Happy weekend! I have big reading plans again this weekend, even though it’s just a normal weekend, because I really want to clean up my TBR a little before birthday books start rolling in.
Acquired this week
First, before I forget, library books!
The National Poetry Library had a display of Welsh poetry up top for a few weeks, and I added sooo many to my wishlist. In the aftermath of reading Afonydd, I definitely wanted to try the editors’ other bilingual book, and I figured I’d try Ness Owen’s solo collection too.
I’ve also been very lucky with book mail, with a bunch of new books to review: Hachette decided to bless me this week, and I got these three in quick succession! I also got an eARC from Little, Brown, which I’ll slip in here too…
Horror isn’t always my thing, but I’m very tempted by The Sea Hides Its Dead — and of course I’m keen on The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, since it’s Arthurian. (For those who don’t know, I wrote my MA thesis on Sir Kay from Celtic to modern Arthurian stories. I semi-recently talked about some of my favourites!) Hopefully I’ll get to all three of these soon.
And of course, given how much I loved A Letter to the Luminous Deep and its sequel, I’m excited by Sylvie Cathrall’s new book!
Finally, a preorder came in, almost right after I finished the previous book:
Obviously I’m keen to get started on this!
Posts from this week
It’s been a busy week again around here, so here’s the round-up in case of anything you’ve missed. Reviews first:
- Non-fiction: How to Kill a Language, by Sophia Smith Galer (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Poetry: Afonydd, ed. Sian Northey & Ness Owen (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
- Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 1, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
- Fantasy romance: The Wife Comes First, vol 1, by Lv Ye Qian He (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Fantasy novella: Find Me Where It Ends, by Cassandra Khaw (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
- Children’s book: How Animals Sleep, by Jiří Dvořák (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
As ever, most of these aren’t books I finished that recently — I hold back reviews to try to give y’all a mixture to read, rather than dump reviews for all volumes of Cat + Gamer on you in the space of a week, ahaha.
There were also some other posts, as ever, so here we go with those:
- Fantasy with Friends: Tropes in Children’s Fantasy
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Live in my Head Rent-Free
- What Are You Reading Wednesday
- Book Blogger Hop: Fastest/Slowest
What I’m reading
Last weekend I took a long weekend, partly for catching up with housework and getting some specific bigger tasks done (woooo, I have a little shed for storing my bike in now!), but it also meant some really good reading time, so I started the week off very well. I slowed down toward the end of the week, but still preeeetty good.
As ever, here’s the sneak peek of what I’ve been reading and got finished this week!
My big plans for the weekend include finishing up Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars, reading my new danmei (The Wife Comes First, vol 3) and working on some of my review books, like Megan Bontrager’s The Sea Hides Its Dead and Becky Chambers’ As You Wake, Break the Shell.
Buuut as always it’ll depend on my whim!
Hope everyone else has a great weekend, and looking forward to doing the rounds and dropping by all your blogs.
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 just received The Art of Charming a Changling too. And I debated requesting The Sea Hides Its Dead, but I was trying to be good Have a lovely reading weekend, it seems like you have lots of good books!
So far I think you might be okay missing The Sea Hides Its Dead, ahaha. The writing quality is… uneven.
The Art of Charming a Changling has such a pretty cover! Hope you enjoy all your new additions and have a wonderful week!
I find our indigenous languages so interesting, even if most of what I know relates to Scottish languages, so that Welsh poetry sounds really fascinating!
Keira @Keira’s Bookmark recently posted…July Book Haul
I definitely recommend Afonydd! I was less keen on A470 but it’s still really well done, and I liked Ness Owen’s solo collection too.
The Sea Hides Its Dead and The Harbour of Hungry Ghosts sound tantalizing!
Olivia recently posted…Weekly Reading Update 7-25-2026
The Sea Hides Its Dead turned out okay, though I have some quibbles with the writing style; I haven’t started Harbour of Hungry Ghosts yet and don’t know a ton about it, but I’m definitely curious!
Yay for fun book mail! Have a good week.
