Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf

The bugs continue to be terrifying. Someone please buy my leech monster story 🙏

Otherwise, it really is sumptuous. Peter Jackson at his best delivers on spectacle.

Maybe I should watch Skull Island later this weekend for comparison’s sake

It scared the bejeezus outta me when I was a kid, but man oh, tough to see now.

Rewatching King Kong tonight for the first time in years and it’s kinda astounding that they were still doing “island natives” Like That in 2005

GREEN AND DEADLY THINGS by Jenn Lyons on a pale grey limestone hearth alongside a pale green drink in a stemmed glass.

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about GREEN AND DEADLY THINGS by Jenn Lyons. A standalone fantasy of librarian knights, killer queens, & cosmic harmony, this is a ferocious adventure & absolute pleasure. Our drink is the Parnathi and it is very botanical. VERY BOTANICAL.

I am savoring this, since Bar Cart Bookshelf reading keeps me so busy, but TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES is an absolute treat. If you’re interested in big cats at all, you really ought to check it out.

A four-panel collage of endangered wildlife: a tiger walking through tall grass, a gorilla resting in a lush forest, a rhinoceros grazing in a field of yellow flowers, and a giant panda looking upward among green foliage.

Some positive news you might have missed this #WorldWildlifeDay. 🙌

🐯 Wild tiger numbers are bouncing back.
🐼 Giant pandas no longer listed as ‘endangered’.
🦏 Kenya now has over 1,000 black rhinos.
🦍 Mountain gorillas: status improved from critically endangered to endangered.

A hardcover copy of SAINT DEATH'S DAUGHTER by C.S.E. Cooney on a brick plinth in spring sunshine. A pale pinkish-yellow drink in a highball glass sits alongside the book garnished with a lemon wheel. A spray of redbud blossoms sits behind.

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about SAINT DEATH'S DAUGHTER by C.S.E. Cooney. A sumptuous poetic necromantic fantasy, a book I long anticipated and deeply loved. Charming, deep, effervescent. Pure magic! And our drink, Panthauma, is as marvelous & citrussy as I can make!

A stack of green books (bottom to top): A DROP OF CORRUPTION by Robert Jackson Bennett, AT THE CROSSING PLACES by Kevin Crossley-Holland, ASSASSIN OF REALITY by Marina and Segey Dyachenko (trans. by Julia Meitov Hersey)JADE CITY by Fonda Lee, THE EMPIRE OF GOLD by S.A. Chakraborty, SATURNALIA by Stephanie Feldman, THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ALCHEMIST’S DAUGHTER by Theodora Goss, A RESTLESS TRUTH by Freya Marske, THE ARCHIVE UNDYING by Emma Mieko Candon, RAVEN STRATAGEM by Yoon Ha Lee, KEY LIME SKY by Al Hess

A good book brings evergreen enjoyment! See any faves?

Bless. The bliss of ignorance. Wish I could join you.

Yeah, we were all new once and it is a treat to get on that hobbyhorse the first time, but yeah. The litfic vs. genre one is always particularly exhausting for me since it has such a tendency toward sour grapes.

Or request them at your library. Check them out multiple times. The only way to get what you want is to put your wallet and your voice behind it. And your wallet speaks a lot louder than your voice in publishing.

As ever, if you want more books, buy more books.

Certainly we see repeat discourse offenders. Weren't there like three times that Orc City dude got his nasty RWer ass all in everyone's business?

I do think there is a way they feed into each other cyclically: "litfic vs. genre" -> "people only read the same three authors and not MY BOOK" -> "no one writes for men" -> and on and on and on.

Please do not actually do this, I am so tired of hearing the same arguments every twelve weeks without fail.

On the other hand, I saw that horse twitch and what if we kicked it some more for good measure.

In which I am ragebaited by a dead man.

[image desc: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND on a wooden desk.]

Thanks so much to Hugo History for having me on to discuss Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND! It was a real treat to dive deep into one of the most popular novels of the SFnal canon, a work of fiction by turns deeply entertaining & remarkably frustrating. The epitome of 'a work of its era'!

There's just something about these sunny Fridays!

shatter the sun — neon hemlock

Preorder today!!

www.neonhemlock.com/shatter-the-...

"The Peacock Wizard and the Cave of the Serpent Queen" -Elias Eells (SHATTER THE SUN, @neonhemlock.bsky.social, 2026)

I have a burning desire!!!

A stemmed glass with a pale green cocktail sits above the garden alongside A BOTANICAL DAUGHTER by Noah Medlock.

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about A BOTANICAL DAUGHTER by @noahmedlock.bsky.social. A gaudy gothic dripping with macabre and mannerist mycelia, this propulsive debut warmed and chilled my heart in equal measure. Our drink, the Grimfern, is a bright spring sour.

[image desc: a stack of books. From bottom to top, EXORDIA, THE DAWNHOUNDS, THE ALL-CONSUMING WORLD, and THE ARCHIVE UNDYING]

I call this stack “So you want something weird?” Here’s a fun constellation of books I think can be enjoyed together, thinking about the relationship between the self & body, society & the alien. Divine sci-fi, clones & planet-sized AI, botanical science fantasy, the ethics of first contact. Enjoy!

Is he... y'know... botanical?

A copy of Kit Mayquist's TRIPPING ARCADIA is bathed in golden light. To the left of the book is a bottle of Copper & Kings apple brandy and a prosecco cork. To the right of the book is a coupe with an amber golden cocktail and a bottle of St. George Absinthe Verte.

Backlist Bar Cart Bookshelf! TRIPPING ARCADIA by @kmayquist.bsky.social. A Boston-based botanical gothic, the book is a marvel of green-gold prose & a fierce meditation on vengeance. Our drink, Arrow's Edge, is effervescent & herbal, perf for parties among the New England elite!
youtu.be/vtljndt3LRs

I've read KILL ALL WIZARDS. You want to read KILL ALL WIZARDS.

Screenshot of a Publishers Marketplace announcement: Crawford Award-winning author Jared Pechacek's WHERE FIRE REIGNS, pitched as Firefly with firebenders, in which a crew of fugitives must keep a feral goddess safe from the church who believes her death will bring water back to their dry world, to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor, for publication in winter 2027, by Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency (NA). Translation: alba@mushens-entertainment.com Film/TV: film@azantianlitagency.com

you wanna hear some good news