Category: General

ShelfLove August Update

Posted August 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

ShelfLove Update!

The goals where I’m ahead are in blue; bang on are in green; behind by up to five books are in orange; anything else is in red. I now have a running total to show where I should be for the month too (e.g. by June I should’ve read 182 books overall).

Targets:
- 250 or less books bought;
- 366 books read overall;
- 200 books read which I owned prior to 2016;
- no more than 10% of income on books per month.
Books bought this year so far: 130/140.
May books bought: 29/20.
May budget: £40/£35.
Owned books read this month: 19/16.
Books read this month: 30/31.
Owned books read overall: 115/117 (2 books behind).
Books read overall: 205/213 (8 books behind).

I actually caught up properly at some point this month, but with wedding plans and an assignment due, I slipped back again.

This month’s theme from ShelfLove is about reading rituals and such, and honestly, I don’t really have any. I read wherever I can, whenever I can. I’ve had some reading nooks over time, when I didn’t really have my own space — I used to hide in the little spare shower room at my grandparents’ house, or sit on their stairs to read. But now I just sit in my chair or in bed or whatever and read wherever I am.

And as for a TBR for August, well, I have no idea what I’m going to have time for and I did really badly with actually sticking to my July TBR, but I would like to read the following in August.

Ilona Andrews, Magic Shifts.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, The Tempering of Men.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, An Apprentice to Elves.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Marie Brennan, A Star Shall Fall.
Susan Dennard, Truthwitch.
~~Diane Duane, The Door into Sunset.~~
Chris Holm, Red Right Hand.
Tanya Huff, Blood Pact.
Tanya Huff, Blood Debt.
Emma Newman, Planetfall.
V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows.
Jen Williams, The Iron Ghost.
Jen Williams, The Silver Tide.

Which sounds very optimistic, and honestly, we’ll just have to see…

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, TBR

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 30, 2016 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

Hello, everyone! This week has been frantic for me again, with an assignment due and a wedding to organise. It’s creeping up on us — this time next week, I’ll be married!

In the meantime, though, I’ve been taking advantage of my wife-to-be’s library card.

Library books

Some of these I already own, but they’re elsewhere. And I’ve read most of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series before, but it’s been ages and I feel like it, so woo.

Received to review

Quite a different bunch, but all fun in their way. Mind you, I need to catch up with Emma Newman’s series!

Finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–The Door into Shadows, by Diane Duane. Segnbora’s book, basically. There were aspects I didn’t like, but also Segnbora is so kickass that it carries it. 3/5 stars
–Death Among the Marshes, by Kathryn Ramage. A fun, Golden Age-esque mystery novella, with some great characters. 4/5 stars
–Saints Astray, by Jacqueline Carey. Want to follow Pilar and Loup from Santa Olivia, and see them get a happy ending? Yep, this is for you. 4/5 stars
–Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande. Sensitive, carefully written and thoughtful, Being Mortal talks about some issues we really need to spend more time on, at least in Western society. 5/5 stars
–The Terracotta Bride, by Zen Cho. A short story set in an afterlife which pretty much typifies the idea that ‘hell is other people’. 4/5 stars
–Toad Words and Other Stories, by T. Kingfisher. A great collection of fairytale retellings, each one unique. I love T. Kingfisher’s work, so no surprise I enjoyed these. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. There are a lot of things which irritated me about this book, but there’s a really solid story there too — and one which I do remember being quite emotional for me, to my own surprise. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books Made Me (Want To) Do It. Except I didn’t take it seriously at all…

How’s everyone? Anything good coming up in the week ahead?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 26, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and The Bookish is “top ten things books made me want to do or learn”. Now I’m sure if I thought about it I could come up with some serious answers (like the way The Grey King by Susan Cooper always makes me want to learn to play the harp — or the way books on archaeology really make me reconsider my childhood dream of working with Time Team), but it’s waaaay too warm here, so you get the silly version.

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. Magic! Obviously! I want to be able to dress myself or cook a meal with a word. That’d be really handy.
Magic Breaks, by Ilona Andrews. I want to be able to sword fight like Kate. I mean, okay, I am a total wuss about pain in reality, but I’d be badass anyway.
Hawkeye, from Marvel. Or countless other archers in my reading past, like Katniss. Because archery looks fun.
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I want to know when people are lying, like Lying Cat. Okay, that would probably actually really suck. Some lies really do smooth the way between people.
Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers. I want to rock a monocle like Lord Peter. And say things like “I’ll make a noise like a hoop and roll away.”
Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton. I want to be a dragon. That counts for this list, right? And I want to wear really cute hats. As a dragon.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope, by Claire North. Maybe not all the time, but I’d love Hope’s ability to be forgotten. Especially when I’ve just embarrassed myself.
A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. Studying dragons would be really super easy if I was a dragon (see #6).
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente. The title says it all.
Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie. I want to know how to make tea. No, really, I suck at it. Nobody likes my tea.

Anyone else done a silly version…?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 23, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Good morning, folks! How is everybody? I’m having a busy time, with my wedding coming up and an assignment deadline due while I’m actually away on my honeymoon… but things progress. And there are books, which is always nice.

Books to review

I guess I need to hurry up and read Planetfall… Also, yay for Chris Holm’s new book!

Books bought

Nearly all of these were in the sale, don’t hurt me. And Roses and Rot I actually picked up a while ago, but I don’t think it ever made it into an STS post. So tahdah. Buying Temeraire for my Kindle is a blatant excuse to start rereading that series, especially given Imyril’s reviews…

Books finished this week

Reviews posted this week:
–Our Lady of Pain, by M.C. Beaton. I’m really not impressed by this series, but it made good light reading. 2/5 stars
–The Greatest Show on Earth, by Richard Dawkins. Skip Dawkins, go back to Darwin. It’s not that he’s wrong, at least in his science. It’s his attitude. I’ve never hated agreeing with someone so much. 3/5 stars
–A Surfeit of Lampreys, by Ngaio Marsh. Ngaio Marsh isn’t bad at constructing a mystery and doing little character sketches, but I’ve stopped caring about her detective, who could be replaced by a cardboard cutout in this book. 2/5 stars
–The Sleeping Prince, by Melinda Salisbury. If you enjoyed the first book, you’ll probably enjoy this one. I found it enjoyable, and probably better than the first, though I did also find it somewhat predictable. 3/5 stars
–Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore. Not an easy read, but worthwhile, this book pulls the whole loosely linked series together very effectively. 4/5 stars
–Missing Microbes, by Martin Blaser. Makes a very good point about the way we’re destroying our own microbiomes, and how that might affect illnesses from allergies to ulcerative colitis. It might stretch a bit far at times, but I found it enjoyable and interesting. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Exiled from Camelot, by Cherith Baldry. A book I read for my Master’s dissertation on the portrayal of Kay, this one is pretty fun, with a non-traditionally-capable Kay and a strong bond between him and Arthur. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set Outside the US. What it says on the tin, with mostly historical fantasy to delight you.

Any fun plans for this week? Reading anything I should know about?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 19, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This post is a little later in the day than usual, because apparently I suck at timekeeping. Sorry! This week’s theme is “books set outside the US”. Which does actually cover a fair old number of books I know, since I come from the UK, but I’ll see what I can do to make an interesting list!

Cocaine Blues, by Kerry Greenwood. This is the first book in the Phryne Fisher series, set in Australia. It’s a lot of fun, has LGBTQ characters, found families, and a proactive, capable female lead.
The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff. This is a solid historical fiction, based on real findings about Roman Britain, and suitable for just about all ages. The protagonist, Marcus, is injured seriously, early in the book, and throughout the book there are also excellent depictions of how he deals with the pain and disability.
Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. Urban fantasy, but set in London and the surrounding environs, this is the start of a series which features Peter Grant, a police officer who turns out to be able to use magic and thus solve magical-related crimes.
Midnight Never Come, by Marie Brennan. This is historical fantasy set in Elizabethan England. I might not love it quite as much as the slightly-alternate-reality in Brennan’s Lady Trent books, but it’s awesome nonetheless.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope, by Claire North. This hops all over the place, but it starts in Dubai and spends a good portion of the time there and in other countries round the world.
Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. Most of the action takes place in an alternate version of 1940s France; some takes place in the future, in floating habitats in Earth’s atmosphere. (Guess who managed to mess up the environment.)
The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Very fine historical fantasy, set in the reign of Mary Tudor. It’s partly based on the ‘Tam Lin’ story, but it also becomes something very much its own.
The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig. Noticed how many of these are fantasy set in our world? It’s my thing, sorry. This one, too, set mostly in Hawaii and using mythical aspects of life in Honolulu.
Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I’m not a huge fan of the first book of this series, but the second book took off for me. Alt-Regency, with an interesting form of magic…
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. This one is pretty popular, but I must put it in the list anyway because I love how very British it is (though it does feature other places in Europe). It’s a huge tome, but worth it, I promise.

Now let’s hope I find some time to visit other people’s posts for more bookshelf inspiration!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 16, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

I’m back in Belgium! And I brought a bunch of books with me.

Fiction acquired:

I’m… not sure which of these I bought and which I got as review copies, now. But yay.

Non-fiction acquired:

I love me some non-fiction.

Comics acquired:

I, uh, needed to catch up…

Finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Fever, by Mary Beth Keane. An interesting historical novel taking the point of view of Typhoid Mary, and doing reasonably well at making us sympathise with her. 4/5 stars
–Talking Hands, by Margalit Fox. Fascinating discussion of both the history of sign language and the development of languages in general, with a case study of an emerging language in a Bedouin village. 4/5 stars
–Murder and Mendelssohn, by Kerry Greenwood. This last (so far?) adventure with Phryne is a lot of fun, though the main feature is really the BBC Sherlock inspired John Wilson and Rupert Sheffield, and their Phryne-facilitated romance. 4/5 stars
–Saga Volume 3, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Awesome as usual, and mostly the volume in which I really loved the Lying Cat more than ever. 5/5 stars
–Mortal Heart, by Robin LaFevers. Thanks to a certain reveal that just didn’t quite fit the way I saw the world, this wasn’t my favourite of a series I have generally really enjoyed. 3/5 stars
–A Fall of Moondust, by Arthur C. Clarke. Fans of The Martian might enjoy this classic story of rescue in space, even if the situation — tourism on the moon — seems as far away as ever. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff. Powerful version of the Arthurian stories, with a real and strong connection between Arthur and Bedwyr (who here basically has the role of Lancelot). I wasn’t sure at first, but for me it really, really worked. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Facts About Me. In which I am a somewhat scatterbrained silly person with synaesthesia.

So yeah, not much reading this week because… I don’t really know why, but on Friday I got Pokemon Go and went for a three hour walk (finally hitting my Fitbit goals again!) so I blame that. Somewhat. How is everyone?

Tags: books, comics, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 12, 2016 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about me. Well, by that I mean, the theme is ten facts about me. As in, ten facts about the blogger writing the post.

Yes, I am this awkward in person, too.

I can read in a lot more languages than I can speak (with some help from a glossary, dictionary or simultaneous translation, in some cases). I can read modern English (obviously), French, Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Old Icelandic. I can only really speak English, though my French is starting to become usable. (I’m also learning Welsh and Dutch, but I am very, very far from being able to read in either. Though I do know how to say “I’m reading a book” in both.)
I can taste words. I’m a lexical->gustatory synaesthete. So, in fact, is my mother. I did not know this was not a thing until I read a book which included synaesthesia as a character trait. The word “torture” tastes of dark chocolate. The Hobbit as a whole tastes like Werther’s Originals. The associations do not necessarily make sense, but sometimes they really do. (Among my favourite words to say: steps, stepped, swept, slept, crept, leapt, crypt… I don’t even know what they taste of, but I like it. When I say words in French or Dutch, they do not have a flavour. Welsh does, though. Brains are fascinating!)
I still can’t pick a career, and I’m 26. Nearly 27. I mean, at this point I have an MA in English literature… but am now partway through a BSc. I read a non-fiction book and promptly want that to be my career. Microbiology, genetics, archaeology, psychology, neurology, literary theory… Can’t I do it all?
I couldn’t read until I was seven. So please stop talking about how real bookworms teach themselves to read at two, people.
If I can’t buy you books, I don’t know what to do with you. There are some great people in my life who just don’t read, and I cannot figure it out at all. What on earth do I buy you for presents???!
As a piece of geeky silliness related to #3, I once came up with a genetic cross which shows why I’m such a bookworm. It is, of course, entirely spurious and unlikely (though of course there’s probably genetic influence in me being an introvert, the synaesthesia, etc, which all contribute to making me a reader), but I had fun. TAHDAH.
I read to my house rabbit. She likes it and has been known to bite me if I stop before she’s ready.
My imagination is completely non-visual. My memory also. I remember things in text; I can’t picture things the way other people seem to. Instead, I have word-pictures, and sometimes that means I have more of a ‘feeling’ about a character than a mental image. So Faramir in the LOTR movies is wrong not because he looks wrong but because he is not as noble and capable of resisting the Ring as the real Faramir. (Even though the reasoning for changing that for the film completely made sense.)
The only thing I recall my parents banning me from reading as a kid was The Lord of the Rings. This was purely for the reason that my mother wanted me to be old enough to properly appreciate it, not because they ever policed the content of what I read.
My biggest library fine on a single book was something like four times the actual value of the book. It would have been cheaper to just pay for a replacement. And it was on my mother’s library card. Whoops. (The book was The Positronic Man, by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, and I note with distress that I cannot find my copy. Which is doubly annoying as my partner bought it for me early in our relationship, after I mentioned reading it from the library a gazillion times but never seeing another copy since then.)

Welp, I hope that was a suitably entertaining set of facts!

Tags: about me, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 9, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

I haven’t read as much this week as I did last week, but that would be kind of difficult! What I have managed to do is catch up to all my reading goals, for which I’m very pleased with myself. Now just got to keep on top of it.

Received to review:

I think it’s been a while since I requested the Jo Clayton books, because I couldn’t remember at first why I asked for them. But Skeen’s Leap looks like fun. Also, hurrah, The Obelisk Gate! I need to read the first book still, but…

Books acquired:

I finally read The Copper Promise and liked it, so of course I had to pick up The Iron Ghost while I was here in the UK visiting my parents. I’ve been curious about The Aeronaut’s Windlass for a while, too, and though I’ve heard mixed reviews of The Grace of Kings, everything I’ve heard makes it sound intriguing.

And then of course, I also picked up a couple of TPBs. While I was here.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner. I liked this a lot more on the reread, probably because I knew what to expect. Sophos is a lot less interesting to me than Gen, but the glimpse of Gen through his eyes is fascinating. 4/5 stars
–The Ancient Paths, by Graham Robb. I have to admit that actually evaluating the scholarship is beyond me, but the argument seems a bit prone to wishful thinking — “this would be convenient, so it’s true”, I guess. Still interesting. 3/5 stars
–Sick of Shadows, by M.C. Beaton. The first book was kind of fun, but the formula has worn very thin. 1/5 stars
–Saga Volume Two, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Saga continues to be awesome and funny, and still makes me laugh even when it’s gross humour I wouldn’t normally go in for. 4/5 stars
–Blood Lines, by Tanya Huff. Another fun entry in the series, though more or less as you’d expect. And there’s a mummy (the kind in bandages). 3/5 stars
–Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart. Definitely not my favourite, probably because of the all-too-stereotypical relationship between the husband and wife — he beats someone up for her, he keeps secrets and that’s fine, etc, etc. 2/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Island of the Mighty, by Evangeline Walton. Not the best of the series by far, though it’s still an interesting and effective retelling. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated Books. The theme was books with less than 2,000 ratings; a lot of the ones I chose have very few ratings and even fewer reviews. I tried to pick a nice range of different books, with SF/F, non-fiction, poetry, detective stories…

So how’s everyone been? What’re you up to? Me, I’ve been visiting my parents this week and taking advantage of my Xbox to play all the Fable 2 and Fable 3. In fact, let me get back to that now.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 5, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme is ‘Top Ten Underrated Books’ — books with less than 2,000 ratings on Goodreads. Some of these only have a handful of ratings, though some are more popular; I tried to pick a range, because if I just picked the most underrated books it’d all be Welsh fiction, and y’all probably wouldn’t be that interested. (But if you are, go forth and read Kate Roberts, Rhys Davies, Menna Gallie, Margiad Evans…)

