Greetings, folks! This has been a good week for ARCs, and passable for reading… and I have my replacement ereader now, so I can get back to some neglected library books. Hurrah! It’s also been pretty busy in terms of posting reviews, which I hadn’t realised until starting this post. Whoa!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to the publishers who let me have ARCs (mostly Tor!) and also the two lovelies who have bought me books this week. You know how to spoil a Nicky, and it’s appreciated deeply.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Mystery at Olympia, by John Rhode. Not the most memorable story, actually; I’d thought better of John Rhode’s work in other outings (as Miles Burton). But fun enough. 3/5 stars
• Lock In, by John Scalzi. Very entertaining, and not a bad SF mystery either. Held up very well as a reread. 4/5 stars
• Drowned Country, by Emily Tesh. A lovely novella, following up on Silver in the Wood. I was mad at it at first for certain plot/character things… but it brought me round. 4/5 stars
• Head On, by John Scalzi. Also very entertaining, and that’s including the cat in witness protection which I’d forgotten to mention. 4/5 stars
• The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, by Zen Cho. I don’t always get along with things that are meant to be funny, but this works very well for me, and the voice reminded me of I Capture the Castle, a solid favourite. 4/5 stars
• A Scream in Soho, by John G. Brandon. Rather sordid and racist. Meh. 1/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Colours in the Title. A motley bunch! Most of which I haven’t read yet, actually…
• WWW Wednesday. The usual update, discussing A Scream in Soho and John Scalzi.
• Hobbit Birthday. Giveaway still going on! Open worldwide; £50 to spend at Portal Bookshop for one winner, £15 for two others. (It’s possible to figure out a different bookshop if Portal don’t ship to you!)

Whoa, that took some rounding up.

So how’re you folks? Been reading anything good, or stacking your shelves with anything shiny? I got my finished copy of Seven Devils as well, this week, so that’s something to look forward to!

Well, folks, it’s been quite the week. No new books, and we’ve been in quarantine after Lisa (my wife) developed some potential-COVID symptoms. We’ve both tested negative now and she’s on the mend, but phew it’s been tiring.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

So here’s what I have managed to read (not bad, though they were short!):

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• The Return of the Earl, by Sandra Schwab. Sweet, but one of the main characters acts in a really untrusting way to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and is constantly cranky for no reason, so that was kind of annoying. 3/5 stars
• The Deep, by Rivers Solomon. An interesting take on a concept explored by others, though I found Yetu’s actions really frustrating. 4/5 stars
• Alike as Two Bees, by Elin Gregory. Very short, but I enjoyed it a lot. I’d look for more work by this author, and I love the way the couple are handled. 4/5 stars
• The Secret Lives of Colour, by Kassia St. Clair. Enjoyable, but more for dipping in and out of.

Other posts:

• WWW Wednesday. A quick update, mostly mentioning the books above.
• Hobbit Birthday. Giveaway still going on! Open worldwide; £50 to spend at Portal Bookshop for one winner, £15 for two others. (It’s possible to figure out a different bookshop if Portal don’t ship to you!)

So that’s me for the week. How’s everyone else doing?

Greetings, folks. I wasn’t as organised this week, but I’m still getting this posted on Saturday instead of Sunday! It’s good enough for me. It’s been a quiet week as I haven’t been feeling 100% well.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books bought this week:

As you can see, I discovered a bunch of E.C.R. Lorac books that haven’t been reissued in the British Library Crime Classics series… are available in ebook for a couple of quid each. Yoink!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Like a Gentleman, by Eliot Grayson. A quick fun read without being memorable, or particularly convincing. 2/5 stars
• The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries, by Donald R. Prothero. A fun whistle-stop tour of the most up to date info (as of the time of publication!) on dinosaurs. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Hobbit Birthday. For my birthday, I’m giving away £50 to spend on books (preferably at Portal Bookshop, but I can be flexible if they can’t ship to you) to one person, and one book under £15 to two people! You can get entries (apart from a freebie and one for following my blog) by doing some little self-care/fun/charity stuff.

That’s it for this week? How’re you folks doing?

Gooood morning, folks! How’s your week been?

A few weeks ago, I let you know I was applying to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Well, thanks for all your well wishes — I’m in! I’m still working out whether I can take some prior credit in so I can skip the intro to biology module (given I have an entire biology degree), but I should be commencing my studies (part time, via distance learning) in September. I’m really excited!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to Moon Kestrel for A Declaration of The Rights of Magicians, Malou for Dangerous Remedy, and the bunnies for The Extraordinaries. I am being spoilt lately, and I love it! Also, thank you to K.B. Wagers for recommending Burnout — I’m normally pretty allergic to any kind of self-help stuff, but a) I need to read a self-help book for a reading challenge prompt, and b) there’s good stuff out there, it’s just hard for the genre to rise above some of the blatantly bad books.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• A Ruin of Shadows, by L.D. Lewis. The main character is really badass, and the fight scenes are really vivid and well choreographed. I wasn’t 100% sure the Djinni character worked, though. 3/5 stars
• The A.I. Who Loved Me, by Alyssa Cole. Lots of fun — more SF-y than I expected, and I suspect the audio version is even more fun. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Smile. For a whole variety of reasons, from content to happy anticipation to good memories.
• WWW Wednesday. My usual weekly update, featuring mostly the dinosaur book I’m reading and The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu!

I have a book voucher in need of using… and an order incoming from Portal Bookshop… so it’s going to be a busy week for my letterbox. What books have you been grabbing lately? Anything you’re ready to shake down the postman for?

Good morning, folks! It’s been a while since I was able to do this, but… this post was prepared on Friday evening! It’s nice to be ahead — and I’m even all up to date on writing reviews, and it’s been a good reading week! I know the cool, rainy summer is really disappointing to some folks, but I’m revelling in it; I loathe heat. (I wouldn’t mind a bit more sunshine, just keep the daytime temperatures below 25°C and the nights cool enough to be refreshing, and I’ll still be happy… but if I have to choose between hot weather and dreary rain, I’ll choose the rain!)

In any case, what have I been stacking my shelves with and reading this week? Here we go! Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to the publishers for the eARCs of A Good Time To Be Born and Eight Detectives!

Finished reading this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Annabel Scheme, by Robin Sloane. An experiment in letting Storygraph’s algorithm suggest a book for me, this worked out pretty well! Definitely entertaining. 3/5 stars
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, by Aliette de Bodard. A lot of fun, and did almost precipitate me getting out of my bubble bath — multiple times — to read my wife the good bits. 4/5 stars
• Threshold, by Jordan L. Hawk. Lots of fun, as I expected, but I wish Whyborne would trust Griffin a little more! I know it’s a new relationship, but when you’ve already been through so much together — and had one nearly fatal misunderstanding because of it — argghh! 4/5 stars
• How Contagion Works, by Paolo Giordano. A clear but rather short essay on some of the statistics around COVID-19, from the perspective of the early epidemic in Italy. 3/5 stars
• The Dead Shall Be Raised, by George Bellairs. I’m rapidly finding myself feeling that Bellairs is one of the most enjoyable writer covered by these reissues, and though they aren’t memorable as stories, they’re a joy to read. 4/5 stars
• Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals from Over There That Are Over Here, by Dan Eatherley. Despite the Amazon review claiming it’s thinly-disguised political cant, it mostly really is about invasive species. It got a little repetitive for me, and I think it’s a combination of being not my true area of interest and not being new enough to me that it was interesting anyway. 3/5 stars
• The Murder of a Quack, by George Bellairs. I love his way of portraying characters that are funny, but with a deep sympathy as well. Another really enjoyable one. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: The Authors I’ve Read The Most Books By. As usual, it’s what it says on the tin — I mostly guessed rather than looking at actual stats, which would be dominated by the author of the Rurouni Kenshin manga I read when I was 17, and probably GetBackers as well. Not entirely representative of my current taste!
• WWW Wednesday. The usual update on what I’m reading, with my thoughts on a couple of the books already mentioned here.

