Category: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted September 4, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for the usual update!

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 4 by MXTXWhat have you recently finished reading?

I think the most recent novel I finished was Heaven Official’s Blessing volume 4 (MXTX). I’m loving the series, but I did take a bit of a pause to breathe after volume 4, knowing that the next volume answers some questions about Hua Cheng — at least, I hope it does! And I’m so ready for Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to maybe acknowledge what’s between them a bit more.

I know a lot of spoilers, as well, which gives me the fascinating puzzle of trying to figure out where things fit in.

Cover of All That Remains, by Sue BlackWhat are you currently reading?

All That Remains (Sue Black) is the book I’m currently reading most actively, and hoping to finish today. I find it’s a lot more personal than her later book, Written in Bone, and I’ve found myself crying several times. I just read the chapter on her work in Kosovo, which is pretty heavy stuff. She has a very practical approach to death, but coupled with a great respect for grief and for what families need, and what’s owing to a person even when they’re dead.

On Serial Reader, I’m about halfway through The Murder on the Links (Agatha Christie). It’s much of a muchness with other fiction of the period, and I’m maybe liking it a bit less because I do so dislike Hastings as a narrator, and (sorry…) I’m not a huge fan of Poirot. Not that it’s bad, just not entirely to my taste.

Cover of Book Lovers by Emily HenryWhat will you read next?

The next volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing is definitely high on my list. Other than that, I’ve been steadily trying to whittle down the number of books I have partway read at any one time, so I’ll probably pick another of those to focus on; Christina Baehr’s Wormwood Abbey, probably, but maybe also Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, since that’s not in a series and I won’t simply want to start the next book in its place.

How about you, readers?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books Involving Food

Posted September 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

This week’s prompt is “Books Involving Food (That are Not Cookbooks)”, which… I’m sure I know a lot of books which incidentally mention food, but I’m not sure how many will stand out for me. Let’s see…

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 4 by MXTX Cover of Sunshine by Robin McKinley Cover of Chocolat by Joanne Harris Cover of Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

  1. Heaven Official’s Blessing (vol 4), by MXTX. This one springs to mind because I just read it, and because (alas) all the food Xie Lian cooks is awful, if not deadly. Only he and Hua Cheng can stand it, and in volume four, it gets used as a weapon… I’ll pass on the Love for All Seasons stew, and the Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs.
  2. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s been a long while since I read this, but all the descriptions of baking stuck in my head! It’s so full of good food for a vampire novel.
  3. Chocolat, by Joanne Harris. I need to give this a reread, it’s been ages, but I always did enjoy it. And of course, it always makes me crave chocolate. (Oh no!)
  4. Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree. Okay, it mostly involves coffee, but it does feature the tasty, tasty snacks made by Thimble.
  5. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (vol 1), by MXTX. The original Luo Binghe shows his harem favour by cooking for them… but the Luo Binghe that Shen Yuan meets after his transmigration will pretty much only cook for him. Unlike Xie Lian in MXTX’s other book, mentioned above, Luo Binghe really can cook. I have no idea if I’d like congee, but it makes me tempted to find out.
  6. Cold Clay, by Juneau Black. Food keeps getting mentioned again and again, and it all sounds so tasty. Though in this book it is slightly macabre to think that Joe’s been making apple pies using apples from the orchard where his murdered wife was secretly buried.
  7. The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, by Lizzie Collingham. Time for some non-fiction! This one discusses biscuits, of course, but in a way that also tells us about a broader swathe of history too.
  8. White Bread: A Social History of the Store-bought Loaf, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain. A whole history about bread? And not just any bread, but just… store-bought loaves? Yep. And it’s fascinating, and in many ways it’s a book about class.
  9. A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles, by Ned Palmer. I found this one totally fascinating — and it helps that I really do love cheese.
  10. Ice Cream: A Global History, by Laura B. Weiss. I love the Edible series in general, but I’ll stick to highlighting just one. My main complaint was that it wasn’t actually very global.

