grumpy bookseller goes psycho

reading v slowly, feeling stupider + stupider


January


Ruwe(edit): Culturing the Child 1690-1914 essays in honour of mitzi myers collection essays re early childrens books by diverse academics. Curates egg but there was my fave chapter which really made me rethink mrs trimmer
Roberts: Domination the fall of the roman empire and the rise of christianity segue from roman empire to christendom. V approachable, archaeological pov from author. The thesis is that posh roman families pivoted to church careers as the empire crumbled, leaving the same families in power, this reveal less amazing than author thought.10 mins thought about career of gregory of tours gives you this insight for free
Oxenham: The Abbey Girls Again v chalet school vibe in all the ways i least like about chalet series, the snobbery, the smugness, the insensibility. published/aimed at same generation + class. oxfammed
Welch: Mr Collins in Love m/m p+p sequel, novella, v neurodivergent mr c, liked despite expecting it would be gimmick. Wish had not ended so early, wanted to see charlotte lucas settle into household
Graham-Dixon: Vermeer a life lost and found xmas present from olga. Less art + more calvanist politics than expected
Lowis: Fabulous Admirals and some naval fragments v late victorian + early 20th c. snobbish and bullying and of its time. British navy anecdotes pre great war
Henry: Pagans really enjoying mix of cop procedural + alt hist so far. V good, liked worldbuilding, some 'big narrative reveals' (christianity! Omg! For example) not as surprising as i feel author intended, feels original. Clear set up to make it a series
Collins: Germs picturebook, got cos i love ross collins'work. Early piece, didactic and illustrations not as crisp as i associate w collins
de la Mare: Molly Whuppie another picbook, got for le cain illustrations. folktale, scottish


Did not finish vermeer


February:

Novellie: Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things a comedian's guide to autism got cos i find him funny on radio 4, is 97% autism 3% comedy. He had late diagnonis, has fervour of a missionary for others to be tested
Harrowven: Origins of Rhymes Songs and Sayings coded meaning of nursery rhyme books often guesswork presented with great confidence by independent obsessive. this was that kind of book
Wynne Jones: Poems yes, that diana wynne jones. She always struck me as prose but am curious (eta: reminded me of fanthorpe, much better than hoped, had bought cos am fannish completist, had low hopes)
Mac Liammoir: Enter a Goldfish memoirs of an irish actor young and old he was born in willesden. As a novel, 4 stars as a fraudulent memoir the pastiche frank o'connor boyhood inserted in his autobiog annoyed me. He did so much impressive stuff - he got to be a pillar of the establishment in holy catholic ireland while openly gay, he was an artist, he organised theatres, he was super literate, polyglot.. why lie?
Bond: Self Portrait renaissance to contemporary minimal text - brief biographies - of artists, one double page per person, arranged chronologically, exhibition catalogue
Shrady: Tilt the skewed tale of the tower of pisa mostly history of city + architecture, enjoyed
Latimer: Gordon in the City for childrens 5-7 age. Like the series, this volume meh
McLaughlin, Ross: Inspector Penguin Investigates picturebook. Same joke as their story about elephant spy, this time a detective, but i loved that + i love this. Illus charming and hidden subplot in pictures
Spain: Poison for Teacher schoolstory/crime/farce. Unreadable (for me that is for now that is) the humour didn't land and the plot didn't grab. would have rated this high in 90s when i got through a mae west novel (on reflection, felt then she done him wrongs a better film than book, too)
Sharpson: Don't Trust Fish lovely picturebook, good rhythm on text
Rosenbaum: The Shakespeare Wars clashing scholars public fiascoes palace coups too much about rosenbaum too little about shakespeare, and so much name dropping
Wynne Jones: Yes Dear picturebook, got out of w-j fangirl completism
Gray: Murder of Mr Wickham lost interest rapidly, dnf. Too big an ensemble, too slow a pace, too many pages before the murder promised by the title. Capt wentworth was really done dirty by the author



March


Oliphant: Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow melodrama about victorian sex, the social repercussions not the bedroom, well, this is oliphant
Fenton: Leonardo's Nephew essays on art and artists
Worsley: Jane Austen at Home a biography why didnt i read this already? (cos tv documentry person, thought would be dumbed down) actually bits were over explained, but also - reviews on publication said it was all about artifacts connected to her + was unkeen about reverencing chipped egg cup from site of childhood. But this was fab read.
Riding, King: Wright of Derby from the shadows art exhib catalogue, lots of portraits and art profession in 18th, not just firelit smithies, interesting
White: London in the 18th Century a great and monstrous thing tied together a lot of info, too much to fit in one book so compressed too hard to be a fun read. Good but dry

April

Gabriele, Perry: Oathbreakers the war of brothers that shattered an empire and made medieval europe determinedly massmarket book on carolingians, who continue to baffle me. Hope this helps me understand
Castillo Price: Living Dead #15 in series, #14 did not wow me, enjoyed this
Cooper: Not the Swiss Family Robinson should have read this when i read rotary spokes (which i loved) bit meh about this though it hits the same beats. Midwestern babydyke strikes out into the world
Slocombe: 100 Things to Wear mini coffee table of a book, lots pics, of range of hist costume held by national trust.
Charles: Copper Script gay/crime/romance novella with graphologist (?!) theme. On reading kj charles blog, discovered this was for her graphologist granny who it turns out was hilda van stockum who wrote my fave childrens ww2 book borrowed house. Unreasonably squeeful re this factoid
O'Reilly Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? 90% hilarious, 5% grief, v irish
Pearlman: Fun with Kirk and Spock parody of peter+jane reading schemes
Kingfisher:A Sorceress Comes to Call retelling of goose girl + fallada horse folktale, novella. V good but painful around the mother daughter relationship
Dunthorne: Children of Radium family biog, reconstructing his grandparents, g-grandparents experience of ww2 V bleak 1940s stuff which he tried to ameliorate by jocular self deprecating account of his investig journo in the present. Disliked 40s passages because thought g grandfather was dick, disliked 21st cent passages because thought he was dick.
Balogh: Slightly Sinful regency romance, amnesia trope
Hamley: Pageants of Despair hist fic for 10 yr olds, pub 1972. Did not encounter this puffin as child. Earnest but mediocre book by schooltacher w special interest in guild miracle plays - he cares so much and has thought through details in a way that suggests this lived in his head a long time, but is dull, and hero v stupid. Awkward timeslip framing, and the 20th century bits read like 1950s (unhip places in 70s were still very 50s, the psychadelia was v localised) geraldine mccaughren's little lower than the angels was worlds better


May


Jubber: Epic Continent adventures in the great stories of europe thought the author insufferable, so every page a punishment. Travel writing themed around odyssey, kosovo cycle (did not know) beowulf, song roland, niebelungiad (butchering spelling) njals saga. Elitist, mediocre, smug self absorbed condescending ex public schoolboy lives his leigh fermor dream
Cooper: Lost Chapel of Westminster how a royal chapel became the house of commons
O'Reilly: Prestige Drama endnote says originated as radio play, hence all the voices. Short chapters by locals near derry when tv drama based on tge troubles comes into town. Read cos his memoir was so good
Cruickshank: The English House a history in eight buildings okay and accessible but bored me
Denise: Knight Owl found via libthing, adorable (cover looked good and awardwinning; took a punt)
Romney: Jane Austen's Bookshelf the women writers who shaped a legend violently hating this superficial self aggrandising tedious fuckwittery
Hicks: The Inbetweens gra novel, faith erin hicks, about tween twins at an animation course, v heartfelt
Mapmen, Cooper-Jones, Foreman: This Way Up when maps go wrong and why it matters based on youtube series, found relentless jocularity wearing. Tone that works in short net bursts is tiresome in book form, have found this with other reads
Hunter: Threads of Memory v rambly book, good bits but less than the sum of its parts, about how textile art intersects with cultural identity
Thackeray: A Roundabout Manner essays collected + annotated by john sutherland for a tiny gifty clothbound edition by sm publisher who trying to revive the essay form by doing gift collections of classic essays. Not a commercial success, bought as remainder


June:


1st week of month resentfully trudging through romney austen book which have passed to oxfam


Kendall: Louis xi v old book but wanted bio of him
Howard: Choose Your Own Evolution with over 50 endings fab concept, nonfic picbook for 10 yr olds. Develop a spine? Turn to page 38
Novoa: Most Ardently a pride and prejudice remix queered up retelling of p+p for ya. regency anachronisms abound, sweet, shallow. ETA let me retract sweet. Its prob good on lgbt front - affirming, good vibes, but shortchanging ya readers by minimising the historical experience. People read bad hist fic and think they've learned history which is annoying and a small betrayal of the past. As p+p, terrible. Oliver bennett is not lizzie in any way, not even an a/u luzzie. This should have been an original novel. Benett/darcy are de-aged to 16ish, the hist background is cosplay, the stakes are lowered, the book is drivel.
Lloyd: Who Ate Steve picturebook, reminds me of dont let the pigeon drive the bus. V read aloud-able
Tait: Lily Tripp diary of an accidental time traveller v lottie brooks vibe, 1st of new 9-12 series, read for work
Matthias: Battle of Kosovo translated from the serbian
Stamper: True Colour the strange and spectacular quest to define colour from azure to zinc pink

ended 2024 in terrible book slump with stack of things i promised self would get back to.


January:

Bell: Grave Expectations cosy crime recced by kj charles on goodreads. All female randall&hopkirk deceased, medium and her ghost chum solve manor murder. Dnf. Oxfammed. concept great, never got to caring about characters
Pratchett: Making Money Thought had read all adult discworld. Now remembering did not like moist character + economic theory bores me. Struggling
Eagles: Champion of English Freedom life of john wilkes mp and lord mayor of london interesting person, pedestrian biography
Barr-Green: Gina Kaminski Saves A Wolf picturebook riffing on ltl red riding hood


Febuary:

Lawton : Mustn't Grumble the surprising science of everyday ailments and why we're always a bit ill . Author science journo, prone to dad jokes, lot of interesting bits, was afraid it would fire up my hypochondria
Holmes: Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You the murky world of online romance fraud for valentines day.
Harkness: Literature for the People how the pioneering macmillan brothers built a publishing powerhouse fascinating read about victorian publishing
Fowler: Word Monkey combined memoir, how to write a novel, record of his death by cancer. A loss. Spiky, distractable and erudite, the original arthur bryant. Made me cry
Trapp, Herbruggen: The King's Good Servant Sir Thomas More 1477/8 - 1535 picturebook of portrait reproductions, think its exhibition catalogue



March



Dunn: Exit Through The Fireplace the great days of rep lots of interviews w late 20th cent brit actors, quotes snippetted out and linked into a narrative about provincial theatre.
Bryant (edit): Postman's Horn an anthology of the letters of latter 17th century england he chose everyday domestic type letters not worldshaking or writerly - lovely
Butts, Hunt: Why Was Billy Bunter Never Really Expelled and another 25 mysteries of children's literature a lot of chosen books featured didn't overlap w my childhood reading, but fun
Wells: Artificial Condition murderbot diaries #2 fab space opera
Trevaldwyn: The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King gay adrian mole for the 21st c
Swinnerton: The Bookman's London loosely connected rambling/memoir by publishing hack from early 20th century. Lots gossipy bits about late victorian through to ww2 publishers
Lackey: Miss Amelia's List elemental masters series #17 used to love these until s slew of them featured particularly marysue girls with novelty parrot - anyway, this one v smooth read, regency set, competence porn, slightly dull
Castor: The Eagle and the Hart the tragedy of richard ii and henry iv really good read, more detached about henry 4 than ian mortimer but as ever r2 comes out of it badly
Thompson: Chalet School Returns to the Alps fanfic from girls gone by with focus on nancy willmot who one of my fave chars. Always wished ebd had more staffroom scenes
Forde: Letters to a Monster picturebook to give to N for his primary class


April:

Mangan: Bookish how reading shapes our lives memoir of reading
Norrie (edit): Dear Boy Dear Girl an anthology of letters to young people and children
Gillespie: The Reluctant Baronet austen sequel (mansfield) bit meh + losing my interest
Collins: Dear Vampa picturebook, enchanting illus
Konigsburg: A Proud Taste For Scarlet And Miniver hist fic, v light, in lion in winter vein, about eleanor of aquitane. A pleasure
Hawksley: Bitten by Witch Fever wallpaper & arsenic in the 19th century home visually stunning but horrible design choices (overly elaborate font, size of print, colour contrast between text + background) makes it hard to read
Shannon: Billy Waters Is Dançing or how a black sailor found fame in regency britain he left frustratingly few traces, but the intersectionality of his life excites shannon and she is wringing the maximum effect from what she has.
Fanthorpe: Beginner's Luck posthumous rakings out of the scruched up pages she didnt publish alive. Collated by her widow, glad to read it.
Harrison: Big picturebook, sumptous art, emotional
Horne, White (edit): Wind in the Willows a childrens classic at 100 acad essays


May:


Brahms: Gilbert and Sullivan lost chords and dischords got cos brahms but she not in love with project, feels like, sloppily written as an assigned project from publisher.
Lupton: Assembly of the Severed Head novel by folklorist/ professional myth performer about the medievals committing mabinogien to vellum. Framing story in monastery, era king john lackland, then bulletpoint retelling of 4 branches
Simon: Shakespeare Hogarth & Garrick plays painting & performance coffee table book lots illus gorgeous
Church: Rings v&a jewellry history done largely in pictures
Trewin: Portrait of the Shakespeare Country the kind of soft focus topography book I don't usually pick up, but trewin is lovely and it looked to have olde-tyme theatre anecdotes, also v cheap in charity shop
Rayner: Women Booksellers in the Twentieth Century hidden behind the bookshelves v short account with brief bios of important people like una dillon, cambridge uni press.
Pope-Hennessy: Three English Women in America harriet martinau, fanny kemble, fanny trollope interesting stories but told in such a sneering casually racist disengaged way
Chambers: Long Way to a Small Angry Planet been reccing this off basis of reviews since it was published, why not read it till now. Is a delight
Latimer: Gordon Starts a Band 5-8 age range about a reluctantly reformed mean goose
Latimer: Gordon Wins It All sport with G, poor loser extraordinaire


June


finished may still half through space opera + coffee table art/shakespeare book - both good but jesus chambers' spunky girl mechanic is shameslessly plagarised off firefly


Buckeridge: Jennings Goes To School good within its genre, was skimreading a lot of latter bits
Adburgham: Liberty's a biography of a shop v short history of business, adburgham is good on retail hist
Kelly: Careme the first celebrity chef got because of kelly's previous biogs. He even made beau brummel interesting. This one less gripping, prob my attention span, found the afterword about writing it better than the book. oxfammed.
Briggs: Winter Lost #14 paranorm romance, don't even like heroine but morbidly continuing to read
Loveman: the Strange History of Samuel Pepys' Diary how it got written, how it got translated from code, publishing history, how it was received differently since early 19th c and how it represents restoration to modern eyes
Grant: Benjamin Disraeli prime minister extraordinary v pedestrian telling of his life



July


Charles: Duke at Hazard slashed heyer romance. Love kj charles but v bored by this
Trease: Bent is the Bow hist fic for 7 yrolds. Welsh revolt in 1400. Nice but too short to sink into, prefer hìs books for older children
Benton: When Life Nearly Died the greatest mass extinction of all time not what it says on the tin, loads about dinosaur extinction, less about earlier event this book supposedly about (more data exists on dinos/meteor tbf).
Norton (edit): I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer letters on love and marriage from the world's first personal advice column more an anthology than a study, lots of transcribed letter from 1680s 1690s early newspaper.
Spinney: Proto how one ancient language went global about proto indo european language at roots of modern european and sanskrit languages - archaeology (steppe) etymology language comparisons cautious guessing.


August


Cooper: Actresses of the Restoration Period Mrs Elizabeth Barry and Mrs Anne Bracegirdle so good at research, so bad at writing. Lots of irrelevant material dragged in for lack of filter or editorial sense. Book structured as sequence of contemporary accounts stitched together by cooper's opinìons ("delightful letter" "fascinating will" "intriguing ballad sheet") i'll decide whether or not an extract is amusing for myself thank you
Licence: Lost Kings lancaster york and tudor potntial heirs who died young, mostly wars of roses
Lebowitz: The Fran Lebowitz Reader oversold to me as being "hilarious", mildly amusing skits from 1990s new york which were hilarious at that time, in that place. oxfammed
Wolf: Velazquez taschen pb of lots of art reproductions with short bio + context
Stern: Vasily and the Dragon an epic russian fairy tale told and illustrated by simon stern lacklustre retelling funky illus
Wang: The Prince and the Dressmaker gra novel romance vaguely cinderella
Hartcup: Children of the Great Country Houses rambling anecdotes scraped together from victorian memoirs, oxfammed
Brewer: A Sentimental Murder love and madness in the eighteenth century got because loved brewer's pleasures/imagination, but 18th cent true crime is still true crime, and the awfulness of how women were treated and awfulness of the 2 men, made it enraging read



September


Tinniswood: Pirates of Barbary v good
Ede (edit): Introductions to Shakespeare being the introductions to the individual plays in the folio society editions lots different contributors, many RSC, some did not hit for me but well worth reading. Stumbled across this in brit heart foundation shop.
JASNA: Persuasions vol 12 fanzine on austen, mostly s+s, multiple articles mention in passing their loathing of edward ferrars
Trewin: Printer to the House the story of hansard bought because trewin, surprisingly entertaining
Ballaster: Jane Austen's Fashion Bible decorative book but not much content in the text
Lansdale: Savage Season 1st in the hap+leonard series, always meant to read more of this series, reminds me of firefly told mostly gritty punctuated by hifaluting vocab. Not v interested in the crime, reading for style + characters
JASNA : Persuasions vol 15 about persuasion yay
Rayner, Wilkins (edit): Georgette Heyer History and Historical Fiction aca-fan zine of essays about heyer romances


Did not finish hansard book

October


LaPlante: Marmee and Louisa the untold story of louisa may alcott and her mother by collateral descendant
Lanyon: Kill Your Darlings middling crime gay romance set at crimefic con. Thing i mostly liked in it was all the cameos by protagonists of previous better, JL books
Watt: God's Own Gentlewoman the life of margaret paston v accessible biog of paston matriarch, mildly annoyed by author going on and on about her dog-walks retracing paston sites.
Fox: The World According to Colour a cultural history interesting, but overlapped a lot with the st clair book about colour. And hopped from one century/culture to another v randomly, fun databytes that felt like less than the sum of its parts
Forest: The Player's Boy tudor set prequel to her marlow family saga. Bored by this despite technically good writing + nice hist-fic skullduggery, her sense of humour invisible to me




November

Anderson: Scrambled Egg for Christmas memoir bought becaus i loved spam tomorrow, set just after her widowhood with 5 children. Poverty of the sort that involves evening dress to dance with the fleet in malta and oh how to cover the son's eton fees. My sympathy distant
McGee : Courting Disaster reading between the lines of the regency novel thought this would be either edgeworth + burney or aca-fan essays on heyer; it was a rousing discussion of regency rape culture illustrated by fiction of the day
Whalley: A Smart Suit and White Gloves career books for girls heard about this 15 years or so ago when it was a self published survey available only via secret email address and posted privately like a fanzine. Could not get hold of until girls gone by, bless them, did commercial reprint. Wonderful read. Bit listy, could have done w more analysis ; Whalley clearly has opinions and to spare
Parris: Introducing Mrs Collins a p+p sequel by the comedienne, who has reservations about lizzie's wonderfulness. Enjoyed. Interesting take on mr collins.



December


Crispin : Holy Disorders casual snobbery made me v aware of being a stupid shop assistant. Well written but alienating, abandoned
Young: Punch and Shakespeare in the Victorian Era v much what it said on the tin
Maxwell + Warner: Element of Lavishness letters of sylvia townsend warner and william maxwell 1938-1978 both accomplished letter writers and they enjoyed each other, glad i tracked it down

New year, same me. Last part of 2023, was reluctantly clearing room of books to oxfam(am hoarder) which is sad but, result, room much less claustrophobia inducing. To-read pile acquires more as quickly as I remove things from it.


January:

Lewis: Kindred Spirits autobiog of publisher. abandoned as Lewis was setting my teeth on edge. mum loved this book back in the day
Perec: Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books mini-book of essays
Riding: Peterloo the story of the Manchester massacre lucid vivid indignant telling
Lincoln: The Swifts storybook for 9-12 yr Olds. rather determinedly quirky, publisher pushing it as new lemony snicket. Addams family type chars, solve murder (Robin Steven's murder plots for tweens v commercial right now) reading this for work.
Yonge: Willie's Trouble and how he came out of it v short, novella, but vintage bit of her style, domestic family conscience stuff. Additional (not v good) short short-story as make weight which is a 10yr old Quixote circa 1870 (quixote hero tstl)
Stafford-Clark: Journal of the Plague Year series angry emails sent to arts council when government cut grant to his theatre group. thought would be sympathetic but author is such a smug dick
Scalzi: Kaiju Preservation Society sf romp that zips so fast you don't spot plotholes till after (OK, lots lampshading of said plot holes + tropes) its jurassic park but with irony. Passed to Laura. Is joyous romp
Shepherd: A Treacherous Likeness histfic crime with victorian classics theme to series - eg book 1 was themed round Mansfield Park, loved it, + this is shelleys/Frankenstein which did not enjoy. Periodic breaks where omniscient narrator compares 1840 with 2010 - did not appreciate this element
Moser: The Upside-down World meetings with the Dutch masters mostly easy approachable biogs of Rembrandt + after with talk about how their reputations fluctuated in life and after death
Cogman: Scarlet riffs off the scarlet pimpernel, adds vampires. Less bigC conservative than orczy, also does not assume peasants are idiots. But classiest in more subtle ways. With literal bloodsucking aristos, girrrl power, swashbuckling, divided loyalties, class war, and surprise magic manifestation, felt it superfluous to add romance (plucky seamstress hearts token nerd pimpernel-minion - Charles is the forgery guy + apparently beta male if you go for Greek lettering) 1st of trilogy. Will not read 2 or 3, but would if were still reading fantasy with the appetite I had for genre in the 90s
Kinealy: Charity and the Great Hunger in Ireland the kindness of strangers well it's not going to replace Cecil w-s's great hunger in my heart - kinealy is academic specializing in famine, done several books on topic, this is act of piety naming as many donors as poss. Same donations in multiple chapters: so an offering from Philadelphia woman's group will feature in female contributions chapter, again in American chapter, again in outside the brit empire chapter. So, essentially, lists of names.
Laven: Virgins of Venice enclosed lives and broken vows in the Renaissance convent lives of counter reformation nuns, v good
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men Scotland ad 80-1000 dry. v good as book, but terrible for tea break reading as too unfamiliar topic.
Tagholm: Wolves in Helicopters picturebook. about lucid dreaming for tots
Reed: Nabil Steals a Penguin picturebook
Holroyd: Ancestors in the Attic my great grandmother's book of ferns, my aunt's book of silent actors prettily produced books but no content
Brennan: In the Labyrinth of Drakes bought this 2016 - found buried in to-read pile. Loving it, why did I leave it unread for 7 years?
Finn, Rockett: Still Irish a century of the Irish in film stills from ' irish' films from 1912 to 90s. Irish can mean makers, Irish descent makers or topic, v broad definition
Jackson: Withnail & I bfi monograph
Tyree, Walters: The Big Lebowski bfi monograph, more analysis than in bfi re:withnail or blimp




Febuary:


Postle (edit) :Johan Zoffany RA society observed coffee table book lots pics essays on his life + diff types of paintings. highlights portraits theatre conversation pieces, lovely
O'Hanlon: In Trouble Again a journey between the Orinoco and the amazon unreadable to me. Loved borneo but that was yrs ago + don't have the tolerance for performative masculinity now
Baldree: Legends and Lattes curious about new low stakes high fantasy trend. Abandoned cos did not care about any of it. (apathetic re other lo stake fantasy I read previously)
Kelly: The Kemble Era John Philip Kemble Sarah siddons and the London stage also inchbald boaden and Sheridan. really enjoying
Westwell: Dragons Heroes Myths & Magic the medieval art of storytelling beautiful looking book, great images, lovely design, let down by underwhelming text, a cursory retelling of stories from middle ages. Brit library publication often fur coat:no knickers as far as presentation versus text content is concerned
McCaffrey, Stirling: City Who Fought read half, skimmed rest. Toxic blokes, irritating women, mil sf still not my thing, faint fond memories of ship who sang not enough to carry me thru
Warner: Philippa of Hainault mother of the English nation hard to follow the intermarried family tree of medieval royals, much repeating info already given
Raven: The Business of Books booksellers and the English book trade caxton to the victorian. tbh, bit dry
Taylor: How To Be Cooler Than Cool picture book, passed to N squared
Burton: The Raj At Table included recipes
Donohue:Theatre in the Age of Kean 1975 book not especially about kean but about 1780 to accession of Victoria. thoughtful about the why's of changes in theaters playwriting + acting
Edgeworth: Popular Tales illus by Chris hammond so good a writer, but in her writing for children so committed to rich man castle poor man gate. reminds of yonge cottage novels. gave up before story titled the grateful negro - avery summarised it scathingly elsewhere
Collings (edit) : Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories wasted too many pages on obvious - hello mansize in marble, 2 x M. r. James, bloody canterville ghost. Oliphant would have been nice inclusion. Scott pompous as ever, poe feverish + twitchy, le fanu more readable than remembered from one time I struggled, bored, throu le fanu novel
Garfield(edit) : We Are At War anthology diaries from mass observation project, 5 diarist of mixed perspectives, early ww2. Strongly disliked one male diarist in it
Sidwell, Dzino (edit) : Studies in Emotion and Power in the Late Roman World acad essays, the emotion discussed mostly anger. Last essay was about brunhilde doing diplomacy via letters to byzantium, a bonus I wasn't expecting - hadn't expected book to go that late
Cumming: Thunderclap a memoir of art and life and sudden death now wondering if loved her 1st book on portraits so much cos some merciful editor reined in LC's tendency to bring every bloody thought back to her dad.
Warner: London a 14th Century City and its People quite bitty extracts from official documents across 1300 to 1350, split into short chapters like 'death' 'drainage' 'hospitals' Not narrative history, builds up a picture