The Man Who Went into the West, Byron Rogers. A biography of R.S. Thomas, this was a lovely mix of fact and rather chatty character portrait: it makes R.S. Thomas come alive, as a man of contradictions and contrasts.
The Hidden Landscape, Richard Fortey. Or any of Fortey’s books, really; something about his style made even geology fascinating to me, and I’m not actually that interested in geology. There’s a poetry to the landscape and the long shaping of it which Fortey sees and communicates very clearly.
Cold Night Lullaby, Colin Mackay. Only read this collection of poetry if you want your heart to be ripped from your chest. It covers the poet’s experiences in Sarajevo as an aid worker, and inspired Karine Polwart’s song ‘Waterlily’. The video here includes Polwart’s introduction to Mackay’s life and work.
Dead Man’s Embers, Mari Strachan. Painful in a different way, this book follows the recovery of a man returned to his Welsh village after the Great War. There’s a touch of magic realism, but the emotional heart of the story is very real.
A Sorcerer’s Treason, Sarah Zettel. I haven’t read this in ages, and in fact need to reread it, but I remember it very fondly — and remember passing it round to various friends and relations, hence why my partner has a stack of this series tempting me to reread now…
A Taste of Blood Wine, Freda Warrington. I really didn’t expect to fall so in love with a gothic vampire romance, but it’s so unapologetic about examining the effects of the vampires and the way they choose to live on the people around them that I fell for it all the same. I think fans of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books would probably be a good fit.
Iron and Gold, Hilda Vaughan. A classic fairytale situation, in a Welsh setting; it humanises the fairytale, making the pain of it really hit you, while also examining human relationships and how they work.
The Complete Brandstetter, Joseph Hansen. I’ve been amazed at how little I’ve ever heard about these books since my housemate wrote a dissertation on gay detectives in crime fiction. It deals with so many issues — AIDs, racial issues, homophobia, and beyond that into aging, relationships in general… and also delivers solid story after solid story.
Exiled From Camelot, Cherith Baldry. I read this for my own dissertation, which probably accounts for how fond I am of it. It’s not perfect, but the bond between Arthur and Kay is painfully real (and something often neglected in other modern fiction). It’s also an interesting mixture of materials, with stuff straight from both the Welsh sources and the much later Continental tradition.
The Fox’s Tower, and Other Tales, Yoon Ha Lee. I love microfiction, and this is one of the few collections I can think of which I would fairly whole-heartedly recommend. Yoon Ha Lee gets the art of the really short story.

I’ll be interested to see what other people have picked out this week — especially if you talk a bit about why. Link me!

Tags: Arthurian, books, poetry, SF/F, Top Ten Tuesday, Wales

Unstacking the Shelves

Posted July 2, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week was a good week for reading, as you can see! And for only the fifth time ever, I have no new books to showcase and can instead show off the ones I’ve finished reading. I didn’t even feature the full covers this time as I normally do for an Unstacking week cause there’s just so many! Twelve of these have been on my TBR for at least a year before I finally got round to them, so it really is good progress.

So please don’t tell me to enjoy my new books! Let me bask in being good.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Hasty Death, by M.C. Beaton. Fun enough, but it really isn’t anything special. 2/5 stars
–So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane. I think I came to this at the wrong age — I’d probably have loved it when I was younger. 1/5 stars
–Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional, by David Waltham. Solid science and an interesting discussion of whether life is likely to be common or not in the universe, but I think we really don’t have enough data at all to actually come to a conclusion about how lucky or not we are. 3/5 stars
–Saga Volume One, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. A reread so I can get on with the series! Love it pretty much the same as before, especially the art. 4/5 stars
–Blood Trail, by Tanya Huff. Fun and brings in more supernatural creatures, etc. It’s fairly light comfort reading for me. 3/5 stars
–All For Love, by Jane Aiken Hodge. A good Heyer-esque romp, with some nice touches (the perfect switch isn’t perfect after all, etc). I enjoyed it a lot and will be reading more of Jane Aiken Hodge’s work. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Song of Rhiannon, by Evangeline Walton. This book isn’t as powerful as the previous book, which is a bit of a relief after how harrowing that was. There’s a lot of good stuff here, and Manawydan remains an awesome character. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read. It was a freebie week, so I mined for an old theme and covered books I had to read for class or research.
–ShelfLove Update. My update on the reading challenge I’m doing, which also includes my TBR for this month, as usual.

How’s everyone been? Good reading week? Anything exciting joined your piles?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup