Posted August 8, 2020 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments
Greetings, folks! This has been a good week for ARCs, and passable for reading… and I have my replacement ereader now, so I can get back to some neglected library books. Hurrah! It’s also been pretty busy in terms of posting reviews, which I hadn’t realised until starting this post. Whoa!
Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.
Books acquired:
Thank you to the publishers who let me have ARCs (mostly Tor!) and also the two lovelies who have bought me books this week. You know how to spoil a Nicky, and it’s appreciated deeply.
Books read this week:
Reviews posted this week:
- Mystery at Olympia, by John Rhode. Not the most memorable story, actually; I’d thought better of John Rhode’s work in other outings (as Miles Burton). But fun enough. 3/5 stars
- Lock In, by John Scalzi. Very entertaining, and not a bad SF mystery either. Held up very well as a reread. 4/5 stars
- Drowned Country, by Emily Tesh. A lovely novella, following up on Silver in the Wood. I was mad at it at first for certain plot/character things… but it brought me round. 4/5 stars
- Head On, by John Scalzi. Also very entertaining, and that’s including the cat in witness protection which I’d forgotten to mention. 4/5 stars
- The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, by Zen Cho. I don’t always get along with things that are meant to be funny, but this works very well for me, and the voice reminded me of I Capture the Castle, a solid favourite. 4/5 stars
- A Scream in Soho, by John G. Brandon. Rather sordid and racist. Meh. 1/5 stars
Other posts:
Whoa, that took some rounding up.
So how’re you folks? Been reading anything good, or stacking your shelves with anything shiny? I got my finished copy of Seven Devils as well, this week, so that’s something to look forward to!
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup
Posted August 5, 2020 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments
It’s Wednesday again! So here’s the usual check-in. You can go to Taking On A World Of Words to chat with everyone else who has posted what they’re reading right now!
What are you currently reading?
Probably a bunch of stuff that I’ve accidentally put down when I didn’t mean to… but primarily, I’ve just started A Scream in Soho, by John G. Brandon. There’s so much period-typical racial stereotyping (largely about Italians, but Germans too), and the murdered person is… well, the way the story puts it is that it’s a man disguised as a woman. Which the plot will probably bear out, given they’re probably a spy. Still, it’s not exactly aged well in various ways.
What have you recently finished reading?
I devoured a reread of John Scalzi’s Lock In, and then followed it up with the sequel, Head On. I’ve been meaning to read it for ages, and I didn’t really need the reread of the first book… but it was nice. I still need to sit down and do my review of Head On and think through it, but I tore through both books.
What will you be reading next?
Goodness knows! I want to reread The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet for a Habitica book club readalong, so there’s that… but I also just got my replacement ereader and I had a bunch of books part-read on Libby that I need to get into the queues for again. If they’re not currently reserved, maybe I’ll be able to grab them and restart on those.
But as usual, it could really be anything.
What are you currently reading?
Tags: Becky Chambers, books, British Library Crime Classics, John G. Brandon, John Scalzi, WWW Wednesday
Posted August 4, 2020 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments
Sorry I missed last week, folks! It was a heckuva week, for sure. Anyway, this week is a bit like a scavenger hunt for me, because I’m not sure I can actually think of books I like with colours in their titles… so I’m going to survey my shelves for whatever I can find.
- Red, White & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston. I haven’t read this one, and I really really want to.
- The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff. This I have read, of course, though I wish I could find the editions I had as a kid. I read ’em to pieces, though The Eagle of the Ninth was my favourite.
- The Boy in the Red Dress, by Kristin Lambert. A recent acquisition, so one I haven’t read yet. It looks so fun, though!
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James. I haven’t read it yet, and I’m not entirely sure it’s going to be my thing based on reviews… but I’m eager to give it a go.
- Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse. Okay, this is actually on my wishlist and not on my shelves because it’s not out yet.
- All Systems Red, by Martha Wells. Oh, Murderbot. <3
- Redemption in Indigo, by Karen Lord. I’ve been meaning to reread this, I remember loving it but not much about it.
- The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark. Loved this novella so much!
- The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle. I was less of a fan of this Lovecraft retelling, but it kinda sticks in my head!
- A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers. Another one that’s on my TBR but which I haven’t read yet…
As you can see, I have a TBR problem, insofar as that can be considered a problem!
