May 12, 2020
How is everyone’s quarantine going? Mine’s been fine. I’ve played three video games straight through, read nine books, and watched at least 10 seasons of tv shows. So at least I’ve been kind of productive? If we call media consumption such. A lot of what I’ve mentally ingested these past couple of months has been comfort food, things I know…
March 6, 2020
Every year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) does this book debate called Canada Reads. Out of a long list of fifteen books, five are selected by semi-famous people (Canadian), and they debate and defend their book as to why it is the one book every Canadian should read that year. Each day over the week of debates in March, a…
January 31, 2020
Welcome (or for some of you, welcome back!) to the Speculative Chic Book Club! Thank you so much for joining us on our relaunch in 2020. To say I’m excited about it is an understatement: I’m tickled that every month, a different blogger gets to select a book and lead us in a discussion, and I knew that to kick…
September 7, 2019
Welcome back to another week at Speculative Chic! Can you believe it’s September already? I can’t, with what feels like a perpetual summer that shows no sign of slowing down here in Japan. Because of the extended heat and humidity, they’re predicting either a delay in the autumn foliage, or a marked difference in how the leaves change colors —…
September 5, 2019
The Little Shop of Found Things (2018) Written by: Paula Brackston Genre: Historical Fantasy Pages: 307 (Hardcover) Series: Found Things Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Why I Chose It: When you work at a bookstore you see a lot of titles, and often you end up giving them a peek. This one sounded interesting, kind of chill, kind of cute, a bit…
June 6, 2019
Disclaimer: If you have not seen Avengers: Endgame, DO NOT READ THIS. This article includes major spoilers and should be avoided at all costs. Endgame has been billed as the essential finale to the vast majority of our beloved Marvel heroes. However, we are talking about a comic book universe where literally anything can happen (and often does), so even…
January 22, 2019
Pyschologists in science fiction or fantasy are kind of a rare character type. Professor X, Nancy Thompson, and Counselor Deanna Troi are great examples. It makes sense that Professor X would be a psychology professional, but to discuss his exploits would take pages that I don’t have here (so go here and here). And as a kid watching TNG who…
September 6, 2018
You may recognize our very own J.L. Gribble from all the Sound Off! posts she writes for Speculative Chic, but if you’ve followed us for any length of time, you know J.L. is also a published author. Last year we had the privilege of announcing her third book release, and we enjoyed it so much we asked if we could…
March 19, 2018
They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with author Lauren Baratz-Logsted, whose forthcoming novel, Zombie Abbey (releasing April…
January 17, 2018
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel (2017) Written by: Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland Genre: Science Fantasy Pages: 754 (Kindle) Publisher: William Morrow Why I Chose It: Although I’ve never read anything by Neal Stephenson (I know!) or Nicole Galland, I’ve always had a weakness for both time travel stories and epistolary novels. The premise: From bestselling author…