Shades of Milk and Honey: Book review

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal is an objectively dreadful book, which I absolutely loved. I devoured it in a single day. Admittedly, I had some really intense PhD reading material sitting on my desk the whole time, so perhaps I could chalk it up to procrastination. I am not sure that washes as an excuse, though, because I also prioritised this over binge-watching Madam Secretary and deep-cleaning my flat, both time-honoured procrastination techniques.

The Girl who is Getting Married: Stray thoughts

This novella was recommended by Foyles in a post on Japanese fiction, and I bought it after reading their gushing review. When it arrived, I was surprised by how very short it is; the description on their website has now been updated to read “pamphlet”, but it was initially advertised as a novella.

Little Deaths: Book thoughts

This isn’t really a review. (I say that at the start of most of my reviews, these days, don’t I?) This is one of those books that I simultaneously deeply respect (for excellent writing) and deeply resent (because it plays into a common trope that I really can’t stand). It’s really more of a book rant than a review.

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells

Hmmmppppphhhh. I have reached that stage of my PhD that all postgrads eventually hit: I hate it, I wish I’d taken that nice student health visitor post when I had the chance, do you know how much I’d be earning by now, 70 hours a week is too many hours to work, I’m probably going to fail anyway… If you’ve been through the process yourself, you know. You know. It’s looking likely that this is going to be the case until June at the earliest.

On excellent, horrible books.

This is not a professional book review blog. I don’t work for a newspaper or a publisher. I’ve even stopped accepting books for review, because that affected my enjoyment of the whole process. I read, and blog, entirely for pleasure. That said, I still feel compelled to think critically about the books that I read, to consider the quality of the writing and content and not just my own enjoyment. Of course, most of the time, a well-written book will be one I enjoy reading. Even if the content matter is dark, there will be things for me to love in it—beautiful turns of phrase, or superb character development, or unexpected plot twists. (The reverse is not necessarily true—I take huge pleasure in rereading Nancy Drew books, which I am sure only have six plots between all 200+ of them).

The Trains Now Departed: Book Review

Title: The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways

Author: Michael Williams

Published: Arrow, 2015

Grief is the Thing with Feathers: Book thoughts

Title: Grief is the Thing with Feathers
Author: Max Porter
Published: Faber & Faber 2015

Asimov’s Robots: Series review

Titles: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and Robots of Dawn
Author: Isaac Asimov
Challenges: Classics Club; 20 Books of Summer

Bad Feminist: Book review

Title: Bad Feminist
Author: Roxane Gay
Published: 2014

Me Before You: Review

Title: Me Before You
Author: Jojo Moyes
Published: 2012, Michael Joseph UK