Author: Nicky

Review – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Posted December 29, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 12 Comments

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo

I’m not usually one for self-help books and such, and pretty much only read this because I had a reading challenge prompt of reading something in the genre. That said, at least I picked something useful; to a great extent I agree with Marie Kondo’s ideas about minimalism and only owning objects you really love. The suggestions for how to tackle your space are great, and the reminders about not just shipping it off to a parent’s house and so on are important. (That isn’t tidying, it’s cluttering up someone else’s house.) Some of her suggestions about understanding that an object has already fulfilled its purpose were interesting too — I like the idea that a gift has achieved its purpose as soon as you’ve received it, for example.

Some of it gets a little too… woo, for me. I’m not knocking a view of the world that imbues everything with spirit, but it doesn’t work for me, and it sometimes just stretched my credulity too far. If you’re strongly opposed to the idea of talking to your belongings and thanking them for their service, this might not be a good book for you at all — you’d spend too much time scoffing.

I do like the ideas and methods to a great extent, though, and I’ll be keeping that central question in mind as I clean out my wardrobes and such: “Does this spark joy?”

I did stick my fingers metaphorically in my ears and la-la-la through the bit about throwing books away. There were some reasonable points, actually — no matter how excited I was to receive a book back in 2011, if I haven’t even touched it since then, am I really likely to read it? But. But. Books.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

A Game of Books

Posted December 28, 2016 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

I have trouble with reading goals. If I set a number, I’ll find myself racing through books, sticking to shorter books, and ignoring the books I truly want to read. So, I have two plans for next year. Resolutions, I suppose.

The first one: read for joy.

You’d think it’s obvious, but nope. I find myself reading out of a sense of obligation all the time. I don’t reread X because I need to read A in time for the publication date. I don’t read Y because B has been on my list for longer. I don’t read Z because C is shorter, which means I can meet my reading goal faster. And though quite often I enjoy A, B and C, I wanted to read X, Y and Z more.

So my plan for this year is to read whatever brings me joy. I just have another rule — or, well, a game.

Yep. It goes like this: let’s say I normally read about 30 books a month when I’m trying to stick to a reading goal. So we’ll call that… 90 points, if each book is worth 3 points (see below). I want to earn 100 points a month. Each book gets points from a couple of different categories: Acquisition, Length and Joy Factor. I get more points for reading a book I bought back in 2013 than for a book bought in 2017, more points for a 500-pager than a 300-pager, and more points for reading something that felt in any way like a chore.

	Acquisition	Length	Joy Factor
1	2017, borrowed, current ARC, reread	Comic/under 300 pages	MUST READ NOW
2	2015-2016	400+ pages	It can wait
3	2013-2014	500+ pages	I'm not exactly pumped
4	2011-2012	600+ pages	Do I HAVE to?

So say I read Owl and the Japanese Circus, which I got in 2015. I want to read it, but I’m not all grabby-grabby. I only have it as an ebook, so I’ll check the page count on Goodreads… 432. So that’s two points for Acquisition, two for Length, and two for Joy Factor. Six points for the book in total.

If I finally read Glyn Jones’ The Island of Apples, that’s from 2011 (4 points), it’s 256 pages long (1 point) and I’m not very enthused about it (3 points, possibly 4). So that’d get me 8-9 points. I’d only need to read 13 books in that month to hit my goal, but I’d have picked up something from way back in the TBR that I was interested in (because I’ve never bought a book I had no interest in) that I might not have picked otherwise.

The point is that little bit of extra motivation… or not, if all I want to do is devour 30ish books of under 300 pages in length each month.

Also, to give myself some wriggle room, while 100 is the monthly goal — which would mean a yearly goal of 1,200 points — I’m going to make my overall goal 1,000 points, to keep things a bit more relaxed.

Can I do this too?

Sure! Feel free to adapt it however you want, but I’d appreciate a link back here. I’ll be posting updates every month on how I’m doing, and I’ve made a spreadsheet with a template sheet you can copy, edit, whatever. You can find that here! And don’t forget to let me know how you’re doing if you do join in.

And if you can make better graphics, knock yourself out…

Tags: books, Game of Books

Review – Genome

Posted December 28, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley

Genome is somewhat out of date by now, published back in 1999. Bearing that in mind, it was a pretty good read; sometimes, the themes Ridley chose for a particular chapter weren’t all that closely tied to the chromosome he chose, and issues like that, but that’s the problem with our chromosomes. The information isn’t distributed neatly across our chromosomes: in fact, those of us with a Y chromosome have one that does almost nothing overall, despite the fact that it affects carriers’ phenotypes so markedly.

It’s mostly informative and tries hard to avoid reinforcing certain misconceptions — like the idea that a gene codes for a disease, or that things are as simple as a single gene coding for a single trait. A lot of the anecdotes are familiar to me from previous reading, but it’s still interesting to see them presented in this way. It’s pretty modern-human-centric: I mean, if you’re going to look at our autobiography of a species, then I think at least a little time needs to be given to the past of our species. People so often want to know how closely we’re related to Neanderthals.

I think Ridley’s tone is a little dry, though; given that and the fact that the book is a little out of date now, I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and up to date whip around of what we know of genetics. If you have a more general, patient interest, though, why not?

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, science

Review – The Three-Body Problem

Posted December 27, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, trans. Ken Liu

Since this one pipped The Goblin Emperor to the post for a Hugo, I was very curious to read it. Buuut, a bunch of people who normally share my taste in books found it boring and completely flat, so I was a little apprehensive. Part of the problem is, I think, the cultural translation: Ken Liu added some explanations and footnotes, but the tone still isn’t very Western. The writing feels really flat and simple: this character did this. He took something out of his pocket and did something with it. Then he smiled. It doesn’t flow in the same way as most Western writing, to my mind. The translation works in that it keeps a sense of the original, but I’m not sure that was the best decision in terms of an engaging tone in English translation.

I was intrigued by the story, anyway, and honestly loved the way it was thoroughly rooted in Chinese culture and the Cultural Revolution. I didn’t know that much about it, but I enjoyed learning (and doing some extra reading). The Trisolaris sections are rather odd — suddenly Copernicus? Einstein? What? I didn’t understand what exactly was going on with the characters, though the idea of Trisolaris is compelling. The hard SF concepts were… less easy for me to grasp. You’re unfolding a proton into two dimensions? What, why? I’m confused…

But the central conflict, the idea of there being people who have so far given up on humanity that they called to aliens to invade… yes, that is intriguing, and it’s that plot which makes me want to read the next book. It’s more of an ideas book than one about characters, which is usually less appealing to me, but I’m intrigued enough by the plot that I think I will read on.

(Do I think it should have beaten The Goblin Emperor? Not in a million years.)

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, SF/F

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

Is it Tuesday again already? Hope everyone had a good weekend, and a good Christmas if you celebrated! The theme for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is the top books of 2016, so without further ado…

Dinosaurs Without Bones, by Anthony J. Martin. Entertaining and informative, and it’s about dinosaurs. I loved it and it got five stars without hesitation.
City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett. It took me far too long to get around to it, but once I did, I was blown away. And my wife just devoured it in two days, so it’s a winner around here.
City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett. Again, super awesome. I can’t wait for City of Miracles.
Vicious, by V.E. Schwab. I know I’m late to the V.E. Schwab train, but I’ve been making up for it this year. I think Vicious might’ve been my favourite so far.
Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees. I took ages to get round to this one, and I don’t know why. It’s true it’s a little slow, but it’s magical.
In the Labyrinth of Drakes, by Marie Brennan. So satisfying, and a certain mystery of the series is solved. I can’t believe the next book is the last.
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande. Powerful and clear-sighted about critical issues. It’s not an easy read, and enjoyment might be the right word, but I appreciated it a lot.
In the Forests of Serre, by Patricia A. McKillip. Another magical one, and one of my favourites of McKillip’s work that I’ve read so far.
Planetfall, by Emma Newman. This only got four stars, but it’s been on my mind since I finished it.
The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard. Also a four-star read, but it has to be mentioned since it made me utterly forget about my dinner one evening; my dinner went cold as I read 250 pages.

I’m looking forward to seeing other people’s lists, but it’ll probably be terrible for my TBR pile…

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – A Monster Calls

Posted December 26, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness, Jim Kay, Siobhan Dowd

This book came highly recommended: before I ever even considered picking it up, I must have seen half a dozen posts from friends giving it four and five stars. Even the tough guys in my acquaintance also mentioned how touching they found it. So I was more or less prepared.

To me, the actual story is reasonably predictable. I guessed the content of Conor’s nightmare, for example, and the ultimate motive of the yew tree monster. For all that, the book remains powerful: Conor’s isolation, his reactions to his mother’s cancer, all come across perfectly; he feels like a real kid, bearing up under something horrible. He’s not artificially sympathetic: he does the dishes and hangs out the laundry for his sick mother, but he also has a destructive anger inside him. He’s ungrateful towards a friend and vindictive towards those around him… But he’s also alone and coping badly with a situation he isn’t adult enough for. This isn’t saccharine-sweet: he’s a kid, and he acts like one. He’s mature in some ways and not in others.

The real payoff here is the ending; the yew tree is interesting, the stories it tells, and it’s true there are some truths in fairy tales and fables. But it’s what the yew tree does for Conor, and what he then does with that understanding, which really makes this book hit home. I know why the tough guys who read it might’ve cried. That resolution is beautifully done, whatever I think of how obvious the lead-up was.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books

Review – Death of a Unicorn

Posted December 25, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Death of a Unicorn, Peter Dickinson

I knew going in that this was a mystery novel, and not actually fantasy — however the title might make it sound. But it doesn’t actually seem like much of a mystery novel, either, for pretty much the whole first section. It’s kind of fun in a voyeuristic sort of way — young debutante becomes gossip writer for a magazine — but the whole thing didn’t quite work for me. The narration jumps around, I didn’t like the characters, I didn’t think the footnotes were well done (they work even less well than usual when you read something in ebook format).

Before long, I found myself skimming, and not long after that, I just didn’t care at all. I think Dickinson wrote some fantasy, and I’d be a bit more interested in trying that, considering that he was married to Robin McKinley and did some writing with her as well.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books

Review – Predictably Irrational

Posted December 24, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely

If the brain is predictably irrational, then the books which warn us we aren’t the rational creatures we hope are also predictable. I don’t think there was a single circumstance in Ariely’s book I wasn’t already aware of from one experiment or another, one summary or another. That said, Predictably Irrational is well written and easy to digest; there’s no technobabble, and everything is presented in a very readable and readily understandable format. It’s not Dan Ariely’s fault that I’ve read all this stuff before.

If you don’t know much about the topic of the way our brains work, and how counter-intuitive it sometimes is, then this is a good place to start. Unfortunately, that means I don’t have much to say about it — it didn’t hold any surprises for me.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction

Unstacking the Shelves

Posted December 24, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

It’s nearly Christmas! I can’t wait to give my family their presents — and this is my wife’s first Christmas spent with us, too. It’s gonna be awesome. In the meantime, I’ve been reading a ton. Yay!

For those new to the Bibliophibian, Unstacking the Shelves is when I feature the books I’ve read in the past week, because I don’t have any new ones to show off! I know it’s not what people usually do, but I super appreciate it when people leave a relevant comment instead of just copy/pasting a message telling me to enjoy my haul. Thank you!

Finished this week:

The first row of these are rereads, but the others were all new and four were ARCs, so definitely good progress.

Reviews posted this week:
–Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, by Joyce Tyldesley. Informative about a figure who is honestly mostly myth in general knowledge, and also about the time in which she ruled. 4/5 stars
–Terra, by Mitch Benn. It’s cuuute. And fun. 4/5 stars
–This is Your Brain on Music, by David Levitin. I feel like I don’t really understand music enough for this book, though the neurological stuff is interesting. 3/5 stars
–The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue. Eh. Good on historical details, meh on the characters. 2/5 stars
–The Talisman Ring, by Georgette Heyer. Still a very fun adventure/romance. 5/5 stars
–Natural Causes, by James Oswald. This was a weird genre-crossing one, entertaining enough but not something I’m interested in continuing to read. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: A Very Bookish Christmas. Because of course.

Hope you all have a very good Christmas, if you celebrate, and a warm and safe weekend if you don’t!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Natural Causes

Posted December 22, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Natural Causes, James Oswald

I’m not entirely sure why I originally picked this up; I think it might have been one of those deals where you can get a book for £2.99 if you buy The Telegraph, or whichever other newspaper. At the time, I was regularly buying the newspaper for my grandmother, and if her choice of paper wasn’t available, I’d pick something else more or less at random. A newspaper that offers a cheap book alongside it is always going to win with me, of course.

Anyway, so I knew little about this book going in. It seems to have caused no little frustration for some people: though marketed as a crime fiction novel, in fact the cause of the murders turns out to be supernatural. The murder can’t be solved unless you assume the presence of a demon which jumps between different people’s bodies, despite the fact that the rest of the story builds up clear chains of evidence, links together cases, etc. I don’t mind that, but I do think there’s a bit of a sense this book was mismarketed — though equally, I don’t think it’d appeal to the more fantastical crowd either. It’s no Rivers of London or Storm Front. The two elements sit oddly side by side here, and to me, it’s not clear where it’s going to go as a series. Is McLean going to become a supernatural investigator? Or was this the one strange case of his career? Presumably not the latter, since this is the first book of a series, but it’s not obvious.

The pacing is relatively sedate: it feels like a police procedural. I think that’s the problem — it’s a police procedural with supernatural trappings, and that just doesn’t seem to wash. It’d have to be more integrated — something like, to harp on it, Rivers of London.

I’m not that interested in reading other books, though it wasn’t a bad experience. Shades of fridging, though: the main murder victim is an innocent young girl whose case consumes the inspector’s thoughts because of her youth and innocence, a young PC dies to protect the main character (presumably mostly for his sense of guilt), and the most important woman in McLean’s life is his comatose grandmother, who dies partway through. Hm.

Rating: 2/5

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