Category: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted July 23, 2025 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

Cover of Clockwork Boys by T. KingfisherWhat have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was T. Kingfisher’s Clockwork Boys, which I just now finally got round to (oops). I’ve had the ebook for ages, but was finally prompted to get round to it by getting the new UK hardback release, and I had a lot of fun, even if I kinda want to kick Caliban’s shins a bit and tell him not to be an ass. It’s affectionate, I swear.

Cover of A History of The World in 47 Borders, by Jonn ElledgeWhat are you currently reading?

I actually started right away on the sequel to Clockwork Boys, so I’m most actively reading The Wonder Engine! I got a bit distracted by a new game (The Wandering Village), but I want to spend more time with it tonight. It follows pretty much straight on from Clockwork Boys, which is probably why I actually managed to pick it up straight away. Normally I space out series a bit more.

Other than that, there are a few books on the go at once, as ever. I’m focusing on finishing up John Elledge’s A History of the World in 47 Borders, mostly.

I did also start The Grimoire Grammar School Parent-Teacher Association, but I’m not far into that yet.

Cover of Solo Leveling manhwa vol 7 by DubuWhat will you read next?

Mostly I intend to focus on some of the books I already have on the go, but I do want to continue reading the Solo Leveling manhua, so I’m eyeing volumes six and seven to read sometime this week. Otherwise, it’ll be stuff like getting back into Laura Spinney’s Proto (which has just started getting into the linguistics stuff I was interested in) and getting back to my reread of Vivian Shaw’s Dreadful Company.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Secondary Fantasy Worlds

Posted July 22, 2025 by Nicky in General / 21 Comments

This week the Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “books that take place in/set in X”… and I’m not feeling very original, so I’m just going to talk about ten books that take place in fantasy worlds that have a deep place in my heart. I’m going to try to pick secondary world fantasies, rather than books set in slightly alternate versions of our own reality… but we’ll see.

I’m also going to try to set this up by going through my more recent reads and reviews, instead of reaching automatically for the same books I always pick. Let’s go have a look!

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 1 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Warden by Daniel M. Ford Cover of A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall Cover of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

  1. A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation (manga), by Misaki, Momochi et al. This is kind of “isekai”, in that a character from one world ends up in another world. But the fun thing is that neither are our world, pretty clearly; we don’t hear a lot about Lizel’s home world, but it obviously isn’t our modern world, at the very least — and he has magic, as does his king, so it looks like a transfer from one fantasy world to another. There are hints that it could also be time travel/alternate dimensions… but either way, it’s all fantasy, all the way down. The setup of adventurers, magic and dungeons immediately places it as something rather like a Final Fantasy game, which tickled me as well — but mostly, really, I love this series because Lizel wanders around having fun and enjoying the concept of being in a new world. Also he makes very good friends in Gil and Eleven.
  2. Clockwork Boys, by T. Kingfisher. I just finished reading this on Sunday, and I had an absolute blast with it. It’s the same world as some of Kingfisher’s other books, including Paladin’s Grace, which I read recently. In some ways it’s quite a generic fantasy world quest sort of story, but Kingfisher’s style and dialogue make it lively. It’s like she’s playing with fantasy tropes with warmth and affection, not cynicism, even when she’s presenting us with a fairly typical paladin character who is trying to be oh so noble, and then has the narrative give him a thwack upside the head for being a bit of an idiot at times.
  3. The Warden, by Daniel M. Ford (+ sequels). Brilliant young necromancer and mage gets assigned to a post she considers beneath her, is snooty and dismissive of the villagers, and slowly begins to settle into that village and care about the people… but at the same time, boy, Aelis reaaaally wishes she could get back to the city. (Which she does, for a while, in Advocate.) There are things that irritate me about Aelis (she wings it far too much, relies on her wealth far too much, and asks way too much of other people) but I find the magic really fun, and as Aelis’ adventures bring her to explore more of the world that shaped her and her problems, I’m really intrigued by it.
  4. A Letter to the Luminous Deep, by Sylvie Cathrall (+ sequel). I loved this series so much, with Henery and E. slowly getting to know each other through letters and shyly forming a bond, despite their anxieties and (in E.’s case) outright OCD. It’s a frankly bizarre world in some ways, and it isn’t always clear about how it got that way (though at the end of the duology there are some explanations). There’s so much wonder about the sea and the mysteries within it, and I tore through both books trying to absorb and understand their mysteries.
  5. The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett (+ sequel). I’ve enjoyed the fantasy worlds in several of Robert Jackson Bennett’s books, but this is the most recent I read. It’s a Sherlock Holmes homage in a fantasy world that roots the detective and the mysteries deeply into that fantasy. The mystery element isn’t always as clever as it wants to be, but the world is fascinating: the leviathans, the whole empire, the ways people have been deliberately and unintentionally altered by contact with technology derived from leviathans… I wonder where the overarching story is going, and it’s fascinating to explore the world along the way.
  6. The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. I would include the spin-off series as well, except that I found the handling of a particular relationship in the final one (so far?) bizarre. Maybe I’ll enjoy it more on a revisit when it doesn’t feel like a betrayal, but in the meantime I’ll use The Goblin Emperor as my exemplar for this fantasy world. Addison does a lot of worldbuilding, especially around language, but also technology, magic, culture and religion. There’s a lot going on, and so much that’s hinted at but not explored in the plot — at least, not yet.
  7. The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo. This book felt like an absolute fever dream. It’s really tightly focused on a single city and the actions of an angel and a demon (not quite our religious versions of angels/demons) as they fight and thwart each other and try to guide the city. It’s really hard to describe, but it’s beautifully written, and the descriptions of the city and of Vitrine are vivid and strange.
  8. The Teller of Small Fortunes, by Julie Leong. This is cosy-ish fantasy, in that there are some big stakes in the background, but mostly our characters want to stay out of the way of it all, travel together, create their little found family, and solve their fairly ordinary (for a fantasy world) problems. I found Tao’s magic (and how she chooses to use it) fascinating, and really enjoyed the journey — though compared to some of the fully realised fantasy worlds I’ve mentioned here like in The Tainted Cup and The Goblin Emperor, the world-building is a bit thinner.
  9. Heaven Official’s Blessing, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I debated whether this should be in the list, particularly as I think there are meant to be correspondences between places like Xianle and Yong’an in the story with actual locations in China, while Hua Cheng’s aesthetic and background is considered a nod to Miao/Hmong origins… but I couldn’t resist including it anyway, as it also isn’t supposed to be historical China. It’s more historical China inspired, along with Chinese traditions, etc. It’s such an epic, spanning 800 years of suffering and longing, and there’s always the sense that all kinds of magic could (and will) happen. From Ghost City to the domain of Black Water Sinks Ships to Mount Tonglu and the Kiln, there’s a lot of history and magic to discover as you read. (Also, a beautiful love story.)
  10. The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard. There are so many ways this is wish-fulfillment, as Cliopher is hyper-capable, and hyper-able to push through world-changing reforms that make everyone’s lives better with no downside, and it’s full of the virtues of more communal ways of living and being, and different ways of thinking. Nonetheless, the differences between this and most Western Europe-inspired fantasy are a lot of fun, and sometimes wish fulfillment and people using power in wholesome ways is just fun to read. Plus, I adored the friendship between the Emperor and Cliopher.

Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cover of The City in Glass by Nghi Vo Cover of The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 6 by MXTX Cover of The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard

That was pretty fun, especially the restriction to proper secondary world fantasy instead of fantasy set in our world… I’m looking forward to seeing other people’s lists!

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted July 19, 2025 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

Saturday again, huh? Time is flying by! Still not living in the new house for complicated reasons that I won’t go into here, but we’re getting closer to that point, and soon we’ll get my bookcases properly set up — including possibly two new ones. Exciting!

Books acquired this week

Nothing, really, but I will highlight a book I snagged on Kobo Plus! I’ll be getting myself a print copy in due course (KJ Charles’ work is an auto-buy for me), but in the meantime, I was very excited to realise this was on Kobo Plus.

Cover of Copper Script by KJ Charles

I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, because I’m so behind on reading, but it’s very nice to have it there.

Posts from this week

It’s been a busy one! Let’s start with the reviews as always:

Other posts:

What I’m reading

I’ve done a lot of reading this week, but not such a lot of finishing books. I’ve lowered my reading goal for the year and am just accepting that given everything that’s happened this year (losing Grandma, final exams, moving) it just isn’t happening, and that’s fine — it was a big goal anyway (400 books in the year).

So, no kicking myself, and anyway, I read fast and a lot compared to a lot of people! I’m doing just fine as long as I’m having fun.

Here are the books I finished this week that I’ll (eventually) review on the blog, though you can always check my StoryGraph to see my thoughts sooner if you like:

Cover of Cinder House by Freya Marske Cover of The Paper Chase: The Printer, the Spymaster & The Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers, by Joseph Hone Cover of The Postal Paths by Alan Cleaver

For this weekend, I’m not 100% sure what I’ll read, but more of T. Kingfisher’s Clockwork Boys, which I started on Thursday, is pretty much a certainty. Probably I’ll read more of Wendy A. Woloson’s Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, which I got back into this week.

But wherever my whim takes me, that’s just fine: “As my Whimsy takes me” is my motto too, in honour of a certain fictional character. (You get a lot of brownie points if you know who!)

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

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Discussion: Finishing 1-star reads

Posted July 17, 2025 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Lately I’ve had a few comments by people who’re surprised I’d finish a book I ultimately rated with just one star (which is, in my rating system, “didn’t like it”) or two stars (“it was okay”), so I wanted to dig into that a bit.

I’m a bit bemused by getting so many comments surprised that I finished a book that I rated two-stars, because a book being “okay” isn’t that terrible an outcome. My bet would be that more often than not it’s because they’re not paying attention to my rating system, seeing three-stars as the “it was okay” sort of mark, which I’m probably going to partly solve by specifying what each rating means every time I post, as I already do when I boost my reviews on social media.

(As an aside, I think we think we have a consensus about how to rate books, and how to read other people’s ratings, but we really don’t. I think more bloggers should be as explicit as I am about what their ratings mean to them, to help other people interpret them, and we should all be used to looking for how someone defines their ratings.)

But regardless, there are a few reasons why I’d finish a book I eventually don’t rate highly. Here goes:

  • The ending is the reason I lowered the rating;
  • Similarly, it was finishing the book and getting perspective that made me decide to give a low rating;
  • The author used a trope I hate, and I hung on to see if they’d subvert it… and they didn’t;
  • I did research after finishing the book and realised that I’d missed something problematic that changed my enjoyment of it;
  • It was a non-fiction book that I found interesting to read (e.g. for style reasons, or because the author’s ideas are illuminating even when misguided) but which ultimately had serious flaws;
  • I read the book because it aligns with my particular interests (most commonly because it’s classic crime) and I was curious about it because of its influence on the genre (remember, I have two degrees in English Literature; even if I don’t formally study it now, I have my interests still), but didn’t enjoy it in itself;
  • want to post a fair and thoughtful review about it, so I need the full context of finishing it;
  • I want to post a venting review about it, but I want to be sure of my facts;
  • I found it interesting and worthwhile but I couldn’t possibly say I liked it because it was dark or gross (though usually here I divert from my personal rating system a little and give points for more nuanced “this was an interesting on an academic level” reactions as well as simple enjoyment, and then say so in my review);

…and there are probably many other reasons and combinations of reasons. I do actually DNF books that meet none of my criteria, I just don’t then review them (most of the time).

And there’s another thing, too, that’s not quite a reason why I finish such books, but definitely part of why I write reviews about low-rated books: ratings are subjective, even when you don’t think they are. My one-star book (“didn’t like it”) is someone else’s four-star (“really liked it”). Personal taste is a huge part of why people like or dislike books, and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise. When I rate something two-stars, that doesn’t mean I’m saying it’s a bad book. It just means I didn’t like it.

Personally, when I decide whether to read a book, I often look at five-star and one-star reviews, and less often the ones in between. The thoughts of those who react with passionate love or hate for a book can tell me a great deal, even if I don’t know how the individual reviewers rate books.

