Til Death Do Us Bard was a pretty standard fantasy romance. I wouldn't say it stands out, but was enjoyable since that was what I was in the mood for.

I loved this one. It was hard to put down and therefore led to slightly later nights than I planned. The conflict between Rita's culture/family and her abilities and how she tries to navigate them were as compelling as the crimes being solved. The sequel has been added to my never ending TBR.

Peg and Rose Play the Ponies worked for me. But I am also rewatching The Golden Girls, so older women living their lives on their own terms is my current jam.

I rather enjoyed this sweet and light novella centered around a misunderstanding, and the main character's insecurities.

So I liked this book, but I don't entirely agree with all their conclusions. I have read too much about civilizations to see cities in the same way. They seem to be positing that the residents of cities are sedentary, but that does not seem super accurate to me.

Sometimes, I just want a light murder mystery. Peg and Rose are a hoot. I had just read an article about a con-artist before starting this one, so I also had fun finding parallels between the fictional one and the one in the article.

Want to escape to another time and place? A first hand account of Antarctic exploration will definitely do that. Mostly, I was impressed that they didn't die. Antarctica just isn't all that inviting to most forms of life. Yet I still kinda want to see it anyway. Cold by Laurence McKinley Gould.

If you aren't thinking about phosphorus, you might want to. It is absolutely essential to life and agriculture, yet too much in the wrong place or the wrong formulation is a disaster. The Devil's Element by Dan Egan is a great introduction to the topic.

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness is a contemporary account from Muslim writers overlapping the Viking time period that includes a description of a Viking funeral.

Cat Jarman's River Kings traces Viking trade routes eastward through historical and archeological records. It highlights for me just how connected the world has been over the centuries, even if that connection wasn't quite as intense and complex as it currently is.

The Triumph of seeds is not only about the importance of seeds to humans, but the importance of seeds to plants and to terrestrial ecosystems.

The Seed Detective looked at seeds through the perspective of a globe trotting gardener. It was a contrast to the book on seeds I had previously read that was through the perspective of a biologist.

Another excellent twist on the murder mystery. Wouldn't it just be disturbing if people kept dying near you? And suspicious? Add some aliens and see where the mayhem leads with Mur Lafferty's Station Eternity.

Don't we all read a cozy mystery series and wonder why no one is seriously alarmed by the murder rate in otherwise sleepy little hamlet? Maybe it's a demon. The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society was a nice take addressing this quirk of the genre.

This is the English translation of Diamela Eltit's Lumperica. It is a deeply disturbing look at the experience of living in Pinochet's Chile. It is an avant garde novel, so it is more like reading a painting like Picasso's Guernica, than reading a novel with a plot.

For some reason I am fascinated by societal collapse these days. Anyway, I read this book earlier this year. I would recommend it as an interesting, yet incomplete, look into how civilizations weather widespread collapse.