Tag: book reviews

Review – A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 14

Posted June 23, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 14

A Side Character's Love Story

by Akane Tamura

Genres: Manga, Romance
Series: A Side Character's Love Story #14
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

With the arrival of a new season, a new chapter of Nobuko's life begins as well. Now employed at the city hall in her hometown, Nobuko faces all sorts of challenges as a working adult. Even when things are tough or she feels down, staying in touch with Hiroki helps her get through the toughest days. But being in a long-distance relationship comes with its own share of difficulties for them both...

Volume 14 of A Side Character’s Love Story follows Nobuko’s first steps post-graduation, with her new civil service job in Ehime — “long distance” from Hiroki (but it’s not actually that big of a deal, speaking as someone who has been in a long distance relationship that required a full day of travelling — the ability to pop over for the day, as Nobuko does in this volume, would have been amazing to me!).

Speaking of which, Nobuko showing up to see Hiroki’s dad is too cute, and a bold move for her that makes sense with how far she’s got in their relationship. That’s something Hiroki would’ve done for her at first!

It’s also nice to see Nobuko settling in, meeting new people, etc. She’s much more confident than she was at the start of the series, even if she doesn’t see it herself! She’s worked hard.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Cull of the Wild

Posted June 22, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Cull of the Wild

Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation

by Hugh Warwick

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 304
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Investigating the ethical and practical challenges of one of the greatest threats to biodiversity: invasive species.

Across the world, invasive species pose a danger to ecosystems. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity ranks them as a major threat to biodiversity on par with habitat loss, climate change and pollution.

Tackling this isn't easy, and no one knows this better than Hugh Warwick, a conservationist who loathes the idea of killing, harming or even eating animals. Yet as an ecologist, he is acutely aware of the need, at times, to kill invasive species whose presence harms the wider environment.

Hugh explores the complex history of species control, revealing the global movement of species and the impacts of their presence. Combining scientific theory with gentle humour in his signature style, he explains the issues conservationists face to control non-native animals and protect native species – including grey and red squirrels on Anglesey, ravens and tortoises in the Mojave Desert, cane toads in Australia and the smooth-billed ani on the Galapagos – and describes cases like Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippos and the Burmese python pet trade.

Taking a balanced and open approach to this emotive subject, Hugh speaks to experts on all sides of the debate. How do we protect endangered native species? Which species do we prioritise? And how do we reckon with the ethics of killing anything in the name of conservation?

Hugh Warwick’s Cull of the Wild is basically a vegan trying to confront the apparent reality that we may have to kill some animals, in great numbers, to protect diversity and preserve populations of endangered animals. Each chapter is a new example, often involving travel and dialogue, and he does his best to write openly about his biases and where he’s coming from.

It was interesting, mostly, but it did kind of drag once the examples started being very similar, because the dilemma is mostly the same in each case. For that reason I found the start of the book best, and by the end the conclusions mostly seemed obvious.

Personally, I’m somewhat ambivalent on the subject: I’d say I basically expect that it’s a case-by-case thing, for me, because some culls seem plausible and likely to both work and help, while others… the species aren’t necessarily surviving even if the predator/competitor pressure is removed, because humans are actually the major problem for many/most species in many/most parts of the world. Sometimes I don’t think killing an invasive species is the solution, because we can’t actually turn back the clock. And sometimes the invasion is new or partial in a way that makes a cull or a killing perimeter or whatever work, but it’s expensive, and then you wonder whether it’s worth it.

I don’t disagree that it’s the fault of humans, to be clear, nor that we bear a responsibility to fix things. These things are true. But killing to save is not going to be a good solution for everything, and I think I come at that answer from a slightly different direction with Warwick, who is largely concerned with a utilitarian weighing-up of suffering against suffering, and finding the greater good. That was maybe a bit frustrating to me, because the “maybe sometimes we should just… leave it alone” viewpoint is rather lacking.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Short History of British Architecture

Posted June 21, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Short History of British Architecture

A Short History of British Architecture: From Stonehenge to the Shard

by Simon Jenkins

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 400
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

The architecture of Britain is an art gallery in itself. From the streets to squares, through the cities, suburbs and villages, magnificent buildings of eclectic styles are found everywhere. A Short History of British Architecture is the gripping and untold story of why Britain looks the way it does, from prehistoric Stonehenge to the lofty towers of today.

