It’s been a quiet reading week, but the acquisitions have been rolling in. It’s not as bad as it looks, though; some of these were bought a week or two ago and only just arrived. There’ll be another box of books soon, too…

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

New books acquired:

With special thanks to the friend who got me The Brilliant Death! 😀

Received to review:

Thank you, Tor!

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Widdershins, by Jordan L. Hawk. A fun mystery/romance, very much in K.J. Charles’ line. 4/5 stars
–Exploring English Castles, by Edd Morris. Neither fish nor fowl, really; not that great despite some pretty photos. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: A Bookish Party. Arranging a party isn’t really my sort of thing, but this one could be fun if I ever did it…
–WWW Wednesday. Mostly Nine Coaches Waiting and a last look back at Grave Importance.

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘An internal alarm clock.‘ A bit about hibernation.
–NEAT science: ‘An unexpected bonus.‘ How the BCG vaccination might be repurposed…

How’re you guys doing? Anything new and exciting?

Good afternoon, folks! I hoped to do this yesterday, but I had work and other stuff that needed to be done, boo. So it’s been a quiet week around here, with a lot less reading.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

New books:

Thank you to my wife for two of these, and to Moon Dreams for Empire of Sand in her cool giveaway on Twitter! <3

I’m looking forward to a few different book orders (two indie bookshops, one second-hand bookshop) to come in, with great impatience. Feeling the need for some bookish comforts, at the moment!

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis. Still pretty wonderful, to my mind! 4/5 stars
–A Treacherous Curse, by Deanna Raybourn. Bags of fun, as expected; the mystery’s kind of background to the will-they-won’t-they, for me. 4/5 stars
–The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis. Never my favourite, so not surprisingly, I still didn’t really jive with it. 2/5 stars
–The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein. Aarrgghhh so much I still want to know! 4/5 stars
–Grave Importance, by Vivian Shaw. Lovely lovely lovely. Excellent ending to the series, though I didn’t love one specific aspect of it. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. This week it was mostly about Grave Importance!
–Wyrd and Wonder: A TBR. Ready for May’s fantasy reading event!

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘Soap versus virus.‘ Been wondering why soap is the #1 recommendation to avoid catching SARS-CoV-2? A quick explanation of why soap is ideal.

There we go; that’s it for this week! How’s everyone doing?

Good evening, folks! It’s been a busy reading week around here, with the readathon today boosting my read count a little (okay, and short books helped there too). And I haven’t bought any books this week, though I’ve been putting together a preorder or so!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books read this week:

Almost done with my Narnia reread, as you can see!

Reviews posted this week: 

–The Magician’s Nephew, by C.S. Lewis. I always read them in chronological order, so this is where I always start. Some great bits here, despite it never being a favourite. 4/5 stars
–Love Around the Corner, by Sally Malcolm. Silly stupid boys and silly stupid miscommunication, but it’s cute. 3/5 stars
–The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. Not as beloved as it was once, perhaps, but I think it is still very moving and worth thinking about. 4/5 stars
–The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis. I used to love this adventure so much, but I have cooled on it as an adult. 3/5 stars
–Hither, Page, by Cat Sebastian. Both a romance and a mystery, I really enjoyed this one. There are some great moments of non-sexual intimacy that really made me feel for the characters. 4/5 stars
–Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis. I always loved Caspian the best of all the main characters… 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. Chatting about Digging Up Armageddon and my Narnia reread!
–24-Hour Readathon. I decided to take part again on a whim. I’ve read 3.3 books so far and there’s a bunny pic at that post… *tempts*

So that’s my week! How’re you doing, folks?

Well, it’s been another whole week. Time is flying! I’m reading a little more, though I’m tending towards short books I can read in one sitting!

Linked up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Received to review:

Yaaay a new book by Katherine Addison!

Bought:

I had a lot of fun with the Reckoners series by Skrutskie, so looking forward to this one!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Knit One, Girl Two, by Shira Glassman. Sweet and low-stakes romance. 3/5 stars
–The Rules of Contagion, by Adam Kucharski. Not as much about disease as you’d think: it actually applies an understanding of infectious disease to other situations, with some interesting results. 3/5 stars
–Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You, by Scotto Moore. Not quite my thing, despite a fascinating start. 2/5 stars
–Cinnamon Blade, by Shira Glassman. Rather too much sex for my tastes, light on plot or development. 2/5 stars
–Miranda in Milan, by Katharine Duckett. I liked this quite a lot; it’s not a hugely complex sequel to The Tempest, but it worked for me. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. Talking about The Steerswoman, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and Digging Up Armageddon. 

How are you guys doing?

Well folks, it’s the weekend again! How’s everyone doing? I’ve had a few more review copies (are publicists going mad with power, just giving everyone books to make them stay home?!) and I’ve done a bit of reading, but not much. Still, feels like I’m getting back to normal a bit.

Linked up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer & Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality and Tynga’s Reviews.

Books received to review:

Like I said, publicists going mad with power…

Books acquired:

I got some book vouchers to help cheer me up, which both did the trick and flooded my shelves! This is just a selection — I might share the others next week!

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Provenance, by Ann Leckie. Review from my reread last year. Unsurprisingly, I still loved it. 5/5 stars
–The Masked City, by Genevieve Cogman. Another reread review from last year. Probably my favourite of the series so far. 4/5 stars
–Walking to Aldebaran, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sort of not my thing, but very satisfying in other ways all the same. 4/5 stars
–Castle Skull, by John Dickson Carr. I… should stop trying to read John Dickson Carr. 1/5 stars
–The Nine Lands, by Marie Brennan. Belated review. It’s a group of well-structured short stories that really work for me, but I maybe had some qualms about some of the borrowings from real history. 4/5 stars

Other posts: 

–WWW Wednesday. In which I circled back to reading The Rules of Contagion, which was a bit too on the nose for me a couple weeks ago.

So that’s it. How’re you guys doing?

Greetings, folks. It’s been a week. I don’t know what kind of week it’s been, to be honest. A weird one, but they all are right now. Let’s talk books instead.

Received to review:

I usually like Moreno-Garcia’s work, some with more enthusiasm than others. Looking forward to giving this a try.

New books:

From a friend. <3 Many thanks.

There should be more books here, but I basically just have tabs and tabs open trying to decide what books to buy with the book vouchers I was given. I had no idea Carola Dunn had written so many romances, for example, and I have no idea where to start.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–What’s Your Pronoun? by Dennis Baron. Interesting, but not quite what I hoped for. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. Discussing What’s Your Pronoun? and Drowned Country, this week.

Out and about:

–Beeminder Blog: “Self-Isolation Strategies: Nikki’s Operation Safety Bubble.” This one’s all me, talking about how I’m using Beeminder to keep me healthy and sane during this difficult time. Some of it is generalisable to planning your life goals in general.
–Habitica Blog: “Behind the Scenes: Coping in a Crisis.” Habitica’s mods and staff worked together to create a post about how they’re coping with the current situation. And yes, I added a bit. Spot the Good Omens cameo in the photo of my bookshelves…
–NEAT science: “How do you define a species?“ In which I discuss the species definition, and when certain definitions might be useful.

How’re you all doing?

I said I’d get back to my normal format this week, but there’s not much to round up in the way of blog content. However, there’s plenty by way of books — yikes!

Received to review:

What a haul, right? Bless Netgalley.

New books purchased:

My eclectic tastes are well on show in this post, huh?

I’ll skip the books read this week as there’s basically just one.

Reviews posted this week:

–It Takes Two To Tumble, by Cat Sebastian. Cuuuute. 4/5 stars
–A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, by Cat Sebastian. This is less all-out cute than the first book, though it is also sweet. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. This week discussing Mark Kurlansky, Mira Grant and Cat Sebastian.
–The Book Tempter’s TBR Challenge. Getting our TBRs down while in isolation? Well, maybe.

How’s everyone else doing? Reading anything good?

Well, folks, it’s been quite the week. I haven’t been very well (mentally), and while I’m getting better with the help of some anxiety medication (sigh, I was so proud to have weaned myself off it), it’s been rough. So here’s the haul of books I got on our last hurrah day out before moving to social distancing mode and ending non-essential trips, a couple weeks ago.

Next week I’ll share the ARCs I’ve been getting, and whatever’s come through the mail, and try to get back to my normal format.

Books acquired:

Some non-fiction, some romance, a little sci-fi, a little fantasy and mystery… a typically mixed haul for me.

How’s everyone else doing?

Evening, folks! I am late on this and just getting this out there so I don’t need to do a double-bill next week! It’s been a busy one.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Unthinkable, by Helen Thomson. Not too surprising if you’re interested in neurology and have read other books like it, but still enjoyable. 3/5 stars
–The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh, by K.J. Charles. Short and sweet. Not a lot of substance, but an enjoyable short story. 4/5 stars
–The Honjin Murders, by Seishi Yokomizo. Strongly influenced by John Dickson Carr, this is a solid locked room murder mystery, but not my thing. 2/5 stars
–A Fashionable Indulgence, by K.J. Charles. I loved Harry and Julius, and read this (almost) all in one go. 5/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday on Thursday. This week I chattered about John Dickson Carr, K.J. Charles and Sylvia Izzo Hunter!

How’s everyone doing? Any exciting acquisitions?

Good morning, folks! It’s been a busy week, and I have a lot of new books to show off!

Acquired this week:

First up, I have a bunch of eARCs thanks to Tor, so it’s only fair to showcase them first:

And then I have a bunch of new books after heading to Sheffield to meet friends from afar. The bookshop was naturally the obvious place to take them!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold. I found this much more riveting than I expected. I only had one quibble and that was the emphasis she placed on repeating over and over again that the women weren’t prostitutes, as if that changed how much we should care about them. 4/5 stars
–Fell Murder, by E.C.R. Lorac. Rather slow; I just didn’t get into it the way I did with Lorac’s other books. It had some great elements, but… sort of meh? 3/5 stars
–A Curious Beginning, by Deanna Raybourn. Unbelievable, and yet kind of riveting anyway! 4/5 stars
–The Great Pretender, by Susannah Cahalan. An investigation into a famous study, which may in fact have been partially faked. 5/5 stars
–A Perilous Undertaking, by Deanna Raybourn. Enjoyable as heck, just like the first book. 4/5 stars
–How to Argue with a Racist, by Adam Rutherford. It’s okay and informative, but I’m not sure it’s really enough. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–#ReaderProblems. An entertaining tag that I spotted elsewhere. Learn how I pick my next read, how I feel about not loving books everyone else does, etc.
–WWW Wednesday. Featuring a little preview of my thoughts on Hearts of Oak — my review won’t be up for a couple more days.

How’re you guys doing? Got any awesome new books?