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!

Good morning! I’m back in my usual abode, and settled back in — after a bit of a struggle because our internet connection had cut out. (Even worse, turns out it’s because a rodent bit through the cable.) It was good to have a change, and now it’s good to be home!

Without further ado, let’s dig into the doings of this week.

Books acquired this week

Just one, and of course I positively leapt upon it: The Orb of Cairado is out!

I’m hoping to read that this weekend, since I’m currently rereading The Grief of Stones and preparing to read the third of that trilogy.

Posts from this week

Time for the round-up of posts from this week. Let’s see…

• Romance manga: Star Collector, vol 1, by Sophie Schönhammer and Anna Backhausen (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Penguins and Other Sea Birds, by Matt Sewell (3/5 stars)
• SF mystery: The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, by Malka Older (4/5 stars)
• History: Breakfast Cereal: A Global History, by Kathryn Cornell Dolan (3/5 stars)

And of course, my What Are You Reading Wednesday post!

What I’m reading

As always, let’s start with what I’ve finished up this week (at least, assuming I plan to review it). Here’s a quick peek!

I did also finish up a reread of The Witness for the Dead, and start on rereading The Grief of Stones, which I intend to finish today. Other than that, my reading plans involve the new novella in that world mentioned above, The Orb of Cairado, and then probably I’ll try to get back into reading Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop.

And of course I’ll leave room to read whatever strikes my fancy…

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’ve been enjoying a few days of being a bit less constantly online and doing some extra reading, as planned, and I have a few more days of that before I’m home. I love being in FFXIV at all hours — but this is fun too, and means I’ve been able to settle down for quality reading time. That hasn’t translated into finishing loads of books, but more reading some longer ones.

Books acquired this week:

…None! Would you believe it? My family never would, but it’s true. I popped into the library to return some books, but I didn’t browse since it was only the small branch library and I don’t know my way around that super well, and we were pressed for time.

Posts from this week:

I’ve been posting as normal, so I do have stuff to share here!

• Non-fiction: The Loki Variations: The Man, the Myth, The Mischief, by Karl Johnson (4/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 7, by Akane Tamura (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy/romance light novel: My Happy Marriage, vol 1, by Akumi Agitogi (3/5 stars)
• Biography: Agatha Christie, by Lucy Worsley (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Selfish Genes to Social Beings: A Cooperative History of Life, by Jonathan Silvertown (2/5 stars)
• Classic crime: No. 17, by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1/5 stars)

And of course I posted What Are You Reading Wednesday, as usual, but skipped the TTT prompt for the week since these posts have my recent hauls covered.

What I’m reading:

As usual, let’s start with a sneak peek at the books I’ve finished reading this week which I’ll be reviewing soon!

Not as many as I’d kind of hoped, but they were actually pretty substantial reads (aside from A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation).

As for what I’m reading this weekend, I’m partway through Sheeplands: How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World (Alan Marshall), which is a bit disappointing in that I have questions about the research — Homer didn’t scribe anything into anything, and if you can’t manage to realise that “Homer” is probably a bit of a fiction and that the works attributed to him were likely originally oral works, I don’t know what to do for you.

I’m less sceptical of my fiction read: The Teller of Small Fortunes (Julie Leong) is proving an excellent match for my mood.

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend! Even though I’m a bit more unplugged this weekend, I’m looking forward to visiting blogs as usual, later today — or maybe tomorrow.

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! It’s been a busy week as ever, and not as much reading time as I’d like, but here’s hoping I’ll find all the time I want today. And without further ado, let’s jump into my new books, etc.

Books acquired this week

This is actually a bit of a catchup; over the last three weeks I’ve been featuring the books I got for Christmas, but some other books have found their way to me now via vouchers I got for Christmas, other miscellaneous gifts, preorders and ARCs. Let’s take a look first at the light novels I’ve got…

Technically volume 4 of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation hasn’t arrived yet, and I really don’t know what Waterstones/Royal Mail are playing at there, but I figured I’d feature them all together anyway.

And then there’s the other handful of books I got: a new pop-science book, the new volume of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, and this month’s British Library Crime Classic via my subscription.

I’m excited for Murder as a Fine Art, since I love Carol Carnac/E.C.R. Lorac’s work almost every time.

And finally, here are a couple of review copies I received!

I need to read Necrobane before I can start on Advocate, but I wanted to do that soon anyway.

So as you see, there’s even more to keep me busy! Especially nice since I’m going to be having something of an unplugged week from Wednesday to the following Wednesday, with a bit less gaming time (though I will have my Steam Deck) and a bit more reading time.

Posts from this week:

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

• Non-fiction: They Came to Slay: The Queer Culture of DnD, by Thom James Carter (4/5 stars)
• Romance: The Paper Boys, by D.P. Clarence (1/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella (ARC): The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar (4/5 stars)
• Queer comic: Breaks, vol 1, by Emma Vieceli and Malin Rydén (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and their Meanings, by Natalie Lawrence (2/5 stars)
• Classic crime: The Big Four, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
• Historical fantasy: The Apothecary Diaries (light novel), vol 1, by Natsu Hyuuga (4/5 stars)

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2025
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

For the weekend, I’m focusing on Mr Pottermack’s Oversight, by R. Austin Freeman — a classic mystery — and Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water by Amorina Kingdon. I’m having fun so far, though I’m going slower than I’d like with my reading, a sure sign of a somewhat overly busy week.

Still, I got a few books finished (more than I’d thought), so here’s a sneak peek of what I read and plan to review, this week.

And that’s it for me, for this week! Any exciting reading plans, folks?

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

Wooo, the weekend! It’s been a cold and icy week here, really treacherous (including our car dramatically almost trying to slip off the back of our carpark and down onto the house a few metres below!), but we’re doing okay. Hope everyone else is doing alright.

Books acquired this week

For a certain value of “this week”… time for the final installment of books I got for Christmas!

First up, the remains of the fiction:

Technically there’s a little more fiction to come that I haven’t shown off, since I had a couple of vouchers to spend after Christmas (and my wife got me a couple more for non-Christmas reasons), but we’ll save that for next week.

You might’ve noticed that I already featured a volume one of The Apothecary Diaries a few weeks ago — that was volume one of the manga, though, and I decided to dig into the light novel. This isn’t at all confusing! Other than that, there’s a couple of picks that were just recommended somewhere (e.g. on Shepherd), plus Thus Was Adonis Murdered, which I was suddenly seeing everywhere a month or so ago.

Next, the rest of the non-fiction!

As ever, it’s a bit of a mix.

And that’s the last of the enormous Christmas haul (part one, part two)… except for a couple of books I bought later with vouchers etc. Next week is really, really the last of it!

Posts from this week:

First up, a quick roundup of reviews…

• Fantasy/teen romance graphic novel: Camp Spirit, by Axelle Lenoir (3/5 stars)
• Christmas romance: Look Up, Handsome, by Jack Strange (4/5 stars)
• History/folklore: Saints: A New Legendary of Heroes, Humans and Magic, by Amy Jeffs (4/5 stars)
• Fantasy: A Man and his God, by Janet Morris (1/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Space Rover, by Stewart Lawrence Sinclair (4/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 6, by Akane Tamura (4/5 stars)

And some non-review posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Books of 2025
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

First up, a quick roundup of the books I’ve read in the last week — which has been a pretty quiet one, by my recent standards! Reviews will be showing up in due course (with one of them already posted).

This weekend I’m hoping to spend some more time reading, but we’ll see how it goes. I’d certainly like to dig back into A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, since volume 10 has just come out on Friday, and I’ve got started on the light novels for The Apothecary Diaries. Buuut we’ll see where my whim takes me: I read 66 books in December, so if my brain wants a rest, a rest it shall have.

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!

Happy new year! Yep, time for the first STS/Sunday Post of 2025. It’s been a busy week for me and 2025 has so far been tired and meh, on balance. I don’t believe that that has to set the tone for the whole year, luckily!

A bright spot (as ever) is books, so let’s get to talking about those…

Books acquired this week

Time for the second installment of my Christmas haul (the first part being last week’s post here)! Here’s a selection of the non-fiction…

As ever, a weird mix, as ever! I’m trying to decide where to start, since I’m a bit spoiled for choice…

And the fiction selection:

I really liked the sound of all these — I’m hoping I’ll be in the mood to continue Rebecca Thorne’s series soon, since I know the third book is out relatively soon (and the fourth in August, I think?). But as ever, I’m going to let my whim guide me!

Posts from this week

As ever, let’s have a bit of a recap. I’ve stepped up my posting schedule a bit due to a backlog of reviews (though mostly for graphic novels and manga!), so there was plenty going on!

• Christmas romance comic: Snowflake Kisses, by Jordan Greene & Yayira Dzamesi (3/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: Dramatic Murder, by Elizabeth Anthony (4/5 stars)
• Archaeology: Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King, by Mike Pitts (3/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 5, by Akane Tamura (4/5 stars)
• Science/history: Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps and Matter, by Matthew Shindell (5/5 stars)
• Horror novella: Crypt of the Moon Spider, by Nathan Ballingrud (2/5 stars)
• Historical mystery: Murder at the Ashmolean, by Jim Eldridge (2/5 stars)

And there were a couple of other posts!

