Category: General

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted October 19, 2024 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

Good morning folks! My achievement this week is that I’m finally back on top of my email inbox, and today I’m tackling my tab backlog. That hopefully means more timely comments going forward, now things are a bit more under control. (Hopefully.)

Books acquired this week

As usual now, I made a library trip on Monday, so here are my spoils!

I’ve been digging into those already — in fact, I’ve finished three, I’m partway through Murder at the Fitzwilliam, and it’s just The Book Makers left untouched.

I did also get a book via my British Library Crime Classics subscription, as usual, and two books for review via Netgalley.

I won’t be reading a Christmas mystery yet, but I had a fun time doing so last year during December, so I’ll look forward to that. As for the ARCs, I’ve been curious about Rose/House for a while, but it wasn’t available in the UK, so glad to pick that up! I wasn’t personally as in love with This Is How You Lose The Time War as others, but I’m curious about The River Has Roots all the same.

Reviews posted this week

As usual, let’s have the review roundup!

Non-fiction: The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, by Elizabeth Clark Ashby (3/5 stars)
SF mystery: Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite (4/5 stars)
Non-fiction: Cyborg, by Laura Farlano and Danya Glabau (3/5 stars)
Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 19, by Akane Tamura (3/5 stars)
Literary thriller: Yellowface, by Rebecca F. Kuang (5/5 stars)

And just one non-review post:

What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It’s been a good reading week, but quite a few books I won’t review here (like my rereads of Record of a Spaceborn Few and The Galaxy and the Ground Within). As ever, here’s a sneak peak of the books I finished and will be reviewing here — sooner or later, anyway.

As for what I’ll be reading this weekend… first I’m going to finish up with Murder at the Fitzwilliam, for sure. After that, I’m probably just going to follow a whim. I’d like to finish up Wormwood Abbey (Christina Baehr), so I can decide if I want to read the rest of the series, and I’m thinking of making a start on Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies. I’ll probably pick up some non-fiction as well, though, since I like to have some variety. I’m going to keep it fairly chilled out, in any case, as I just got my flu vaccine this morning.

So that’s me for the week! How’s everyone else doing?

ETA: Oh, for those in the UK, here’s an opportunity! Bookshop.org are running a “Golden Bookmark” draw, through which you may win free books for life. Sadly not unlimited free books, but £250 a year for as long as Bookshop.org exists isn’t bad, right? Go on, sign up, you know you want to. (Full disclosure: if you use my referral link, I get some extra entries. You can then get your own referral link… or pass mine on to others, whichever you prefer!)

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

WWW Wednesday

Posted October 16, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Wednesday came around again, so here goes…

What have you recently finished reading?

Overleaf, by Susan and Richard Ogilvy. It’s a fascinating record of Britain’s trees through a single leaf (or group of leaves in some cases) each, showing both sides of the leaf on either side of a page turn. Susan Ogilvy is the artist, and her brother-in-law Richard is a forester. The detail is fascinating, and each leaf also has a short description with more information, written by Richard Ogilvy.

I’m also still intermittently reading new volumes of Fairy Tail, which I seem to choose when I just want to turn my brain off. I’m not deeply involved with it all, but I enjoy it while I’m reading it.

What are you currently reading?

I’m partway through a reread of The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. I read it a while after it came out, and now this is my first reread. I don’t love this or the third book as much as the first and second, but I appreciated Record of a Spaceborn Few a bit more second and third time around, so I’m wondering if I’ll have the same experience with this one. So far, I’m not as emotionally involved with it as with the others, though.

In the Serial Reader app, I’m approaching the end of Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit, which is very different in tone to her Poirot books. The romance is very abrupt (though it’s very clear it’s coming), but it’s fun to watch the mystery unfold.

What will you read next?

I’ve got a couple of library books I’m interested in getting round to. Since it’s more or less spooky season, Lindy Ryan’s Cold Snap is a strong contender — and since it’s a novella, it’s a nice quick read that should fit in between other stuff I need to get done this evening.

Other than that, I think I’ll soon pick up The Bookshop, the Draper, The Candlestick Maker, by Annie Gray, for my next non-fiction read. Fiction-wise, I think I’m going to finally dig into Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies, since I have the second book in the series out of the library. It’s a good thing I’m a fast reader, or I’d never read the first one before the second one needs to go back.

What about you?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted October 12, 2024 by Nicky in General / 34 Comments

Hurrah for the weekend! I’m hoping to spend it mostly chilling out, but I do need to catch up on comments once more. One day I’ll be less terminally behind!

For now, here’s the weekly roundup.

Books acquired this week

This week it’s just library books, nothing new in the mail or on my ereader. I’d hoped a couple of holds would come in, but they hadn’t by the time I got down to the library, but I found myself some interesting alternatives anyway!

I’ve already read three of those, so apparently it was a very inspiring library trip!

Posts from this week

Here’s the reviews I’ve posted this week:

Non-fiction science/memoir: All That Remains, by Sue Black (5/5 stars)
Epistolary fantasy: Sorcery & Cecilia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (4/5 stars)
Classic mystery: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie (4/5 stars)
Poetry: The Lost Spells, by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (4/5 stars)

And other posts:

What I’m reading

It’s been quite a busy week for reading, with quite a few books finished that I plan to review on the blog. Here’s a sneak peek!

There are a couple of others I don’t plan to review, so it really has been a good week for it. I’m not sure what my weekend reading will be, to be honest. I want to whittle down the number of books I’m reading at once, so most likely one priority will be finishing my reread of Record of a Spaceborn Few (Becky Chambers). Other than that… I’ll let my whim guide me.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

WWW Wednesday

Posted October 9, 2024 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Wednesday again; that keeps happening, somehow, as does this joke.

What have you recently finished reading?

Last night I read Veronica Roth’s Arch-Conspirator more or less in one go. It’s a sci-fi retelling of Sophocles’ Antigone, and I’m still kind of digesting the ways it adapted that story. I think as an adaptation of Antigone, it doesn’t really use the same themes — more just the plot. Which is fine, but I’ve studied Antigone to death and had kind of expected a slightly different slant. I think I liked it, all the same.

What are you currently reading?

I’m most of the way through The Book at War by Andrew Pettegree, now. I returned the library copy for convenience’s sake, so I need to grab the Kindle copy to finish up. It did get a bit more interesting once it stopped being focused on early military education.

I’m also still reading Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea, but I’ve barely touched that in a week because I was focusing on trying to finish other library books that needed to be returned. I should get back to it.

What are you going to read next?

In theory, there’s a bunch of library books which have been waiting a while, and it should be one of those. Most likely, I’m going to give Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us, by Anna Bogutskaya, a shot. I’m not much of a horror fan myself, even novels, but I find the fascination with it an interesting phenomenon.

I’m probably also going to give Richard Stark’s The Hunter a go; noir is not usually my thing, but a wide knowledge of trends in crime fiction (thanks to a course back in university) means I can find most anything in the genre interesting for how it slots into the bigger picture. Plus, I do think Raymond Chandler was a genius, so some noir has worked for me in the past.

How about you?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Brags & Confessions

Posted October 8, 2024 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

I skipped last week’s Top Ten Tuesday because I wasn’t feeling it, but this week’s theme is bookish brags and/or confessions, which sounds like fun. Let’s have a think…

Five brags:

I read really fast! If you’ve been around here much, you probably know that, but it still catches me by surprise sometimes. In the past, I’ve read around 500 books in a year, though I can’t manage so much now while I have a full-time workload with self-employment, plus a part-time degree: last year I managed 400 books, if I remember rightly. Which is still a lot!
I read a whole range of genres. I’m not sure if this is entirely a brag or just a fact, but it’s something that makes me happy and that I like to show off, so I guess I do think it’s a brag. I’ll never run out of reading material at this rate. (Looks nervously at TBR…)
I have autoapproval from Tor on Netgalley. It’s great, obviously.
My wife is a-okay with “has room for lots of bookcases” being a criteria for any home we rent or buy. I can, theoretically, understand that some people don’t want bookcases to be their primary piece of furniture. Theoretically. But I’m lucky enough that Lisa’s absolutely fine with my ever-expanding collection.
An author I love had actually heard of my blog (and liked it). I just about dissolved on the spot.

Five confessions:

I get jealous about how fast other people can read (or how much time they have to spare for reading). Like there are people who can read for more than 45 hours in 11 days every time Bookly do a readathon, and I don’t get how they fit it in around other obligations and hobbies. And sometimes I think those people are possibly lying about it. Which… kind of sucks of me, to be honest, because there are definitely people who think I’m lying about how much I read — and it really grinds my gears. I try not to give into this suspicion… but in that specific context, they do potentially have a big prize to win by lying, so I don’t think it’s quite the same as when people accuse me of bragging on social media.
Sometimes, I’d rather play FFXIV. I say this as a confession, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think there’s a risk of wrapping one’s whole identity around being bookish, at least for me, so it’s good for me to recognise that sometimes I’d actually rather play a video game… and I definitely know there are readers who think that’s awful of me. I don’t believe in being a purist about how books are always the best. Nope.
I think some book bloggers (and especially people on Bookstagram etc) are more interested in conspicuous consumption than books per se. The book hauls people post sometimes seem to be book hauls just for the sake of showing off. I worry about falling under that heading too, when I have my several-times-yearly trips to buy loads of books, or get spoiled for my birthday/Christmas. I try to keep my motive being sharing excitement, and to always ask myself if I want this book or just any book that I can show off. Sometimes the answer has been that I’m veering toward the latter, and then I put the book back. If I discover I really did want that specific book, it’ll be there another time.
I suck at listening to audiobooks. I get so impatient with the pace. I almost always put them on about 1.5x speed when I can.
I’m super bad at reading books to any kind of time frame. I’m a mood reader, and I stop reading altogether when I feel too much pressure to read something in particular. I always need to be able to just move with my whim.

Okay, it was harder to think of brags than I thought… but that was still fun. Very curious what other people have come up with!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted October 5, 2024 by Nicky in General / 30 Comments

Yaaay, it’s the weekend! Here we go again with the usual weekly roundup…

Books acquired this week

Once more, I’ve been raiding the library this week, with my usual (perhaps weird) mix of choices…

I had one hold to pick up, and then I checked the new acquistions. Oops?

I did also get a new book this month, which I preordered on a whim a little while ago. It looks like the kind of non-fiction that I always find really fascinating, so I’m looking forward to it.

Of course I’m not reading nearly fast enough to keep up with the library books I’m snagging! But that’s okay. They can always be renewed, or returned and borrowed again later. The nice thing is having so many books to choose from.

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a quick roundup! Reviews first:

Ghost story: Pharos, by Alice Thompson (2/5 stars)
Short mystery stories: Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
Video game tie-in: Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: The Art of Resurrection – Beyond the Veil, from Square Enix (3/5 stars)
Danmei (romance)/fantasy: Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 5, by MXTX (4/5 stars)
Romance manga: Bloom into You, vol 1, by Nakatani Nio (2/5 stars)

And just one other post, since I skipped Top Ten Tuesday this week:

What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It hasn’t been a bad week for reading, though I did most reading over the weekend last week! I’ve finished reading Heaven Official’s Blessing, which leaves me feeling a bit bereft, really.

I have also been reading a bit of poetry, but I haven’t had a lot to say about the collections I’d read, so I’m probably not going to review them here, so this is just a peek of the books I read this week that I’ll be reviewing sometime soon:

I juuust finished Murder by Memory before working on this post, and liked it a lot. Here’s hoping the rest of my weekend reading goes so well: mostly I’m working my way through the Secret Barrister’s autobiography, and after that… I’m not sure. I have some other novellas that have been waiting my attention, and after enjoying Out of the Drowning Deep and Murder by Memory, maybe I’m in the mood for smallish, self-contained stories like that.

Important note

I know that people from all walks of life make up the bookish community, and I’d like to get along with everyone regardless of our differences. Every so often, though, there’s inevitably someone who crosses a line, with whom I can’t just “agree to disagree”. Last week, someone visited via a linkup and left a comment (somehow getting through my filter that should bin any future comments from them), after I had previously asked them politely to leave me alone given one of their reviews of a queer book, which used derogatory and degrading language toward trans and non-binary people.

Given that I’m non-binary, as are some of the regulars who comment here, and given how often I review queer stories and books by queer authors, I’m just not comfortable with having that person commenting (and leaving links to their blog) in my space. So this is just a gentle reminder to that person that I did ask you to stop commenting here (twice now), just in case you didn’t get notifications about my replies. It would be much appreciated if we could be adults about this and just agree to leave each other well alone.

I apologise to all my other commenters and visitors here for having to bring this up, but I hope you can all understand how uncomfortable it feels for someone who uses abusive language about people like me to keep commenting on my blog after being politely asked to leave me alone.

Now let’s get back to talking about books!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

WWW Wednesday

Posted October 2, 2024 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

Wednesday again, huh? That keeps happening, somehow.

What have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished up my reread of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, via Serial Reader. I still liked it a lot, though once I was in the swing of it I remembered a surprising amount of how things came together. It’s a clever one!

I also read The British Museum: Storehouse of Civilizations, by James Hamilton. It’s not very critical about the British Museum, rather being inclined to laud the whole endeavour, though it does mention some of the controversy around the Elgin Marbles. It’s an interesting history of the institution and particularly of the buildings, though.

