vivdunstan

Finished a bunch more books since last month, so time for another update.

( earlier books )
1. Insomniacs After School volume 8 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
2. Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson
3. The Book of Life (Discovery of Witches book 3) by Deborah Harkness
4. A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching book 2) by Terry Pratchett
5. Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book by Bill Oddie
6. 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.

Current main reading, on my Kindle as usual, so I can read with the utterly gargantuan font needed now due to my progressive neurological disease. A mix of fiction and non fiction.

Just finished this, the first in a new trilogy of British set fantasy novels. I’d say urban fantasy at a push, but it’s somewhat rural too, set largely in northern England. The story revolves around five witches who we first meet as young girls. Then we meet them again years later, by which time there’s been a magic war. All are now involved to some extent in the secret witches organisation run as part of the UK establishment. And then things kick off. I found the book tricky initially, with probably one too many main characters for me to not get confused. The back story of what had happened in the magical war was also a lot of information to take in as it was gradually revealed. However by halfway through I was well and truly gripped, and remained so to the end. The book has an extremely novel take on gender identity issues, which is totally fitting here. And the ending is a stunner. I will absolutely have to read the next book. Good stuff. Rating: 4 stars.