Good morning! Hope everyone’s doing well.
Books acquired this week
I got woken up today by the arrival of a big package of books for me, which I got myself as a reward for filing my taxes. Turns out I’ve saved up waaaay more money than I need for my taxes, so I released some from my tax budget. Most of it’s gone to the moving budget etc etc, but I gave myself enough for a treat.
Still, those books haven’t been unboxed and accessioned (so to speak) yet, so I haven’t saved and uploaded their covers yet. You’ll have to wait until next week! I’ll have a preorder and a gift arriving too, so it’ll be quite the haul: I might split it across two weeks.
Posts from this week
Here we go, the usual roundup!
- Classic crime: Not to Be Taken, by Anthony Berkeley (4/5 stars)
- Non-fiction: The Virtues of Underwear: Modest, Flamboyance and Filth, by Nina Edwards (3/5 stars)
- Classic horror: Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (3/5 stars)
- Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 7, by Misaki, Momochi, et al (4/5 stars)
- SF novella: Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz (2/5 stars)
- Fantasy novella: A Mouthful of Dust, by Nghi Vo (4/5 stars)
- Classic crime: Scandalize My Name, by Fiona Sinclair (3/5 stars)
I’m making sure to post a review every day, even when I have other features, to catch up a bit with the backlog. It’s good to have a backlog, and to have them all ready, but at my previous posting rate the pile of reviews would just keep building up and up!
What I’m reading
Let’s start first with the usual sneak peek at the books I’ll be reviewing… sometime, when I get through the pile (though review copies get prioritised for reviewing sooner).
I did some rereading as well, so that was a pretty busy and satisfying week of reading!
I have some more rereading planned for this week, but I’ll also dig into Sorcery and Small Magics (Maiga Doocy) and Advocate (Daniel M. Ford), both of which I’ve been looking forward to for a while. All in all, I hope to spend plenty of time reading, since it’s clearly what I’m in the mood for: I managed to read five hours on one workday, this week, which… is quite the feat, compared to usual.
Hope everyone has an excellent weekend, with exactly as much reading as desired!
Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!
You should feel no qualms about spending a significant part of your tax savings on books! I look forward to hearing more about your book purchases and your thoughts about them in upcoming posts.
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz recently posted…The Sunday Salon: The Library Hotel, The Lion King, the New York Public Library, and The Strand Bookstore
Honestly, I saved up so much that if I spent even a small part of it on books, as I did, it’d be quite the stack! Which is a nice problem to have — oversaving and then realising it’s fine and you have way more than you need is the ideal way round, ahaha.
I look forward to seeing what you received in your book delivery. I am also packing for moving. Most of my books are packed but thank goodness for a Kindle.
Good luck! I’m not at the point of packing up the books yet — they’re nice and out of the way on their shelves, after all! — since we don’t have a new place to go to yet, we just know this is the last straw and we’re moving. But I find myself mostly reading on my Kobo at the moment anyway…
Oh, the antici… pation, waiting to hear what the new books are! A well-deserved reward for being conscientious on the saving 🙂
calypte recently posted…The Vengeance – Emma Newman
And quite the anticipation waiting to unbox them! I’ve been waiting for them all to arrive so I can fall upon them all at once, ahaha.
That’s great that you got in so much enjoyable reading last week and look forward to more!
I’m surprised I’m finding so much time while preparing for my exams, but I feel pretty okay about the amount of work I’m doing for that, too!
I love the idea of treating yourself with a big ol box of books. And thanks for the reminder. I never checked to be sure my Fed and State tax payments were sucked out of my checking account. HR Block said they would be, so I left it at that. Running off to check now. Yikes.
Jinjer recently posted…Staycation – May 2025
Haha, in the UK for most people they get taken automatically as you earn (PAYE), but I’m self-employed, so I have to just tell the government what I’ve earned at the end of the year, and then depending on the total I get various taxes applied. It’s not too annoying, and I always just put aside 30% of each payment I receive, but this time it put me waaay ahead! Looking forward to my bookish reward. 😀
Getting new books is so exciting. I hope you enjoy all of them. You earned that money so it’s yours to do with whatever you want. And spending it on books is a good thing.
Vicki recently posted…Sunday Salon: 5/18/25
Thank you! And yes, I’m just helping authors and publishers and the economy! XD
🙂
Vicki recently posted…20 Books of Summer 2025 Challenge
Yay for the new books. Hope you enjoy! Good luck with moving as well.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Read-along & #Giveaway: Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews @ilonaandrews.bsky.social @reneeraudman @nyliterary @tantoraudio.bsky.social @AudibleStudios #Read-along #GIVEAWAY #LoveAudiobooks @ilonaandrews
Thank you! We need it — right now we’re discovering there’s a whole labyrinthine method of applying to become a tenant that really didn’t exist last time we were looking for a place.
Nice not to have to pay as much for taxes as you were anticipating! I would reward myself with books as well! Good luck with the move, we are there as well. Have a good week.
Cindy’s Book Corner recently posted…Romancing the Grump
I always just save 30% of my earnings, ahaha, rather than try and guess what it’ll be once this and that has been deducted. It’s working out pretty well, clearly. Good luck with your move!
Good luck with catching up with your review backlog! I have a few I would like to get done, and a few that will probably never be reviewed and I am good with that!
Looking forward to seeing your book haul!
Marg @ The Intrepid Reader recently posted…This week…
Actually, all my reviews are already written. Just I don’t post them all at once — if I did that right now, it’d be 51 in a single day! 🙂 I try to trickle them out, and it can be useful to have a backlog ready, but this is perhaps a tad too many.
Yes to treating yourself to books! I am looking forward to seeing what you got!
I went nuts on non-fiction, ahaha. I’m hoping for a fiction spree soon too…
A history of the world according to shipwrecks? I’m really curious to see what you thought of that one when you get around to reviewing it! (Don’t rush on my account, but I’m curious. I do enjoy history books that take a narrow focus like that.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Voyage of the Damned readalong ~ week one catch-up
I really liked it! There was a similar one I read recently that was meh, but I liked this one a lot.