Cover of Cold Clay by Juneau Black Cover of The Biscuit by Lizzie Collingham Cover of White Bread by Aaron Bobrow-Strain Cover of A Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles by Ned Palmer Cover of Ice Cream by Laura B. Weiss

Yay, I did it! I read a surprising number of books about food for someone who isn’t interested in food, per se. I’m not a cook or any kind of gourmet, but food can be such a strong indicator of culture, it’s a fascinating way to look at society and history.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 31, 2024 by Nicky in General / 17 Comments

It’s been a pretty normal week, as things go, which is nice after feeling pretty busy and frazzled of late! It’s been a quieter week reading-wise, but that’s fine.

Books acquired this week

Without further ado, let’s finish off looking at my birthday haul (part one was last week, if folks are curious). As usual, it’s a mixture. Here’s the rest of the fiction…

Cover of Hot Earl Summer by Erica Ridley Cover of The Paper Boys by D.P. Clarence Cover of The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

Cover of Villainy at Vespers by Joan Cockin Cover of Deadly Earnest by Joan Cockin

A bit of romance, a bit of murder — as you do (at least around here).

And here’s the rest of the non-fic:

Cover of The British Museum by James Hamilton Cover of Around the Ocean in 80 Fish & Other Sea Life by Helen Scales Cover of Space Rover by Stewart Lawrence Sinclair Cover of Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

As ever, quite the mix. 🙂

Posts from this week

Aaand here’s the roundup of reviews posted:

Other posts:

What I’m reading

As I mentioned, it’s been a quieter week reading-wise, but it’s been nice. I’m deep into Heaven Official’s Blessing, of course, and not taking long between volumes as it’s really designed as one continuous story (it was a webnovel). I also started using an app called Serial Reader again, which means I’ve been reading some Agatha Christie, small segments at a time. I’ve read a lot less Christie than you’d imagine, given my love for Golden Age crime. I’m now onto The Murder on the Links.

In any case, here are the books I’ve read this week which I’ll be reviewing on the blog sooner or later…

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 2 by MXTX Cover of Universal Basic Income by Karl Widerquist Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 3 by MXTX Cover of The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

And th-th-that’s all folks! I hope everyone’s had a good week.

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

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Blog Interruption

Posted August 29, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Welp, folks! All the reviews I have written and ready to post are saved on The StoryGraph… and according to their X account, they might not be back for “at least a few more hours” from their recent post, after their planned maintenance went wrong.

So… here’s a fun GIF of Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing, in lieu of the review of volume two I might’ve posted today.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to give you a two-fer and post two reviews in one day to make up for it!

ETA: The embed wasn’t working in email or on RSS feeds, so I’m replacing it with hosting the image myself.

 

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WWW Wednesday

Posted August 28, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Here we go, as usual!

Cover of Universal Basic Income by Karl WiderquistWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Karl Widerquist’s book from the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, Universal Basic Income. I’m personally fairly convinced about the benefits of UBI, but I wanted to read more about its history, studies, etc. It’s a little dissatisfying that there’s so little actual large-scale proof, but that’s not the book’s fault, and I did learn about the Alaska dividend, which is a fascinating concept.

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 3 by MXTXWhat are you currently reading?

Several things at once, as ever! I’ve picked up the app Serial Reader again, and I’m using it to read Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles — for a fan of the Golden Age of crime fiction, you’d be shocked by how little Christie I’ve read. I’m only a few ‘issues’ into it so far, so not much to say about it yet. It’s very classic for the period, though I’m not a Poirot fan in general.

I’m also in the closing chapters of Heaven Official’s Blessing volume 3. In some ways I’d love to do nothing but read this series, I’m adoring Xie Lian and Hua Cheng… but at the same time, I keep reminding myself that I get fidgety if I try to do that, and it’s good for me to have other books to focus on too. I’m also trying to keep pace with my wife’s reading, and this buddy read system is a lot of fun when we do it.

