What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was John S. Tregoning’s Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them. I didn’t really enjoy it; part of it is the fact that since I bought it, I’ve studied immunology (as part of my MSc), so the first part of the book was boring, leaving plenty of time for me to get annoyed by Tregoning’s sense of humour. The tone really, really grated; Tregoning thinks he’s hilarious, and it’s just cringe.

It might be better for a layperson, though of course, the humour wouldn’t improve.

What are you currently reading?

As ever, a few books at once, some of which I’m giving more attention than others. I’m most into Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher, at the moment, in the sense that I’m hoping to finish that today. The timing for reading it is maybe a bit stupid, because I read Boucher’s Rocket to the Morgue as we drove down to attend my grandmother’s funeral, and I’ve (totally without planning it) ended up reading this as I’m about to head to Wales again for the interment of my grandparents’ ashes. I can’t imagine I’m going to ever feel like reading Boucher’s work again at this rate, because there’s something about his style in this book that takes me very vividly back to reading Rocket to the Morgue. Oops.

That said, not a huge loss; I find it pleasant enough, but not something I’m wildly excited about.

I’m also reading Queer as Folklore, by Sacha Coward, which I’m finding interesting enough so far. Also The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry (David Musgrove & Michael John Lewis), which I’m enjoying, and Reignclowd Palace (Philippa Rice), which I need to give some more attention.

What will you be reading next?

I don’t know. I’d like to say I’ll read KJ Charles’ The Duke at Hazard, because a) I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet, and b) it’s the very centre of this month’s Litsy bingo card, but I don’t know. I’ve been weirdly resistant to starting it, even though I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. I might just start something I have few expectations of, like Sidney J. Shields’ The Honey Witch — or focus on the other books I’m technically currently reading that have slipped onto the back-burner.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up with Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch last night! And yep, that Mr Collins, from Pride & Prejudice. It’s a retelling that fleshes out Mr Collins and empathises with him, giving us a probably-on-the-spectrum man who’s masking all the time, and has to get married in order to keep up appearances — while his most important bond is actually to a friend of his boyhood, with whom he doesn’t have to pretend. I need to write my full review, but I liked it quite a bit. I don’t know if it helps that I’m not a huge Jane Austen fan, or whether a super-fan would get more out of it, but I had fun, anyway.

What are you currently reading?

As ever, I have a few books on the go at once. This morning I started on a new one, Reignclowd Palace, by Philippa Rice. I hadn’t heard anything about this book before, just decided it looked fun when I saw it in the bookshop, so I don’t know a lot about it, but so far I’m enjoying it. A bit of a Howl’s Moving Castle vibe, I guess?

The rest of what I’m reading is mostly non-fiction; I just started John S. Tregoning’s Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them, which is… pretty upbeat and triumphant about how we can beat pretty much all infections, which for me sounds a bit like dangerous overconfidence in a world where we can’t figure out how to prevent or reverse the consequences of various viral infections. I’m not far into it, so I don’t have a great feel for whether there are going to be caveats and cautionary notes. We’ll see, I guess.

I’m also working my way through Emma Chapman’s First Light: astrophysics not being my thing, some of the in-depth explanations of stuff aren’t really holding my attention. Again, I’m not that far into it, though, and it’s possible I’ll settle in a bit more.

What will you be reading next?

Uketsu’s Strange Houses would be a good bet. I was lucky to only be second in the holds queue for it, and I suspect there are a few more behind me, so I should get to it sooner rather than later. It’s not a long book, and if it’s anything like Strange Pictures, I’ll fly through it.

Also, I have Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Deep Dark checked out on Libby, but it’s non-renewable with one person in the queue for it, so I should make time for it soon.

Neither of those books are on my Litsy Book Spin Bingo card, though they’d fit in the free spaces, so it’s possible I’ll start something from that first, too…

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was a reread of one of Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple books, To Davy Jones Below. It kinda made me think that though the series is fun, I probably don’t want to hold onto my copies once I finish rereading and get on with the books I haven’t read yet. The whole series relies way too much on coincidence: a single person can’t possibly stumble across so many murders. It makes sense for Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne because she sets up as a detective — and the crimes she investigates aren’t all murders — but Daisy is supposed to be a journalist, and not even one who covers murders!

I do want to read the rest of the series, but, yeah, also very aware of the frustrating stuff.

What are you currently reading?

Lots of books at once! I’m trying to finish my bingo card on Litsy, and I’ve ended up with all the remaining books on the go at once, dipping in and out of them as the whim takes me. I’m closest to finishing Molly Conisbee’s No Ordinary Deaths, which… I still have mixed feelings about, since there’s a number of generalisations about how people react to death that make me feel excluded. It’s not the book’s fault, I think; it’s just the fact that I have a recent loss still heavily on my mind.

In the non-fiction department, I’m also reading Victoria Shepherd’s Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside (which I think actually doesn’t have enough material about the hoard itself to make a book out of, so has expanded into discussing a lot of other related stuff). I’m less close to finishing this, but I think I will finish it in time to check it off the bingo card.

As far as fiction goes, I need to finish T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, Caitlin Rozakis’ The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, and Lex Croucher’s Gwen & Art Are Not In Love. I think I’ll manage to finish all three, but I’m struggling a little bit with Gwen & Art, partly just because the Arthurian references feel clunky. Since my MA dissertation was on Arthurian myth, that kind of thing is very distracting for me.

I am also reading a couple of books that aren’t on the bingo card, though you might (justifiably) wonder how I fit it in. Mostly, I reaaally want to finish up Rachel Harrison’s Cackle, which I’m enjoying; it’s a really odd mix of cosy and whoops-that’s-really-freaky, but in an enjoyable way. I’m also enjoying Carwyn Graves’ Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, not least because it refers to the Welsh as an indigenous culture (since people don’t often recognise it).

What will you read next?

The eleventh volume of the Solo Leveling manhwa! Mum just got me it and it arrived yesterday (though I hadn’t realised at first), and volume ten has kind of a cliffhanger. It’s not that I really think anyone’s going to beat Jinwoo, at this point, but I am curious how he’s going to manage.

I also have a few books that I’ve started but backburnered when I decided to gun for a blackout on my bingo card, so I’d like to get back to Pagans (James Alistair Henry), even though I’m feeling a bit uncertain about the worldbuilding, and dig deeper into Michael John Lewis and David Musgrove’s The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry.

…I promise you, this isn’t even nearly the highest number of books I’ve had on the go at one time. This is positively restrained by my standards.

What have you recently finished reading?

Devi Sridhar’s Preventable, a book about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic completed/published in 2022, which makes it off-base on a number of things (e.g. basically commenting that Trump’s hate on for the WHO doesn’t matter at all and was just words). I found it a bit too “yup, let’s get back to normal” at the end, particularly given that she assumes that’s possible because of vaccination… which is no longer widely or freely available in the UK. But mostly it was a pretty good look at the initial situation.

What are you currently reading?

I just started History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts, by Robert Bartlett, which I just got today as a birthday present! Not very far into it yet, but I might finish it today — it’s not very long.

Other than that, I have a few books on the backburner, but nothing else at the forefront of my mind. I do want to finish Lex Croucher’s Gwen and Art are Not in Love, Laura Spinney’s Proto, T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, Caitlin Rozakis’ The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, Victoria Shepherd’s Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside and Molly Conisbee’s No Ordinary Deaths, because they’re all on my August Book Spin list on Litsy, but we’ll see, that’s a lot!

What will you be reading next?

Probably I’ll start my reread of the third volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, as a birthday treat. Since I have the day off, I might finish up with that, in which case I might start one of my new books — Carwyn Graves’ Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape is calling to me, or maybe Rachel Harrison’s Cackle — or start on a book that’s been on my backlog for a while, Margaret Elphinstone’s The Sea Road.

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