Joan Cockin's mysteries are very classic puzzles with a policeman to solve them, with order restored at the end even when the atmosphere is dark and twisty. I enjoy them a lot, and as expected, liked this one.

My little extra bingo card's coming along nicely at the end of day 3 of 5. That said, tomorrow's much busier.

I found the way this all worked out a bit... obvious? Predictable? But it was satisfying to get there, and I do enjoy Lee Knox Ostertag's art.

This book goes almost “frame by frame“ over the Bayeux Tapestry to interpret both what is happening exactly and why it's being shown, as well as providing context and detail about the making of it -- I found it fascinating.

This was a slow read but pretty enjoyable. It's definitely a little idealistic, but I don't say that as a bad thing, and the basic premise is that there are indigenous traditions of land management and agriculture in Wales that can contribute to biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water management, etc. It's less about language than I'd been led to expect, but it does discuss Welsh a fair bit too.

Safely in Wales and curled up listening to the rain, finished this after reading most of it in the car. It's a weak pick, the style (or the translation) didn't work for me that well, but it's an interesting set of constraints on time travel -- and how even constrained time travel can be worth it.

Here's my "distraction" bingo card after day 1 of 5!

My goodness. There is little I can say about this without spoilering, but oh, Jinwoo, wow.

How is Beru (a vaguely humanoid ant ghost soldier) so CUTE sometimes??

Lots more showdowny stuff, Jinwoo powers up EVEN MORE, and a certain long-awaited reunion... yeah. 💙 And I can't believe the next volume is coming to the end?

Made myself a mini bingo card for the next few days, as a potential distraction from everything (since I'm traveling tomorrow to attend the interment of my grandparents' ashes). If I don't manage anything, that's fine. If I read other books that's also fine. If I can get a blackout, woooo.

(I know I still have squares on #BookSpinBingo card to fill but a) this helps with that and b) there's enough to go that I was having difficulty with choices.)

Yikes, it's all go in this volume! I'm a bit sad for Jinho that Jinwoo doesn't refer to him as a friend (unless there's a weird translation thing going on?).

Really really curious what exactly has happened to Jinwoo's father.

Given the issues I've found so far in the first third, I'm calling it. I've given the rest a quick skim, and it's all full of wishful thinking (though on such a quick skim I didn't spot any other errors of fact jumping out).

I think it might be fine for a very casual reader who doesn't care about sourcing.

Oop, an error of fact: “...both these depictions of female vampires [Le Fanu's Carmilla and Coleridge's Christabel] predate Dracula, Nosferatu and even Polidori's 'Vampyre' by a number of years.“

Polidori's 'The Vampyre' was 1819, 'Christabel' 1797, Carmilla 1872. It *does* predate Dracula though.

My guess is bad editing, either an example between Carmilla and Christabel removed, or the reference to predating Polidori's 'Vampyre' added in error.

I... I'm gonna need some kind of evidence for linking the “what big teeth you have“ “what big eyes you have“ etc part of Red Riding Hood with Thor being dressed as Freyja and people reacting to it. Sure, you could use the same dialogue, but, hm, I feel like more of a link is required than that?! This seems like just “because I say so“...

This book gathers together a bunch of documents about the evolution of the postal service in Europe, which is pretty neat. The version I got from the library is bilingual, English/French, which gave me some opportunity to practice.

I read it to review on the Postcrossing blog, but I have quite a backlog of reviews to write for that for now!

This was... okay? I was definitely curious about the mystery, but not so totally absorbed that I couldn't have lived without finding the answer. Still, I felt really meh today and this kept me interested enough to read about half of it in one go, so I think I'm just generally muted in affect today and I probably liked it.

Either way, that was my #DoubleSpin.

This guy badly needs an editor to explain to him that he isn't funny.

I found the first half tedious. This is of course in part because I have an MSc in this topic, including distinctions in the immunology, bacteriology, virology and parasitology modules. But partly it's the humour.

It picked up in the latter half, but he should have forced to edit some of his wrongness about COVID out, for accuracy and the avoidance of spreading bad info.

This was lovely. One could wish for even more pictures (a picture of every dress discussed), but it's all interesting and illustrative.

Oof, that was quite melancholy for such a short book! I do enjoy Tom Gauld's art, this is very much characteristic of it, and surprisingly moody.

