Good Morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Today I’m currently reading Writing The Murder Essays on Crafting Crime Fiction edited by Dan Coxon and Richard V Hirst. What are you reading at the moment?
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Howl's Moving Castle (hard to get the Studio Ghibli version out of my head) by Diana Wynne Jones in real life form and Karla's Choice, a George Smiley book by Nick Harkaway (son of LeCarré). Both absolutely brilliant.
aug 31, 2025, 11:03 am • 4 1 • view
Going to start Little Fires Everywhere, and maybe also read some manga~
aug 31, 2025, 5:46 pm • 3 1 • view
Afternoon Womble! Swapping between The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri in print, and Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow in ebook. Both great but very different!
aug 31, 2025, 3:04 pm • 6 1 • view
Opposite ends of the genre lesbian scale there!
aug 31, 2025, 3:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh Lady Eve was good fun
aug 31, 2025, 4:07 pm • 2 0 • view
So far I'm loving it!
aug 31, 2025, 4:58 pm • 2 0 • view
Just finished Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce and started Bride by Ali Hazelwood
aug 31, 2025, 12:14 pm • 2 1 • view
Good morning Womble ! At the moment I’m reading Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Ranpo — I’d say these are interesting, which isn’t a damning with faint praise comment. Some intriguing tales in it.
aug 31, 2025, 1:58 pm • 2 1 • view
I won't identify the current book since I may not finish, but next up will be Annalee Newitz's Automatic Noodle.
aug 31, 2025, 1:54 pm • 2 1 • view
Morning! Started The Conductors by Nicole Glover It’s alt historical fantasy about magic-having ex-slaves, the Underground Railroad and a mystery as well
aug 31, 2025, 9:00 am • 11 1 • view
Kinda stalled on a lot of my books just atm. I know why, too, but it's not (yet) gotten to a solution, alas.
aug 31, 2025, 12:14 pm • 3 0 • view
Good afternoon, Womble! Still reading The End Of The World As We know It and The Variegated Alphabet by Caitlin R. Kiernan; Grinding Your Bones To Dust by Nicholas Day, Wind & Truth by Brandon Sanderson, and starting Katabasis by Rebecca Kuang.
aug 31, 2025, 12:10 pm • 5 1 • view
Morning Womble, this week I finished The Warden from Daniel M Ford, which is fantasy with a really fun pastoral thread, now I'm getting into The Folded Sky from Elizabeth Bear - her White Space series is the closest inheritor to The Culture I have found. In my ears: The Incandescent.
aug 31, 2025, 11:02 am • 4 1 • view
I’m pulled every which way as I’m working on a paper covering a theme through multiple works by Becky Chambers, Octavia Butler, Ray Naylor, Jeff VanderMeer, and more. So rereading bits of all those, plus scholarly works. And binge-listening to @nataliehaynes.bsky.social Stands Up for the Classics!
aug 31, 2025, 12:20 pm • 4 1 • view
The latter while walking. I started with Natalie Haynes’ Pandora’s Jar a couple years ago, then Stone Blind, and now going back to her BBC show and loving it!
aug 31, 2025, 12:22 pm • 1 1 • view
Morning Womble! Just finished The Thursday Murder Club - I liked it with its aggressive twee-ness, and thought it was funny, but I can see why people might not like it. But I lasted only 20 minutes with the film, despite the excellent cast. Also reading Leviathan Wakes, first of the Expanse books.
aug 31, 2025, 9:36 am • 5 1 • view
Hi Womble, still on Miranda Hart and Adrian Edmondson, but I've started the boss's book: The Great When by Alan Moore. Also Well Fed by James Collier.
aug 31, 2025, 4:34 pm • 2 1 • view
Just finished Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud and started the short story anthology Roots of My Fear
aug 31, 2025, 2:02 pm • 4 1 • view
I have finished the lost ground-breaking classic Mrs Caliban by Laura Ingalls, in which a depressed 80s housewife finds comfort in the arms of a green river creature. Short, elusive, not so much melding genres as evading them. Friends rave, I think... ⭐⭐⭐"not a waste of your time"
aug 31, 2025, 8:54 am • 5 2 • view
The issue as to whether del Toro ripped off The Shape of Water from it. The common themes largely come from the Creature in the Black Lagoon, which both authors cite as a key influence. Del Toro says the idea the beauty and the beast would get together came to him aged six.
aug 31, 2025, 8:57 am • 2 0 • view
I’d say more influence than copycat
aug 31, 2025, 8:59 am • 2 0 • view
We don't know if del Toro has read the book. We do know del Toro's fave films as a kid were Shape of Water and Frankenstein. The people who said I ripped off American scifi for Our Child of the Stars could never agree which American scifi it was.
aug 31, 2025, 9:24 am • 2 0 • view
Tis the season of weird SF takes this week
aug 31, 2025, 9:27 am • 2 0 • view
weird takes past, weird takes present, and weird takes still to come
aug 31, 2025, 9:28 am • 1 0 • view
Or just the same one coming back like a Mary Shelley tribute act ;)
aug 31, 2025, 9:31 am • 3 0 • view
Afternoon Womble! I've been reading a bunch of short stories and novellas that I'm in the middle of posting reviews for on my blog. But now I'm currently reading The Hand of God
aug 31, 2025, 11:24 am • 6 1 • view
Evening wombie. Finished Starter Villian by John Scalzi yesterday so I'm looking for my next read right now.
aug 31, 2025, 5:39 pm • 3 1 • view
In among research, I'm still reading "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Le Guin, which I tend to re-read every 5 years. The illustrations by Charles Vess give it a whole new dimension. Such a beautiful edition.
aug 31, 2025, 1:38 pm • 9 1 • view
I’ve just finished The Time of The Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones. Here’s me tracking it down as the book I couldn’t remember the name of last week. bsky.app/profile/mags...
aug 31, 2025, 2:00 pm • 8 1 • view
Ahhhh! I love that one.
aug 31, 2025, 2:03 pm • 1 0 • view
It sounds like it might be right up my street. AND there's an affordable Kindle edition. :-)
aug 31, 2025, 4:50 pm • 2 0 • view
Have you tried the Diana Wynne Jones podcast? Their episode on Time of the Ghost was really good. @eightdaysofdiana.bsky.social
aug 31, 2025, 2:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Finished Blood Covenant by @alanbaxter.bsky.social which rocketed along as gruesomely as a book named Blood Covenant should. Co-reading A Slip of the Keyboard for a change of pace, & about to start Possession by AS Byatt because @charliejane.bsky.social wrote an article about how much she loved it.
aug 31, 2025, 8:38 am • 8 1 • view
I contain multitudes as far as reading tastes go, apparently.
aug 31, 2025, 8:38 am • 2 0 • view
Byatt's Possession is one of my favorite non-sff books ever—I hope you enjoy it! I'll have to seek out Charlie Jane's article.
aug 31, 2025, 9:07 am • 3 0 • view
Try my Wombling Along last Saturday for the link
aug 31, 2025, 9:08 am • 3 0 • view
Thank you!!
aug 31, 2025, 9:11 am • 1 0 • view
Thanks for reading!
aug 31, 2025, 9:06 am • 2 0 • view
Good luck at the Ditmars!
aug 31, 2025, 9:21 am • 1 0 • view
Thanks!
aug 31, 2025, 11:00 am • 2 0 • view
Afternoon Womble! I'm a couple of hundred pages onto Version Control by Dexter Palmer, it's drip feeding the time travel so far, interested to see where it goes
aug 31, 2025, 12:08 pm • 2 1 • view
Morning Womble from a sunny but windy Dublin. Slow reading week as I was out & about a lot. I am reading The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness.
aug 31, 2025, 7:57 am • 10 1 • view
I have that one lying on my nightstand. How do you like it?
aug 31, 2025, 7:03 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm really enjoying it. It was a bit slow to start, but then picked up the pace. I loved the other All Souls books, so it's great to see the story continuing.
aug 31, 2025, 8:38 pm • 2 0 • view
I really enjoyed the original trilogy and just happened to stumble upon this by accident in a bookshop in Edinburgh. So looking forward to it. It's been a while, so maybe I have to re-read the first three again
sep 1, 2025, 7:08 am • 2 0 • view
Morning Womble, I'm continuing to read John Mortimer's autobiography
aug 31, 2025, 8:00 am • 5 1 • view
Morning. I’ll be listening to The Cut Throat Trial written by The Secret Barrister writing as S. J. Fleet and read by Toby Jones, Annie Aldington, Maya Sondhi, Wesley Ruthven, Nathalie Buscombe, Kenton Thomas, Simon Vance, Tyreke Leslie, Rupert Farley, Eddie Toll and Ben Miles.
aug 31, 2025, 7:53 am • 5 1 • view
I'm reading The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka. About a hundred pages in and it's richly layered and funny.
aug 31, 2025, 7:50 am • 9 1 • view
This sounds amazing! Just added to tbr
aug 31, 2025, 8:56 am • 2 0 • view
Wonderfully weird and non western
aug 31, 2025, 8:55 am • 2 0 • view
Morning! I’m reading Frontier by Grace Curtis, which caught my eye because of the ‘Love. Loss. Laser Guns’ tagline 😀 It’s an interesting take on the ‘stranger comes to town’ Wild West-type setting, and I’m enjoying it.
