"Indulgences worked roughly like modern crowdfunding initiatives, with all the attendant opportunities as well as risks."

No, come on, this is getting silly, not just naive.

I've not been reading a lot the last couple of weeks, but this evening I picked this one up on a whim. So far, it feels kind of... naive? Like, sure, monasteries were *intended* to hold property in common, but it's hard to hold the *intentions* of the Benedictines and Cistercians up as examples of workably sharing within a community: both orders became stinking rich.

That said, I'm giving it time and thought, because it's easy to knee-jerk.

I thought I'd reread this since I liked the *idea* of Cassandra Cain. I feel her Batgirl design is unsexualised and batlike in a pretty neat way, but I don't love a lot of the art in this one, and it's hard to fully follow without context.

Back to my rereads of this series! I'd sort-of-mostly remembered how this worked out, except for one thing. It's still very fun, and perhaps even more so now I've read more martial arts stories and know some of the xianxia/wuxia/etc type tropes, re: the character Wei Jintai. I wish there'd been a little more about her and Sang.

It feels like the darkness levels are leveling off a bit; in this one, Jinwoo seems to kinda miss the camaraderie of other hunters, and to be glad to fit in with them again as an e-rank for a bit.

I'm intrigued by Cha Hae-In, and accidentally caught a massive spoiler just now by googling her name, sigh. At least I don't mind spoilers too much.

It didn't feel like this volume got darker than the last again, which was nice, I don't know if I'd follow it far if it got really much darker. In fact, there were a couple of moments of Jinwoo just kinda being a nerd, which were fun (and Jinho is always fun).

I'm having trouble keeping track of some of the information about who's who, e.g. from different guilds, but mooostly that doesn't matter.

Today I learned that birds and reptiles can isolate infections in a single part of the body instead of the spread that often happens in mammals. I want to go read about how that works now, but I guess my theory would be a different lymphatic system? Though no clue how they would avoid spread through the blood stream... If someone finds out before I do, let me know!

(Note that I studied immunology as part of my degree, am interested in *detail*.)

I was eager to get the next volumes, but I haven't been reading a lot in the last couple of days. I think I overdid it on reading challenges -- so it was nice to feel a bit more like tucking into this, and get a chance to read it. I have volume 4 ready as well, which is nice.

I'm veeery curious about the System in this one and if indeed it does want to use Jinwoo for something. Each progressive volume feels a bit darker...

Ah Shen Qingqiu, you love Binghe so much and you have no real clue how you feel.

I'd kind of forgotten Liu Qingge was there to see it, and Ning Yingying's speech to Binghe afterward. Silly Liu Qingge, do you really think Shen Qingqiu wants you to avenge him, after he just saved Luo Binghe's life? But I think that's just the only way Liu Qingge knows to handle his emotions in the moment. I don't think Bai Zhan peak teaches emotional intelligence.

I've long had my Litsy feed augmented by following @PostsAboutYourBooks but now I'm thinking it would be nice to have more people to follow. I don't follow back several people who follow me, probably due to past overwhelm, so I'll be looking through that list for people to follow back...

But also, are there posters you think I'd love to follow? Especially people who are interested in a mix of genres like me? Highlight yourself too!

I'm really not getting through the reread as fast as I would've liked, but at least I managed to read more today. Shen Qingqiu's total misunderstanding of what's going on continues to wreak havoc!

This was mostly surprisingly fun, explaining the whole thing via two parallel timelines that converged: first, the story of Wise's early entry into forgeries, and then on the other hand the stories of Pollard and Carter. There's a fair bit of creative reimagining, to attempt to bring it all to life.

Aside from the boo-boo about Sayers I wrote about earlier, I don't know of any other errors of fact, and it was pretty engaging.

Oof! Badly misattributes stuff in Dorothy L. Sayers, and of course I noticed. Claims that “an analytical chemist“ (Sir James Lubbock) finds “arsenic on the victim's shoe“ during The Unpleasantness of the Bellona Club. It's nothing of the kind: Wimsey goes to see him, Lubbock is finishing a previous job, and then says the bit Hone quotes about arsenic about *that*.

The sample from the shoe is paint, not arsenic.

Immediate eyebrow raising here.

This lays out some interesting examples of conservation via killing, from the point of view of a squeamish vegan who is reluctantly convinced. It gets a touch repetitive and I don't think it ever really gets round to a conclusion except "humans sure have fucked up the ecology everywhere".

Hmm, I didn't remember many of these, mostly just “Warming Her Pearls“ -- which was still good, but maybe the only one I really *liked*. Probably I should spend some more time over them; I best like the poems I've studied, when it comes to Duffy.

Mind you, I hadn't studied most of the Rapture collection, so maybe I just prefer her later work.

