Category: General

Unstacking the Shelves

Posted September 3, 2016 by Nicky in General / 19 Comments

Tah-daahhh! The world didn’t think I could do it, but lo and behold, I have actually gone a week without buying, borrowing or requesting any new books. Thus, unStacking the Shelves: displaying the books I managed to finish this week.

Eveeery week, people seem to get confused and tell me to enjoy books which I’ve actually finished reading, and I sense that’s gonna happen a ton this week. So please! I have no new books to enjoy! I sort of wish I did, but nope. I love getting comments, but if you’re not going to bother reading the post — and I do clearly mark the sections in these posts — please don’t bother commenting…

Books read this week:

A busy week, as you see — I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting, so I’ve been listening to a bunch of audiobooks, and I’ve also done a fair bit of other reading. Though a lot of it has been rereading, since I found the Joseph Hansen books available for Kindle, to my glee.

Reviews posted this week:
–Spider-Gwen: Greater Power, by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez and Chris Visions. With great power comes great responsibility, whether you’re Peter Parker or Gwen Stacy. And sometimes you get blamed for things you couldn’t have helped. Greater Power follows Gwen as she struggles with her reputation for trouble… and also includes a visit from an awesome version of Captain America. 4/5 stars
–Batgirl: A Knight Alone, by Kelley Puckett et al. I love the idea of Cassandra Cain, but unfortunately the execution hasn’t worked for me at all in these comics. 3/5 stars
–The Undivided Past, by David Cannadine. Do you wanna build a strawman? 2/5 stars
–Magic Slays, by Ilona Andrews. Chaos continues in Atlanta, and no one is surprised. 4/5 stars
–Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. It can be a bit too slow in places, but for the most part I loved Uprooted; it grows out of fairytales, but with a very serious slant. 4/5 stars
–Reading in the Brain, by Stanislaw Dehaene. Distractingly, the model of reading posited here doesn’t fit me very well. Nonetheless, I found it an interesting read and well backed up by the evidence. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Alison Bartlett. I had serious questions about the ethics of the writer, and I don’t think this book is actually about a love of books — certainly not as I would understand it. Rather, it’s a love of objects, which happen to be books. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Back to School. A bunch of non-fiction recommendations for you all!
–The Princess Who Didn’t Eat Cake, by Lynn O’Connacht. A promo post for a friend’s book.
–ShelfLove Update and TBR. An update on my reading goals, and some goals for the next month.

How’s everyone’s week been? Anything exciting going on?

ETA: May be slow to reply to comments and visit you back today; my baby bunny just died. Sorry.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

ShelfLove Update September

Posted September 1, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 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: 152/160.
August books bought: 21/20.
August budget: Goodness knows.
Owned books read this month: 12/16.
Books read this month: 28/31.
Owned books read overall: 126/134 (8 books behind).
Books read overall: 235/244 (9 books behind).

This month’s theme for the Shelf Love challenge is to write a thank you post to your favourite person or people in the publishing industry.

So! Dear publicists and anyone who works on making books a success, thank you! Without you, I wouldn’t hear about half the amazing books out there. I’m very grateful for the work you do in arranging blog tours and sending out ARCs: I don’t know how you keep it all ticking over, some of you. Thank you for your passion and diligence, and well, thanks for the free books, too…

Aaaand here’s a quick list of books I’m aiming to read this month.

Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, The Tempering of Men.
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, An Apprentice to Elves.
Peter S. Beagle, Summerlong.
Aliette de Bodard, The House of Shattered Wings.
Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie.
Marie Brennan, A Star Shall Fall.
Susan Dennard, Truthwitch.
Chris Holm, Red Right Hand.
Tanya Huff, Blood Pact.
Tanya Huff, Blood Debt.
Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers.
Juliet Marillier, Tower of Thorns.
Juliet Marillier, Den of Wolves.
Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things.
Emma Newman, After Atlas.
Cherie Priest, The Family Plot.
V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows.
Jen Williams, The Iron Ghost.
Jen Williams, The Silver Tide.

