Tag: weekly roundup

Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 27, 2016 by Nicky in General / 23 Comments

Good morning! How’s everyone doing this week? I’ve read more than I thought I was going to, and even cleared some books that have been on my backlog for a long time. Of course, I’ve also been fretting wildly over our baby bunny, but she seems to be doing okay despite my panics.

New books

Cover of Necrotech by K.C. Alexander Cover of The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

Necrotech is a review copy from Angry Robot (thanks again, guys!), and The Crown’s Game was a gift from my wife, A++ wife that she is.

Finished reading this week:

Cover of Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve Cover of Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve Cover of Heresy by S.J. Parris Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps

Cover of Saga vol 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples Cover of Saga vol 5 Cover of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Cover of Saga Volume 6

Mortal Engines, Predator’s Gold and Heresy are books I’ve had since 2011; Saga volume four and We Were Liars are from 2014. Take that, backlog! …Wait, now I’m caught up on Saga… oh no! Now another agonising wait for more volumes.

Reviews posted this week:
The Jewel and Her Lapidary, by Fran Wilde. Intriguing world, but I felt like I needed more background to really understand what the characters were doing. 3/5 stars
One Ostara Sunrise, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but I could wish for more plot. 3/5 stars
The Devil You Know, by K.J. Parker. Not as great as Parker’s other Tor.com novella, but an intriguing story nonetheless. Might help if you read the other book including the main character… 3/5 stars
Batgirl: Silent Running, by Kelley Puckett et al. Sadly not my thing, despite me being a fan of the idea of Cassandra Cain. 2/5 stars
The Drowning Eyes, by Emily Foster. I felt like this really trailed off, but there is some really amazing imagery in this story. Stones for eyes… 3/5 stars
The Celts: Search for a Civilisation, by Alice Roberts. A really interesting overview of Celtic history and identity — and yes, it does engage with that troubled question of whether Celtic identity is really a thing you can point to, as well. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen. This is a perfectly good crime novel, but it’s too explicit and nasty to be the sort I enjoy.

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Still Haven’t Read. This is a list of books I’ve been meaning to get to for, quite literally, years — since before I started this blog.

What’ve you been reading this week? Anything you’re dying to get your hands on? Let me know!

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 20, 2016 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Happy birthday to meeee! If you wish to join in the festivities, it seems that we’re planning to celebrate by eating cake for every meal. (Sometimes stretching the definition to pastry.) My wife is even going to make Welsh cakes for me, for the first time in a while.

Also, we have a new bunny. Her name is Cinnamon, and she fits in my hand. I hope so much she’s going to settle in and stay with us for a good long time. <3

Photo of a tiny bunny hiding in a big basket

Received to review:

Cover of Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire Cover of The Family Plot by Cherie Priest Cover of Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier

Eeeh! All of these are awesome, and I’m very excited.

Bought:

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of Persona by Genevieve Valentine Cover of City of Wolves by WIllow Palacek Cover of The Emperor's Railroad by Guy Haley

Fiiiinally, Ghost Talkers is out. <3 I need to get reading it nooow. Mind you, I say that, but there’s so much else I want to read now, too…

Finished this week:

Cover of Cold-Forged Flame by Marie Brennan Cover of The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson Cover of Chalice by Robin McKinley Cover of Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Cover of The Door into Sunset by Diane Duane

Reviews posted this week:

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson. A satisfying story set in Lovecraft’s world, with a capable female character. It actually really charmed me. 4/5 stars
One Imbolc Gloaming, by Elora Bishop. Cute, but the plot doesn’t go where I hoped it would, which is kind of sad. 3/5 stars
Cold-Forged Flame, by Marie Brennan. I think this might be my favourite of the Tor.com novellas so far. It’s definitely up there. I find the setting fascinating, and Marie Brennan writes as well as ever. 4/5 stars
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Power, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. Fun, though not 100% my thing. You’ve got to love that Doreen solves several big issues with supervillains by talking to them. 4/5 stars
Runtime, by S.B. Divya. A lot of interesting stuff here, though the core of the setting reminds me heavily of other dystopian stories. 3/5 stars
Dancing With Bears, by Michael Swanwick. Not my thing at all, despite the heist part. That and the setting are about all that were my thing. So much sex stuff. 1/5 stars
Flashback Friday: Beowulf on the Beach, by Jack Murnighan. I don’t always agree with the author on what you should try and what you should skip in the Greatest Hits of Dead White Authors, but it was kind of entertaining anyway. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books in Post-Disaster Settings. What it says on the tin!

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 13, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 14 Comments

So I’ve spent most of the last week on my honeymoon, in Dublin, and I’m here to tell you they have some amazing bookshops. I strongly recommend Dubray Books on Grafton Street, Chapters on Parnell Street, and Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street. My wife would like to put in a word for a lovely knitting shop, too: if you’re in Dublin and you like yarn and knitting and friendly awesome people, we loved This Is Knit, in a shopping centre on South William Street.

And if you like archaeology, particularly Irish/Celtic stuff, I think I can also recommend the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology. They currently have an exhibit of Irish bog bodies, which is worth a look.

But now for my haul! Not all of them are from Dublin; I got given some as wedding and birthday presents. A+++ work, friends. <3

Books:

Cover of Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay Cover of The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms Cover of Chalice by Robin McKinley Cover of Riding the Unicorn by Paul Kearney

Cover of On the Edge by Ilona Andrews Cover of Steel by Carrie Vaughn Cover of The Celtic Revolution by Simon Young Cover of The Floating Admiral by the Detection Club

Cover of Doppelganger by Marie Brennan Cover of Goblin Moon by Teresa Edgerton Cover of The Way to Babylon by Paul Kearney

Cover of The Bone Queen by Alison Croggon Cover of Off the Map by Alastair Bonnett Cover of A Promise Broken by Lynn O'Connacht

Cover of The Demonists by Thomas E. Sniegoski Cover of The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan Cover of Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn O'Connacht

There’s a lot that I’m excited about here, or have been meaning to read for ages! Especially Guy Gavriel Kay’s Children of Earth and Sky; I was doing a reread of his work in order, but that means I still haven’t got to River of Stars or this new one. Hmm…

Comics:

Cover of Captain Marvel: Alpha Flight Cover of Ultimates: Omniversal

Yep, these two were listed on my Top Ten Tuesday post about books I wanted to grab right away. Hurrah! I wanted Spider-Women and The New Avengers: A.I.M: Everything Is New, but I didn’t find the latter and I could only find the former for a ridiculous price.

Books finished this week:

Cover of Seven Skeletons by Lydia Pyne Cover of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Cover of Planetfall by Emma Newman Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Cover of The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney Cover of Off the Map by Alastair Bonnett Cover of Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn O'Connacht

Reviews posted this week:

One Solstice Night, by Elora Bishop. A reread so I could get on with reading this series finally. This is sweet and basically a little bit of spun sugar. 3/5 stars
The Lifted Veil, by George Eliot. A surprisingly speculative novella from a classic author. 3/5 stars
Broken, by Susan Bigelow. We know the main character feels broken, because she’s renamed herself Broken, the book is called Broken, and she tells us that she’s broken. Brokenly. 1/5 stars
Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees. A classic fantasy that doesn’t feel like the stuff that is traditional for the genre now, and is very beautifully written. I loved it. 5/5 stars
Geek Feminist Revolution, by Kameron Hurley. I do love Hurley’s essays and her no-bullshit way of writing, but I wished there was more new content in this collection. A lot of it was familiar. 4/5 stars
Brother Jacob, by George Eliot. A short and rather moralistic story that really didn’t demonstrate the greatness of Eliot’s prose for me. 1/5 stars
-Flashback Friday: The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. I read this for the first time when I was already 20. I felt I’d missed out! 5/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Pet Peeves. My pet peeves in fiction, let me show you them!

How’s everyone been? I think I’ve caught up on the blogs I usually follow, but if you have something you think I’ll be interested in, link away! I’d hate to miss out.

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted August 6, 2016 by Nicky in General / 29 Comments

So this week has been super important, and yesterday I married my partner of the last eleven years.

Photo of our wedding rings

I got books, too.

Received to review

Cover of Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black Cover of Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews Cover of American Monsters by Derek Landy

Cover of Seven Skeletons by Lydia Pyne Cover of The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson Cover of Cold-Forged Flame by Marie Brennan

Magic Binds!! I’m excited.

I did also get books from my friends as wedding/birthday presents (my birthday is on the 20th!), but I’m too tired to put them all up now. Next week it is!

Books finished this week:

Cover of A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick Cover of Fair Play, by Josh Lanyon Cover of Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews

Reviews posted this week:

The Copper Promise, by Jen Williams. A traditional-feel fantasy, I found this a really comfortable, feel-good read for the most part. It just reminded me of all the fantasy books of my childhood, in a good way. 4/5 stars
The Book of Atrix Wolfe, by Patricia A. McKillip. Probably one of my least favourite of McKillip’s books so far. It’s beautifully written, but I didn’t quite follow. 2/5 stars
Hex, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Horror normally isn’t my thing, but the icky bit of this for me was the way people acted, the things they decided to prioritise. I just didn’t get on with it at all. 1/5 stars
Little, Big, by John Crowley. On the surface it sounded like something I’d be interested in, but in the end it took too long to get nowhere very satisfying. 2/5 stars
The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy. This book is great, full of interesting (mostly female) characters who bounce off each other in realistic ways, and who really work hard at what they do. It helps that it’s atmospheric and involves archaeology, but overall I just found it really satisfying to read. 5/5 stars
Under the Skin, by Michel Faber. Another one that didn’t really work for me — now I think about it, it may have had better payoff as a short story. 2/5 stars
Flashback Friday: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. A longtime favourite, with a genuinely creepy vampire who you can root for anyway, and a lot of awesome descriptions of food and baking. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Buy Right Now. Probably a fairly predictable bunch!

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 30, 2016 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

Hello, everyone! This week has been frantic for me again, with an assignment due and a wedding to organise. It’s creeping up on us — this time next week, I’ll be married!

In the meantime, though, I’ve been taking advantage of my wife-to-be’s library card.

Library books

Cover of Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik Cover of Black Powder War by Naomi Novik Cover of Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik Cover of Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

Cover of Time and Again by Jack Finney Cover of Heresy by S.J. Parris Cover of The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs Cover of The Child Eater by Rachel Pollack

Some of these I already own, but they’re elsewhere. And I’ve read most of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series before, but it’s been ages and I feel like it, so woo.

Received to review

Cover of A Little Knowledge by Emma Newman Cover of Way Down Dark Cover of Hotline by Quinn Anderson

Quite a different bunch, but all fun in their way. Mind you, I need to catch up with Emma Newman’s series!

Finished this week:

Cover of Gillespie & I by Jane Harris Cover of Home by Francis Pryor Cover of Feed by Mira Grant Cover of The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs

15751543 Cover of Fair Game by Josh Lanyon Cover of Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Reviews posted this week:
The Door into Shadows, by Diane Duane. Segnbora’s book, basically. There were aspects I didn’t like, but also Segnbora is so kickass that it carries it. 3/5 stars
Death Among the Marshes, by Kathryn Ramage. A fun, Golden Age-esque mystery novella, with some great characters. 4/5 stars
Saints Astray, by Jacqueline Carey. Want to follow Pilar and Loup from Santa Olivia, and see them get a happy ending? Yep, this is for you. 4/5 stars
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande. Sensitive, carefully written and thoughtful, Being Mortal talks about some issues we really need to spend more time on, at least in Western society. 5/5 stars
The Terracotta Bride, by Zen Cho. A short story set in an afterlife which pretty much typifies the idea that ‘hell is other people’. 4/5 stars
Toad Words and Other Stories, by T. Kingfisher. A great collection of fairytale retellings, each one unique. I love T. Kingfisher’s work, so no surprise I enjoyed these. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. There are a lot of things which irritated me about this book, but there’s a really solid story there too — and one which I do remember being quite emotional for me, to my own surprise. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Books Made Me (Want To) Do It. Except I didn’t take it seriously at all…

How’s everyone? Anything good coming up in the week ahead?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 23, 2016 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Good morning, folks! How is everybody? I’m having a busy time, with my wedding coming up and an assignment deadline due while I’m actually away on my honeymoon… but things progress. And there are books, which is always nice.

Books to review

Cover of After Atlas by Emma Newman Cover of Red Right Hand by Chris Holm

I guess I need to hurry up and read Planetfall… Also, yay for Chris Holm’s new book!

Books bought

Cover of Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan Cover of Europe in Autumn by David Hutchinson Cover of The End of the World Running Club by Adrian Walker Cover of The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

The Mighty Dead by Adam Nicholson Cover of Roses and Rot by Kat Howard Cover of Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Nearly all of these were in the sale, don’t hurt me. And Roses and Rot I actually picked up a while ago, but I don’t think it ever made it into an STS post. So tahdah. Buying Temeraire for my Kindle is a blatant excuse to start rereading that series, especially given Imyril’s reviews

Books finished this week

Cover of Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews Cover of Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews Cover of Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews Cover of Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Reviews posted this week:
Our Lady of Pain, by M.C. Beaton. I’m really not impressed by this series, but it made good light reading. 2/5 stars
The Greatest Show on Earth, by Richard Dawkins. Skip Dawkins, go back to Darwin. It’s not that he’s wrong, at least in his science. It’s his attitude. I’ve never hated agreeing with someone so much. 3/5 stars
A Surfeit of Lampreys, by Ngaio Marsh. Ngaio Marsh isn’t bad at constructing a mystery and doing little character sketches, but I’ve stopped caring about her detective, who could be replaced by a cardboard cutout in this book. 2/5 stars
The Sleeping Prince, by Melinda Salisbury. If you enjoyed the first book, you’ll probably enjoy this one. I found it enjoyable, and probably better than the first, though I did also find it somewhat predictable. 3/5 stars
Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore. Not an easy read, but worthwhile, this book pulls the whole loosely linked series together very effectively. 4/5 stars
Missing Microbes, by Martin Blaser. Makes a very good point about the way we’re destroying our own microbiomes, and how that might affect illnesses from allergies to ulcerative colitis. It might stretch a bit far at times, but I found it enjoyable and interesting. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: Exiled from Camelot, by Cherith Baldry. A book I read for my Master’s dissertation on the portrayal of Kay, this one is pretty fun, with a non-traditionally-capable Kay and a strong bond between him and Arthur. 4/5 stars

Other posts: 
Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set Outside the US. What it says on the tin, with mostly historical fantasy to delight you.

Any fun plans for this week? Reading anything I should know about?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 16, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

I’m back in Belgium! And I brought a bunch of books with me.

Fiction acquired:

Cover of The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis Cover of A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan Cover of Hope and Red by Jon Skovrun Cover of Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

Cover of Necessity by Jo Walton Cover of The City of Woven Streets by Emmi Itaranta Cover of Everfair by Nisi Shawl Cover of Connection Error by Annabeth Albert

I’m… not sure which of these I bought and which I got as review copies, now. But yay.

Non-fiction acquired:

Cover of The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester Cover of The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim Cover of The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson Cover of The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker

I love me some non-fiction.

Comics acquired:

Cover of The All-New All-Different Avengers: The Magnificient Seven Cover of Thor: Thunder in her Veins Cover of Spider-Gwen: Greater Power

Cover of A-Force: Hypertime Cover of Saga Volume 6 Cover of Ms Marvel: Super Famous

I, uh, needed to catch up…

Finished this week:

Cover of The Undivided Past by David Cannadine Cover of Spider-Gwen: Greater Power Cover of Reading in the Brain by Stanislaw Dehaene

Reviews posted this week:
Fever, by Mary Beth Keane. An interesting historical novel taking the point of view of Typhoid Mary, and doing reasonably well at making us sympathise with her. 4/5 stars
Talking Hands, by Margalit Fox. Fascinating discussion of both the history of sign language and the development of languages in general, with a case study of an emerging language in a Bedouin village. 4/5 stars
Murder and Mendelssohn, by Kerry Greenwood. This last (so far?) adventure with Phryne is a lot of fun, though the main feature is really the BBC Sherlock inspired John Wilson and Rupert Sheffield, and their Phryne-facilitated romance. 4/5 stars
Saga Volume 3, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Awesome as usual, and mostly the volume in which I really loved the Lying Cat more than ever. 5/5 stars
Mortal Heart, by Robin LaFevers. Thanks to a certain reveal that just didn’t quite fit the way I saw the world, this wasn’t my favourite of a series I have generally really enjoyed. 3/5 stars
A Fall of Moondust, by Arthur C. Clarke. Fans of The Martian might enjoy this classic story of rescue in space, even if the situation — tourism on the moon — seems as far away as ever. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff. Powerful version of the Arthurian stories, with a real and strong connection between Arthur and Bedwyr (who here basically has the role of Lancelot). I wasn’t sure at first, but for me it really, really worked. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Facts About Me. In which I am a somewhat scatterbrained silly person with synaesthesia.

So yeah, not much reading this week because… I don’t really know why, but on Friday I got Pokemon Go and went for a three hour walk (finally hitting my Fitbit goals again!) so I blame that. Somewhat. How is everyone?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 9, 2016 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

I haven’t read as much this week as I did last week, but that would be kind of difficult! What I have managed to do is catch up to all my reading goals, for which I’m very pleased with myself. Now just got to keep on top of it.

Received to review:

Cover of The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin Cover of Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton Cover of Skeen's Leap by Jo Clayton

I think it’s been a while since I requested the Jo Clayton books, because I couldn’t remember at first why I asked for them. But Skeen’s Leap looks like fun. Also, hurrah, The Obelisk Gate! I need to read the first book still, but…

Books acquired:

Cover of The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams Cover of The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu Cover of The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

I finally read The Copper Promise and liked it, so of course I had to pick up The Iron Ghost while I was here in the UK visiting my parents. I’ve been curious about The Aeronaut’s Windlass for a while, too, and though I’ve heard mixed reviews of The Grace of Kings, everything I’ve heard makes it sound intriguing.

And then of course, I also picked up a couple of TPBs. While I was here.

Cover of Silk: Sinister Cover of Spider-Woman: Baby Talk

Books finished this week:

26792189 Cover of Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick Cover of One Solstice Night by Elora Bishop Cover of One Imbolc Gloaming by Elora Bishop

Cover of One Ostara Sunrise by Elora Bishop Cover of A History of Ancient Egypt by John Romer Cover of Runtime by S.B. Divya Cover of The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde

 Cover of The Devil You Know by K.J. Parker Cover of The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster Cover of Batgirl: Silent Running by Kelley Puckett Cover of Batgirl: A Knight Alone by Kelley Puckett

Reviews posted this week:
A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen TurnerI liked this a lot more on the reread, probably because I knew what to expect. Sophos is a lot less interesting to me than Gen, but the glimpse of Gen through his eyes is fascinating. 4/5 stars
The Ancient Paths, by Graham RobbI have to admit that actually evaluating the scholarship is beyond me, but the argument seems a bit prone to wishful thinking — “this would be convenient, so it’s true”, I guess. Still interesting. 3/5 stars
Sick of Shadows, by M.C. Beaton. The first book was kind of fun, but the formula has worn very thin. 1/5 stars
Saga Volume Two, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona StaplesSaga continues to be awesome and funny, and still makes me laugh even when it’s gross humour I wouldn’t normally go in for. 4/5 stars
Blood Lines, by Tanya Huff. Another fun entry in the series, though more or less as you’d expect. And there’s a mummy (the kind in bandages). 3/5 stars
Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart. Definitely not my favourite, probably because of the all-too-stereotypical relationship between the husband and wife — he beats someone up for her, he keeps secrets and that’s fine, etc, etc. 2/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Island of the Mighty, by Evangeline Walton. Not the best of the series by far, though it’s still an interesting and effective retelling. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated Books. The theme was books with less than 2,000 ratings; a lot of the ones I chose have very few ratings and even fewer reviews. I tried to pick a nice range of different books, with SF/F, non-fiction, poetry, detective stories…

So how’s everyone been? What’re you up to? Me, I’ve been visiting my parents this week and taking advantage of my Xbox to play all the Fable 2 and Fable 3. In fact, let me get back to that now.

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Unstacking the Shelves

Posted July 2, 2016 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week was a good week for reading, as you can see! And for only the fifth time ever, I have no new books to showcase and can instead show off the ones I’ve finished reading. I didn’t even feature the full covers this time as I normally do for an Unstacking week cause there’s just so many! Twelve of these have been on my TBR for at least a year before I finally got round to them, so it really is good progress.

So please don’t tell me to enjoy my new books! Let me bask in being good.

Books finished this week:

Cover of The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho Cover of Toad Words & Other Stories by T. Kingfisher Cover of Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey Cover of The Copper Promise by Jen Williams Cover of The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip

Cover of A Winter Book by Tove Jansson Cover of Little, Big by John Crowley Cover of Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Cover of The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy Cover of Under the Skin by Michael Faber

Cover of The Lifted Veil by George Eliot Cover of Brother Jacob by George Eliot Cover of Broken by Susan Bigelow Cover of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Reviews posted this week:

Hasty Death, by M.C. Beaton. Fun enough, but it really isn’t anything special. 2/5 stars
So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane. I think I came to this at the wrong age — I’d probably have loved it when I was younger. 1/5 stars
Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional, by David Waltham. Solid science and an interesting discussion of whether life is likely to be common or not in the universe, but I think we really don’t have enough data at all to actually come to a conclusion about how lucky or not we are. 3/5 stars
Saga Volume One, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. A reread so I can get on with the series! Love it pretty much the same as before, especially the art. 4/5 stars
Blood Trail, by Tanya Huff. Fun and brings in more supernatural creatures, etc. It’s fairly light comfort reading for me. 3/5 stars
All For Love, by Jane Aiken Hodge. A good Heyer-esque romp, with some nice touches (the perfect switch isn’t perfect after all, etc). I enjoyed it a lot and will be reading more of Jane Aiken Hodge’s work. 4/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Song of Rhiannon, by Evangeline Walton. This book isn’t as powerful as the previous book, which is a bit of a relief after how harrowing that was. There’s a lot of good stuff here, and Manawydan remains an awesome character. 4/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read. It was a freebie week, so I mined for an old theme and covered books I had to read for class or research.
ShelfLove Update. My update on the reading challenge I’m doing, which also includes my TBR for this month, as usual.

How’s everyone been? Good reading week? Anything exciting joined your piles?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 25, 2016 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

Hey everyone! This week I have kind of had a bit of a spree, which I needed post Brexit-vote — I don’t really talk politics here much; suffice it to say my planned future with my Belgian partner is looking a wee bit more unsettled. Hurrah democracy, but boo, I wish this hadn’t come to pass!

Books acquired:

Cover of The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde Cover of Desert Rising by Kelley Grant Cover of Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews Cover of Winterwood by Dorothy Eden

Cover of Toad Words & Other Stories by T. Kingfisher Cover of Runtime by S.B. Divya Cover of The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho Cover of The Winding Stair by Jane Aiken Hodge

A nice haul, right? A good mix of fantasy and a couple of the romance-suspense type novels I like for comfort reading. Hopefully it won’t take me long to repair the damage to my to read pile I’ve just done…

Received to review:

Cover of Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn Cover of Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle Cover of Blood Moon by M.J. O'Shea

I heard good things about the first two, and requested the third on a whim.

I did get some good reading done earlier in the week, but the warm weather here took it out of me later in the week. I do recommend Being Mortal; it’s a really important examination of what dying is like in the modern world. It made me cry, but it’s very worth reading.

Books finished this week:

Cover of Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore Cover of Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser Cover of The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

Cover of The Door into Shadow by Diane Duane Cover of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande Cover of Death Among the Marshes by Kathryn Ramage

Reviews posted:
Blood Price, by Tanya Huff. Fun urban fantasy with some unique features (like a protagonist with retinitis pigmentosa). Not Huff’s all time best or something, but a lot of fun. 3/5 stars
Darwin’s Ghosts, by Rebecca Stott. We can be prone to thinking Darwin’s idea was totally original, but as he acknowledged himself, there were antecedents. This book discusses some of them — while acknowledging that Darwin’s theory is what finally made sense of all the data. 3/5 stars
Midnight Never Come, by Marie Brennan. I didn’t love this as much as the Isabella Trent books, but that’d be a pretty high bar anyway. Midnight Never Come has a lot of interesting set-up, though one of the characters felt a little disconnected from the action. 4/5 stars
King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner. This book views Gen from the eyes of someone naive to his intelligence, and that makes it a lot of fun. Even though we made the same mistake when reading The Thief… 5/5 stars
Unnatural Habits, by Kerry Greenwood. Lots of social commentary and a look at the deeper parts of Phryne’s personality, combined with a rather bitterly funny subplot. 4/5 stars
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. Lots of beautiful prose and not so much substance, for me. Probably deservedly a classic though. 2/5 stars
Flashback Friday: The Children of Llyr, by Evangeline Walton. More than the first book, this is where I really fell in love with Walton’s evocation of the Welsh mythology. Beautiful and harrowing. 5/5 stars

Other posts:
Top Ten Books from 2016 So Far. I didn’t really struggle with this, which surprised me! Looks like I’m pretty caught up.

How’s everyone been doing?

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