March


Penn: Winter King the dawn of tudor england biog of Henry 7, snapped up bargain copy years ago, wish had scooped off to read pile quicker. Confirms my sellars+ yeatman impression of Henry (except his grip on bullion was even more white knuckled than had thought) but Penn says Juana not mad but woman in white figure, also is hilariously hostile to Erasmus. Gripping read
Cholmeley: A Bookshop of One's Own hist silver moon feminist bkshop in char x rd.too much about cholmeley not enough about shop
Gurr: Shakespearian Stage 1574 - 1642 pretty dry
Nicholl: Leonardo da Vinci flights of the mind started this w enthusiasm but so much duff Freudianism + novelistic scenesetting was exhausting. Loved his essay collection and book review thing, maybe I only like cn in quick bursts
Tarr: Rite of Conquest alt hist fantasy - William conqueror plus druid magic. Tarr good at au hist fantasy but not to my taste now
Belting: Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights which I keep calling unearthly delights but anyway. aimed at the ignorant but curious, tries explain what picture is about. exactly what wanted
Garrison (edit) : Cultural History of the Human Body in Antiquity found 2ndhand in Gower, more engaging than hoped, pretty academic, book bit cleverer than I am
Schweid: Octopus reaktionbooks animal series, about (named animal) in human hist + culture w lots pics. Enjoyed wolf in this series. Bizarre combo of environmental anxiety for octo survival then also many calimari recipes
Cho: Sorcerer to the Crown regency manner punk with magic, v Stephanie burgis (+ when is #3 in burgis' series coming out?) 1st of trilogy, bought in 2016 when paperbacked, why not open till now? Is fun + charming but not so good that I'll read bks 2 + 3
Bailey: Durer phaidon colour library basic captioned reproductions plus bio essay
Pucci, Thompson (edit) : Jane Austen and Co remaking the past in contemporary culture multi author essays about media austen. some state the bleeding obvious in jargon, some say stupid things in ditto. Random essay on buffy the vampire slayer (which I thought was nonsense essay) and dangerous liasons
Sellers: Secret Life of Ealing Studios Britain's favourite film studio a lot of mediocrity comes across + such nepotism classism sexism, the survivors he interviewed v dismissive of unions or health n safety, v boys club. Did not fill me with yearning for good old days
Newbery: Key to Flambards disappointment. reviewed on lt


April:

Zola: Germinal unfinished, so bleak
Muir: Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune how younger sons made their way in Jane austen's england excellent but (milit historian) too much army+ navy at expense of civilians. Author previously did 2 vol bio of Wellington so Wellington, not one of god's most representative younger sons, features frequently in text. Boys equivalent of gentleman's daughter
Bell: Sydney Smith biog
Duncan: Searching for Juliet the lives and deaths of Shakespeare's first tragic heroine lovely + illuminating. Preordered this nervously as not impressed by similar book about Rosalind but gobbled this down
Gibson: Bluestockings the forgotten heroines of Britain's very first women's movement mediocre. Keeps saying how well they spoke but not enough reported speech given or enough quotes fr letters
Russell: Young & Damned & Fair the life and tragedy of Catherine Howard at the court of Henry viii titled like a Jean plaidy, cover art like a plaidy, scooped up free proof years ago on friend's rec but only read now immediately before oxfamming it. Actually pretty readable and clear which bits guesswork and what his evidence is, v much rubs in what a loathsome man Henry was
David: Cave Art world of art series attention drifting during the isotope bits about dates
Houlbrooke(edit) :English Family Life 1576-1716 diary anthology
Doyle: Courtship and Curses regency romance with magic spells - subgenre I love but disliked lead couple of this one who were chumps and plot too predictable, oxfammed
Johnson: Oldtime Schools and Schoolbooks by an early 20th cent collector of colonial and early 19th cent American textbooks, published by Dover. Lots quotes and reproduced woodcuts. Much resentment + hate toward native americans
Lee : How Words Get Good the story of making a book ex editor from penguin explains publishing 101. A lot I knew here, oversimplified. Also, ironically, clunkilly written, she stretches metaphors beyond what they can stand and replaces
'text' 'manuscript' 'novel' 'book' 'sentence' 'prose' etc with WORDS I suppose to hark back artificially to book title: it is irritating
Talvacchia (edit) : Cultural History of Sexuality in the Renaissance v dry. More about academics conceptualising gender than how people lived
Fraser: The King and the Catholics England Ireland and the fight for religious freedom 1780 1829 af always a joy
Kerby: Miss Carter and the Ifrit 1940s light fantasy, lots of food porn + yearning for rationed goods. published same time as elizabeth david
Hicks: Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy ya romance gra novel love faith erin hicks but will oxfam this
Maddicott (edit) : The English Historical Review journal, November 1998



May


Maxtone Graham: Mr Tibbit's Catholic School bought a decade ago, thought was novel, is short history of posh London prep school
Poskett: Horizons a global history of science thesis ~ science advances on all the continents then white euro males gazump the triumph. Wanted to like this but idea of book better than execution jp tells you what he's going to tell you, then he tells you, then recapitulates. Years of uni of Warwick students left him with no faith in attention spans. Occasionally he breaks off to say how epochal and groundbreaking his book is. Would like more about the scientists + their cultures
Bedell: Hildur Queen of the Elves and other Icelandic folktales fun read startlingly thin veneer of Christianity on the priests
Nagler: Medieval Religious Stage shapes and phantoms N glories in his ignorance + leads you through early texts pointing out how unknowable they are. Upsetting for a wannabe autodidact. horribly dry
Oakley: Empty Bottles of Gentilism kingship and the divine in late antiquity and the early middle ages too dry too much theology
Penn: The Brothers York an English tragedy v densely packed read, slow to take it in. Good balance between inferring personalities + going full Jean plaidy. Mostly reign of Edward and his bros an appendix
Baker: Bird of the River bought on publication saved to read till now - if had been company series could not have waited. Well written good world building uncompelling plot mary sue protagonist
Greenhalgh: Forger's Tale confessions of the Bolton forger true crime bio of man who faked art antiques. badly written but author likeable and almost victimless
Schwartz: Miriam's Tambourine Jewish folk tales from around the world
Castillo Price:Skeleton Crew psycop #14 trapped in basement one of the best in series
de Winkel: Rembrandt the complete self portraits picturebook minimal text taschen
Copeland: Alex vs Axel children's botm liked the elevator pitch, book mediocre
Fraser: Lady Caroline Lamb a free spirit not hugely interested by lady c l
Flanders: The Victorian City everyday life in dickens london really good despite referencing dickens nonstop + can't stand dickens. Flanders is great. Wish it was clearer who she is quoting when she does extracts from contemp reports
Langley Moore: All Done By Kindness 1950s art heist cosycrime w v ealing comedy vibe, lovely



June


Houghton: Nuking the Moon and other intelligence schemes and military plots best left on the drawing board v usa based (and patriotically so as ex usa army) so commies bad, furriners to be fucked over, his sense of humour grating, many chapters a blur of acronyms
Heath(edit): Heroines of Shakespeare comprising the principal female characters in the plays of the great poet text only there to stitch together plates of engravings by likes of Egg etc. 1840s, much simpering
Ferriter: Between Two Hells the irish civil war finding it hard to follow, slow read horribly depressing
Redgrave: The Actor's Ways And Means 1950s lectures on how to act for undergraduates v pompous and discursive and unclear
Walpole: Selected Letters much more entertaining than expected
Young: Magic Box viewing britain through the rectangular window social hist of middle england via tv from 60s to 80s with some recent things author liked thrown in. v personal. author lists too many shows to have space to analyse them- a lot of name checking + plot summaries. he loves folk horror and pretentiousness and english exceptionalism - so many times saying a basic human urge shared worldwide is purely english. found author annoying
Ormerod: Maudie and Bear picturebook got to give N2 for his reception class - 3 ubershort stories in one picture flat
Wood: Victorian Panorama paintings of victorian life 1970s art hist for casual philistines, of realist (maybe sentimentalised) pics of daily life. Blurry b/w illus which is sad but the publishers were keeping the pricepoint affordable. text cursory but detail and variety of pics delightful
Trewin: Going to Shakespeare v much for general readers done on play by play basis
Edge: Mortal Monarchs 1000 years of royal deaths disappointment. Dr w interest in history (like brewer who did death of kings) her medicine prob sound but hist side of this poor. Soundbitey, simplistic analysis, unfunny jokes, tells you cherished folk-hist tale, like ed2 + poker or arrow eye hastings, is prob not true then next para behaves as if it were true + she just proved it


July



West: She Done Him Wrong 1890s people trafficking in new york w lot of period slang + selfinsert tart w heart
Hall: Affair of the Mysterious Letter fun at start, palled on me. Eldritch alternate sherlock queered up steampunk. Got cos rave review by kj charles on goodreads.
Hewitt: Map of a Nation a biography of the ordnance survey gave up on this when noticed how deeply was sighing when i picked up book. Not book's fault ; an in reading slump
Siciliano: I Know What I Am the life and times of artemisia gentileschi graphic novel biography. absolutely unfinished at end month, reading slump
Richardson: Death Dissection and the Destitute social hist of underclass + death with ref to bodysnatchers and hist medicine - so good and i cannot process reading rn. despite fortnight off at end month unfinished. only read ao3 this month


August:


Malet: Marjory Fleming rps novel about dead regency child much more sentimental than i cared for
Elwes: As You Wish inconceivable tales from the making of the princess bride relentlessly positive memoir v light fluffy read
Montaigne: A Vulcan Odyssey autobiog of actor who played stonn in st:tos. really came away from this disliking him but interesting about scratching a living as extra in 50s, 60s hollywood
Brennan:Long Live Evil soft spot for sarah rees brennan back from reading her on lj when she did hilariously indiscreet family stories. Her writing sometimes better for online than book length and the tone in this jarred. Hated heroine. Bits about cancer struck hard but the continual talking about being villain without doing anything to shake readers sympathy, the wearysome flippancy, the pacing issues. Preordered this cos loved in other lands + was excited for her return from writers block. Dnf. Oxfammed.
Farjeon:Miss Granby's Secret or the bastard of pinsk another dean st reprint from 1940 about an ouida-like author of unassailable innocence writing accidental filth in romance novels as seen by her worldly great neice. Like the idea better than execution. Young visiters novella nested in russian doll of forewords and postscripts
Richardson: Death Dissection and the Destitute UNFINISHED


September:

terrible lack of focus. hardly started death dissection etc


Leith: Haunted Wood a history of childhood reading very boysown selection of classics and v v english. Went to launch event and speech. Pretty much stuff i knew and wanted to argue his judgements when i got to read it. Launch involved lauren child who basically a catherine-tate character
Watson: Invention of Charlotte Bronte her last years and the scandal that made her mostly about the making of Gaskell's biog of her - as i prefer Gaskell to Bronte, that fine with me. Patrick B more ghastly than i remembered
Wimpenny: Aesop's Animals the science behind the fables theory of mind applied to donkeys wolves etc
Swain: Colin's Castle picturebook about vampire vs duck - lovely
Johnson: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village v light humour book, gorey style illus, written an ironic fan of midsommer murders. Got for n for xmas. Maureen Johnson part of the sarah rees brennan and cassie clare clique of ya writers. Fun but not worth buying


October:


Bragg: Adventure of English wish he wouldn't treat the language as a person with a biography personality + lifespan but otherwise good. Based on a bbc radio series, no surprises so far
Black: First Ladies of the United States of America pamphlet length book of portraits from martha washington to michelle obama, fawningly hagiographical therefore bland biographies attached
Molesworth: Imogen victorian novella, reads like yonge-lite but with considerably more lovemaking. Villains put inexplicable amout of work in to be villainous with insufficient motive
Gilman (edit): Readers For Life how reading and listening in childhood shapes us essays by academics + authors about their readerly memories
Doran: My Shakespeare a director's journey through the first folio similar to dench book on shakespeare but enjoyed it lots more. 1 chapter per play, his thoughts on it, anecdotes about the productions he organised
Wade: Before the Dawn recovering the lost history of our ancestors abandoned partway. He too keen on evo-psych which is red flag for me, he given to grand sweeping statements on issues where the jury's out, he denied firmly interbreeding of neanderthal / sapiens(but they did - this is out of date data), went + read up on author who, then discovered, is eugenics fan. noped out
Watson: Semicolon how a misunderstood punctuation mark can improve your writing enrich your reading and even change your life got on basis of rave review by kj charles on goodreads
Sutherland: Jane Austen's Textual Lives from aeschylus to bollywood much above my head - esp.the theory bits about new bibliography + philosophy basis of editorial work - but refreshed my sense of the sound-value of A, how it originally read aloud to own family then as published read aloud by 19th cent families. A cleverer reader would have made much more if this book
Angell: Ghosts of the British Museum a true story of colonial loot and restless objects proof from work. am with him on how unconscionable the brit museums sources are, but the ghost thing is bullshit
Smith: Murder! By Narwhal! a grimacres whodunnit crime for tweens, a bit look-at-me-i'm-quirky, a bit tryhard, unfinished. Cross between poirot + addams family, reminded me of beth lincolns thing. unfinished
Griffeth: Kellynch sequel to jane austen's persuasion fucking terrible, anne unrecognisable (and suddenly stupid) the mr elliott ending rewritten, gardens wrong, clothes wrong, tiresome original character introduced (where was she during novel?), a lot of giggling, people saying things they wouldn't in ways they wouldn't, hated it oxfammed


November


trudging through death dissection and the destitute which is excellent but grim. End month stuck on mammoths sabre tooths which v dry : all teeth

Day: The Game of Hearts true stories of regency romance social history regency courtship in ton, aimed at heyer fans, much better than expected from cover
Richardson Death Dissection and the Destitute written by truculent marxist (this is a plus) who has oodles of research, about medical progress via dissection, how working class culture was repulsed by body snatching, greasy back room deals in parliament, the rich being shielded, the poor exploited, culture of death/funerals in late hanoverian urban working class. She's emotionally engaged, the writing is lucid, it's interesting history from below. Why do i feel so homeworky about it? Is it death?
Agusti, Anton: Mammoths Sabertooths and Hominids 65 million years of mammalian evolution in europe didn't sj gould ref agusti a lot? Am interested in topic but want a pop science book on it. This v academic
Gordon: Ailments Through the Ages an alarming history of famous and difficult patients written by dr in the house guy. pub by pasttimes the tourist heritage shop. V light. Occasional homophobia by gordon who was young adult during ww2.
Scalzi: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded a decade of whatever 1998 to 2008 greatest hits from sf blog. Enjoyed more off screen than in book form even tho same words, odd, but have had this reaction before from ripped-from-the-web books
Tudge: Neanderthals Bandits and Farmers how agriculture really began v short not sure i believed him



December

Grant: With Nails the film diaries of richard e grant fun he more interested in people who aren't him than you expect from movie star
Gleeson:Arcanum the extraordinary true story of the invention of european porcelain reverse engineering + industrial espionage
King: Every Valley the story of handel's messiah wish had got the bardon hist of messiah instead, which emphasises the dublin connection. This is a musicologist, and he was unduly forgiving about theo cibber Worst husband ever
Golia : A Short History of Tomb Raiding the epic hunt for egypt's treasures v good, starts with contemps robbing pyramids up to arab spring, taking in colonialism, wealth inequality, academic concerns and the narrative of treasure.

My reading attention span fucked at end of year. Did not get far into mammoths book

Started year half - a third? - into 2 books mentioned end of prev entry, and really flaky about retaining sentences i just read. 2022 was rough at work with constant crisis mode on supply chain from june to xmas + ongoing. Anyway.


January:

Uglow: The Quentin Blake Book text of this a brief summary of his career - bought this cos have fangirled uglow since her biog of gaskell but really anyone might have written this, is not distinctively her voice. When U did biog of hogarth, the text she was v tentative about giving opinions on art history but more and more books since about art - lear, pinecone in my to-read pile, the 20th century double bio i haven't bought yet. When I was child QB omnipresent to point other picture flats tried to pastiche him + I did not see any appeal in the scratchy style, appreciate him more now.
Welch: The Fleet Street Girls the women who broke down the doors of the gentlemans club autobiog of tabloid journo from 60s, 70s, with interviews of slightly older + younger women reporters - horrendous bias awful working conditions in general. Her writing style - of which she is v proud - is tabloidese
Burgis: Touchstones a collection fantasy romance riffing off fairytales.
Inglis: Georgian London Into The Streets v massmarket hist and some of the generalisations/soundbites she made actually meant she misrepresented stuff by oversimplifying or sweeping statements. Based on a blog. Also that thing where she demonstrated a point about (district of london) by using quote from 60 years later etc
Lynn, Jay: Yes Minister vol 2
Lynn, Jay: Yes Minister vol 3 series 2 + 3 of tv comedy scripts done into narrative form as jim hacker's bio
Rogers: Table Talk & Recollections soundbites from victorian gossip about mostly literary folk, bitchy + vivid
Keates: The Portable Paradise baedeker murray and the victorian guidebook short book about travel guides
Janes: British Dandies engendering scandal and fashioning a nation strapped self in for book about costume history and self display with bit of social history. Actually was all about the gays, in that author spent 129 pages retconning modern queer signals + using these to classify varius 18th century men as homosexual. Most of said signals absolutely subjective. Also v othering tone. Read book raging. How did this guy get to be a professor? Aside from my mistake about what it said on the tin/ what book was about, he didn't engage with victorian masculinity just were celebs gay, + evaluated them using late 20th century markers.
Penny: Bitch Doctrine essays for dissenting adults written at dawn of pres trump. Collected journalism so repetition. V nice point made about TERFs and the generational shift about gender which I've struggled to express - how greer-era feminists wanted gender to be eye colour level of importance and everyone ould be human individuals, while younger feminists categorise more specifically not less. Penny articulates it better than i can
Wells: All Systems Red knew vaguely about murderbot chronicles but not tempted by assassin robot. Got this for xmas from Laura at work. Surprised how much i like it. Plot is background, novella is character study of depressed nonhuman who would so much rather binge TV than use laserguns bionicced onto their forearms by corporation.
Bronsky: Baba Dunja's Last Love 'quirky' novella about living in radiation zone after chernobyl. Funny then suckerpunched heartbreak - which was my reading experience w hottest dishes/tartar as well. Cried.
Yeoman, Blake: Mouse Trouble picturebook
Ferrie: Rocket Science for Babies
Ferrie: Newtonian Physics for Babies board books from baby university series. Brilliant, currently unavailable from publisher
Megroz(edit): Pedagogues Are Human an anthology of pupils and teachers grave and gay from british and american fiction biography diaries letters and verse published 1950, a lot of victorians. quite dull
McIntyre: Hester the remarkable life of dr johnson's dear mistress his garrick bio was so good, am amazed it took this long to check what else he wrote. (Bio burns, prob won't read, bio reynolds, maybe) Good so far, people sounding pretty dislikable, cold + transactional in enlightenment style.
MacPhee: End of the Megafauna the fate of the world's hugest fiercest and strangest animals picturebook about mammals - mostly - + marsupials - some - that disappeared post-dinosaur but before human domination (did we hunt them to death? Was it climate change?) + weighs the questions about them. Pop science for curious idiots like self. Many colour illus.
Hare:The Years With Mother heavily abridged - whittled down from 3 vols of a 6 volume memoir - autobiog of minor victorian who wrote precursor of pevsners architecturals. Horrific childhood followed by life of guesting in country houses punctuated by clang of name dropping.
Norton: Ask Graham agony aunt letters from telegraph




Febuary:


Bennett (edit): The Pastons and their England massmarket hist, 1st pub 1920s, 14th cent norfolk life seen through paston letters.good but unsurprising read
Ross: Royal Canadian Mounted Police 1873 - 1987 (men at arms series) picturebook of uniforms, milit hist series
History Press: Anthology of Irish Folk Tales no author stated on flyleaf. Multiple professional storytellers represented - liked brendan nolan - a greatest hits anthology from the wicklow folktales/carlow ft/cork ft etc. Ranging from nice to excellent. Hannah wants to borrow this from me
Adlington: The Dressmakers of Auschwitz early in book was criticising style - overuse of 'brazen' journalistic repetition + emphasis as if not confident reader paying attention - but horror and grief soon enough. Had to keep stopping reading cos so distressing
Dee: What Is Your Problem? spoof agony aunt
Knott: A Class of Their Own memoir of tutoring kids of super rich. Must pass to n's flatmate
Lloyd: Richard & Maria Cosway regency artists of taste and fashion exhib catalogue w couple essays by ribeiro + roy porter
Stroud: The Notorious Scarlett & Browne being an account of the fearless outlaws and their infamous deeds not mine, loan from laura who is btw pulsating with enthusiasm for strouds haunted staircase as recently adapted on streaming.
Nolan: Dublin Urban Legends vernacular - close to stories have heard
Galouchko: Sho and the Demons of the Deep picturebook bought for the illus. Pastiche japanese folktale
Macauley: Ship childrens nonfic about caravel + marine archaeology
Eaker: Van Dyck and the Making of English Portraiture not my fave artist by long shot but this about his influence on later guys - cosway heavily featured!
Philip: Esme and the Sabre Toothed Cub picturebook. Nice illus but too heavy handed on moral as a lot of current pic books are
Macaulay: They Went To Portugal erudite witty bit flippant. V james julius norwich tone. Loops back + forth over same hist events as taking it on a person-by-person basis of english men (few women in this) living in or visiting P. A pleasure
Bates: Men Who Hate Women from incels to pickup artists the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all deeply depressing



March:


Royle: Civil War the wars of the three kingdoms 1638 - 1660 overviewy, written by mil-historian but lots of political motivation. A rare english take on it which includes irelands pov in all this. Good but dense, royle some way to right of me. V dismissive of diggers levellers radicals. Casual about cromwells record in ireland. reading slowly
Nolan: Dublin's Folk Tales mixed bag, some too maundering where he wants to give impression of oral transcription
Tolley: Book of Hours little mini book - v museum shop - reproduction med illuminated, bit of context on opposite page. Lovely art
Willder: Blurb Your Enthusiasm bookblurb writer (penguin) writes about bookblurb writing. Much more entertaining than expected when manon recced it to me, would not have got only there was £4 copy in anyamountofbooks. All the helpful thoughts about sales pitch.
anon: Ladies' & Gentleman's Letter Writer a guide to correspondence with household and commercial forms pub 1920s (?) or poss edwardian. handbook of sample letters
Saki: Westminster Alice this topical satire at start 20th cent, got cos loved his stories as teen
Marshall: Follow the Sun posthumous coll articles. Lovely man but little englander vibe is strong with this one
Chambers: Reading Talk kid lit-crit, about educating, readers, translation issues etc
Bareham, Hopkinson: Prawn Cocktail Years nicely un-sneery about 70s grub + what looked sophis + glam then. Now craving bl forest gateau
Orleansky (illus): Russian Fairy Tales got for pics 'palekh painting' v stylised naive art on enamel-black background like those papier mache trinket boxes at craft markets which i always desire + can never afford. Is based on trad icon making skills apparently.
Defoe: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists + ditto With Ahab pirates as trope. More jack sparrow than blackbeard
Foister: Holbein's Ambassadors making and meaning to celebrate restoration + display, a short illus book about circs of painting it, symbolism of things on shelf, x rays.
Neumeier: Pure Magic bk 2 paranormal/ urb fantasy w new spin on werewolves + latino heroes. Self published, but i liked bk 1 (is years since i read it) cover design awful
Hendrix: Paperbacks From Hell overview of pulp horror subgenres from 60s 70s 80s with snark commentary. Not my genre to read but remember selling some of these. Lots of (lurid) covers shown.will give to N
Shen, Hicks: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong gra novel in usa highschool got for hicks illus. Characters stereotypes, dialogue fun, raised by the art.
Stoneman (edit): The Greek Alexander Romance intro more interesting than the text
Boakye: I Heard What You Said memoir of black english teacher pub 2019ish. Critical of 2ndary curriculum on hist and lit. Good but repetitive, wish had been edited to sharpen points
Druvert: Anatomy a cutaway lookinside the human body bought for the illustrations - a fabulously nonchalant chap with v extra moustache and stripy top + beret, half body showing circulatory system. Computer die-cut inside so you can overlay bones, muscles, nerves, in way that would be shredded by children its designed for. Text by illustrators dad, a medical doctor. Beautifully designed.
Judah: Lapidarium the secret lives of stones v random assemblage of history or geology anecdotes about rubies marble slate etc. Like finlay's book colour but about rocks. Well designed book but the text is a superficial loo read
Brenchley: Three Twins at the Crater School selfpub. Recced on kj charles'blog. Mashup of jollyhockeysticks boardingschool + steampunk sf, lots of fun. Author fan of chalet school


