Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 9, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

I haven’t read as much this week as I did last week, but that would be kind of difficult! What I have managed to do is catch up to all my reading goals, for which I’m very pleased with myself. Now just got to keep on top of it.

Received to review:

Cover of The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin Cover of Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton Cover of Skeen's Leap by Jo Clayton

I think it’s been a while since I requested the Jo Clayton books, because I couldn’t remember at first why I asked for them. But Skeen’s Leap looks like fun. Also, hurrah, The Obelisk Gate! I need to read the first book still, but…

Books acquired:

Cover of The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams Cover of The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu Cover of The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

I finally read The Copper Promise and liked it, so of course I had to pick up The Iron Ghost while I was here in the UK visiting my parents. I’ve been curious about The Aeronaut’s Windlass for a while, too, and though I’ve heard mixed reviews of The Grace of Kings, everything I’ve heard makes it sound intriguing.

And then of course, I also picked up a couple of TPBs. While I was here.

Cover of Silk: Sinister Cover of Spider-Woman: Baby Talk

Books finished this week:

26792189 Cover of Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick Cover of One Solstice Night by Elora Bishop Cover of One Imbolc Gloaming by Elora Bishop

Cover of One Ostara Sunrise by Elora Bishop Cover of A History of Ancient Egypt by John Romer Cover of Runtime by S.B. Divya Cover of The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde

 Cover of The Devil You Know by K.J. Parker Cover of The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster Cover of Batgirl: Silent Running by Kelley Puckett Cover of Batgirl: A Knight Alone by Kelley Puckett

Reviews posted this week:
A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen TurnerI liked this a lot more on the reread, probably because I knew what to expect. Sophos is a lot less interesting to me than Gen, but the glimpse of Gen through his eyes is fascinating. 4/5 stars
The Ancient Paths, by Graham RobbI have to admit that actually evaluating the scholarship is beyond me, but the argument seems a bit prone to wishful thinking — “this would be convenient, so it’s true”, I guess. Still interesting. 3/5 stars
Sick of Shadows, by M.C. Beaton. The first book was kind of fun, but the formula has worn very thin. 1/5 stars
Saga Volume Two, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona StaplesSaga continues to be awesome and funny, and still makes me laugh even when it’s gross humour I wouldn’t normally go in for. 4/5 stars
Blood Lines, by Tanya Huff. Another fun entry in the series, though more or less as you’d expect. And there’s a mummy (the kind in bandages). 3/5 stars
Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart. Definitely not my favourite, probably because of the all-too-stereotypical relationship between the husband and wife — he beats someone up for her, he keeps secrets and that’s fine, etc, etc. 2/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Island of the Mighty, by Evangeline Walton. Not the best of the series by far, though it’s still an interesting and effective retelling. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated Books. The theme was books with less than 2,000 ratings; a lot of the ones I chose have very few ratings and even fewer reviews. I tried to pick a nice range of different books, with SF/F, non-fiction, poetry, detective stories…

So how’s everyone been? What’re you up to? Me, I’ve been visiting my parents this week and taking advantage of my Xbox to play all the Fable 2 and Fable 3. In fact, let me get back to that now.

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16 responses to “Stacking the Shelves

  1. I’m just pleased that my reading is back to normal and I’m not far away from finishing my Goodreads challenge. OK so I did read about 20 Berenstain Bears kids books on a binge yesterday…but tonight it is back to zombies! Hope you get lots of reading done this week!
    chucklesthescot recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #139My Profile

    • That sounds like a nice relaxing book binge! I keep pushing myself with reading and it takes the fun out of it. No more, I say! Hope you enjoy the zombies!

    • I’ve heard mostly good things about The Grace of Kings from other bloggers, but people in my book club didn’t like it, so I’m quite intrigued to see which side I’m on in that!

    • In this case, a long train journey really helped! And ha, I still need to read The Fifth Season, so my ARC would honestly be more use to my partner… I’m a bad blogger sometimes.

    • Reading-wise, I got a lot read because a few of them were novellas, which helped! Buying wise, this week wasn’t too naughty… next week’s post will be a thing to behold, though! I liked A Conspiracy of Kings, especially the second time I read it, but I don’t think it’s as strong as the rest of the series.

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