Category: General

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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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 1, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Anyyyy day now I’ll get round to scheduling more of my backlogged reviews, but for now, here’s the WWW Wednesday post!

What are you currently reading?​

Cover of After the Dragons by Cynthia ZhangAbout eight books at once, last I checked! So I’ll just pick a couple to talk about: first on my mind is After the Dragons, by Cynthia Zhang. It involves dragons, biology, and a prickly love interest with whom things will (presumably) get figured out. I hadn’t realised it was queer, actually, somehow — or hadn’t remembered it, anyway. I am promised there will be cuddles soon, and I wonder quite how they’re going to get there.

I’m also reading Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials, which would be more accurately but less catchily titled “Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain, with seven key burials discussed to varying degrees, and mostly lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of description of non-British archaeology”. Which is cool, but I actually wanted a closer focus on particular burials — that’s what I was interested in.

Finally, I’m now reading Anthony Berkeley’s The Wychford Poisoning Case, which is fun: the detective character is very glib and smooth-talking, in a way familiar to those who love Lord Peter. Mind you, Lord Peter never tried to turn his grown-up female cousin over his knee to spank her, so there are definitely bits that ring very oddly to a contemporary reader.

Cover of What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka ArimahWhat have you recently finished reading?​

I am really bad at keeping track of that recently, so the thing that mostly jumps to mind is that I finished Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas. He made the cardinal sin (to me) of getting something wrong about Arthurian myth — the very briefest of references, but infuriating. That said, it definitely scratched the curious itch I had when looking at it on the shelf, so it worked out.

Oh, and I finished What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, which has a lot of clever stories in it, and which I’m still mulling over.

Cover of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererWhat will you be reading next?

No idea at all. Chances are high that I’ll be picking up Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, since it’s a book club read for this month. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho is also coming up soon, so that might be a choice. But really, who knows?

What are you folks reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted June 26, 2021 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

Good afternoon! I ran out of pre-scheduled posts this week, and promptly ran headfirst into a busy time… but the backlog of reviews will be back soon, promise. In the meantime, I did get some new books!

Received to review

Cover of Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes Cover of A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske Cover of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Thanks as ever to the publishers for these! I feel like Dead Silence is more my wife’s thing than mine, but we share a Kindle account so there won’t be any jealousy…

New books

Cover of Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles Cover of Honeycomb by Joanne Harris Cover of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Yesss, Subtle Blood is out — now I can start this trilogy! Have faithfully bought each book on release day, and the paperbacks as soon as possible… but until the HEA was assured, I couldn’t tuck in.

I’m also keen to read Honeycomb; I actually had an eARC through the Secret Readers programme, except then they decided to withdraw that month’s books early without explanation when I was 20% of the way through. It was infuriating.

Read this week

Cover of Bloodline by Jordan L. Hawk Cover of A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander Cover of Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese Cover of The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris

And that’s all for this week! How’s everyone doing? Got anything good this week?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 23, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Greetings! How’s everyone doing? I ran out of scheduled posts and have been too busy/tired this week to get the queue set up again (there’s plenty more reviews written and ready, fear not!) but that’ll be back soon, I promise. In the meantime, here’s the usual Wednesday post!

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Seashaken Houses by Tom NancollasA whole bunch of things at once, of course! Most notably, I’m most of the way through Thomas Morris’ The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, which is okay but in the end fairly meh. Nothing too surprising, and most of it is about hoaxes or obvious misunderstandings.

I got a new book last week, totally on a whim, about lighthouses: Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas. I picked it up briefly and just felt kinda drawn to it, and I do like indulging my random curiosities, so I went ahead. I started it right away to catch that feeling, and am enjoying it — some of the daydreams about the inhabitants of the lighthouses and the descriptions of things get a bit purple prosey, but I’m enjoying some of the local history and the overaching development of lighthouses. I especially enjoyed the chapter about Haulbowline, which had to be consecrated by priests in 1958 because the keepers were convinced the place was haunted.

What have you recently finished reading?

Bloodline, by Jordan L. Hawk. Once I got past the part where Whyborne was lying to Griffin, I flew through the rest of the book. I wasn’t too shocked by any of the shocking revelations, but it’s an enjoyable addition to the series, and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it in future — and how it crosses over with K.J. Charles’ Green Men world.

What will you be reading next?

Beats me! There are a ton of books all stacked up waiting for me. I really, really should work on reading What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky, though: it’s this month’s book club read in my capricious book club where all the choices are made by me, so it’d be bad form not to keep up!

What are you currently reading?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted June 19, 2021 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Saturday again! It comes round so quickly. No real news from me this week, so straight into the book haul that I accidentally acquired…

Received to review

Cover of Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia

I always enjoy Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ideas — only one of her books has seriously clicked with me, but I enjoy them anyway.