It’s a good mix of ARCs and series I’m partway through, mostly. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other books here and there, but these I really want to (and in some cases, really should) read soon. Wish me luck, I guess!

Tags: #ShelfLove, books, TBR

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 30, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie around the theme “back to school”. I’m sure there’s plenty of YA novels out there people are recommending that involve schools, so I’m gonna take the other way and send y’all back to school — with some non-fiction books I think are awesome.

A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor. The objects are all in the British Museum, so there’s definitely some problems with a very Western viewpoint, but I found it all fascinating and MacGregor does acknowledge the issues. There’s a little bit of history from all over the world here, even if it is only a very little bit in some cases.
Pompeii, by Mary Beard. Going from the general to the hyperfocused, Mary Beard’s book on Pompeii is a fascinating survey of what we know and can guess about Pompeii.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. If you haven’t read this, I definitely recommend it: it’s a fascinating look at the development of cancer research, and the debts incurred along the way. There’s a lot of issues about race and consent that are worth considering.
Shaking Hands With Death, by Terry Pratchett. Or the longer book which contains that essay, A Slip of the Keyboard. I’m wholly supportive of the initiative to pass laws on assisted suicide, and Pratchett’s words are to the point and heartfelt.
The Ancestor’s Tale, by Richard Dawkins. This book is really the best of Dawkins — mostly devoid of sniping at religious people, and concentrating on the science. The Ancestor’s Tale tells the tale of human ancestry, back through countless common ancestors. Provided you believe in evolution, this might be the least controversial Dawkins book, since as I recall it doesn’t propose any new theories either.
Spillover, by David Quammen. Are you scared about the idea of a pandemic? We’re making them more likely all the time, and this book is a very good look at how and why.
Behind the Shock Machine, by Gina Perry. Stanley Milgram’s shock experiments are so famous that the findings have spilled out of psychology and into general knowledge. But Gina Perry examines the evidence from the experiments and raises some serious questions about Milgram’s ethics, and even his results.
Stonehenge, by Mike Parker Pearson. Pearson was part of a huge project at Stonehenge to reinterpret the evidence and expand what we know. His theories are pretty well supported by the archaeology, on which he did a lot of work.
Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan. Our brains are really, really weird. Like, turns out that there are autoimmune disorders of the brain which can mimic various psychological problems, and pass almost under the radar — instead, Cahalan’s condition was dismissed as borderline personality disorder, psychopathy, etc. And yet she was curable, with antibiotics. It just goes to prove we don’t know everything yet.
DNA, by James Watson. Skip Watson’s admittedly historically important The Double Helix unless you want to be enraged. DNA has much the same information and a lot more, while being more accessible and less sexist.

Tahdah! I know it’s a rather eclectic mix; that’s how my brain works, I’m afraid. Any of these catch your eye?

Tags: books, non-fiction, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

Good morning! How’s everyone doing this week? I’ve read more than I thought I was going to, and even cleared some books that have been on my backlog for a long time. Of course, I’ve also been fretting wildly over our baby bunny, but she seems to be doing okay despite my panics.

New books

Necrotech is a review copy from Angry Robot (thanks again, guys!), and The Crown’s Game was a gift from my wife, A++ wife that she is.

Finished reading this week:

Mortal Engines, Predator’s Gold and Heresy are books I’ve had since 2011; Saga volume four and We Were Liars are from 2014. Take that, backlog! …Wait, now I’m caught up on Saga… oh no! Now another agonising wait for more volumes.