Simon Jenkins traces the relentless battles over the European traditions of classicism and gothic. He guides us from the gothic cathedrals of Lincoln, Ely and Wells to the 'prodigy' houses of the Tudor renaissance, and visits the great estates of Georgian London, the docks of Liverpool, the mills of Yorkshire and the chapels of south Wales.

The arrival of modernism in the twentieth century politicized public taste, upheaved communities and sought to reconstruct entire cities. It produced Coventry Cathedral and Lloyd's of London, but also the brutalist monoliths of Sheffield's Park Hill, Glasgow's Cumbernauld and London's South Bank. Only in the 1970s did the public at last give voice to what became the conservation revolution - a movement in which Jenkins played a leading role, both as deputy chairman of English Heritage and chairman of the National Trust, and in the saving of iconic buildings such as St Pancras International and Covent Garden.

Jenkins shows that everyone is a consumer of architecture and makes the case for the importance of everyone learning to speak its language. A Short History of British Architecture is a celebration of Britain's national treasures, a lament of its failures - and a call to arms.

I know basically nothing about literature, and I can’t say I feel I know much more having finished Simon Jenkins’ A Short History of British Architecture — but I really enjoyed reading his enthusiastic survey of British architecture. I feel like it would be better appreciated by someone with a touch more knowledge than me, and it would also definitely reward reading with a device ready to search for images of the buildings discussed (which I didn’t do). There are some colour inserts with images, but not nearly enough to cover all the buildings he discusses.

I did have a couple of critiques — one of course would be that more images would’ve been helpful, and another would be the Anglo-centricism of it. There’s very little about Welsh or Scottish buildings, and particularly not specific buildings. Disposing of William Burges’ work in three paragraphs and Cardiff Castle/Castell Coch in three sentences within that is pretty baffling compared to the wordcount spent on other, English buildings. I think inevitable the book is guided by Jenkins’ taste and preferences, but Castell Coch is an absolute confection of a building, and one of the only buildings I feel genuinely quite passionate about myself (for all that it is a ridiculous daydream of a place; perhaps because it’s a ridiculous daydream).

In general, though, I was pretty lost, and while there is a glossary of terms, it’s at the back. I could’ve done with some definitions as we went along, honestly.

In the end, for me, reading this was like listening to someone talk enthusiastically about a subject they love, which I don’t share. It’s enjoyable, and I can join in the enthusiasm in the moment, but I won’t be taking it up.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Mark of Zorro

Posted June 19, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro

by Johnston McCulley

Genres: Classics
Pages: 265
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Here begins the legend of Zorro. Spanish Southern California struggles under the governor’s tyrannical grip. Missions are raided and innocent peasants are abused and persecuted. But from the desert a savior arises. A masked man named Zorro, or desert fox, rides at night taking revenge on those who would harm the common man. His deadly marksmanship and flashing sword quickly become legendary.

I’d never read Johnston McCulley’s The Mark of Zorro, so when I was looking for a bit of a break from classic detective fiction on Serial Reader, I picked it more or less at random. It mostly struck me how very much of a Robin Hood story it is, really — transformed to a totally different setting, I’ll grant you, but a lot of the characteristics are there.

The “twist” was very obvious and I assume it was supposed to be, but I always find that sort of thing frustrating.

As a whole, it’s not unenjoyable, with all the usual caveats about when it was written and by whom, lending it a certain perspective and a certain way of regarding people and things. I can’t say I was reading particularly critically, though, more with an eye to understanding something iconic (particularly given there’s a character in the game Persona 5 who uses ‘Zorro’ as his persona) and getting context I didn’t have.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz

Posted June 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz

by Garth Nix

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories
Pages: 304
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Sir Hereward: the only male child of an ancient society of witches. Knight, artillerist, swordsman. Mercenary for hire. Ill-starred lover.

Mister Fitz: puppet, sorcerer, loremaster. Practitioner of arcane arts and wielder of sorcerous needles.

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: godslayers. Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with the location and removal of listed extra-dimensional entities, more commonly known as gods. Together, they are relentless travelers in a treacherous world of magic, gunpowder, and adventure.

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz is a collection of short stories in the same world, by Garth Nix, and I think it suffers for being a bunch of stories written in the same world but not necessarily for the same exact audience. The stories have similar themes and structures, and each is meant to stand somewhat alone, meaning it feels a bit… repetitive.

There are certainly concepts which I found interesting, and I might have enjoyed the stories quite a bit if I’d read them separately, one at a time, in separate magazines or anthologies. There’s some really fun worldbuilding!

But… as a sit-down-and-read-straight-through experience, it didn’t really work well for me. It’s perfectly readable, and there’s a “Nix”ness about it that I enjoy — it’s why I picked up this based on seeing his name on it, after all — but overall, no, not in this format.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Chef’s Kiss

Posted June 17, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Chef’s Kiss

Chef's Kiss

by Jarrett Melendez, Danica Brine, Hank Jones, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Genres: Graphic Novels, Romance
Pages: 153
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Now that college is over, English graduate Ben Cook is on the job hunt looking for something...anything...related to his passion for reading and writing. According to the hiring committees, he doesn't have enough experience. But when he stumbles upon a "Now Hiring—No Experience Necessary" sign outside a restaurant, Ben jumps at the chance to land his first job. He's actually not so bad in the kitchen, plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. But when he begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, he'll start to feel torn between wanting to stay and cook and following his original post-college plan to be a writer. Watch things start to really heat up in the kitchen in this queer YA debut graphic novel!

Somehow, this review never got posted when I read the book in 2022, so here’s one from the backlog I guess!

Chef’s Kiss is really, really cute. I like the art style, and found it very easy to follow what was going on, both due to the clarity of the art and a good layout. That’s not always something you can take for granted (and depends strongly on your taste and visual comprehension skills), though it might sound like faint praise! I enjoy graphic novels, but being strongly non-visual, I’m not always the best at following them.

The cast of characters is fun: the main character is Ben, of course, who starts out looking for a writing job and then finally finds himself at the end of his tether, right in front of a restaurant that’s hiring. He meets one of the chefs, Liam, who happens to be really cute, and then… then the weirdness starts. The owner of the restaurant seems reluctant to handle hiring, and to almost want to deter Ben, insisting he pass a series of challenges in order to work for them, judged by the restaurant’s official taste tester.

The taste tester is a pig, Watson.

There are lots of silly bits surrounding Watson, but there’s a serious core to the story. Ben has to struggle with what he really wants to do, with what he wants to be, and with what his parents want for him. Fresh out of college, he and the friends he lives with have their whole lives to figure out, including interpersonal issues. And, of course, he has a massive crush on Liam.

The whole thing is pretty light, all the same, with lots of cute moments between Liam and Ben, and between Ben and his friends. There’s even a great scene with the owner of the restaurant that hits a strong emotional note — though that’s all I’ll say about that. I found the story a bit ridiculous, at times, but fun.

If you’ve worked in or adjacent to the industry, I can almost guarantee it will annoy you, though. Even I can tell it’s a whimsical and inaccurate imagining of it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Animals Among Us

Posted June 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Animals Among Us

The Animals Among Us: The New Science of Anthrozoology

by John Bradshaw

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 371
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

The bestselling author of Dog Sense and Cat Sense explains why living with animals has always been a fundamental aspect of being human

Pets have never been more popular. Over half of American households share their home with either a cat or a dog, and many contain both. This is a huge change from only a century ago, when the majority of domestic cats and dogs were working animals, keeping rodents at bay, guarding property, herding sheep. Nowadays, most are valued solely for the companionship they provide. As mankind becomes progressively more urban and detached from nature, we seem to be clinging to the animals that served us well in the past.

