Sam Horrorwitt
@shurwitt.bsky.social
Longtime Bay Area arts journalist and occasional playwright turned mailman. I could tell you stories.
149. A poetic coming-of-age story of the Greek goddess of witchcraft finding her power in the land of the dead, this start of a Goddesses of the Underworld trilogy is full of fascinating portrayals of gods and Titans from Cronos and Hades to Thanatos and Styx. #booksky
November 27, 2025 at 9:48 PM
149. A poetic coming-of-age story of the Greek goddess of witchcraft finding her power in the land of the dead, this start of a Goddesses of the Underworld trilogy is full of fascinating portrayals of gods and Titans from Cronos and Hades to Thanatos and Styx. #booksky
148. I dunno if there’s been many Star Wars novels actually set after the most recent trilogy. This YA novel partly takes place afterward, but it’s also largely flashback in a pretty sympathetic look at First Order Stormtroopers, including the ones who would later become Finn and Jannah. #booksky
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 PM
148. I dunno if there’s been many Star Wars novels actually set after the most recent trilogy. This YA novel partly takes place afterward, but it’s also largely flashback in a pretty sympathetic look at First Order Stormtroopers, including the ones who would later become Finn and Jannah. #booksky
147. This Emily Wilson isn’t the Iliad/Odyssey translator but the former editor of New Scientist magazine. She spins quite a yarn here about the goddess Inanna and good old Gilgamesh, enough so that I can hardly imagine what’s left for the rest of her Sumerian trilogy, but I’m here for it. #booksky
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 AM
147. This Emily Wilson isn’t the Iliad/Odyssey translator but the former editor of New Scientist magazine. She spins quite a yarn here about the goddess Inanna and good old Gilgamesh, enough so that I can hardly imagine what’s left for the rest of her Sumerian trilogy, but I’m here for it. #booksky
146. I’ve dug every Scalzi book I’ve read, so obviously I was gonna love this one about a secret ecological group studying giant monsters from a parallel earth. It took me a while to notice Scalzi avoids gendering protagonist Jamie, who I initially assumed was a woman for whatever reason. #booksky
November 22, 2025 at 6:02 AM
146. I’ve dug every Scalzi book I’ve read, so obviously I was gonna love this one about a secret ecological group studying giant monsters from a parallel earth. It took me a while to notice Scalzi avoids gendering protagonist Jamie, who I initially assumed was a woman for whatever reason. #booksky
145. Of course I had to read this memoir about a middle-aged guy becoming a mailman during the pandemic. He was a rural carrier in Appalachia, very different from my city route in Berkeley, but a lot is very familiar, especially his rant about the rattling death traps we still drive around. #booksky
November 22, 2025 at 5:44 AM
145. Of course I had to read this memoir about a middle-aged guy becoming a mailman during the pandemic. He was a rural carrier in Appalachia, very different from my city route in Berkeley, but a lot is very familiar, especially his rant about the rattling death traps we still drive around. #booksky
Choose your Mentors wisely.
November 22, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Choose your Mentors wisely.
144 I love this novel’s sweep, time-shifting from a Korean father’s 1978 drowning to his childhood in Japan, his family drawn to N Korea, & his American wife and daughter’s lives before & after his disappearance. Knowing a little history prepared me for the twist, but that’s not a drawback. #bluesky
November 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM
144 I love this novel’s sweep, time-shifting from a Korean father’s 1978 drowning to his childhood in Japan, his family drawn to N Korea, & his American wife and daughter’s lives before & after his disappearance. Knowing a little history prepared me for the twist, but that’s not a drawback. #bluesky
143. I continue to love this series and its cast of characters, and this one includes some entertainingly unlikely alliances among them. A lot of it is about grief and the hole in people’s lives that someone leaves, and as a reader I miss that same departed presence in the story as well. #booksky
November 15, 2025 at 4:14 AM
143. I continue to love this series and its cast of characters, and this one includes some entertainingly unlikely alliances among them. A lot of it is about grief and the hole in people’s lives that someone leaves, and as a reader I miss that same departed presence in the story as well. #booksky
142. I’d never read it nor watched any adaptation of it, but references to The Time Machine are so omnipresent that I was surprised to find there really wasn’t much more to the story than what I already knew. I mean, Wells is great, but I came to this one awfully late. #booksky
November 15, 2025 at 3:55 AM
142. I’d never read it nor watched any adaptation of it, but references to The Time Machine are so omnipresent that I was surprised to find there really wasn’t much more to the story than what I already knew. I mean, Wells is great, but I came to this one awfully late. #booksky
141. Fry’s retellings of Greek myth hew more closely to the traditional versions than others I’ve been reading, but with his trademark wit and scholarly flair. Here he interweaves the Odyssey with other voyages from Troy, especially the Aeneid and the Oresteia. #booksky
November 12, 2025 at 3:03 AM
141. Fry’s retellings of Greek myth hew more closely to the traditional versions than others I’ve been reading, but with his trademark wit and scholarly flair. Here he interweaves the Odyssey with other voyages from Troy, especially the Aeneid and the Oresteia. #booksky
140. I read and enjoyed Harris’s earlier memoir in 2020. This one gives some interesting glimpses behind the scenes of her whirlwind campaign, but also a lot of airing of grievances and trying to set the record straight about every little incident along the way. #bluesky
November 11, 2025 at 5:59 PM
140. I read and enjoyed Harris’s earlier memoir in 2020. This one gives some interesting glimpses behind the scenes of her whirlwind campaign, but also a lot of airing of grievances and trying to set the record straight about every little incident along the way. #bluesky
139. Unlike her subsequent novels that I love, Haynes’ debut novel isn’t a direct reimagining of Greek myth. It’s a thriller of sorts about a teacher’s use of Ancient Greek drama to engage her difficult students. It definitely feels like juvenilia in comparison, but I still enjoyed it. #booksky
November 11, 2025 at 5:51 PM
139. Unlike her subsequent novels that I love, Haynes’ debut novel isn’t a direct reimagining of Greek myth. It’s a thriller of sorts about a teacher’s use of Ancient Greek drama to engage her difficult students. It definitely feels like juvenilia in comparison, but I still enjoyed it. #booksky
If you see this post egg
November 6, 2025 at 8:08 PM
If you see this post egg
138. I’m really enjoying rereading Moorcock after all these decades, though I dunno how deep I’ll dive again. This one follows Von Bek, a career soldier who’s done many horrible things, as he’s sent by Lucifer to find the Holy Grail to cure the world’s pain. #booksky
November 3, 2025 at 5:27 AM
138. I’m really enjoying rereading Moorcock after all these decades, though I dunno how deep I’ll dive again. This one follows Von Bek, a career soldier who’s done many horrible things, as he’s sent by Lucifer to find the Holy Grail to cure the world’s pain. #booksky
137. I listened to this short story collection as an audiobook & enjoyed it enough to stick with it, but I don’t remember a thing about it. Glancing at a review reminds me of a few things: spies’ coded messages in menus, a drunken B-movie commentary track, musings on the nature of aphorism. #booksky
November 3, 2025 at 5:06 AM
137. I listened to this short story collection as an audiobook & enjoyed it enough to stick with it, but I don’t remember a thing about it. Glancing at a review reminds me of a few things: spies’ coded messages in menus, a drunken B-movie commentary track, musings on the nature of aphorism. #booksky
Reminds me of this all-time fave
October 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reminds me of this all-time fave
Roy Thomas really loved creating Nazi versions of the Super Friends for some reason.
October 29, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Roy Thomas really loved creating Nazi versions of the Super Friends for some reason.
136. I loved Barnard’s Jezebel, so it’s interesting reading her new one based on mythology I know nothing about. Irish goddess Cailleach is sentenced to live as a mortal live as penance for imposing a deadly winter. I dug it despite having no idea how much it borrows or diverges from myth. #booksky
October 21, 2025 at 11:42 PM
136. I loved Barnard’s Jezebel, so it’s interesting reading her new one based on mythology I know nothing about. Irish goddess Cailleach is sentenced to live as a mortal live as penance for imposing a deadly winter. I dug it despite having no idea how much it borrows or diverges from myth. #booksky
135. Long-listed for the Booker Prize and set in Ukraine, Reva’s novel involves an embittered specialist in endangered snails, the mail-order bride industry, and anti-trafficking activists amid the Russian invasion. And that’s not even getting into the author’s own metafictional narrative. #booksky
October 21, 2025 at 11:33 PM
135. Long-listed for the Booker Prize and set in Ukraine, Reva’s novel involves an embittered specialist in endangered snails, the mail-order bride industry, and anti-trafficking activists amid the Russian invasion. And that’s not even getting into the author’s own metafictional narrative. #booksky
134. This isn’t my favorite of Chuck Tingle’s recent barrage of high-quality horror novels (that would probably be Bury Your Gays), but it’s a fun yarn about a sudden deadly deluge of vanishingly low-probability events. Mara Wilson reads, which is always a plus. #booksky
October 21, 2025 at 11:20 PM
134. This isn’t my favorite of Chuck Tingle’s recent barrage of high-quality horror novels (that would probably be Bury Your Gays), but it’s a fun yarn about a sudden deadly deluge of vanishingly low-probability events. Mara Wilson reads, which is always a plus. #booksky
133 I’d avoided reading this for a long time because I was writing my own Circe play and didn’t want it in my head. But I’ve enjoyed Miller’s other work, and of course this one’s great and takes Circe’s story in unexpected directions. I was surprised how generous Miller is to Jason, tho. #booksky
October 20, 2025 at 3:45 AM
133 I’d avoided reading this for a long time because I was writing my own Circe play and didn’t want it in my head. But I’ve enjoyed Miller’s other work, and of course this one’s great and takes Circe’s story in unexpected directions. I was surprised how generous Miller is to Jason, tho. #booksky
Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only....
October 20, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only....
And the Joker’s secret Ha-Hacienda was under Arkham Asylum! His padded cell doubled as an elevator to get to it!
October 11, 2025 at 1:49 PM
And the Joker’s secret Ha-Hacienda was under Arkham Asylum! His padded cell doubled as an elevator to get to it!
132 This is such a clever premise. A present-day true crime podcast investigates the disappearance of a marine biologist and her whales back in 1986. Cox interweaves that story with two separate adventures of the Enterprise crew, one mid-TOS and one movie-era, all connecting eventually. #booksky
October 9, 2025 at 3:39 AM
132 This is such a clever premise. A present-day true crime podcast investigates the disappearance of a marine biologist and her whales back in 1986. Cox interweaves that story with two separate adventures of the Enterprise crew, one mid-TOS and one movie-era, all connecting eventually. #booksky