I decided to get started on this right away, so I won't fall out of remembering who's who again, and can build on what I remember from book two.

Of course, that means it's instantly gone into flashback mode with some new characters on top...

I think my favourite thing remains Greta's nerdery about Oasis Natrun and Erebus General.

I'm really not sure how there's another book after this, but now I'm all set to try it!

Ridiculously cute. Not a lot of substance or conflict, just two dudes dating and nobody having a problem with it, even with an age gap.

There's a lot to like about this historical mystery, though I found Sarah a bit too inclined to judge, and overall it was a bit darker and more filled with trauma than I usually find enjoyable.

CN: misogyny, homophobia, rape, violence, medical trauma, forced institutionalisation, forced sterilisation, probably more that aren't springing to mind.

This is a lovely concept, and inevitably a mixed bag -- some of the poems and interpretations of how to answer them speak to me or fit my taste, and some don't. A worthwhile collection.

I'm still finding myself a little lost at times; there's so many similar names, and I feel like I need to draw a dang family tree including everyone's birth names and courtesy names.

Still, I know I'll get the hang of it as the story goes on, so I'm trying not to sweat the details.

I really liked the Yi City story in the end, even if it's tragic.

My heart is a little crushed by the story of Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan. Oof.

The chapters in this volume are SO long, though, goodness.

I found it a bit slow and lacking in the urgency to, you know, go save the guy's sister. The concept is fun, though, and I enjoy how much of a scientist Laios is (though not explicitly on page called a scientist, he's clearly fascinated by how monsters work).

I'm finding this a bit slow, but I did giggle about the whole recommendation not to eat basilisk raw, because of the risk of Campylobacter!

A very American-eye view of bipolar disorder. Nothing too surprising as far as the (obviously partly autobiographical) experiences go, but “bipolar bear“ is a fun idea.

I can't really complain about it being kinda simplistic since it is, of course, billed as a fable.

It is, and I say this in the kindest possible way, very obviously written by someone with bipolar disorder.

Quite a fun collection, although there's one repeat in there (not sure from which of the collections, but I definitely know it's a repeat). That last one is quite macabre!

And oof, thank you, brain, for getting back to reading again.

Defines "hiraeth" as an "excellent Welsh word for the mournful longing for home", ugh. No. It's a longing for Wales, specifically -- a Wales that may not exist.

Absolutely nuts to say that Mole in Wind in the Willows feels hiraeth when he passes his old burrow.

I should probably sit down and just binge this one, because that's usually the best way for me to get a handle on all the characters (and their courtesy names vs other names, their clans, their sects, and all the other info that shapes how they relate to each other). Also my wife's started vol 1 and is thus raaaapidly catching up to me.

I'm finding this one difficult going because the main character has plainly been horrifically raped and is being blamed for it in a period-typical manner. I don't think I'd have chosen it for myself if I'd known about that part, honestly; I was interested in the fact that she's studying to be a doctor and ends up trying to discover the murderer of a body she receives to dissect.

In accordance with my difficulty in settling down at the moment, I'm also partway through this one. It's surprisingly chonky for one of these anthologies, but either way, the short stories are suiting my rather bitty attention.

Also, I'm enjoying it to a surprising degree, so far, not usually being an “impossible mystery“ fan. I liked that the one I just read was just a mystery and not actually crime at all.

I've been having trouble settling down to read in the past few days, but I did manage to read a few chapters of this today! I'm enjoying it and it matches well with the course I did on children's literature in my undergrad, and what I remember of my third-year housemate's dissertation.

I appreciate that it's very clear that it's mostly talking about British childhood reading, rather than defaulting to that silently.

Bit of a weird mix, being selected and new poems, but some lovely ones. I wonder if you put the poems side by side with the novels, you'd see her playing with the same theme in different media...

I reaaaally don't rate Brand as highly as some people do. There's something so mean about her writing, I think. Not just the homophobia, but the way she writes about unattractive or less intelligent or poor women.

Soothingly completely unrelated to anything I'm normally interested in. Has black-and-white images which helps illustrate the features of the churches it talks about.

