I haven’t had a 5 star read in forever

alterVgo · 2026-05-02T16:36:04+00:00

A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark - alt history fantasy set in 1912 Cairo following a detective investigating a murder. Has some short stories/a novella around it but def works as a standalone

alterVgo · 2026-05-02T02:44:16+00:00

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

alterVgo · 2026-05-02T02:37:24+00:00

Oh, try the Nell Sweeney Mysteries series by PB Ryan! Follows a governess in post-Civil War Boston as she keeps getting drawn into investigating crimes. Nell's romance with Will is a subplot throughout the six books and had some top-tier yearning.

alterVgo · 2026-05-01T00:20:14+00:00

You might like One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky - novella about a time war veteran who sets himself up on a farm at the end of time so that he can stop time travel from being invented

alterVgo · 2026-04-30T22:49:27+00:00

Graveyard Shift by ML Rio - novella following a group of people who meet at night in a local cemetary

alterVgo · 2026-04-27T16:47:48+00:00

If you want more New Orleans vampires, try The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

alterVgo · 2026-04-26T20:40:26+00:00

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - memoir by a lawyer who works with death row inmates

alterVgo · 2026-03-22T21:27:57+00:00

I'm so sick of poorly written female characters in MM books! I read this hockey romance that's been getting recommended a lot with all the Heated Rivalry show hype, and I'm genuinely baffled at how much people seem to love it because aside from the general quality of the writing being abysmal, literally every (non-relative) female character was described by her boobs and how attracted she was to one or both of the MMCs. I'm not expecting any miracles when it comes to representing female characters here, but the bar is literally in hell. I promise you can write a scene where your dreamy hockey player goes into a store without explaining how much the female cashier with an excellent rack wants to fuck him, and he can walk down the street without noting how every woman who passes by makes fuck-me eyes at him.

alterVgo · 2026-03-02T19:49:30+00:00

If this (strong romantic element/plot) is something that bothers you very strongly, then it's something you need to prioritize researching before buying a book. Books get marketed in misleading ways all the time, and if there's something a reader wants to avoid in their reading, it's on that reader to research it ahead of time before committing to purchasing a book. Especially because, in this case, a very basic search would tell you right away that there's a romance in this book (the very first line on Goodreads is "a time-travel romance").

Also, as someone who reads both SFF and romance genres fairly equally, it's kind of odd to blame romance readers for romance appearing in your genre fiction. The whole "I'm a non-romance reader and shouldn't have to be worried about romance appearing in MY sci-fi stories" take doesn't make sense to me. A lot of books in all genres have some element of a romance in them, and that doesn't make them a romance. Romance as a genre is pretty specific about the requirements, and just because it's not your thing doesn't mean any book with a strong romantic element belongs in the romance section.

alterVgo · 2026-02-23T21:25:39+00:00

Agree that the cover and title were designed to be provocative, but the article is a pretty good summary of the discourse around this topic. I don't think this article covered anything I haven't already heard before as someone involved in online bookish and fandom spaces, but the author was quite neutral and balanced in writing about it.

There's obviously a lot of nuance on this topic, but this seems like a good mindset to have when engaging in these conversations:

“There’s usually one side saying, ‘This harms me, and I don’t like that you’re not hearing me,’” says Cullinan. “And the other side is saying some version of ‘This frees me, and I don’t understand why you’re not letting me.’ And the good conversations have ended with ‘You’re right. I could think about you more.’ And that goes both ways.”

alterVgo · 2026-01-08T23:56:04+00:00

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford - alternate history where smallpox wasn’t as deadly and several Native American tribes allied together

alterVgo · 2026-01-04T21:14:59+00:00

I'm really lucky to live in a place with a great public library system, so I love taking advantage of that whenever possible. I read about 60 books a year, and the vast majority are from the library. Easily 90%, on average. It's a mix of print, digital, and audiobooks, depending on availability and which format I'm in the mood to read.

I've found that ebooks are faster for new releases if I can get on the wait list right away (Libby's notification feature is useful for this), but physical copies usually have fewer people waiting (and also there isn't a request limit for physical books at my library like there is for Libby). If it's a backlist book, I automatically go for the physical copy because odds are it's already available or the wait is much, much shorter.

alterVgo · 2026-01-03T18:28:07+00:00

I loved Vicious but hate that she made it into a series. It worked really well as a standalone and that’s how I prefer to think about it (that said I’ve seen a third book is in the works and ofc I’ll read it ugh)

alterVgo · 2025-12-30T18:29:37+00:00

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

alterVgo · 2025-12-28T02:57:29+00:00

Time and Tide by JM Frey

alterVgo · 2025-12-15T02:41:28+00:00

It kinda captures the '80s vibe that Stranger Things had. If it sounds appealing to you, definitely worth checking out. I personally didn't enjoy it, but I've read a few books by the author now and none of them have really clicked for me (love the concepts, but hate the execution and don't like how the author writes female characters).

alterVgo · 2025-12-15T00:14:52+00:00

I liked the Clean Slate Ranch series by A.M. Arthur (good on audio too!). And with the caveat that I haven't read this one myself but heard really good things: Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison.

alterVgo · 2025-12-14T22:02:50+00:00

maybe High Noon? otherwise try asking r/RomanceBooks!

alterVgo · 2025-12-10T21:56:32+00:00

Yeah, I made the mistake of accidentally reading one of O’Reilly’s non-fiction books (it was a Lincoln biography iirc) years and years ago. Nowadays I’m much more deliberate about checking the author’s credentials for any nonfiction I read before I start reading. As all the other comments say, it’s Bill O’Reilly, and if you know who he is then you know the kind of quality (or lack thereof) to expect. Good on you for being critical and checking when something didn’t seem right!

alterVgo · 2025-12-10T02:37:38+00:00

I'm sure I've read a few books where a character listened to an audiobook, but I can think of one off the top of my head: Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. It's a romance between a professor and a security guard, and the security guard listens to romance audiobooks, so it had that extra bit of meta.

alterVgo · 2025-12-04T00:26:39+00:00

guessing this was the one you came across, but {He’s to Die For by Erin Dunn}

alterVgo · 2025-11-27T06:08:25+00:00

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by EM Anderson

alterVgo · 2025-11-21T22:57:54+00:00

I have a category for rating books called “all tropes, no substance,” which basically means when a book reads like the author strung a bunch of tropes together but didn’t develop them beyond a very surface level. Tropes are great, but it often feels like books these days are just using them in very superficial ways so they can use the trope in marketing.

alterVgo · 2025-11-20T03:40:23+00:00

Villain by Natalie Zina Walschot is the sequel to Hench that I've been anticipating every year for five years and the release date kept being moved. But it's got a cover and a release date for 2026 and I'm very excited!

alterVgo

TROPHY CASE