April:


Ashton: Thomas Lawrence cheap coffeetable art reproduction book written by enthusiast, lots pics w short explanations who the portraits are of
Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters thought had read this, had skimmed 80% + in wrong order. Witches abroad still my fave
Mahfouz: Voices from the Other World ancient egyptian tales histfic sh stories, folktale vibe
Ackroyd: The English Actor from medieval to modern about half of this is 20th century, about 85% is potted biographies. Disappointing
Jensen: Vagabonds life on the streets of nineteenth century london brilliant empathic read
Charles: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen m/m regency romance w smugglers plot. Pleased to see kj charles released in public bookshops. Lot of scenesetting (romney marsh)
Stirling: Shakespeare's Bastard the life of sir william davenant from history press - they have form on doing interesting topics but awful writing. Dnf. Cavalier bias, (hate chas 1) but mainly hated stirlings writing.
Praz: Conversation Pieces a survey of the informal group portrait in europe and america coffee table book, lots pics. Praz text listed even more pics (would have liked more big picture analysis + reflections) + identified geometry of pics (triangle. triangle. triangle)
May, Bream: Another Kind loan from Laura - entirely beguiling gra novel about found family of orphan monsters trekking across usa pursued by govt + conspiracy theorists + corrupt rich geezer. L likes the art better than i do but am as enchanted by story as she thought i would be
Freeman: Good Girls a story and study of anorexia memoir by hadley freeman
Crystal: That's the Ticket for Soup v much a museumshop book, lots of packaging v little content. Uses illus from ounch magazine to talk about victorian language. le disappoint.
McGrigor: Wellington's Spies scouts rather than spies, peninsular war, 70% quotes from letters/ diaries of 3 men w linking passages from descendent, army wife who big fan of english army. Uncomfortable read
Foenkinos: Mystery of Henri Pick comedy/crime from france about book trade, enjoyed booktrade aspect, story too self consciously whimsical for me
Young, Houlbrook: Magical Folk a history of real fairies from 500 to the present lots data no critical thinking or overview
Pears: The Last Judgement jonathan argyle art dealer mystery. Flavia a delight in this. passing copy to adam as don't have shelfspace for it, love the series
Hassett: Growing Up Human the evolution of childhood a biologist look at humans have diff development pattern from other animals, have put in history of childhood tag but it's not really
Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony v listy, orig published 1935, occasional racism + didn't like author voice
Walker Gore, Schultze, Courtney(edit): Charlotte Mary Yonge writing the victorian age assembly of acad essays on aspects yonge novels. Makes me keen to reread family chronicles i thought i knew. Insights and enthusiasm



May


Lukens: So This Is Ever After queer ya fantasy. Bridgerton in that it has medieval trappings but modern teen heroes, relentless banter and thinly characterised. Trope-tastic, v fanficcy style.
Lane Fox: Love to the Little Ones the trials and triumphs of parents through the ages in letters diaries memoirs and essays themed anthology, a few good things in it - couple of wonderful sitwell quotes - oxfammed
Hartston: Knock Knock in pursuit of a grand theory of humour meh disagreed with parts bored by parts, oxfammed
Shipman: The Invaders how humans and their dogs drove neanderthals to extinction interesting unproven hypothesis
Willis, Ross: Tadpole's Promise children's picturebook. Thought it would end differently but breathtakingly hardnosed. 10 out of 10 for natural hist, may pass to neil!teacher
Pooley: The People on Platform 5 cosy read set on commute from SW london into waterloo. Nice cheerful-upping people orientated fluff. A richard curtis movie in book form
Yonge: The Cook and the Captive one of her juvenile hist fics, frankish medieval starring gregory of tours. Reading at home as book fragile
Orchard: the Second Lady Silverwood servicable regency romance which did not finish cos not in mood. Spinster weds widower, am guessing that rebecca like, dead wife will turn out to have been mean gurrrl.
Beckett: Class Act life as a working class man in a middle class world not as funny as hoped but fond of him as comic, like him more after this
Thorne: You Can't Spell Treason Without Tea cosy high fantasy where 2 d&d class-types (mage/mercenary) elope + stop adventuring. Great idea - they open bookshop - poor execution. Characters boring, silly, no ust, cringe flirting, incidents repetitive, insufficient setting-up-bookshop interest. Gave to laura who wanted to read it
Potter: Strange Blooms the curious lives and adventures of the john tradescants wanted bio of them for ages as live where their garden was near tradescant rd, nearly settled for phillipa gregory duology of histfic novels but this nonfic looks better ETA is good but requires reader be fascinated by plants + am here for history bits
Scarlett aka Streatfeild: The Man in the Dark one of her tepid romances about wholesome people. a few weird time jumps toward end, wonder was author bored too. Wished for more villainous sister
McDonald: No Comment what i wish i'd known about becoming a detective memoir of being fast tracked into met then resigning. Indictment of police culture but also of work conditions (poor resources, huge workload, burnout)
Chakanetsa, illus Alabi: Africana an encyclopaedia of an amazing continent childrens ref with beautiful cover and well designed pages, some repetitions in text. A lot of info unknown to me as am ignorant outside europe. clearly written to offset stereotypes of famine + war
MacLiammoir:Put Money In Thy Purse the making of othello diary of making orson welles othello, v funny, v entertaining diarist
Reed: We're Falling Through Space doctor who and celebrating the mundane v short fan-appreciation of dr who bought as gift for neil
Ibn-Munqidh: An Arab Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades memoirs of usamah ibn munqidh i know too little context to make anything of this, bewildered.
Townsend Warner: T H White a biography by a writer i love, about a writer i held in more and more distaste as i read. She did fantastic fair minded respectful book of him.
Sloman, Fawcett: Pickpocketing the Rich portrait painting in bath 1720 - 1800 another exhibition catalogue
Taylor: Symphony of Echoes chronicles of st marys time travel romp. takes connie willis' time travelling historians of domesday book (angsty) + does musical comedy spin on them. female lead is purest marysue.
Garfield: The Last Journey of William Huskisson how a day of triumph became a day of despair at the touch of a wheel


June:

Barber: Demon Barber 90s celeb interviews
Bourrier: The Measures of Manliness disability and masculinity in the mid victorian novel got, tbh, cos used heir of redclyffe as one of novels analysed.
Hyde: What Just Happened dispatches from turbulent times coll old guardian articles
anon: Grettir's Saga not my fave saga grettir a psychopath
Darke: Messages a collection of shivery tales 70s childrens ghost/horror s stories. Not great. Love darke's hist fic but this never got beyond mildly interesting
Ring: So High A Blood the life of margaret countess of lennox tudor biog - henry 8's niece + mary q of scots mother in law - readably told. Wish had picked off to-read pile earlier
Taylor: Second Chance chronicles of st marys time travelling historians farce series. dislike heroine + humour doesn't land for me so bit maddening to read (+ feel connie willis being ripped off) still! time travel story! stopped partway thru to hateread 1star reviews on goodreads
Bloom: Curtain Call for the Guv'nor a biography of george edwardes hagiography of edwardian theatre director, his musicals sound grimly racist but hugely popular
Gable: The Tuppenny Punch and Judy Show 25 years of tv commercials pub 1980. Lot of vox pops with early tv makers
Van Loo: The Burgundians a vanished empire a history of 1111 years and one day v conversational epic hist - too much so when van loo tells you stream of consciousness of john the fearless etc feel like am in wrong headspace for this + OUGHT love it. (heatwave, no focus)
Fowler: London Bridge is Falling Down one of the best in series - cried at end. must reread as was boggled by red herring twist and lost track of events
O'Byrne: The Rabbit the Dark and the Biscuit Tin picturebook
Masters: Now Barabbas was a Rotter the extraordinary life of marie corelli had been told he too mean about corelli - but she was dreadful awful person. He (v young when wrote this) has v weird ideas about adult virgins goinng mad from thwarted lust. Clearly eliz taylors angel based on corelli
Ferguson: Same Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome sexuality identity and community in early modern europe dry academic microhistory about 16th century courtcase

only half through burgundians at end month - not cos 500+ pages but because it was trying too hard to be accessable to non academics, full of novelettish detail about eyes twinkling plaintive voices steely wrath. Write a fucking novel van loo


July:

Hall: Nailing It tales from the comedy frontier autobiog in anecdotes. Love rh but not feeling this
Salgado (edit): Eyewitnesses of Shakespeare first hand accounts of performances 1590 - 1890 a lot of familiar extracts
Orme: Tudor Children enjoyed. liked his things about medieval childhood
Block: The Burglar in the Library burglar/bookseller/sleuth bernie on track of noir association copy. spoof of brit cosy crime - country house in blizzard, corpses piling up
Pryor: Scenes from Prehistoric Life from the ice age to the coming of the romans would have liked more about evidence + less about pryors gut feelings
Pepys:The Joys of Excess food related extracts fr diary most new to me
Chase: Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding recipes from 19th cent america
Streatfeild:Curtain Up one of her best - also cameos of adult ballet shoes girls
Verrall: Recipes from the White Hart Inn (in Lewes! Bought in eastbourn + train passed thru L on way there) 18th cent man on make does early cookbook adapting french cuisine for brits
Huggett: The Curse of Macbeth with other theatrical superstitions and ghosts author is 70s actor, v pleased with himself. Smugness unwarranted, oxfammed
Briggs: Soul Taken 13th in paranorm urb fantasy, series is moribund
MacThomais: Janey Mack Me Shirt Is Black growing up in liberties in early 20th cent - street rhymes slang games, about his generation not his personal life. Found that skipping rhyme about devalera that could only recall single line of for years
Armstrong: Fanny Kemble a passionate victorian v schmaltzy hist-novellish biog, pub 1939. Armstrong seems to honestly see black people as lesser; even putting aside terminology as of its day, horrible slurs sneers + generalisation about inferiority. Thinks the worst thing about slavery was that it made kemble sad as she was fed + clothed on the back of torture and she felt just awful about it. jesus
Garfield: Lucifer Wilkins hist fic for early reader (5 to 7 age) illus by knockoff victor ambrus-ish artist. 18th cent, slave + indentured convict go on the lam. oxfammed
Tyldesley: Hatchepsut the female pharaoh hard going but only cos i have no ancient egypt knowledge to put it in context JT v clear about what is fact + what is hypothesis
Burgis: Claws and Contrivances indy published regency romance with dragons in - pern type shoulder dragons on debutantes shoulders. Bored halfway as too much romance and idiot heroine



August:


Ranger: Terror and Pity Reign in Every Breast gothic drama in the london theatres, 1750 - 1820 printed-up dissertation, dry, repetitive, disappointing
Sillars: Shakespeare Seen image performance and society about illus compl shakespeare editions 18th + 19th cent. A lot of overlap w prev book of his
Kwan: Crazy Rich Asians fun romcom. Lot of footnotes translating se asia refs
Taylor: The Long And Short Of It short stories bought before i vowed to never gat jodi taylor book again, will do for coffee break at work
Low: Regency Underworld author from v law&order pov, he pro police I rooting for crims. suppose he had to follow where the records were but wd have appreciated more marxist approach
McKellen: Richard iii the filmscript heavily annotated lots pics loved this production
Goldsworthy: Philip & Alexander kings and conquerors for sake of my teen obsession w alexander the great. tbh a bit dry: and my ignorance of era means i have no context so slow read. good book but not my thing
Scarisbrick: Ancestral Jewels big coffee table thing about tiaras + parures of peers of england. They got author who could butter up duchesses so she could get access to the valuables but her swooning love of ermine has my inner marxist seething (those bits where "her fathers cottagers subscribed toward this diamond studded brooch") my own brooch collection is very enamel + diamante so prob just jealous
Berg: Murder Most Pemberley skimread, it was godawful. insufficiently britpicked, tiresome heroine, nonsense chars nonsense plot
Fowler: England's Finest s stories bryant + may. loved, think this concludes b+m for me
Chaney: The Cult of Kingship in Anglosaxon England the transition from paganism to christianity dry. repetitive. a lot of untranslated old english + latin, did not entirely get it
Magorian: Cuckoo in the Nest childrens hist fic post ww2. Boy wants be actor, his father thinks sissy
Malki!: Classy Lady Like You Will Love The Smell Of My Butt th ed best animal themed comic strips from wondermark vintage art and memes



September:

ended august half through magorian - good book objectively but not for me, right now - + barely started alexander where ignorance of ancient hist was making it uphill going





Malki!: Horrid Little Stories 60 dark and tiny tales of misery and woe selfpub minibook of comedy gothic verse. am all over his illustrations, got fab postcards from his site, this a bit meh
Lloyd: The Terribly Friendly Fox predator predates. Simple well executed picbook. Such a relief these days to have no moral - current crop kidlit so fucking earnest + sanctimoneous
Willes: In The Shadow of St Paul's the church yard that shaped london fab massmarket hist of london w emphasis on book trade. Also happy i found oxfam copy for 4.99
Rayner: Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights a journey deeper into dining hell minibook collection hatchett restaurant reviews
Aitken: Dear Bill Bryson footnotes from a small island 10 yars after notes/island fanboy aitken retraces brysons travel guide to england. (BB also retraced own jouney; it was dispiriting and grumpy) Too much gimmick + not enough to say
Garfield: All The Knowledge In The World the extraordinary history of the encyclopaedia disproportionately britannica but very entertaining read
Fontaine: History of Pedlars in Europe v dry
Slimak: Naked Neanderthal v windbaggy bombastic french neanderthal expert explains with repetition + tablethumping that his subject is unknowable. Heard every word in voice of werner herzog - combo of utter certitude plus mysticism



October:

sept a bad month for reading. lot of fanfic off ao3dotcom, lot of su dokus, lot of brainfreeze, lot of word tile game on phone (wtf vole dotcom big ben) now 2+ half months of bleeding. Only finished alexander - from august - on 30th sept



Hartley, Holland (edit): Shakespeare and Geek Culture acafan essays. Mixed bag, some overthinking. Other bits convinced me i'd been underthinking
Looser: Sister Novelists the trailblazing porter sisters who paved the way for austen and the brontes should have ticked all my boxes but book fatigue. Really welltold story i didn't know + should have
Usher: Wild picturebook. xmas gift.
Yeffeth (edit): Seven Seasons of Buffy science fiction and fantasy writers discuss their favourite television show mixed. Lorrah + Lichtenberg in here - poss the least impressive essays imo - big names from 80s
Clarke: Not Speaking dysfunctional-family memoir. Got cos loved her books on lit history. Did not know sister of famous hairdresser
Dench: Shakespeare the man who pays the rent transcribed interviews v much enjoyed



November


Ogilvie: Dictionary People the unsung heroes who made the oxford english dictionary v bitty + overly dumbed down - about the vic- era "crowdsourcing" which had unpaid randoms (lots clergy novelists incl miss yonge + startling number of institutionalised lunatics) doing swathes of research for the sheer glory of it. Ogilvie, ex employee of oup dictionary, detectives many of their identities
Bundock: Fortunes of Francis Barber the true story of the enslaved jamaican who became samuel johnson's heir published by yale - v good despite scant documents; burdock gets as much as he can out of passing references
Novik: A Deadly Education scholomancer #1 really fun mashup of college of magic + hunger games narrative voice of reluctant dark enchantress who like granny weatherwax may be good but is not ever nice
Novik: The Last Graduate scholomancer #2 straight into this on finishing bk 1
Winkler, Schoch (edit): Shakespeare In The Theatre - Sir William Davenant and the Duke's Company arden series of meta. dry but lots info i wanted to know
Novik: The Golden Enclaves scholomance #3 got a bit bogged down in romance angst.
Palmer: At Home With The Soanes upstairs downstairs in nineteenth century london short with pics by curator of soane museum about domestic life regency
Butler: Four British Fantasists place and culture in the childrens fantasies of penelope lively alan garner diana wynne jones and susan cooper do not feel much the wiser for that. jargon + jung
Cibber: An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber my God what a self aggrandizing windbag. Maundering in Tristram Shandy style sentences but less worth the reading. Good thing was eyewitness account of stage in 1700ish
Hirshler et al:Sargent in Fashion coffee table coll of essays by various curator types aimed middlebrow lot of biography of S and masses of illus. Glad I impulse bought
Wynn Jones: Flower of All Cities the history of London from earliest times to the great fire too much to fit in one paperback, came out too bullet pointy. Wasted a lot of space on political hist not living conditions
Dromgoole: Astonish Me! first nights that changed the world less than the sum of its parts. Came away liking author but passed to oxfam as a neve-read-again



December:


Egoff: Thursday's Child trends and patterns in Contemporary Children's literature contemp = 1980. Canadian librarian academic laments shallow multiculturalism and vulgarity etc. Pines for WASPy victorian tales of yore. In fairness market led hack writing commissioned by commerciality did produce loads of uninspired site but whiff of elitism here : hateread much of this
Strasdin: Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes secrets from a victorian woman's wardrobe too much wistful daydreaming from strasdin, the social hist aspect largely not so secret
Scarlett: Babbacombe's one of her light Cinderella romances, this one set in department store
Videen: The Word Hord daily life in old english armchair etymology - Anglo-Saxon roots of words
Rosen: Julia Margaret Cameron's Fancy Subjects photographic allegories of victorian identity and empire not sure jmc had same signifies or symbols Rosen ascribes to her
Bedford: Winterwood fantasy in alternate regency with magic. X-dressing lady pirate captain, surly indentured sidhe, swashbuckle. Ought tick my boxes, am trudging through it like chore
Bew: Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics judging Dillon and parnell
JASNA:Persuasions issue 19 American fanzine of austen, this issue mostly sanditon
Kean: the Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons the history of the human brain as revealed by true stories of trauma madness and recovery man who mistook his wife a hat territory, stories about hideous injuries implying how brain works
Lewis, Williams (trans) : The Book of Taliesin medieval Welsh poetry in translation
Kingfisher: Paladin's Strength xmas gift fr Laura. Really like it, 2nd in fantasy trilogy (#4 just out) works as standalone, nice vibe good world building, werebear nun heroine. I could do with about 80% less pining: the attempted UST of "she can never love a grizzled paladin like me" /"he can never love a beefy nun like me" are downright irritating

January:

Yonge: Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Roman History for the Little Ones v little arthurs hist of england esp with the character judgements on leaders - the more diff accounts i read the more it fixes sequence of classical era hist in my head - right now the sequence of events is confusion for me
Moyle: The King's Painter the life and times of hans holbein sumptuously designed book. illus biog - as he left no letters or journals, a lot inferred + comparisons of images. Gorgeously made book, a man in the middle of reformation and social revolutions
Hamilton: Gainsborough A Portrait don't like hamilton's voice as an author but gainsborough more interesting person than i thought - good read
Shaw: Strange Practice gently macabre 1st in trilogy about physician to the undead, intended as gift for N (laura wants borrow it 1st)
Castillo Price: Seasons aka psycop briefs 2 s stories filling gaps in series. these used to be little easter eggs for fans who hit the authors website, now in pb. the short ones don't translate from webpage to paper as well as the novellas do.
Rosen: Alphabetical how every letter tells a story rambly chatty run through alphabet w historical digressions. Bought cos is by nat treasure rosen
Akkerman: Invisible Agents women and espionage in 17th century britain excellent read which got on sale + feared would be dry - only spy i knew, aphra behn, akkerman thinks wasnt spy at all - thinks was con artist faking spy credentials for cash + cool factor. V readable
Harbour: Thorn Jack ya fantasy built on tam lin. American, kinda fetishises irishness. Uses irish language, gets it wrong, lots hi-culture namedropping. Aimed at yer basic moody teen. Xmas gift from laura. Enjoying it despite side eying aspects. Is a bit bronte + overwrought + swoony
Baxter-Wright: Little Book of Schiaparelli the story of the iconic fashion house gifty picturebook hb for adults, text meh, glorious outfits. Now curious re her 1940s politics in nazi occupied paris, book studiously vague on this
Foster: On Seamus Heaney short appreciation of his career by rf foster. Bought for interest in foster as not a heaney reader.
Gravett: The Rabbit Problem fibonacci in picturebook form, you wouldn't think it would work but gravett is a genius.
West: Shit Actually the definitive 100% objective guide to modern cinema snarky fluff
Cordner, Holland(edit): Players Playwrights Playhouses investigating performance 1660 - 1800 acad essays some of which meant nothing to me, fave the chapter trying to reconstruct what garrick's voice sounded like



Febuary:



Stiefvater: Shiver don't own this, werewolf ya loaned by Laura at work
Milton: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare dnf. Am more influenced by knightleys book on spycraft than i realised - knightley Loathed the soe and thought them counterproductive + turns out he convinced me too - also milton reports same behaviour in english agents (boyish adventurousness) then foreign soldiers kill and cheat (that's thuggish + vile). I generally depressed by milit hist, was idiot to read this
Fowler: Booth bionovel of usa family of actors, real person fiction, assassination lincoln, theatre hist, dysfunctional family, gender roles stifling both sexes in victorian era. immersive, polyphonic, compelling. Loved it. To be published march 22
Burgis: Scales & Sensibility a regency fantasy rom-com more heyer than austen but charming and fluffy. Loved it, will read 2+3 of trilogy as they come out
Derwent: Roman London (discovering london #1) mini booklets bought in job lot from oxfam, 1970s walking tours of historic lond, tie in with london weekend tv series.
Jubber: The Fairy Tellers a journey into the secret history of fairy tales looking at early published versions of core stories and lives of who wrote them. Had attributed too much to anon - beauty&beast lady most eyeopening. Found jubber a bit too intrusive, wanted less memoir of his travels and more on topic
Lytollis: Panic as Man Burns Crumpets the vanishing world of the local journalist v light, v funny, v forgettable v oxfammed
Briggs: Wild Sign rohypnol plotline. Wish briggs would use non sex crime forms of villainy in some books, embezzling vampires, or a werewolf fine-art forgery ring.
Hook: Rogues'Gallery a history of art and its dealers gossipy account of how art dealers influenced masterpieces. V bitchy, made me laugh, really enjoyed. Passed book to welshMark, trying to ease pressure on bookshelves
Brechin: The Conqueror's London (discovering london#2) another in series of walking guides, bits just wrong, bits v 1950s-normative (pub 1968)
Derwent: Medieval London (discovering london#3) continuation through to end wars of roses
Whitaker: Tom's Opinion, by the author of honor bright early 20th century sentimental schoolstory with scarlet fever climax. Pretty banal. Osfammed
East: London Folk Tales series that does local lore for counties across brit isles, some good stories largely raided from various books not from oral. Overblown wordy retelling, was itchy at her prose style
Jones: Artemisia Gentileschi lives of the artists short mostly text w few colour plates tipped into middle book. Was captivated by self portrait of her in act of painting mural, know this will be sad angrymaking life
Robb: The Return of the Archons (gold archive 001) fan based minipress monograph of meta - on classic trek ep had always found a bit middling he had interesting things to say tho some of the gnostic stuff was a stretch




March:



Broughton: Belinda late vic middlebrowness which bored me. Would have loved it in my 20s when on victorian kick gobbling obscure vic-novel reprints by the likes of oliphant
Hoyles: Ira Aldridge celebrated 19th century actor pamphlet length, mostly focussed on race and slavery so links him to sojourner truth and toussant l'overture etc rather than irving or macready. To be fair he was spokesman symbol + stinted himself in private life to fund abolition cause so valid emphasis. but was wanting info on his acting. Book short, seems aimed at children doing projects. Good pictures
Robertson: Tudor London (discovering london #4) onward -- not good. Strays beyond his remit to plantaganet and stuart london, loads about royals (too much) esp. palaces outside london, v little re life of londoners, author is staunch catholic-hating prod and bashing monks for long stretches of short book
Ferrie: Optical Physics For Babies light + colour in board book form
Ferrie: Bayesian Probability For Babies statistics via cookies, board book
Fraser: The Case of the Married Woman caroline norton a 19th century heroine who wanted justice for women fraser being readable and empathetic easy read
Hay, Linebaugh, Rule, Thompson, Winslow: Albion's Fatal Tree crime and society in 18th century england So good. Class warfare with case studies, smuggling poaching + trying establish pov of past underdogs
Quiller-Couch: Beauty and the Beast, illus dulac bought online in error, same cover as broadview book called meanings of beauty and the beast. Hanff in 84char+rd raves about Qs style but this was too elaborated and pompous a retelling. Pics in sumptuous blues
St Clair: The Golden Thread how fabric changed history easy read full of stuff i didn't know but somehow unsatisfying - assemblage of themed anecdotes that feels like less than the sum of its parts
Dymkowski: Harley Granville Barker a preface to modern shakespeare written 1980s, author fears hgb will disappear from theatre history (he didn't) a lot about theory related to practice in direction
Dessau: Bluffer's Guide to Stand-up Comedy short, mini-book history of standup and how it works
Cross: Complete Stories of Amanda Cross kate fansler s stories, prefer her at novel length. Last story not a fansler, 1st person narrative of posh english lady less convincing ventriloquism than posh american kate. Or maybe am conviced by kate cos i don't know any mayflower descendants
Watt: Baking Bad beaufort scales bk 1 overly twee cosy crime about WI and yorkshire dragons solving crimes + eating scones. Because of the cosy and the baking planned to pass to N. oxfammed, is far too soppy for him. Or me.
Puhak: The Dark Queens a gripping tale of power ambition and murderous rivalry in early medieval france have wanted a juicy fulllength massmarket retelling of the brunhilde vs fredegund war for years as is only glancingly mentioned in books about period. Kept inventing new search phrases on google and goodreads and nielsen. Was not sure enough source data existed. Thrilled when this book-of-my-dreams showed up. Strong bias of author (pro Brunhilde) only made book more engaging
Joy: Spock's Brain, gold archive 3 v short analysis of trek:tos episode, mostly about roddenbery era misogyny which is a fruitful enough topic
Grace: Pemberley Mr Darcy's Dragon 1st half of p+p with pern-like dragons added. Everyone out of character, darcy an idiot, lizzie a marysue, dreadful
Buxton: Cash Carriers in Shops shire album on nerdy mechanicals
Bate: Shopping in Pictures, pictures to share vintage photos of english shopping, minimal text
Pilkington: Screening Shakespeare from richard ii to henry v author is endearingly thrilled about recent invention of vhs tapes, detailed discussionn of bbc shakespeare, oliviers h5 and orson welles chimes
Bate: Mad About Shakespeare from classroom to theatre to emergency room memoir stitched together by his love of lit, a less than the sum of its parts book
Dade: All the Feels fat-positive het romance with fandom references (male lead is actor in cult show) warm, bit sentimental. Book 1 was fat fan snogs dyslexic toyboy, book 2 is plain introvert snogs adhd toyboy. Representation is fab and all that but this feels, on reflection, tick-boxy. And the men don't sound real.