What are you currently reading?

I’m still partway through The Book at War, by Andrew Pettegree. It’s slower going than I hoped, though I couldn’t put my finger on why — perhaps because I’m not terribly interested in the history of military education per se, which has been the focus so far. We’ll see how things develop, I suppose!

I’ve also started reading The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler. I’m enjoying it, though I need to find some more time to sit down and read it; I haven’t been able to pick it up for a few days! So far we’ve only got the most tantalising hints at what’s going on, and no actual contact with octopuses.

What will you read next?

I’m not sure. I’m probably looking for something familiar and soothing, so I might go with rereading the Cemetaries of Amalo books (by Katherine Addison) and segue into reading the new one (which I have as an e-ARC). I could also use some quick reads to help advance my reading goal for the year, though, and I have some novellas lined up for that, like Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory (also an e-ARC). It promises a Sayers-like mystery, which is encouraging.

What about you?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted September 28, 2024 by Nicky in General / 34 Comments

Greetings folks! It’s definitely getting autumnal here, and though the sun is bright outside the window, it’s chilly. Probably my favourite sort of weather, really — though if it stays this cold, I’m going to need to acquire some gloves before I next cycle down to the library, ahaha.

Books acquired

Once more, it’s been a busy week for library books, since a couple of holds came in and I found where they keep the recent releases. Here’s the library haul!

I also got some poetry collections, but I’m not sure whether I’ll end up reviewing those here; so far there’s some I’ve wanted to review, and some where I feel I have nothing useful to say. At least, not enough to fill up a review. So I’ll leave those out of the haul for now.

I did also get an e-ARC for review from Tor, which looks fascinating and promises me a twisty plot like Dorothy L. Sayers. We’ll see!

Posts from this week

As usual, let’s start with the reviews!

Romance: Book Lovers, by Emily Henry (3/5 stars)
Non-fiction: Around the Ocean in 80 Fish & Other Sea Life, by Helen Scales, illustrated by Marcel George (4/5 stars)
Graphic novel: The Baker and the Bard, by Fern Haught (3/5 stars)
Non-fiction: Universal Basic Income, by Karl Widerquist (3/5 stars)

And the other posts:

What I’m reading

This week I spent a lot of time with library books, since I keep overdoing it and getting loads at once (it’s like my brain refuses to accept that they’ll be there next time). I suspect my weekend will be much the same, as I have a hold waiting for me at the library. Here’s the usual peek at the books I’ve finished this week (at least the ones I plan to review on the blog):

For right now, I’m reading Yellowface, The Book at War, and of course, volume 7 of Heaven Official’s Blessing. I’ll probably also pick up The Mountain in the Sea in the course of the weekend… or maybe another non-fiction, since The Book at War is rather slow.

Either way, I hope to spend plenty of time reading.

Hope you all have a good weekend too!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

WWW Wednesday

Posted September 25, 2024 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

It’s that time again already?! Well.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I read was Robert Macfarlane’s The Lost Words, illustrated by Jackie Morris, which I had to read in the library rather than take home with me ’cause oof, their edition is big! Like The Lost Spells, it’s a collection of poetry that tries to bring a little magic back to how we relate to wild creatures. Both seem like the poet was having fun, so though I didn’t universally love the poems (sometimes a rhyme is too obvious, or a particular word just stuck out as wrong), it was a fun read. And the illustrations are gorgeous.

Before that, I finished The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Arik Kershenbaum. There weren’t many surprises for me, given I have a biology degree and a pre-existing interest in astrobiology from fiction and non-fiction, and I didn’t always agree with Kershenbaum’s reasoning, but it was interesting. I should think it through more for my review, but suffice it to say that I felt like he was very focused on a belief that everything must have been advantageous in order to be maintained through generations, instead of remembering that neutral traits and behaviours can come along for the ride because they’re not selected against (and negative traits can come along because they’re advantageous in narrow but important circumstances, but he’s a bit better about remembering that).

What are you currently reading?

I’ve made a start on The Book at War, by Andrew Pettegree, which is preeeetty chunky. Looks like the app I use to track reading sessions suggests it’s going to take me five hours to finish; it feels like I’m having to focus to keep the meaning from slipping away from me mid-page, so I guess I’m not finding Pettegree the most engaging writer (though I couldn’t put my finger on why). I’ve barely started, so not much else to say yet. It’s interesting that Pettegree points out that despite the view of writers/writing/books as being enlightened, in many ways writers deliberately egged on the wars at the start of the 20th century. Pacifism came later.

As usual, I’m reading several other books at once. I’m close to finishing up with Heaven Official’s Blessing, since I’m partway through the penultimate volume. I’ve loved it so much. There’s an AO3 tag for this series, “Hua Cheng and Xie Lian invented love”, and I get it. Hua Cheng’s devotion to Xie Lian is lovely, as is Xie Lian’s slow realisation of their feelings for one another. It’s been a really satisfying journey.

What will you read next?

I got a lot of books out of the library, so I want to focus on reading some of those for a bit. Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang, just came through for me on Libby, and I know there’s someone who has it on hold after me, so I should focus on that. It’s quite likely it’s not really my thing, but I’m curious enough I want to give it a shot.

I also want to start The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler, since I’ve been curious about it for ages. Of late, I’ve been trying to reduce the number of books I have on the go at the same time, but I’m a little worried that’s part of why I’ve been having difficulty reading at the moment. I do value having the ability to hop from book to book. So I might ease up on that goal, and just go with my whims for a bit.

What about you?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR

Posted September 24, 2024 by Nicky in General / 35 Comments

This week’s theme from Top Ten Tuesday is the fall TBR. I don’t particularly theme my reading plans, and I usually go by whim, but I usually have some idea of what’s tempting me… so let’s start there.

The Book at War, by Andrew Pettegree. Not the most uplifting book, perhaps, but it looks fascinating, discussing readers and libraries and how they’ve interacted (and been manipulated) during conflicts from the American Civil War onwards. I got it out of the library last week, so I should get to this soon.
Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang. I have a library hold on this book, so I’m fairly sure it’ll feature somewhere in my autumn reading. I haven’t actually read anything by R.F. Kuang yet, despite owning The Poppy War and Babel, but I keep getting tempted to give Yellowface a shot (even though it’s a bit outside my usual genres). And oops, now I check the Libby app, looks like it’s my turn!
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù. Having loved The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System and being perhaps even more enamoured with Heaven Official’s Blessing (with which I’m nearly finished), it’s inevitable that I’m going to move on to something else by MXTX soon. I’m ready to love Wei Wuxian, but I’ll miss Xie Lian. Technically, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation was her second webnovel, so I’ve perhaps read things in an odd order. That’s okay, though, they’re not connected.
The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler. My wife really enjoyed this one, and I enjoyed The Tusks of Extinction, so I’m very curious to give it a shot. I have it out of the library, which will also help move it up my list. Octopuses are fascinating, and after the recent disappointment of Remarkably Bright Creatures (which was fine, but not what I hoped for) I’d love something that grapples with the weirdness of an alien intelligence.
Deadly Earnest, by Joan Cockin. I got this one for my birthday, after I really enjoyed Curiosity Killed the Cat. Time to dig in, I think — I always love a classic mystery, after all.
A River Enchanted, by Rebecca Ross. Technically, I got partway through this earlier in the year, and then got distracted, but I think I’ll have to skim over the opening 100 pages again to get myself back into it. And there’s a sequel too, if I get round to this one.
A Sinister Revenge, by Deanna Raybourn. I didn’t love the last book in the series (because of the total lack of communication between them, mostly), but I’m hopeful that this book will get me back into it. I really hope so, because I enjoy Veronica and Stoker, and I want to enjoy their stories.
Bitter Waters, by Vivian Shaw. I was really excited to see that this novella had come out, and then I forgot about it and only remembered when I started looking through my TBR for this post! I love Greta Helsing and the world Shaw has built, the whole concept of a GP who treats monsters like vampires and ghouls, so I’m excited to dive back in via this novella. I might reread the rest of the series, too, because I adore it.
The Tomb of Dragons, by Katherine Addison. Most likely I’m going to reread all the books in this world, let’s be honest, but I’m so excited to dive into The Tomb of Dragons and see where Thara Celehar is now, after the events of the last book. And let’s face it, I really want to know if Iäna Pel-Thenhior is ever going to give him a hug.
The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo. This is actually due out soon, and I haven’t read my e-ARC yet, arrghh! I’ve got to get round to it as soon as I can — I’ve loved most of Nghi Vo’s work, and this sounds like a fascinating world and story. I’m never very sure about comparisons to Ursula Le Guin (and saying Calvino, Miéville and Le Guin as comparisons just seems like an odd mix), but I do trust that Nghi Vo’s work is good and generally to my taste.

And now I’d better hop on my bike and go to the library — books are calling out to me for pickup!

What’s everyone else’s TBR looking like for the autumn?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday