Category: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted August 28, 2019 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Strange Practice by Vivian ShawI’ve tucked into a reread of Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw, since the third book is coming out in September, and I felt the need for a bit of pure joy. As always, I am greatly entertained by the fact that it treats the idea of a doctor for supernatural creatures seriously; I am delighted by the ghoul on antidepressants and the demon with COPD and… yeah.

I’m also still reading The Gendered Brain, by Gina Rippon. I think Cordelia Fine’s similar book was more readable, somehow, because this one just isn’t sticking in my brain; I had to restart it after a couple of weeks where I’d put it down, because I couldn’t remember the thread of the argument.

Cover of A Little Light Mischief by Cat SebastianWhat have you recently finished reading?

Mmm, what have I recently finished reading? I think the most recent was possibly Turning Darkness into Light, which was wonderful; it may also have been the novella A Little Light Mischief, by Cat Sebastian, which was fun and cute.

I also ditched Townsend’s The Aztecs for somehow managing to be entirely boring, despite talking about a civilisation that is fascinating to me.

Cover of Angel Mage by Garth NixWhat will you be reading next?

I’m not sure. I’m feeling the need for a bit of whim, particularly as we just tidied and that involved a fair amount of rearranging my shelves, thus making me very aware there are books I want to read or reread that I’ve wanted to read or reread for weeks, months, and sometimes years. Whoops. I do think I’ll get to Angel Mage soon, in proper thanks for having been given a proof copy; I’m also intending to get to the next book in the Kate Daniels series soon.

What are you currently reading?

Tags: ,

Divider

Weekly Roundup

Posted August 24, 2019 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Good morning, folks! I’m back from Worldcon, and as ever I think I need a holiday to recover from my holiday. (Which I worked through, also as ever, though I did do reduced hours!)

I met some lovely folks, got a couple of books, and also won a proof copy of Garth Nix’s new book. Not bad! I also had my 30th birthday, and though I joked I needed 30 books (one for each year), I only got nine, so I guess nobody should be serving me in a bar… 😀

Books acquired:

Cover of Angel Mage by Garth Nix Cover of A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian Cover of The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall Cover of Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Cover of A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland Cover of To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers Cover of The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite Cover of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Cover of Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee Cover of The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton Cover of Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Parker Cover of The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book by Neil Gaiman

Cover of Conan Doyle for the Defence by Margalit Fox Cover of Symphony in C by Robert Hazen

Almost all fiction, but quite a few wildly different genres there. Just another week on my TBR…

Books read this week:

Cover of The Pleasures of Reading in An Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs Cover of A History of Life in 100 Fossils

Cover of Die Laughing by Carola Dunn Cover of Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews Cover of A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian

Reviews posted:

The Pandemic Century, by Mark Honigsbaum. Not revolutionary in any way, but there are definitely new titbits of information here. 3/5 stars
Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland. This wasn’t 100% for me, but it’s a fascinating setting. I had some questions about the characters — relationships don’t work like that! 3/5 stars
Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. This had some of the emotional punch of the first and second book, but it didn’t quite add up to a satisfying story for me. It’s a fascinating exploration of a particular corner of Chambers’ world, though. 3/5 stars
In the Labyrinth of Drakes, by Marie Brennan. A lovely instalment of the series, which solves some mysteries and involves a lot of the lovely partnership between Tom and Isabella. 5/5 stars
Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells. Not quite what I hoped for, but a good conclusion for Murderbot nonetheless. Looking forward to the novel! 4/5 stars
This is How You Lose The Time War, by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. It didn’t work for me that well, but you gotta appreciate time-travelling multiple-dimensional lesbians. 3/5 stars
Mistletoe and Murder, by Carola Dunn. Fairly standard for this series, but as always it makes a good cosy mystery. 3/5 stars
Heartstopper, volume 2, by Alice Oseman. It’s just so goddamn cute. 4/5 stars
The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black. I was told that this gets better if you hold on to the end, which shakes things up, but… I was so bored. I DNFed it. 1/5 stars
Gene Machine, by Venki Ramakrishnan. I found this disappointing in two ways. 1) The secrets of the ribosome aren’t really unlocked, only the structure. That will tell us a lot more in time, but it doesn’t yet. 2) Ramakrishnan’s obvious antipathy to one particular competitor, of whom he says hardly a kind word that isn’t loaded with begrudging “I’m saying this to be fair, but I don’t really mean it”. She’s a woman; that is now how he treats male scientists. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

WWW Wednesday. The pre-Worldcon roundup…
WWW Wednesday. And this week’s roundup.

So how’s everyone doing? Reading anything good? Got your hands on an awesome book? Share! (The news, not the book. At least not till you’ve read it. I’m not a monster.)

Tags: , ,

Divider

WWW Wednesday

Posted August 21, 2019 by Nicky in General / 7 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Most actively, I’m neck-deep in Turning Darkness into Light by Marie Brennan, the sequel to the Memoirs of Lady Trent series! Audrey is a delight, and I do so adore the way these books showcase the scientific and academic processes — coming from a background of both literature (with a lot of focus on translation) and later science as well, it’s just. Yay!

Cover of Magic Bleeds by Ilona AndrewsWhat have you recently finished reading?

I read Magic Bleeds on our flight back from Worldcon! (Well, half of it; I read the first half before — the flight isn’t that long/I don’t read that fast!) It has some of my pet peeves in fiction (miscommunication) and yet Kate and Curran are so extreme and stupid it ends up just being funny to me.

What will you be reading next?

I don’t know! I still have a crowded TBR for August, and I haven’t read even half of those books yet. I have a bunch of them half-finished, though. I know that the library really wants the book on the Aztecs back (in fact, the lady was reluctant to re-issue it at all) because someone shouldn’t have let me have it (it’s a reference book), so maybe I’ll get on with reading that!

What are you currently reading?

Tags: , , ,

Divider

WWW Wednesday

Posted August 14, 2019 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Die Laughing by Carola DunnI’m partway through the same Daisy Dalrymple book as last week! That’s surprisingly slow for me and this series; maybe it’s already time for another short break before I pick up the next book. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Daisy in a cosy sort of way, but still… it is getting frightfully predictable.

I’m also paging through the Good Omens script book, which I picked up today.

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was Joanne Harris’ The Blue Salt Roadwhich is a selkie story. Fairytale-like narration, but some surprising stuff under the hood at times. And lovely illustrations! It was worth finally picking it up, for sure.

What will you be reading next?

Well, my preorder of Turning Darkness into Light is here, so even if I was holding off because I prefer to read this series in dead tree rather than ebook (I couldn’t say why, I guess it’s all part of the experience), now I have no excuse! Time to dig in. Possibly during the trip to Dublin…?

Which, again, if anyone is going to Worldcon, lemme know! Let’s maybe meet up!

And, as always, what are you reading?

Tags: ,

Divider

Weekly Roundup

Posted August 10, 2019 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Good morning, folks. It’s been a quiet week around here, given last week’s news, but we’ve been getting on with things.

Received to review:

Cover of Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

New Frances Hardinge! 😍

Bought:

Cover of Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt Cover of Unthinkable by Helen Thomson Cover of Secrets of the Human Body by Xand and Chris Van Tulleken Cover of Snowball in a Blizzard by Steven Hatch

When I’m sad, I… buy non-fiction? It kinda makes sense; it’s the most likely to really engage my brain.

Finished reading this week:

Cover of The Warrior Queen by Joanna Arman Cover of Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan

Reviews posted this week:

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. Really great and really bleak. Makes accountancy exciting. 5/5 stars
Superior: The Return of Race Science, by Angela Saini. A good history of race science, a bad overview of the actual evidence. 4/5 stars
Lent, by Jo Walton. Sympathy with Savonarola? Oh yes. 4/5 stars
An Artificial Night, by Seanan McGuire. One of my favourites in the series as I’ve read so far, because of all the stuff it weaves together. 4/5 stars
The Bitter Twins, by Jen Williams. Well gah! What a way to go about things. A very good second book. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly update.

Out and about:

NEAT science: ‘Ice cream headache. Ever wondered what causes one of those? I’ve gotcha covered.
NEAT science: Chocolate antidepressants. There’s currently a fair bit of reporting that chocolate has been shown to help with depression. The answer is, no, it’s been shown that people who eat dark chocolate are less likely to report depressive symptoms. There may be other things going on.

And that’s it for this week! Next week I might not post, given we’ll be in Dublin at Worldcon! But reviews and such will go up as normal, and I’ll check in again soon… maybe with some new books bought in Dublin!

Tags: , ,

Divider

WWW Wednesday

Posted August 7, 2019 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

Cover of Die Laughing by Carola DunnWhat are you currently reading?

I picked up Carola Dunn’s Die Laughing today; it’s the next in the Daisy Dalrymple series, and while it’s not particularly fresh and new (even within the series), it’s good to just sit and let the book take it away. They’re always absorbing, even if they’re not super new.

I’m also partway through Within the Sanctuary of Wings, which I should give some more attention to!

Cover of The Warrior Queen by Joanna ArmanWhat have you recently finished reading?

I just finished The Warrior Queen, by Joanna Arman. Ostensibly it’s about King Alfred’s daughter, Æthelflæd, but in practice it’s mostly about the menfolk around her. I know that’s the hazard with women in history, but it was really heavily waited toward discussing Alfred, or Æthelflæd’s husband, or her brother. The two-ish chapters discussing her in her own right are pretty interesting, but… meh. Also, the book is badly edited and just all round a bit suspect.

What will you be reading next?

Something from my August TBR, most likely, but what I couldn’t say! I might hurry up and get to The Fated Sky before my wife does…

What are you currently reading?

Tags: ,

Divider

Weekly Roundup

Posted August 3, 2019 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

Hey guys. So bad news on the Breakfast front; he’s gone as of Friday evening, fairly unexpectedly. I’m not really wanting condolences much right now; if you want to express them, could you stick to liking this post or just commenting something nice and unrelated?

I’ll continue things much as normal around here, because that helps, but please don’t take it personally if I forget to comment back or anything.

Books read this week:

Cover of Too Like The Lightning

Reviews posted this week:

Storm of Locusts, by Rebecca Roanhorse. I still find the world refreshing, but the plotting itself feels so… predictable. 3/5 stars
Necessity, by Jo Walton. I did not expect this series to lead here, but there’s so much fascinating about it. 4/5 stars
Forces of Nature, by Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen. Not bad at explaining some things, but the physics still mostly goes beyond me! The series is probably better for that. 3/5 stars
Tower of Thorns, by Juliet Marillier. This kind of nudges in a direction I hoped the books wouldn’t go, but it’s still a fascinating story. 4/5 stars
Magic Strikes, by Ilona Andrews. Vastly entertaining, as with most of this series, and starts stepping things toward the epic overarching story… 4/5 stars

Other posts:

WWW Wednesday. This week’s post about my current reads.
An August TBR. Planning for what to read in August!

What’re you reading?

And also, if you’re going to Worldcon, sound off! Let me know! I’ll be there and so will my wife.

Tags: , ,

Divider

An August TBR

Posted August 1, 2019 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Greetings! It’s August somehow: the month of my birth, and the month of Worldcon! Give me a shout if you’re attending Worldcon and would like to meet up! I’m shy, but if we have books in common it’ll always work out.

Last month was not the greatest, though I did finish 15 of the 20 books (and 20 books overall), which isn’t bad at all considering the mess that was the last week of it. (If you didn’t hear, one of our bunnies is really sick.) The theme for this month is tackling my “on-deck” books; books that are either half-finished, due back at the library, due for review before the publication date, or just stacked on top of my desk for no apparent reason. I’ll also include the next book in a couple of series, to keep me on track with those. Let’s see how many this is… I’ll set a cap of 20!

Cover of Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews Cover of The Warrior Queen by Joanna Arman Cover of Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan

  • Facism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright. I think this was recced by someone on Litsy? Anyway, it’s due back at the library and I’ve renewed it a bunch of times already, so here goes!
  • Magic Bleeds, by Ilona Andrews. To keep chugging along with my reread/catchup! This will be a delight.
  • The Warrior Queen, by Joanna Arman. I’m partway through this book about Aethelflaed. It’s not that great, but I’d like to see if it improves now that (halfway through) we’ve actually got onto the part of history where Aethelflaed was doing things instead of just existing.
  • Her Royal Spyness, by Rhys Bowen. I don’t want to know how long I’ve had this out of the library, but I finally dipped into it last week. Just need to finish up!
  • Within the Sanctuary of Wings, by Marie Brennan. Finishing the reread!
  • Turning Darkness into Light, by Marie Brennan. Hopefully before it actually comes out, since I have an ARC! I can’t wait.
  • The 12:30 from Croyden, by Freeman Wills Crofts. I was supposed to buddy read this, uh, months ago. Oops.

Cover of Die Laughing by Carola Dunn Cover of How Long Till Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin

  • Die Laughing, by Carola Dunn. Should be an easy read, and it keeps me ticking along through the series!
  • The Blue Salt Road, by Joanne Harris. This one’s short, and due back at the library.
  • How Long Till Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin. I picked this up in May, and then other stuff happened. Time to read more!
  • The Fated Sky, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I meant to read this in July. My wife’s started reading The Calculating Stars now, so I’d like to get reading!
  • Den of Wolves, by Juliet Marillier. Also one I meant to read in July. Looking forward to seeing what happens.
  • One Salt Sea, by Seanan McGuire. Next in the series!

Cover of Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier Cover of One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

  • The Subversive Stitch, by Rozsika Parker. I’ve had this out of the library for way too long, and it’s actually from the stacks, so I really should pick it up soon. Though I’m wondering if it’s worth buying the more recent edition, in case anything changed…
  • Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, by Sarah Pinsker. I was in a book club with Sarah Pi; it’s high time I read this. I’ve already read a couple of them, actually.
  • Gene Machine, by Venki Ramakrishnan. I started this and then got distracted, but it’s due back at the library on the 5th. Whoops.
  • The Gendered Brain, by Gina Rippon. Started this last month, but ran out of brain due to The Rabbit Situation.
  • The Aztecs, by Richard Townsend. I may have had this out of the library since… Christmas?
  • The Piltdown Forgery, by Joseph Weiner. I think the ‘who’ of this case is quite obvious, but it’s still fascinating. And the book is, wait for it, due back at the library.
  • Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White. I started this ages ago and then stopped for… I don’t know what reason. Time to finish it!

Cover of The Gendered Brain by Gina Rippon Cover of Heartstone by Elle Katharine White

So that’s the lot! Let’s see how I do this month…

What’re you reading this month? Or are you winging it?

Don’t forget to let me know if you’re going to Worldcon!

Tags: ,

Divider

WWW Wednesday

Posted July 31, 2019 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

Cover of Too Like The LightningWhat are you currently reading?

I’m most of the way through Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer, and it’s still not really working for me. It’s one of those where I feel like the payoff is constantly just one more revelation out of reach, and now I’m really close to the end, so I will be finishing it, but… I find myself thinking that this book was not for me, probably.

I have got a couple of other books on the go, including the rather lighter Her Royal Spyness, which promises to be one of those fluffy mysteries I can nom in a day or two.

Cover of Perihelion Summer by Greg EganWhat have you recently finished reading? 

I think the last thing I finished was Greg Egan’s Perihelion Summer, which didn’t impress me very much. I found it flat and lacking in characters who I could possibly care about.

I’ve way slowed down my reading speed the last week, with all the stress, so there’s not much else since my last WWW check-in!

Cover of Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie BrennanWhat will you be reading next?

Working on the Lady Trent books and then the new book which I got as an ARC! Other that that, who knows? It’s a big world full of all the tastiest books, but I’m not sure what I’ll be in the mood for, so I’m not over-committing!

What are you currently reading?

Tags: ,

Divider

Weekly Roundup

Posted July 27, 2019 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Greetings, folks. As discussed in my Wednesday post this week, things are rough around here. Breakfast Bun is doing a little better in some ways, but he’s not out of the woods yet. So wish us luck, and consider this a rare reminder that I do have a Ko-Fi for this blog (see sidebar) and donations are always helpful. Also, hey, it’s nearly my birthday, too.

(And just thinking good thoughts for us and for Breakfast would be very welcome, of course!)

Books received this week:

I feel like it’s been too long since I read the second book in Aliette de Bodard’s series… maybe I need to look for a summary online. The other book is my Illumicrate subscription book for this month.

Books read this week:

Cover of Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire Cover of In The Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan Cover of Perihelion Summer by Greg Egan

Reviews posted this week:

The Dinosaurs Revisited, by Michael J. Benton. A great overview of what we know about dinosaurs, and how we know it; as up to date as possible! 4/5 stars
The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal. A heck of a fun read; I tore right through it. 5/5 stars
The True Queen, by Zen Cho. Not as fun as the previous book, but definitely some enjoyable elements. 3/5 stars
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. Interesting and fairly solid, but a little slow; leans a little too much on a kind of twist that Novik already used for Uprooted3/5 stars
Voyage of the Basilisk, by Marie Brennan. Ever so much fun, as ever! 4/5 stars

Other posts:

WWW Wednesday. The usual weekly post, with the note about Breakfast.

Hope everyone’s weeks were better than mine…

Tags: ,

Divider