The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

At this very moment, typing this the night before, Beauty, by Robin McKinley. I’m very sure I’ll have finished it by morning, though! I’m also partway through Donald Johanson’s book, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. It’s out of date in terms of the conclusions, of course: much has moved on since Lucy was found. But it’s still a fascinating insight into the early days of palaeoanthropology, and into the conditions out on a dig.

What have you recently finished reading?

The Unexpected Truth About Animals, which is okay, but contained a lot of stuff that was not unexpected for me, and was not in fact that interesting. There were some titbits, but mostly… nah, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.

What will you be reading next?

Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley; I always enjoy reading her two takes on Beauty and the Beast at around the same time, to watch what she does differently each time.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

I’m making another attack on Space Opera; I’m half-tempted to just ditch it, but I keep wondering if there’s a plot in there somewhere, under the frippery. I’m also reading Kassia St Clair’s The Golden Thread, which is just the sort of focused history I like. I just learned that Viking sails were made of wool — which surprises me, but I’m not sure what I thought they were made of.

What have you recently finished reading?

The Hollow Man, by John Dickson Carr. It’s a clever setup for a mystery, but I feel kinda meh about it because it has no characters that I like. There’s no personal side to it: it’s all about the central puzzle. So meh.

What will you be reading next?

The Priory of the Orange Tree, maybe? Finishing my reread of Glamour in Glass and the rest of that series? Not sure! I am trying pretty hard to finish the books I start, at the moment, and also trying to read the books I buy this year before buying any more, so either of those are good guesses.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve just started reading Pale Rider by Laura Spinney, which is about the 1918 flu epidemic. I’m very curious whether this is going to teach me anything new, given I’ve already read The Great Influenza, and that was pretty in-depth. I’m excited to see, though! It does sound from the introduction like it might go a bit more into the political/social impact of the flu, as well as the medical aspect, which should be interesting.

What have you recently finished reading?

Death at Bishop’s Keep, by Robin Paige, which was… okay. The main female character is an interesting idea, though perhaps a little anachronistic by way of wishful thinking, but the main male character is kind of meh. I also finished Fayke Newes, by Derek Taylor: it’s all about the media vs those in power, from Henry VIII through to Trump, and it was pretty fascinating to read about how the press developed. It ends on a bit of a paean to unbiased reporting that kind of belies all the evidence presented within the book that really objective reporting that doesn’t bow to power is, um, rare to say the least.

What will you be reading next?

Well, I just got The Priory of the Orange Tree in the mail today, hurrah! But I’ll probably also read My Sister, the Serial Killer, since it seems quite short and I’ve heard enthusiastic things. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a bit of a huge book, so I predict it’ll take me some time, and won’t exactly be my bedtime/treadmill/out and about reading.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Most actively, it’s Space Opera, by Cat Valente. It feels way, way too beholden to Douglas Adams in terms of the tone and humour, while Valente’s usual adjective-vomit is in full spate. It’s a style choice, and I’ve enjoyed some of her other books despite that being very much her usual style… but in Space Opera it feels like I’m standing in front of a firehose of adjectives. I lose the point of sentences before I’ve got to the end. I know some other people have really enjoyed this, but… gah. I’m not sure I can find the plot for sheer adjectival profusion.

I mean, it’s also very much the style of and critical reaction to the musicians she’s writing about, so it’s probably intentional, and I’m probably a joy-stealing curmudgeon, but… all the same, you can’t make yourself enjoy something.

I’m also reading Heartstone, by Elle Katherine White. I’m enjoying that and figuring out what various characters’ deals are, and thinking I could use reading some more fantasy romance in this vein. (Which is, in summary: Pride and Prejudice, but with dragons.)

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was, uhh… The Case of the Murdered Muckraker, which was a fairly typical Daisy Dalrymple book, only with death-defying aerial stunts and a chase across the country, set in the USA. Ms Geneveieve/Eugene Cannon was a particularly interesting glimpse of a character.

What will you be reading next?

I have no idea. I have a book on Aztecs from the library, so maybe that. Or maybe I should get back to my neglected read of The Dark Days Club, by Alison Goodman? I was enjoying that, but it kind of got shelved and I didn’t pick it back up. Whoops.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Way too much at once, as ever! Most actively, Threads of Life, by Clare Hunter. It’s about the history of embroidery and its meaning/use in different cultures/contexts, so it’s covered all sorts from banner-making for political events to traditional sewing. The BBC radio thing is very very abridged and the book contains a lot more interesting things, in case anyone was wondering!

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing was The Copernicus Complex, by Caleb Scharf. Not bad, but I felt like I came to more or less the same conclusions long ago, and thus I was the choir, being preached to. Basically, he’s pointing out that we can’t rely on our world being mediocre (i.e. not the centre of the universe in any sense), but we also have no good evidence that it’s especially rare in the sense of being fine-tuned for life. Which to me is so obvious I find it frustrating.

What will you be reading next?

The Raven Tower! I got a copy from Orbit and I’m pretty excited to get right to it. I’ve been excited for this for waaaay too long now, I need to tuck in as soon as I can. There’s a couple of things I already have on the go that I should probably finish first, though.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Most actively, I’m back to try and finish off Adam Rutherford’s A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. Most of the anecdotes are familiar to me, though, and I’m really past the point where I could possibly ever need another primer on DNA, so I haven’t been that engaged so far. I enjoyed the demolition of the concept of race that I just read in the last chapter, though!

I’m also reading S.K. Dunstall’s Stars Uncharted; I’m enjoying it, but it feels like much the same ground as The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, in many ways. It’s not bad, but I’m not going to be shouting from the rooftops about it either.

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was… hm, 4th Rock from the Sun, which is about Mars — history, literature, exploration, a little bit of everything. It still amazes me how little we know about planets we think of as being so close to us. There’s so much about Mars and indeed almost the whole Solar System that is still conjectural and even controversial.

What will you be reading next?

No clue. I know Jenn Lyons’ The Ruin of Kings is due out on Thursday, and I’ve been so tempted that despite being annoyed by getting an ARC that turned out to be just a preview. So maybe I’ll get that and dig straight in. On the other hand, there’s myriads of books that I genuinely received as ARCs, and I should probably get to them.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

I’m partway through a reread of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamour in Glass; I’m being a little irritated by the lack of communication between the two main characters, which I seem to remember would solve a lot and just require a bit of trust on both sides. I hate communication issues driving plots, honestly. I don’t recall it ruining the book for me before — if I remember rightly, I quite liked it overall — but it’s a bit annoying right now.

I’m also reading Roszika Parker’s The Subversive Stitch, which is about how embroidery came to be associated primarily with women and femininity; it’s a little dry and scholarly in tone, but I am enjoying learning more about an art/craft that I’ve been getting into myself. (And which is assumed to say a lot of things about my femininity, which makes me laugh.)

I’m also about halfway through Kill the Queen, by Jennifer Estep. It’s frustrating me at the moment because I just want Everleigh to admit who she is; I’m not actually sure of the timeline of these novels (whether she’ll have revealed herself by the end); maybe I should read the summary of the next book to see whether I should be moderating my expectations!

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was Mary Beard’s How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith — fascinating stuff, really. We tend to think that all ancient art is leading up to a sort of Greco-Roman realism, and interpret it accordingly; it’s worth remembering that people haven’t always thought the same way or had the same expectations of art!

What will you be reading next?

I have no idea. I need to pick my next bookclub choice for the Habitica book club, and I’m not entirely sure what genre I’ll pick. I just got a copy of Hild, by Nicola Griffith, from a book swap… so maybe I’ll set that as the month’s book. It’s certainly high time I got to reading that; I’ve wanted to for ages.

What are you reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

No surprises here this week: I’m partway through the next Daisy Dalrymple book, which is To Davy Jones Below. I’m enjoying Alec and Daisy being married at last, and so far free of making asinine assumptions about each other’s emotions (I’m still not over Styx and Stones and the weird blow-up in that book that lasted all of a chapter). Sending them off on a boat to the US is a good way of varying the setting.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up rereading Susan Cooper’s Greenwitch; it felt so short! I love all the stuff it hints at with Barney being able to scry — there’s always so much material in this series for wondering about things for yourself. And Cooper is just so good with characters: the resentment of Will by Simon and Barney was great. Of course they didn’t welcome another boy hanging round with their Great-Uncle and having adventures too with open arms!

What will you be reading next?

I need to finish a library book or two, so probably John Man’s Ninja, or my reread of Jeff Vandermeer’s Authority (which I’ve been neglecting horribly). Or I might just curl up with my reread of The Lord of the Rings, which has also gone untouched so long. The possibilities are more or less endless.

What are you reading right now?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Really actively, I think I’ve only got John Man’s book on ninjas on the go now. It’s the usual sort of light non-fiction he always writes, with some bits of travel and chasing down the true story, talking to descendents, etc, and some chapters based on the documented facts from sources. It has significant overlap with his book on samurai, of course.

What have you recently finished reading?

I just finished Styx and Stones, which is the… sixth? Daisy Dalrymple mystery. I enjoyed it a lot, though the argument between Alec and Daisy in the middle just felt rather manufactured. I do enjoy Daisy’s sympathy for women like the Scarlet Woman of the village, while she remains pretty wholesome and clean-cut herself. She’s a bit of a Mary Sue, I suppose, but in a male detective no one would think anything of it.

What will you be reading next?

Most likely it’ll be the copy of the collected Earthsea books and stories that my wife gave me as an early Christmas present! It’s gorgeous, though a bit of a handful to settle down and read. I might have to ration it to avoid wrist strain!

What are you currently reading?