April Reading Wrap-Up

Posted May 2, 2026 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Here we go! May already, and the weather here’s been beautiful — you could almost mistake it for summer. But before I really get started on May, let’s wrap up April…

April in general:

The beginning of the month was fairly quiet, but towards the end I got into a bit of a rush, with some busy moments with work stuff and of course the second part of my graduation. My graduation from the University of London was the fanciest ceremony I’ve had, and I had to bow to the deputy vice chancellor as I crossed the stage, which was a new one for me!

Either way, I am now definitely officially an MSc, woooo. Given my track record (now BA Hons, MA, BSc Hons, MSc) you might be asking when I’m going to study next and what it might be, and the answer is that I really don’t know. I’m sure there’ll be something, but I don’t know yet what it will be.

Alongside lots of work stuff, I have still been gaming a-plenty. I’ve barely lifted the lid on the new patch content in Final Fantasy XIV, but my group did complete the third fight of this raid tier this month, which is nice! We’re not the fastest group, but we’ve been faster this tier than last time, and have been making good progress.

As for my casual gaming, April was the month I got into hidden object games, and oh boy, I did not expect to get so hooked. Special shoutouts to the Find All series, Devcats’ games like Devcats‘ A Castle Full of Cats and An Arcade Full of Cats (the latter has a bunch of levels free!), Lost and Found Co. (which is the game that started me on this track), and the adorable Hidden Capybaras with Orange games, with the Spooky Edition being free. I did also get sucked into the world of PowerWash Simulator…

In other words, I’ve been busy with plenty of things other than books. Still, there has been a fair bit of reading too!

Reading stats:

Total books read: 23
Total pages read: 5,078
Rereads: 1
ARCs: 2
Series finished/up to date: 0
Books owned pre-2026: 2
Books owned from 2026: 11
Borrowed books: 10

Fiction: 10
Non-fiction: 7
Poetry: 6
Comics, manga, manhwa, etc: 2

Somewhat fewer books again than March, unfortunately. I’d love to see the numbers go back up again, as getting plenty of reading time tends to be linked with better moods for me. Still, I’m not going to kick myself for not “achieving”: I read for fun, darn it.

Progress on reading goals:

Overall total books read: 116/400 (17 books behind)
Overall total pages read: 27,914/100,000 (5,237 pages behind)
Books read from backlog: 25/100
Books owned since 2026 and not yet started: 20/20

As expected with my “low” (relative to my usual) book/page counts this month, I’m slipping on the annual goals. This often happens, and I usually read more intensively in the latter months of the year, for some reason.

Blogging stats:

Views: 21.8k
Visitors: 20.7k
Likes: 289
Comments: 351
Reviews: 26
Other posts: 22

It looks like a huge step up from last month, but I’d bet a significant amount of it is bots, so I’m not sure how reasonable it is to quote these numbers!

Most viewed posts:

Review – The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 1 (78 views)
Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 3 (70 views)
Stacking the Shelves 13th September 2014 (61 views)
Review – Strange Buildings (53 views)
Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Describe Me (44 views)

Not sure what’s going on with that StS post, but probably bots, let’s be real.

My own favourite posts:

Stuff I loved from elsewhere:

From Books, Bones & Buffy: The Geomagician, by Jennifer Mandula – Review, by Tammy
From Reactor: The Book News Isn’t All Bad, by Molly Templeton
From Books, Bones & Buffy: JAPANESE GOTHIC by Kylie Lee Baker – Review, by Tammy
From Books, Bones & Buffy: THE LANGUAGE OF LIARS by S.L. Huang – Review, by Tammy
From There’s Always Room For One More…: The Mercy of Gods, by imyril
From The Bibliosanctum: The Geomagician, by Jennifer Mandula, by Mogsy
From Keira’s Bookmark: [Review] This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews, by Keira

And that, finally, is a wrap — let’s put April to bed.

And given the time (midnight), let’s put me to bed too. Happy weekend!

