And oof, another week gone! Christmas is creeping closer, for those of us who celebrate — I’m most looking forward to giving people all their gifts, I must admit, though I know a tidy book haul is coming my way as well thanks to my wife. I got the most perfect thing for my sister… ah, but I can’t tell you, she might read this.
It’s been another busy week, with an assignment due yesterday for one of my classes, but now that’s out of the way I’m gearing up for a quiet week or two, I think!
As before, I’ll be linking up with a few different posts: Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.
Books acquired this week:
I split my haul from my trip to Bath into three lots, since I was a little, ah, excessive about it. This is the final bunch, from the lovely bookshop Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. I wasn’t 100% won over by their fiction section, since books of all genres were jumbled together: even though I read very widely and some would even say randomly, I’m not always in the mood for the same thing. So I pretty much bypassed their fiction selection, sorry to say, picking up only this one which I found in their bibliotherapy room from their list of recommendations:
It’s an Arthurian retelling and prominently features Sir Kay, which means it called out my name right off the bat. I wrote my postgrad dissertation (back when I was doing English Literature) on the character of the Welsh Cei and how it echoed throughout later literature, so I’m interested to see what this one does.
What shone for me at Mr B’s was the selection of non-fiction, and the conversations I had with staff members about the books I was choosing. I’d trust their recommendations for sure. Without further ado, here’s the rest of my haul:
As you can see, I had a heck of a time!
Technically I’ve also just received my British Library Crime Classics subscription book, complete with matching bookmark (which they’ve made smaller now, yay!), free postcard and blackmail note (reproduced from this month’s story), but I’ll keep that for next week to ensure I have something to post…
Posts from this week:
I’m pretty much caught up from all the reviews I wrote while my blog was down, but I’ve kept on reading at pace in the meantime, so here’s a roundup of this week’s reviews:
- The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, by Brandon Sanderson (2/5 stars)
- Phantom Pond, by Juneau Black (3/5 stars)
- Dragon’s Blood & Willow Bark: The Mysteries of Medieval Medicine, by Toni Mount (3/5 stars)
- Peter Cabot Gets Lost, by Cat Sebastian (4/5 stars)
- Who Killed Father Christmas? And Other Seasonal Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (3/5 stars)
- The Golden Mole And Other Vanishing Treasure, by Katherine Rundell (3/5 stars)
- Clean Room volume 1: Immaculate Conception, by Gail Simone et al (3/5 stars)
And I’ve also posted about some of my (potential) upcoming reads:
What I’m reading:
I’m still trying to make myself finish The Impossible Impostor, by Deanna Raybourn. Having stalled, it’s difficult to nudge myself to get back into it. Still, other than that I’ve been reading a lot, and I have quite a few reviews upcoming for my reads this week. As ever, here’s a sneak preview of the titles/covers:
I did read a couple of volumes of manga as well, but I’m not planning to review them here as I don’t have much to say.
And that’s it for now! How’s everyone else doing? Got any exciting books this week?
