Category: General

Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Books of 2025

Posted January 7, 2025 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

Today’s theme from That Artsy Reader Girl‘s Top Ten Tuesday is “most anticipated books releasing in the first half of 2025”, so let’s take a look…

Cover of Murder as a Fine Art by Carol Carnac Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 10 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo Cover of The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson Cover of Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett

  1. Murder as a Fine Art, by Carol Carnac (January). Technically this isn’t new, but where would I get my hands on it other than through the British Library Crime Classics reprint? Carol Carnac is slightly better known as E.C.R. Lorac, but sadly less known than she ought to be in all her guises. Her mysteries are some of my favourites, and I’m eager to read this one.
  2. A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol. 10, by Misaki, Momochi, Sando and Lamp Magonote (January). I haven’t quite read all the existing books yet, but I’m eager to keep following Lizel’s adventures, watching him charm everyone he meets, scheme like the best of ’em, and read the entire contents of a bookshop even faster than I would.
  3. But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo (February). I’ve read this as an eARC already (review here), but I’m looking forward to seeing what others think. It’s a little bit gothic, a bit creepy, and yet it’s a romance too…
  4. The Ten Teacups, by Carter Dickson (February). Another one from the British Library Crime Classics collection. I’ve not always loved the work of Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr, but I gained a bit more of an appreciation for it in the last year, and I’m curious about this one. There’s still the chance I’ll dislike it, but equally a chance it’ll be a five-star read for me.
  5. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett (February). I love this series, and I’m really happy to have received an eARC for this one as well. The formatting unfortunately leaves something to be desired (it’s an epub clearly generated straight from a PDF without cleanup), so I might hang on for the published version, alas. But I’m super excited to return to Emily’s world.
  6. The Tomb of Dragons, by Katherine Addison (March). I urgently need to get to my eARC of this, because I don’t want to wait for the release in March! And here’s firmly hoping that someone finally gives Thara Celehar a hug. (I can dream.)
  7. Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite (March). A fun SF mystery, which I’ve already read (review here). I know a couple of people who are going to love it, and I’m going to very much enjoy their enjoyment.
  8. Everything is Tuberculosis, by John Green (March). The number of people who immediately notified this was going to be a thing when the news of it broke was… gratifying, honestly. Y’all know me! Yes, it’s high on my list, and I’m very hopeful for a new book on tuberculosis that will (I hope) make the seriousness of the situation clear to laypeople. Given my current degree and my undergrad dissertation, it probably won’t teach me anything new per se, but I’m always interested in how different people frame the problems — and you never know what someone fresh to the topic may notice or pick out as important. Either way, I expect to have Opinions.
  9. A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett (April). I really liked The Tainted Cup, so I’m keen for the follow-up. I love genre mashes like fantasy and mystery, so this is catnip to me.
  10. The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, by Malka Older (June). Again, I had an eARC copy of this and enjoyed it (review forthcoming) — it might not be my favourite of the Mossa and Pleiti books in some ways, but it was still a fun time, and I’m looking forward to having more people to talk about it with.

Cover of The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison Cover of Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite Cover of Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green Cover of A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett Cover of The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older

And there we go! I’m sure there’s a lot missing, and I’m looking forward to browsing other people’s lists and learning just how much I missed out…

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted January 4, 2025 by Nicky in General / 21 Comments

Happy new year! Yep, time for the first STS/Sunday Post of 2025. It’s been a busy week for me and 2025 has so far been tired and meh, on balance. I don’t believe that that has to set the tone for the whole year, luckily!

A bright spot (as ever) is books, so let’s get to talking about those…

Books acquired this week

Time for the second installment of my Christmas haul (the first part being last week’s post here)! Here’s a selection of the non-fiction…

Cover of Sheeplands: How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World by Alan Marshall Cover of The Green Ages by Annette Kehnel Cover of Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, by Amorina Kingdon

Cover of The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge Cover of Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation, by Hugh Warwick Cover of Conspiracy Theory by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey

As ever, a weird mix, as ever! I’m trying to decide where to start, since I’m a bit spoiled for choice…

And the fiction selection:

Cover of A Pirate's Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne Cover of A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft Cover of The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong Cover of A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

I really liked the sound of all these — I’m hoping I’ll be in the mood to continue Rebecca Thorne’s series soon, since I know the third book is out relatively soon (and the fourth in August, I think?). But as ever, I’m going to let my whim guide me!

Posts from this week

As ever, let’s have a bit of a recap. I’ve stepped up my posting schedule a bit due to a backlog of reviews (though mostly for graphic novels and manga!), so there was plenty going on!

And there were a couple of other posts!

What I’m reading

As ever, time for a sneak peek at the books I’ve finished recently which will be coming up for review… eventually (I mentioned that backlog, right?!).

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 16 by Akane Tamura Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 17 by Akane Tamura Cover of Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony Cover of The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp and Gabrielle Kari

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story, vol 18, by Akane Tamura Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 19 by Akane Tamura Cover of The All-Nighter Season One by Chip Zdarsky Cover of The All-Nighter Season Two by Chip Zdarsky

Cover of The All-Nighter Season Three by Chip Zdarsky Cover of No. 17 by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon Cover of Conspiracy Theory by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey

For this weekend, I want to really settle into my 2025 reading! Only one of the books just above was read in 2025; I’m a bit bogged down in my second read, Jonathan Silvertown’s Selfish Genes to Social Beings. I’m hoping to finish that and read a couple of volumes of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, at the least!

But we’ll see how it goes… How’s everyone’s 2025 so far?

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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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 1, 2025 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Here we are, first Wednesday of 2025! I’ll admit, it’s not going great for me so far, but maybe talking about books a bit will help.

Cover of No. 17 by Joseph Jefferson FarjeonWhat have you recently finished reading?

My last book of 2024 was Joseph Jefferson Farjeon’s No. 17, which I read via Serial Reader. I think that the daily bitesize installments were the only reason I stuck with it, because the main character (Ben) really didn’t click with me — cowardly, ineffectual, and talking absolutely constantly in near-impenetrable phonetically rendered dialect. Gaaah.

As a mystery, it was needlessly complicated by Ben’s cowardice, evasion, and repeated interruptions. Like a bad comedy.

Cover of Conspiracy Theory by Ian Dunt and Dorian LynskeyWhat are you currently reading?

Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey’s Conspiracy Theory: The Story of an Idea, which is pretty much what it says on the tin. It purports to dissect the origin of conspiracy theories, both history and psychology, and discuss how we can reduce their impact on modern life and politics. I’m sceptical that it can do all that in 150ish pages, but it’s been interesting so far. I only vaguely knew about the origins of the Illuminati (which was a real organisation that briefly existed).

I’m also partway through Look Up, Handsome, by Jack Strange. It’s a romance set in a queer bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, at Christmas. I need to finish it quickly before the Christmas season is fully over — it already feels a bit late, heh, but I got started, so I want to finish.

Cover of Miss Beeton's Murder Agency by Josie LloydWhat will you read next?

Possibly I’ll tackle Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency, by Josie Lloyd — it’s a seasonal mystery, but set seemingly more around New Year than Christmas per se. If I can get started on it in the next day or so, I might. Otherwise, I’ll probably save it for next year and go for something else, possibly the first light novel in The Apothecary Diaries series (I read the first manga previously and had fun).

How about you?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Best of 2024

Posted December 31, 2024 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

It’s been a minute since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, because that exhausted student life has caught up with me (apparently that happens even during your fourth degree), but I couldn’t resist this topic, particularly on this very apt date!

Yep, it’s the best of 2024, according to me. Let’s go!

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 8 by MXTX Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 1 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall Cover of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen Cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

  1. Heaven Official’s Blessing, by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù. This was an inevitable choice. I started reading The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System in 2023, so of the two MXTX novels I’ve read so far, this was the more obvious pick for “best of 2024” (even though I finished Scum Villain in 2024, and it is very fun). It’s an epic love story, but the plot around the love story is pretty astounding too, with Xie Lian’s principles being tested again and again and again. No matter what, though, he has Hua Cheng at his side — and Feng Xin and Mu Qing too, bickering all the way. I love so many of the characters, love the world, and love Xie Lian’s journey to prove that you don’t have to save yourself at the cost of others.
  2. A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, by Misaki, Momochi and Sando. I’d love to read the light novel, but for now what we have in translation is the manga — and I fell in love with it all in a heap this December. There are nine volumes out, with the tenth dropping in late January. It’s a fairly low-stakes story: Lizel gets transported to another world, where he proceeds to very competently secure himself an adventurer to show him the ropes and a coterie of fans to make life smooth for him. He’s clearly not as sweet (or at least, not as simply sweet) as people think, but Gil sees through him. It’s not a romance, explicitly, but the bonds he forms with Gil, Eleven, Ray, Judge and Studd (and his existing bond with his king) are pretty heavily coded as romances and crushes. I adore Lizel and his excitement about bookshops, and particularly his “friendship”(?) with Gil. I have a few critiques (female characters where?) but I’ve had so much fun with this series.
  3. A Letter to the Luminous Deep, by Sylvie Cathrall. This is a debut that absolutely stole my heart. It’s a bittersweet story, since we see E. and Henery falling in love through their letters when they’ve already been lost, and their siblings working through what happened with grief and love. All the same, I love how the mysteries unfold and intertwine, I love the personalities revealed through their letters, and the world we’re presented with. It’s the first of a series and I absolutely can’t wait. It’s haunted me: when I was partway through it, I kept picking it up to read just a little more, and getting lost for a hundred pages at a time; since then, thoughts of how it’s all going to work out have kept coming back to me.
  4. The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen. This was one of my earliest reads of the year, and I loved it. It’s a ramble through the history of humans using notebooks to think, from simple jottings of numbers to bullet journals, ICU diaries, morning pages, and more. I’ve been a journaller most of my life (though not always on paper), and loved the rambling trip through the history of it. Learning about ICU diaries made me cry, and I gave morning pages a shot because of it. (It’d have gone better if I had more time — maybe when I’m no longer a student?) Definitely a recommended non-fiction.
  5. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett. It has a bit of a flavour of the Isabella Trent books (by Marie Brennan), which attracted me. It’s by no means a copy, but I could imagine Emily and Isabella getting along beautifully, and they share the same kind of “deranged practicality” that’s Isabella’s hallmark. I love Emily’s serious study of faeries of all types, her knowledge and competence, contrasting with her relative inability with people. (Lovers of Isabella: Emily is even worse at handling stuff like local politics, and doesn’t generally get that kind of thing to come right by her own meddling efforts either.) I found both books of the series so far a lot of pure fun, and not too heavy on the romance as to eclipse Emily’s serious academic endeavours.
  6. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler. In a way this is three books in one, and I preferred one of the three (and didn’t think that the other two stories wove in as well as they ought to have done). But I was so fascinated by the thread I did love that that didn’t matter. I really, really loved this one, and read it in just a few sittings, always reading just a liiiiittle bit more, just a few more pages won’t hurt, etc, etc. I think it has some weak points, but it presents such a compelling thought experiment that that kind of didn’t matter. I don’t know how well I’m selling this, but it had me mesmerised.
  7. Moneta: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins, by Gareth Harney. This is the kind of history I’ve found myself really liking, where history is teased out of a physical artefact or collection of a similar type of physical artefact. In this case, coins. Harney writes really compellingly, fascinated about his own subject, which is always the most fun kind of non-fiction to read. I usually find it easier to set non-fiction aside for a bit even when I find it really interesting, but I was constantly picking Moneta up to read just a bit more.
  8. Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History, by Rebecca Struthers. On a similar vein, this tells us the history of watches, and a little bit about the history of the wider world through discussing watches and the changes in timepieces. It’s another one that I found hard to put down, finding myself as absorbed in the detail as Struthers describes being in the watches she mends. It lent me a bit more appreciation for the pocket watch of my grandfather’s that I’ll be inheriting once it’s been fixed.
  9. Honey and Pepper, by A.J. Demas. This is a romance set in an alternate Greece, and I ended up really loving the characters. I had some quibbles about the portrayal of slavery (it’s obviously negative, but some of the characters are neck-deep in slaves when they suddenly decide to free them and support them — which doesn’t and shouldn’t erase a lifetime of keeping humans as slaves), but it does try to be nuanced and handle the fact that one of the main characters has complicated feelings about it all.
  10. What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher. Horror isn’t entirely my thing, but this novella managed to tiptoe juuust around the edges of things that trigger my anxiety too much, giving a sense of unease that worked well. It’s a retelling of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, but it’s far more than that too, introducing the character of Alex Easton and an element of Ruritanian romance in kan’s origins and cultural baggage. There’s a bunch of fun characters, and Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher always writes very engagingly. I liked the sequel too, but What Moves The Dead felt creepier and managed that unease better.

