Author: Nicky

Review – Lost Voices of the Nile

Posted August 31, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt

by Charlotte Booth

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 288
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
When we think of ancient Egypt, we think of the gods, the pharaohs and the pyramids. However, life for the average Egyptian was very different from this glorious perception and was not so unrecognisable from the lives we live today. This book tells the history of the ordinary population of ancient Egypt, using the stories of real people - often strange, at times amusing and ultimately very recognisable. Booth introduces us to a number of fascinating people, including Taimhotep, who married a man twice her age and turned to the god Imhotep to help her to conceive a son; Naunakhte, who disinherited her children for neglecting her in her old age; Kenhirkhopshef, a man seemingly obsessed with making lists; and Paneb, the 'bad boy' of Deir el-Medina. History is made up of people and personalities, and each of these characters has a story to tell.

Charlotte Booth’s Lost Voices of the Nile is a pretty thorough discussion of, as the subtitle says, day to day life in ancient Egypt. It does touch on the lives of the rich (especially as we have plentiful evidence for that), but digs through all kinds of sources, not just the tombs of the rich, to figure out what life was like for people of various different social strata in ancient Egypt.

The problem of course is that’s a huge scope: we refer lightly to “ancient Egypt”, but that covers an immense stretch of time. Booth’s pretty good at indicating when the sources she uses come from as well as where and what they are, which helps, but it all adds up to a lot of dense and sometimes dry information… and sometimes there are still inevitable gaps where we’re guessing.

As someone who’s read quite a bit about ancient Egypt, because I never grew out of that phase, I enjoyed a lot and learned a few things — including about the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, plausibly identified as potentially representing a romantic relationship between the two (though other interpretations are discussed for what they’re worth).

Overall, yeah, a good one, with numbered footnotes (which I always prefer as it makes it much easier to check on sources), but maybe a little dry if you’re not super interested in the topic.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Charlotte Booth, history, non-fiction

Fantasy with Friends: Historical Fantasy

Posted August 31, 2026 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Monday again, and I’m back to work after my break, and looking forward to a return to routine! And of course Fantasy with Friends is a part of that routine: all the prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, if you’d like to join in. This week’s prompt is historical fantasy:

What are your thoughts on historical fantasy? Do you enjoy authors adding magic to real events/people or do you think they should stick to using the time setting in general as inspiration? Does historical accuracy matter to you, or are you up for anything if the plot is interesting?

I enjoy historical fantasy — for example, I loved Guy Gavriel Kay’s work in my teens/twenties (I haven’t actually read any recently), and that’s thinly veiled historical fantasy in most cases! And there’s stuff like Marie Brennan’s Onyx Court series, which I didn’t get far with but still want to read, which adds Fae to the politics of the English court. It depends on how well it’s done, of course, like anything, but I like the idea of historical fantasy.

In general, I’m fine with adding magic to the Elizabethan court or vampires to the French Revolution, but I probably draw the line somewhat at events and people in living memory — it just feels weird. Magic in WWII in general, yeah, fine, but I think there are a lot of ways to go really wrong and be really disrespectful with that. The period also isn’t my thing anyway; I prefer my history to be a bit more historical.

More generally, I think one has to be really careful to avoid leaning into othering and stereotypes when dealing with minorities in the past… while also avoiding their erasure. You probably shouldn’t make a foreign-born king into an evil werewolf or a notably queer king into an evil seductive vampire who preys on the young men of his court (for reasons that should be apparent– though such things can also be fertile metaphors for exploring belonging, so I’m not saying it can’t be done well.

I’m not enormously worried about historical accuracy in fantasy: since a lot of the premises are being changed, then a lot of the results would also inevitably change. It helps to create a solid grounding if you have mostly the same monarchs or placenames or whatever, but beyond including enough constants to properly place us in the period you want to evoke… go nuts!

Tags: books, discussion, Fantasy with Friends

Review – Fence, vol 7

Posted August 30, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Fence: Challengers

by C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joanna LaFuente

Genres: Graphic Novels, Romance
Pages: 112
Series: Fence #7
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
EN GARDE!

The beloved sports romance returns from acclaimed writer C.S. Pacat and iconic artist Johanna the Mad, pushing the saga to new competitive heights!