Tags: books, monthly wrapup

Review – Delicious in Dungeon, vol 1

Posted May 1, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Delicious in Dungeon

by Ryoko Kui

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 191
Series: Delicious in Dungeon #1
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
When young adventurer Laios and his company are attacked and soundly thrashed by a dragon deep in a dungeon, the party loses all its money and provisions... and a member! They're eager to go back and save her, but there is just one problem: If they set out with no food or coin to speak of, they're sure to starve on the way! But Laios comes up with a brilliant idea: "Let's eat the monsters!" Slimes, basilisks, and even dragons... none are safe from the appetites of these dungeon-crawling gourmands!

I didn’t really know much about Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon going in, only that it featured a team of broke adventurers who need to learn to cook monsters in order to help them progress in a dungeon. I didn’t know about the whole “because a dragon has eaten the main character’s sister” part, which… to be fair… is not a major part of the story because they don’t seem to feel much urgency about it at all.

The pacing feels weird, as each chapter is essentially just a little episode in “what to cook next”. There are some fun touches, like the nutrition balance cards after the various meals, and the ingenuity of how to cook some stuff, and I really enjoyed the almost scientific interest Laios has in various creatures, figuring out how they work.

Overall, though, I felt a lack of character development (the most was Marcille, but it was mostly “whiny elf girl whines and then eats the food anyway”) and… direction? So I’m not sure I’ll read more. The lack of pace would probably have come across better if Laios’ sister wasn’t, you know, being digested. I know that they expect to just resurrect her but… yeah. Still.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: book reviews, books, manga, Ryoko Kui, SF/F

Review – Do You Really Only Want a Meal? vol 2

Posted April 30, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Do You Really Want Only A Meal?

by Yasu Tadano

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 164
Series: Do You Really Want Only A Meal? #2
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Now happily dating, 27-year-old Masamune Hanzawa takes his boyfriend, 19-year-old Natsuki, on a birthday trip, but he unfortunately spends the whole time worrying he hasn’t done enough. When they run into Natsuki’s mom at the train station, she thanks Masamune for taking care of her husband and son. Inspired, they decide to come out to Natsuki’s parents about their relationship. But in a world where same-sex relationships face societal resistance, how will Natsuki’s family react? As love meets uncertainty, Masamune and Natsuki must navigate uncharted waters together.

Volume two of Yasu Tadano’s Do You Really Only Want a Meal? is really pure fluff. There are two potential sources of conflict: firstly, Masamune trying overly hard to find ways to please Natsuki (actually against his wishes), and secondly, the two of them telling Natsuki’s parents they’re dating. Between the age gap and the fact that they’re gay, that does give them some pause.

Aaaand in practice all conflict quickly fizzles out! It’s just cute and fluffy, with Natsuki’s parents surprised but supportive, and Masamune being a pretty perfect boyfriend.

There is also a fun bit where Masamune practises cooking and makes food for Natsuki for once, and also where they clearly go a bit further than making out (unclear if they have sex, but probably; it fades to black).

But really, no conflict here, just fluff. My only negative comment would be sometimes the transitions between scenes were poorly or not-at-all signposted. Why have they suddenly changed location?! Ohhh, okay, time skip.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, manga, romance, Yasu Tadano

WWW Wednesday

Posted April 29, 2026 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Joseph Howgego’s The Meteorite Hunters, which was pretty good. I liked it more than Helen Gordon’s The Meteorites, even though at times they were covering the same thing, I think because Howgego stuck to a more popular-science framework while Gordon was a bit more focused on cultural stuff at times.

Before that, I finished Anthony Delaney’s Queer Georgians, which had fewer new-to-me stories that I’d anticipated, actually (though I’m not saying there was nothing new to me, and though I knew of the ladies of Llangollen, I didn’t know about their lives in any detail before they arrived in Llangollen). I thought it was pretty good, though it’s not a pet period/topic of mine, so hard to really judge.

What are you currently reading?