Cover of Wormwood Abbey by Christina BaehrWhat will you read next?

I should return to reading Christina Baehr’s Wormwood Abbey, which I temporarily stalled on — not because I don’t like it, but just because I was focusing on Heaven Official’s Blessing and kind of busy with work stuff.

I should also start another non-fiction book, because I always like having one on the go; I suspect I’ll pick up my new Object Lessons book, Space Rover.

And what about you?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Posts That Reveal Me

Posted August 27, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is for posts that give you the best glimpse of me. Let’s give it a shot…

  1. Guilty Pleasures. To quote this post, “fuck that noise”. I don’t believe in ’em. I went all the way back to 2015 looking at my discussion posts, found this one, and agree with every word of it still. No such thing as a guilty pleasure.
  2. Spoilers! Also an old post, and still true: I like spoilers. I have read all sorts of stuff about the later sections of Heaven Official’s Blessing, and it really adds to the experience for me.
  3. Why reread? This is a topic that’s come up over and over again: I like to reread books I enjoy, and re-experience them. There’s another more recent post, and it’s not even the only one…
  4. On giving up, but positively and Discussion: Putting the Joy Back Into It. Both of these are about reading/blogging habits I wanted to stop in order to stop feeling a sense of obligation around blogging. I can’t say I’ve always stuck to these resolutions, but it is something that’s important to me in reading and blogging: I’m not doing it as a job, I’m doing it for fun.
  5. Discussion: Real Life. How much should you talk about your real life on your blog? I guess that depends on you, but I’m fairly open about mine (while keeping it mostly about the books).
  6. Why haven’t you read ___ yet? And here you will learn that I’m contrary, and if everyone wants me to read something, I… probably won’t.
  7. Review: Return of the Black Death: The World’s Greatest Serial Killer, by Susan Scott & Christopher J. Duncan. The book is arrant nonsense. My reaction to it is probably pretty telling about the kind of person I am.
  8. Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Memories. This is a recent one — but what better way to know me than through my most salient memories of reading?
  9. Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Read The Most By. You can know me by the books I love…
  10. Top Ten Tuesday: Things I’d Have At My Bookish Party. My idea of a “party” is pretty telling, I think.

That was harder than I thought, because these days I mostly post reviews, Top Ten Tuesday, WWW Wednesday and Stacking the Shelves/Sunday Post. But I think you can still get a solid idea of who I am and who I’ve been!

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 24, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

As ever, I’m a little behind on comments — I swear one of these days I’ll get back on track with my life!

It’s been a somewhat busy week, with my birthday on Tuesday and my exam results on Thursday, but I was spoiled and the results were good, so all is well.

Books acquired this week

My birthday haul is a little ridiculous, so I’m going to split it into two posts, this week and next week. So first up, here’s the new batch of danmei that I grabbed using birthday money and Waterstones stamps:

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 2 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 3 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 4 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 5 by MXTX

Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 6 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 7 by MXTX Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing vol 8 by MXTX

But of course my wife also spoiled me a lot, so here’s some of the non-fiction I got:

Cover of Universal Basic Income by Karl Widerquist Cover of Cyborg by Laura Forland and Danya Glabau Cover of The Miniature Library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House

The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series has a fascinating range of books, I foresee a new collection on my part (uhoh).

Aaand finally, here’s some of the non-danmei fiction:

Cover of The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught Cover of Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr Cover of A Sinister Revenge by Deanna Raybourn Cover of A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

I really hope that I like A Sinister Revenge (and A Grave Robbery) more than the last book — I didn’t like the nature of the conflict between Veronica and Stoker, nor Veronica hiding things from him, so it’s possible things will get straightened out now.

So that’s a heck of a haul, and like I said, that’s not even all of it!

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a roundup of my reviews and other posts from this week!

