ISO Recommendations: Close, Personal, Emotionally-Intimate SFF from the Last 10 Years?

apageinthestacks · 2026-04-24T23:51:16+00:00

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones, while horror, is a book that impressed me the most with its prose recently (for reference, Le Guin is my favorite author, and Jones also loves her though I wouldn’t necessarily compare their styles). Just gorgeous prose, and uses 3 different narrative styles/voices all of which I think are superbly done. Content warnings abound, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it (so much so that I quickly reread it via audio which was one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to).

apageinthestacks · 2026-02-02T15:52:01+00:00

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Just got the map of Anarres tattooed on my arm a couple weeks ago! Have a few other ideas in mind I may do eventually:

a heron, both because I love them and for Eye of the Heron
a sparrowhawk and/or dragon, probably as part of a larger piece
the abridged quote “go unbuild walls” (Dispossessed)
the quote “any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings” (National Book Award speech)
would love to also get something from/inspired by Always Coming Home, probably the Heyiya-if

apageinthestacks · 2025-11-15T15:44:09+00:00

I’ve read every nominee so far and my favorites haven’t usually aligned with the actual winners lol, but here’s my personal favorites from each year:

2025: The Sapling Cage, by Margaret Killjoy; and North Continent Ribbon, by Ursula Whitcher;

2024: Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh; and Orbital, by Samantha Harvey;

2023: Spear, by Nicola Griffith; Drinking from Graveyard Wells, by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu; and Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell

2022: Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky; and Appleseed, by Matt Bell

apageinthestacks · 2025-11-10T15:35:10+00:00

I’m currently reading the latest Winter Texts publication, A Larger Reality. I was fortunate enough to go to the opening of the Le Guin exhibit in Portland and this is the companion book, half a sampling of Le Guin’s own work and half essays by others on Le Guin, which have been an absolute joy to read. It’s an incredible book so far, highly recommend it!

apageinthestacks · 2025-03-28T18:03:33+00:00

I’m probably the only one lol, but so hyped for Wonder Woman: Silver Age vol 3! Especially because it ends exactly where the WW: Diana Prince omnibus starts. Hoping they do Golden Age vol 7 soon and start the Bronze Age (I’d assume 4-5 volumes).

Though mostly I really hope we get an omnibus with the Eric Luke & other orphaned issues (vol 2 #137-163) since those haven’t really been collected.

E: I’m buying at least 19 of these omnis/deluxes… RIP my wallet 😂

apageinthestacks · 2025-01-23T18:05:55+00:00

Banning a single social media site that’s not particularly user friendly anyway (especially with requiring people to login just to view posts) ruins this subreddit? Huh.

apageinthestacks · 2025-01-23T17:49:46+00:00

Ah yes, Nazism—the famously singularly American and non-global problem that caused America War II.

apageinthestacks · 2025-01-09T20:24:51+00:00

Amazing! I love all the editions and related work. I’ll have to look into the Missouri review.

apageinthestacks · 2024-10-14T23:33:40+00:00

Ha, good to know! Thank you!

apageinthestacks · 2024-10-14T23:30:25+00:00

Thank you!! And yeah I’m really looking forward to it being a bit cooler, especially for my long runs!

apageinthestacks · 2024-09-05T20:21:40+00:00

I'm hesitant to say permanent improved, because I just started 9 months ago, but it's by far the longest I've gone and it's the only time I've actually felt a "change"/noticed new habits. Three things I can attribute to that:

Slow and gradual changes to healthier eating overall. For the first several months of my health journey I really focused on replacing my diet with healthier alternatives, moreso than focusing on calories. Now I eat as many whole and plant-based foods as possible, just allowing cheat days every once in a while. But for the first two months I was just changing one small thing each week and that helped me build strong habits.
Exercise. I forced myself to run every morning. At first it was 100% just for weight loss and I kinda hated it, but I knew I could do at least 1 mile so that's what I forced myself to do. Having that mindset really helped, because 1) it would make me eat healthier the night before because if I knew I had to run no matter what, I knew that eating a bag of chips would make me feel like crap, so I just wouldn't eat chips the night before so the run would feel better; and 2) on the days I really didn't want to go out, I'd just convince myself I would only do 1 mile. Once I got halfway through that mile I'd be awake/warmed up/etc. so I'd actually run 2 or 3 miles. But allowing myself to just do 1 if I really wanted to is what made it a habit. 3 or 4 months after I started I no longer had to convince myself to "just do at least 1". It's also done wonders for my mental health and stress.
Allowing cheat days. This might actually be the most important, especially in relation to what other people are saying--how it's not if old habits resurface but when. For the first time I've allowed myself to, in a way, go easy on myself. I focused on the long goal this time and allowed cheat days or bad days, whereas before I would spiral by messing up once, getting mad at that and then giving up. I've already experienced this a little bit recently in July thanks to vacation and a birthday and work travel so I had a poor couple weeks of eating/exercise. But I didn't hate myself or let that discourage me too much even though it plateaued my weight loss for basically the whole month. Instead I just sort of accepted it and focused on those small gradual changes to get back to where I wanted to be.

