Category: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted January 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Somehow it’s Wednesday again already, so here are my threes Ws for this week:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you reading next?

Linking up with Taking on a World of Words. I hope there’ll be a bit more commenting this week; last week was pretty quiet, perhaps because of the Christmas/New Year period.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve been a bit fidgety and not settling down very well, so I’ve ended up starting two new books, which are both quite short. Yesterday during my breaks at work I started reading The Fireborne Blade (Charlotte Bond), which has a neat cover and is so far intriguing enough. I’m wondering if my sister might like it, since it stars a female knight… but we’ll have to see how things go.

I’m also reading Ice Cream: A Global History (Laura B. Weiss), from the Edible series. Predictably, it made me really want ice cream; maybe something from Ruby Violet… their malted milk ice cream was amazing.

What have you recently finished reading?

My first finished read of 2024 was Kai Kupferschmidt’s Blue, which was a pretty quick read and beautifully illustrated. It had a few facts I didn’t know, and explained things very clearly, where it dug into stuff like chemical structures or how vision works.

I actually read most of it in 2023, but saved the epilogue for 2024, so it’d count for this year and not spoil the lovely round number I had for books finished in 2023, heh.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina RustiLast week I talked about finishing Rose Lerner’s Sailor’s Delight, and I’d still like to do that. I also want to read Tobi Ogundiran’s In the Shadow of the Fall, which is a book I received to review, because I’d like to try and be on top of those in 2024. (Pigs might fly, too, but let’s try to keep our optimism!)

Other than those, I’m eyeing up The Book of Perilous Dishes (Doina Ruști), because I’m very curious about it.

How about you? What’re you reading?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Divider

Admin update: emails not working?

Posted January 2, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Hello folks!

This is just a quick update to say that I’ve noticed that emails aren’t (always?) going out to subscribers as they used to. Sometimes they do (as far as I can tell, they did on 12th December and 19th December, for example), and sometimes they don’t. I have a suspicion that it’s the difference between posts where I hit “publish” right away, and the posts I schedule.

So this is both a test and (hopefully) a notification: something’s weird with my emails, and I’m on it!

If you’ve been receiving all the emails for the posts (like my daily reviews, and the Top Ten Tuesday post earlier), then that’d be useful to know as well.

Sorry about the extra post today, if you’re getting spammed by it after all, but obviously I want to make good and sure that emails are working for everyone. And let me also take this opportunity to say “Happy New Year”!

Tags:

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Stood Out in 2023

Posted January 2, 2024 by Nicky in General / 44 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is all about picking your favourite books of 2023. I don’t often think about books in terms of favourites, especially since my reading is highly capricious and mood-based… so I’ll just be picking ten books that stand out when I think back on the year, without trying to say they’re the best or my favourites. I’ll omit any rereads, just to make things easier.

And these are the books I read in 2023, which probably didn’t come out in 2023, because I’m rarely that up to date on recently released books.

Cover of Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan Cover of An Immense World by Ed Yong Cover of Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Cover of Death of an Author by E.C.R. Lorac

  1. Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher. It’s rare lately that I find it difficult to put a book down, with lots of other things grabbing my attention. Nettle & Bone is one that I found myself eagerly picking up again right away, ready for more.
  2. The Governess Affair, by Courtney Milan. I haven’t posted my review for this one yet, but I really liked it: Milan handles a traumatic issue sensitively, creating a bond between two characters that felt solid and real.
  3. An Immense World, by Ed Yong. I love non-fiction when it makes me want to tell everyone the facts I’m learning, and Ed Yong’s book fit the bill. I was actually texting my mum about stuff I’d learned from it while waiting to be discharged from the post-op ward after a minor surgery!
  4. Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree. I actually read this twice in 2023, because it really hit the spot for me — cosy and full of people being good to one another, and forging bonds.
  5. Death of an Author, by E.C.R. Lorac. I often really enjoy Lorac’s work, and this was no exception, though it wasn’t much like her other work. It felt less cosy somehow, but it was a heck of a brainteaser.
  6. The Waking of Angantyr, by Marie Brennan. Marie Brennan’s an auto-buy author for me, and I ended up reading this side-by-side with my wife while we were on a weekend away. We raced through it!
  7. Untethered Sky, by Fonda Lee. I found this story lingering with me after I was done. I loved how the obsession was built up, the special relation between the handler and the roc illustrated.
  8. The Good Virus, by Tom Ireland. Totally fascinating stuff about bacteriophages, and I learned a fair amount I didn’t know about existing bacteriophage therapy.
  9. Murder: The Biography, by Kate Morgan. A history of murder and trials for murder, showing how precedent has shaped law. Interesting for its own sake, but especially in light of my interest in crime fiction!
  10. He Who Whispers, by John Dickson Carr. Finally, this is the only one on the list not rated 5/5 by me this year, but it deserves a mention because it’s the book that actually piqued my interest in John Dickson Carr. Previously I’d tried several books by him and just couldn’t get on with them… but here we are in a world where I enjoy his books now, at least some of them!

Cover of The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan Cover of Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee Cover of The Good Virus by Tom Ireland Cover of Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan Cover of He Who Whispers, by John Dickson Carr

And before we go, I have to give an honorable mention to Juneau Black’s Shady Hollow books, which I discovered in the last couple months of the year and had me totally absorbed.

How about you? Can you pick a top ten? Fascinated to see what has stood out for people this year!

Tags: ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 30, 2023 by Nicky in General / 44 Comments

Oof, almost time to put 2023 to bed. It was a weird transitional year for me, letting go of some stuff that had become a burden and getting out of an exploitative environment that was sucking out all of my free time and a lot of my energy. It brought me back to blogging by the end of the year, which is nice. Here’s hoping 2024 is kind to us all.

Anyway, it’s time for the post-Christmas haul, or at least the first part of it…

As before, I’ll be linking up with a few different posts: Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

I got quite a lot of books, in fact, so it’s hard to know just how to split them up into two batches. I think I’ll show off my dorky Final Fantasy books received and the various fiction books I received, this week, and then the non-fiction books I got next week, just to avoid it being too big!

So first of all, here are the additions to my Final Fantasy XIV collection:

Cover of Encyclopaedia Eorzea, volume II Cover of Encyclopaedia Eorzea, volume III

Cover of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward: The Art of Ishgard - Stone and Steel Cover of Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers: The Art of Reflection - Histories Forsaken Cover of Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy

The artbooks are gorgeous, and the encyclopaedias have a lot of fascinating information. I previously got volume I of the encyclopaedia, so it’s nice to get up to date!

As far as fiction books go, I was equally spoiled by my family, and I’m also including a book bought off my wishlist by Cheryl Malandrinos from The Book Connection, The Book of Perilous Dishes. (Thank you so much!)

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 3 by MXTX

Cover of A Surprise for Christmas, edited by Martin Edwards Cover of The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti

I’m eager to dig into all of these, though I need to acquire Curse of the Pharaohs before I can read The Mummy Case, in order to avoid getting out of order. I think I’ll leave that a bit until my TBR pile is a little less inclined to overflow! 😀

And of course I must also include the two review copies I’ve been approved for this week:

Thanks, Tordotcom!

Posts from this week:

It’s been a quieter week for posts, since I paused for a bit while celebrating Christmas, but there are some new posts:

Other posts:

What I’m reading:

For the weekend, I’m working on hitting my reading goal for 2023: 400 books in total! Just two more books to go, but I haven’t really decided what to read yet.

Here’s a glimpse of the books I’ve read this week which I’ll probably be reviewing on here soon:

Cover of Blood Moon by M.J. O'Shea Cover of An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner Cover of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward: The Art of Ishgard - Stone and Steel Cover of Encyclopaedia Eorzea, volume II Cover of Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy

Cover of The History of Wales in Twelve Poems by M Wynn Thomas Cover of A Surprise for Christmas, edited by Martin Edwards Cover of The Science of Sin by Jack Lewis Cover of Script & Scribble by Kitty Burns Florey

And that’s it! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, and that we’re all looking forward to the new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one (with plenty of books).

Tags: , ,

Divider

WWW Wednesday

Posted December 27, 2023 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s been a long time since I checked in on a Wednesday with what I’ve been reading, but it feels like a good time! So without further ado, here I go answering the threes Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you reading next?

And linking up with Taking on a World of Words.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of The Science of Sin by Jack LewisRight now I’ve got started on one of my Christmas presents, The Science of Sin, by Jack Lewis. I was always inclined to raise my eyebrows a bit at the premise, expecting a good amount of discussion of “mismatch theory” (humans evolved under circumstances xyz, to promote survival via behaviours abc, and now those very behaviours cause problems) and possibly some judginess over defining what a “sin” even is.

That’s… pretty much what we’ve got here, with each chapter based on one of the Seven Deadlies. The chapter on gluttony focuses on bodyweight, asserting very firmly that it’s all about behaviour (and ignoring the influence of stuff like PCOS). It seems like a very simplified, pop-science way of going about things. Which isn’t too surprising, but it is frustrating.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The History of Wales in Twelve Poems by M Wynn ThomasThe last book I finished was The History of Wales in Twelve Poems, by M. Wynn Thomas — an inspired choice of Christmas present from my dad, since I love Welsh history (and know sadly little about it), I like poetry, and I love histories that take this format. I enjoyed it a lot, though worryingly a lot of the information dripped back out of my head again. I blame Christmas dinner, and will have to refresh my memory on bits of it before I write my review!

It’s also got some illustrations by Ruth Jên Evans, and has lovely presentation in general, including the poems in Welsh and in translation, etc.

What are you reading next?

Cover of Sailor's Delight by Rose LernerI should really return to one of the other books I have on the go! Most likely I’ll finish up Sailor’s Delight, by Rose Lerner, which I was enjoying a lot but put down because the yearning was really getting to me. The romance promises to be really sweet, but I found it surprisingly intense!

Other than that, I also want to read A Surprise for Christmas before Twelfth Night, so I can get a review out close to Christmas-time. It’s one of the British Library Crime Classics series edited by Martin Edwards, and usually I find those to be pretty quick reads.

What about you? What are you reading?

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 23, 2023 by Nicky in General / 31 Comments

Another week gone by already! After this post, I’ll be catching up on comments today and tomorrow, and there’ll be one more review post, and then I’ll take a little break from posting for a couple of days. I celebrate Christmas, so I’m going to be busy with my family!

As before, I’ll be linking up with a few different posts: Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

This week I have just two books to show for myself: first, my British Library Crime Classic for this month, Margot Bennett’s Someone from the Past… and my present from Ana and Paulo at Postcrossing, a book on handwriting!

Cover of Someone From The Past by Margot Bennett Cover of Script & Scribble by Kitty Burns Florey

So that’s a pretty restrained week, compared to what my wife assures me will happen on Christmas, haha.

Posts from this week:

As usual, let’s have a bit of a roundup of my reviews this week:

And my Top Ten Tuesday this week:

What I’m reading:

This week I’ve been reading a few manga (which I often don’t review in full), but I did also finally pick up The Impossible Impostor again, after someone assured me that they got on better with the next book in the series. I skimmed a bit, but I got back into it — whew. Over the weekend, I think I’ll work on finishing Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders, and maybe a couple of shorter reads. I’ve been a bit stressed out, though, so I’m just going to follow my whim and try to relax!

Here’s a peek at books I read this week that I will be reviewing soon…

Cover of The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson Cover of Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards Cover of The Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn Cover of Who Killed the Curate by Joan Coggin Cover of Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders

And that’s it! It was a quieter week this week, reading-wise, but that’s OK.

How’s everyone doing? Ready for Christmas, if you celebrate?

Tags: ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday: Wishing For Books

Posted December 19, 2023 by Nicky in General / 33 Comments

This week’s theme from Reading Reality’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about the books we’re hoping Santa brings!

I’m not really allowed to go look at my wishlist at this time of year, since it automatically removes things that have been purchased for me… so we’ll just have to go with the ones that jump to mind, stuff I’d like to read in the year ahead, or things that I’ve only recently added and probably won’t be receiving for Christmas. Here goes…

  1. Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy, by Esora Amaichi. This silly manga about certain characters from Final Fantasy XIV at a high school has been out officially in English for a little bit, but I virtuously put it back without purchasing it because I thought it might be something people could get me for Christmas. I love FFXIV, and am a total nerd about it, so this is right up my street.
  2. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System vol. 2, by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù. I thought this series might be too silly for me… and it is pretty silly. But I’m also really curious about it and kind of charmed by it, so I’m eager to read more.
  3. More Object Lessons. Object Lessons is a series of short books covering a small topic in depth — like personal stereos, or blue jeans, or trench coats. I love learning about random things, and each book is bitesize enough that if it turns out an object isn’t that interesting… well, it’s fine.
  4. More of the Edible series. Similar to Object Lessons, each book covers a very specific topic in detail, but in this case it’s always food. I’ve read books about cookies and candy and doughnuts, and these are all beautifully illustrated with photos, too. And I never knew before how much argument there is over the definition of a pancake.
  5. Miraculous Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards. This one’s a rarity: a British Library Crime Classic that I don’t already have my hands on. It seems to be out of print, too.
  6. A Sinister Revenge, by Deanna Raybourn. Owing to the particular plot in the previous book, An Impossible Impostor, I’m struggling to finish it. But I’m told that the next book is a lot more fun, even if you disliked the plot of An Impossible Impostor, so I’d like to get hold of this and give it a shot before the ninth book in the series comes out in March.
  7. The second Griffin & Sabine trilogy, by Nick Bantock. Sometimes the prices for these have been silly, and second-hand is a bit of a gamble given the nature of the books (they contain letters in pouches, for example), but I really do want to read these someday. The first trilogy was very charming, and there remains a childlike glee in an interactive book like this, even one intended for adults.
  8. Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh. I’ve been tempted by this one since I saw it available for review, but I didn’t request it because I knew I wouldn’t get round to it in time. I’ve been promised a found family story and vengeance for the destruction of Earth, and I am definitely intrigued — especially as I loved Tesh’s Green Man novellas.
  9. The Warden, by Daniel M. Ford. I saw this mentioned on K.A. Doore’s list of 2023 Queer Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy, and it had me at “necromancy” and “investigate mysteries in a small town”. It sounds like combining two very specific interests of mine…
  10. The Undetectables, by Courtney Smyth. “Be gay, solve crime, take naps.” Do I need to say anything else? I spotted this on the above list as well and I’m definitely intrigued…

If you fancy granting any of these wishes, uhhh… talk to my wife first. Or, actually, you can use my wishlist (they keep it up to date, ensuring stuff that’s bought gets taken off). These books might already be waiting under the tree. I don’t know, and I’m not going to ask!

For everyone else — what about you? Are you hoping Santa will bring you an epic haul? What are you most looking forward to? Some people are including links to their wishlists, so I’ll be a wish-granting fairy for a bit this afternoon; I love getting people books!

Tags: ,

Divider

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted December 16, 2023 by Nicky in General / 27 Comments

And oof, another week gone! Christmas is creeping closer, for those of us who celebrate — I’m most looking forward to giving people all their gifts, I must admit, though I know a tidy book haul is coming my way as well thanks to my wife. I got the most perfect thing for my sister… ah, but I can’t tell you, she might read this.

It’s been another busy week, with an assignment due yesterday for one of my classes, but now that’s out of the way I’m gearing up for a quiet week or two, I think!

As before, I’ll be linking up with a few different posts: Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

I split my haul from my trip to Bath into three lots, since I was a little, ah, excessive about it. This is the final bunch, from the lovely bookshop Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. I wasn’t 100% won over by their fiction section, since books of all genres were jumbled together: even though I read very widely and some would even say randomly, I’m not always in the mood for the same thing. So I pretty much bypassed their fiction selection, sorry to say, picking up only this one which I found in their bibliotherapy room from their list of recommendations:

Cover of Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee

It’s an Arthurian retelling and prominently features Sir Kay, which means it called out my name right off the bat. I wrote my postgrad dissertation (back when I was doing English Literature) on the character of the Welsh Cei and how it echoed throughout later literature, so I’m interested to see what this one does.

What shone for me at Mr B’s was the selection of non-fiction, and the conversations I had with staff members about the books I was choosing. I’d trust their recommendations for sure. Without further ado, here’s the rest of my haul:

Cover of Pockets by Hannah Carlson Cover of The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin Cover of The Bone Chests by Cat Jarman Cover of Digging Up Britain by Mike Pitts

Cover of The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club by Christopher de Hamel Cover of The Long Long Life of Trees by Fiona Stafford Cover of Adrift by Tracey Williams Cover of Tickets For the Ark by Rebecca Nesbit

As you can see, I had a heck of a time!

Technically I’ve also just received my British Library Crime Classics subscription book, complete with matching bookmark (which they’ve made smaller now, yay!), free postcard and blackmail note (reproduced from this month’s story), but I’ll keep that for next week to ensure I have something to post…

Posts from this week:

I’m pretty much caught up from all the reviews I wrote while my blog was down, but I’ve kept on reading at pace in the meantime, so here’s a roundup of this week’s reviews:

And I’ve also posted about some of my (potential) upcoming reads:

What I’m reading:

I’m still trying to make myself finish The Impossible Impostor, by Deanna Raybourn. Having stalled, it’s difficult to nudge myself to get back into it. Still, other than that I’ve been reading a lot, and I have quite a few  reviews upcoming for my reads this week. As ever, here’s a sneak preview of the titles/covers:

Cover of Rebel Cell by Kat Arney Cover of The Christmas Card Game edited by Martin Edwards Cover of Clean Room volume 3: Waiting for the Stars to Fall, by Gail Simone et al

Cover of The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin Cover of Pockets by Hannah Carlson Cover of A Trace of Copper by Anne Renwick

I did read a couple of volumes of manga as well, but I’m not planning to review them here as I don’t have much to say.

And that’s it for now! How’s everyone else doing? Got any exciting books this week?

Tags: , ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter TBR

Posted December 12, 2023 by Nicky in General / 28 Comments

This week’s theme from That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday linkup is the books that are on your winter TBR. I don’t usually read stuff with a deliberate eye to seasonal appropriateness, but this year I did end up acquiring a bunch of seasonal mysteries all at once… so they play a big part in my upcoming choices.

Cover of Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards Cover of Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders Cover of The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson Cover of Who Killed the Curate by Joan Coggin Cover of A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

  1. Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards. This is in the British Library Crime Classics series, and is one of the older anthologies — I’ve already read this year’s, Who Killed Father Christmas?, and another from a previous year, The Christmas Card Crime. Some of them don’t feel very seasonal and obviously murder isn’t entirely cheery, but it’s fun all the same.
  2. Christmas: A History, by Judith Flanders. I’ve enjoyed Flanders’ work before, so this seemed both something likely to interest me and something a bit seasonal, since I appear to be getting into the mood this year. I’ve read a bit of it already, but I’m not far in.
  3. The White Priory Murders, by Carter Dickson (aka John Dickson Carr). I only recently found my way to enjoying John Dickson Carr’s work, so I’ve been working my way through a backlog of the British Library’s reprints. Not all of it is a hit even now, but I’m looking forward to giving this a shot. Very classic crime setup with only one set of footprints in the snow, etc (John Dickson Carr was famous for impossible mysteries, so there’s probably something especially ingenious here).
  4. Who Killed the Curate? by Joan Coggin. This one’s also a Christmas-themed one, so I’d better get round to this before the end of December. Otherwise it feels like singing carols in September — only appropriate if you’re in a choir and practising for performances!
  5. A Portrait in Shadow, by Nicole Jarvis. This is a historical fantasy novel featuring Artemisia Gentileschi, which is a choice that absolutely has my attention. I can’t remember who originally mentioned it such that I grabbed a copy — I thought it was imyril, but her review only went up recently… In any case, I’m intrigued.
  6. Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close, by Hannah Carlson. This is a bit of change of pace from the others! In the last few years, perhaps due to the influence of the Great British Sewing Bee, I’ve developed a bit of an interest in the history of clothes. I’ve read a book about pockets before, so I’m not sure how much this one will add, but someone at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights said he’s listening to the audiobook and finding it fascinating, so… that seems like a solid recommendation.
  7. Unnatural Magic, by C.M. Waggoner. Over the course of the last six months or so, I’ve been meeting up with a friend to go to bookshops every so often. On our very first trip he got this book, and on our most recent one he recommended it to me very highly. He’s said some interesting things about it, so I’m definitely ready to give it a shot!
  8. The Bone Chests, by Cat Jarman. This is another non-fiction book from a recent haul, but I’ve had my eye on it for a while. I think I enjoyed Jarman’s previous book, and I was just intrigued by the idea of understanding the context around the chests of royal bones in Winchester Cathedral. Here’s hoping it’s as interesting as it looks!
  9. A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, by KJ Charles. I know, I know, I’m late to read this — but I was late about the first book too, so I’m just running to my own clock here. I always read everything KJ Charles writes, so I’ll get there soon. In part, I needed to shake off the characters of the previous book to be ready to embrace a different pair of leads.
  10. A River Enchanted, by Rebecca Ross. I started this a while ago and then sort of got distracted, but not for lack of interest. It was actually a random pick at the bookshop that I hadn’t heard anything about, where reading the first couple of pages intrigued me enough that I decided to give it a go. I think I’m still finding my footing with the book, but I do want to finish it. I’m a little annoyed, though; the cover copy did not make it obvious that it’s a duology and not complete in itself. Oh well!

Cover of Pockets by Hannah Carlson Cover of Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner Cover of The Bone Chests by Cat Jarman Cover of A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by KJ Charles Cover of A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

So that’s a rather random grab bag of potential wintery reads for me. How about everyone else? Do you expect to read all of yours? I expect I’ll get to some of mine… eventually, maybe not this winter.

Tags: ,

Divider

Top Ten Tuesday: Non-Fiction I’ve Loved

Posted December 5, 2023 by Nicky in General / 36 Comments

It’s Top Ten Tuesday again, and this week’s theme is a freebie. I get comments now and then on how much non-fiction I read and how random some of my choices are, so this list is about the non-fiction books I’ve loved! It’s a topic I know I’ve covered before, so I’ll try to keep it to recent-ish reads. I’ll link the review, where I have one written.

I know that thumbnails of book covers are missing from some of my older posts. It’s probably been an error since I migrated to my new blog host, and we’re working on it. Sorry about that! Where a thumbnail is missing and you just see the fallback text, you can click on that to see the actual image if you want to check out the cover.

As a side-note, I’m behind on replying to comments and visiting people back, but I’m working through it steadily, I promise!

Cover of Overkill by Paul Offit Cover of The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin Cover of Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori Cover of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Emma Southon Cover of The Good Virus by Tom Ireland

