Tag: Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted September 19, 2026 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

Happy weekend! Despite my recent book sprees, this weekend I’m off to a book shop (or four) after a long week, while Lisa’s going to a spinning skill-share session in honour of Worldwide Spin in Public Day. After all, I have some book vouchers I could spend! So, um, maybe I will have even more goodies next time we meet here.

For now, let’s get to this week’s roundup…

Books I’ve acquired this week

I haven’t bought anything since my birthday spree (see the last three StS posts, which cover all that), but I did get two books for review this week, and one book via my British Library Crime Classics subscription.

Cover of Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm Cover of The Double Dorothy by Olivia Waite Cover of Eat, Drink and Be Murdered, ed. Martin Edwards

I’m saving Our Cut of Salt for October, since it fits beautifully into the spooky theme of the Haunted Shelf readathon — but I’ve already dug into The Double Dorothy and Eat, Drink and Be Murdered, and indeed polished them off.

(If you’re curious about Haunted Shelf, it’s running this year on Litsy and Discord, and all the details are at the link above.)

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve been posting aplenty, so here’s the usual roundup! Reviews first:

As ever, don’t forget that even 2/5 stars is a book that I found “okay”, and when I say 3/5 stars means “liked it”, I’m not joking! And as per usual, these aren’t books I’ve necessarily read recently, since I have a huge backlog of pre-written reviews that I post slowly to avoid spamming everyone.

With that, let’s move on to the other posts:

Comments on any of my posts are always welcome, of course, even if they’re older!

What I’m reading

I’ve been focusing on just reading according to my whim, and that’s been paying off this week with a bit of a pick-up in the number of books I finished. There have been some disappointing moments (Illumino, sadly), but mostly I’ve had a fun week, enjoying all of my other reads. Here are the books I’ve finished this week:

Cover of The Villain's White Halo vol 2 by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi Cover of Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough Cover of Let Him Lie by Ianthe Jerrold Cover of Teddy Bears Never Die by Cho Yeeun

Cover of Illumino by Michelle P. Brown Cover of The Double Dorothy by Olivia Waite Cover of Eat, Drink and Be Murdered, ed. Martin Edwards

This weekend, I’m not actually sure what I might read; I only have one book on the go at the moment, the third volume of The Villain’s White Halo. I’ll probably spend some time with that, and otherwise… who knows? As ever, I’ll stick with my whims.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted September 12, 2026 by Nicky in General / 31 Comments

Happy weekend! Another busy week, but my weekend should be nice and chill.

Books acquired this week

The “this week” part is very theoretical by now, since this is the remainder of my holiday spree! Here follow the birthday presents I got myself, ahaha. For my indie bookshop buys, check out part one and part two: this one covers my finds in Waterstones in Cardiff and Bristol. I love to support indies, but Waterstones also has an important part to play, with different stores curating their stock differently, and their ability to stock such a broad range of books that indies might not be able to take on.

Also, shoutout to the kind staff member in Bristol’s location in the Galleries who spotted me near-crying at the desk and realised my phone and cards had been lost, connected it with something handed in by another customer, and unearthed them to return to me. Heart attack averted… and without further ado, here are the books I bought once I had my card again, starting with the non-fiction:

Cover of Unsuitable by Eleanor Medhurst Cover of With my Own Hand by Ashley Douglas Cover of If This Be Magic by Daniel Hahn Cover of Illumino by Michelle P. Brown

I’d known about With My Own Hand and If This Be Magic before, so I’d half-intended to snag those two: I know nothing about Marie Maitland, but her story sounds fascinating, while someone else recommended If This Be Magic. I couldn’t resist Illumino, I’m a sucker for anything about manuscripts, and Unsuitable speaks to my fascination with fashion history.

But I got some more fiction books too!

Cover of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint manhua vol 11 by singNsong et al Cover of The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino Cover of Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis Cover of The Library after Dark by Ande Pliego

I’ve been reading the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint manhua a while, and this is the new volume, while Enchanting the Fae Queen is the next in a series I found a fun distraction. The Second Death of Locke comes highly recommended, too. The Library After Dark is more of a random choice, though, because the scenario sounds fun.

The birthday book haul is almost over, but I did have one last hurrah in the gift shop at the St Fagans National Museum of History, which is an open-air museum recreating buildings from Wales’ history. Many are the originals, dismantled and transferred to St Fagans for preservation and display. The first book is a biography of the man behind the original version of the museum, and the second a book about the history of the Welsh language.

Cover of Man, Myth and Museum by Eurwyn Wiliam Cover of The Welsh Language: A History, by Janet Davies

Both are available on Kobo Plus, as it happens, so if you’re curious… well, that might be an option!

Finally, I spent the week looking for these, but sadly they weren’t stocked in any brick-and-mortar bookshops, so I ordered them once I got home — the remaining volumes of The Villain’s White Halo, the first volume of which I read while on holiday and really liked.

Cover of The Villain's White Halo vol 2 by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi Cover of The Villain's White Halo vol 3 by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi

Whew! There we go — that’s the full birthday haul.

Posts from this week

Since I post quite a bit, I figure these roundups are useful even for regulars — and maybe more so for people who only pop in once a week. Let’s take a look at my posts since last week, reviews first:

As ever, 3/5 stars isn’t a bad rating, and these books are for the most part not very recent reads, due to my backlog of written but unposted reviews. For the books I’ve been reading this week, check out the last section of this post!

Now for the other posts!

What I’m reading

As I mentioned at the start, it’s been a kind of busy week, so I haven’t read as much as I’d have liked, and it’s mostly been classic mysteries! Which is always fun, and if it’s what’s grabbing me at the moment, I’m definitely not going to argue. So here’s a peek at the books I finished:

Cover of The Abbey Court Murder by Annie Haynes Cover of Murder in the Maze by J.J. Connington Cover of The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik

When it comes to weekend reading, I’m really not sure. I’m partway through Illumino, the history of Britain through illuminated manuscripts, and volume two of The Villain’s White Halo… but I might just continue to lean into the classic mysteries thing, and maybe read more by Haynes or van Gulik… or some of the others I’ve been trying recently.

Whatever it is, I’m going to try to follow my whims, as usual, and not kick myself about not reading something specific or not reading enough. I’ve been doing a bit too much of that lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted September 5, 2026 by Nicky in General / 40 Comments

Happy weekend! It’s been a busy week at work, what with getting back from holiday, so the weekend is very welcome.

Books acquired this week

Alright, time for more of my birthday trip book spree! Part one is here and talks about Forbidden Planet (in Bristol) and the indie shop Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights (in Bath), and the first part of this post covers the rest of the day in Bath at the delightful Topping & Company branch there. Their stores always feel magical, with wooden shelving, wooden ladders on rails around the rooms, and somehow more rooms in the spaces than you’d think could be possible.

So let’s take a look at what I picked up there!

Cover of Cryptic by Garry J. Shaw Cover of Clodia of Rome by Douglas Boin Cover of The University by William Whyte

Cover of Heartstopper vol 6 by Alice Oseman Cover of The Castle and the Cloister by Laura E. Weymouth

I don’t know anything about the three non-fic choices except that they looked intriguing: I love stuff about old and weird manuscripts, and I’ve found the recent books focusing on women of ancient Rome really interesting in how they pick apart inconsistencies and give us much more complicated images of the women in question (like Emma Southon’s Agrippina). And of course, I couldn’t resist a book about the history of universities, given my… proclivities. (I finished my fourth degree last year and there is a literal betting pool about when I will next enroll.)

I did also pick up print copies of a couple of books I’d already received as eARCs:

Cover of Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher Cover of A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett Cover of The Art of Charming a Changeling by Sylvie Cathrall Cover of Princeweaver by Elian J Morgan

I haven’t finished any of them yet, so I’m hoping having physical copies will help me get to them, ahaha — plus I do like to support authors by getting their books, of course.