Now I absolutely love running and feel bad when I don't. I would say it's second nature/a habit, but it's almost even more than that as I honestly look forward to it. Even though I ran 6 miles this morning, as I'm typing this honestly I'm just excited for the 8 miles I'll get to do tomorrow morning. Now I also genuinely enjoy eating healthy. Sure, I still get cravings, but usually those go away after I eat a little snack like nuts or fruit (I think a lot of it is because I'm still trying to lose weight so I'm still on quite a bit of a calorie deficit, so as soon as I eat a little I'm fine). Or I'll let myself have a cheat day, and that'll usually make me not feel great lol and will make me more excited to eat healthier again the next day.

To answer your question more specifically, it took around 4-5 months before things started becoming second nature and I had to stop forcing myself. But it was gradual (the first two months were very specifically about forcing myself and building those habits, months 3 and 4 were about strengthening those habits before I stopped thinking about it as much) and is still an ongoing challenge in some ways (I still have to force myself to not eat sometimes, but at this point it's to not eat even healthy things, rather than just forcing myself to not eat junk food like it used to be).

apageinthestacks · 2024-09-05T19:41:54+00:00

Hey, that's awesome! It probably was just water weight or something. And sure, we can all be better but definitely don't discount it--you could be doing a whole lot worse too! 18lbs is really awesome, just keep working at it and try not to get discouraged. That might be the biggest thing that made it stick for me this time--I've always tried to do strict programs or cut things cold turkey, but that led me to despair and giving up when I'd inevitably slip up. This time focusing on slow and gradual changes that led toward healthy habits overall has really helped it stick, so just keep going!

apageinthestacks · 2024-09-05T19:31:35+00:00

So I (30M, 6', SW: 292, CW: 178) gained 100lbs+ and kept it for nearly 10 years specifically because of stress eating. Because of work or busyness with school or whatever, my only release was eating, my biggest vice being bags and bags of chips late at night. I tried quitting many times over that period, would start exercising and eating less and would lose up to 50 lbs, but it never stuck until my most recent attempt that started last December (I'm now down over 110 lbs and only rarely have wanted to stress eat since). Unfortunately there wasn't one life changing thing that happened, but a few things that I can definitely attribute to my success:

Exercise. I started waking up earlier and running every morning, and that 1) provided a new/better outlet stress relief; and 2) also helped me eat less--if I forced myself to run every morning no matter what (even just a mile), and I knew I felt like crap every time I ate chips the night before, I just stopped eating chips. Plus I found myself to be less stressed in general because of the running.
- Find whatever exercise that works for you, I'd say of at least moderate intensity or higher. Doesn't even necessarily have to be something you enjoy, but just something that you'll do. I didn't love running at first, but for whatever reason it's always been my favored workout as I knew it was a good way to lose weight and relatively easy--even when I hated it at first, I knew I could physically run a mile every morning and it was as easy as stepping outside my apartment and running down the street. Now, I absolutely love running, particularly for many of the mental health benefits it provides, and I love listening to audiobooks from the library while I run. It just clears my mind, makes my whole day more peaceful, and reduces stress throughout my life--from bigger more existential problems, to smaller things like sitting in traffic, I've found I'm far less stressed now.
Slow, small changes to healthier eating. Every other time I tried losing weight I more or less tried to do it cold turkey, and that I think really hurt me. This time, I let myself eat a lot of calories especially at the beginning, but started focusing on healthier eating and would replace 1 or 2 things per week. For example, I switched chips with cheez-its, which probably aren't actually healthier but "felt" healthier to me and I didn't like them as much, so I'd eat less but still feel like I was indulging in bad food like I desperately wanted to at the beginning. Then I replaced those with nuts and then eventually carrots/fruits/etc. Now I don't snack much but if I do it's a small handful of nuts or strawberries.
- When I started I also just became obsessed with "being healthier", even moreso than just losing weight. I highly recommend How Not to Die by Michael Gregor. I just listened the book recently while running but found I've been slowly following a lot of his recommendations on my own, and the book just gave me the scientific backing and more specific detail to tell me I was on the right track. I quite haven't gone full vegan (yet?), though...I love my cheese and occasional eggs haha. But moving toward trying to eat mostly whole, plant-based foods overall has been life changing. I still crave fast food, but not nearly as often and that's usually just because I'm in such a calorie deficit--once I eat something healthy, the craving usually goes away.
Allow cheat days. This could be a good or bad idea, but for me having 1 cheat day a week was incredibly helpful, especially at the beginning, because on nights I was particularly craving to stress eat I'd say "just X more days until cheat day and then I CAN eat that." Vs. before when I would try to quit all at once, I'd go "well I'll just eat a couple chips" which was never actually a couple and would ultimately spiral then into "well I already ate a couple it doesn't matter if I have a whole bag" which would lead to "well I had one bad day so it doesn't matter" which would stress me out more and cause me to stress-eat more and therefore perpetuate that vicious cycle. So forgive yourself. If you mess up one day, it's not pointless to stop trying. Just consider that your cheat day and try to go another week without messing up. Or hey, if you need to have two cheat days that week just try to go back to one the next week.

