vivdunstan

Catching up with this, and another 6 titles finished since my last post:

( earlier books )

Winter's Heart (Wheel of Time book 9) by Robert Jordan
Insomniacs After School volume 6 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
The Wee Free Men (Discworld book 30) by Terry Pratchett
Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan

Of the new ones, the Wheel of Time 9th book was not as bad as I feared. Still way too long, still over written. And I'm rather dreading book 10, which retells much of the same plot apparently as book 10. But not too bad, and overall enjoyable. I am determined to get to the end of the series!

Still loving the Insomniacs After School manga series, though trying to spread them out, because there are still some more due to be published in English translation.

Assassin's Apprentice is the first Robin Hobb book I have read. I enjoyed it a lot, though some bits made me so very angry as I was reading. Angry at the author for making me go through reading them! But it was well written. I expect to continue on to the sequel in the near future.

Belladonna is a Young Adult gothic/fantasy/historical/romance book. I'm honestly surprised how "spicy" it was, given the age it was targeted at. I also found it a slog to keep going through much of it, and it needed heftier editing. But I did enjoy it enough that I might read the sequel.

Continuing my reread of the Discworld "Witches" mini series of books saw me get to the first Tiffany Aching book. These Tiffany books late in Terry's writing life are so very good. I can understand why he was so fond of them and also so proud of them.

I enjoyed Lucy Mangan's book recalling her childhood reading, from her very earliest memories of being read to, through to her transition to adulthood. She's a couple of years younger than me, but we read many similar books in childhood. Though she didn't share my enthusiasm for fantasy, and was far more keen than me on contemporary fiction and also dystopian which I tend to avoid.

I am now reading the first in David Bishop's Renaissance Florence set series of mystery/thrillers. As well as continuing to read a non fiction book about a slow canal boat journey around England, another British Library Weird Tales short story collection, and more.

Finishing my 25th book means that I've reached my self-set Goodreads reading goal of the year. I was very modest in my 2025 reading goal, and wanted it to be something easily achievable, not least given how sedated and time limited I am now. And to be fair the last 6 months have included some whoppers, including another Wheel of Time book, and a reread of Charles Dickens's very lengthy Our Mutual Friend. I will keep reading, but it's nice to have 25 books under my belt.

My main book reads at the moment, as usual reading on my Kindle so I can have an utterly gargantuan font needed for my progressive neurological disease. I will soon be finishing Wheel of Time book 9 and starting Assassin's Apprentice, which is this month's read for my book club.

Screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite, black & white screen, showing 6 book covers. On the top row are Wheel of Time Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan, The Water Road narrowboat book by Paul Gogarty and Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. Below are The Haunted Trail collection of weird fiction in the British Library Tales of the Weird series, a collected Complete Sherlock Holmes, and Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. Progress percentages for the books include 72% through the Wheel of Time book, 25% through the canals book, 8% through Belladonna (only recently started), and 37% through Sherlock Holmes (nearing the end of "Memoirs").

Still struggling not to type 2024 at the top of these posts!

( earlier books )

Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott
A Middle-earth Album: Paintings by Joan Wyatt Inspired by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Joan Wyatt
Could You Survive Midsomer? – A Winter's Murder: An Official Midsomer Murders Interactive Novel by Simon Brew
Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen by Edward Parnell
Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide by Nick Groom
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

I've written reviews of Captive Queen, the Midsomer Murders gamebook and Eerie East Anglia.

Of the others, the Tolkien paintings book was nice, though there were some curious choices, especially re the hobbits. The Shakespeare book was great in parts, but had an almost total blind spot on detailed coverage of the many plays, which felt like a huge omission. Our Mutual Friend was a delight for me, as always. And The Principle of Moments, the first in a planned trilogy, was a heady mix of fantasy, space opera and time travelling shenanigans. Probably more ambitious in its goals than it ultimately achieved. But still a riveting read, and I will read the other books.

DNF-ing one non fiction book tonight that's not working well for me, and starting another instead, Paul Gogarty's "The Water Road: a narrowboat odyssey through England".

Cover of "The Water Road" by Paul Gogarty, featuring a rather painterly and bucolic image of a canal with narrowboats on it.

Finished reading a new book about the letters of Mary Queen of Scots last night, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott. Review to follow soon on my academic blog. Meanwhile, and continuing the literary theme, I’ve started reading about a 1930s book forgery case, The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world by Joseph Hone. Likely to review that book in due course too.

Cover of "Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots" by Jade Scott. The cover is richly designed, with emblems such as the thistle and rose against a rich blue background. At the top of the cover is a contemporary image of Mary herself. Around the edge designs twine further.

Cover of "The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world" by Joseph Hone. The image shows a partially torn book being looked at through a magnifying glass. In the background and around the edge are green art deco style detailing, harking back to the 1930s era being discussed in the book.

Crikey I so wanted to type 2024 there haha!

I've got off to a flying start this year, partly with 2 books that were hang overs from before, but also a quick read for my book club. But then I also quickly read 3 other books that had been hanging around for too long, and I wanted to pass on to charity shops. I'd previously started reading a couple of them.

An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Jean Menzies
Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb by Zahi Hawass
ABBA: The Treasures by Ingmarie Halling and Carl Magnus Palm

An Academy for Liars is a dark academia book, with rather a lot of violence and gore added to the mix. It was ok, but I had to push to keep reading it to the end. 3/5 stars.

Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri was an incredible insight into the experience and history of black hair. A strong 4/5 stars.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop was another 3/5 star read for me. Ok, mostly, but a rather odd writing style, and an unexpected and lengthy shift away from the cosy bookshop setting mid way through. 3/5 stars.

Egyptian Myths by classical historian and YouTuber Jean Menzies was an entertaining and informative text, full of striking large format illustrations from Katie Ponder. I did find the order and structure a little confusing in places, but I learned a lot. 4/5 stars.

Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb is a large format coffee table book, filled with huge photographs and details of many hundreds of items from Tutankhamun's tomb. The items chosen are a selection carefully curated by Zahi Hawass, and it's not exhaustive. But for what you did get it was jaw dropping, including multi-page folding out large photographs. Both Martin and I were stunned by parts. 5/5 stars.

ABBA: The Treasures is a large format squidgy book telling much of the story of ABBA in photographs, reminiscences, and reproductions of paper ephemera connected with them, tucked into folders inside that you open up and work through the contents of. It's a nice book, but a rather narrow perspective on their life, focusing mainly on some of their 1970s international tours, which one of the authors accompanied them on. I did feel that I was missing out on the wider story. But the folders of paper ephemera were a delight. I was particularly amused by the customs list, for the Australian tour I think, including a "piano accordion". 4/5 stars.

Current main Kindle reading for me. The top 6 books in the picture below are the main books I'm currently reading. A mix of fiction and non fiction.

Screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite showing rows of book covers. The top 6 books are "Days at the Morisaki Bookshop", "Eerie East Anglia" Tales of the Weird from the British Library, "Captive Queen" by Jade Scott about the newly decrypted letters of Mary Queen of Scots, the "Complete Sherlock Holmes", "Grimoires: a history of magic books" by Owen Davies, and the play script of "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis" by Sir David Lindsay.

Here are the books I'm currently mainly reading on my Kindle. It was frustratingly difficult to get a screenshot off the new Kindle Paperwhite. 2024 Kindle models don't mount on Macs as the older ones did, and you have to use an application on the Mac which is urgle. But still easier than me building an infographic of my own. Even if this one is in black and white. Shortly to start on Eerie East Anglia and The Thrie Estaitis.

It might have been possible to access the Kindle file system through the Mac's Unix-like Terminal, but I only thought of that after unplugging and putting my USB-C cable away!

But apparently even that won't work, because the new 2024 Kindles now use MTP to transfer data between computers and Kindles. And MTP isn't natively supported on newer Macs, unlike in Windows and Linux. There are work arounds, but I'm probably best using the app for those rare occasions I might want to.

EDIT: Nope, solved by installing OpenMTP on my Mac. Which is a little clunky, but much better than Amazon's new "Send to Kindle" app on the Mac. I don't need to transfer files to/from the Kindle via USB often. Copying screenshots - a new thing for me - might be just about my only regular ish use! But it will be doable with OpenMTP. Phew.

Screenshot of a Kindle screen showing book covers including the Booker winning Orbital plus others

Finished loads more books, and just wrapped up my 50th book of the year. I'd set a very modest Goodreads reading goal of 25 books this year. I knew I was intending to read a lot of lengthy books. But I've more than doubled it.

Among the new books, Steeple Chasing was a fun glimpse into church architecture, history and people. Though probably overlong. It did feel like a slog after a while.

Of course I reread Roger Zelazny's Halloween delight! And enjoyed it as much as every year.

Clanlands, by two Outlander actors (one also a hobbit) was fun, and often really insightful into Scottish history. But overly blokey for me.

Mario's Butt was an entertaining perspective on video game characters and design. Though an easier read for those games I was familiar with, having played myself, or watched Martin play.

The Insomniacs After School manga series continues to be enchanting. I already have the next two volumes in hand, ready to continue reading.

Travis Baldree's followup (well more a prequel) to Legends & Lattes was fun, but didn't quite hit the high spots of his earlier book. But a charming fantasy setting, with added bookshop content.

( earlier books... )

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
Things I Learned from Mario's Butt by Laura Kate Dale
Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 4 by Makoto Ojiro
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Many more books finished since last time, so I need to do a catch up! Luckily easy for me to do, since I note the books I've read, plus a rating, in Goodreads.

I'd been slowly reading the Sisto and Marchese Middle Earth book, and finally finished. An absolutely brilliant book, for both the newcomer to Tolkien's worlds, and old timers. So much useful reference material I even bought myself a print copy after finishing the Kindle version.

I continue to adore the Insomniacs After School manga series. It probably helps that one of the lead characters looks uncannily like a schoolboy version of my husband! But it's a charming and gentle slice of life, including hefty astronomy elements. I expect to read all of this.

I learned about Intellect Books' Fan Phenomena range of books from the Glasgow Worldcon dealers' room, which I was browsing from a distance. The Lord of the Rings book is very out of print sadly. But I've got the Doctor Who one to read, and first read a bargain copy (£3) Game of Thrones one I picked up secondhand. A huge range of essays exploring different perspectives of fandom. Worked even for me who has never properly read or watched Game of Thrones.

A Darker Shade of Magic got better and better for me as I read it, after a slightly rocky start. I expect to complete the trilogy. And probably go onto the sequel trilogy that is newly starting.

The Phantasmagoria magazines/books were things I'd picked up a while back. Print on demand books from Amazon, large format, collecting a huge range of articles, art work, reflections, and fiction by and about the subjects. The MR James one was a solid 5/5 stars for me. I am keeping it.

The Girl From The Other Side manga wasn't a hit for me. Just too strange, though it got more interesting on the way through.

( earlier books )

Why We Love Middle-earth: An Enthusiast’s Book about Tolkien, Middle-earth & the LOTR Fandom by Alan Sisto and Shawn Marchese
Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 3 by Makoto Ojiro
Fan Phenomena: Game of Thrones edited by Kavita Mudan Finn
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Phantasmagoria Special Edition Series #3: M.R. James
Phantasmagoria Special Edition Series #2: The Lovecraft Squad
The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún (manga) volume 1 by Nagabe

Lots more books finished since last time. Rather a mixed bag.

The graphic novel Robyn from Blue Fox Comics was a gender-swap reworking of Robin Hood. Nice artwork, but often confusing storytelling.

Manga Insomniacs After School continues to delight. An innocent coming of age story, involving two likeable kids, and some astronomy.

The second Bridgerton book started off really well. Sparkling verbal repartee between the two lead characters. But the writing went significantly downhill later.

I adore The Lord of the Rings. So I was very very happy rereading Fellowship. Will continue with the rest in the coming months.

Queen Macbeth was a historically grounded retelling of the true historical character that Shakespeare misrepresents. Until it went off into sheer flights of fancy. It also felt like what should have been a much longer book that turned into so many "then this happened" in the breathless closing pages. However I'm glad I read it, not least after seeing (online) Val McDermid talk recently about it at the Edinburgh Book Festival. It's also a quick read, more of a novella. One of a series of "Darkland Tales" retelling Scottish history in that format.

The Adapting Tolkien book of seminar papers was a varied set, some less successful than others. I was exasperated by how poorly the illustrations for one paper - so essential to what it was discussing - were reproduced in the Kindle ebook. Luckily I found a YouTube video of the original seminar paper presentation! But an interesting mix, ranging across within Tolkien's Legendarium, Elvish in the films, the Folio Society's illustrated Silmarillion, and the process of naming astronomical objects after Tolkien names. And more.

( earlier books )

Robyn Volume One - No One Above Another (graphic novel) by Simon Birks et al
Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 2 by Makoto Ojiro
Bridgerton: The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid
Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar. Peter Roe Series XX edited by Will Sherwood

Back in April I blogged about my plan to reread all the Sherlock Holmes short stories in sequence. And blog through them as I go.

That plan was put on hold while I was extremely ill again from May through August. But I'm now firmly back on track. Already part way through a reread of "A Scandal in Bohemia". And making notes for a blog post/review/critique/reflections.

So blog post upcoming. Not my favourite Holmes story, but I'm having a fresh appreciation for it this time. And definitely appreciating it more than 11-year-old me did in 1984, watching the Jeremy Brett TV version.

The Holmes short stories are also an extremely tempting reading option, one at a time, if I feel I need an alternative to my current fiction book(s) or rather more heavy-going non-fiction books.

More soon ...

The books I'm currently reading. A mix of fiction (historical and fantasy), history, architecture/religion, Tolkien and space/astronomy.

Two rows of three books each: Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross, Adapting Tolkien essays, and Chasing New Horizons by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon

Two rows of three books each: Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross, Adapting Tolkien essays, and Chasing New Horizons by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon

Just three more books finished since last time. Though I've already reached my 2024 reading goal of 25 books finished. Which was, admittedly, a very modest goal. Of the new books read two were 3-star reads for me, and the other a 5-star read. That was the tale of bicycle riding Norwegian Forest Cat Sigrid in London. I've been following her on Instagram for a while, and it's been a delight to learn her history. I am now in a slight holding pattern fiction wise until the middle of July. But still reading lots of non fiction books. Plus some manga. And still a play script book. Those last ones in print.

( earlier books )

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
Sigrid Rides: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship and An Adventure on Two Wheels by Travis Nelson
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

This is a book about Victor Hugo's book Les Miserables, and its writing, structure, publishing, reception, and legacy. Note I couldn't fit the author's full name into the subject field of this review. It's written by David Bellos, Professor of French Literature at Princeton University.

It is a book that is probably best read by those who have either read the original Hugo novel already, or know the musical version really well (or both). Because it is extremely spoilery re the novel's plot. I also felt it had a bit too much about French political history in places, and it dragged sometimes.

However overall it was a strong read, rating 4/5 stars. As well as much about the structure of the novel and its hidden meanings (e.g. words for currency, Hugo's use of slang, and so much more) I found the publishing history an incredible read. Much of the novel was written by Hugo in exile in Guernsey. And so when it came to be published, including proofed and typeset, this was done via mail boat between Brussels and Guernsey. Which was fraught in so many ways, especially in the time scale the publisher was pushing towards. Hugo's domestic setup was also curious. He lived with his wife, daughter and sometimes sons. But had also established his long-term mistress in a neighbouring house beyond the end of his garden. And he would dine with her each day. His mistress was also the main person taking on the tax of writing out in neat form his finished manuscripts. A task she shared with Hugo's wife's sister. Some curious interpersonal relationships!

I would personally have liked more reflections on the after legacy of the novel, not least more on the musical which spread the story's reach even further. This book wraps up too quickly. But as effectively the biography of the life of a novel, including its production, it was strong.

I have some more books on the go more sporadically. But the ones below are my current main reads. All read on my Kindle.

Picture showing 6 book covers. On the top row Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman, Sigrid Rides by Travis Nelson, Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami, then below that Why We Love Middle-Earth by Marchese and Sisto, Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Picture showing 6 book covers. On the top row Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman, Sigrid Rides by Travis Nelson, Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami, then below that Why We Love Middle-Earth by Marchese and Sisto, Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Catching up with this list another month on. I have nearly finished another book, but am posting this belatedly to mark the end of April ish. I am relieved to have just finished book 8 of The Wheel of Time. A book which very much deserves the descriptive word "slog". And that was with me skimming much of it. But I am still enjoying the series too much to stop. Just 6 books to go ... Conversely the text games book was an absolute highlight of my reading in recent years. Even if I did take quite a long time to read through it. It was very much worth the time.

( Read more... )

Delicious in Dungeon (manga) volume 1 by Ryoko Kui
50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon by Aaron A. Reed
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
Murder Isn't Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine
The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time book 8) by Robert Jordan

A grid of 2x3 book covers including fiction and non fiction, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the complete Sherlock Holmes

Alongside lots of fiction books I read non fiction books, usually having one main one on the go alongside one or more novels. This book about the history of forensics studied through the lens of Agatha Christie stories is my latest read. And it was very enjoyable. Rating 4/5 stars. The author is the curator of a pathology museum and I believe worked for many years as a forensic technician, assisting with post-mortems.

Each chapter looks at a different aspect of forensics, and explains the context in which Agatha Christie's stories fit into, and how she depicts the techniques used in her stories. This use of her own stories is powerful, but would appeal more to someone who is very familiar with lots of her plots. The book is careful not to reveal major spoilers, but a sense of recognition would work best for the reader in these sections.

Alongside discussing forensics using Agatha's stories each chapter explains the history of the relevant aspect of forensics, discussing evolving techniques, and numerous real life cases. Many of these are very well known to the general audience (e.g. Dr Crippen), but others much less so. And all are well described, covering developments in forensics primarily up to and throughout Agatha Christie’s life.

I did skip quite a lot of the autopsy chapter, having lost my Dad relatively recently, and not least because he donated his body to medical science for anatomy students to learn from. But I hugely enjoyed what I read.

One slight disappointment for me was in the table of murder methods by story at the back of the book. This seems to just focus on Agatha's novels, not her shorter stories, of which there were so very many. So it presented a very incomplete picture. But the main section of the text is full of references to these.

However this is a slight quibble. The book could perhaps be trimmed a little for me as well, but is an effective read. To be fair I have read a lot of Agatha Christie's stories. But it would also work well for fans of TV programmes like CSI who want to know more of the real life history.

Book with an art deco style cover with a black background and objects in the foreground including a vial (of poison?) and a magnifying glass