Books finished in 2026, mid April edition
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanFinished a bunch more books since last month, so time for another update.
Continuing to enjoy Insomniacs After School manga, though volume 8 felt more of a filler volume than usual. The story continues to delight though, as do the lead characters. Good art too.
Bill Bryson's Shakespeare biography is very compact and concise, but well done, and covers the key issues. Also suitably analytical about the evidence and different perspectives. Recommended.
I reread the third Discovery of Witches book, a couple of years after rereading the second. The third book is by far my least favourite, with too much gratuitous violence, and also a rambling plot that needed tightening up. But it does provide a good resolution to the opening trilogy.
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett was another reread, as I work my way through the Witches subset of Discworld books. Tiffany is delightful, and here is combined with Granny Weatherwax plus the Nac Mac Feegles. Solidly 5/5, though it's not my absolute favourite Tiffany book.
Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book was recommended to me by a birding friend, who knew it would give me an insight into the psychology of birders like Martin. Excellent stuff, though it was originally written back in 1980, and much is very dated now in terms of how birders operate. But still insightful, and ever so amusing. I read lots of bits out loud to Martin.
Duncan Mackay's Echolands book about Boudica is a voyage of discovery, digging into her story and the landscapes in which the story unfolded. On the downside I struggled an awful lot with the numerous descriptions of places and landscape. I probably have aphantasia from my neurological disease, and it's worsened over the years as the disease has progressed further. I couldn't picture enough what was being described, though I think the written descriptions were fair. I was also frustrated by footnotes in the Kindle version not being hot linked, so pretty useless in that format. But it was an evocative read, and the discussion of the archaeological evidence was gripping.
- The Hobbit: Graphic Novel by JRR Tolkien, illustrated by David Wenzel
- Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
- Stone & Sky (Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch
- A Venetian Bestiary by Jan Morris
- Doctor Who: 1001 Nights in Time and Space by Steve Cole and Paul Magrs
- Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
- Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince
- Insomniacs After School volume 8 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
- Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson
- The Book of Life (Discovery of Witches book 3) by Deborah Harkness
- A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching book 2) by Terry Pratchett
- Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book by Bill Oddie
- Echolands: A Journey in Search of Boudica by Duncan Mackay
Continuing to enjoy Insomniacs After School manga, though volume 8 felt more of a filler volume than usual. The story continues to delight though, as do the lead characters. Good art too.
Bill Bryson's Shakespeare biography is very compact and concise, but well done, and covers the key issues. Also suitably analytical about the evidence and different perspectives. Recommended.
I reread the third Discovery of Witches book, a couple of years after rereading the second. The third book is by far my least favourite, with too much gratuitous violence, and also a rambling plot that needed tightening up. But it does provide a good resolution to the opening trilogy.
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett was another reread, as I work my way through the Witches subset of Discworld books. Tiffany is delightful, and here is combined with Granny Weatherwax plus the Nac Mac Feegles. Solidly 5/5, though it's not my absolute favourite Tiffany book.
Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book was recommended to me by a birding friend, who knew it would give me an insight into the psychology of birders like Martin. Excellent stuff, though it was originally written back in 1980, and much is very dated now in terms of how birders operate. But still insightful, and ever so amusing. I read lots of bits out loud to Martin.
Duncan Mackay's Echolands book about Boudica is a voyage of discovery, digging into her story and the landscapes in which the story unfolded. On the downside I struggled an awful lot with the numerous descriptions of places and landscape. I probably have aphantasia from my neurological disease, and it's worsened over the years as the disease has progressed further. I couldn't picture enough what was being described, though I think the written descriptions were fair. I was also frustrated by footnotes in the Kindle version not being hot linked, so pretty useless in that format. But it was an evocative read, and the discussion of the archaeological evidence was gripping.