Tag: books

Review – The End

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

Review – The End

The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters

by Katie Goh

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 96
Series: Inklings
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Throughout history, apocalypse fiction has explored social injustice through fantasy, sci-fi and religious imagery, but what can we learn from it? Why do we escape very real disaster via dystopia? Why do we fantasise about the end of the world?

The word “apocalypse” has roots in ancient Greek, with apo (“off”) and kalĂœptein (“cover”) combining to form apokĂĄlypsis, meaning to uncover or reveal. In considering apocalypse fiction across culture and its role in how we manage, manifest and imagine social, economic and political crises, Goh navigates what this genre reveals about our contemporary anxieties, and why we turn to disaster time and again.

From blockbusters like War of the Worlds to The Handmaid’s Tale and far beyond, we venture through global pandemics to the climate crisis, seeking real answers in the midst of our fictional destruction.

Let’s journey to the end.

It was really interesting, early in the pandemic, how many people turned to disaster movies and books about the very same concept. Personally, I found myself rereading Mira Grant’s Feed, which features a zombie apocalypse due to a virus that infects literally everyone, and led to severe restrictions on the number of people who can gather, fear of other people, etc, etc. Katie Goh’s The End tries to examine why that might be, and comment on a few examples.

Like all the Inklings series, it’s pretty short, so it’s hardly exhaustive. A chunk of it is focused on COVID specifically, which makes sense giving the timing of the book. I think it makes a good case for why disaster fiction interests and engages us, and I enjoyed the reading process.

Rating: 3/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted March 12, 2025 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Cover of Fighting Fit by Laura DawesWhat have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Fighting Fit, by Laura Dawes, which was all about the multi-level effort to keep Britain healthy during WWII. Some of it I knew already, but a lot of the details I didn’t. I found it really readable and enjoyable, except maybe the chapter on scabies (really made me feel itchy, gah).

On the same day I also finished The Roads to Rome, which I ultimately found a really annoying read where I struggled to retain anything no matter how carefully I tried to pay attention. Probably a bit too much of a travelogue for me.

Cover of The Virtues of Underwear by Nina EdwardsWhat are you currently reading?

I’m most of the way through The Virtues of Underwear, by Nina Edwards, which I’m enjoying — even if it introduced me to the concept of the, I kid you not, “corset hoodie”. Which sounds like a travesty to me, I’ll be honest.

Other than that, I’m partway through Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, by Heather Fawcett, which I paused for really not fitting the mood. I might be ready to get back to it now.

Cover of Spirits Abroad by Zen ChoWhat will you read next?

As usual, that’s hard to answer. More rereads of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, for sure, and I should start on reading more of my library books, so maybe Zen Cho’s Spirits Abroad.

What are you reading?

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Review – The Shortest Way to Hades

Posted March 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Shortest Way to Hades

The Shortest Way to Hades

by Sarah Caudwell

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 272
Series: Hilary Tamar #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

It seemed the perfect way to avoid three million in taxes on a five-million-pound estate: change the trust arrangement. Everyone in the family agreed to support the heiress, the ravishing raven-haired Camilla Galloway, in her court petition—except dreary Cousin Deirdre, who suddenly demanded a small fortune for her signature.

Then Deirdre had a terrible accident. That was when the young London barristers handling the trust—Cantrip, Selena, Timothy, Ragwort, and Julia—summoned their Oxford friend Professor Hilary Tamar to Lincoln’s Inn. Julia thinks it’s murder. Hilary demurs. Why didn’t the heiress die? But when the accidents escalate and they learn of the naked lunch at Uncle Rupert’s, Hilary the Scholar embarks on the most perilous quest of all: the truth.

I enjoyed the second book in Sarah Caudwell’s Hilary Tamar series quite a bit. The Shortest Way to Hades centres once more around the same group of lawyers, this time entangled with a case that each of them find themselves representing part of. It’s not quite as reliant on letters at first but then Serena heads off on a voyage and the case seems to follow her — and trouble does, too.

I’m a bit bemused to read about how fascinated other people are with trying to figure out what gender Hilary Tamar is meant to be. It’s intentionally ambiguous, and it’s also totally irrelevant. I’m not even going to participate in the debate — or hey, I view Hilary as a non-binary protagonist, now, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Ahem. Anyway. As I said, Hilary’s gender is totally irrelevant to the story, though they do get themselves a bit more involved in the mystery this time, actually following Serena to Greece in order to help untangle the problem.