  1. Overkill: When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far, by Paul Offit. I’ll start with the book I just absolutely inhaled last night. I was worried at first that this was going to be some kind of anti-medicine, unevidenced rant, but Offit is very careful to refer to specific studies and to specific numbers and stats from those studies. His introduction indicates that he wants to be fact-checked, and a quick skim through the topics reassured me a bit as well. Having read it now, I might not 100% agree (I need to read some of the original sources first), but the evidence he presents is definitely food for thought. I think doctors should read this, for sure, but patients should as well in order to be informed. In the end, I worry that it may erode a little too much trust in doctors (if a doctor tells you that you must keep taking a medication even though you feel better, it’s probably true), but it’s an important wake-up call.
  2. The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes, by Kate Strasdin. I haven’t actually finished this yet, but I’m enjoying it very much. Mrs Anne Sykes was a newly married Victorian woman who kept a record of her clothes and the clothes of people special to her through pasting in scraps of cloth. Kate Strasdin is an expert on the history of fashion, and has also dug deeply to find out who Mrs Anne Sykes was, so the book is a mixture of general social history, fashion history, and zooming in to look at the life of one person.
  3. Around the World in 80 Trees, by Jonathan Drori and illustrated by Lucille Clerc. This book (and the companion, Around the World in 80 Plants) is just beautiful, thanks to Clerc’s illustrations, and each mini-biography of a tree has interesting titbits about the trees, where they come from, how they’re used, and/or where they live now and why. If you’re interested in plants and trees particularly, or just curious enough to read anything, I recommend this. The illustrations are beautiful, and it’d make a good gift, too.
  4. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, by Emma Southon. Ever been curious about murder in Ancient Rome? Before I read this book, me neither, but Southon’s humour and fascination with the topic carries the book. It’s a fascinating angle for a history of ancient Rome which reveals a lot about the lives and attitudes of the Romans, and I recommend it highly.
  5. The Good Virus, by Tom Ireland. We are approaching a crisis of anti-microbial resistance. For some infections, it’s already here. The Good Virus has some suggestions about where we go from here, with the help of viruses — to be more accurate, very small viruses that kill bacteria, called bacteriophages. They’ve been used for decades in some parts of the world, but they’re hard to regulate, hard to test in the kind of gold standard settings designed for non-living pharmaceuticals, and as such, rolling them out to people has been a big ask. Still, as someone who’s studying for my MSc in infectious diseases, we need them, and Ireland sets out to convince people of that.
  6. Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion, by Louise Willder. Willder is one of the people who writes blurbs for the books we read, the short and informative summaries of plot or the kind of information you can find in books. It’s been her job for years to tantalise and entice, and this is her book about that. I didn’t find any of that part surprising, but I really enjoyed her writing style.
  7. Personal Stereo, by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow. This is a book from the Object Lessons series, and I could happily choose half-a-dozen of those titles to include here, but I’ll stick to just this one, where I really got hooked. I love the idea of focusing in on a single object and figuring out its history, and sometimes relatively modern items — like a personal stereo or a fancy toaster — can have a surprising history. I found this particular book from the series a particularly easy read, despite having no actual interest in consumer electronics and the history thereof per se.
  8. Murder: the Biography, by Kate Morgan. This is a history of murder (mostly in the United Kingdom), illuminating how our laws about murder ended up the way they are through the historic cases that led us here. Each chapter is illustrated by at least one real-life case, usually more than one, which helps to explain both the law and the cultural reaction at the time which shaped it. It’s not just old brutal murders or something, but also modern issues like Grenfell. I have no particular interest in the law for its own sake, but of course this sheds light on my beloved mystery fiction too, and I’ve also handed my copy on to my sister (who studied law) because I think she’ll find her own interest in it.
  9. Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive, by Philipp Dettmer. This book is beautifully illustrated, and goes through the way the immune system works from the basics to stuff I hadn’t been taught yet (bearing in mind that I’m doing an MSc in infectious diseases, that came as a surprise!). It’s very easy to read, everything is very well explained, and I have a terrible habit of trying to convince everyone that they want it because I was myself so fascinated with it. Did you know that some of our white blood cells, called neutrophils, can create a sticky net that captures invading pathogens? They do it by extruding their own DNA in big loops. We only discovered this in 2004, and learning about it in this book made me want to dance with fascination at how our bodies work.
  10. Index, a History of the, by Dennis Duncan. I know, I know, a history of indexes doesn’t sound too fascinating: aren’t they just a way of finding the information you need in a non-fiction book, often a textbook? Can there really be much to say about them? The answer is yes, and Duncan makes it a fun read. Also, you’d be surprised — someone has, in fact, managed to use an index to further their feud with someone else, which honestly gave me a giggle.

Cover of Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise Willder Cover of Personal Stereo, by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow Cover of Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan Cover of Immune by Philipp Dettmer Cover of Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan

There! I tried to bring to this list some of the weird randomness of my own reading, jumping from topic to topic in a way that may not make much sense, but works surprisingly well to ensure that I have interesting background to a lot of things. I know some people prefer to read only about their pet topics, but I mostly just let the random searchlight of my interest pick out things that I don’t know, and then learn about them. I hope there’s something of interest here for others!

Tags: , ,

Divider