Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 9, 2017 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Good morning, folks! It hasn’t been the greatest week for me, since a scammer of some sort took over my Ebay account and spent most of my money. But I’ve tried to keep my mood up by finally spending a couple of Amazon vouchers I’d been saving, and reading whatever I felt like instead of sticking to a firm rule.

Books bought:

Cover of Maps to Nowhere by Marie Brennan Cover of The Terracotta Army by John Man Cover of Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Cassen

A bit of a random assemblage, I know!

Books read this week:

Cover of Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen Cover of Suspicious Minds by Rob Brotherton Cover of Three Stones Make a Wall by Eric H. Cline Cover of The Statues That Walked by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo Cover of Dark Sky by Mike Brooks

Four stars: Herding Cats, Suspicious Minds, Three Stones Make A Wall, The Statues that Walked.
Three stars: Dark Sky.

Reviews posted this week:

–Camelot’s Sword, by Sarah Zettel. Not my favourite of the series, but still a great trip into the Arthurian world. 4/5 stars
–The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry. There were aspects of this that were really strong, but sometimes the style of the narration just got on my nerves and was way too dry. 3/5 stars
–The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben. A good casual read, but I felt it was very much pitched at the layperson and that sometimes Wohlleben was a little overenthusiastic about how he interpreted facts. 3/5 stars
–The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan. I really just wanted more from this — the world just felt bland and one-dimensional. 3/5 stars
–The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams. A reread for me, and one which I found surprising in a few ways — sometimes in how frustrated I was with the characters, sometimes in how the plot went because I really didn’t remember it! Overall, still solid epic fantasy, though. 4/5 stars
–Cleopatra’s Heir, by Gillian Bradshaw. A fascinating version of Egypt just after Cleopatra’s death, and an interesting character study of a historical figure we don’t know much about. 4/5 stars
–Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain, by Marc Morris. Highly enjoyable, and informative without being exhaustive. 5/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. The latest and greatest on my TBR list this week.

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 6, 2017 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.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI’ve still got just two books on my currently reading list, and they’re the same as last week. I’m back to reading Dark Sky, at least, and I’m actually getting on with it better now. It still feels very much like Firefly, and like the other books that remind me of Firefly, but I’ve got back into the characters.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Suspicious Minds by Rob BrothertonLast thing I read was Suspicious Minds by Rob Brotherton. It was interesting stuff, even though the psychology of why people believe in conspiracy theories didn’t really surprise me at all. It’s one of the Bloomsbury Sigma series, and they’re usually pretty accessible while also being interesting, so that wasn’t really a surprise!

What will you read next?

Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyI don’t know. I should finish Kushiel’s Dart, really. But who knows what’ll strike my fancy? I keep eyeing one of my books about Egyptology, instead…

What are you reading right now?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted December 2, 2017 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

Good morning, folks! Yesterday I was at Boekenfestijn in Mechelen, which was fun, though a little disappointing in terms of the English language selection (but you know, I didn’t expect tons). So I have one new book and one to review.

New to the shelves

Cover of The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel Cover by Master Assassins by Robert V. S, Redick

I’ve been meaning to read The Cold Between for ages, so I’m glad I found it at Boekenfestijn. And I’ve been meaning to try Redick’s work, too, so that works out well too!

Read this week

Cover of Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw Cover of The Godless by Ben Peek Cover of Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee Cover of Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould

Four stars: Strange Practice, Raven Stratagem, Wonderful Life.
Three stars: The Godless.

Reviews posted this week:

–Provenance, by Ann Leckie. This is quite different to the Imperial Radch books, though set in the same world, and there’s so much I enjoyed about it that I can’t even begin here. 4/5 stars
–The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry. Very much enjoyed this one, and if you think you know influenza, well… read on. 5/5 stars
–The Silver Wind, by Nina Allan. An interesting novella, though I didn’t like it as much as I liked Spin. 3/5 stars
–Summerlong, by Peter S. Beagle. This was not my thing, partly because I loved the couple at the beginning and just Did Not Want that ending. 3/5 stars
–Goldilocks and the Water Bears, by Louisa Preston. Should win all the internets for the title alone, but it turned out to be more general than I’d hoped. 3/5 stars
–Futureland, by Walter Mosley. Some powerful stories, but it didn’t seem like my thing overall. 3/5 stars
–Pantomime, by Laura Lam. I tore through this and enjoyed it a lot… apart from one little quibble. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. What I’m currently reading, what I might read next, the usual stuff.

What’re you reading? What have you got your hands on this week? Definitely share your links, and I’ll visit back as soon as I can!

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 29, 2017 by Nicky in General / 9 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 Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI only have two books left on my currently reading list! Kushiel’s Dart, though I haven’t made any progress since last week, and Dark Sky, though I haven’t touched that in aaaages. I have a new project now where I have to finish two books from my currently reading list before I can start a new one, and that’s been going really well. Once I’ve caught up, it’ll be “two books from a series for one new book”, to make sure I actually make progress with that too!

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The Godless by Ben PeekYoon Ha Lee’s Raven Stratagem and The Godless, by Ben Peek. The former was awesomesauce, even though I stalled on it a while for non-narrative reasons. I finished it and just… daaaaamn. The latter, eh, I do not love it. I enjoyed some of the worldbuilding, but I just didn’t enjoy the characters or feel that everything was necessarily explained properly in terms of the actions people took and why. Pretty important whether people are doing politics on a grand scale or just interpersonal relations.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay GouldProbably Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould’s book about the Burgess Shale. That’s what I’ve got queued up as my break from fiction in general and my currently reading list specifically. (It’s not that I don’t want to read them, I’m just fidgety in all things and like having a bit of variation.

What are you reading?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted November 25, 2017 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

Good morning, folks! As I write this, I’m about to take the little mister to the vet for what might be a fungal infection, so you get an adorable picture of him with my ereader — which he somehow turned on while I was out of the room…

Photo of Breakfast, a brown bunny, apparently looking at a page of text on an ereader.
“Yes? You are disturbing my reading.”

Update: it is not a fungal infection. He’s just an idiot.

New books

Cover of Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher Cover of Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

Got these through being a patron of Ursula Vernon’s on Patreon! Woo.

Read this week

Cover of The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams Cover of The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley Cover of Locust by Jeffrey Lockwood

Cover of Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner Cover of Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers Cover of Imagining Head-Smashed-In by Jack Brink

Four stars: The Dragonbone Chair, Swordspoint.
Three stars: The Stars are Legion, Locust, The Horns of Ruin, Imagining Head-Smashed-In.

Reviews posted this week

–The Hanging Tree, by Ben Aaronovitch. A worthy and exciting entry to the series, but oh man, I want the Faceless Man plot to wrap up. It’s not that it isn’t awesome, but I’m worried about it getting stretched too thin. 4/5 stars
–Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott. Classic cyberpunk with a lot of queer people. It’s slow-paced, but that works for it. 4/5 stars
–Spin, by Nina Allan. A fresh, if not surprising, retelling of a certain myth I enjoyed a lot. 4/5 stars
–The Rabbit Back Literature Society, by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen. Male-gazey and unfocused. 2/5 stars
–The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, by Philip Jose Farmer. An interesting reworking of the original story, perhaps best enjoyed if you’re familiar with Verne’s work. 3/5 stars
–The Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim. Decidedly outdated and based on somewhat ridiculous Freudian concepts, but surprisingly enjoyable to read. 2/5 stars
–Friday’s Child, by Georgette Heyer. A fun romance, as you’d expect, and I got rather caught up in what would happen even though really, you know the happy ending is inevitable. 4/5 stars

Other posts

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m Thankful For. What it says on the tin.
–WWW Wednesday. The latest and greatest on my currently-reading pile.

How’s everyone doing? Leave me a comment and don’t forget to link your STS post or weekend wrapup; I always visit back as soon as I can!

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 22, 2017 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 Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyI’m most actively reading Kushiel’s Dart at the moment. I’m surprised how long it’s taking me! I’m sure I remember completely devouring the books, but it’s not really happening with this reread. Maybe because I’m a liiiittle too familiar with what’s coming?

Which, yeah. Boo hiss Melisande.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Swordspoint by Ellen KushnerI just reread Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner, for a readalong. I enjoyed it more than I did the first time I read it, actually; I felt like I understood the characters and especially the politics a lot better. Am I growing up, a better reader now, or did I just happen to pick it up at the wrong time for my brain before?

Anyway, lots of fun.

What will you read next?

Cover of Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI think the next target on my list is Dark Sky, by Mike Brooks, or Raven Stratagem. A friend picked up Ninefox Gambit a couple of days ago and loved it, so that’s motivation for me. I’m really narrowing down my currently reading list, hurrah.

Buut in the meantime I might read some non-fiction.