Finally getting back to my reread! Chapter six overall, I think this is? First chapter of this volume. And if only Shen Qingqiu would just properly communicate with Luo Binghe, we wouldn't be in this position, sigh.

Jinwoo can be kinda dark, huh?

I'm interested where this is going, and wondering if Jinho is going to be a recurring character. My guess is yes.

The bad thing about manhwa is how quickly I tear through them... now I need the next volume!

I was enjoying this a lot for a while, but it's very gender essentialist, a bit repetitive, and prone to saying “it can't be a coincidence that“ about all kinds of things. Yes, yes it can be a coincidence.

He also repeatedly mocks the link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis, which I can assure you is not, as he characterises it, “a fable“. (Bipolar disorder and suicide risk are also linked to Toxoplasma gondii.)

So... (cont in comments)

The ebook edition I got was kind of garbled at times (weird typos), but I found this a surprisingly brisk read. Nice to finally place some of the quotations that go around in context.

Mostly just read it for this StoryGraph challenge, which echoes a Goodreads challenge: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/b39b226a-7d82-4267-a215-77dde52... But I appreciated it more than I'd expected.

Not my favourite collection of Duffy's, but I think I liked it more on this reread, with a big more patience probably than before. Still some incomprehensible ones, and one ridiculous one made up of nonsense words, but also “War Photographer“, which I read during my GCSEs and really stuck with me.

A lovely book about finds by non-archaeologists, such as metal detectorists, mudlarks, fieldwalkers, etc. Some fascinating finds. I was surprised there weren't more references to people inspired by Time Team, which was so formative for me!

I did hate the cover, though. Just holding it, it took several marks from my fingers, though my hands weren't particularly greasy or damp. Ugh.

I sure had forgotten the pro-suicide poems! I know it's all Housman setting up characters and playing around, but definitely had not remembered that.

Honestly the one that still strikes me is “White in the moon the long road lies“, because of how it's used in The Dark is Rising. Otherwise... I can actually kinda take or leave this collection.

Did enjoy finally placing the “Mithridates, he died old“ Lord Peter quotes in Sayers' Strong Poison.

I ended up really liking this. There's a deep affection for the Inner Temple and the work of lawyers there, the traditions and rituals of it, which I liked a lot. And surprisingly, I loved the characters: Gabriel Ward seems a bit stuffy at first, but he's gently courteous to all (regardless of station) and finds himself working toward not just law but justice.

I did guess the culprit and the chains of reasoning toward the culprit, which was nice.

I'm finding this one rather charming! I didn't think I'd like Gabriel Ward at first, and then his book-loving ways and pondering/joking about language got rather charming.

I'm reading this slower than I expected though, and I don't know why? I guess it's just denser than it looked. Very curious where it's going.

Lots of illustrations, actually in colour too despite being in-line rather than those glossy sheafs of inserted images. I didn't love the snippets of fiction introducing each chapter; I understand their utility for some, but ugh, just get to the facts!

Most interesting fact: we don't think there really was an individual “scriptorium“ in most institutions. Book production probably just happened in cloisters.

I... need to think this one over a while before I review it fully for my blog. It felt like the first third or so was setting up something really fascinating, and then it kind of went. Mystical? And bits of it reminded me excessively of Rivers Solomon's work.

In any case, here's my pre-weekend #BookSpinBingo card, and lookit that -- this was my #DoubleSpin. I feel like I'm making a great start!

This is my current read on Serial Reader, and I'm not sure I'd keep reading if it weren't for the serial format! The characters are so unpleasant, and the author is so unpleasant about them, e.g. the way it treats Mr Marble's wife, portraying her as very stupid etc etc.

Enjoying this so far. In odd synchronicity, it made me more curious about the papers behind this article (which I need to look into) which suggests we're finding evidence there has never been a mass extinction: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2481371-theres-growing-evidence-the-big-fiv...

This book, of course, is pretty certain that there was!

This is possibly my favourite of the series, I think. I love the fact that it's a trading of stories, and the way the tigers correct it. Still loved it on this reread!

This was okay but hopped around a bit randomly. Interesting anecdotes, but strung together badly. Low pick.

The blurb of this book claims it talks about new discoveries, and it does a bit, but mostly it's a somewhat rambling look at what drives the author, what he loves about Pompeii and working as the director of Pompeii, how he got there...

Which is all quite interesting, if sometimes prone to pages-long digressions, and his interest in the everyday (not just the beautiful murals) is vital and I think will continue to have good results in Pompeii.

This is a fascinating book, fully illustrated with colour photographs (and a few reproductions of pamphlets and such, though these are generally too small to see much detail). Some of the ways in which these “catacomb saints“ are decorated are amazing to see, just in terms of craft.

Not one I read because I venerate saints, and probably a little too academic/secular to please those who do.

This is requiring a bit more concentration than I seem to have today, discussing some technical aspects of “plant anatomy“ (which makes sense as a term but isn't one I'd heard before) and similar, along with technicalities about acceptance in court of expert testimony.

This one feels a bit... scattered? The topic jumps around quite a bit, and though it does eventually re-rail, sometimes I feel a bit lost as to where things are going.

Also although the blurb on the inside of the dust cover says it's about recent discoveries, so far it doesn't seem to be?

This was a reread, since I love this series but it's probably been years since I read the first (looks like it was 2020). It felt maybe a bit longer/slower than the most recent one (which isn't out yet, I had an ARC), maybe a bit more introductory, even though they all stand alone? But it's really satisfying how Chih slowly assembles the story to create a record.

It was also my #BookSpin, so we're off to a flying start!

Here we go! First sight of the full card, before I make the covers all transparent until the books are read.

Getting set up for June for #BookSpinBingo was nice, post-exam. I've spent 13h22m today on my immunology exam and my brain's kaput.

Yeah... I should've DNFed that, that was dire. Brand's usually not *awful*, but this was all her most melodramatic tendencies, a stupid romance that doesn't work, and a whole bunch of incoherence. Maybe it was meant to be a parody but that doesn't make it bearable.

Here we go, here's the list for #BookSpin for June!

Technically this time it was formed up of five categories (though they're all mixed up in the list):

- Books bought pre-2025
- Books bought in 2025
- Rereads
- Netgalley books
- Kobo Plus books

I just put some specific books in so if I can't decide what I feel like reading, it'll help me focus in. If these choices turn out not to work out for me, I might allow myself to swap one or two.

I can't tell if this is just *bad* or if I'm not in the mood, but wow I am not getting on with it. I'm not a huge fan of Christianna Brand, but normally I like her work better than this.

(And possibly it's meant to be parody but even that doesn't quite feel like it lands!)

Pre-exam brain is not making much headway with this right now, even though I find non-fiction soothing. Lots of history of Christianity, so far, which is pretty inevitable.

I enjoyed this a lot in the end, though I only really settled into it today. I am agog at the developments at the end, and really want more of the story so we can get more of this slow burn.

Also, this was my #DoubleSpin and that's a blackout for #BookSpinBingo as well!

I'm not sure now that I've finished it that it was worth it.

Things I liked: lots of queerness, Mallory's fibro, the closeness of the main characters, the platonic love between Mallory and Theodore. Forensic science on magic.

Things I didn't like: it felt kinda of... young? The concerns of the trio of girls were very teenage. The real clues started to become so obvious. Obnoxious monologuing to explain a load of tortured clues.

I am determined to finish this tonight, but I have to pause to scream and clear my mind about how obviously they have the wrong culprit.

I've been using Serial Reader to read some classics, and decided to take a step away from the classic crime I've been reading and read something else... and picked more or less at random. 😅 I think I remember trying to read my mum's copy as a kid, but it didn't stick then. It's quite fun, though it's really terribly obvious who Zorro is...

I thought I'd probably be DNFing this, but I guess I'm curious enough to stay the course. At least at this point, when my tracker app says I can finish it in 1h30m. I probably wouldn't be up for investing another two hours into it, though.

This was more fun than the third volume, but I feel like I keep missing steps in the reasoning and not quite understanding how things connect. I'm told reading the manga helps things come together, so I might do that.

And that was my #BookSpin book, finally, and now just two more books for a blackout on #BookSpinBingo!

I am enjoying this series to a degree, but Aelis is a really frustrating character at times. Everything her friends and family warn her about is true, every consequence is deserved, and yet there's really not enough consequence and her friends and family forgive her carelessness and arrogance way too easily.

And for fuck's sake, Aelis, I saw the “twists“ at the end coming six hundred miles off.

It's still a pick, but it's an annoyed one.

Gotta say that Aelis is annoying the hell out of me. She thinks she's above every law, every rule, every bond. She doesn't care whose lives she ruins until she's already done it. And she doesn't LEARN from these mistakes.

And I'm not sure the narrative really means it when she gets reproached.

The end of the month creeps closer and @TheAromaOfBooks has me thinking about next month's list, but I'm not done with May's yet even so! I slowed down a bit and read a bunch of other books, but I'm pretty close to a blackout all the same. For now, I think that's six bingos -- three horizontal, two vertical, one diagonal. Not bad for the month before my final exams, right?!

#bookspinbingo

[Received to review via Netgalley]

I loved this take on Snow White. I loved Anja and her attempts to apply the scientific method to a stubbornly magical situation, and I loved her camaraderie with her guard.

If you usually enjoy Kingfisher's work, this is a *very* Kingfisher book, and I'm pretty sure you'll like this one too.