Some poor editing (sentences don't make sense, spelling mistakes), it jumped out at me quite a bit. Did also jump around a bit, sometimes mentioning a new term randomly, only defining it a few pages (or chapters) later.

Making good progress on #10BeforeTheEnd.

This is soothingly slow and focused on small, mildly interesting details which I don't have to remember if I don't want to, which is making it the ideal reading for me today, it seems.

But, with two hours estimated to go to finish it, I won't be finishing it tonight and have to go to bed. Boo.

Ah, someone took the idea “what if there's actually something sinister behind all the murders happening in [small town]“ and ran with it.

I found it a bit slow at times, and just... didn't wholly click with it. But overall it was a fun idea.

I'm not the biggest fan of Christianna Brand in general, but oof, the homophobia in this one. And I don't remember Charlesworth being quite such an ass in the other books he features in (though I don't like him).

Yeah, I'm mostly just reading this to be completionist.

I ended up inhaling over half of this today. It's very much food for thought that we have less privacy in law than we used to: in Scotland, now, you can be prosecuted for private speech in your own living room. It's surprising how ambivalent and unsure I feel about some of this.

Definitely gonna sit with it a bit before I write a full review.

This was one of my #10BeforeTheEnd; 5/10 now read.

Well, I thought I was likely to DNF this from the pretentious beginning, especially when it decided folds in clothes obviously should make everyone think of vaginas, but when it refers to a trans girl character with male pronouns throughout, I knew it'd be a skim and bin (or in this case, back to the library with a warning note tucked in for the next reader). Just because the character discussed is fictional gives absolutely no excuse.

Oh boy, don't think this is going to be for me. Rambling, attempting to be philosophical, wants you to know how clever it is.

This was pretty interesting, if sometimes a bit prone to jumping from point to point. I need to look up the sources for the claim that prion diseases are likely caused by viruses; as explained here, it sounds plausible, except that other evidence (like lack of immune response in victims of prion diseases) tells against it. I guess I'll update in a comment if I find anything useful.

Ahhh, this is pretty perfect. It rounds off the whole story beautifully.

I guess the only thing to dislike is that of course Tianchi turns out not to be disabled after all: his muteness is caused by a poison, which can be cured, at which point he learns to speak. There's also a scene where Li Yu seems to treat being disabled like a bad thing, telling the kids that Tianchi isn't “different“, he's just sick. It's... hm. But given the context...

Ohh, that certainly went places. I think I'd hoped for a happier ending, but... no, this makes sense.

The good: there is some interesting information about the Soviet space programme.

The bad: the author is deeply, deeply biased against the Soviets. He can't admit that they ever did a single thing right.

Also, he snidely dismisses Wally Funk's space flight in a paragraph in which he gets the facts wrong. He claims she was below the threshold (the Kármán line, 100km), but Blue Origin peaked at 107 and WAS above the Kármán line.

This... is very anti-Russian, in a way that feels like being anti-Russian is a principle for him. Like I get their space programme was an omnishambles, but there's just this air of total contempt about it that doesn't feel limited to hatred of incompetence. Not sure if I will finish it.

This is a pretty good summary and description of the pyramids we know, trying to dig into their function somewhat and figure out why some of them failed. If you're fascinating by ancient Egyptian burial practices, this one's a winner.

This does feel a bit middle-booky, all lead-up to a confrontation which won't happen in this volume. Still, it gives a bit more development to the characters and the background of how stuff works, and I still love the art/character designs. Curious how the series turns out.

Also, a bingo for #BookSpinBingo this early? I'm clearly not myself!

This really got too ingenious for its own good at times; it overstayed its welcome after about 60%. I can appreciate what Berkeley was doing with the structure of the mystery, expectations, etc, etc, but it got annoying.

Plus, y'know, Berkeley's misogyny isn't a super fun time.

This is starting to drive me batty. Roger Sheringham isn't a favourite detective of mine anyway, and watching him get everyone in trouble with fake alibis... argh!

Interesting! Berkeley often liked playing around with the structure of crime stories, and in this one he shows us the murder being committed with names and all... and the introduction (by Martin Edwards) implies that the detective actually ends up being wrong. Very curious how this plays out.

(It is showing signs of Berkeley's issues about women, though.)

This book means very well, but a) it actually explains things very badly, despite trying very hard, and b) fails to make a good case for taking DNA into account in trying to create a more equal society.

This feels like reading fanfic, for the very good reason that it was. The serial numbers have been filed off, but the overall feel is very much still there. That's not a criticism per se, just a fact.

There is some fun dialogue, some fun scenes, but oh my goodness they're both unbearable and the romantic scenes are pure (and awful) purple prose. I enjoyed myself but also had SO many objections.

But hey, this was my #BookSpin.

I am completely glazing over with this book. We're 100 pages in, and she's overcomplicatedly explained genome-wide association studies via an analogy that takes more time to lay out than it does to just explain GWAS on its own terms, and otherwise she's mostly just said: intelligence is influenced by genetics, the differences between individuals can be large, the differences between ancestral groups are likely not due to variations in the same...

Received to review, ages ago. My bad.

This ended up pretty fascinating, and I'm definitely getting my dad a copy. It covers the underlying principles that constrain Lego sets, design considerations, the physics of it, and much of the history of various sets and themes.

I remember these horses! I had no idea they were kinda "controversial" internally at Lego.

The bit you can see around the saddle area was a brick you could take out, so a mini-figure's legs could be put in instead, to look like they were riding the horse.

I think I might've found Dad's Christmas present, this goes into stuff like the physics of how Lego bricks connect. I don't always follow, but I'm finding it interesting too.

Oh, well, both of these people are fucking unbearable, aren't they? Sheesh.

“It was hard, being perfect in an imperfect world, but Aurienne managed. If she had a flaw, it was that she was the Best, and she knew she was the Best. Some called it arrogance. She called it competence untainted by performative humility. But if she was the Best - as brilliant as she was beautiful, a researcher unparalleled...“

It goes on. What in the everloving hell.

Well, here we go again: here's November's #BookSpinBingo card for me! I've already made a solid start, knocking out two books and two free spaces.

Yeaaah, okay, I'm all-in with this ending. Yes, Jigeon is manipulative to the end and things could've turned out very differently, but he lays his cards on the table and is honest in the end, because otherwise their bond won't be fully realised.

Would I recommend anyone get into such a romance? Well, heck no. But Wooseo makes an informed choice in the end.

Jigeon is super manipulative, including of his brother, but somehow I'm rooting for him anyway -- in part because Jiseok physically hurt Wooseo, which Jigeon has never done despite his flaws.

Very curious how this is going to wrap up with a happy ending, but apparently I have to go sleep. Booooooooooo.

Almost forgot to report in for @Puddlejumper's #PumpkabooHunt -- tada! It was a really good month for reading.

I'm sure now that Jigeon's behaviour is *supposed* to be kinda creepy, so I'm settling into this a bit more now. Now it's starting to look like an interesting exploration of obsession -- even if I think it is likely to settle out to being a true relationship in the end.

Curious about Jiseok's exact feelings for Wooseo, too...

Context: Jigeon has told Wooseo to pretend he's Jiseok and kiss him, which (because of their magic bond) feels euphoric and also bonds them closer together.

If this is meant to be intentionally kinda creepy I could be kinda behind that? But I'm not quite sure, and not sure if the story is going to present it as an unproblematic romance in the end, so I'm kind of on the fence.

I think it's very knowing, from the text box going black etc, but...?!

It was a heck of a month, thanks to #HauntedShelf! I hope I did the other #RestlessSpirits proud... 🤞

(3/5 stars means “liked it“ for me, so please don't commiserate on my awful reading month! There was plenty to like.)

Somewhat mixed feelings on this one? I found the narration a bit jarring and disorientating. Genuine sense of creepiness, but also no one really likeable, and parsing out the relationships was difficult.