Another fun collection of science cartoons by Tom Gauld. Many of these have been published in New Scientist, so if you subscribe to that, you may recognize a few, but what a fun way to revisit them. I like Gauld‘s science cartoons almost more than his literature cartoons. He‘s particularly skilled at telling jokes with image legends, and he isn‘t afraid to lean into very silly concepts. Highly recommended if you like science and absurdity.

A low-ish Pick. Weird and kind of creepy, but a quick read. Some real body horror with experimentation on humans, and a distressing storyline involving a girl named Lucy. The story is leavened a bit by having Arthur Conan Doyle team up with the Fourth Doctor to investigate the case and Sarah Jane meeting Rudyard Kipling, seen here as a teenager (albeit hitting on Sarah Jane...talk about “never meet your heroes”, yikes).

This collection took me 6 months to read :( Each story riffs on a different type of mystery story: Scandi-crime, historical mystery, courtroom drama, and private eye. One story was predictable, one OK, one boring, and one interesting (this being Carnival of Angels, which features River's PI persona Melody Malone). Hoping Series 8 of the diaries is more exciting.

This is a cute, silly story about Roxy, a witch who specializes in pizza magic, and she‘s trying to get into magic university by questing for magical ingredients with the help of her cat, George. The story moved along nicely and ends at a point fit for sequel or stand-alone. Cool “bonus material” where Sarah and Stef talk about their process for creating the comic. After reading this, I want pizza!

#BookSpin picks for January 2026:
BookSpin: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight (Weis)
DoubleSpin: Previous Roll100, which will probably be something Doctor Who. Either Diary of River Song Series 7 on audio, which I started but haven‘t finished, or Doctor Who: Evolution, by John Peel, which will be my bus book next week.

“I need you to stay behind as we go into those slums,” Wayne said, determined to impress solemnity into his voice. “It‘s not that I don‘t want your help. I do. It‘s just going to be too dangerous for you. You need to stay where I know you‘re safe. No arguments. I‘m sorry.”

“Wayne,” Wax said, walking past. “Stop talking to your hat and get over here.”

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

#CosmereBuddyRead

“The Boris brothers,” Steris continued. “They‘re acquaintances of yours, aren‘t they?”
“I shot their father,” Wax said, not looking up. “Twice.”

😬😅

After a break of several months, I‘m back on the #BookSpinBingo train! I have a backlog of Roll100 picks from 2025 that I‘m planning to chip away at throughout the year, so I‘ve saved spots for those. Not much in from the library at the moment but I am sure that will change soon 😄

First #Roll100 of 2026 is all sci-fi and fantasy.

Doctor Who : The Time Meddler (Robinson)

Doctor Who : The Gods of Winter (Goss, audio)

Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Weis)

A fast read with the Third Doctor and Jo Grant. Adapted from the TV serial. The way it was written suggested some interesting cuts between POVs and conversations. I'll have to watch the serial and see how it compares with the book.

This is a hefty book packed with art from the various realms and eras of Dungeons & Dragons; black-and-white drawings sit side-by-side with lushly coloured paintings, and adorable Harengons balance out the creepy Mind Flayers. The only thing this book could have used was more captions explaining what the pictures were showing. (The artists all receive full credit in a credits index at the end of the book.)

I put this down sometime during the week of 15 December 2025 and at the same time misplaced the bookmark. I can't for the life of me remember where I was in the book, but the relatives of the murdered man were especially unpleasant, and I had zero interest in figuring out where I'd left off or whodunnit, so a bail it is.

This book takes readers on a photographic journey of Edinburgh with commentary by Ian Rankin, who shares stories of his youth and discusses how Scotland has changed over the years. I was predisposed to like this because the photographers also provided photos for some of Rankin's mid-series novels, such as Dead Souls and Set in Darkness, and that period of covers is my favourite. Would love a 2nd edition of this book (was originally from 2005!).

“The town of Weathering spread before them, a lonely collection of shops and homes, hunkered down as if waiting—in vain—for the day when the railroad would stretch its fingers this far. In the middle distance, beyond the humble buildings, a few giraffes browsed lazily, the only sign of animal life in the vast plain.”

Giraffes exist on Scadrial? Unexpected but neat. 🦒

This was a fun start to a new Mistborn arc, which takes place hundreds of years after the events of the original Mistborn trilogy. Wax and Wayne's banter had me literally laughing out loud, and the story is fast-paced and high-energy. I also liked the broadsheet articles included in the text.

I liked this installment of the Karen Pirie series well enough, but I did feel the members of the squad were oversharing somewhat with their partners and bringing them too deeply into the case (especially Daisy with Steph). So the resolution of the main case in particular strained credulity a bit for me. But the characters are fun to be with, and they get to travel around Scotland in this installment as they pursue leads.

I found this one, or at least the first three parts of it, harder to get through than the previous book in the series. Nevertheless, I liked seeing Shadesmar via the Adolin and Shallan storyline, and the last part of the book had me frequently picking my jaw up off the floor as I have often experienced with Sanderson's work. I will be interested to see where this goes in Wind and Truth... but not for a little while, haha.

The Cryptic waved again. “I get annoyed easily!“ she said. “It's endearing!“
“No it's not,“ Wit said.

I am the Cryptic and my spouse is Wit in this scenario, LOL.

I might not be reading much for pleasure while working on my master‘s thesis, but that doesn‘t stop me from buying books at my favourite used book sale 😇

This was a fun read by the former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. The book is structured as a year in reading, with a selection of topics that fit each season. It's a great book to pick up and put down, which is how I read it (although sometimes it was hard to resist “oh just one more set of words“).

This was a fun short book in the Cosmere series. With a ghost ship mentioned in the description, I was sold on this automatically, and the ocean journey was a hit as well. Fans of the Lopen will appreciate his having a bigger role here, and it was great to follow Rysn as a protagonist. I had to think for a bit about when we last saw her, but more alert Cosmere readers will pick up on it more quickly than I did. Overall, well done!

I found a lot of this book skippable, although it could just be my current reading mood.

This installment of the Stormlight Archives definitely had higher stakes and felt darker than the previous two books, with corrupted spren and clashes with the very gods themselves. It also had cool worlds (Shadesmar) and amazing acts of heroism from all sorts of people. Is this my favourite installment so far? Maybe so!

A local kitten rescue has some Stormlight kitties available for adoption: Renarin, Kaladin, and Dalinar 😂🥰
#CosmereBuddyRead

This bail is more a reflection of my reading mood than the book. Dorothy B. Hughes has interesting plots and writes well, but I just couldn't find the headspace to get into this one.

I think my favourite story in this collection was the one about Allomancer Jak, mainly because of the snarky footnotes from Jak‘s long-suffering assistant/editor 😂 but every story had something to like. I also like that the book contains info about the context in which each story was created and which Cosmere books are spoilered in each story.

#Roll100 for September 2025: sci-fi, history, and historical fiction!

UNIT 1.1: Time Heals (Big Finish audio drama)

Blood, Tears and Folly (Len Deighton)

The King‘s General (Daphne du Maurier)

Instagram has started filling my suggested posts feed with Cosmere memes, which I am here for 😂

POV: Spotting Hoid in a Cosmere novel is your favourite side quest https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLTK0qYuda-/

#CosmereBuddyRead

Although this is Sanderson‘s first novel, it is the 7th book of his I‘ve read. From this POV it‘s neat to see how early he develops some key features of his oeuvre and some Cosmere lore. The first half of this book was a bit slow for me, then the second half was really fast. So on average it‘s pretty well paced 😄

I liked this book, particularly how the author brought in her own experiences to demonstrate that working on relationships is a process, not a one-and-done. Good exercises that I will try.

Went to the bookstore today to buy a book for a colleague who is leaving my organization, and I decided I deserved a little treat too 😂 What a cute little book for the #CosmereBuddyRead ☺️

Still not reading much these days, but hope springs eternal with #BookSpinBingo. I will definitely get Elantris read this month anyway 😂

An interesting variety for #Roll100 this month.
15: Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell
69: Terminal Shock, by Franklin W. Dixon (Hardy Boys no. 102, a sentimental favourite 😂)
41: Don‘t Make a Sound, by David Jackson (Nathan Cody no. 3)

Even better than The Way of Kings! The action really ramps up in this book, and Shallan continues to be a cool character. Some surprise revelations at the end make it a tough wait to read the third book!

For the #CosmereBuddyRead, a silly meme that appeared in my FB feed 😂

The first game we played on our new gaming table? Mistborn: the Deckbuilding Game! I am very bad at this game but really enjoy playing it 😂

A light Pick. The chapters are short and follow the same format, so this is a good book to pick up and put down. If you are looking for fast-paced plot, look elsewhere. I liked this for what it was and what I am able to read at the moment. The food descriptions were great too. Not going to actively seek out the other books, but they are good to have in mind if I need them.

Although I did not finish reading the adventure, I do like how it‘s structured: there are ways to start it at different levels (in case you have existing characters to play it with) and the players can choose one of four giants to tackle at one point, with each giant having different challenges and side quests.

The actual stories being told by these comics were interesting, but I really didn't vibe with any of the art. It felt sketchy, and in one comic Ten looked more like Eleven.

Mostly SFF for #Roll100 this month.

1. The Border Keeper, by Kerstin Hall
2. Murder by the Book, ed. Martin Edwards
3. UNIT: Shutdown (Big Finish audio drama)

#BookSpinBingo is all set for July 2025! I have read very little in June, but July might go better.

Probably a 3.75/5 overall because I am out of practice reading big chunky books in general and haven‘t read much epic fantasy specifically. Took me longer to get into than the Mistborn series, but I still enjoyed it a lot (and am already reading the next book in the series).

The Mistborn deckbuilding game came back in stock at my local-ish game store. Now I can channel my inner Vin and burn metals and fight baddies 😎 #CosmereBuddyRead

I finished one of my June 2025 #Roll100 picks (The Horror of Glam Rock, which was also a February pick) early, so I gave myself an extra « owned book » space on the #BookSpinBingo list this month. Also, The Way of Kings is a carryover from May. Still working hard on it!

A fun short little adventure. I do love a bit of glam rock, and the stylophone is such a neat instrument. Bonus: Bernard « Wilf, Donna‘s granddad » Cribbins has a major role in this one.

A Pick for the story more than for the art; the Doctors‘ faces didn‘t always resemble them much.

I couldn‘t finish this book. The « hunter‘s log » made my skin crawl. I had an inkling about the ending, so I flipped through the last few chapters to confirm that hunch.

#Roll100 list for June 2025 has some variety of genre and 3 different formats!

Rear Window and Other Stories (Woolrich) (print)

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Archives Vol. 2 (ebook)

Horror of Glam Rock (Magrs) (audio)

In comparison to other manga series I read, this one feels more “serious” (it has fewer funny moments and the characters are competing against each other), and that was hard to get into. Also the art felt dark and hard to follow, and there weren‘t enough female characters.

This is probably not going to be useful for long-time public servants, and even for new public servants some of the material seems quite obvious. The book also feels dated despite being published in 2019. Perhaps the second edition (2025) will be a bit fresher.