This week I’m reading DK’s Ancient Rome: The Definitive Visual History alongside Andrea Penrose’s Murder at Somerset House, which means the historian part of my brain is getting fed from two rather different directions. On one side, I’m going all the way back to Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome: The Definitive …
Cassie 
Currently reading: routes, rivers & the layers of history
This week I’m reading The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan and Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, and what initially looked like another completely mismatched pair has turned out to have a surprisingly obvious connection: both have me thinking about the ways history accumulates beneath the present. The Silk Roads …
Book Review: False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
Title: False Value (Rivers of London #8) Author: Ben Aaronovitch Dates read: 10/08/25 – 17/08/25 Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (3.5 stars) Publisher: Gollancz Number of pages: 420 Fiction or non-fiction: fiction Subject or genre: contemporary, crime, fantasy, mystery Book blurb: Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts …
Currently Reading: ticking clocks and code-bound curses
Last week, I had grand plans for Frankenstein and False Value, but my brain waved a white flag. Mental health-wise, I just wasn’t in the headspace for Shelley’s heavy storms or Aaronovitch’s magical noir, so I pivoted to something gentler: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood and A Thousand …
Currently Reading: experiments, ethics, and eldritch code.
Currently Reading: experiments, ethics, and eldritch code. I’ve accidentally themed the week around science gone rogue — one Victorian, one very modern. ⚡ Frankenstein – the original tale of grief, ambition, and what happens when you play god with science. Mary Shelley’s gothic classic is just as devastating and electric …
Book Review: Murder at Kings Crossing by Andrea Penrose
Title: Murder at Kings Crossing (Wrexford & Sloane #8) Author: Andrea Penrose Dates read: 07/03/25 – 23/04/25 Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Publisher: Kensington Books Number of pages: 369 Fiction or non-fiction: fiction Subject or genre: historical fiction, mystery Book blurb: Celebration is in the air at Wrexford and Charlotte’s country estate as …
top ten red, white, & blue book covers
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to …
June 2023 Reading Wrap-Up
I had quite the good reading month in June and finished 9 books Kaleb Cooper – The World According To Kaleb I am honestly not sure what the point of this book was. Other than to make money. Like most fans of Clarkson’s Farm, I utterly adored Kaleb but this …
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 …
Book Review: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
Title: The Lost Apothecary Author: Sarah Penner Dates read: 28/02/22 – 19/03/22 Rating 4/5 Publisher: HarperCollins Number of pages: 320 Fiction or non-fiction: fiction Subject or genre: historical fiction, mystery Book blurb: A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost …