Review – Murder in Vienna

Posted May 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Murder in Vienna

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 194
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Superintendent Macdonald, C.I.D., studied his fellow-passengers on the Vienna plane simply because he couldn’t help it, because he hadn’t conditioned himself to being on holiday. The distinguished industrialist he recognised: the stout man he put down (quite mistakenly) as a traveller in whisky. The fair girl was going to a job (he was right there) and the aggressive young man in the camel coat might be something bookish. Macdonald turned away from his fellow-passengers deliberately; they weren’t his business, he was on holiday - or so he thought.

Against the background of beautiful Vienna, with its enchanting palaces and gardens, its disenchanted back-streets and derelicts of war, E. C. R. Lorac constructs another great detective story with all its complexities, an exciting and puzzling crime story.

I really love E.C.R. Lorac’s work, for a lot of reasons I’ve written about before, and it boils down to two gifts that she had. One, she was good at characters, and especially at creating likeable characters. Two, she has a great sense for place, and for showing how a place is lived in — I thought at one point she was mostly good at describing rural locations and small towns, but this book (and others set in London) show she just had a gift in general of making anywhere sound lovely in its way. In this case, post-WWII Vienna.

The other thing to bear in mind is that even a character you like a lot might turn out to be a murderer, and that someone who’s a bit of a slimeball needn’t be the one who killed someone. If you read only one or two of her books, it’s easy to think that she’ll always point the finger at a certain type of character, but it isn’t the case.

Murder in Vienna captures the unsettled feeling of a city uneasy with what some of its inhabitants have done. The collaborators walk free, and it’s unclear who collaborated because they felt that they had to and who collaborated willingly. That isn’t completely germane to this story, it’s just part of the feeling of everything. But Vienna itself is beautiful in Lorac’s words, and through the eyes of Macdonald, one of the most human of the detectives of classic fiction (in my view). I found it all really enjoyable, not so much the mystery itself, but how the mystery inhabited Vienna and the anxious minds of those trying to believe that the ordeal is over and normality has returned.

Poor Macdonald really should be allowed a proper holiday at some point, though. If he could please be returning from holiday at the start of a book or something, that’d be nice. No more busman’s holidays for him, please.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, E.C.R. Lorac, mystery

Review – Everything is OK

Posted May 13, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Everything is OK

by Debbie Tung

Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir, Non-fiction
Pages: 184
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
Everything Is OK is the story of Debbie Tung’s struggle with anxiety and her experience with depression. She shares what it’s like navigating life, overthinking every possible worst-case scenario, and constantly feeling like all hope is lost.

The book explores her journey to understanding the importance of mental health in her day-to-day life and how she learns to embrace the highs and lows when things feel out of control. Debbie opens up about deeply personal issues and the winding road to recovery, discovers the value of self-love, and rebuilds a more mindful relationship with her mental health.

In this graphic memoir, Debbie aims to provide positive and comforting messages to anyone who is facing similar difficulties or is just trying to get through a tough time in life. She hopes to encourage readers to be kinder to themselves, to know that they are not alone, and that it’s okay to be vulnerable because they are not defined by their mental health struggles. The dark clouds won’t be there forever. Everything will turn out all right.

Debbie Tung’s Everything is OK is a journey through the artist’s experience of depression and anxiety, interspersed with one-page spreads illustrating various “inspirational” phrases and hints about dealing with anxiety and depression. Her art is cute, and she makes good use of colour to bring across the right moods.

I don’t want to critique someone else’s journey with mental health problems. And I’m sure there are people who’ve found this uplifting and helpful in their own journey — many of the things she says are good sense.

What it isn’t is a handbook to recovery from anxiety and depression, even though at times it’s phrased as general advice to everyone. For anyone whose situation is different or very complex, though, it risks coming across just as hackeyed and tone-deaf as the voices Tung depicts as bringing her down (people who say “just get over it”, “you’re doing this for attention”, etc). It’s no universal panacea, and there are many people for whom basic therapy doesn’t help, or doesn’t help enough. The journey she depicts in this book is an incredibly lucky one — which is great for her, but isn’t the answer to all the mental health problems in quite the way that some reviewers think. Just as it’s not as simple as “pull yourself together”, it’s also not as simple as “stop criticising yourself and learn to live with your flaws”.

Which, to be scrupulously fair, Tung doesn’t say — but nor does she really address it. The book does mention different journeys, but it doesn’t touch on the absolute depths. I wouldn’t give this to someone to help them “understand” depression, because it can’t do that job. I’d give it to Debbie Tung’s friends and family, to help them understand her depression and anxiety, and if someone identifies with the picture of depression in these pages, no doubt it can be useful in the same way. But please, for the love of chickens, don’t give it out as a general instruction book, please.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Debbie Tung, graphic novels, memoir, non-fiction

Review – The Missing Lynx

Posted May 12, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals

by Ross Barnett

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 352
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
In The Missing Lynx, Ross Barnett uses case studies, new fossil discoveries, biomolecular evidence and more to paint pictures of these extinct species, and to explore the significance of the lynx's disappearance in ecological terms. He also discusses how the Britons that these animals shared their home with might have viewed them, and why some survived while others vanished.