What are you reading?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted November 21, 2017 by Nicky in General / 11 Comments

It’s been a while since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, but I always planned to do so again if any of the themes caught my attention and this one did. I’m not American, so Thanksgiving as a holiday isn’t my thing, but there’s always space for thanksgiving as far as I can see. Without further ado, here are the books I’m grateful for.

 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper Cover of The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay Cover of Tales of Brave Adventure by Enid Blyton Cover of Cat and Mouse and the dinosaurs

  1. The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. I bet everyone could’ve predicted this one would make my list. It’s just a piece of hope and goodness in a world all too full of grimdark fiction and grimdark politics. It makes me happy, and it’s so clever too with the use of language and worldbuilding.
  2. The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper. I think I’ve actually finally got to the point where I know these books too well to read them again any time soon, but for the joy they’ve inspired, the bookish conversations, the gifts they’ve enabled me to give, and my fascination with Old English (from the simple line “liht mec heht gewyrcan”, inscribed on one of the Six Signs)… so many reasons to give thanks.
  3. The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Not only do I love this book and the rest of the trilogy, but everything by Guy Gavriel Kay I’ve read since. The friend who gave me it hasn’t spoken to me in years, but his influence lingers in my love of Guy Gavriel Kay and Firefly.
  4. Tales of Bold Adventure, by Enid Blyton. I know, I know, Enid Blyton. But I inherited two copies of this, both obviously well-read — one from my mum, and one from my dad! Reading about Robin Hood and King Arthur was totally formative for me, as the course of my first degree demonstrated.
  5. Cat and Mouse and the Dinosaurs, by Graham Round and Ray Gibson. Without these books, I wouldn’t be a reader. I was refusing to learn to read, until my mother brought these into my life…
  6. Spillover, by David Quammen. For igniting my curiosity about infectious diseases at least as much as it scared me, all the thanks in the world. I probably wouldn’t be so fascinated by microbiology now if it weren’t for this book.
  7. Tutankhamen, by Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt. As a kid, this was my gateway to wonder — an exhaustive description of everything found in Tutankhamen’s tomb. This too was formative for me.
  8. Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. I rather enjoyed it, but this one I’m thankful to for another reason: it got my sister interested in reading again after years of disinterest. She sat on my floor for hours on end, captivated, when I first lent her a copy. Now she might not be quite as voracious a reader as me, but she’s pretty darn voracious, and Century Rain was the gateway.
  9. A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. This book has been a source of enchantment for years and years, and my understanding and interpretation of it has grown with me. If I haven’t written up how I relate to Ged’s journey now as someone who suffers with anxiety, I really should.
  10. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. For simple hours of enjoyment alone, this book deserves thanks. But also for a really fascinating semester of my Master’s degree, studying it, and for time spent listening to the radioplay with my grandma and my sister, and all the discussions and thinky thoughts it opens the door to.

Cover of Spillover by David Quamnem Cover of Tutankhamen by Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt Cover of Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds Cover of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin Cover of The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien

And that’s it for the list, though honestly all books get my earnest thanks for giving me another, safer world to live in at times.

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted November 18, 2017 by Nicky in General / 41 Comments

Good morning, folks! It’s been a busy week around here with assignments and such, but I managed to get very good marks in my Infectious Diseases class, so I’m super pleased.

News

You may have noticed, if you’re a follower of this blog, that I now have Amazon and Book Depository affiliate links — general ones in my sidebar, and specific ones on each book. If you’re not in the US or the UK, my affiliate links should redirect to the same book on your local site if you’re in Germany, France, Italy, Spain or Canada. At this point I’m not planning on enabling ads or anything like that, and there’ll be nothing more intrusive or obvious than the affiliate links I’ve just implemented.

I 100% understand anyone who doesn’t want to use Amazon and Amazon-owned companies to buy books, but if you do and you use my affiliate links, I get a 5% commission on whatever you order. I plan to put any money I earn back into this blog, either through buying books to review or just by using it to keep my URL and pay for WordPress plug-ins or whatever. If it doesn’t work out, well, never mind! If it does, I get a little back for the amount of time I put into this blog.

Bunnies

If you sat through that, you deserve a treat, so here’s a bunny picture even though I’m with them at the moment!

A photo of Hulk (a grey and white bunny) lying stretched out in a blue tunnel, thinking she's hidden.
Whaddya mean you can see me?

New books

Cover of Prime Meridian by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia Cover of Blood Binds the Pack by Alex Wells

Looking forward to reading more of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work! And I couldn’t resist the cover of Blood Binds the Pack, though I still need to read the first book…

Books read this week

Cover of Castles by Marc Morris Cover of Pantomime by Laura Lam Cover of The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry Cover of Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey

Cover of Camelot's Sword, by Sarah Zettel Cover of Cleopatra's Heir by Gillian Bradshaw Cover of The Viral Storm

Five stars: Castles.
Four stars: Pantomime, Abaddon’s Gate, Cleopatra’s Heir and Camelot’s Sword.
Three stars: The Viral Storm, The Essex Serpent.

Reviews posted this week:

–Bog Bodies Uncovered, by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. If you find bog bodies fascinating, this is definitely a great book for you. 4/5 stars
–Connection Error, by Annabeth Albert. A sweet romance which builds slowly and features an injured Navy SEAL and an ADHD video game developer. 4/5 stars
–The Chocolatier’s Wife, by Cindy Lynn Speer. A cosy mystery in a fantasy setting, with a bit of romance. I enjoyed it a lot. 4/5 stars
–Bring Back the King, by Helen Pilcher. If you’ve read other books on de-extinction, you might want to avoid this, but it’s a fun enough read. 3/5 stars
–Sea, Swallow Me, and Other Stories, by Craig Laurence Gidney. Powerful stories, some of which I found really disturbing. 3/5 stars
–The Five Daughters of the Moon, by Leena Likitalo. A fascinating fantasy retelling of the fall of the Romanovs, only marred by the fact that it isn’t a complete story in one volume. 4/5 stars
–Ebola, by David Quammen. Avoid it and just get the full book, Spillover. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. An update on what I’m reading.
–The Book Depository Bookmarks Disaster. So I collect Book Depository bookmarks, right? And I have bunnies, right? … A plea for help rebuilding my collection.

So how’s everyone else doing? Feel free to leave links to your weekend posts here; I always comment back as soon as I can!

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The Book Depository Bookmarks Disaster

Posted November 15, 2017 by Nicky in General / 9 Comments

I collect Book Depository bookmarks. They’re always the perfect size for any book, they have some cool designs, and they appeal to my “gotta catch ’em all” mentality of a kid who grew up with Pokemon. I’m not sure how many I have, since some of my collection are safely tucked away at my parents’ house for now, but I have quite a few. No complete sets though, alas!

And, alas, a couple of days ago Breakfast Bun knocked over a glass of coke, and apparently coke turns into a thick brown sticky mass if you don’t realise it’s got all over the place. Not that we could’ve saved the bookmarks anyway, since they’re made of card, but… Anyway, so, disaster.

A post mortem of some of the victims.

So! If you happen to have a bunch of Book Depository bookmarks (of any set) that are in pretty good condition, and you don’t collect them mildly obsessively like me, let’s talk! Annoyingly, three of those above are ones a friend sent me in response to this exact plea, which is beyond annoying.

Anyway, yeah. Now you know my silly secret. And to reward you for being patient, here’s a photo of the culprit in all this.

The culprit behind bars.

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 15, 2017 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 Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. CoreyI’m on the last 100 pages of Abaddon’s Gate, finally! I’ve been really good about chipping away at my currently-reading list, and currently Abaddon’s Gate is up.

It’s not that I’m not enjoying the books on my currently-reading list! I just get distracted by a new shiny, and then it’s hard to get back into books I put down… and it gets harder the longer I ignore them, of course. But I got right back into Abaddon’s Gate, even if I remain astonished at how much trouble one man (Jim Holden) can get into.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The Essex Serpent by Sarah PerryThe Essex Serpent — yes, finally! I’m still mulling over what I think of it. I didn’t love the narrative style, that’s for sure. Sometimes it just felt like a litany of x-did-this and y-did-that, framed by some pretty description. But some of the scenes which were actually fully explored were really powerful, and the relationships between the characters too. Ultimately, I don’t think I could be called a fan, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stop halfway through, either.

What will you read next?

Cover of Swordspoint by Ellen KushnerYou know, I really don’t know? According to my new rule about reading two books from the currently reading list for every one I pick up, I could’ve picked up a new book after The Essex Serpent and before Abaddon’s Gate. But I really can’t decide what to read. Maybe Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, since that’s a reading group choice for this month.

The next currently-reading book I’ll focus on… I’m very bad at predicting these, but the choice is (finally!) narrowing down, even if I keep finding books I don’t want to start over with a bookmark tucked into them and elongating the list again. I think I’ll focus on finishing The Stars Are Legion at last.

What are you reading?

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