I started Kate Strasdin’s Dressing the Queen on the train back from London yesterday, having picked it up in St Pancras, and got a chunk of the way in. It’s not about any given queen per se, but about the clothes and textile items provided for royalty over the last 200 years or so, and who made them, a bit about how they were made, etc. It’s highlighting fairly ordinary people at times, and I’m finding it fascinating.

Other than that, I’m slowly inching my way through Gareth Russell’s Queen James, which is less focused on the romantic partners of James than I had guessed from the subtitle, blurb, etc. I believe there are some more solidly understood lovers coming up from the chronological point I’ve got to, though.

And finally, I’m deep into S.L. Huang’s The Water Outlaws, and curious where it’s going exactly.

What will you read next?

I’m honestly going to try to focus on books I’ve started already. More of Cecilia Edwards’ An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating, for one, and I think I’m not that far from finishing (or DNFing) David Crystal’s William Tyndale and the English Language, which is just… talking to a reader who isn’t me, and I think has made most of the points that are interesting to me already — the rest seems to be detail. But we’ll see, I’ll give it time next, is the main thing.

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Power Couples

Posted April 28, 2026 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Late post, as I’m just back from my official University of London graduation! Those reading here regularly might remember I attended a ceremony last month; that was from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, for the same degree. This was the more formal occasion, complete with a bow to and nod of acknowledgement from the deputy vice chancellor of the university, so I have now properly officially fully received my MSc (to add to my BA, MA and BSc).

Please don’t ask me what’s next. The only thing that’s next right now is my TTT post, and after that, bed! I will probably study again, but not soon. I had a rough time last year and need recovery time.

So without further ado, this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is a freebie, and I decided I’d focus on book covers again: I’d hoped to do that last week, because it was kinda fun when I recently spent time focusing on book covers (which spawned a post about them!)… so here we go!

Let’s take a look at some covers which beautifully showcase the main relationships of the books in question:

In order, these were: Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe, Li Yu and Mu Tianchi, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan, Istvhan and Clara, Kate Daniels and Curran Lennart, Fu Wanqing and Yu Shengyan, Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de La Motte and Titus Pilcrow, and Cassian, the Duke of Severn and Daizell Charnage. I wouldn’t cross any of these characters alone, and certainly not when they’re united!

I could’ve picked a lot more covers to show off, especially because there are a bunch of danmei covers that are just gorgeous (many more than just the five showcased here). Really, there’s an embarrassment of riches out there for covers which show off the strength of relationships — though for my money my favourites here are Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, for the intimacy and tenderness they convey between the characters.

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Boring Postcards USA

Posted April 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Boring Postcards USA

by Martin Parr

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 176
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
The author has now turned his attention to the USA with 160 of the dullest postcards from the land of opportunity. The book provides not only amusement, but a commentary on how America has changed, and a celebration of those places that have been forgotten by conventional history.

Someone highlighted Martin Parr’s Boring Postcards USA to me because pretty much everyone knows about my Postcrossing hobby (and the fact that I work there!) by this point, ahaha.

Even though it’s about “boring” postcards, it’s actually quite fun to look at and wonder about why the postcards were made, who might have sent/received them, etc — they’re mundane subjects, but there is interest there, especially looking back on the 50s/60s/70s cars, interior design, etc, that show up in the images (and of course as a non-American).

Some of them aren’t that boring, depending on your point of view: I know plenty of Postcrossers who’d love to receive them!

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Martin Parr, non-fiction

Fantasy with Friends: Future Classics

Posted April 27, 2026 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Uhoh, Monday again! That snuck up on me. Once more it’s time for a Fantasy With Friends discussion post! The prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, and this week’s is about contemporary fantasies that might be set to become classics:

What contemporary fantasy works do you think could become future classics?

Aaaand I’m pretty stumped. I feel like I have a better handle on it for SF, where e.g. Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch books and Martha Wells’ Murderbot seem likely to stick in people’s minds. But though I read more fantasy than SF, I’m not sure — maybe it’s because I read more fantasy, and not just the standouts? And also maybe because I’m often running a little behind: due to mood reading, I’m not always reading the latest, though I’ve improved on that in the last year and a half.

But really, looking at my shelves at fantasy from the last decade or so, some of the books I thought were really great have already dipped well out of sight into backlists. I suspect as well as quality, there’ll be a degree of visibility required: books that have been pushed hard and made it onto a lot of shelves might have the sticking power in people’s brains because of the saturation of them. Maybe that means the early cosy fantasies like Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes will be considered the classics of the current time? Some of the romantasies?

My tongue’s a little bit in my cheek here, but given these books spurred a change in the genre/the solidification of a subgenre, that’s a reason they might genuinely survive, if the subgenre stays strong (even if it fades back into the background as other trends come along).

If I could pick what will become a classic, I think Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons and sequels would be good choices, Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills novellas, some of T. Kingfisher’s (maybe Clockwork Boys?)… but sadly, I don’t get to pick. Which is probably good, because I know I must be forgetting many absolutely wonderful books that I’d absolutely endorse.

Still, I kinda like that question. If you could pick a contemporary fantasy to become a classic, just based on your own fondness for it, what would you pick?

ETA: Made slight updates to the wording to make it clear where I’m not entirely serious.

Tags: books, discussions, Fantasy With Friends

Review – Murder at Gulls Nest

Posted April 26, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Murder at Gulls Nest

by Jess Kidd

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 336
Series: Nora Breen Investigates #1
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
The first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.

Somewhere in the north, a religious community prepares for Vespers. Here on the southeast coast, Nora Breen prepares for braised liver and a dining room full of strangers.

Nora Breen arrives inconspicuously in the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, and takes a room at the Gulls Nest guest house. Supper is at 6 o'clock sharp, and there will be no admittance after 9 - a routine Nora likes, as it reminds her of her former life as a nun.

As she settles in, she is careful not to reveal too much about herself to the other guests. Instinct tells her it's better to watch and listen. Because Nora is not here on a whim. She has a disappearance to investigate.

Before long, Nora realises that she may not be the only resident hiding something at Gulls Nest. To untangle the web of secrets and deceit, she'll need to do more than just observe. Does she have what it takes to stop a killer?

Jess Kidd’s Murder at Gulls Nest surprised me by being written in present tense; it’s not something you see a lot, and it didn’t always 100% work for me — I like it in short fiction, but I find it hard to sustain in my own writing, and at times I thought there was a strain here too. I also thought there were some very weird turns of phrase that felt like someone reaching for half-remembered words and applying them wrongly; the one I wrote down while reading was “pertaining to be [another person]”. I think Kidd needed ‘pretending’ here — or some other phrasing entirely.

As for the story itself, well: I enjoyed the choice of protagonist/amateur detective. Nora is an ex-nun who left her convent in order to discover what happened to another ex-nun who had left because of her health and suddenly stopped writing to Nora. She assumes foul play pretty much from the start, and it feels weird how reckless she is about the way she reveals her identity to some and not others. The narrative doesn’t even remark on that, there aren’t any consequences, which honestly makes it feel like the author’s oversight at times.

I found Nora in general to be a bit… inconsistent? I can understand that to a degree we’re seeing someone breaking out of a mould and learning who she is outside of the convent, but some of her actions feel erratic — like throwing her shoes at the duty sergeant, and letting herself being photographed dancing around wearing only a curtain — and I had trouble reconciling it all as believable variation in the behaviour of a single fully compos mentis person with control over her own actions, even though I’m certain we’re supposed to believe that she is.

The same applied to other characters too, and particularly Rideout, who seems to entirely lack professionalism. When other details felt grittily realistic, that kind of cavalier attitude to keeping civilians out of police work felt weird.

I think overall it all just… didn’t quite come together for me. It was entertaining, and the mystery hung together alright, but something was just a bit off in the narrative.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Jess Kidd, mystery

Review – The Village Library Demon Hunting Society

Posted April 26, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society

by C.M. Waggoner

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 335
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle has a knack for solving murders – lots of them. Sometimes she’s concerned by just how many killers she’s had to track down in her quiet village, though none of her neighbours seem surprised by the rising body count…

But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat becomes unexpectedly possessed by an ancient demon as irritating as it is infernal, Sherry decides that it’s time for action.

It will be a lesson for murderers and demons alike:

Never mess with a librarian.

C.M. Waggoner’s The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society takes the concept “what if there’s something sinister and deeper explaining all those murders in a sleepy little town?” and runs with it. At first, it seems like just a cosy mystery, but the main character (Sherry) keeps having strange thoughts/feelings, like a reminder that there’s something missing or something fundamentally wrong about everything, and it’s clear there’s something darker afoot.

That manifests itself in a way that’s still kinda cosy, despite the murders — a demon/ghost possesses Sherry’s cat, calling itself “Lord Thomas Cromwell” and acting like it is, due to her decision to name her cat Lord Thomas Cromwell. There’s still a fair bit of uneasiness and weirdness with the demon (and a heck of a confrontation scene), but altogether, it doesn’t get too far from a cosy mystery… just, also with demons.

It didn’t end up being something I loved, and I’m not sure why; maybe the pacing? In retrospect I guess it felt like there were some pretty slow bits, and like I didn’t really get to know the characters very well. They felt a bit more sketched in. If it turned into a series, I’d probably read more, but not in a big hurry, and I’d be looking for more characterisation.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, C.M. Waggoner, mystery, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted April 25, 2026 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Woo, weekend! I look forward to a day of hidden object games and reading. Hope everyone’s had a good week!

Books acquired this week

I haven’t really been meaning to acquire anything this week, but somehow library books have been happening to me… First up, from the National Poetry Library:

And from my local, a book I’d rather randomly reserved based on someone’s review. I’ve forgotten who! If it might’ve been you, speak up, ahaha:

And finally, I decided after a fair bit of dithering to request TJ Klune’s new novella:

I’d been hesitating, but it’s a novella — it shouldn’t take me that long to read, after all! And I have enjoyed Klune’s work in the past, I just didn’t want to accept more to review without being pretty certain I’d actually get to it anytime soon, ahaha.

Posts from this week

As ever, time for a quick roundup of what I’ve been posting, starting with the reviews:

Fantasy romance: The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, by Brigitte Knightley (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
Horror: Snake-eater, by T. Kingfisher (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Classic mystery: Jack on the Gallows Tree, by Leo Bruce (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Poetry: Blue Horses, by Mary Oliver (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
History: The Library of Ancient Wisdom, by Selena Wisnom (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
Horror graphic novel: Home Sick Pilots, vol 2, by Dan Watters et al (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy: Solo Leveling (light novel), vol 2, by Chugong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And the other posts:

What I’m reading

It’s still been a quiet sort of week for me when it comes to reading — I’m hoping to bust out of my funk somewhat this weekend! It looks like more reading than it is, because the poetry and the manga were pretty short. All the same, I did finish a few books, especially last weekend:

I’m planning a bit of a catch-up this week, focusing on a few books I’m actually meant to be trading in soon (oops), including Queer Georgians (Anthony Delaney), How Flowers Made the World (David George Haskell) and The Meteorite Hunters (Joseph Howgego). It seemed a lot more reasonable I’d have them read in time at the start of the month when I set up the trade-in, ahaha. I also want to work on finishing my Book Spin and Double Spin books for the Litsy challenge, so that’s Queen James (Gareth Russell) and The Water Outlaws (S.L. Huang).

I don’t expect to finish them all this weekend by any means, but I’d like to get a chunk into them. I may also go for some lighter reading and tackle that TJ Klune novella, though.

Does anyone else have grand reading plans for the weekend? Good luck, folks!

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.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup