What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I read was, uhhh… right, Delilah S. Dawson’s Bloom: slow-burn sapphic romance turns horror. The ending is genuinely horrific; it feels like a jump-scare out of nowhere after the dreamy atmosphere of the first half, though is definitely foreshadowed in a couple ways. I need to write my review of it; I had criticisms, but overall had fun.

What are you currently reading?

I’m partway through Caitlin Rozakis’ Startup Hell, but not very far into it, so it’s hard to say exactly what I think so far!

I’m also reading John Wiswell’s Wearing the Lion, which I think I mentioned last week… and honestly, I’m not far into that either, and I’m still not sure I like it. Might be a case of “not for me, DNF”.

What will you be reading next?

No idea, honestly. Maybe a reread of Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning, on something of a whim and because it meets the criteria for a reading challenge (and the sequel meets a different prompt in the same challenge). I remember liking the two books, but some of the details have faded, so it might be nice to refresh.

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was Yuta Yagi’s Why I Adopted My Husband, which is about the practicalities of getting around the fact that gay marriage isn’t legal in Japan. I don’t think it’s super useful for most people outside of Japan, honestly, because the issue (and solution) is pretty specific to Japan.

Still, if you’re researching and if you want to read some commentary about what it’s like to be a gay couple in Japan, this could work.

What are you currently reading?

I have three books on the go that I started more or less at the same time, because I was having difficulty settling down. The first was John Wiswell’s Wearing the Lion and… I don’t know. I don’t disagree with Hera that Zeus is a dipshit, but the narration is grating on me in general. It’s hard to say exactly why, because I don’t think the Greek myths have to be treated with dignity or anything. Maybe it’s just a tone I don’t get on with in general.

I’ve also started Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep, which has been cited by several people I know lately as their favourite of her books. I’m not far enough into it to judge, really, but I was relieved to have a character with a decidedly different (less mopey) feel to Willa in Kiss Slay Replay or Annie in Cackle. Something about those two characters was a little similar, but Vesper does feel a bit different.

Aaaand I’m also digging into The Demon Overlord’s Retirement Plan, which is fun so far. I’m curious where it’ll go, because I’ve heard comparatively little about the plot.

What will you be reading next?

Uhhh, let’s focus on my current reads first, mostly! Don’t tempt me to pick up more, ahaha. But I would like to read more of The Summer Hikaru Died; I’ve read three volumes, and I definitely want to read more.

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve been reading a bunch of novellas, because bite-size has suited my brain well during a pretty busy time at work, so the last one I finished was Tabitha O’Connell’s Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin; it’s a loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast which I thought was pretty well-handled, with some caveats.

Before that, I read Steven L. Peck’s A Short Stay in Hell; I’d picked it up because I was curious after another blogger hated it, and it was free in Kobo Plus. I really liked it, actually; I thought it was well written, and explored the idea in a way that was interesting to me.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve been keeping the list surprisingly slim: I’m still slowly working through John Goodall’s The Castle: A History a few castles at a time, and I’ve started one other book, but that’s it.

The other book is Rachel Harrison’s Kiss Slay Replay, which has been piquing my curiosity since reviews started coming out for it. I liked Harrison’s Cackle, so I ended up with several of her books to read in honour of October/Halloween, and this was one of them. I’m not far into it so far, and it’s only juuuust started bringing in the horror elements (someone’s lurking outside the wedding). I’m not 100% on board yet, because a lot of the detail so far just feels like “contemporary women’s fiction”… but I already know it’s going to take a turn, and I’m curious what that will be like.

What will you be reading next?

No idea. I’ve just added a bunch of interesting-to-me comics to my reading list on Comics Plus, so in my need for low commitment reads at the moment I might turn to those. I’ve also got a few more books added on Kobo Plus, like Akimitsu Takagi’s The Noh Mask Murder, that I’m very curious about.

I might also start something else from my Haunted Shelf TBR; maybe Sara Raasch’s The Nightmare Before Kissmas or Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, for a bit of a change of pace.

What have you recently finished?

I actually finished a book this morning, since I was giving myself a lie-in after working extra hard earlier in the week. I’d started on Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time last night, and was fascinated to see where she took it exactly. I can see why it’s such a classic. Obviously she’s very much on the Ricardian side of the mystery (which centres on whether Richard III killed the princes in the Tower, if you don’t know the book — an injured policeman finds himself curious about it while bored with an injury and decides to investigate) and quite biased — but I did actually think it was quite a fun book, all round.

What are you currently reading?

I’m about 30% of the way through Juliet E. McKenna’s The Green Man’s Heir, and currently feeling pretty unsure about it. It’s a bit… oversexed? I feel like I’m reading a teenage boy describing women, yeesh. I think it’s partly a character thing, rather than the author, and that’s… fine up to a point, but I’m not sure I’m going to want to keep spending time with this character.

On the other hand, I know a lot of readers I trust enjoy the series, so I’m giving it a solid chance.

What will you be reading next?

I’m grabbing a book from my backlog which I suspect might not be for me, Craig Rice’s The Sunday Pigeon Murders. It’s adjacent to my interests, being a mystery from 1942, but it’s American rather than British, and sounds like it leans into a part of the genre that I generally don’t enjoy. We’ll see, but it might be a DNF.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished two books last night, which I was very pleased with — two very different books, as is my wont, ahaha. One was Brandt & Stein’s Worst Man, which is a fun and ridiculous graphic novel in which one character is trying to make his best friend’s wedding amazing, and the other one is trying to ruin it (only, of course, he changes his mind). I love the art, the faces are so expressive and there’s a lot of comedy that arises from expression and posture.

The other was The Welsh Language: A History, by Janet Davies, which was a fairly quick read with some technical stuff about how the Welsh language works and has developed, and quite a lot about the modern history of the language.

What are you currently reading?

I have two books actively on the go: one is The Castle: A History, by John Goodall: the chapters are quite short, but each illustrates a bit of the history of the castle as a concept through a specific example and a snippet of textual evidence about it. There are photos and such. It’s mildly interesting for me, but not absolutely gripping, because it never quite settles into explaining any single castle, so it feels shallow.

I’m also (still) reading volume three of The Villain’s White Halo, which I haven’t been in the mood for in the last few days. I did read a little yesterday, though!

What will you be reading next?

I’m still very much going by whim until the end of the month, especially since doing that seems to be working to get me back to my usual level of reading… but I should attend to some of my library reads, at least enough to decide whether to just return them without finishing them. So maybe A Death in Door County (Annelise Ryan), which I’ve been meaning to try for ages?

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Cho Yeeun’s Teddy Bears Never Die, which I ultimately liked quite a bit, though the genre is a bit hard to pin down — at times it just feels like a gritty thriller, and then oops! Misshapen vengeful ghosts, a possessed teddy bear, and the classic disturbed remains of a mass graveyard (where people were buried alive).

Before that it was Ianthe Jerrold’s Let Him Die; another new-to-me Golden Age author, thanks to Kobo Plus!

What are you currently reading?

I’m still working on Michelle P. Brown’s Illumino, and I still think it wants to be a more general history rather than a history of X in Y things. Which is fine, but I picked it up for the history of X in Y things, so it’s a little irritating — though at least it’s a gorgeous volume.

I’m also now reading the latest British Library Crime Classic, which is a short story collection: Eat, Drink and Be Murdered. I’m having fun with that, as usual, and I think it’s funny that so far there’s been more than one story where a knowledge of wine points to the culprit.

I also started the third and final volume of The Villain’s White Halo, which is certainly going places.

What will you be reading next?

Not a clue! I am trying to be particularly capricious and follow my whims entirely for a bit to help get over having maybe planned a bit too firmly in August, since I’ll be taking part in Haunted Shelf in October, and I do have a loose TBR for that.

What have you recently finished reading?

I haven’t finished anything in a couple of days, but the last thing I finished would’ve been J.J. Connington’s Murder in the Maze. I didn’t like it as much as the other book by him I’ve read (The Ha-Ha Case), in part because it fell back on the ol’ exotic poisons thing (curare in this case), and also I just don’t think it was well structured as a mystery.

Before that was also a classic mystery, Annie Haynes’ The Abbey Court Murder — a bit melodramatic, but satisfying enough.

What are you currently reading?

I haven’t been reading a lot in the last couple of days due to getting busy, so I’m still working on Michelle P. Brown’s Illumino, which should really admit that it wants to talk about far more than just twelve manuscripts and far more of the historical context, and the second volume of The Villain’s White Halo, which has taken a fascinating turn in a couple of respects (Duan Chongxian’s adventures, and the truth[?] of Luo Mingchuan’s whole thing).

I have also started another classic mystery, Robert van Gulik’s The Chinese Maze Murders. It’s apparently based on classic Chinese detective stories, and was originally written in English but first published in Japanese and Chinese. I’m not far into it, and I don’t know a lot about van Gulik’s background and how respectful it’s likely to be, but it’s definitely going to be an interesting product of that period of detective fiction in English from my perspective!

What will you be reading next?

No idea, honestly. I might pick out some shorter reads while I’m so busy, or continue on the classic crime binge — there are a couple more writers I noted to look into, or I could read more of the authors I’ve tried recently, since there are some more of those on Kobo Plus.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Sanah Ahsan’s poetry collection, I Cannot Be Good Unless You Say It, which I was not a big fan of — sadly, just not a style of poetry I gel with, I think.

Before that, I was reading Philip MacDonald’s The Rasp. I found his name on a list of Golden Age crime authors, while I was trying to find something to jog me out of a reading funk. I quite liked The Rasp, though I think his detective (Gethryn) is a bit annoying at times, with a tendency to quotation that rivals Peter Wimsey. I need to properly write up my thoughts, though; I’m a bit delayed in writing my review.

What are you currently reading?

I cleared my “on deck” considerably of late, but with the new books I got for my birthday, I do have a few going at once again. For more classic crime goodness, I’m reading Henry Wade’s The Duke of York’s Steps, which is beginning to hot up now at around 40%. Definitely a slow burner, which I don’t necessarily mind.

Other than that, I started on Michelle P. Brown’s Illumino, which is a history of Great Britain through manuscripts. It’s alright, and beautifully illustrated, though I found the first chapter a little rushed and lacking in focus.

And for something quite different, I’ve got stuck into volume two of Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi’s The Villain’s White Halo, which I’m enjoying so far.

What will you be reading next?

Probably more classic crime, honestly. A lot of them are available for free on Kobo Plus, or pretty cheap, and if that’s what’s grabbing my attention at the moment, that’s what I’ll read!

That said, I have a lot of fascinating new books as well, and it’s not impossible I’ll pick up one of those, or return to something that I paused for a while. I really am trying to go by whatever’s actually caught my interest at the moment, rather than constraining myself too much.

What have you recently finished reading?

I didn’t get much reading done yesterday, but on Monday night I finally finished reading Emma Southon’s Servus, which I originally received as an ARC. It’s pretty thorough on the topic of slavery in the Roman Empire, but with Southon’s usual style, which is fairly light and flippant. I mostly enjoyed it, though of course the topic is a heavy one.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve cleared the decks a bit and now have only one book on my “currently reading” shelf… for now, at least: The Villain’s White Halo vol 1, by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi. Irritatingly, no bookshops around here seem to be stocking volumes two and three, so if I want to continue (which so far I think I will), I’ll need to order them when I get home.

So far I’m not totally in love, but I am curious where it’s going and how things work out, now that I’m a bit over halfway through volume one.

What will you be reading next?

Not a clue. I brought all my remaining 20 Books of Summer picks with me, but I think I might be about to let go of that list and just try to encourage myself to read anything, because I’m pretty fidgety and not settling to any given book, and it’s a sad waste of my deliberately chill vacation, designed with plenty of time for reading!

The amount I’m reading doesn’t look like a slump to most people, but it isn’t normal for me, and it makes me feel preeeetty restless, so I really hope I find something that grabs me.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last book I finished was Shen Tao’s The Poet Empress, which worked a lot better for me than I’d expected. I’d been a little put off by people talking about how dark it is, and it is… and I was also worried that Terren would somehow turn out to be secretly a great person despite his actions, and the answer to that is that it’s complicated. The ending really got me; I hadn’t thought about the way it actually worked out.

Overall, ended up really enjoying it.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve made a bit of a start on The Villain’s White Halo vol 1 (Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi), but I’m really still finding my feet with the worldbuilding at this moment. It feels like being confronted with The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System all over again on the amount of detail about the sects, peaks, different martial siblings, etc, but I’m really only 100 pages in and there’s plenty of time for the information to settle once my brain prioritises what I need to know. I’m curious where it’s going, but not enormously invested.

I also got back to a book I’d previously started, John and Colleen Darnell’s Egypt’s Golden Couple, but the amount of imaginative reconstruction they’re doing (at least two pages at the start of every chapter, and some chapters are only four pages long) is starting to get on my nerves. It’s not based, as far as I can tell, in actual concrete evidence — it’s based on their knowledge as Egyptologists, of course, but it’s not like “we found a specific broken cup and theorised about it”, more “we imagined an event that seems reasonable”.

Or maybe they are all based on specific objects! But it’s really not clear. It’s all very readable but… hm.

I’ve also started Greer Stothers’ Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die, but I’m not super sure if it’s going to be my thing. The jokiness seems unlikely to jive well for me. But we’ll see!

What will you be reading next?

Shake me like a Magic 8 ball for the answer, “Ask again later.”

Quite possibly more danmei, maybe Thrice Married to a Salted Fish vol 1 (Bi Ka Bi)… but really, no decision yet. It’s my birthday tomorrow and I hope to do a lot of reading since I’m off work, but definitely not constraining myself to reading anything in particular.