What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was a reread of one of Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple books, To Davy Jones Below. It kinda made me think that though the series is fun, I probably don’t want to hold onto my copies once I finish rereading and get on with the books I haven’t read yet. The whole series relies way too much on coincidence: a single person can’t possibly stumble across so many murders. It makes sense for Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne because she sets up as a detective — and the crimes she investigates aren’t all murders — but Daisy is supposed to be a journalist, and not even one who covers murders!

I do want to read the rest of the series, but, yeah, also very aware of the frustrating stuff.

What are you currently reading?

Lots of books at once! I’m trying to finish my bingo card on Litsy, and I’ve ended up with all the remaining books on the go at once, dipping in and out of them as the whim takes me. I’m closest to finishing Molly Conisbee’s No Ordinary Deaths, which… I still have mixed feelings about, since there’s a number of generalisations about how people react to death that make me feel excluded. It’s not the book’s fault, I think; it’s just the fact that I have a recent loss still heavily on my mind.

In the non-fiction department, I’m also reading Victoria Shepherd’s Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside (which I think actually doesn’t have enough material about the hoard itself to make a book out of, so has expanded into discussing a lot of other related stuff). I’m less close to finishing this, but I think I will finish it in time to check it off the bingo card.

As far as fiction goes, I need to finish T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, Caitlin Rozakis’ The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, and Lex Croucher’s Gwen & Art Are Not In Love. I think I’ll manage to finish all three, but I’m struggling a little bit with Gwen & Art, partly just because the Arthurian references feel clunky. Since my MA dissertation was on Arthurian myth, that kind of thing is very distracting for me.

I am also reading a couple of books that aren’t on the bingo card, though you might (justifiably) wonder how I fit it in. Mostly, I reaaally want to finish up Rachel Harrison’s Cackle, which I’m enjoying; it’s a really odd mix of cosy and whoops-that’s-really-freaky, but in an enjoyable way. I’m also enjoying Carwyn Graves’ Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, not least because it refers to the Welsh as an indigenous culture (since people don’t often recognise it).

What will you read next?

The eleventh volume of the Solo Leveling manhwa! Mum just got me it and it arrived yesterday (though I hadn’t realised at first), and volume ten has kind of a cliffhanger. It’s not that I really think anyone’s going to beat Jinwoo, at this point, but I am curious how he’s going to manage.

I also have a few books that I’ve started but backburnered when I decided to gun for a blackout on my bingo card, so I’d like to get back to Pagans (James Alistair Henry), even though I’m feeling a bit uncertain about the worldbuilding, and dig deeper into Michael John Lewis and David Musgrove’s The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry.

…I promise you, this isn’t even nearly the highest number of books I’ve had on the go at one time. This is positively restrained by my standards.