My first Becky Chambers, but certainly not my last. I picked up A Psalm for the Wild-Built because everyone I know who has read it has loved it, and because lately I’m really interested in stories about AIs interacting with humans. I ended up reading this one in a single day, completely enveloped in the gentle story of a burnt-out monk reluctantly gaining a robot traveling companion who sees wonder in every small detail of the world. I had to stop in the middle for a tattoo appointment, where I recommended it to my artist as she worked on me, and then finished back at home last night. I correctly predicted that it would make me cry, not because it’s sad, but because of how much the characters see and care for one another by the end. It made me long for a turned-around world where we’re more careful with the planet and with each other. And it was just the warm-hug-and-hot-cup-of-tea sort of book that I needed after a couple of really bad weeks.

I now understand why one of my fellow Glassers got a tattoo paying homage to this book, is what I’m saying.