Tag: WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday

Posted January 31, 2018 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

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?

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalStill Ghost Talkers… I’m being terrible at getting round to finishing that, partly because I feel emotional about it and partly because of course I’ve been reading a lot of Ursula Le Guin’s work instead of whatever I planned to be reading.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of I Am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy SpringerBy the time this is up, I’ll have finished I Am Morgan Le Fay, by Nancy Springer. I’m not quite sure what I think of it yet… I don’t think I’m a fan, but it’s not like I hate it either? It’s nice to see someone trying to be nuanced about Morgan Le Fay.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le GuinSomething by Ursula Le Guin, almost certainly. Probably A Wizard of Earthsea, since that’s the book of hers I really love and want to celebrate most. But of course there’s a whole bunch of others on my list to revisit, including The Left Hand of DarknessThe DispossessedThe TellingLavinia

What are you reading right now?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 24, 2018 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

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?

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalI’m most of the way through Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I might need to take a liiiiittle break, though, because it’s totally heartbreaking and I don’t quite need that right now. Given, you know, the news about Ursula Le Guin dying.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan GarnerThe last thing I finished was a reread of Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, I think. I’m still not a big fan, though it started off better than last time. I just don’t like the mashup of mythologies, though. They don’t fit together for me.

What will you be reading next?

Almost certainly something by Le Guin.

What are you reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 17, 2018 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

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?

Cover of Restless Creatures by WilkinsonRestless Creatures, by Matt Wilkinson. It’s evolutionary biology focused on the importance of locomotion in selection, and in theory it should be right up my alley… in practice, I just kind of want to have finished it. It’s not bad and I don’t feel like it’d be fair to drop it… but it’s mostly either principles I’m not interested in (physics of motion), principles I know extremely well already (homology in HOX genes), or principles I both know well and am not interested in (physics of flight; blame my years as an RAF cadet).

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Six of Crows by Leigh BardugoSix of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo. I found it a really quick read, and I’m pretty into some of the character dynamics… though I have some reservations about how some things are going to turn out. It’s a lot of fun, anyway, and I’m glad I picked it for this month’s book club read on Habitica.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalApart from the follow-up to Six of Crows, I want to knuckle down and actually finish my reread of Kushiel’s Dart — I think I only stalled because I was busy at the time, and I’m about to hand in an assignment and have at least a few days’ breathing space. Other than that, from my ‘sell me a book’ post, I want to pick up Mary Robinette Kowal’s Ghost Talkers. 

What about you? What’re you reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 10, 2018 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

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?

Cover of In Other Lands by Sarah Rees BrennanI’m partway through Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands. I haven’t enjoyed her work that much before, but this one is working quite well for me. I love the main character’s snark and how he uses it in self-defence, and also the commentaries on the genre (because of course).

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Heroine Complex by Sarah KuhnI haven’t actually been reading very much in the past week or so. Suddenly got all tired and had to focus on just getting work done! The last thing I read was Heroine Complex, by Sarah Kuhn; enjoyable in many ways, but I just didn’t want to stay with the main character given the running joke about her being dead inside.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of Arabella of Mars by David D. LevineI don’t know yet! Per my “sell me a book” promise, my next fiction book will be David D. Levine’s Arabella of Mars, but I’m tempted to read Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies first. I’ve been doing a lot of transcription work involving stuff about cancer, and I feel like knowing more about it — from a less clinical point of view, perhaps, since this has all been about clinical trials and five year survival rates.

So what are you reading, folks?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 27, 2017 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

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?

Cover of Cro-Magnon by Brian FaganI’m still halfway through Kushiel’s Dart, and I’m most of the way through Brian Fagan’s book on Cro-Magnon peoples. It’s interesting in itself, but a lot of the info isn’t new to me at all, and some of it is a little out of date. Also, it might not be the best choice while in the middle of some species of flu-like virus, though luckily that seems to be pretty much over now.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of How The Zebra Got Its Stripes by Leo GrassetNot much, regrettably. I just finished How the Zebra Got Its Stripes by Léo Grasset, though; it’s entertaining and sometimes informative, but pretty light and very short. And now I know more than I wanted to know about the sex lives of hyenas.

What will you be reading next?

I’m not sure, but I’m tempted to reread The Goblin Emperor to see out the year after my sister bet me that I’d read it at least twice this year and in fact, I proved that I haven’t even read it once in 2017. Oddly though, I’m not sure if I quite feel like it…

What are you reading? Get anything interesting for Christmas that you had to dive straight into?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 20, 2017 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

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?

Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyActually, I’m not in the middle of anything at all, except Kushiel’s Dart, which I’ve been persistently not feeling like reading. Too much terrible stuff happens to Phèdre and Joscelin, and I’m just not in the mood for their world right now. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon…? I am 50% of the way through, so I don’t want to just stop, though of course it’s a reread so I know what happens.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Priam's Gold by Caroline MoorheadI’ve just finished Priam’s Gold, by Caroline Moorehead. It’s about Heinrich Schliemann, the man who excavated at Troy to prove that Homer’s epics were referring to real historical events. It’s partly a biography of Schliemann, but it does also trace his whole archaeological career and the later movements of the treasure he found. That means there’s a couple of chapters on WWII and the way both sides looted art.

Other than that, I just read Winterwood, by Dorothy Eden. It’s a Gothic-ish mystery/romance, sort of in the vein of Mary Stewart’s work, and it actually gave me a couple of surprises…

What will you read next?

Cover of Carry On by Rainbow RowellI don’t know. I honestly feel like some very familiar rereads — Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell, maybe, or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente. Maybe even some Mary Stewart, though I’ve been spacing out those rereads a bit. It is the time of year to snuggle down and be cosy around here, after all…

And what about you, o gentle reader?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 13, 2017 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

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?

Cover of The Power of Babel by John McWhorterThe Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, by John McWhorter, for a challenge. It surprises me how much of this I actually know or already believed to be true; I though I didn’t really know that much about language formation. It is a little boring when it goes into examples, because without being able to pronounce them they just sort of wash over my head, but I expect other people would quite like it. Especially all the pop culture!

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Murder in Montparnasse by Kerry GreenwoodEverything felt pretty terrible, so I reread the next Phryne book in the series, Murder in Montparnasse. It has some pretty heavy themes, of course — domestic violence and cold-blooded murder — but I still find something about the books so soothing.

What will you read next?

Cover of Cibola Burn by James S.A. CoreyAs a reward for doing a ton of adult and sensible things, I’m letting myself read whatever I want through to the end of the year. That said, I’m pretty sure my wife would like me to hurry up and get started on James S.A. Corey’s Cibola Burn, so that might be the next thing. Also, I have some novellas I should really get round to reading for review: The Sisters of the Crescent Empress, Prime Meridian, a couple of others.

What are you reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted December 6, 2017 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

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?

Cover of Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI’ve still got just two books on my currently reading list, and they’re the same as last week. I’m back to reading Dark Sky, at least, and I’m actually getting on with it better now. It still feels very much like Firefly, and like the other books that remind me of Firefly, but I’ve got back into the characters.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Suspicious Minds by Rob BrothertonLast thing I read was Suspicious Minds by Rob Brotherton. It was interesting stuff, even though the psychology of why people believe in conspiracy theories didn’t really surprise me at all. It’s one of the Bloomsbury Sigma series, and they’re usually pretty accessible while also being interesting, so that wasn’t really a surprise!

What will you read next?

Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyI don’t know. I should finish Kushiel’s Dart, really. But who knows what’ll strike my fancy? I keep eyeing one of my books about Egyptology, instead…

What are you reading right now?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 29, 2017 by Nicky in General / 9 Comments

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?

Cover of Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI only have two books left on my currently reading list! Kushiel’s Dart, though I haven’t made any progress since last week, and Dark Sky, though I haven’t touched that in aaaages. I have a new project now where I have to finish two books from my currently reading list before I can start a new one, and that’s been going really well. Once I’ve caught up, it’ll be “two books from a series for one new book”, to make sure I actually make progress with that too!

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of The Godless by Ben PeekYoon Ha Lee’s Raven Stratagem and The Godless, by Ben Peek. The former was awesomesauce, even though I stalled on it a while for non-narrative reasons. I finished it and just… daaaaamn. The latter, eh, I do not love it. I enjoyed some of the worldbuilding, but I just didn’t enjoy the characters or feel that everything was necessarily explained properly in terms of the actions people took and why. Pretty important whether people are doing politics on a grand scale or just interpersonal relations.

What will you be reading next?

Cover of Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay GouldProbably Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould’s book about the Burgess Shale. That’s what I’ve got queued up as my break from fiction in general and my currently reading list specifically. (It’s not that I don’t want to read them, I’m just fidgety in all things and like having a bit of variation.

What are you reading?

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WWW Wednesday

Posted November 22, 2017 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

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?

Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline CareyI’m most actively reading Kushiel’s Dart at the moment. I’m surprised how long it’s taking me! I’m sure I remember completely devouring the books, but it’s not really happening with this reread. Maybe because I’m a liiiittle too familiar with what’s coming?

Which, yeah. Boo hiss Melisande.

What have you recently finished reading?

Cover of Swordspoint by Ellen KushnerI just reread Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner, for a readalong. I enjoyed it more than I did the first time I read it, actually; I felt like I understood the characters and especially the politics a lot better. Am I growing up, a better reader now, or did I just happen to pick it up at the wrong time for my brain before?

Anyway, lots of fun.

What will you read next?

Cover of Dark Sky by Mike BrooksI think the next target on my list is Dark Sky, by Mike Brooks, or Raven Stratagem. A friend picked up Ninefox Gambit a couple of days ago and loved it, so that’s motivation for me. I’m really narrowing down my currently reading list, hurrah.

Buut in the meantime I might read some non-fiction.

What are you reading?

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