Tag: books

Review – Sticky

Posted April 26, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces

by Laurie Winkless

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 334
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
You are surrounded by stickiness. With every step you take, air molecules cling to you and slow you down; the effect is harder to ignore in water. When you hit the road, whether powered by pedal or engine, you rely on grip to keep you safe. The Post-it note and glue in your desk drawer. The non-stick pan on your stove. The fingerprints linked to your identity. The rumbling of the Earth deep beneath your feet, and the ice that transforms waterways each winter. All of these things are controlled by tiny forces that operate on and between surfaces, with friction playing the leading role.

In Sticky, Laurie Winkless explores some of the ways that friction shapes both the manufactured and natural worlds, and describes how our understanding of surface science has given us an ability to manipulate stickiness, down to the level of a single atom. But this apparent success doesn't tell the whole story. Each time humanity has pushed the boundaries of science and engineering, we've discovered that friction still has a few surprises up its sleeve.

So do we really understand this force? Can we say with certainty that we know how a gecko climbs, what's behind our sense of touch, or why golf balls, boats and aircraft move as they do? Join Laurie as she seeks out the answers from experts scattered across the globe, uncovering a stack of scientific mysteries along the way.

I found Laurie Winkless’ Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces a little uneven — less in terms of her writing, though, and more just in terms of my interest. The chapter on how geckos cling to surfaces fascinated me, but I’m less interested in Formula 1 cars or curling, especially not because the chapters felt like they unfolded a bit jerkily. I think it’s because each chapter is kind of chronological in revealing how we’ve understood the topic over time, and it starts to feel a bit like “aaand another thing!”

I think though that part of this is just that I’m a biologist, and not that interested in stuff on the level of van der Waals forces and friction. Winkless writes clearly and communicates the concepts well, and is genuinely enthusiastic about the topics, which helps.

So not quite for me, but still a fun detour.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Laurie Winkless, non-fiction, science

Review – A Bookshop of One’s Own

Posted April 25, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

A Bookshop of One's Own

by Jane Cholmeley

Genres: History, Memoir, Non-fiction
Pages: 340
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Silver Moon was the dream of three women – a bookshop with the mission to promote the work of female writers and create a much-needed safe space for any woman. Founded in 1980s London against a backdrop of homophobia and misogyny, it was a testament to the power of community, growing into Europe’s biggest women’s bookshop and hosting a constellation of literary stars from Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to Angela Carter. While contending with day-to-day struggles common to other booksellers, plus the additional burdens of misogyny and the occasional hate crime, Jane Cholmeley and her booksellers created a thriving business. But they also played a crucial and relatively unsung part in one the biggest social movements of our time.

A Bookshop of One’s Own is a fascinating slice of social history from the heart of the women’s liberation movement, from a true feminist and lesbian icon. Written with heart and humour, it reveals the struggle and joy that comes with starting an underdog business, while being a celebration of the power women have to change the narrative when they are the ones holding the pen.

What was it like to start a feminist bookshop, in an industry dominated by men? How could a lesbian thrive in Thatcher’s time, with the government legislating to restrict her rights? How do you run a business when your real aim is to change the world?

Silver Moon was a feminist bookshop in London — one of the first in the UK, and ultimately the largest in Europe, with the aims of showing there was a market for books for women, books about women, books about lesbians, etc, in all kinds of genres. They started out naive and hopeful, and mostly kept the hope alive through the years of downturns and bastard landlords and men coming in to wank in front of the lesbian bookshelves (really).

Jane Cholmeley was one of the founders, and this book is a little bit her memoir, and mostly the story of the bookshop. It’s selective, of course, though Cholmeley tries to have her eyes open to her own faults, and muses at times on what she did wrong, or on situations she might’ve handled differently. It’s clear that it was an important resource for many, and the support for LGBT women came at just the right time during a period where gays and lesbians needed visibility, to be given a place where they were normal, because of Thatcher’s section 28.

Sometimes it’s infuriating and depressing, sometimes you have to roll your eyes at the earnest naivety of two young feminists starting a bookshop with relatively little knowledge of the requirements, sometimes you just have to cheer them on. And I very much appreciated Cholmeley’s self-examination, and her eagerness to include the anecdotes and perspectives of the people who worked at Silver Moon, including those which were critical.

It sounds like it was a lovely and vital place, and it made me sad for all we lost in the closing down of the bookshops (not just Silver Moon) on Charing Cross Road.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Jane Cholmeley, memoir, non-fiction

WWW Wednesday

Posted April 24, 2024 by Nicky in General / 4 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?

I’ve been embarking on a bit of a crusade to finish the books I’ve started, so I returned to Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, by Caroline Vout. In the end, there was less to surprise me than I’d thought, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, since I did study classics at university, and have read a few other books on Greek/Roman customs.

I also finished listening to Fugitive Telemetry (Martha Wells), since I’ve been tearing through the series on Audible. Not my favourite, admittedly; it feels a little inconsequential after the events of Exit Strategy. But still fun!

What are you currently reading?

After my TTT post yesterday mentioning books I’ve been neglecting, I actually picked one of them up: I started on Ross Barnett’s The Missing Lynx, which I’m enjoying so far. Barnett writes in a lively way about the extinct megafauna, and his excitement about the animals (especially sabretooths) comes through.

I’m also partway through the audiobook of Network Effect, by Martha Wells. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Kevin R. Free as a narrator: sometimes he’s perfect, and sometimes I just… aah. Not quite. The voice he uses for Gurathin is perfect, but of course Gurathin isn’t in this book.

What will you read next?

Not sure! Probably I’ll return to another of the books on my backlog, though. There’s a bunch to choose from, but maybe Doina Ruști’s The Book of Perilous Dishes, because I’d only just started that when I got distracted, and it should be easy to get back into.

How about you? Anything interesting on your bedside table at the moment?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: The Neglected Books

Posted April 23, 2024 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about the unread books on your shelves that you want to get around to soon. Like many readers, I have plenty of those… I’m going to stick to books I haven’t even peeked into yet, and exclude the (too many) books I’ve read a little bit of… and I’ll try to pick some older books instead of the ones that’re top of mind because they’re recent purchases!

System Collapse, by Martha Wells. And Witch King, to be honest. I got both of these as ARCs, not realising how very busy my studies would keep me. I’m currently listening to the Murderbot books on audio, which should make a great on-ramp into System Collapse without me getting distracted by rereading the older books…
The Cactus Hunters: Desire and Extinction in the Illicit Succulent Trade, by Jared D. Margulies. I mostly requested the ARC of this because I have a friend who loves succulents, and I wanted to see if it would be worth getting for him once it was out. And then it was in an awkward format and I didn’t get round to putting it on the ereader that can cope with that, and… and here we are and it’s been forever. And I’m still curious about why people go so mad for some succulents that they might drive them extinct.
The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood. I read Loathe to Love You, and enjoyed Hazelwood’s style… and just on principle I own several of her novels, because geeky ladies in STEM being heroines of romance novels sounds awesome. Buuuut I actually have to get round to reading it. You know, eventually. I mean. Soon!
The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard. I enjoy de Bodard’s work quite a bit, and have wanted to read more of her Xuya stuff, but the hardback intimidated me and then shuffled to the back of a shelf or something. I want to dig it up and give it a shot soon!
The Water Outlaws, by S.L. Huang. This one’s even sat close to my desk, tempting me, but somehow I’ve never cracked it open. Why? Who knows!
A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske. I really liked the first book, and then when this came out I grabbed it and — got distracted. I think you might be sensing a theme. Anyway, I want to reread the first book, dive into this one, and proceed onward to A Power Unbound as well. And like I said, I’d like to do that soon.
Murder in the Basement, by Anthony Berkeley. It’s rare that a British Library Crime Classic gets to sit unread on my shelves, and I think I must just have forgotten I picked this one (and Jumping Jenny) up. I’ll have to hunt it down and crack it open soon!
The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals, by Ross Barnett. I’ve been meaning to read this for quite a long time, though I haven’t had a copy for that long. I know a fair bit about bringing animals back in places like Yellowstone, but not much about it in Britain, other than beavers. But I’m interested to learn!
At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard. I adored The Hands of the Emperor, and really shouldn’t dawdle about picking this up. Though maybe it’d be nice to reread the first book and spend some time with Cliopher again first. You know, just for context.
Eight Detectives, by Alex Pavesi. This is a modern mystery, so perhaps a little out of my comfort zone, but it seems rather puzzle-box-y in a way that sounds more like a classic type mystery than modern blood and gore. High time I got round to it and gave it a shot, in any case.

So that’s a random mix, as usual for me — bit of non-fic, bit of sci-fi, bit of romance, bit of fantasy. And will I actually go ahead and read these soon?

Well… that’s a solid maybe.

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Breaklands: The Chase

Posted April 22, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Breaklands: The Chase

by Justin Jordan, Sarah Stern, Rachel Deering, Tyasseta

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels
Pages: 120
Series: Breaklands #1
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
One hundred and fifty years after the end of the civilization, everyone has powers. Some big, some small, but you need them just to survive in the new age. Everyone except Kasa Fain. Which is a problem when her little brother, who has the potential to reshape the world, is kidnapped by people who intend to just that.

Breaklands Season One is the start of a three-volume journey that struggles a bit to really differentiate itself from the crowd. It’s enjoyable enough in an uncritical, “hey-ho let’s read a quick adventure” way, but most of the details are going to blur into the aether for me within a week or two more. A boy with mysterious powers gets separated from his older sister (who has no powers), and she chases after him, assembles a ragtag crew to help her find him, and of course gets into trouble along the way. Don’t hurt her brother, or she’ll hurt you!

Oh, and she does, after all, have powers. Etc, etc.

There are things I wondered about a bit with this, and it was mostly about the supporting cast and how they came to be where they are. Ruth in particular, I felt like he spent a lot of time being beaten up (and beating others up), but in the end all we know is that he’s indestructible. But what drives him? The book doesn’t care much.

Technically I’ve read all three volumes, but I don’t think I’ll review the other two: it goes where you would expect it to, pretty much how you’d expect it to. Maybe for younger readers (or less prolific readers), it’d come as more of a surprise, and I’m sure there are readers out there who’d love the series.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Justin Jordan, Rachel Deering, Sarah Stern, SF/F, Tyasseta

Review – The Tainted Cup

Posted April 21, 2024 by Nicky in Uncategorized / 3 Comments

The Tainted Cup

by Robert Jackson Bennett

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 410
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan #1
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
In an opulent mansion at the borders of the Empire, an Imperial officer lies dead – killed when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even here, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

Called in to solve the crime is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricity. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory.

Soon, the mystery leads to a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself. For Ana, all this makes for a deliciously thorny puzzle – at last, something to truly hold her attention. And Din? He’ll just have to hold on for the ride.

An eccentric detective and her long-suffering assistant untangle a web of magic, deceit, and murder in this sparkling fantasy reimagining of the classic crime novel – from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

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.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s books are always a lot of fun, and The Tainted Cup was no exception. It’s a fantasy world, though the relationship between Ana and Din smacks very much of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson (albeit with an additional superior/subordinate component, especially given that Din is only in training). The setting is a fascinating world that as yet has a lot sketched in around the edges — we see life on what is basically the frontier, the walls which repel gigantic attacking Titans from the sea, but there’s more to the Empire than that… and one suspects we’ll see more of that, in future books.

Though the exact shape, size and composition of the Empire might be sketchy, there is a lot of detail about the world to wonder over: the different ways people have been altered to suit others’ needs, the reagent keys, the poisons and medicines. There’s some serious body horror in all that — not just the trees sprouting from people’s bodies, but also the more subtle horror of the cracklers that doesn’t always get noted by the narration as being horrifying, and even Din’s own skills.

Once I settled into it, it was a surprisingly fast read for how chunky it looked, sweeping me along to the conclusion. I’d love to see more of the world, and get deeper into Ana’s investigation: in true Sherlock Holmes style, I didn’t always understand where her conclusions came from, and I don’t think it was an entirely fair play mystery (in part because it’s not our world), but I hope the next book is also a mystery: it’s always fun when my favourite genres cross.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, mystery, Robert Jackson Bennett, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted April 20, 2024 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

Good afternoon, folks! I’ve been spending a good amount of today so far reading, in part thanks to listening to the audio versions of the Murderbot books. I’m not sure whether I’m going to review them — after all, I’ve reviewed the original books probably more than once, and I don’t think I have that much to say about audio. That said, I find reviews of audiobooks super helpful when I find them, so maybe it’d be good anyway? We’ll see.

Anyway, as usual 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:

Two books this week! My wife buys me one book a month of my choice (which has long been our Valentine’s Day agreement: no big fuss on that day, spread out the love through the year), and picked up Ann Leckie’s short story collection for me last weekend. Plus, my British Library Crime Classic book for this month arrived.

So that’s nice! I’m already most of the way through London Particular, though I haven’t figured out whodunnit yet.

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s a roundup!

Romance manga: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, vol 1, by Shio Usui (3/5 stars)
Alt historical romance: Honey & Pepper, by A.J. Demas (4/5 stars)
History: Ten Birds that Changed the World, by Stephen Moss (3/5 stars)
Classic crime: The Corpse in the Waxworks, by John Dickson Carr (3/5 stars)
Memoir: Sticker, by Henry Hoke (1/5 stars)

What I’m reading:

As I mentioned, I’ve been tearing through the Murderbot audiobooks, but I’ve also been trying to get to grips with the tottering pile of books I have partially read. I’ve been pretty successful in the last couple of days, hurrah. So here are some of the books that I’ll probably be reviewing soon, having finished them this week!

For the rest of the weekend, it’ll be more Murderbot, finishing up London Particular, and then… who knows?

How’s everyone else doing? Anything exciting from the library this week, or landing on your ereader?

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Sticker

Posted April 19, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Sticker

by Henry Hoke

Genres: Memoir, Non-fiction
Pages: 152
Series: Object Lessons
Rating:

Synopsis:
Stickers adorn our first memories, dot our notebooks and our walls, are stuck annoyingly on fruit, and accompany us into adulthood to shout our perspectives from car bumpers. They hold surprising power in their ability to define and provoke, and hold a strange steadfast presence in our age of fading physical media. Henry Hoke employs a constellation of stickers to explore queer boyhood, parental disability, and ancestral violence. A memoir in 20 stickers, Sticker is set against the backdrop of the encroaching neo-fascist presence in Hoke's hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, which results in the fatal terrorist attack of August 12th and its national aftermath.

Unfortunately, I seem to be having bad luck with my Object Lessons choices lately. I enjoy the ones which pick into the history of an everyday object and try to understand it, like Personal Stereo and Blue Jeans. I’m less a fan of the memoir type, and Henry Hoke’s Sticker falls into that category. It’s a life told through tenuous connections with stickers, from the stickers his mother put on bottles of dangerous household cleaning products to the parental advisory stickers on CDs and onward.

There’s absolutely a place in this world for this kind of memoir, and the story of a gay kid growing up in Charlottesville is a story worth telling. I want to be clear that it’s not that I don’t think the story should be told at all. I’m just not a fan of it in this series, and nor is it something I particularly seek out to read (nor memoir in general). Just not for me.

So, if you’re looking for something that discusses the history or wider cultural relevance of stickers, this ain’t remotely it. Which is a pity, because that book would be fascinating. This book is about Henry Hoke.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: book reviews, books, memoir, non-fiction

Review – The Corpse in the Waxworks

Posted April 18, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Corpse in the Waxworks

by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
"The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?"

Last night Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musée Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark—a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of 'impossible' crimes, cannot possibly resist.

Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks, his associate Jeff Marle and the victim's fiancé in tow. Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery.

John Dickson Carr’s The Corpse in the Waxworks was surprisingly in the middle for me — usually I quite dislike John Dickson Carr’s earlier work and books involving Henri Bencolin, though I’ve later come to enjoy some of his Gideon Fell stories.

This one’s not one of his more famous, and isn’t a locked room mystery, meaning it actually felt less contrived than some of them. And Bencolin wasn’t quite as annoying as I usually find him, though I wasn’t a huge fan either; his sidekick (Marle) is just kind of vanilla, really, though he gets his own little action sequence (predictable as it is).

In the end, it felt relatively straightforward as Carr’s mysteries go, and without any femmes being too fatale, and it did have an intriguing sense of atmosphere around the masked club and the waxworks — a little bit creepy, a little bit high-strung.

Not a new favourite by any means, but more enjoyable than I expected.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, John Dickson Carr, mystery

WWW Wednesday

Posted April 17, 2024 by Nicky in General / 2 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?

I think the last thing I finished was Mountains of Fire, by Clive Oppenheimer. It’s about volcanoes, about which the author is undeniably enthusiastic. Sadly, I think volcanoes are just not really my thing? There were interesting facts in the book, particularly when he discusses local culture around volcanoes, but overall it just didn’t speak to me.

Before that, I read The One-Cent Magenta, by James Barron. It’s less about the stamp itself and more about how collectors gave the stamp such value (it’s the most valuable stamp in the world).

What are you currently reading?

Apparently, 26 books at once. This isn’t ideal, it’s just that I keep picking up books and reading part of them, and then my whims move on somewhere else, unfortunately. I’m trying to get back to actively reading some of them, so I’ve gone back to Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones, by Hettie Judah. It’s not that it isn’t interesting, it’s just kind of bitty, as there’s only a couple of pages per stone before it moves on. Sometimes I’m in the mood for that, and sometimes less so. It’s a beautiful book, though.

What will you read next?

I want to get back to focusing on some of the fiction on my list as well! I think I might dig back into London Particular, by Christianna Brand: I only started that a few days ago, so it’s fresh in my mind (even if I did read 50 pages and then just wander off). As is pretty typical for me with Christianna Brand’s work, I don’t really like any of the protagonists (and I know I don’t like the detective, whenever he actually appears), but she does make them come alive.

What about you? Reading anything good?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday