Category: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted April 24, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s WWW Wednesday time! So, as always, that’s:

  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What will you read next?

Cover of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body by Caroline VoutWhat have you recently finished reading?

I’ve been embarking on a bit of a crusade to finish the books I’ve started, so I returned to Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, by Caroline Vout. In the end, there was less to surprise me than I’d thought, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, since I did study classics at university, and have read a few other books on Greek/Roman customs.

I also finished listening to Fugitive Telemetry (Martha Wells), since I’ve been tearing through the series on Audible. Not my favourite, admittedly; it feels a little inconsequential after the events of Exit Strategy. But still fun!

Cover of The Missing Lynx by Ross BarnettWhat are you currently reading?

After my TTT post yesterday mentioning books I’ve been neglecting, I actually picked one of them up: I started on Ross Barnett’s The Missing Lynx, which I’m enjoying so far. Barnett writes in a lively way about the extinct megafauna, and his excitement about the animals (especially sabretooths) comes through.

I’m also partway through the audiobook of Network Effect, by Martha Wells. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Kevin R. Free as a narrator: sometimes he’s perfect, and sometimes I just… aah. Not quite. The voice he uses for Gurathin is perfect, but of course Gurathin isn’t in this book.

Cover of The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina RustiWhat will you read next?

Not sure! Probably I’ll return to another of the books on my backlog, though. There’s a bunch to choose from, but maybe Doina Ruști’s The Book of Perilous Dishes, because I’d only just started that when I got distracted, and it should be easy to get back into.

How about you? Anything interesting on your bedside table at the moment?

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Top Ten Tuesday: The Neglected Books

Posted April 23, 2024 by Nicky in General / 5 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about the unread books on your shelves that you want to get around to soon. Like many readers, I have plenty of those… I’m going to stick to books I haven’t even peeked into yet, and exclude the (too many) books I’ve read a little bit of… and I’ll try to pick some older books instead of the ones that’re top of mind because they’re recent purchases!

Cover of System Collapse by Martha Wells Cover of The Cactus Hunters by Jarden D. Margulies Cover of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood Cover of The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard Cover of The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

  1. System Collapse, by Martha Wells. And Witch King, to be honest. I got both of these as ARCs, not realising how very busy my studies would keep me. I’m currently listening to the Murderbot books on audio, which should make a great on-ramp into System Collapse without me getting distracted by rereading the older books…
  2. The Cactus Hunters: Desire and Extinction in the Illicit Succulent Trade, by Jared D. Margulies. I mostly requested the ARC of this because I have a friend who loves succulents, and I wanted to see if it would be worth getting for him once it was out. And then it was in an awkward format and I didn’t get round to putting it on the ereader that can cope with that, and… and here we are and it’s been forever. And I’m still curious about why people go so mad for some succulents that they might drive them extinct.
  3. The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood. I read Loathe to Love You, and enjoyed Hazelwood’s style… and just on principle I own several of her novels, because geeky ladies in STEM being heroines of romance novels sounds awesome. Buuuut I actually have to get round to reading it. You know, eventually. I mean. Soon!
  4. The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard. I enjoy de Bodard’s work quite a bit, and have wanted to read more of her Xuya stuff, but the hardback intimidated me and then shuffled to the back of a shelf or something. I want to dig it up and give it a shot soon!
  5. The Water Outlaws, by S.L. Huang. This one’s even sat close to my desk, tempting me, but somehow I’ve never cracked it open. Why? Who knows!
  6. A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske. I really liked the first book, and then when this came out I grabbed it and — got distracted. I think you might be sensing a theme. Anyway, I want to reread the first book, dive into this one, and proceed onward to A Power Unbound as well. And like I said, I’d like to do that soon.
  7. Murder in the Basement, by Anthony Berkeley. It’s rare that a British Library Crime Classic gets to sit unread on my shelves, and I think I must just have forgotten I picked this one (and Jumping Jenny) up. I’ll have to hunt it down and crack it open soon!
  8. The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals, by Ross Barnett. I’ve been meaning to read this for quite a long time, though I haven’t had a copy for that long. I know a fair bit about bringing animals back in places like Yellowstone, but not much about it in Britain, other than beavers. But I’m interested to learn!
  9. At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard. I adored The Hands of the Emperor, and really shouldn’t dawdle about picking this up. Though maybe it’d be nice to reread the first book and spend some time with Cliopher again first. You know, just for context.
  10. Eight Detectives, by Alex Pavesi. This is a modern mystery, so perhaps a little out of my comfort zone, but it seems rather puzzle-box-y in a way that sounds more like a classic type mystery than modern blood and gore. High time I got round to it and gave it a shot, in any case.

