Reading Reality, LLC

01/04/2026

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 1-4-26

Last week's cat picture was of Hecate looking back at the year that was passing. Not really, it was Hecate seeming to utterly reject the new cat we put out for her. What a difference a week makes! Today's picture is Hecate, IN that cat bed, giving me more than a bit of tortitude but [...]

01/04/2026

Stacking the Shelves for January 3, 2026

This is the first STS of the year, so say "HELLO!" to 2026!

Stacking The Shelves is STILL all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may they be physical or virtual, text or audio, physical or virtual, bought or borrowed.



This meme is hosted every Saturday by yours truly, - The covers shown here are merely a TEASER! Link to full post in bio to see the pretty covers of ALL the books in this week's stack!

01/03/2026

Stacking the Shelves (686)

Happy first weekend of the 2026. It's good to have you along on this journey for another year of (hopefully) fantastic reads! There are some pretty interesting covers this week, although pretty itself is always in the eye of the beholder. My personal picks for prettiness are The Chambermaid's Key, D...

01/03/2026

Reading Reality's Most Anticipated Books for 2026

2025 is in the rearview mirror, which means that it's time to look ahead to this new year of 2026 and see just what books this reader, at least, is most looking forward to. (These are all books that have been announced and mostly have at least placeholder covers, so it kind of peters out in August. C'est la reading vie.)

As is usual, a lot of these are follow-ups and sequels, because it's much easier to KNOW that you want a book if you're already into its world or at least its author. In several cases, definitely its author.

We'll certainly see which titles do - and do not - live up to my hopes for them in the months ahead.

The complete list (with all those pretty covers!) is at https://wp.me/p3gHJx-eJQ or just check out the link in the bio. What books are you most looking forward to in 2026?

01/02/2026

Most Anticipated Books of 2026

2026 has now entered the history books. Well, not exactly, as it will be decades before historians have enough perspective to analyze WTF just happened. Still, it's over, and everything feels like it's starting fresh. Whether it actually is or not, time will certainly tell. In the bookish world, we'...

01/02/2026

New Year New You Giveaway Hop

HELLOOO 2026! It's so good to see YOU!

At least it is as long you didn't party too hearty last night. Which we didn't - although we did stay up too late playing video games. But that's not just for New Year's!

Today can be an opportunity for reflection - or for planning ahead for the year to come. Or it can be a day to mourn the end of the holiday season and dread the Monday to come. Or both.

Around here, it's also a day to see what the cats are up to, because they are always entertaining. And occasionally destructive. Generally both - unless they're napping.

Whatever this day brings for you and and yours, I hope that you have a happy and healthy new year with plenty of good things heading your way.

Happy New Year!

And to celebrate this brave, new, year, there's a bright, shiny giveaway at all the sites participating in this hop. Including, of course, here at Reading Reality at https://wp.me/p3gHJx-est

01/01/2026

New Year New You Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the New Year Giveaway Hop, hosted by Mama the Fox and Mom Does Reviews! Last night we said a hearty, "Goodbye" to 2025, quite possibly along with a wish for the door not to hit its ass on the way out. So long, 2025, it has not been good to know you. From a personal standpoint, this [...]

01/01/2026

Best Wishes from The Full Moon Coffee by Mai Mochizuki

This turned out to be the perfect story to end the year - and not just because it features cats running a pop-up coffee shop. Not humans in cat suits - although the cats often appear in human suits - but actual cats. They're not just cute, the Full Moon Coffee Shop is there to help humans - often the humans that these cats once companioned - figure themselves out with little bit of help from an astrologically inclined, feline appearing friend.

This holiday season, the Full Moon Coffee Shop is open a few extra evenings to help out one of their own, a companion animal - a dog named Rin - who left a present behind for his person. A present that Junko needs at this juncture in her own life. Not a thing, but rather a wish - and it's one that seems just right for New Year's Eve.

It about hope, but not just about hope. It's about looking behind the shallow, surface things we humans wish for to discover the true wish of our own hearts so that we can pursue that dream with ALL of our hearts. That's what Rin wanted for Junko. And now, at this holiday season at this point in her adult life, Junko needs to figure out what her own heart's dream is so that she has a chance at finding it.

And isn't that a delightful wish for all of us for this coming new year?

12/31/2025

: Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jordan Taylor

My Review: This book was always going to be this year’s New Year’s Eve review. After all, what could make a better reading send-off for the year (any year but especially this year) than a bunch of beloved former companion animals turned sages from the stars not just wishing their people (for ver...

12/31/2025

A Ruin, Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull

There's just so much in this story, not just this story but the entire , that I'm still mulling it over AND had a hell of a time picking a background for this post. Because damn but it's a lot. It's a story about the multiverse, and it's a story about gods and monsters (in spite of the title of the first book ) and it's a story about otherness and the activist attempts to get justice and just plain tolerance for anyone who can be considered "other". Especially the monsters.

At its heart - all of them - its a story about people. People being manipulated by forces they can't see or believe in, because it's also a story about what happens with a god tries to figure out the universe by creating another god. And the collateral damage that ensues. But they're all people.

The narration by was the on the whole saga, as he's perfect for all the various roles and I'd listen to him read someone else's grocery list because his voice is just that awesome. He grounds the whole story of gods, monsters, multiverses, cults and believers and panic and destruction into a fantastic story that is great the first time and begs for a second read because it's just so deep.

If you're looking for a fascinating, fantastic story to sink right into for the new year that will wind you up AND make you believe that all things are possible, the is a great place to start your journey!

12/30/2025

: A Ruin Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull .bsky.social .bsky.social

My Review: First, this was wow. And second, and third, and as it turns out, fourth. Not always a cohesive wow, but a wow all the same. It’s also the conclusion to an epic whose whole is DEFINITELY greater than the sum of its parts. But you really need the parts - and if it’s [...]

12/30/2025

Dance with Death by Will Thomas

Reading this over the holidays was definitely my present to myself this season. I was expecting an absorbing, compelling, captivating read and, as always, Barker and Llewelyn delivered. Thomas Llewelyn literally does dance with death in this one - but so does the future Tsar Nicholas II AND his lookalike cousin George, the future George V. Because someone wants to kill one or the other of them - and isn't all that picky which ends up dead. That this assassin (a new concept that no one wants to believe exist) also has their sites set on Llewelyn just ramps up the confusion and the danger in this surprisingly plausible and absolutely riveting mystery of mistaken identities, family rivalries, murderous political ambitious, and, surprisingly, romances lost, found, and utterly destroyed.

Heavy, indeed, is the head that wears the crown - unless someone shoots one, or the other, off.

I had a ball with this entry in the series, pun definitely intended as it includes a masquerade ball. I adore this series, because its just a terrific combination of comfort read and competence p**n that I'm tempted to start the next one immediately. But I think I'll save it for my the next time I need a reading present!