May Reading Wrap-Up

Posted June 4, 2026 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Photo of a couple of fuschia flowers, very bright and already open

I know we’re a few days into June, but I didn’t want to do too many posts in one day, so I saved May’s wrap-up for now! So let’s take a look.

May in general:

It’s been a bit of a weird month for me, to be honest. I’ve been busy with work things, and having difficulty relaxing during my chilled out time. My mood was honestly terrible for a bit there, though I think I’m pulling through it now.

In good news, though, I did get back into crocheting for the first time in a long time. I’m making this beautiful bookcase blanket pattern, which uses a technique called mosaic overlay crochet. I got distracted from it a bit this week, but I’m hoping to get back to work on it this weekend. For now, the progress picture I posted last weekend is still pretty current.

As with last month, I’ve been playing a lot of casual/relatively short videogames. One I definitely have to give a shout-out to is TOEM, which is such a fun little adventure. Wandering around taking photos of everything and exploring without a map or guide reminded me of playing Pokemon as a kid. Highly recommended!

Other games I enjoyed include Minami Lane, which is a short and sweet management-type game, A Planet Full of Cats, which is a ‘hidden’ cat game with quests and a story… and Zero Stress King: Idle Defense, which is admittedly like nothing else I play, but had me pretty fascinated for a couple of days. It’s ostensibly a tower defence game, but you cannot lose, so the only thing to do is slowly build up your defences to defeat the waves of enemies.

I also mentioned my Final Fantasy XIV raid group’s progress last month, so as a quick update on that, we’ve beaten the first stage of the final boss of this ‘tier’ of boss fights, and are working on phase two (which is the end of the fight). I think we’re all eager to claim a victory and take a break at this point, so wish us luck for some serious progress in June!

Reading stats:

I know you were all waiting for me to get to this bit!

StoryGraph reading stats for May 2026: 30 books, 5,674 pages, average rating of 2.97. My top rated reads included Kate Strasdin's Dressing the Queen, Feng Yu Nie's Mistakenly Saving the Villain vol 1, and Jiƙí Dvoƙák's How Animals Sleep. The number of pages I read per day varied a lot through the month, with a few days where I didn't read at all. More reading stats for May 2026: I read 59% fiction, 41% non-fiction, and 77% of my books were under 300 pages long, with 23% between 300 and 500 pages. I read 90% in print and 10% in digital editions, and my top genres were poetry (11), fantasy (9), LGBTQIA+ (8), romance (4) and manga (2).

Total books read: 30
Total pages read: 5,674
Rereads: 1
ARCs: 1
Series finished/up to date: 1
Books owned pre-2026: 3
Books owned from 2026: 9
Borrowed books: 16

Fiction: 15
Non-fiction: 6
Poetry: 9
Comics, manga, manhwa, etc: 7

It’s more books in total than in April, though does include a bit more poetry, graphic novels, and two children’s books I’d got curious about. Still, I’m hoping for a bit more reading — in previous years, I always thought my reading dipped in March/April/May because of university stuff with final assignments and the lead-up to early June exams, but this year I don’t have that excuse, so maybe it’s something about spring!

Progress on reading goals:

Overall total books read: 145/400 (21 books behind)
Overall total pages read: 33,574/100,000 (8,529 pages behind)
Books read from backlog: 28/100
Books owned since 2026 and not yet started: 20/20

As you see, I’m slipping further behind on my goals, and soon it’ll be time to think about whether they’re realistic… but I’d like to see if the improvement in May was a sign of getting back into the swing of things, first. Not that there’s any shame in modifying goals, and I absolutely will if it seems right!

Blogging stats:

Views: 15.9k
Visitors: 14.9k
Likes: 421
Comments: 353
Reviews: 27
Other posts: 18

A dip from last month in stats, maybe partly because Let’s Talk Bookish took a hiatus, so I wasn’t doing those posts or doing any related visiting? And probably also because I was kind of overwhelmed, and not doing as much visiting of other blogs.

Most viewed posts:

I seem to be becoming a bit of a hotspot for danmei and light novel reviews, ahaha. I’m not complaining!

My own favourite posts:

Stuff I loved from elsewhere:

I was diligent about saving links this month, so I had a really hard time whittling this down to a shortlist… there were several more, but I had to stop, ahaha. I don’t always want to read the books people review, but I do want to show appreciation for good reviews!

And there we go — that was May for you! Here’s hoping for a good April.