Barnett also looks in detail and the realistic potential of reintroductions and even of resurrection--topics that capture public interest today. With Beaver now wild again in various parts of Britain and even Great Bustard on Salisbury Plain, what about the return of sabretooths, mammoths, and the aurochs to modern ecosystems? Will we ever be able to bring these animals back? And should we?

At a time where rewilding is moving from pie-in-the-sky to actual reality, this timely and important book looks from a scientific perspective at the magnificent megafauna we've lost, why we lost it and what happened as a result, and how we might realistically turn the ecological tide.

Once upon a time, megafauna were common all over the world, but after a certain point in time, they began to disappear. Mammoths. Mastodons. Cave lions. Cave bears. Aurochs. Irish elk. And what was the common factor? Well, as Ross Barnett says in The Missing Lynx, probably us. Probably humans.

The Missing Lynx digs into the lives of a few of these different creatures, trying to understand where they came from and where they went, focusing mostly on the lives of animals once found in the British Isles which are extinct now (in some cases worldwide, in others just in the UK). In some ways it’s a sad story — think of all we’ve lost. But Barnett is enthusiastic, fascinated, and that made the book pretty compulsive reading.

I did find it weird that beavers apparently count as megafauna: I always think way bigger, somehow! But apparently beavers count, and they are indeed pretty cool.

It’s easy to get pessimistic when you read books like this, showing how humans were a major driver in extinctions. Somehow Barnett’s enthusiasm wins out over that, with some optimism that if we can learn to look at ourselves, we can begin to fix this through reintroductions, rewilding, and perhaps (though he’s sceptical of this and rightly so) resurrection.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, Ross Barnett, science

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted May 11, 2024 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

It’s been another week already?! Last week I ended up so busy that I didn’t share my post in the linkups, or visit anyone else. It’s quietish around here in terms of visitors/comments, as a result, which is probably good while I’m all wrapped up in preparing for my exams (Parasitology, Nutrition & Infection and Bacterial Infections), but still, I kinda miss being more active.

Anyway, last week me and my wife went off to York to meet up with a friend, so we ended up in the lovely Portal Bookshop, and also paid a visit to Waterstones so I could raid their non-fiction. So I have plenty to showcase this week!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

Books acquired this week:

As usual, since I had the opportunity, I took the time to really root around and look for new reading material. Gotta stock up, after all! First up, the fiction:

I did also get physical copies of a couple of books I had as e-ARCs (and didn’t read in time, oops):

So hopefully I’ll get round to those now!

Aaand the non-fiction which is (as ever) a heck of a mix:

I’ve already read the first three, so I guess I continue to be in a non-fiction mood! With The Doctor Who Fooled the World, I joked that I decided my blood pressure was too low and I need to raise it. It really is going to infuriate me though — Andrew Wakefield is a murderer, in my eyes.

Anyway, this was quite a spree, so for a few weeks I’m going to try and focus on more reading than acquiring, ahaha. Though I don’t do “book bans” these days; I just try to make sure I’m reading more books than I acquire, and it’ll be fine.

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s a bit of a roundup of the reviews I’ve been posting. I’m building up a bit of a backlog again, especially of graphic novels/comics and history reviews. Anyway, here’s what was posted this week!

Fantasy romance: Good Neighbors, by Stephanie Burgis (3/5 stars)
Romance manga: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, by Shio Usui (4/5 stars)
Classic mystery: The Ha-Ha Case, by J.J. Connington (3/5 stars)
Fantasy novella: If Found, Return to Hell, by Em X. Liu (3/5 stars)
History: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, by Bettany Hughes (4/5 stars)

And I did also have one non-review post:

What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

Ever since Bookly’s readathon I’ve somehow found a lot more time in my days for reading, though perhaps not as much when I was trying to read 45 hours in ten days. So this week has been pretty full. Here’s a peek at the books I’ve read which I plan to review soon!

This weekend I have a couple of books I want to finish, but I also want to start on a couple of my new books: I’d like to read A Spindle Splintered (Alix E. Harrow) and start on Hands of Time (Rebecca Struthers). We’ll see!

How’s everyone doing?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Posted May 10, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

by Bettany Hughes

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 416
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Their names still echo down the ages: The Great Pyramid at Giza. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Temple of Artemis. The statue of Zeus at Olympia. The mausoleum of Halikarnassos. The Colossus at Rhodes. The Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases of the reaches of human imagination. Now only the pyramid remains, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthrall us today.

In a thrilling, colorful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time; on a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A majestic work of historical storytelling, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World reinforces the exciting, and nourishing, notion that humans can make the impossible happen.

It took me a while to properly get into Bettany Hughes’ The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and I’m not quite sure why. In many ways it’s right up my street, after all, telling a bit of a history of Babylonia, Greece, Egypt, and other lands in that area, and the afterlife of their cultures as well. But I think it was just a bit slower and more lingering than I was in the mood for at first — and certainly I came to appreciate it as I got into the pace of the book, and to appreciate that it carefully puts each of the wonders into their context. Rather than just talking about “Ancient Greece”, Hughes is careful to contextualise the different peoples (and the rivalries between them), rather than lump everyone into a big group.

Sometimes it does feel a bit frustrating: could the Hanging Gardens be X? Could they be Y? Maybe they’re none of those things and they’re actually Z? But of course Hughes isn’t to blame for the fragmentary evidence we have, and she does a pretty good job at teasing out the implications of what data we do have.

I do also very much appreciate the time Hughes spent on picking apart the afterlife of the Wonders: what can be seen of them today, what fragments might remain, and the ways later civilisations have copied and reflected them.

So, all in all, a slow read, but a worthwhile one if you’re interested in the ancient civilisations in that area of the world. Of course it misses out many wonders, particularly ones less central to Western imaginations, but that’s because the very premise is based on an ancient and semi-local list. Still, maybe a more focused title would be nice… there’s a lot of “ancient world” that isn’t included in this book at all.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Bettany Hughes, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction

Review – If Found, Return to Hell

Posted May 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

If Found, Return to Hell

by Em X. Liu

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 162
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Being an intern at One Wizard sounds magical on the page, but in practice mostly means getting yelled at by senior mages and angry clients who've been turned into platypuses alike. So when Journeyman Wen receives a frantic call from a young man who's awoken to a talisman on his bedroom wall and no memory of how it got there, they jump at the chance to escape call center duty and actually help someone for once.

But the case ends up being more complicated than Wen could ever have anticipated. Their client has been possessed by a demon prince from Hell, and he's not interested in leaving...

I love playing around with point of view, and Em X. Liu makes an interesting choice: the book is narrated in second person, which I feel like a lot of people will bounce right off. I love playing with it myself, and I think it was pretty well done here.

I loved Shine and Wang Ran, their negotiation of their situation, the way they quickly decided to make the best of it. You end up with certain expectations from the opening, from other stories like it, and then there’s Wang Ran, and really he’s just a kid. The way all that plays out — and Wang Ran and Shine’s relationship with the character addressed by the narrative — is all really fun.

Things did seem to happen really suddenly, though, and I wasn’t so sure about that part. On the one hand, it is a novella, but… I don’t know, the bond between Shine, Wang Ran and the main character feels a little undercooked for me. I wanted to believe in it, I just didn’t quite. I don’t know what more I’d have liked that wouldn’t feel like filler, but still, I wasn’t quite 100% there in time.

On a side note, I feel like I was oddly better prepared for some of this through becoming such a fan of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Em X. Liu, SF/F

WWW Wednesday

Posted May 8, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s WWW Wednesday time! So, as always, that’s:

What have you recently finished reading?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was an anthology of short stories from the British Library Crime Classics series; this one, Final Acts, was themed around theatre. Killings on stage, actors getting themselves into trouble, in one case a clown, etc.

It was okay, though it had a repeat story in it from a different anthology by the British Library, which I find a bit disappointing. (It’s possible that this came first and the other is the repeat, or the repeat is one of the extras included at the end of some of the novels, but regardless, argh.)

What are you currently reading?

Many, many things at once, as usual — though I’ve finished some that I wrote about last week. I’m close to finishing Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe (Emma Törzs) at last, just by making sure I picked it up for a few pages a day even when I wasn’t feeling it. I don’t think it’ll quite come together for me, bit too slow to give a payoff, but I’m glad I’m finishing it all the same.

I have also more recently picked up Dragons, Heroes, Myths & Magic (Chantry Westwell), a book about the illustrations in medieval manuscripts. It includes examples (in full colour) from various manuscripts, along with explanations of their contents.

What will you read next?

I’m not totally sure! I should probably pick something else from the list of books I’m currently reading to focus on, in which case I suspect I’ll try to finish A History of the World in 100 Animals (Simon Barnes). I’ve had that on the go for ages, mostly just because I haven’t been picking it up — it’s a hardcover and a bit unwieldy.