Kings Row are heading into the State Championships as underdog champions, and now have to contend with the best of the best in fencing–including potentially facing Exton themselves. Before they can get there though, they’ll have to get through some of the other top teams, including some old rivals…

I had no idea there was a new volume of C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad’s Fence, but here we are: volume 7, Challengers, which sees Nicholas and Seiji and the rest of Kings’ Row going up against other teams at last. The stakes are high for Nicholas, who wants to be seen by his father at last, and for Seiji, who needs to beat Jesse…

There are a few adorable references to Nicholas and Seiji’s date, sorry, I mean “appointment”, and we also get to watch the whole team grow. It’s cursedly short, is my only complaint! And I could use the slow burn between Nicholas and Seiji ramping up a bit sometime soon, honestly.

“Appointment.” Pft.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, C.S. Pacat, graphic novels, Joanna LaFuente, Johanna the Mad, romance

Review – The Party at No. 5

Posted August 30, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Party at No. 5

by Shelley Smith

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 189
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating:

Synopsis:
Sharing your home with an unwanted guest can be murder.

Elderly Mrs. Rampage lives alone in a large London house full of the antiques and heirlooms she’s collected over the years. But she’s struggling to cope, and as her only daughter lives thousands of miles away, she is persuaded to advertise for a housekeeper and companion. Reluctantly, she accepts the courteous and capable Mrs. Roach into No 5 to help her.

With few possessions of her own, Mrs. Roach is in desperate need of a place to stay, but she soon has her own ideas about how things should be run in the house. And as Mrs. Rampage grows increasingly protective of her knick-knacks, and pushes at the boundaries of her new companion’s personal privacy, the pair’s initially amicable relationship soon turns sour. Before long, both women are thoroughly miserable, but stuck in unhappy coexistence with nowhere else to go. When Mrs. Roach digs in and makes it her duty to stay, the lives of both women become entangled in catastrophic circumstances.

Oof, this one’s a bit tough to rate and review. The Party at No. 5 is the first book I’ve read by Shelley Smith, I think, and I can see that it’s well done: well structured, well planned, with characters that are psychologically realistic (if sometimes a bit exaggerated).

It’s also very difficult to enjoy for me personally, since I just don’t enjoy the Payment Deferred style “someone commits a crime and then tries to conceal it” shenanigans, and I don’t particularly enjoy reading about unpleasant people either. There is a certain satisfaction in watching Mrs Rampage and Mrs Roach unravel, especially the latter, revealing her self-serving thoughts and plans.

It’s also unfortunate that what’s clearly a lesbian relationship between Eleanor and Norah is treated as rather grotesque, and Eleanor’s devotion to Norah is treated as being strange. It isn’t used to justify what happens, at least, but there’s a sense that it’s part of the slow revelation of what Mrs Roach is really like to the reader, and I found it unpleasant.

I ended the book feeling vaguely begrimed and anxious, honestly; I think overall I’m going to have to go with rating based on how much I liked it, as usual, which is “not at all”. That said, for someone more interested in reading for the craft of it, it is well done in its way.

Rating: 1/5 (“didn’t like it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, mystery, Shelley Smith

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 29, 2026 by Nicky in General / 40 Comments

Hello everyone! Back at home, and I have plenty of books to show for my journey! It was lovely to have a break and get away from the usual routine, but it’s also nice to be home.

Books acquired this week

Now the birthday book haul really begins, ahaha. Here are the books my parents got me for my birthday, both non-fiction books I’ve been very interested in reading:

In the case of Beyond Belief, I’d been intrigued since I read New Scientist‘s review, while I’ve generally loved Sue Black’s other books. I’ve finished Beyond Belief already!

As for the book spree, I’m going to break that up into a couple of different posts, mostly by bookshop, because I visited several indies and that gives me a good chance to talk about them. First up, though, the books I got in Forbidden Planet on our first day in Bristol. It’s not as big a shop as in London and there definitely wasn’t as much danmei as I’d hoped, but I still got some new treasures! This spree was a gift from my wife for my birthday, and I took full advantage of the offer, ahaha.

