Mood reading and book slumps are two topics that come up often in the book community. Sometimes it’s hard to stick to a reading schedule and we read whatever strikes our fancy. Other times it’s hard to read at all. And of course, mood reading and book slumps can be hard to separate. Books Mentioned:…

There’s something wonderful about animal companions in fantasy, magical or not. We’d love to do a deep dive into why these friendly critters capture our hearts, the various types of animals usually found in fantasy stories, and examining how the fantasy genre’s relationship with animals has evolved over the decades. Unfortunately, this is not that…

Books on tape have been around for half a century, but audiobooks have exploded in popularity in the last decade. What is the appeal of the audio format? Which books and narrators do we enjoy the most? And does listening to an audiobook even count as reading? Books Mentioned: Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim,…

One of the many wonderful things about being a book lover is the ability to lose one’s self in a “comfort read.” Whether that means a light and fluffy story to take our mind off troubled times, a bleak and dreary story to remind us that the present isn’t all that bad, or something in…

The many varied and fantastic worlds in which speculative fiction stories are set are one of the primary draws of the genre. Fans often rave about the decades J.R.R. Tolkien spent building Middle Earth or debate the rules of their favorite story’s magic system. But what exactly goes into worldbuilding, and how can it be…

The phrase “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” rarely applies toward actual books. Most of us have seen a cover in a bookstore or online and immediately wanted to know more. After all, that’s the point of book covers! But what exactly goes into designing covers? Artist Felix Ortiz and author Michael R. Fletcher…