That was it for the Monday. I was intending to drop into Waterstones in Cardiff on Tuesday while we were visiting my aunt and some of my nostagic spots from when I was a student, but I discovered that there’s a lovely new indie bookshop in Castle Arcade: Love Stories Bookshop. So of course, I had to get some books there!

Cover of The Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne by Summer N. England Cover of The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson Cover of The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen

I did also go to Waterstones, both in Cardiff and in Bristol… but that’s a story for next week!

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve been posting away this week and have had plenty to say, so let’s dig into the roundup. Reviews first:

As ever, these aren’t books I’ve necessarily read recently; check out the section below for what I’ve been reading this week! I have a big backlog of reviews written and ready to post, and I try to vary what I post in order to avoid spamming people with sixty danmei reviews at once.

Also, 3/5 is not a bad rating, and even 2/5 ratings mean the book had some redeeming qualities. Please do take my definitions literally; when I say 3/5 stars means I liked a book, that means I liked the book, even if you wouldn’t rate a book you liked 3/5 stars. Thanks!

Now for the other, non-review posts:

And that’s all for the wrap-up!

What I’m reading

As I mentioned, it’s been a busy week, so I haven’t been reading as much as I might’ve hoped. Still, I’ve read one of my new books and two classic crime novels, so I’m pretty happy!

Cover of Cryptic by Garry J. Shaw Cover of The Rasp by Philip MacDonald Cover of I Cannot Be Good Unless You Say It by Sanah Ahsan Cover of The Duke of York's Steps by Henry Wade

For this weekend, I’m not sure what I’ll be reading — hopefully more of Teddy Bears Never Die, The Villain’s White Halo, and my classic crime binge? But we’ll see! It’s always whatever grabs my interest, after all. I’ve also started a non-fic about British medieval manuscripts, after all…

So really, it could be anything. Whatever I read, whatever you read, here’s hoping it’s a good weekend!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 29, 2026 by Nicky in General / 44 Comments

Hello everyone! Back at home, and I have plenty of books to show for my journey! It was lovely to have a break and get away from the usual routine, but it’s also nice to be home.

Books acquired this week

Now the birthday book haul really begins, ahaha. Here are the books my parents got me for my birthday, both non-fiction books I’ve been very interested in reading:

Cover of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson Cover of An Expert Witness by Sue Black

In the case of Beyond Belief, I’d been intrigued since I read New Scientist‘s review, while I’ve generally loved Sue Black’s other books. I’ve finished Beyond Belief already!

As for the book spree, I’m going to break that up into a couple of different posts, mostly by bookshop, because I visited several indies and that gives me a good chance to talk about them. First up, though, the books I got in Forbidden Planet on our first day in Bristol. It’s not as big a shop as in London and there definitely wasn’t as much danmei as I’d hoped, but I still got some new treasures! This spree was a gift from my wife for my birthday, and I took full advantage of the offer, ahaha.

Cover of Teddy Bears Never Die by Cho Yeeun Cover of The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk Cover of The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson

Cover of There's Something Wrong with the Chief vol 1 by Yang Su Cover of Little Mushroom vol 1 by Yi Shi Si Zhou Cover of Golden Terrace vol 1 by Cang Wu Bin Bai Cover of Heaven Official's Blessing manhua vol 2 by STARember

Tammy and Mogsy made me curious about Teddy Bears Never Die, while The Feywild Job has been on my list for a while since it’s by C.L. Polk, so I was glad to pick that up. The Library of Amorlin was a random choice: I’ve heard nothing about it, but it had lovely sprayed edges and the word “library” in the title, so it caught my eye. One of the joys of bookshopping in person is getting to pick up random books you’ve never heard of and just give them a shot.

As for the danmei, I’ve been meaning to try all three of these for a while, and of course I had to pick up the next volume of the Heaven Official’s Blessing manhua.

Not bad for a first day, right? But the next day of the holiday was intended as the real spree over in Bath, and we started at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The staff are always good for a chat about books, though I would warn that the shop is definitely not accessible for anyone in a wheelchair (very narrow with steps), and the neurospicy might not enjoy the fact that all fiction novels are shelved together regardless of genre.

Anyway, I found myself a few new friends in Mr B’s, as expected! My wife covered these as well, because I’m super spoiled.

Cover of 31 Inventions that Built Our World by Jonn Elledge Cover of The English House by Dan Cruickshank Cover of This Golden Fleece by Esther Rutter Cover of Everybody's Perfect by Jo Walton

The first three are non-fiction; I’d wanted The English House and This Golden Fleece for a while… while of course Everybody’s Perfect is Jo’s latest, and there’s no way I could resist.

I’ll call a halt there, and tell you next week about Topping & Company (also in Bath) and the new-to-me Love Stories (in Cardiff).

Posts from this week

Despite being away all week, I had plenty of posts queued up ready for me to just hit “post”, so there’s lots to round up as usual! Starting with reviews:

And of course, the discussion posts/linkups/etc:

Oof, that was a lot!

What I’m reading

Despite the travel, I have managed to fit in some reading time, because we planned our days with lots of downtime for reading. I did struggle to settle down to the book choices I’d brought with me, and ended up abandoning both my BookSpinBingo list and my 20 Books of Summer, and just letting myself read whatever, which helped me get unstuck.

Here’s a quick peek at the books I finished this week:

Cover of Egypt's Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti were Gods on Earth by John Darnell and Colleen Darnell Cover of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson Cover of Servus by Emma Southon

Cover of Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare Cover of The Villain's White Halo vol 1 by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi Cover of Tenant for Death by Cyril Hare

You can click the thumbnails to get a view of the full covers!

As for this weekend ahead, I’m a bit tired from the travel and because I wasn’t well on Thursday night (just a flare-up of complications from my long-ago gallbladder removal, I’m okay now!), but we’ll see… I’m in the mood for more classic crime, and have added a couple more by authors I haven’t tried yet on Kobo Plus. And then, of course, there’s all the new books!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 22, 2026 by Nicky in General / 34 Comments

Happy weekend! I’ve been off work for two days already, so I’m starting to get into my stride with this relaxation thing… nah, kidding, I’m really bad at it! Even on my birthday on Thursday I was doing chores like a normal day…

Books acquired this week

So far the birthday haul has been very restrained — because Lisa’s waiting until my indie bookshop spree on Monday. So it’s just the one book from my friend Alys, plus a book I got myself because I’ve been wanting it for ages…

Cover of Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross Cover of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint vol 4 by singNSong

I’ve actually started Steeple Chasing already, since for some reason it just kinda worked with my mood, though I haven’t read much yet! I’m not super interested in churches per se, but more about what they can tell us about people, and so far it does seem to lean that way too!

Posts from this week

Despite my birthday, I’ve kept busy as ever on the blog this week, so here’s the rundown! Reviews first:

As ever, I haven’t read most of these books that recently, since I spread out my reviews to get a range of different books featured. And 3/5 isn’t a bad rating!

Of course, I’ve also participated in various discussions and linkups, as usual…

What I’m reading

First up, a quick round-up of the books I’ve finished in the last week! Which wasn’t a lot, since work was pretty busy prepping for my time off, and I’ve got a couple of other books in progress which are quite dense.

Cover of The Party at No. 5 by Shelley Smith Cover of The Poet Empress by Shen Tao Cover of Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers

For this weekend, I probably won’t be reading a ton, since I’m having dinner with my parents and sister for my birthday, and my wife and I are heading off on our week away. But we’ll see! I’d love to finish up a couple more books before we go, so I don’t have to wedge them into my packing somehow…

Thanks all for your birthday wishes last week! And I hope you’re having a great weekend.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 15, 2026 by Nicky in General / 40 Comments

Happy weekend! With my birthday coming up on Thursday 20th, this is my last push to tidy up my TBR a bit ready for birthday books… Wish me luck.

Books acquired this week

I’m still trying to whittle things down so I can get books for my birthday, but I did get a couple of manga this week for some lighter reading!

Cover of My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World vol 1 by Nekonomori Shima Cover of My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World vol 2 by Nekonomori Shima Cover of Love in the Palm of His Hand vol 3 by Rinteku

My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World is a bit of a silly series (and a very clear ripoff of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter), but it was a fun palate cleanser. As for Love in the Palm of His Hand, I hadn’t realised that volume three had been out for a while, so I eagerly snagged that!

And of course, my British Library Crime Classic subscription book came in:

Cover of The Party at No. 5 by Shelley Smith

This is a new-to-me author, so I’m curious!

Posts from this week

There’s been plenty of wordcount posted on the blog this week and I wouldn’t blame anyone who waits for the roundups or couldn’t keep up this time! So here’s the rundown, reviews first:

As usual, don’t forget that most of these reviews are for books I read weeks or months ago, because I pre-write the reviews and post them in a spread-out way to provide variety. Also, 3/5 is a perfectly good rating, since for me it means “liked it”, and I give 5/5 rarely!

And of course, the other posts:

What I’m reading

First, as always, a quick preview of the books I’ve finished this week which I plan to review on the blog:

Cover of My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World vol 1 by Nekonomori Shima Cover of Rummage by Emily Cockayne Cover of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 3 by Liu Gou Hua

Cover of Love in the Palm of His Hand vol 3 by Rinteku Cover of My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World vol 1 by Nekonomori Shima Cover of A Woman's Work by Elinor Cleghorn

And as for my plans for this weekend… well, my birthday/holiday trip approaches, with just three working days left, so I really need to get my read on if I want to finish some more books in order to clear the decks for the trip. I’m planning on finishing up Shen Tao’s The Poet Empress, reading my new British Library Crime Classic, and… I’m not sure what else. Lots, hopefully!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 8, 2026 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

Happy weekend! I had a bit of a bleh week, so I’m determined to fill the weekend with joy, books, and video games.

Books acquired this week

First up, and somewhat inevitably, I really, really needed book three after finishing book two, so I snagged the next volume of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine…

Cover of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 3 by Liu Gou Hua

I’ve already plunged in, of course! I’m going to be so sad, having to wait until November for volume four… but I hear in this volume some of the slow burn pays off.

I did also borrow two poetry collections from the National Poetry Library, so here those are:

Cover of My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards Cover of Bondo by Menna Elfyn

And that’s it for this week, since I’m still very much in “reading the backlog” mode to try to make space for birthday books. (Not so much physical space, there’s still plenty, but given I limit the number of books I can buy in the current year without starting them.)

Posts from this week

As ever, let’s do a bit of a roundup of my posts from the week. It’s been another busy one!

First, the book reviews:

As ever, three stars isn’t a bad rating, and I didn’t read these books this week. I wrote the reviews weeks/months ago when I read the books, but spread out when I post them to give a variety. If you want to check out what I’ve been reading this week, it’s the next section below!

And non-review posts:

What I’m reading

It’s been a quieter week reading-wise than I’d expected/intended, given the bleh feeling… but oh well! I was also working on ongoing reads of some slow-paced non-fiction, so it’s not as “bad” as it looks, even though three of these are very short. Here are the books I’ve finished this week:

Cover of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 2 by Liu Gou Hua Cover of Bondo by Menna Elfyn Cover of My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards Cover of Brimstone Slipstream by Matt Weber

As for this weekend, as usual I have many plans involving reading some manga, finishing volume three of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine, finishing the non-fiction I’m reading, etc. Game-wise, I’m planning to finish Whisper of the House, which is a cute game combining Unpacking-style organisation and some exploration… and of course, play some Final Fantasy XIV.

But in the end, it’ll be wherever my whim takes me, of course!

Hope everyone else has had a good week.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 1, 2026 by Nicky in General / 44 Comments

Happy weekend! And whew, I need it.

Books acquired this week

I told myself I was really going to try not to get any more books before my birthday, but I’d forgotten that I’d preordered Dinosaur Sanctuary volume eight, and then one of my (brand-new) fillings broke and I had to head back to the dentist. And I really liked the first volume of this danmei…

Cover of Dinosaur Sanctuary vol 8 by Itaru Kinoshita Cover of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 2 by Liu Gou Hua

Volume two of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine took a little finding (in the end I ordered it from Travelling Man, of all places, thanks to my wife spotting that they actually had it in stock) but it arrived yesterday, woooo. I might even read it this weekend!

Posts from this week

As ever lately, it’s been a busy week on the blog, so good thing I’m going to do a roundup! Here goes, starting with the reviews:

As ever, most of these are not recent reads, except for The Sea Hides Its Dead, because of the way I spread out my reviews to avoid spamming everyone with sixty million manga reviews at once! I have tons of reviews pre-written and all ready to go, when the right moment comes.

Aaand of course, here are the non-review posts now:

What I’m reading

First up, the little preview of books I intend to review soon, having finished them this week! I had a good weekend for reading, but tailed off once we hit the work-week — it was busy, and also the dentist stuff… Anyway, here they are!

Cover of Twelve Caesars by Mary Beard Cover of The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager Cover of The Wife Comes First vol 3 by Lv Ye Qian He Cover of Zoology by Gillian Clarke

Cover of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 1 by Liu Gou Hua Cover of Dinosaur Sanctuary vol 8 by Itaru Kinoshita Cover of A Short History of the World in 50 Lies by Natashia Tidd

Earlier in the week I had very specific reading plans, but I’ve decided to abandon them — they stopped sparking joy! Now my main plan is just to try to clear the deck a little bit so I have space for books for my birthday: we have a specific day planned out for me to buy plenty, so I’d better make space!

So chances are I’ll read After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 2 this weekend, and dive into some of the other books that’re waiting for me, like John Wiswell’s The Dragon Has Some Complaints.

As ever, though, it’ll ultimately be whatever I feel like.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted July 25, 2026 by Nicky in General / 39 Comments

Happy weekend! I have big reading plans again this weekend, even though it’s just a normal weekend, because I really want to clean up my TBR a little before birthday books start rolling in.

Acquired this week

First, before I forget, library books!

Cover of A470 ed. Sian Northey and Ness Owen Cover of Naming the Trees by Ness Owen Cover of Zoology by Gillian Clarke

The National Poetry Library had a display of Welsh poetry up top for a few weeks, and I added sooo many to my wishlist. In the aftermath of reading Afonydd, I definitely wanted to try the editors’ other bilingual book, and I figured I’d try Ness Owen’s solo collection too.

I’ve also been very lucky with book mail, with a bunch of new books to review: Hachette decided to bless me this week, and I got these three in quick succession! I also got an eARC from Little, Brown, which I’ll slip in here too…

Cover of The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood by H.G. Parry Cover of The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager Cover of Harbour of Hungry Ghosts by Eliza Chan Cover of The Art of Charming a Changeling by Sylvie Cathrall

Horror isn’t always my thing, but I’m very tempted by The Sea Hides Its Dead — and of course I’m keen on The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, since it’s Arthurian. (For those who don’t know, I wrote my MA thesis on Sir Kay from Celtic to modern Arthurian stories. I semi-recently talked about some of my favourites!) Hopefully I’ll get to all three of these soon.

And of course, given how much I loved A Letter to the Luminous Deep and its sequel, I’m excited by Sylvie Cathrall’s new book!

Finally, a preorder came in, almost right after I finished the previous book:

Cover of The Wife Comes First vol 3 by Lv Ye Qian He

Obviously I’m keen to get started on this!