How’d everyone else do with the scavenger hunt? Or could you think of enough books with colours in the title that you could pick out your favourites? I’m looking forward to seeing all the obvious ones I’ve missed…
Tags: books, Casey McQuiston, K.B. Wagers, Karen Lord, Kristin Lambert, Marlon James, Martha Wells, P. Djèlí Clark, Rebecca Roanhorse, Rosemary Sutcliff, Top Ten Tuesday, Victor LaValle
Posted August 1, 2020 by Nicky in General / 17 Comments
Well, folks, it’s been quite the week. No new books, and we’ve been in quarantine after Lisa (my wife) developed some potential-COVID symptoms. We’ve both tested negative now and she’s on the mend, but phew it’s been tiring.
Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.
So here’s what I have managed to read (not bad, though they were short!):
Books read this week:
Reviews posted this week:
- The Return of the Earl, by Sandra Schwab. Sweet, but one of the main characters acts in a really untrusting way to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and is constantly cranky for no reason, so that was kind of annoying. 3/5 stars
- The Deep, by Rivers Solomon. An interesting take on a concept explored by others, though I found Yetu’s actions really frustrating. 4/5 stars
- Alike as Two Bees, by Elin Gregory. Very short, but I enjoyed it a lot. I’d look for more work by this author, and I love the way the couple are handled. 4/5 stars
- The Secret Lives of Colour, by Kassia St. Clair. Enjoyable, but more for dipping in and out of.
Other posts:
- WWW Wednesday. A quick update, mostly mentioning the books above.
- Hobbit Birthday. Giveaway still going on! Open worldwide; £50 to spend at Portal Bookshop for one winner, £15 for two others. (It’s possible to figure out a different bookshop if Portal don’t ship to you!)
So that’s me for the week. How’s everyone else doing?
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup
Posted July 29, 2020 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments
Hey folks! I’m not linking this one up, because I know I don’t have the energy to answer many people… but I’d love to hear from regulars. Lisa’s sick, and there’s an outside chance it might be COVID… so it’s quarantine for us.
What are you currently reading?
My wife’s sick, so I’m pretty brain-dead. I’m supposed to be finishing up The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu before the end of the month, but I think the chances are slim. I’ve tried to pick up The Lost Boys, by Gina Parry, which is about the Robbers Cave experiment by Muzafer Sherif; I really want to be interested, but I don’t have enough brain.
Kassia St. Clair’s The Secret Lives of Colour is going down better, because it has very short chapters.
What have you recently finished reading?
The Return of the Earl, by Sandra Schwab, which was kind of cute but won’t prove memorable. I had to look up the eponymous Earl’s name again to write my review two days later, eek.
Before that it was Rivers Solomon’s The Deep, which was less forgettable but which I haven’t quite managed to review yet.
What will you be reading next?
I really have no idea. I’m being gently urged to reread some favourites, whether that’s Dorothy L. Sayers or Becky Chambers or something else, in the hopes that whatever it is will better suit my brain at the moment through its familiarity. Probably a solid plan, but who knows if I’ll stick to it.
What are you reading?
Tags: Becky Chambers, books, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gina Parry, Kassia St. Clair, Ken Liu, Rivers Solomon, Sandra Schwab, WWW Wednesday
Posted July 25, 2020 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup
Posted July 18, 2020 by Nicky in General / 17 Comments
Gooood morning, folks! How’s your week been?
A few weeks ago, I let you know I was applying to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Well, thanks for all your well wishes — I’m in! I’m still working out whether I can take some prior credit in so I can skip the intro to biology module (given I have an entire biology degree), but I should be commencing my studies (part time, via distance learning) in September. I’m really excited!
Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.
Books acquired:
Thank you to Moon Kestrel for A Declaration of The Rights of Magicians, Malou for Dangerous Remedy, and the bunnies for The Extraordinaries. I am being spoilt lately, and I love it! Also, thank you to K.B. Wagers for recommending Burnout — I’m normally pretty allergic to any kind of self-help stuff, but a) I need to read a self-help book for a reading challenge prompt, and b) there’s good stuff out there, it’s just hard for the genre to rise above some of the blatantly bad books.
Books finished this week:
Reviews posted this week:
Other posts:
I have a book voucher in need of using… and an order incoming from Portal Bookshop… so it’s going to be a busy week for my letterbox. What books have you been grabbing lately? Anything you’re ready to shake down the postman for?
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup
Posted July 15, 2020 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments
It’s Wednesday again! So here’s the usual check-in. You can go to Taking On A World Of Words to chat with everyone else who has posted what they’re reading right now!
