Good evening, folks! It’s been a better week for me, with my anxiety medication kicking in and lots of reading getting done. No new books this week, but I’m expecting some from Portal Bookshop any day now…

Books read this week:

A good week!

Reviews posted this week:

• The Four Profound Weaves, by R.B. Lemberg (4/5 stars)
• Burning Roses, by S.L. Huang (4/5 stars)
• Orfeia, by Joanne Harris (4/5 stars)
• Beneath the World, A Sea, by Chris Beckett (2/5 stars)
• Nine Coaches Waiting, by Mary Stewart (3/5 stars)
• Digging Up Armageddon, by Eric H. Cline (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• WWW Wednesday: The mid-week check-in on what you’re reading!

How’re you folks doing? Reading anything great?

Greetings, folks! I think my mood this week is better passed over without comment, and we’ll get straight to the books!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Acquired this week:

With thanks to Portal Bookshop for Lost Gods, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. <3

Books read this week:

Reviews posted:

• The Seventh Perfection, by Daniel Polansky (4/5 stars)
• When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo (4/5 stars)
• Brit(ish), by Afua Hirsch (2/5 stars)
• The Belting Inheritance, by Julian Symons (3/5 stars)
• The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books for a Younger Me
• WWW Wednesday: What I’m Reading

So how’s everyone doing? Reading anything good? I’d love to hear from you!

Greetings, folks! I keep saying I’m going to have a break from buying books, but somehow… Not that I’m complaining! It’s been a quiet week, but not because I haven’t been reading — it’s just been a couple of slower books.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

I’ve been anticipating Fake Law and Entangled Life for a while now, but the other two were impulse buys based on a) an email campaign I somehow got signed up to which talks about UBI, and b) being interested in brains and the weird things they do.

I also got a new review copy of a book which sounds like a potentially fascinating microhistory:

Very micro, in this case… (Yes, I do think I’m funny.)

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• A Dangerous Collaboration, by Deanna Raybourn (4/5 stars)
• Unfit for Purpose, by Adam Hart (2/5 stars)
• Bigger than History, by Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani (3/5 stars)
• Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem (4/5 stars)

And so another week is nearly over! How was yours? Any good books stacked this week? Read anything exciting?

Good morning, folks! I felt like this had been a dreadfully indulgent week with far too many books bought, but actually doing this post it seems… fair enough for someone who just had a birthday?! Though once I include the finished copies of books I had to review, it gets a little bigger…

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Not so nuts, right? Though it’s my usual odd mix!

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted:

• The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon (4/5 stars)
• The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, by Keith Cooper (4/5 stars)
• The Secret Life of Bones, by Brian Switek (4/5 stars)
• The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, by Leonard Gribble (3/5 stars)

Other posts:

• WWW Wednesday, a weekly check-in on what I’m currently reading and thinking about

So that was my week! How’re you all doing?

Good evening, folks! Last week I took off owing to the confluence of a sick rabbit and damaging myself by falling onto the corner of a coffee table, but my ribs are fair to middling now and the rabbit seems back to normal, and it’s been my birthday, so I should catch up!

This post was supposed to go up this morning, but the infamous WordPress “missed schedule” issue bit me. Booo.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

With most but not all of those being birthday presents from my wife! Aaand here are the eARCs:

A nice bunch! Thanks to the publishers!

Books read since my last roundup:

Reviews posted:

• The Green Mill Murder, by Kerry Greenwood (4/5 stars)
• The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers (4/5 stars)
• Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland, by Lisa Schneidau (3/5 stars)
• The Woman in the Wardrobe, by Peter Shaffer (3/5 stars)
• The Last Smile in Sunder City, by Luke Arnold (4/5 stars)
• The Man Who Didn’t Fly, by Margot Bennett (1/5 stars)

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books My Bookclub Have Read. I have a super capricious “bookclub” where I pick all the books… 😀

And that’s it for this week! How’s everyone doing?

Greetings, folks! This has been a good week for ARCs, and passable for reading… and I have my replacement ereader now, so I can get back to some neglected library books. Hurrah! It’s also been pretty busy in terms of posting reviews, which I hadn’t realised until starting this post. Whoa!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to the publishers who let me have ARCs (mostly Tor!) and also the two lovelies who have bought me books this week. You know how to spoil a Nicky, and it’s appreciated deeply.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Mystery at Olympia, by John Rhode. Not the most memorable story, actually; I’d thought better of John Rhode’s work in other outings (as Miles Burton). But fun enough. 3/5 stars
• Lock In, by John Scalzi. Very entertaining, and not a bad SF mystery either. Held up very well as a reread. 4/5 stars
• Drowned Country, by Emily Tesh. A lovely novella, following up on Silver in the Wood. I was mad at it at first for certain plot/character things… but it brought me round. 4/5 stars
• Head On, by John Scalzi. Also very entertaining, and that’s including the cat in witness protection which I’d forgotten to mention. 4/5 stars
• The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, by Zen Cho. I don’t always get along with things that are meant to be funny, but this works very well for me, and the voice reminded me of I Capture the Castle, a solid favourite. 4/5 stars
• A Scream in Soho, by John G. Brandon. Rather sordid and racist. Meh. 1/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Colours in the Title. A motley bunch! Most of which I haven’t read yet, actually…
• WWW Wednesday. The usual update, discussing A Scream in Soho and John Scalzi.
• Hobbit Birthday. Giveaway still going on! Open worldwide; £50 to spend at Portal Bookshop for one winner, £15 for two others. (It’s possible to figure out a different bookshop if Portal don’t ship to you!)

Whoa, that took some rounding up.

So how’re you folks? Been reading anything good, or stacking your shelves with anything shiny? I got my finished copy of Seven Devils as well, this week, so that’s something to look forward to!

Well, folks, it’s been quite the week. No new books, and we’ve been in quarantine after Lisa (my wife) developed some potential-COVID symptoms. We’ve both tested negative now and she’s on the mend, but phew it’s been tiring.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

So here’s what I have managed to read (not bad, though they were short!):

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• The Return of the Earl, by Sandra Schwab. Sweet, but one of the main characters acts in a really untrusting way to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and is constantly cranky for no reason, so that was kind of annoying. 3/5 stars
• The Deep, by Rivers Solomon. An interesting take on a concept explored by others, though I found Yetu’s actions really frustrating. 4/5 stars
• Alike as Two Bees, by Elin Gregory. Very short, but I enjoyed it a lot. I’d look for more work by this author, and I love the way the couple are handled. 4/5 stars
• The Secret Lives of Colour, by Kassia St. Clair. Enjoyable, but more for dipping in and out of.

Other posts:

• WWW Wednesday. A quick update, mostly mentioning the books above.
• Hobbit Birthday. Giveaway still going on! Open worldwide; £50 to spend at Portal Bookshop for one winner, £15 for two others. (It’s possible to figure out a different bookshop if Portal don’t ship to you!)

So that’s me for the week. How’s everyone else doing?

Greetings, folks. I wasn’t as organised this week, but I’m still getting this posted on Saturday instead of Sunday! It’s good enough for me. It’s been a quiet week as I haven’t been feeling 100% well.

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books bought this week:

As you can see, I discovered a bunch of E.C.R. Lorac books that haven’t been reissued in the British Library Crime Classics series… are available in ebook for a couple of quid each. Yoink!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Like a Gentleman, by Eliot Grayson. A quick fun read without being memorable, or particularly convincing. 2/5 stars
• The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries, by Donald R. Prothero. A fun whistle-stop tour of the most up to date info (as of the time of publication!) on dinosaurs. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Hobbit Birthday. For my birthday, I’m giving away £50 to spend on books (preferably at Portal Bookshop, but I can be flexible if they can’t ship to you) to one person, and one book under £15 to two people! You can get entries (apart from a freebie and one for following my blog) by doing some little self-care/fun/charity stuff.

That’s it for this week? How’re you folks doing?

Gooood morning, folks! How’s your week been?

A few weeks ago, I let you know I was applying to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Well, thanks for all your well wishes — I’m in! I’m still working out whether I can take some prior credit in so I can skip the intro to biology module (given I have an entire biology degree), but I should be commencing my studies (part time, via distance learning) in September. I’m really excited!

Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to Moon Kestrel for A Declaration of The Rights of Magicians, Malou for Dangerous Remedy, and the bunnies for The Extraordinaries. I am being spoilt lately, and I love it! Also, thank you to K.B. Wagers for recommending Burnout — I’m normally pretty allergic to any kind of self-help stuff, but a) I need to read a self-help book for a reading challenge prompt, and b) there’s good stuff out there, it’s just hard for the genre to rise above some of the blatantly bad books.

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• A Ruin of Shadows, by L.D. Lewis. The main character is really badass, and the fight scenes are really vivid and well choreographed. I wasn’t 100% sure the Djinni character worked, though. 3/5 stars
• The A.I. Who Loved Me, by Alyssa Cole. Lots of fun — more SF-y than I expected, and I suspect the audio version is even more fun. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Smile. For a whole variety of reasons, from content to happy anticipation to good memories.
• WWW Wednesday. My usual weekly update, featuring mostly the dinosaur book I’m reading and The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu!

I have a book voucher in need of using… and an order incoming from Portal Bookshop… so it’s going to be a busy week for my letterbox. What books have you been grabbing lately? Anything you’re ready to shake down the postman for?

Good morning, folks! It’s been a while since I was able to do this, but… this post was prepared on Friday evening! It’s nice to be ahead — and I’m even all up to date on writing reviews, and it’s been a good reading week! I know the cool, rainy summer is really disappointing to some folks, but I’m revelling in it; I loathe heat. (I wouldn’t mind a bit more sunshine, just keep the daytime temperatures below 25°C and the nights cool enough to be refreshing, and I’ll still be happy… but if I have to choose between hot weather and dreary rain, I’ll choose the rain!)

In any case, what have I been stacking my shelves with and reading this week? Here we go! Linking up with The Sunday Post @ The Caffeinated Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves @ Reading Reality & Tynga’s Reviews.

Books acquired:

Thank you to the publishers for the eARCs of A Good Time To Be Born and Eight Detectives!

Finished reading this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• Annabel Scheme, by Robin Sloane. An experiment in letting Storygraph’s algorithm suggest a book for me, this worked out pretty well! Definitely entertaining. 3/5 stars
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, by Aliette de Bodard. A lot of fun, and did almost precipitate me getting out of my bubble bath — multiple times — to read my wife the good bits. 4/5 stars
• Threshold, by Jordan L. Hawk. Lots of fun, as I expected, but I wish Whyborne would trust Griffin a little more! I know it’s a new relationship, but when you’ve already been through so much together — and had one nearly fatal misunderstanding because of it — argghh! 4/5 stars
• How Contagion Works, by Paolo Giordano. A clear but rather short essay on some of the statistics around COVID-19, from the perspective of the early epidemic in Italy. 3/5 stars
• The Dead Shall Be Raised, by George Bellairs. I’m rapidly finding myself feeling that Bellairs is one of the most enjoyable writer covered by these reissues, and though they aren’t memorable as stories, they’re a joy to read. 4/5 stars
• Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals from Over There That Are Over Here, by Dan Eatherley. Despite the Amazon review claiming it’s thinly-disguised political cant, it mostly really is about invasive species. It got a little repetitive for me, and I think it’s a combination of being not my true area of interest and not being new enough to me that it was interesting anyway. 3/5 stars
• The Murder of a Quack, by George Bellairs. I love his way of portraying characters that are funny, but with a deep sympathy as well. Another really enjoyable one. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: The Authors I’ve Read The Most Books By. As usual, it’s what it says on the tin — I mostly guessed rather than looking at actual stats, which would be dominated by the author of the Rurouni Kenshin manga I read when I was 17, and probably GetBackers as well. Not entirely representative of my current taste!
• WWW Wednesday. The usual update on what I’m reading, with my thoughts on a couple of the books already mentioned here.

Out and about:

• Postcrossing: Book Review – The Documents in the Case. It figures that my official introduction on the Postcrossing blog is about books! I’ve written a couple of posts for the blog before, but this little series will be my Thing, where you can see me reviewing books about post and mail systems. If you have any recommendations for epistolary novels or books that revolve around post in some way, can you drop a comment over there? (Or here works too!) In any case, I did a whole review of Dorothy L. Sayers’ epistolary mystery, The Documents in the Case. I’ve reviewed the book here before, but my write-up on the Postcrossing blog is all new, and hopefully still worth checking out!
• Beeminder: Beeminding the Fuzzy Friends. If you don’t know about Beeminder, basically you set goals… and if you don’t meet them, you pay! My latest contribution to the Beeminder blog discusses how I track spending time with my rabbits, and how those efforts have paid off. If you want to hear about the really cute trick Biscuit can do, you want to read this post!

Full disclosure: I help out at Postcrossing and I’m the Support Czar for Beeminder, so obviously I have Ulterior Motives in boosting these blog posts. I hope they’re interesting, though — I don’t always highlight my blog posts elsewhere, but these seemed like they’d have some crossover appeal!

So that’s everything for this week — how’re you folks doing? Grabbed any new books, or been grabbed by any?