Posted November 4, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments
The Man Who Tasted Words
Genres: Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 326
Rating: 
Synopsis: Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning—the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance—is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control.
In The Man Who Tasted Words, neurologist Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well. The cases Leschziner shares are extreme, but they are also human, and teach us how our lives and what we perceive as reality are both ultimately defined by the complexities of our nervous systems.
The Man Who Tasted Words sounds like it’s going to be about a lexical->gustatory synaesthete, and the blurb also calls out that part, so I just want to say up front that it’s not really like that. There’s one chapter that discusses synaesthesia, and it doesn’t give it an especially long consideration or something.
In the end, it’s a book in the vein of many other similar books: the author’s a neurologist, and he draws stories from his practice to illustrate how the brain works, and how it fails to work. It’s always fascinating to read that kind of thing, but at the same time, this isn’t new at all. It has all the predictable beats (here’s the patient he failed, here’s the worst thing he’s ever experienced as a doctor, here’s the fascinating case), and the stories don’t particularly illustrate anything surprising and new.
So if you don’t read a lot of these, or conversely if you absolutely love them and read every single one you can get your hands on, this might be worth some time. I thought it was just OK, though.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Guy Leschziner, non-fiction, science
Posted November 3, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Undertow
Genres: Fantasy,
Mystery,
Romance Pages: 90
Series: Whyborne & Griffin #8.5 Rating: Synopsis: Shy secretary Maggie Parkhurst knows there’s nothing special about her. She’s neither sorceress, nor fighter, nor scholar. What could she possibly have to offer Persephone, the chieftess of the inhuman ketoi — and the woman Maggie’s fallen in love with?
After Maggie’s friend Irene goes missing under mysterious circumstances, she has no choice but to turn to Persephone for help. When the trail leads to a shadowy acting troupe, they discover a plot that stretches much farther than a single vanished woman.
But when a dark truth is revealed, Maggie must choose between a man from her past… and the impossible yearnings of her heart.
Undertow gives us the story of Dr Whyborne’s secretary, Maggie, and her friendship with his sister, Persephone. It’s a short one, but it has a nice action sequence, and shows us a slightly different side of Widdershins society.
I do think it’s funny that Maggie still hasn’t worked out that Whyborne’s in a relationship with Griffin. All the signs are there, she sees them, and… doesn’t clock on.
It’s nice to spend time with a character other than Whyborne, and also to see Maggie find happiness instead of mooning after him. I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed Persephone’s efforts to woo Maggie. Dead squid, indeed.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, romance, SF/F
Posted November 2, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Paddington Mystery
Genres: Crime,
Mystery Pages: 187
Rating: Synopsis: When Harold Merefield returns home from a nightclub in the early hours, he is startled by the gruesome discovery of a corpse - on his own bed! Who is he, and how did he get there?
Unconvinced by the inquest's verdict of 'death from natural causes', Harold determines to investigate the matter for himself and seeks the help of Professor Priestly, an academic with a reputation for solving curious affairs by the simple but unusual method of logical reasoning...
Apparently this is one of the first of John Rhode’s mysteries, so I was pretty intrigued: I’ve enjoyed his work, especially as Miles Burton, in a very classic mystery sort of way — perhaps not too enlightening about characters or even places, but a fun puzzle, and a satisfying sense of the world being put more or less to rights.
This book has those things, with actually a reasonable amount of character: Harold’s a bit of a mess, but cleaning his act up, and the Professor comes across quite sympathetically given that his daughter is tangentially involved in the mystery. I remember I’ve read one of the others starring Priestly, but couldn’t remember a single detail about him: this is a bit more memorable.
The mystery wasn’t too surprising, and I figured out some chunks of it quite quickly, but it was still satisfying to unravel and to see how Priestly gets things straightened out. I enjoyed it.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, crime, John Rhode, mystery
Posted November 1, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
Genres: Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 223
Rating: 
Synopsis: Kraken is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters, and this book introduces one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants of the sea: the squid. The pages take the reader on a wild narrative ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way addressing some riddles about what intelligence is, and what monsters lie in the deep. In addition to squid, both giant and otherwise, Kraken examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence.
Kraken was okay, but I felt the lack of numbered footnotes and felt it was all pretty slight, relying on personal interview and recounting of encounters between people and squid, rather than focusing on squid directly. There are endnotes with a few pages of sources, but it’s impossible to match up anything said in a specific chapter with the sources, which are just alphabetised.
