grumpy bookseller goes psycho

Books read in 2026

2026-01-05T23:06:33Z

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

Books read in 2025

2025-01-17T16:18:44Z

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

Books read in 2024

2024-01-01T21:41:40Z

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

Books read in 2023

2023-01-12T00:30:41Z

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

Books read in 2022

2022-01-01T23:35:29Z

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

Books Read in 2021

2021-01-01T13:28:35Z

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.

new books reading list 2020

2020-01-01T14:14:04Z

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

new books reading list 2019

2019-01-13T11:13:39Z

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

reading list 2018

2018-01-12T17:29:42Z

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

list books read 2017

2017-01-18T11:08:07Z

new year, new place of work fr 30/01

January:

Jackson: Engines of Instruction Mischief and Magic childrens literature in England from its beginning to 1839 good but few surprises, apart from disagreeing with some opinions of author
Kaplan (edit): Persuasions vol 26 aca-fan austen journal, this issue about persuasion
Wagner: Thomas Coram Gent 1668 -1751 biog man who founded foundling hospital. came fr lyme regis so connection w prev read!
Shapiro: Contested Will who wrote Shakespeare not about alternate candidates, about why the uncertainty and doubt came about. v readable - harsher about Malone than expected
Sutherland: Last Drink to L.A. v short bio and reflection on alcoholism. not sympathetic as dad drank and sutherland admits horrible behaviour under influence.
Hutchins (edit), Caldecott (illus): Yours Pictorially illustrated letters of Randolph Caldecott
Ellis: Take Courage anne bronte and the art of life disappointing, too much ellis not enough anne
Elletson: Maryannery mary ann Lincoln and mary ann Disraeli joint biog, writ 1950s perhaps (judging on tone and attitude to performed femininity) horribly saccharine
Brenton:Anne Boleyn playscript, hist, funny, lots religion and scheming. Saw at Globe, loved it
Welch: Mohawk Valley henty-ish hist fic, v racist about native americans, set at Wolfe battle of quebec. part of series i just completed collecting
Tanner: Raven King matthias corvinus and the fate of his lost library renaissence hungary and books and biog - v not at home w e europe history so hard work
Welch: Ensign Carey a desexed flashman - part of carey family chronicles series, morally ambiguous hero (unprecedented for welch who schoolteacher and usually painfully cleancut characterless protagonists) who in india on the make

Febuary:

Sebag Montefiore: The Romanovs UNFINISHED reading in spirit of homework, is BOTM at work. all dwarf tossing, orgies, coups, booze. material is news of the world, writing style lucid, just not huge on russia. eta: and mum died 23/01 and my ability to follow a book totally fuckedup and i hate every thing i read so there's that. mostly, problem with book is too much history crammed into single paperback, resulting in blur of centuries and all the reigns sounding the same. gave up near end of catherine the great
Thirkell: The Brandons comfort reading just right ratio of distraction to soothing
Tharoor: Inglorious Empire what the british did to india rant with supporting data on how uk gained and india's resources were plundered, by indian mp. spent a lot of time settling scores with rival political party. absolutely convincing case made and a lot of colonial points parallel to ireland's experience
Blake: Smoky Mountain Dreams bought cos fanfic writer (which one? i forget) m/m romance about country and western singer which i don't care about c+w at all, plus issue of right to euthanasia vs conservative xtian which got more nuanced handling than expected from this book
Taylor: Just One Damned Thing After Another as if connie willis' historian field anthropologist was done as a wacky sitcom without the trauma. this was somehow less than the sum of its parts, full of tropes i love but didn't care about here (terribly unreceptive so am tough audience now) start of series i won't continue unless i have flu
Retford (edit): The Art Of Domestic Life family portraiture in 18th century england something with lots illustrations and lots stuff about status and power dynamics and gender in the aristo home
Trease: Thunder of Valmy midrange trease, does his usual reliable job and reads effortlessly i hunted down trease books to read as a child and prob all the good histfic writers in puffin in 70s are why i love history now. this one about french revolution which an over ploughed field so less excited than i wanted to be.
Lanyon: So This Is Christmas sort of an epilogue to the adrian english crime m/m series, did not feel like an entire book and cannot recall a thing about plot but no way was i not reading this, the series overall is good.

March:

Philip: Firebrand fantasy novel with sidhe, gritty hovels, persecutions and sword fights. should have read in a day, but took a week and bored all the time. my mood to blame but won't read 2 + 3 of series.
Styles & Vickery (edit) Gender Taste and Material Culture in britain and north america 1700 - 1830 found secondhand and love Vickary(gentleman's daughter) so much even n remembered her name and taped a documentary she did on early 19th century courtships (the doc was horribly soundbitey, like the hist-doc parodied on season 1 of absolute power sitcom) multiple authors, coll essays, lots pics cos published by yale
Norman: Terrible Beauty life of constance markievicz 1868-1927 got because Diana Norman have prev read other bio of countess m. norman in full fangirl mode, endearing feminist case for the defence
Stamper : Word By Word the secret life of dictionaries read much of this in her blog, enjoyed lots, gave to n as part his bday present. she works for merriam webster dictionary in usa and talks about how dictionaries are made, what decisions need to happen what factors matter etc. thumbs up
Meier (edit): Daughters of Karl Marx coll letters mostly translated fr french. horribly sad lives, letters not writ remotely for publication so lot of enquiries after housecats and daily nonsense
Foy: Michael Collins' Intelligence War the struggle between the british and the ira 1919-1921 some v journalistic stylings where he introduced irrelevant colourful detail in a sentence about something unrelated, eg, x whose wife was hysterical was chosen to be in charge of y department. he tells it like the british police spy dept and the british army spy dept hated each other more and more sincerely than either hated ira and had little energy left for irish.. exaggeration
Ray: Blyton Phenomenon librarians take on b success story, written in 1980s. think i read this from pub library in cambridge in 90s
design museum: Fifty Hats That Changed The World stupid title, got remaindered. picturebook w minimal text. wish could distinguish accurately between boyhats trilby fedora porkpie
Heilbrun: Figures and Portraits mini book of vintage photographs fr musee dorsay
Quayle, illus Foreman: The Magic Ointment and other cornish legends childrens folktales, good variant of rumplestiltskin
Deutscher: Through The Language Glass why the world looks different in other languages actually after MUCH back and forth (too much devils advocate) he says it mostly looks the same. i feel bait&switched by organisation of his book
Whitaker (edit): Notes and Queries vol 2 good loo book, would william like?

April:

Goldhill: A Very Queer Family Indeed sex religion and the bensons in victorian britain v dry acad, despite coat trailing title mostly about diff between how they perceived and how they wroteup their lives, a lot about shifts in religous culture
Rhodes: Soul Mate for Sale werewolf m/m novella. love werewolves but waste of money
Smallwood: A Childhood at Green Hedges fragment of autobiography by enid blyton's daughter meant to read this when published, was then reading lot kid-lit-crit, found this in char x rd, with signature of author, dedicated to mary cadogan (who used to write reviews of child books in sundays) used to collect cadogan's books about sub literary genres, grabbed
Willis: Light Raid fun, v light (see wot i did there) ya scifi
Burden: Staging History 1780 - 1840 lots pics, based on exhibit in brit library, contributors variable
West: Shrill notes from a loud woman anti-fat-shaming from jezebel journalist, lots personal anecdotage, i liked her voice
Bronte: Agnes Grey there was girls-comic picture strip of this when teen, so had never read full text. must say, glad didn't, would have hated protagonist then. she is solid nine on the fanny price scale of judgey sanctimonious, am choosing to believe is unreliable narrator and anne bronte was side eyeing her too.
Block: Burglar Who Studied Spinoza cosy crime about larcenous bookseller, found v cheap. fond of series but not sure which have read in it
Bernobich: Time Roads timetravel steampunk fantasy with v handwavy science, posits 19th century dominated by irish empire and the anglosaxons are the terrorists muttering in alleyways. ought have loved, felt it never really came together. writ by irish american woman
Loyd: Another Bloody Love Letter memoir of war journalism in 1st iraq war, author smug and testosterony. as with skyfaring earlier this year, nothing is more poetic than prose selfconsciously trying to sound poetic - horribly pretentious UNFINISHED, went to oxfam
Dyer: Rediscovering Nancy Drew v librarian-led book based on papers from con in iowa about NDrew. many of same arguments as blyton phenomenon - censorship of lowbrow? vs nursing inadequate budget? vs consumer demand?
Maxtone-Graham: Terms & Conditions life in girls boarding schools 1939 -1979 same topic as marshall's giggling in the shrubbery but more editorial in between the vox pops. dithering over whether to get for months then saw judith kerr was in it, that clinched me. riveting.
Curry: Shakespeare on Stage vol 2 twelve leading actors on twelve key roles lovely, articulate, illuminating, made me want see plays
Ellis: Ireland in the Age of the Tudors 1447 - 1603 english expansion and the end of gaelic rule unreadably dry. I "did" tudor ireland in primary school as hist done chronologically (why am most confident on victorian ireland) so v sound-bitey in my head on pre 18th century. this book not about ireland in tudor times. is about the english tudors in the half of ireland that was the pale, and mostly about, within that area, taxation strategies. is like mogadon onna page. will prob give up on it and find something else to fill in my vagueness on tudor ireland

May:

Haag: The Durrells of Corfu the dark side of my family and other animals, a tellall. finding author v pro-empire in dogwhistle ways
Curry: Shakespeare on Stage thirteen actors on thirteen leading roles
Asleson: Notorious Muse the actress in british art and culture 1776 - 1812 big expensive yale book w illustrations, multiauthor, does not name her on cover but the actress recurring throughout book is mrs siddons. a lot of art history which did not get book for but nice to get
Amy: Jane Austen Files a complete anthology of letters and family recollections much of which had seen elsewhere
Reiss: The Black Count glory revolution betrayal and the real count of monte cristo biog of alex dumas grandpere, by ardent enthusiast, bit too much reiss at expense of dumas but what a story. keeps stopping to say; dumas novelist ripped off this incident in such and such book, which would thrill more if were fan of musketeers, will pass to krystal
Wells (edit): Shakespeare Survey 35 shakespeare in the nineteenth century
Mander: Hamlet Through the Ages a pictorial record from 1709 mostly victorian and early 20th. gloriously nerdy intro. same scene, same body language/poses repeat across generations
Tarr: Forgotten Suns fun space opera w archaeology, bronze age heros in stasis, multiple povs, non eurocentric future humans, author must've enjoyed writing, it has zest. will pass to Krystal, was amusing jenna by saying in tearoom things like "the freedom fighting opera singer has returned" "this is the 2nd historic monument heroine has blown up; I do not think she is natural archaeologist"
Cohen: Falling fluff-fic on marion keyes type. similar qualities of warmth + ensemble. UNFINISHED when romance element intensified. copy i have is proof, has diff title, summer of second chances. sent to oxfam

June:

Silkin (edit): Poetry of the Committed Individual 20th cent leftie poetry anthol
Leavis (edit): Scrutiny selections vol 1
Leavis (edit): Scrutiny selections vol 2 got for the queenie leavis article on yonge which had seen mentioned but not read, enjoyed a series of essays trying to reconstruct austen's methods of constructing plot
Flood: Style and Satire fashion in print 1777 - 1927 mostly 18th cent and regency or at least the best bits were. think was catalogue of exhib
Allen: Samuel Phelps and the Sadlers Wells Theatre
Orr: New Testament Apocryphal Writings because have seen some of these as oil paintings without knowing story. fanfic about jesus basically
Fowler: Bryant and May Strange Tide
Moore: Wedlock how georgian britain's worst husband met his match not enjoying not know why. moore is good, the 18th cent background is wonderful, think am depressed by how cruel the villain is and how its true
Caldecott: Rotherweird kinda gormenghast-ish fantasy gothic, set in english village/town, steampunk elements, characters had those comedy-victorian names i associate with dickens, did not work for me but distinctive book
O'Malley: On Another Man's Wound biog IRA trainer from 1920s, his childhood and war of independance experience. was told "written with the eye of a poet" this is a bug not a feature. disliked him and his politics so was not a sympathetic reader
Grunewald (edit): Women's Letters america from the revolutionary war to the present present= early 21st cent. mostly chosen with eye to historic representation rather than prose style, enjoyed but don't know enough US hist. lots about early feminism, slavery, pioneer and exploration, being a wife, education
Lux: Omega's Bodyguard m/m novella writ by BNF
Asaro: Diamond Star dramatically shit space opera (don't know why got except cover was awesomely cheesy; hated the one thing had read by her before) about future rockstar and his manpain

July:

Baker (edit): Medieval Women collection essays in honour of med-historian being 70.
Gailey: River of Teeth alt-history america with feral hippos
Hopper: Mothers Mystics and Merrymakers, medieval women pilgrims gift fr N, as so often w sutton publishers, topic great and accuracy unconvincing
Lackey: Firebird as w robin mckinley, finding the marysue of her protagonists impossible to endure for booklength. russian myth into novel. loathed hero who sexist pig
Sparks: How To Marry A Millionaire Vampire gloriously trope-tastic. all about twoo wuv of blood phobic dentist and her roumanian CEO vampire who is ex-monk and extra broody. On publication, told min&andrea about this; they always cited this as my most ridic book i ever told them about. Never bought (after all, pregnesia, which I told min about, turned out boring she said) until found out recently that Mill-Vamp also had greek chorus of highlander henchmen who all said "Hoots mon" at start sentence even though they'd been vamped at culloden and never seen anything scottish, not even a tin of shortbread, since. It was everything I could have hoped. Will pass to min or andrea. (jenna did dramatic reading at work in kingston)
Arngrim: Confessions of a Prairie Bitch how i survived nellie olsen and learned to love being hated tv celeb memoir (little house on prairie), enjoyable, liked arngrim a lot after it
Carrington: The Debutante and Other Stories magic realism. that novel about leonora carrington has hit hard on my sympathy for her. read like a series of madlibs with random (noun) inserted for the wacky. yet felt this all v significant imagery for her personally - like listening reluctantly at breakfast to somebody else's dream
Riddell: Travels with My Sketchbook mostly pictures, childrens laureate illustrator, beautiful
Hattie: Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth picturebook, v wordy w random trivia tucked into flaps
Smith: There Is a Tribe of Kids picturebook, gorgeous in its simplicity.
Jones: The Smile Revolution in eighteenth century paris more of this about dentistry techniques of the time, which did not expect, than art (portraits) history, which did expect. glad i read it.
Jones: Shakespeare from the Greenroom, actors criticisms of four major tragedies the section on othello was angrymaking but of course it was - they used commentaries from 18th century through the victorian era with smattering of 20th cent voices. also lear, hamlet, macbeth.
Dundes: The Walled-up Wife a casebook not folktale but folk ballad apparently universal in balkans + greece, with precursor ballad from sub continent. many crit essays making same points, the later ones, not about ethnicity of ballad but meaning of it, more interesting
Arnott: African Myths and Legends invigoratingly amoral, the good guy sometimes thrives or sometimes gets it in the neck. one of the better from oxford myths&legends series