In the end, this is part of why I actually didn’t give ratings at all when I originally launched my blog. I wanted my reviews to speak for themselves, without the simplifying interpretation that a certain number of stars can put on it. Even when I did add star ratings, I kept on using them in my own (clearly defined) way, refusing to treat them as an objective marker of a book’s quality.

In the end, sometimes finishing (and reviewing) a book I didn’t like can be worth it, all the same, for me and for others who are interested in my thoughts on that book.

Related discussion post: How to Rate

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 16, 2025 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Cover of The Postal Paths by Alan CleaverWhat have you recently finished reading?

I finished up Alan Cleaver’s The Postal Paths last night. It’s part history (about postal workers, mostly rural postal workers) and part memoir about walking, and it’s a bit too much of the latter for me at times. The author gets a bit sanctimonious about the virtues of walking and hand-writing letters at times, which was a bit annoying, too. I’m going to review it for Postcrossing, where I’ll probably be a touch more positive about it — but on a personal level, not a huge fan.

Cover of Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura SpinneyWhat are you currently reading?

I started Laura Spinney’s Proto yesterday, so that’s the book at the top of the pile! It’s a history of Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor language of many modern languages, and it’s… okay. As usual, I long for numbered footnotes, and it’s less about the language itself than the speakers of the language. It feels like it sometimes goes too long without tying back in to the actual topic, but I’m enjoying it enough to keep reading. I hope it gets a bit more solid and specific about Proto-Indo-European itself, though.

Cover of The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, by Sam LeithWhat will you read next?

As ever of late, that’s a bit up in the air. I might just return my attention to something I had already started reading, like Noah Whiteman’s Most Delicious Poison… or I might be tempted to start Sam Leith’s The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading. I picked it up to just read the first page to see if I was tempted to read it, last night, and almost made myself late for bed, so that might be a good sign for my current interest in it! I do try to follow that kind of whim.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Titles With Honorifics

Posted July 15, 2025 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

This week’s theme from Top Ten Tuesday is “Books with honorifics in the title”, which I’m really not sure I can actually get a total of ten for. I guess this might be pretty dependent on genre! Anyway, let’s see how I do…

Cover of The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin Cover of The Doctor Who Fooled the World by Brian Deer Cover of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke Cover of The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles Cover of Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

  1. The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes, by Kate Strasdin. A non-fiction which discusses a Victorian woman’s “dress diary”, containing snippets of cloth from her clothes (and sometimes clothes worn by her friends and family). I found it a really fascinating delve into fabric and social history.
  2. The Doctor who Fooled the World, by Brian Deer. I know, this sits kind of oddly with other books from the list, but it’s a really good takedown of the lies spread by Andrew Wakefield, and highly recommended if you’re on the fence about whether his allegations about the MMR vaccine (or vaccination in general) actually hold any truth. I consider Andrew Wakefield a mass murderer, to be clear, a man so blinded in his own search for fame and profit that he endangered the whole world — but I don’t blame people who were led astray by a man who used his position as a scientist to inspire false confidence. I feel so sorry for people who believed in what he had to offer.
  3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. This is a book I’ve reread a couple of times, despite being huge. I know that not everyone enjoys it, and I honestly wouldn’t even have predicted that I would, but there’s such dense world-building and some really fun ideas about magic.
  4. The Magpie Lord, by KJ Charles. I’ve read this a number of times, and it remains fun. Lord Lucien Crane isn’t entirely a good person, but he seeks his own kind of justice and fairness, and I love the way that he and Stephen Day are drawn together.
  5. Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo. I really loved this slightly fantastical, dark Hollywood. It was completely enchanting. I actually might give it another read at some point.
  6. The Mysterious Mr. Badman, by W.F. Harvey. I’ve more or less forgotten the plot of this one, I must admit, but I gave it 4/5 stars at the time! It’s a classic mystery, and a fairly conventional one, according to my review, which explains the rating. I really love classic mysteries, but not so much because they’re innovative or unusual — usually, more because they’re not. They’re very comforting in their predictability.
  7. Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight, by R. Austin Freeman. This is also a pretty classic mystery, but an unusual one in that it shows us the commission of the crime to begin with, and then the efforts at covering it up. It’s quite slow-paced, and I did find that it dragged a bit, but I ultimately gave it four stars for making me care about the criminal. It’s very carefully written, and I did enjoy it.
  8. Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates, by Kerry Greenwood. Also known as Cocaine Blues, this is the first book of the Phryne Fisher series, and it’s so much fun. For some reason, I didn’t love it when I first tried it, but when I gave it another go, Phryne won my heart. A reread is tempting…
  9. Miss Jacobson’s Journey, by Carola Dunn. I read this series out of sequence, but had a lot of fun going backwards to read this one: Miriam is a great romance protagonist, and I did get fond of her two potential suitors as well — perhaps somewhat helped by the fact that I already knew one of them from the second book. I’m getting tempted to reread the whole trilogy!
  10. The Duke Heist, by Erica Ridley. Putting this book here has reminded me there’s a couple of books in this series I haven’t read yet! They’re somewhere in my boxes of books in the storage unit, but perhaps once I dig them out, it’ll be time to pick them up. I’ve found all the books in the series so far really fun, and The Duke Heist is no exception. Lawrence takes a while to sort out his behaviour totally, but the way he interacts and becomes playful with Chloe is adorable.

Cover of The Mysterious Mr Badman by W.F. Harvey Cover of Mr Pottermack's Oversight by R. Austin Freeman Cover of Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates by Kerry Greenwood Cover of Miss Jacobson's Journey by Carola Dunn Cover of The Duke Heist by Erica Ridley

Look at that, I made it! Maybe a couple of these are kinda cheating, but we’re gonna call it good anyway.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted July 12, 2025 by Nicky in General / 34 Comments

Moving continues! As of last night we were done with the old flat, but there are many boxes, much new furniture, and many flatpacks in our future. I’m still at my parents’ house for now, but this week we’ll probably get my office set up and then I’ll move in too.

For now though, this weekend we’re collectively taking as much of a break as we can. Monday’s soon enough to do more, now we’ve finally finished up with the old flat.

Books acquired this week

Nothing major this week, but I did get my British Library Crime Classic book for the month, and I snagged a manga to read when I wasn’t feeling up to anything else.

Cover of The Judas Window by Carter Dickson Cover of The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency by Sakae Kusama

I’ve warmed up to John Dickson Carr’s work over the years, but I prefer the Gideon Fell books, so we’ll see how I get along with this one. The manga was a bit of a random choice, recommended by a friend from another site.

Posts from this week

There’s been a lot of activity this week, so let’s do the roundup!

But also some other posts:

Busy, as I said!

What I’m reading

It’s been a bit of a hectic week, but I did get some reading done… partly due to rereading Tove Jansson’s Moomin books! Here’s the covers of the books I read this week which I intend to review on the blog eventually:

Cover of The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge Cover of The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson Cover of Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson

Cover of Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson Cover of The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency by Sakae Kusama Cover of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans Cover of What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

Over the weekend, I’m not sure. A bit more of the Moomin books, most likely, and probably I’ll read Freya Marske’s Cinder House, but… mostly I’ll just follow my whim.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

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Discussion: How to Rate

Posted July 10, 2025 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

It’s been a long time since I wrote any discussion posts, but I’ve been mulling over this topic lately. Especially with non-fiction, but sometimes with fiction as well, people get quite annoyed with the way I rate books. Back when I was on Goodreads, there was one guy who would often comment and note that he expected “better” of me (because of my English lit degree) when I didn’t like the classics or rated a book low just because I didn’t like the characters.

So first off, to set the scene, how do I rate? I rate the same for both fiction and non-fiction: did I like it? Did I enjoy it? I do not try to give anything some kind of “objective” rating, because I believe that’s very difficult — and also not useful to the majority of people who read my reviews. Most people who read my reviews don’t want to know if I thought Payment Deferred (C.S. Forester) was technically interesting, but whether it was enjoyable as a piece of classic crime fiction. Is it worth reading?

(The answer is “maybe”. If you’re particularly interested in inverted mysteries, it might be one for you. If you’d hate spending a whole book following around a murderer and watching how that splits his family apart, with everyone behaving horribly, then skip it.)

Instead, I give ratings that are consistent and over time can give you a picture of what I like and dislike, and you can then take me with a pinch of salt. There are a few reviewers I know whose ratings I don’t exactly agree with, but I know what they mean.