Tammy and Mogsy made me curious about Teddy Bears Never Die, while The Feywild Job has been on my list for a while since it’s by C.L. Polk, so I was glad to pick that up. The Library of Amorlin was a random choice: I’ve heard nothing about it, but it had lovely sprayed edges and the word “library” in the title, so it caught my eye. One of the joys of bookshopping in person is getting to pick up random books you’ve never heard of and just give them a shot.

As for the danmei, I’ve been meaning to try all three of these for a while, and of course I had to pick up the next volume of the Heaven Official’s Blessing manhua.

Not bad for a first day, right? But the next day of the holiday was intended as the real spree over in Bath, and we started at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The staff are always good for a chat about books, though I would warn that the shop is definitely not accessible for anyone in a wheelchair (very narrow with steps), and the neurospicy might not enjoy the fact that all fiction novels are shelved together regardless of genre.

Anyway, I found myself a few new friends in Mr B’s, as expected! My wife covered these as well, because I’m super spoiled.

The first three are non-fiction; I’d wanted The English House and This Golden Fleece for a while… while of course Everybody’s Perfect is Jo’s latest, and there’s no way I could resist.

I’ll call a halt there, and tell you next week about Topping & Company (also in Bath) and the new-to-me Love Stories (in Cardiff).

Posts from this week

Despite being away all week, I had plenty of posts queued up ready for me to just hit “post”, so there’s lots to round up as usual! Starting with reviews:

Poetry: Obit, by Victoria Chang (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Non-fiction: A History of Booksellers and the Bookshop, by Jean-Yves Mollier (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy romance: Wooing the Witch Queen, by Stephanie Burgis (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Sci-fi mystery: The Album of Dr. Moreau, by Daryl Gregory (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Non-fiction: How Queer Bookshops Changed the World, by A.J. West (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Poetry: Eleanor Among the Saints, by Rachel Mann (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
Fantasy/romance manga: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, vol 6, by Kazuki Irodori (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And of course, the discussion posts/linkups/etc:

Oof, that was a lot!

What I’m reading

Despite the travel, I have managed to fit in some reading time, because we planned our days with lots of downtime for reading. I did struggle to settle down to the book choices I’d brought with me, and ended up abandoning both my BookSpinBingo list and my 20 Books of Summer, and just letting myself read whatever, which helped me get unstuck.

Here’s a quick peek at the books I finished this week:

You can click the thumbnails to get a view of the full covers!

As for this weekend ahead, I’m a bit tired from the travel and because I wasn’t well on Thursday night (just a flare-up of complications from my long-ago gallbladder removal, I’m okay now!), but we’ll see… I’m in the mood for more classic crime, and have added a couple more by authors I haven’t tried yet on Kobo Plus. And then, of course, there’s all the new books!

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.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga), vol 6

Posted August 28, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

by Kazuki Irodori, Yatsuki Wakutsu

Genres: Fantasy, Manga, Romance
Pages: 176
Series: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga) #6
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
It was just a normal day when a workaholic office worker was dragged through a portal to another world. Of course, the first thing he requested was a job—which is how Kondou’s career in the Royal Accounting Department began. Now, as Vice Director, Kondou finds himself out of his depth, embroiled in a plot involving the church’s finances and state secrets, all the while missing his dashing knight captain. But when Aresh returns from a successful expedition only to mysteriously collapse, it might be up to our intrepid bean counter to save the day…

Volume six of Kazuki Irodori’s manga adaptation of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter contains some really really sweet moments, as Seiichirou discovers that Aresh’s absence makes his own feelings very clear. The fact that Aresh is a big romantic is no surprise, and Seiichirou will always be a pragmatist above all… but the imbalance in their feelings is starting to even out, and there are some super cute scenes.

The plot also continues apace, of course, with Seiichirou targeted by someone from within the church, and Seiichirou’s investigation beginning to reveal that something’s off about all of that.

It’s still apparent that Aresh thinks they’re in a romance novel (not even realising that the attack on Seiichirou is targeted until it comes up as a matter of course in conversation) while Seiichirou is in a fantasy novel with political intrigue, which is also kind of funny. I’ve forgotten exactly how the situation plays out in the church and how it leads into Aresh’s dramatic next actions, from the light novel, but I look forward to getting there in the manga too.

(Still, in the meantime… maybe a little reread.)

