Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 28, 2018 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Good morning, folks! Here it is mostly far too warm and I am very much hoping that when I travel back to the UK on Tuesday, it’s going to be cooler there. Mind you, I hope it cools down here too, because the bunnies are too warm to even be nuisances, which is always worrying.

Received to review:

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Hadrian’s Wall, by David Breeze and Brian Dobson. Lots and lots of info, most of which the layperson won’t want to memorise, but interestingly presented. 4/5 stars
–Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A book I enjoyed a great deal, although a good bit of my review is puzzling over the science! 4/5 stars
–Human Universe, by Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen. Very much a book by Brian Cox, so it’s quite physics-focused, but more comprehensible to the non-math minded than, say, Universal. 3/5 stars
–The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente. A lovely end to a lovely series. 4/5 stars
–The Henchmen of Zenda, by K.J. Charles. An entertaining rewrite which doesn’t quite rehabilitate the Zenda side of the conflict, but adds some interesting motivations. 3/5 stars
–Thirteen Guests, by J. Jefferson Farjeon. I find something really moreish about this author’s books: it’s a shame I only have a couple left to read. Thank goodness the love story in this one is far less creepy, though. 4/5 stars
–Gorgon, by Peter D. Ward. Mostly about Ward’s work in the field, rather than actually being about gorgonopsids. Interesting in its way, but not quite what it says it’s going to be. 3/5 stars

Out and about:

–NEAT science: the first giant. Wanna read about one of the earliest giant dinosaurs?
–NEAT science: should boys get the HPV vaccine? Spoiler: yes. Obviously.
–Once Upon A Blue Moon: ‘How The Story Goes’. A short (very short) story about two men and a woman and a story many of us know very well indeed. If you’re a fan of Arthuriana, this one might just be for you.

So how’s everyone doing? Too warm where you are, or not so bad? Plenty of reading getting done?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Find me elsewhere

Posted July 27, 2018 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Interrupting your normal scheduled posts here to point out to anyone new that you can find me elsewhere online! I have two other blogs, and one of them is brand new.

First we have, of course, my popular science blog. I suspect it’ll always be biology-heavy, because I’m a biologist, but it’s partly based on what I get questions about. So feel free to make me put my research skills to work and ask me awkward questions…

Notable posts have included an introduction to my dissertation, experimental proof that reading is good for me, a warning about the upcoming post-antibiotic world, and an explanation of why science is WEIRD.

Then we’ve got my fiction blog, which is brand new and which you can find here. It’s a bit of an experiment for now, but let’s see what happens.

And because it’s so new, there’s only one post: a 300-word piece of fiction called How the Story Goes.

So hey, if those interest you, now you know they’re out there and can follow them or drop in occasionally. Don’t forget to wave!

Tags: about me, not about books

WWW Wednesday

Posted July 25, 2018 by Nicky in General / 10 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?

The Zoo, by Isobel Charman: it’s not exactly “wild and wonderful”, as the subtitle goes, but it’s still quite an interesting reconstruction of history. It probably takes too many liberties in imagining what the real people it follows thought and felt, but it’s entertaining enough.

I’m also partway through rereading The Burning Page, by Genevieve Cogman. That’s as entertaining as you’d expect, and I’m looking forward to finally getting onto the fourth book, The Lost Plot.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Crooked Kingdom. Everyone who told me it picks up halfway through was right — yeesh, I barely put it down after I got just past 50%. At first it felt like Kaz’s team just weren’t coming together properly to pull things off, but once they figured things out… Also, ouch, that ending. Ouch.

What will you be reading next?

Record of a Spaceborn Few is out, so I’m thinking of rereading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit first, because that’s how I roll. Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw is also about to come out, so I want to reread Strange Practice as well, but I’ll probably read Small Angry Planet again first.

What about you?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Discussion: Rereading

Posted July 23, 2018 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

I’ve probably written about rereading books here before, but it bears talking about again. I can’t understand the people who feel it’s a waste of time — it seems like hubris, to imagine that for every book you read, you get absolutely everything out of it on the first try and never need to read it again. I’m an English Literature grad, and I wouldn’t claim that — and in my Natural Sciences degree, I wouldn’t presume to think I understood most papers until a third or fourth reading, though granted they tend to be technical.