Posts from this week

It’s been a busy week again around here, so here’s the round-up in case of anything you’ve missed. Reviews first:

As ever, most of these aren’t books I finished that recently — I hold back reviews to try to give y’all a mixture to read, rather than dump reviews for all volumes of Cat + Gamer on you in the space of a week, ahaha.

There were also some other posts, as ever, so here we go with those:

What I’m reading

Last weekend I took a long weekend, partly for catching up with housework and getting some specific bigger tasks done (woooo, I have a little shed for storing my bike in now!), but it also meant some really good reading time, so I started the week off very well. I slowed down toward the end of the week, but still preeeetty good.

As ever, here’s the sneak peek of what I’ve been reading and got finished this week!

Cover of Afonydd, ed. Sian Northey and Ness Owen Cover of The Magic-Lantern Murders by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) Cover of A470 ed. Sian Northey and Ness Owen Cover of The Wife Comes First vol 2 by Lv Ye Qian He Cover of A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley

Cover of Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer Cover of A Case of Fear and Favour by Sally Smith Cover of Naming the Trees by Ness Owen Cover of City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish by Peter Parsons

My big plans for the weekend include finishing up Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars, reading my new danmei (The Wife Comes First, vol 3) and working on some of my review books, like Megan Bontrager’s The Sea Hides Its Dead and Becky Chambers’ As You Wake, Break the Shell.

Buuut as always it’ll depend on my whim!

Hope everyone else has a great weekend, and looking forward to doing the rounds and dropping by all your blogs.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted July 18, 2026 by Nicky in General / 32 Comments

Happy weekend! And here it’s overcast (at least for now) and cooler than it’s been in days. I planned a long weekend at somewhat the last minute, to give me chance to do a few tasks around the house and build my new bike storage, so the cooler weather works out well!

Anyway, to the books…

Books acquired this week

There are actually three ARCs in the mail to me, but they haven’t arrived yet, so I can only talk about this one. I got the email offering me this ‘read now’ on Netgalley and have rarely pushed a button so hard in my life; I love this series!

Cover of A Case of Fear and Favour by Sally Smith

I’m very much looking forward to digging into this one. I had no idea I’d become as fond of Gabriel Ward as I have; in the first book, his introduction makes him seem stuffy and pedantic… but he’s also kind, and cares about justice, and I quickly came to love the character.

Posts from this week

It’s been a busy week on the blog, especially for non-review posts, so the usual round-up sounds like an excellent plan! Reviews first, as per usual:

As ever, these reviews are often for books I finished weeks or even months ago; I have all my reviews written, but hold them back to keep things a bit more varied! The books I’ve read this week will be in the section below.

Aaand the other posts:

As I said, a pretty busy week, what with the 20 Books of Summer update and joining the Book Blogger Hop for the first time.

What I’m reading

I had some weird headachy/migraine stuff going on this week, so I didn’t read nearly as much as I’d have liked, but I did finish a handful of books! As usual, here’s the sneak peek of the ones I intend to review on the blog:

Cover of Life Changing by Helen Pilcher Cover of Off the Shelf: A Celebration of Bookshops in Verse, ed. Carol Ann Duffy Cover of Love and Desire in the Promised Land by Salomé Parent-Rachdi Cover of The Album of Dr Moreau by Daryl Gregory

For this weekend, I want to start on some more of the new books purchased/received this year that are hanging around. I only let myself have 20 unstarted books bought this year at once, and the number’s been hovering at or around 20 for a while. I need some breathing room for my birthday!

That said, as I mentioned in the Book Blogger Hop post, I have a few too many books on the go at once, so I’d also like to work on those. Hopefully I can keep a balance! I suspect I’ll start A Case of Fear and Favour, and work on finishing volume two of The Wife Comes First, Carter Dickson’s The Magic-Lantern Murders, and Suzanne Palmer’s Ode to the Half-Broken. For a change of pace, I might also start Greer Stothers’ Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die…

But we’ll see. As always, it’ll be wherever my whim takes me, and that might mean somewhere else entirely. I’m reading to have fun, not to check things off a list!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

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