Tag: books

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Superpowers

Posted February 20, 2024 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

This week’s theme from That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday is “bookish superpowers”. I had to have a think about this one…

  1. The ability to persuade people to read books I love. I mean, beyond just the power of nagging and explaining how awesome they are (and giving them a copy). Something that nudges people straight past the inertia into giving it a try. I don’t require people to love the books I love, I just want to share them more and have more people to talk to them about!
  2. The ability to stop or slow down time when I’m reading. If I could just get a little more time in my day, I’d read so much. I’d accept a more limited power that gives me just an hour a day. Anything!
  3. The ability to create infinite space for books. My collection always grows to exceed the space available for it. Back in my bedroom at my parents’ home, my dad even built a shelf over the door to help contain my collection. My coffee table was actually bookshelves. Shelves everywhere. Even though I don’t keep all the books I read, and donate loads of them, over time my collection grows all the same.
  4. The ability to remember the crucial details about everything I read. I’d be so much better at reading series if I could just put them on pause for a bit and not forget the major plot points of the first book!
  5. The ability to fully forget things I read. Sometimes, I wish I could experience something again for the first time, with only the knowledge that I really loved it.
  6. The ability to fix book snobs who sneer at the things other people read. I mean, this sounds like brainwashing, so maybe not seriously, but I wish I had some way to convince people to stop judging what other people read. Sneering at romance novels and looking down on graphic novels doesn’t make you look clever! Not everything is for everyone, but that’s fine. Enjoyment is what matters.
  7. The ability to get hold of a book in the very instant I decide I want it, to the benefit of an indie bookshop. I know, I know, I want the world. But my reading is so whim-based, sometimes books don’t arrive before the mood is lost, unless I use Amazon. And that sucks!
  8. The ability to magically bring a book back into print. I was sadly rather put off second-hand books for reasons I don’t want to discuss (since it’s gross), so sometimes when a book is out of print, it’d be nice to be able to summon it back into print magically, so I can grab a new copy.
  9. The ability to read books that never got written. I’m thinking about Dream’s library from The Sandman — something like that! Sequels that never got written, ideas that never got fleshed out, the things authors would produce if they had world enough and time.
  10. The ability to fix typos in all copies of a book once I spot them. I’d be doing a favour to humankind!

Okay, so some of those are a bit silly, but it’s fun to dream sometimes…

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Review – Where the Drowned Girls Go

Posted February 19, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Where the Drowned Girls Go

Where the Drowned Girls Go

by Seanan McGuire

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 208
Series: Wayward Children #7
Synopsis:

"Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you’ve already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company."

There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again.

It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.

And it isn't as safe.

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her "Home for Wayward Children," she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn’t save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming...

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Seanan McGuire’s Where the Drowned Girls Go as much as as I did: I haven’t been totally all-in on this series for a few books now, or so it feels, and Cora goes to some pretty dark places in this book. It’s probably important to know going in that there are potential triggers for those with eating disorders, and probably any kind of abuse, especially anything relating to a boarding school.

But all the same, Cora rises above it. She finds the strength to own her experiences, and to finally Be Sure, and that’s a journey I enjoyed. Eleanor West’s school is warm and quirky and endlessly accommodating, but here Cora (and the supporting cast, including Sumi) have a bit more adversity to stand up to, and it’s a stronger book for it. And we get to see Regan, from Across the Green Grass Fields, tying her into the ongoing story of the school and the loose collection of kids that we know from it.

I’ll admit there was one point in the story I didn’t 100% follow, how Cora suddenly realised that the headmaster wasn’t the real one, and how they’d all get out of there. I don’t know if I missed something, or whether it just was meant to be a bolt of intuition… But that didn’t take away the fun of watching Cora come into herself and emerge strong.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Soonish

Posted February 18, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Soonish

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything

by Zach Weinersmith, Kelly Weinersmith

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 368
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the hold-up?

In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what's coming next -- from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research, interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, and Zach's trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.

New technologies are almost never the work of isolated geniuses with a neat idea. A given future technology may need any number of intermediate technologies to develop first, and many of these critical advances may appear to be irrelevant when they are first discovered. The journey to progress is full of strange detours and blind alleys that tell us so much about the human mind and the march of civilization.

To this end, Soonish investigates ten different emerging fields, from programmable matter to augmented reality, from space elevators to robotic construction, to show us the amazing world we will have, you know, soonish.

I didn’t love Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s Soonish as much as I liked A City on Mars: I think that’s partly because the latter is much more of a deep dive, whereas the chapters here are necessarily a bit shallower, since they’re looking at multiple different technologies, and don’t have the time to get into the nitty gritty as much. There’s also some information (and even jokes) that feels repetitive if you’ve already read A City on Mars already, as well.

That said, they pick an interesting raft of likely technologies and start picking into why we don’t have them yet, why they feel within reach, and what we need to figure out to make them reality. The tone is fairly light, but they explain things pretty well.

After a certain point the humour does start to grate a bit, I must admit; I didn’t find that in A City on Mars, and of course, your mileage may vary.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Digging Up Britain

Posted February 17, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Digging Up Britain

Digging Up Britain: Ten Discoveries, A Million Years of History

by Mike Pitts

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 288
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Digging Up Britain traces the history of Britain through key discoveries and excavations. With British archaeologist Mike Pitts as a guide, this book covers the most exciting excavations of the past ten years, gathers firsthand stories from the people who dug up the remains, and follows the latest revelations as one twist leads to another.

Britain, a historically crowded place, has been the site of an unprecedented number of discoveries--almost everywhere the ground is broken, archaeologists find evidence that people have been there before. These discoveries illuminate Britain's ever-shifting history that we now know includes an increasingly diverse array of cultures and customs.

Each chapter of the book tells the story of a single excavation or discovery. Some are major digs, conducted by large teams over years, and others are chance finds, leading to revelations out of proportion to the scale of the original project. Every chapter holds extraordinary tales of planning, teamwork, luck, and cutting-edge archaeological science that produces surprising insights into how people lived a thousand to a million years ago.

It took me a while to get through Mike Pitts’ Digging Up Britain, because there’s a lot to take in. Pitts discusses various sites across Britain representing dozens of discoveries each, and tries to analyse what they mean, reimagine their contexts, and also provide the context of the modern excavations, the techniques used, etc

The book is illustrated by maps, black and white images, and two inserts of colour images too — I didn’t always find myself flicking through to look at those, because I was more interested in following the sense of the text, but it does let you get a look at what’s being discussed, and adds a bit more context.

In the end, I wasn’t too surprised by any of the findings discussed: after growing up eagerly awaiting new Time Team episodes, I’ve stayed a little big plugged in to the big archaeological discoveries. That said, sometimes later analysis has discovered fascinating but not newsworthy things, so I learned some new stuff too.

Rating: 4/5

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted February 17, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 22 Comments

Somehow it’s the weekend again already! It caught me by surprise, and yet it’s felt like a very long week, not helped by my own problems with sleeping. Here’s to a restful weekend!

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:

It was release week for the latest British Library Crime Classic reissue. I have the subscription, so I got my book this week… and because it’s E.C.R. Lorac (under the Carol Carnac pseudonym), I devoured it right away.

Cover of Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac AKA E.C.R. Lorac

That’s all for now, though yesterday I managed to finish up a first draft of my parasitology class assignment, so I should reward myself with a good book for next week — maybe Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands?

Posts from this week:

As ever, it’s been a busy week: I have to keep up posting one review a day, or I’ll only fall further behind, since I read ~400 books last year and I’m on track to do the same this year! So in case you missed it, here’s the roundup:

And the non-review posts:

What I’m reading:

I did some rereading this week (which I don’t plan to re-review, since I read the book so recently), and read a couple of manga I don’t plan to review. So it looks like kind of a slow week (by my usual standards), but actually I read quite a bit! Here’s a sneak peek of the books I read that I do intend to review:

Cover of Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire Cover of Britannia vol 1 by Dave Sharpe et al Cover of Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac AKA E.C.R. Lorac Cover of Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time, by James Suzman Cover of Breaklands Season One by Justin Jordan

Over the weekend I’m planning to read Seanan McGuire’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, which should bring me up to date with that series, and Gina Perry’s The Lost Boys, a non-fiction book about a psychology experiment that pitted groups of boys against each other. I liked Gina Perry’s work on Stanley Milgram’s experiments, Behind the Shock Machine, so this should be good.

Other than that I’m not sure! How about you folks? Any big plans for the weekend?

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Review – The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 3

Posted February 16, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 3

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, vol 3

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 408
Series: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

To save his sect from destruction, Shen Qingqiu has at last submitted to Luo Binghe—though he wishes people would stop saying it like that! Unfortunately, they're not wrong.

Luo Binghe has finally made his desire for his old master clear. For all that Shen Qingqiu longs to return to their peaceful days together on Qing Jing Peak, he knows it's impossible now that Luo Binghe has darkened into a true demon lord. But as Shen Qingqiu begins to uncover more of Proud Immortal Demon Way's hidden plot, including his host body's own backstory, he realizes he must learn to see Luo Binghe for who he truly is if either of them is to survive.

Oof, what to say about volume three of MXTX’s The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System? I suppose one thing to address up front, which I didn’t really discuss in my initial reviews, is that this isn’t a straightforward romance novel/series in the way I think some Western readers expect when they see others’ enthusiasm. If you read it because you’re a fan of Western romances, there’s a lot in this series that just won’t make sense, because it’s part of a bigger tradition, and that tradition is required for understanding some of what’s going on. The story does explain a lot of it along the way, as do the extras in the back of the book, but it’s not a straightforward ride… and another thing is that despite this being the last part of the series proper (the fourth volume has extras), the happy ending is fairly understated.

Art from The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, vol 3. A curly-haired young man with an uncertain expression grasps the hand of a smiling, elegant older man who is looking at him with acceptance and love.In addition, the relationship between Shen Qingqui and Luo Binghe is extremely problematic: SQQ is older and knew LBH as a child, and is also his teacher/master. SQQ could do a lot of harm to LBH due to that childhood crush turned obsessive love (and does, albeit against his will and by refusing to have a relationship with LBH). Consent is also a massive problem, in both directions (SQQ has sex with LBH while LBH is out of his mind, to save him; the sex is painful and awful for SQQ, who sees it as the only way to save LBH). So if anyone got this far to volume three thinking it was going to change, or has been curious because of my reviews and is now getting tempted to dip a toe in, be very very aware that this isn’t a romance novel and there are a lot of tropes and cultural things that would never be OK in Western romance. The whole dynamic is a mess.

All the same, there’s also a lot to enjoy here, when you take it in its context. There’s a fair bit of action and swordplay, which is all a lot of fun. The art pages are beautiful, and SQQ’s stupid inner narrative makes me giggle a lot (though, trigger warning for his internalised homophobia). SQQ’s slow acceptance of LBH’s love, and his slow steps toward trusting him and loving him in return, produce some genuinely lovely moments. I absolutely love the last piece of art (shown on the right):

“This time, no matter where you wish to go, this master will accompany you.”

I really want to read the last volume now, from what I’ve heard about it.

[And indeed, I’ve read it since I wrote this review, and loved it… but that’s a story for another day.]

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Eorzea Academy

Posted February 15, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Eorzea Academy

Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy

by Esora Amaichi

Genres: Fantasy, Game, Graphic Novels
Pages: 192
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Join all your favorite Final Fantasy XIV characters in this rollicking, modern-day high school comedy!

Alisaie is a student attending Eorzea Academy, an exclusive institution created by the merger of former rival schools the Academy of Light and the Academy of Darkness. However, frequent quarrels between the students prove that a bitter divide remains between the Class of Light and the Class of Darkness. Worried about the ongoing conflict, headmistress Tataru decides it's time for some bold solutions to raise morale. Let the school games begin!

Eorzea Academy is a fun manga placing Final Fantasy XIV’s Scions of the Seventh Dawn in a school setting as the Class of Light, alongside the Class of Darkness, after a recent merger between two schools. Headmistress Tataru has a plan to get people to cooperate and forge a friendly rivalry between the two classes, which (of course) leads to plenty of hijinks.

If you don’t yet know the characters of Final Fantasy XIV, this probably isn’t for you. If you do… well, then you get to see them all running around in an alternative universe as students, with lots of funny moments that reference their canon appearances. Estinien never does his homework, G’raha seems to have a crush on him, Alphinaud’s a goodie-goodie, Y’shtola’s secretly nicknamed “mommy”… If you know the characters, then it’s worth a smile.

Obviously it’s pretty light stuff, and even Zenos, Yotsuyu and Asahi aren’t so bad here (fans of any of them as villains might be disappointed). I found it fun to see the references to the game, and the art is cute.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Someone from the Past

Posted February 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Someone from the Past

Someone from the Past

by Margot Bennett

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 256
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters, seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-worker Nancy, Sarah is found shot in her bedroom by one of her past flames, Donald. Hearing the news and desperate to clear any evidence of Donald’s presence at the scene due to her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment.

As the real killer uses the situation to their advantage, Bennett crafts a tense and nuanced story through flashbacks to Sarah’s life and loves in this Gold-Dagger-award-winning, Hitchcockian story of deceit and murder.

It’s rare that I give a British Library Crime Classic a really low rating, but Margot Bennett is one of those writers I don’t really get on with… and Someone from the Past got on my last nerve. The introduction is all about what a fine book it was thought and how amazing it is, but I found it really tiresome.

The main reason was that the main character does some completely daft stuff, lies badly, tries to be witty and fails, and then tries to run away to Ireland like the police don’t know all the tricks and all the ways you might try to skip the country. She has these long dialogues with people that Martin Edwards (the editor of the British Library Crime Classics series) thinks are great, and which to me just end up being set pieces for the sake of showing off how oh-so-wittily Bennett thinks she writes dialogue.

One or two scenes like that might be okay, but I just don’t believe this character has a braincell in her head, and I’m not interested in her sparring with people. And then the book goes and ends with a get together where the man in question literally spends the whole book manipulating her “for her own good”, and sometimes being physically threatening to the point of terror for her. And I’m supposed to believe that’s a happy end?

Maybe not: maybe the point is to look at Nancy getting back on the merry-go-round of stupid and think “oh boy”. But it felt more like an attempt to tidy up loose ends, to let the reader feel like things are going to be okay now — and either way, I just didn’t enjoy it.

Rating: 1/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted February 14, 2024 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

It’s time for What Are You Reading Wednesday:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you reading next?

Linking up with Taking on a World of Words.

Cover of Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac AKA E.C.R. LoracWhat are you currently reading?

I got the latest British Library Crime Classic release from my subscription yesterday, so I’ve dived into that! It’s a new E.C.R. Lorac, Impact of Evidence, written under her other pseudonym, Carol Carnac. It’s set on the Welsh borders and has an intriguing set up of a flood, a car accident, and a mysterious extra corpse no one recognises. I want to finish it today!

I’m still reading Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time, which so far has been all about pre-farming societies, and is only just starting to move onto more modern stuff, even though I’m halfway through it. I need to settle down for a longer reading session on this one, I think, else I lose the thread of it.

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 2What have you recently finished reading?

Last thing I finished up was my reread of the second volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù), which… I only read it in January, but I wanted to reread after finishing the last volume because I felt like I’d missed some details. And I definitely had!

Also, my wife’s started reading the series now, finallyyyy. So I have some company in my new obsession, ha.

Cover of Seanan McGuire's Mislaid in Parts Half-KnownWhat are you reading next?

Well… most likely it’ll be the third volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, for a start. But I’m also planning to read Seanan McGuire’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known. It looks like there are dinosaurs, based on the cover?! I want dinosaurs for sure.

Other than that, I’m not sure. Wherever my whim takes me!

How about you, dear reader? What are you currently reading?

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Review – Glitter

Posted February 13, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Glitter

Glitter

by Nicole Seymour

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 184
Series: Object Lessons
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Glitter reveals the complexity of an object often dismissed as frivolous. Nicole Seymour describes how glitter's consumption and status have shifted across centuries-from ancient cosmetic to queer activist tool, environmental pollutant to biodegradable accessory-along with its composition, which has variously included insects, glass, rocks, salt, sugar, plastic, and cellulose. Through a variety of examples, from glitterbombing to glitter beer, Seymour shows how this substance reflects the entanglements of consumerism, emotion, environmentalism, and gender/sexual identity.

Broadly speaking, I really liked Nicole Seymour’s Glitter. Love it or hate it, glitter is everywhere — and some of the hatred of glitter sometimes seems more like an “ew, I’m not gay!” or a performative “ugh, I’m like those other girls”, “I’m not a child”, etc. Seymour makes this clear, regularly referencing how important glitter is to members of the queer community, for various reasons.

I’d have liked a little more detail on one or two points — there are lots of references to what glitter is made of, the effort to make it biodegradable, etc, but I’d have loved a little more detail on the options, what people are using, etc — but overall I found it pretty good.

It did also make me think. I must admit to not being a great fan of glitter myself, but I couldn’t honestly say why. It’s relatively harmless (Seymour points out that the impact on the environment of the plastic variety is fairly tiny, and of course not all glitter is made from plastic), and a little bit of sparkle does people no harm. I suppose I find it a little bit cringe when people attribute absolutely magical things to it, which at times I think Seymour’s at risk of doing.

Rating: 4/5

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