Happy weekend! I’ve actually been reading this week, mostly because I stuck to what is clearly working for my brain right now… and I also got quite a few new books, through friends, ARCs, giveaways and preorders (plus my own one book from my wishlist per week).

I also submitted my application to do an MSc in Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (via distance learning), so hey, wish me luck, restrict non-essential time outside the house, and wear masks when you’re out in public; even temporary cloth masks are proven to help, and if everyone masks up, we can cut transmission waaay faster.

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

Books acquired: 

These first two were received to review via Netgalley! Yaaay.

The Murders of Molly Southbourne was via a giveaway (thank you again!) and a friend got me The Obsidian Tower and Seafire for being brave enough to actually press submit on my MSc application, ahaha.

(How do I have four other books when I’m meant to get one a week? Preorders don’t count in the one-a-week, and A River of Royal Blood and How Contagion Works were covered by promotional credit. Score!)

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson. This is weiiird. The narration is really well done. 4/5 stars
• The COVID-19 Catastrophe, by Richard Horton. Clear and damning account of the pandemic and the UK government’s reactions to it. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Releases To Get Excited About. What it says on the tin! Check out what I’m excited for.
• WWW Wednesday. Check out what I’ve been reading lately (and what I was thinking about it).

Alright, I think that’s everything — and it’s only Saturday! Whew. Normally I end up doing this on a Sunday night. How’s everyone doing? Been stacking any great books lately?

Greetings, folks! Welp, I’m sort of caught up for right now, but I don’t know if it’ll stick. How’s everyone else doing?

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

Books acquired this week:

Thank you to the kind folks who have bought me books this week… and the customer service folks at Waterstones who managed to get The COVID-19 Catastrophe shipped to me in the end!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, by Leah Price. Kind of unfocused and rambly. 2/5 stars
  
• Murder in the Mill-Race, by E.C.R. Lorac. As usual with Lorac, it’s atmospheric and draws a good picture of a community. 4/5 stars
• Mr Popper’s Penguins, by Richard Atwater. Cute, and I’d probably have loved it as a kid. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Like To Read For The First Time Again. I reprised a topic I’ve most likely done before…
• WWW Wednesday. Including chat about Invasive Aliens (Dan Eatherley) and Murder in the Mill-Race.

Alrighty, that’s all done! And how about you folks? Got any awesome new books?

Hey folks! I keep thinking I’m on top of things again and then crumbling by the end of the week, but I swear there’s progress — and I’ve been reading a lot! I’ve also been getting a lot of books! I haven’t included them all this week, only up to Saturday morning, so I’ll still have something to show off next week. 😀

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

Received to review:

I missed Ring Shout and Boyfriend Material off last week’s post, so here they are now! I’m so excited for these books.

Books bought/gifted:

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Think of England, by K.J. Charles. A whole new pair of flawed idiots to adore and want to smack. Exactly as I hoped. 4/5 stars
–Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi. A deceptively light read that gets to grips with some problems in a utopian society. 4/5 stars
–The Sussex Downs Murder, by John Bude. Pretty much what you’d expect from a British Library Crime Classic, which is not to say it wasn’t enjoyable. 3/5 stars
–How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi. If you’re hoping for a step by step manual, this ain’t it: it’s more of a memoir, though I think it’s helpful to guide you through your own journey. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Summer TBR. Okay, it was mostly just an excuse to do a list, I’ll admit.
–WWW Wednesday. Chatting about Beneath the World, A Sea and How to be an Antiracist.

How’s everyone doing? Been getting any new books? Looking forward to any new releases? Let me know!

Hey folks! Regulars around here might have noticed a small change over the last few days: I’ve changed the spelling of my name from “Nikki” to “Nicky”. WordPress won’t allow me to change it for my past comments, so you’ll still see it around in some places. “Nikki” just wasn’t quite me anymore. It’d be great if everyone can try to use the new spelling, but I know it’s not always easy to remember, so I won’t yell at you if you forget!

Also, I’m really sorry, but I’m still behind on comments. I’m still going to post my link to this week’s linkups and keep right on top of replying to comments here, while going back through my backlog to reply and visit folks in return. Thanks for understanding! Weird times we live in, huh?

Aaand yep, my site had some downtime again today. Not sure what happened there, so fingers crossed it’s over.

All that said, here’s some books I got this week!

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

Books acquired:

Few more than I should have been buying, hahaha. Partly that’s due to gifts and preorders, though! As usual, it’s a biiiit of a mixture.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho. A Wuxia story that just didn’t quite work for me… partly because, though the idea appeals, I don’t actually know that much about the genre. It’s hard to appreciate the cleverness and context that way! 3/5 stars
–Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, by The Secret Barrister. Rather enlightening (and also frightening) look at how Britain’s legal system is completely fucked up and failing. 4/5 stars
–The Science of Monsters, by Matt Kaplan. Ugh, this was promising but… the author continually pushed his ideas too far and made them ridiculous. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books from the Backlog. A little collection of books that, for one reason or another, have slipped to the bottom of my TBR.
–WWW Wednesday. Including my thoughts on How to be an Antiracist and Burning Roses.
–Ereader Review: the Onyx Boox Poke2. I thought I’d write up my experiences with my latest gadget — the bottom line being that it’s a really great ereader if you’re prepared to put in the time to get things set up for yourself.

How’s everyone else doing? Get anything good this week? Reading something stunning? Personally I’ve been enjoying the cool rainy days, but I know they can’t last…

Hey folks! I don’t know if anyone noticed my site going down for a day, but that was a whole mess. It’s been a fairly quiet week here: not much reading, at least, though there’s been plenty of other stuff to do. I have spent around three hours today reading, which is nice!

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

Received to review:

Purchased:

Books finished this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–How to Invent Everything, by Ryan North. Fun gimmick, didn’t always work for me as a reading experience. Think I might know a bit too much to get the best out of it. 3/5 stars
–The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I tore through this… and also thought it could have been a more profound story with less about Evelyn’s love affair, and more about one of her relationships with one of her husbands. 3/5 stars
–Language Myths, ed. Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill. Fairly slight but a decent primer. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Books by Black Authors. Some of my four- and five-star reads from Black authors, for no reason and apropos of nothing…
–WWW Wednesday. This week’s update, discussing Evelyn Hugo and Language Myths.

How are you all doing? Times are rough for many people for many reasons, so if chatting about books is the distraction you’re seeking, drop me a comment! <3

Greetings, everybody. It’s been a heck of a week out there, so I hope you’re all okay.

Here in self-imposed self-isolation (for the foreseeable future, though my dad may come over and converse with me from two metres away while pulling up weeds) it’s been quiet, including on the reading front…

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

Acquired this week:

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Ghosts of Sherwood, by Carrie Vaughn. This review’s been waiting for a while to go up because of Tor’s restrictions on when you can publish — which means the book is due out soon! It’s an enjoyable aftermath of the Robin Hood myth, with some nice characterisation when it comes to Marian and Robin. Not wholly sold, but I do have the sequel to review! 3/5 stars
–Around the World in 80 Words, by Paul Anthony Jones. Not bad, but a bit random at times and more for dipping into than reading in a couple of sittings. 3/5 stars
–The Colour of Murder, by Julian Symons. An interesting psychological take on a potential murderer, with questions left trailing at the end. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Opening Lines. A real mix here, with mystery, fantasy, SF and historical fiction.
–WWW Wednesday. Discussing… lots of books at once, as usual!

How’re you all doing?

Squeaking in at the end of the weekend, here’s my usual weekly roundup!

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

Books bought:

A weird mix, as ever! 😀 And this really truly is my last spree for a while; I’m now on a steady diet of one book per week.

Received to review:

I… I still need to read The Fated Sky, I’ll be honest. It’s just that my brain is stupid sometimes.

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Replacement Husband, by Eliot Grayson. This is okay but not stellar; enjoyable in the moment but not something that will linger with me, and with which I had a couple of bones to pick. 3/5 stars
–Finna, by Nino Cipri. This has some fun stuff in the background and mostly was just too slight for me in the end to bear the weight of the complaints about capitalism, which sort of overshadow everything else now I’m thinking about it over a week later. 3/5 stars
–84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. This is really sweet and often funny, though there is a rather sad surprise waiting toward the end of the first section for those who didn’t immediately look up Helene Hanff… 4/5 stars
–Princess Princess Ever After, by Kate O’Neill. Really short, but cute. 4/5 stars
–Unfit to Print, by K.J. Charles. As fun as you’d expect from K.J. Charles, and I rather like the two main characters. It all works out a bit quickly, though… 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons Why I Love Romance. So many reasons! #10 will surprise you. (Or not, actually, if you know me at all.)
–WWW Wednesday. Featuring me rambling around reading too much at once, as ever.

How’s everyone doing? Been buying anything shiny?

Greetings, folks! How have you been? I’ve had an up-and-down-y week, but next week will be better (because I say so). And I have a lot of books to show off this week!

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

Bought:

And that’s alllmost the last spree for a while, though I have a pending order with Portal Bookshop to come through still…

Received to review:

Though it seems to be a PDF format, so I’m not positive I’ll read it… maybe if my new ereader is as amazing with PDFs as they claim, whenever it arrives!

Books read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Atlas of Disease, by Sandra Hempel. I just wish I had this in a physical format instead of in PDF via the library. It’d be great to study some of the figures more. 4/5 stars
–Infernal Affairs, by Jordan L. Hawk. Not my thing, alas, though the non-binary protagonist and love interest is cool. 2/5 stars
–The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow. I did not love this one the way I expected, but it was fun. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: The Last 10 Books I Abandoned. I chose to go with books that I’ll probably come back to, rather than list books I didn’t finish and don’t intend to ever finish.
–WWW Wednesday. Featuring quite the array of books I’m currently reading!

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘The awesome thing about dinosaurs.‘ I mean, there’s a lot of awesome things about dinosaurs, but I’ve picked out one…

So that’s my week! Have you all been stacking your shelves high?

It’s been a quiet reading week, but the acquisitions have been rolling in. It’s not as bad as it looks, though; some of these were bought a week or two ago and only just arrived. There’ll be another box of books soon, too…

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

New books acquired:

With special thanks to the friend who got me The Brilliant Death! 😀

Received to review:

Thank you, Tor!

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–Widdershins, by Jordan L. Hawk. A fun mystery/romance, very much in K.J. Charles’ line. 4/5 stars
–Exploring English Castles, by Edd Morris. Neither fish nor fowl, really; not that great despite some pretty photos. 2/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday: A Bookish Party. Arranging a party isn’t really my sort of thing, but this one could be fun if I ever did it…
–WWW Wednesday. Mostly Nine Coaches Waiting and a last look back at Grave Importance.

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘An internal alarm clock.‘ A bit about hibernation.
–NEAT science: ‘An unexpected bonus.‘ How the BCG vaccination might be repurposed…

How’re you guys doing? Anything new and exciting?

Good afternoon, folks! I hoped to do this yesterday, but I had work and other stuff that needed to be done, boo. So it’s been a quiet week around here, with a lot less reading.

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

New books:

Thank you to my wife for two of these, and to Moon Dreams for Empire of Sand in her cool giveaway on Twitter! <3

I’m looking forward to a few different book orders (two indie bookshops, one second-hand bookshop) to come in, with great impatience. Feeling the need for some bookish comforts, at the moment!

Read this week:

Reviews posted this week:

–The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis. Still pretty wonderful, to my mind! 4/5 stars
–A Treacherous Curse, by Deanna Raybourn. Bags of fun, as expected; the mystery’s kind of background to the will-they-won’t-they, for me. 4/5 stars
–The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis. Never my favourite, so not surprisingly, I still didn’t really jive with it. 2/5 stars
–The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein. Aarrgghhh so much I still want to know! 4/5 stars
–Grave Importance, by Vivian Shaw. Lovely lovely lovely. Excellent ending to the series, though I didn’t love one specific aspect of it. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

–WWW Wednesday. This week it was mostly about Grave Importance!
–Wyrd and Wonder: A TBR. Ready for May’s fantasy reading event!

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘Soap versus virus.‘ Been wondering why soap is the #1 recommendation to avoid catching SARS-CoV-2? A quick explanation of why soap is ideal.

There we go; that’s it for this week! How’s everyone doing?