Reading Reality, LLC

The Sunday Post/Virtual Nightstand for June 14, 2026

Hecate demanded to be this week's featured cat. Absolutely demanded. What else do you call that pose? Somehow she manages to both blend into my office rug and let it shout out that she's there waiting AT THE SAME TIME! It's a gift - and so is she in her own way.

Here are the rest of this week's highlights:
Featured Giveaway: Berry Good Giveaway Hop
(Audio)Book of the Week: There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
Feature for the Coming Week: Dad-O-Mite Giveaway Hop

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-7-26

Hecate was getting jealous because the past two week's pictures were both of Luna - and Hecate doesn't like that....

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-14-26 Hecate was getting jealous because the past two week's pictures were both of Luna - and Hecate doesn't like that. She IS our little and absolutely convinced that she is the 'Queen of All She Surveys'. She's also nowhere near convinced that Luna is 'The Princess of Quite A Lot' but even if...

Grade A : There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm .org My Review: This was wild - and utterly compelling - but not in the ways I thought it would be....
https://www.readingreality.net/2026/06/grade-a-audiobookreview-there-is-no-antimemetics-division-by-qntm/

Grade A #AudioBookReview: There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm My Review: This was wild - and utterly compelling - but not in the ways I thought it would be. Mostly because I was told this was horror. Not that horrifying things don’t happen - and LOTS of them - but it’s not what we think of when we think of horror. It’s science fiction [...]

In My Country by Thomas Ha

I'm reading - and reviewing - all the short works, and this is the third. I listen to the when it exists - and a hearty to all the podcast producers. This was one of the podcasts and it worked better because we're being told the story that the main character is himself telling to someone. The symmetry works.

But the story he's telling is thought-provoking and sticks in your head - as it is stuck in his - because it is ambiguous, uncertain and open-ended. It makes the reader, or listener, think. Not necessarily agree or disagree, because that's not the point at all. It's not the story's point, but it IS the government's point. Because people who are encouraged to think keep right on thinking, and imagining, and dreaming of a world that might be different. Which is the last thing that the government in his country wants. Or any country.

Which is the point entirely, that he's lost both his children (as adults) because they refused to absorb the lesson he tried to teach them without actually saying the words. That's it's safer not to really think.

Make of that what you will. I'm still stuck in it, which was absolutely the point after all.
ha.writes

: In My Country by Thomas Ha .bsky.social‬ ‪.com‬

#AudioBookReview: In My Country by Thomas Ha My Review: This is the third short work in my personal Hugo Awards reading and this is another story that is interesting and thought-provoking rather than any sort of fun. Which in this case is definitely the point. At first, it reads as if it’s set in a totalitarian country. And it would be an [....