October Staff Picks

Mark says:

“The Spear Cuts Through Water is a dream­like, genre-defy­ing love let­ter to oral sto­ry­telling, epic tales, and fam­i­ly his­to­ry. I love a good fantasy/​romance nov­el, but this is just so much more than that. This tale is told to the nar­ra­tor by his grand­moth­er from the Old Coun­try, but he also watch­es it play out on a the­ater stage. With first, sec­ond, and third per­son nar­ra­tives all woven togeth­er in a fan­tas­ti­cal set­ting rem­i­nis­cent of a Stu­dio Ghi­b­li film, we are told the sto­ry of two war­riors who escort a dying god­dess on her jour­ney to escape a cor­rupt empire. I loved all the wux­ia-vibes in this realm inspired by Fil­ipino mythol­o­gy. We also get good rep­re­sen­ta­tion of queer char­ac­ters and char­ac­ters with dis­abil­i­ties. Over­all this was such a unique read­ing expe­ri­ence that total­ly altered my brain chemistry!”

Lydia says,

“Think you know the library? Think again. What You Are Look­ing For Is In The Library is a col­lec­tion of heart­felt sto­ries about peo­ple who’ve lost their way and who find all they need in the library with the help of an eccen­tric librar­i­an, even if it’s not what they came in for. Aoya­ma real­ly knows how to cre­ate lik­able char­ac­ters and seam­less con­nec­tions between them, draw­ing read­ers into mun­dane sit­u­a­tions that become life-chang­ing adven­tures. Fans of cozy books or the library will love this read. I couldn’t put it down!”

Son­dra says,

“The Unmoth­ers is my absolute favorite kind of scare: Just beyond the nor­mal dra­ma of every­day life there is some­thing sin­is­ter hap­pen­ing, and the more we under­stand, the spook­i­er it becomes. Themes such as the com­mu­ni­ty rot brought about by opi­oid addic­tion and the dai­ly, unend­ing strug­gles caused by gen­der inequal­i­ty root the sto­ry in real­i­ty; strange nois­es in the for­est, a super­sti­tious priest, and a rolling fog that locals dri­ve out of their way to avoid keep it creepy. Plus, there’s a sweet lit­tle baby boy who was sup­pos­ed­ly born of a horse, and the rather unique com­mu­ni­ty help­ing his unwed father to raise him. If you like your super­nat­ur­al mixed with social com­men­tary, try this quick and chill­ing read.”