The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
One book that I’m very excited about arrived in the mail yesterday, but first, here are the posts you may have missed since the last one of these features:
- Giveaway of The Essential Patricia A. McKillip — The giveaway is over, but there’s more information on this book containing stories by one of my favorite writers if you’re curious about it.
- Theodora Goss Guest Post and Giveaway — The giveaway part is now over, but you can still read Theodora Goss’s essay “Writing as Witchcraft” and learn more about her new collection Letters from an Imaginary Country.
- Review of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott — I thought this epic fantasy novel was a solid book and appreciated its worldbuilding and choice of protagonist, but I also felt like the pacing was slow and found it just didn’t have that spark that makes a book resonate with me as a reader (which Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker trilogy did have).
- November Virtual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Recommendations Event Information — The event itself has passed, but more information and links to watch the May and August events are here if you’re interested in them.
- November 2025 Virtual Book Recommendations Event Video — This has more on the November event, which highlighted Lilith’s Brood by Octavia E. Butler, The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, Mirage by Somaiya Daud, A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna, and The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills.
On to the latest book on the TBR!
We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older
This collection will be released in just a couple of days, on December 2. It will be available in trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
This book, which the back cover calls “a guide for imagining a better future,” sounds fascinating and features wonderful contributors. The full list is as follows:
- Charlie Jane Anders
- Samit Basu
- adrienne maree brown
- Tobias S. Buckell
- Andrea Dehlendorf
- Rose Eveleth
- Jaymee Goh
- Nicola Griffith
- Alejandro Heredia
- Walidah Imarisha
- Vida James
- N. K. Jemisin
- L. A. Kauffman
- Scott Gabriel Knowles
- R. B. Lemberg
- Karen Lord
- Sam J. Miller
- Abdulla Moaswes
- Annalee Newitz
- Laia Asieo Odo
- Malka Older
- Kendra Pierre-Louis
- Kelly Robson
- Nisi Shawl
- Ursula Vernon
- Sabrina Vourvoulias
- Izzy Wasserstein
From genre luminaries, esteemed organizers, and exciting new voices in fiction, an anthology of stories, essays, and interviews that offer transformative visions of the future, fantastical alternate worlds, and inspiration for the social justice movements of tomorrow.
In this collection, editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Exploring topics ranging from disability justice and environmental activism to community care and collective worldbuilding, these imaginative pieces from writers such as NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias center solidarity, empathy, hope, joy, and creativity.
Each story is grounded within a broader sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, including adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology. Using the vehicle of ambitious storytelling, We Will Rise Again offers effective tools for organizing, an unflinching interrogation of the status quo, and a blueprint for prefiguring a different world.