I mean, that’s the fancy excuse for rereading: I want to get everything I can out of it. (And for some books that’s definitely true: I’m still getting new stuff out of The Lord of the Rings and The Dark is Rising to chew over now, and I don’t know how many times I’ve read them.) It’s a good reason, but honestly, I don’t want it to eclipse the real reason I might reread a book: because I feel like it. Because I want to revisit that world. Because it was just that good the first time and I want to re-experience it. Because I need to refresh my mind before I read the sequel.

I mean, if you don’t enjoy rereading, then that’s one thing — but if it’s just because there’s so many books and so little time, well, that’s going to be true whether you reread or not. If you feel like rereading, why not? Again it comes down to the principle I keep reminding myself of: I read for fun. I don’t read to hold the record of the most unique books read in a single lifetime, or have an impressive list of all the classics checked off. What’s the point?

There is a flipside: you can read a book until it’s too predictable, too worn through in your mind. The best books can survive this, but even a good book can get a bit threadbare. (Good Omens, I’m looking at you.) But then it’s not so fun anymore, so the fun principle still holds.

So yeah. For my money, go reread books until your physical copies are floppy and faded with age and they fall open on your favourite bits. Talk about books you’ve reread until people are sick of hearing about it (I won’t get sick of hearing about it). Take any excuse if rereading is something you enjoy. You don’t owe those other books a thing.

Tags: books, discussion

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 21, 2018 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Good morning folks! Today me and the wife are off on a trip to see a friend, but I’ll be dropping by to see people’s weekend posts when I get back. It’s been a quiet week… except, you know, the bit where I got my exam results. A distinction and a grade 2 pass — in other words, I kicked butt.

In the meantime, here’s two new books I got using the credit from a Kobo Price Match (if you use Kobo and didn’t know about Price Match, when Amazon seriously beats Kobo’s prices, definitely consider asking them to price match!).

Books bought:

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence, by Michael Marshall Smith. I wanted a lot more from this, really; there’s just something off about it, like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. 3/5 stars
–Scarweather, by Anthony Rolls. Atmospheric and rather creepy, and I think I enjoyed it more just reading it than I do thinking it over afterwards. Then it gets rather threadbare — and also tropey. 2/5 stars
–The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, by Catherynne M. Valente. Very clever, if perhaps a little repetitive of the previous books — intentionally so, but nonetheless, when you’ve read the others recently it’s very obvious. Fun, as always, though. 4/5 stars
–Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, by Nick Lane. Good on both mitochondria themselves and what they mean in terms of the origin of life. 5/5 stars
–The Deep, by John Crowley. I kind of… don’t get it. I mean, I get the story, but I don’t get why it’s a Masterwork. 2/5 stars
–The Notting Hill Mystery, by Charles Warren Adams. Fairly typical, and mostly of interest if you’re interested in the classics of the Golden Age (and before, since this was a first) in a more academic sense, I think. 2/5 stars

Discussion: Book Fandom Friends

Posted July 16, 2018 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

This week’s topic is about the friends we make through our blogs! Or really, the fact that we don’t know too much about each other sometimes — I feel like I know some of your tastes so well and know exactly where we dovetail in terms of what we each enjoy, but I don’t know where you’re from or whether you’re married or what you do for a living or… Sometimes, it feels like I know you so well on the level of how you respond to books, it’s a shock to realise I have no idea if you have siblings or whether you live in Montana or on the moon.

So! Here is a basic profile of some things that are important about me; does any of it surprise you? What would you like to share with me in return? (Don’t feel obligated to share the same stuff — whatever you want to reveal.)

Name: Nikki
Age: 28
Birthday: 20th August
Location: Leuven, Belgium, but only for another 15 days
Living with: Wife and six bookcases
Siblings: One sister, one dude I adopted as my brother because we needed to stick together
Marital status: Thank god she reads books too
Pets: Two rabbits, Breakfast and Hulk
Job: Freelance transcription and website support; just finishing up a full time degree (my third!) in biology
Ebook or dead tree: Both, either, depends on my mood
Night owl or morning lark: Night owl
Favourite bookshop: The American Book Center in Amsterdam
Favourite animals: Hippos, giraffes, and now rabbits
Other hobbies: Doing degrees, playing video games, crocheting, buying more books to read

That’s all a bit daft and probably doesn’t help, so hey, ask me anything you want to know! I might even answer. I love our community; let’s make it a little bit closer yet (even though I feel like I know enough about you to know we’ll get along if I know your taste in books). <3

And hey, how do you feel about the whole blog thing? Do you feel like you get to know people through their books? Do you sometimes wish you knew other folks better? Or are the books enough?

Tags: discussion

WWW Wednesday

Posted July 11, 2018 by Nicky in General / 5 Comments

What are you currently reading?

I’m working my way through The Planet Factory, by Elizabeth Tasker. It’s interesting stuff, of course — it’s about the formation of planets! how could that not be fascinating! — but I’m finding it a little slow going because it’s hard to grasp some of this stuff. There are some diagrams, but not enough to compensate for the fact I totally can’t visualise any of this stuff, and I think it does require visualising. Add the succession of hot Jupiters, super Earths and whatnot, and I’m a little bit at sea.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing was An Accident of Stars, which took me far too long to read, and I don’t really know why that is. There’s lots that I enjoyed about it, but whenever I put it down, it didn’t scream out for me to pick it back up. Although I’m very curious about some aspects of the ending, so maybe I’ll pick up the second book in more of a hurry. We’ll see.

What will you read next?

According to a Twitter poll, I’m pretty sure it’s Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m already a few hundred pages into it, if I recall correctly, so this will be an effort to finish it — there are some fascinating ideas, even if I don’t really have characters that I’m all that interested in (and that’s often what keeps me reading).

So what are you reading?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 10, 2018 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

This week’s theme is Top Ten Books of the Year So Far — so armed with my statistics spreadsheet, let’s jump into mine: books I’ve read this year for the first time and rated four or five stars! I’m going to skip the non-fiction books, as I think people are less interested in those. I’ve also stuck to the first book if it’s a series, because I think it’s hard to judge a second book on its own and I think this list kind of works as recommendations!

A Matter of Oaths, by Helen C. Wright. I’m so glad I finally got round to reading this, because it really worked for me. If you’re a fan of Ann Leckie or Yoon Ha Lee’s work, I think this’d be right up your street. Becky Chambers, too.
Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett. I got the ARC for this, and just can’t wait to talk about it with other people. Luckily, my wife’s now reading my copy and I get to watch her react to it.
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Okay, Elliot is a dick but he’s a dick who tries to do the right thing, and I love his relationships with his closest friends. I think it’s a good one if you’re a fan of Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On.
Arabella of Mars, by David Levine. This isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it’s such a lot of fun. There’s a need for that when everything seems like crap around you, and I think a lot of people feel that way at the moment.
Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Thank you for breaking my heart and expecting me to enjoy it, Kowal. …I did.
Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero. I didn’t love one of his other books — and this one had its eyerolly moments in his chosen writing style, but I had a ton of fun and read it in an eyeblink.
Semiosis, by Sue Burke. This has a dazzling central concept: sentient plants on a world humans are trying to colonise. I had some quibbles, but I loved exploring the minds of these plants.
An Unseen Attraction, by K.J. Charles. Charles has a knack for characters and stories I can really get into, and this is a great gay romance/mystery.
The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang. This is just adorable and fun. I mean, unless you have a problem with a prince who likes to wear dresses and for whom things turn out great. If you are, you might not enjoy this blog in general and you definitely won’t enjoy this graphic novel.
War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull. A classic of fantasy literature, and one I found a heck of a lot of fun. Kinda like hanging out with the cool grandma of Kate Daniels and Toby Daye, this was an introduction to Where It All Began for urban fantasy.

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Discussion: Diversity

Posted July 9, 2018 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

I have this as a prompt in my list of potential discussions — just “diversity”. You all probably know what I mean, given it’s so often talked about in book fandom these days: characters of all types of backgrounds, in terms of culture, in terms of gender, in terms of sexuality, in terms of disability… Basically, there’s been a huge drive in the last few years to encourage books that aren’t just about white men, and books which aren’t just by white men. And I think some people struggle a lot with this and feel like it’s gone “too far”.

