Tag: Lesley Nneka Arimah

Review – What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky

Posted August 10, 2021 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka ArimahWhat It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah

I am not the world’s biggest fan of short stories, in general, I must admit. There are some stories I’ve appreciated a lot, so it’s not that my mind is completely closed to them… but mostly I prefer something a bit meatier. Where I do like short stories, I often like the ones that surprise me, the ones with a sting in the tail. And there were one or two here that worked in that way for me, like the title story: a sudden moment of everything falling (ha) into place, and oh, oh, that’s what that was…

Overall, I didn’t really adore these stories, but there are some great moments that did catch my eye — ways of describing things, capturing a moment, etc — and some lovely writing. If you enjoy short stories more generally, I suspect there’s a lot here for you… but for me, they weren’t quite as striking or memorable as I’d hoped — which I know is more about me and what I like than the stories themselves!

Rating: 3/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 1, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Anyyyy day now I’ll get round to scheduling more of my backlogged reviews, but for now, here’s the WWW Wednesday post!

What are you currently reading?​

Cover of After the Dragons by Cynthia ZhangAbout eight books at once, last I checked! So I’ll just pick a couple to talk about: first on my mind is After the Dragons, by Cynthia Zhang. It involves dragons, biology, and a prickly love interest with whom things will (presumably) get figured out. I hadn’t realised it was queer, actually, somehow — or hadn’t remembered it, anyway. I am promised there will be cuddles soon, and I wonder quite how they’re going to get there.

I’m also reading Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials, which would be more accurately but less catchily titled “Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain, with seven key burials discussed to varying degrees, and mostly lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of description of non-British archaeology”. Which is cool, but I actually wanted a closer focus on particular burials — that’s what I was interested in.

Finally, I’m now reading Anthony Berkeley’s The Wychford Poisoning Case, which is fun: the detective character is very glib and smooth-talking, in a way familiar to those who love Lord Peter. Mind you, Lord Peter never tried to turn his grown-up female cousin over his knee to spank her, so there are definitely bits that ring very oddly to a contemporary reader.

Cover of What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka ArimahWhat have you recently finished reading?​

I am really bad at keeping track of that recently, so the thing that mostly jumps to mind is that I finished Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas. He made the cardinal sin (to me) of getting something wrong about Arthurian myth — the very briefest of references, but infuriating. That said, it definitely scratched the curious itch I had when looking at it on the shelf, so it worked out.

Oh, and I finished What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, which has a lot of clever stories in it, and which I’m still mulling over.

Cover of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererWhat will you be reading next?

No idea at all. Chances are high that I’ll be picking up Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, since it’s a book club read for this month. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho is also coming up soon, so that might be a choice. But really, who knows?

What are you folks reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 23, 2021 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

Greetings! How’s everyone doing? I ran out of scheduled posts and have been too busy/tired this week to get the queue set up again (there’s plenty more reviews written and ready, fear not!) but that’ll be back soon, I promise. In the meantime, here’s the usual Wednesday post!

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Seashaken Houses by Tom NancollasA whole bunch of things at once, of course! Most notably, I’m most of the way through Thomas Morris’ The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, which is okay but in the end fairly meh. Nothing too surprising, and most of it is about hoaxes or obvious misunderstandings.

I got a new book last week, totally on a whim, about lighthouses: Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas. I picked it up briefly and just felt kinda drawn to it, and I do like indulging my random curiosities, so I went ahead. I started it right away to catch that feeling, and am enjoying it — some of the daydreams about the inhabitants of the lighthouses and the descriptions of things get a bit purple prosey, but I’m enjoying some of the local history and the overaching development of lighthouses. I especially enjoyed the chapter about Haulbowline, which had to be consecrated by priests in 1958 because the keepers were convinced the place was haunted.

What have you recently finished reading?

Bloodline, by Jordan L. Hawk. Once I got past the part where Whyborne was lying to Griffin, I flew through the rest of the book. I wasn’t too shocked by any of the shocking revelations, but it’s an enjoyable addition to the series, and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it in future — and how it crosses over with K.J. Charles’ Green Men world.

What will you be reading next?

Beats me! There are a ton of books all stacked up waiting for me. I really, really should work on reading What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky, though: it’s this month’s book club read in my capricious book club where all the choices are made by me, so it’d be bad form not to keep up!

What are you currently reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted June 3, 2021 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Technically it’s still Wednesday, right? I haven’t slept yet, so it must be.

Anyway, I’m all done with writing the reviews I had in my backlog, and I’m all done with my exams… so it’s time to start queueing them up to post! …Tomorrow.

What are you currently reading?

Cover of Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha LeeFiction: A whooole bunch of things, as ever! More every day, it feels like. Two-Way Murder by E.C.R. Lorac was a definite “my brain is a potato” choice; her Golden Age crime mysteries always work very well for me in terms of evoking a place/community and a detective who is not a douchecanoe. Also still reading Phoenix Extravagant and Plain Bad Heroines, neither of which are quite grabbing me lately. This is certainly in part because my brain is a potato.

Non-fiction: I just picked up Beating Back the Devil, by Maryn McKenna — you’d think I’d hate reading about epidemiology since that was my exam topic, but actually it kinda reminds me what I’m here for in the first place. Not that the Epidemic Intelligence Service is my idea of a fun time, since they have to get very hands-on at times, but… broadly speaking, figuring out that one specific batch of a specific manufacturer’s vaccine is causing an outbreak of polio is exactly what I sometimes think I’d like to do.

I’m also still reading Food: The History of Taste, which I think I was reading last week and which is very slow, and Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, which is slowly beginning to get to the point. I also picked up Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, partly as a comfort while I was waiting for my exam to be available for download.

What have you recently finished reading?

Finishing books? What’s finishing books, precious?

More seriously, I did recently finish reading The Cheltenham Square Murder (John Bude), which was fun enough but not a standout — a very typical Golden Age crime novel, without Lorac’s fine touch, basically.

What will you be reading next?

Well, I need to get round to What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky, by Lesley Nneka Arimah, so that’s high on the list. I think The Story of Silence by Alex Myers is starting to wiggle to the top of my list, too; I like the original medieval poem, and I’m curious what this modern retelling does with it.

What’re you currently reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted May 6, 2021 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

Well, folks, it’s been a while! I’m still really tired and not quite sure about what I want out of blogging and reviewing, but I am working on sorting out my review backlog and trying again. I seem to say this all the time, though.

How’s it going?

In any case, I thought I’d do the weekly reading update this week, since I’ve written it up for Pillowfort!

Cover of Snowball in a Blizzard by Steven HatchWhat are you currently reading?

Non-fiction: The Invention of Murder, by Judith Flanders, and A Snowball in a Blizzard, by Steve Hatch. The former is a discussion of how murder stories in all branches of entertainment (tabloid newspapers, ballads, novels, plays, poems, etc) developed during the Victorian period, and is fairly dense but enjoyable. The latter is a discussion of uncertainty in medicine and how important it is to understand that most things in modern medicine are not certainties but are instead what we hope for based on the balance of the evidence — for example, digging into the fact that screening mammography actually probably does more harm than good in a large demographic.

Fiction: A Murderous Relation, by Deanna Raybourn, and The Library of the Death, by T.L. Huchu. The former is ticking along great: maybe a bit less compulsive and attention-grabbing for me than some of the previous books in the series, but fun. The latter… I’m not yet clicking with the narrative voice, but I’m not very far in and haven’t got a good feel for the setting yet (e.g. how magic is viewed within the story).

Cover of White Bread by Aaron Bobrow-StrainWhat have you recently finished reading?​

I’m having trouble calling to mind what the last fiction book I read was, which is not a great sign for whatever book it was, but I think it’s mostly that I’m kind of in a non-fiction mood. The last non-fiction book I finished was White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain, which was actually recommended for me by someone else on Pillowfort who likes this kind of non-fiction, and which I really enjoyed. I’d love to read a blog post or review that relates the themes surrounding white/brown bread in the US to the situation in the UK, which I’m sure shares many similarities and some differences. It’s amazing how the stuff we take for granted can open up huge topics — not just healthy eating but racism and issues of class. I love it.

Cover of What it Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka ArimahWhat will you be reading next?​

As usual, I don’t have a very strong idea. Next month’s choice for the book club I run on Habitica is What it Means When A Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah, so I should probably pick that up… or I’m being very tempted by the third book in Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily series, or a few potential rereads, or… there are so many options.

What are you currently reading?

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