Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 23, 2025 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

Happy weekend! I must admit, I’m looking forward to it: despite having a day off for my birthday, it’s been a weird and tiring week, in part because I got my exam results. I’m proud to announce that I will soon be graduating with merit for my MSc in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I just missed a distinction, too, so given everything that’s happened this year, I’m very proud of what I achieved.

But now it’s definitely time to chill.

Books acquired this week

This week was my birthday, so of course I got spoiled! I think I’ll split things into multiple posts, just because oof, there’s quite a bit, and I also had a library haul too. I think for this week, I’ll start by showing off the fiction books my wife got me for my birthday, and my library haul.

So first up, the birthday gifts that were fiction!

Cover of Peerless vol 1 by Meng Xi Shi Cover of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley Cover of Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry Cover of Reignclowd Palace by Philippa Rice

Cover of Cackle by Rachel Harrison Cover of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Palace of Illusions by Rowena Miller

Quite the haul, I know! I’ve seen reviews from several blogs I follow about most of these lately, so I’m looking forward to reading them. Peerless was recommended by a fellow danmei lover on Discord, though, and Reignclowd Palace just caught my eye with the pretty cover (and I liked the first chapter), so I added it to my wishlist.

Aaand here’s the library haul, too!

Cover of Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes, by Shahidha Bari Cover by Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Lucy Johnstone Cover of 100 Dresses by The Costume Institute

Cover of Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service, by Devin Leonard Cover of The Post Book by Vincent Schouberechts Cover of Strange Houses by Uketsu

I’d put Strange Houses on hold, since I really liked Strange Pictures (such a weird book, but fascinating), and the others were somewhat random picks that happened to be close together in the non-fiction section. The postal books will probably get reviewed for Postcrossing’s blog.

Next week I’ll show off the books my sister got me for my birthday, the non-fiction my wife got me, and a couple of other books my wife got me to celebrate my exam results!

Posts from this week

First up, the reviews…

And the non-review posts:

What I’m reading

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading this week, including unearthing some stuff that’d been hanging around on my TBR for a while. It was a pretty satisfying week for reading! Here’s the usual sneak peek at the books I finished and intend to review on the blog:

Cover of Devolution by Max Brooks Cover of The Odd Flamingo by Nina Bawden Cover of Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir Cover of Solo Leveling manhwa vol 8 by Dubu

Cover of Solo Leveling manhwa vol 9 by Dubu Cover of Preventable by Devi Sridhar Cover of History in Flames by Robert Bartlett Cover of 100 Dresses by The Costume Institute

For this weekend… well, if I want to finish up my Litsy BookSpin list this month and get a blackout on my bingo card, I need to get back to reading some of the books I’ve got on the go, and start on a couple more! I want to finish Laura Spinney’s Proto, for a start, and maybe start reading Margaret Elphinstone’s The Sea Road.

But as ever, it’s wherever my whim takes me: if it feels like too much pressure, I’ll just read whatever I like. Reading goals aren’t any use if they make you feel like you’re missing out or not having fun.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

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26 responses to “Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post”

  1. Tammy

    Happy birthday and congrats on graduating soon! And your birthday book haul looks great. I loved Shield of Sparrows, and I hope you enjoy everything else too

    Reply
    • Nicky

      Thank you! I’ve started by tucking into Cackle (which I think I added to my wishlist because of your review!) but I’m looking forward to all of them.

      Reply
  3. Harvee

    Happy birthday. You may be a Virgo as I am.
    I am 2/3 of the way through Sgtrange Pictures and looking forward to Strange Houses. Intriguing and very different types of books.

    Reply
    • Nicky

      I had a pretty chill day yesterday, but had a burst of energy and unpacked a bunch of stuff today — but getting stuff organised was nice.

      Reply
    • Nicky

      Thank you!

      And heh, I’ll sometimes do reading goal stuff, but as soon as it isn’t fun, I’m off. Life’s too short to hold myself back from reading something I’m interested in, just because it doesn’t fit a reading prompt, or whatever!

      Reply
  9. sjhigbee

    Double congratulations – on both the birthday and passing your exams. What an achievement! I like the look of many of your books – I’ve yet to add Cackle to my teetering TBR pile, but I’m sure it’ll end up there very soon. I hope the coming week is also fabulous.

    Reply

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