Then and Now #49 (13/8/23 - 20/8/23)

Happy Sunday and welcome to July!  The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads! 

Last Week

Happy Sunday! It's boiling here lately, but we've had some utterly stunning thunder storms as well. Last Sunday the sky went dark and the heavens decided to unleash an epic hail storm for about 20 minutes. Toothless, my cat, decided it wasn't for him and hid under the bed while I stared out of the window, spellbound. Once it was over, we got a rainbow and blue skies and ever since it's been hot AF! I mostly worked from home this week but also went into the office to try and get catering and hotels sorted for the conference we're organising. Loads of admin. While I have experience with it, I still get a little nervous dealing with finances etc. so I decided to bring my Yoga and Pilates exercises back for whenever I felt my anxiety/stress-level was too high. 

I didn't get a whole lot of reading done this week, although I am very much enjoying Shadow of Night and have some excellent books lined up for this week. I'm hoping to get all of my reviews in order for this week. It's also been a brilliant weekend because Hozier released his third album, Unreal Unearth, and my favourite narrative podcast, The Silt Verses, has just started its third season! And it's the Women's World Cup today! I mean, how is a girl meant to get anything done with all of that happening?! 

Posted last week:

• BC - Let's Get Medieval #2 - 'The Dream of the Rood'
• Friday Friyay: Shadow of Night (All Souls #2) by Deborah Harkness

Recommendation

It obviously has to be a Hozier song! Here's Butchered Tongue, a song which absolutely ripped my heart out the first, second, fifth, and tenth time I heard it.

Mailbox Monday

The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik (9/27/22; Ballantine, Del Rey)

The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out—and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me and Orion and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: We saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere.

Ha, only joking! Actually, it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

I loved the first two books in the Scholomance trilogy and was planning on getting the third installment soon, when I suddenly saw it was still available to request on NetGalley. And yaay, I was approved! So this is one of the books I can't wait to dive in to this week or next.

Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction by Various (10/10/23; Solaris, Rebellion)

The first true celebration of contemporary Nordic science fiction, fantasy and horror!

A Unique Speculative Fiction Collection From The Nordic Countries

Storytelling has been a major force in the Nordic countries for thousands of years, renowned for its particular sense of dark humour, featuring pacts with nature and a view of the worlds you seldom find in other places.

Perhaps it is the freezing cold winter? The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic? Maybe it’s the huge ancient forests...

Most have heard about Nordic crime fiction with its dark noir flare or the Icelandic Sagas. This anthology combines all that is unique about Nordic speculative fiction, from the darkest dystopian science fiction to terrifying horror. From the rational to the eccentric, these stories combine a deep sense of place with social criticism, themes of loneliness and the concern for humanity's impact on the wilderness.

Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Åge Bringsværd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time. 

I love Science Fiction, I love Fantasy, and I love Horror, so of course this edition is perfect for me. Add to the fact that I work with Old Norse literature and I am so utterly on board with this entire book and can't wait to dive in while I'm in Norway and while the days get shorter and the nights longer.

And that's it for me this week! What are you reading? And are you watching the World Cup final?