One example people have of things going “too far” is when the majority of characters in a book are queer. But queer people are only meant to be a small percentage of the population! someone inevitably cries. Sure, but if you look at queer people in real life… we stick together. I know queer people just because they’re queer and so am I, and it’s not just about the pool of people available for me to date. Queer people often make friends with other queer people because we share experiences that straight people don’t. So it just makes sense that a queer character would surround themselves with other queer characters.

(Also, hey, queer people are people, with the same drives and motivations as everyone else. You’re not reading about an alien with unfathomable motives: what difference does it make if most of the characters don’t share your sexual orientation? If you’re straight, you’re hardly suffering for representation in fiction — you can just pick up another book instead!)

Another worry about diversity is when people not belonging to a certain minority co-opt parts of that experience to write about it or weave a world around it or whatever. I’m not saying it can never be done well, though I’d shy away from doing it myself if I were still writing, because you should respect that experience and do a ton of research to make it right. There’s not a lot of representation of this stuff out there, historically, so adding any is bound to make an impact. Even with all the research in the world, I’d have to ask myself if I was really the best person to write about it.

And of course there’s when people not belonging to a culture outright exoticise it. I mean, there’s a certain amount of the appeal of a different culture that’s always going to be about the exotic, whether it’s actually aliens or just a culture people aren’t too familiar with. But there are right and wrong ways to handle that, when it comes to real cultures, and research is the better part of valour 100% of the time when that’s what you’re doing.

Diversity isn’t easy — it doesn’t come just because you added a couple of black people to your fantasy school body or have a Chinese scientist on your crack team of experts. It also doesn’t have to be about flipping things round and making the minority the dominant group. Reality is diverse (and if yours isn’t, maybe it’s time to consider why)… it’s only right for fiction to follow suit.

Tags: books, discussions

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 7, 2018 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

Hello, folks! Once more, I’m out and about this weekend — time to go spend a day with my grandparents-in-law, but before I go, here’s the haul from last week’s paper (two year) wedding anniversary trip. Shoutout to both the American Book Center and Stanza Bookshop in the Hague for being lovely. <3

Oh, and here’s Breakfast reacting to the full haul (I’m splitting it in two to post!).

And let’s get to it!

Non-fiction:

A bit broad in scope, as ever. I’d been looking for something on the Aztecs especially, so I’m glad I found that!

Misc:

All a bit classic. I’ve been meaning to reread Rebecca, and my wife picked it up for me mostly because the owner of Stanza Bookshop is so lovely.

Received to review:

Thank you, Angry Robot! And Tor. I need to get to reading my ARCs!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett. A lot of fun, with a heck of an ending. 5/5 stars
–Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart. I keep coming back to this, and I think part of it is the mature view of love the characters have. It’s just… lovely, even if other parts of the novel are decidedly not. 4/5 stars
–Immune, by Catherine Carver. A good rundown of the immune system, at a fairly basic level. 3/5 stars
–Sleeping Giants, by Sylvain Neuvel. A reread to get back in the swing of things. So many little things I’d forgotten! 5/5 stars
–The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, by Catherynne Valente. Another lovely entry in the series. 4/5 stars
–The Ruby in the Smoke, by Philip Pullman. A fun reread for me, and Sally is still awesome. 3/5 stars
–Almost Human, by Lee Berger and John Hawks. A really fascinating account of finding hominin remains and what they might mean. 4/5 stars

Nicky @ The Bibliophibian

Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Received to review:

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

Other posts:

Out and about:

Find me elsewhere

WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?

What have you recently finished reading?

What will you be reading next?

Discussion: Rereading

Stacking the Shelves

Books bought:

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

Other posts:

Discussion: Book Fandom Friends

WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?

What have you recently finished reading?

What will you read next?

Top Ten Tuesday

Discussion: Diversity

Stacking the Shelves

Non-fiction:

Misc:

Received to review:

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

Other posts: