, the dude is William McKinley, who just happened to become president. BUT, as the book makes clear, he didn’t just bring the troops coffee: he loaded two wagons with food and hot joe and ran a gauntlet of enemy small arms and artillery fire to get it to the boys of the 23d Ohio (Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, commanding, although he’d been wounded at South Mountain). All in all, a good survey of Buckeyes doing cool stuff.

That’s all for April. No spoilers, but May is heavy on the non-fiction again. To my own self, I remain sadly true.

Enjoy what you just read? Please share using the buttons below.

The opinions represented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense.

#amreading #books #Fiction #ReadingList #recommendedReading

This is sobering and illuminating: astrophysicist and author Adam Becker exposes the #flaws and outright #lies in #SiliconValley ideology, including the tech bros' obsessions with #Mars, #AI, and #immortality. 👨🏽‍💻

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/04/youre-not-going-to-mars-and-you-wont-live-forever-exploding-silicon-valleys-ideology/

#interviews #ArsTechnica #technology #capitalism #oligarchy #TechOligarchy #AdamBecker #ArsTechnica #singularity #books #RecommendedReading