There was certainly an amount of skimming, but I did finish this in the end. I like Chapman's enthusiasm, but... astrophysics isn't for me, and I found her digressions a bit annoying/sometimes overly cutesy. I don't need an extended metaphor about making Christmas Dinner to understand that launching a new space telescope presents serious challenges.

And that was my #BookSpin!

I am considering DNFing this because... astrophysics just doesn't penetrate my brain. It's interesting in principle, but not my thing. I don't think it's Chapman's fault, I think she writes engagingly for people who have enough interest to really try to understand the technical stuff, but, nope, that's not me.

I ended up reading this in one sitting, it was mesmerising! I found it a bit clearer to try and guess what the secrets were than in Strange Pictures, and each chapter is more clearly connected from the outset, which I found a bit more fun.

As usual with these “fashion in detail“ books, it's beautifully illustrated, and the line drawings are helpful, but arrrghhh please show photos of the whole garment as well as the details!

This is a bit dry and academic, but has some nice visual references for the range of house dresses, and discusses a bit of the history and development. Very focused on Italy, which the Great British Sewing Bee hasn't ever brought up when discussing house dresses (pretty sure there have been at least a couple, and there was a wrap dress this season).

Well, this sped by. It was kinda fun (especially with the illustrations), but not very substantial? Felt like a short story.

Not a favourite collection from the British Library Crime Classics series. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but I just didn't get enthused. Also one of the stories was a repeat, I'm pretty sure. (I've read it for sure; I don't remember where, but I only really read crime short stories in this series.)

This was a no from me. I like Marina's lyrics, and I think some of the stuff here could make a great song, but as presented, as poetry, it left me cold.

I think she was having fun and it was cathartic for her and that's great! But not my thing.

I'm not a huge Austen fan, but I was curious about the idea of someone making Mr Collins the hero of the story. This worked really well, told from the point of view of Mr Collins and with real sympathy for the character. I really liked it.

August was a busy month, reading-wise! No surprises I got a BookSpinBingo blackout when I was reading like that. 😲

Feels like a bit of a return to normal for me, post-degree with more time to process... everything. Some not-fun stuff is coming up (taking my ex-landlord to court and my grandparents' ashes will be interred this month), but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to turn to reading to get me through (rather than not feeling like reading).

And here we go! I was really looking forward to this, so it's nice to get started.

I need to pick books with more interesting colour palettes... I usually take either the #BookSpin or #DoubleSpin for the colour palette, but the BookSpin's colours are very much like last month's card, and I don't really like the colours from the DoubleSpin. Oh well!

I have read one of the books already, yesterday, so I'm also off to a good start.

#BookSpinBingo

It's... okay, but some stuff that was meant to be funny was pretty meh, and I guess I felt kind of... “yes, and?“ about it. It wasn't that insightful, at least for someone with my particular academic background (both science and literature).

I think the author should stay in his lane and not foolishly declare that there will never be a pandemic with a high death toll just because COVID didn't kill that big a percentage of the population, or (contrary to actual fact) that the risk of disease decreases with globalisation (it increases).

This wasn't *surprising* to me, and I don't really need the resources as such (I'm fairly good at self-advocating) -- but it was validating.

It's very UK-focused, though, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for those in other countries. Some of the problems are caused by the NHS and the structure thereof.

I must admit it has me a bit scared about my new patient appointment with my new surgery on Wednesday.

This was a lot of fun. It started off cosy, and then took a sharp turn into horror, which was an interesting juxtaposition. I feel fascinatingly ambivalent about Annie and Sophie: there is much to love about them, but then also, you know... well. I won't spoil the experience.

Look at me, all organised for #BookSpin!

A very random mix, in part because I've got down to reviews for basically three genres for my blog (SF/F, history, and graphic novels), and I like to have science, romance and crime in the mix as well. Also because I have two goals this year: reading through my backlog of books bought pre-2025, and not adding to it with books bought in 2025 (I can have a max of 20 unread bought this year at any one time).

And that's a blackout! #BookSpinBingo

I think this could've maybe used being at least 50 pages shorter, but I do always enjoy T. Kingfisher's work.

Recommending this for @PuddleJumper's #HauntedShelf (sign up: https://forms.gle/wmcY27wyx6awp3EfA).

I'll probably be reading the third book in the series, Into the Dark, assuming I don't accidentally read it in September. Some spookiness, also some cute romance.

It was quite difficult at times to figure out what was fiction and what was fact in this book -- and a fairly egregious error when discussing Tutankhamun (because the author chose to mention Howard Carter a bunch, even though he is totally irrelevant to the Cheapside Hoard) makes me worry a bit about the author's actual scholarly ability.

It was an entertaining read, but... yeah. Concerns.

Unless something really unexpected happens this weekend, this is definitely going to be a blackout! Which is pretty exciting.

I keep thinking about what I want to put on September's card, buuut there's a solid chance I'm going to finish two of those books this weekend, so plans might have to rearrange, ahaha.

#BookSpinBingo

The Arthurian references are kind of a mess, and I found them super distracting. I try not to be a purist, but. Yeah, I don't know, the setup here didn't really convince me.

I did enjoy Gwen and Art, though. I kept reading because I wanted to see what these idiots would make of it all, and I did find myself enjoying how it all came together. It's a *low* pick though.

Laughed a bit at the example of a person saying they have endometriosis and asthma and they've never been denied treatment for their asthma or told their symptoms are all in their head -- got news for you, hon, I have! I'm not permitted a peak flow meter to monitor it because I would “worry unnecessarily“, I'm not permitted an adult dose of steroids because they've decided (on no evidence) that I'm just not compliant enough, etc etc.

This was pretty fun, though very dramatic. Not being a parent, I didn't connect with that side of things very much, and Vivian's self-flagellation is tiresome, so the middle bogged down a bit (especially with the lack of communication between Vivian and Daniel, ugh) but when things start coming together it's pretty fun.

Oooooooof. Absolute howler here: "Now the world would know about the later kings of Egypt of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and Tutankhamun specifically, who, with his father, had reverted to the worship of one deity, Amun, the sun god, ending Egypt's long-standing polytheism."

How many errors can you fit in one run-on sentence????

I continue to feel weird about this because it kept saying things like “most people never see someone die“, and sure, I get that, but it's not my experience -- and I feel very raw about it, because I was so recently with my grandmother when she died, and it was something I was very, very deliberate about; I wasn't there by accident.

Which is not to say it wasn't a good book, but I think it was a bad time for me to read it.

Creeping up on a blackout -- finished three books over the weekend, bringing me to five bingos in total.

It'd be really nice to make it to a blackout, given I'm partway through all of the remaining books already!

#BookSpinBingo

Was in the mood for a cosy mystery, so I thought I'd get back to rereading this series. I'm not sure if I'll keep the books once I've worked my way through the whole thing; I like Daisy well enough, but I'm not sure I'll reread again in future, tbh. So much reliance on coincidence in every book, it just doesn't quite sit right.

Which is not to say it's not fun! Just not a permanent keeper, perhaps.

HMMM, d'you think I was in a bit of a reading mood today?

Though I didn't read much of this particular book. It's been intimidating me since I started it. But I made sure to make time for a chapter today, and that did hook my interest a bit better than the first chapters had. I know a little bit about the Cheapside Hoard, but no great detail.

Oh nooo, that's a really rude cliffhanger.

Also, the plot thickens quite a bit in this volume! I really want vol 11 soon.

Hmmmm. I don't know what to make of this so far. All the flipping round of real-world prejudices takes some catching up with, and I'm not sure it's not going to work out to something profoundly offensive.

I really liked this attempt to tell the story of Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir in her own words, for the most part. There were a few stylistic bits I disliked (the bits in italics), and some of the (one-sided) conversations between her and Agnar were a bit too long, but I loved the affection that grew up between them that was very obvious despite the way the story is told.

I found this interesting, but also difficult to keep track of because there are so many what-ifs. Every branching point has three or four different theories, or more, about what exactly happened. One almost needs to make a diagram to keep track.

It took a while to start talking about linguistic specifics, but once it did, that helped somewhat.

Here's how my #BookSpinBingo card stands now, pre-weekend reading, with two bingos. I think a blackout is within reach, and there's ways in which that idea pleases me, but I'm also veeery tempted by other books.

I estimate probably at least 17 hours of reading to get the blackout, which for me is doable within the remaining days of August, especially as it includes four weekend days.

On the other hand, shiny new birthday books...