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Review – Solo Leveling (light novel), vol 6

Posted June 4, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Solo Leveling (light novel), vol 6

Solo Leveling

by Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels
Pages: 272
Series: Solo Leveling (light novel) #6
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Having witnessed the staggering power of the Shadow Monarch, Jinwoo can't wait to level up and reach those heights, and what better way to do so than to mobilize his army of soldiers against an S-rank dungeon's worth of giants? Saving a country abandoned by the rest of the world has its benefits—international renown, the expansion of his guild, an invitation to the most prestigious hunter conference in the world—but perhaps the most unexpected bonus is a run-in with another Monarch who brings not-so-welcome tidings. If he's to be believed, a war is coming that not even Jinwoo is strong enough to stop


Volume six of Chugong’s Solo Leveling features Jinho’s father’s illness, the kidnap of Jinho, the revelation that Jinwoo’s father (or something that looks like him) is running around doing something thus-far inscrutable, and the fate of Gunhee Go, so it’s a hard hitter as far as Jinwoo’s development goes. It ties up some loose ends with Dongsoo Hwang, and starts to introduce the endgame here.

That means it’s possibly one of my favourite volumes so far, and I think a lot of this was more affecting in this format than it was in the manhwa, somehow. The way that Jinwoo’s incredibly high perception stat makes him more susceptible to Jinho’s feelings as well is an interesting touch, and that scene between them was really cute. (Though, c’mon, Jinwoo! Let him hug you! You’re bros now.)

Jinwoo’s biggest challenges are approaching, and I honestly can’t wait to dig in. I feel like the pacing is a bit different than the manhwa — same sequence of events, but with slightly different weights, I guess? — and is ratcheting up a bit slower, but it’s definitely ramping up.

Oh, and Jinwoo’s fight against Thomas Andre hits a bit differently I find — in the manhwa it felt more like he might be a match for Jinwoo, and here it isn’t even close.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 3, 2026 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Linking up with Taking On A World of Words.

Cover of Dressing the Queen: Two Hundred Years of Makers and Monarchy by Kate StrasdinWhat have you recently finished reading?

I finally got round to finishing Kate Strasdin’s Dressing the Queen! I enjoyed it a lot: it doesn’t actually focus on the various royal women it references, but on the craftspeople who created their clothes and accessories, repaired them, laundered them, sorted them, packed them for journeys, etc. Sometimes there’s not a lot of information out there, but Strasdin did a pretty good job of pulling together what there is, I think.

Cover of The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, by Marilyn JohnsonWhat are you currently reading?

I still have a ridiculous stack of books I’m supposedly partway through, but I did a bit of reorganising and paused some that I wasn’t really getting anywhere with, so I’m hoping to feel a biiiit more in control and less overwhelmed with that. So I’ll just talk about the two I’ve picked up in the last two days!

First, a random pick that I’d added via Kobo Plus at some point: Marilyn Johnson’s The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, which is mostly a deep dive into the lives and thoughts of obituarists she admires, with examples of their work and how it influence obituaries as a form. I’m getting a little bored with it now, but it has been a mostly interesting read.

I also started a book I put on hold at the library and forgot about until it actually came in, Brian Bilston’s How to Lay An Egg with a Horse Inside, which is about writing and enjoying poetry (and by enjoying poetry, so far it mostly means the process of writing it). I know nothing about Bilston and only realised I’d read one of his poems (“On ‘;..p'[[[[[[[[[[[[[;’;////////////////////////3,’“, about his cat’s “poetry”) when he included it here. It’s a mostly tongue-in-cheek musing on poetry that so far has offered nothing new or insightful as far as writing or enjoying poetry goes, but it’s mildly entertaining and I will probably finish in it.

What will you be reading next?

Not a clue, but volume two of Feng Yu Nie’s Mistakenly Saving the Villain is a possibility, as is finally getting round to Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint vol 3. We’ll see — at the moment it’s pretty much whatever gets me reading, so I might also dip into the randomness of the books that turned out to be available on Kobo Plus, got added to my Kobo, and haven’t been thought of since.

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Review – The Killing of a Chestnut Tree

Posted June 2, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Review – The Killing of a Chestnut Tree

The Killing of a Chestnut Tree

by Oliver K. Langmead

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 176
Series: Havelock Harper Mysteries #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Be gay, solve crimes! The Killing of a Chestnut Tree introduces Havelock Harper, an all-new queer gentleman detective in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, with a cozy, fantastical mystery.

