This idea came to me (read: I stole it) because of something I saw on Twitter from author Tim Akers. Essentially, he noted that publishing is getting hit hard by the pandemic, authors are getting hit hard by the pandemic, debuts are getting lost in the noise, series are struggling to maintain momentum, and this is having (or will have) a big knock-on effect in an industry that makes decisions today about what books will be on the shelves in two or three years.

To that end, he suggested recommending books, boosting authors, and shouting from the hilltops about stuff we liked. I’m going to join in with brief recommendations and a bunch of purchase links. Some of what I write about probably won’t be books that “need” my tiny voice (I mean, if it won a Hugo, you probably don’t need me to tell you that it was good), but if one person sees it and thinks it might be worth checking out, that’s good for the industry as a whole.

***IF YOU HAVE A LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER, PLEASE BUY FROM THEM***

Amazon will survive you buying a few books locally. Seattle will be okay, and Jeff Bezos will still get to launch himself to Europa, or whatever his longterm plan is, I promise.

I’m still going to include Amazon links, because for some people it really is the best way to get books. There’s a pandemic on, and I’d rather people buy books from Amazon than not buy them at all.