It’s the weekend again, wooo!

Books acquired this week

First up, let’s have the library books! It’s been a few weeks since I checked out any poetry, but I found myself turning to it this week, hoping for more of Mary Oliver’s work and thus inclined to click on other stuff that looked interesting.

I also got a new book that genuinely arrived this week — this month’s British Library Crime Classic. The author wrote the Sergeant Beef short stories, if I understand rightly, so I’m not sure if I’ll like this one; it’s not about Sergeant Beef, but still, I don’t think I enjoyed the style. Still, novels and short stories can be quite different, as can different characters by the same author! So we’ll see.

We’ll see, anyway! And now it’s time to get back to the books I got in London. We’re now onto the Forbidden Planet section of the “report”! First up, the SF/F. I’d heard of a couple of these from other bloggers, or seen them around for ages (like Wooing the Witch Queen), but a couple were more random choices, like The Palace Near the Wind.

I definitely tried to let myself just browse pretty freely and go with whatever jumped out, without looking it up too much or hesitating. Sometimes the unexpected will jump out at you that way… but honestly the selection at Forbidden Planet was pretty overwhelming and I mostly found myself gravitating to titles I recognised from somewhere, ahaha.

And now onto the danmei, the very last section to explore. Most of the danmei is technically also SF/F, but they also fit together well:

 

The sharp-eyed and strong of memory will remember that I’ve been hankering after The Wife Comes First and After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine for a while, so I’m curious to get stuck into them.

If you’re curious about the indie bookshops I visited, the books I got there are in part one of my London trip STS report, while part two has the non-fiction books I found at Waterstones Piccadilly (the biggest bookshop in Europe). I definitely had myself a good time for my graduation treat, ahaha, but how often does one get a master’s degree?

(Well, for me it’s happened twice, admittedly. Shush and don’t ruin my excuse.)

Posts from this week

First up, the reviews:

• Fantasy: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (light novel), vol 2, by singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy: Breath of the Dragon, by Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• History/poetry: Part of a Story that Started Before Me, ed. George the Poet (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Mystery: Murder Like Clockwork, by Nicola Whyte (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Science: The Shortest History of the Dinosaurs, by Riley Black (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy/romance manhwa: Tied to You, vol 3, by WHAT & Chelliace (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And quite a few other posts!

• Fantasy with Friends: Definitions of Fantasy
• Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Five-Star Reads
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Let’s Talk Bookish: Casting in Adaptations

It’s been nice to get out and about doing more discussion posts, lately!

What I’m reading

This week still involved less reading than I would’ve liked, since I didn’t settle down to it very well… but I did still have some fun reads. Let’s have a peek at what this week and what might be coming up for review on my blog (sooner or later, depending on the genre — Murder Like Clockwork’s review is already up because I haven’t read a lot of crime fiction lately!):

A very small number read for me, but oh well. Maybe this weekend? Or maybe not! Whatever’s fine, really — I don’t want to force myself.

As for this weekend, I’m not sure what I’ll read exactly, but I’d like to get further into Finn Longman’s The Wolf and His King, and I also started reading Jess Kidd’s The Murder at Gulls Nest since it’s due back at the library. Ditto There is No Antimimetics Division. So maybe those!

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.

Wooo, it’s the weekend. It’s been a long week, but I think I’m starting to be caught up with everything. Let’s talk books!

Books acquired this week

Technically this is actually part #2 of my London book haul (part one covers my purchases from museum bookshops and indies). This time we’re going through my haul from Waterstones Piccadilly, which was actually the last destination after the Forbidden Planet Megastore. The SF/F floor was closed, so I spent all the time on the non-fiction floor… which probably saved my wallet somewhat, it must be admitted.

First, let’s have some science!

I did see a potentially interesting book about infectious diseases, but I’ve got so picky about that topic now — I no longer find it as soothing to read, at least for now. So I gave that a miss.

Next up, let’s have the Egyptology books I found, a significant subset of what I got. I’d probably have got them even if I hadn’t gone to the Petrie museum recently, as I have always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt, but it had certainly put me in the mood for them.

I already tore through Ramesses the Great and loved it, but I’m looking forward to the others, too! I imagine there won’t be as much new to me in Egypt’s Golden Couple, because I’ve always been fascinated by the Amarna period, but I don’t mind the refresher.

Finally, a more miscellaneous bunch:

I’d seen Threads of Empire on someone else’s post a couple of weeks ago and added it to my wishlist, so I was pleased to spot it in person, and I’d heard about Queen James somewhere or other, probably from KJ Charles. The title made a couple of people to whom I mentioned it wince, so I’d note that it’s presumably based on the contemporary saying Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc est regina Iacobus (“Elizabeth was king, now James is queen”), and it does seem to be a serious examination of James’ relationships with men. If it turns out weird and homophobic/biphobic, I promise there will be a scathing review, but I’m pretty sure KJ Charles would’ve said something already if so.

As for A Woman’s Work, I remembered liking Cleghorn’s Unwell Women… while Rummage was a completely random choice just out of interest.

Almost-finally, I have a manga I got this week on a whim, and the single manhwa I got in Forbidden Planet, since it seems appropriate to put them in the same post:

I was not a huge fan of Cat + Crazy, sadly; I tried it because I liked Cat + Gamer, but I think it’s too goofy and “out there”. I’m excited for volume 9 of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, though!

And finally-finally, here’s my library hold of the week, which came in way sooner than I’d been expecting:

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give this a try, but the sheer market saturation of it has finally needled me into giving it a shot. Thank goodness for libraries, which let us take a chance on things sometimes.

Posts from this week

Let’s start with the reviews, as ever:

• Non-fiction: A History of England in 25 Poems, by Catherine Clarke (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
• Horror graphic novel: Home Sick Pilots: Teenage Haunts, by Dan Watters et al (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy novella: A Long and Speaking Silence, by Nghi Vo (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Travel and folklore: Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination, by Nicholas Jubber (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Poetry: Southernmost: Sonnets, by Leo Boix (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
• Horror manga: Sailor Zombie, by Jiji, Pinch and Isshin Inudo (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)

As ever, most of those aren’t recent reads, I just have a huge review backlog written but not yet posted, in my efforts to post a mixed selection of reviews.

And the other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Underrated Fantasy Books
• Top Ten Tuesday: Surefire Tropes
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• March Reading Wrap-Up
• Let’s Talk Bookish: Novels in Verse

I’m steadily getting to the point of doing a bunch of non-review features again after a long drought where I really just posted STS posts and reviews, which is nice. Actually having people visit my blog and having people whose blogs I read, and having time for all that… magical!

What I’m reading

I’m not sure how much I’ve actually read this week, because it’s felt like I’ve been too busy. Let’s have a look — here are some previews of covers of the books I finished this week which I will review on here soon(ish):

Not bad, really!

As for this weekend, I hope to finish Amal El-Mohtar’s Seasons of Glass and Iron, for a start, and maybe start my BookSpin book for the month, which is actually Gareth Russell’s Queen James (featured above). Or maybe I’ll go with some of the fiction I’ve just barely got started, like Stephanie Burgis’ Wooing the Witch Queen.

Whatever I read, I’m hoping to do more of it this weekend, and charge up my batteries for the week ahead.

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.

Hello from London! We’ll be driving home today, but we still have the morning here and a late checkout from the hotel…

And of course — as mentioned in my post on Wednesday — I am now once more a graduate, for the fourth time! All went well, and I’m officially The Bibliophibian, BA (Hons), BSc (Hons), MA, MSc, and an alum of Cardiff University, the Open University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/University of London.

Don’t ask what’s next, because I’m still resting! The MSc was seriously hard work, along with life stuff in the last year or two. But I’m sure I’ll be back to studying sooner or later.

But you’re all here for the books…

Books acquired this week

Hold onto your hats, it’s going to be a wild ride. My wife and I saved up for months so we could go on a book spree to celebrate my graduation, and we certainly managed to do that. I’ll split the new books into at least two posts, maybe three, since it’s nicer to be able to chat about individual books rather than have an overwhelming wall of them, and I won’t be getting othernew books for a bit (except maybe some to review).

For this post at least, since it covers a couple of indie bookshops, I thought it’d be nice to group them by where I picked them up. So let’s start with the first books I got this week, from the Victoria & Albert Museum! Sadly their fashion gallery is closed, just when we’d have loved to take a look at more of these garments for real… but we did get to see some of the kimonos and other Japanese items in the Japanese gallery.

I’m not honestly sure why there was a bunch of Beatrix Potter merchandise and books, but I wasn’t complaining. I love the fact that she was actually a naturalist and a close observer of nature.

On the way back from there, I ducked into an indie bookshop while my wife was getting snacks and bubble tea: South Kensington Books. I didn’t really intend to get anything, but I found there were waaaay too many books jumping out at me to be ignored…

Once I got back to the hotel and could look them up better, I found a couple of these have few or no reviews on StoryGraph, which I actually find fairly exciting. It’s nice to get my hands on something a bit more niche thanks to the curation of indies.

Next up, we have a book from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, which is smallish but crammed full of artifacts. It’s not very heavily curated: there are lots of display shelves and cases packed with finds, which have their labels with them but not a lot of context or sorting. Still, you can find artefacts from Amarna, which is a personal interest, and some fascinating pieces definitely jumped out at me. The display of a beaded dress, some cloth fabric remains and the display of ushabtis are a highlight, along with a pot burial that is a bit macabre.

Meanwhile, the gift shop yielded up treasure for me:

On Thursday we meant to hit quite a few indie bookshops, but the dwindling budget and my aching feet meant we stuck to Waterstones Piccadilly, Forbidden Planet Megastore, and Gay’s the Word. We trekked out to get the books from Waterstones and Forbidden Planet to the car, so I haven’t catalogued them yet… but here are the books from Gay’s the Word, the oldest queer bookshop in the UK. First, some poetry…

But don’t worry, it wasn’t all highbrow!

I had no idea volume seven of Fence was out! As for the others… well, I’m curious to know at least a little about the Heated Rivalry hype, and I’m unlikely to ever get round to watching the series (I barely watch anything unless it’s over dinner, when me and my wife watch Taskmaster or Gladiators at the moment). I’ve been wanting Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die for ages, and Straight Acting was just a random choice.

Posts from this week

I made post drafts ahead so I could keep up with posts as usual while away, so there’s plenty to round up! Reviews first:

• Romance manhwa: Tied to You, vol 2, by WHAT & Chelliace (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy: Nightshade & Oak, by Molly O’Neill (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Classic crime: Sky High, by Michael Gilbert (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Cat Tales: A History, by Jerry D. Moore (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy/horror graphic novel: Carmilla: The First Vampire, by Amy Chu & Soo Lee (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Fantasy romance: Twig’s Traveling Tomes, by Gryffin Murphy (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Poetry: Black Cat Bone, by John Burnside (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)

As ever, don’t forget many of these reviews are from weeks ago, since I hold ’em back to try to create a diverse mix of genres in my reviews. The books I’ve been reading this week are discussed in the next section below! ↓↓↓↓↓

Other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Religion in Fantasy
• Top Ten Tuesday: Spring 2026 Reading List
• WWW Wednesday

What I’m reading

It’s been a bit of a weird week for reading, given I’ve been busy with planned outings and tired from a lot of walking, but I did finish some books this week, all the same! Here’s a peek at the ones I intend to review (eventually) on the blog:

Folk Song in England is quite the chonker, but at least I got it finished before the trip! I enjoyed Mary Oliver’s poetry quite a lot, and the Fashion in Detail series from the V&A is always good, so it was a good reading week.

As for reading this weekend… well, we’re traveling home today which is quite the drive, and it’s my sister’s birthday dinner tomorrow, so we’ll see. I hope to dig into more of my new books, though; I’ve started William Tyndale and the English Language and Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries, so it’d be nice to finish those at least!

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.

Whew, it’s the weekend! It’s been a long week, since my teeth issues haven’t entirely settled; we’re hoping it’s a bite issue that will start to settle soon… Anyway, let’s jump into the good stuff.

Books acquired this week

First up, two library holds came in, which my wife kindly picked up for me since my wrist is still in no shape for cycling:

I can’t actually what prompted me to put a hold on There Is No Antimemetics Division? Maybe a review in New Scientist, I think? Anyway, I was curious about it — and I’ve had a hold on Mythica forever, since I love the idea of it.

I got a book to review this week, too — requesting it was a long shot, so I was very pleased to receive a copy.

I’ve really enjoyed Emma Southon’s work before, so I’m looking forward to this.

I also snagged two guides for London just to see if there were some niche joys that we might explore. Predictably, I went for museums and bookshops…

I’ve reviewed both of those already and posted that here, while it’s topical!

Posts from this week

Reviews first!

• Non-fiction: Repast: The Story of Food, by Jenny Linford (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Graphic novel: DPS Only! by Velinxi (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: Stay for a Spell, by Amy Coombe (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• SF mystery novella: Nobody’s Baby, by Olivia Waite (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Wain, by Rachel Plummer with illustrations by Helene Boppert (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Hadrian’s Wall, by Adrian Goldsworthy (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Opinionated Guides to London… Museums & Bookshops, by Emmy Watts and Sonya Barber & James Manning (4/5, “really liked it”, and 3/5 stars, “liked it”, respectively)

And some other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Oz
• Top Ten Tuesday: Green Covers
• WWW Wednesday

What I’m reading

I’ve been head-down in some quite long books this week, but I do have some finished books to report. Here’s a sneak peek at the books coming up for review… eventually.

As for this weekend, I’d like to finish Steve Roud’s Folk Song in England before I go away on Monday, since it’s a chonker of a book… and I’d like to finish R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis as well. Other than that, I don’t know, though.

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.

Hurrah, it’s the weekend! I hope everyone has fun plans.

Books acquired this week

Somehow it’s that time of month again already — my British Library Crime Classic subscription book has arrived! It’s quite the chonker, and not one I’d heard of before. My curiosity is piqued. In addition, two preorders came along, one via the mail and one landing on my ereader: I believe volume 13 wraps up the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua, while Nobody’s Baby is a sequel to a book I quite enjoyed.

 

So I’ll have to get busy to re-clear the decks ready for my graduation spree at the end of the month!

Posts from this week

Time for a roundup! Reviews first:

• Poetry: wake, by Gilliam Allnutt (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
• Thriller: Strange Buildings, by Uketsu (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Romance manhwa: Tied to You, vol 1, by WHAT & Chelliace (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (light novel), vol 1, by singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, vol 4, by Xue Shan Fei Hu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Mystery: The Double Turn, by Carol Carnac AKA E.C.R. Lorac (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Poetry: Altar, by Desree (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

Other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Adaptations of Classics
• Top Ten Tuesday: Ordinal Numbers
• WWW Wednesday
• Reading Firsts in 2026

What I’m reading

As usual, let’s start with what I’ve been reading with a sneak peek at the books I’m going to review on the blog sometime soon:

There were a couple of rereads too, as I prepared myself for the newest Singing Hills novella. All in all, a pretty good reading week, even if I had trouble concentrating for a couple of days due to pain after a dental procedure. (I’m doing better now, though it still hurts to chew!)

As for this weekend, I’m planning to read the remaining volumes of the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua adaptation. I might also start on T. Kingfisher’s Swordheart, since I have Daggerbound to review.

But, as ever… it’ll be down to my whim.

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.

Aaand it’s the weekend again!

Books acquired this week

It’s been a quiet week, but my wife did acquire me the new Uketsu novel:

I’ve been wanting to read it basically since I finished Strange Houses, so I was pretty excited and dove in right away.

Posts from this week

As ever, we’ll start with the reviews:

• History: The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World, by Lizzie Collingham (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Poetry: Seasonal Disturbances, by Karen McCarthy Woolf (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Fantasy graphic novel: Iyanu: Child of Wonder, by Roye Okupe & Godwin Akpan (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Fantasy: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, by Heather Fawcett (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Sci-fi: Platform Decay, by Martha Wells (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Romance: How to Fake It In Society, by KJ Charles (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• History: Vanished Wales: Places Lost in Living Memory, by Carwyn Jones (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And some other posts…

• February Reading Wrap-Up
• Fantasy with Friends: Magical Schools
• Top Ten Tuesday: Microhistory
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

First, let’s do the roundup of books I finished this week! I read a lot at the weekend and then a lot less during the week, especially as it wasn’t a great week… but that still added up to a lot of books overall.

I won’t be doing quite such a reading marathon as last weekend (I finished nine books on the Saturday) but I am looking forward to some reading time… I need to free up some shelf space for the spree I will undoubtedly have while down in London for my graduation. Not sure yet what I’ll focus on, but I hope to finish Carol Carnac’s The Double Turn, and maybe some more of the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua. I hope my copy of volume 13 ships soon, since it came out earlier this 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.

Woooo, weekend time! And I have plans. Reading plans.

Books acquired this week

First up, some poetry via the library:

It seems to be really popular — I had to put a hold on it (and I was third in the queue), and there’s one person after me, so I should get to this soon. From my (short) experience of being a National Poetry Library member, it’s rare to need to put a hold on books (even award winners), much less see multiple holds on it, so I’m very curious about why. My hopes are high!

I did also get a review copy this week; I hesitated over accepting it because it’s a PDF, and because I don’t always get on with modern crime/mystery stories… but I figured I’d give it a shot.

Though I don’t know when I’ll get to it, ahaha.

Posts from this week

Let’s start with the review roundup, as usual:

• Horror: Wolf Worm, by T. Kingfisher (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• SF novella: And Side By Side We Wander, by Molly Tanzer (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Posted in the Past: Revealing the True Stories Written on a Postcard, by Helen Baggott (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Poetry: Hedonism, by Chris McCabe (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy comic: The Chromatic Fantasy, by H.A. (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• SF: Longer, by Michael Blumlein (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
• Fantasy romance (baihe): The Beauty’s Blade, by Feng Ren Zuo Shu (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

Aaand the other posts:

• Fantasy With Friends Discussion Meme: The Chosen One
• Top Ten Tuesday: Quotations
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

I’ve read quite a bit this week, but I haven’t finished many books (I expect that to happen in a marathon this weekend, ahaha). So it’s a short round-up of books I’ve finished this week:

If I want to get a blackout on my BookSpinBingo card (and I do!) then today will be spent reading a lot. I first plan to finish up reading the new Murderbot, Platform Decay, and (finally) Heather Fawcett’s Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, but I have a few books close to finished, so they won’t be the only ones.

I’m rather looking forward to my marathon reading today, but probably tomorrow I’ll chill with video games a bit more, ahaha.

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.

Weekend! Whew. It’s been a rough week, and I’m glad to see my weekend and my reading time.

Books acquired this week

I didn’t really expect/intend to get books this week, but it kinda happened anyway. I’d almost forgotten my hold on Murder at Gulls Nest, a book I saw a bunch of other bloggers post about; my wife picked it up for me once I got the notification it was ready! And I got a couple of new options out from the National Poetry Library, too:

I also got approved for another ARC on Netgalley, oops! So there’s this to look forward to as well:

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve posted a whole bunch of reviews, so let’s start off with the roundup of those:

• Romance manga: Star and Hedgehog, by Nayuta Nago (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• SF mystery: The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, by Andrew Ziminski (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Poetry: Afterwardness, by Mimi Khalvati (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Graphic novel: Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance: A Fable for Grown-Ups, by Kathleen Founds (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy graphic novel: Quince, by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy romance (danmei): Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (light novel), vol 5, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

As ever, it’s actually been a while since I read most of these, since I try to hold reviews back and provide some variety (rather than review 40 graphic novels in a row, which I could do with my backlog of reviews!).

I have done some other posts this week, so here they are:

• Fantasy with Friends: Tolkien (discussing the portrayal of good and evil in LotR)
• Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travellers
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

Work’s been a little, uh, intense this week, so I didn’t get a lot of time for myself — and when I did, I found it hard to get into the mood for reading, alas. Still, I did do some reading in the last week, and as ever, here’s a sneak peek of the ones that I will review on the blog… eventually:

As for this weekend, once I’ve managed to unwind a bit, I hope to spend more time with Julie Leong’s The Keeper of Magic Things, and continue reading the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua. I settled in a bit with Amy Coombe’s Stay for a Spell, so maybe I’ll read more of that too.

It’d be lovely to get a lot of reading done, but I’m conscious of being a bit frazzled, so we’ll see!

