Review – Ice Cream: A Global History

Posted February 8, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 10 Comments

Review – Ice Cream: A Global History

Ice Cream: A Global History

by Laura B. Weiss

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 176
Series: Edible
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Be it soft-serve, gelato, frozen custard, Indian kulfi or Israeli glida, some form of cold, sweet ice cream treat can found throughout the world in restaurants and home freezers. Though ice cream was once considered a food for the elite, it has evolved into one of the most successful mass-market products ever developed.

In Ice Cream, food writer Laura B. Weiss takes the reader on a vibrant trip through the history of ice cream from ancient China to modern-day Tokyo in order to tell the lively story of how this delicious indulgence became a global sensation. Weiss tells of donkeys wooed with ice cream cones, Good Humor-loving World War II-era German diplomats, and sundaes with names such as "Over the Top" and "George Washington." Her account is populated with Chinese emperors, English kings, former slaves, women inventors, shrewd entrepreneurs, Italian immigrant hokey-pokey ice cream vendors, and gourmand American First Ladies. Today American brands dominate the world ice cream market, but vibrant dessert cultures like Italy's continue to thrive, and new ones, like Japan's, flourish through unique variations.

Weiss connects this much-loved food with its place in history, making this a book sure to be enjoyed by all who are beckoned by the siren song of the ice cream truck.

As always with the Edible Series, Laura B. Weiss’ Ice Cream: A Global History has colour illustrations and a few recipes at the back, along with references and a bibliography. It’s a bitesize look at food history through a very specific food. (Yep, you’ve guessed it — ice cream.)

Unlike some of these volumes, it doesn’t get too pedantic about what counts here. It discusses gelato and, though it mostly sticks to milk-based iced treats, it does mention the water-based treats which have gone alongside it (sorbet, popsicles, etc). Though it does touch on most of the world here, it feels like it’s most emphatic about the USA’s part in popularising ice cream, and I don’t actually know if that’s as true as the book makes it sound. It does refer to the development of various well-known ice cream brands from the US, but the discussion of soda fountains and such seems very specifically USian.

Overall, it had the predictable effect: I learned some fascinating new things, and I really want some ice cream right now.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Tusks of Extinction

Posted February 7, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Tusks of Extinction

The Tusks of Extinction

by Ray Nayler

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 101
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.

Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.

The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.

Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?

And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I’ve been curious about Ray Nayler’s work for a bit, since my wife enjoyed The Mountain in the Sea, so I was quite interested in giving The Tusks of Extinction a shot. The blurb left me a bit unsure, though, wondering if it’d feel maybe a bit goofy and weird, with a human in a mammoth body.

Well, the execution worked out well, tying in Damira’s memories and past with how she’s experiencing the world now as a mammoth, with different senses and different priorities. It took a few pages for me to orient myself to what exactly was going on, but that’s very much intentional, because Damira’s a little lost in the memories too.

I was going to talk about one of the threads being rather weak, but actually looking back on it, I was wrong to think so. There are basically three threads: a rich hunter (from the point of view of his husband), Damira, and the son of a poacher. They do all three meet and make sense of each other, giving each other meaning and casting the point of the story into relief — and Vladimir’s point of view in particular really added emotional shading to the story, beyond just the obvious outrage of Damira.

Definitely eager to try more by Nayler now.

Rating: 4/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted February 7, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

It’s Wednesday, so as ever, it’s time to answer the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you reading next?

And linking up with Taking on a World of Words.

Cover of The Cleaving by Juliet E. McKennaWhat are you currently reading?

Actually, nothing very actively, after I finished a book last night. I’m partway through a few books at once, but paused due to them not fitting the mood. I’m most likely to get back to The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, by Bettany Hughes, but that’s quite a slow read and one that I’m taking in bits.

The other thing I’ll probably get back to sooner rather than later is Juliet E. McKenna’s The Cleaving, an Arthurian retelling from the point of view of Nimue. I’m very interested in what it’ll do with that, since I studied Arthurian literature back at Cardiff University (and wrote my MA dissertation on it as well as numerous assignments).

Cover of Someone From The Past by Margot BennettWhat have you recently finished reading?

Last night I finished up reading Margot Bennett’s Someone from the Past which… I really didn’t like. The main character makes the most absurd decisions, and the author spends a lot of time lingering on wannabe-witty dialogue. It’s snappy enough up to a point, but then you realise they’re getting absolutely nowhere and you’ve read three pages of little substance. The main character thinks she’s clever and she really, really isn’t.

Plus, it ends with two characters getting together in a way that just feels as disastrous as everything else the main character has done. I’ll save the in-depth analysis for my review, I guess, but ugh.

Cover of System Collapse by Martha WellsWhat are you reading next?

Excellent question! I’m honestly really tempted to do some rereading — and not even of something I read a while ago, but of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. I feel like there’s a lot that I missed, and having finished all four volumes (and watched the donghua, via a fan translation) I’d have a better appreciation of some of the stuff that was bewildering at first.

But I’ve only just finished those, so probably I’ll stick to the reading list I set myself at the start of the week. Most likely I’ll read Lost in the Moment and Found (Seanan McGuire), or System Collapse (Martha Wells). I’ve been meaning to catch up with both of those for a while now!

What about you? What are you currently reading? Anything exciting on your upcoming TBR?

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Placeholder Post

Posted February 7, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Hey folks!

The Jetpack folks didn’t look at a test post I made a while ago in time, so the logs expired and they weren’t able to actually look into the problem… so I need to make a new scheduled post for them to take a look at, so they can figure out why they’re not sending an email for scheduled posts. I didn’t want to post something I worked on like a review or a linkup post, since then I’d probably not get any replies and the work would be wasted.

Of course, if things are fixed and this goes out to you all in email, I’ll really kick myself, since I have two more posts due to go up today (WWW Wednesday and a review). So many sorrys if that occurs and I spam your email! (And sorry anyways to the folks with RSS feeds.)

This post will hopefully self-destruct once Jetpack people take a look at the situation.

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Review – Encyclopaedia Eorzea Volume III

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

Review – Encyclopaedia Eorzea Volume III

Encyclopaedia Eorzea volume III

by Square Enix

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 304
Rating: five-stars
Synopsis:

The third volume of the official Final Fantasy XIV lore books, written and compiled by the Final Fantasy XIV development team! This deluxe hardcover tome comprises records of adventures that transcend the bounds of space and time, from the ancient world to the very stars above.

Offering an astonishing amount of information covering the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, this third volume of Encyclopaedia Eorzea brings readers further into the realms of the global hit video game. Hundreds of richly illustrated, full-color pages present detailed explorations of the events that occurred in Etheirys, Norvrandt, and the sea of stars, as well as comprehensive descriptions of their histories, peoples, lands, and more.

An unending source of knowledge and inspiration to all those who seek truths across and beyond our star.

As ever, Encyclopaedia Eorzea‘s third volume is a wonderful expansion/repository of the lore for Final Fantasy XIV’s increasingly complex world. This volume covers the places and peoples of the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, giving us titbits of insight into the history of the First (the world we occupy during the Shadowbringers expansion), and the life of the Ancients (which impacts most heavily on the Endwalker expansion)… along with the lives of other tribes and peoples we meet along the way, like the Lopporits.

If you’re a casual player, you might not be interested in reading cover-to-cover, but it can be useful for a quick recap of the plot or of characters. Even being a relatively non-casual player, some of that stuff was helpful to me because I’ve forgotten some of the incidental characters.

If you’re a fan of the Ancients, there’s some fascinating stuff here about them. For example, Venat’s sword — and the fact that while Hythlodaeus may call himself a middling mage, he’s in fact very adept with aether. It provides a bit of additional insight on the characters, for sure, including the beloved ambystoma (listed ahead of Hermes, in fact).

The book comes with an insert giving you a code for the Wind-up Forchenault minion for your FFXIV account, which I have redeemed promptly!

Rating: 5/5

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Top Ten Tuesday: Quick Reads

Posted February 6, 2024 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments

This week’s theme from That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday prompts is “quick reads”. I have to admit that these aren’t in any logical order, and are the usual miscellany that you find around here… which some people think is a good thing, but hey, consider yourself duly warned.

Cover of Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley Cover of All the Horses of Iceland, by Sarah Tolmie Cover of Luke and Billy Finally Get A Clue by Cat Sebastian Cover of The Apple-Tree Throne by Premee Mohamed Cover of Blue Jeans by Carolyn Purnell

  1. Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley. This book is from 1917, and it’s always surprising to me that more people don’t know about it, because I find it so charming. The main female character is middle-aged and has given up on doing much except taking care of her older brother, until Parnassus on Wheels — a travelling bookshop — arrives on her doorstep and coaxes her out for an adventure. It’s light-hearted and fun. I’m a little surprised I’ve never reviewed it on this blog! (142 pages)
  2. All the Horses of Iceland, by Sarah Tolmie. It took me a little while to decide which of Sarah Tolmie’s novellas to include, but in the end it had to be this one. It feels very much like a Norse saga, so it’s not deep into character and motiviation, and I really loved how Tolmie captured the feel of a saga. (112 pages)
  3. Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue, by Cat Sebastian. I haven’t read a lot of romance set in the ’50s, and the only sport I know anything about is rugby, but this one about two baseball players really got under my skin. Forget a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, this one’s grumpy/grumpy, but I promise it works! (102 pages)
  4. The Apple-Tree Throne, by Premee Mohamed. It took me a while to pick a novella by Mohamed, too, because she’s brilliant at them, and they’re a varied bunch. In the end, it has to be this ghost story that deals with the aftermath of war and being a survivor, and left me feeling it had been surprisingly tender and bittersweet, despite the setup. It surprised me. (73 pages)
  5. Blue Jeans, by Carolyn Purnell. I know the prompt is mostly for novellas, but I couldn’t resist including at least one non-fiction book. It’s one of the Object Lessons books, which is a great source of bitesize non-fiction, especially for people who have the kind of wide-ranging curiosity that has friends calling me magpie-minded. This one was one of my favourites, digging into an everyday topic and teasing out a surprising wealth of history. (160 pages)
  6. The Changeling Sea, by Patricia A. McKillip. Technically, I don’t think this is intended as a novella, but the page count falls under this list, so there! This one is a beautifully written fantasy that feels like a fairytale. McKillip has a habit of letting the readers do a lot of work to understand why things are the way they are, so it’s one that lingers. Or such was my experience, anyway. (137 pages)
  7. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo. This is the second book of the Singing Hills cycle, but each more or less stands alone, and it’s the first one that really hooked me and solidified each one into a must-read, though the first is lovely too. The stories can sometimes lack a little urgency because the protagonist, Chih, is gathering up other people’s stories — but in this one, Chih falls into a story of their own. (98 pages)
  8. The Salt Grows Heavy, by Cassandra Khaw. This book is surprisingly tender and romantic for something so gory and weird! It’s more dark fantasy or horror than romance in genre, but the relationship between the main characters is what really stuck with me. (83 pages)
  9. The Governess Affair, by Courtney Milan. This novella deals beautifully with trauma and healing, creating a strong bond between the main characters that makes the sex scene a necessary moment of development and connection for both of them. I suspect it’s a good place to start reading Milan’s work (though it wasn’t the one I started with) — the length does mean that you don’t get as much character development or as slow an unfolding of romance as in a novel, but in my opinion, it sticks the landing. (101 pages)
  10. Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk. It seems I never posted my review of this on the blog, so I’ll have to fix that soon! It’s a Sapphic love story that deals in demons and deals at the crossroads, and also has an element of detective fiction. If you were ever a fan of the Supernatural TV show, this one has a serious flavour of Dean Winchester’s brand of self-sacrifice, and it’s delicious. (136 pages)

Cover of The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip Cover of When the Tiger Came Down The Mountain by Nghi Vo Cover of The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Cover of The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan Cover of Even Though I Knew The End by C.L. Polk

Because I love novellas and short books, this was a really difficult list to make! I left out so many great novellas, like the Murderbot books and Emily Tesh’s Silver in the Wood… but in the end I tried to choose books I hadn’t seen around as much.

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Review – Sailor’s Delight

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

Review – Sailor’s Delight

Sailor's Delight

by Rose Lerner

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 172
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Self-effacing, overworked bookkeeper Elie Benezet doesn’t have time to be in love. Too bad he already is—with his favorite client, Augustus Brine. The Royal Navy sailing master is kind, handsome, and breathtakingly competent. He’s also engaged to his childhood sweetheart. And now that his prize money is coming in after years of delay, he can afford to marry her
once Elie submits the final prize paperwork.

When Augustus comes home, determined to marry by the end of his brief leave, Elie does his best to set his broken heart aside and make it happen. But he’s interrupted by one thing after another: other clients, the high holidays, his family’s relentless efforts to marry him off. Augustus isn’t helping by renting a room down the hall, shaving shirtless with his door open, and inviting Elie to the public baths. If Elie didn’t know better, he’d think Augustus didn’t want to get married.

To cap it all off, Augustus’s fiancĂ©e arrives in town, senses that Elie has a secret, and promptly accuses him of embezzling. Has Elie’s doom been sealed
or is there still time to change his fate?

Rose Lerner’s Sailor’s Delight is a slow burn, despite being a fairly short book, helped by the fact that there is a real sense of history between the two right from the start. The fact that Elie is Jewish and Brine is a sailor really shapes the story, through the Jewish holiday and Elie’s exploration of his feelings about and obligations toward people are all shaped by his beliefs and experiences as a Jewish man.

I don’t really know how to comment about the portrayal and whether it would satisfy someone looking for specifically Jewish queer romance (especially as Brine is not Jewish), but Rose Lerner has written in the past about being Jewish and the importance of Jewish representation, and I think the whole backbone of this book is about doing that.

The relationship between Elie and Brine is full of yearning. There’s obvious physical attraction as well, but also they obviously think about each other all the time, try to help one another, try to mesh their lives toge­ther, etc. It ends up surprisingly intense very quickly, and yet the steam level for the book is pretty low (no on-page sex).

All in all, it was one I enjoyed, though I needed the right moment for it — the intensity of Elie’s apparently unrequited longing was a bit much for me at one point, so I took a break from the book!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Fireborne Blade

Posted February 4, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review – The Fireborne Blade

The Fireborne Blade

by Charlotte Bond

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 192
Series: The Fireborne Blade #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim your honor. It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor.

Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff.

A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it's that “die trying” is where to wager your coin.

Maddileh’s tale contains a rich history of dragons, ill-fated knights, scheming squires, and sapphic love, with deceptions and double-crosses that will keep you guessing right up to its dramatic conclusion. Ultimately, The Fireborne Blade is about the roles we refuse to accept, and of the place we make for ourselves in the world.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Charlotte Bond’s The Fireborne Blade was obviously meant for me the second I saw that cover — or perhaps even more meant for my sister, let’s be honest. It has an interesting structure of jumping back and forth in time, and it becomes obvious why at the end (it’s not just the author not knowing where to start the story!).

It seems like a straightforward quest story, with an object at the end, and what we get is something a bit more tricksy. I was also expecting to feel much less ambivalent about how the book ends, but the book dodges being too obvious and straightforward about that, and gives us something unsettling and morally ambiguous. At least, I found it so — vengeance probably shouldn’t seem the clean and simple thing it is in some novels, so this isn’t a criticism at all!

I have so many questions about the world, and loved the little glimpses of other knights, other dragons, and all the customs around them. It’s a story that’s pretty complete in itself, but left me curious about what more would look like.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Blue

Posted February 3, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review – Blue

Blue: The Science and Secrets of Nature's Rarest Colour

by Kai Kupferschmidt

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 224
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Blue is the most widely beloved color—but in nature, it’s the rarest hue of all. True, physics paints the sea and sky blue, but we can’t bottle this trick of the light. And blue pigment requires such complex chemistry that blue creatures, plants, and minerals are few indeed. Artists and kings have treasured blue dye like precious gold since the time of the pharoahs—and who today can help but marvel at a morpho butterfly in the rain forest or a blue jay at the window?

Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt has been enraptured by blue since childhood. In his quest to understand the mysteries of his favorite color, he takes readers on a vivid journey—from a biotech lab in Japan and a volcanic lake in Oregon to his native Germany, home of the last blue-feathered Spix’s macaws. Deep underground where blue crystals grow, and miles overhead where astronauts gaze at our “blue marble” planet—wherever he finds this alluring color, it always has a story to tell.

Kai Kupferschmidt’s Blue is a book-length meditation on all things, well, you guessed it. It discuss blue as a pigment, blue as a historical and cultural thing, blue in linguistics, blue in plants, blue dye… you name it, it discusses it. Kupferschmidt is fascinated, and he’s sharing the journey, and along the way he explains some complex things very succinctly and clearly.

The book is also beautifully illustrated, all in colour, and has a section with further reading and sources, including image sources. All-in-all, beautifully presented and a joy to read — exactly the kind of curiosity I enjoy, zooming in on one subject and unravelling the things that touch it.

It’s shorter than it looks, given the illustrations and the full pages printed blue; I’d say it’s meant to be an object you enjoy looking at as much as anything else. I sped through it!

Rating: 4/5

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted February 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 30 Comments

It’s been a long week here. Unfortunately my wife’s grandfather died last weekend (not too unexpectedly), and the funeral had to happen very quickly, so we quickly dropped everything on Monday to sort things out to get my wife there on time. We managed it, which is all that matters, but I’m a little behind on comments and visiting people back thanks to the disruption and being away from home. I’ll catch up this weekend, since I’ll be back on my main PC!

In the meantime, here’s my usual weekly roundup, and I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Not a lot this week, but my wife caved to my pouting and got me the final volume of the Scum Villain series, which I’ve already devoured:

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 4 by MXTX

While the story was already over in the preceding volume, the fourth volume is full of short stories and extras that flesh out the world, the other characters, and what becomes of Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe.

Posts from this week:

I was a bit irregular about my posting schedule, but I think I did post a review every day. I have to, to even start to keep up with my reading speed — to avoid getting an even bigger backlog, I might need to post two in a day sometimes! So here’s this week’s roundup:

And other posts:

What I’m reading:

I’ve made a little project this week of finishing books I was partway through, leading to me finally finishing We Could Be So Good (Cat Sebastian), Sailor’s Delight (Rose Lerner) and Murder on Milverton Square (G.B. Ralph). I’ve also finished reading The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, having fallen rather in love with it.

For the weekend, I’m partway through Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s Soon-ish, while also being tempted to start on Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Heather Fawcett).

Aaand a peek at the books I’ll be reviewing soon(ish):

Cover of Stone Star Season One by Jim Zub et al Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 3 by MXTX Cover of Fear Stalks The Village by Ethel Lina White Cover of We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Cover of Stone Star Season Two by Jim Zub et al Cover of Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner Cover of Murder on Milverton Square by G.B. Ralph Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 4 by MXTX

Not bad going for a week’s reading, I think!

How’s everyone else been doing?

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