Category: General

Stacking the Shelves

Posted November 5, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Good morning! It’s been a weird week for me; kind of slow, but busy too, with class to catch up with and my wife not very well. All’s good now, though, and I’ve made a decent start on my reading goals for November. I’ve also made a list of the books I need to read to meet my challenge goals… yipes.

Anyway, here goes, the weekly roundup:

Received to review:

I’ve enjoyed Carrie Vaughn’s work before, so I’m hopeful about this, even just because it has her name on it.

New books:

A bit of an odd mixture, perhaps! But it really is about time I read On the Origin of Species.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Anthem, by Ayn Rand. If you’re going to read a book by Rand and you’re pretty sure you’re going to disagree vehemently with her politics, this is a pretty good choice. It’s nice and short. 2/5 stars
–Whispers Under Ground, by Ben Aaronovitch. I still enjoyed this one, but it is a bit of a filler book. Nothing like the impact of the next one. 4/5 stars
–Dinosaurs Without Bones, by Anthony J. Martin. This book is full of information on dinosaurs! And also jokes about all the sorts of traces dinosaurs have left. It doesn’t stop at coprolites — or at least, Martin hopes it doesn’t. 5/5 stars
–In the Land of Invented Languages, by Arika Okrent. This is a fun read and also very informative about conlangs. I actually found myself wanting to give this to everyone. 4/5 stars
–The Borgias, by Christopher Hibbert. Not as entertaining as I’d hoped; it’s not dry, exactly, but it’s very much a litany of facts rather than analysis. 2/5 stars
–The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers. BBC radioplay. The casting makes it shine, of course; Ian Carmichael is (at least vocally) the perfect Lord Peter. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Winter Prince, by Elizabeth E. Wein. I found it an interesting and powerful retelling of the Arthurian story, though I wasn’t 100% a fan of the portrayal of the female characters. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books if Your Bookclub Likes SF. More or less what it says on the tin.
–ShelfLove November Update & TBR. My progress on my reading goals for 2016, plus a hopeful to-read list for this month.

Here’s hoping this is a good week for reading, for all of us!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

ShelfLove November Update

Posted November 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 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 needed to read 182 books overall).

Targets:
- 250 or fewer 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: 182/200.
October books bought: 11/20.
October budget: Smashed to smithereens on non-fiction titles.
Owned books read this month: 9/16.
Books read this month: 23/31.
Owned books read overall: 156/167 (11 books behind).
Books read overall: 293/305 (12 books behind).

A TBR for this month looks more or less the same as last month, because I was hopeless, with a few additions.

Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove Summer.
Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Mike Brooks, Dark Sky.
Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
Mira Grant, Deadline.
Mira Grant, Blackout.
Joseph Hansen, Skinflick.
Seanan McGuire, An Artificial Night.
Seanan McGuire, Late Eclipses.
Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things.
Emma Newman, After Atlas.
Cherie Priest, The Family Plot.
John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades.

And this month’s ShelfLove challenge theme is to name one bookish thing you’re thankful for, and I think my answer has to be… bookmarks. I love having bookmarks and using them, not just to mark my place in a book, but to celebrate fandoms I like, mark reading targets, and… honestly, just to collect them. Even really plain boring ones. (I have some from my grandfather’s Rotary Club. They are not pretty, just plain stiff paper, but they have been with me a long time now.)

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, TBR

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted November 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s theme is Top Ten Books if your bookclub likes ____. Well, I’ll go with sci-fi (or spec-fic more generally), surprising no one. (Except anyone who half expected me to do non-fiction again.)

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. Prepare to have your heart and soul ripped to shreds. It sounds like crack: Jesuits in space! It isn’t. It’s really serious and profound and an amazing exploration of faith and where it might take people.
The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach. The translation is actually really good, and the structure of this book is fascinating. Plenty to sink your teeth into.
Dark Run, by Mike Brooks. This is rather lighter fare: basically Firefly if it did more than nod at diversity. (Come on, I love Firefly, but Simon and River Tam should’ve been played by Chinese actors, following the logic of the world-building.)
Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. You can even get a book club cinema trip out of this one in the near future, with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in a film adaptation of one of the stories. There’s some really clever stuff here.
The Gate to Women’s Country, by Sheri S. Tepper. RIP to the author, who died on the 22nd October of this year. I found this book really fascinating, and it’s an interesting exploration of gender roles.
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. I really love this whole trilogy (maybe a reread soon?), but it seems like it can be a bit like Marmite. Regardless, there should be plenty to dig your teeth into in a discussion.
Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer. What’s going on in this book? Who knows, but there’s plenty to talk about and analyse. I’d read the whole trilogy, though, to get all the pieces of the puzzle…
Remnant Population, by Elizabeth Moon. This book actually features an older protagonist, which is interesting, and it’s a fun exploration of two species meeting in a less-than-typical situation.
The Broken Land, by Ian McDonald. I don’t know why other people didn’t enjoy this. Whether you see Israel and Palestine in it, or the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, it reflects reality and muses upon it in the best sort of way.
Troika, by Alastair Reynolds. I stumbled across this novella in a library in Belgium, and hadn’t come across it before, despite enjoying the author’s work. It’s an interesting take on the Big Dumb Object trope. If your bookclub wanted to explore a major SF trope, this’d be a good pick, for my money.

Looking forward to seeing other people’s lists this week — though it’s not like I need more new books…

Tags: books, SF/F, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 29, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

It’s been a busy week for me, and it’s about to be a busy weekend too. Still, I did fit in some reading this week!

Received to review:

Ohhh emmm geeee, The Hanging Tree.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard. I found this kind of disappointing, given the hype about the female characters and how central their friendship was. I felt like that was more ‘tell’ than ‘show’. 2/5 stars
–How to Traverse Terra Incognita, by Dean Francis Alfar. I wasn’t totally drawn in by this, but it’s a pretty interesting collection. 3/5 stars
–Moon Over Soho, by Ben Aaronovitch. A fun reread, and Peter endeared himself more to me in this book. 4/5 stars
–The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard. I wasn’t drawn into this one at first, and then all of a sudden, I was. Loved the Vietnamese folklore included. 4/5 stars
–Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Radioplay. As usual, great adaptation and performance, especially on Ian Carmichael’s part. Buuut Inspector Parker’s voice actor is wrong, wrong, wrong. 3/5 stars
–Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, by Nick Lane. Interesting stuff, but it’s rather too speculative and sometimes on shaky ground. 2/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, by Ian Mortimer. Provided you are a male time traveller, that is. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Things that Really Scare Me. Typically for me, I gave this a twist — this covers books on topics which scare me, rather than horror fiction, for the Halloween freebie.
–What are you reading Wednesday. My weekly update!
–The TBR Tag. What it says on the tin.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

The TBR Tag

Posted October 28, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

1. What book have you been unable to finish?
The most recent book I just skimmed in order to finish it was Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively. Just not my thing at all, and the main character and the narrative structure drove me bananas. I try to at least skim most books to the end, so it’s a rare one where I just put it down.

2. Which book haven’t you read yet because you haven’t had the time?
Hahahaha… Yeah, many. Six of Crows is one that I’ve only recently picked up, and which I’m kind of stalled on, for example. Stuff just keeps happening and I pick up something quicker/shinier/more suiting to my mood.

3. Which book haven’t you read yet because it’s a sequel?
Again, this could apply to many, many books of my acquaintance. There’s a bunch of ARCs to which this applies, for example — Seanan McGuire’s Once Broken Faith, Juliet Marillier’s Den of Wolves, Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s A Season of Spells… Must catch up.

4. Which book haven’t you read yet because it’s brand new?
The Hanging Tree, by Ben Aaronovitch. I got an e-ARC yesterday, for which I am excited, but I’m not sure I’ve even loaded it on my Kindle yet.

5. Which book haven’t you read yet because you read a book by the same author and didn’t enjoy it?
Jim Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass. I don’t dislike his writing that much, but the Dresden Files books bothered me somewhat. With that in mind, it’s hard to make myself get round to this, no matter how intrigued I was by the opening pages.

6. Which book haven’t you read yet because you’re just not in the mood for it?
Like the person I borrowed this tag from, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Or worse, Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves. I have no real excuse.

7. Which book haven’t you read yet because it’s humongous?
It doesn’t actually take much to discourage me from reading a book at the moment, because I know I have reading goals I should be meeting. Terrible, isn’t it? Even Marie Brennan’s In Ashes Lie is daunting me.

8. Which book haven’t you read yet because because it was a cover buy that turned out to have poor reviews?
With these, I actually tend to move them forward in the list and just get it over with.

