Platform Decay by Martha Wells

I find Murderbot books cozy even though they have so much tension and action. Murderbot is a funny and relatable character and Wells continues to build their character development through the series. It’s great character writing. I like that most instalments of this series are slightly different than the last one in terms of type of adventure. This one was a long journey to safety through a dangerous and strange landscape. An unpopular opinion but I am not a big fan of ART so I was glad they were barely in this one and it was mostly Murderbot and humans.

June 18-22, 2026 on Kobo Libra 2.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

DNF at 69 pages (16%). Recently, the topic of perspectives in novels came up in the Reading Glasses podcast and I contemplated and read discussions around it. First person narratives are very hard to do well. Third person gives authors more room and are generally more forgiving. Bad or mediocre first person perspectives often ends being a lot of telling rather than showing. This was the case here. The narratives of the three main characters were dull and 1921 Opaline’s voice was very similar to the modern ones. As a reader, I was told a lot of their circumstances, but I did not feel interested in any of them. If anything, I was a bit irked. There was an insta love romance with the two modern characters who also felt a bit stupid as well. I did not read enough to know more about the magical realism or the actual premise of the book store. That should have come earlier than the shoddy character writing.

June 23-25, 2026.

Black Coffee by Agatha Christie and Charles Osborne, John Moffatt (Narrator)

As we are going through the Poirot novels chronologically, this was #7. Originally written as a play, the Christie estate commissioned Charles Osborne to adapt it into a novel. I read reviews that this was not a great adaptation as a result. It was not that bad. It was a locked room mystery and was a short novel. Hastings appeared to be more bumbling than usual. It was not a bad Poirot story, but not as good as the Blue train that came before it. Narration was quite good.

June 17-26, 206.

Ascendance of a Bookworm (Manga): Part 3 Volume 4 by Miya Kazuki, quof (Translator), Ryo Namino (Illustrator)

I am catching up to the recently released ones. I still have yet to get to the new light novel series or watched the new season of the anime. All in good time. It’s nice to dip in and out of Rozemyne’s world. I liked this one because of the beautiful moments between her and her lower class family.

June 27, 2026.