Everyone in England knows Havelock Harper, the celebrated consulting detective, from the cases published in the papers. If any of them read his secret files, they would discover a very different man. His most fantastical cases must never reach the public eye, and nor must the love he shares with his stalwart companion, the formidable Major Sebastian Wright.

The Duke of Farleigh has been killed, and Havelock Harper summoned to the secluded Farleigh Forest to solve his murder. When he and Sebastian arrive, they discover a greater mystery. The trees of Farleigh have begun to speak, writing words into their leaves and bark. The victim is one of those trees: an ancient chestnut, cruelly chopped down.

Why has the forest begun to speak? Why would anyone cut down the Duke? And how can Farleigh’s gentle, quiet paradise survive this crime?

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I was instantly interested in Oliver K. Langmead’s The Killing of a Chestnut Tree from the description — a queer Sherlock Holmes pastiche in a fantasy world — so when I saw it come up for request I clicked instantly, and promptly settled down to read it at the first opportunity. I enjoyed the setting a lot: I think there’s a lot of worldbuilding still to come, because it’s not totally clear how much magic is normal/known in this world, what kinds of magic there are, etc… but since it’s a series, there’s plenty of time for that.

This first installment takes Havelock and Sebastian to Farleigh, a place with mysteries largely hidden from the outside world, in order to investigate the death of the Duke. Things naturally aren’t quite what they seem, starting with the nature of the death, and the two of them settle into Farleigh a little bit as they investigate the crime. We see them in the wake of an earlier case that’s just alluded to, a little unsure of where they stand with each other and missing the intimacy they used to have; it’s an established relationship, but also one which has to re-establish over the course of the story, which is a nice way in on understanding them as a couple.

Their story is wrapped in a frame story: Sebastian is writing out their cases (just as the Sherlock Holmes stories are written by Watson), but this one is being sent only to a young man who happened to consult Havelock for help with a certain mystery. These interludes are in second person, since they constitute Sebastian addressing the man in question, and they have their own small mystery (and part in the story). I wasn’t sure what the link was at first, so it was a nice “ahh” moment when I realised what Sebastian was doing.

The solution felt appropriately Holmesian — drawing together some disparate facts to present the full truth, leaving others stunned, but with enough there for the reader to make guesses of their own, and follow the solution given. I admit I hadn’t quite figured everything out, but I’m not sure I really tried: especially with fantasy mysteries (where I’m not always sure I know enough about the world to have a fair shot at the solution)Ă©, I often sit back and let it wash over me, rather than actively try to puzzle out whodunnit.

Definitely looking forward to more of this series!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

Posted June 2, 2026 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is all about books you can’t believe you’ve never read… and I’m going to steer away from the classics and 1,001 books to read before you die type choices, and look more at my TBR.

Cover of Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch Cover of Red Right Hand by Chris Holm Cover of The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey Cover of Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf

  1. Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch.
    I loved the first books in this series! I was very eager for Republic of Thieves! But somehow I never got round to it, and then I got sulky about being nagged to get on and read it… and of course, there’s no saying when there will be more in the series. I still technically want to read this, but it is sitting in limbo more than a little.
  2. Red Right Hand, by Chris Holm.
    I’ve enjoyed Chris Holm’s work since the Angry Robot days with the Collector trilogy, and enjoyed the book that Red Right Hand follows up, The Killing Kind. Unfortunately, by the time Red Right Hand came out, I’d forgotten too many of the details, meant to reread that one first, and somehow… never got back to it.
  3. Malice Aforethought, by Francis Iles.
    This is one of the classic mystery stories, but somehow I’ve never got round to it (in part because I’m not a huge lover of Francis Iles AKA Anthony Berkeley Cox’s work). Still, it’s a really important one in the development of the classic mystery genre, and I do want to read it. Eventually.
  4. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey.
    I was put off by reading something else by Tey which was just hopelessly racist, but her work is very classic, and I want to get round to this at some point — particularly as people often cite it as a favourite. Plus I am kinda interested in Richard III and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, which makes the concept interesting to me.
  5. Cassandra, by Christa Wolf.
    A copy of this has been following me around for… quite a long time, so long that I’ve actually forgotten who recommended it and why — but they were definitely very enthusiastic. The story of Cassandra is one that interests me a lot, too; the tragic possibilities of knowing what’s going to happen, but being totally powerless to convince anyone else…
  6. Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC, by Susan Fisher-Hoch & Joseph B. McCormick.
    I did actually start this at some point, so I’m also surprised I never finished it, but I think I may have got it quite early in my interest in infectious diseases and it was maybe a little too anxiety-provoking. I think I’d tolerate it better now, degree in infectious diseases behind me, and maybe appreciate some aspects of it more, too. That said, this will never be my job, even if I do switch into a career in infectious diseases. Yikes on bikes.
  7. The Tower at Stony Wood, by Patricia McKillip.
    I’ve enjoyed a lot of McKillip’s work, but there are several I still need to get to that could all take a turn on this list. I find her writing a little opaque at times; beautiful, but sometimes requires a lot of attention to fully extract the meaning. Maybe that’s just me — either way, her style takes work, and so her books always await the exact right mood. I did pick up my copies from my parents’ house semi-recently (well, at least a year ago, possibly two), so they are at least on my shelves here…
  8. The Outskirter’s Secret, by Rosemary Kirstein.
    I really like The Steerswoman, so I don’t know why I’ve never got on with it and read the remaining books. Maybe it’s knowing the story is unfinished. Maybe it’s because I know a little too much about the other books and how things work out, so one element of the tantalising mystery at least is a little bit spoiled (though spoilers don’t usually bother me, this is a bit of a special case, I’d say).
  9. A Brother’s Price, by Wen Spencer.
    This is one of several books that I got at some point or another for The Alternative World book club on Goodreads, and never got round to. I remember people being so enthusiastic about it, though, and their recommendations were definitely pivotal to quite a few of the SF/F books I loved (including The Steerswoman, actually) at that time… so yeah.
  10. Or What You Will, by Jo Walton.
    Somehow I missed when this came out, and only realised a bit later… and somehow still haven’t got round to it, which is just shocking given how much I’ve generally enjoyed Jo Walton’s work. Soon, I hope!

Cover of Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC Cover of The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip Cover of The Outskirter's Secret by Rosemary Kirstein Cover of A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer Cover of Or What You Will by Jo Walton

I keep thinking of other potential choices — I can’t believe I still haven’t managed to read anything of Sarah Pinsker’s, for example, given she was a part of The Alternative World group on Goodreads! But this is a reasonable survey, and covers a mostly-satisfying/representative spread of genres, so let’s leave it there…

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Fantasy with Friends: Fantasy Tropes

Posted June 1, 2026 by Nicky in General / 11 Comments

Fantasy With Friends: A Disccusion Meme hosted by Pages Unbound

Iiiit’s Monday, and thus time for more Fantasy with Friends! The prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, and this time we’re talking about fantasy tropes we love:

What are some of your favorite fantasy tropes that you never get tired of?

Naturally, as is tradition, as soon as I’m asked that question, I immediately forgot any trope I’d ever known about, so I went ahead and searched for “fantasy tropes” and we’re gonna pick ten or so from the appropriate Wikipedia category and go from there. It’s far from a complete list, but it at least gets me unstuck, ahaha.

So, first up, accidental travel, and I’m going to assume that refers to accidentally travelling to another world. I’ve always enjoyed stories like this, from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia through to Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar, and have recently been indulging in it more via some Japanese isekai stories like The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter and A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation. The former plays with the trope quite a bit, with a young girl being summoned to the other world and accidentally bringing along a 30-year-old salaryman. He’s a workaholic who immediately asks for a job, settles in, and ends up arguably doing more for the world than she does by making her job unnecessary for the future. Along the way he ends up in a romance with a magic-wielding knight who despairs about his workaholic tendencies, saves his life multiple times, and supports his scheming.

The latter features a guy getting transported to an alternative magical kingdom where he proceeds to consider it an extended holiday, and simply dabble in anything that interests him, making friends along the way.

I’ve also been enjoying transmigration stories in the danmei, which are similar — so far The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish and Mistakenly Saving The Villain, all of which I’m enjoying. Because they transmigrate into fictional stories, you’ve got Shen Qingqiu in SVSSS being too genre-savvy and not realising when the genre changes, Li Yu in TDTBPF not realising the direction his choices are taking him, and Song Qingshi in MStV just completely not understanding genre fiction at all, and thus screwing up the whole story by saving the beautiful but doomed and somewhat villainous Yue Wuhuan.

And of course, a shoutout to Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, where one obsessive reader suddenly finds the apocalyptic webnovel he’s been the only reader of for years is coming true…

Okay, that’s a lot for the first trope I looked at… so let’s nod quickly to the Chosen One, which I’ve previously written about enjoying when it’s done right, and let’s throw in the enchanted forest trope just because it’s cool (and there are so many ways for a forest to be enchanted). Fire-breathing monster definitely gets a nod too, because hello, dragons.

I think occult detective fiction gets in, too, since I love my fantasy mysteries (though fantasy mystery is a lot wider than just this meaning), and portal fantasy is already sort of covered by accidental travel and my associated musings. That brings us to sentient weapon, which is definitely a trope I enjoy: I really need to get on with reading T. Kingfisher’s Swordheart, which I’ve only read the first chapter or so of, though Travis Baldree’s Brigands & Breadknives probably hews closer to the definition here.

Shapeshifting is a pretty general trope, but it can be really fun; I’m currently partway through Finn Longman’s The Wolf and His King, for instance, which is a retelling of Marie de France’s ‘Bisclaveret’, and thus really fascinating to me.

Finally, let’s end at the thieves’ guild: I have a lot of nostalgia around this kind of prompt, thinking about various fantasy novels I read as a kid and teen… and some I’ve been fond of since. It’s a trope that makes a certain amount of sense, allowing people to band together and protect each other, and there are a lot of ways to jump from there to a fun adventure story.

Okay, so that was a bit of a whistlestop tour apart from my extended stay with accidental travel (ironically, perhaps), but I had fun!

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Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 3

Posted May 31, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 3

Dinosaur Sanctuary

by Itaru Kinoshita

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction
Pages: 206
Series: Dinosaur Sanctuary #3
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

THE NEWBIE LOOKS FOR HER DINO HOME.

Suma Suzume, the newest keeper at struggling Enoshima Dinoland, has reached the end of her three-month orientation period. It’s time for a new challenge: working alongside each of the department heads to find her permanent place on the staff! First on the list is Igarashi Keisuke, and Suzume will learn what makes him tick as they care for the park’s pachycephalosaurs and stegosaurs.

Each volume of Itaru Kinoshita’s Dinosaur Sanctuary is pretty similar because it’s mostly “dinosaur has problem, solve it, dinosaur is happy”, but I’ve been enjoying that somewhat predictable format.

Volume three has pachycephalosaurs, which was exciting! I used to adore them as a kid. I didn’t know we think maybe (probably? I need to look this up more) Dracorex was just a juvenile form of Pachycephalosaurus, or that we have little skeletal evidence below the wrist for their anatomy. I’ve seen so many reconstructions, I’d assumed they were based on a greater number of bones!

It also delves into some realistic stuff about how to keep a dinosaur park afloat, positioning it as very akin to a zoo. If dinosaurs are commonplace, does the shine fade? Given the success of zoos, I kinda doubt it, to be honest — but combined with the accident previously mentioned, maybe that would be enough? Or maybe if you don’t have any of the most glitzy, high status dinosaurs? Perhaps yes.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – The Great British Bump-Off

Posted May 30, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Great British Bump-Off

The Great British Bump-Off

by John Allison, Max Sarin, Jim Campbell, Sammy Borras

Genres: Crime, Graphic Novels, Mystery
Pages: 112
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

An Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set in the world of English competitive baking from Giant Days’ John Allison and Max Sarin.

When she enters her country’s most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle’s goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent
and being the poisoner’s next victim!Collects issues #1–#4 of Dark Horse Comics series The Great British Bump-Off.

John Allison and Max Sarin’s The Great British Bump-Off is basically: what if someone was so desperate to win the Great British Bake-Off that they were prepared to kill their fellow competitors? And what if one of the competitors decided to try to solve what’s happening, while continuing to take part, and being super, super quirky?

It’s basically Agatha Christie meets the Great British Bake-Off, and it works pretty well as a bit of light fun. The art and character designs work well and create distinct characters, and it pokes a bit of fun at the baking competition show format.

It feels a bit rushed at the end, though I think that’s in part because it’s structured round the three standard challenges you get in the show, and in part because it wants to use that structure to gather the competitors/suspects around at the end and go round the room accusing people, Christie-style.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted May 30, 2026 by Nicky in General / 29 Comments

Good morning! It’s been a hot and sunny week in the UK, but the week ahead is set to be a bit cooler (whew). Hope everyone’s doing okay!

Books acquired this week

First, I’d forgotten to include this month’s British Library Crime Classic in one of these posts yet, so I’m adding that in this week… and volume two of Mistakenly Saving the Villain, which I just haaad to get after I finished volume one:

Cover of The Unicorn Murders by John Dickson Carr Cover of Mistakenly Saving the Villain vol 2 by Feng Yu Nie

Definitely different genres, ahaha.

I’ve also borrowed more poetry as usual, this time focusing on poetry in translation, though I wish the Poetry Library had better tags for this:

Cover of Love Sonnets & Elegies by Louise Labé Cover of Impossible Paradise by Chen Yuhong

I have a couple of others on hold which I’m hoping will come in soon, so I might not borrow more this week just to keep the decks clear, since you can only borrow two at a time, and I still have The Home Child, which I borrowed last week. (I finished and returned Impossible Paradise to get Love Sonnets & Elegies!)

Posts from this week

As always, let’s do a bit of a roundup, because a week is a long time. Starting with the reviews:

As ever, they aren’t all recent reads, since I spread out the genres I post about!

Aaand the non-review posts:

And that’s that for the week!

What I’m reading

I’m still struggling a bit, but honestly that’s not too unusual for me at this time of year. I used to attribute it to final assignments and exams, but I’m not studying this year… and here we are, all the same. Oh well! I did manage some reading this week, and that’s all that matters — it looks like a lot of reading, actually, but several of them are very short. Here’s a peek at the ones I finished and intend to review on the blog:

Cover of An Ancient Witch's Guide to Modern Dating by Cecelia Edward Cover of Marry Me a Little by Rob Kirby Cover of Eleanor Among the Saints by Rachel Mann Cover of A History of the World in 50 Pieces by Tom Service

Cover of How Animals Sleep by Jiƙí Dvoƙák Cover of Mistakenly Saving the Villain vol 1 by Feng Yu Nie Cover of Impossible Paradise by Chen Yuhong Cover of Love Sonnets & Elegies by Louise LabĂ©

As for this weekend, I’m heading out for a bit on Saturday, but I expect to spend most of the weekend at home… maybe fitting in some reading time? And crochet time!

On which front, here’s a little sneak peek to end on since people have been curious. This is just two panels out of five, to avoid having to take a really big picture; each row works across all five panels, so it’s slow going at times. I hope to finish the first “shelf” of five panels this weekend!

A photo of a strip of crocheted blanket, still in progress. Part of it shows mostly books, while the lower part shows most of a cat sat on a book.

That’s the leftmost panel and the rightmost panel, with the rest folded under. You can actually also see a glimpse of how the reverse side looks: just kinda stripey. It’s magic… or mosaic overlay crochet, anyway. Same difference, right?

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Review – Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

Posted May 29, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

by Emma Laws, Annemarie Bilclough, Richard Fortey, Liz Hunter MacFarlane, Sarah Glenn

Genres: Art, History
Pages: 216
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

This beautiful book explores the beloved writer’s achievements as a storyteller, artist, and naturalist.

Beatrix Potter’s universe of characters—Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck—have delighted audiences for over a century. A creative pioneer and determined entrepreneur, she combined scientific observation with imaginative storytelling to create some of the world’s best-loved children’s books. This volume showcases Potter’s charming charac-ters against the backdrop of her exquisite botanical drawings, humorous illustrated letters to friends, Lake District landscapes, and rarely seen photographs.

Beatrix Potter’s endearingly hand-painted world of animals and gardens made her one of the most celebrated children’s book authors of all time, yet this is but one facet of her creative life. Drawn to the picturesque English countryside after a London childhood, Potter had a passion for nature that influenced her many achievements as a naturalist, artist, storyteller, and later in life as a fervent conservationist and “gentlewoman” farmer. This book sheds light upon the connections between her art, entrepreneurial success, and legacy in preservation.

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature has been put together by a bunch of different writers based on their particular interests, so there are a few different names authoring this volume. It does still feel pretty cohesive for all that, although sometimes the topic/information repeats a little between the main chapters and the shorter sections that add more detail.

It’s beautifully illustrated with papers from Potter’s own collection and some other related info, and it’s lovely to get a sense at times of the process she went through. I had known a few things about her, but not in any fine detail, and I didn’t know anything about her married life or — strangely enough, as I am a member — her foundational work with the National Trust.

I must say, as someone who has rabbits, looking at her sketches and studies you can really see how fine her observation was. That is exactly how rabbits are put together, and even when she’s anthropomorphising a little, she knows what essential rabbitness looks like. (Though I think the bun she was sketching in some cases needed more food; those hips were way too prominent for our vet’s taste!)

A lovely book, beautifully illustrated.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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