Other posts:

What I’m reading

I’ve started my wife on reading Heaven Official’s Blessing as well — which usually means they quickly overtake me and read the whole thing while I’m still on book two, getting distracted by other books. I’m trying not to let that happen this time, so we experience the story at about the same pace, so I’ve been spending time with volume two this weekend.

That said, I’m also reading Universal Basic Income (Karl Widerquist) and Wormwood Abbey (Christina Baehr), and there’s been plenty of other reading going on too. Here’s the preview of the books I finished this week, which I’m due to review on the blog soon/eventually, or which may already have reviews posted:

Cover of Invisible Friends by Jake M. Robinson Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX Cover of The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught Cover of The Miniature Library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House

Cover of Precious by Helen Molesworth Cover of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: The Art of Resurrection - Beyond the Veil Cover of Bloom Into You by Nakatani Nio Cover of Cyborg by Laura Forland and Danya Glabau

As you see, a good week for reading, helped by an impromptu day off work for my birthday.

Now all the birthday festivities and exam shenanigans are over, it’s time to settle down with my book… How’s everyone been doing?

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

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WWW Wednesday

Posted August 21, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

WWW Wednesday questions:

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

So as usual, here’s my answers!

Cover of Precious by Helen MolesworthWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last book I finished was Precious: The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time, by Helen Moleworthy. Each chapter discusses a different gem stone, like rubies, diamonds and jade, and tries to weigh up what makes the gem special and give a little of its history. I enjoyed it, for the most part, though I must admit that gemstones don’t do anything special for me — or perhaps I’ve just never handled a particularly beautiful one.

Cover of Wormwood Abbey by Christina BaehrWhat are you currently reading?

As usual, I have a couple of things on the go at once. I’ve started on a new series by MXTX, Heaven Official’s Blessing, and now I’m onto the second book. I’m a little lost with all the lore, to be honest, and a friend suggested I try watching the donghua to get things straightened out. So I’ll probably do that soon! I’m enjoying the relationship between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, though.

I’ve also just barely started reading Wormwood Abbey, by Christina Baehr. I think someone in the Bookly Discord mentioned reading that, and it caught my attention because there’s a tiny dragon on the cover! I need to settle down and read a bit more.

Cover of Mr Pottermack's Oversight by R. Austin FreemanWhat are you planning on reading next?

I just got a bunch of new books for my birthday, so perhaps more from that stack. There’s a couple of new-to-me mysteries, including two by Joan Cockin — I recently tried Curiosity Killed The Cat, which I enjoyed, so maybe it’s time to read more of those. Or maybe this month’s British Library Crime Classic, Mr Pottermack’s Oversight by R. Austin Freeman, before I start building up a backlog.

I have options, as you see!

What are you reading?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Like To Be Pals With

Posted August 20, 2024 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

This week’s theme from That Artsy Reader Girl is a relationship freebie: pick a relationship and then ten characters who you want to have that kind of relationship with, e.g. siblings, found family, etc. I’ve gone with friends — and I’m going to try to pick side characters, rather than the main event, since main characters tend to have a lot of drama (and sometimes danger) coming their way…

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 3 by MXTX Cover of System Collapse by Martha Wells Cover of Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cover of Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