9. What is the most intimidating book in your TBR pile?
The easy answer is Joyce’s Ulysses, though I’m not sure I’ve ever actually committed to reading that. There’s a few science books on my TBR that daunt me a little, mostly because I have a stupid notion that I’m not good at science. (I got a distinction for my first year of my BSc. It’s all good. I am not bad at science by any means. And yet…)

10. Who do you tag?
I forget who likes tags and who doesn’t, so tag yourself if you so wish!

Tags: books, reading memes

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 26, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
I juuuust finished reading Terra, by Mitch Benn; it was for the prompt “book by a comedian” for a reading challenge, and I’m actually really glad I read it. It was sweet, relatively uplifting, and really easy to read — exactly what I needed right now.

The book I finished before that was Joyce Tyldesley’s biography of Cleopatra; that is also good for a bad mood in a different way, since I like reading non-fiction while I’m cranky. Cleopatra was a pretty fascinating woman, and Tyldesley’s style is very readable as well as informative.

What are you currently reading?
I’m about 9% of the way into Robin Lane Fox’s Alexander the Great, and feeling a bit conflicted about it. It doesn’t read quite like biography, but it’s definitely not fiction. Something about it just indefinably bothers me. I’m also reading Invisible Planets, a collection of SF/F short stories translated from Chinese by Ken Liu. I’m not sure what I think of those, yet; I’ve only read the first three, all by the same author.

What are you planning to read next?
Foxglove Summer, I think. And my copy of Dark Sky by Mike Brooks should arrive tomorrow; I might well read that soon too, since it’s very Firefly-ish and that’s kind of comfort-reading-ish too. Alternatively, I have a couple of Georgette Heyer books I want to read/reread, and I might pick up one of those.

I do also need to crack on with my reading challenge goals. Idea for a book written by a celebrity, anyone?

Tags: books, reading memes

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 25, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a Halloween freebie. Horror and such isn’t my genre, so instead my list is focused on things that really scare me — and they should probably scare you too.

The Lucifer Effect, by Philip Zimbardo. If the Stanford prison experiment doesn’t scare the pants off you, I don’t know what will. Stanley Milgram’s experiments are honestly less shocking to me, having read about the actual experimental design and the way it was reported. But the participants in the Stanford Prison Experiment knew exactly what was happening at all times, and yet they were still manipulated by the situation into acting like monsters, or enabling monsters. Even the guy nominally in charge of the experiment, Zimbardo himself, did not realise what was going on until an outsider asked him what the hell he was playing at.
Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan. The idea that inflammation in your brain can reproduce the symptoms of mental disorders and make your case seem entirely baffling and hopeless… Our brains are so ridiculously fragile, as Cahalan’s case proves.
Panic Attacks, by Christine Ingham. This is actually a book about learning to cope with panic attacks, which I found somewhat helpful. But the fact remains that panic is terrifying, and hard to get a handle on, and just the idea of being as anxious as I was when I needed this book scares me rather a lot.
The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. First, on the superficial level, it’s Dawkins and I’m both terrified of his smug sense of superiority and that I might ever be like him. But also let this book stand for the fear of not knowing — of things, perhaps, being unknowable. And then worse, that people say, claim, believe that this could mean condemnation after death? Erk. Scary thought. I don’t even know where I stand on that.
Spillover, by David Quammen. If you’re not terrified of the idea of a pandemic, you’re kidding yourself. We’re destroying habitats and bringing ourselves into closer and closer contact with reservoirs of disease like Ebola, AIDs, SARS, Hendra… We may be lucky. We’ve been lucky. Will that continue?
A Mind of its Own, by Cordelia Fine. Or a number of other books on similar topics — the way our brains lie to us, as a result of the way they function. It’s actually alarming the things you can ignore, given the right combination of factors.
Why Evolution is True, by Jerry A. Coyne. I find it a little frightening that the general public is often ignorant of evolution and the fact that it is completely proven, and in fact a mathematically necessary conclusion. So the fact that this book exists is half reassuring — because you can learn about evolution — and half terrifying, because oh, how we need it.
The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris. This is slightly tongue in cheek, but Harris’ views of morality are definitely not mine, and I find his way of thinking alien.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. The book is amazing. It also terrified me because, guys, there are immortal lines of cancer cells just propagating in labs right now. Right now. And also probably cells undergoing deleterious mutations in our own bodies. And also, the medical establishment is not infallibly moral. Everything about this is scary (though the latter part is, I admit, obvious — if you need this book to tell you that humans are fallible, well).
Missing Microbes, by Martin J. Blaser. We are screwing up millennia of co-evolution by killing off microbes that have existed within the human body and adapted to us, and we don’t even really know what the consequences will be. And you know, that whole problem with antibiotic resistance. (Which in itself proves what I said in #7 about evolution, by the way. If evolution isn’t happening right now, why are microbes developing antibiotic resistance?)

So yeah, hope you’re all good and terrified now! I am. Just a little. Mostly healthy fear.

Tags: books, non-fiction, Top Ten Tuesday

Readathon!

Posted October 22, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s that time again, and sadly, I know I can’t participate much today — so I haven’t even officially signed up. Darn those lectures… All the same, I do want to participate for a while, so I’m hoping to drop by and read from 2pm-8pm today, Belgian time, and 10am-4pm tomorrow. That way I’ll hit some readathon hours, and hopefully do some catching up on my backlog!

And what’s on my stack? Well —

Gut, by Giulia Enders. I’m over halfway through it, so I should be able to get finished.
Emma, by Jane Austen. On the last 15%, so this should be a good time to polish it off.
The Man Everyone was Afraid Of, by Joseph Hansen. On the TBR for this month, and in the past it was a very good readathon companion. (It’s a reread, so tried and true.)
The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. This is a reread too, and also on the TBR. I don’t think I’ve ever read Scalzi’s work for a readathon, but I think it should be pretty well suited.
The Boys from Brazil, by Ira Lenin. Pretty much a classic, and not too long — perfect time to try and polish it off my list.

I think if I stay focused, I should be able to finish all five, which will make it a very good readathon for me despite the interruptions!

14.21: I started early, since class was over, so now I’ve finished reading Gut. And here’s the intro meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Belgium!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Hmm, I’m looking forward to having Emma finished, at any rate?
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I have some nice chocolate chip cookies lined up.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I have a bunny whose joy in life is sneakily nibbling my books.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? Definitely not my first, but this time I have decided in advance I’m not going to stay up. Maybe I’m getting old…

15.12: And now I’ve finished Emma! Not sure what next… I’m feeling kind of sick, annoyingly.

17.02: Still feel sick, but at least in the meantime I’m done with The Boys from Brazil and nearly halfway through The Man Everyone Was Afraid Of.

Tags: books, readathon, TBR

Stacking the Shelves

Posted October 22, 2016 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Busy week for me! But more reading than last week, whew. How’s everyone doing?

Books acquired this week:

Yep, a nice big haul of assorted non-fiction. I went into Brussels on Monday, since I got paid, and had a little spree in Sterling Books and Waterstones. <3

I got The City of Dreaming Books from my friend Dingsi, thank you. <3 I’ve been meaning to read War for the Oaks since… forever, I think. Emma Bull has been heavily recommended to me, and I liked the look of this (new?) Penguin edition.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:
–Saga Volume Six, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Gorgeous as ever, and a hugely satisfying volume for me. Eeeh. 4/5 stars
–Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers. BBC radioplay. As usual, this is really well done and you gotta love the interaction between Harriet and Peter. Or I do, anyway. 4/5 stars
–Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance, by Richard C. Francis, read by Kurt Elftmann. I was mostly indifferent to this one — a bit too simplistic for me. 2/5 stars
–Troublemaker, by Joseph Hansen. This isn’t my favourite of the bunch, with a bit too many gay stereotypes floating around. It’s still interesting, though. 3/5 stars
–The Technological Singularity, by Murray Shanahan. If you already know something about AI, probably don’t bother with this one. 2/5 stars
–Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. This was a reread, and it actually impressed me more this time round. Love the sense of place and the recognisability of it. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. A beautifully created and fascinating post-apocalyptic world I remember enjoying a lot. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Name Things After. Just a quick rundown of the fannish things I’ve called some of my belongings…
–What are you reading Wednesday. An update on this week’s reading!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted October 19, 2016 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Today, I finished off reading Augustus, by John Williams. Very slow and contemplative; I’m still pondering whether I really liked it or not, but it sure is an interesting exploration of Octavius Caesar and his life and relationships. I also read volume one of the complete collection of Dan Slott’s She-Hulk; that was pretty fun, although it started to feel a bit like a drag. I do prefer my comics to be in shorter packaging; this one stole half my day.

What are you currently reading?
I’m rereading This Rough Magic, by Mary Stewart, because I felt the need for a comfort read and I couldn’t remember the plot of this one. I’m also rereading Broken Homes, by Ben Aaronovitch, and wincing ready for the end.

What are you planning to read next?
I should finally get round to Foxglove Summer! Also, I want to get on with reading Deadline and Blackout, by Mira Grant. I think I’ve said that before already…

Tags: books, reading memes