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.

It’s the weekend again, and I’m going into it more rested than I came out of my holiday. How? I don’t know! But there it is.

Books acquired this week

I started reading the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua last weekend, and ended up steaming through it. Since it caught my reading mood, I decided I’d check how much Bookshop.org credit I had, and whether I had any Waterstones stamp cards completed. I had plenty of credit, and two stamp cards complete, so I indulged!

I also preordered volume 13, which luckily is due out in March (and completes the main story). I wonder if there’ll be a volume covering the extras, or at least some of them? I have no idea, but at least volume 13 will round off the main story.

This month’s British Library Crime Classic subscription book also arrived, and it’s a new-to-me E.C.R. Lorac book, which is excellent news!

Finally, I also got some review copies via Netgalley. First up was Nghi Vo’s newest in the Singing Hills series, which is a series I really adore, and then the new T. Kingfisher! I haven’t read Swordheart yet, but this gives me extra impetus to get on with it and do so.

I haven’t read as much poetry this week, but I did snag two more collections to try from the National Poetry Library:

Loans from the National Poetry Library only last 14 days, so I need to get round to these two sooner rather than later. I already read Altar, but I need to get round to the Rilke too.

Posts from this week

As usual, let’s start with the roundup of reviews:

• Poetry anthology: Smart Devices, ed. Carol Rumens (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Magic realism: We’ll Prescribe You A Cat, by Syou Ishida (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Collected webcomic: Milk & Mocha: Our Little Happiness, by Melani Sie (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Romance manga: Do You Really Want Only a Meal? vol 1, by Yasu Tadano (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy romance (danmei): Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation light novel vol 4, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life, by Tiffany Jenkins (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
• Poetry: Food for the Dead, by Charlotte Shevchenko Knight (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And there were a couple of other posts!

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Made My Wife Read
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading

It’s been a good reading week! Or at least it felt like one, and that’s what counts. It’s mostly been manhua, not too surprisingly, but there’s a couple of other books in there too. Here’s what I finished up this week that I plan to review on the blog:

  

Reading plans for the weekend… well, more manhua, for sure, and more of T. Kingfisher’s Wolf Worm, and back to my reread of Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills novellas ready for the new one!

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.

It’s the weekend! I’ve been back at work for a week, and… well, I’m grateful to see the weekend again, ahaha.

Books acquired this week

This week’s mostly been quiet, but I have been impulsively borrowing a bunch of different poetry collections from the National Poetry Library, just trying stuff out and expanding my horizons a bit. Here’s what I grabbed this week:

I’ve had mixed success with my choices this week, but that’s the beauty of libraries! It’s fine to just try stuff out, as I’ve been doing.

Posts from this week

A somewhat busy week, since I did multiple features as well as my usual reviews! Let’s start with the reviews first:

• Fantasy romance (danmei): Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, vol 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Pyramids: The Real Story Behind Egypt’s Most Ancient Monuments, by Joyce Tyldesley (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: The Iron Bridge, by Rebecca Hurst (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• SF/horror: Walking Practice, by Dolki Min (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Fantasy comic: Love Everlasting, vol 3, by Tom King et al (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Historical fantasy: The Palace of Illusions, by Rowenna Miller (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

As ever, some of these reviews are a bit older, since I have a huge backlog and try to post reviews for a range of genres over the course of each week. This list doesn’t represent what I read this week — that’s below in the next section!

Aaand the other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Cool Typography
• Discussion: Book Covers (discussing how covers, even ones that aren’t so great, help the right readers find books)
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• January Reading Wrap-Up

So a really good blogging week, overall!

What I’m reading

Since I’ve been back at work, it’s been a slow week for reading, though I’ve managed to fit in reading quite a bit of poetry since it’s easy to do that in bits and pieces. So here’s what I’ve finished this week that I plan to review on the blog:

Looks like plenty, but since six of those are poetry collections and one is a manhwa, it’s not as much as it looks, really!

Over the weekend, I plan to read more of Catherine Clarke’s The History of England in 25 Poems, finish volume 7 of the Solo Leveling light novel, and… who knows what else? Hopefully my whim will take me some fun places.

Hope everyone’s 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.