Brian Richards, writer

This was a pretty productive month for me, and it probably had a lot to do with trying to distract myself from the news. Plus, you know, th holidays freed up some time. More importantly, however, I had some terrific titles lined up.

There were a few titles here that were simply fun reads. Dissolution is a Forgotten Realms book, so that took me back to happy days of reading fantasy in college, and Tricked was a good entry in the Druid Chronicles series from Hearne. Love those books. Nemesai and Patient K were good fast horror reads to fill in between a couple of bigger reads.

Then there was The Queen's Gambit, because I'm not immune to the hype. It's aolder book, actually, and I chose to read it before diving into the Netflix series it was the basis for. Really good storytelling, and totally enjoyable.

But the poetry, man. Tanglinger, Opperman, and Pelayo each delivered heavy duty talent in the volumes of theirs I read this month. Cradeland of Parasites at first seemed to be beating a dead horse, as each of the pieces are clearly tight and atmospheric in a deliberately thematic way. If you pay attention as your proceed through the collection, however, there is a nuanced presentation to it that takes you forward in that theme in a really interesting way. This was a great example of how a curated collection differs from just a bunch poetry pulled together into a publication. And this one is well worth a re-read.

Decemeber was a good month for poetry