Good evening, folks! I’m a little behind today due to shaken-up routines. Looking on the bright side, the nice thing is that currently me and my wife are preparing to move, hopefully to a bigger flat, where I am promised at least two new bookcases. Excitement!

Books acquired this week

Just one — the new British Library Crime Classic, with an author who is new to me!

So I’m looking forward to giving that a shot.

Posts from this week

Let’s do a quick review roundup!

• Non-fiction: Conspiracy Theory: The Story of an Idea, by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 5, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando (4/5 stars)
• Fantasy romance: A Pirate’s Life for Tea, by Rebecca Thorne (2/5 stars)
• Mystery: The Sirens Sang of Murder, by Sarah Caudwell (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Now Go: On Grief and Studio Ghibli, by Karl Thomas Smith (2/5 stars)

What I’m reading

Given everything going on, such as my grandmother’s funeral, it’s not too surprising that I haven’t finished a lot this week. Here are the two books I did finish and plan to review, though!

As for this weekend, I’m not quite sure. I finally started reading Necrobane by Daniel M. Ford, which I’ve been meaning to get round to a while, so I might just focus on that.

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! I’m writing this somewhat in haste as I’m also getting ready for a trip (for my grandmother’s funeral). Luckily (though sadly), there’s not a lot to say reading-wise, but let’s dig in all the same…

Books acquired this week

None! Technically I have a little allowance from my wife to get a couple of new books as a reward for hard work on my assignments, but I keep procrastinating on actually choosing any. And I didn’t have time for a library trip this week.

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a bit of a roundup of the reviews:

• Historical mystery with some fantasy elements: Seams Like Murder, by Tilly Wallace (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Soda and Fizzy Drinks: A Global History, by Judith Levin (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Black Ops & Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain’s Wild Mammals, by Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 4, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando (4/5 stars)
• Historical/mystery light novel: The Apothecary Diaries, vol 2, by Natsu Hyuuga (4/5 stars)*
• Classic mystery: The Ten Teacups, by Carter Dickson aka John Dickson Carr (2/5 stars)

* Note: the light novel is completely separate to the manga. It’s the same story/characters, but two totally different formats. Light novels are often illustrated, but are prose fiction, while manga are, well, more like comics. In the case of The Apothecary Diaries, vol 1 of the light novel covers the same events as vols 1-4 of the manga, as I understand it. I am reviewing the light novel here.

I did also post a couple of other features this week!

• Top Ten Tuesday: You’d Be A Fool To Skip…
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

Well, “not very much” is the summary, but let’s see — maybe I’ve read more than I thought. Here’s the sneak peek at books I’ve read this week which I plan to review on the blog (eventually):

A quiet week, as I thought. Not sure what I’ll be reading this weekend, if anything, given the travel and the circumstances.

Extra feature

To leave you with a more fun note, a friend set up a list of books that “made” them, and that led me to think about my own… I ended up picking a list of 100 books which have influenced me, and live and breathe with me. A lot of them are a bit arbitrary (and I imposed some arbitrary rules, like mostly not duplicating except for four very important authors), and they’re not all books I’d recommend or endorse, but for better or worse, they tell you a lot about me.

Curious? Here’s the list — you can check off the ones you’ve read, if you like! I’d be curious if anyone can beat my mum and wife’s scores.

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

Greetings! It’s been a quiet-ish week for me in most respects, though the new raid tier has been released in FFXIV, and the Savage version releases on Tuesday, so getting ready for that is keeping me busy.

But we’re here to talk about books, so let’s get to that.

Books acquired this week

I didn’t get chance to go to the library this week, and though I technically have some money to buy a couple of books, I haven’t 100% decided which to get, so this week there’s just one book, the latest British Library Crime Classic via my subscription. It’s a bit late this month because of printing issues, and it doesn’t seem to have a matching bookmark, which makes me very sad.

I have mixed feelings; I like reading the novels from this series as an academic interest, but sometimes misogyny etc bleed through, and that’s the case with several of Anthony Berkeley’s books, if not all. Still, I’ll give it a shot.

Posts from this week

Time for a roundup!

• Mystery: The Leavenworth Case, by Anna K. Green (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Book Curses, by Eleanor Baker (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind, by Richard Fortey (3/5 stars)
• Graphic novel romance: If You’ll Have Me, by Eunnie (4/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella: The Bloodless Princes, by Charlotte Bond (3/5 stars)

What I’m reading

I’ve fit in quite a bit of reading considering how much I’ve been playing FFXIV, so let’s start with the usual peek at the books I’ve finished this week which I plan to review on the blog:

Not sure what’s next, actually, but I’ll be following my whim as always.

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 afternoon, folks! It’s still a weird and busy time around here, but that’s almost the “new normal” for me. It isn’t going to get less busy anytime soon, so I’m just trying my best to do stuff that I enjoy whenever I can.

So, let’s talk about books!

Books acquired this week

First, I got a couple of gifts from my wife, just ’cause:

I’m not a mega-fan of Jane Austen (though I have enjoyed some of her books, sorry Mum), but I’m a sucker for “x in y objects” type books. As for Strange Pictures, I read about it and I’m kinda mesmerised by the idea — and Mood Machine sounds like the perfect way to really understand some of the issues around Spotify. (I’ve been aware of general problems forever, and I always buy the music I like… but it’s hard to resist the convenience of Spotify, so one likes to be at least open-eyed about it.)

And I got a pre-order of a much-awaited book (see below for my review):

Other than that, I also had a quick library trip, partly to pick up my hold of Greenteeth, and partly for a quick browse, in which I picked up a mystery novel I’ve seen around quite a bit, and a non-fiction book that hadn’t been checked out of the library for a few years, on impulse. Here they are:

A random mix, as usual, which is always nice for me.

Posts from this week

First up, a round-up of the reviews I posted:

• Non-fiction: The Other Olympians: A True Story of Gender, Fascism, and the Making of Modern Sport, by Michael Waters (5/5 stars)
• Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 3, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, by John Green (5/5 stars)
• SF novella: Volatile Memory, by Seth Haddon (4/5 stars)

And other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Spring TBR
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

As ever, first let’s have a peek at the books I’ve finished this week that I plan to review!

As for this weekend, I’m not sure yet what I’ll be reading. Maybe The Apothecary Diaries (light novel), vol 3. We’ll see!

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

Hi all! Continues to be a bit of a tough time for me (re: my grandmother’s death as discussed last week), but I do have an extension on my assignments now, which helps a bit. And I got out to the library this week, which is always nice.

Acquired this week

As I said, I got down to the library, so I got a bunch of books out as usual (including my hold).

 

A bit of a weird mix perhaps, but you’re used to that from me.

I did also pop into my local indie bookshop, because indies need our love. I found a couple of options, but picked the first volume of the Solo Levelling manhwa in the end, as someone I know is a big fan.

Posts from this week

Let’s have a bit of a roundup, as usual!

• Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 2, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando (4/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella: Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame, by Neon Yang (4/5 stars)
• Mystery: The Shortest Way to Hades, by Sarah Caudwell (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The End: Surviving the World through Imagined Disasters, by Katie Goh (3/5 stars)
• Classic romance: Wired Love, by Ella Cheever Thayer (3/5 stars)

What I’m reading

I did quite a bit of reading earlier this week, and then stalled out again. Ah well; that’s what my brain does when stressed. Let’s have a look at what I finished:

As for this weekend, I’m trying to settle down with Carter Dickson’s The Ten Teacups, and other than that I’m not sure. Might be some time for some manga/manhwa, if my attention span’s that bad.

As with last week, I might be a little slow to reply/visit back, but I’ll do my best!

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

Well, it’s been a pretty awful week: I went down to Wales in a hurry on Monday to see my grandmother before she died, and stayed at her side until she passed on Tuesday morning. I haven’t been in the mood for reading, really, though I know it does me good so I’ve found time for a chapter or two here and there.

Books acquired this week

None, except that I acquired my own copies of beloved manga I previously borrowed.

Posts from this week

I did manage to get some posts out, in a bid for a bit of normality, so here’s a roundup of the reviews!

• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 9, by Akane Tamura (4/5 stars)
• Cosy fantasy: The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst (3/5 stars)
• Mystery: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The New University, by James Coe (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Light-Eaters: The New Science of Plant Intelligence, by Zoë Schlanger (2/5 stars)

What I’m reading

I’ve only finished one book this week that I plan to review, so here it is:

This weekend, I’m reading a variety of things to try and spark something, so I’m nibbling away at bits of The Rainfall Market, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects, and The Virtues of Underwear. (Perhaps an odd mix… but that’s how I am.)

My apologies in advance if I’m slow to respond — I will try to reply and return visits.

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 continued to be a busy week, but my wife’s in an orthopaedic boot now, which helps a lot — now we can share some household tasks again!

I got a couple of new books this week, though my reading has still been disrupted by an abundance of personal stuff going on. But let’s talk books while we can…

Books acquired this week

I got a gift book and spent a voucher this week, which is nice. Here they are!

A quiet week, but I’ve had plenty of books to go on with in the last months!

Posts from this week:

It’s been a quiet week for reviews too, but nonetheless, here are the handful I posted:

• Fantasy: The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo (4/5 stars)
• Classic crime: Murder as a Fine Art, by Carol Carnac (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Around the World in 80 Birds, by Mike Unwin, illustrated by Ryuto Miyake (3/5 stars)

And I did post for What Are You Reading Wednesday, too.

What I’m reading:

This weekend I’m trying to finish off February’s bingo card for BookSpinBingo on Litsy, meaning I’m reading Mortal Follies (Alexis Hall), Villainy at Vespers (Joan Cockin) and Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Heather Fawcett). That’s keeping me plenty busy!

And here are the books I’ve finished this week that I plan to review:

And now it’s time to finish reading Villainy at Vespers! Hope everyone’s having a good weekend.

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

Last weekend, before heading in for my eye test (and for my wife to get a corneal abrasion checked, so things were already going downhill), I thought to myself, “I feel like I need new books. It feels like that sort of week.”

Reader, I don’t know if I should worry that I cursed us, or just be glad that I stocked up on some extra joy beforehand, because my wife broke an ankle on Sunday and our elderly rabbit has been refusing to eat properly. Since Lisa isn’t supposed to put any weight on that ankle, and we live in a first-floor (that’s second-floor in American) flat which had until yesterday a hole in the floor stretching almost the length of the hallway, it’s been fun and games. There’s also a bunch of associated drama where basically no one in the NHS wants to handle treating the broken ankle, so we’re not going to be seeing the fracture clinic until mid-March at the earliest. (Luckily, A&E did put on a cast.) It’s all a bit much.

So… let’s talk about books, instead!

Acquired this week

I got a couple of finished copies of books I had to review (hello, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales), which I won’t showcase again, but also a bunch of totally new-to-me books. As ever, it’s a bit of a random mix… First up, the non-fiction!

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks and A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects were both on buy-one-get-one-free, and I must confess to loving that kind of history, usually. So I grabbed those somewhat on a whim. I’d wanted The Book Forger for a while, and as for The Cleopatras, I can never really resist Egyptian history. Also, the author is from Cardiff University, and has a very Welsh name, which amused me.

I did also get a couple of new fiction books, one of which (Sorcery and Small Magics) I’d been eyeing for quite a while. Breath of the Dragon I’d come across more recently, and it also looks really good.

So that’s my haul!

Posts from this week

There have been fewer posts than usual because I just haven’t had the mental capacity, but I did get a few reviews up, so let’s do a roundup as usual!

• Fantasy novella: The Orb of Cairado, by Katherine Addison (4/5 stars)
• Crime short stories: Lessons in Crime, ed. Martin Edwards (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: The Immune Mind, by Dr Monty Lyman (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell (3/5 stars)
• Comic: Immortal Red Sonja, vol 1, by Dan Abnett et al (3/5 stars)

What I’m reading

It’s been a week rather low on reading, given the fact that I’m now doing double the chores, etc, etc. So there’s just one book I read that I plan to review, when I get chance.

I’m hoping to get some more reading time this weekend, and find a way to wind down a bit. I’m just getting started on Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons, and I’d love to spend more time with that. Wish me luck!

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 afternoon! As ever, it’s been a busy week for me, but I’m on track with my studying etc etc, so that means a nice chill weekend (as long as I’m on track, I like to make sure my weekends are work- and study-free zones). Reading time!

…And an eye test and such, but you know, there’s still plenty of time for reading around that.

Acquired this week

This week featured a trip to the library, a new book from my wife, and a book via my British Library Crime Classics subscription. So without further ado, here are the books I picked for myself at the library:

And here’s the books I got from the “blind date with a book” display left over from Christmas — I felt so bad that they’d gone to a lot of effort to wrap them beautifully and hand-decorate them, etc, and there were still a bunch left, so I grabbed all the SF/F ones. I’ll try all three!

I thought I might’ve read Spirits Abroad before, but apparently not, and I’ve read Feist and Lord’s work before and enjoyed it, so all in all, not a bad match for me for something chosen just because it was SF/F!

And then there’s the books I got in the mail, with thanks to my wife for the third Hilary Tamar book by Sarah Caudwell!

I already finished The Sirens Sang of Murder — I’m really loving this series, and irritated the fourth book doesn’t seem to be readily available — and I’m eager to read The Ten Teacups, since I’ve started enjoying John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson’s work. It’s an “impossible mystery” again (which he was famous for), so I’m very curious how he makes it work this time.

Posts from this week

Aaand here’s the roundup of reviews:

• Historical fantasy manga: The Apothecary Diaries (manga), vol 1, by Nekokurage & Natsu Hyuuga (3/5 stars)
• Historical fantasy/fairytale retelling: A Sweet Sting of Salt, by Rose Sutherland (4/5 stars)
• Classic crime: Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight, by R. Austin Freeman (4/5 stars)
• Science non-fiction: Sing Like Fish, by Amorina Kingdon (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer (4/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 8, by Akane Tamura (4/5 stars)

And a What Are You Reading Wednesday post, as well, of course!

What I’m reading

As usual, let’s start with a sneak peek at the books I’ve finished this week which I plan to review on the blog…

 

Over the weekend, I plan to amuse myself by continuing to avoid a bingo on my BookSpinBingo card on Litsy (latest update to it posted here), so I’ll probably read The Tomb of Dragons (Katherine Addison), A Pirate’s Life for Tea (Rebecca Thorne) and Sir Hereward & Mister Fitz (Garth Nix).

But, as ever, I’ll also just go wherever my whim takes 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!

This post comes to you after a deeply lazy morning on my part, which segued neatly into a deeply lazy early afternoon — I didn’t get out of bed until nearly 2pm, because I was busy reading! And now it’s time to talk books for a bit.

Books acquired this week

I had a lucky week for ARCs — I have auto-approval from Tor on Netgalley, but I was more surprised to get approved for A Drop of Corruption from Random House! Thanks to both for these eARCs.

I also claimed my February book from my wife — every year, for Valentine’s Day, we renew a promise that I get (at least) one book a month of my choice. In practice it’s often more, but still, the choosing of the monthly book is a thing. And this time it was the second book in a mystery series I’m quite enjoying!

Sadly it doesn’t look like the fourth book is available in this edition, but here’s hoping I’ll manage to get my hands on some copy or other. The third book is now on its way to me… given that I devoured The Shortest Way to Hades this morning already.

Posts from this week

Time for a bit of a roundup of the reviews I’ve been posting!

• Mystery: Tea on Sunday, by Lettice Cooper (3/5 stars)
• Romance manga: Star Collector, vol 2, Sophie Schönhammer and Anna Backhausen (3/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement, by Ashley Shew (4/5 stars)
• Fantasy: The Teller of Small Fortunes, by Julie Leong (5/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape, by Francis Pryor (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: What An Owl Knows, by Jennifer Ackerman (3/5 stars)

What I’m reading

First off, as usual, here’s a roundup of what I’ve read since the last post, at least assuming I plan to review it — a bit of a sneak peek, if you will.

Not sure what I’ll be reading today, all in all — probably more of The Light Eaters, a fascinating book about plant intelligence, but I’m not sure what else. As my whimsy takes me, I’m sure!

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