The humour of the whole thing remains a light touch: it’s there, and woven throughout the whole story, but not in a way that gets too cringy or gets in the way. I’m not normally one for humour in stories, but it’s hard to describe quite how it works here. My best effort is: this book knows it’s clever and funny, but doesn’t keep trying to demand you laugh.

I’m eager to get the next book!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

Posted March 10, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

by Neon Yang

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 178
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Yeva was thirteen when she killed her first dragon.

With her gift revealed, she was shipped away to the imperial capital to train in the rare art of dragon slaying. Now a legendary guildknight, she has never truly felt at home ever since that fateful day all those years ago. But she doesn’t need a home when she has her sacred duty. She has devoted herself wholly to the cause—she never even removes her armor in public. Few remember the girl she once was. She rarely remembers herself.

Yeva must now go to Quanbao, a fiercely independent and reclusive kingdom. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper—but instead loved and worshipped. It is rumored that there, they harbor a dragon behind their borders.

While Yeva searches for the dreaded beast, she is welcomed into the palace by Quanbao’s monarch, Lady Sookhee. Though wary of each other, Yeva is shocked to find herself slowly opening up to the beautiful, mysterious queen.

Will Yeva forsake her sacred duty and let Lady Sookhee see the person behind the armor, or will she cling to the ideals that she has called home for so long?

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.

Neon Yang’s Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame is a book I’m definitely getting for my sister once it’s out — which, to those who know me/my sister tells you something right up front, but I’ll elaborate for the rest of the world! There are dragons, a female protagonist, and a lesbian relationship, which also meets her criteria that the lesbians don’t come to a tragic end.

It’s also a story of belonging, of dislocation from culture and finding your way back into it, which I’m sure will resonate for a lot of readers, even if the stakes aren’t as high as these for most people. Yeva is initially very divorced from her body and her “foreign” appearance, hiding it all to make her own place among the guildknights, but rest assured: that isn’t allowed to stand unchallenged (while at the same time she maintains some bond to her adopted home, in the form of her one friendship).

It’s a novella, so we don’t get large-scale worldbuilding or a very slow build relationship, but what we do get works well for me: Yeva’s fumbling attempts to fit into her new place, her confused loyalties, and her growing feelings for Lady Sookhee.

I predicted the twist of the story fairly swiftly, but it was still satisfying to see it play out. I’d have loved a little more play with the strangeness of… well, a certain character (not Yeva), but maybe that would’ve given the game away too much.

Overall, I really liked it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 2

Posted March 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 2

A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

by Misaki, Momochi, Sando

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 176
Series: A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

When Lizel mysteriously finds himself in a city that bears odd similarities to his own but clearly isn't, he quickly comes to terms with the unlikely truth: this is an entirely different world. Even so, laid-back Lizel isn't the type to panic. He immediately sets out to learn more about this strange place, and to help him do so, hires a seasoned adventurer named Gil as his tour guide and protector.

Until he's able to find a way home, Lizel figures this is a perfect opportunity to explore a new way of life adventuring as part of a guild. After all, he's sure he'll go home eventually... might as well enjoy the otherworldly vacation for now!

I really enjoyed volume two of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation (story by Misaki, manga adaptation by Momochi). I am wondering where it’s all going exactly, and wondering if things would be clearer if the light novel had been translated, because I’d definitely grab that right now if I could. It feels like there are currents I don’t understand, and I don’t know whether that’s because we’re just not being told yet, or because there’s something lost in translation… or whether the writing’s just unclear.

It’s funny how vehement some reviewers are that this isn’t M/M romance. Honestly, it’s starting to feel like every male character is in love with Lizel! I’m fine with it not being romance, to be clear, but it does heavily lean that way. (The ads for M/M manga in the back also suggest that’s deliberate, let’s be real.)

I’m definitely eager to see both more of the world and more of Lizel’s actual character; his unflappability is fascinating, as is the brief crack in it which Gil sees. I enjoy their friendship a lot. And I still love the art and character designs.

Rating: 4/5

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted March 8, 2025 by Nicky in General / 26 Comments

Well, it’s been a pretty awful week: I went down to Wales in a hurry on Monday to see my grandmother before she died, and stayed at her side until she passed on Tuesday morning. I haven’t been in the mood for reading, really, though I know it does me good so I’ve found time for a chapter or two here and there.

Books acquired this week

None, except that I acquired my own copies of beloved manga I previously borrowed.

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 1 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 2 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 3 by Misaki and Momochi Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 4 by Misaki and Momochi

Posts from this week

I did manage to get some posts out, in a bid for a bit of normality, so here’s a roundup of the reviews!

What I’m reading

I’ve only finished one book this week that I plan to review, so here it is:

Cover of Villainy at Vespers by Joan Cockin

This weekend, I’m reading a variety of things to try and spark something, so I’m nibbling away at bits of The Rainfall Market, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects, and The Virtues of Underwear. (Perhaps an odd mix… but that’s how I am.)

My apologies in advance if I’m slow to respond — I will try to reply and return visits.

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

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Review – The Light-Eaters

Posted March 8, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Light-Eaters

The Light-Eaters: The New Science of Plant Intelligence

by Zoë Schlanger

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

A narrative investigation into the new science of plant intelligence and sentience, from National Association of Science Writers Award winner and Livingston Award finalist Zoe Schlanger.

Look at the green organism across the room or through the window: the potted plant, or the grass or a tree. Think how a life spent constantly growing yet rooted in a single spot comes with tremendous challenges. To meet them, plants have come up with some of the most creative methods for surviving of any living thing - us included. Many are so ingenious that they seem nearly impossible.

Did you know plants can communicate when they are being eaten, allowing nearby plants to bolster their defences? They move and that movement stops when they are anaesthetised. They also use electricity for internal communication. They can hear the sounds of caterpillars eating. Plants can remember the last time they have been visited by a bee and how many times they have been visited - so they have a concept of time and can count. Plants can not only communicate with each other, they can also communicate with other species of plants and animals, allowing them to manipulate animals to defend or fertilise them.

So look again at the potted plant, or the grass or the tree and wonder: are plants intelligent?

Or perhaps ask an even more fundamental question: are they conscious?

The Light Eaters will completely redefine how you think about plants. Packed with the most amazing stories of the life of plants it will open your eyes to the extraordinary green life forms we share the planet with.

ZoĂ« Schlanger’s The Light Eaters very much came across as a science writer’s book rather than a scientist’s, larded heavily with personal observations of feeling very inspired by plants, and not very discriminating in the choice of sources — or at least, in how to describe them. When a study has failed replication, maybe say that right away before you spend a whole chapter discussing it, for instance.

I think it was mostly that experience, early in the book, that made me wary of the whole thing. There are some fascinating studies mentioned, and the citations are not numbered but still fairly clear and easy to follow-up: the studies about the effects of (some) anaesthetics on plants were genuinely fascinating, and didn’t seem to be too much over-hyped, for instance.

I think in the end, it’s not that I dislike the conclusions Schlanger’s reaching for: the effort to recognise that plants have much more agency and intelligence than we attribute to them, and that humans are so animal-centric, we have way too much difficulty grasping that there are other ways to be, among us all the time, and lives we impact that we don’t even think about. She highlights genuinely interesting studies and views. It’s just… when something fails replication, that’s not trivial. It happens even when something is true, because the conditions aren’t exactly replicated, but it means something, and should never be handwaved away.

So I guess my thoughts on this one are “read with care”, but not an anti-recommendation.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – The New University

Posted March 6, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The New University

The New University

by James Coe

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 96
Series: Inklings
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

What is a university for? They educate and set people up for their futures; they teach, research, employ – often irritate. We talk about developing the next generations and pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but in the midst of a pandemic, universities were put more firmly under the microscope than ever before. As we emerge into a new reality, James Coe considers the enormous challenge of reimagining an entire cornerstone of society as a more civic and personal institution.

The New University posits a blueprint of action through universities intersecting with work, offering opportunity, and operating within the physical space they find themselves. Diving into the issues he aims to tackle in his own work as a senior policy advisor, Coe believes we can utilise universities for community betterment through realigning research to communal benefit, adopting outreach into the hardest to reach communities, using positional power to purchase better, and using culture to draw people together in a fractured society.

The world has changed and universities must change too.

The New University is the start.

James Coe’s The New University is a book very much of a particular moment during the economic and social recovery from COVID in Britain. Some of the policy concerns have moved on since it was written, but there is something still relevant here: the issue of what universities are meant to be doing, from how they relate to the local businesses around them to how they contribute to the economy, and how they should be funded.

I find it odd that Coe discusses things like providing flexible learning, and fails to mention the Open University even once. Many of the things he describes as being things universities need to do have a pioneer in the OU, and it isn’t some upstart flash-in-the-pan newcomer. It’s been established for a long time now and it’s doing many of the things Coe thinks that traditional universities should do. I wonder if he’s just blind to the OU because he works in a traditional university? Contemptuous of what the OU does and the value of its qualifications? I’m not sure, but it’s a strange omission.

Coe is very optimistic about universities and what they can give to the country. He does touch on what they offer to individuals as well, to some extent (in part through his own nostalgia for his time at university), though it’s very much about what universities can do on a broader level.

It’s interesting, but obviously dated already, and containing some odd omissions. Also, like the other Inklings book I’ve read, it does need a better proofreader.

Rating: 2/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted March 5, 2025 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Hello all. Trying to get back to normal after a rough week with a bereavement, so here’s a little pinch of routine for me.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 2 by Misaki and MomochiFeels like a lifetime ago, but I actually started rereading A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation. I really only just read it, but a reread has already proved useful, reminding me where Lizel found the map that is only finally fully explained in volume 10, and some of the circumstances around meeting Ray (and then Shadow). Odd some of the details my brain didn’t hang onto, but a comforting reread is really just the ticket right now anyway.

Cover of A Brief History of Countryside in 100 Objects by Sally CoulthardWhat are you currently reading?

Most actively, I’ve started on A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects, by Sally Coulthard. In format and topic, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be soothing to me, and indeed it is. As often happens with non-fiction aimed at a very broad audience, I wanna stick “citation needed” all over it, because there’s no way to track a particular assertion in the text to a source, argh! But it is more or less what I expected it to be, and that’s nice.

I’m also partway through a few other books, including The Rainfall Market (You Yeong-Gwang) and Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Heather Fawcett), but I’m not in a fiction mood and never am in this kind of situation, so knowing myself well, I’ve laid those aside for a few days.

Cover of The Virtues of Underwear by Nina EdwardsWhat will you be reading next?

I’m probably going to continue my reread of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, as a volume of that works well with my bedside light’s sleep timer to put me in a good mood for sleep. But since I’m generally focusing on non-fiction for now, the next non-manga I read will likely be The Virtues of Underwear (Nina Edwards) or Fighting Fit (Laura Dawes).

What are you reading?

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Review – Thus Was Adonis Murdered

Posted March 4, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Thus Was Adonis Murdered

Thus Was Adonis Murdered

by Sarah Caudwell

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 261
Series: Hilary Tamar #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

When her personal copy of the current Finance Act is found a few metres away from a body, young barrister Julia Larwood finds herself caught up in a complex fight against the Inland Revenue. Set to have a vacation away from her home life and the tax man, Julia takes a trip with her art-loving boyfriend. However, all is not what it seems. Could he in fact be an employee of the establishment she has been trying to escape from? And how did her romantic luxurious holiday end in murder?

Sarah Caudwell’s Thus Was Adonis Murdered suddenly seemed to be everywhere for me, for a couple of months at the end of 2024. I love a good mystery (though I’m often most drawn to older mysteries), so I was curious about all the praise and decided to give it a shot, although I was a bit worried by it being characterised as funny — sometimes that means slapstick or embarrassment squick, which I wouldn’t gel very well with.

It’s not that. It’s witty and light in tone, though sometimes leans a bit too heavily on “Julia is weirdly stupid about a lot of things” to be quite comfortable for me. The cast of characters is fun, though I probably won’t remember how to tell them apart by the time I read the sequel, because somehow their names wouldn’t stick in my head. (Or rather, which name belonged with which character.) I suspect it’s the kind of book that some non-Brits would find very charming for being “British humour”.

What I found really interesting was that Hilary Tamar does almost all the mystery-solving from a distance, and the characters we follow are mostly kept up to date from a distance, receiving evidence via letters from Julia (the suspect) and reports from people who have gone to the scene of the crime. Despite it being set in Italy, it feels like the reader never leaves London, and yet it doesn’t feel like missing out on the action. Part of that is the wittiness and banter, I’d say, and the letters help with immediacy as well.

If I’d described this to myself beforehand, I’m not sure I’d have picked it up just based on a description of how the story is told, the wittiness, etc — but as it is, I did pick it up, and loved it, and I’m eager for the second book.

Rating: 4/5

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