A very light pick. I just find it a bit... half-baked, I guess? Comparing it with the other book I was reading partly at the same time (The Tomb of Dragons), the world-building is pretty lacking. I'm sure it's great if you just want a cosy fantasy romance, but even in cosy reads, I often need a bit more; I wasn't really feeling this one. Might or might not read more of the series.

This was my last book in my game of avoiding a #BookSpinBingo!

(Received to review via Netgalley.)

This didn't end the way I wanted it to, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I certainly enjoyed the read, and there were parts I thought were lovely, but... I'm not entirely happy about it. I thought things were going somewhere in particular, and I'm rather thrown that they weren't.

This was... incoherent and nonsensical. Like there were huge chunks missing. The art was completely indistinct -- I kept mixing up several characters who I think were separate people.

Slowly getting through this one as well. Sometimes it's so disheartening how badly the UK has done with woodland and native species.

This is going very slowly for me -- I think it's too much of a travelogue, and not organised in a way that's grabbing me, even though I am ostensibly interested in the subject.

It's probably also not working out cause I'm stressed to the gills about my wife's broken ankle and the awkwardness of our flat (which has had a long hole in the floor of the hallway that leads to the only bathroom for years, which is a problem when someone's on crutches).

I am very lukewarm about this. I can't quite call it a pick; I read it all with mild enjoyment, but very mild. I remember liking Garth Nix's work more than this in the past, but... not this, apparently.

Continuing to now avoid a #BookSpinBingo as much as possible, I'm now reading The Tomb of Dragons, and then A Pirate's Life for Tea! Although my wife has badly sprained (possibly broken) their ankle, so... I may be quite busy in the days to come.

The full book doesn't seem to be in Litsy, but oh well, this'll do. So far, it's entertaining enough without me feeling enthusiastic about it?

I really wasn't deliberately avoiding a #BookSpinBingo, but at this point, it's too funny -- I'm trying to keep it up until any book I read would be an inevitable bingo.

Drake Hall is the second book in a series; I enjoyed the first book, but wondered how it was going to handle Edith's Jewish heritage (if at all), whether it was just using it for exoticisation purposes, etc, given that she's very Christian. This book somewhat answered that worry.

Got myself unblocked with this today and raced through. I ended up enjoying it enough to finish, but it isn't a favourite with me. I think it just took too long to get beyond vibes into what recognisably felt like a plot that was going somewhere, though in retrospect the seeds were there.

Another delightful book, sad there is only one more in the series. I admit I hadn't 100% figured out the solution, only part of it. I was looking for something more subtle -- which was fully intentional on the author's part.

My library haul for today. I was there for the tagged book, which came in as a hold, but I grabbed a few others. The “blind date with a book“ ones had been set up for Christmas, and I felt bad that so many had been left unborrowed, so I scooped up any that were fantasy/SF.

They were Raymond E. Feist's King of Ashes, Karen Lord's The Blue Beautiful World, and Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad, which I miiiight have already read, I'll have to check.

I didn't DNF this, but I did start skimming. It was just so obvious. And I know it ultimately wasn't going to go *much* into the perfectly likeable female characters who get vilified by pop culture and fandom, but it didn't even touch on it. Disappointing in the end, and definitely makes me wonder if her book on horror was just as obvious to someone who actually likes horror films.

Still somehow avoiding a #BookSpinBingo by following my whim. 😂

New lesson learned: when you have only about 5-10 minutes left to read in a book, then don't try to go to sleep without finishing it... My brain kept buzzing for AGES.

Volume 2 is a lot of fun, and I read it so fast. I really should order volume 4, since I'm sure I'll devour volume 3 as well...

I didn't want to take my paperback of The Apothecary Diaries into tonight's hot bath, so I started on this instead. I dearly love this pack of idiot lawyers, and I am deeply offended that there is only one book after this and that the author is deceased. Very rude, I call that.

Yep... this was the right choice for my mood. I've read two thirds of it already; saving the last part for right before bed, or maybe tomorrow. I only have one more volume already owned, so I might have to shake my book budget later to see if I can order volume four.

I still swear I'm not deliberately avoiding a #BookSpinBingo, but... I think if I can grab some time today, I'm going to start the second Apothecary Diaries light novel. I love Maomao and her scientific approach to the world so much.

Received to review!

Took me a bit to get myself back into the world and remember what happened in the first book, but things fell into place nicely given a bit of time. I remember feeling ambivalent about the end of the first book, at what Saralene and Maddileh do to survive, and it felt like this... simplified it and robbed it of some of the ambiguous darkness I actually liked. Maybe it hadn't been intended after all.

I really like Bogutskaya's more recent book on horror, but I'm kinda reevaluating in that in light of how *obvious* this is. I grew up in fandom with Relena Peacecraft and Rinoa Heartily being vilified for being “unlikeable“, and turned into caricatures that made absolutely no sense -- angry “bitches“, “sluts“, etc. Nothing here is particularly insightful.

Contemplating DNFing, or at least skimming. Disappointing.

Not getting super into this so far, but it's due back at the library, so I'll have to make more of an effort...

Received to review via Netgalley! Need to sit with this one a bit before I can decide what I think altogether, I think. It left me feeling pretty unsettled, with all the dysphoria and identity weirdness. I think I liked it?

Received to review via Netgalley! I predicted the plot fairly quickly, but I still think it's a well written story; I know my sister is going to love it, though it'll have to wait for Christmas since it isn't going to be out in time for her birthday. Dragons and lesbians, oh my! And a story of belonging and masks and finding home in the end.

I think this was sometimes prone to overexcitement/overstatement of what we can actually prove to be true, since in one chapter it excitedly describes a whole bunch of findings... and then admits that replication has so far failed. It's still interesting to try to view plants as beings with intelligence and agency. The vine that mimics any plant it ends up on sounds fascinating.

I'm not *intentionally* avoiding a #BookSpinBingo... 👀

It's possible that I should have got out of bed in a timely manner instead of finishing this book, but consider: little sleep, warm duvet, issues with the heating, good book. I think my defence is established.

It was an excellent companion for a lazy Saturday morning/afternoon, continuing to be as witty and fun. This one I did not solve on my own, though I admit in retrospect that the clues were all there.

I really enjoyed the first book of this series, so I decided to get onto the second book right away. This one has a lot of the same tone -- funny without being slapstick, and not trying to push it too hard.

I find it interesting that apparently there's a lot of debate among readers about whether Hilary Tamar is meant to be male or female. It's completely ambiguous, and also utterly irrelevant.

Well. That happened quickly! That was just three reading sessions. It really is more of a mood than a plot, and that leaves it feeling somewhat... open ended. Kind of like waking up from a dream, all of a sudden. I enjoyed it!

#BookSpinBingo going well so far; faded ones aren't read yet, the dashed border is for finished books in free spaces, solid border and full opacity = finished books from the list. I hope for at least three bingos.

Very much enjoying this. It's less a plot than a mood, and I'm certain there are lots of people who violently hate it for that!

Not perhaps as classy as the typical glass of wine and a bubble bath pic, but it's been a long long day and my GORD is playing up, so fiery ginger beer, “You're Having A Giraffe“ (papaya, passionfruit and apricot scented) bubbles, hot water, and a book I've been meaning to read for ages.

Read this via Serial Reader. The influence on the genre can't be denied, of course, but I found it overly melodramatic for my tastes, and some of the evidence is silly. X can't be the murderer because a woman would never clean a pistol? What?

I had a few quibbles with this (relationships rather rushed), but I loved Meep and Caz, and the details of the work, and it was a fun cosy read.

Exciting times! Just got approved for this on Netgalley. It's probably not my next up, because I have some other eARCs I want to get to soon, but I hope to read it before too long.

I am really fascinated by the studies showing that an anaesthetic that works on humans (ether) also works on (some?) plants, in this case touch-sensitive ones! I went into the sources to find the original papers too:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29236942/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230685643_Mimosa_pudica_Dionaea_muscipu...

The latter finds that lidocaine works too! 🤯🤯

I have spent FAR too much time on this, and I'm not entirely happy because the placeholder shapes refuse to snap into place, but SHUSH. It's good enough. Here is my bookspin bingo card, with the already-read books in colour with borders.

#BookSpinBingo

As usual for this series, beautifully illustrated; a bit less fanciful and more practical than some of them, I think. I had to go look up a video of a tailorbird to see how its “sewing“ really looks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoB-G-Td39Y

Looks like this is my #bookspin choice for the month! Which is timely: if I leave it much longer before I get round to reading this, I'll have forgotten everything about the first book.

In setting up my list, I included a couple of books I already read in February/am partway through, since I'm thinking I'll set up a #bookspinbingo card too. Just need to try not to become obsessive about it, either in creating it or trying to stick to it. 😅

Didn't manage to finish The Spellshop yet, it's taken me forever, but maybe this evening? I have no other plans, as long as I finish up studying. I love Meep!

Taking a bit of a break right now and looking at my January stats. It felt like I wasn't reading much, but that was really just in comparison to December, when I read 66 books (total includes manga, graphic novels, novellas etc).

Maybe I will sneak myself back on the #BookSpin wagon too...

I love this series, the illustrations are always so beautiful! And each bird has only a short section, so it works well for bitesized reading.

[sneaks in quietly: long time no see!]

I've been partway through this for... uh, too long. I don't even know why; I guess it wasn't a good match for my mood. Anyway, I want to finish it up today, because I really love Caz (the sentient spider plant) and I want the cosiness.

Always exciting when the new British Library Crime Classic is by E.C.R. Lorac (AKA Carol Carnac). This one wasn't a favourite, but I did enjoy it; Lorac is so good at writing decent, “salt of the earth“ people, and I enjoyed the ins and outs of this mystery.

Looks like this is my #DoubleSpin for the month; I already got started on it, which is nice (albeit stalled out a bit due to bewilderment about the setting). Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time by James Suzman is my #BookSpin.

And here's my bookspin bingo card... I did already get started on reading for February, and include some of those books on my list, so I have a start. (Don't worry, I didn't peek at the numbers before I made the list.)

Oops, I disappeared again. Life stuff came up and ate my energy again! But I'm back and in a min I'll start belatedly thinking about my #BookSpin list (I haven't peeked at this month's numbers, so it's not cheating!).

Anyway, I read this book already this month, and hated it. It's all efforts at super clever dialogue, which is not that amusing after 250 pages of it, and a main character who doesn't have the sense God gave a jam sandwich.

This weekend I need to read six books to catch up to my reading goal. I estimate that finishing some of my ongoing reads and reading a couple of new-to-me graphic novels will take ~8 hours this weekend. This is the first up: I find Ethel Lina White a bit too dramatic, and more so in this one even than in The Wheel Spins, but she does produce a heck of an atmosphere.

Bit sucky to have two Object Lessons books in a row that I dislike. This one spends so much time telling me the plot of books and movies that I got completely bored. It's also very, hmmm, "medication for psychiatric issues takes your real self away and stifles your creativity", which can be true but... I don't know, these are arguments that deter people from even trying medication that can change lives for the better.

Definitely not my favourite of the Object Lessons series. My preferred books in this series are about what a thing is, how it evolved, etc. This is a memoir about being a doctor, and about being a son, and about being a parent. It's also casually dismissive of hypochondriacs (a pet peeve, since I have extreme anxiety and am definitely not deliberately wasting doctors' time, and I hate the attitude that I am purposefully doing so).

This one left me feeling unsettled, with the vague sense of impending disaster. Which isn't too unusual for me - it's a normal day for someone with an anxiety disorder - but it definitely coloured how I felt about the book.

The narration/structure is unusual, and I *think* in the end it's well done... but it's a bit of a learning curve.

I continue to avoid getting a #BookSpinBingo, but it's closing in if I read many more books from the list, ha.

I wasn't sure if I wasn't going to like this one, since it seemed to go a kinda dark place, but in the end... I liked it more than the last couple of books in the series, to be honest? It gives us a view of a wider world, and also we get to see what became of Regan!

This was my #DoubleSpin for the month, too.

Received a copy to review!

I really wasn't sure about this concept when I read the blurb, but saw people enthusing about it and decided to give it a try anyway. It sounded, I don't know, kinda goofy from what I first read about it; I don't know what I was picturing exactly -- but no, it's very serious, and a very emotional story. I think each thread of it is handled well.

I was a bit disappointed this book wasn't more about the bone chests of the title (a set of chests full of bones of kings, queens and bishops from early in England's history), and was more a general Anglo-Saxon history. As the latter, it's fine, just... I felt like it was a bit of a bait-and-switch.

I'm continuing with my theme of doing as badly as it is physically possible to do at actually getting a bingo for #BookSpinBingo...

I'm doing really well at NOT getting a #BookSpinBingo, but it's okay.

Darn, SQQ/Cucumber-bro is clueless, but in a way that's mostly funny. I'd love to get more of an insight into LBG's thoughts...

Pitts digs into ten sites across Britain (which honestly involves a lot more than ten discoveries, since some sites tell us a lot), picking out some of the interesting finds and suggesting their implications. There's some photos/illustrations, both in black and white print and in the full-colour inserts. Little slow at times, since the information needs digestion!