Out and about:

• Postcrossing: Book Review – The Documents in the Case. It figures that my official introduction on the Postcrossing blog is about books! I’ve written a couple of posts for the blog before, but this little series will be my Thing, where you can see me reviewing books about post and mail systems. If you have any recommendations for epistolary novels or books that revolve around post in some way, can you drop a comment over there? (Or here works too!) In any case, I did a whole review of Dorothy L. Sayers’ epistolary mystery, The Documents in the Case. I’ve reviewed the book here before, but my write-up on the Postcrossing blog is all new, and hopefully still worth checking out!
• Beeminder: Beeminding the Fuzzy Friends. If you don’t know about Beeminder, basically you set goals… and if you don’t meet them, you pay! My latest contribution to the Beeminder blog discusses how I track spending time with my rabbits, and how those efforts have paid off. If you want to hear about the really cute trick Biscuit can do, you want to read this post!

Full disclosure: I help out at Postcrossing and I’m the Support Czar for Beeminder, so obviously I have Ulterior Motives in boosting these blog posts. I hope they’re interesting, though — I don’t always highlight my blog posts elsewhere, but these seemed like they’d have some crossover appeal!

So that’s everything for this week — how’re you folks doing? Grabbed any new books, or been grabbed by any?

Happy weekend! I’ve actually been reading this week, mostly because I stuck to what is clearly working for my brain right now… and I also got quite a few new books, through friends, ARCs, giveaways and preorders (plus my own one book from my wishlist per week).

I also submitted my application to do an MSc in Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (via distance learning), so hey, wish me luck, restrict non-essential time outside the house, and wear masks when you’re out in public; even temporary cloth masks are proven to help, and if everyone masks up, we can cut transmission waaay faster.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired: 

These first two were received to review via Netgalley! Yaaay.

The Murders of Molly Southbourne was via a giveaway (thank you again!) and a friend got me The Obsidian Tower and Seafire for being brave enough to actually press submit on my MSc application, ahaha.

(How do I have four other books when I’m meant to get one a week? Preorders don’t count in the one-a-week, and A River of Royal Blood and How Contagion Works were covered by promotional credit. Score!)

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson. This is weiiird. The narration is really well done. 4/5 stars
• The COVID-19 Catastrophe, by Richard Horton. Clear and damning account of the pandemic and the UK government’s reactions to it. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Releases To Get Excited About. What it says on the tin! Check out what I’m excited for.
• WWW Wednesday. Check out what I’ve been reading lately (and what I was thinking about it).

Alright, I think that’s everything — and it’s only Saturday! Whew. Normally I end up doing this on a Sunday night. How’s everyone doing? Been stacking any great books lately?

Greetings, folks! Welp, I’m sort of caught up for right now, but I don’t know if it’ll stick. How’s everyone else doing?

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired this week:

Thank you to the kind folks who have bought me books this week… and the customer service folks at Waterstones who managed to get The COVID-19 Catastrophe shipped to me in the end!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, by Leah Price. Kind of unfocused and rambly. 2/5 stars
  
• Murder in the Mill-Race, by E.C.R. Lorac. As usual with Lorac, it’s atmospheric and draws a good picture of a community. 4/5 stars
• Mr Popper’s Penguins, by Richard Atwater. Cute, and I’d probably have loved it as a kid. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Like To Read For The First Time Again. I reprised a topic I’ve most likely done before…
• WWW Wednesday. Including chat about Invasive Aliens (Dan Eatherley) and Murder in the Mill-Race.

Alrighty, that’s all done! And how about you folks? Got any awesome new books?

Hey folks! I keep thinking I’m on top of things again and then crumbling by the end of the week, but I swear there’s progress — and I’ve been reading a lot! I’ve also been getting a lot of books! I haven’t included them all this week, only up to Saturday morning, so I’ll still have something to show off next week. 😀

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Received to review:

I missed Ring Shout and Boyfriend Material off last week’s post, so here they are now! I’m so excited for these books.

Books bought/gifted:

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Think of England, by K.J. Charles. A whole new pair of flawed idiots to adore and want to smack. Exactly as I hoped. 4/5 stars
–Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi. A deceptively light read that gets to grips with some problems in a utopian society. 4/5 stars
–The Sussex Downs Murder, by John Bude. Pretty much what you’d expect from a British Library Crime Classic, which is not to say it wasn’t enjoyable. 3/5 stars
–How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi. If you’re hoping for a step by step manual, this ain’t it: it’s more of a memoir, though I think it’s helpful to guide you through your own journey. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Summer TBR. Okay, it was mostly just an excuse to do a list, I’ll admit.
–WWW Wednesday. Chatting about Beneath the World, A Sea and How to be an Antiracist.

How’s everyone doing? Been getting any new books? Looking forward to any new releases? Let me know!

Hey folks! Regulars around here might have noticed a small change over the last few days: I’ve changed the spelling of my name from “Nikki” to “Nicky”. WordPress won’t allow me to change it for my past comments, so you’ll still see it around in some places. “Nikki” just wasn’t quite me anymore. It’d be great if everyone can try to use the new spelling, but I know it’s not always easy to remember, so I won’t yell at you if you forget!

Also, I’m really sorry, but I’m still behind on comments. I’m still going to post my link to this week’s linkups and keep right on top of replying to comments here, while going back through my backlog to reply and visit folks in return. Thanks for understanding! Weird times we live in, huh?

Aaand yep, my site had some downtime again today. Not sure what happened there, so fingers crossed it’s over.

All that said, here’s some books I got this week!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Few more than I should have been buying, hahaha. Partly that’s due to gifts and preorders, though! As usual, it’s a biiiit of a mixture.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho. A Wuxia story that just didn’t quite work for me… partly because, though the idea appeals, I don’t actually know that much about the genre. It’s hard to appreciate the cleverness and context that way! 3/5 stars
–Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, by The Secret Barrister. Rather enlightening (and also frightening) look at how Britain’s legal system is completely fucked up and failing. 4/5 stars
–The Science of Monsters, by Matt Kaplan. Ugh, this was promising but… the author continually pushed his ideas too far and made them ridiculous. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books from the Backlog. A little collection of books that, for one reason or another, have slipped to the bottom of my TBR.
–WWW Wednesday. Including my thoughts on How to be an Antiracist and Burning Roses.
–Ereader Review: the Onyx Boox Poke2. I thought I’d write up my experiences with my latest gadget — the bottom line being that it’s a really great ereader if you’re prepared to put in the time to get things set up for yourself.

How’s everyone else doing? Get anything good this week? Reading something stunning? Personally I’ve been enjoying the cool rainy days, but I know they can’t last…

Hey folks! I don’t know if anyone noticed my site going down for a day, but that was a whole mess. It’s been a fairly quiet week here: not much reading, at least, though there’s been plenty of other stuff to do. I have spent around three hours today reading, which is nice!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Received to review:

Purchased:

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–How to Invent Everything, by Ryan North. Fun gimmick, didn’t always work for me as a reading experience. Think I might know a bit too much to get the best out of it. 3/5 stars
–The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I tore through this… and also thought it could have been a more profound story with less about Evelyn’s love affair, and more about one of her relationships with one of her husbands. 3/5 stars
–Language Myths, ed. Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill. Fairly slight but a decent primer. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books by Black Authors. Some of my four- and five-star reads from Black authors, for no reason and apropos of nothing…
–WWW Wednesday. This week’s update, discussing Evelyn Hugo and Language Myths.

How are you all doing? Times are rough for many people for many reasons, so if chatting about books is the distraction you’re seeking, drop me a comment! <3