Tag: books

Review – Loving You When the World Ended

Posted January 16, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Loving You When the World Ended

by Gene

Genres: Manga, Romance, Science Fiction
Pages: 146
Rating:

Synopsis:
An apocalyptic event forces two strangers to navigate a world where the old order is shattered. Is it survival of the fittest or survival of the richest? Spoiled Nuowan can’t stay alive in this new reality without the help of skilled hotel worker Yu Sen, whom he met only moments before the world ended. Yu’s former military training comes in handy but is kissing out of the blue a survival tactic?

Gene’s Loving You When the World Ended is a pretty short manga focused on the relationship between Nuowan and Yu post-apocalypse. Nuowan is a spoiled rich kid, and Yu’s an ex-military man who saves his life and works hard to keep him alive, since it seems possible that they’re the only humans left.

The apocalyptic stuff is very very light, and the focus is more on the relationship drama: Nuowan is demanding, childish, and wants Yu to put him first and love him no matter what, while ignoring Yu’s feelings. He acts on impulse and all his relationships are really rushed.

The art is OK, cute sometimes, but the story and relationship are pretty meh.

Rating: 1/5 (“didn’t like it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Gene, manga, romance, SF/F

Review – Roses for Hedone

Posted January 15, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Roses for Hedone: On Queer Hedonism and World-Making Through Pleasure

by Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 112
Series: Inklings
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
When a society marginalises a people, their humanity is revolutionary - in all its hunger and joy. Although long demonised, hedonism in all its forms has played a central role in how queer people sought to organise as a symbiotic system. In fact, when viewed through a queer lens, hedonism undergoes a process of transformation and embodies the "power for change", as described by Audre Lorde in The Uses of the Erotic. Today, when the queer community worldwide faces rampant transphobia, rising hate crime, and unequal access to support services - all in the context of humanitarian crises, a climate crisis, and a destabilised political landscape - such hedonism is no less necessary or, indeed, present. As we face ongoing and new challenges to creating a more fair world, let us borrow from the Ancient Greeks' understanding of love's multiplicity to explore queer hedonism not as a momentary phenomenon, but rather a transformational route through which we can learn from our past, connect in the present, and look towards the future with hope - together.

Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin’s Roses for Hedone is an exploration about how hedonism and pleasure-seeking can be part of self-care and of activism, making a space for queerness in the world and taking defiant joy in it.

Not all of the aspects of hedonism discussed are ones I really “get” (like attending raves, or casual sex), but some parts of it do ring true in terms of togetherness and helping one another — though if caring for one another is hedonism, then yikes, what a world we live in!

It’s an interesting short read, and a good reminder to take joy where you can, and make space for it, in order to fuel your ability to survive and fight for your rights and needs.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin

Review – Algospeak

Posted January 14, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language

by Adam Aleksic

Genres: Linguistics, Non-fiction
Pages: 246
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
A viral linguist’s account of the ways our vocabularies are evolving, the internet’s influence on communication, and what our use of language reveals about the modern world.

From the rise of leetspeak and words such as “unalive” to the trend of adding “-core” to different influencer aesthetics, the internet has ushered in an unprecedented linguistic upheaval. We’re entering an entirely new era of etymology, heralded by the invisible forces driving social media algorithms. Thankfully, Algospeak is here to explain. As a professional linguist, Adam Aleksic understands the gravity of language and the way we use it: he knows the ways it has morphed and changed, how it reflects society, and how, in its everyday usage, we carry centuries of human history on our tongues. As a social media influencer, Aleksic is also intimately familiar with the internet’s reach and how social media impacts the way we engage with one another. New slang emerges and goes viral overnight. Accents are shaped or erased on YouTube. Grammatical rules, loopholes, and patterns surface and transform language as we know. Our interactions—and our social norms and habits—shift into something completely different.

As Aleksic uses original surveys, data, and internet archival research to usher us through this new linguistic landscape, he also illuminates how communication is changing in both familiar and unprecedented ways. From our use of emojis to sentence structure to the ways younger generations talk about sex and death (see unalive in English and desvivirse in Spanish), we are in a brand-new world, one shaped by algorithms and technology. Algospeak is an energetic, astonishing journey into language, the internet, and what this intersection means for all of us.

Adam Aleksic is a little bit famous (I guess; I hadn’t heard of him) due to his Tiktok videos on linguistics. He thinks he’s really great, anyway, to judge from the way he talks about his own videos and their high quality etc etc. He never lets you forget his experiences as a linguistics enthusiast on social media, either: his story of that is deeply intertwined with his analysis of trends and how algorithms are driving changes in the language we speak. He’s as subject to them as anyone, as he at least does make clear.

As you might guess from that intro, I found certain aspects of Algospeak a touch frustrating. Aleksic is so deeply embedded in it, it’s hard to believe that he has any real measure of objectivity here, though I don’t actually disagree with much of what he writes (which feels like common sense and/or matches what I know from elsewhere).

It was overall an interesting read, albeit one that made me feel fairly old and out of touch when it discussed some of the memes, and sent me calculating dates going “no way” about how old certain memes are (and how old I was when they first appeared).

It’s also inevitably going to feel dated pretty much immediately, though I think the examples stand.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: Adam Aleksic, book reviews, books, linguistics, non-fiction

WWW Wednesday

Posted January 14, 2026 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?

I haven’t actually been reading a lot, it’s been a pretty bad start to the year on that front — I’ve been busy, preparing for some time off I want to take by working ahead, and cleaning the house for a landlord inspection, and starting the new raid tier in Final Fantasy XIV! But I did make some time last night to read the seventh volume of the Cat + Gamer manga, which was cute as ever.

What are you currently reading?

I have a few books on the go concurrently, but mostly the same as last week because things aren’t really moving. The last in-progress book I actually opened was Helen Gordon’s The Meteorites, which I’m finding interesting but a bit slow, and also kinda anxiety-making just because thinking on the scale of meteorites and deep time makes me feel very, very small.

I do have a volume of Solo Leveling on the go as well, and I suspect that’ll be my best route back into settling into books again, since I find it very soothing. (Despite, you know, all the monsters and battles.)

What will you read next?

My wife got me a few more volumes of the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint manhwa to keep my brain occupied while awaiting a dental appointment for a broken filling (I have a phobia of dentists), so that’ll probably give me some easy reading while I’m coping with the busy time! Other than that, I don’t know for now what I’m likely to read, though Dungeon Crawler Carl is past due at the library…

(I find it funny how similar the premise is to books like Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. Clearly my reading is themed lately, despite the different cultures the books come from and different formats!)

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Review – Henrietta Who?

Posted January 13, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Henrietta Who?

by Catherine Aird

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 248
Series: Calleshire Chronicles #2
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
A hit-and-run murder unearths a case of mistaken identity in this “well-bred, well written and genuinely superior” mystery by the Diamond Dagger winner (Kirkus Reviews).

Early one morning in the quiet English village of Larking, the body of a woman named Mrs. Jenkins is found in the road. Miles away, her daughter, Henrietta, receives the bad news while working in the university library. Poor Mrs. Jenkins appears to have been the victim of a horrible car accident.

When an autopsy proves not only that this was no accident but also that Mrs. Jenkins had never had a child, young Henrietta’s life is thrown upside down. If she’s not Mrs. Jenkins’s daughter, then who is she? It’s up to Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan of the Calleshire police force to bring the murderer to justice—and a sense of order back to Henrietta’s life.

Proclaimed by the New York Times in 1968 to be one of the year’s best books, Henrietta Who? is a first-order English whodunit that’ll keep you guessing until the end.

Catherine Aird’s Henrietta Who? is a pretty typical classic crime story. I found it a bit flatter than the first in the series, with a bit less warmth somehow — especially since it’s weirdly very dismissive about the bond between adoptive parents and adopted children, somehow. Henrietta immediately stops referring to the dead woman as her mother, which threw me a bit. Trauma makes sense, but… I don’t know.

Anyway, the whodunnit was something I worked out from a variety of clues and the way the story was shaped, and doing that was pretty fun — it’s a fair-play mystery, I think, and if you read enough of these you start getting a spidey-sense for it.

Not a favourite, but a pleasant enough read.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Catherine Aird, crime, mystery

Top Ten Tuesday: 2026 Releases (First Half)

Posted January 13, 2026 by Nicky in General / 36 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is about the books we’re looking forward to in the first half of 2026. I’m not always great at keeping an eye on this kind of thing, but it turns out I do have some books I really, really want.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, by Heather Fawcett. I actually have an ARC of this one, so I have to get round to it as soon as possible! I’ve enjoyed Fawcett’s other books, though this one basically had me at “mystical cat shelter”, to be fair.
Nightshade & Oak, by Molly O’Neill. I really liked Greenteeth, so I’m quite hopeful about this one too, especially since it sounds like it has similar roots. I just got a copy of this from Hachette yesterday morning, so I’m going to dig in soon!
Strange Buildings, by Uketsu. I enjoyed Strange Pictures and especially Strange Houses, so I expect to have fun with this one as well. Maybe I’d better see if I can wishlist it at the library, because Strange Houses was in high demand when it came out.
Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes, by Eleanor Houghton. I’m not interested in fashion or clothes per se, but more in what clothes and fashion can tell us about the people who wore them, the times when they were fashionable, etc. I like some of the Brontës’ work, and especially Jane Eyre, so I’m interested both as someone mildly interested in the Brontës and as someone interested in the history of clothes.
Star Shipped, by Cat Sebastian. I love Sebastian’s work (and feel it seems to keep on getting better), and I’m very amused by the setting of the two characters being stars in a sci-fi show. Looking forward to this!
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die, by Greer Stothers. I know comparatively little about this one, but it sounds like a fun romance.
The Lost Book of Lancelot, by John Glynn. It was high time someone played with ‘The Book of Galehaut’ (there was a retelling that was almost a translation, which I don’t count), because Lancelot and Galehaut’s relationship in the Vulgate Cycle is heckin’ intense, and it’s quite the addition to the Arthurian legends… but sadly ignored. I’m not sure how close a retelling this is going to be, but I look forward to seeing what the author does with it, all the same.
Solo Leveling (manhwa), vol 14, by Dubu etc. This contains side stories for Solo Leveling, so I’m verryyyyy curious. As people on my blog know, I’ve got very into both the manhwa and the novels, though I’m close to finished with the novels, so it’s nice to have something new to look forward to from the manhwa.
After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine, vol 1, by Li Gou Hua. This danmei isn’t from one of the authors I’ve read before, so I don’t know a lot about what to expect, but I like the idea of the premise (professor ends up transmigrating to the past and discovering that a weird thesis he read is true, and he’s living it). It’s a familiar sort of theme for light novels and I’m enjoying the many permutations of it immensely.
Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (novel), vol 3, by singNsong. I’m reading both the manhwa and the novel, and I am very excited to dig in and get to the next bit in the novel. By that time I think I’ll have read just past it in the manhwa, but it’s always interesting to see how manhwa adapts the stories and sometimes places slightly different emphases. And of course, sometimes there are slightly different translations or notes on translations too.

Quite a weird mix, I’m sure, and also no doubt I’ve missed loads of stuff I’d be interested in. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s lists!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Greenteeth

Posted January 12, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Greenteeth

by Molly O'Neill

Genres: Arthuriana, Fantasy
Pages: 279
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Narrated by a lake-dwelling monster, Greenteeth is an utterly charming tale of fae, folklore and found family, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher.

Beneath the still surface of a lake lurks a monster with needle sharp teeth. Hungry and ready to pounce . . .

Jenny Greenteeth has never spoken to a human before, but when a witch is thrown into her lake by an angry mob, something makes Jenny decide she’s worth saving. Temperance doesn’t know why her village has suddenly turned against her, only that it has something to do with the malevolent new pastor. All she wants is to return to her husband and children, still trapped under his baleful influence.

Though they have nothing in common, these two unlikely companions must band together on a magical quest to defeat the evil that threatens Temperance’s family, Jenny’s lake, and possibly the very soul of Britain.

This review seems to have missed getting posted back when I read the book, so I’m surfacing it now!

Molly O’Neill’s debut Greenteeth was a delight to me. I didn’t know about “Jenny Greenteeth” as a type of monster, but I recognised much of the rest of the folklore and legends referenced, and was pleased (and honestly, relieved) to see the Welsh spellings used. I imagine people are complaining about the author not anglicising for their benefit, but I liked it a lot.

I loved the way that the “twist” at the ending was seeded through the rest of the story, if you go back and look. There’s a Chekhov’s gun, there are references that set it up, there’s the presence of Cavall… there are so many hints, at least if you know your folklore and legends.

If people are curious about what they may have missed, here are some of the spoilers that made it somewhat obvious what was coming. On my blog this should let you click to expand; hopefully it won’t post in clear text in the email notifications, but if it does, consider this your warning!

View Spoiler »

There were some things that dragged a bit for me (the argument between Temperance and Jenny) or didn’t quite ring true — I feel like I could’ve stood to understand a bit more about Brackus’ decision to join Jenny and Temperance — but mostly I just enjoyed the ride.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: Arthurian, book reviews, books, Molly O'Neill, SF/F

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 11

Posted January 11, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Solo Leveling

by Dubu, Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 312
Series: Solo Leveling #11
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
After saving Jinho from the vengeful Dongsoo Hwang, Jinwoo makes a public declaration that he will protect his family and friends no matter what. But when a close ally is killed in a sudden attack by the otherworldly Monarchs, Jinwoo is forced to reexamine who it is he wants to protect—and just how far he’ll go to do so.

It’s difficult at this point — volume 11 — to say stuff about the Solo Leveling manhwa that doesn’t risk being either spoilery or obvious. As usual, Jinwoo’s ridiculously OP, and it’s glorious to see. We get a bit more info about Jinwoo’s dad and what’s to come, and we get some big badass new enemies for him (who he immediately trashtalks, love him).

I did feel a bit sad for Jinho when Jinwoo referred to someone else as his “only” friend, though! Unless there’s something weird going on with the translation, that seems unfair. Not that Jinho heard it, but still, ouch.

I must admit that the (frequent) fight scenes usually don’t do a lot for me because I’m not great with visual interpretations, so I love when Jinwoo stops to strategise, or others comment on his fights. It’s quite the spectacle, just not something I find visually very useful.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Chugong, Dubu, SF/F

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted January 10, 2026 by Nicky in General / 21 Comments

Happy weekend! Yep, it’s that time again already.

Books acquired this week

After the frenzy of Christmas, you wouldn’t think I had any more room for new books (nor my friends and family any room in their budgets), but here we are: my wife got me the next two volumes of the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint manhwa, I assume to assuage my whining that the next light novel isn’t due out in translation until March.

I’ve read them already, so more volumes will probably be acquired soon, one way or another.

Posts from this week

As per usual, let’s do a little roundup! Reviews first:

Romance manga: Love in the Palm of His Hand, vol 2, by Rinteku (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Fantasy romance (danmei): The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 3, by Xue Shan Fei Hu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Classic mystery: Still Waters, by E.C.R. Lorac (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Non-fiction: Spinosaur Tales: The Biology and Ecology of the Spinosaurs, by David Hone & Mark P. Witton (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Non-fiction: The Far Edges of the Known World, by Owen Rees (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

Also as usual, these are reviews from my extensive backlog of reviews that I’ve written but not yet posted (something like 80 in the bank at the moment).

What I’m reading

Now for the preview of books I’ve read in the last week and plan to review on here! I haven’t done as much reading as I hoped, but I still made a decent start to the year!

As for this weekend, I’m not sure. More Solo Leveling, probably, and resuming reading John Rhode’s Death at Breakfast, which is a classic mystery. Other than that… who knows?

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

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – The Far Edges of the Known World

Posted January 9, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

The Far Edges of the Known World: A New History of Ancient Civilisations

by Owen Rees

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 314
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of their world was where civilisation ceased to exist. Our fascination with the Greek and Roman world, and the abundance of writing that we have from it, means that we usually explore the ancient world from this perspective too. Was Ovid's exile really as bad as he claimed? What was it truly like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?

Taking us along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from Co-Loa in the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian's Wall, Owen Rees explores the powerful empires and diverse peoples in Europe, Asia and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and Rome. In doing so, he offers us a new, brilliantly rich lens with which to understand the ancient world.

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we now know that the borders of the empires we consider the 'heart' of civilisation were in fact thriving, vibrant cultures – just not ones we might expect. This is where the boundaries of 'civilised' and 'barbarians' began to dissipate; where the rules didn't always apply; where normally juxtaposed cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.

Owen Rees’ The Far Edges of the Known World was a random choice from the library, and I had a good time with it. The premise is that we know a lot about the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, and how they viewed the other peoples they bumped up against (and sometimes invaded), but most of what we know about those other peoples is what the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians have recorded.

But of course there’s more there in archaeology, in other accounts, and by reading between the lines. Rees doesn’t dig deeply into any one location/group of people, and is careful to note the limitations of the evidence he does discuss, but he does his best to give us a less biased picture of these other worlds.

It’s hard to pick a favourite, but I think maybe the stuff about the various areas in Ukraine. It’s a part of the world I haven’t read much about in general, but which has come up in a few recent books, and broadened my horizons a little!

I mostly found the book very accessible, but did find toward the end that my attention kept wandering for some reason; I think that was me, and not the book — Rees’ writing is fine and easy to read.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, history, non-fiction, Owen Rees