Three Books I'm Reading Now, 8/11/25 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm reading Annalee Newitz's newest science fiction, Automatic Noodle, a novella about deactivated robots who come back online in a defunct kitchen in a postwar San Francisco; I'm listening to The Knight and the Moth, the first in Rachel Gillig's rich fantasy series with a slight romantic storyline; and I'm reading Amity Gaige's Heartwood, a missing-persons mystery set in Maine.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

In a San Francisco of the near future, a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned kitchen. Looking for a purpose, they begin to do what they do best: cook.

In Annalee Newitz's novella, the robots touch the lives of their neighborhood by producing the best hand-pulled noodles around. But when a series of vindictive, one-star reviews threaten their business, they must figure out who has it in for them and why.

I received a prepublication edition of this title, published August 5, courtesy of NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group.

Annalee Newitz is also the author of The Terraformers, Autonomous, The Future of Another Timeline, and other books.

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02 The Knight and the Moth (Stonewater Kingdom #1) by Rachel Gillig

The first in Rachel Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series, The Knight and the Moth, considers Sybil Delling and a group of five other foundling girls who have given up ten years of their lives to serve as Diviners, dedicating themselves wholly to being submerged in magical waters and conveying their visions and dreams of Omens at her abbess's whim.

But the shrouded girls begin to disappear, and Sybil doubts for the first time whether their purpose is holy and noble after all. She starts to question the motivations of those with influence, including the Omens themselves.

So far this is a richly built fantasy world with a minor romance aspect; it's a balance I'm really liking.

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03 Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Amity Gaige's Heartwood offers the story of Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden who has fought for years for an amount of respect to match her commitment and ability, and Valerie, an Appalachian Trail hiker who has gone missing 200 miles from her final destination.

Beverly is known to be able to find missing persons, and she is set upon finding Valerie. But search parties, flyovers, and rescue dogs come up empty day after day.

The reader is privy to Valerie's poignant letters to her mother as she struggles to survive in the wild, and witness to 76-year-old, wheelchair-bound Lena's retirement-community existence and her rigid existence after a lifetime of pain.

Lena, Valerie, and Bev are inexorably connected, and Valerie's survival depends upon the other two women's bravery and relentlessness.

I love a Maine setting, a missing-persons story, and a tale of brave women thriving in a traditionally male career. This story is so engaging, I'm having trouble putting it down.