Reading Archives - Celia Lake

Old As The Hills sitting on a bouquet of flowers - rosses, sweetpeas, and others, on a whitewashed bench with honey, tea, and other summery things. The cover of Old As The Hills has a man with a can and a woman silhouetted on a green ground with a map. She holds out her hand, he is putting something into it, forming a doorway between them. An astrological chart behind them shows the symbols for Venus, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn highlighted behind a splash of glowing stars.

Summer reading challenge

June 5, 2025 / Reading

Doing a summer reading challenge? Check out some help on finding which of my books fit prompts.

A copy of Bound for Perdition standing upright next to a stack of leather bound books and a pocketwatch. The cover of Bound for Perdition has a man and woman silhouetted in dark brown on a green and brown background, with the woman holding a book while the man gestures. An open blank book and pen are inset in the top right corner.

Buying books: the landscape from an indie author perspective

March 4, 2025 / Reading, Writing and publishing

An overview of the landscape of buying books (and the options out there), from my POV as a reader and indie author.

Cover of Best Foot Forward displayed on a tablet, with a palm leaf, on a golden yellow background. The cover has a deep red background with map markings in a dull purple. Two men in silhouette stand, looking up at a point in the top left. An astrology chart with different symbols picked out takes up the left side of the image, with glowing stars curving up to the title.

Happy Pride! LGBTQIA+ Books

June 12, 2024 / Albion, Reading

A look at LGBTQIA+ books and characters as of June 2024.

Ancient Trust, Best Foot Forward, Casting Nasturtiums, Complementary, Four Walls and a Heart, Goblin Fruit, On The Bias, Point By Point, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door

Copy of Best Foot Forward lying on a bed of sand, covered by an enamelled Horus medallion. The cover has a deep red background with map markings in a dull purple. Two men in silhouette stand, looking up at a point in the top left. An astrology chart with different symbols picked out takes up the left side of the image, with glowing stars curving up to the title.

Up for a 2024 reading challenge?

December 18, 2023 / Reading

Ideas for 2024 reading challenges (with some help about which of my books fit some prompts.)

Best Foot Forward, Carry On, Chasing Legends, Facets of the Bench, Fool's Gold, Forged in Combat, Four Walls and a Heart, Illusion of a Boar, In The Cards, Magician's Hoard, Mistress Of Birds, Nocturnal Quarry, Outcrossing, Pastiche, Sailor's Jewel, Shoemaker's Wife, The Fossil Door, The Magic of Four, Three Graces, Upon A Summer's Day, Wards of the Roses

What can you expect from this book?

July 12, 2023 / Questions and answers, Reading

A guide to finding more about what to expect from my books.

A copy of Bound for Perdition lying on a piece of aged paper with elegant handwriting. The cover of Bound for Perdition has a man and woman silhouetted in dark brown on a green and brown background, with the woman holding a book while the man gestures. An open blank book and pen are inset in the top right corner.

Summer (any time) reading fun

June 7, 2023 / Reading

Doing a summer reading challenge? Here are my books that fit specific prompts/bingo squares/etc.

Best Foot Forward, Bound for Perdition, Eclipse, Fool's Gold, Magician's Hoard, Mistress Of Birds, Point By Point, Sailor's Jewel, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door, Wards of the Roses, Winter's Charms

It’s the end of the calendar year, and that feels like a great time to recommend a few books I enjoyed this year, in the hopes that you might like some of them too. As a librarian, I always feel sort of weird about recommending books without a conversation about what someone’s looking for. What I like might be quite different than what you like, for all sorts of great reasons. On the other hand, sharing things I enjoyed is fun. So please take this in the spirit of ‘you might find these interesting’ and if you don’t, that’s fine! Read what makes you happy. A note: The Amazon links are affiliate links (if you buy through them, I’ll get a small referral fee). I’ve also linked to GoodReads, for those who prefer other sources. K.J. Charles I am such a fan. These are books about people being good to each other (if sometimes in rather unexpected ways), and thoroughly rooted in the times and places they take place. (Check out her website for much more, also interesting blog posts, and some free stories.) New reads this year included: Any Old Diamonds (Amazon, Goodreads) Proper English (Amazon, Goodreads) Henchmen of Zenda (Amazon, Goodreads) The Rat-catcher’s Daughter (Amazon, Goodreads) Gilded Cage (Amazon, Goodreads) (I also reread An Unseen Attraction, An Unnatural Vice, and An Unsuitable Heir, as well as Think of England and Band Sinister. They’re very much comfort rereads for me.) My favourites are probably the Think of England/Proper English

Recs and notes

August 22, 2019 / Mysterious Charm, Reading

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (who is deafblind) just won a Hugo Award (one of the major awards in Science Fiction and Fantasy) for her work on the issue Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. She started a Twitter thread of recs and comments about works by and about people with disabilities – there’s some great stuff there from a wide range of genres and perspectives. (And a lot more I want to go read that I haven’t yet.) I don’t usually identify myself bluntly as disabled but I have half a dozen chronic health issues. They add up to somewhere between mildly and moderately disabling depending on what’s flaring at the moment, but my life is mostly set up that a lot of it isn’t that noticeable. Embodiment is weird. But I missed the Twitter thread originally because it was a migraine day. (Thanks, weather…) If you’ve read my books, you’ve probably noticed that they have a bunch of main characters with disabilities and chronic health issues that affect their lives. For the books that are out now, that includes: Rufus and Carillon who both deal with with what we’d now call PTSD (trauma from the Great War) that come out in different ways. (They had different experiences and are different people, so that makes sense.) Laura, who has survived tuberculosis (but spent the better part of a decade in and out of sanitariums and other treatment). Giles, who was blinded in a (magical) gas attack in the war. Magician’s Hoard doesn’t have

Goblin Fruit, Magician's Hoard, Outcrossing, Wards of the Roses

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