Book Review: How to be a Renaissance Woman by Jill Burke

Title: How to be a Renaissance Woman Author: Jill Burke Dates read: 30/03/25 – 21/04/25 Rating 3/5 Publisher: Wellcome Collection Number of pages: 338 Fiction or non-fiction: nonfiction Subject or genre: art, feminism, history Book blurb: Plunge into the intimate history of cosmetics, and discover how, for centuries, women have …

Book Review: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Title: The Love Hypothesis Author: Ali Hazelwood Dates read: 08/03/25 – 21/03/25 Rating 5/5 Publisher: Berkley Books Number of pages: 356 Fiction or non-fiction: fiction Subject or genre: contemporary, romance Book blurb: As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and …

Book Review: Untypical by Pete Wharmby

Title: Untypical Author: Pete Wharmby Dates read: 07/04/25 – 10/04/25 Rating 5/5 Publisher: HarperCollins Number of pages: 256 Fiction or non-fiction: non-fiction Subject or genre: autism, memoir Book blurb: It’s time to remake the world – the ground-breaking book on what steps we should all be taking for the autistic …

Book review: Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher

Title: Nettle and Bone Author: T Kingfisher Dates read: 16/03/25 – 09/04/25 Rating 3/5 Publisher: Titan Boks Number of pages: 336 Fiction or non-fiction: fiction Subject or genre: adventure, fantasy, horror Book blurb: A dark and compelling fantasy about sisterhood, impossible tasks and the price of power, from award-winning author …

April 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

I read 7 books in April which seems to be about my average in 2023 Jeremy Clay – The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton: And Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press A collection of extraordinary, bizarre and morbidly funny stories from the Victorian press. There were farces and tragedies …

Some drive-by mini reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve done any mini-reviews (and, y’know, actually finished reading any books to write a review of) so here’s a little round-up of what I’ve been reading recently. I’ve DNFed two books in the last week: The first one was Kelly Ambers – Her First Collar: …

Book Review: How To Be A Healthy & Happy Submissive by Kate Kinsey

Title: How To Be A Happy & Healthy Submissive Author: Kate Kinsey Dates read: 17/04/22 – 18/09/22 Rating 4/5 Publisher: Nevermore Press Number of pages: 192 Fiction or non-fiction: non-fiction Subject or genre: BDSM, sexuality Book blurb: Beyond Fifty Shades of Grey, there’s an entire kinky world of BDSM, full …

A Quick Catch Up

So, the news in brief and some reading roundups are The not-COVID I had at the beginning of the month? Yeah, it turned out to actually be COVID. Li and I were both pretty sick for about 10 days, and completely exhausted for about another week. I still get fatigued …

Book Review: Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

Title: Notes on a Nervous Planet Author: Matt Haig Dates read: 01/05/22 – 07/05/22 Rating 4.5/5 Publisher: Canongate Number of pages: 310 Fiction or non-fiction: non-fiction Subject or genre: health, mental health, philosophy, psychology Book blurb: The world is messing with our minds. Rates of stress and anxiety are rising. …

Drive-by Mini-Reviews, the second

I keep telling myself I’m going to get better at writing proper reviews as and when I finish a book but… it’s not going very well. I’m still not completely confident at writing them, if I’m being honest, but I can already tell I’m improving when I look at the …