Good morning, folks! As this goes live, I’ll be spending a weekend in a holiday cottage, possibly ignoring my emails, definitely doing things like sleeping in and going swimming. I will catch up with everything when I get back, I pinky-promise. Since I’m technically away from the bunnies, I have to go with tradition — so here is a pic of Breakfast from earlier this week. He jumped up onto my study notes to make it clear that I should have other priorities. Like petting him.

Meanwhile, I got some new books this week, so of course, it’s time to showcase them.

Received to review:

I asked for American Hippo for the short stories included, but y’all should be all over it for the novellas too, if you haven’t read them. Hero!! <3

Bought (with a gift voucher from my rabbits):

What, your pets don’t buy you book vouchers?

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week: 

–The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang. I really got to love Akeha and the world of this book! All aspects of it: the magic, the gender stuff… <3 4/5 stars
–The Red Threads of Fortune, by JY Yang. A great followup, though I kind of like Akeha more than Mokoya, even if she seems like more the protagonist of the series as a whole. 4/5 stars
–Void Black Shadow, by Corey J. White. This goes some really dark places, with some really good writing. 4/5 stars
–Time Was, by Ian McDonald. Hello, Bury Your Gays trope. Nice to see you aga — wait. 2/5 stars
–Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells. YAAAAY MURDERBOT. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–Discussion: Did Not Finish. Do you put down a book if it isn’t working for you? Or do you stick at it till the bitter end?
–WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly update!

What’re you doing this weekend? Hoping for plenty of time to read? I sure am!

Good morning! Thank goodness it’s the weekend — not that I work any less over the weekend, typically, but I decided to do a readathon from Litsy and thus put a lot of effort into clearing my backlog of things to do. Including the last major assignment of my degree! Just my exams (erk) and my dissertation to go now.

Anyway! Onto the books.

Received to review

Yaaaay, Murderbot!

Oh, and I almost forgot (how rude of me!) — I won this from Imyril‘s giveaway!

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Exiled from Camelot, by Cherith Baldry. Reread of a book I wrote part of my MA dissertation on. Sometimes feels overly emotional, but I loved what it does with the Arthurian material. 4/5 stars
–Spider-woman: Shifting Gears – Baby Talk, by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez. A bit of a left turn out of nowhere for Jessica Drew, but still fun. 4/5 stars
–Semiosis, by Sue Burke. I had a couple of quibbles with the narration, but I loved the ideas behind this one. 4/5 stars
–Island of Apples, by Glynn Jones. Nope. Didn’t really get it, nor get along with it. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–Discussion: Affiliate links. That experiment on The Bibliophibian is now over! It didn’t work out very well for me, so this is a bit of a post mortem — and a plea for people to support other bloggers whenever they can.
–WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly report on what I’m reading right now.

So what’ve you been reading this week? Anything fun going on for you? Let me know!

Welp, I have deadlines coming out of my ears. I haven’t replied to last week’s STS comments at the point I’m typing this. I’m gonna sit down and blitz through it tomorrow, along with any I get on this post! I am sorry to be a failboat: I blame the fact that I have two (two!) new(ish) jobs and four assignments due within a three week period. And exams coming up.

Ulp.

Still, in cool news, this is my hair now.

(It was teal until yesterday morning, and red for a long time before that. But this was the actual target colour when it ended up teal, more or less.)

Received to review:

Thank you, Tor! But especially thank you Crown Publishing for sending me Foundryside — via express mail, no less!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, by Dan Ariely. Nothing much new to me, but solid stuff if you don’t know the psychology. 3/5 stars
–Bats in the Belfry, by E.C.R. Lorac. Fun mystery, with a good twist and some very sinister scenes. 4/5 stars
–War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull. It’s the grandma of Kate Daniels, October Daye and their like, and it’s a lot of fun. 4/5 stars
–Evolution in Four Dimensions, by Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb. If you want to learn about non-genetic methods of inheritance, this is a great place to start. Not all of the layout worked for me, but there’s some very good stuff. 4/5 stars
–The Cornish Coast Mystery, by John Bude. If I was just reading this as a random story picked up without context, I might not have enjoyed it so much, on reflection. But being able to place it in the Golden Age of crime fiction, and knowing a little about the influences and so on, I found it an entertaining cosy mystery and worth the time. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The weekly update!

How’s everyone else doing? Been reading, in a slump, too many other things to think about? Anything amazing hit your doormat as an ARC?

Sooo, Amsterdam happened! And so did many books. Also some awesome socks.

Books acquired

Though the last one is, of course, an ARC — Tor are as good to me as ever.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. This was mostly just a comfort read so I didn’t actually have much to say. I still love it with all its flaws. 5/5 stars
–The Poisoned Chocolates Case, by Anthony Berkeley. I add to a classic murder mystery in my review… 4/5 stars
–The Atrocities, by Jeremy C. Shipp. Some good atmosphere but ultimately I didn’t love it. 3/5 stars
–The Golden Age of Murder, by Martin Edwards. This book tries to do a lot, but it’s mostly successful and it made me really curious about Golden Age crime fiction I’d never even heard of. 4/5 stars
–A Long Day in Lychford, by Paul Cornell. I don’t love this series like some other people do, but this book did really manage to put its finger on some of the feelings in Britain around Brexit. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The weekly update on what I’ve been reading lately.

How’s everyone doing? Delicious book hauls? Dying of the sudden warm weather, Europeans?

I’m safely back in Belgium! And in our little game of doing chores and healthy things, my wife and I have hit 200 stars (ish), so we’re off to Amsterdam today for books, yarn and goodness knows what. (Mostly books and yarn.) So I’ll reply to any comments tomorrow!

Books bought/received to review:

A bit of a weird mix, maybe…

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Hazel Wood, by Melissa Albert. It took me a while to figure out what this was trying to do, but I ended up enjoying it. 4/5 stars
–Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero. Okay, this had its annoying aspects (oh my goodness, you can use the word “said”, I promise!) but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Especially Kerri and Andy. 4/5 stars
–The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang. Lovely. The historical setting doesn’t quite work, but I loved the rest of it. 4/5 stars
–Daphne du Maurier, by Margaret Forster. I found this interesting, but I felt like I was prying. 3/5 stars
–Lost for Words, by Stephanie Butland. Not quite as light as I expected, and gah, the mental health clichés. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The usual weekly post.

So how’re you doing? Reading plenty? Got weekend plans?

Good morning, folks. I am still in the UK, despite intending to go back last week, due to the rail strikes in France and ensuing mayhem. New departure date to get back to wife and bunnies for a while: Tuesday. Wish me luck.

But hey, since I’m away, that means you get one more lot of bunny photos because I miss them. Here they demonstrate the principle “I fits therefore I sits”.

And since last week was Easter, have the Easter Egg I gave my sister…

New books from various sources

Looking forward to all of these, different as they are from one another!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Murder in the Museum, by John Rowland. Entertaining but fairly typical Golden Age crime story. 3/5 stars
–A Matter of Oaths, by Helen Wright. Why did I wait so long to read this one? I loved it and it’s high time it got more attention. 5/5 stars
–The Genius of Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman. Entertaining, but not much that was new to me. 3/5 stars
–Improbable Destinies, by Jonathan Losos. A fascinating examination of the idea about evolution being repeatable. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The usual update on what I’m reading, what I might read next, etc.

So my excuse for last week was that I’d been good for ages. My excuse this week is… um… look, I’ve been restrained all year, now it’s breaking out. I can’t help it. I’m in the UK with books easily accessible to buy, I know I’m going away again until my exams, so I have to make the most of the opportunity.

Speaking of being in the UK, though, I’m still away from my buns so here’s a couple of pics of them being adorable that my wife sent.

Review copies

Because Tor are so good to me. <3

Bought 

Quite a mixture, as ever, though perhaps not as mixed as I’d like — I was tempted by more non-fiction, but it didn’t exactly fit into the budget.

Books read this week:

Not much read, I know. Failboat.

Reviews posted this week:

–The Terracotta Army, by John Man. Pretty clear and accessible history about something I knew sadly little about. Particularly fascinating on the politics around the Terracotta Army, both ancient and modern. 3/5 stars
–The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Fascinatingly written, if not quite as good or as expert as Mukherjee’s other book. 4/5 stars
–The Mummy Congress, by Heather Pringle. The kind of archaeology book I love — wide-ranging and totally absorbing. 4/5 stars
–Built on Bones, by Brenna Hassett. A good history of the development of the city, told through bioarchaeology. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The weekly update.

How’s everyone doing? Plenty of books, or going through a dry spell? Getting reading done, or way too stressed?

Well, I’ve been too good to be true lately with my reasonably small hauls, so here’s a nice big one! Granted, this includes some books that were sent to my parents’ place over the last couple of months that I’ve only just picked up, but it’s still… well… a little unwieldy.

I’ll start off with the review copies and stuff from subscription boxes… although first you get a bunny picture because I’m away from my precious idiots. (Hulk update: this week she ate a rubber band. It has not yet reappeared. Breakfast update: he only needs meds in the morning now, and he’s very pleased by this.)

Review copies and subscription boxes:

An odd mix, perhaps! Looking forward to some of these a lot, though. Fury from the Tomb in particular sounds like a lot of pulpy fun.

Books bought:

Again, quite the mixture, I know! I’ve been curious about the British Library Crime Classics for a while, and especially since reading Martin Edwards’ The Golden Age of Murder. I don’t expect to be blown away by most of them, but they’ll be entertaining and unlikely to be horribly traumatising (sorry, modern crime fiction lovers — Val McDermid and Tess Gerritsen’s works turn my stomach).

Read this week:

I haven’t read the most ever this week, but I did enjoy these books and read all of them in one or two sittings each! So that’s something.

Reviewed this week:

–Ironclads, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Fairly good adventure story with an anxiety-making (or anxiety-reflecting, maybe) Brexity corporate background. I didn’t love it, but I found it entertaining. 3/5 stars
–A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe. Fascinating background, but the execution is basically pretty typical noir. The more I think about it, the less I think of it. 3/5 stars
–Experiment Eleven, by Peter Pringle. This had much less about TB than I’d hoped, but it is a rather interesting examination of two scientists and their intellectual property battle over the antibiotic streptomycin. 3/5 stars
–Masquerade, by Laura Lam. Yaaaaas. Micah is awesome, the supporting characters continue to be awesome, and there’s an epic showdown. Only quibble is that some of the political aspects feel too easy. 4/5 stars
–Sum, by David Eagleman. Interesting collection of short stories based around a single theme. They got a bit repetitive, but there are some really good bits too. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: My usual weekly update on what I’m reading, what I’ve just read, and what I might read next.

How’s everyone doing? Brought in a massive haul this week, or practising restraint? Lemme know in the comments!

It’s been a quiet week for me, book-wise — actually, I’m really stressed — but I did read the books below…

… and these things were posted.

Reviews from this week:

–Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. Okay, it’s a problematic fave in some ways, but I still adored it. Joscelin is just… gah. <3 5/5 stars
–An Unnatural Vice, by K.J. Charles. Not my favourite of the trilogy, but that’s mostly because I didn’t love the characters. Still a fun read. 3/5 stars
–The Master Magician, by Charlie N. Holmberg. More of the same if you’ve read the previous books; wraps things up neatly. 3/5 stars
–The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson. Lots of interesting stuff on this specific cholera outbreak, though the coda about living in cities is kind of weird. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The usual weekly update on what’s currently on my side table.

How’s everybody doing?