It’s nearly Christmas! I’m so excited to give my family their presents, I might explode! I’ve done a better job of keeping secrets than I normally do, at least… How’s everyone doing? Are you celebrating Christmas or an equivalent holiday, or is it just an ordinary day/week/month for you? Whatever it is, I wish you safe, happy and warm.

Like our bunnies, safely at the bunny hotel without us. But since we’re apart, here’s a picture of the two of them cuddling, last week.

New books

Perhaps a slightly odd combination… but I’m looking forward to all three.

Books read this week:

Reviewed this week:

–Zika: The Emerging Epidemic, by Donald G. McNeil. A good overview of what we know about Zika, at least as of the publication date. 4/5 stars
–Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee. I stayed up all night to finish it, ’nuff said. 4/5 stars
–Locust, Jeffrey A. Lockwood. A little long-winded, but some interesting stuff. 3/5 stars
–Herding Cats, by Sarah Andersen. Fun, as with the rest of Andersen’s work. 4/5 stars
–Dark Sky, by Mike Brooks. This is still really really reminiscent of Firefly, but it’s fun. 3/5 stars
–The Viral Storm, by Nathan Wolfe. Not particularly stunning or new if you’ve read other pop-science on the topic, but well-expressed. 3/5 stars
–Maps to Nowhere, by Marie Brennan. A good collection, with one or two really great stories. 5/5 stars

Other posts:

–Project More Joy. Making my blog more about me again.
–WWW Wednesday. What I’m reading lately.

How’s everyone?

Hello everyone! It’s been a long week, but it’s better than last week. I have my money back from Paypal, for one… Busy week ahead too; I’ve got an assignment due, and me and my wife are travelling to the UK (from Belgium) to spend Christmas with my parents. So much to do!

Received to review

Yay, Ursula Le Guin! I didn’t really expect to be approved for this, so I’m happy. Must read it stat, of course. The other one sounded intriguing from the summary, so we’ll see how that goes…

Books read this week

Not a very productive week, reading-wise! Oops. All of these get four stars, though!

Books reviewed this week:

–Abaddon’s Gate, by James S.A. Corey. If you’re enjoying the series at this point, this is more of the same… with some especially big implications towards the end. 4/5 stars
–Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner. Preferred this on rereading to how I felt about it as a teen — I think I expected more straightforward romance back then. But this time I just found it a delightful melodrama of manners, as advertised. 4/5 stars
–The Stars are Legions, by Kameron Hurley. So. Weird. I think I prefer Hurley’s non-fiction, even though I think she’s very inventive and her writing is good. 3/5 stars
–What On Earth Evolved… In Brief, by Christopher Lloyd. Interesting to dip into, though not terribly surprising for me. 3/5 stars
–The Horns of Ruin, by Tim Akers. There’s some fun stuff going on with the worldbuilding, but it feels like reading an action videogame — it’s all go! 3/5 stars
–Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw. I didn’t see this around much, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I actually found it a lot of fun, and I’m excited for the next book. 4/5 stars
–The Godless, by Ben Peek. I found the world really interesting, again, but I didn’t get into the characters or plot, somehow. I’m not sure I’ll bother reading the sequels. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. The latest on my reading pile.

Good morning, folks! It hasn’t been the greatest week for me, since a scammer of some sort took over my Ebay account and spent most of my money. But I’ve tried to keep my mood up by finally spending a couple of Amazon vouchers I’d been saving, and reading whatever I felt like instead of sticking to a firm rule.

Books bought:

A bit of a random assemblage, I know!

Books read this week:

Four stars: Herding Cats, Suspicious Minds, Three Stones Make A Wall, The Statues that Walked.
Three stars: Dark Sky.

Reviews posted this week:

–Camelot’s Sword, by Sarah Zettel. Not my favourite of the series, but still a great trip into the Arthurian world. 4/5 stars
–The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry. There were aspects of this that were really strong, but sometimes the style of the narration just got on my nerves and was way too dry. 3/5 stars
–The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben. A good casual read, but I felt it was very much pitched at the layperson and that sometimes Wohlleben was a little overenthusiastic about how he interpreted facts. 3/5 stars
–The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan. I really just wanted more from this — the world just felt bland and one-dimensional. 3/5 stars
–The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams. A reread for me, and one which I found surprising in a few ways — sometimes in how frustrated I was with the characters, sometimes in how the plot went because I really didn’t remember it! Overall, still solid epic fantasy, though. 4/5 stars
–Cleopatra’s Heir, by Gillian Bradshaw. A fascinating version of Egypt just after Cleopatra’s death, and an interesting character study of a historical figure we don’t know much about. 4/5 stars
–Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain, by Marc Morris. Highly enjoyable, and informative without being exhaustive. 5/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. The latest and greatest on my TBR list this week.

Good morning, folks! Yesterday I was at Boekenfestijn in Mechelen, which was fun, though a little disappointing in terms of the English language selection (but you know, I didn’t expect tons). So I have one new book and one to review.

New to the shelves

I’ve been meaning to read The Cold Between for ages, so I’m glad I found it at Boekenfestijn. And I’ve been meaning to try Redick’s work, too, so that works out well too!

Read this week

Four stars: Strange Practice, Raven Stratagem, Wonderful Life.
Three stars: The Godless.

Reviews posted this week:

–Provenance, by Ann Leckie. This is quite different to the Imperial Radch books, though set in the same world, and there’s so much I enjoyed about it that I can’t even begin here. 4/5 stars
–The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry. Very much enjoyed this one, and if you think you know influenza, well… read on. 5/5 stars
–The Silver Wind, by Nina Allan. An interesting novella, though I didn’t like it as much as I liked Spin. 3/5 stars
–Summerlong, by Peter S. Beagle. This was not my thing, partly because I loved the couple at the beginning and just Did Not Want that ending. 3/5 stars
–Goldilocks and the Water Bears, by Louisa Preston. Should win all the internets for the title alone, but it turned out to be more general than I’d hoped. 3/5 stars
–Futureland, by Walter Mosley. Some powerful stories, but it didn’t seem like my thing overall. 3/5 stars
–Pantomime, by Laura Lam. I tore through this and enjoyed it a lot… apart from one little quibble. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. What I’m currently reading, what I might read next, the usual stuff.

What’re you reading? What have you got your hands on this week? Definitely share your links, and I’ll visit back as soon as I can!

Good morning, folks! As I write this, I’m about to take the little mister to the vet for what might be a fungal infection, so you get an adorable picture of him with my ereader — which he somehow turned on while I was out of the room…

Update: it is not a fungal infection. He’s just an idiot.

New books

Got these through being a patron of Ursula Vernon’s on Patreon! Woo.

Read this week

Four stars: The Dragonbone Chair, Swordspoint.
Three stars: The Stars are Legion, Locust, The Horns of Ruin, Imagining Head-Smashed-In.

Reviews posted this week

–The Hanging Tree, by Ben Aaronovitch. A worthy and exciting entry to the series, but oh man, I want the Faceless Man plot to wrap up. It’s not that it isn’t awesome, but I’m worried about it getting stretched too thin. 4/5 stars
–Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott. Classic cyberpunk with a lot of queer people. It’s slow-paced, but that works for it. 4/5 stars
–Spin, by Nina Allan. A fresh, if not surprising, retelling of a certain myth I enjoyed a lot. 4/5 stars
–The Rabbit Back Literature Society, by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen. Male-gazey and unfocused. 2/5 stars
–The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, by Philip Jose Farmer. An interesting reworking of the original story, perhaps best enjoyed if you’re familiar with Verne’s work. 3/5 stars
–The Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim. Decidedly outdated and based on somewhat ridiculous Freudian concepts, but surprisingly enjoyable to read. 2/5 stars
–Friday’s Child, by Georgette Heyer. A fun romance, as you’d expect, and I got rather caught up in what would happen even though really, you know the happy ending is inevitable. 4/5 stars

Other posts

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m Thankful For. What it says on the tin.
–WWW Wednesday. The latest and greatest on my currently-reading pile.

How’s everyone doing? Leave me a comment and don’t forget to link your STS post or weekend wrapup; I always visit back as soon as I can!

Good morning, folks! It’s been a busy week around here with assignments and such, but I managed to get very good marks in my Infectious Diseases class, so I’m super pleased.

News

You may have noticed, if you’re a follower of this blog, that I now have Amazon and Book Depository affiliate links — general ones in my sidebar, and specific ones on each book. If you’re not in the US or the UK, my affiliate links should redirect to the same book on your local site if you’re in Germany, France, Italy, Spain or Canada. At this point I’m not planning on enabling ads or anything like that, and there’ll be nothing more intrusive or obvious than the affiliate links I’ve just implemented.

I 100% understand anyone who doesn’t want to use Amazon and Amazon-owned companies to buy books, but if you do and you use my affiliate links, I get a 5% commission on whatever you order. I plan to put any money I earn back into this blog, either through buying books to review or just by using it to keep my URL and pay for WordPress plug-ins or whatever. If it doesn’t work out, well, never mind! If it does, I get a little back for the amount of time I put into this blog.

Bunnies

If you sat through that, you deserve a treat, so here’s a bunny picture even though I’m with them at the moment!

New books

Looking forward to reading more of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work! And I couldn’t resist the cover of Blood Binds the Pack, though I still need to read the first book…

Books read this week

Five stars: Castles.
Four stars: Pantomime, Abaddon’s Gate, Cleopatra’s Heir and Camelot’s Sword.
Three stars: The Viral Storm, The Essex Serpent.

Reviews posted this week:

–Bog Bodies Uncovered, by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. If you find bog bodies fascinating, this is definitely a great book for you. 4/5 stars
–Connection Error, by Annabeth Albert. A sweet romance which builds slowly and features an injured Navy SEAL and an ADHD video game developer. 4/5 stars
–The Chocolatier’s Wife, by Cindy Lynn Speer. A cosy mystery in a fantasy setting, with a bit of romance. I enjoyed it a lot. 4/5 stars
–Bring Back the King, by Helen Pilcher. If you’ve read other books on de-extinction, you might want to avoid this, but it’s a fun enough read. 3/5 stars
–Sea, Swallow Me, and Other Stories, by Craig Laurence Gidney. Powerful stories, some of which I found really disturbing. 3/5 stars
–The Five Daughters of the Moon, by Leena Likitalo. A fascinating fantasy retelling of the fall of the Romanovs, only marred by the fact that it isn’t a complete story in one volume. 4/5 stars
–Ebola, by David Quammen. Avoid it and just get the full book, Spillover. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. An update on what I’m reading.
–The Book Depository Bookmarks Disaster. So I collect Book Depository bookmarks, right? And I have bunnies, right? … A plea for help rebuilding my collection.

So how’s everyone else doing? Feel free to leave links to your weekend posts here; I always comment back as soon as I can!

I have all of one book to feature this week, and it’s not even one I bought! Yep, I passed through London and did not buy a book ‘for the road’ (for the Eurostar), and now I’m back in Belgium where the chocolate is good and the books are expensive.

Received to review: 

I quite enjoyed The Darkest Part of the Forest, as I recall, so I’m interested to follow Holly Black’s new foray into Faerie.

Read this week:

Four stars: Zika: The Emerging Epidemic.
Three stars: Goldilocks and the Water Bears, The Earth After Us, Summerlong and Futureland.

Reviews posted this week:

–The Brain, by David Eagleman. A bit basic for me, but probably great if you haven’t taken every free course on neurology you could find! 2/5 stars
–Away with the Fairies, by Kerry Greenwood. Phryne is terribly daring, there’s a blatant homage to Sayers, and everything ends well for the good guys. It’s your standard Miss Fisher mystery, and none the worse for that. 4/5 stars
–A Sting in the Tale, by David Goulson. A nice non-fic book that makes bees seem rather charming. 4/5 stars
–Close Encounters with Humankind, by Sang-Hee Lee. Some interesting topics tackling humans from the point of view of a palaeoanthropologist. 3/5 stars
–Adventures in Human Being, by Gavin Francis. A readable set of facts illustrated by anecdotes about the human body. 3/5 stars
–The Twilight Pariah, by Jeffrey Ford. Kind of fun, but not really very memorable in the end. Bit goofy at times. 2/5 stars
–I Hate Everyone But You, by Gaby Dunn and Allison Rankin. I was not a fan. 1/5 stars

Other posts: 

–WWW Wednesday: The latest from my climb of Mount TBR.

So how’s everyone doing?

Absolutely no new books this week, which means this is officially an UNstacking the Shelves week! For those who haven’t been around for that before, it’s a week where I showcase the books I’ve cleared from my shelves — I’ve just read ’em all, so please don’t tell me to enjoy them or I’ll know you haven’t read my post at all, and I’ll be sad!

First, this is my last weekend away from the bunnies for a while, so have two photos to celebrate!

Books read this week:

Four stars to: Provenance, Friday’s Child and The Gracekeepers.
Three stars to: What On Earth Evolved? … In Brief? and The Silver Wind.
Two stars to: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg and The Rabbit Back Literature Society.

Reviews posted this week:

–Caliban’s War, by James S.A. Corey. I enjoyed several of the new characters for this installment, while also getting a bit frustrated with the main character of the series and his crew. I’m still intrigued. 4/5 stars
–Snowdrift and Other Stories, by Georgette Heyer. Probably not where I’d start with Heyer, but an enjoyable set of stories with her usual comic touches. 4/5 stars
–Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli. Rovelli’s really good at getting across big ideas in simple language and a short space, though of course he doesn’t go into depth. 3/5 stars
–Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Carrie Vaughn. There was some stuff I wanted to enjoy about this, but it was overshadowed by the character interactions. Probably a personal reaction, though. 2/5 stars
–The Bonobo and the Atheist, by Frans de Waal. Fascinating stuff about the species most closely related to humans. 4/5 stars
–A is for Arsenic, by Kathryn Harkup. Fascinating stuff about the chemistry of poisons as well as how Agatha Christie used poison in her mysteries. 4/5 stars
–The Servants, by Michael Marshall Smith. It felt like this didn’t quite know what it wanted to be. I didn’t love it and I don’t know who I’d recommend it to, even though I found it interesting enough to read all the way through. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: What’s on my currently-reading stack, and what’s coming up next.

Hey all! It’s been a fairly quiet week, seeing my family, playing video games, reading… Hurrah for exactly that kind of week. And here’s Breakfast relaxing to go with it…

Received to review:

Just last week I read the first one and complained I didn’t have the sequel right away. Hurrah, now I do!

Bought: 

I probably love reading about diseases a little too much.

I also got a whole suitcase full of books from Bastian’s Book Reviews, but while they’re all awesome, I’m not adding them to my cataloguing right now.

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Naming of the Shrew, by John Wright. Amusing at first, but starts to drag because it becomes too much of a list. 2/5 stars
–Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Pretty much just a taster, so it genuinely is for people who aren’t fans of astrophysics already. 3/5 stars
–The Language of Thorns, by Leigh Bardugo. Interesting invented fairytales, some of them retellings, and it doesn’t matter if you already know Bardugo’s Grisha world. 4/5 stars
–The Tiger’s Daughter, by K. Arsenault Rivera. I wanted to love this for the queerness and the elegant writing, but I was turned off by the depiction of the cultures borrowed from here. 2/5 stars
–The Gods of Olympus, by Barbara Graziosi. Not much of a surprise for me, but a good survey of the Olympian gods and what people have believed about them over the centuries. 3/5 stars
–Damn Fine Story, by Chuck Wendig. Good advice on how to tell stories, though there’s quite a lot of filler padding it out. 3/5 stars
–Under the Pendulum Sun, by Jeannette Ng. It’s hard to know what to say about this one — it’s fascinating and twisted, playing with stories about the Fae and bringing Victorian realism to it. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. What’s hot and what’s not on my reading pile.

So how is everyone? Let me know and I’ll try and swing by and comment back ASAP, though I’m quite busy today!

Good morning, folks! Here is my haul of books about diseases, for background reading for my course. I’ve already torn through four of them, actually, and it is very helpful to have this perspective.

It hasn’t been a great week in some other respects, so hey, at least I have books. And bunny pictures.

Bought:

Can you tell what I’m studying this semester? Heh.

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Jhereg, by Steven Brust. A reread to get back to the series. It remains fun, though there were no surprises (obviously), and I think some of the fun does come from working things out. 4/5 stars
–Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor. I don’t know why I’m the odd one out, but to me the title summarised how this book felt. It had a natural end and then — kept going. I can’t say I loved the characters, either, or the fact that the plot was advanced by sexual assaults. 2/5 stars
–Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, by Angela Saini. Takes a look at — and skewers — supposed science about in-built differences between genders. 3/5 stars
–A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. I didn’t get the enduring charm that’s made this a classic, I’m afraid. 2/5 stars
–First Grave on the Right, by Darynda Jones. Holy rape culture, Batman. 1/5 stars
–Taste of Marrow, by Sarah Gailey. This had less of the team feel than the previous book, and basically I’m 10,000% here for the lot of them settling down, making a found family and having capers (together) forever. 4/5 stars
–The Beautiful Ones, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I didn’t love Signal to Noise, but this worked much better for me. It’s very Heyer-esque. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday: The weekly update on my currently reading stack, and what I might read next!

How’re you all doing? I’ll always visit back if you leave a comment here, so feel free to drop in a link directly to your STS post.