Cover of The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler Cover of Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins by Gareth Harney Cover of Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers Cover Honey & Pepper by A.J. Demas Cover of What Moves The Dead, by T. Kingfisher

That was a mix of my four and five star reads (I’m stingy, there weren’t many of the latter), and it was very difficult to narrow down what should be included here. Honorable mentions go to The Warden, Out of the Drowning Deep, Rose/House, Written in Bone and The Eye of Osiris.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 28, 2024 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

Good morning! I hope everyone who celebrates has had a lovely Christmas period. I’ve certainly been spoiled, and had a lot of fun spoiling others in turn.

Books acquired this week

Hold on to your hats! There’s a lot to come. I’m not going to post them all at once, since the post would be huge, and I won’t be getting any other new books for a bit, so I’m going to show some arbitrary subset now and continue next week (and the week after and possibly the week after). First up, here are my new graphic novels and manga!

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 8 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 9 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp and Gabrielle Kari Cover of I Feel Awful, Thanks, by Lara Pickle

Technically, the volumes of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation were bribes to keep my spirits up for work/study on the 23rd and 24th, rather than Christmas presents. I’m sad that I have the whole series for now — but volume 10 is out at the end of January!

Now for some of the non-fiction I got! I won’t try to pick out a theme, let’s go with randomness and not over-think it…

Cover of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Bederer Cover of Poet Mystic Widow Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women by Hetta Howes Cover of The Immune Mind by Dr Monty Lyman

Cover of Who Owns This Sentence: A History of Copyrights and Wrongs by David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu Cover of Book Curses by Eleanor Baker Cover of Soda and Fizzy Drinks: A Global History by Judith Levin

As you can see, the main gifter of books (my wife) tried to give me a bit of a range of non-fiction to choose from! I can’t wait to skip my way randomly through my new stacks, and indeed (as you’ll see below) I’ve already begun!

But before we get to that, here’s some of the fiction I received!

Cover of The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn Cover of A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith Cover of Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek Cover of The Hedge Witch of Foxhall by Anna Bright

Bit of a mix, as ever; I think I found out about most of these via other people’s blogs, so, thank you! I can’t remember how I came across A Case of Mice and Murder, though.

As you can see, I’ve got plenty to dig into, and at least two more STS posts to come to show off my full haul. Well and truly spoilt!

Posts from this week

It’s been a bit of a light week, but I did put up a couple of reviews, so let’s recap those!

What I’m reading

The end of the year is approaching, so I’ve been reading a lot to try to reach my reading goal, though I don’t plan to review all of it. Here’s a sneak peek at the books I finished this week which I do plan to review, as usual:

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 11 by Akane Tamura Cover of Crimson Snow ed. Martin Edwards Cover of If You'll Have Me by Eunnie Cover of The Other Olympians by Michael Waters Cover of Against Technoableism by Ahsley Shaw

Cover of The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 12 by Akane Tamura Cover of Book Curses by Eleanor Baker  Cover of I Feel Awful, Thanks, by Lara Pickle

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 13 by Akane Tamura Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 14 by Akane Tamura Cover of Soda and Fizzy Drinks: A Global History by Judith Levin Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 15 by Akane Tamura

As you see, quite a few books, but it’s been pretty light reading for the most part.

Over this weekend, I have a few Christmas-themed books I’d like to get round to reading — Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange, Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony, Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd… and we’ll see how it goes and whether I get round to them before it feels too post-Christmas for them!

How’s everyone else doing? How was Christmas, if you celebrated?

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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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 21, 2024 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments

Happy Saturday! Last weekend before Christmas, and as ever I’m inundated with presents to wrap, ready to spoil my loved ones mercilessly.

Books acquired this week

I’ve been getting some early Christmas presents, which is lovely, along with some bribes (the two volumes of manga) to help encourage me when I was feeling meh and having difficulty getting up and getting to work.

Cover of What An Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman Cover of The Conductors by Nicole Glover Cover of Against Technoableism by Ahsley Shaw

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 6 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 7 by Misaki and Momochi

Aaand then while I was doing some Christmas shopping, I ran into a seasonal romance that sounded fun… And a bit more importantly, a localish queer bookshop had a window smashed in and lost a day of trade in the week before Christmas, along with the till being robbed. To show support, I bought a few more presents there, and also used the opportunity to snag the second volume of MDZS, and a book for myself that I’d been eyeing for a while.

Cover of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol 2 by MXTX Cover of The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz Cover of Look Up, Handsome, by Jack Strange

And let me just take a moment to offer that bookshop a little more support, too: The Bookish Type are back up and running now, but a lost day of trading on the week before Christmas can be a big deal. They have a pay-it-forward programme where you can buy a book for someone who can’t afford it, and a large online shop. If you’re in the UK, I recommend taking a look (and I imagine the pay-it-forward option should work worldwide).

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a roundup of the reviews posted this week:

What I’m reading

First up, the usual sneak peek at books I’ve finished reading which I plan to review soon! As you see, it was a quieter week around here than the last couple of weeks, but that’s fine! I’m making up for it this weekend.

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 3 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of My Happy Marriage, by Akumi Agitomi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 4 by Misaki and Momochi

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 5 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 10 by Akane Tamura Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 6 by Misaki and Momochi

As for what I’m reading now, there’s another volume of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation awaiting me, for a start, and I’m already partway through a book of short stories that feature mysteries set at Christmas, Crimson Snow. Other than that… who knows?

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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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 18, 2024 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was apparently Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After, which is a short Christmas mystery that was too smut-focused for me. Because of the shortness, the relationship felt very sudden, and also it kinda seemed like the guy was lovebombing the female lead.

Cover of A Mudlarking Year by Lara MaiklemWhat are you currently reading?

Very, very fitfully, A Mudlarking Year, by Lara Maiklem. It’s due back at the library… several days ago, but I’m having trouble getting that into it. I liked her first book about mudlarking, but I guess the format of this isn’t working for me — or maybe one book about mudlarking was enough for me? It’s weird because in a way I’d expect to love the random nature of her finds and the bits of history she pulls out of them, but… yeah.

Maybe I’m just not in a reading mood.

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 3 by Misaki and MomochiWhat will you be reading next?​

Most likely more manga, particularly A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation. I’ve not been in the mood for reading much this week, but if I want to meet my yearly reading goal, I’ve got 31 more books to go… so I might settle down and read a couple of volumes soon.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 14, 2024 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

A busy week for me, on the book front! Life-wise things have been mostly calm, just work and studying and so on, as per usual.

Books acquired this week

I didn’t expect to acquire any books this week, but… that’s not how it turned out, ahaha. First up, some library holds came in…

Cover of The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke Cover of Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent

Aaand then I also got an early Christmas present from my bosses at Postcrossing, and of course it was also time for the British Library Crime Classic release, meaning I got the new one via my subscription.

Cover of Around the World in 80 Birds by Mike Unwin Cover of Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper

And then while straightening out my wishlist right before setting my wife loose on it for Christmas presents, I picked up a couple of ebooks that were going cheap aaaand I also purchased a new light novel on a whim, just to see what this series is like.

  Cover of The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields Cover of This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher Cover of An Education in Malice by S.E. Gibson Cover of My Happy Marriage, by Akumi Agitomi

As you see, I’ve given myself plenty to keep me busy until Christmas (and beyond)!

Posts from this week

Time for the usual roundup! Reviews first, as ever:

And just one non-review post, my What Are You Reading Wednesday update.

What I’m reading

As ever, here’s a sneak peek at the books I finished reading this week which I plan to review on the blog! As you can see, it’s been another busy week, helped along by novellas and manga.

