I’m very much enjoying the advent season so far — as I’ve probably mentioned before, I usually go overboard on creating a custom advent calendar of gifts for my wife, a whole mix of things like craft kits, nerdy phone charms, books, etc. I watch out for people’s reviews of horror books all year (especially from Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum) so I can make some good choices Lisa wouldn’t otherwise hear about, since it’s really not my genre. So that’s a lot of fun, and adds a bright spot to every day.

Hope everyone’s having a good December so far, whether or not you’re celebrating any kind of holiday this month!

Books acquired this week

This week I got a couple of eagerly-awaited books to review via Netgalley: I love the Mossa and Pleiti books, and I’ve been adoring the Emily Wilde series. I also forgot to mention Neon Yang’s new book last week, so here it is!

I’m really excited to dig into these.

Posts from the last week

First up, the reviews!

• Memoir: Nothing But The Truth, by The Secret Barrister (2/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: The Secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Book at War: Libraries and Readers in an Age of Conflict, by Andrew Pettegree (3/5 stars)
• Historical fantasy: Wormwood Abbey, by Christina Baehr (3/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 2, by Akane Tamura (3/5 stars)

And the only other thing I posted was my WWW Wednesday post.

What I’m reading

I have a long way to go to meet my stretch reading goal this year: as I write, I have to read 52 more books to meet my goal, and I haven’t given up yet! I’ve been reading quite a lot this week, finishing 17 things that count as books on StoryGraph (though a couple of them were very short, and there were a lot of graphic novels and manga in the mix). Here’s a sneak peek of the ones I plan to review here!

I know, I know, it’s a lot!

Over the weekend, I plan to do a bunch more reading — for one thing, I want to dive into The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, and there’s more manga I want to read, and I’m partway through Murder at the Ashmolean and Black Ops & Beaver Bombing…

Suffice it to say, I’ll be keeping busy!

How’s everyone else doing?!

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

Hurrah, it’s Saturday! I’ve been spending the day finishing up my wife’s custom “advent calendar”, but it’s time to think about books now!

Books acquired this week

I managed to get down to the library this week, hurrah! It was cold later in the week, but there was one warmer day that was perfect at the start of the week.

I keep meaning to try H.G. Parry’s work, and I’m pretty sure I have a book by Rose Black already on my TBR. As for Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency, it looks like a fun seasonal mystery! I enjoyed reading a bunch of those around Christmas last year, so I thought I’d give this one a shot.

I did get a couple of new books to test out my new ereader with, as well. It’s my first colour one, so I wanted to pick a book with colour, and also a manga to try out on it (since one of the reasons to get a faster ereader was to spend more time reading manga).

I actually got a few of Sewell’s books, but I’m not reviewing them all here — it’d be very repetitive.

Posts from the last week

As usual, here’s the round-up!

• Non-fiction: The British Museum: Storehouse of Civilizations, by James Hamilton (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold On Us, by Anna Bogutskaya (4/5 stars)
• Romance: The Pumpkin Spice Café, by Laurie Gilmore (1/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 1, by Akane Tamura (3/5 stars)
• SF horror: Rose/House, by Arkady Martine (4/5 stars)

I didn’t do TTT this week, so the only other post is my What Are You Reading Wednesday post.

What I’m reading

First of all, let’s have a peek at what I’ve finished in the last week which I plan to review here! Here’s a sneak peek:

I’ll be rereading more of A Side Character’s Love Story this weekend, and I think digging into Murder at the Ashmolean, by Jim Eldridge. I’d like to get round to more of The Spellshop, too.

And that’s me for the week! How’s everyone doing?

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

Hurrah for the weekend!

I’m a little behind on comments/blog visits, but I’m finally starting to get back on track with my studies, so I’m calling this week a win. Looking forward to spending time today visiting other blogs, replying to comments, etc, etc.

Books acquired this week

There was no library trip this week owing to the wintery weather: first it was too cold for me to cycle without gloves, and then once the gloves arrived, sadly everything’s covered in ice. It’s supposed to warm up a bit this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.

Nonetheless, I did get some new books! I discovered the Inklings series, from 404 Ink. They’re on a very random range of topics, in a way that delights me, so I’ve snagged quite a few — they’ll serve as quick reads to maybe start catching up with my reading goal for this year.

 

And I did also get a couple more books from my wife, namely these:

So as you see, it’s been a bookish week, and I’ve inhaled many of them already! (The Inklings books are quite short.)

Posts from this week

First up, the roundup of reviews posted this week:

• Speculative fiction: The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler (4/5 stars)
• Poetry: The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris (4/5 stars)
• Crime: Murder at the British Museum, by Jim Eldridge (3/5 stars)
• Horror novella: Cold Snap, by Lindy Ryan (2/5 stars)

And other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Oldest Books On My TBR (basically a gallery of classic crime)
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

Well, as usual let’s start with a sneak peek at what I’ve finished reading this week…

 

As for what I’m reading over the weekend, I’m just finishing up with another of the Inklings books, Blind Spot, and then I want to finish Carolyn Wells’ Murder in the Bookshop and Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop. I also want to get back to Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots.

I need to read 80 more books by the end of the year to reach my stretch reading goal, and it’s looking very far away and unlikely… but we’ll see how it goes.

How’s everyone else doing? Reading anything good?

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

Oh boy, it’s not been a week for reading. I did carve out some catchup time for my classes, though, and I trust I’m on the way back to an even keel.

Books acquired this week

First off, the books I snagged at the library this week:

I didn’t adore Alix E. Harrow’s work that I’ve read so far, but I did enjoy it well enough, so I thought I’d give Starling House a shot. I’ve been curious about Fathomfolk a while, and I had the idea at the back of my mind that I’d seen someone say good things about Where the Dead Brides Gather, so… another one to give a shot.

I did also get a new book from my wife this week, as well. There’s a couple more coming, but for now it’s just this one:

Looks like a quick read, and I’ve been curious about this series of short books for a while.

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a roundup of what I’ve been posting this week:

• Classic mystery: The Man in the Brown Suit, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
• Chinese light novel fantasy/romance: Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 8, by MXTX (5/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Overleaf: An Album of British Trees, by Susan & Richard Ogilvy (4/5 stars)
• SF dystopia: Arch-Conspirator, by Veronica Roth (3/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: Rope’s End, Rogue’s End, by E.C.R. Lorac (3/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Secret Life of the Owl, by John Lewis-Stempel (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

I’ve really been struggling to read this week, so I only have one book lined up ready for me to review here at some point soon:

Not sure what exactly I’ll read this weekend, but I’ve made a start on All the Violet Tiaras, and I’m partway through Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots. So those are good guesses for where I’ll start. I’ll probably also try to get back to The Other Olympians, which is a fascinating lookback at the development of sex verification as a concept in sport (and of course all the transphobia that goes with it). I hope to find a bit more time for it this week!

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

Thank goodness for the weekend, huh?

It’s been a tired and discouraged week around here, with work frustrations, interpersonal issues, and of course the result of the election in the US. (It might not be my country, but we have one single world, and it’d be good if we could all take care of it, and of each other.) Personally, I’d really like a dozen new books for comfort…

Books acquired this week

This week I didn’t buy anything new, despite the temptation, though I did have a short trip to the library.

I’ve already read The Secret Life of the Owl, since it was very quick!

Posts from this week

As usual, let’s have a bit of a roundup.

• Ghost story: Haunt Sweet Home, by Sarah Pinsker (4/5 stars)
• Noir: The Hunter, by Richard Stark (1/5 stars)
• Chinese fantasy romance (danmei): Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 7, by MXTX (4/5 stars)
• Graphic novel: The Sad Ghost Club, by Lize Meddings (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Plants: From Roots to Riches, by Kathy Willis & Carolyn Fry (3/5 stars)
• Horror novella: What Moves The Dead, by T. Kingfisher (4/5 stars)

As a reminder, all my ratings are subjective and personal, about how much I liked the book. So me giving something one star doesn’t mean I think it’s awful, it means it wasn’t for me. Usually my reviews are the best way to dig into why I rated something the way I did!

What I’m reading

I’m having a fair amount of trouble reading at the moment, with being tired and overwhelmed, but I did carve out a little time to read a few books that I’ll be reviewing here at some point.

That’s more than I thought I’d been reading, honestly!

As for this weekend, I’ve finally started on Bitter Waters, by Vivian Shaw; other than that, I’m not sure. I’ll probably focus on reading more of the biography of Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley.

Hope everyone’s doing alright.

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

Good morning folks! It’s been a busy week around here, which has meant very little time for reading — even when I was lazing around in the hotel room, since we had difficulty getting the WiFi password and finding out which of the three bins was meant for what. Lovely venue, badly executed amenities…

Anyway, the trip also means I haven’t been to the library this week, so all-in-all it’s a pretty low-key post. That said, I do have a few things to share!

Books acquired this week

Though I haven’t been to the library, I did get myself a book in order to top up an order for same-day delivery for something I needed for the trip, and I also got an e-ARC via Netgalley, so here they are!

Two very different vibes there, I know! I’m quite curious about The Virtues of Underwear, though it was a bit of an impulse-buy… and I’ve loved Emily Tesh’s novellas, so I’m excited for this novel.

Posts from this week

I’m getting enough of a backlog of reviews that I posted some even on days I had another type of post going up, so it’s a bumper crop this week!

• Poetry: Undying: A Love Story, by Michel Faber (4/5 stars)
• Gothic fantasy novella: But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo (4/5 stars)
• Historical mystery: Murder at the Fitzwilliam, by Jim Eldridge (2/5 stars)
• Chinese fantasy romance (danmei): Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 6, by MXTX (4/5 stars)
• SF graphic novel: .self, by Christopher Sebela et al (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, by Nancy Marie Brown (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Freaked Me Out
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

First of all, let’s start with the usual: what books have I finished in the last week and plan to review here soon? Let’s see…

As you see, not as much reading as usual, but nonetheless, there we go! And for this weekend… I’m really not sure. I want to read some more manga, which I don’t usually review here, but I’m also knee-deep in Lucy Worsley’s biography of Agatha Christie, and The Book-Makers by Adam Smyth is due back at the library on Monday, so there’s plenty to be getting on with!

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

It’s the weekend, and I’m so glad for it. Much-needed from my point of view! And it’ll be slightly extended, as I’ll be off to the wedding of a friend from university this week. It’s exciting to be seeing everyone again!

So let’s try and get me into a good mood with lots of books and me-time, huh?

Books acquired this week

I went to the library twice this week (since I might not get down there at all next week, and I had a hold to pick up), so it’s a bit of a bumper crop. And my library card is now maxed out, oops! First the fiction:

 

I actually had eARCs of What Feasts at Night and Sword Crossed, but I didn’t get round to them — ebooks can be a bit “out of sight, out of mind” for me, unfortunately. But now I’ve read both already, and either way now the library knows people are interested in these authors!

I did also find some non-fiction, some of it from my wishlist:

So that was a lovely haul.

I did also get a couple of books from my wife. I haven’t been “cashing in” my Valentine’s gift (a book of my choice each month) for a couple of months, so after I finished Wormwood Abbey, I asked for the next two books:

And that’s it, for now. As if that wasn’t enough, ahaha.

Posts from this week

First, the reviews, as usual:

• Non-fiction: Precious: The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time, by Helen Molesworth (3/5 stars)
• SF novella: Out of the Drowning Deep, by A.C. Wise (4/5 stars)
• SF graphic novel: The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, by Gerard Way et al (1/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Arik Kershenbaum (3/5 stars)

And the non-reviews:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Habits Over Time
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

Well, let’s start first with the books I’ve finished since last week, or at least the ones I’m going to review here:

As you see, it’s been a pretty good week, with some spooky reads as well (unusual for me). For the weekend, I plan to read some manga/manhua, but also hopefully start on Christina Baehr’s Drake Hall, and possibly finally get started on Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop.

…Probably. As always, I’ll be going based on whatever my random whim tells me.

Finally, just a reminder for folks in the UK that Bookshop.org’s Golden Bookmark competition is drawing toward the closing date. The competition is a prize draw for £250 of book vouchers per year for life. You can sign up via my referral link to enter! Full disclosure: that gets me a few extra entries, and then you’ll be able to grab your own referral link to share.

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

Good morning folks! My achievement this week is that I’m finally back on top of my email inbox, and today I’m tackling my tab backlog. That hopefully means more timely comments going forward, now things are a bit more under control. (Hopefully.)

Books acquired this week

As usual now, I made a library trip on Monday, so here are my spoils!

I’ve been digging into those already — in fact, I’ve finished three, I’m partway through Murder at the Fitzwilliam, and it’s just The Book Makers left untouched.

I did also get a book via my British Library Crime Classics subscription, as usual, and two books for review via Netgalley.

I won’t be reading a Christmas mystery yet, but I had a fun time doing so last year during December, so I’ll look forward to that. As for the ARCs, I’ve been curious about Rose/House for a while, but it wasn’t available in the UK, so glad to pick that up! I wasn’t personally as in love with This Is How You Lose The Time War as others, but I’m curious about The River Has Roots all the same.

Reviews posted this week

As usual, let’s have the review roundup!

• Non-fiction: The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, by Elizabeth Clark Ashby (3/5 stars)
• SF mystery: Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Cyborg, by Laura Farlano and Danya Glabau (3/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 19, by Akane Tamura (3/5 stars)
• Literary thriller: Yellowface, by Rebecca F. Kuang (5/5 stars)

And just one non-review post:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It’s been a good reading week, but quite a few books I won’t review here (like my rereads of Record of a Spaceborn Few and The Galaxy and the Ground Within). As ever, here’s a sneak peak of the books I finished and will be reviewing here — sooner or later, anyway.

As for what I’ll be reading this weekend… first I’m going to finish up with Murder at the Fitzwilliam, for sure. After that, I’m probably just going to follow a whim. I’d like to finish up Wormwood Abbey (Christina Baehr), so I can decide if I want to read the rest of the series, and I’m thinking of making a start on Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies. I’ll probably pick up some non-fiction as well, though, since I like to have some variety. I’m going to keep it fairly chilled out, in any case, as I just got my flu vaccine this morning.

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

ETA: Oh, for those in the UK, here’s an opportunity! Bookshop.org are running a “Golden Bookmark” draw, through which you may win free books for life. Sadly not unlimited free books, but £250 a year for as long as Bookshop.org exists isn’t bad, right? Go on, sign up, you know you want to. (Full disclosure: if you use my referral link, I get some extra entries. You can then get your own referral link… or pass mine on to others, whichever you prefer!)

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

Hurrah for the weekend! I’m hoping to spend it mostly chilling out, but I do need to catch up on comments once more. One day I’ll be less terminally behind!

For now, here’s the weekly roundup.

Books acquired this week

This week it’s just library books, nothing new in the mail or on my ereader. I’d hoped a couple of holds would come in, but they hadn’t by the time I got down to the library, but I found myself some interesting alternatives anyway!

I’ve already read three of those, so apparently it was a very inspiring library trip!

Posts from this week

Here’s the reviews I’ve posted this week:

• Non-fiction science/memoir: All That Remains, by Sue Black (5/5 stars)
• Epistolary fantasy: Sorcery & Cecilia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (4/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie (4/5 stars)
• Poetry: The Lost Spells, by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (4/5 stars)

And other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Brags & Confessions
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It’s been quite a busy week for reading, with quite a few books finished that I plan to review on the blog. Here’s a sneak peek!

There are a couple of others I don’t plan to review, so it really has been a good week for it. I’m not sure what my weekend reading will be, to be honest. I want to whittle down the number of books I’m reading at once, so most likely one priority will be finishing my reread of Record of a Spaceborn Few (Becky Chambers). Other than that… I’ll let my whim guide me.

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

Yaaay, it’s the weekend! Here we go again with the usual weekly roundup…

Books acquired this week

Once more, I’ve been raiding the library this week, with my usual (perhaps weird) mix of choices…

I had one hold to pick up, and then I checked the new acquistions. Oops?

I did also get a new book this month, which I preordered on a whim a little while ago. It looks like the kind of non-fiction that I always find really fascinating, so I’m looking forward to it.

Of course I’m not reading nearly fast enough to keep up with the library books I’m snagging! But that’s okay. They can always be renewed, or returned and borrowed again later. The nice thing is having so many books to choose from.

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a quick roundup! Reviews first:

• Ghost story: Pharos, by Alice Thompson (2/5 stars)
• Short mystery stories: Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
• Video game tie-in: Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: The Art of Resurrection – Beyond the Veil, from Square Enix (3/5 stars)
• Danmei (romance)/fantasy: Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 5, by MXTX (4/5 stars)
• Romance manga: Bloom into You, vol 1, by Nakatani Nio (2/5 stars)

And just one other post, since I skipped Top Ten Tuesday this week:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It hasn’t been a bad week for reading, though I did most reading over the weekend last week! I’ve finished reading Heaven Official’s Blessing, which leaves me feeling a bit bereft, really.

I have also been reading a bit of poetry, but I haven’t had a lot to say about the collections I’d read, so I’m probably not going to review them here, so this is just a peek of the books I read this week that I’ll be reviewing sometime soon:

I juuust finished Murder by Memory before working on this post, and liked it a lot. Here’s hoping the rest of my weekend reading goes so well: mostly I’m working my way through the Secret Barrister’s autobiography, and after that… I’m not sure. I have some other novellas that have been waiting my attention, and after enjoying Out of the Drowning Deep and Murder by Memory, maybe I’m in the mood for smallish, self-contained stories like that.

Important note

I know that people from all walks of life make up the bookish community, and I’d like to get along with everyone regardless of our differences. Every so often, though, there’s inevitably someone who crosses a line, with whom I can’t just “agree to disagree”. Last week, someone visited via a linkup and left a comment (somehow getting through my filter that should bin any future comments from them), after I had previously asked them politely to leave me alone given one of their reviews of a queer book, which used derogatory and degrading language toward trans and non-binary people.

Given that I’m non-binary, as are some of the regulars who comment here, and given how often I review queer stories and books by queer authors, I’m just not comfortable with having that person commenting (and leaving links to their blog) in my space. So this is just a gentle reminder to that person that I did ask you to stop commenting here (twice now), just in case you didn’t get notifications about my replies. It would be much appreciated if we could be adults about this and just agree to leave each other well alone.

I apologise to all my other commenters and visitors here for having to bring this up, but I hope you can all understand how uncomfortable it feels for someone who uses abusive language about people like me to keep commenting on my blog after being politely asked to leave me alone.

Now let’s get back to talking about books!

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