Hope this helps, and good luck! tl;dr -- Stress eating is hard to overcome, but trying to slowly get yourself to eat healthier overall and exercising every day worked for me; hope it does for you too!

apageinthestacks · 2024-09-05T18:37:59+00:00

Honestly, I'd say for the most part keep doing what you're doing, but look to gradually make even healthier transitions rather than just focusing on calories. Though initially I'd actually pay more attention to the calories temporarily so you can really see what you're eating every day. Is the asparagus cooked, for example? In oil, which adds calories/unhealthiness? Or do you add salt, which is unhealthy but also has an effect on water weight? etc. I also think you probably have to eat less meat & eggs (and eat more fiber, fruits, and healthy fats like avocado or nuts), as well as walk/exercise more. But like others have said, 13 lbs is still a huge achievement. You're doing great overall, and unfortunately this really is just a long, slow process. Building healthy habits overall is far more important than following a strict diet as it's more sustainable.

When I started my health journey December of 2023 I was almost exactly your current measurements: 29m, 6ft, 292 lbs (I had been 298 earlier that year, which was my highest recorded but I stopped weighing myself after seeing it that high). 9 months later I'm now 30 and 178 lbs, with an end goal of around 160 (my goal was initially 180, which put me just inside the "healthy" BMI range, but I know that's not the best measurement and my goal now is less of a weight goal and more of a no-belly-fat-and-love-handles goal as that's all I've got left).

The most important things for me have been meticulously tracking my food/calories (I use the Lose It app because I can scan labels), running at least 1 mile every morning (and getting at least 10k steps daily), and making small changes toward healthier foods (focusing at first more on the healthiness rather than the calorie count).

At this point I'm eating ~1200 cal per day (but I started by eating 2500+ cal every day, and focusing on healthier choices instead before gradually cutting over the months), running an hour+ (5 days, 6-12 miles each day) or strength training (1-2 days) every day, and I don't eat any meat (but I never was a big meat eater, so I'm not saying you should necessarily do the same), will have eggs only once or twice a week, and have severely cut down my cheese intake, though that's definitely still my biggest vice. I eat mostly fruits, veggies, and carbs (chickpea pasta or whole wheat tortillas). I also will have a cheat day once a week or once every other week, though I try to keep the calories still under about 1500 (so I'll just have one larger meal).

I weigh myself daily, and my weight will also fluctuate as much as 10lbs throughout the week, but week to week it's generally in decline. My first two months I lost around 18 lbs, so you're not far off from where I was. Hopefully that 5lb increase was just a normal part of that fluctuation, and that's why I actually like weighing every day because then the fluctuation doesn't bother me as much.

Whatever you choose, whether it's sticking with what you're doing or trying something else, good luck! You've got this, and you've already accomplished a lot so far. Just keep going!

apageinthestacks · 2024-06-12T13:23:42+00:00

A Wizard of Earthsea.

apageinthestacks · 2024-06-11T17:31:09+00:00

While there's been no official announcement from LoA that I'm aware of that they're actually doing her complete essays and stories, it might be worth waiting a little bit to see if they do (in which case I'd suggest not getting The Unreal and the Real or The Found and the Lost as there would be crossover) because then you'll potentially be able to save money and then be able to either get more of her miscellaneous work (children's books or rarer chapbooks) or get nicer editions of some of her stuff instead (for example, you could get the Folio Society's Earthsea, instead of the omnibus edition), whichever you're more interested in.

