Category: General

Weekly Roundup

Posted August 21, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Yay, it was my birthday! I mean, um, hi! Look, I have books!

Books acquired:

Cover of The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson Cover of Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson Cover of Curry by Lizzie Collingham

Cover of The Chianti Flask by Marie Belloc Lowndes Cover of Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia Cover of Murder by the Book ed. Martin Edwards Cover of The Black Coast by Mike Brooks

All from my wife. 💙 I am a spoilt creature.

Read this week:

Cover of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien Cover of Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia

Reviews posted this week:

So how’s everyone doing? Any good books come your way lately?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted August 18, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

What, me, doing my weekly update in a timely fashion?! Surely you jest.

Cover of The Jasmine Throne by Tasha SuriWhat are you currently reading?

Just two books! I know, it’s a shock — I didn’t intentionally cut down, really, I was just feeling pretty stressed and it happened by itself. So I’m halfway through Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, for a book club read. It’s a bit chunky-looking on the shelf, but I’ve been speeding through it when I sit myself down and focus.

I’m also now rereading The Fellowship of the Ring. I had a bit of an urge to read it, and I decided to just go with it — whims are good!

Cover of The Bone Wars by Erin EvanWhat have you recently finished reading?

The Hobbit, which is for me always the right place to start a Tolkien reread. It’s as cosy as ever (despite going some very un-cosy places), and I still love the narrative voice.

Before that, I DNF’ed The Bone Wars (Erin S. Evan) too soon to even review it (which I normally would) for being a bit too young-feeling and infodumpy.

Cover of Slippery Creatures by K.J. CharlesWhat will you be reading next?

That’s a bit of a mystery, as usual, but maybe not quite so much as usual. I’m really really hoping to get started on Scoff: a History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler, from my non-fiction pile, and Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles from the fiction pile. However, I also want to reread the fourth Kate Daniels book soon, and the next Whyborne and Griffin book, and I’ve so far had 10 new books for my birthday, and(!) I want to work on reading more of the ARCs I’ve neglected.

So, um, probably still plenty of mystery.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What’re you reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted August 14, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Greetings, folks, from the end of a busy week! I can’t promise I’ll be under less stress going forward, but my work life will be a little simpler, which is something! How’re you all doing?

Books acquired:

Cover of Stormblood by Jeremy Szal Cover of Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Early birthday presents from Portal Bookshop! 💙 I have actually read Witchmark before and liked but didn’t love it, but something’s been itching at me lately and I’d like to try it again — and read the rest of the series. So this was lovely.

Books read this week:

Cover of Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky Cover of Burning the Books by Richard Evenden Cover of The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler Cover of The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead

Reviews posted this week:

Giveaways:

  • Worldwide Book Giveaway: I’ll be choosing one random person who replies to this tweet to receive one book of their choice. I’ll do the draw on the 21st.
  • UK Book Giveaway: I’m choosing three random people who respond to this tweet to receive a book of their choice via Portal Bookshop. Plus, some other folks are signing up to buy a random person a book, so I think so far there are five chances to win. Also drawn on the 21st!
  • Buy Someone A Book: If you’re interested in joining in with buying a book for a random Twitter user, you can sign up to join in by replying to this tweet. When the time comes, I’ll pick a random winner for you, and get you two connected so you can sort out the purchase. I’ll let you know who you’re buying for on the 21st, with the help of my trusty RNG.

And that’s everything!

So, any good books joined your TBR this week? Thrown any books against the wall in anger? How’s reading going in general?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted August 8, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Welp, busy week here. I keep hoping that “next week” will be less bumpy, but it never seems to be true. Ah well!

Received to review:

Cover of The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler

I had this on my wishlist, and then spotted that I was auto-approved by the publisher on Netgalley, so… here we go!

Books read this week:

Cover of Sea People by Christina Thompson Cover of Black Water Sister by Zen Cho Cover of Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Reviews posted this week:

Aaaand that’s all for this week! How’s everyone doing?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted July 31, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Gooood evening! I had a busy day of, um, questing on FFXIV… so I’m only just setting up this post now. Not that I have much to report! No new books, and only a couple of books read.

Books read this week:

Cover of Calamity in Kent by John Rowland Cover of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Cover of Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan

Reviews posted this week:

Aaand that’s it for me, for this week. How’s everyone doing?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted July 24, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Good evening, folks! How’s everyone been? It’s been too warm here, but it’s fortunately a lot cooler today. Not much reading this week, alas… too cranky from the heat.

Received to review:

Cover of Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Read this week:

Cover of The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel

Reviews posted this week:

Aaand that’s it from me. Any good books for you this week?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 21, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s Wednesday again already! How does that keep happening? And do I make the same joke too often? It’s too warm to think of a new one.

Cover of Black Water Sister by Zen ChoWhat are you currently reading?

A couple of things at once, as usual! I’m most of the way through Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, which is more autobiographical than I had been led to expect, and which just doesn’t quite work for me in its outlook. I’m also still working on Behave, by Robert Sapolsky; he seems to be taking an awful long time to say nothing new.

In fiction news, I finally started Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister, which I’m enjoying but not getting super into — partly because I haven’t had much brain for reading with how warm it is.

Cover of The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia PostrelWhat have you recently finished reading?

Virginia Postrel’s The Fabric of Civilization, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I think I’d have got more out of it if I had a visual imagination, though: when she described how to weave, for instance, it just meant nothing to me.

What will you be reading next?

Don’t know! I really need to get to Slippery Creatures (K.J. Charles), but who knows?

Alright, your turn!

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Weekly Roundup

Posted July 17, 2021 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

Wow, it’s warm out! And in. Actually, it’s just warm. And today there’s a Lions game and a Wales game, and tomorrow I’m attending a Ceremony of Eternal Bonding on FFXIV, so it’s a busy weekend. 🤣

Anyway, I have no new books this week, so it’s straight onto the recap.

Books read this week:

Cover of Never Greater Slaughter by Michael Livingston Cover of Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes Cover of Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews Cover of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Reviews posted this week:

…And that’s everything! How’s everyone doing?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 15, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Real quick, this week:

Cover of The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia PostrelWhat are you currently reading?

A few books at once, as usual! But I’m in a hurry, so I’ll stick to saying that I’ve just started The Fabric of Civilization, by Virginia Postrel, and I’m finding it fascinating. The first chapters go into specific elements of fabric (thread, dye, etc) describing their origins and development.

I’ve also started a reread of The Paradise War, by Stephen Lawhead. It seems almost impossible that the suck fairy hasn’t visited this book I loved as a teen, but it was so formative to my tastes that I’m giving it another go.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Magic Strikes, which was a reread, and remains a heck of a lot of fun. I overestimated how much the arena scenes featured in the book, though!

What will you be reading next?

Should be Black Water Sister, by Zen Cho, since it’s coming up as a book club read. But, as always, I can’t promise I won’t be tempted by shinies, especially with my wife currently reading K.J. Charles’ Will Darling books, which I have not yet started…

So… what are you reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted July 10, 2021 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Happy Saturday! I’m in the middle of watching the Wales v Argentina rugby game, with a British and Irish Lions game to follow later. So much rugby. <3 And books! It’s my day off, so it’s a good day for reading — and I haven’t been doing much of that this week!

New books:

Cover of Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

I’ve had my eye on this one for a while. It’s actually releasing in hardback in the UK… but Bookshop.org have some paperback editions from a different press, and I snapped one up when I saw it was less than £10!

Received to review:

Cover of Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan Cover of The Bone Wars by Erin Evan

I was pretty fascinating by a book about working on dictionaries recently (by Kory Stamper), so a book about indices is more exciting to me than it sounds. And The Bone Wars sounds like a lot of fun.

Read this week:

Cover of Ancestors by Alice Roberts

Not much reading this week, as I said… alas.

Reviewed this week:

So that’s everything from me this week! How’re your shelves looking, folks?

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