In The Animals Among Us, anthrozoologist John Bradshaw argues that pet-keeping is nothing less than an intrinsic part of human nature. An affinity for animals drove our evolution and now, without animals around us, we risk losing an essential part of ourselves.

I found John Bradshaw’s The Animals Among Us initially quite interesting, but ultimately there were a couple of problems: it’s very repetitive, it’s very gender essentialist, and he keeps saying things “cannot be a coincidence” when they can, anything can be a coincidence. Just saying something cannot be a coincidence does not constitute any kind of proof whatsoever that it is not, in fact, coincidence.

He’s also got a pretty cavalier attitude to a number of things, typified by the one I picked up on: he claims that it’s — and I quote — a “fable” that there’s a link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis. Not only is it not a fable, but there are also links between Toxoplasma gondii infection and suicide risk, bipolar disease, anxiety, ADHD and OCD. And more! Now I’m not saying all of those are well evidenced, mostly I see stuff like odds ratios and hazard ratios that are suggestive without being conclusive, and we could use more clear-cut explanations of how that’s supposed to be caused and elucidations of stuff like whether it’s infection at any time in your life or infection at a critical period or only if you have both a toxoplasmosis infection and another risk factor… But the point is, it should not be lightly dismissed as a fable.

And sure, it’s a relatively minor point, except he refers to it multiple times and he’s wrong every time. What’s going on here? Has he just decided it’s not a risk and declared that to be the case in spite of the evidence we have? Is he referring to a paper to rule all papers that has disproven all the ones before and after it? Why is he saying this?

This kind of thing always makes me a bit suspicious, and of course, I know my parasitology pretty well (I have an MSc in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, one of the top universities for the study of infectious disease in the world — or I will after it’s been officially conferred upon me — and I studied parasitology in the course of that degree) and this jumped out at me. What was there that wasn’t jumping out at me, but is nonetheless equally wrong, dismissive, misguided, etc?

So… read with care, I suppose.

Rating: 2/5 

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Review – Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

Posted June 15, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women

by Hetta Howes

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 298
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear their stories?

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a "no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics.

Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical biography of their lives that challenges what we think we know about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today.

This mesmerizing book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women writers, some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.

Hetta Howes’ Poet Mystic Widow Wife does a pretty good job at discussing the lives of medieval women in general, while reflecting specifically on Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. If considered as intending to shed light on those lives specifically, it feels pretty disorganised and lacks detail on Marie de France and Julian of Norwich — which is in part due to lack of sources and in part due to choosing poorly (though there may not be many good choices).

Overall, it didn’t quite work for me. I think it was the general feeling of it not being super organised, for a start; each section would jump around slightly in time and place, trying to touch on the four women regularly, but not always managing to link them in to the chapter’s themes very well.

Perhaps it’s partly a matter of style; while Howes’ style is readable, I didn’t love it. Her sources are pretty sparse, and overall this might all be explained by the fact that she’s qualified in medieval literature (which probably informed her choice of sources) rather than history. Literature was my first field of study as well and one in which she’s more qualified than I am, and medieval literature in particular has an overlap with understanding medieval history… but it’s not the same. I know a lot about the role of medieval women through that same literary lense, and maybe I was hoping for something a bit more rooted in named sources. I was also hoping for more about Marie de France, whose works I studied (in translation).

In any case, if you’re looking for an accessible, chatty sort of popular history, with reimaginings about what Margery Kemp and Christine de Pizan thought and felt, this might be more up your street. If you’re here for Marie de France or Julian of Norwich, perhaps not.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Poetry Prescription: Words for Love

Posted June 13, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Poetry Prescription: Words for Love

Poetry Prescription: Words for Love

by Deborah Alma (editor)

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 70
Series: Poetry Prescriptions
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

This beautiful pocket-sized hardback gift book contains carefully curated prescriptions in verse compiled by Deborah Alma, the founder of the Poetry Pharmacy. Life is lived with feeling - these poems look at all the many manifestations of love.

For All Matters of the Heart -Stimulants for Romantic Love, Panaceas for the Broken-Hearted; for the Appreciation of Fellowship, Family and for the Promotion of Tenderness.

Includes poems by W. B. Yeats, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Edna St Vincent Millay, D. H. Lawrence and many more.

• No bitter pills
• No adverse reactions

The Poetry Prescription series compiled by Deborah Alma is the perfect antidote for life’s ailments. Inspired by the achingly cool Poetry Pharmacy shops in London and Shropshire - social media favourites with a clear focus on promoting wellbeing through the written and spoken word. Each of the eight themed titles offers an array of poems to inspire, heal and comfort. Whether you are looking to find solace for times of ill-health, loss and grief, cope with matters of the heart, need poetic inspiration for courage and confidence, or want to find peace and tranquillity in wild spaces, there is a collection for everyone.

Perfect for reading aloud or for quiet contemplation, these books are a much needed balm for our busy lives.

I love the idea of the “Poetry Prescription” books, selections of poems for given moods and needs which promise no bitter pills, nothing hard to swallow, just poetry suitable for the moment. I don’t know if all of them have the same editor, but Words for Love was edited by Deborah Alma, and it’s an interesting selection.

Many of them are, to me at least, expected inclusions: your Keats, Rosetti and Shakespeare. There are also poets I didn’t know, or poems I didn’t know by poets I did know, and I’d kind of hoped for more of those — but it makes for an accessible volume if you’re not a big poetry reader. I wouldn’t have picked that Duffy poem, of all her options, but at least it was from Rapture, which is my favourite of her collections.

The collection offers a small section for new love, one for grief, one for familial love, that kind of division. It’s all quite nice as a concept, and I might pick up others in the series for the introductions to different poets I might not have known.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – A Case of Mice and Murder

Posted June 12, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Case of Mice and Murder

A Case of Mice and Murder

by Sally Smith

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 352
Series: The Trials of Gabriel Ward #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The first in a delightful new mystery series set in the hidden heart of London's legal world, introducing a wonderfully unwilling sleuth, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Nita Prose.

When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms at exactly two minutes to seven on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case-the disputed authorship of bestselling children's book Millie the Temple Church Mouse-that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.

But even he cannot fail to notice the judge's dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest. In the shaded courtyards and ancient buildings of the Inner Temple, the hidden heart of London's legal world, murder has spent centuries confined firmly to the casebooks. Until now.

The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn't answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple's heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he'd ever imagined...

When I started Sally Smith’s A Case of Mice and Murder, I was not really expecting to like Gabriel Ward. He seems at first blush like he’s going to be a persnickety old guy. But he quickly won me over with his love of routine, his little rituals, his love of books, and most especially, his kind and gentlemanly manner to everyone, of all classes, no matter his opinion of them.

The book is set in 1901, and steeped in the traditions of the Inner Temple (which is, to be clear, one of the four “Inns of Court” in London). Gabriel lives almost entirely within the Inner Temple, works there, and is deeply content and happy — until he’s confronted one day by a dead body lying on the steps of his chambers.

I guessed the resolution of both the murder and the other case Gabriel works on, but in a good way where it all made sense and hung together. There was no “oh it’ll be the most unlikely person, so the murder is XXX”; it all makes a good amount of sense. I missed a couple of minor details along the way, but figured out the main thrust of it. I don’t require a fair play mystery, but I can very much appreciate one, and this was fun.

I felt like knowing a bit about law from the Secret Barrister’s writing, and being primed for a legal mystery by Sarah Caudwell’s work, helped quite a bit with settling into the context of the mystery… But mostly it was a surprisingly warm story, and that captured my interest and my heart. There’s a deep affection for the setting and for the traditions of the Inner Temple, the rituals of lawyers, and for the justice lawyers can stand for. I can’t wait to spend more time with Gabriel, and will be getting the second book posthaste, once it’s out!

[Edited to add: And I’ve been approved for the ARC, in fact, and will be plunging straight in!]

Rating: 4/5

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