Cover of A Restless Truth by Freya Marske Cover of Murder in the Basement by Anthony Berkeley Cover of The Missing Lynx by Ross Barnett Cover of At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard Cover of Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

So that’s a random mix, as usual for me — bit of non-fic, bit of sci-fi, bit of romance, bit of fantasy. And will I actually go ahead and read these soon?

Well… that’s a solid maybe.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted April 20, 2024 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

Good afternoon, folks! I’ve been spending a good amount of today so far reading, in part thanks to listening to the audio versions of the Murderbot books. I’m not sure whether I’m going to review them — after all, I’ve reviewed the original books probably more than once, and I don’t think I have that much to say about audio. That said, I find reviews of audiobooks super helpful when I find them, so maybe it’d be good anyway? We’ll see.

Anyway, as usual linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Two books this week! My wife buys me one book a month of my choice (which has long been our Valentine’s Day agreement: no big fuss on that day, spread out the love through the year), and picked up Ann Leckie’s short story collection for me last weekend. Plus, my British Library Crime Classic book for this month arrived.

Cover of Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie Cover of London Particular, by Christianna Brand

So that’s nice! I’m already most of the way through London Particular, though I haven’t figured out whodunnit yet.

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s a roundup!

Other posts:

What I’m reading:

As I mentioned, I’ve been tearing through the Murderbot audiobooks, but I’ve also been trying to get to grips with the tottering pile of books I have partially read. I’ve been pretty successful in the last couple of days, hurrah. So here are some of the books that I’ll probably be reviewing soon, having finished them this week!

Cover of The One-Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest to Onw the Most Valuable Stamp in the World by James Barron Cover of Mountains of Fire by Clive Oppenheimer Cover of Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie Judah Cover of the audiobook of Artificial Condition, written by Martha Wells and narrated by Kevin R. Free

Cover of the audiobook of All Systems Red, written by Martha Wells and narrated by Kevin R. Free Cover of Email by Randy Malamud Cover of The Ha-ha Case by J.J. Connington

For the rest of the weekend, it’ll be more Murderbot, finishing up London Particular, and then… who knows?

How’s everyone else doing? Anything exciting from the library this week, or landing on your ereader?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted April 17, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s WWW Wednesday time! So, as always, that’s:

  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What will you read next?

Cover of Mountains of Fire by Clive OppenheimerWhat have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was Mountains of Fire, by Clive Oppenheimer. It’s about volcanoes, about which the author is undeniably enthusiastic. Sadly, I think volcanoes are just not really my thing? There were interesting facts in the book, particularly when he discusses local culture around volcanoes, but overall it just didn’t speak to me.

Before that, I read The One-Cent Magenta, by James Barron. It’s less about the stamp itself and more about how collectors gave the stamp such value (it’s the most valuable stamp in the world).

Cover of Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie JudahWhat are you currently reading?

Apparently, 26 books at once. This isn’t ideal, it’s just that I keep picking up books and reading part of them, and then my whims move on somewhere else, unfortunately. I’m trying to get back to actively reading some of them, so I’ve gone back to Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones, by Hettie Judah. It’s not that it isn’t interesting, it’s just kind of bitty, as there’s only a couple of pages per stone before it moves on. Sometimes I’m in the mood for that, and sometimes less so. It’s a beautiful book, though.

Cover of London Particular, by Christianna BrandWhat will you read next?

I want to get back to focusing on some of the fiction on my list as well! I think I might dig back into London Particular, by Christianna Brand: I only started that a few days ago, so it’s fresh in my mind (even if I did read 50 pages and then just wander off). As is pretty typical for me with Christianna Brand’s work, I don’t really like any of the protagonists (and I know I don’t like the detective, whenever he actually appears), but she does make them come alive.

What about you? Reading anything good?

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted April 13, 2024 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

It’s been a quiet week — hurrah! And I’m pretty caught up on comments and blog visits too. It’s a shame that in a few weeks things will ramp up again for my exams, but hey, at least I’m on an even keel right now.

So, as usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Technically, there are no books acquired this week, but here’s the rest of last week’s haul! First off, the non-fiction:

Cover of The Oxford History of The Book by James Raven Cover of Email by Randy Malamud Cover of Mountains of Fire by Clive Oppenheimer

I’ve started on Mountains of Fire; I’m finding it a little slower than I expected, but maybe that’s just my mood. It has a pretty cover, though; it’s actually shiny.

And here’s the rest of the fiction!

Cover of Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh Cover of Crimson Snow ed. Martin Edwards Cover of The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

It definitely isn’t the season for Crimson Snow — I’ll probably keep that for December, but it gets me closer to completing my British Library Crime Classics collection. As for the other two, I’ve been curious about both for a while!

Posts from this week:

And here’s the usual roundup of the books I’ve been reviewing this week!

Other posts:

What I’m reading:

This weekend I have all kinds of cute plans to read a lot, but goodness knows if I actually will, or whether I’ll read the things I’m intending to read. I’m content as long as I have fun. A lot of my reading this week was manga I don’t intend to review here (the Fairy Tail series by Hiro Mashima), but I did finish up two other books which I will review, or already have:

Cover of A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg Cover of Sticky by Laurie Winkless

So, back to my books! Hope everyone else has had a good week, and some lovely books to read.

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WWW Wednesday

Posted April 10, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s WWW Wednesday time! That’s:

  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What will you read next?

Cover Honey & Pepper by A.J. DemasWhat have you recently finished reading?

I’ve mostly been reading Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail, a manga series which is a bit male-gazey and focused on fighting, but has been fun enough and low-stakes enough to keep my interest when I’m feeling a bit meh and having trouble getting into the swing of things again.

Before that, it was A.J. Demas’ Honey & Pepper, which is a standalone romance set in an alternate Ancient Greece. I loved the way the relationship between them develops and how thoughtful Nikias (one of the two main characters) is about his own kneejerk reactions.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha WeinbergLike I mentioned, I’ve been a bit fidgety, but last night I did pick up A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth last night, which is by Samantha Weinberg. It’s not just about coelacanths: there’s a good amount of info about the guy who described the first recently-dead specimen found, J.L.B. Smith. I’m not always a fan of more biographical stuff, especially when I’m more interested in popular science, but there’s a good amount of context for the importance of coelacanths and what they can tell us. I’ve found it surprisingly absorbing.

I’m also partway through The Ha-ha Case, by J.J. Connington, which is a pretty classic mystery, nothing special.

Cover of Mountains of Fire by Clive OppenheimerWhat will you read next?

Possibly I’ll get back to one of the books I have on the go — for example Clive Oppenheimer’s Mountains of Fire. On the other hand, I’m really trying not to nail myself to anything, and just read whatever strikes my fancy in the moment. So we’ll see!

What about you? Reading anything good?

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted April 6, 2024 by Nicky in General / 19 Comments

Hurrah, the weekend!

Last weekend I got my assignments all handed in, so the last week has been all about catching up with life stuff. Unfortunately that hasn’t yet included comments on my blog or visiting people back yet — sorry! I got stressed out and I’m digging my way out of that now, but I plan to do some commenting and visiting tomorrow.

Right, time to talk about books. As usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

As is my wont when I’ve been a bit stressed, I went totally overboard, so I’m going to split up my haul over the next couple of weeks. It’s hard to choose what to show off, so I’ll just pick a bit randomly. First off, here’s some of the non-fiction I picked up:

Cover of Chillies by Heather Arndt Anderson Cover of Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones by Hettie Judah Cover of Color by Victoria Finlay

Cover of Embroidering her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Language of Power, by Clare Hunter Cover of The Ship Asunder by Tom Nancollas Cover of The New Noise by Charlotte Higgins

A bit of a mix, as ever! I wouldn’t have been that interested in The Ship Asunder, except that on a pure whim I read Seashaken Houses (a history of lighthouses in the UK) a while ago and really loved it. I wasn’t that interested in lighthouses, either, so I thought I’d give this a try.

And here’s some of the fiction I picked up:

Cover of Death in the Spires by KJ Charles Cover of Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffany Angus Cover of If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu

Always love KJ Charles’ work, and I’ve heard really good things about If Found, Return To Hell. The other book is more of a whim, based on someone on Mastodon describing it as “garden fantasy”. Sounds perfect for a certain friend of mine, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Posts from this week:

Here’s the usual roundup of reviews:

I skipped Top Ten Tuesday this week, so there was just one other post:

What I’m reading:

First of all, let’s start with the books I’ve already read this week.

Cover of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Cover of Chillies by Heather Arndt Anderson Cover of Good Neighbours by Stephanie Burgis Cover of The Religious Body by Catherine Aird Cover Honey & Pepper by A.J. Demas

It’s been a lovely reading week. Howl’s Moving Castle was a reread, but my first time listening to the audiobook narrated by Kristin Atherton. It was lovely; highly recommended. I also had great fun last night with Honey & Pepper, and was sad when I finished it.

As for what I’m reading this weekend, I’m not sure. I’ve started on Lapidarium, one of my new books, and also If Found, Return to Hell. But where my whims will take me, no one can tell…

How’s everyone else doing?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted April 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

It’s WWW Wednesday time! That’s:

  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What will you read next?

Cover of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne JonesWhat have you recently finished reading?

I just finished up listening to the audiobook of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle, narrated by Kristin Atherton. I loved her narration, because she did all the voices, and did a good job of making Howl sound Welsh (which, minor spoiler, he is). I know the book well and have read it several times before, but I wanted something familiar to listen to while my hands and eyes were busy with something else. I’m not always great with audiobooks, tending to get fidgety, but this one was great.

Cover of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body by Caroline VoutWhat are you currently reading?

A few books at once, as usual. Most actively, I’m halfway through one of the Edible series, this one Heather Arndt Anderson’s Chillies. Is it making me crave more tex-mex food than I normally already crave? Youuu betcha.

The other thing I’m partway through is Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, by Caroline Vout, which is non-fiction and a bit heavier than I have braincells for just now.

What will you read next?

If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu is top of my list right now. It’s a short one, and very tantalising. But as usual I plan to follow whatever passing whim shows up.

How about you?

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted March 30, 2024 by Nicky in General / 7 Comments

Well, what a busy week! I spent yesterday at a wedding, and I’ve been working hard on finally finishing my assignments as well. I’d hoped to get an extension for at least one of them, given the family stuff that’s been occurring, but my GP never replied to me… so I’ve been hard at work trying to get them all done. I think (as I write this) that I’m done: I just need to format the cover sheets. Oof!

I know I take pretty much any excuse to buy celebratory books, but last week I had a book voucher to assist me… and there are some books bought for me by my wife on the way as well. I’d say oops, but I don’t mind at all.

That said, I haven’t done a lot of reading this week. I did my best to make time for it, but I’ve been tired and not in the mood. Here’s hoping this weekend I can start to catch up!