Stacking the Shelves

Cover of The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel Cover of Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas Cover of Never Greater Slaughter by Michael Livingston

Cover of Black Water Sister by Zen Cho Cover of The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri Cover of The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox

Cover of Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander Cover of Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander Cover of A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander

A real mix, as usual! I’m excited about Black Water Sister and The Jasmine Throne, in particular; I’ve been wanting to get my hands on those for a while now, since I first heard about them. Likewise The Fabric of Civilization, actually — ever since I was going on a tear of reading books about sewing and textiles, at the start of the year.

The most impulsive purchase was Seashaken Houses, which would not usually be my thing. Something about the idea of a book about lonely lighthouses built onto rocky reefs got under my skin, apparently. I’ve gone with the whim and started reading it right away!

Books read this week

Cover of The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian Cover of The Whole Picture by Alice Procter

Not a big reading week — or a big finishing week, at least: I’m halfway through seven books at once!

Reviews posted this week

And that’s all from me this week! How’ve you all been doing? Have you got any great new books this week, or been reading anything that knocked your socks off?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 17, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

A quick update this week — or hopefully so — since Wednesday snuck riiiight up on me.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Gastrophysics by Charles SpenceA lot of books at once, as ever. Two that jump out at me as worth an update: Bloodline, by Jordan L. Hawk, has unfortunately bogged down for me on the quicksands of I hate it when people in a close relationship lie to each other instead of talking through their problems. Argh, it’s just totally bogged down the story for me; I don’t even want to read it right now, because Whyborne is being a dick to Griffin (and Griffin is being reasonable but without sitting down and talking it out with Whyborne).

On the non-fiction side, I’m greatly enjoying Gastrophysics, by Charles Spence. It’s impossible to trust a scrap of the science, because he says things like he’s heard that certain genes cluster in certain geographical locations and that explains cultural food choices. You’ve heard that? Great, now try sourcing it from an actual reputable, peer-reviewed source before you write about it blithely in your book that’s allegedly popular science. Jesus Christ, how hard can it be?

(And then sometimes he just fails to research. He reckons that sharp, angular foods are more acidic than soft round ones, and wonders whether cheese is the answer. The answer is, at the very least, “not straightforwardly so” — highly acidic cheeses are often very crumbly, which doesn’t entirely fit with his theory. Sounds nice, ten minutes with Google are enough to prove that you can’t just say that. This is not how science works and I have serious doubts about this guy’s ability to understand how to design a proper experiment or do proper literature searches, Professor or not.)

But… it’s really fun to read, somehow — the writing itself is lively, and just… sucks you in.

What have you recently finished reading?​

I think the last thing was Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman, which didn’t really work for me. It’s too academic and dry. Some of the essays are better than others, but one or two basically regurgitate huge quotations as if that constitutes engaging with the material.

What will you be reading next?​

I don’t know, though The Jasmine Throne (Tasha Suri) arrived today, and from everything folks are saying, it’s pretty tempting.

Other than that, I’m vaguely planning on picking up a couple of particular books after I finish books that are already on the go, to fill the same niche in my reading material… but I’m not sure if that will be anytime soon.

How about you?

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Weekly Roundup

Posted June 12, 2021 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

Good afternoon, folks!

General update

As you’ll have noticed, I’ve been queuing up some of my backlog of reviews — mostly written during the Final Fantasy XIV dungeon “The Praetorium”, since you get good items from it at the moment… but it has looooong unskippable cutscenes!

What have I been up to? Mostly playing Final Fantasy XIV, along with the Mass Effect remaster. If any of you play FFXIV, say hi sometime, we can run a dungeon or something! I’m on Cerberus server, and I can let you know my avatar’s name…

I have been reading a bit, though; I’ve gone back to reading a whole bunch of books at once, and I’m using Beeminder to help track them and keep me from putting them down and forgetting about them for ages. Here’s how I’m doing with Maryn McKenna’s Beating Back the Devil, for example!

Stacking the Shelves

This week I don’t have too many new books in — last week’s splurge was actually kind of out of character for me lately. However, I did pick up Tasha Alexander’s A Fatal Waltz in paperback, since it came back into stock, and I’ve just got a new book to review because I remembered one of you guys talking about it recently, and it has a pretty cover.

Cover of A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander Cover of After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang

Books read this week

I’ve actually finished a few books this week, which isn’t so common lately!

Cover of Food: The History of Taste Cover of Two-Way Murder by E.C.R. Lorac Cover of Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth Cover of Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa RandallCover of Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Reviews posted this week

So that’s it! What have you guys been stacking up, devouring, or flinging across the room in despair?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 10, 2021 by Nicky in General / 3 Comments

Oof, getting too warm to think in my little office in Yorkshire. Gah, summer is here again, apparently.

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading a lot all at once at the moment. This is normally something I’d feel weird and guilty about because I should be finishing books, right? But I’ve given up on that kind of guilting myself, and this is much closer to the joyful, voracious and random reading I did as a child — which is the kind of reading which made me really happy. So I’m sticking with it.

I’m still reading several of the books from last week; I’ve also picked up The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, by Cat Sebastian, because it sounded like exactly the ticket right now. I’ve also started in on the fifth Whyborne & Griffin book by Jordan L. Hawk, which promises to be the same quick-paced fun as the others — and I’m somewhat reassured that while Whyborne is never going to be a confident man, he has developed somewhat and learned to trust Griffin.

Cover of Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha LeeWhat have you recently finished reading?​

I think the last thing I finished was Phoenix Extravagant, which was very different to Yoon Ha Lee’s series, starting with Ninefox Gambit, which is what really drew my attention to his work. I enjoyed Phoenix Extravagant, but it’s less complex/mind-bending to follow. That’s not to say that’s a bad thing or a good thing; it’s a different thing, and I’m still kind of letting it sit to see what I think when the dust has settled.

I also finished Plain Bad Heroines, which I found to be very lacking in payoff for all those pages of vaguely creepy promises.

What are you going to read next?

As ever, I don’t really know. I have a strong suspicion I’ll be picking up the third Lady Emily book by Tasha Alexander, and I’m quite in the mood to reread some old favourites too — which might be Marie Brennan, Ann Leckie, Becky Chambers, or Vivian Shaw…

We’ll see, as ever. Only time will tell, with my mood-reading and my moods!

What are you reading at the moment?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 5, 2021 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

Good morning, folks! It’s been a while since I did any kind of weekly roundup, and I figured I’d get back into the swing of things a bit more gently and just do a Stacking the Shelves post — especially since I don’t really have any posts to highlight yet, though I’m starting to format the backlog of reviews and get ’em ready for public consumption.

So here we go, the fruits of my post-statistics-exam shopping spree!

Cover of Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes Cover of Gastrophysics by Charles Spence Cover of The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris Cover of Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese

Cover of Burning the Books by Richard Evenden Cover of How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett Cover of Ancestors by Alice Roberts Cover of We Are Not Amused by David Crystal

A rather random-looking selection, I’ll admit, and all non-fiction this week — but my non-fiction stack was getting a bit threadbare, while my fiction stack seems to grow and grow and grow.

Look out for the Stacking the Shelves linkup over on Reading Reality! And do drop a comment here if you’ve read any of the books above; I’ve heard mixed things about one or two!

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 3, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Technically it’s still Wednesday, right? I haven’t slept yet, so it must be.

Anyway, I’m all done with writing the reviews I had in my backlog, and I’m all done with my exams… so it’s time to start queueing them up to post! …Tomorrow.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha LeeFiction: A whooole bunch of things, as ever! More every day, it feels like. Two-Way Murder by E.C.R. Lorac was a definite “my brain is a potato” choice; her Golden Age crime mysteries always work very well for me in terms of evoking a place/community and a detective who is not a douchecanoe. Also still reading Phoenix Extravagant and Plain Bad Heroines, neither of which are quite grabbing me lately. This is certainly in part because my brain is a potato.

Non-fiction: I just picked up Beating Back the Devil, by Maryn McKenna — you’d think I’d hate reading about epidemiology since that was my exam topic, but actually it kinda reminds me what I’m here for in the first place. Not that the Epidemic Intelligence Service is my idea of a fun time, since they have to get very hands-on at times, but… broadly speaking, figuring out that one specific batch of a specific manufacturer’s vaccine is causing an outbreak of polio is exactly what I sometimes think I’d like to do.

I’m also still reading Food: The History of Taste, which I think I was reading last week and which is very slow, and Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, which is slowly beginning to get to the point. I also picked up Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, partly as a comfort while I was waiting for my exam to be available for download.

What have you recently finished reading?

Finishing books? What’s finishing books, precious?

More seriously, I did recently finish reading The Cheltenham Square Murder (John Bude), which was fun enough but not a standout — a very typical Golden Age crime novel, without Lorac’s fine touch, basically.

What will you be reading next?

Well, I need to get round to What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky, by Lesley Nneka Arimah, so that’s high on the list. I think The Story of Silence by Alex Myers is starting to wiggle to the top of my list, too; I like the original medieval poem, and I’m curious what this modern retelling does with it.

What’re you currently reading?

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