I’ve been reading too many good books lately. Each time I’ve thought to write a review, it turns out the next book I read is also quite good. So, rather than agonizing over what deserves a review or a recommendation, here are all of the good things I’ve read in the past three months.

The Divine Comedy is often mentioned as a medieval diss track where Dante places his political and religious enemies in hell. In fact, few people speaking of the Divine Comedy move beyond Inferno, but over the course of a year I’ve found Dante’s conception of Purgatory and Heaven fascinating, as well as who he has placed where in each afterlife. Dante also provides a wild cosmology of Christianity and mythology in conversation. The Digital Dante collection through Columbia University has a paired commentary by a Dante Scholar, so whenever I would finish a canto and think I had somewhat grasped what happened, Teodolinda Baroliniano would happily prove me wrong, giving historical, political, and religious context to the poem. The poem’s beauty in English is more than enough to make me understand its importance in Italian literature.

I’ve discovered Kurt Vonnegut late, but I’m enjoying him immensely, and the same can be said for Welcome to the Monkey House. Reading a short story collection is always fun, as you can find the through-lines that were stuck in an author’s head throughout the years. Vonnegut was quite concerned with the modern world, and the future world he saw it becoming. He was also quite concerned that sex would disappear. As biting as he can be, there’s a surprising sincerity to Vonnegut’s humor. I was going to make a list of stories I thought would make for a good adaptation, but what do I find that damn near every story was adapted in the 70s and 80s. So, instead, I’ll simply say that “Who Am I This Time?,” “D.P,” and “More Stately Mansions” were some of my favorites.

I grabbed Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles as a palate cleanser between fantasy doorstoppers, and I accidentally discovered one of the most captivating science fiction novels I’ve ever read. I’d only ever read Bradbury’s short stories before, and what do I discover but he found a way to write a novel of short stories. While all taking place in the same world, each story is so different it makes you wonder if they are even connected. Yet even as a comedy shifts to a horror story shifts to prolonged reflection on colonization and genocide, it all comes together. Bradbury’s work is distinctly from the fifties. One can easily imagine Rod Serling delivering his dialogue. Yet, like The Twilight Zone, it delves so much deeper than the Buck Rogers romps of black and white television. I would love to see an anthology series in the vein of Love Death & Robots take on each of the Martian chronicles.

And then, just this weekend, I finished Assassin’s Fate, final book in The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy, final book in the Realm of the Elderlings series. For the past three weeks I’ve been drawn completely into Robin Hobb’s quiet fantasy. Hobb is willing to sit in a scene or a mood, contemplating the story through the characters and their daily goings-on just as much as she is through an action scene or courtly maneuvering. She is not afraid of violence, but also is not concerned with giving you the type of violence you want to see. She will tear at your heart. Hobb writes her characters with what I can only describe as love, even as she makes you hate them. She made me tear up with a simple POV change. I want to write like Robin Hobb.

I know it won’t always last. I know I’ll read clunkers again. But this summer, I found so many good books, so many good stories, that I don’t think I’ll mind when I read something less than amazing. And as much as I like reading the classics, or authors I know I’ve enjoyed before, I’m looking forward to discovering something again.