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.

It's fascinating to read about the amount and variety of medieval graffiti in churches, and the fact that it seems clear some of it at least was sanctioned and even had a devotional purpose. The author concludes little, which is unsatisfying, but he isn't wrong that in many of these cases we simply cannot know.

I'm not sure quite how to rate this one because I did decide to finish it, and liked some of the stories, but I never felt grabbed and constantly felt kinda like DNFing it. I couldn't even tell you why exactly; I like Zen Cho's writing, and there wasn't anything specific I disliked, just... somehow didn't work for me.

I'm a bit stalled on this one. It did nicely evoke the Welsh weather, but I'm kinda meh about how... gothic it is? I think I see what's happening already, and the melodrama (and the main character getting humiliated) just isn't my jam. Brand isn't my favourite classic crime writer in any case, I've just never quite clicked with her stuff.

(I'm sorry about all the posts today! 😬 It's really catchup for most of the week, I suppose.)

I'm having to do a first post on some of the books I've started reading concurrently in order for them to show up properly as I can mark them as current reads! The list is just growing and growing and growing... I'm very whim-driven at the moment, just reading a little of multiple books at the same time, and that's fine.

I'm finding this one more interesting than I thought, even while it's still just describing how the census was set up!

Hoping to finish this over the weekend, though I'm a little tired of Aelis rushing into everything without THINKING...

I got an ARC but I think I'm late to get round to it, as ever. Oops.

This is interesting so far, but mostly... we don't really know how to explain a lot of the graffiti, so there are few conclusions we can come to. Every chapter ends with a kind of “but really, we don't know“, which is fair, I just wish we did know!

I'm going to describe this book properly in a reply to this, spoilered out, because it's heavily triggering.

Colin Mackay went to Bosnia as an aid worker, during the war. Bosnia haunted him ever after, until he committed suicide in 2003. To read his poetry in this volume is like watching the haunting.

I knew about it because of Karine Polwart's song, “Waterlily“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A-OhXL3ATs

It was a reread for me. Still haunted.

This was frustrating in not showing the full image of the garments, only closeups of whatever bit was under discussion (e.g. decoration or fastenings). This made it hard to picture how the garments were actually worn and what bit of the garment was being shown.

Buuut it's a fascinating overview of the V&A's collection of underwear, and various relevant aspects of underwear fashion.

This one is just lovely. Beautifully illustrated, fascinating stuff about construction techniques, a range of different ethnic dress included, and -- better than the 18th-Century Fashion book also from the V&A, many of the items have both a close-up of detail and an photo showing how the whole item looks. In the other book, a lot of them are only represented by a closeup and a sketch.

This was fascinating! If I had one wish, it would be that it included wider shots of the garments as well as the close-ups of detail.

I think it'd do more for someone who is more visual, as well.

Spot the bunnies in this Chinoiserie whitework/lace apron?

That was quick! It's a pretty skinny little volume. It's funny: some of the choices are just obvious, classic, and then there are some by poets I don't know at all. I'd hoped for more of the latter, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded of the classics (and I didn't know them all, even when they were standards).

I wouldn't have picked that particular Carol Ann Duffy poem out of all the options, though, no way.

Got myself a lil haul of new books after discovering I had waaay oversaved for my taxes. 🎉

Titles:
Poetry Prescriptions: Words for Love (ed. Deborah Alma)
The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker: The story of Britain through its census (Roger Hutchinson)
The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol 1 (Xue Shan Fei Hu)
Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England's Churches (Matthew Champion)

Cont. in comments...

Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was always my favourite. It might not be the most strictly accurate, but it's the one that tries to be earnest in reflecting the sounds and joy of the original, rather than trying to be scholarly. There's a place for both.

Reread this since there's a new book coming on Tuesday (I could've sworn the previous book was meant to be the last?!) and it's always been a favourite series. I love Greta's determination to be a good doctor, and serve the community that need her, even when they aren't perfect people, even when they have specifically done wrong *to her*.

Also, I love Ruthven and Fass.

The image is technically from the next volume, but it illustrates well where the story ends.

Love this quote from the final chapter, when he overreacts to being asked about Luo Binghe: “It was Shen Qingqiu who was overthinking the skeletons in his closet.“

That sounds about right for Shen Qingqiu!

Anyway, as ever, loved this reread, and feel like I notice/absorb more and more each time.

“It's only, long ago, I began to suspect that Cucumber-bro was a faithful reader, just one who didn't like expressing his feelings in a normal way. To think you were able to recall an obscure, throwaway plot point that I used only once. I'm very moved.“
- Shang Qinghua aka Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky to Shen Qingqiu, aka Peerless Cucumber

And yep, SQH, that's about right in summing up SQQ.

Choosing this image as my favourite for this chapter feels heartrending, given how the chapter ends. I actually forgot that there's a little more after the fall, since the donghua ends with it. One more chapter to go, a short one.

I'd say I don't get how Shen Qingqiu doesn't notice/understand Luo Binghe's crush on him, but the man's powers of self-delusion are unbelievably strong. Love him strutting his stuff to impress Binghe re: the monsters.

Another chapter finished! Shen Qingqiu just keeps jumping in front of Luo Binghe -- technically this image is from the previous chapter, but he does it again in this one already. Binghe is running away with all sorts of confused ideas about why his Shizun is protecting him, poor boy.

But then, he's beginning to be cared for, for the first time in a long time, so “poor boy“ might not be the right words.

I think this was the first collection of Duffy's I read, after encountering her selected poems at GCSE. I think I liked them better now, though some of them still feel like copout cheap-shots, savagery for the sake of it.

The Anne Hathway sonnet is still the best:

“I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.“

(In Shakespeare's will, he gave his wife, Anne Hathaway, the second best bed.)

And that's chapter two read! I love how quickly Shen Qingqiu begins to forget that he's in a story. In the clash with Sha Hualing and her minions, he's all about protecting all the disciples of Cang Qiong Sect, and risks himself selflessly, even under threat of death. He's far braver than he thinks he is; throughout, it's very obvious that he has very little insight into himself, so this isn't surprising.

And Liu Qingge's joined the story! 💙

This was one of my favourite collections by Duffy, so I wanted to revisit it while I happen to be in the same location as my copy. And I love it still, so full of jewels it'd be hard to choose just one to highlight. If I did, it'd be 'Art':

“Art, the chiselled, chilling marble of our kiss;
locked into soundless stone, our promises,
or fizzled into poems; page print
for the dried flowers of our voice.“

Time for a reread! I love these books: they were the first danmei I read. The setup (a master/student relationship) is immensely problematic to a Western reader, but it's important to consider the context and also how the story absolutely mitigates that and rebalances the power scales between the two. In this TED talk I will...

Anyway, so far in this reread I have been enjoying how genre-savvy SQQ is, and how that is his strength AND weakness.