April:


Ostler: The Duchess Countess the woman who scandalised a nation hanoverian hussey who got done for bigamy + was cause celebre. Great story, marred by author constantly fanficcing chudleigh's emotions + stream of consciousness. A fab historical novel but annoying in nonfic
Cunningham: Children of the Poor representations of childhood since the seventeenth century unpromising cover, so interesting inside. About large scale public policy + what it reveals about attitudes
Secret Barrister: The Secret Barrister stories of the law and how it's broken horrifying
Wawn (edit): Northern Antiquity the post medieval reception of edda and saga acad essays by multiple authors some less interesting but plenty about victorians + iceland
Morgan: Bluffer's Guide to Theatre mini book, fine, bit smirky
Stewart: Bluffer's Guide to Publishing mini book. Snapshot of the trade as it was when i started, good grief
Richards: Xenophobe's Guide to the Welsh mini book. Actually racist - the irish and canadian ones of this series were not, but this was
Hay: Dinner with Joseph Johnson books and friendship in a revolutionary age really loved her joint bio of disraeli&wife and this is about publisher/bookseller of 18th cent. V good. Johnson elusive but fascinating group bio of dissenting radical romantics before + after french rev.
Rowell illus Hicks: Pumpkinheads plotless but engaging gra nov about american teens going from friendship to romance. Is all about the artwork,really
Borchert: Van Eyck taschen artbook mostly pictures -a lot of helpful explaining of symbolism
Summers: The Werewolf in Lore and Legend when teen enjoyed his "nonfic" book about vampires, now cannot bear his grandiloquint bombastic untranslated latin scholarly posturing DNF
Bryson: A Walk in the Woods appalachian trail. Since little dribbling, find it hard to look past how vile he is to service staff. Its mid range bryson, but I kept being over aware of the fat phobia and how he despises strangers
Price: Children of Ash & Elm a history of the vikings written by archaeologist and reviews braced me for superdry archaeology stuff - written-source historians often provide more narrative flow - but is absorbing tho dense. Reading it slowly enjoying it lots
Ukazu: Check, Please! book 1 hockey selene talked me into this - queer gra novel about sweet southern usa queen who plays ice hockey and stressbakes. Adorable
Yeoman illus Blake: Quentin Blake's Magical Tales got cos blake + yeoman are a good team, also, trad tales retold.



May




Jeffs: Storyland a new mytholoogy of britain botm. reading as homework. Is topic i love but underwhelmed
Beard: SPQR a history of ancient rome took a week to read, my attention span is fucked. Really interesting but was in mood for something less overviewy - this covered too many centuries in too few pages.
Hoare: Albert and the Whale massmarket about durer, finding author irritating. disconnected flow of prose. ETA abandoned after a day, hoare fascinated by his quirky poetic self and desultory re durer
Hines: Libriomancer urb fantasy about librarianship magick - you know hero is badass cos pet SPIDER. this is deff going to neil when i've read it. Bought because used to enjoy hines' blog. romance element creepily dubcon. Hines a good bloke but that element misfired
Yeoman illus Blake: Fabulous Foskett Family Circus v slight picturebook, rhyming.
Brantenberg: Egalia's Daughters v 1970s feminist dystopia w genders swopped. Felt point was made within 5 pages so remaider of novel was making it again. + again. + again. DNF
Burgis: A Most Improper Magick heyer for tweens with the romance happening to heroines big sisters and additional highwaymen in a regency where magic works. Catnip. V sircery + cecelia. Have ordered sequel
Delafield: Diary of a Provincial Lady have not previously read, feel like i absorbed it via osmosis as if is reread
Sutherland: Monica Jones Philip Larkin and Me knew larkin was shit to women but lord what a ratbastard seething while reading
Sutherland: The Secret Trollope anthony trollope uncovered v light almost disconnected musings from decades of reading + rereading. Some statements (t's charities during famine, t's relatonship w hervieu, wanking) pulled out if sutherland's beliefs with no supporting evidence
Burgis: A Tangle of Magicks bk 2 tween fantasy/regency mashup.
Stevermer: The Glass Magician high society 1905 new york, class interacting w diff kinds of magic users, secrets, skulduggery. Heroine young + not as smart as thinks she is. Good but nowhere near as good as college of magics
Asprin, Takei: Mirror Friend Mirror Foe co written by mr sulu. Epee duels, robots, futuristic racism and corrupt corporations.
Kahn-Harris: The Babel Message a love letter to language heroically frivolous attempt to analyse the multiple translations on the packaging of the kinder egg surprise - the tangents about linguistics being the point of the book. Found the author's voice irritating
Sutherland, Connell: The Connell Guide to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park a kind of casenotes pamphlet of the austen i find hardest to love
Morice: Nursery Tea and Poison tropetastic cosy crime from 1975, got to give N
Sutherland: Who is Dracula's Father? and other puzzles in bram stoker's gothic masterpiece disappointing, after I loved. heathcliff/jane eyre/elizabeth bennet. Did not get on publication cos not fan of dracula + was right. V light, v jocular, bit of a waste of time. Best bits, he'd cribbed off online fandom
Oman: Nothing to Report dean st middlebrow reprint. Charming cheerful-upping bit of middlebrow fluff by chum of heyer's, set in home counties 1939



June:


Halliday: Otherlands a world in the making overly subdued title + cover really undersell this (pic of ferns) is snapshots of environments across geological range of time, what weather + landscape + wildlife were in miocene italy, cretaceous china, jurassic germany at a rate of one chapter each.
Holton: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels written by + for anglophiles ; from a brit pov, fetishising crumpets is bit weird. Pirates, flying houses, girrrl power, bonnets, instalust, namedropping brontes; this book is overstuffed. Combo of whimsicality + mayhem didn't teally work for me + author clearly enjoying it all more than i did at the paying end. DNF, oxfammed
Westermann: We, Hominids an anthropological detective story been looking for nice book about hominids for while this is not it. Dutch journo far more interested in himself than java man, a lot about the process of writing. Seems to think everybody unaware of darwin, wallace, colonialism, hist of science, decline in religous vocations, cruising culture and every other fucking thing, as he is. Could not finish. The 15% of book that was hominids was okay i suppose but too much fucking author
Parry: Ghosts of the Tsunami aftermath of natural disaster, journalist in striken village on japanese coast
Hamilton: Arthur Rackham a life with illustration coffee table book. Mildly interesting - not excited by james hamilton as a writer tho he picks interesting topics - overwhelmed by coy whimsical goblins done in shades of brown so the unRackhamish generic watercolour landscapes come as a refresher
Guy: Elizabeth the forgotten years about later reign of E1 as guy feels all the analysis has gone on her youth. He doesn't like her at all but then book's declared aim is to counter gloriana myth. Fluke am reading this now (selling lots biogs of qe2 at work right now cos jubilee)
O'Neil: Princess Princess Ever After gra novel lesbian fairy tale cute illus. loaned by selene
Xu, Walker: Mooncakes another gra novel from selene. Werewolf/deaf librarian (only looked at 1st page so far) must return before despatched to wimbledon branch
Oman: Somewhere in England v much a what happened next about characters in nothing to report, does not stand up if haven't read that - written 1940s, home counties,
thirkellish
Sutherland: Frankenstein's Brain puzzles and conundrums in mary shelley's monstrous masterpiece eh. Not excited enough about this or dracula to want whole book on it -
Burgis: A Reckless Magick 3rd of mid-level kids regency plus spells. I like her adult regency + spells better, v sorcery&cecelia. Will prob oxfam the juveniles
Hitchings: Dr Johnson's Dictionary the book that defined the world v easyread insubstantial and weirdly bitty account v little of which am going to retain. Will oxfam


July:


Twinn (edit): Gaskell Journal vol 24, 2010 fanzine of eliz gaskell by academics
Atkinson: Mr Atkinson's Rum Contract the story of a tangled inheritance man descended from 18th cent slavers does genealogy research, is horrified. Huge cache of family letters, a microhistory of how slavery benefited the british economy. Wonderful book but font is challenging - reading it slowly
Cloake: Red Sauce Brown Sauce a british breakfast odyssey cycling tour round uk themed on fryups by guardian food writer. The food history stuff was great but writer came across (to me) as narcissistic magic pixie girl
Melendez: Chef's Kiss pretty but insubstantial gra novel, marty stu college leaver falls into catering + crushes on sous chef
Goaman: Never So Good or how children were treated terrible book of hist of childhood blind-bought off web. 1970s. Writ by one of ladybird's stable of non-fic hacks. Without actual lying, oversimplified this + wrongly emphasised that to give blurry impressionistic + flawed depiction of english soc-history. Abandoned as feeling stupider for reading it
Partridge: Gentle Art of Lexicography as pursued and experienced by an addict rambling and a bit overwritten - but enough about the foreword.
Brooks: Mystery of the Portland Vase biog of artifact, wanted this to be like girl inna green gown, not enough re vase, loosely strung together thumbnail bios of people associated with it (galileo a tenuous example)
Ryan: Captain Pugwash in the Battle of Bunkum Bay picbook, a quid from oxfam. Ryans cartoon style v likeable
Pritchard: Odd Tom Coryate the english marco polo been meaning to find biog of him for years. Early 17th cent englishman who walked across europe and eventually to india. This is sutton so not brilliantly stylish or academically rigorous - brooks transcribes + abridges TC's writing adding snark in square brackets. Feel there was a better book possible on this.
Trease: Secret Fiord kid hist-fic, tweens, medieval, stone carving cathedrals


August:

Bowman: The Real Persuasian portrait of a real life jane austen heroine biog of sussex baronets daughter who overcame family snobbery to marry poor sailor after 11 yr courtship - parallel w anne elliot bit of a stretch but decent biog of regency family
Ribiero: Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 1715 - 1789 she says europe, but means mostly france. Eta: that was 1st chapter impressions, this was elite couture but ribiero put as much german/russian/italian regionalism + peasantwear as she could find sources on. Could have used more illus though - some terms hard to visualise
Pavord: The Tulip remember this coming out, + me thinking it was beautifully put together but wouldn't read it in a million years. Sumptuous illustrations. Nice font (have been reading without pleasure + slowly, suspect needing glasses is issue) pavord keeps listing prices of bulbs which without context is unhelpful even if she excited to have numbers + statistics to put in there. Enjoying more than expected, don't even like tulips
Mcardle; Tragedies of Kerry axegrinding pamphlet by antiTreaty kerrywoman about 1922-1923, list of murders and reprisals in civil war
Hartley: Steeplejack ya alt history, steampunk post colonial anticapitalist murder plot culture clash feminist noneurocentric - is full of good elements but not holding my interest, think it's me
Ukazu: Check Please sticks and scones 2nd part gra novel about college ice hockey queer romance, jock and stress baker. Sweet light insubstantial
Malki!: Wondermark Beards of our Forefathers steampunk cartoons, indy illustrator
Malki!: Wondermark Dapper Caps and Pedal-copters steampunk cartoons
Tucci: Taste my life through food oddly bland memoir by hollywood star, felt curated with aim of sounding as open+ artless as poss while revealing least possible about self. Normally love food autobiographies like dent or slater.
Cook: Pirate Queen the life of grace o'malley the true story of the legendary rebel biog of granuaile, workmanlike, lucid, not setting my pulses racing. Feel g o'm is short changed by both her biographers (but this is streets better than bloody anne chambers effort)
Yonge: Stories from Greek History for the Little Ones condescending as only a victorian adddressing 6 yr olds can be. Fun watching her retell gr myth and eliding the sex
Marshall: Actresses on the Victorian Stage feminine performance and the galatea myth not sure the prometheus story is an overarching theme, seemed a bit forcibly imposed onto account. The comparisons between french + english stage interesting
Pearse: Stuart London (discovering london #6) walking-tour guide, published 1969



September:

Hayter: A Sultry Month scenes of london literary life in 1846 group biog of network of vic-lit people incl brownings carlyles and artist hayden in narrative form day by day. enjoying - apparently inspiration for uglows lunar men
Castillo Price: Subtle Bodies psycop #13 bodyhorror urban fantasy - still feel like the 'rules' of how magic works in this keep shifting
Fowler: Bryant & May's Peculiar London idiosyncratic travel guide by fictional detectives. I read b&m for the london trivia and miscellaneous waspishness anyway
Edwards: How To Read A Suit a guide to changing men's fashion from the 17th to the 20th century heavily annotated picturebook w contemp photos + plates + illus.
Starling:Super Sloth picturebook picked up toward N2s xmas
Noble (edit): From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms acad essays about romans + barbarians by multiple historians who disagree. Set up as a casebook w lists of questions in the intro to each essay. Goffert + geary + ian wood are in this but enjoying it less than hoped
Osborne, Tarling: Viking Historical Atlas of the Earth 1995 so before climate change was inevitable, so *confident* about future in way we aren't now, dear god.
Briggs: Notes From the Sofa his columns from oldie magazine, performatively grouchy. Sounds like his own father xmas. Not to be read all in one go, became irritated by larky toryism
Biddulph: Dog Gone picturebook (to go in N2s xmas parcel. Maybe w copy of super sloth?
Griswold: Meanings of Beauty and the Beast months trying to get copy of this, anticlimactic + banal. Does what it sez on tin
Wagner (edit): First Light a celebration of alan garner mixed bag - a lot of impenetrable mystic guff in several. Interesting range of special interests among contributors
Gould: Bully for Brontesaurus it will never be the apatosaur to me. Was looking forward to this (still mid read) hit some duff entries early on, but the good essays wonderful ETA 1 tedious essay on baseball statistics
Hibbert: The Illustrated London News Social History of Victorian Britain largely pictures
Bruff: Village London Atlas the changing face of greater london 1822 to 1903 fascinating a/z of os maps of greater london early 19th, mid19th, late 19th, end 19th century. No street names. Shows outward creep of housing. Will give to wMark for xmas
Steptoe: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters folktale in picbook format, african story


October:


Orme: Going to Church in Medieval England lucid but unsurprising to point of being hard to pick up. Mostly late medieval because thats where records are, am left curious about origins which was what i wanted from this
Frankopan: The Silk Roads (childrens' abridged edition) nice pictures. nicely designed. Text soundbited down to telegram - not only simplifying but imo misleading in places - poss adult edition is better.
Howard: A Word in Time 1980s book by journalist (london times) about shifts in english usage. Not as witty as he thinks he is. Interesting in parts, dated in parts
Easton: The Appointment what your doctor really thinks during your ten minute consultation fascinating - gp who both trains young doctors and works in a practice makes up 18 representative consults across range of ages and problems + gives his handling of people's feelings and line of reasoning in diagnosing. Eye opening
Langley Moore: Game of Snakes and Ladders light romance about bad friend + good friend, written mid century w casual snobbery xenophobia + anti semitism.
Foster: Star Trek Log One s stories made out of st:tos animated scripts. Got for yesteryear by dc fontana, spock backstory
Kurlansky: Milk a 10,000 year history he did loads of travelling + research then plopped unrelated factoids higgledy piggledy on page jumping from country to country century to century sudden distraction by yoghurt.. somewhere in this is awonderful book. Wish his editor had bullied him unmercifully
Grant: The Good Sharps the 18th century family that changed britain so good. 18th cent family, not in history books but of the 7 who survived to adulthood, 4 boys in diff careers (clergy clergy surgeon inventor antislavery activist) so their lives touch on lots aspects of life + they so familial that they weave in and out of each other. Also they schmooze george 3
Boman: The Paper Doll's House of Miss Sarah Elizabeth Birdsall Otis, Aged 12 mostly pictures of collage scrapbook-format dolls house from 1880s posh background (summer home near fire island winters wherever posh/fashionable)
Maxwell (edit): Sylvia Townsend Warner Letters flinched when she mentioned black people or jews - not hostile, but the ugly casual disdain never meet your heroes
Speight: Shakespeare on the Stage an illustrated history of shakespearian performance £3.99 from oxfam. Well. Pictures nice. And a lot about continental productions. Speight struck me as pompous twatwoffle
Darnton: George Washington's False Teeth an unconventional guide to the 18th century essays on america and france




November:


Wilkins: Terry Pratchett a life with footnotes Wilkins was his p.a. - not a writer, but clearly adored tp.
Cross: Next Week - East Lynne domestic drama in performance 1820 1874 this was funny without sneering at its topic
Tromans: The Private Life of Pictures art at home in britain 1800 1940 more a hist of interior decor than about pictures chosen
Cameron: The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity ad395 - 600 can be summed up as'oh it's all so complicated' overviewy book aimed at undergrads which raises questions rather than answering them. pub 1993
Wilson: The Jane Austen Remedy it is a truth universally acknowledged that a book can change a life am interested in reading about jane austen. Wilson is interested in writing about ruth wilson. Cast aside w great violence unfinished
Cadbury: The Dinosaur Hunters a true story of scientific rivalry & the discovery of the prehistoric world victorians + backstabbing - recommended. Ending sad as cadbury's hero mantell ends painfully in despair while his enemy thrives
Darkshire: Once Upon A Tome the misadventures of a rare bookseller he did twitterfeed for sotheran's for years. Manon recced this to me and loving it. Funnier + less meanspirited than bythell
Mitford: Making of a Muck-raker expose articles by the best mitford, with afterthought postscripts.
Slightly Foxed vol 56 winter 2017 daisy hay on chalet school, holroyd on biographising, maxtone graham on childrens encyclopaedia.
Slightly Foxed vol 64 winter 2019 laurie graham on craddock, daisy hay on joyce grenfell, harrold on aiken
Nelson: King and Emperor a new life of charlemagne reading slowly and going back over paragraphs - the names are hard for me.
Kitamura: Sheep in Wolves Clothing picturebook got for artwork. Sumptuous blues
Hammerton (edit): Mr Punch at the Play 1920s themed anthology from punch mag (drama jokes + cartoons) late victorian humour so often tepidly funny but like the drawings and is contemp small c conservative take on theatre
Morris: Mr Darcy in Love and other jane austen studies disagree strongly on some of his takes but some interesting ideas about characterisation. He v fixed notions about male + female gender roles. jasna essays
Gielgud: A Victorian Playgoer theatrical reviews of kate terry gielgud mostly responses to 1890s plays by gielgud's mum, v conventional (scorns shaw + ibsen)

did not get far with charlemagne (basque ambush, roland) will continue in december


December:


1st week of month finishing charlemagne, interspersed with fanfic on ao3


Beaton: Ducks two years in the oil sands heartbreaking + angrymaking memoir of awful exploitative work in canada where v young kb + the few other women employees were outnumbered 50 to 1 by horny rednecks, harassment, rape, depression, despair, economics driving newfoundlanders + cape breton workers to hobsons choice. Cried 2ce in 50 pages.
Kociejowski: A Factotum in the Book Trade a memoir found this over written elitist + pretentious but he is a poet. Has all the disdain for woke-ness that you'd expect from an elderly white man
McLaughlin, Collins: Secret Agent Elephant adorable picturebook pastiching .007 spystories
Ormond: Franz Xaver Winterhalter and the Courts of Europe 1830-1870 exhibition catalogue w biography essay + ribeiro essay re fashion n winterhalter. Lots pics, had remembered his society portraits as more faceless than they are: his ladies tend to be worn by their party frocks not other way round
Hannegan: The Travel Writing Tribe journeys in search of a genre a lot of interviews with famous writers, anxiety re post colonialism, interesting book, thoughtful likeable.
Burton:The Great Gale love hester burton's hist fic for children, had not read this. Is set 1950s norfolk in flooded village, thrilling events dull book. V settled gender roles, v middle class, v blue peter or arthur ransom children
Hardyment: Writing the Thames anthology of fic+ nonfic about thames. Got cos i like hardyment
Gallati: John Singer Sargent painting friends mini book from nat portrait gallery, short biog of jss and lots pictures with a page opposite each saying who they were.
Houfe: The Work of Charles Samuel Keene pictures + short biography victorian punch illustrator
Hill: (discovering london #7) Regency London 1969 published. Started w v long overview of 18th century britain before getting to london
Pepys: Everybody's Pepys illustrated by ernest shepherd single volume abridgement. after so many extracts in diary anthologies this disappointing but have more complicated feelings now i know him better.
Joseph: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho rpf based on his 1man show about 18th cent londoner, earliest recorded black voter. Brilliant immersive hist fic. My brain fried by headcold and retail xmas, only a third into this at yearend
Darnton: Pirating & Publishing the book trade in the age of enlightenment bit academic and like the above had only read partway at new year. Weird in some ways v recognisable in others. Demanding read. Finished on 2nd jan 2023

At end of year was only part-into chas ignatious and darnton - brain fried by xmas in retail, was reading fanfic on ao3 instead of books. Zero attention span

starting year on furlough #3 of 2020, thanks covid. Much of last yr have been reading badly, distractedly, irritably or uncomprehendingly, annoyed at books have chosen. Still in middle of 3 books which have stalled on - jessie phillips, thing about gothic from 18th century perspective + biog of dr hunter.dropped more books unfinished last yr than ever before



January:


Turtledove: Ruled Britannia a/u hist fic ~ the armada conquered england + then shakespeare is unwillingly recruited by the english resistance. been in my to-read pile for years. 1 of several that i would have liked in my 20s but does not interest now
Yonge: Our New Mistress or changes at brookfield earl one of her cottage novels, dull
Trollope: Jessie Phillips fanny trollope not anthony trying to cash in on 1840s problem-novel mode - about seduced cottager and the poor law. did not finish
Boyle: Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead super title terrible book - v annoying author voice. about victorian crime journalism, draws conclusions based on too narrow evidence (scrapbook of newsprint selected by single individual so more a pic of his (scottish laird 1830s) preoccupations than universally applicable truths) author kept flexing about his research process in editorial comments. think i heard about this years ago with attached warning that it was shite, got recced it in jan 21, forgot warning, bought it. fuck. The direct quotes were ok but wish he had shown awareness that it was a snapshot from single perspective so poss not as universal a reflection as boyle said
Goldstone: Warmly Inscribed the new england forger and other book tales one of those books where i hated the smug pretentious cheapskate authors (husband + wife team) and how ignorant entitled smug and unprepped they were in every interview w experts, so much, could barely turn pages. Is about antiquarian books, except that v little about books. All the dealers' clothing is described, random crap about restaurants authors visited while resesrching book, times they got freebies/discounts gloated over, no sign of them reading the books they haggled for, nothing about the words in the books. Continually distracted by dislike of author voice(s)
Heyer: The Toll Gate thought had read this yrs ago, if so forgot story. Mid range heyer
Benton: The Dinosaurs Rediscovered how a scientific revolution is rewriting history mostly methodology of how we know what we know. author gives impression that he'd be thrilled to be proved wrong so long as knowledge gets advanced. So much more likable than brusatte - who did dino book i read last yr. V good read but am too stupid to understand so reading slowly. A lot more about old finds tested by better lab tech rather than newfound digs. Loved it



Febuary:


Huber: Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself the downfall of ordinary germans in 1945 suicide epidemic as the allies closed in on germany. tries to explain the why of it, cannot. a kind of moral equivalent of sunk-cost fallacy?
Castillo Price: The Other Half #12 in psycop series vic/wossname getting married largely as cover so they investigate wossname's family who might be part of Big Overarching Governmental Conspiracy. feel should be more compelled by story than am, dropped this to read JA reception studies thing below before coming back + finishing
Looser: The Making of Jane Austen another meta on JA - this one surpassingly good. reception studies-ish about early interpretations, 1st illustrator, early theatre versions, the making of the olivier film, inspiration to both reactionaries + suffragettes and which bits each party left out or emphasised. Disproportionately p+p. Very good indeed not the usual retread of twicetold guff
de Moraes: The Myth Atlas maps and monsters heroes and gods from twelve mythological worlds childrens picture book. One long "here be dragons" Delightful, wish had replaced greek + norse doublepage spreads with less overexposed mythologies
Dolan: A Chronicle of Small Beer the memoirs of winifred dolan victorian actress short memoir of jobbing actress of fin de siecle - was starstruck by ellen terry, theatre secretary to george alexander, taught drama for decades in convent. Namedroppy self effacing observant.
Norman: The Pirate Queen diana norman swashbuckler tudor ireland. Set post granuaile (DN sentimental about celts) Have loved other books by her, high hopes
Goss: British Tea Pots and Coffee Pots shire pamphlet. my old lady weakness for crockery again. On finishing, found site called mr pottery who sell discontinued lines + bought 2 breakfast cups from dorset fruits line (poole) which i discovered just as they were stopping making it. Pear cup + grape cup
Hicks: One Year at Ellsmere child gra novel about scholarship girl in boarding school. Heroine describes it as downton abbey/lord of the flies mashup with plaid skirts. Art is lovely characters are engaging plot is a lick and a promise. Scandalous deus ex machina (its a unicorn. its a fucking unicorn) ties up conflict and takes this from malory towers to elidor.
Crofton Croker: Fairy Legends irish folktales with annotations, 1st pub 1826. dated in style, obvs, and the oirishness is a bit much but worth reading
Sullivan: Jane Austen Cover to Cover 200 years of classic covers text less interesting than illus in this coffeetable book + disagreed with few of her comments but what she got right was skating over 19th cent (1 photo of leatherbound duodecimo v like another ditto) to give more space for 20th cent pb editions, some gloriously bonkers. Online ordered 90s tor classic s+s for pure joy of it
Carr, Greeves: The Naked Jape uncovering the hidden world of jokes theory of humour, how + why we laugh, with one liners in the footnotes. light fun read. still don't like carr
Almedingen: Young Mark her family were russian landowners exiled from the ussr; she wrote biographic novels based on family lore about greataunts, greatgrannies, in 19th century, generally girls name as title. this one is about male ancestor. tbh enjoyed the victorian ones more than this which based on notes by mark about his trek to the big city when he ran away from home in 1740s
Mac Aodha: Foreign News irish poetry



March:

Did not finish diana norman


Hudston: Victorian Theatricals from menageries to melodrama largely extracts fr contemp writings starting w that bit of mansfield pk, through bit of dickens thackeray etc, the best was the super of-its-time bits - scripts from planche pinero and boucicault
Esdaile: Spain in the Liberal Age from constitution to civil war 1808-1939 cos is hard to find general hist eng language 19th cent spain. I want to know about the fight between "liberal" + rightwing royals midcentury. Author specialises peninsular war. V dry + v non page turning ETA really bogging down in this. Sequence of events with none of the why-this-happened (is esdaile worried about being too subjective?) I keep rereading pages. Wish there were something more gossipy in english
Graham: Frasier the official companion book to the award winning paramount television comedy love the show esp niles episodes, this some interviews w makers + script of pilot. might oxfam. Was pub at same time as another bk on F, think that other one was what i was looking for(perils of online bookbuying)
Duane: Dark Mirror love duane, love trek, love mirror universe. Silly that never read this - is next gen which never watched. Not fully engaged by it during read as i don't love the characters
McClure: The Wilder Life my adventures in the lost world of little house on the prairie v light easy read about adult childrens bk editor in wake of her mother's death latching onto fandom and travelling to sites where l ingalls w lived. Joy to read, as struggling even to pick up (unfinished) pirate queen + spain hist


Bookslump month. Got stuck in the diana norman despite enjoying it when forced myself to pick it up, only got to 1850ish in spain history (so dry)


April:

Zochert: Laura the life of laura ingalls wilder author of little house on the prairie horribly sentimental, purple prose, vague. was recc'd by mcclure in my wilder life so got copy online. when it arrived recognised the cover as thing had browsed (in that brighton 2nd hand bkshop full of mills&boon?) and discarded in past. Skimmed latter parts
Nichol Smith: Shakespeare in the 18th Century 3 lectures from 1927 birkbeck college. underwhelming
Trease: The Baron's Hostage simon de montfort period, trease in good form, such an accomplished hist writer for children
Holmes: Thomas Lawrence Portraits v short 80pp with photos of oil portraits + quick biog of sitter opposite. V flashy smouldering pics. holmes softpedals the siddons scandal in the introduction
Fitzsimons: The Life and Loves of E Nesbit v good v readable. Nearly didn't get as Briggs bio of nesbit felt so thorough. Fitzsimons a bit inclined to wring her hands over EN's troubles. ETA: sentimental, briggs' bio is better
Garfield: Dog's Best Friend a brief history of an unbreakable bond light and often funny, not my sort of topic but fine meh
Stroud: The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne let out actual yelp of joy when saw this waiting to be shelved at work, was thinking he overdue to bring out new book. Dystopian future england with wild west flavour and ballsy heroine, wildly readable. Have promised to loan to stacie
Chance Newton: Cues & Curtain Calls being the theatrical reminisciences of h chance newton dreadfull windbaggery by victorian thesp who namedrops madly, overuses exclamation marks to strengthen weak punchlines, is at pains to tell how close he was to irving phelps etc.
French: The Steam Whistle Theatre Company enjoyably skulduggerious victorian romp for 8-12 age, melodrama about family travelling actors. Stacie v kindly loaned it to me
Nott: War Doctor surgery on the front line heroism, syria, medecins sans frontieres. Bestseller at work. Nott came across deff heroic but self absorbed - other people not really present in his memoir
Bergamini: The Spanish Bourbons history of a tenacious dynasty v entertaining muck raking biog of spanish royals from 1700 to now (now = rule of franco) opinionated, funny, sad, refreshing after the dryness of that textbook about 19th cent spain. Got as far as napoleon by end month


May:

most of 1st week of month finishing bourbon book



Westwood + Simpson: The Lore of the Land a guide to england's legends from spring-heeled jack to the witches of warboys v listy and dip into-able, like brewers dict of phrase&f. Geographically arranged which awkward as am bad at remembering how english counties go. Cited a lot in the "loremen" podcast which was listening to today, coincidence
Ahpornsiri: Beneath the Waves a journey through the world's oceans nonfic picturebook about sealife aimed at 6 to 8 yearolds, bought for ravishing art
Amelin, Wensell: Le Petit Empereur De Chine well now i know ulysses in french is 'ulises' french text picturebook, liked art style, pastiche folktale
Rains Wallace: Beasts of Eden walking whales dawn horses and other enigmas of mammal evolution pop sci structured around an evolution mural in usa museum. Lot of thumbnail biographies of dead fossil hunters. wish more about beasts less about fossil hunters
Yeoman: King Arthur's Spaceship and other marvels that might have changed the world picturebook spoofing david macaulay/eagle cutaway machine description books full of a steampunk alt history. Gorgeous detailed art, text full of throwaway jokes
Rotthier, O'Hanlon: The Fetish Room the education of a naturalist dutch lit journalist spends 10 days with RO'H, explorer travel writer and professional eccentric. Booze, chaotic road trip and manic despair. RO'H comes across both lovable and insuffrable - rotthier clearly likes him a lot. Want to read congo journey now
Sharp: Rhododendron Pie sweet insubstantial drawing room comedy from early 20th cent, in the zone of thirkell or stella gibbons
Spain: Why I'm Not A Millionaire the dazzling memoir of an extraordinary trailblazer less interesting than expected, but improves when past her childhood, champion name dropping
Hughes: Helpers picturebook got for illus
Marshall: Fox on Stage picturebook from 90s, early reader, drew like a poor man's quentin blake, lovely deadpan stories, used to love his books
Sands : The Ratline love lies and justice on the trail of a nazi fugitive another head office pick involving nazis - our marketing dept is obsessed. Undeniably well written but custs recoil from nazis in their reading + honestly so do i DID NOT FINISH
Higgie: The Mirror and the Palette rebellion revolution and resilience 500 years of women's self portraits got this out of interest in hist portraits, is v rah!gurll power!rah! in way i associate with 1970s feminism. Not far in yet, hoping the book gets more data driven after the foreword. So far is stating obvious tho with endearing vigour. seems to be pitched at readership with zero history knowledge. Wish the thumbnail biographies had been scaled back and more said about how portrait painting works/is done
Alford: Edward vi peng eng monarchs booklets didn't tell me anything didn't already know + E vi personality still opaque
Briggs: Smoke Bitten werewolf soap opera. Like the series but plot of this, book twelve, all over the place
Banks: The British Execution shire pamphlet



June:


Fowler: Bryant & May Oranges and Lemons solid gold. I don't read these for the crime plot + suspect that's just as well. Suspect if were following more closely, long arm of coincidence would show
Dent: Hungry female equivalent of slater's memoir Toast. Touching without being soppy, funny and evocative, lovely light read - ETA: the end parts about her dads dementia heartbreaking
Le Cain: The White Cat folktale picture flat got for le cain's art
Evans: Death of Kings how english medieval kings died and how their reputations played into that. disappointing. So far, nothing i don't know. will prob oxfam this eta: this was weak repetitive and a waste of time
Durrell: Drunken Forest early animal collecting book, s america, pretty fun - not too sneery in this about nonwhite non europeans some of his books have cringe factor
Darcy: Eugenia 1970s heyer-ish regency romance, enjoyed
Gillespie, Foster (edit): Irish Provincial Cultures in the Long Eighteenth Century, essays for toby barnard found this when looking through list of rf foster books and remembered how much i liked making the grand figure by barnard. Tribute collection of acad essays. had great difficulty finding affordable copy. really readable micro hist essays on details of life, fab
Patterson, Trusted: The Cast Courts mini book about V&A plaster of paris galleries w lots pictures
Hughes: A Brush With The Past 1900 - 1950 the years that changed our lives social hist coffee table book from shirley hughes. Beautifully done + charming, glancing allusions to important events + people cos no room for depth. SH cannot do likenesses. Her attempts at josephine baker etc all have shirley-hughes-face
Henry: Dark Space mil sf. m/m
Dwyer: Life in Medieval Ireland non specialist but i don't know anything about med ireland anyway. eta: adapted from podcast, too rambly for me, oxfammed
Clement, La Frenais: More Than Likely a memoir from the creators of the likely lads porridge auf wiedersehen pet.. v entertaining
Sebba: Ethel Rosenberg a cold war tragedy depressing story, well told + angry making
Langley Moore: My Caravaggio Style fun story with odious narrator, who is 1950s bookseller, misogynist + congenital liar who tries to forge byron memoirs.



July:


Lansdell: Everyday Fashions of the 20th Century shire minibook full of dated b/w photos, intended to help genealogists fix a decade for unmarked family pictures. More pics than commentery
Hallett: The Appeal cosycrime told in emails. Took a bit to get into it. Small community, amdram group, fraudulent gofundme, murder.
Allen: No Shame standup comedian memoir growing up gay lower mid class south london in 90s.
Morley: Avoid Being a Tudor Actor in Shakespeare's Theatre! nonfic picbook aimed at age 8
Benton: Penguin Historical Atlas of the Dinosaurs pub late 1990s so outdated data, got at least partly to enjoy paper maps of pangea laurasia in colour with the b/w lines showing ghost of future europe etc. The youtube things on continental drift go so fast
Winder: Lotharingia a personal history of france germany and the countries in between rambly anecdotal massmarket hist of district rather than state, finding author's voice - elitist self absorbed and not as funny as he thinks he is - insufferable
Malam: Avoid Being a Mammoth Hunter
Costain: Avoid Being a Convict Sent to Australia
Macdonald: Avoid Being a Samurai 3 nonfic picbooks aimed 8 yr olds.
Merrow: Stopcock psychic gay plumber fights cosycrime accidentally. this time in pompeii on honeymoon
Avery: Freddie's Feet v short (5 to 8) victorian set story for young children. Avery always fab
Jack: Pop Goes the Weasel the secret meaning of nursery rhymes ox dict n rhymes by opie does this better
Bathurst: Six of the Best an affectionate tribute to 6 of the most significant school story writers of the 20th century self published by retired enthusiast, bit avuncular in tone. Good choices of writer, personally most interested in harold avery as was given a reward by him by R's father to remember him by. keep seeing avery in 2nd hand shops, did not know his career
Disher: Growing Up With Just William by his sister writ by a journalist but not a good stylist, memoir of richmal crompton family in early 20th century, found it bit snobbish + grating - all those unfunny family injokes mercilessly recounted
Aylett, Ordish: First Catch Your Hare a history of the recipemakers published 1965, feels 1950s, writ by 3 women who trained in catering judging from aside comments. Bios of major author-chefs from tudor to beeton
Crawforth: Shakespeare in London (arden) acad reflections on plays - not all of them - as linked to locations in 1590s london. Bits of it unconvincing
Avery: Book of the Strange and Odd anthology of 19th cent ephemera, mostly newspaper cuttings from oxford library. Bought cos gillian avery, a lot of it - jumbo the elephant, tichbourne claimant, highwire over niagra - stuff had read about elsewhere
Nesbit, edit Nelson: The Wouldbegoods if have read this it was in childhood, bits feel deja vu, think skimmed a few chapters. Bought as was advertised as annotated by palgrave academic, it has a few notes like an oxford world classic but was hoping for norton level essays and expansion.
Charles: Subtle Blood 3rd of 1920s jazz age m/m thriller, queered up bulldog drummond.
Wilson: Awful Ends the british museum book of epitaphs dip into-able and blessedly free of latin language
Wagner: The Skull of Alum Bheg the life and death of a rebel of 1857 microhist about mutiny in raj
Yeoman illus Q Blake: Our Village picturebook of doggerel. Blake/yeoman can be sublime, this was only good
Lichtenstein: On Brick Lane london local history. 1 of those books where i wanted the content but took against the authors voice



August:


Banfield: Leif the Lucky a vinland hero childs retelling of iceland saga. It's no maeldun the voyager
Baren: Victorian Shopping heavily illustrated with contemp adverts. A lot of data with no overviewy analysis tying it together. shire pamphlet production values not high, smudgy b/w photos and illegible text
Bareham: The Trifle Bowl and other tales recipes tied together by memory and reflections on kitchen equipment
Roberts: Ancestors a prehistory of britain in seven burials massmarket archaeology, dna use in prehist sites, in places she overestimates the ignorance of gen public.Is tv presenter.
Thummler: Sheets ya graphic novel recced by stacie, ghost in a laundrette + neglected teen whose mother just died. V good
Vogler: Scoff a history of food and class in britain am interested in topic but author so bloody snobby
Welch: Bowman of Crecy picked this up mid90s when hunting the then out of print carey saga, was sure had read it then, but on glancing thru on sunday did not remember any of it. Childrens hist fic, robin hood at front and battle crecy climax by the v mil-hist welch. Good but not as good as knight crusader or tank commander the 1st and last in carey family series
Riordan: The Woman in the Moon and other stories of forgotten heroines one of the innumerable grrl power folktale anthologies from mid 90s when that was a thing. Riordan pretty good reteller, decent stories
Graham: Buffy an adventure story 1990s pictureflat. Love bob graham, his illus in the q blake vein, his stories funny and engaging
d'Allance: Grosse Colere picturebook in french about temper tantrum
Astington: Actors and Acting in Shakespeare's Time the art of stage playing dry and full of stuff have read elsewhere
Burton: Tim at the Fur Fort antelope aka 5-7 age range childrens hist fic. Love hester burton but these ubershort aimed at young readers don't have the wordcount for her best work, the characterisation, the evocative detail, the development (same goes for freddies feet by avery and mission to marathon by trease also antelope series) set 18th century in hudsons bay company, antagonist native americans
Humphries: Less Is More Please extract from his autobiog about childhood middleclass 1930s melbourne
Spence: Spain, myth and legend pub 1920. Horribly purple writing. Racist re: moors,+, when he remembers they exist, jews. Will look for something better on chivalric med romances
Rylant, illus Goode: When I Was Young in the Mountains pic book about rylant's incredibly impoverished childhood in appallachans (spelled that wrong) offputtingly sentimental in a waltons way. Got for diane goode illustrations which won caldecott award
Julaud, Loiselet, Acunzo, Popescu, Fabris, Novy: L'histoire de France Pour Les Nuls vol 6 les guerres de religion tudor era france in comic-strip format, history for dummies series, french language. At the limit of my french-reading capacity
Trease: The Grey Adventurer hist fic post restoration, son of puritan ousted from home by returning royalists + must make own way, ends emigrating to new world. Bought largely cos female lead of cue4treason has cameo appearance as old lady, according to farah mendlessohns book re juvenile roundheads cavaliers hist fic, (did not spot her) turns out is one of T's better books anyway.
Jarman: River Kings a new history of the vikings from scandanavia to the silk roads J is bioarchaeologist is talking about dna traces in diff areas as well as material dug up stuff


September:


Crystal: The Story of Be a verbs'-eye view of the english language v short, lots about middle english and development of english but though crystal obvs straining to keep it idiot friendly I struggled in places (generally grammar terminology)
Charles: The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting selfpub novella of queered up heyer, reminds me of mullany's subversive regencies about con artists. I love kj charles but this was good not great
Connors: Winds of History newfoundland local history, old newspaper snippets across 20th cent with a photo attached to each. oxfammed
Fox (edit): Writers Critics and Children v dated, mixed bag. Reprinted essays from mag: childrens books in education, 1970s-ish. Much windbaggery - Ted hughes, fred inglis. Aiken refreshingly to the point but reprising stuff from her 'how to write for children' Entertainingly huffy piece re howcome flambards won lots awards followed by response from a judge who had liked it.
Lansdale: Devil Red hap + leonard book 8 noir from texas with buddymovie vibe. Combo of extreme violence laconic jokes + sentiment reminded me of christopher brookmyre. Some lovely turns of phrase. Narrator spent most of book in personal funk which drained a lot of energy from the book
Moseley: Reporting War how foreign correspondents risked capture torture + death to cover world war 2 retired journo wrote this. Feel he better at research than communication. UNFINISHED
Coppa: The Fanfiction Reader folk tales for the digital age many BNF contributors i recognised though fandoms i love not represented.
Parker: Dragon Lords the history and legends of viking england about how medievals felt/thought about vikings - enjoyed
Ewington, Pratchett: Campaigns & Companions the complete rpg for pets funny heavily illustrated disposable. Part written by pratchetts daughter. Will pass to N



October:


Norwich (edit):The Great Cities of History originally the text of coffee table book and sorely missing its pictures. Ultra short essays, too short to give full picture, on various cities that made historical impact. Dublin made the cut as did london.
Gere: Nineteenth Century Interiors an album of watercolours picturebook of mostly amateur looking pics - v mary ellen best
Siskind: The List a week by week reckoning of trump's first year depressing
McGrigor: The Sister Queens isabella and katherine de valois really shitty pop hist with jean plaidy ish bits where mcgrigor guessed emotions and novelised it all.
Nix: Left Handed Booksellers of London swashbuckle fantasy from ya author, got for n but reading myself 1st.
Premise of swashbuckling booksellers is fun but plot halts periodically as every time heroine enters room Nix describes every fucking piece of furniture and full rundown on wardrobe of other characters. Think nix considers this acceptable substitute for giving chars interior life
Irvine: Apes Angels and Victorians the story of darwin huxley and evolution flippant but tickling me, dual biog of key players in controversy
Simpson: The Colour Code why we see red feel blue and go green gorgeously designed as a book, text bitty and random. Lots of vaguely themed snippets,oxfammed
Flanders: Christmas a Biography disconnected trivia about mostly anglophone areas



November:


Borman: Matilda wife of the conqueror 1st queen of england v phillipa gregory cover, full of guesswork USES AGNES FUCKING STRICKLAND AS A PRIMARY SOURCE
McDougall: Space Hostages space opera for 10 yr olds, fastpaced + adorable
Chippindale, Horrie: Stick It Up Your Punter the uncut story of the sun newspaper recced to me by a cust yrs ago. Is good, sure, but tabloids depressing to think about
May: The Victorian Domestic Servant shire album pamphlet. Lots illus, captions hard to read
O'Hanlon:Congo Journey becoming more aware of how he objectifies all the people, also more aware of how he frames and paces events - it looks artless. UNFINISHED
Molesworth: The Palace in the Garden low on excitement but v real voices of childrwn and beautifully written
Cooper: Some Kind of Magic hate the protagonists, which fatal when reading romance. Recced to me as genderqueer but not an urb fant series i want again - this my 2nd by cooper, hated other as well
Given-Wilson, Curteis: Royal Bastards of Medieval England one of those fun-topic/shallow-read things, very alan sutton.
Keay: The Last Royal Rebel the life and death of james duke of monmouth v good read, tomalin-quality hist biog
Layman: The Man Who Fucked Up Time gra novel by chew writer. Liked the art, time travel + alternate realities. Read fast + hindsight plotholes



December:

helf through congo journey, upsetting read



Heyer: Black Moth her 1st. V coincidental plot. Cheating brother subplot more interesting than primary romance.
Ure: Shooting Leave spying out central asia in the great game victorian afghanistan imperialism
Kemp: Church Monuments shire handbook. B/w photo illus too blurry
Denison: Susannah of the Yukon horrific online price, not warranted by reading experience. Plucky moppet goes to goldrush v late victorian tone
Picard: Chaucer's People everyday lives in the middle ages fairly tightly set late 1300s so not one of those med hist books that jump centuries using stuff from 9th cent and 14th cent as if same, v london. V accessable
Pears: The Titian Committee art cosycrime perfect flu read for painless covid isolate which i regret being on
Harrison: Life in a Medieval College the story of the vicars choral of york minster stultifyingly dull 1950s maunderings based on archival research of elderly york canon. Had not seen subtitle on screenshot when buying; wanted university college life not cathedral.
Rees Brennan: C S Pacat's Fence Striking Distance normally love rees b. Flippant humour makes me laugh. Cartoonish emotional responses of characters, yes. Love soap opera. But the relentless stupidity of everyone in this book actually annoyed me. Is set at posh e coast (usa) boarding school fencing squad. Hardly any fencing.
Russel Wallace: Borneo Celebes Aru penguin mini book. extracts fr malay archiplago. Victorian exploring asia + orang utang hunt - vic naturalists pretty murderous
Datlow, Windling (edit): Silver Birch Blood Moon retold fairy tales from 1999. Some amazing
Davenport: Fifteenth -century English Drama the early moral plays and their literary relations enjoyed this more than expected to
Sacks: Anthropologist on Mars case studies like man who mistook his wife for a hat which i read in my 20s. Mistook impressed me with its empathy + how holistically he looked at patients (but thought his prose clunky then) This written years later. And i now in my 50s - dont know if altered response is me or him. prose not clunky. He v othering about the autists in this book came across as weirded out by steven wiltshire + temple grandin
O'Neill: History of Heavy Metal i have a theory that anybody, talking articulately about their nerd obsession, is interesting. Irregardless of whether you care about topic. this book tested that.

here we go again



January :



Nagy/Boquet: Medieval Sensibilities is much more theological than bargained for, am struggling to keep up. wanted a nice mentalities thingy, but as the contemporary medieval writings on emotion are all about Christian contemplative practices + they're building the book on contemp texts so there is So. Much. Theology. this is hard work to read.
Clery: Jane Austen the Banker's Sister economics in the life and works of JA. lots about brother henry (who gets skated over as disreputable in many JA biographies tho by all accounts he her fave bro)
Hicks: The King's Glass a study of tudor power and secret art account of the making of kings college chapel stainglass windows, which, lived in Cambridge a decade and only went to look couple times, sad now did not pay more attention. lot about guild vs furriners-taking-our-jobs strife, how political prestige won extra budgets, (god these issues - is this even history?) some info about glass-making process, was good read
penguin : the Happy Reader issue #13 meh
Grimm: Frog Prince picturebook version of story, wording functional, bought for jan ormerod illustrations
Walter: Ma Maman A Besoin De Moi fr language picturebook, got largely for the illustrations which this edition has diff artist + much nicer than the usa original ed
Taylor: An Atlas of Tudor England and Wales 40 plates from john speed's pocket atlas of 1627 king penguin bought cos nice edition cheap from Kempton pk fair. print eye squintingly small
Armstrong: Dances of Spain #2 north east and east little beautiful picturebook giving music and choreography, got, in my case, for the regional folkdress illus.
Briggs: Storm Cursed paranorm urban fantasy, werewolves
Dekker: The Tradition of Female Cross Dressing in Early Modern Europe not Europe, Holland. and not all early modern, largely 17th century. author v iffy and medicalising about transsexuals, treats them as freakshow
Sponsler: The Queen's Dumbshows john lydgate and the making of early theatre feel bait and switched by title - v little about theatre, much about public processions ritual rather than -what i expected - minstrel in hall stuff. topic interesting, treatment tedious beyond belief.
Gray: Strumpets and Ninnycocks name calling in devon 1540 - 1640 v listy and poorly organised in the way he presented the info. Am idiot who bought cos amusing title and topic. Disappointingly written, oxfammed.
Duffy: Voices of Morebath reformation and rebellion in an English village absorbing microhistory and less dry than expected. Been meaning to read for couple yrs, sorry i dragged feet as so good
Chen: Je Ne Vais Pas Pleurer French language picturebook about Chinese child lost at festival - loved the illus, v detailed but scratchy on light buff backdrop
Fyfe: Dances of Germany mini-book from 50s, bit of folk costume, bit of folkdance info, bit of musical score, bit of national stereotyping. v prettily produced books
Chambers: Gentleman Wolf 100 year old werewolf in Edinburgh in bagwig and red high heels, revenge plot, seemed fun concept. Book 1 of 2. Won't bother with 2. Hero tiresome.
Norwich: Four Princes henry viii francis I Charles v sulieman the magnificent and the obsessions that forged modern Europe superficial but pageturny and enjoyable.