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Kazuki Irodori, manga, romance, SF/F, Yatsuki Wakutsu

Book Blogger Hop: The Hook

Posted August 28, 2026 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

It’s Friday, so it’s time for the Book Blogger Hop again, hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer. I’ve made my own image from a stock photo (credit: Anna Shvets) to avoid adding images created via generative AI to my blog. Feel free to use it too if you would like!

This week’s prompt is about what grabs you in any given book:

What grabs you and keeps you hooked in a book?

With non-fiction, generally the topic matters most. I’ve found myself interested in food history and fashion history, less because I’m interested in food or fashion per se, and more because you can get a surprising amount of contextual understanding of a given period/culture/etc by reading about its food and fashion. So, when it comes to non-fiction I love books that use things like that to show me a bigger slice of history than you’d expect — like using poems to do a history of England (like A History of England in 25 Poems), or carpets to do a history of the world (like Threads of Empire, although I haven’t finished that yet).

When it comes to science, given my background I’m pretty much always going to be hooked by human biology, microbiology, virology, etc.

I went with non-fiction first because that felt easier to answer, but when it comes to fiction… I think it comes down to something I complain about sometimes with books that don’t convince me: make me believe there’s a meaningful world outside of your story. I often talk about this when talking about fantasy worlds: I don’t need to see the magic schools of the main city of your fantasy, but a few references to them help flesh out your world. I don’t need to see weird creatures in the story, as long as I know they’re there — or might be.

But really, the same goes for any fiction: I don’t need to know who the girl at the corner shop is dating, but I ought to be able to believe she does something other than ring up the protagonist’s purchases — if not because of detail about her specifically, then just because the background characters as a whole give that impression. We don’t need to know the protagonist’s family tree in detail, but the author ought to know it, or convince us that they do in the way they write and the details they do give.

All of these things help give life to the action and help the reader suspend disbelief.

That said, it’s not the only component of a compelling read for me: the main characters are also super important. I don’t have to like them, and they definitely don’t have to make consistently good choices, but I have to believe they are people who have thoughts and feelings, and whose fates matter.

That said, likeable characters help a lot.

In the end, sometimes sheer writing skill alone can hold me: when I first read Raymond Chandler’s work, I barely followed the mystery plots, but I was all-in on his prose and his “shop-worn Galahad”, a phrase which has stuck with me as being perfect ever since (though it’s far from his only great line).

Maybe the key is just doing something really, really well, and demonstrating it early.

Tags: Book Blogger Hop, books, discussion

Review – Eleanor Among the Saints

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Eleanor Among the Saints

by Rachel Mann

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 80
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
In her second collection, Mann wrestles with the questions and possibilities raised when trans identity, faith and the limits of myth and language intersect and are tested. Eleanor Among the Saints is a study in the queer joy found in counter-factuals and fantasy, shaped through the prism of the disputed story of Eleanor Rykener, a medieval trans woman, seamstress and sex worker.

I got very irritated by aspects of the style in Rachel Mann’s Eleanor Among the Saints (omitting many definite and indefinite articles, for instance), but there were times it definitely managed to borrow the sound of scripture very effectively, and it often felt like it’d be very rich to read aloud, and to dig deep into and dissect with close reading — even if I didn’t enjoy it very much per se in and of itself.

I did love learning a little about John/Eleanor Rykener as a result of having read this; I appreciated the explanatory note afterwards, and the exploration of the details we know about Rykener’s life and what that might’ve been like. What she (I say she though it is always difficult to know how someone may have identified if they’d had the modern conception of gender to begin with) thought and felt, how she may have conceived of herself… we know very little, and Mann embroiders a lot.

I guess overall this is one I found more interesting than likeable, but I’m glad I gave it a shot.

I’m also feeling confirmed in this opinion because I watched Rachel Mann’s appearance on last year’s alumni University Challenge and found her so annoying in the way she behaved toward her team members. Not as annoying as people who break the rules and confer when they aren’t allowed to, but pretty dang annoying.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: book reviews, books, poetry, Rachel Mann

Review – How Queer Bookshops Changed the World

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

How Queer Bookshops Changed the World

by A.J. West

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 336
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
The remarkable tale of how queer bookshops built communities, nourished minds, redefined literature – and changed the world.

For over a century, LGBTQ+ bookshops have been the unsung heroes of queer liberation.

