What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up with The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, by Brigitte Knightley, just last night. I wasn’t aware when I first added it to my wishlist that it was serial-numbers-filed-off fanfic, and I’m not sure whether or not I’d have picked it up if I knew. Maybe! I don’t have strong feelings about that kind of thing, though it does ick me out if the marketing relies on that nudge-nudge-wink-wink connection. I don’t know if it did for this book, since I just heard about it through other bloggers.

Anyway, there were aspects of this that were fun, but it got very purple prose-y around the romance, and I didn’t find the romance that convincing. The banter didn’t paper over the fact that I just didn’t like either character.

What are you currently reading?

Kathryn Paige Harden’s The Genetic Lottery, which means very well, but a) is making me absolutely glaze over and b) has been critiqued in various ways because the solutions it tries to offer aren’t very convincing. I’ve not read far enough to grapple with b), and I’m not sure if I’m actually going to — I’m not sure if the good intent justifies all these words, especially when a ridiculous number of them were used to come up with a poor analogy to explain genome-wide association studies without actually illuminating much that couldn’t have been better explained by just explaining GWAS.

What will you be reading next?

As ever, no hard and fast rules. There are basically three likely targets: the fourth volume of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, the second volume of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or Kaite Welsh’s The Wages of Sin. I’m probably most likely to start on The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, since that wraps up that series… but the others are tempting too.

What have you recently finished reading?

Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After, which… I think would’ve meant a lot to me 10-15 years ago. Though it would probably have also been more viscerally upsetting 10-15 years ago, since the main character gets private details exposed in school which is reminiscent to me of someone finding private stuff of mine and outing me to the entire school as a lesbian (not a term I use for myself, but close enough to true to kick off several years of intense bullying). It was very teenage, in a way that doesn’t speak to me much now, but I think I’m glad I gave it a shot. I need to mull over how to properly review it.

What are you currently reading?

A lot of books at once, as I try to finish off my Book Spin Bingo card! Let’s see… the last thing I was reading was Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent, which is pretty fun. I have some theories about where things are going, and I kind of hope I’m wrong, just so it can surprise me.

I’m also still partway through volume three of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, which is still cute and silly. I’ve also started on: Anna Bright’s The Hedge Witch of Foxhall, which I’m still kind of dubious about; Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man, which I’m enjoying but in which the mystery so far is not that mysterious apart from one element; aaand Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee’s Breath of the Dragon, which is enjoyable enough but not totally wowing me right now.

What will you be reading next?

Volume one of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, also for my Book Spin Bingo card! I’d wanted to finish Disabled Tyrant first, but I had a couple of days of not reading much, so it won’t work out if I want to finish off the bingo card.

I also want to read a couple of manga and comics I’ve identified for a comics bingo card, but that might have to wait for November. Sadly, there are only so many reading hours in the day, for some weird reason.

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve been digging into more of the comics offering I can get via my library’s subscription to Comics Plus, so there’s been a lot of graphic novels in the last couple of days! The last thing I finished, just now, was volume one of Iyanu: Child of Wonder, by Roye Okupe. I loved the backstory and notes probably more than the story itself, sadly.

Other than that, I finished Kim M. Watt’s Baking Bad, which is kinda cute and cosy, and didn’t quite work for me — not so badly that I wouldn’t try reading more by Watt, but the mystery felt a bit obvious and… I don’t know, I need to think it over properly before writing my review, but I really wanted to like it because a friend got it for me and they love it, but I never quite got into it.

What are you currently reading?

My non-fiction reads are Eating to Extinction (Dan Saladino) and The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club (Christopher de Hamel). I’m enjoying both, and they’re both very much by people who love what they’re writing about, which is always pleasing.

I’m also in the midst of volume three of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish (Xue Shan Fei Hu), and loving Prince Jing’s dedication to his unexpected family, and Li Yu’s usual haplessness.

What will you be reading next?

I’m not sure, but I need to get my skates on with my BookSpinBingo card books if I want to get a blackout again this month! I’m not sure which I want to start on next, though; maybe Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man, as I’ve let it languish unread faaar too long.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Written in History, which was… okay? It’s a collection of famous letters, and I don’t feel like it quite meets its brief of being “letters that changed the world” in all cases. It’s definitely got letters of interest, and useful context for them, though.

I’ve been meaning to read it forever, so now it’s off my list, too!

What are you currently reading?

Most actively, volume two of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish (Xue Shan Fei Hu). It’s so silly, it’s pretty cute, and I’m having fun with it. I ended up getting volumes two, three and four all together, to celebrate the UK’s Bookshop Day, so I have the whole series ready to dig into.

I’ve also started on KJ Charles’ All of Us Murderers, though the bullying directed at the character who clearly has ADHD is a bit… not what I’m in the mood for right now (though I was warned about it, and almost all the characters doing it are clearly intended to be being unpleasant). I hope to pick it back up properly soon, though.

What will you be reading next?

As ever, it’s up to my whim, but it’s likely I’ll keep on with The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish. Other than that… I might start on E.C.R. Lorac’s I Could Murder Her, since it’s on my bingo card for October, and a “cosy” (ish) classic mystery sounds like just what the doctor ordered for me right now when I’m feeling a bit bleh. (Right, Dr Mum?)

Otherwise… we’ll see!

What have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished both The Genius Myth (Helen Lewis) and the second volume of Love in the Palm of His Hand (Rinteku). The former was alright, but feels like it went on a bit long after making its point — basically, we crown people as “geniuses” for being good at a narrow subset of things and trust them unduly with other things, and allow them to be assholes as a result.

The latter was very cute; less of the sign language in this one, more about Fujinaga’s acting, and there’s less of him and Keito together… but cute nonetheless, and it’s still fascinating how the sign language etc is portrayed.

What are you currently reading?

The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscript Club (Christopher de Hamel) is the only book I have very actively on the go, and even that I’ve been neglecting! It’s such a chonker, though, I should get back to it before I lose the thread. It’s very pretty, I love that it has in-line colour images rather than just a glossy insert, it makes it a lot easier to remember to take the time to look, and is less disruptive to the narrative. Definitely a good recent trend in non-fiction.

What are you reading next?

Definitely Juneau Black’s Mockingbird Court, out in the US already, out in the UK tomorrow. I love this series, even though the setting actively handwaves the problem of making sense (carnivores and their prey living in the same town side by side, eating in the same restaurants, grabbing pumpkin spice lattes together, etc). I suspect this is going to be the perfect autumn read, too, which is by no means a must for me, but is not unenjoyable.

What have you recently finished reading?

A couple of manga I picked up rather at random, both by Guri Nojiro: In Love’s Key, Reprised and A Beast’s Love is Like the Moon. I liked In Love’s Key, Reprised the better of the two, though A Beast’s Love is Like the Moon has a surprising bittersweetness at the end. Both made for good light reading, even if they weren’t exceptional.

What are you currently reading?

As ever, I’ve got a few things on the go at once, though I did clear the decks a little bit with my offline weekend earlier in the month, and then my long weekend that ended yesterday. I’m most actively reading Cat Sebastian’s You Should Be So Lucky: I’m not far into it yet, but I’m very sure I’m going to love the dynamic between Mark and Eddie.

Other than that, I’m also partway through Lucy Cooke’s Bitch, which I’m finding really slow going — despite being allegedly myth-busting about female behaviour/evolution across a range of species, I’m not finding it that surprising.

I’m also reading Sydney J. Shields’ The Honey Witch, which is… so far, just “fine”. It’s not really pulling me in, and I’m not a fan of the writing style, though I can’t quite put my finger on why yet. I’m not far into it, though!

What will you be reading next?

KJ Charles’ The Duke at Hazard, certainly, and otherwise I need to get back to some of the books I have on hold, like James Alistair Henry’s Pagans. I’ve read 38 books so far in September, and yet I still have a bunch to read for my Book Spin Bingo card.

What have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished up Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis and KJ Charles’ Copper Script. I enjoyed both, though I had a few embarrassment-squick moments with The Love Hypothesis, and thought that Copper Script ended maybe a bit abruptly.

Still, both of them made for fun reading on a long car drive (and in the case of Copper Script, when I didn’t feel like going to bed once I arrived home, heh).

What are you currently reading?

The only thing I’m very actively reading is a library book, Boria Sax’s City of Ravens. I’m — hm. A touch sceptical about the links between the ravens of the Tower and Bran the Blessed, I must admit. But I’m early in the book, and maybe it’ll get round to discussing more links and research rather than just “Bran was associated with ravens and some people say the location his head was buried was the Tower”. I’d need to see a link between the two in order to feel that the one almost-forgotten tradition influenced the other very new one.

Other than that, I actually focused on finishing a bunch of books over the weekend! I still have a couple that’ve been backburnered for a while, which I want to go back to, e.g. my ARC of Georgia Summers’ The Bookshop Below.

What will you read next?

Excellent question, who knows? I’ll probably focus on some of the books I have already on the go, mostly, though I’ll probably also read the British Library Crime Classic collection Blood on the Tracks soon, since it’s on my bingo card and, being a short story collection, good when I need something bitesize. Some of the books I have on the go — like Lucy Cooke’s Bitch, which is non-fiction about female animals — are quite dense, so that’d break things up nicely.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was John S. Tregoning’s Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them. I didn’t really enjoy it; part of it is the fact that since I bought it, I’ve studied immunology (as part of my MSc), so the first part of the book was boring, leaving plenty of time for me to get annoyed by Tregoning’s sense of humour. The tone really, really grated; Tregoning thinks he’s hilarious, and it’s just cringe.

It might be better for a layperson, though of course, the humour wouldn’t improve.

What are you currently reading?

As ever, a few books at once, some of which I’m giving more attention than others. I’m most into Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher, at the moment, in the sense that I’m hoping to finish that today. The timing for reading it is maybe a bit stupid, because I read Boucher’s Rocket to the Morgue as we drove down to attend my grandmother’s funeral, and I’ve (totally without planning it) ended up reading this as I’m about to head to Wales again for the interment of my grandparents’ ashes. I can’t imagine I’m going to ever feel like reading Boucher’s work again at this rate, because there’s something about his style in this book that takes me very vividly back to reading Rocket to the Morgue. Oops.

That said, not a huge loss; I find it pleasant enough, but not something I’m wildly excited about.

I’m also reading Queer as Folklore, by Sacha Coward, which I’m finding interesting enough so far. Also The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry (David Musgrove & Michael John Lewis), which I’m enjoying, and Reignclowd Palace (Philippa Rice), which I need to give some more attention.

What will you be reading next?

I don’t know. I’d like to say I’ll read KJ Charles’ The Duke at Hazard, because a) I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet, and b) it’s the very centre of this month’s Litsy bingo card, but I don’t know. I’ve been weirdly resistant to starting it, even though I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. I might just start something I have few expectations of, like Sidney J. Shields’ The Honey Witch — or focus on the other books I’m technically currently reading that have slipped onto the back-burner.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up with Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch last night! And yep, that Mr Collins, from Pride & Prejudice. It’s a retelling that fleshes out Mr Collins and empathises with him, giving us a probably-on-the-spectrum man who’s masking all the time, and has to get married in order to keep up appearances — while his most important bond is actually to a friend of his boyhood, with whom he doesn’t have to pretend. I need to write my full review, but I liked it quite a bit. I don’t know if it helps that I’m not a huge Jane Austen fan, or whether a super-fan would get more out of it, but I had fun, anyway.

What are you currently reading?

As ever, I have a few books on the go at once. This morning I started on a new one, Reignclowd Palace, by Philippa Rice. I hadn’t heard anything about this book before, just decided it looked fun when I saw it in the bookshop, so I don’t know a lot about it, but so far I’m enjoying it. A bit of a Howl’s Moving Castle vibe, I guess?

The rest of what I’m reading is mostly non-fiction; I just started John S. Tregoning’s Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them, which is… pretty upbeat and triumphant about how we can beat pretty much all infections, which for me sounds a bit like dangerous overconfidence in a world where we can’t figure out how to prevent or reverse the consequences of various viral infections. I’m not far into it, so I don’t have a great feel for whether there are going to be caveats and cautionary notes. We’ll see, I guess.

I’m also working my way through Emma Chapman’s First Light: astrophysics not being my thing, some of the in-depth explanations of stuff aren’t really holding my attention. Again, I’m not that far into it, though, and it’s possible I’ll settle in a bit more.

What will you be reading next?

Uketsu’s Strange Houses would be a good bet. I was lucky to only be second in the holds queue for it, and I suspect there are a few more behind me, so I should get to it sooner rather than later. It’s not a long book, and if it’s anything like Strange Pictures, I’ll fly through it.

Also, I have Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Deep Dark checked out on Libby, but it’s non-renewable with one person in the queue for it, so I should make time for it soon.

Neither of those books are on my Litsy Book Spin Bingo card, though they’d fit in the free spaces, so it’s possible I’ll start something from that first, too…