aug 31, 2025, 8:26 am • 2 1 • view
Good morning Womble. Currently dipping into "The Elemental", a 1919 collection of ghost stories by the splendidly named Ulric Daubeny.
aug 31, 2025, 10:18 am • 2 1 • view
Afternoon! I'm halfway through Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Silver Nitrate. I'm enjoying it, and as a bonus learning a lot about Mexican cinema and the racist underpinnings of 20th Century western magic beliefs!
aug 31, 2025, 2:33 pm • 5 1 • view
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks.
aug 31, 2025, 7:55 am • 5 1 • view
I am reading an arc of God's Junk Drawer by @peterclines.bsky.social
aug 31, 2025, 12:44 pm • 8 2 • view
IT IS SO GOOD.
aug 31, 2025, 3:29 pm • 5 0 • view
Good morning Womble. I am re-reading the Wolf Hall trilogy. Still on Wolf Hall itself and astonished again at Hilary Mantel's power; not least her ability to absorb her readers into the world of Thomas Cromwell with the lightest touch. We never feel as if she is delivering a history lesson.
aug 31, 2025, 10:44 am • 11 1 • view
I was just talking with my husband last night about this trilogy. Due for a re-read.
aug 31, 2025, 1:13 pm • 3 0 • view
Morning! Katabasis (Kuang) on audio, The Kif Strike Back (Cherryh) paperback and just finished Artificial Condition (Wells) on ebook. Satisfying to have three women authors- I more often seem to end up with three men.
aug 31, 2025, 11:18 am • 5 1 • view
Loved the Kif. Just a fun space opera
aug 31, 2025, 11:32 am • 3 0 • view
Morning Womble. Just started Cold War Cthulu, which is edited by Darrell Schweitzer I am also catching up with some Batman stuff I never read. At the moment it’s Punchline by James Tynion IV and on audio I am listening to The Return by Rachel Harrison
aug 31, 2025, 8:28 am • 6 1 • view
Ooh does CWC have Charles Stross' A Colder War in it? One of the best things I've ever read in that niche
aug 31, 2025, 8:44 am • 2 0 • view
Unfortunately not, but I am definitely going to have to seek that one out!
aug 31, 2025, 8:53 am • 3 0 • view
Leviathan Wakes, the first of the Expanse sequence.
aug 31, 2025, 3:43 pm • 7 1 • view
How are you liking it?
aug 31, 2025, 7:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Solid SF. Liking it lure than the TV series.
aug 31, 2025, 8:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Good to know. Watched some of the episode of the tv series and it was good entertainment
sep 1, 2025, 7:09 am • 1 0 • view
The book’s tighter focused on Miller and Holden as POV characters. Rattling storytelling.
sep 1, 2025, 11:31 am • 1 0 • view
The book’s tighter focused on Miller and Holden as POV characters. Rattling storytelling.
sep 1, 2025, 9:18 am • 2 0 • view
Each book introduces a few other POVs; each reread I get annoyed that I don't have my old familiars guiding me along... until about two chapters in. It's a brilliant series, so well plotted across the whole arc.
sep 1, 2025, 9:50 am • 3 0 • view
Thanks, that sounds very interesting indeed
sep 1, 2025, 10:19 am • 1 0 • view
Morning. Started Sleeper Beach by Nick Harkaway yesterday. Really enjoyed Titanium Noir and already booked on this.
aug 31, 2025, 8:53 am • 5 1 • view
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt — about a friendship twist an old lady and an octopus. Fantastic so far
aug 31, 2025, 8:56 am • 5 1 • view
Happy Sunday Womble! I've been preparing for Philip Pullman's The Rose Field (published 23 October) – this week I re-read La Belle Sauvage and I'm now about a third of a way into my re-read of The Secret Commonwealth, and enjoying it hugely! Can't wait for October! 💙📚🪐
aug 31, 2025, 8:48 am • 5 1 • view
After starting and giving up on a couple of library books, I am whizzing along in NK Jemisin’s Obelisk Gate. Meanwhile, John Gwynne’s Valor is glaring at me because it’s been waiting through all these library books to be picked up again.
aug 31, 2025, 1:27 pm • 5 1 • view
At the moment, it is The City and the City (China Miéville). It has been on my to-read list for far too long!
aug 31, 2025, 1:02 pm • 12 1 • view
One of my top favourite books of all time.
aug 31, 2025, 1:29 pm • 4 0 • view
It is excellent so far. Looks like it may be one of mine too, if it continues this way.
aug 31, 2025, 7:49 pm • 2 0 • view
I usually forget books quickly but the backdrop imagery of that would still lingers with me. Tried Perdido St. Station after it and it did not have the same effect
aug 31, 2025, 4:01 pm • 3 0 • view
I absolutely agree; the imagery is spectacular! Funnily, Perdido Street Station was always the one I really wanted to read, yet still haven't. Why did you not get along with it in the same way, if you don't mind me asking?
aug 31, 2025, 7:58 pm • 2 0 • view
I probably wanted to love Perdidido StreeT station more than i did but too many times i found myself lost in the narrative and although the writing is sumptuous I had trouble keeping my barings. That is a reflection on me, not the book.
aug 31, 2025, 10:19 pm • 1 0 • view
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Melancholic. The extreme tizz on publication about if it is/isn’t fantasy now completely does/doesn’t make sense to me. When bookselling categories meet formal definitions.
aug 31, 2025, 8:28 am • 5 1 • view
Gave up on "Ice," possibly forever. Now reading 'The Transcendent Tide' by Doug Johnstone - The final book in a moving "first contact" trilogy.
aug 31, 2025, 10:17 am • 3 1 • view
I am reading What’s Your Dream by Simon Squibb. Desperate to discover my dream and purpose in life. Hoping this will help.
aug 31, 2025, 10:26 am • 2 1 • view
Having a wonderful time with To Touch a Silent Fury by R.A. Sandpiper
aug 31, 2025, 11:59 am • 2 1 • view
Morning ToberMoriarty 😆 In the eyes: Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin In the ears: Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea
aug 31, 2025, 7:53 am • 4 1 • view
Fear not we will find you even if it takes 20 years
aug 31, 2025, 7:53 am • 2 0 • view
Murder essays!??? Murder essays!?!?! *Grabs the evidence file*
aug 31, 2025, 7:50 am • 3 0 • view
All about fiction unlike your many many crimes
aug 31, 2025, 7:53 am • 3 0 • view
Uh huh. Of course it is.
aug 31, 2025, 7:53 am • 1 0 • view
i'm still trudging through, actually wading through would be better, The Turning Tide by Jon Gower. I should DNF it but my next read hasn't arrived yet - Swing Low by Miriam Toews
aug 31, 2025, 9:47 am • 2 1 • view
Just finished If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw
aug 31, 2025, 1:08 pm • 2 1 • view
'Morning, Womble. I'm currently reading Molly Malloy & the Angel of Death by Maria Vale & next up is The Pearl King by Sarah Painter
aug 31, 2025, 8:41 am • 3 1 • view
Good morning! Today I'm reading The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed. Only just begun, but so far I'm enjoying it (no surprise there!)
aug 31, 2025, 1:11 pm • 5 1 • view
Morning! Currently reading Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
aug 31, 2025, 8:14 am • 14 1 • view
I'm reading "The Extinction of Irina Rey," about a group of translators at a summit with their incandescent author, who then mysteriously vanishes It's circuitous and meta and I'm loving it
aug 31, 2025, 8:41 am • 7 1 • view
I'm reading your post, of course.
aug 31, 2025, 8:49 am • 3 0 • view
Good morning and happy Sunday! Just finished a re-read of Danielle Steel's Wanderlust (the perfect book for a five hour border queue), now on to Gemma Fairclough's The Retreat, the latest in The Northern Weird project from Wild Hunt Books. They've all been great so far.
aug 31, 2025, 8:00 am • 7 1 • view
I'm reading The eye of the world by Jordan.
aug 31, 2025, 8:15 am • 5 1 • view
Just finished Project Hail Mary on audio, which was ok but felt like The Martian 2. Fabulous narrator though. Currently reading The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford
aug 31, 2025, 8:39 am • 6 1 • view
The Bone Raiders is so good!!
aug 31, 2025, 8:47 am • 3 0 • view
Enjoying it enormously! I picked up the broken binding special edition too
aug 31, 2025, 8:57 am • 4 0 • view
Ooh that's gorgeous!!
aug 31, 2025, 9:05 am • 2 0 • view
JUST finished rereading False Colours (and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans) for Heyer bookclub and might start John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens
aug 31, 2025, 7:59 am • 8 1 • view
Morning Womble! I'm currently (re)reading Traitor General, book 8 in Dan Abnett's magnificent Gaunt's Ghosts series ❤️💥
aug 31, 2025, 7:55 am • 9 1 • view
Evening Womble! I'm slow these days so just finishing Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher (if you thought her imagination was terrifying in the last book, brace yourself) Then going into Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar because my partner cannot stop raving about how smart it is.
aug 31, 2025, 4:04 pm • 4 1 • view
T. Kingfisher writes too fast! 😩
aug 31, 2025, 8:41 pm • 2 0 • view
Good Morning Womble. I'm starting Towards Eternity by Anton Hur this week for my bookclub, looking forward to reading his original fiction having enjoyed his translations.
aug 31, 2025, 8:23 am • 5 1 • view
Just started ‘The Living Sea of Waking Dreams’ by one of my favourite Aussie authors, Richard Flanagan. Discombobulating from the opening words, it’s more of a slow burn than Flanagan’s best (‘Death of a River Guide’ and ‘The Sound of One Hand Clapping’ are masterpieces), but it’s drawing me in.
aug 31, 2025, 9:09 am • 4 1 • view
one of my favourite authors. Fiction or non-fiction, he never disappoints.
aug 31, 2025, 9:52 am • 2 0 • view
Hi, Womble! I'm reading The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois by Ryan Graudin. I've tried 3 times to write my opinion down and every time I feel like I sound disparaging, so I'm giving up. But the book is good so far.
aug 31, 2025, 4:20 pm • 2 1 • view
Morning womble! I'm reading the crooked medium's guide to murder by @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social It's deliciously twisty, with women who won't be told, a young bride in peril, and the delicate art of a con.
aug 31, 2025, 10:00 am • 6 2 • view
Morning, Womble! Currently reading Dead Girls by Selva Almada (translated by Annie McDermott) and Hackers by Aase Berg (translated by Johannes Göransson).
aug 31, 2025, 10:58 am • 3 1 • view
Morning Womble, I am good, and hope you are too! I am still trying to reduce the amount of books I am reading at any one time. Finishing up T Kingfisher's A Sorceress Comes to Call (put aside when something else came up) and also just finished Pagans which I thoroughly enjoyed.
aug 31, 2025, 8:39 am • 10 1 • view
I've reached Indigo Slam in the Robert Crais reread. The stories are holding up extremely well, with the very occasional dating detail, such as our hero needing a payphone or a 1 hour photo shop to get pictures off his camera, amusing rather than distracting 😄
aug 31, 2025, 8:09 am • 13 1 • view
Oh I have not reread that one in at least 10 years, but I’ve read the early Cole/Pike novels at least twice—more recent ones only once, just because they’re more recent.
aug 31, 2025, 8:14 am • 4 0 • view
Happy Sunday, Womble! I recently finished Cauley's The Payback and Thompson's Doctor Who story, One Night Only (A Fela Kuti Story), both tremendously enjoyable. I just started Charlie Jane Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster, and I'm also savoring Colleen Doran's lovely Good Omens graphic novel.
aug 31, 2025, 6:05 pm • 4 1 • view
Good evening or should I say Buena sera as I am currently in beautiful Italy. I'm a bit late to the party. I finished the wonderful Indie book "Little nothing" by Dee Holloway yesterday and started the second Thursday murder club book "The man who died twice"
aug 31, 2025, 6:43 pm • 3 1 • view
Copied from threads, which I forgot I had: Morning Womble. I'm slowly savouring Joe Abercrombie's The Devils. It's very him, and I'm enjoying it a great deal. Particularly liking the way he drip feeds to alt-history
aug 31, 2025, 8:58 am • 3 1 • view
Good morning. I’m listening to the audiobook of ‘Logopolis’ by Christopher H. Bidmead who passed away recently. It is such a great story and read by the author himself. It is a huge influence on me.
aug 31, 2025, 9:50 am • 4 1 • view
Sticking with non fiction this week and I just started Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz.
aug 31, 2025, 7:47 am • 8 1 • view
Ooh, I liked that one!
aug 31, 2025, 8:37 am • 2 0 • view
I'm still on The Western Wind, and loving it. bsky.app/profile/mark...
aug 31, 2025, 10:24 am • 2 1 • view
Good late morning. I'm currently rereading Emma Newman's Planetfall before finally picking up the other novels from her series. I'm also in the middle of Jeffrey Deaver's The Coffin Dancer. I'll pick a third book from the TBR this evening.
aug 31, 2025, 10:20 am • 6 1 • view
Just finished a reread of the Planetfall series, all are great!
aug 31, 2025, 12:05 pm • 2 0 • view
I loved the first one and still do on the reread, but I got distracted and didn't get around to the second one despite buying it. I remedy that now, especially as I've grown really fond of the author from her funny and charming podcast series with Adrian Tchaikovsky.
aug 31, 2025, 3:25 pm • 2 0 • view
Good morning! Right now I’m reading The Grey Bastards by Jonathon French. Kinda snuck up on me how good this book is😼
aug 31, 2025, 12:58 pm • 3 1 • view
Very good series, won over even a miserable old grump like me!
aug 31, 2025, 1:12 pm • 3 0 • view
Good morning Womble! I'm currently reading K.B. Spangler's fabulous 5-book Rachel Peng series, about a former warrant officer turned cyborg. My roommate, who is a former warrant officer but not a cyborg, will read it after I do!
aug 31, 2025, 2:05 pm • 3 1 • view
Oh wait--she has two hip replacements. So she is too a cyborg!
aug 31, 2025, 6:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Morning Womble, I’m currently reading Dead Lions by Mick Herron and The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
aug 31, 2025, 9:08 am • 5 1 • view
Good evening, I waited to post when I could say I finished The High County, a Star Trek novel by John Jackson Miller, very enjoyable. I am now starting A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde, and I'm still reading short stories based on The Stand, loved the stories by Tim Lebbon and C. Robert Cargill
aug 31, 2025, 6:40 pm • 4 1 • view
Good morning, reading two things for review. Early Michael Swanwick in Gravity's Angels and the anthology The Disappearing Future (near-future fiction and futurist speculation).
aug 31, 2025, 10:09 am • 6 1 • view
Just starting infinite Ground by Martin MacInnes
aug 31, 2025, 8:33 am • 5 1 • view
Loved this, and I think his others only get better
aug 31, 2025, 12:11 pm • 2 0 • view
Good morning Womble! I just finished Automatic Noodle by @annaleen.bsky.social which was a delightful story and now have started The Incandescent by @emilytesh.net which has pulled me in quickly. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!
aug 31, 2025, 12:41 pm • 6 1 • view
Just finished a cracking Historical Fiction book - The Pretender by Jo Harkin. A definite recommend to all those who could not quite find something else after Wolf Hall to scratch that itch.
aug 31, 2025, 3:54 pm • 4 1 • view
**Looks up book** Oh, THAT pretender!😲 And the book does look really good, thanks!
aug 31, 2025, 8:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Writing The Murder was a really interesting set of essays on crime fiction - review to come Next up If The Stars Are Lit by Sarah K Ellis
aug 31, 2025, 4:21 pm • 4 0 • view
Kia ora Womble, I'm still reading The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb while also reading other books. Currently reading Careless People A Story of Where I used to Work (Facebook) by Sarah Wynn-Williams, and with hubby I'm reading Books that Saved My Life by Michael McGirr which we're enjoying.
aug 31, 2025, 9:45 am • 5 1 • view
I'm reading Days of Shattered Faith, the third book of Adrian Tchaikovsky's wonderful Tyrant Philosophers. Love a series with connecting threads and world but standalone plots, settings, characters.
aug 31, 2025, 8:57 am • 14 1 • view
So looking forward to this book series. Tchaikovsky is fabulous
aug 31, 2025, 7:02 pm • 2 0 • view
It’s so good isn’t it? Tchaikovsky is a master at both character and world building
aug 31, 2025, 9:04 am • 3 0 • view
Morning, I am generally being a rubbish reader. This has nothing to do with the books; I'm still working on these two - both are exceeding my expectations.
aug 31, 2025, 8:40 am • 7 1 • view
I really enjoyed The Last Hour Between Worlds
aug 31, 2025, 11:57 am • 2 0 • view
Continuing my Spellsinger re-read with Moment of the Magician and Paths of the Perambulator. Really enjoying rediscovering them, and they've held up remarkably well.
aug 31, 2025, 7:54 am • 11 1 • view
Oh, cool. I enjoyed those greatly when I first read them.
aug 31, 2025, 3:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Nice to hear. I always thought ADF was underrated.
aug 31, 2025, 11:43 am • 3 0 • view
I am munching through The Hungry Gods by @aptshadow.bsky.social and have started Moon's Artifice by @tomlloydwrites.bsky.social enjoying both.
aug 31, 2025, 9:51 am • 8 1 • view
Afternoon, sir. All good here, hope you're well. Currently making my way through Kirsty Logan's collection, Things We Say in the Dark. Cracking quiet, literary horror.
aug 31, 2025, 1:55 pm • 6 1 • view
I was so terrified by one story in this I haven't yet been brave enough to read the others. Maybe this year, since autumn is coming and my annual quest for new-to-me frightening stories will start again.
aug 31, 2025, 3:59 pm • 2 0 • view
Oooh, which story? I'm loving it. Especially the 'intermission' bits I thought were actually autobiographical till they went in a different direction...
aug 31, 2025, 4:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Rather embarrassingly, I think it was the first one! I also have CL Cooke's A Haunting in the Arctic to get back to - nightmares early on there too.
aug 31, 2025, 4:46 pm • 2 0 • view
Ha, that was a good 'un (to be fair, I've liked them all so far). Ah, I have CJ Cooke's books (what do you know, that rhymed), but not read any yet. Last book that gave me the fear was Erin E. Adams's Jackal. Creepy as all get out.
aug 31, 2025, 4:50 pm • 1 0 • view
I'll look out for that one too.
aug 31, 2025, 4:55 pm • 2 0 • view
Finishing up the final two stories in North Continent Ribbon, which feels too smart for me. Then I'll read M L Clark's novella Seven Ways of Looking at the Sun-Worshippers of Yul-Katan, followed by Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072.
aug 31, 2025, 8:53 am • 3 1 • view
Fun cover!
aug 31, 2025, 8:11 am • 3 0 • view
Funbook. It’s filled with the floor plans on most pages and the discussion as to the unravelling of the, presumably gruesome, mystery behind the residences. So far so good.
aug 31, 2025, 8:45 am • 4 0 • view
Breaking up reading Mary Beard's Pompeii with other things, among them Caitlin Zdarsky's brilliant Living Hell:
aug 31, 2025, 9:07 am • 4 1 • view
Oh wow thank you so much for picking it up, it means a lot!!
aug 31, 2025, 4:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Obviously I love Pants. Not a thought in his head. But an excellent dog.
aug 31, 2025, 5:20 pm • 12 1 • view
He’s a very dumb very good boy
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
The bees. I guffawed.
aug 31, 2025, 8:29 pm • 2 0 • view
Also I'm so sorry I got your name wrong 😔 It was right in front of me too.
aug 31, 2025, 8:31 pm • 2 0 • view
Aw that’s ok! If ONLY I was related to Chip, that guy RULES :D
aug 31, 2025, 9:36 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 31, 2025, 12:43 pm • 3 1 • view
Hello! I'm enjoying this rather sweet middle-aged romance from a new-to-me author. I'm trying to read more widely, including hugely successful authors that everyone else had already read.
aug 31, 2025, 12:03 pm • 3 1 • view
I also enjoyed discovering this author! His book (and the movie) One Day were also wonderful.
aug 31, 2025, 12:53 pm • 2 0 • view
Afternoon, Womble! I have just finished Rose Biggin's Make-Believe and Artifice. Just about to start Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous. In non-fic, I'm reading Luke Kemp's Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. At night, I'm reading Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise.
aug 31, 2025, 11:36 am • 3 1 • view
Hey lovely Womble. Going on a Maggie Stiefvater binge, so that I can clear my physical copies before house moving. Starting with Shiver this morning.
aug 31, 2025, 9:02 am • 3 1 • view
Hello! I’m in my happy place, learning tons from The Secret World of Denisovans by Silvana Condemi and François Savatier (trans. by Holly James). The Denisovans were a major branch of early humans who interbred with both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, but were only just discovered in 2010!
aug 31, 2025, 8:26 am • 18 1 • view
I just want a copy of everything you read. Such good rabbit holes!
aug 31, 2025, 4:06 pm • 2 0 • view
😂This very good hole began 10 yrs ago with Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo (recommended). Pääbo did the impossible: extracted Neanderthal DNA, sequenced the genome, discovered that some bones thought to be Neanderthal were an unknown hominin, & wrote a good book about it!🕳️
aug 31, 2025, 8:08 pm • 4 0 • view
Just finished rereading The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip, now trying out a much lighter dungeon core litrpg called The Fallen World: Dungeon Engineer by Alex Weber.
aug 31, 2025, 2:35 pm • 4 1 • view
Howdy Wombles, I’m listening to Homo Criminalis by @markgaleotti.bsky.social and would thoroughly recommend!
aug 31, 2025, 9:21 am • 6 1 • view
I'm reading Birth of a Dream Weaver, which is an autobiography of the Wizard of the Crow's author, focused on his time at uni - also the time of Kenya's independence from colonialism. It's really really good and I'm excited to tackle his longer fiction works now!
aug 31, 2025, 7:51 am • 6 1 • view
That sounds interesting
aug 31, 2025, 8:54 am • 2 0 • view
just began Sarah Maria Griffin's Eat the Ones You Love, already wonderfully gross and precisely cruel, almost done with Sacha Coward's Queer as Folklore, which is light and meandering but mostly clever
aug 31, 2025, 2:28 pm • 3 1 • view
I just started reading Katabatsis by R.F.Kuang, which so far feels like it's been custom-made to fit my interests. Lighter tone than Kuang's earlier books. A fun descent into literal hell as two students try to find the soul of their Phd supervisor so they can graduate
aug 31, 2025, 10:30 am • 12 3 • view
Morning Womble! Just finished the Penguin Classics collection of early The Avengers issues. It's not a complete run but includes sample issues from 1963 to 1970, with an introduction for historical context. Very nicely reproduced art too. Fascinating.
aug 31, 2025, 8:25 am • 6 1 • view
Good morning Womble! I am binging comfort re-reads. Currently Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove series.
aug 31, 2025, 7:47 am • 7 1 • view
20 minutes from finishing A Pilgrimage of Swords by Anthony Ryan.
aug 31, 2025, 8:44 am • 4 1 • view
Morning Womble! I'm on the moors with SK Horton's Gorse ahead of diving into the sequel Ragwort - it's a magical place.
aug 31, 2025, 8:36 am • 5 1 • view
Spent the week dipping into Spike Milligan's brain. I won't lie, not all of it has aged particularly well, but when he's on form there's something dazzling in just how far he'll bend conventions to hone a joke. And when you're reading it as a novel it can feel like your own personal firework show.
aug 31, 2025, 8:30 am • 5 1 • view
Good evening, Womble! Currently listening to The Island of Missing Trees which also inspired tonight’s dinner with it’s lovely descriptions of yummy Turkish dishes.
aug 31, 2025, 4:12 pm • 2 1 • view
I loved that book! But now you can't leave us hanging! What did you have for dinner?
aug 31, 2025, 4:17 pm • 3 0 • view
Awww, grilled chicken with a turkish marinade, cacik (yogurt-cucumber dip), piyaz (white bean salad), grilled eggplant and peppers (plus cubed potatoes in the air fryer- not turkish)
aug 31, 2025, 4:23 pm • 1 0 • view
Yum! 😊
aug 31, 2025, 4:52 pm • 2 0 • view
Morning Womble! On a bit of a British puzzle-cozy kick this week: about to start Adam Kay's A Particularly Nasty Case, then excited to move on to Janice Hallett's Killer Question and the new Thursday Murder Club when they're released next month
aug 31, 2025, 8:51 am • 7 1 • view
Gingerbread men and cannibals. Two very different books. Lucy Rose's The Lamb which is more than a bit disturbing. Secondly T. Kingfisher's A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, which is joyful fun . Really enjoying my reading this week and I hope everyone else is too. Be well.
aug 31, 2025, 11:27 am • 6 1 • view
Morning Womble! I’ve got the first section of The Fellowship of the Ring that I’m close reading to discuss with my partner, and then I’ve started Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings (I was looking forward to the prose, and so far it has not let me down).
aug 31, 2025, 10:25 am • 7 1 • view
Hi Womble! Inspired by watching Slow Horses, I'm re-reading the Slough House books (currently at 35% of Bad Actors) on digital, in preparation for the new one. On paper it's Shadowmarch by Tad Williams, another longtime resident of Mount TBR finally getting some lurve.
aug 31, 2025, 8:01 am • 13 1 • view
Good afternoon Womble! My sleepy Sunday afternoon dozing on my MIL’s sofa has been interrupted by having to chasing a hawk out of the kitchen. I have also just started a new audiobook: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes
aug 31, 2025, 2:37 pm • 5 1 • view
An impressive alarm call!
aug 31, 2025, 2:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Continuing reads: Physical: The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson Kindle: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
aug 31, 2025, 2:38 pm • 1 1 • view
Hello! About 2/3 through Katabasis by RF Kuang, about the descent into hell, with your academic rival, to find your (horrible) doctoral supervisor Very powerful on the toxic and intoxicating world of academia. Hell is a university Reminds me somewhat of A Secret History, not in plot but in feel
aug 31, 2025, 9:05 am • 4 1 • view
Morning! I've just started RF Kuang's Babel which I am just getting into.
aug 31, 2025, 10:33 am • 6 1 • view
Good morning! I finished the delightful Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch and just started his Stone Sky. I have also nearly finished Michelle McNamara’s I’ll be Gone in the Dark.
aug 31, 2025, 7:55 am • 11 1 • view
The Heroes by @joeabercrombie.com - just making sure I stay up to date with the genre's latest...
aug 31, 2025, 10:04 am • 8 1 • view
Some of the finest writing on the ugliness of battles regardless of genre that I have ever read.
aug 31, 2025, 4:05 pm • 2 0 • view
Maidin mhaith, Womble. I’m about to start The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)
aug 31, 2025, 9:16 am • 3 1 • view