finn's fookin book blog

shrinking the hoard one book at a time

[fookinbooks]

Pinned

Posting Masterlist:

Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray

[jstor]

100 open access books on JSTOR

African American Studies

An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, Revised and Updated Edition

Disrupting Colonial Pedagogies: Theories and Transgressions

J. A. Rogers: Selected Writings

The Race for America: Black Internationalism in the Age of Manifest Destiny

African Studies

Ethnicity, Identity, and Conceptualizing Community in Indian Ocean East Africa

Lagos Never Spoils: Nollywood and Nigerian City Life

American Indian Studies

Book Anatomy: Body Politics and the Materiality of Indigenous Book History

The Urgency of Indigenous Values

Anthropology

Graceful Resistance: How Capoeiristas Use Their Art for Activism and Community Engagement

Lacandón Maya in the Twenty-First Century: Indigenous Knowledge and Conservation in Mexico's Tropical Rainforest

Maya-British Conflict at the Edge of the Yucatecan Caste War

Neobugarrón: Heteroflexibility, Neoliberalism, and Latin/o American Sexual Practice

Our Hidden Landscapes: Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America

Power and Place: Preservation, Progress, and the Culture War over Land

Voices of Indigenuity

Archaeology

Living Ceramics, Storied Ground: A History of African American Archaeology

New Deal Archaeology in the West

The Cretan Collection in the University of Pennsylvania Museum, volume III: Metal Objects from Gournia

Violence and Inequality: An Archaeological History

Architecture

Waterhouses: Landscapes, Housing, and the Making of Modern Lagos

Asian Studies

Hong Kong Public and Squatter Housing: Geopolitics and Informality, 1963–1985

Communication Studies

Covid and…: How to Do Rhetoric in a Pandemic

Hillary Clinton's Career in Speeches: The Promises and Perils of Women's Rhetorical Adaptivity

Influential Machines: The Rhetoric of Computational Performance

Migrant World Making

Nuclear Decolonization: Indigenous Resistance to High-Level Nuclear Waste Siting

Serial Mexico: Storytelling across Media, from Nationhood to Now

Stories of Our Living Ephemera: Storytelling Methodologies in the Archives of the Cherokee National Seminaries, 1846-1907

Unsettling Archival Research: Engaging Critical, Communal, and Digital Archives

Cultural Studies

Cultural History of British Alternative Cabaret (1979-1991)

Middlebrow 2.0 and the Digital Affect: Online Reading Communities of the New Nigerian Novel

Reconstructive Memory Work: Trauma, Witnessing and the Imagination in Writing by Female Descendants of Harkis

Toward a Gameic World

Development Studies

Hottest of the Hotspots: The Rise of Eco-precarious Conservation Labor in Madagascar

Urban Indigeneities: Being Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century

Education

Limiting Privilege: Upward Mobility Within Higher Education in Socialist Poland

The Vulnerability of Public Higher Education

Environmental Studies

Ecologies of Imperialism

Unsettling Agribusiness: Indigenous Protests and Land Conflict in Brazil

Feminist & Women's Studies

Reclaiming Time: The Transformative Politics of Feminist Temporalities

Recovering Women’s Past: New Epistemologies, New Ventures

Film Studies

Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in Chinese and Japanese War Cinema

Monsters on Maple Street: The Twilight Zone and the Postwar American Dream

The Rise of Central American Film in the Twenty-First Century

Mapping the Stars: Celebrity, Metonymy, and the Networked Politics of Identity

Food Studies

The Visible Hands That Feed: Responsibility and Growth in the Food Sector

Gender Studies

Masculine Pregnancies: Modernist Conceptions of Creativity and Legitimacy, 1918-1939

Surgery and Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770–1940

Women, Nationalism, and Social Networks in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918

History

Captivity's Collections: Natural History and the British Transatlantic Slave Trade

Our People Are Warlike: Civil War Pittsburgh and Home-Front Mobilization

Reimagining the Educated Citizen: Creole Pedagogies in the Transatlantic World: 1685-1896

Southern Enclosure: Settler Colonialism and the Postwar Transformation of Mississippi

Language & Literature

Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium

Blood and Ink: The Barbary Archive in Early American Literary History

Ethical Crossroads in Literary Modernism

Faking It: Victorian Documentary Novels

Genre Networks and Empire: Rhetoric in Early Imperial China

The Lost Texts of Confucius’ Grandson: Guodian, Zisi, and Beyond

Understanding Agatha Christie

Latin American Studies

Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution

Law

Creating a More Perfect Slaveholders’ Union: Slavery, the Constitution, and Secession in Antebellum America