What are you currently reading?
Fiction: The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu. I was warned by friends who found it really slow that I might not like it… well, I’m not sure about the liking it or not, but I’m definitely not finding it too slow. I haven’t read for a day or two because I wasn’t feeling like it, but I’ve been reading it in chunks whenever I do.
Non-fiction: The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries, by Donald R. Prothero, which the library ordered for me in ebook on my request. It would probably be better in pbook format because it’s got a lot of pictures, but it’s not so bad in ebook; I’m glad I’m reading it, but also glad I didn’t buy it for £27! It’s nothing I haven’t read before, but it’s always fun to spend some time with dinosaurs.
What have you recently finished reading?
Uhhh, interesting question. Oh: Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark. I’m still thinking this one over. I found the idea of members of the Ku Klux Klan being literal monsters a bit… simplistic? That’s not quite the word I want. Obvious? And I never wholly warmed to it, though I appreciated a lot of aspects of the novella. I want to read around some other reviews and see if they help it click into place for me, before I write my review. (And of course Tor used to say not to post a review until two weeks before publication; I still stick to that, though most bloggers don’t… I’m auto-approved on Netgalley, though, so I don’t see that approval message anymore.)
What will you be reading next?
Still Ninth House, most likely; I’m also eyeing The Lost Boys, by Gina Perry — I was eager to read it anyway, and now it fits a book club prompt (as a book in the 300s in the Dewey Decimal System). I loved Perry’s book on Stanley Milgram’s experiments, and it looks like she’s done much the same here with pulling apart Sherif Muzafer’s experiments a bit and examining how they tick and where they go wrong.
So what are you reading at the moment?
Tags: books, Donald R. Prothero, Gina Perry, Ken Liu, Leigh Bardugo, P. Djèlí Clark, WWW Wednesday
Posted July 14, 2020 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments
Tuesday again already! And this week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “books that make me smile”. Which is… honestly, most books. Just being around books makes me smile — even books I personally wouldn’t enjoy, it can be really exciting to look at someone else’s books, or browse through a shelf… But there are some specific books that put a smile on my face for various reasons, so let’s do this!
- The Talisman Ring, by Georgette Heyer. Most Heyer novels have me giggling throughout, but this was one of the first I read, and the reread was just as good. The Reluctant Widow, too. She has some annoying heroes and some repetitive plots/themes… but in general, I’m always going to smile at a Heyer novel.
- Band Sinister, by K.J. Charles. Most K.J. Charles books would fit the bill actually… but Band Sinister is one of the rare ones that doesn’t also have a massive bodycount, so it’s the one that fits most readily on a list about smiling! Though A Fashionable Indulgence is also worth mentioning. And A Gentleman’s Position. Ugh, no, they all make me smile.
- Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers. From the opening paragraph onwards, there’s so much cleverness and wit. And it features two of my favourite characters in fiction, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. How could I not smile? Also, memories of the radioplays and BBC TV adaptations, and so many good conversations with my mum and my wife…
- The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. Alright, not all of it is happy or comfortable reading, but Maia is a delight and so are many of the characters who surround him. I’m trying not to reread it too often, but honestly, when I’m stressed it’s the first thing that comes to mind.
- Small Robots, by Thomas Heasman-Hunt. There’s a Small Robot for almost every occasion, and they’re so often so cute… or so apt for the moment. Check out their Twitter!
- The Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. The series has been so much fun, and the accompanying art (including on the cover) is so good. Isabella and her deranged practicality really stick with me.
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. I can’t help remembering being sucked in and just ZOOMING through it, whenever I see this book! And so many great conversations about it, and just… yeah.
- Catching Breath, by Kathryn Lougheed. One of the many books about disease (like The Emperor of All Maladies, or Spillover) that a) helped me get over irrational fear through fostering curiosity instead, and b) really set me on my current path when it comes to studying. Of course I smile when I think about this one! There’s so much out there to learn, and I never have to stop. Plus, I wrote my dissertation on TB basically because of this book. I know a lot of people hate their dissertations by the end, but I did not; I’d gladly research and write several more chapters!
- This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story, by Kacen Callender. I haven’t actually read this yet, but it looks like fun and I’m really excited to finally get through my TBR pile to it. (Not that I am reading a set number of books before I pick it up, just that my brain is like a very crowded train station, and This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story has not — yet — managed to get on the attention-trains zooming through.)
- Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston. Ditto the above! It looks and sounds so cute, aaahh.
I’ll be interested to see what books make other folks smile — and hopefully why! Leave me your links if you’ve done this TTT as well!
Tags: books, Casey McQuiston, Georgette Heyer, Have His Carcase, K.J. Charles, Kacen Callender, Kathryn Lougheed, Marie Brennan, N.K. Jemisin, Small Robots, The Goblin Emperor, Top Ten Tuesday
Posted July 11, 2020 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments
Good morning, folks! It’s been a while since I was able to do this, but… this post was prepared on Friday evening! It’s nice to be ahead — and I’m even all up to date on writing reviews, and it’s been a good reading week! I know the cool, rainy summer is really disappointing to some folks, but I’m revelling in it; I loathe heat. (I wouldn’t mind a bit more sunshine, just keep the daytime temperatures below 25°C and the nights cool enough to be refreshing, and I’ll still be happy… but if I have to choose between hot weather and dreary rain, I’ll choose the rain!)
In any case, what have I been stacking my shelves with and reading this week? Here we go! Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.
Books acquired:
Thank you to the publishers for the eARCs of A Good Time To Be Born and Eight Detectives!
Finished reading this week:
Reviews posted this week:
- Annabel Scheme, by Robin Sloane. An experiment in letting Storygraph’s algorithm suggest a book for me, this worked out pretty well! Definitely entertaining. 3/5 stars
- Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, by Aliette de Bodard. A lot of fun, and did almost precipitate me getting out of my bubble bath — multiple times — to read my wife the good bits. 4/5 stars
- Threshold, by Jordan L. Hawk. Lots of fun, as I expected, but I wish Whyborne would trust Griffin a little more! I know it’s a new relationship, but when you’ve already been through so much together — and had one nearly fatal misunderstanding because of it — argghh! 4/5 stars
- How Contagion Works, by Paolo Giordano. A clear but rather short essay on some of the statistics around COVID-19, from the perspective of the early epidemic in Italy. 3/5 stars
- The Dead Shall Be Raised, by George Bellairs. I’m rapidly finding myself feeling that Bellairs is one of the most enjoyable writer covered by these reissues, and though they aren’t memorable as stories, they’re a joy to read. 4/5 stars
- Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals from Over There That Are Over Here, by Dan Eatherley. Despite the Amazon review claiming it’s thinly-disguised political cant, it mostly really is about invasive species. It got a little repetitive for me, and I think it’s a combination of being not my true area of interest and not being new enough to me that it was interesting anyway. 3/5 stars
- The Murder of a Quack, by George Bellairs. I love his way of portraying characters that are funny, but with a deep sympathy as well. Another really enjoyable one. 4/5 stars
Other posts:
- Top Ten Tuesday: The Authors I’ve Read The Most Books By. As usual, it’s what it says on the tin — I mostly guessed rather than looking at actual stats, which would be dominated by the author of the Rurouni Kenshin manga I read when I was 17, and probably GetBackers as well. Not entirely representative of my current taste!
- WWW Wednesday. The usual update on what I’m reading, with my thoughts on a couple of the books already mentioned here.
Out and about:
- Postcrossing: Book Review – The Documents in the Case. It figures that my official introduction on the Postcrossing blog is about books! I’ve written a couple of posts for the blog before, but this little series will be my Thing, where you can see me reviewing books about post and mail systems. If you have any recommendations for epistolary novels or books that revolve around post in some way, can you drop a comment over there? (Or here works too!) In any case, I did a whole review of Dorothy L. Sayers’ epistolary mystery, The Documents in the Case. I’ve reviewed the book here before, but my write-up on the Postcrossing blog is all new, and hopefully still worth checking out!
- Beeminder: Beeminding the Fuzzy Friends. If you don’t know about Beeminder, basically you set goals… and if you don’t meet them, you pay! My latest contribution to the Beeminder blog discusses how I track spending time with my rabbits, and how those efforts have paid off. If you want to hear about the really cute trick Biscuit can do, you want to read this post!
Full disclosure: I help out at Postcrossing and I’m the Support Czar for Beeminder, so obviously I have Ulterior Motives in boosting these blog posts. I hope they’re interesting, though — I don’t always highlight my blog posts elsewhere, but these seemed like they’d have some crossover appeal!
So that’s everything for this week — how’re you folks doing? Grabbed any new books, or been grabbed by any?
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup
