Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle / Annalee Newitz

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Automatic Noodle
By: Annalee Newitz
Genre: Science Fiction, Novella
Number of Pages: 163
Published: August 5, 2025
Publisher: Tordotcom
Dates Read: September 5, 2025 - September 7, 2025
Format: Hardcover

While San Francisco rebuilds from war, a group of abandoned food service bots take over their own delivery app account and rebrand as the best hand-pulled noodle shop in the neighborhood. There’s just one little snag – someone-or something- is negative-review bombing their restaurant’s page and plummeting their ratings! Can the bots figure out who’s doing it and put a stop to the review bombing before it’s too late for the restaurant?

One of my supervisors sent me the link to this when it was first announced and I immediately put it on my TBR. Why?

  1. Look at this cover and tell me you’re not intrigued!
  2. Robots who start a noodle shop?!
  3. It’s a novella (and novella just hit different)

So, after reading it, what are my thoughts?

Did I know there was such a thing as a cozy sci-fi? Sure – but I hadn’t read one yet! Also add in some found family and challenge the norms and you’ve got yourself this novella!

It was an amazing read filled with an alternative America, commentary on identity, fear, and challenging biases. Though it was about robots, they were definitely stand-ins for how we as people can treat others based on gender, sexuality, and immigration status.

Overall, a wonderful novel, perfect for those who love sci-fi and want a cozy little read about a hand-pulled noodle shop run by robots.

Now excuse me while I go find a hand-pulled noodle shop to go try!

*Thank you Tordotcom and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Stoked for This: August 2025

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

Robots starting a noodle shop, a cat who runs around the cosmos in his homemade space craft, a library where books are filled with passed one’s memories that the government is now destroying for their own benefit, and a little ghost who, instead of a sheet, is a quilt and finds the joys of winter celebrations are just some of the awesome titles coming out this month!

Which of these covers catches your eye??

August 5, 2025

A novella about leftover robots opening their own noodle shop.
Maybe I’ve got a soft spot for robots after “In the Lives of Puppets” by TJ Klune, but robots and a noodle shop?! Yesss.

Automatic Noodle

By: Annalee Newitz

Birdie was a thirteen-year-old model under modeling agent Harriet Goldman – but after two years, she met a thirty-one-year-old rock star and her life changed. Now, thirty years later, Birdie is invited to celebrate Harriet’s fifty-year career, but Birdie has been avoiding her past for years. Now, she must face it if she wants to make her own future.

The Cover Girl: A Novel

By: Amy Rossi

August 12, 2025

Nimmi has wanted to see her mother in Sri Lanka, but her overprotective father has always refused. After her father gets an assignment in Sri Lanka and Nimmi sneaks onboard the plane, it’s a little too late to say no. But it’s Christmas 2004, and the tsunami hits Sri Lanka. Now, came Nimmi still reunite with her mother, even amidst the devastation?

Tall Water

By: SJ Sindu

Periwinkle is no ordinary pampered house pet. By day, he’s spoiled with scratches, cuddles, and delicious snacks. By night, he races through the cosmos in his custom-built space ship. This graphic novel has beautiful artwork from Tana Ford and is perfect for cat lovers out there.

The Space Cat

By: Nnedi Okorafor

August 26, 2025

Okay, this one has a library, the Time Space, that holds the memories of those who have passed, and it’s only accessed by these special watches. Lisavet basically grows up here and she finds out that government officials are coming into the library and destroying books so the past fits their personal narratives of what they wanted to happen. But when Lisavet meets American spy Ernest Duquesne and sets her on the course to change history and possible time space itself. In 1965, sixteen-year-old Amelia is mourning the disappearance of her Uncle Ernest when a CIA agents enlists her for help. When Amelia steps into the Time Space for the first time, she realizes time is not a linear as she once thought.

The Book of Lost Hours

By: Hayley Gelfuso

A little ghost quilt discovers the holiday of winter in this adorable Children’s book.

The Little Ghost Quilt’s Winter Surprise

By: Riel Nason

Illustrated by: Bryon Eggenschwiler

Set in a drive-in restaurant that exists in every Native community, this anthology celebrates Native joy with stories and poems of hope, healing, love, romance, friendship, and joy.

Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories