After a busy week last week with lots of library books and lots of reading, this week’s been a bit quieter.

Funny thing: I had no idea, but WordPress informs me that today is my blog’s 13th birthday!

Books acquired this week

This month’s British Library Crime Classic was their Christmas release, which is how they usually do things, and that dropped onto my doormat this week:

That’s it, after the recent excesses, hahaha. I haven’t been back to the library this week, since I haven’t done a lot of reading in that time.

Posts from this week

Time for the usual roundup! Reviews first, and as ever, they’re not books I read this week but reviews written sometimes quite a while ago, since I try to keep things varied and plan in advance.

• History: A Woman’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering, by Elinor Cleghorn (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Poetry: Dream Work, by Mary Oliver (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy manhwa: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, vol 3, by Sleepy-C, Umi & singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And as usual, I really mean it when I say 3/5 stars means I liked a book! I know other people have other rating systems, but I stick with the old Goodreads definitions that were around over twenty years ago now.

Here are the other posts from this week:

• Fantasy with Friends: Fantasy Worlds to Live In
• Top Ten Tuesday: Autumnal Colours
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Bookish Escape Room

And that’s it for the week! I hope to get back to posting more reviews again, since work should be quieting down a bit for now (though just in time for the Christmas/New Year rush, ack).

What I’m reading

As ever, I’ll start with the books I’ve been reading in the last week! Mostly last weekend — I didn’t get as much reading time as I’d have liked during the workweek, this time round. As I mentioned last week, I want to be clear: these are just the books I’ve finished this week, and I’m not saying I recommend them at this time. You’ll have to watch out for my reviews for that! Please don’t read them because I mentioned them and then blame me when you don’t like a book that I’m planning to give one star… 😉

For this weekend, I’m a chunk of the way into Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep and Francis Vivian’s Dead Opposite the Church, so those are my priority to finish. I’d like to read more of The Summer Hikaru Died as well… but otherwise, I’m not sure. I’ll probably go by whim!

Hope everyone else has a great weekend.

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 again! And I have no plans (that’s a good thing).

Books acquired this week

I finally finally ended up going out for a ride on my bike this week, which means I made it to the library for the first time in a while! So here’s what I picked up on that adventure.

I picked up The Beheading Game because someone tantalised me by saying they felt there are links to the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in it, so I’m curious about that, despite it not being totally my thing… and I picked up a bunch of poetry collections almost at random because they were on a display, I didn’t know any of the poets, and I do like to explore poetry lately.

I did also get a book in the mail for review from Orbit/Hachette, too!

I actually got another one as well, but I’ve put it aside until I can get the first book in the series, as I hadn’t realised it was a sequel when I requested it (the email was not super clear, or I was daft, I don’t know which).

And finally, my rabbits (helped by my wife, of course, who definitely wasn’t the actual source) bought me two books on Kobo, and I accumulated enough Kobo Super Points to get myself a third:

So that’s quite a lot of new books on my plate this week. Oh nooo, etc.

Posts from this week

As ever, let’s do a bit of a roundup. Since it’s a busy time, I haven’t managed to post a review every day — the review posts are all ready to go, since I write reviews as soon as I finish a book generally, but I kept forgetting to come back and send a review post out as well on days I had other features. Still, there’s been a post every day, so there’s plenty to catch up with!

First up, the reviews:

• Fantasy: Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die, by Greer Stothers (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
• Historical romance: After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine, vol 1, by Liu Gou Hua (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Classic crime: The Duke of York’s Steps, by Henry Wade (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

As ever, please do take my rating definitions literally! If it says I liked it, I liked it, even if you don’t use 3/5 stars that way. And these aren’t books I’ve read this week — those are discussed in the next section below!

Here are the non-review posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Over the Years
• Top Ten Tuesday: Happy Memories
• WWW Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Running Blogs

What I’m reading

As a quick note, it’s come up a few times that people assume me posting books I intend to review here constitutes a recommendation, so just to clarify: nope! I didn’t enjoy all of the books below, and at least one was a one-star read. I review everything I read, regardless of whether I liked it. If you see me post a book in the ‘What I’m reading’ section then try it yourself and don’t like it, that is not my problem. Even if the book is racist/misogynist/transphobic/etc, I don’t put a warning/disclaimer on this bit because I’m purely showing people what I’ve been reading; you’ll have to wait for my review (or ask me!) if you’re really keen to know my actual thoughts. Yelling at me about it or calling me out on your blog isn’t going to help anything!

Anyway! It’s been a good week for reading, thanks mostly to the month-long readathon I’ve been taking part in on Litsy! It’s been encouraging me to read some novellas and shorter books, and honestly that’s been nice, since sometimes it means taking a chance on something new to me. Here’s a sneak peek at the books I’ll be posting reviews for sometime in the foreseeable future…

As for this weekend’s reading, I want to focus on finishing Rachel Harrison’s Kiss Slay Replay and dig deeper into my actual October TBR, but I’m also planning to read some poetry and manga for palate-cleansing purposes (inasfar as trying different horror manga is very palate-cleansing, I suppose), and more of The Summer Hikaru Died because it’s really good so far.

In the end, as ever, it’ll be whatever my whim drives me to, 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.

I’m a bit late to write this post today because I’m a creature of infinite distraction, after a long week. But here I am!

Books acquired this week

This week I haven’t got anything new (thank goodness, since I’ve been doing plenty of that, ahaha), but I did get a couple of poetry collections from the National Poetry Library:

I’ve read both already, but I do want to page back through and re-read some of the poems in each before I write my review.

Posts from this week

As ever, here are the posts from this week, reviews first!

• Crime: The Rasp, by Philip MacDonald (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Rummage: A History of the Things We Have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Go, by Emily Cockayne (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Poetry: A Thousand Mornings, by Mary Oliver (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Graphic novel: Paper Planes, by Jennie Wood et al (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

I meant to post a review a day as usual, but life kept getting on top of me. The same drill as always: these aren’t necessarily recent reads, because I have all my reviews pre-written and then arrange my posting schedule for variety, and please do take my ratings literally: when I say 3/5 stars means I liked it, I’m saying I liked it, not that it was disappointing or whatever it is you mean when you give something three stars! 🙂

As for the other posts this week:

• Fantasy with Friends: Seeing Reality Better
• Top Ten Tuesday: Fall Covers
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• September Reading Wrap-Up
• Book Blogger Hop: Biggest Fear

I’ve developed some tricks to make posting my monthly wrap-ups a bit faster, this month — thanks to my wife helping me set up a tracking spreadsheet, instead of just winging it and counting at the end of the month!

What I’m reading

It’s been a busy week for reading, particularly since the Haunted Shelf readathon has now started! I’ve been participating in a lot of the games on the Litsy and in the Discord, but also getting a fair bit of reading done. Here’s a peek at the books I’ve finished since my last post (click to embiggen to see the details properly if the thumbnail cuts it off too much!):

For this weekend, I’m digging into Rachel Harrison’s book of short stories, Bad Dolls, and then… I’m not sure. I’ve set up a solid TBR for the month, so I’ll pick something off there, or go totally by whim. Whatever works!

Through the rest of the week, it’ll be much the same theme: probably more of Rachel Harrison’s work, and maybe getting started on The Library After Dark, by Ande Pliego, which has been tempting me since I picked up a copy. Murders in a library, irresistible.

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.

Oof, I’m so glad it’s the weekend! It’s been a busy week, but this weekend should be a pretty good one for staying in to read, crochet, play video games and recharge.

Books acquired this week

Last week I wrote that I was heading out to bookshops in York over the weekend, and hoping to pick up some spooky-themed reads to fit in with the Haunted Shelf readathon. It was really fun last year, but I didn’t read a lot of seasonal/spooky/creepy books… so I decided to fix that.

I had some success, so here’s a peek at the books I got while in York, mostly at Topping & Company and Portal Bookshop. Of course… they’re not all spooky, because I did find some other books I couldn’t resist.

First up, here are the books going straight on my Haunted Shelf list:

And yep, you do see a sneaky non-fiction about ghosts in there. But wait, there’s more…

All in all, I made really good use of the remaining National Book Token balance I had left, plus my recent payment from selling books to World of Books (that’s my referral link, which would get you an extra £5 on a first trade, by the way).

And finally, I did also get an advance copy in this week, something I’d totally forgotten I’d requested:

Somehow I’ve never got round to reading anything of Wexler’s yet, so hopefully this’ll be the time!

Posts from this week

Here’s the usual roundup, starting with the reviews, including a rare five-star review!

• Fantasy: The Poet Empress, by Shen Tao (5/5 stars, “loved it”)
• Mystery: Tenant for Death, by Cyril Hare (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: A Short History of the World in 50 Lies, by Natasha Tidd (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 7, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: The Wife Comes First, vol 4, by Lv Ye Qian He (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

As usual, a quick note to believe me when I say that 2/5 stars is a book that I found “okay”, and 3/5 stars really does mean I liked the book! As usual, as well, most of these reviews are for books I read a while ago: I write the reviews as I go, but hold my posts back a little so I don’t spam you all (given I read more than one book per day when I’m in the right mood), can post plenty of variety in genres etc, and have plenty in the tank for a quieter time.

Aaaand here are the other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Worldbuilding
• Top Ten Tuesday: Fall 2026 TBR
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Best Blog Investment

What I’m reading

It’s been a pretty good reading week; I think my deliberate leaning-in to mood reading has been working out well for me. Certainly last weekend I had more than one instance of sitting down and reading a book all in one go, which is always a lovely feeling.

Here are the books I’ve finished this week that I plan to review (less a manga that isn’t worth reviewing here):

Over the weekend, I’m still leaning into mood reading heavily, knowing I’m going to try to do some more directed reading in October for Haunted Shelf. Still, I’d like to finish the classic mystery I’m reading at the moment (Harriet Rutland’s Knock, Murderer, Knock!) and perhaps the third volume of The Villain’s White Halo, since that finishes off the series.

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.

Happy weekend! Despite my recent book sprees, this weekend I’m off to a book shop (or four) after a long week, while Lisa’s going to a spinning skill-share session in honour of Worldwide Spin in Public Day. After all, I have some book vouchers I could spend! So, um, maybe I will have even more goodies next time we meet here.

For now, let’s get to this week’s roundup…

Books I’ve acquired this week

I haven’t bought anything since my birthday spree (see the last three StS posts, which cover all that), but I did get two books for review this week, and one book via my British Library Crime Classics subscription.

I’m saving Our Cut of Salt for October, since it fits beautifully into the spooky theme of the Haunted Shelf readathon — but I’ve already dug into The Double Dorothy and Eat, Drink and Be Murdered, and indeed polished them off.

(If you’re curious about Haunted Shelf, it’s running this year on Litsy and Discord, and all the details are at the link above.)

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve been posting aplenty, so here’s the usual roundup! Reviews first:

• Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 6, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy: Brimstone Slipstream, by Matt Weber (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Mystery: Suicide Excepted, by Cyril Hare (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Art history: Twelve Caesars, by Mary Beard (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy manhwa: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, vol 2, by Sleepy-C, Umi & singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Love Sonnets & Elegies, by Louise Labé (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

As ever, don’t forget that even 2/5 stars is a book that I found “okay”, and when I say 3/5 stars means “liked it”, I’m not joking! And as per usual, these aren’t books I’ve necessarily read recently, since I have a huge backlog of pre-written reviews that I post slowly to avoid spamming everyone.

With that, let’s move on to the other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Fantasy and Tech
• Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Met
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Overlooked Book

Comments on any of my posts are always welcome, of course, even if they’re older!

What I’m reading

I’ve been focusing on just reading according to my whim, and that’s been paying off this week with a bit of a pick-up in the number of books I finished. There have been some disappointing moments (Illumino, sadly), but mostly I’ve had a fun week, enjoying all of my other reads. Here are the books I’ve finished this week:

This weekend, I’m not actually sure what I might read; I only have one book on the go at the moment, the third volume of The Villain’s White Halo. I’ll probably spend some time with that, and otherwise… who knows? As ever, I’ll stick with my whims.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

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.

Happy weekend! Another busy week, but my weekend should be nice and chill.

Books acquired this week

The “this week” part is very theoretical by now, since this is the remainder of my holiday spree! Here follow the birthday presents I got myself, ahaha. For my indie bookshop buys, check out part one and part two: this one covers my finds in Waterstones in Cardiff and Bristol. I love to support indies, but Waterstones also has an important part to play, with different stores curating their stock differently, and their ability to stock such a broad range of books that indies might not be able to take on.

Also, shoutout to the kind staff member in Bristol’s location in the Galleries who spotted me near-crying at the desk and realised my phone and cards had been lost, connected it with something handed in by another customer, and unearthed them to return to me. Heart attack averted… and without further ado, here are the books I bought once I had my card again, starting with the non-fiction:

I’d known about With My Own Hand and If This Be Magic before, so I’d half-intended to snag those two: I know nothing about Marie Maitland, but her story sounds fascinating, while someone else recommended If This Be Magic. I couldn’t resist Illumino, I’m a sucker for anything about manuscripts, and Unsuitable speaks to my fascination with fashion history.

But I got some more fiction books too!

I’ve been reading the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint manhua a while, and this is the new volume, while Enchanting the Fae Queen is the next in a series I found a fun distraction. The Second Death of Locke comes highly recommended, too. The Library After Dark is more of a random choice, though, because the scenario sounds fun.

The birthday book haul is almost over, but I did have one last hurrah in the gift shop at the St Fagans National Museum of History, which is an open-air museum recreating buildings from Wales’ history. Many are the originals, dismantled and transferred to St Fagans for preservation and display. The first book is a biography of the man behind the original version of the museum, and the second a book about the history of the Welsh language.

Both are available on Kobo Plus, as it happens, so if you’re curious… well, that might be an option!

Finally, I spent the week looking for these, but sadly they weren’t stocked in any brick-and-mortar bookshops, so I ordered them once I got home — the remaining volumes of The Villain’s White Halo, the first volume of which I read while on holiday and really liked.

 

Whew! There we go — that’s the full birthday haul.

Posts from this week

Since I post quite a bit, I figure these roundups are useful even for regulars — and maybe more so for people who only pop in once a week. Let’s take a look at my posts since last week, reviews first:

• Non-fiction: Welsh Food Stories, by Carwyn Graves (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Flowers of a Moment, by Ko Un (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy manhwa: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, vol 1, by Umi, Sleepy-C and singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: The Wife Comes First, vol 2, by Lv Ye Qian He (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• SF: Ode to the Half-Broken, by Suzanne Palmer (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• History: City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, by Peter Parsons (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Poetry: Impossible Paradise, by Chen Yuhong (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

As ever, 3/5 stars isn’t a bad rating, and these books are for the most part not very recent reads, due to my backlog of written but unposted reviews. For the books I’ve been reading this week, check out the last section of this post!

Now for the other posts!

• Fantasy with Friends: Prologues
• Top Ten Tuesday: (Reasons to Love) Indie Bookshops
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Let’s Talk Bookish: Decluttering
• Book Blogger Hop: The Influence of Reviews

What I’m reading

As I mentioned at the start, it’s been a kind of busy week, so I haven’t read as much as I’d have liked, and it’s mostly been classic mysteries! Which is always fun, and if it’s what’s grabbing me at the moment, I’m definitely not going to argue. So here’s a peek at the books I finished:

When it comes to weekend reading, I’m really not sure. I’m partway through Illumino, the history of Britain through illuminated manuscripts, and volume two of The Villain’s White Halo… but I might just continue to lean into the classic mysteries thing, and maybe read more by Haynes or van Gulik… or some of the others I’ve been trying recently.

Whatever it is, I’m going to try to follow my whims, as usual, and not kick myself about not reading something specific or not reading enough. I’ve been doing a bit too much of that lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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.

Happy weekend! It’s been a busy week at work, what with getting back from holiday, so the weekend is very welcome.

Books acquired this week

Alright, time for more of my birthday trip book spree! Part one is here and talks about Forbidden Planet (in Bristol) and the indie shop Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights (in Bath), and the first part of this post covers the rest of the day in Bath at the delightful Topping & Company branch there. Their stores always feel magical, with wooden shelving, wooden ladders on rails around the rooms, and somehow more rooms in the spaces than you’d think could be possible.

So let’s take a look at what I picked up there!

I don’t know anything about the three non-fic choices except that they looked intriguing: I love stuff about old and weird manuscripts, and I’ve found the recent books focusing on women of ancient Rome really interesting in how they pick apart inconsistencies and give us much more complicated images of the women in question (like Emma Southon’s Agrippina). And of course, I couldn’t resist a book about the history of universities, given my… proclivities. (I finished my fourth degree last year and there is a literal betting pool about when I will next enroll.)

I did also pick up print copies of a couple of books I’d already received as eARCs:

I haven’t finished any of them yet, so I’m hoping having physical copies will help me get to them, ahaha — plus I do like to support authors by getting their books, of course.

That was it for the Monday. I was intending to drop into Waterstones in Cardiff on Tuesday while we were visiting my aunt and some of my nostagic spots from when I was a student, but I discovered that there’s a lovely new indie bookshop in Castle Arcade: Love Stories Bookshop. So of course, I had to get some books there!

I did also go to Waterstones, both in Cardiff and in Bristol… but that’s a story for next week!

Posts from this week

As ever, I’ve been posting away this week and have had plenty to say, so let’s dig into the roundup. Reviews first:

• Classic crime: The Party at No. 5, by Shelley Smith (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
• Graphic novel: Fence: Challengers, by C.S. Pacat et al (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, by Charlotte Booth (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 3, by Feng Yu Nie (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: The Weather Wheel, by Mimi Khalvati (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 5, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy: The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, by A.J. Fitzwater (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)

As ever, these aren’t books I’ve necessarily read recently; check out the section below for what I’ve been reading this week! I have a big backlog of reviews written and ready to post, and I try to vary what I post in order to avoid spamming people with sixty danmei reviews at once.

Also, 3/5 is not a bad rating, and even 2/5 ratings mean the book had some redeeming qualities. Please do take my definitions literally; when I say 3/5 stars means I liked a book, that means I liked the book, even if you wouldn’t rate a book you liked 3/5 stars. Thanks!

Now for the other, non-review posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Historical Fantasy
• Top Ten Tuesday: Welsh Books
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• August Reading Wrap-Up
• Book Blogger Hop: A Book That Deserves More Love

And that’s all for the wrap-up!

What I’m reading

As I mentioned, it’s been a busy week, so I haven’t been reading as much as I might’ve hoped. Still, I’ve read one of my new books and two classic crime novels, so I’m pretty happy!

For this weekend, I’m not sure what I’ll be reading — hopefully more of Teddy Bears Never Die, The Villain’s White Halo, and my classic crime binge? But we’ll see! It’s always whatever grabs my interest, after all. I’ve also started a non-fic about British medieval manuscripts, after all…

So really, it could be anything. Whatever I read, whatever you read, here’s hoping it’s a good weekend!

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 everyone! Back at home, and I have plenty of books to show for my journey! It was lovely to have a break and get away from the usual routine, but it’s also nice to be home.

Books acquired this week

Now the birthday book haul really begins, ahaha. Here are the books my parents got me for my birthday, both non-fiction books I’ve been very interested in reading:

In the case of Beyond Belief, I’d been intrigued since I read New Scientist‘s review, while I’ve generally loved Sue Black’s other books. I’ve finished Beyond Belief already!

As for the book spree, I’m going to break that up into a couple of different posts, mostly by bookshop, because I visited several indies and that gives me a good chance to talk about them. First up, though, the books I got in Forbidden Planet on our first day in Bristol. It’s not as big a shop as in London and there definitely wasn’t as much danmei as I’d hoped, but I still got some new treasures! This spree was a gift from my wife for my birthday, and I took full advantage of the offer, ahaha.

Tammy and Mogsy made me curious about Teddy Bears Never Die, while The Feywild Job has been on my list for a while since it’s by C.L. Polk, so I was glad to pick that up. The Library of Amorlin was a random choice: I’ve heard nothing about it, but it had lovely sprayed edges and the word “library” in the title, so it caught my eye. One of the joys of bookshopping in person is getting to pick up random books you’ve never heard of and just give them a shot.

As for the danmei, I’ve been meaning to try all three of these for a while, and of course I had to pick up the next volume of the Heaven Official’s Blessing manhua.

Not bad for a first day, right? But the next day of the holiday was intended as the real spree over in Bath, and we started at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The staff are always good for a chat about books, though I would warn that the shop is definitely not accessible for anyone in a wheelchair (very narrow with steps), and the neurospicy might not enjoy the fact that all fiction novels are shelved together regardless of genre.

Anyway, I found myself a few new friends in Mr B’s, as expected! My wife covered these as well, because I’m super spoiled.

The first three are non-fiction; I’d wanted The English House and This Golden Fleece for a while… while of course Everybody’s Perfect is Jo’s latest, and there’s no way I could resist.

I’ll call a halt there, and tell you next week about Topping & Company (also in Bath) and the new-to-me Love Stories (in Cardiff).

Posts from this week

Despite being away all week, I had plenty of posts queued up ready for me to just hit “post”, so there’s lots to round up as usual! Starting with reviews:

• Poetry: Obit, by Victoria Chang (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Non-fiction: A History of Booksellers and the Bookshop, by Jean-Yves Mollier (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: Wooing the Witch Queen, by Stephanie Burgis (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Sci-fi mystery: The Album of Dr. Moreau, by Daryl Gregory (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: How Queer Bookshops Changed the World, by A.J. West (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Eleanor Among the Saints, by Rachel Mann (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Fantasy/romance manga: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, vol 6, by Kazuki Irodori (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And of course, the discussion posts/linkups/etc:

• Fantasy with Friends: Dark Academia
• Top Ten Tuesday: Best Bookshops
• WWW Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: The Hook

Oof, that was a lot!

What I’m reading

Despite the travel, I have managed to fit in some reading time, because we planned our days with lots of downtime for reading. I did struggle to settle down to the book choices I’d brought with me, and ended up abandoning both my BookSpinBingo list and my 20 Books of Summer, and just letting myself read whatever, which helped me get unstuck.

Here’s a quick peek at the books I finished this week:

You can click the thumbnails to get a view of the full covers!

As for this weekend ahead, I’m a bit tired from the travel and because I wasn’t well on Thursday night (just a flare-up of complications from my long-ago gallbladder removal, I’m okay now!), but we’ll see… I’m in the mood for more classic crime, and have added a couple more by authors I haven’t tried yet on Kobo Plus. And then, of course, there’s all the new books!

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.

Happy weekend! I’ve been off work for two days already, so I’m starting to get into my stride with this relaxation thing… nah, kidding, I’m really bad at it! Even on my birthday on Thursday I was doing chores like a normal day…

Books acquired this week

So far the birthday haul has been very restrained — because Lisa’s waiting until my indie bookshop spree on Monday. So it’s just the one book from my friend Alys, plus a book I got myself because I’ve been wanting it for ages…

I’ve actually started Steeple Chasing already, since for some reason it just kinda worked with my mood, though I haven’t read much yet! I’m not super interested in churches per se, but more about what they can tell us about people, and so far it does seem to lean that way too!

