Tag Archives: weekly meme
Sunday Post: a week of reading slowly
It’s Sunday Post time! This is hosted by the awesome Caffeinated Book Reviewer and lets us recap our week in whichever way we want to.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who looked at the calendar today and said, “Wait, it’s the 7th of March already? I swear it was the 1st yesterday! Oops.” Time flies when you’re pottering around the house. Now that the end is (hopefully) in sight for the pandemic, I’m almost enjoying the quiet of being at home. Almost.
This week has been remarkably good for reading.
Just Finished
A Thousand Ships – Natalie Haynes
This was an excellent book. I listened to the audiobook, which was splendidly read by the author. I’ll probably do a review of this one as it was so good.
My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel – Kitty Curran
This book gently poked fun at the Regency romance genre. It was such a hoot that I re-read it twice(!) immediately after the first time I read it. It’s a pick-your-own adventure book, and the reader can choose to settle down with everyone from women to a postman. The smut was so punny that I fairly cackled with glee.
20 Ways to Draw a Tree – Eloise Renouf
It was an incredibly liberating book: instead of telling the reader the “right” way to draw X in one style, there were 20 different drawings/ doodles and plenty of space to try to draw the ones that looked coolest. Peacefully doodling in this book was a relaxing way to spend a couple of evenings.
Along for the Ride – Alix James
Some gentle Pride and Prejudice inspired romance. Nicole Clarkston (Alix Jones is her nom de plume) of has long been a guilty pleasure. This was the first of her Jane Austen-inspired romances that I’ve read.
It was enjoyable but I wish I knew how to apply my US to UK English browser extension to her work as she repeatedly uses words that absolutely jar to a UK reader’s ears and eyes.
A Thousand Li: The Second Expedition – Tao Wong
What a series! I’ve reviewed (or rather raved) about the first book in the series here. I’m now caught up with the series, and will have to wait a few months for the next novel. This is my second favourite book in the series after the first.
Currently Reading
Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity – Felicia Day
Patron Goddess of Nerds, Felicia Day’s second book was published 2 years ago, and being the staunch fan that I am it’s only taken me a couple of years to finally get my mitts on a copy of said book. I’ve been reading it slowly and engaging with all the exercises. It’s heaps of fun, and I’m feeling less self-conscious about my own lack of creativity. It’s because of this book that I worked my way through 20 Ways to Draw a Tree so Day’s definitely doing something brilliant to my self-esteem!
In Search of Hua Ma – John Pasden
This is part of the Mandarin Companion series, which is aimed at learners of Mandarin. This book uses 150 characters to create a story. Even though I know about 600 characters at the minute, I don’t know all of the ones they’ve chosen to use in this book. As such, it is taking a disproportionate amount of time to read this 70-ish page book. I keep stopping, giving it a day and then re-reading it from the beginning to see how many words I’ve remembered so it is slow going.
That said, I’m enjoying the story and cannot wait to read some of the others in the series when I finally finish this one.
The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: An International Security History – Michael Warner
A friend who recently completed his PGDip in Terrorism and Security has been sharing some of the things he’s been reading. As a complete newbie to this field, I thought this book would be a good starting point to learn something more about the subject. It is very different to the sort of book I usually read, so I’m not going to post any opinions on it until I’ve finished and have thought about it a bit.
Wild Night In 