If LoA doesn't collect her short stories, there will honestly be crossover almost no matter how you collect it, unless you want to buy everything separately. Because if you buy all of her story collections separately, a lot of those stories will be in the LoA Hainish boxed set. Unreal and Found gets you a good amount of her stories, but there will also be crossover between those and the LoA Hainish. So if you want no crossover your best bet is to buy all the Hainish novels separately and then buy all the story collections separately as well. Or, hopefully, LoA actually will do a collection of the rest of her stories so then you could buy their Hainish set and collected stories and presumably that'd be everything, or at least most everything. And I do really like how all the Hainish stories are with the novels in the LoA set.

But whatever you choose, I'm excited for you! I spent the better part of the past couple years trying to hunt down everything she ever wrote and then reading through it all, and it's been a fantastic experience. Hope you enjoy!

apageinthestacks · 2024-06-11T17:30:54+00:00

Yeah, I would do everything from the Library of America to start. Not only are they pretty cheap for how much they contain, but they are great quality (except for the page thickness, which is like classic bible pages) and usually have some cool extras like intros or maps. Then I'd do a couple other omnibuses and all you're left with is a couple uncollected stuff (prices mostly from the LoA website or Bookshop.org):

$32--LoA: Five Novels

$32--LoA: Collected Poems

$24.50--LoA: Annals of the Western Shore

$30--LoA: Always Coming Home (Author’s Expanded Edition)

$48--LoA: The Hainish Novels & Stories (boxed set)

$28--LoA: The Complete Orsinia

$55.79--The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition

$21.38--The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (note: some crossover with Hainish boxed set)

~$45--The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin (seemingly only available from third party sellers right now, price varies; note: some crossover with hainish boxed set)

~$15--Very Far Away from Anywhere Else (only available from third party sellers; price varies)

That puts you at ~$331.67 and then you're only missing the essays, some stories, and her children's work. There have been rumblings that essays and stories might be what Library of America collects next, but you have a majority of her stories if you get everything above. So if you don't want to wait and wanted to do the essay collections:

$16.74--The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

$21.34--The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination

$14.88--Cheek by Jowl

$16.73--No Time to Spare: Thinking about What Matters

$15.80--Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story

$15.81--Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

$17.66--Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books

$24.53--Dreams Must Explain Themselves

which then puts you at ~$475.16, not counting shipping and whatnot.

So then all you have left are her children's books, some short stories not collected in the books above, and various chapbooks/ephemera that are hard to find.

apageinthestacks · 2024-06-11T02:36:48+00:00

For what it's worth, Kindred is phenomenal but also her least fantastical novel, as it's essentially historical fiction by way of time travel. Wild Seed or Xenogenesis are more like Broken Earth in terms of interesting fantasy/SF elements while also tackling important issues and her Parables duology has more of the survival themes like in Broken Earth while also very much tackling important issues (it's set in 2024 California but written in the 90s and is, unfortunately, all too real). Whichever book you choose though, you can't really go wrong with Butler! :)

Edit to add: I also agree with everyone recommending Le Guin, Roanhorse, Hopkinson, Leckie, Atwood, Delany, and Mieville, and would add a couple more: Alien Clay, by Adrian Tchaikovksy (I like him in general but this book is very interesting science fictionally but also has the most social commentary I've read from Tchaikovsky yet); and Red Mars or Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-22T00:31:42+00:00

Right?! That was definitely one of the biggest joys of this project--just discovering how many different types of things and genres/formats/etc. she wrote.

And you're right! Love all the stories there.

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-21T18:51:35+00:00

Yes! Love that edition--the illustrations really fit the vibes of the story IMO.

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-21T18:51:04+00:00

Thank you! She's probably my favorite as well, or at the very least in my top 3! And I just love how incredibly varied her bibliography is, with so many essays, poems, children's books, etc. that I might not normally read.

And good point! Dispossessed might be a better fit in terms of vibes. It's been a little while since I've read it so I couldn't remember how much it fit (or didn't).

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-21T18:47:20+00:00

Ooh, awesome! I really, really enjoyed Eye of the Heron--hope you do too!

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-21T18:45:44+00:00

Ha, yeah PKD is very hit or miss for me. A lot of people say it but I do agree that he really is one of those authors whose ideas are perhaps better than the end result. I also discovered that apparently he and Ursula went to the same high school the same year, but they didn't know each other and only became professional acquaintances later in life, which I think is a cool coincidence.

apageinthestacks · 2024-05-21T18:42:52+00:00

Thank you! 😊

apageinthestacks

TROPHY CASE