Good afternoon, folks! I’ve been spending a good amount of today so far reading, in part thanks to listening to the audio versions of the Murderbot books. I’m not sure whether I’m going to review them — after all, I’ve reviewed the original books probably more than once, and I don’t think I have that much to say about audio. That said, I find reviews of audiobooks super helpful when I find them, so maybe it’d be good anyway? We’ll see.

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

Books acquired this week:

Two books this week! My wife buys me one book a month of my choice (which has long been our Valentine’s Day agreement: no big fuss on that day, spread out the love through the year), and picked up Ann Leckie’s short story collection for me last weekend. Plus, my British Library Crime Classic book for this month arrived.

So that’s nice! I’m already most of the way through London Particular, though I haven’t figured out whodunnit yet.

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s a roundup!

• Romance manga: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, vol 1, by Shio Usui (3/5 stars)
• Alt historical romance: Honey & Pepper, by A.J. Demas (4/5 stars)
• History: Ten Birds that Changed the World, by Stephen Moss (3/5 stars)
• Classic crime: The Corpse in the Waxworks, by John Dickson Carr (3/5 stars)
• Memoir: Sticker, by Henry Hoke (1/5 stars)

Other posts:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

As I mentioned, I’ve been tearing through the Murderbot audiobooks, but I’ve also been trying to get to grips with the tottering pile of books I have partially read. I’ve been pretty successful in the last couple of days, hurrah. So here are some of the books that I’ll probably be reviewing soon, having finished them this week!

For the rest of the weekend, it’ll be more Murderbot, finishing up London Particular, and then… who knows?

How’s everyone else doing? Anything exciting from the library this week, or landing on your ereader?

It’s been a quiet week — hurrah! And I’m pretty caught up on comments and blog visits too. It’s a shame that in a few weeks things will ramp up again for my exams, but hey, at least I’m on an even keel right now.

So, as usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Technically, there are no books acquired this week, but here’s the rest of last week’s haul! First off, the non-fiction:

I’ve started on Mountains of Fire; I’m finding it a little slower than I expected, but maybe that’s just my mood. It has a pretty cover, though; it’s actually shiny.

And here’s the rest of the fiction!

It definitely isn’t the season for Crimson Snow — I’ll probably keep that for December, but it gets me closer to completing my British Library Crime Classics collection. As for the other two, I’ve been curious about both for a while!

Posts from this week:

And here’s the usual roundup of the books I’ve been reviewing this week!

• Non-fiction graphic novel: Book Love, by Debbie Tung (3/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: A Telegram from Le Touquet, by John Bude (3/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time, by James Suzman (2/5 stars)
• SF novella: Navigational Entanglements, by Aliette de Bodard (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction science history: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, by Samantha Weinberg (4/5 stars)

Other posts:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

This weekend I have all kinds of cute plans to read a lot, but goodness knows if I actually will, or whether I’ll read the things I’m intending to read. I’m content as long as I have fun. A lot of my reading this week was manga I don’t intend to review here (the Fairy Tail series by Hiro Mashima), but I did finish up two other books which I will review, or already have:

So, back to my books! Hope everyone else has had a good week, and some lovely books to read.

Hurrah, the weekend!

Last weekend I got my assignments all handed in, so the last week has been all about catching up with life stuff. Unfortunately that hasn’t yet included comments on my blog or visiting people back yet — sorry! I got stressed out and I’m digging my way out of that now, but I plan to do some commenting and visiting tomorrow.

Right, time to talk about books. As usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

As is my wont when I’ve been a bit stressed, I went totally overboard, so I’m going to split up my haul over the next couple of weeks. It’s hard to choose what to show off, so I’ll just pick a bit randomly. First off, here’s some of the non-fiction I picked up:

A bit of a mix, as ever! I wouldn’t have been that interested in The Ship Asunder, except that on a pure whim I read Seashaken Houses (a history of lighthouses in the UK) a while ago and really loved it. I wasn’t that interested in lighthouses, either, so I thought I’d give this a try.

And here’s some of the fiction I picked up:

Always love KJ Charles’ work, and I’ve heard really good things about If Found, Return To Hell. The other book is more of a whim, based on someone on Mastodon describing it as “garden fantasy”. Sounds perfect for a certain friend of mine, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Posts from this week:

Here’s the usual roundup of reviews:

• Classic mystery: The Eye of Osiris, by R. Austin Freeman (4/5 stars)
• Ecological non-fiction: Ghosts in the Hedgerow: A Hedgehog Whodunnit, by Tom Moorhouse (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, by Seanan McGuire (3/5 stars)
• Philosophy: Spacecraft, by Tim Morton (1/5 stars)
• YA romance novella: Nick and Charlie, by Alice Oseman (2/5 stars)

I skipped Top Ten Tuesday this week, so there was just one other post:

• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

First of all, let’s start with the books I’ve already read this week.

It’s been a lovely reading week. Howl’s Moving Castle was a reread, but my first time listening to the audiobook narrated by Kristin Atherton. It was lovely; highly recommended. I also had great fun last night with Honey & Pepper, and was sad when I finished it.

As for what I’m reading this weekend, I’m not sure. I’ve started on Lapidarium, one of my new books, and also If Found, Return to Hell. But where my whims will take me, no one can tell…

How’s everyone else doing?

Well, what a busy week! I spent yesterday at a wedding, and I’ve been working hard on finally finishing my assignments as well. I’d hoped to get an extension for at least one of them, given the family stuff that’s been occurring, but my GP never replied to me… so I’ve been hard at work trying to get them all done. I think (as I write this) that I’m done: I just need to format the cover sheets. Oof!

I know I take pretty much any excuse to buy celebratory books, but last week I had a book voucher to assist me… and there are some books bought for me by my wife on the way as well. I’d say oops, but I don’t mind at all.

That said, I haven’t done a lot of reading this week. I did my best to make time for it, but I’ve been tired and not in the mood. Here’s hoping this weekend I can start to catch up!

As per usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired:

So for now I only have the books that have already arrived, not the big spree of books from my wife. It’s a bit of a mix: only one fiction book, history, and ecology (in the form of a whodunnit). I read more non-fiction when I’m stressed out, so that kind of influenced my choices this time.

Plus a few books I got in ebook format to try and tempt myself this weekend:

And yep, I know, I know! It’s another weird mix. I hope to review The One-Cent Magenta in the near-ish future, over on the Postcrossing blog. My book reviews are a steady feature over there, though I usually write a review for this blog too, slightly differently tailored.

Posts from this week:

It seems like I’ve been a bit of a misery guts in my reviews this week, but it’s happenstance that it was mostly meh reviews this week — I didn’t read these all at the same time, I’m just getting to the reviews in my posting queue now. I do try to vary what genres I post about a bit, to avoid being too samey.

• Fantasy mystery graphic novel: Brittania vol 1, by Peter Milligan et al (1/5 stars)
• Fantasy: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, by Heather Fawcett (4/5 stars)
• SF/F comic: The October Faction, by Steve Niles & Damien Worm (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Pill, by Robert Bennett (1/5 stars)

And other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Memories
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

I actually really liked my Top Ten Tuesday post this week, I wrote quite a lot of fun stuff, but I didn’t join the linky because I didn’t think I’d be able to get round to commenting back anytime soon.

What I’m reading:

This week started off well, but then my brain exploded a bit because of stress about my assignments and I didn’t read much for a few days. I haven’t even read much this weekend, since I’ve been recovering from partying hard (attending a wedding, wearing heels, drinking two glasses of wine, and dancing for five minutes to keep the bride company, and then getting home at 10pm — such hard partying! But apparently I’m getting old and my legs hurt). But we’ll see how it goes! I did read the following books that I intend to review soon.

So really not so bad after all. So far today I’ve been listening to Howl’s Moving Castle in audiobook, and I’ve peeked into Good Neighbours by Stephanie Burgis… but we’ll see where my whims take me.

How’s everyone else doing?

Yay, weekend!

I’m still struggling to get to grips with my essays etc, but I have finished full drafts of all three. One might need a total rewrite, but two are pretty much good to go, which is a relief. I did spend a book voucher to celebrate, but the books haven’t arrived and been unboxed yet, so I’ll show those off next week.

As per usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

This week I got a gift from a friend, which I’d added to my TBR lately thanks to a really nasty review. Sometimes those do some good, ha.

And a review copy that has a pretty cover, via Tor:

I really enjoyed one of Freya Marske’s other books, though I haven’t finished reading that trilogy yet. So I’m excited for this one. Some Swordspoint vibes, unavoidably, but that’s a good thing.

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s the roundup of what I’ve been posting! Reviews first.

• YA comic: Stone Star: In the Spotlight, by Jim Zub et al (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella: Lost in the Moment and Found, by Seanan McGuire (4/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: Big Ben Strikes Eleven, by David Magarshack (2/5 stars)
• Legal/true crime history: The Walnut Tree, by Kate Morgan (5/5 stars)

And the other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Spring TBR
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

At the moment I seem to be going ham on the weekends and then it’s a bit quieter during the week. I’m okay with that! Here are the books I finished this week which I intend to review on the blog:

Over the weekend I have a lot of lovely-sounding plans to read various books and spend hoouuuurs reading. We’ll see how that shakes out — as always, the most important thing is getting a restful, restorative weekend, and reading whatever I feel like.

How’s everyone doing?

I keep thinking I’m done being all stressy, and then something comes along to kick me in the shins again, ha. A close relative is in hospital, under upsetting circumstances, and it’s getting under my skin. That and I’m just feeling super overwhelmed with my assignments…

Anyway, I’m almost certainly behind on comments again, maybe even from last week, and I’m sorry. Catching up is on my list for the weekend, I promise.

As per usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz… though I might not get out and about as much this weekend. I’ll visit back anyone who visits me, though!

Books acquired this week:

After last week’s spree, I didn’t expect to get anything this week, but actually my British Library Crime Classic subscription book arrived. It’s by John Bude, which means it’s probably solid and enjoyable without blowing your mind — and that’s probably exactly what I want right now.

So that’s something to look forward to!

Posts from this week:

As usual, here’s the roundup of reviews posted!

• Poetry anthology: Tell Me The Truth About Life, edited by Cerys Matthews (3/5 stars)
• Gritty fantasy graphic novel: The October Faction vol 2, by Steve Niles & Damien Worm (2/5 stars)
• Urban post-apocalyptic fantasy novella: Magic Stars, by Ilona Andrews (3/5 stars)
• Non-fiction: Doctor, by Andrew Bomback (2/5 stars)

And other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: To Reread or Not to Reread
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

Things went a bit quiet as this week went on, but I’ve tried to spend a little time each day reading! Here’s a glimpse of the books I finished in the last week which I intend to review on here soon.

I’ve made ambitious reading plans for the weekend, but we’ll see how they go. Mostly I just want to find some time to read, and read stuff I enjoy. My first plan is to finish the British Library Crime Classic I’m reading, Big Ben Strikes Eleven, by David Magarshack. After that, we’ll see!

How’s everyone else been doing?

Well! Made it through another week. I had a long weekend and then also tried to take it easy, so I’m feeling a bit less stressed and snowed under, and got back to reading (whew!).

As per usual, I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Acquired this week:

So… there was a bit of a book spree. I’d like to say it was because of the British World Book Day (which we have earlier than everyone else so it doesn’t fall into our school holidays), but nope, I’d already indulged plenty before that. Classic retail therapy.

One thing I got was a bunch of new-to-me Object Lessons books. I love these as a concept, and try to get myself a little batch of new ones every so often!

I love how they all look together on shelves, too, so neat and tidy.

Anyway, other than that I also bought some other books I’ve had my eye on for a while:

The Walnut Tree sounds kinda grim, but I’ve read it already and I loved it! A Bookshop of One’s Own is kinda grim, too: I’m partway through it, and of course Silver Moon was established during the Thatcher era…

I also received a book from my mum. Sort of. For Christmas, my wife and I gave my mum a reading subscription from Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. Each month, she receives a book chosen for her based on her preferences in the (quite extensive!) interview. However, since she has macular degeneration, the print is often too small, so after she’s had the fun of getting a package and seeing what’s been chosen for her, then I get her an ebook copy and the physical copy goes to someone who’s interested in it. Since we share quite a lot of our taste in books, it’s quite likely that will often be me… and thus did I get given her book choice for February! (My sister has claimed the book from March, Alice Roberts’ Ancestors. That’s okay, I already read it.)

And finally, I did get a new eARC this week as well — I’ve been meaning to read The Fortunate Fall for a long time, but I have no idea where my copy is, and I’m not sure if this version contains any updates. Thank you, Tor!

And — wait, that was not the end! Sneaking in at the last moment, as I was writing this post I spotted that the latest volume of A Side Character’s Love Story is out! I haven’t written a lot about this manga series here, since I read it when I wasn’t blogging or reviewing much, and also I never expected to be breathlessly devouring all (at the time) 14 volumes. It’s a sweet, slow-burn romance (though a quick read). If you’re curious about it, most or all of the series is available on Kindle Unlimited in the UK, and maybe elsewhere. Just sayin’.

Posts from this week:

It was a slightly slower week again here, since I didn’t post reviews on days I had a different post going up, but it’s still worth going over the list:

• Fantasy YA comic: Stone Star: Fight or Flight, by Jim Zub et al (2/5 stars)
• Non-fiction ranging through history: The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen (5/5 stars)
• Fantasy: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett (4/5 stars)
• Non-fiction about archaeology: Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond, by Alice Roberts (5/5 stars)

And non-review posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: To Google We Go!
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

During my long weekend, I got a bit of my reading mojo back and managed to devour the second Emily Wilde book and Kate Morgan’s The Walnut Tree. I haven’t finished a lot of books, but I’ve been enjoying myself greatly. So here are the books I’ve read in the last week that I plan to review on here:

Over the weekend, I plan to finish A Bookshop of One’s Own (Jane Cholmeley), and maybe make a start on Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup. As ever, though, I’ll let my whim guide me.

And how’s everyone else doing?

Hurrah, the weekend! I’ve been looking forward to it eagerly, as I’ve put in a load of work on my essays this week, as well as working my usual hours, etc, etc. Not as much reading time as I’d like — hopefully I’ll get plenty over the weekend to make up for it.

As usual, linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Last weekend, my wife duly went to the bookshop and acquired the book I owed myself as a reward for finishing a draft of my parasitology essay (Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands). Once there, it seems there was another book that couldn’t quite be resisted…

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is by the same author as The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, so we just had to get it, right?!

Technically, my wife went out last night to grab me a couple of new books, because I’ve been working so hard and really fancied grabbing a copy of Alice Roberts’ Crypt when I saw that Waterstones have them out already… But I haven’t unpacked the bag and added it to my StoryGraph TBR yet, so I’ll include them next week.

Posts from this week:

It’s been a busy week on the blog, as usual, so here’s a roundup in case anyone missed it!

• Archaeology: Digging Up Britain: Ten Discoveries, A Million Years of History, by Mike Pitts (4/5 stars)
• Popular science: Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything, by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith (3/5 stars)
• Fantasy novella: Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire (4/5 stars)
• Sci-fi comic: Heartstopper: Become Human, by Alice Oseman (4/5 stars)
• Classic mystery: Impact of Evidence, by Carol Carnac AKA E.C.R. Lorac (3/5 stars)
• Anglo-Saxon history: The Bone Chests, by Cat Jarman (3/5 stars)
• SF time travel novella: Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Superpowers
• What Are You Reading Wednesday

What I’m reading:

This week’s been a bit quiet again — with the graphic novels it still looks like I read a lot, but I mostly read non-fiction, which tends to be a bit slower for me. Over the weekend I’ll be continuing with reading Cat Bohannon’s Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution, which so far is reassuringly inclusive of all kinds of female bodies.

I’ll probably also finish up my reread of the third volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, finish reading Seanan McGuire’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, and make a start on Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands. So fiction will make a comeback (I think).

Anyway, here are teaser cover images for the books I’ll be reviewing in the coming weeks.

How’s everyone doing? Reading anything amazing?