Febuary:



Fleming: Perception why do I keep reading austen fanfics? why do authors who love JA repeatedly mary-sue up her bloody characters into niminy piminy chits who do not resemble the people in the books at all, and, trying for Georgian style vocabulary, use words similar to, but not meaning the same as, words they meant? why does nobody in these books behave like people rather than inhabitants of romancelandia? why do the emotional interactions make no sense? In short, dreadful. But all the P+P sequels are dreadful.
Alford: The Watchers a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I spycraft in age of good queen bess. liking this. he does hop back and forth in time a bit confusingly in narrative as is following multiple strands of people and multiple projects
Hornby: Miss Austen pleasant mimsy novel about Cassandra austen and her burning JA's letters. low-octane. having to force self to pick this up and finish it
Bryant (edit): You On Target essays by Who-fen about the target novelisations, bought because N contributed. a lot of people remembering being little boys in libraries + WH Smithses in 70s and 80s
MxDougall: Mars Evacuees space opera romp for the 9-12 age crowd. Delightful and snarky pov heroine, her pint size of testosterone male chum and a genius best friend, the 3 travelling across mars landscape which is not entirely terraformed. v action adventure, funny charming
Price: Bitter Pill psycop 11 open ended for next instalment. Is bk 11. Is in danger of buckling under its own backstory. Also prob not originally intended to be so long a series, there has already been retconning her worldbuilding rules about how ghosts work in this world/is hearing or seeing ghosts harder/etc but as narrator hero was stoned through the early books let's call him unreliable + not nitpick. hero Jacob can jump in a lake but i do like vic
Postle: Joshua Reynolds the creation of celebrity exhibition catalogue, another portrait art hist book in fact. Interesting essays at front about pop culture of 18th century and lives of the subjects. Gorgeous pictures, more varied in mood than had associated with JR
Flanders: A Place For Everything the curious history of alphabetical order one of those overviewy books that want a broad market so get a bit flip and superficial and leave you unsatisfied
Criado Perez: Invisible Women exposing data bias in a world designed for men percentages-riddled polemic, restates some points over and over (read this quick so may have been overaware of repetition) v angry text, ripped through it at speed. read for work. can recommend with sincerity
Holmes: Shakespeare and Burbage the sound of shakespeare as devised to suit the voice and talents of his principal player too much of this is basically summaries of plays
Hardy: Jeremy Hardy Speaks Volumes words wit wisdom one liners and rants bday present for N - shamelessly read it myself - transcriptions of radio 4, heard his voice as read it
Yonge: Cunning Woman's Grandson, or, a tale of cheddar caves 100 years ago cottage novel, her virtuous poor are infuriatingly humble. mostly about early methodism. would expect young yonge to be hostile to dissenters but she sympathetic in this (written in her mellow age?)
Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief major current children's title, greek gods action adventure, 1st in series, got free copy. Is fine but really reading it for work purposes.
Aiken: Foul Matter one of her adult melodramas in a subRebecca vein, isolated woman, looming threat, glamour, landscape, sudden death all round. is the kind of thing Russ took the piss out of in her article "someone's trying to kill me and I think it's my husband" but JA does this so wittily and zestfully. Heroine is cook so having flashbacks to Ephron's heartburn (which, less murdering)
Bemelmans: Madelaine picbook in yer fecking French, nun raised orphan etc




March:



Wilson-Lee: Daughters of Chivalry the forgotten children of Edward 1 bought biog of Eleanor castile on strength of this. Interesting read in that diff personalities discernable from old account books and travel decisions, glad i read it
Freeman: House of Glass the story and secrets of a twentieth century jewish family compelling read about HF's grandmother + great uncles lives from pogroms in e europe to paris and how most survived 2nd world war. Kinda want to press this on everyone i meet. Poss the most emotionally affecting gripping urgent book i read this yr
Aufricht: And the Shark, He Has Teeth a theatre producer's notes biog, strong on Weimar theatre history. He not a writer, dictated this to typist, narrative sort of lurches along clunkilly.
Jenkins: a Short History of London lucidly written speed telling of wot-it-sez-on-tin. As ever, big % of book is 19th + 20th century, would like more about earlier. Author tory, writes from perspective of city of london of bankers of conservative party. Bias annoying.freebie from publisher
Kushner: Tremontaine swashbuckle fantasy in nonexistant vaguely enlightenment citystate with scullduggery rapier fights haute couture backstabbing girl power queerness backstabbing postcolonialness and all that good stuff. No magic in this world. Prequels kushner's swordspoint which i loved DID NOT FINISH (is not you book its me)
Sansom: Dissolution 1st of shardlake hist crime series, bit ashamed not read it already. Is absorbing immersive tudor experience not sure why left it in to-read pile multiple years. Really gotta read wolf hall ETA: as a hist-fic, wonderful; as a crime, utterly bored in mid section where plot was treading water, a struggle to finish
Rigg (edit): No Turn Unstoned the worst ever theatrical reviews kinda dull really, impulse buy in oxfam the day i delivered N's bday present.will prob oxfam when they open again after corona virus
Carruthers (edit): Bluebeard and other mysterious men with even stranger facial hair text okay, what shines is the illustrations from 19th + 20th century editions. Related f-tales in more or less chronological order of the versions they reprinting. meh
Marcus: Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration coffee table heavily illus bio of the work of the sublime oxenbury. Lush
Fowler: The Lonely Hour bryant&may #17 after disappointing book 16 (which was set 1969 i think) this is proper good, set now, all the qualities of politics and eccentricity and observation of london that made me live the series ETA ending cliffhanger real kick in the teeth
Burton: Beyond The Weir Bridge, or, thomas childrens histfic about post civilwar england - roundheads/cavaliers - mostly about oppression of quakers. The plague in restoration london a bit more unsettling to read now in quarrantine times than when HBurton wrote it



April:




Moore: The Knife Man, blood body snatching and the birth of modern surgery 18th cent london, biog of surgeon hunter who hunterian museum is named after. Few pages in + my boundaries for gruesome already challenged
Pears: Death and Restoration cosycrime about art theft set in rome quarrantine had me in bad headspace so was a foggy read + i confused by plot
Ambrus: Blackbeard the Pirate picture book mostly for parents, lot of visual puns and meta jokes. Plays w stereotypes + joke about polynesian cannibals icky + racist. His dracula was just as stereotypey tbf but didn't annoy me as much; the targets felt less punch-down. Love ambrus' thumbprinty untidy drawing style
Mangan: The Reluctant Bride one womans journey kicking and screaming down the aisle autobiog of her wedding, her family anecdotes made me giggle in prev book; this was (+ the warning was in the title) too weddingy for me - did not realise when buying how irritating all that privilege wasted money and humblebragging would be - oxfammed
Hadlow: The Other Bennet Sister p+p sequel about mary. Writ by woman who did "strangest family" about monstrous dynamics of george iii family, which i loved, this much better than usual austen-fanfic
Lanyon: Murder at Pirate's Cove cosycrime. spent most of it wanting to slap hero for stupidity oxfammed
Sturluson: Heimskringla cannot cope with this, owing to lousy attention span this month. More bulletpointy than the narrative style of the iceland sagas which i thought this would resemble. Actually this edition - ugly cheap reprint, ghastly font - laid out in snippets like the chapter+verse of king james bible, with subheadings every paragraph or so summarising the next bit - this edition not helping
Broome: Fairy Tales from the Isle of Man this puffin pb is older than i am. Did not know till bought that had faux peasanty idiom and phonetic accent spelling, the thing that makes lady gregory unbearable, but in this case done effectively imo. Excellent stories, lotta mermaids in the mix
Smith: Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England a cultural poetics pretty dry 1st chapter but worth persevering
Ambrus: Dracula picturebook, aimed at parents not children, love his scruffy dynamic art style, dodgey japanese tourist stereotype in pictures - icky to me now but barely registered at time. remember selling this when in print w single proviso that no proper story just lots visual n verbal jokes
Holloway: The Way Out is Through shameless teenwolf retelling with chars renamed. Oh, + everyone has diff hair colour from tv show. Love this author's fanfics. Wish she had been more radical w plot
Abraham: Midsummer Night's Dream (actors on shakespeare) on bottom. Many words, little data, unhelpful. too much of it was a scene by scene recap
Garrett (edit): Greece a literary companion anthol of travel snippets arranged by place, a lot of l durrell + byron
Glinert: London Compendium a street by street exploration of the hidden metropolis listy, + to cram lots text into portable form (will absolutely carry this next time i drag n round lunnon) micro size print. Have tucked magnifying bookmark in. Arraged by postcode, locations of distinguished residents, weird businesses, arrests of serial killers mostly (the last) outside pubs. Funny surprising v dip-into-able



Coronavirus quarrantine time. Reading stamina of a paragraph on good day, sometimes a sentence before book drops from hand. A lot of fanfic on ao3, a bit of rereading (romance mostly) did not finish HEIMSKRINGLA or KNIFE MAN or TREMONTAINE



May:



Pratchett: Nation guy wants me to read this so here i am. It feels a bit moralistic. It IS v moralistic.
Ortberg: Something That May Shock And Discredit You essays about transitioning FTM. Loved ortberg's website thetoast.com which in large part is why am reading this; that was funny this is serious + toast made me smile and laugh but this is more anxious territory. Ortberg a feminist, and felt in 1st moment of hearing, now man, like had deserted post in battle, on reflection i have all the wrong responses to trans politics. A LOT of religous imagery as it turns out O was raised evangelical.
Vernon: Dragonsbreath gra novel for 8yr olds. Nice but did not live up to its hype (there was LOT of hype) oxfammed
Charles: Slippery Creatures fluffy m/m novella set in used bookshop in 1920s by author i reliably enjoy. Ought have been a quick melodrama read - spies, bolsheviks, dusty books, but read slowly. Not the book's fault and will get books 2+3 when they're published
Chase: Scandal Wears Satin clearly have dope brain so this is actually published by mills&boon. Is loretta chase who does funny charming regency. And wasn't so keen on it. Is not regency for starters. Heroine described as machiavellian schemer (her cunning is more baldrick level) hero is big dumb ox. Liked the bits about the dressmaking shop (1830s fashion is a hideous silhouette) but bad-farce amounts of pointless running around. Ironical thing is i got this cos i loved mr impossible (also brain-lady/big dumb ox, set in post napoleon egypt with hieroglyphics subplot, but done much more charmingly)
Ribeiro: The Gallery of Fashion from nat portrait gallery, hist of clothing in portraits, largely pictures. tbh the text was mostly 'who is this portrait of' with minimal clothing comment
Reade: Peg Woffington bought few years ago as is pretty edition - gilt edge pages, butterflies embossed on cover, illustrated by hugh thomson. Hugh t did those horribly twee (but am reluctantly charmed) illus you see on many mid-20th cent gift editions of austen. Then peg book sat in to-read pile for multiple years because expected a bumpy experience reading it. I loved cloister+hearth but that was when i was glomping a lot of victorian novels so was taking the slow pacing in stride. But this isn't just victorian. Is victorian doing pastiche of 18th cent, and goes like the less exhilerating stretches of henry esmond. Reade does a lot of gadzookery + pon rep to show is ye olden tymes, untranslated latin tags all over the place, style feels affected. Occasional editorial comment about how stupid and vulgar plays were congreve's works or "norval" or breeches parts convention etc, in contrast to the excellence of mid 19th cent theatre - reade speaking as professional playwright here - which feels ahistorical in way that bugs me.
Berger, Hawks: Almost Human the astonishing tale of homo naledi and the discovery that changed our human story autobiog of protohuman fossil hunter and his finding new early hominid in s africa. 2 much about him not enough hominids




June:





Pollard: Edward iv the summer king peng english monarchs series.
Neale: The Elizabethan House of Commons finding this a bit heavy going but is good book and full of stuff about status and corruption. Wish paulC could read it, political hist was his thing.
Krauss illus Sendak: A Hole Is To Dig pretty much sendak's 1st illustrating gig, seen it mentioned various places, was generally upward of 20quid to buy 2ndhand. Assumed it was bigger, more gifty (?) Is size of a how-to pamphlet you get in box with new electronics. Drawings pleasant but not yet there - rosie was a big step up from this. Text a bit twee
Jamieson: All's Faire in Middle School gra novel for tweens. Not as good as roller girl. Stuff about friendship + conforming, felt a bit weirdly paced.



Still unfinished: knife man/tremontaine/eliz house commons.

Back at work as of 15th june



July:

finished house of commons!!! Gave up on tremontaine ("it's not you, book, it's me") will resume knife man.. sometime


Sharma: The Corner Shop shopkeepers the sharmas and the making of modern britain part family memoir of her parents immigration from india, work experience, experiences of racism in england from 60s to now, part account of open-all-hours local shops in 2nd half 20th century.am all up for the retail bit. Is written by journalist which often means an easy engaging read but a read that is resolutely shallow.
Sillars: The Illustrated Shakespeare 1709 - 1875 less pictorial than hoped, a lot aboout publication hist of massmarket shakespeare
Sherriff: Greengates v gentle empathetic warm and humane novel, v fortnight in september, by kingston chap rc sherriff. Because so low key, not really driven to continue picking it up though it reads well - taking ages to finish it. Class, stiff upper lip, englishness, ordinary people and ordinary experiences, written with compassion for all the characters (he wrote dialogue for brief encounter) persephone reprint
Weldon: Why Will No One Publish My Novel a how-to write that would carry more heft if i rated W as a novelist or person. Read it, do not own it.
Hall: Peter Hall's Diaries the story of a dramatic battle did not expect to feel so hostile to PH, read this nonconsecutively jumping backwards and forwards in book. Came away w little idea what he does in his job. a lot of name dropping.
McKinley: Nine Lives Newton picturebook, adorable
Marks: Nothing To Be Afraid Of short stories about fear, not all horror or ghost, aimed ya readership
Latham: The Bookseller's Tale proof of september title at work, writ by legendary Ws manager, datanuggets + musings about books and reading. Liking it more than expected, but author a prodigous namedropper
Hynter: Balancing Acts behind the scenes at the national theatre saw review which quibbled at his studious self deprecation. To me it read well coming straight off hall's diaries, liked his collaborative approach, + got clearer sense of what he did in job



August:

Still on illus shakespeare, still barely started knife man


Williams: Viking London overweeningly purple writing, novella length, 2 pages in, hate it for the author's english style this is going to oxfam
Scarisbrick: Tudor and Jacobean Jewellry largely pics
Nicholl: The Lodger shakespeare on silver street he gets a lot out of v scant documentation - it reads more like inferring less like daydreaming than williams did tho there's a bit of novelising
Gavin: Coram Boy prizewinning childrens histfic. Have been reccing it promiscuously for years. Might not have recced it so much if had read it - is very very dark, so much infanticide, so many ways the children are failed in this. V good, but distressing, read it slowly
Bowdler: Nurse Ada in Canada thought it would be bodley head career novel type thing, was in fact a 1965 mills n boon. Pretty terrible, idiot heroine, slappable hero.
Soloway: Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants autobiog feminist essays, amusing + mildly interesting, a lot about sex and social pressure
Davis: Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late Georgian and Regency England munden and liston feature, contemp responses to their pop culture. A lot about portraiture + contemp opinions on caricature. really enjoying
Hicks: The Bayeux Tapestry the life story of a masterpiece pop hist and so much fun. Brings out lots of things would have overlooked
Goss: British Tea and Coffee Cups 1745 - 1940 brief and pictorial, shire pamphlet
Gielgud: Shakespeare - hit or miss? interesting subject, insubstantial book. Got feeling he just vapoured into a tape recorder and a typist transcribed it. Wish his ghostwriter had asked followup questions
Duffy: Miniatures in the Wallace Collection catalogue w lots colour pictures and biogs of sitters
Schafer: Lilian Baylis a biography bit shamed. Lots stories about her, gossipy + funny, wanted to read more of that, but this is revisionary biog, reclaiming her as feminist + businesswoman. V good substantial biog where i wanted goss.





September:




Sykes: Kindred neanderthal life love death and art empathetic overview of current, 2020, understanding of neanderthal bodies and lives. Really good. Passages of Auel-ish daydreaming hist fiction, but even those bits seem mostly grounded in evidence - extrapolation rather than fantasy.
Herman: Legend of the Icelandic Yule Lads self published childrens book w horrible design choices + mediocre art. Bought 4 folktale interest- oxfammed
Coolidge: Just Sixteen short stories. what katy did author, thus am curious ETA: liked it but then i unironically enjoy mrs george de horne vaizey + this was that kind of gentle pap for nice sheltered girls who had to be both innocent and a moral shield. Very very soppy
Cockerill: Eleanor of Castille the shadow queen fairly good middlebrow biog, bit of understandable guesswork. Not getting a sense of EofC's personality + what i am getting, am disliking
Lister: Costumes of Everyday Life an illustrated history of working clothes from 900 to 1910 largely pictures tbh. I do like that she doesn't use contemp terms (which change across centuries for essentially same garment) so you can look at clothes without getting derailed by vocab
Dalrymple: The Anarchy the relentless rise of the east india company already feeling like he more pro empire than i + am not far into the introduction yet. ETA: mixed feelings. Clear narrative for ignoramous like self (am hopeless on history outside europe) by tying it to few major players who affected the power balance over decades - shah alam, clive, hastings, wellington's brother. But so much crammed into 400 pages that it felt like bullet points (battles) without connecting explanation
Brooks: Brothel in Pimlico collection jocular estate agents ads, london, 1970s. Stunned at prices
Nielsen: Nielsen's Fairy Illustrations in Full Colour dover art reproduction of lush coloured, flowing lined, pics
Brosh: Solutions and Other Problems cartoons about depression anxiety and life thrilled its long delayed publication has finally happened not least cos it means the authors funk has eased. If reccing brosh would rec hyperbole - this is product of dark times and not easy read.
Charles: Sugared Game 2nd of trilogy, mashup of buchan thrillers and m/m romance, thuggish bookseller + effete secret agent. Kj charles always worth a go



2 months in, + still nowhere close to finishing sillars book,



October:



Hile: Darcy By Any Other Name terrible terrible austen fanfic. Picture this - you've read freaky friday but wonder how austen would have handled the story. You read p+p but know a little bodyswop trope would take it from good to great. Author is evangelical. Neither darcy nor lizzie are recognisable. What is worse, entire carcrash read entirely avoidable. Knew this would be bad. UNFINISHED. THAT'S HOW PAINFUL THIS WAS
Ostrowski, Raffensperger (edit): Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe 900 - 1400 speculative biogs of historic figures w framework of facts fleshed out with extrapolation. Routledge published this so trusted it would not go too histfic. that said, it IS too histfic
Ayres: Two Hundred Years of English Naive Art 1700 - 1900 mostly got for pics not the text. also had ringfenced some cash to spend in ubu books
Stevenson: Worse Than Willy picturebook. qblake-like scratchiness so much expression forgot how much i liked him
Lodge (edit): Jane Austen : Emma a Casebook am sure i read some of these essays elsewhere
Tersigni: Men to Avoid in Art and Life heavily meme-y feminist humour, classic art and modern captions. V thetoast.com
Osman: The Thursday Murder Club at age 8, suspected there was something not-right about blyton's police reaction to child vigilantes. In related news this cosycrime is pensioner vigilantes, geared toward readership who enthusiasts of verybritishproblems.com Not my genre but engaging and i cried when one of the red herrings was eliminated.
Cartwright-Hignett: Lili at Aynhoe, victorian life in an english country house mix of amateur watercolours + diary entries of german lady married into provincial tory manor in early 19th cent. Edited by her greatsomething granddaughter. Pics charming, v mary ellen best, interiors not people
Bauer: An Illustrated Treasury of Swedish Folk and Fairy Tales coffee table selection aimed to showcase artist who specialised in watercolours of trolls, goofy + eldritch, shades of brown. Rackham generation.
Datlow, Windling(edit): Black Swan White Raven adult retellings of fairy tales. Some great some less so.
Lack: Conqueror's Son duke robert curthose thwarted king is eldest son william the c, who spent 30 yrs in prison. Lack wants to rehabilitate reputation after smear job (by henry i? Or by rufus?) when william i dying in normandy, will rufus scuttled acress channel + secured royal treasury, army + assortment of bishops via bribes, also primogeniture not set in stone then. Less interested by this than i wanted to be
Anderson: Spam Tomorrow memoir of home front, posh english, ww2. funny. Bought partly to support small press who reprinted it.





November:




Dade: Spoiler Alert romcom set in fandom of madeup tv show. a lot of stuff about fatshaming.
Rude: The Crowd in History 1730-1848 a study of popular disturbances in france and england been meaning to read this for years. Is great. Gives info i didn't think was recoverable from the records.
Barchas: Lost Books of Jane Austen lots illustations, coffeetable book about early massmarket editions of JA + what that says about her in reception studies terms. Ironic that the cover is so ugly
Truth: Ain't I A Woman? peng great ideas minibook. Transcribed speeches from sojourner truth etc about emancipation + womens lib.
Naismith: Citadel of the Saxons the rise of early london liking this a lot so far
Lorenzen, Jeppesen: Dances of Denmark mini book, pub 1950, got for design + folk costume reasons
Katsarova: Dances of Bulgaria same series
Hall: Boyfriend Material romcom. Some good funny lines but pov character irritating. A lot of 1 note chars in the ensemble. Feels like a richard curtis film on paper. Bought cos kj charles' blog loved the book and was friends with writer.
Macaulay: City a story of roman planning and construction picturebook about roman architecure/city planning
Garebian: Colours to the Chameleon canadian actors on shakespeare author is theatre critic who i wish had listened more to his interviwees and put less of his own notions in the book. they weren't bad notions but i didn't want his thoughts
Baines, Rogers: Edmund Curll, Bookseller v dry. theres bit in intro where they semi apologise that the 1927 curll bio is so much more fun (tho inaccurate and not as much access to biblio data: seriously, so much research in this) find self wishing had got the gossipy version at points but just saturated with reading, is 20th of monthas i type
Luthi: Sentimental Jewellry (shire album) mourning jewellry in chronological order
Macaulay: Mill another nonfic picturebook about industrial architecture


December:


back to work last monday of nov, entire xmas retail battle has to be crammed into 3 weeks. Chaos



Aiken: Morningquest one of her light adult gothics. Wanted something easy + amusing. restraining self from essay here - i call this sub-du maurier:rebecca genre 20th century gothic, publishers call it romantic suspense. Male lead looks like serial killer till late in book, or else IS serial killer and you find out 80% through. Heroine is mary sue. I like aiken's grownup books but they not capital L literature
Frith: A Werewolf Named Oliver James picturebook. Love werewolves, sweet story, not crazy about the art. Got cos bought too many picbooks for n's flatmate's xmas present so was exchanging the duplicate of don't let the pigeon drive the bus, which as a primaryschool teacher he wd know already (it is fab but too obvious)
Beresford: Diana in Television career novel for gels by inventor of wombles, pub 1963. Hackwork.
Straus: The Unspeakable Curll being some account of edmund curll bookseller to which is added a full list of his books this was cited a lot in last month's bk on curll so here i am. Pub 1927 i think
Stavridi: History of Costume 4BC -1500AD illus faith jacques which is why i bought it, which is good because the text is hilariously simplistic + judgemental - aimed child readership.
Cooper: Little Wolf lovelorn werewolf guff. Wanted something fluffy after most of month finishing sillars - which v good book lots enlightenment but writ for higher iq than i have. Actually hero of LW is tstl and the story is aggravating me so much i can barely turn the pages. Bad end to year. hurled aside unfinished
Mendlesohn: Creating Memory historical fiction and the english civil wars v acad v statisticsy analysis of childrens hist fic re roundheads vs cavaliers. Heard it was being written a year ago + preordered it. Wish more commentary and FMs opinion on books cited, is a lot about tendency to bias and shifts in presentation.
Birtwhistle, Conklin, Davies: Making of Jane Austen's Emma about bbc production starring beckinsale. Wasted lot of pages on AD's script, more interesting was the making-of bits about finding sites to film, organising what order to film final scene, designing costume that fit period + expressed character
Wiggin: A Cathedral Courtship thought it would be about KDW's recurring character penelope, is not. even more soppy than kate douglas wiggin normally is. to oxfam with it. Pics nice, by ce brock who i confuse w hugh thomson





finally finished sillars shakespeare bk which have been slowly progressing through since summer. furlough again from 19th

OMG

okay. still trying to best the to-read pile, still buying more new titles than ought, and right now in middle of about 5 books and dragging feet on all of them, they ought to tick my personal boxes but am in reading slump and the word of god itself could not get me gingered up. wasting a lot of time on AO3 fanfic

january:

  Lee: Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue  xmas gift from holly. hero is exasperating-yet-lovable bisexual aristo on his grand tour in 18th century. mix of hist fic and deliberate anachronistic language, representation of thwarted sister and coloured bestie. am still landing on exasperating with hero but later in book will prob like him more

 Lezard: the Nolympics one mans struggle against sporting hysteria   about london olympics so not topical but my detestation of organised sport will never waver

 Riddell: Hats of Norfolk pictures pamphlet, gift from neil, i adore riddell's art

 Zipes (edit): The Great Fairy Tale Tradition from straparola and basile to the brothers grimm  17th and 18th century written fairy stories, the soundbite of the book is that it's more of a crosspollinating written trad than an oral peasant thing. kind of gorged on this and only half through

 Marshall: Shakespeare in the Nineteenth Century  acad essays. enjoying v much but book too heavy to be portable

• Watson: The Language of Kindness   nurse's account of her working life, similar intended readership to This Is Going To Hurt but less funny and, not a diary, so more of a connected narrative read. author is novelist + interested in philosophy and history of medicine so that inflects it. moving. edging on sentimental

Cremens Van Der-Does: The Agony of Fashion     about changing ideas of ideal human body shape, as manipulated by various underwears. picked up in chazza shop, good illustrations but text 1950s-ish, v firm ideas about male = this and female motivated at all times to be alluring, oxfammed. hollander: seeing through clothes was better book on same topic

Evans: Old Baggage  funny novel about ex suffragette + gurrrl power in between wars hampstead. charming, easy read, with likeable chars.  was bored

so, terrible month for reading, didn't even finish language/kindness or old/baggage (both homeworky things for job) dragging feet enormously on the regency grand tour YA quiltbag thing which on the face of it ticks most of my personal boxes (hero supposed to be exasperating yet charming rogue, have only landed on exasperating so far) tired, changed workplaces to new branch, currently have ungodly flu. 

February: 

Palin: Erebus the story of a ship    v massmarket and I so fascinated with Franklin had read most of the facts already — Palin rather more sympathetic and respectful to F than other authors are. Got in jan sale

Squires (translator): My News For You irish poetry 600 — 1200    new versions of poems have mostly seen translated in O'Connor or Meyers versions — very good. 

Jordan + Walsh: The King's Revenge Charles ii and the greatest manhunt in british history what I remember is Richard's (v royalist) mum telling me the blueblood cavaliers were so saintly and forbearing that no such manhunt happened, this book comprehensively denies that. Good clear read, lucid despite following several personal timelines as lots of protagonists being hunted down and a lot of people changing sides under pressure.

Aiken: The Way To Write For Children highly opinionated and wittily written though some bits are reflect the decade she wrote this - i might dispute some of the bits about sheltering children by censoring topics - basically agree, but have my boundaries further out than she did

Prebble: Highland Clearances been meaning to read this since the 80s - big disappointment. the events told are sad and angry making enough; he does not need all the manipulative editorial asides, like he doesn't trust reader to identify correct baddies of story) and to be purple-prosing it up like the world's most bagpipe-wannabe violin is playing in background. also, repetitive. took a fortnight to read, sighing gustily every time i picked it up, like homework

Omrani: Caesar's Footprints journeys to roman gaul am interested in romano-gauls when empire crumbling. this is about arrival of rome in france

Grant: Come Hither Nurse 1950s memoir similar to, but less good than, monica dickens' one pair of feet. Bought £2.50 in chazza shop cos it had good dust jacket

Charles: Unfit To Print lovelorn pornographer and his sweetie, a social justice warrior hindu, fight crime in Victorian London underworld. wots not to like. kj Charles reliably quirky and charming, less bowled over by this than by prev 2 of hers I bought. novella

Simpson: Word Detective a life in words from serendipity to selfie biog but mostly about his career as editor of oxford eng dict, funnier than I expected, and v enjoyable

March:

Payton Evans: Animal Trials medievals taking animals to ecclesiastical court for various crimes, murder, destruction of crops etc. written early 20th century, tone of author unbearably arch

Cohen: Girl From Mars romance fluff by author i like, about geekery

Flanders: Howl of Wolves cosycrime series - this, the 4th, I had to import usa edition, is about grumpy publisher who stumbles into murders every week

Robb: Discovery of France nonfic by cycling and victor hugo enthusiast (both of which are brought up with surprising frequency) about how most French hist brits are taught is paris-centric and great-man-centric this is about unrecorded peasants and how the provinces thought of themselves as gascon, provencal, etc, not French

Fowler: Bryant & May Hall of Mirrors 1960s, about the time of withnail and I, not bowled over by this one, don't know why

Lockwood: Priestdaddy a memoir us poet. very funny 1st page, then put aside for other stuff till monthend.

Mui + Mui: Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth Century England big fat hardback, not portable, this will take ages to read for reasons of convenience. ETA: looked like a does-wot-sez-on-tin book, actually not about all shops, mostly groceries, not about all groceries, overwhelmingly about tea and tea distribution + smuggling and tilted cos of source documents toward end century/early 19th cent. superdry. v statistical

Fraser: Prairie Fires the American dreams of laura ingalls wilder so many feels on this one, been looking for cheap copy for while and pb in uk delayed publication, found in charingXrd. heard originally via ana mardoll blog where she typing incandescent sjw response, chapter by chapter. Rose is ghastly.

McMullan: Shakespeare in Ten Acts exhibition catalogue brit library. mix of diff authors, essays, some dull (the one about experimental multimedia hamlet) some disappointing (the one about vortigen which simplified some stuff in misleading ways) some meh to okay. Got it for the pictures

April:

Norwich: The Story of France from gaul to de gaulle gossipy and fun and anecdotal but poss as reaction to robb:discovery france which v "not great men" hyperaware that Norwich is all about kings

Velde: Hidden Magic fairy tale pastiche, kneejerk feminism that feel have read before, illus by trina schart hyman. nice but meh

Cott (edit): There's a Mystery There the primal vision of Maurice sendak found this, esp Jungian chapter, unutterable pretentious guff

Parkin: The Impossible Has Happened life and work of gene Roddenberry creator of star trek full of stuff I knew already, fairly balanced

Rioux: Meg Jo Beth Amy the story of little women and why it still matters not overwhelmed, wish more analysis and less lists-of-current-celebs-who-luv-LW

Kaufmann: Black Tudors little data so eked out by social hist about circs of the men and women she finds traces of - chap mostly about court musicians, chap mostly about ship mary rose, etc. glad book was written to ward off "nobody black before windrush" narrative but not enough info there to fill a book

Sebastian: Ruin of a Rake m/m regency romance - usually love cat sebastian but this one didn't work for me (my mood?)

Schaefer: I Am Mr Spock little golden book picturebook, gift from neil. worked amazing number of refs to canon st:tos in

Dixon: Breton Fairy Tales trans from French, told in individual voice

Loose:Duels and Duelling affairs of honour around the wandsworth area local hist pamphlet from public library. quite listy

Drake: Dinosaurs & Dirigibles a hero only ayn rand could love - time travel is discovered and used to send rich bastards to the Jurassic to gun down the extinct

Tomalin: A Life of My Own autobiog - I love her hist biographies. surprised by sadness of her personal life, reaffirmed how intelligent and hardworking she is. The namedropping is epic to a degree that wd be annoying if didn't like her. Fairly listy/bullet pointy rather than anecdotal esp as it comes up to the present day.

Oliphant: Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond late victorian novella about bigamy, non sensationalist, Oliphant on top form; dry, wry and balanced sympathies to all the characters

Preston Gannon: Dave's Cave seduced by art and wit of picture book about cromagnon moving house

Gillingham: William ii : penguin English monarchs series novella length biography lucid and interesting

Foulkes: Performing Shakespeare in the Age of Empire more London based than expected, covered a lot of familiar territory with the angle of shakes-as-anglosaxon-propaganda

Ziegler: George vi the dutiful king short but only mildly interested in him

 

May :



Hanley: Louis the French prince who invaded England time of john lackland, is a subplot in Shakespeare's king john so was curious. welltold massmarket medieval biog
Du Maurier: Mary Anne re: mary anne Clarke who was in regency scandal about bribes for promotion in brit army, ancestor of daphne du m. wanted to read for ages, not v gripped when finally got to it
Narvaez (edit): The Good People new fairylore essays anthropology-folklore mashup of academic essays, mostly about how much belief the tellers of these stories, interviewed and recorded by field workers, hold in the superstitions they tell. north atlantic, so Ireland and Scotland predominate, couple newfoundland essays
Grey: Traction Man Is Here gorg picturebook that made me smile
Layman: Outer Darkness vol 1 graphic novel by man who did CHEW. thought hero would turn out heart of gold under veneer of shithead, turns out no veneer. like the artwork, is bit firefly - cthulhu in space with lots gore. will pass to neil
Miller: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free bit homeworky about this, hist novel about broken soldier returning from peninsular war (shades of longbourne by baker) melancholy, beautifully written, but am reading cos told to by work
Coy: Looking After Daddy picturebook seen in fathersday display at foyles
Girling: Man Who Ate The Zoo frank buckland forgotten hero of natural history loved this so much, funny, anecdotal, likable-by-reader mad-victorian biog by man who really likes his subject, buckland had the mad chaos vector exuberance of steve Irwin and was obsessed by salmon - is fab book and will prob xmaspresent it to (redacted) not for vegans
Holland: Athelstan making of England penguin English monarchs series - this one is horribly purple-prose written and am hating the read
Price: Murder House (psycop 10) squeed when discovered book 10 already out
Trease: Mission to Marathon he's intermittently brill at 9-12 age fiction but this is too young for him. as is so condensed the expositionny bits v in your face. but, new-to-me trease so glad I found it.
Ribon: My boyfriend Is a Bear graphic novel with delish pics and sweet storyline
Bauer: Naughty Girls and Gay Male Romance/Porn slash fiction boyslove manga + other works by female cross voyeurs in the us academic discourse suspect guy is judging me for buying this title - is about aca-fan world, mostly recap of books had read, about fanfiction. some nice stuff about gender but so much Foucault who I take ages to parse then feel like is selfevident statement. much snide-ery about other academics. so meta : not a book about fanfic, which I expected, but about what other acads wrote about fanfic (Jenkins, Camille-bacon)
Darwin: Expression of the Emotions in Animals and Man not his best thing. enjoyed bit about nice dogs=wolf descent - nasty dogs=jackal descent, also he thinks habits acquired in course of life descend genetically, but like him so much as a man, his alertness patience and curiousity and warmth.
Brett: Deadly Habit Charles paris vol 20 cosy crime, sad entry because alcoholism but love series. bought for neil
North: William Shakespeare Punchs A Friggin Shark and/or Other Stories oh ryan north you one trick pony (his other shakespeare choose-own-adventures were great, but also tied in more precisely to specific plays)
Street: The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy austen fanfic, seen worse
Hill: Glooscap and His Magic v westernised + appropriative retelling of Canadian native amer legends, tidied up to fit western narrative tropes







June:




Joyce: Lumberjack Werebear paranorm romance bought purely cos ridiculous title. title was only good bit. deserved that disappointment
Burgis: Snowspelled the harwick spellbook v sorcery+cecelia territory, mashup of heyer comedy of manners wizardry and genderrole switch. fluffy but hit all my buttons
Lowney: A Vanished World muslims Christians and jews in medieval spain Jesuit author, significantly more upset by albigensians than by muslims or jews, okay. is v aware of themes of tolerance/multiculturalism/culture clash with a view to what today can learn from then.
Knightley: The Second Oldest Profession the spy as bureauocrat patriot fantasist and whore loving this one, bought cos enjoyed his hist of war reporters years ago. author is I think Australian broadsheet journo. his line is that spies in pursuit of job security create paranoia and international destabilisation; he wishes the big league MI5s and MI6s were disbanded. was side eyeing early part of book (starts about 1900) where seemed to be saying that English too jolly decent for all that duplicity and meanness - my irish childhood history lessons presented Dublin castle at least as unsleeping eye of mordor with regard to generations of failed revolutionaries, all taken down by moles and secret agents. He very rude about SOE
Vickers: The Quest for Queen Mary about the experience of pope-hennessy writing her official biography.
Hunter: Talent Is Not Enough mollie hunter on writing for children disappointing found her, anxious to say exactly what she meant, circling round a statement, repeating with more nuance, taking a paragraph to say something I got a page ago
McConnell Stott: What Blest Genius the jubilee that made Shakespeare massmarket description of Garrick's shindig at strat-on avon in 18th century
de Horne Vaizey: Tom And Some Other Girls a public school story fluff, and it is too hot and humid to cope with anything not-fluff







July:






Miller : L.E.L. the lost life and scandalous death of laetitia Elizabeth landon the celebrated female Byron she is interesting minor lit character, the book at its best when about writing world of London, 1820s, but author tending to present hypothesis as fact. rage at LEL's ghastly exploitative married lover
Ambler: Song of Simon de Montfort England's first revolutionary and the death of chivalry ian Mortimer level of brow, biog of medieval rebel, good read, real sense of personality (terrible anti semite, founder of parliament, lot of mixed feels)
Schwartz: Town Is By The Sea picbook about living in a mining town and knowing will be miner like granddad and dad. mostly greys browns blacks, lovely image of light on waves in one double spread
Love: Julian Is A Mermaid picbook power of transformation and imagination, lovely sense of warmth to story
Ryan: Buck Whaley Ireland's greatest adventurer
Porter (edit): Myths of the English multiauthor multisubject, mix in how well they landed with me, enjoyed the police as seen by public, the gilbert/Sullivan essay badly oversimplified vic theatre hist, the teachers as shown in kidlit was peculiar
Brown: Song of the Vikings snorri and the making of norse myths biog of original saga maker, v good read
Murray: Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) romancing the past coffee table book based on cork exhibition of Victorian artist - narrative and historical, gloriously cheesy Shakespeare illustrator, interesting text about his life
Watkins: Stephen reign of anarchy penguin eng monarchs mini books. finding these good or bad based on how I like the authors rather than the kings in question.
Yonge: Village Children edited and chosen by Gillian avery from the Langley tales cottage series for rural workingclass Victorian children. read a couple of them from other anthologies, less dull and condescending than I remembered her cottage stories being

August:






Yonge: Chateau de Melville or the young ladies written aged 15 (in French) as school exercise to raise funds for parish. not great read in itself but interesting to see where she started
Mortimer: Perfect King the life of Edward 111 father of the English nation feeling a bit grassy-knoll about his conspiracy theories re: ed2 not dying of poker, also we spend multiple chapters on brink of 100yrs war before finally toppling over into military action. his henry4 book was so good that I wanted to enjoy this as much
Rowell: Carry On ya fantasy
Charles: Proper English countryhouse-weekend murder, ff novella
Miles + Trewin: Curtain Calls anecdotes from theatre lovvies
Pollard: Fierce Bad Rabbits the tales behind children's picture books too much of this about the author not enough about the subject (felt like smacking her a lot, some really shallow thinking and she not as expert as she thinks she is)
Artmonsky: Showing Off 50 years of London store publicity and display
D'Arcens: Comic Medievalism laughing at the middle ages much dryer than was hoping for and much more about how we now find humour in medivalism when I wanted it to be about what the med sense of humour was - essentially reception studies about middle ages, a lot of don Quixote in chap 1
Dickson: Worlds Elsewhere journeys around Shakespeare's globe a lot of data and 5 years in diff contenents all searching for an overarching thesis. mildly irritating author voice, lot of things I didn't know (life of s African activist/translator) some I thought I knew (performance aboard ship of early hamlet)
Chant: Bearista paranorm romance about grizzley bear wereshifter who works coffee shop. Name of book excellent. story dull and full of idiots





September:

(didn't finish perfect king, about half through)



Lindahl et al: Medieval Folklore a gude to myths legends tales belief + customs done encyclopaedia style w articles by diff authors on diff icons or archetypes of med culture - expected bestiary type thing thus inclusion of nun article threw me
Browne: Hansel et Gretel this is the level of my French language reading - picture book level. got for pics. i find Anthony browne depressing and bleak
Polack: History and Fiction writers their research worlds and stories v dry acad study of how and how depth, hist novelists research, their relationship w academic historiography. about 20 interviews used and quoted
Sorosiak: I Cosmo childrens book told from dog point of view. cloyingly sentimental, read for work
Keane: Best of John B Keane collected humorous writings dated chauvinistic smug and grisly yet in 80s I thought him so funny - flann O'Brien did this kind of whimsy better and funnier in cruiskeen lawn
Renz: Sleep Tight Little Wolf / Dors Bien Petit Loup still researching bilingual French picbooks, this one had too dull a story although the educational web backup was exemplary
Ichikawa: Y A-t-il Des Ours En Afrique? gorge pics, story faintly condescending
Ramos: C'Est Moi Le Plus Beau adorableness in French
Braithwaite: My Sister The Serial Killer lit-thriller novella set in lagos, not a wasted word, full of emotion despite the matter of factness of narrator. passed my copy to iWilliam
Joseph: The Tragic Actor a study of tragic acting in England from burbage and alleyn to forbes-robinson and irving really good read. a lot about vocal quality of early actors and how they balanced naturalism with emphasising the key syllables for poetic content.
McGovern: Bloodlust and Bonnets graphic novel spoofing paranormal romance, set early 19th century, adorable mutual hate of Byron and walter scott an element I liked. fluff, hasty plot resoltion after lot of faffing round being winsome
Baring-Gould: Annotated Mother Goose good collection, interesting notes (the Opies got there 1st of course). written by husband/wife couple from Minnesota in 1940s, some wince making racism. (husband is grandchild of sabine baring gould, ooh
Charles: Magpie Lord m/m fantasy novel. loved other Charles books, this one is less than the sum of its tropes
Sebag Montefiore (edit): Written in History letters that changed the world anthology of letters, which I love, but selection not bowling me over
Hodge: The Steam and the Gaslight about development of overground trains in Victorian London and its suburbs, mix of punch cartoons and statistical tables and ranty op-ed pieces from 1880s newspapers




October:




Ramos : Maman! more French picturebook, counting theme
Ramos : C'est Moi Le Plus Fort ditto
Pope : Fish Into Wine the newfoundland plantation in the 17th century academic but enjoyable and engrossing. settlement details and trying to reconstruct power relations among planters, poor and outside investors. What I understood, was fascinated by.
Ortberg : The Merry Spinster tales of everyday horror liked but didn't love. some v creepy retellings of myth, a lot about power, guilt tripping and forced love
Lanyon : Mainly By Moonlight m/m, ought like it, is full of tropes I love. eta: after bored-by-hero start, warmed to this. however, is 1 in trilogy and not a self contained story in itself which is irritating
Happy Reader vol 9 lit quarterly with celeb bits - this one is lily cole+ treasure island. oxfammed.
Burke: Shooting The Darkness iconic images of the troubles and the stories of the photographers who took them based on rte documentary
Hatton: Queen of the Sea a history of Lisbon v disorganised - lots of info but hops about in time and space in the telling
Gonick: Cartoon History of the Universe books 1-7 bit flip and soundbitey about evolution - disappointed after was so blown away by his medieval Africa and india accounts in other book
Jamieson: Roller Girl preteen graphic novel about friendship and finding an identity - liked it lots
Brahms, Simon: No Nightingales lovely dustjacketed edition. making same kind of jokes as no bed for bacon, set in queen anne's london
Paynter: The Forgotten Sister mary bennet's pride and prejudice as p+p fanfic goes rather a good one - bit of out of character but Mary is interesting - as austen fanfics go one of the best I've read
Dening: Mr Bligh's Bad Language passion power and theatre on the bounty v historographical and theory based about perception (then and now) of what happened ~ gd v definite that history is a story we tell ourselves based on clues.
Cooke: Tres, tres fort picturebook with oxenbury illus, another French language childrens thing




reading v slowly and without understanding, unable to pay attention or think







November:



Trease: Laughter at the Door a continued autobiography his histfic that I read as child is part why I love history today - 3 of them unmissable books (crown of violet, red towers of Granada, cue for treason) bit disappointed by his biog of wartime experience sneering at Indians and working classes
Hicks: Me and My Missus fifty years on the stage horribly written full of bonhomie Edwardian stagestar memoirs. he prefaces lot anecdotes by telling how hilarious they will be and then they're not, take a moment to compress and crispen the story, is still not that funny. compulsive name dropper - jm barrie (hated author) irving (not impressed between lines) ellen terry (charming(of course)) clawed anecdotes about kean and garrick and Macready out of older stagers. pretends to be humble but is smuggo. also the kind of person who phoned the war office during great war when spotted suspiciously teutonic waiters, as mentioned in knightleys book about spycraft
Brenton: Play vol 2 would rather watch than read, hist plays
Creighton: The Elegant Canadians fairly terrible book written to commemorate centenary of Canadian federation. fluffy social fic about the elite. I adore social history but wish she had acknowledged not all Canadians described in this silver fork mix of fact and faction
Chaniotis: Age of Conquests the greek world from alexander to Hadrian v military. is confusing story power games in mediterranean of post-Alexander the great but confusion is my fault as writer being as clear as poss about a multi stranded story
Ritchie (edit): Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century acad essays. the last one (re: philosophy in s) nearly killed me but some great stuff about publishing in 18th cent and some about the lovely Ireland vortigern scandal
Chant: Bear In A Bookshop ridic paranorm romance about dyslexic werebear falling for nerdy bookseller, lot of librarian fetishizing, funnier as concept waste of reading time
Yu: Sorry Please Thank You reminded me of Vonnegut (who despite best efforts have been unable to get into) tremendously metafictional and ultimately tiresome collection of short stories.
Grant: Private Keep Out childrens, prob semi autobiog, about growing up poor up north just after ww2. what family from one end street was trying for.
Burgis: Thornbound regency fantasy with gender and politics and fae
Barley: Not a Hazardous Sport innocent anthropologist rides again - to Indonesia this time. DID NOT FINISH BY ENDMONTH
Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death hist crime set in henry 2, about the anti-Semitic blood libel, set in Cambridge where I used to live for a decade - heroine too modern in outlook but I adore Diana norman DID NOT FINISH BY ENDMONTH





December:



Norwich: Christmas Cracker 2000 pamphlet commonplace book
Best: Joker Face over 250 comedians share their best one liners photo of face, name, couple vital statistics. so many I don't know here
Uglow: Mr Lear a life of art and nonsense I adore uglow, she + tomalin my fave hist biographers, but lear's humour is bit tiresome for me. the stuff about art travel and Victorian networking was brill though and uglow can make the most unpromising subject riveting (she did a hist of gardening frex)
Brahms + Simon: Titania Has A Mother v kingdoms-of-elfin territory, horribly mimsy and twee with bit of mild racism and anti Semitism in case was in danger of enjoying it. weirdly, it uses the same comic techniques as no bed for bacon which is one of my fave comic novels but tudor outing was allwhite so this stuff didn't come up. really hating this
McLysaght + Breen: Oh My God What a Complete Aisling chicklit. v bridget jones diary territory about culchie in Dublin being sophis. a lot of irish-brandname dropping. kinda feelgood but deff a book to read once and pass to Oxfam. (thinking of passing to irishWilliam 1st, he might get a laugh out of it)
Peacock: Costume 1066 - 1990s pictorial timeline w annotations, wanted for ages then spotted in chazza shop for 2.50
Bew: Castlereagh the biography of a statesman really good read. really slow read as it needs you to pay attention. mostly knew him as architect of union in 1801, this also about his career in UK
Price: the ABCs of Spellcraft trashy m/m urban fantasy
Alcott: Eight Cousins utter schmaltz, am not in mood for this Victorian guff
Uglow: Henry Fielding writers & their work have read 2 w&theirw books before, short overview things. they were children's literature (nice but kinda soundbitey) and charlotte yonge (nice but kinda soundbitey) reading this because I would read jenny uglow's grocery list if I found it

wrote entry about January, lj would not accept unless used new draft template which did not want, lj then expunged page of typing when I hit POST.