Linguistics

Cantonese Since the Nineteenth Century

Publishing Contemporary Foreign Poetry: Transnational Exchange in the Italian Publishing Field

Middle East Studies

Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces

Music

Fantasies of Music in Nostalgic Medievalism

Imagining Musical Pasts: The Queer Literary Musicology of Vernon Lee, Rosa Newmarch, and Edward Prime-Stevenson

Lieder in America: On Stages and In Parlors

On Music Theory and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone

Peace & Conflict Studies

Remaking the World: Decolonization and the Cold War

The Coup and the Palm Trees: Agrarian Conflict and Political Power in Honduras

The End of the Future: Trauma, Memory, and Reconciliation in Peruvian Amazonia

Uniting Against the Reich: The American Air War in Europe

Unwilling to Quit: The Long Unwinding of American Involvement in Vietnam

Performing Arts

Sonic Strategies: Performing Mexico's War on Drugs, Mourning, and Feminicide

Staging Existence: Chekhov's Tetralogy

Philosophy

Phenomenology in an African Context: Contributions and Challenges

Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious: Vol. 2 The Affective Hypothesis

Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious: vol. 1, The Catharsis Hypothesis

Political Science

Beyond Othering: A Gandhian Approach to Conflict Resolution in India and Pakistan

Local government and democracy in the United Kingdom

Paradoxes of Emancipation: Radical Imagination and Space in Neoliberal Greece

The Cost of Voting in the American States

The New Star Chamber and Other Essays: Annotated Edition

Population Studies

Central American Migrations in the Twenty-First Century

Psychology

Ferenczi Dialogues: On Trauma and Catastrophe

Public Health

Irish Fever: An Archaeology of Illness, Injury, and Healing in New York City, 1845–1870

Tuberculosis Control and Institutional Change in Shanghai, 1911–2011

Religion

Christan Colleges and Universities: An Empirical Guide

From Jesus to J-Setting: Religious and Sexual Fluidity among Young Black People

The Hispanic Faculty Experience: Opportunities for Growth and Retention in Christian Colleges and Universities

Science & Technology Studies

Composting Utopia: Experimental Infrastructures for Organics Recycling in New York City

Sociology

Apartheid’s Leviathan: Electricity and the Power of Technological Ambivalence

As Legend Has It: History, Heritage, and the Construction of Swedish American Identity

Continuous Pasts: Frictions of Memory in Postcolonial Africa

Prison Capital: Mass Incarceration and Struggles for Abolition Democracy in Louisiana

Research as More Than Extraction: Knowledge Production and Gender-Based Violence in African Societies

The Souls of Jewish Folk: W. E. B. Du Bois, Anti-Semitism, and the Color Line

Technology

Transnational Families in Africa: Migrants and the role of Information Communication Technologies

Urban Studies

Living Politics in the City: Architecture as Catalyst for Public Space

[sleepnoises]

incomplete syllabus for stupid argument i got into in the night

worn: a people's history of clothing, sofi thanhauser

women's work: the first 20,000 years, elizabeth wayland barber

fabric, victoria finlay

marriage: a history, stephanie coontz (mostly about marriage as an economic institution)

the once and future sex, eleanor janega (written in an unpleasant post-twitter register but accessible guide to medieval europe's christian misogyny)

various works of the guerrilla girls

exhibit catalog and gossip surrounding Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California (white collector severely underpaid these artists before donating his collection)

[rivermask]

Not necessarily recommendations, because i havent read all of them yet, but on my radar and on the same themes:

The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel

And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations by Carolyn L. Mazloomi (I worked on the museum exhibit this book was released with. It's more a discussion of African American history, especially women's roles, through the medium of quilts than a discussion of quilting itself.)

Women in Mexican Folk Art: Of Promises, Betrayals, Monsters and Celebrities by Eli Bartra

Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies: Archaeological Perspectives on Female and Male Work

A Companion to Gender Prehistory edited by Diane Bolger

You Can Hide but You Can't Run: Representations of Women's Work in Illustrations of Palaeolithic Life by Diane Gifford-Gonzalez (Visual Anthropology Review 9(1): 22-41)

[aliteralpileofgarbage]

chuck tingle is my new patron saint

[drchucktingle]

TRUE MEME

[sailatina3]

I found this image depicting every single tumblr user at once.

[unfuckablebogtroll]

I’ve never much cared for rpf but there’s a big difference between people who approach it from a mindset of “I know it’s not real I just think it would be cute” and the basically conspiracy theorists who think they Know Something and are going to Prove It. That second one ruins everything every time.

[dailymanners]

After years of meaning to read it but never seeming to have the time, I finally started reading "How To Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. I've been told by countless people that this book is the ultimate handbook on how to talk to and deal with people.

I'm not far in, but so far it's been pretty interesting and insightful. This book is almost 100 years old but so far everything I've read seems to still hold up today.

I've had a few people message me asking about more resources on how to improve their social skills. There's always r/etiquette (I don't even have a reddit but I find myself lurking) but, if you're looking to read something to help brush up on your social skills, I can so far recommend "How To Wind Friends and Influence People"

Although, take my recommendation with a grain of salt because I haven't finished it yet. But I tried looking up if there was any criticism for it and had a hard time finding any. It is slightly more focused on social skills for a business setting, but honestly those skills can transfer to just about any social setting. (such as presenting your views and opinions to people in a way that doesn't make people feel attacked, and generally making people feel comfortable and at ease around you)

[dailymanners]

If there was one book I would suggest to everyone on here, Twitter (or X or whatever) and everywhere else on the internet where people lash out at strangers for no reason, it would be this book.

Because one concept it keeps returning to is that people do not like people who lash out at them, people who criticize them, people who scold them. People also do not listen to people who lash out at them, criticize them, and scold them. If you want people to like you, and people to actually listen to you, you should start by not doing that.

[dailymanners]

@2ndgengeek thank you, gonna go ahead and add this to my to-read list :) also as an FYI for any of my followers looking for more sources on manners / etiquette / social skills

[dailymanners]

@connanro also adding this to my reading list (and reccs for books on manners to my followers), thank you!

[aprillikesthings]

It's been ages since I read it and it is older, but What Does Everybody Else Know That I Don't? by Michele Novotni is specifically aimed at people with ADHD. Some of it is hella basic, but in all honesty it's shit I didn't know until I was an adult.

[creatingblackcharacters]

If you think Remmick's behavior in Sinners towards Sammie was in any way queer or motivated by sexual attraction, boy do I got a book you'll love!!

Join your fellow centuries of believers as you learn the racist history of white people (yes, the women too!) taking advantage of their enslaved Black victims' bodies in any way they saw fit, because they had a psychosexual obsession with the power they held over them! I'm sorry, I mean the "enemies to lovers obsessed vampire trope"!

[theslinkystickyvoid]

That title is kinda creepy to me.

[creatingblackcharacters]

So is eating Black people both literally and figuratively, my dear

[queerliblib]

we were tagged in the replies here. just wanna say this book is incredible. we’ve got the audiobook at QLL (& hope to add the ebook in the future)

it is also an award winner! 2014 Lambda for LGBTQ Studies

[queerliblib]

calling all queer nerds, pedants, and insufferable know-it-alls

boy have we got the academic book drop for you

New! in the Queer Liberation Library (with unlimited check outs!)

Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography

Queer Relajo

Intersex Figures in Modern Japanese Literature and Art

Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies

Reading Literature and Theory at the Intersections of Queer and Class

Ethnomusicology, Queerness, Masculinity

Between HIV Prevention and LGBTI Rights

& lots more!

[marmelade-sky-reading]

book recs: If you like Heated Rivalry...

and scifi, you should read: The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

and The Bachelor, you should read: The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, you should read: Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

and historical romance, you should read: Kidnapped by the Pirate by Keira Andrews

and magical realism, read: The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards

and religious deconstruction, read: A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews

and werewolves, you should read: Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Bonus (spicy):

and are mentally ill, you should read: The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

and love problematic themes, you should read: Captive Prince by CS Pacat

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

listen I ended up regretting saying anything about this on my old blog because people will interpret literally any and every statement maliciously on this hellsite but I want to start like. a helpline for people who are like “hey I pretty much only read YA but I’m like 22 now and don’t relate to teenagers as much, it’s such a shame that there are no fun books written for adults :(” because boy HOWDY are there some fun books for adults 

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

maybe I’ll start a big google doc or something one day but for now *deep breath*

The Beautiful Ones (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) - absolutely BUCKWILD romance with a dash of telekinesis; nonstop high society drama and misunderstanding from start to finish, happy ending guaranteed. STRONGLY recommend if you, like me, are a basic bitch who enjoys a bit of Pride and Prejudice. 

Binti (Nnedi Okorafor) - a math prodigy runs away from Earth to become the first of her people to attend a prestigious university in space, but shit gets real when a crew of hostile jellyfish aliens attack her ship. 

Chilling Effect (Valerie Valdes) - a spaceship captain and her crew take on a series of convoluted missions in order to rescue the captain’s sister, who’s been frozen and held for ransom. 

The City of Brass (S.A. Chakraborty) - an 18th century conwoman and a mysterious djinn team up to go looking for a legendary hidden city.

The City We Became (N.K. Jemisin) - a scrappy bunch of Chosen Ones have to band together to defend New York City (which is very much alive) from a huge ass monster. 

The Empress of Forever (Max Gladstone) - a lady supervillain gets blasted into space and meets an even bigger, planet-destroying evil space empress. literally WHAT is not to like?

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - high fantasy royal drama about a woman making her way to power in the wake of a political marriage that left without friends or allies. 

Escaping Exodus (Nicky Drayden) - a space-faring clan are creating their latest spaceship from the insides of a giant monster when absolutely everything goes to shit (as things are wont to do in science fiction stories). 

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars (Kai Cheng Thom) - a trans girl runs away to the big city, where she uses her martial arts skills to team up with other trans woman and form a vigilante gang to defend their own when police look the other way. a fascinating blend of poetry and prose and magical realism. 

Finna (Nino Cipri) - two exes working at an IKEA have to team up to save a customer who disappeared through one of those interdimensional portals that all IKEAs have laying around. you know how it is.

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) - come on, you’ve heard about this one. it’s the one with the lesbian space necromancers? yeah, that’s the one. you got it.

In the Vanishers’ Palace (Aliette de Bodard) - a Beauty and the Beast retelling based in science fiction and Vietnamese fantasy, featuring a young woman falling in love with a “beast” who’s actually a motherly dragon after becoming a tutor to the dragon’s two powerful children. 

Jade City (Fonda Lee) - urban fantasy gang wars, pitting one magically enhanced family against rivals and a new drug that lets anyone mimic their abilities. 

The Library of the Unwritten (A.J. Hackwith) - hell’s librarian gets sent on a quest to find a runaway soul. 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers) - aka one of my favorite books ever, essentially slice of life science fiction following an interspecies crew of deep space truckers making the longest and most complicated delivery of their lives. very warm and fuzzy. 

Mort (Terry Pratchett) - one of many MANY Discworld books, but a very good one to start with, following the adventures of a boy named Mort after he’s taken on as Death’s apprentice. you know, like the Grim Reaper? that Death. 

River of Teeth (Sarah Gailey) - historical AU in which the United States imported and domesticated hippos in the Mississippi River; follows a crew of hippo-riding crooks and hooligans as they plan one heck of a caper. 

Space Opera (Catherynne Valente) - a washed up rock star and his old bandmate get roped into performing in an intergalactic singing competition that will determine the fate of the entire planet Earth. full of aliens, attempted assassination, art, and emotional turmoil. 

This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone) - time-travelling assassins from rival factions fall in love in a poetic and breathless story that spans centuries and reality. 

Under the Pendulum Sun (Jeannette Ng) - fairyland is real, and Victorian England is sending missionaries. a woman and her brother attempt to bring the good word to the fair folk, but start to suspect the queen might just be screwing with their heads. PEAK gothic horror with a creepy fairy twist. 

Witchmark (C.L. Polk) - a doctor and former soldier with magical powers of healing is trying to live a quiet life and avoid his controlling, aristocratic family’s plans for him, only to get tangled up in a massive political conspiracy when one of his patients mysterious dies. accompanying him in his investigation is a mysterious and gorgeous faerie man. romance ensues. 

[bittenwraths]

The First Sister by Linden A Lewis. Three protagonists and all of them queer, a fun space opera. It’s not out yet, but I can tell you it’s really, really good. I highly recommend

Gods of Jade and Shadow another Silvia Moreno-Garcia book. It takes place in 1920s Mexico and has Mayan gods. A fun breezy book.

Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep. If you like YA fantasy but want a little more swearing, violence and sex then this novel is for you.

The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen. This one I really enjoyed. If you like the winner’s curse then you’ll like this book.

Books I haven’t read but I’ve heard good things about

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson. This one isn’t out it but I believe it’s got a black protagonist.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri. An Indian inspired fantasy novel. I haven’t read this one but I’ve heard good things about it.

Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters. A black fantasy novel.

The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood. I haven’t read it but I know it’s got a lesbian protagonist.

Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope. Just started this book but I believe it’s for adults.

Tiger’s Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera. Lesbian protagonists and it’s still on my tbr.

[chillgamesh-the-swing]

A great way to get back into the habit of reading and discover new authors is to pick up an anthology of shorter works. You can find them in any genre, on all kinds of specific themes, by diverse authors, and if one story isn’t your jam you can move on. A couple of my favorites are:

Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures;

Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World

A People’s Future of the United States

Sisters of the Revolution: A feminist speculative fiction anthology

plus a few more full length books i like:

Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman - space college punk with a harmonica what time travel crimes will she commit, queerplatonic human/alien relationships, very fun all around

Becky Chambers has several excellent books in the same setting as Long Way to a Small Angry Planet!

Nnedi Okorafor also has a bunch of great ones including sequels to Binti and other scifi/Afrofuturist works do NOT sleep on her

The Last Girl Scout by Natalie Ironside - if u like trans lesbians fighting zombies and nazis and vampires in the Appalachian nuclear wasteland I CANNOT recommend it enough.

[actualblanketgremlin]

Bloodsucking Fiends/Bite Me/You Suck by Christopher Moore - two new vampires navigate un-living and love in San Francisco.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore - What happens when the grim reaper dies? A thrift store owner gets a mysterious letter in the mail–he’s been appointed to be the grim reaper for San Francisco. The plot kicks in when a couple demons arrive and try to steal the souls of the recently deceased. Plus, there’s some crossover with the Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy! This guy really likes San Francisco as a setting.

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore (can you tell I really like this author? Lmao) - A seminary student accidentally summons an ancient demon and gives away the object that would banish him again. He then spends 70 years tracking them down again. Only problem is, he has to keep feeding the demon, who won’t leave him alone, and who is invisible. Very funny, I love Moore’s writing style. Our main character makes the demon help him cheat at pool for car repairs.

[notaplaceofhonour]

Antisemitism Required Reading

I get a lot of ignorant comments & tags on my posts about antisemitism, and I’ve already spent way too much time & energy engaging with them. So to preserve my sanity, I’ve made the decision not to engage too deeply with any commenters who haven’t at least read all of these in their entirety:

“Jewish Space Lasers” by Mike Rothschild

“People Love Dead Jews” by Dara Horn

“Jews Don’t Count” by David Baddiel

“Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition” by David Nirenberg

"More Than a Century of Antisemitism", GEC Special Report [PDF] [Executive Summary w/ link to PDF] [Press Release w/ link to report]

If you’re not Jewish, please read all of this literature before adding anything to my posts about antisemitism.

Jews, please add any books you think should be on the list!

[Updated August 20th, 2025]

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

books with non linear narrative, experiments with the form, etc: go!

please do not all say house of leaves i know some of you bitches read books

[teratocybernetics]

Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire: each chapter takes place in the same chunk of London over something like 1000 years

if we can count comics, Moore's Promethea too, one of the volumes is a trip around the Tree of Life, i think the whole narrative can be mapped on the Tarot Majors too

Mark Danielewski's Only Revolutions is a book length prose poem that you read from the ends in to the center. i haven't gotten through it but respect the ambitious structure

i feel like Hal Duncan's Vellum & Ink had something interesting structurally between them but i don't think i finished them, specifically bc i waited too long to start Ink after Vellum & got completely lost

Honorable mention/not sure if it counts but the language was interesting enough that I'm tempted to include it: The Tide Will Erase All by Justin Hellstrom is an Improbability Drive-style apocalypse told by a ten(?) year old but might also be a radio/satellite announcement of their story after the fact? needs a revisit

OH SHIT Koji Suzuki's Ring Cycle. Ring is a horror novel that happens on an entirely different level of operation than what we find out about it on Spiral & Loop

Jeff Vandermee's Dead Astronauts, i actually don't know how to describe what he did with it but it's nuts

The Dictionary of the Khazars is a novel that's a lexicon

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

this is turning up a whole bunch of things I hadn't heard of which is EXACTLY what i wanted god bless you all:

So Stories of Your Life and Others has been on my wishlist for ages as has Pale Fire; Voice of the Fire is on my bookshelf waiting for me and I think I read Promethea or parts thereof when it first came out; I read Catch-22 recently and will rave about it at the drop of a hat, read Cloud Atlas… a couple of years ago I think? After having it on my shelf for a million billion years & dug the matryoska structure muchly, but yeah! Otherwise I hadn't heard of most of these?!?! excellent work everyone well done

[radiosaturday]

Got a few I haven't seen in the notes:

Blake Butler's There Is No Year is decidedly nonlinear, bordering on nonsensical, with upsetting vibes and such perfect pacing that I couldn't put it down

Matt Bell plays in this territory a lot; pretty much anything by him is going to be fighting you back a little but my introduction was the short story "The Cartographer's Girl"

John Elizabeth Stintzi takes a pretty oblique approach to structure in Vanishing Monuments and, I understand, in My Volcano. (Disclaimer: they are also a friend of mine, but I make the recommendation in earnest)

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is like if Warren Ellis tried to write House of Leaves, and I mean that as a compliment

I'm sure you're aware of Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, but it is, in fact, all that and a bag of chips, especially in its structure

Monica Ojeda does some fun things with structure, especially in Nefando but definitely also in Jawbone, though I'll note that Nefando especially deals in some very dark territory

Steven Millhauser's short stories are pretty distinctly nonlinear and often outright weird in a very fun way -- I love his collection The Barnum Museum, notably the source of the short story that inspired the movie The Illusionist

I feel like Ayse Papatya Bucak's The Trojan War Museum fits here, but I also just feel like that collection is underrated, so cum grano salis

I think the movie is better-known, but Laszlo Krasznahorkai's Satantango is formally and topically very weird in a way that I found delightful

I also enthusiastically cosign the recommendations of Coup de Grace and Pale Fire. For what it's worth, Pale Fire is also one of the funniest books I've ever read.

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

I am not aware of Our Share of Night! Also, "bordering on nonsensical, with upsetting vibes" is like catnip. Thank you.

[princefuckyouknickers]

253 by Geoff Ryman (originally published on the web with hyperlinks, later published as a paper book) now at : https://www.253novel.com/

The Bridge by Iain Banks

and

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh

(both have the dude in a coma)

See Under: Love by David Grossman. It's in four parts, two of them are straightforward lit fic, one is salmon point-of-view, if I recall correctly, one is a story told in dictionary definitions.

And short stories:

Stet by Sarah Gailey (the story emerges from the footnotes)

Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel (a story in forum posts)

[madlori]

I'm frankly shocked nobody's mentioned David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas," which is an interconnected set of six stories in different times and with different narrators that are all split in half and work towards the center, like this:

1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1

The stories leave off, sometimes mid-sentence, and resume later in the book, while working forward in time from the first story that's an Age of Sail story until the 6th one, the only one not interrupted, is in the far post-apocalyptic future. Then each story is resolved in reverse chronological order.

What amazes me about this book (it's one of my favorites) is that Mitchell somehow makes each of these stories entirely distinct and unique. I don't know how he managed to write in six such distinct voices to the point that you'd think six writers had collaborated on this work.

[fookinbooks]

my autistic king is right. you told him to take care of the door, obi wan took care of the door! not his fault you didn't give clear instructions, qui gon. do better

[fookinbooks]

Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray

[libraryleopard]

I threw together a little rec list for fans of Murderbot :)

This is aimed at fans of the novellas and the TV show and I tried to capture various different elements of the story and characters.

Text of slides below the cut

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Adult science fiction novella

Imagine Sherlock and Watson if Watson was a sentient, traumatized spaceship and Sherlock was a human detective investigating a murder

Faster-than-light travel, deep space unreality, mind-altering herbal teas

Spaceship POV

The spaceship really enjoys reading/watching period dramas 

Vietnamese-inspired sci fi setting

No romance

One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adult science fiction novella

The grumpy last survivor of a catastrophic time war lives a solitary life…until other time travellers try to disrupt his carefully curated retirement

The main character has a pet dinosaur

Darkly funny, misanthropic narrator

If you liked Murderbot’s first-person POV in the books, you’ll probably enjoy the narrative voice of this novella

The Butterfly Assassin by Finn Longman

Young adult dystopian thriller set in a walled city ruled by assassin guilds

Isabel Ryans is a former child assassin and the daughter of a notorious scientist

Wanting nothing more than to live a normal life, she escapes and assumes a civilian identity…but finds her past and her assassin training harder to leave behind than she’d hoped

“Raised as weapon” character grappling with violence, morality, and friendship

Aromantic asexual main character with PTSD and severe hand scarring

No romance

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmooor

Adult dark fantasy novella

Scythulf, a wolf shapeshifter, was raised to be nothing more than a pit fighter until he’s rescued by Brennus, a knight who offers him a new life

When Scythulf accidentally kills a corrupted nun, his only chance at redemption is to run with the Wild Hunt, a trial of blood and courage

“Raised to be a weapon” protagonist; aspec rep; strong platonic bonds

Aroace protagonist; aroace nonbinary queerplatonic partner, queernorm fantasy world

No romance

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Adult science fiction novel

A motley spaceship crew finds adventure and friendship on their voyages through the universe

Episodic storytelling and found family dynamics

Interesting alien characters and cultures

Queer characters + F/F relationship

Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura

Adult fantasy novel

Adrien Desfourneax, a disgraced physician turned professor of magic, finds himself investigating a dangerous curse while grappling with his own mental health and a dangerous ally

Complex characters! Emotional devastation! Lightning magic! Gaslamp fantasy!

Gay main character with bipolar disorder; autistic-coded side character

If you love rotating TV!Gurathin in your mind, you will probably find Adrien a very interesting character

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Young adult fantasy/dystopia

A young ghost hunter joins forces with the ghost of a supersoldier to traverse the underworld in search of the lost ghost of his partner and answers about their post-apocalyptic world

Characters shaped by ruthless dystopian worlds learning to claim their autonomy and identity

Strong M/F friendships that don’t turn into romance

Aroace-coded main character + no romance

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie

YA science fiction novel

Hundreds of years in the future, the last survivors of the human race travel through space in a fleet of ships, searching for a new habitable planet to settle

When two girls join the order of cyborg soldiers who keep order in the fleet, they find themselves questioning their loyalties as violence brews

Explores bodily autonomy and privacy through sci fi elements

Main characters of color + ace main character

No romance

The Outside by Ada Hoffman

Adult science fiction novel

Cosmic horror x space opera

In a galaxy ruled by AI gods and their ruthless cyborg-angels, young prodigy scientist  Yasira develops new technology that could change the trajectory of humanity–until her work backfires and is declared heretical

Offered her life in exchange for hunting down her vanished heretical mentor, Yasira must decide who to trust as her world’s fate hangs in the balance

Autistic lesbian main character of color

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Adult satirical science fiction novel

Ensign Andrew Dahl is excited for his new position on board the the starship Intrepid…until he begins to realize there’s a mysterious pattern of low-level ensigns like himself dramatically dying on missions…and the reason why might reshape his very understanding of reality

For the enjoyers of the TV’s take on Sanctuary Moon being a Star Trek parody

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

Adult science fiction novel

Anti-colonial space heist

Maya Hoshimoto, an art thief turned grad student, finds herself pulled into one last job to retrieve an artifact that could save an alien species–and possibly doom humanity

Alien-human friendships, explorations of sentience and consciousness

Japanese diaspora main character with chronic migraines

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Adult science fiction inspired by classic horror stories 

Demeter is a spaceship that transports humans across galaxies–except her passengers keep dying in mysterious paranormal murders

To prevent herself from being decommissioned, Demeter must track down the ultimate evil behind her passengers’ deaths: Dracula

Snarky spaceship POV, AI and drone characters

Nonbinary representation; amputee representation; F/F romance

World Running Down by Al Hess

Adult science fiction novel

In a near-future dystopian America, salvager Valentine runs odd jobs in the wastelands of Utah in hopes of earning enough for the gender-affirming care he desperately needs

When he encounters Osric, an AI forced into an android body, he’s offered a job that could pay him everything he needs–but at the cost of his own morals

Explores sentience and autonomy through a science fiction lense

Android/human romance

Gay, trans man main character with ADHD; gay main character

Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot

Adult science fiction novel

In a galaxy ruled by three warring rival factions, gunslinging inventor-turned-thief Rig has abandoned her former faction and is happy as a rebel–until her former faction ransoms her twin sister for what she stole from them

Alongside her librarian girlfriend, a mysterious bounty hunter, and a network of resistance contacts, Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister–and maybe tear down the factions for good

Rip-roaring romp of a sci fi story full of action 

Alien protagonists

Lesbian main character; amputee representation

Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden

Adult science fiction novella

Scorn is a state-of-the-art AI investigator who becomes entangled in brewing corporate warfare

When Scorn wakes up one day day on the moon with no memory of zir past ten days, ze begins a hunt into zir own past that leads them to uncover far more explosive truths than ze could have expected

Dystopian future & snarky AI protagonist

Neopronoun user main character

[hauntedmestunningly]

Top 10 Buck x Tommy fics I’ve read (Sept-Oct 2025)

Fallen Regret by Marchling [M]

“We have a house collapse on the cliffs. IC is Captain Bardhi of the 436. It was a joint assignment and he’s been leading this entire time. Eleven firefighters were in the house when it collapsed, eight are still inside. Only one is responding at this time.” Preston said before he stopped. Went silent. The team traded looks. Then his captain’s eyes hit Tommy and he knew. Everything in him knew. His heart started pounding. No, please… “Kinard, the other team that joined the 436 was the 118.” Preston said, voice so quiet and careful. Respectful. Respectful because he knew he was going to break Tommy’s heart. “The entire 118 A-shift are among the missing.” --- A post-breakup rescue story that features Tommy pushing himself to the limit for the love he chose to walk way from, the 118 in desperate need of a rescue, Christopher in Texas watching it all unfold wishing he could set things right with his father, forgiveness, love and the hope of trying again.

House Hunting by iwroteafictoday [G]

Buck started looking for a new place. But none of them felt right. They were all missing something. He just had to figure out what that something was. Or maybe… who that was.

In a Yellow Wood by Cecily_v, liminalmemories [M]

It’s been three years since the break-up when Tommy saves a family and it upends his life. He’s paying more attention to explaining what the various levers and controls do than he is to what’s going on in the hangar and his head whips around when he hears a familiar voice saying. “Kam, the whole point of leaving my kid with you was to not take him to work.”

the luckiest by kirkaut [T]

Evan’s been increasingly…distant isn’t the right word. Distracted, maybe. Tense, definitely. Tommy would be lying if he said he hasn’t been waiting for the pressure to pop his cork. He just wasn’t expecting for it to happen over the fucking mail.

Retain that dear perfection by Cecily_v, liminalmemories [G]

After an injury, Buck loses five years, give or take a couple of months -- and now Tommy's husband looks at him like he's a stranger.

Things Just Won't Do Without You by Harmlessvarietyofgardensnake [E]

He pulls Evan against him and hugs him, and Evan sinks against him, burying his face in Tommy's shoulder. He's not sobbing, but Tommy can feel moisture leak through his shirt. “He'd appreciate the effort,” Tommy says softly, and Evan's shoulders hitch as he lets out a quick, quiet little laugh. “But he wouldn't want you to torture yourself.” “I don't know what else to do.” Tommy hugs him tighter, and Evan's arms squeeze him with equal strength. “This, to start.” -- Tommy runs into his ex at another bar. Only this time, they talk and Tommy shows off his kittens (this is not a euphemism).

Through Their Eyes by lunardeath [T]

Little moments between the 118 and Tommy throughout his relationship with Buck

try not to think about you but it ain't working by perfectlysunny [E]

Tommy knows this is a mistake, a bad idea. Evan isn’t his anymore; he made sure of that. He doesn’t get to do this anymore, and he shouldn’t do this anymore. But hearing Evan’s mouth hitch in the cramped air of the backseat of his truck as Tommy runs his mouth over his weeping dick after picking him up from one of the worst bars in LA, he finds it hard not to justify what they’re doing. He doesn’t want to pull away, he’ll deal with the consequences later.

Ugh. Gays. by words_reign_here [M]

Buck should have known better when he got up that morning. It had been raining for two days now and nothing good happened when it came to water and the 118. Especially when one of their own is caught in the middle of all this rain.

you still love me anyway by epiphainie (wingsoflame) [M]

But that was just him. Evan. He was too much, too smart, too impulsive, too earnest, and he was prickly, petty, bratty, unruly, redefining the phrase of high maintenance. He was Tommy’s favorite person. aka five times buck was being too much and one time tommy told him so