What’s this? I actually did buy two books this week! I kind of couldn’t help it — I’ve had Revenger on preorder, of course, and I’ve been hearing so much about the upcoming film based on the women in Hidden Figures. But I’ve still got vouchers left to use… I’m trying to save them for something really good, or maybe a series of books I’ll enjoy.

Books bought:

Yep, my sister is so jealous right now. Well, until she gets to Waterstones… probably a little later today. Then she’ll have her own copy of Revenger.

Books finished this week:

Woe is me, I’ve finished the Peter Wimsey audiobooks, again. Highly recommended, though, and Audible is only missing one of the series (Gaudy Night).

Reviews posted this week:
–Magic Breaks, by Ilona Andrews. As usual, a fun outing with Curran and Kate. And I want this series to last forever. 4/5 stars
–Fair Game, by Josh Lanyon. Non-stereotypical gay people being stupid at each other, decent mystery, and one of the leads is even dealing with disability. Hurrah! 3/5 stars
–Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan. I did enjoy this, but I did have some questions about the male-centricness of the story. 3/5 stars
–A Maze of Death, by Philip K. Dick. This is… very Philip K. Dickian. Which means it made very little sense to me. 2/5 stars
–Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils, by Lydia Pyne. An interesting survey of hominid fossils and what they mean for our understanding of human evolution. 4/5 stars
–Fair Play, by Josh Lanyon. The sequel to Fair Game, which develops the relationship between Eliot and his father interestingly. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. This didn’t ring totally true to me, but it did get to me surprisingly much. 3/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Favourites. My little tour of the fantasy genre!

What have you been reading? Got your hands on any good books?

Wow, it’s been another Unstacking week! Can you believe it? I really can’t, especially since I know I have a ton of Amazon vouchers. I’m just finding it so hard to make decisions! As soon as I think “yeah, I’ll get this”, I think about saving my vouchers for the next thing I desperately want… Which is good for my TBR pile, I guess, but not so fun for instant gratification.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading this week. Once again: please don’t tell me to enjoy them! I’ve read them already! Instead, let’s celebrate me clearing the stacks a bit.

Books read this week:

I thought I’d read more this week, but I guess I’ve been really busy. Oh well!

Reviews posted this week:

–Gillespie and I, by Jane Harris. Slow but intriguing, sort of a mystery, with a very unreliable narrator. 4/5 stars
–Home: A Time Traveller’s Tales from Britain’s Prehistory, by Francis Pryor. I found this less coherent than other work I’ve read by Pryor, but it’s an interesting survey of what homes were like — even if it doesn’t stick that closely to home life. 3/5 stars
–Saga Volume Four, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Married life is not a perfect dream for Alana and Marko, even without the whole intergalactic fugitives thing… Entertaining, as always. 4/5 stars
–Magic Rises, by Ilona Andrews. It has a bit too much of Kate and Curran being total idiots at each other, but it also goes further into the plotline about Kate’s father, which is very welcome — and this volume definitely brings the feels. 4/5 stars
–Feed, by Mira Grant. This was a reread for me and I appreciated it a lot more this time. Although it is weird reading about such a reasonable Republican candidate when you think of the current political climate! And of course, there’s zombies… 4/5 stars
–The Heart of Aces, by various. This is a collection of romance stories about asexual people having relationships and compromising and all those lovely things. The quality is very uneven, but it’s nice that such a collection exists. 2/5 stars
–The Incorruptibles, by John Hornor Jacobs. Some cool concepts, but it doesn’t come together well for me. 2/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Like the other Ishiguro books I’ve read since, this has an easy pace — deceptively calm. I found it very skillfully written, and very worth the time. 4/5 stars

Tah-daahhh! The world didn’t think I could do it, but lo and behold, I have actually gone a week without buying, borrowing or requesting any new books. Thus, unStacking the Shelves: displaying the books I managed to finish this week.

Eveeery week, people seem to get confused and tell me to enjoy books which I’ve actually finished reading, and I sense that’s gonna happen a ton this week. So please! I have no new books to enjoy! I sort of wish I did, but nope. I love getting comments, but if you’re not going to bother reading the post — and I do clearly mark the sections in these posts — please don’t bother commenting…

Books read this week:

A busy week, as you see — I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting, so I’ve been listening to a bunch of audiobooks, and I’ve also done a fair bit of other reading. Though a lot of it has been rereading, since I found the Joseph Hansen books available for Kindle, to my glee.

Reviews posted this week:
–Spider-Gwen: Greater Power, by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez and Chris Visions. With great power comes great responsibility, whether you’re Peter Parker or Gwen Stacy. And sometimes you get blamed for things you couldn’t have helped. Greater Power follows Gwen as she struggles with her reputation for trouble… and also includes a visit from an awesome version of Captain America. 4/5 stars
–Batgirl: A Knight Alone, by Kelley Puckett et al. I love the idea of Cassandra Cain, but unfortunately the execution hasn’t worked for me at all in these comics. 3/5 stars
–The Undivided Past, by David Cannadine. Do you wanna build a strawman? 2/5 stars
–Magic Slays, by Ilona Andrews. Chaos continues in Atlanta, and no one is surprised. 4/5 stars
–Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. It can be a bit too slow in places, but for the most part I loved Uprooted; it grows out of fairytales, but with a very serious slant. 4/5 stars
–Reading in the Brain, by Stanislaw Dehaene. Distractingly, the model of reading posited here doesn’t fit me very well. Nonetheless, I found it an interesting read and well backed up by the evidence. 4/5 stars
–Flashback Friday: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Alison Bartlett. I had serious questions about the ethics of the writer, and I don’t think this book is actually about a love of books — certainly not as I would understand it. Rather, it’s a love of objects, which happen to be books. 2/5 stars

Other posts:
–Top Ten Tuesday: Back to School. A bunch of non-fiction recommendations for you all!
–The Princess Who Didn’t Eat Cake, by Lynn O’Connacht. A promo post for a friend’s book.
–ShelfLove Update and TBR. An update on my reading goals, and some goals for the next month.

How’s everyone’s week been? Anything exciting going on?

ETA: May be slow to reply to comments and visit you back today; my baby bunny just died. Sorry.

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

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:

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!

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

Received to review:

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

Bought:

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:

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!

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

I got books, too.

Received to review

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:

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!

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

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

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:

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?

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

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

Books bought

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

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?