fuck you livejournal.




in other news, reading v slowly v stupidly but impacting on pile of unread books on floor of room - hurray



January:


Vaizey: Flaming June teen fic from 1927. usually find mrs George de horne vaizey dead soothing but hated the heroine in this so not so much.
Guy: Thomas Beckett warrior priest rebel victim a 900 year old story retold massmarket history but when G tells you what people were thinking he gives grounds for what he says, tells you his sources and how he weighted diff contemp biographers differently on reliability grounds, what he is making educated guesses about.. it's great. G is beckett fanboy trying be balanced and his enthusiasm bleeds through. Henry 11 is entitled gaslighting bag of dicks and angrymaking - was so onboard w Guys take on this that indignant rage slowed my reading. fab book
Walsh: John Mitchel horrible whining sanctimonious biog by horrible whining sanctimonious man who hates the current (1930s) generation who don't deserve a free Ireland the way their noble gender essentialist grandparents did, the modern education is shite and why don't they all learn latin and greek, and everyone born after him (1880s) is terrible person of dubious moral spine. Mitchel, keen confederate ("blacks are more comfortable when they know their place and aren't unsettled by hopes of social rising") v v v conservative and kept trying to elope with schoolgirls in youth and did I mention the gender essentialist thing (chivalry, of the "stay on your pedestal and don't talk" type) Ugh all round.
Reid: Imprison'd Wranglers the rhetorical culture of the house of commons 1760 1800 academic but v enjoyable, lot of it about education of elite men in 18th century + importance of rhetoric in the culture.
Sittenfeld: Eligible modern version pride + prejudice, was adequate but feeling meh about it, it didn't add anything to the story
Grant + Link (edit): Monstrous Affections anthology of beastly tales love stories w monster protagonists for ya audiences, bought for the sarah rees brennan story, the bacogalupi was good too
Howard: Theatre of a City places of London comedy 1598 - 1642 super dry academic book re: how Jacobean and caroline plays represented London
Briggs: Silence Fallen urban fantasy about werecoyote, game of 2 halves, felt Adam's pov timeline was lot of hot air that went nowhere despite being presented as epic, Mercy's arc was good though. less romancey now that old married couple so moar urb fantasy and lower ration of lurve story: good
Lelyveld: Shylock on The Stage Jacobean bit largely guesswork, in depth from 18th century Macklin on, survey of presentation of S in diff generations with glances aside to status contemp real live jews, by rabbi's wife who professional actress then lecturer in college Midwest.
Byrne: Unbearable Saki the work of H H Munro looking at his work in terms of his life; byrne clearly loathes his loathsome sister ethel. enjoying, but was much less sensitive to the classism and anti Semitism when was adolescent fan (noticed it when teen, how could you not, but did not recoil as ought)
Sutherland: Victorian Novelists and Publishers bit dry 1970s survey of working trade of vic publishers, lot about decision making print run sizes, the politicking and power plays of Trollope reade and dickens interesting
Bingham: Henry Irving the greatest Victorian actor horribly written in purple prose but solid research if you can ignore author's voice





Febuary:



Foyster: Trials of the King of Hampshire madness secrecy and betrayal in Georgian england bought thinking this was about George iii, is about (prob autistic?) aristo, really good read about lot of horrible people and exploitation (bit depressing as people behave dreadfully throughout)
Fanthorpe: Berowne's Book early poems from her when still working as hospital receptionist, thus v medical preoccupation - tis good but she got better in her later collections, this is more flip less compassionate than her later poems imo
Sebastian: It Takes Two To Tumble regency romance m/m
Holt: Robin Hood how the legend developed, earliest written references, poss reallife sources, hist detective work
Moodie: Roughing It In The Bush 19th century account of emigration to Canada by (crashing snob) sister of agnes Strickland the historian - hating the narrator so far - UNFINISHED COULD NOT BEAR THE WOMAN
Brown: Shakespeare's Plays in Performance written 1960s, pov of director w academic interests, v firm and non negotiable ideas of How It Should Be Done
Kean: Disappearing Spoon and other true tales from the periodic table fluffy anecdotal but not easyread enough for me - enjoyed the gossip about famous scientists but atomic weight baffles me
Woods: Garrick Claims The Stage acting as social emblem in 18th century England wonderful read
Mortimer: Fears of Henry IV life of England's selfmade king he gets maximum value out of limited source data and is gripping and convincing about his conclusions, want to read his thing on henry V now and the Edward III too
Hawk: Hexbreaker urban fantasy about fin de siècle new York shapeshifters with chips on their shoulders foiling anarchists and rival police forces. fun tosh
Brooke: History of English Costume mostly pics and my (late) edition bit blurry.
Mangan: Book Worm a memoir of childhood reading so infectiously enthusiastic, made me want to go out and evangelise about all the good kidlit I know







March:




Briggs: Burn Bright werewolf series fantasy books, bit meh about this one after months of waiting. felt like a lot of running around for v little plot, and I spotted the hidden baddie (I NEVER spot the villain)
Fine: Delusions of Gender the real science behind sex differences been meaning to read this since 2 jacket designs ago - dry but worth it
Godfrey-Smith: Other Minds the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life
Johnston: Glass Slipper category romance based on grimm - cheesetastic cover
Shteir: The Steal a cultural history of shoplifting after working retail for 30 years, was impatient w shteir's sympathy for middle class shoplifters ("o they're expressing themselves in a cruel world")
O'Brian: Golden Ocean pre-Maturin ya-fic about Anson's voyage round the world, odd pacing and v stage oirishry. meh read
Korshin (edit) Darnton et al, (authors): Widening Circle essays on the circulation of literature in 18th century Europe 3 monographs on specific mass readership (darnton, who I got the book for, is doing preliminary swing at his later book forbidden bestsellers of pre revolutionary france. which I enjoyed but which, also, I already read) 2 other sections about journalism in provincial england and distribution of engl language titles in Germany. lots untranslated French and german
Bloodworth: Hired six months undercover in low wage Britain full of the bleeding obvious, a UK nickled and dimed
Bowyer : Celebrated Mrs Centlivre early 18th cent playwright, contemp and friends with Manley Delariviere, a lot of guesswork and gaps because lack recorded info. given challenges to author, pretty good book
Fowler : Bryant and May Wild Chamber read in a gulp, reliably a pleasure
Price : Agent Bayne psycop 9 love the series, invested in chars, so I like it but series is now relying rather on readers having read/planning to read rest of series. not great intro to series
Nielsen : Making Conversation from making light blog where seen much of this. includes slushkiller. great
Gonick: Cartoon History of the Universe II volumes 8 to 13 wonderful but maybe over condensed. am ignorant of china and india history, this sweeps majestically if confusingly through philosophy religion and back stabbing emperors.
Charles: Wanted A Gentleman m/m and v funny reminded me of mullany's het regencies
Roberts: A Sense of the World how a blind man became history's greatest traveller about the time of barrow's boys interesting man had never heard of








April :






Uglow: Little History of British Gardening which was great because uglow (has been on to-read pile for about 5 years, shame)
Sutherland: The Brontesaurus an a-z of charlotte Emily and anne bronte (and branwell) bitty and full of stuff I knew but Sutherland is always fun
Datlow (edit): Queen Victoria's Book of Spells an anthology of gaslamp fantasy anthol of steampunk comedy manners sh stories, full of usual suspects, good and my kind of thing a few years ago, not overwhelmed now but that is my tastes changing, book is fine. salvaged from enormous to-read pile, going to Oxfam
Purcell: Shakespeare in the Theatre Mark Rylance at the Globe 1st 10 yrs of new-globe when I wasn't going - interesting about where the radical differences lay and the tussle between museum and theatre as its identity.
Merrow: Lock Nut plumber's mate series book 5 gay psychic plumber in e Anglia solves homicides. fond of series, is v English and often funny
Rees: The Leveller Revolution radical political organisation in England 1640-1650 v readable so far; good, found world turned upside down impenetrably full of theology LATER: reading slowly v dense with info, keep rereading paragraphs
Taylor: Hoot Owl master of disguise enchanting picture flat about would-be menacing bird of the night and his failed hunting - must share w neil
Handeland: Shakespeare Undead from brief phase of zombie-fying all books; more shakes-in-luv the film than playwright shakes of history, bored me (but I don't care for zombies)
Odell: Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving vol 2 as relief from levellers to be honest
Hughes: Victorians Undone tales of the flesh in the age of decorum light micro history essays enjoyed reading
Green: Ask a Manager how to navigate clueless colleagues lunch stealing bosses and other tricky situations at work from website of agony aunt re: workplace etiquette (brill site!)
Craig: Bookworm a memoir of childhood reading a lot about 1950's Belfast and the public libraries she pays tribute to - defiantly low and middlebrow childhood tastes and she grew up a collector so lots about pristine condition which have never had luxury of letting self fuss about - v good about reading and being a reader
Turner: Dear Old Blighty home front during great war - ES Turner bit reactionary in politics so his comments about awful drunken irish and dreadful trade unionists not going over well with me but v anecdotal stuff - he was child at time
Medway: Sgt Chip Charlton and Mr Woofles pic book, partly in verse about idiot mountie and his faithful barfing dachshund. loved pics which look bit wood-cutty, stories meh. verse doggerel
Ephron: Heartburn not overwhelmed, poss because had heard much ephron fangirling from other people before opened book. might like her essays (oxfammed)
Grey: Pauline Becomes A Hairdresser 1950s career novel from bodley head series, supremely formulaic. the gender essentialism makes you grateful for pankhurst.






May:





Oliphant: Historical Sketches of the Reign of Queen Anne feels as if drudgery to write, dull to read and v sentimental.
Sebastian: Laurence Brown Affair m/m regency romance - fun conman hearts spectrum-y toff
Kay: This is Going To Hurt secret diaries of a junior doctor good loo book, best read in short bursts, each entry a mini-story, some enraged about conditions of work, some scabrous medical horror stories
Clarke: Brothers of the Quill oliver goldsmith in grub street more about grub st than OG; v much about literary life and expectations, bonus material about son of laetitia Pilkington who norma Clarke did previous biog on
Bronsky: Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine one for readers with mommy issues; funny and the narrator a monster of selfishness and bile. a glorious car crash of a story
White: Code Blue Emergency medical sf from james white who irish sf-er and lifelong pacifist therefore good egg. Cannot write female humans convincingly to save his life. this bit of deep space hospital has alien female pov so is one of the good episodes but couple weeks later and cannot remember a vestige of the plot already
Bayard: Fool's Errand was compared to armistead maupin. maupin should sue. bland meandering storyline with annoying hero sent to oxfam
Ainaud: Spanish Frescoes of the Romanesque Period mostly pics. wonderfully naive art amazing
Cook: We Followed Our Stars mills and boon writer who was devoted opera fangirl, she and her sister scrimped to go abroad for productions of verdi and were befriended by stars a bit. in 1930s were visiting austria and helped jewish woman who was music connection leave for blighty, which led to years of battling beurocracy and raising funds for refugees. 1939 was a slackening of tension for her except for grief for last batch in pipeline for whom too late. then worked airraid shelter in bermondsey. had heard of her before, m&b obvs v proud of her and she in their corporate history, this book interesting. more of it about opera than anticipated.
Gross: Shylock four hundred years in the life of a legend have essentially read this book before by another author. good, though
Winter: Boundless tracing land and dream in a new northwest passage bought for canadian interest. my god i hated the author, pseudopoetic narcissistic posturing special snowflake who rarely looked at world outside her when her interior life sooooo much more interesting. oxfammed with vengeance
Mortimer: Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain life in the age of samuel pepys isaac newton and the great fire of london thought too tiresomely whimsical to buy as set up when it published but have read couple brilliant mortimer books recently so took a punt. Is excellent.
Schama: The Face of Britain the nation through its portraits mostly fun for the gossipy bits about artists and models; also, schama recurringly talks about male artists' sexploitation of their models.
Sutherland: Rogue Publisher the prince of puffers the life and works of the publisher henry colburn presented a bit snippety in microbite length chapters but full of good stuff about victorian book trade
Laurens: And Then She Fell regency romance - too close to Victorian for me (1837?) and bored and skimreading a lot. Oxfam
Stuart: The Boy Through The Ages hist of childhood intended for children, writ 1940s, v deff ideas about boyishness and gender essentialism
Caudwell: The Sirens Sang of Murder overly arch romp about tax evasion lawyers solving murder in jersey
Forster: Rich Desserts and Captains Thin a family and their times 1831 - 1931 kept asking self, self, why is forster wasting her time on this topic?



June:



Anderson: Literature of the Anglo Saxons 1950s book, v overviewwy which i wanted, lots of subjective assessments of interestingness/importance which is fine, wish author had been less nationalism-essentialist, he talks about the Celtic character (which is sly and unreliable) the anglo saxon, dead manly, the german, etc. Hate this. Also when anglosaxons conquer romano britains amid mass slaughter is good thing and manly; when vikings to same later to A-S, is brutal and tragic.
Thirkell: Before Lunch all the usual thirkell tropes but strangely meh effect. think i failed to like or care about the characters
Mortimer: 1415 Henry V's Year of Glory organised like diary of the year, following records day by day. Mortimer frankly dislikes henry v.
Smith: Voyage of the Dolphin attempt to do 3 Men in Boat with irishmen and the arctic not thames. is okay but will not stick with me, forget why bought it
Mearns: Shipwreck Hunter a lifetime of extraordinary deepsea discoveries way more testosteroney than my usual - reminded me of autobiog of chuck yaeger with its slight chestbeating and was v business biog with danger in it (cussler rec on cover) Thought this was underwater archaeology but mostly 20th century sinkings and military - I wanted a diff book than he was writing
Ford: Murder and Mayhem m/m romance with bit crime, light, enjoyed, not special
Crowston: Fabricating Women the seamstresses of old regime france 1675 - 1791 really good find from char x road basement, slow read cos was flaky reader in heatwave. all about status of women workers and law cases, feud between their guild and male tailors, life cycle of the job, how they lived lots of info
Thomas: An Underworld at War spivs deserters racketeers and civilians in the 2nd world war not as fun as his "Victorian underworld". author bit of a law and order man by instinct. the crims strangely innocent and not as violent as expected. v repetitive book
Dolan: Steven Seagull Action Hero picture book full of puns and jokes about a special kind of bad Hollywood movie - laughed and laughed
Loizou: Disbanded Kingdom gay coming of age novel by ex colleague. wonderful writer. 2 characters in the book (protagonist a bit detached from human emotion - depressed?) one of them the hero(?) who I was exasperated by as being gormless and inchoate the other was city of london which Polis captures brilliantly in the nuance + flavour of the diff districts. some moments where the phrasing stopped me in my tracks


BARELY STARTED FABRICATING WOMEN




July:


heatwave. no ability to follow an argument, read masses of fanfic on ao3


Chant: Master Shark's Mate cracktastic paranorm romance about shifters want to pass to min
Crowston: Fabricating Women continued and finished - very good
O'Sullivan: Folktales of Ireland an actually good one, have seen so many schmaltzy oirishry in this celtic folktale genre
Yonge: The Disturbing Element, or, chronicles of the blue-bell society late novella, not one of her best. poss drawing on her real life gosling society of protégées - also, the good and clever invalid spinster who is role model for rambunctious young girls reminded me of ermine in clever woman in family from diff perspective
Wilkinson (edit): Cultural History of Childhood and Family in the Middle Ages acad essays, largely synthesis of books had read in my 20s and 30s, laid out in sensible but uninspiring way. really about Christian west w glancing refs to islam and Judaism.
Pappagianni and Morse: The Neanderthals Rediscovered how modern science is rewriting their story overviewy for the ignorant which is what I wanted from this
Charles: Henchmen of Zenda v funny + v gayed-up and slightly meta rewrite of prisoner of z
Thomas: The Liar's Quartet bravo Figaro cuckooed the red shed playscripts by activist standup
Byrne: the Genius of Jane Austen update on theatre of jane austen which came out from aca press years ago and I kept eyeing it but too expensive. unimpressed by the theatre hist side of this which was oversimplified but some really good stuff about parallel characters in s+s





August:





Brenton: The Romans In Britain scandal play which had heard about, disappointingly less scandalous or indeed interesting than expected
Schonwerth :Turnip Princess and other newly discovered folktales not grimm but similar time of collection and also Germany. less homogenised than grimm
Hayden: Making Book essays from web about fandom editing and sff
Laurenston: Big Bad Beast porny paranormal romance with laboured banter - disliked heroine
Davis: Dead Writers in Rehab gift fr Louise last xmas. kinda meta novel, great idea not esp well executed
Lanyon: In Other Words Murder bk 4 of holmes/moriarity gay crime. v light but I v fond of protagonist, the fic hero most likely to say whippersnapper in conversation AND MEAN IT
Yonge: Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History retold for little ones v little arthurs hist of Britain - massively imperial, illustrated
Greenwich Royal Observatory: Astronomy Photographer of the Year vol 4 coffee table picture book
Shippey: Laughing Shall I Die lives and deaths of the great Vikings shippey pulled out what he felt were the best bits (aka sex n violence) from Icelandic sagas and other norse sources to get at the Viking mindset which he feels modern academics tend to soften the hard edges of
Singer: Trump and Me new Yorker journalism depth interviews of trump before potus short term funny if long term depressing
Waller: 1700 scenes from London life bit meh but it does what it says on the tin. similar to the picard London series
Ashton: One Hot Summer dickens Darwin Disraeli and the great stink of 1858



September:



Welch: Road to Waterloo ms found after author's death, published by slightly foxed. thought would be independent story when pre-advertised, is part of the carey family series, good, bit short, glad I got it
Willes: Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn really a general hist of London life in late 17th cent, hung on the hook of the diarists' friendship. recommendable
Ayers: Bear's Flamingo Bride shifter tosh romance which lacked even it-came-from-the-id fun
Vaizey de horne: Fortunes of the Farrells was generic mrs George de horne vaizey girlsown story, mild romance, mild Christianity, early 20th cent
Beaton aka Chesney: Sir Phillip's Folly regency romance, relaxing, sent to oxfam
tete-Michel: an African in Greenland compelling travel writing, translated by poet, written by man of charm, fascinating journey from childhood in togo to hitchhiking to arctic. best book this month so far UNFINISHED DAMMIT eta: STILL READING IN EARLY NOVEMBER
Rodgers: Irish Literary Portraits wb yeats james joyce george moore jm synge george bernard shaw oliver st john gogarty fr higgins ae transcribed from bbc radio - oral history where rodgers interviewed people who knew,were friends with/hated, were related, any strong connection, with figures of irish lit renaissance. some quality bitching, some vivid glimpses, glad i randomly heard of this and hunted it down
Bennett: Richard ii and the revolution of 1399 good counterbalance to mortimer book on henry iv. bit dry, bit overviewy but less invested in personalities (richard still emerges as ghastly and terrifyingly corrupt)
Tait: Seven Thousand Years of Jewellery picturebook brit museum press. Tries to cover all the continents and entire span of humanity. just here for the pictures really
Bythell: Diary of a Bookseller should have read in short bursts not from end to end. Odd read as I agree with almost everything but came away not liking his attitude in some ways. God only knows how his business stays viable. No real surprises, close to own experience of book trade





October:




Priestley: Sel Essays old penguin pb that disintegrated in reading, edited by Susan Cooper(!) v smooth easy read, a lot forgettable bits, came away liking him
Sebastien: A Gentleman Never Keeps Score regency romance which bored me. thought would read fast as like her other books
North: How To Invent Everything history of technology framed by concept of time travelling with reader set up to recreate all the good bits. Fun but not uproarious contrary to dustjacket claims. Prob will xmasgift this
Hill: Tale of Two Vikings I like the idea of her books more than the execution - the banter is a bit like Laurenston (thus funnier to author than it is to me) and now I look at my reading list, realise I read too much romance in a row, no wonder am bilious.
Kneale: Rome a history in 7 sackings repetitive - he did a lot of research and has lived there years and clearly loves the place, but the structure of each chapter was the same with too much sacking and not enough soc.hist. and an editor should have talked to him at early stage of manuscript. gave up before even got out of medieval
Wilkinson: Charity Shopping and the Thrift Lifestyle v listy, would be interesting to read a more narrative book on this. 8 years out of date, got in clearance sale
Brophy: The Face in Western Art furiously opinionated autodidact, great fun to read even when disagreed with his judgements
MacQueen-Pope: Haymarket Theatre of Perfection full of stuff I wanted to know filtered through the voice of an author I learned to loathe v sentimental about the past but mostly that meant being soppy about beautiful women in brocade. Read slowly on account of Marxist begrudgery
St Clair: Secret Lives of Colour collection articles from fashion mags about specific tints, done with smatterings of hist and geography and science. anecdotal, amazing loo read, better than expected.





November:





Caldwell: The Three Colonels sequel to P+P and S+S. male emphasis (set at waterloo) and tries make sympathetic Caroline Bingley and Mary Bennet. bored by this, very. why do I get these; always kinda bad. as ever, lizzie bennet unrecognisable (and largely offstage) and too much romance, too little social warfare
Perry: A Bohemian Brigade the civil war correspondants mostly rough sometimes ready US civil war was the most fun chapter in Knightley's 1st casualty about war correspondants so was up for this, written by lifelong journalist so he sympathetic to their priorities, would be great read if were into USA civil war, as it was I lost track of people and places at times. Good read regardless
Thewissen: The Walking Whales from land to water in 8 million years bit dry where he on about why fossil bone of ear proves whale species despite presence hoof residue, pics of dolphin foetuses etc, but interspersed with autobiog bits about sequence of digs in Pakistan and awkwardness of proximity to warzone being obstacle to business of digging up shale. Always wanted to know more about evolution of whales and this is non-academic answer to my wishes.
Nixey: The Darkening Age Christian destruction of the classical world not as iconoclastic and revolutionary a thesis as author clearly thought it was: the monks of the middle ages preserved some of the lit+hist of ancient rome and greece but censored lots too - about 10% survived. Had tone issues with the writer which shouldn't affect how true the book is but made it uphill read. oxfammed
Mitchnik: Egyptian and Sudanese Folk Tales very does what says on tin book, pleasant read, nice woodcut type illus
Hartnell: Medieval Bodies sumptuously illustrated, based on Wellcome exhibition I think, about how medieval (vast region, several centuries) related to their bodies. some medical hist, lot about academic notions, lovely. ghoulish too
Afanas'ev: Russian Fairy Tales 19th century Russian equiv of bros grimm. depressing amount casual domestic violence - some familiars stories slavified, some new to me
Darcy: Georgina mediocre regency romance set in poorly researched Ireland
Butts/Hunt: How Did Long John Silver Lose His Leg + 26 other mysteries of childrens' literature essays in vein of john sutherlands vicfic explorations, mixed bag.




December:


(still reading 3 colonels, less than compelling)




Brusatte: Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs the untold story of a lost world all up for hearing about dinosaurs, less so about hearing about Brusette and his ego and how cool all his friends were, v anxious he not be taken for a nerd which, why? the readership for this book the last to frown at that. seething with rage at author (showing off, sexism, bad prose style) never makes for good read, also he hinted at dino stuff without explaining. saving some inner loathing for whoever edited him
Joseph: Julius Caesar and Me exploring Shakespeare's African play loved the dvd of production, thrilled to find actor-book about the making of - fascinating and moving. note: promised to loan welshMark copy of dvd, is shouty but brilliant and cassius is dazzling
Gough: Rabbit and Bear Rabbit's Bad Habits childrens book, funny and sweet
Kelly: Beau Brummell the ultimate dandy immersive book about the time, not just for fashion readers. BB so entitled and selfpitying that when he bankrupted, was mostly sorry for the tailors he ruined in his fall. Great read.
Dromgoole: Hamlet Globe to Globe taking Shakespeare to every country in the world account of a 2 year tour by globe of H - discursive, patchy, interesting, random. Some really fun insights into scenes and characters, some lovvieness, enjoyed.
Sims: Story of Charlottte's Web eb white and the birth of a children's classic hatereading this, amazing the author of elements of style is lumbered with biographer so prolix flowery and clichéd and generally nails on blackboard. Will prob abandon (ebw has only just been hired by new yorker) OXFAM
Moss: Paperback Crush the totally radical history of '80s and '90s teen fiction too listy, not enough about contents of books, disappointing execution of interesting subject. V USA selection of titles.
Zipes: Great Fairy Tale Tradition from strapola and basile to the brothers grimm literary (as opposed to oral) folktales that were published before grimm.
O'Brien: How To Be Right in a world gone wrong based on a call-in radio show (lbc) where pugnacious leftie chat host takes on brexit enthusiasts and people who've been fed shit by tabloids. comes across bit smug in places but can argue his corner where I give up in despair - my politics far too gut and not enough brain
Foreman: A Life in Pictures sketchbook autobiog of children's illustrator

new year, new place of work fr 30/01

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