Cover of The Apothecary Diaries volume 1, by Natsu Hyuuga Cover of The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar Cover of Murder at the Ashmolean by Jim Eldridge Cover of The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 8 by Akane Tamura

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 9 by Akane Tamura Cover of The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke Cover of The Big Four by Agatha Christie Cover of Immortal Red Sonja vol 1 by Dan Abnett et al Cover of The Dead of winter by Sarah Clegg

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 1 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 2 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood

I’m going to be reading more of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation this weekend for sure, but what else…? Probably some more of A Side Character’s Love Story, and finishing up with Michael Waters’ The Other Olympians, my current serious read, which is about the fascist and specifically Nazi origins of sex testing in sport.

But, as ever, it depends on my whims in the moment.

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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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 11, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Happy Wednesday! Here we go again.

Cover of The Big Four by Agatha ChristieWhat have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished reading The Big Four by Agatha Christie — a book of hers that she didn’t think much of, that I actually… kind of liked? I’m still not a huge Poirot fan, nor a Hastings fan, but this one was just so dramatic and over-the-top, while not actually getting too deep into the seaweed to churn out red herrings and misdirections.

It probably helps as well that it was relatively short.

Cover of The Other Olympians by Michael WatersWhat are you currently reading?

I’m most actively working on The Other Olympians, by Michael Waters; it’s slow going because it’s a period of history I’m not personally fascinated by, and I’m also not that interested in sport history in general. I’m here to understand the Nazi underpinnings of sex testing for athletes, along with anything else they gifted sport with along the way.

Cover of Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth AnthonyWhat will you be reading next?

That’s a very good question, to which I mostly don’t know the answer. I’m reading a lot of manga at the moment, and I tend to read each volume all in one go, letting my whim guide me.

That said, if I’m going to do any of my seasonal reading, I should get to that soon, so maybe Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony, this year’s Christmas-themed reprint from the British Library Crime Classics series, or Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd, a random pick from the library.

What about you, dear reader?

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 7, 2024 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

I’m very much enjoying the advent season so far — as I’ve probably mentioned before, I usually go overboard on creating a custom advent calendar of gifts for my wife, a whole mix of things like craft kits, nerdy phone charms, books, etc. I watch out for people’s reviews of horror books all year (especially from Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum) so I can make some good choices Lisa wouldn’t otherwise hear about, since it’s really not my genre. So that’s a lot of fun, and adds a bright spot to every day.

Hope everyone’s having a good December so far, whether or not you’re celebrating any kind of holiday this month!

Books acquired this week

This week I got a couple of eagerly-awaited books to review via Netgalley: I love the Mossa and Pleiti books, and I’ve been adoring the Emily Wilde series. I also forgot to mention Neon Yang’s new book last week, so here it is!

Cover of The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older Cover of Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett Cover of Bright than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang

I’m really excited to dig into these.

Posts from the last week

First up, the reviews!

And the only other thing I posted was my WWW Wednesday post.

What I’m reading

I have a long way to go to meet my stretch reading goal this year: as I write, I have to read 52 more books to meet my goal, and I haven’t given up yet! I’ve been reading quite a lot this week, finishing 17 things that count as books on StoryGraph (though a couple of them were very short, and there were a lot of graphic novels and manga in the mix). Here’s a sneak peek of the ones I plan to review here!

Cover of Machine Readable Me by Zara Rahman Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 4 by Akane Tamura Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 5 by Akane Tamura Cover of They Came to Slay by Thom James Carter

Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 6 by Akane Tamura Cover of A Side Character's Love Story vol 7 by Akane Tamura Cover of Breaks by Emma Vieceli and Malyn Ryden Cover of Snowflake Kisses by Jordan Greene & Yayira Dzamesi

Cover of Camp Spirit by Axelle Lenoir Cover of Cultish by Amanda Montell Cover of Star Collector vol 1, by Sophie Schonhammer and Anna Backhausen Cover of Star Collector vol 2, by Sophie Schonhammer and Anna Backhausen

I know, I know, it’s a lot!

Over the weekend, I plan to do a bunch more reading — for one thing, I want to dive into The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, and there’s more manga I want to read, and I’m partway through Murder at the Ashmolean and Black Ops & Beaver Bombing

Suffice it to say, I’ll be keeping busy!

How’s everyone else doing?!

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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