It’s pretty readable, and there are some interesting anecdotes, but it feels like the author didn’t really had enough material — even padding out the book with a chapter on octopodes, instead of staying focused on squid. (Of course they are related, but the chapter wasn’t about the similarities/differences so much, just spent time describing a specific encounter with an octopus and such.)
So overall, it was okay, and there was some new-to-me information, but… ultimately, nothing too surprising, and no moments where I wanted to turn to someone and say “hey, did you know…?”
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, science, Wendy Williams
Posted October 31, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women
Genres: History,
Non-fiction Pages: 336
Rating: 
Synopsis: Here’s how the history of the Roman Empire usually goes… We start with Romulus, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. From there, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally mentioning a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, until Constantine invents Christianity and then Attila the Hun comes and ruins everything. But the history of Rome and empire is so much more than these Important Things.
In this alternative history, Emma Southon traces the story of the Roman Empire through women: Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, martyrs and saints. Each gives a different perspective on women’s lives and how they changed, across time and across class lines.
Received to review via Netgalley
Emma Southon has a particular style that I imagine some people really hate: conversational, chatty, often even flippant. When she doesn’t know something, because no one knows, she says so. When she’s painting a picture from imagination to fill in the gaps, or choosing one interpretation of many, she says so very frankly. I find it very readable, and I appreciate how clear she is about when she’s using sources, how she’s using sources, and when she’s just having to make things up — or choose one option above others because there’s nothing particular to tell them apart. She’s interested in telling a story here, and it shows.
That said, I can understand why those who are just looking for facts would rather she stop it; for all that she’s clear about sources vs imagination, it’s really not formalised. Don’t let that fool you, though: there’s an extensive bibliography at the back.
I really liked Southon’s plan to discuss events through women: I was kind of surprised Livia wasn’t a choice, for example, or Cleopatra, or Agrippina (who Southon has written a whole biography of!) — but instead Southon makes a harder decision, and often picks less well-known women.
I found it really enjoyable, though I still prefer her book on murder in Ancient Rome.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Emma Southon, history, non-fiction
Posted October 30, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Post After Post-Mortem
Genres: Crime,
Mystery Pages: 300
Series: British Library Crime Classics Rating: Synopsis: The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth – middle sister who writes ‘books which are just books’ – decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays’ hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth’s literary executor in the will she left behind.
Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide – but when Ruth’s brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.
I normally love E.C.R. Lorac’s books, and I think this was a very fine example of her work… without being one that I, strictly speaking, enjoyed. She has a way of describing characters and places that can make you love them and feel their goodness — and in this book, the nastiness of murder feels particularly prominent. It’s less “good people overcome” and more “good people are overcome”, and it just hit wrong for my current mood, despite being well handled.
Those who read it should be warned that the setup has the murder being taken to be suicide at first, and that the family react accordingly, with shock and horror and the sense that the world is upended. And that isn’t the end to their sorrows.
It’s a good thing that Lorac writes such a sensitive, humane detective in MacDonald, because his sympathy also helped to make this book as powerful as it is.
In the end, the solution was also a sad one, and the whole thing just left me with a sense of melancholy. Beautifully written, perhaps among Lorac’s best — but perhaps not one that I’ll visit again.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, E.C.R. Lorac, mystery
Posted October 29, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Sacraments for the Unfit
Genres: Fantasy,
Short Stories Pages: 146
Rating: Synopsis: The isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic brought out the ritualist in many of us. In this collection of contemporary weird short fiction, a variety of different persons and beings try to fill up their days in varying states of isolation and mystery, real or imaginary. An angel outlives the Apparat that used to employ him; a deity complains about no longer feeling seen; a museum curator living alone begins to inexplicably alter; a medievalist suffering from vision loss gets into a strange relationship with the ghost of the codicologist M. R. James; enigmatic objects begin to work themselves out of the ground by the grave of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, prompting scholarly speculation. Sacraments For the Unfit is a series of vignettes about the transformations that can happen while staying in place.
I can see why this book has been compared with Ursula Le Guin’s work. It had the same quality I have with some of her more impenetrable stories where I just don’t quite “get it”. Some of them seem to require some outside knowledge for more clarity — a little knowledge of M.R. James wouldn’t hurt, or Wittgenstein, which is quite the ask (I know a little about James, almost nothing about Wittgenstein).
In the end I don’t regret reading it, but also it wasn’t quite 100% squarely my thing, if that makes sense. I’m eager to read more of Tolmie’s books and stories, though: I really liked The Fourth Island and All the Horses of Iceland.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Sarah Tolmie, SF/F, short stories
Posted October 28, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid
Genres: Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 304
Rating: Synopsis: In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, biologist Thor Hanson tells the remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out. Anole lizards have grown larger toe pads, to grip more tightly in frequent hurricanes. Warm waters cause the development of Humboldt squid to alter so dramatically that fishermen mistake them for different species. Brown pelicans move north, and long-spined sea urchins south, to find cooler homes. And when coral reefs sicken, they leave no territory worth fighting for, so aggressive butterfly fish transform instantly into pacifists.
A story of hope, resilience, and risk, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is natural history for readers of Bernd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David Haskell. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable climate change is as it interacts with the messy lattice of life.
I found this surprisingly optimistic, given that the topic is the way animals and plants are adapting to changing climates and ecosystem upheaval. Hanson presents a fairly hopeful picture, though he tries repeatedly to temper the hope with reality — the refugia that allow species to survive in tiny slices of microclimate aren’t going to save species forever, and even those species which can move to a new place are causing immense disruption wherever they arrive.
I still fear that people will read this and come away with the feeling that everything will, somehow, be fine, because species are extraordinarily resilient and changeable. But as Hanson takes some pains to point out, that’s only some species. The examples he gives are just a handful.
It’s a very readable book, and fascinating: it ranges through a number of very different habitats, making its points.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, science, Thor Hanson
Posted October 27, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Unmasked by the Marquess
Genres: Historical Fiction,
Romance Pages: 320
Series: Regency Imposters #1 Rating: Synopsis: Robert Selby is determined to see his sister make an advantageous match. But he has two problems: the Selbys have no connections or money and Robert is really a housemaid named Charity Church. She's enjoyed every minute of her masquerade over the past six years, but she knows her pretense is nearing an end. Charity needs to see her beloved friend married well and then Robert Selby will disappear... forever.
Alistair, Marquess of Pembroke, has spent years repairing the estate ruined by his wastrel father, and nothing is more important than protecting his fortune and name. He shouldn't be so beguiled by the charming young man who shows up on his doorstep asking for favors. And he certainly shouldn't be thinking of all the disreputable things he'd like to do to the impertinent scamp.
When Charity's true nature is revealed, Alistair knows he can't marry a scandalous woman in breeches, and Charity isn't about to lace herself into a corset and play a respectable miss. Can these stubborn souls learn to sacrifice what they've always wanted for a love that is more than they could have imagined?
Unmasked by the Marquess is a m/nb romance, which may not be entirely apparent to all readers since Sebastian chooses to refer to Robin as she/her (a fact which is addressed in the author’s note, in a way that makes sense to me). It’s also a little bit grumpy/sunshine, if that’s something that appeals to you.
I did find myself struggling a bit in the middle of the book with the two of them being all “our relationship can never be, alas, woe, alack!” I mean, it makes sense, there needs to be something keeping them apart… but it felt a bit repetitive and like it wasn’t moving forward quite quickly enough.
I do enjoy both the characters, but especially Robin; I love that she’s so clever (and that sometimes she can’t resist going off into a dissertation on a pet subject), and I enjoy the ease she brings to Alistair: watching him open up as character was pretty fun.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Cat Sebastian, historical fiction, romance
Posted October 26, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Crocodile on the Sandbank
Genres: Mystery,
Romance Pages: 296
Series: Amelia Peabody #1 Rating: Synopsis: Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!
In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least, that's what he thinks.
The main problem with The Crocodile on the Sandbank is that it’s impossible to tell whether Peters was trying to write about period-appropriate attitudes, or whether the racism is ingrained. Either way, it doesn’t sit comfortably for a modern reader, at least without some sense that it’s on purpose: Amelia Peabody is so close to modern in some ways that it feels jarring when she’s a typical colonialist Brit of the period. At the same time, the fact that other details strive for period accuracy suggests it may be (at least in part) for the sake of verisimilitude.
As it is, I ended up trying to read it with my “enthusiast of classic crime” hat on, since it comes out of that mould. And in that light, it’s pretty enjoyable; I thought the mystery a little obvious, but it also makes sense that the headstrong characters don’t communicate and put things together because they’re too busy being headstrong.
I do love books set in and around Egypt, so it also fits into that craving for me, which made it extra enjoyable.
I’ll give the next book a try, though whether I keep up somewhat depends on where we’re going next (in terms of plot: I gather Egypt remains our location, based on the next couple of titles).
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Elizabeth Peters, mystery, romance