Reviews posted this week:
–The Jewel and Her Lapidary, by Fran Wilde. Intriguing world, but I felt like I needed more background to really understand what the characters were doing. 3/5 stars
–One Ostara Sunrise, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but I could wish for more plot. 3/5 stars
–The Devil You Know, by K.J. Parker. Not as great as Parker’s other Tor.com novella, but an intriguing story nonetheless. Might help if you read the other book including the main character… 3/5 stars
–Batgirl: Silent Running, by Kelley Puckett et al. Sadly not my thing, despite me being a fan of the idea of Cassandra Cain. 2/5 stars
–The Drowning Eyes, by Emily Foster. I felt like this really trailed off, but there is some really amazing imagery in this story. Stones for eyes… 3/5 stars
–The Celts: Search for a Civilisation, by Alice Roberts. A really interesting overview of Celtic history and identity — and yes, it does engage with that troubled question of whether Celtic identity is really a thing you can point to, as well. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen. This is a perfectly good crime novel, but it’s too explicit and nasty to be the sort I enjoy.

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Still Haven’t Read. This is a list of books I’ve been meaning to get to for, quite literally, years — since before I started this blog.

What’ve you been reading this week? Anything you’re dying to get your hands on? Let me know!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 23, 2016 by Nicky in General / 5 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is for books that have been on your TBR since before you started blogging… and you still haven’t read them. Well, I haven’t got anything (surprisingly) from before I started using Goodreads, but I sure as heck have a whole bunch from before I started this blog.

Emma, by Jane Austen. It doesn’t help that my mother haaaates Jane Austen. I kind of gained some appreciation while doing my degree, but I’m still not filled with enthusiasm.
Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. Everything about the idea of predatory cities chasing each other across the land appeals. I just fail at getting round to my backlist.
The Island of Apples, by Glyn Jones. This was even a set book during my BA module on Welsh Fiction in English and I still haven’t read it.
Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier. I really enjoy Marillier’s work, in general, and yet. And yet.
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, by James Tiptree Jr. I am a bad feminist SF fan, I know.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Everyone and their mother has read this. Except me. (Well, and my mother.)
Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany. I know, I can’t believe it either, this is a classic.
Scott of the Antarctic, by David Crane. I know this is a bit of an odd one out here, but I actually find myself reluctant to go ahead and read it, because it’s the last book my grandad ever bought me before he died. While it’s still waiting on the shelf, it feels like prolonging something. The other book bought at the same time is one on railways, which is even more connected with my grandad.
A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel Abraham. I think this was recommended by Jo Walton? Was that where I got this one from? Anyway, it’s been on my list since at least 2013.
Point of Hopes, by Melissa Scott. Queer fantasy! Yesplz.

What about you? Anything been kicking around your lists for years? And do you feel guilty, or just go with the flow?

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 20, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Happy birthday to meeee! If you wish to join in the festivities, it seems that we’re planning to celebrate by eating cake for every meal. (Sometimes stretching the definition to pastry.) My wife is even going to make Welsh cakes for me, for the first time in a while.

Also, we have a new bunny. Her name is Cinnamon, and she fits in my hand. I hope so much she’s going to settle in and stay with us for a good long time. <3

Received to review:

Eeeh! All of these are awesome, and I’m very excited.

Bought:

Fiiiinally, Ghost Talkers is out. <3 I need to get reading it nooow. Mind you, I say that, but there’s so much else I want to read now, too…

Finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson. A satisfying story set in Lovecraft’s world, with a capable female character. It actually really charmed me. 4/5 stars
–One Imbolc Gloaming, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but the plot doesn’t go where I hoped it would, which is kind of sad. 3/5 stars
–Cold-Forged Flame, by Marie Brennan. I think this might be my favourite of the Tor.com novellas so far. It’s definitely up there. I find the setting fascinating, and Marie Brennan writes as well as ever. 4/5 stars
–The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Power, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. Fun, though not 100% my thing. You’ve got to love that Doreen solves several big issues with supervillains by talking to them. 4/5 stars
–Runtime, by S.B. Divya. A lot of interesting stuff here, though the core of the setting reminds me heavily of other dystopian stories. 3/5 stars
–Dancing With Bears, by Michael Swanwick. Not my thing at all, despite the heist part. That and the setting are about all that were my thing. So much sex stuff. 1/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Beowulf on the Beach, by Jack Murnighan. I don’t always agree with the author on what you should try and what you should skip in the Greatest Hits of Dead White Authors, but it was kind of entertaining anyway. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books in Post-Disaster Settings. What it says on the tin!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 16, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books in X Setting. And X iiiiis… post-disaster settings!

Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews. I love magical apocalypses, and this is also snarky and pacy and full of tasty mythology.
Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s never entirely clear what’s happened, but this is our world aslant: full of magic and magical creatures.
Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey. Welcome to Outpost: a town forgotten by most Americans, cordoned off as part of a murky war against uncertain opponents.
Feed, by Mira Grant. Zombies! And also politics. This is mostly about ‘what happens after’; it’s not mindless gore or horror, but about trying to build a life despite a disaster that has changed everything.
Farthing, by Jo Walton. Hopefully you do agree that compromises with the Nazis qualifies as a disaster for 1940s Britain…
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. I haven’t finished reading it yet, but the idea of cyclical disasters… well, that secures it a place on this list right away, plus it’s N.K. Jemisin, so I know it’s solid.
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch. Maybe, anyway. Don’t you wonder about what happened to the Eldren?
Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. Humans wrecked the Earth in all sorts of fun ways, which included sentient algae blooms making rude gestures visible from space. It’s not as quirky as that makes it sound, actually, but the whole story is framed by that disaster and, along with it, the loss of knowledge as humanity’s digital past was all but erased.
The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. It’s a classic, and deservedly so.
City of Bones, by Martha Wells. It’s post-apocalyptic fantasy. I feel like there needs to be tonnes more books like this.

So, what about you? Any you’d recommend for my list? Any TTTs I just have to check out?

Tags: books, SF/F, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 9, 2016 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is a topic you’ve missed over the years and want to revisit… and strangely, when I did a couple of searches on my blog, I didn’t find any posts about my bookish pet peeves. So here goes!

Miscommunication. I think y’all know I hate this one, but it’s especially bad when it’s a couple or something, and you know they should trust each other — they’ve even given each other countless reasons to trust in the past. It’s the most annoying plot device, even if it really does happen in real life, because I just don’t want to spend time with characters who make the same stupid mistakes over and over.
“I like you just as you are… so I’ll make sure you never change.” That’s not actually love, guys. People change and grow and make free choices, and make mistakes, and you have to let them. It’s creepy as fuck when one character decides that they get to say what another character will do for the sake of their purity or whatever.
Insta-love. Unless there’s a reason, like you’re the reincarnation of Guinevere and he’s the reincarnation of Arthur and when you meet you feel the weight of your history, or… whatever, just something that explains it, something that gives it weight. Else it’s just a cheap way to add drama.
People are the real evil. I think this is true in many respects, but I hate it when a horror novel or something over-focuses on people being awful. I’m here for witches and ghosts and monsters, and not the human sort.
Privilege flipping. It’s been done well by someone, I’m sure, but most of the time it’s really tone deaf, and in some cases just wouldn’t work — e.g. a whole world where gay relationships are the only sort allowed. If that’s the case, then you have to address the issue of procreation, and then also deal with the way that changes society. If there are artificial wombs, fine, but it changes things as well.
Changing just one thing. In reality, it’d be like the first in a chain of dominoes. That’s why we have the whole ‘butterfly beating its wings’ saying; a small change here or there will change something else, which will change another thing, which will have a cascading effect. I don’t think there’s any choices we can make that don’t affect something. If I wear my purple socks today, I can’t wear them tomorrow, and I can’t have a conversation about my hedgehog socks today.
Stories where women apparently don’t communicate. Like somehow there’s all these housewives who just stay in their houses the whole time and never even cross paths to borrow a cup of sugar, or… It just makes no sense. Even if all your main characters are men (why?) then the female characters in the background will still interact with each other, and if not, there’d better be a good reason.
Narrators. Okay, narrators in themselves aren’t a pet peeve, but if you have someone narrating a story, I kind of want to know why they’re telling it. I love it when a story gives you context for the narrator narrating: this was an interview with x, this is y’s diary, etc. Otherwise, who the heck are they talking to? Themselves? And if they are, then why do they need to explain what their favourite colour is and how tall they are?
Just one exception. A character can read everybody’s mind… except one. No reason, it just complicates their relationship. If there’s a rule in your fictional universe, every exception needs to have a purpose. How does it drive the story?
Inquits. You really don’t have to look for a gazillion alternatives to “said”. They stick out like a sore thumb when you have characters yelling, bawling, crying, shouting, whispering, choking, gasping… “Said” is perfectly useful for attributing dialogue. If you’re using another word, it needs to be doing twice the work.

So there’s my somewhat random set of pet peeves! Share any? Disagree? Feel free to chip in!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 6, 2016 by Nicky in General / 29 Comments

So this week has been super important, and yesterday I married my partner of the last eleven years.

I got books, too.

Received to review

Magic Binds!! I’m excited.

I did also get books from my friends as wedding/birthday presents (my birthday is on the 20th!), but I’m too tired to put them all up now. Next week it is!

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Copper Promise, by Jen Williams. A traditional-feel fantasy, I found this a really comfortable, feel-good read for the most part. It just reminded me of all the fantasy books of my childhood, in a good way. 4/5 stars
–The Book of Atrix Wolfe, by Patricia A. McKillip. Probably one of my least favourite of McKillip’s books so far. It’s beautifully written, but I didn’t quite follow. 2/5 stars
–Hex, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Horror normally isn’t my thing, but the icky bit of this for me was the way people acted, the things they decided to prioritise. I just didn’t get on with it at all. 1/5 stars
–Little, Big, by John Crowley. On the surface it sounded like something I’d be interested in, but in the end it took too long to get nowhere very satisfying. 2/5 stars
–The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy. This book is great, full of interesting (mostly female) characters who bounce off each other in realistic ways, and who really work hard at what they do. It helps that it’s atmospheric and involves archaeology, but overall I just found it really satisfying to read. 5/5 stars
–Under the Skin, by Michel Faber. Another one that didn’t really work for me — now I think about it, it may have had better payoff as a short story. 2/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. A longtime favourite, with a genuinely creepy vampire who you can root for anyway, and a lot of awesome descriptions of food and baking. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Buy Right Now. Probably a fairly predictable bunch!

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted August 2, 2016 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a theme after my own heart: what ten books would you buy if someone handed you a fully loaded gift card right now?

Well.

Ultimates: Omniversal, by Al Ewing. I’ve never much liked the sound of the Ultimates as such, though I enjoy Ultimate Spider-man, but this line-up just sounds straight-up amazing. America Chavez and Captain Marvel? Sign me right up.
Captain Marvel: Rise of Alpha Flight, by Tara Butters. Okay, I love DeConnick’s run on Captain Marvel, but I love the character too, and I’m excited to see what a new writer has done for her.
Tower of Thorns, by Juliet Marillier. Because I don’t have a physical copy, and I haven’t got round to reading it yet either.
A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. I’ve read this twice now, but I still don’t own a physical copy. What’s wrong with me?
Gunmetal Magic, by Ilona Andrews. I’m jolted by the gap in Andrea’s story that Kate’s books just bridged in a matter of sentences. Gimme more Andrea!
The New Avengers: Everything Is New, by Al Ewing. The number of Avengers teams is going to get confusing but excuse me is that Hulkling on the cover? And Wiccan?
The Dragons of Heaven, by Alyc Helms. I got intrigued by Robert’s review.
Wake of Vultures, by Lila Bowen. I borrowed it from the library, but didn’t get round to it before I had to return it. And now I’ve seen it in a bookstore here…
Blackout, by Mira Grant. I apparently don’t have this third book of the trilogy? And nor does the library? Arghh.
Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. It’s not out until the 13th, but I’d totally put in my preorder now.

What’s anyone else dying to get their hands on?

Tags: books, comics, Top Ten Tuesday