Posts from this week

Despite my birthday, I’ve kept busy as ever on the blog this week, so here’s the rundown! Reviews first:

• Manhua: Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 1, by STARember (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: If All the World and Love Were Young, by Stephen Sexton (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy romance: Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 2, by Feng Yu Nie (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Non-fiction: The Queer Thing About Sin, by Harry Tanner (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 4, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Fantasy: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, vol 3, by singNsong (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• SF/F: Moon-Flash, by Patricia McKillip (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

As ever, I haven’t read most of these books that recently, since I spread out my reviews to get a range of different books featured. And 3/5 isn’t a bad rating!

Of course, I’ve also participated in various discussions and linkups, as usual…

• Let’s Talk Bookish: Mental Health
• Fantasy with Friends: Anachronisms
• Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Want To Catch Up On
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Trends

What I’m reading

First up, a quick round-up of the books I’ve finished in the last week! Which wasn’t a lot, since work was pretty busy prepping for my time off, and I’ve got a couple of other books in progress which are quite dense.

 

For this weekend, I probably won’t be reading a ton, since I’m having dinner with my parents and sister for my birthday, and my wife and I are heading off on our week away. But we’ll see! I’d love to finish up a couple more books before we go, so I don’t have to wedge them into my packing somehow…

Thanks all for your birthday wishes last week! And I hope you’re having a great weekend.

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.

Happy weekend! With my birthday coming up on Thursday 20th, this is my last push to tidy up my TBR a bit ready for birthday books… Wish me luck.

Books acquired this week

I’m still trying to whittle things down so I can get books for my birthday, but I did get a couple of manga this week for some lighter reading!

My Younger Knight Takes Care of Me in Another World is a bit of a silly series (and a very clear ripoff of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter), but it was a fun palate cleanser. As for Love in the Palm of His Hand, I hadn’t realised that volume three had been out for a while, so I eagerly snagged that!

And of course, my British Library Crime Classic subscription book came in:

This is a new-to-me author, so I’m curious!

Posts from this week

There’s been plenty of wordcount posted on the blog this week and I wouldn’t blame anyone who waits for the roundups or couldn’t keep up this time! So here’s the rundown, reviews first:

• Non-fiction: Dressing the Queen: Two Hundred Years of Makers and Monarchy, by Kate Strasdin (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Poetry: Ambush at Still Lake, by Caroline Bird (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Manga: Cat + Gamer, vol 3, by Wataru Nadatani (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
• Romantasy: An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating, by Cecilia Edward (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Non-fiction: 100 Unforgettable Dresses, by Hal Rubenstein (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
• Children’s graphic novel: I’m a Dumbo Octopus! A Graphic Guide to Cephalopods, by Anne Lambelet (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
• Fantasy: The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean (3/5 stars, “liked it”)

As usual, don’t forget that most of these reviews are for books I read weeks or months ago, because I pre-write the reviews and post them in a spread-out way to provide variety. Also, 3/5 is a perfectly good rating, since for me it means “liked it”, and I give 5/5 rarely!

And of course, the other posts:

• Fantasy with Friends: Fantasy Plants
• Top Ten Tuesday: On This Day…
• What Are You Reading Wednesday
• Book Blogger Hop: Rereads

What I’m reading

First, as always, a quick preview of the books I’ve finished this week which I plan to review on the blog:

And as for my plans for this weekend… well, my birthday/holiday trip approaches, with just three working days left, so I really need to get my read on if I want to finish some more books in order to clear the decks for the trip. I’m planning on finishing up Shen Tao’s The Poet Empress, reading my new British Library Crime Classic, and… I’m not sure what else. Lots, hopefully!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

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.