Home not only to books but chaotic community noticeboards, vicious rescue cats and countless meet cutes, queer bookshops have always been more than just bookshops, offering friendship, solidarity and sanctuary.

Travelling the world – Shakespeare and Company in Paris, Gay’s the Word in London, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York – A. J. West explores the remarkable history of these bookstores. Tracing their evolution from under-the-counter operations to beloved out-and-proud institutions, West reveals how the queer bookshop stood at the vanguard of LGBTQ+ rights, offering support and vital information through the AIDS crisis and bringing the fight to Section 28 and book bans.

A powerful testament not only to bookshops but to the courage of queer booksellers, from Sylvia Beach hiding books from the Nazis in laundry baskets to Craig Rodwell facing off against the police at the Stonewall riots, A. J. West celebrates the shops and booksellers that brought queer literature and lives into the mainstream.

Bookshops covered include: The Highlander & Dove, The Librarie Parisienne, Shakespeare and Company, City Lights Bookstore, The London Underground, Adonis Bookstore, The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, Glad Day, Lambda Rising, Giovanni’s Room, A Different Light, Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, A Woman’s Place Bookstore, Womanbooks, Sisterwrite, Modern Books, Housmans Bookshop, Prinz Eisenherz, Gay’s The Word, Lavender Menace & West and Wilde, Vrolijk, Silver Moon, London, The Bookshop Darlinghurst, Paperxclips, Gay-on-Wye, Gayberystwyth Books.

A.J. West’s How Queer Bookshops Changed the World is a history of the concept of the queer bookshop, as well as a chronicle of how queer bookshops have changed the world. The back of the book has a bit of a run-down of queer bookshops that exist now — hopefully non-exhaustive, but still including some queer bookshops I personally know of, like Portal Bookshop — while the chapters deal with mostly one or two bookshops at a time, discussing their impact on their communities and the people around them.

Inevitably, it’s an emotional journey, because it touches on homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, etc. It shows how queer bookshops have been at the heart of things all along, from Stonewall to AIDs to section 28 (which shouldn’t have applied to bookshops as they were not local authorities!) to now. Sometimes it’s easy to feel like things are secure now, that those were the bad old days, but I know that queer bookshops receive homophobic and transphobic abuse right now.

A.J. West recounts the history with sympathy and awe, highlighting the ways queer bookshop owners and operators have gone above and beyond, have been key to the political push for queer equality, and have held their communities together — and even supported others, as in the case of the queer collective who supported the miners’ strikes.

A few sections made me choke up a bit, discussing Gay’s the Word’s persecution by the police, the responses of various queer bookshops to dealing with AIDs, the queer man in Aberystwyth who never came out except to the owners of the queer bookshop. But it’s not all grim: the book celebrates the successes and the radical kindnesses too. All of it must be remembered, because we’re not done yet.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: A.J. West, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction

Review – The Album of Dr. Moreau

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Album of Dr. Moreau

by Daryl Gregory

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Science Fiction
Pages: 176
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Daryl Gregory's The Album of Dr. Moreau combines the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band.

It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)?

Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all the way back to the secret science barge where the WyldBoyZ’ journey first began—a place they used to call home.

I got surprisingly into Daryl Gregory’s The Album of Dr Moreau; I don’t actually remember where I heard about it or why I picked it up, but I know I added it to my Kobo Plus a while ago, and decided to read it on something of a whim. I expected something… I don’t know, less serious, even given the source material and the fact that it’s a sci-fi murder mystery: given the concept of a boyband of animal-human hybrids, which the story fully leans into, it could have been considerably wackier.

But no, it goes for something sincere, even while there are silly animal puns and cutesy bits with Bobby O, the ocelot band member, and with the detective’s kid. By sincere, I definitely don’t mean that it’s po-faced or anything like that: at times it is silly.

But it also engages with the darkness of the original story of Doctor Moreau’s island, and with the seriousness of a murder mystery (even as it rejects T.S. Eliot’s “rules” for detective fiction, which, good). The band members were abused and have been exploited, and the solution to the story comes out of the darkness of the past, one which looms up behind them slowly even as the detective sometimes seems to be dealing with an entire circus.

I don’t think I should say more about the resolution of the story, but overall, I found it pretty satisfying and well done!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Daryl Gregory, mystery, SF/F