• Top Ten Tuesday: Best of 2024
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

As ever, time for a sneak peek at the books I’ve finished recently which will be coming up for review… eventually (I mentioned that backlog, right?!).

For this weekend, I want to really settle into my 2025 reading! Only one of the books just above was read in 2025; I’m a bit bogged down in my second read, Jonathan Silvertown’s Selfish Genes to Social Beings. I’m hoping to finish that and read a couple of volumes of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, at the least!

But we’ll see how it goes… How’s everyone’s 2025 so far?

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! I hope everyone who celebrates has had a lovely Christmas period. I’ve certainly been spoiled, and had a lot of fun spoiling others in turn.

Books acquired this week

Hold on to your hats! There’s a lot to come. I’m not going to post them all at once, since the post would be huge, and I won’t be getting any other new books for a bit, so I’m going to show some arbitrary subset now and continue next week (and the week after and possibly the week after). First up, here are my new graphic novels and manga!

Technically, the volumes of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation were bribes to keep my spirits up for work/study on the 23rd and 24th, rather than Christmas presents. I’m sad that I have the whole series for now — but volume 10 is out at the end of January!

Now for some of the non-fiction I got! I won’t try to pick out a theme, let’s go with randomness and not over-think it…

 

As you can see, the main gifter of books (my wife) tried to give me a bit of a range of non-fiction to choose from! I can’t wait to skip my way randomly through my new stacks, and indeed (as you’ll see below) I’ve already begun!

But before we get to that, here’s some of the fiction I received!

Bit of a mix, as ever; I think I found out about most of these via other people’s blogs, so, thank you! I can’t remember how I came across A Case of Mice and Murder, though.

As you can see, I’ve got plenty to dig into, and at least two more STS posts to come to show off my full haul. Well and truly spoilt!

Posts from this week

It’s been a bit of a light week, but I did put up a couple of reviews, so let’s recap those!

• History: The Book Makers: A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives, by Adam Smyth (4/5 stars)
• Short mysteries set at Christmas: Crimson Snow, ed. Martin Edwards (4/5 stars)
• Romance manga: A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 4, by Akane Tamura (4/5 stars)
• SF novella: The Cybernetic Tea Shop, by Meredith Katz (4/5 stars)

What I’m reading

The end of the year is approaching, so I’ve been reading a lot to try to reach my reading goal, though I don’t plan to review all of it. Here’s a sneak peek at the books I finished this week which I do plan to review, as usual:

 

As you see, quite a few books, but it’s been pretty light reading for the most part.

Over this weekend, I have a few Christmas-themed books I’d like to get round to reading — Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange, Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony, Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd… and we’ll see how it goes and whether I get round to them before it feels too post-Christmas for them!

How’s everyone else doing? How was Christmas, if you celebrated?

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

Happy Saturday! Last weekend before Christmas, and as ever I’m inundated with presents to wrap, ready to spoil my loved ones mercilessly.

Books acquired this week

I’ve been getting some early Christmas presents, which is lovely, along with some bribes (the two volumes of manga) to help encourage me when I was feeling meh and having difficulty getting up and getting to work.

Aaand then while I was doing some Christmas shopping, I ran into a seasonal romance that sounded fun… And a bit more importantly, a localish queer bookshop had a window smashed in and lost a day of trade in the week before Christmas, along with the till being robbed. To show support, I bought a few more presents there, and also used the opportunity to snag the second volume of MDZS, and a book for myself that I’d been eyeing for a while.

And let me just take a moment to offer that bookshop a little more support, too: The Bookish Type are back up and running now, but a lost day of trading on the week before Christmas can be a big deal. They have a pay-it-forward programme where you can buy a book for someone who can’t afford it, and a large online shop. If you’re in the UK, I recommend taking a look (and I imagine the pay-it-forward option should work worldwide).

Posts from this week

As usual, here’s a roundup of the reviews posted this week:

• Non-fiction: The Dead of Winter: The Demons, Witches and Ghosts of Christmas, by Sarah Clegg (4/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars)
• Romance: Cruel Winter With You, by Ali Hazelwood (2/5 stars)
• Fantasy manga: A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 1, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando (4/5 stars)
• Horror: What Feasts at Night, by T. Kingfisher (4/5 stars)

What I’m reading

First up, the usual sneak peek at books I’ve finished reading which I plan to review soon! As you see, it was a quieter week around here than the last couple of weeks, but that’s fine! I’m making up for it this weekend.

As for what I’m reading now, there’s another volume of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation awaiting me, for a start, and I’m already partway through a book of short stories that feature mysteries set at Christmas, Crimson Snow. Other than that… who knows?

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