16. Early Medieval Scotland: Individuals, Communities and Ideas b David Clarke, Alice Blackwell and Martin GoldbergI picked this up at the National Museum of Scotland last year. Early medieval Scotland is an extremely poorly documented period; this is an account of what we currently think the archaeology is telling us. I admit to mainly buying it ( Read more... )

15. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine ArdenThis is the book that Facebook kept trying to sell me, and it sounded relevant to my interests. I wasn't entirely convinced so I got it from the library ( Read more... )

I was going to give each book its own post this year; however, I'll never catch up that way. So here I go with quick drive-by reviews. Ask me if you want to know more.

9. Path of Gods by Snorri KristjanssonThe final volume of Snorri's Viking age trilogy. It's been fun watching Snorri develop as a writer through the series. The first book was just ( Read more... )

8. The Hanging Tree by Ben AaronovitchWoo hoo! I'm in to February now. Which means I still don't remember my thoughts on this book ( Read more... )

7. The Janus Cycle by Tej TurnerAlso from January.  I had a lot of thoughts about this at the time, too, but they're all gone ( Read more... )

6. The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols by Genevieve von PetzingerI finished this back in January so most of my thoughts are long gone ( Read more... )

5. The Last Kingdom by Bernard CornwellI'd not heard of this series until it was filmed by the BBC last year. I thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation and grabbed the book when the Kindle edition was cheap ( Read more... )

4. Blood Will Follow by Snorri KristjanssonSecond book in the Valhalla Saga. I reviewed Swords of Good Men a couple of years back. It was just OK for most of the way through but then got really interesting at the end ( Read more... )

3. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim MarshallOr Geopolitics for Dummies. A good basic explanation of how geography limits the options of various world regions. This is the 2016 edition and is very much up to date for now, but if it isn't updated regularly it will date quickly ( Read more... )

2. The House Next Door by Will Macmillan JonesI bought this from the author at BristolCon. It's a traditional cursed/possessed object horror story. A downtrodden young woman impulsively spends money she can't afford on an antique unicorn statue. Within hours it has killed her abusive mother and more nastiness soon follows. Fortunately, she ( Read more... )