Yep, it’s that time again!

What have you recently finished reading?

I juuust finished Daniel M. Ford’s Advocate last night. It’s the third book in a series, and there are definitely still things I’m enjoying about the series, but holy crap Aelis really doesn’t learn. You’d swear there was going to be a narrative arc of her getting less arrogant and less inclined to use other people on her climb upwards, but there’s no sign of it yet. I started to find her massively annoying, and really, if she’s supposed to be so clever then there are several twists she should’ve seen coming.

Anyway, my full review will talk about all that at length, but suffice it to say that I’m somewhat losing my patience with the series.

What are you currently reading?

I have a few things on the go at once, as usual, but my main target at the moment is volume four of The Apothecary Diaries, the light novel version. I’m about a third of the way into it, and it does seem to be going by a bit quicker than the third volume did for me, but I think I might take a little break from the series after this book. I don’t own more of it yet, and I think my brain needs time to consolidate!

More slowly, I’m reading The Book Forger by Joseph Hone, which is interesting — I think I vaguely knew something about the forgeries that Hone is talking about, but nothing about the person who created them, or the people who tracked it down. It’d make good fiction!

What will you be reading next?

First priority: finish Maiga Doocy’s Sorcery and Small Magics and Courtney Smyth’s The Undetectables, or possibly DNF the latter if I’m still not vibing with it. Those are the final books I need to finish my Bookspin Bingo card on Litsy, so after that I’ll probably pursue my whim a bit and do some totally undirected reading. That probably means getting back to my rereads of Vivian Shaw’s Greta Helsing books, and finishing up Roger Hutchinson’s history of the Britain through the census, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker. But we’ll see!

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve been plunging deep into some histories of clothing from the Victoria & Albert Museum. The two I’ve finished were 18-Century Fashion in Detail, by Susan North, and Chinese Dress in Detail, by Sau Fong Chan. They are beautiful and fascinating, and Chinese Dress in Detail is particularly good — though both are just high-level surveys, and constrained by what’s been preserved, what the V&A holds, etc, etc.

I definitely want to read more of this series.

What are you currently reading?

As usual, I’ve started several hares at once. I just started on The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker (more informative subtitle “The story of Britain through its census since 1801”), by Roger Hutchinson, and I’m enjoying that quite a bit. So far it’s mostly talking about the history of the census, rather than strictly speaking what it tells us, but I’m enjoying it a lot.

I’m also reading Christianna Brand’s Cat and Mouse, which is set in Wales and evokes the place quite well (in part because it’s always raining), but so far I’m not really enjoying it. In part it’s the melodramatic tenseness, I think — just not what I enjoy at the moment when I pick up a classic mystery. Not enough distance from the awfulness.

I’m also partway through Eleri Lynn’s Underwear Fashion in Detail, also from the V&A like the books mentioned above, and a reread of Vivian Shaw’s Dreadful Company, having belatedly heard there was a new book coming out (which was duly preordered, just in time, and awaits me after I reread the others).

What will you be reading next?

I don’t know, but probably Daniel M. Ford’s Advocate, T. Kingfisher’s Hemlock & Silver, and a couple of other books that are on my Bookspin Bingo card on Litsy. I started Courtney Smyth’s The Undetectables last week and didn’t vibe with it, but I’m going to give that a bit more of a shot before I decide whether to drop it or just put it back on my TBR for later.

What have you recently finished reading?

Other than my reread of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, the last thing I finished was Molly O’Neill’s Greenteeth, which I really really liked. I don’t want to say too many spoilers, but it worked in some folklore that I love, I enjoyed the narrative voice, and it was a very nice standalone read.

Before that I finished Paladin’s Grace, which I enjoyed a lot — and which has a whole world of other stories to dig my teeth into, which is also nice.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve been somewhat clearing the decks and getting books finished rather than reading a gazillion things at once, but then I keep starting a bunch at the same time. Most actively, I’m reading A Letter from the Lonesome Shore, Sylvie Cathrall’s second book and sequel to A Letter from the Luminous Deep, which I adored. It feels like I’m still finding my feet with the story this time, but I’m still enjoying it a lot.

I’m also reading The Cleopatras, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones’ work that covers not just “the” Cleopatra, but the other Cleopatras of her family, starting with Cleopatra I (Cleopatra Syra). I have never read a lot about the Ptolemaic dynasty before, so this is fun.

What will you read next?

I’ll switch gears and more actively read Maiga Doocy’s Sorcery and Small Magics, for a start, which I do have on the go but haven’t got very far into yet. Other than that, I want to read the fourth light novel in Natsu Hyuuga’s The Apothecary Diaries series, and maybe read some more of the manga (since apparently that helps follow some of the twistier bits of plot). I also want to read Daniel M. Ford’s Advocate, and Courtney Smyth’s The Undetectables, and generally take advantage of the fact that despite everything feeling busy, I’m very eager to read right now.

Oh, and tomorrow or at least soon I should have volume one of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, which should be fun!

Wednesday again! This week is a bit busier, but I’m trying to keep plenty of time for reading…

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up reading Metropolitan Mysteries yesterday, another anthology of more-or-less classic crime stories in the British Library Crime Classics series, and edited as usual by Martin Edwards. I’ve said quite a few times before that I find these collections to be more than the sum of their parts, really: each story in and of itself might be entertaining, but it’s in being collected together as a survey of a subject that makes them most interesting to me (as someone who studied the development of crime fiction as a genre, albeit only as an undergrad).

What are you currently reading?

Quite a few things at once, no surprises there. I just read a chapter of The Magic Books (Anne Lawrence-Mathers), which is only mildly interesting to me in that “magic” mostly meant semi-religious astrology — so a lot of the discussion around these manuscripts is about acceptability to the church, which gets a bit repetitive. It’s hard to say what else I hoped for, because it certainly focuses on the contents of the manuscripts too, but I think the answer is just that sadly I don’t find these particular manuscripts that interesting.

I’m also reading volume three of The Apothecary Diaries, the light novel version. I’m noticing a lot of confusion about the difference between manga and light novels on my blog, so to be clear, they’re not the same thing. Light novels are prose, though usually with a few illustrations (though my ebook copy of My Happy Marriage didn’t have any), as opposed to manga/manhua/manhwa which are essentially comics. Sometimes a light novel gets adapted into a manga; The Apothecary Diaries has been adapted twice, in fact, and there’s a further spin-off manga as well. The volume numbers don’t match up: the story from the first volume of the light novel is covered in volumes 1-4 of the manga, if I understand correctly.

Anyway, I haven’t read much of the manga, but I’m enjoying the light novels! Maomao is a lot of fun as a character.

Other than that, I’ve just started on The Banquet Ceases, by Mary Fitt, a queer mystery writer based in Wales who as far as I know the British Library Crime Classics series hasn’t seen fit (ha) or haven’t been permitted to republish, but luckily, Moonstone Press have. I’m not very far into it yet, but it seems very “classic” in setup (though that word is getting a bit tired/ill-defined around mystery/crime).

And! I’m also reading Paladin’s Grace, by T. Kingfisher. It slipped onto the backburner a bit, but I’m enjoying it.

What will you be reading next?

I really need to get round to starting A Letter from the Lonesome Shore, by Sylvie Cathrall. I begged for a review copy, so I’d really best get round to it! I’m excited for it, though I sort of feel tempted to reread the first book… but really, I didn’t read it that long ago, I should be able to pick up the threads. We’ll see, I might reread it anyway, just for fun.

Yay, time to talk about books! As if I ever stop, ahaha.

What have you recently finished reading?

Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption, which I adored. I originally had an ARC, but then life happened (my wife broke an ankle and my grandmother died), so I didn’t get round to it until I bought the finished copy last week — but believe me, I was eager for it, because I really liked the first book. It’s such a rich and inventive world, and does much more than “Sherlock Holmes in a fantasy setting” might make you think.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve actually been finishing books quite quickly, so there’s nothing lingering around that hasn’t been lingering around for a while already. This morning I started on Anne Lawrence-Mathers’ The Magic Books: A History of Enchantment in 20 Medieval Manuscripts, which I expect will take a while (the Bookly app says four more hours, which is a lot for me). So far it’s mostly about works relating to astrology, which isn’t quite what I think of when I think of magic/enchantment, but I’m curious to read more anyway.

What will you read next?

I just got an ARC of A Letter from the Lonesome Shore, by Sylvie Cathrall. I adored the first book and could barely put it down, so this is high on my list. I’m also very tempted by T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Grace, though, and The Baby Dragon Café (A.T. Qureshi). I feel like I could do with something lighter before I plunge into A Letter from the Lonesome Shore — I have quite the “book hangover” from A Drop of Corruption. Daniel M. Ford’s Advocate is another ARC I’m late to read, and I just finished the previous book Necrobane, so that’s somewhere on my “next up” list too.

In sum… who knows? I’ll read something, that’s for sure: I’m very much in a reading mood!