Books read in 2025
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
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