As per usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired:

So for now I only have the books that have already arrived, not the big spree of books from my wife. It’s a bit of a mix: only one fiction book, history, and ecology (in the form of a whodunnit). I read more non-fiction when I’m stressed out, so that kind of influenced my choices this time.

Cover of Ghosts in the Hedgerow by Tom Moorehouse Cover of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body by Caroline Vout Cover of A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft Cover of Uproar! Satire, Scandal & Printmakers in Georgian London by Alice Loxton

Plus a few books I got in ebook format to try and tempt myself this weekend:

Cover of The One-Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest to Onw the Most Valuable Stamp in the World by James Barron Cover of The Religious Body by Catherine Aird Cover Honey & Pepper by A.J. Demas Cover of The Ha-ha Case by J.J. Connington

And yep, I know, I know! It’s another weird mix. I hope to review The One-Cent Magenta in the near-ish future, over on the Postcrossing blog. My book reviews are a steady feature over there, though I usually write a review for this blog too, slightly differently tailored.

Posts from this week:

It seems like I’ve been a bit of a misery guts in my reviews this week, but it’s happenstance that it was mostly meh reviews this week — I didn’t read these all at the same time, I’m just getting to the reviews in my posting queue now. I do try to vary what genres I post about a bit, to avoid being too samey.

And other posts:

I actually really liked my Top Ten Tuesday post this week, I wrote quite a lot of fun stuff, but I didn’t join the linky because I didn’t think I’d be able to get round to commenting back anytime soon.

What I’m reading:

This week started off well, but then my brain exploded a bit because of stress about my assignments and I didn’t read much for a few days. I haven’t even read much this weekend, since I’ve been recovering from partying hard (attending a wedding, wearing heels, drinking two glasses of wine, and dancing for five minutes to keep the bride company, and then getting home at 10pm — such hard partying! But apparently I’m getting old and my legs hurt). But we’ll see how it goes! I did read the following books that I intend to review soon.

Cover of The Eye of Osiris by R. Austin Freeman Cover of Hyphen by Pardis Mahdavi Cover of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Cover of Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti Cover of Ghosts in the Hedgerow by Tom Moorehouse Cover of The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr

So really not so bad after all. So far today I’ve been listening to Howl’s Moving Castle in audiobook, and I’ve peeked into Good Neighbours by Stephanie Burgis… but we’ll see where my whims take me.

How’s everyone else doing?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted March 27, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s time for WWW Wednesday again. That’s:

  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What will you read next?

Cover of Across a Field of Starlight by Blue DelliquantiWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Across a Field of Starlight, by Blue Delliquanti, which I talked about a bit last week. I need to put my thoughts together in order to write a review, but I very much enjoyed the diverse body types represented.

Before that, I finished Ghosts in the Hedgerow, by Tom Moorehouse. It’s a look at why hedgehog populations are declining in Britain, written in the format of a whodunnit. As with many whodunnits, the answers weren’t too surprising to me — but it’s a fun format and has lots of information to help those who don’t already know much about hedgehogs.

Cover of The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson CarrWhat are you currently reading?

I’ve dug into John Dickson Carr’s The Corpse in the Waxworks. It’s from the earlier period of his career and features one of his detectives I don’t enjoy much, but it can’t be denied he had a good sense of atmosphere. I’m not hating it, anyway, which has been the case with some of Carr’s work (even though I came to enjoy his work starring Gideon Fell as the detective).

I’m also reading Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, by Caroline Vout. I’ve been curious about this one for a while… though I haven’t really got far with it yet.

Cover of Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma TörzsWhat will you read next?

I’m planning to focus on finishing books I’m partway through, like Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe, by Emma Törzs. I’m partway through that one, but it’s sat neglected beside my desk for a couple of weeks now, while I was more in the mood for non-fiction. Once I start a new book… I’m not sure what it’ll be.

How about you?

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