  1. Liu Mingyan, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (MXTX). I think Mingyan and I have some things in common — we could definitely talk about books, if nothing else!
  2. Ratthi, from The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells). He seems like such a sweetie, and Martha Wells did say in an interview that of all her characters, he’d be a lot of fun to hang out with.
  3. Medic, from Ancillary Sword (Ann Leckie). In part, it’d be just kind of funny to get a Medic’s-eye-view of Breq, Seivarden, and all the trouble they bring with them.
  4. Csevet, from The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison). In the same vein as Medic, really, it’d be fun to get a different view of Maia and the court. And Csevet seems pretty fun.
  5. Lord Ruthven, from Strange Practice (Vivian Shaw). He knows so much, and he’s kind, and let’s face it, he’d probably make me cookies if I asked.
  6. Amanda Frisby, from Band Sinister (KJ Charles). I think we could make a pretty neat book club between me, Amanda and Liu Mingyan.
  7. Harriet Vane, from Strong Poison (Dorothy L. Sayers). Here’s another one for the book club. Sure, we’d all need some time to adjust to each others’ cultures and time periods, and I’m not sure if we’d all agree about the merits of each others’ reading matter, but you can bet after that we’d have the most fun.
  8. Lenore, from Shady Hollow (Juneau Black). She owns a bookshop. We’re natural friends. And while we’re talking about that book club idea, Lenore’s a good addition too (though I doubt she and Mingyan would see eye to eye).
  9. Dr Chef, from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Becky Chambers). Okay, maybe this is slightly another one where I’d love him to cook for me. But also he has a heck of a perspective on the world from all he’s seen, and tries to be so kind and inclusive.
  10. Natalie Oscott, from The Tropic of Serpents (Marie Brennan). She drops out of the series and pursues her own career, and I’d love to hear more about her efforts at pushing boundaries.

Cover of Band Sinister by K.J. Charles Cover of Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers Cover of Shady Hollow by Juneau Black Cover of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Cover of Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

There we go, I succeeded without any main characters! And I think this book club idea would be really good, if only…

Looking forward to seeing other folks’ posts on this theme — don’t forget to drop your link in the comment if you visit.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 17, 2024 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

Getting this post up bright and early (…compared to usual) because today I’m heading out for a nerdy museum trip to celebrate my birthday (which is on Tuesday). Somehow I’m sure I’ll pass by a bookshop as well…

Books acquired this week

We’re finally on the tail-end of my last haul, just as my birthday hurtles toward us promising yet more books (oh no!). Here’s the last of the non-fiction I haven’t already shown off:

Cover of The Language Puzzle by Steven Mithen Cover of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters For Social Equality by Kathryn Paige Harden Cover of Precious by Helen Molesworth Cover of Fabric by Victoria Finlay

Huh, makes a kinda pattern with those colours. I didn’t do that intentionally, but kinda cool. As ever, it’s a bit of a random mix; I wonder if Fabric is going to cover pretty much the same ground as Worn, which I read recently. I might backburner it for a while for that reason.

And here’s the remainder of the fiction:

Cover of A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid Cover of Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black Cover of A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

I’m excited about A Sorceress Comes to Call, and Til Death Do Us Bard looks fun (if maybe a bit silly).

And of course, I did also receive this month’s British Library Crime Classic. It’s by an author I’ve read before, but I don’t think any of his full-length novels have been republished in this series yet (maybe some short stories):

Cover of Mr Pottermack's Oversight by R. Austin Freeman

And finally, a bit on a whim, a bit because I do like having some shorter fiction on hand, here’s a review copy from Tordotcom, via Netgalley:

Cover of But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo

It sounds pretty weird and maybe not my thing, but it’s always worth a try with Tor’s novellas.

Posts from this week

As ever, time for a bit of a recap of this week’s posts. Starting with the reviews:

And the other posts:

What I’m reading

Right now, I’m most actively reading the first volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing (MXTX) and Invisible Friends: How Microbes Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us (Jake M. Robinson). I’m actually going to head to the bookshop surreptiously to get the next two volumes of Heaven Official’s Blessing while I’m out today, because I can tell I’m going to be annoyed if I run out and I don’t have the next volume ready.

It feels like I’ve done a lot of reading this week, but let’s see… here’s a sneak peek at upcoming reviews:

Cover of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne Cover of The Long History of the Future: Why tomorrow's technology still isn't here by Nicole Kobie Cover of A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid Cover of Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins by Gareth Harney Cover of Love Everlasting vol 2 by Tom King et al

Plus a manga I don’t plan to review (because I never have much to say about any individual volume of Fairy Tail).

So not a bad reading week!

How’s everyone else been doing? Got anything fascinating on your ‘next up’ pile?

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

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