I got my rating system from Goodreads waaaay back when I was a teenager (I suspect we’re at over 20 years of me rating and reviewing books now, yikes):

  • One star: disliked it
  • Two stars: it was okay
  • Three stars: liked it
  • Four stars: really liked it
  • Five stars: it was amazing

I know some people always disliked that scale, and ignored that way of rating books. I know authors tie themselves in absolute knots over getting a one-star review, as if it means anything other than “this reader didn’t like my book”. But I always liked the fact that it had plenty of room for nuance on books you get along with, and didn’t waste a lot of time with gradations of dislike, and that it’s focused on whether you enjoyed reading the book.

Is it fair to rate non-fiction books based on whether I liked them? Yeah. I’m reviewing for fun here. There are several non-fiction books I’ve liked which are scanty with their sources, but stylistically enjoyable. You take ’em with a pinch of salt and move on, enjoying the language or the flight of rhetoric as you go.

There’s one guy who is completely wetting himself over on Goodreads about a really old review of mine, about a non-fiction book, complaining that I wasn’t rating the book but my reaction to it. And: yep. Unashamedly, forever, yep. But I did also write extensively about why — the weird judgements of sexualities other than heterosexuality, the references to discredited research, etc. As I noted in the review, the research hadn’t yet been discredited at the time the book was written, but the signs were there: obvious biases in recruitment into studies, conflicts of interest, poor statistical literacy.

You can take my opinions on these things for what they’re worth. Reading on my blog, you know more or less who I am — queer; British (Welsh); in my thirties; studied English lit, biology and infectious diseases; lover of libraries — and a thinking reader can quickly ascertain what I’m about and where I stand, and thus what I bring to reading and reviewing. Can figure out, for instance, that I probably do have the chops to evaluate whether someone ought to have known a particular line of research was utter bullshit ahead of time. To study biology or infectious diseases, statistics is a necessity. I’m not good at math per se, but I got a first and a distinction respectively in my BSc and MSc courses on statistics. Put two and two together (as even I can do) and you’ll know whether I’m spouting bullshit or not.

As for objectivity… it requires a great deal of self-knowledge to get anywhere close to objectivity. Sometimes, I do step back and think, “Y’know, objectively, the writing is very beautiful.” And I’ll say so in my review, if that’s what I think.

But that’s not what you need to know, is it?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 9, 2025 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Cover of The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency by Sakae KusamaWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was a manga, The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency, by Sakae Kusama. I haven’t written up a review about it yet, but personally I wasn’t a huge fan of the art, and felt that a bit more character development (and a bit less random sex during which one of the partners is pretending to be mad about it) would’ve suited my reading tastes better. Still, it was fun to give it a try, and reminded me of reading FAKE (and rereading it a couple of years ago). Nostalgia!

Other than that, I finished rereading Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson; I’ve been rereading the series in order, having not read the novels since I was a kid (though I read collections of the comics when I was at university). I have such an appreciation for Moominmamma and the way she welcomes every single unexpected visitor as a beloved guest.

Cover of The Correspondent by Virginia EvansWhat are you currently reading?

I’m slowly working my way through The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans: although the main protagonist (Sybil) is nothing like me or my grandmother, nonetheless it’s perhaps a little raw to read an epistolary novel in which letters are vitally important to the protagonist, given my recent loss of my grandmother to whom I wrote every week from 2022 to 2025.

Other than that, I have a few books on the go, but most actively A History of the World in 47 Borders, by Jonn Elledge. It’s very light and often flippant, but I do have some serious holes in my understanding of history, so even that fills up some of the corners. It does have some sources and an index, so it’s not totally casual, but still.

Cover of Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages by Jack HartnellWhat will you be reading next?

The next Moomin book is The Memoirs of Moominpappa, so I guess that’s the most likely next read! Other than that, I have so many books on the go that I should probably focus on one of those, and perhaps return to Medieval Bodies, by Jack Hartnell, since that’s the one I was most recently reading before I got distracted…

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want To Reread

Posted July 8, 2025 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “books I’d like to reread”, and rereading is a topic I’m always interested in, so it seems like a good place to jump back in after a while of not taking part!

Cover of The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie Cover of A Coalition of Lions by Elizabeth E. Wein Cover of An Unsuitable Heir by K.J. Charles Cover of The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein

  1. The Seventh Bride, by T. Kingfisher. I don’t remember this very well, except that I enjoyed it, and I always love Kingfisher’s takes on fairytale retellings. I’m very curious how it compares to my experience of Hemlock & Silver, one of her most recent — that one is so inventive, even though it’s spun out of the story of Snow White.
  2. The Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie. I liked this more than most people I knew back when it came out, and I’m wondering how it’d sit now; it’s the only novel by Leckie that I haven’t read multiple times. I keep thinking about it, so maybe when I unpack my books post-move it’s time to dig in.
  3. A Coalition of Lions, by Elizabeth E. Wein. I recently finally managed to get round to my reread of The Winter Prince, and started on this one, but then stuff happened and it went on a backburner. I remember devouring the series, though, so I am curious to get back to it.
  4. An Unsuitable Heir, by KJ Charles. I’ve been working my way around to a reread of this — the first book by Charles I ever read — for ages, but somehow I’ve never got round to it. It’s actually third in a trilogy, and I’ll probably read them in order this time (though if I recall correctly, it didn’t matter a lot). It was one of the books I read first when starting to get into romance, after requesting the ARC on a bit of a whim, and I’d enjoy a revisit.
  5. The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein. I have read this first book of the series twice, paused to read something else, got distracted, and never got onto the remaining existing books. I know the series isn’t finished (at least, I seem to remember that), but I still want to explore more of it. And, uh, remember the details from the first book, because it’s been a while.
  6. Among Others, by Jo Walton. This was so much The Book of my early twenties that I’m not sure if it’s quite safe to go back to it. It might be weird if it doesn’t resonate as much anymore! Or I might end up remembering why a whole bunch of books got onto my TBR (it’s very much a book about someone who reads), and that might be dangerous for my productivity. But who needs productivity?
  7. The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell. I loved this so much as a teenager, and read it several times, but it’s been a long time — I’m not sure if I even reread it when I was studying Arthuriana, because it didn’t really fit in with any of the things I was looking at. I can’t remember if Kay/Cei is even a character at all, for example (I wrote my dissertation on Cei and what the portrayal of him was doing in Arthurian texts of different periods).
  8. Idylls of the Queen, by Phyllis Ann Karr. I did read this for my dissertation — in fact, it was one of my key texts (along with Cherith Baldry’s Exiled from Camelot) for the modern chapter. I don’t remember a huge amount about it now, but I’m certain I want to reread it. In fact… I wonder if I have the ebook? Hmmm. Otherwise, it’s in one of those boxes somewhere…
  9. Sailing to Sarantium, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ominously, the second book was missing when we packed up my books for the move, so I might have to repurchase it — and maybe it might be time to get some matching editions, if they’re actually in print? I scrambled together my collection of GGK’s work on a very tight student budget when I fell in love with The Summer Tree, and none of them match, and some of them are kinda gross-looking. Anyway, I remember being spellbound by this duology, so I’m eager to reread (though fair play, I’m pretty sure my wife didn’t finish it and my mum didn’t like it the way I did, so I don’t know if it’ll hit the same now).
  10. Magician, by Raymond E. Feist. I don’t know if this can possibly stand up to the warm memories I have of it, but I do at least want to reread the initial three books, MagicianSilverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon. I loved those books so much, I really did. I don’t think I actually thought much of Feist’s other books in the same world, and certainly never read and reread them in the same way, but those first three… yeah.

Cover of Among Others by Jo Walton Cover of The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell Cover of Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr Cover of Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay Cover of Magician by Raymond E. Feist

There we go, got that back down to ten after briefly going overboard! I’m a great lover of rereading, sometimes just for the comfort of a familiar book, sometimes because you never know what you’ll discover when looking at something with fresh eyes.

NB: I’m not necessarily recommending these — I remember them all fondly, and remember them as being (at least mostly) very good, but who knows what’s happened since I last stepped into these particular pages? The Suck Fairy might have been by.

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