Oof, another long week, but here we are on the other side!
Books acquired this week
This week I’ve been blessed with a couple of review copies from Hachette/Orbit, one of them being extremely exciting to me: the new Ann Leckie!
I’m hoping to dig into both pretty soon; I’ve been meaning to read more of Fonda Lee’s work as well, though I think Radiant Star is likely to jump the queue straight onto my currently-reading pile, ahaha.
I also “had to” grab a book to fill out an order for express delivery (oh no), so I picked up a highly anticipated non-fiction:
I’m excited to dig into this as well: I’ve always been fascinated with Pompeii, and (to the complaints of my traveling companion) thoroughly explored every area tourists had access to when I visited.
Finally, I’ve been trying to keep up my explorations of poetry, despite the sad news about Carol Rumens (editor of the Guardian‘s poetry column, which I’d been using to give me ideas). So here’s a couple of books I borrowed from the National Poetry Library:
Posts from this week:
I’ve kept up with posts pretty well, so there’s plenty to highlight. Starting with the reviews:
- Fantasy novella: Fate’s Bane, by C.L. Clark (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
- Fantasy light novel: Solo Leveling, vol 3, by Chugong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Non-fiction: Ramesses the Great: Egypt’s King of Kings, by Toby Wilkinson (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
- Poetry: Felicity, by Mary Oliver (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
- Non-fiction: How Flowers Made Our World, by David George Haskell (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
As ever, these aren’t a reflection of my reading week — often the reviews I post are of books I finished a couple of months ago, depending on the genre. See below for this week’s reads!
First, though, there have been some non-review posts, though Let’s Talk Bookish is currently on hiatus. Here’s the roundup:
- Fantasy with Friends: Further Reading
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Picked Up On A Whim
- What Are You Reading Wednesday
What I’m reading:
I’m still not up to my normal reading speed, but I added a little daily habit for this month that I’m hoping will at least keep things moving: every day, I read at least 15 minutes of whichever book I’m closest to finishing. That has been pretty effective so far, whittling down my currently-reading pile from 30 to 26 since the start of the month. That said, I think I’m going to undo all that work this weekend by starting new books, ahaha.
In any case, here are the books I’ve finished this week!
It’s been a pretty good week for reading! I’m not sure what I’ll focus on this weekend, honestly. I think the book I’m next-closest to finishing is Ai Jiang’s A Palace Near the Wind, so probably I’ll spend some time with that, and I probably want to start Radiant Star and The Lost Voices of Pompeii.
I’ve had a busy and weird couple weeks, though, so I’ll probably mostly follow whatever urge hits me: I’m keen to read more of Kate Strasdin’s Dressing the Queen, for instance.
Hope everyone’s been having a good week, and I wish you all a nice weekend!
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.
I’ve still not managed to read anything by Ann Leckie, although I keep adding her books to my Goodreads shelf, lol. Hope you have a great weekend!
I love her work! Though I’d probably still start with Ancillary Justice.
I like what little I’ve read of Fonda Lee, but for some reason Ann Leckie and I have never clicked.
S.B. Milne recently posted…Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post
I didn’t click with Ancillary Justice at first, but… then something did fall into place, and I’ve enjoyed most of her work since, though I didn’t love Translation State as much. (Interestingly I loved Provenance which others found disappointing, so I guess there’s no real consensus here!)
reading more than one book at a time is outside my skill set, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before! I’m imporessed by how many books you juggle.
I’m not sure I’m juggling them very well at the moment, I’d love to whittle it down a bit more, ahaha.
That is still a lot of books to finish in a week! However, I know you are wanting to get back to your normal amount of reading, and I hope you are able to do so soon. Have a good weekend!
Cindy’s Book Corner recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #211 Sunday Post #208 Sunday Salon #202
Here’s hoping! It’d be nice, but for that, stuff will need to stop happening, ahaha.
Whoa! Reading 20 something books at one time?! That is a superpower to me lol
At the most I typically keep to one ebook and one audiobook at a time.
The Lost Voices of Pompeii sounds super interesting.
Ashley recently posted…Stacking the Shelves – May 9th, 2026
To be fair, most of them are backburnered… but I am doing a fair bit of hopping around.
The Lost Voice of Pompei looks really good! I hope you have a great week ahead!
I’ve been looking forward to it for a while! Here’s hoping it’s as good as it sounds.
I’ve had a weird couple of reading weeks, too, and I’ve only been able to read nonfiction. I hope that changes soon. I’ve really been wanting to read Ann Leckie. I have a book or two of hers here, but I haven’t even opened them yet.
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz recently posted…The Sunday Salon: Reading Nonfiction
Too much going on for me… let’s hope it lets up soon! And I hope you manage to read anything you’re interested in.
Ann Leckie’s really good; I’d definitely start with Ancillary Justice, personally, though I initially bounced off that. I love that trilogy so much.
Hope you have a good week!
Bree @ Bibliophilebree recently posted…Sunday #41
You too!
I love Mary Oliver. 🙂
Her poetry is really great!
I can’t have too many books going at once. Usually just one audio and one ebook. Robin reviewed The Last Contract of Isoko on my blog last Monday. Happy reading !
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I really have too many on the go at the moment, but ah well — I don’t mind it too much.
I haven’t read Fonda Lee or Ann Leckie yet. Those titles do look tempting. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I’ve read a lot more Ann Leckie than Fonda Lee, but I’ve enjoyed both!