My editor asked me to write about what happened to summer:
We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
theguardian.com
Gareth
@garethavonb.bsky.social
Love books, cinema & music #freePalestine #climatecrisis. #organise #solidarity 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇵🇸#libraries 💜 https://substack.com/@garethavonb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=291zl
I'm reading Rebecca Perry's May We Feed the King and weirdly(?) this quote seems very apposite as I try to make sense of its sly mysteries #booksky
Ursula K. Le Guin Bot@leguinbot.bsky.social · yesterdayWe live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.
Interesting review especially, perhaps, because I'm still puzzling over my response to Bora Chung's Red Sword (and somehow all novels of war). I must read In Memoriam. Also, a great novel not mentioned here is David Diop's At Night All Blood Is Black www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a... #booksky
Children of the Wild by Kevin Powers review – gripping tale of a friendship forged in war
Written by a US army veteran, this novel of courage and cruelty during the first world war is filled with unsettlingly authoritative depictions of violence – but its characters are less believable
theguardian.com
If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky
Simon Spanton@simonguy.bsky.social · 2d agoIf you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky.
So much to listen to tonight! #booksky
Dan Hartland@danhartland.bsky.social · 2d ago🎛️ Crank up the volume, it's Critical Friends! 🏆 Uh-oh, it's some more awards chat. @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social and @amritesh.bsky.social talk to me about the Clarke, the Hugo, the Booker, the Le Guin ... ⁉️ What relationship between critic and award, award and reader? 🤔 Also: marketing. Again.
Looking forward to this even though I found the shortlist thoroughly dispiriting when 2025 was FULL of brilliant SF. #booksky
Dan Hartland@danhartland.bsky.social · 2d agoOh, look! It’s @chloroformtea.bsky.social and me, hacking our way through this year’s Clarke Award shortlist. Which niche British references do we employ? Which random GIFs? And … why Tom Cruise? Also, careful critique of a set of six texts claimed by the judges to represent the best of UK SF etc
Books rarely make me laugh. I suspect that I'm not clever enough or learned enough (and that's not being self deprecating). Give me Malcolm in the Middle, the Three Stooges or Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie To You: www.theguardian.com/culture/ng-i... #booksky
What makes a good comic novel? Andrew Sean Greer on the joy of funny writing
The Pulitzer-winning author of Less and Villa Coco explores the art of writing humour – plus 10 of the best novels to make you laugh
theguardian.com
The Art of Opposition by Courttia Newland (Clarke Award shortlisted author of A River Called Time) explores what it means to be an artist operating in the margins and creating beyond the mainstream. Out now: uk.bookshop.org/a/14057/9780...
I love a recommendations post: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j... #booksky
What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in July
Max Porter, Daisy Johnson, Avni Doshi and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
theguardian.com
Really interesting essay persuading me to reassess my opinion of There is No Antimemetics Division (which I appreciated much less than the other two)
Amal El-Mohtar@amalelmohtar.com · 2w agoI wrote about language, lying & world-building for the NYTBR as expressed in 3 extraordinary & very different books: THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION by qntm, THE MISHEARD WORLD by Aliya Whiteley, & THE LANGUAGE OF LIARS by SL Huang.
I love Lea Ypi's writing (and her thoughts about the world): tribunemag.co.uk/2026/07/the-... #booksky
The Meaning of Commitment
Universal literature is endangered in a world where modern notions of freedom and equality have lost their power. Its crisis mirrors that of the left.
tribunemag.co.uk
"Much of the escalation no longer requires secrecy – it is photographed, filmed, and disseminated by its own perpetrators, turning the thousands of members of Israeli society who daily consume and share the footage into co-participants." www.thekeymagazine.com/p/israel-rap...
“Everything Is Legitimate”: How Israel Uses Rape as a Tool of Genocide
The rape of Palestinian detainees is so commonplace that it’s no longer hidden. It’s filmed, joked about, and celebrated in parliament. This is no mistake; it’s core to Israel’s colonial project.
thekeymagazine.com
A very exciting @thebookerprizes.com longlist: Gwendoline Riley AND M John Harrison AND Marlon James 💛💚💜 (AND lots that are on my tbr) thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l... #booksky
Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2026 longlist | The Booker Prizes
From humour to history to heartbreak, and from satire to sci-fi to surreality, here’s the lowdown on this year’s ‘Booker Dozen’
thebookerprizes.com
Looking forward to this. I LOVED Eurotrash last year: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j... #booksky
Air by Christian Kracht review – a metaphysical jigsaw puzzle
A portal opens from our modern world of data centres and interior design into a medieval fantasy realm, in this playfully surreal tale from the author of Eurotrash
theguardian.com
My review of @blipstress.bsky.social's Plastic, Prism, Void is online at @locusmag.bsky.social. One of the most delightful books I've read this year, it plays merry hell with stylistic conventions, expands the definition of romantasy, and is great fun to boot. locusmag.com/review/plast...
Plastic, Prism, Void by Violet Allen: Review by Abigail Nussbaum - Locus
Plastic, Prism, Void, Violet Allen (LittlePuss Press 978-1-96432-202-5, $19.95, 336pp, tp) May 2026. In interviews and on social media, Violet Allen has referred to her first novel, Plastic, Prism, Vo...
locusmag.com
Long interview with Colson Whitehead: observer.co.uk/culture/inte... #booksky [you have to create a (free) account to read]
Colson Whitehead: ‘A lot of America is pretty scary’
The two-time Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on the US’s ‘racist impulses’, Zohran Mamdani and the final instalment of his Harlem trilogy
observer.co.uk
The Appalachians keep cropping up in specfic right now - what's up with that? Well, here's @daviddaviddavid.com to have a think about one recent instance: "Olyoke is a book that’s begging to have a cult following," he says, "and it may get one." On Vincent Endwell:
Olyoke by Vincent Endwell
While Vincent Endwell’s Olyoke is presented as a collection of linked stories, it reads more like parables from the scriptures of an Appalachian cult, demonstrating preoccupations with multiple ove…
strangehorizons.com
Catching up with the last couple of weeks @strangehorizons.bsky.social - I love an Octavia Cade review 💜
Niall Harrison@niallharrison.bsky.social · 3w agoAs usual with Cade, a really interesting review (of a book I want to read)
This piece was greenlit and then killed by a British newspaper, so I’ve decided to publish myself instead. Trans People Deserve Better. "Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Trans People Deserve Better
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com