What about you? Anything fascinating tempting you when you should be working?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Review – The Ha-Ha Case

Posted May 7, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Ha-Ha Case

by J.J. Connington

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 230
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Johnnie Brandon is found dead while out shooting rabbits with his friends, and the problem is: Accident, Suicide, or Murder? It is all made very complicated by the financial entanglements in which his rapscallion of a father has tied up the estate, and by the fact that a gentlemanly lunatic with large gaps in his memory wanders on to the scene at the crucial moment. Time for the acumen of Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield to be brought to bear on the case.

J.J. Connington’s The Ha-Ha Case is a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery for the period, in many ways, but it relies on an interesting little quirk of inheritance law that I’d never seen before. “Borough English” is an inheritance law whereby the youngest child inherits, and it’s part of the mystery that the story revolves around, adding to the thicket of red herrings and complicating one’s intuitions. It sets up a neat little puzzle, and there’s a neat little trick to draw you astray as well.

It’s not really a fair-play mystery, in some ways, but I think that made it a better story… and I think a thoughtful reader can get there anyway. It’s more interesting as a puzzle than for any great insight into character, for all that the police detective is vividly evoked (with all his faults, including total self-absorption).

If you’re interested in mysteries of this period, then it’s a fun one; if you read mysteries of this period now and again for the soothing predictability, this one isn’t a stand-out in the bunch, but a solid choice. If you lack any special interest at all and are just a bit curious, it’s not where I’d start you out, but it wouldn’t be a terrible choice either. All in all, it’s pretty middle-of-the-road. Which sounds like damning with faint praise, but I won’t say no to trying a couple more by Connington.

By the way, it isn’t released by the British Library Crime Classics series. Someone just got clever with cover design.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, J.J. Connington, mystery

Review – Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, volume 2

Posted May 6, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon

by Shio Usui

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 174
Series: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon #2
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
The distance between Hinako and Asahi is closing! What started as a typical coworker relationship has blossomed into friendship. But now, Hinako has started to wonder if her feelings for Asahi go even deeper. Could this be love?!

Volume two of Shio Usui’s Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon continues to a be a slow-burn: at times, it’s not obvious that there’s a romance angle coming, because it just focuses on Asahi and Hinako’s friendship. That said, Hinako’s feelings are pretty clear, even if she struggles with and doesn’t understand them, and it’s obvious that Asahi has been way too focused on looking after her sister to even think about romance, but maybe now’s the time.

The handholding is so cute, and the fact that their new friendship clearly gives them both a boost. There are a couple of odd moments that I notice other reviews picked up on, e.g. Asahi surprisingly commenting that it seems like Hinako loves her mother a lot. That said, it’s worth remembering that Asahi doesn’t have the same perspective as we do: she knows that Hinako’s always quick to pick up her phone for her mother, and always thoughtful about her. Hinako hasn’t really explained her history and where her insecurity comes from, so how would Asahi know?

Anyway, this continues really cute, and I’m interested to see how things work out.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, manga, romance, Shio Usui

Review – Good Neighbors

Posted May 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Good Neighbors

by Stephanie Burgis

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 202
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
When a grumpy inventor meets her outrageous new neighbor in the big black castle down the road, more than one type of spark will fly!

Mia Brandt knows better than to ever again allow her true powers to be discovered. Ever since her last neighbors burned down her workshop in a night of terror and flame, she's been determined to stay solitary, safe, and - to all outside appearances - perfectly respectable...

But Leander Fabian, whose sinister castle looms over her cozy new cottage, has far more dangerous ideas in mind. When he persuades Mia into a reluctant alliance, she finds herself swept into an exhilarating world of midnight balls, interfering countesses, illicit opera house expeditions, necromantic duels, and a whole unnatural community of fellow magic-workers and outcasts, all of whom are facing a terrifying threat.

Luckily, Mia has unnatural powers of her own - but even her unique skills may not be enough to protect her new found family and help her resist the wickedly provoking neighbor who's seen through all of her shields from the beginning.

This novel-length collection includes all four stories and novellas originally published on Stephanie Burgis's Patreon in 2020-2021: Good Neighbors, Deadly Courtesies, Fine Deceptions, and Fierce Company.

Stephanie Burgis’ Good Neighbors is actually a collection of short novellas, each of which is linked to one another, but which do feel a little episodic when read together (rather than seamlessly fitting together like a novel). There’s the odd recap sentence here and there where reading in this format makes you want to say “yeah, I know, you said so five minutes ago”.

The relationship between Leander and Mia is predictable enough, but there are some cute moments; their allies are perhaps more interesting to me, particularly Carmilla and Eliza (and I think there is a novella about them which I might well read), and also Mia’s father and his relationship with Uriah. All in all, there’s a touch of found family in it which is always fun (Mia only has her father at first, but ends up surprisingly opening up to her options with all kinds of neighbours).

It was a quick read and not one that seems to be sticking with me very well, but it was fun enough.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, romance, SF/F, Stephanie Burgis