Cindy’s Book Corner recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #218 Sunday Post #215 Sunday Salon #209
It was a bit overwhelming but happy-making, hahaha. Hope you have a good week too!
Harbor has such a stunning cover. A Family of demon hunters sounds really excellent.
Cosmic recently posted…2026 Mid Year Freakout Book Tag!
Yeah, it’s a pretty one! I don’t know a lot about it yet, but I’m curious to dig in.
Your reading weekend sounds wonderful, and I hope you make a good dent in your TBR before the birthday books start arriving! You always have such an interesting mix of books, and I hope you enjoy The Sea Hides Its Dead if you pick it up. Happy Reading!
Kat -Forever Book Lover recently posted…Sunday Recap #4 – Blind Picks & Summer Roads
Here’s hoping, I’ve been snowed under by books this year — which is a nice problem to have, but a tad overwhelming!
I had reservations about The Sea Hides Its Dead but it was an interesting read.
These covers look pretty sick! The Art of Charming a Changeling looks awesome.
Thank you for stopping by my post 🙂
Have a great week!
Ashley Kittrell recently posted…Stacking the Shelves – July 25th, 2026
I’m looking forward to that one, I loved Sylvie Cathrall’s debut and the sequel to it!
Thanks for dropping by. 🙂
I love seeing the variety of books on your blog – they are all so interesting. I hope you have a great week ahead.
Steph recently posted…Building the Book Pile #523
Hehe, I certainly don’t stick to one genre, that’s for sure. Thanks for dropping by!
I’ve just got hold of the second book in The Sunken Archives series after realising that for some reason – I’d missed out on getting hold of it. And I loved the first one. The Art of Charming a Changeling looks great:). Have a lovely week.
Ahhh hope you enjoy it! It took me a while to decide what I thought of it (especially since at the start it didn’t seem like it was following the same characters) but I really liked it once I settled in.
Looks like a great week you have there. I just love the cover for “wife comes first” and hope you enjoy that one there.
Thanks! I did, I devoured it this weekend, haha.
I hope you enjoy your books. They all look good. Have a great week!
Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews recently posted…The Weekend Review – July 25th-27th
Thanks! I had a good weekend, so that’s a good start.
Zoology has an interesting cover! Hope you have a good week.
Bree @ Bibliophilebree recently posted…Sunday #52
Thanks! So far so good.
I loved Ode to the Half-Broken. Happy reading.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I enjoyed it too. It was one of the books I finished last week. 🙂
Yay for your bike shed! And The Sea Hides Its Dead looks so good!
I didn’t totally love The Sea Hides Its Dead (though the cover design is really cool), but it was an interesting read, I think.
The Art of Changing a Changeling sounds like a fun read!
Have a great week!
Marg @ The Intrepid Reader recently posted…This week…
I’m looking forward to it, I liked Sylvie Cathrall’s debut and the sequel to it a lot, so I want to get started soon!
You have such a mix of different books, neat! I need to expand my interests but I gravitate back to the same authors and topics. Have a great week!
ShellieJ recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #98
There’s a place for that too! Sometimes I do the same, haha.
Yes, we must always rely on going wherever our whims take us, reading-wise. I like the look of the Sylvie Cathrall book. You certainly got some interesting-looking books in from publishers this week.
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz recently posted…The Sunday Salon: Fun with Turtles, Snakes, and Alligators
It was an embarrassment of riches, really! I don’t normally get that many review copies.
The Sylvie Cathrall book looks charming.
Thanks for sharing your week, happy reading!
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read
I’m looking forward to that one, I loved Cathrall’s debut!
Oh so many great picks in your book mail! I want to read them all even Harbour of Hungry Ghosts which I’ve not heard of before just now! haha knew you are a huge fan of Arthurian stories but I didn’t realize you’d written a thesis in that field, how awesome!
Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders recently posted…It’s Monday, Let’s Catch Up │#20
I haven’t seen people talking much about Harbour of Hungry Ghosts yet, but I’m very curious about it!