By Emily Munro in Blog — 28 Feb 2026

Reading Report: February 2026

Tiny baby primates, mysterious medieval tunnels, and questioning why we write about so many kingdoms.

I’m sitting here waiting for another snowstorm as I write this. February is a month for anticipation. Waiting for warmer weather, for blue skies, for any one of the half-dozen holidays that clutter the calendar like we are all looking for an excuse to be together. What are you looking forward to? What would you be looking for if you could dream of anything you wanted? Happy writing. ~EM

Year of Joy

Bronx Zoo introduces their new Baby Slow Loris
Rock and Stone! - I've been playing a lot of Deep Rock Galactic Survivor but I've been hearing a lot of good things about the community around the original game Deep Rock Galactic.
For Scale - I've been getting the best life advice from an interior design blog. In all seriousness, we're going to talk about aesthetics sometime soon and its partially based on For Scale's writing. Read this to think about your space in a completely new way.

Happiness of course is not always about a sort of Platonic décor ideal. Happiness is often achieved through Weirdness, and probably the more unhinged an attempt at Happiness, the better.

Putting the Fight in February

Brooklyn Library - Resources for talking to children about ICE

Talking to children about what they may be seeing, hearing, or feeling helps them feel more grounded and safe. This conversation will look different for every family, especially depending on how immigration enforcement affects your family or community.

NYPL - Black history Month books for Adults

SpecFic Inspiration

Altermag - The Secret History of Indian Science Fiction
404media - Use new research to inspire your writing: Babies in Space?

“As we enter a new era of space exploration, defined by longer missions, broader participation, and eventual human settlement beyond Earth, the question is not simply whether reproduction can occur in space, but whether human fertility can be preserved, protected and comprehensively understood in an environment fundamentally different from that in which our species evolved,”

Medieval Meanderings

WriterUnboxed: Why so many Kingdoms?

My question isn’t “Why don’t more books recognize that kingdoms can be evil?” It’s “Why are we still writing about kingdoms at all?”

Weird Medieval Guys - What were these weird medieval tunnels made for?
Dead Language Society - How far back in time can you go before you stop understanding English? (also a cool speculative short story if you can get far enough).

Books read

The Wizard’s Butler - Nathan Lowell has a way with words that will draw you into a story. No big fights, no massive drama, just a slow satisfaction that lingers long after other stories have left your mind.
Enchanting the Fae Queen - Stephanie Burgis doesn't disapoint in this follow-up to Wooing the Witch Queen.
Murder by Memory - Olivia Waite - Ship's detective Dorothy Gentleman wakes in a body not her own, to solve a murder in the ship's library of passengers. Delightful and the next book is coming out in March.
Beast Business - Ilona Andrews - a new novella in their Hidden Legacy series. I recommend starting with Burn for Me if you want to get into this series.
Sapphire Flames, Emerald Blaze, Ruby Fever - Ilona Andews - More Hidden Legacy, a comfort read at this point, since I think I've read this series half a dozen times at least.