August:

Jones: Helena Faucit fire and ice on the victorian stage same author as shakespeare/greenroom, this a coincidence. wanted to read faucit biog after phelps bio last month (they were not friends) Faucit tougher than i expected, but had to self present as moist eyed maiden a lot because victorian values.
Marlowe: Sub-mission m/m unfinished because bored. oxfam
Hoyt: Witchfinder pimpernel plus magic with alternate worlds and some romance. chapters very short
Thirkell: High Rising soothing middle englandery
Hahn (edit): Oxford Companion to Childrens' Literature new edition of Humphrey carpenter book, 30 years on.
Wootton: Michael Foreman telling tales art gallery catalogue of exhibition. lush pics not much text
Price: Skin After Skin a spycop novel alt pov (crash) of series so far. was dying to see his opinion of vic from inside his head, was surprised how unsympathetic Jacob came across from his side
O'Toole: A Traitor's Kiss life of Richard brinsley sheridan best book this month. o't all about identity politics, irish vs English, self made vs aristo, rich vs poor, status of theatre people, ambiguity of nationality for irish within brit empire. gripping story, sheridan fascinating
O'Farrell: Things Can Only Get Worse 20 confusing years in the life of a labour supporter sequel to things can.. better. advance reading copy.
Morgan: A Woman of No Character autobiography of Mrs Manley disappointing. fidelis morgan found scattered autobiog bits in delariviere Manley's novels (late 17th cent, early 18th) and put together w editorial linking passages. hated manley so much as a self serving self pitying canting hypocritical lecherous solipsist life ruiner. Female Pen by bridget McCarthy said bad things about dm but thought it prejudice - actually manley was imo a horrible person.
Herron: Slow Horses UNFINISHED at end month. spy thriller, v modernday ipcress file. beaurocratic backstabbery and studied dullness alternating w violence, big cast of characters, lots POVs. takes awhile to get going, v good of its genre

September:

still half through WITCHFINDER and SLOW HORSES - finished witchfinder which was full of tropes I love but strangely less than sum of parts, lost all interest in slow h, which good of its genre but not really my thing to read (contemp spy thriller)

Hoffman (edit): Middle English Lyrics got cos I like Norton crit ed, has context essays in back, lyric poetry fun, medieval. read too hastily
Cookman: Ice Blink the tragic fate of sir john franklin's lost polar expedition most sympathetic take on sir J F have ever read. response to buried in ice, all about how food supply scuppered erebus and terror (buried said lead poisoning from cans, ice b said botulism) no shying away from cannibalism
Lanyon: Monet Murders m/m crime, okay but not great
deWees: Not Just Jane rediscovering 7 amazing women writers who transformed british literature driving me to frothing rage - gets so much wrong about social hist and factual hist, her take on French revolution is off scarlet pimpernel films and vague recollection of tale of 2 cities, shallow reading of austen who she has been rereading for years.. annoyingly, the subject is wonderful, i just hate the author.
Scott: Kingdom Vol 1 3x novellas m/m
Beer: Reader I Married Him study of the women characters of jane austen charlotte bronte Elizabeth Gaskell and George eliot pretty awful late-70s emo-feminism, wanted more objective things, felt v up-to-a-point about her social history, and I disagree a bit about beer's take on all these writers
Gill: Uncle Dysfunctional uncompromised answers to lifes most painful problems agony aunt letters by aa gill.
Culligan: Wandering Irish in Europe their influence from the dark ages to modern times basically a retread of how the irish saved civilisation by 2 americanirish writers, hated for all the same reasons
Odell: Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving vol one enjoyed - a lot of theatre architecture stuff which lost me but v readable and lots contemporary quotes going on. up to Garrick, this vol
Stroud: Lockwood & Co the empty grave loved it but suspiciously openended for alledged series end. (he wrote a 4th in bartimeus trilogy also)
Maguire (edit): Irish Poems overview anthol, some cliché picks some new to me.

October:

Jones: Chavs the demonization of the working class skimread it on publication, no surprises, depressing stuff
Rubin: The Hollow Crown a history of Britain in the late middle ages less than the sum of its parts somehow, she is knowledgable and has straightforward English and its interesting period but book never comes into focus in my head - my fault, poor attention span
Dutcher: Hidden Life of Wolves nat geographic picture book for coffee table - exact what I wanted about social interactions
Arnold: City of Sin London and its vices hist of sex romps in London from romans on - ABANDONED around tudors, interested in London, less so in sex. gift fr neil who had enthused over arnold's book about hist death in London, oxfammed
Wibberley: To Writers With Love on writing romantic novels on commercial writing for mills&boon by 70s bestseller of theirs, bit autobiography, bit about colleagues, interesting
Wulf: The Invention of Nature the adventures of alexander von Humboldt the lost hero of science got last winter (was BOTM) too much of a to-read pile. good but not my thing, wish it half the length, v hist-of-science, author keen to establish him in gaia terms as proto environmentalist. inspired Darwin, travelled s America, knew everyone.
Dickson: Dublin the making of a capital city really good but my head not in game, v slow reader this year. sadly whizzes through medieval too fast and is at tudors by about page 36, v warm about how good maurice craig's book on Dublin is in bibliography. could do with more maps. got as far as early 18th century - not good as book reaches tudors by about page 35.
Alexander: Medievalism the middle ages in modern England mostly about 18th and 19th cent takes on medievalism when was trendy and cool for reasons that evolved. excellent

November:

Musgrave: From Brown to Bunter life and death of the school story horribly written and full of platitudes, much better books exist on subject eg Isabel Quigley's
Burton: The Rebel radical intellectual peasant in tom paine era, childrens hist fic. used to love hester burton, good but not among her best, reads like a pastiche of her better works
McGoogan: Lady Franklin's Revenge life of polar explorer's wife, who financed multiple expeditions to look for her lost husband, created legend, author v chivalrous about her but clearly an elitist bitch. fascinating story; she travelled off beaten track herself
Ellis: Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances 18th century quizzical take on provencal knights n chivalry genre, early days in book yet, is talking linguistics and how French and English developed in medieval times. book is 1850s, spine is fucked, will not be able to carry round with me so will take ages to read
O'Brien: Myles Away From Dublin myles na gcopaleen, in his non irish times columns, kinda disappointingly unfunny tbh. maybe am not in right mood.
Adair: By The Sword Divided eyewitnesses of the English civil war he lectured at sandhurst, is more about milit tactics and less about the lived experience than preferred, but wide range observers fr both sides - good
Brown: Slave of the Beast terrible id-fic bought cos werewolves, hated heroes which made for ragefilled read
Carter: Not If I Save You First spy thriller for teen girls about girlygirl heroine who saves son of us president in Alaska, funny but not as in love w this as I was the Gallagher girls series (that book was ensemble w friendship as well as lurve)
Ellis: Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances fab but book is fragile in spine, cannot carry round so slow read
Cornwell: Fools and Mortals Bernard cornwell does tudor histfic, pov of w Shakespeare's baby brother who dislikes the bard, weirdly less than sum of its parts, full of things should love (theatre history! tudor London! Shakespeare plot!) yet bored throughout. functional sentences, competent writer, bored.
de Bruijn: Chinese Wallpaper in Britain and Ireland coffee table book, text lot of fun about development, art styles, commerciality, dispersal across Europe. gorge pics.

metrical romances unfinished

December:

Halperin: Jane Austen bicentenary essays bicentenary of her death this year, this book bicent of her birth 1975. anecdotal chatty essays by lecturers. the one on alexander pope vs jane austen reads as if pope essay was handy and austen hastily attached to back end of essay.
Milling (edit) : Extraordinary Actors essays on popular performers aca essays on range people from burbage to morecombe and wise. mixed for me. the burbage one was worth the book (remainder book fr gower)
Brennan: In Other Lands ya fantasy, snarky angry pacifist tries reform fantasyland, is smug and woker-than-thou and gets under reader's skin. Loved it, sat up to dawn to find out end.
Nagel: Marie Therese the fate of marie Antoinette's daughter
Rushmore: Fanny Kemble really terrible biography, mainly about her stance re: slavery, horribly sentimentalising about FK, bad sentences bad prose
Ingamells: Rembrandt 1892 twelve paintings a century of changing perspectives exhibition catalogue with illustrations, essay about changing attitudes to R and attributions over years
Crown: Freedom for his Omega horrible self published thing with werewolves by slashfen going pro
Isaac (edit): The Human Face of the Book Trade print culture and its creators academic book by history-of-book people, collection essays aspects of 18th cent and provincial bookselling. mixed but good to excellent
Sebastian: Soldier's Scoundrel sold as ever by word scoundrel in title - this is m/m regency
Dent: Mrs Patrick Campbell horribly written, verbose, arch, gossipy, he has multiple versions of events and dates but doesn't bother to find out which true, spent book yelling at author
Hill (edit): The 1840s Victorian society studies in Victorian architecture and design glossy periodical, 1st in projected quarterly, re: what it says on the tin. essays on lives and works of obscure vic builders, variable but mostly engaging
Hudson: The English Stage 1850 - 1950 got cos cheap (a pahhnd), subject interesting and intact dustjacket - 1950s title. author v condescending about stupid people who so stupid they didn't live in modern 1950s but in benighted previous decades. feel author lacks hist perspective. mostly stuff I know, told in way that annoys me

list books read 2016

2016-01-07T19:11:21Z

better lj-cut this year

January:

Penguin publishers (quarterly): Happy Reader issue 1 aimed at slightly foxed readers, comprised of interview w random (not esp book-y) celeb about their reading, also random pieces themed round particular book. woman in white this case. actor rhapsodises about iron john by bly
MacCurtain: Women in Irish Society v 1970s flavour feminism. essay by young mary robinson in it. aspects of women in ireland, wanted more historical essays than i got.
penguin publishers : Happy Reader issue 5 themed on ladies paradise by zola
Kipling: Crab That Played With The Sea picture book illus by foreman, got for pics. macmillan released these couple decades ago, diff artist did each story from just so - was not keen on this one at time.
Briggs: Shifting Shadows stories from the world of mercy thompson
Brooke: History of Emily Montague early novel set 1760s quebec. topographical bits yay, romance v navel gazing and exasperatingly sentimental. was warned it v dull in final stretch but not so bad. v fanny burney territory for the characters. am convinced austens mrs elton is a parody of arabella fermor the Bplot heroine of this book. all the "caro sposo"s and boasting of how irrestistable to beaux she is.
Chambers: Beguiled
Chambers: Englightened m/m regency romance hero is a dull stick. oxfammed
Pirenne: Mohammed and Charlemagne writ 1930s, feel have seen most of this summarised in later books, some of which have argued with P.
Walker: Ancient Faces mummy portraits from roman Egypt a calalogue of roman portraits in the british museum
Greig: The Beau Monde fashionable society in georgian London enjoyed a lot
Penguin publishers: Happy Reader issue 4
Yarbro: Hotel Transylvania 1st written in series, v Dracula/duma xover. did not want, too hammer horror as a book, too much virginal fluttering, st germain a cypher. oxfammed.
Archer: Sweet Revenge action adventure romance in a souped up Victorian Britain where girl power is a thing. I like zoe archer but not in mood when read this
Wischhusen: Hour of One 6 gothic melodramas early 19th cent melodrama scripts. the last left bad taste in mouth of foreigners=funny:stupid but the other 5 surprisingly fun and also funny allowing for sexism
Moore: The Late Lord Byron about aftermath of his death - bust-ups among hatefilled wife grub st hacks incestuous sister at vic court and beleaguered friend. have officially forgiven doris Langley moore for dull book about courtship - this was good
Brett: Star Trap a charles paris mystery set 70s. bit dull, ableism bugged me (char has had breakdown + sees psychiatrist, is dubbed mad, this feels like authors judgement as well as chars pov)
Brennan: Voyage of the Basilisk steampunky nat historian travels globe for dragon research. love this series, preordered cannot understand why not read earlier
Furneaux: News of War stories and adventures of the great war correspondants writ 70s. v boysown pro-empire, war=glory outlook from rupert furneaux.

Febuary:

Aynsley: Imagined Interiors representing the domestic interior since the renaissance lots illustrations, lot of short essays by diff people on aspects of this, more content in text than expected
Welch: Shopping in the Renaissance consumer cultures in Italy 1400 - 1600 big, glossy, bitty, magazine of a book w lots curators etc doing couple pages each on diff aspects of subject, lush illus
Rowell: Victorian Dramatic Criticism anthol journalism, many of contributors (representatively?) dull hacks
Barlow: Fighting History mini-book about history painting fr tate
Bartholomew: Literary and Historical Atlas of America
Bujold: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen never loved cordelia as much as bujold does, and once I saw that comment somewhere that she is a canonical marysue it was a take on her I couldn't unsee (striking hair, everyone adores her, infallible, clothes described whensoever she enters a room) been awaiting this w muted expectations. also was not-thrilled by ivan book in prospect, but liked that more than expected. response to this: meh. despite the retcon shock twist
Godwin: The Spirits a guide to modern cocktailing bday gift for n. v opinionated, bit of theory of how-to mix
Stirling: The Fine and the Wicked life and times of Ouida sympathetic biog, had only read sneers before (from purple heart throbs, or from various introductions to Eliz Taylor's Angel) monica stirling has not-great prose, but beter than the stupefying ouida paragraphs she quotes (too lengthily)
Halliday: Great Stink of London sir joseph bazalgette and the cleansing of the victorian metropolis meaning to read this for years
Fowler: Bryant and May Burning Man loved it
Shatner: Leonard my 50 year friendship with a remarkable man self serving - hasn't changed my opinion of nimoy or shatner
Cumming: The Vanishing Man in search of velasquez bought partly cos of story of Victorian bookseller whose life ruined by picture, actually enjoyed the V chapters more as cumming less sentimental about him. v journalist writing, working hard to tug heartstrings, also irritating way of jumping to + from past/present tenses
Cushman: These Are The Voyages TOS season 1 v listy reference book, enjoyed

(v trek reading book month, not much reading overall, quantities of sudokus)

March:

Riddell: Struggle for Fame rediscovered vicfic novel, set 1850, characters all irish and on the make in the hackwriting grub st of the day. writ by woman who did about a million forgotten novels, and was irish (republished by irish indy press) v fresh and vivid like the best Trollope, but all the characters either stupid venal or both.
Karras: Sexuality in Medieval Europe doing unto others v good - a lot of defining of terms though. as was finishing this on busride to work, fellow passenger leaned in and confided he was chum of author
Postle: Angels & Urchins fancy pictures in 18th century british art exhib catalogue.
Howarth: 1066 the year of the conquest writ by sentimental tory ("simpler times") who yearnful for days when no running water and continual fear of famine etc. mild racism of the normans= stupid thugs + anglosaxons = all fine sportsmanlike manly men who sensible + kind. historian born 1912
Runciman: Sicilian Vespers why have I not read this before?
Nicholl: Traces Remain essays and explorations hist/biog and travel/biog, articles and book reviews
Holland: In Search Of Anne Bronte 1st book focussed on her in years, speculation stitched together with soppiness. pub by history press who often have interesting topic horribly written
Howell: Byron Tonight a poet's plays on the nineteenth century stage not brilliant but always fun to read about commercial Victorian theatre
Obolensky: Six Byzantine Portraits acad monograph reprint series fr clarendon
Thomas: The Youngest Science notes of a medicine watcher autobiog essays of career of doctor who born start 20th century, whose dad mostly used placebos and sympathy, who became research scientist stabbing bunnies with needles for greater good. v likeable man, big sensawonder about human progress
Morris: King John treachery tyranny and the road to magna carta pop hist
Bevis: The Laughing Tradition stage comedy in Garrick's day obsessed with taxonomy, spent ages categorising and having decided pigeonhole, not discussing further, the playtexts

did not finish: the riddell novel about irish Victorians on the make in 1850 London

April:

Chitty: Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty a life of anna sewell
O'Connor: Michael Collins & the Troubles a godawful piece of schmaltz and special pleading, v little about MC, all about republicanism up to civil war w occasional glimpses of personal contacts of Ulick O'Connor's. also UO'C used to be regular cust, often drunk always patronising, in hodgefig in 80s so prob am biassed
Davidson: Katherine Briggs storyteller
Berkmann: Set Phasers To Stun 50 years of star trek a personal take by someone slightly embarrassed by his own knowledge (and writing for readership who know more of his "obscure facts" anyway) mostly tos which is my thing and his fave eps are sim to mine, and some comments made me laugh a lot
Altmann: The Seven Swabians and other german folk tales good retelling but wish had left out the grimm stories everyone bloody knows which seemed a waste of pages
Piper: Artist's London nice picture book w middlebrow text, did what it said on the tin
Willes: Reading Matters kinda anecdotal about how why where readers acquired books from tudor through to 20th cent, a specific reader tying together each chapter (bess of hardwick, sam'l pepys, denis healey, etc) pub by yale.
Gerrold: World of Star Trek reverts to fannishness
Norwich: Absolute Monarchs a history of the papacy john Julius, got because he wrote it, basically. too sound bitey for me to absorb - fitting 2000 years into a paperback meant a blur of octogenarians all of whom fought the holy roman empire and had status issues. disappointing. higher proportion of bastards in the role than i expected and i was raised by team orange
Edwards: The Seven lives and legacies of the founding fathers of the irish republic v anglophile take on the signatories of the 1916 proclamation. considering how much I dislike pearse, ought be more on-board with the bias. spent read mentally compensating for ruth dudley edwards issues.
Willard: Miller's Boy prequel to mantlemass hist fic for children, medieval friendship story set in sussex
Meyer: The View From The Bridge memories of star trek and a life in Hollywood more interesting about film making in general than about trek, v likeable voice as writer
Saintsbury: We Saw Him Act symposium on the art of sir henry irving written in 1939 by surviving Victorian fanboys, not great-written, but interesting details
Nathan: The Waitress paperback equivalent of a richard curtis film
Norman: Biedermeier Painting 1815 48 picturebook of german domesticity

May:

Grimm, illus Tharlet : Wishing Table got for the illustrations
Brown: Chosen Words hist-of-words essays from Times
Garfield: Just My Type a book about fonts am too philistine to enter into this much, I prefer lucid fonts that don't invite you to pause over them, but Garfield is fun in his varied obsessions (mauve was unexpectedly wonderful)
Dromgoole: Will And Me how Shakespeare took over my life he involved in couple productions I loved, but v irritatingly laddish voice (nearly didn't buy when saw compared Hornby on cover. should have taken as Omen)
Walshe: Cissie's Abattoir starkadderish memoir of 1970s irish childhood. passed to iWilliam who appreciates starkadders and indeed irish childhood
Novik: Uprooted fantasy, fab, 5stars
Bruce + Young: In The Eye of the Beholder science of face perception bit about art/portraits, which I got it for (based on 1998 exhib in Scottish nat portrait gallery) lots about evolution of eyeball and perception/brain function/optical illusion, hard work to follow, interesting, felt too stupid for it but mindstretchy
Van Doren: Shakespeare essays, 1 play, 1 essay. low on jargon, writ 1939
Brenton: 55 Days play about death Charles 1. loved 1st scene, thought rest jerky sporadic exposition. le disappoint. loved his anne Boleyn
Gilman: Tricks of the Trade paranormal urban fant with forensic fae. more romancey than prev 2 in series which is sad for me. like the world building (new York)
Brennan: Unspoken teen fantasy about soul mates who thought they were mutual imaginary friends, meet, don't like. nice concept but brennan endlessly flippant, this would actually be better if she dared stop making jokes for some scenes and let reader feel with the chars
Thomas: Postal Pleasures acad intersection of Victorian + queer studies
Phillips: The Profligate Son, or, a true story of family conflice fashionable vice and financial ruin in regency England poss my fave book this month - biog of forgotten wildchild rake whose pennypinching dad was nabob and he intended to be gentleman so family could move up step socially - boy had ravening sense of entitlement, immense debt, illwill all round, sent to botany bay. son awful life after his fall, father broke heart.
Gilman: Sylvan Investigations miles to go & promises to keep urb fantasy private investigations, a cross between mr tumnus and phillip Marlowe. okay, will not pursue series as next one is clearly going to be get together of this willtheywontthey
Martin: Miss Manners Minds Your Business dull. sensible remarks which you expect but she was also combined with funny in 1990s books
Simak: Goblin Reservation read this in 80s could only remember was a cro magnon character, not the plot. what I noticed this time was that simak was trying to present his protagonists as v tolerant, but they reeked to me of fear + hatred + veiled contempt of the other
Sitwell: English Women short bios of people like grace darling etc. disagreed violently on which were likeable people. gift fr Jo when leaving branch on 16/05
Fraser: Princesses the 6 daughters of George iii hadfield's strangest family so much more interesting. hadfield kinda lumped the daughters together as all in same place, same situation. bought this to work out how their personalities differed fr each other. fraser based this on reams of decadesworth letters, all dull dull dull. no writing skill, circumscribed lives. not their fault so dull but book not worth reading
Flanders: Cast of Vultures book 3 crime series with book editor begrudgingly fighting crime. read this for protagonist who v endearing, and ensemble case. the crime side of the series is getting better (1st book crime both confusing and bait-switchy)
Norwich: Sicily a short history from ancient greeks to cosa nostra fantastic read, gossipy, lucid and full of detail Brill. Did not finish till 1st june

June:

Higgins: Under Another Sky journeys in roman britain roadtrip of ruins and sites, chapters more or less run from caesar to fall of r. mildly disliked author's voice
Borzello: Seeing Ourselves womens self portraits best on 17th and 18th cent imo
Oliphant: Sheridan (english men of letters) hackwork. the bits where her personal opinions came across about, frex, debt, touching given knowledge of oliphants life
White: Final Diagnosis medical sf about racism of human vs alien life and the aftermath of war.
Pennac: Diary of a Body weird book about an academic who journals his body's life - touch of adrian mole, end made me cry
Duffy: Saints and Sinners a history of the popes because jj norwich on this topic was such a disappointment
Streatfeild: The Bell Family read of this in books about streatfeild, had not read in childhood
Lackey: Steadfast Edwardian fantasy set in brighton based on steadfast tin soldier story. ticks so many boxes for me in theory yet when i read it, bland and boring chars
Vanhoenacker: Skyfaring a journey with a pilot homework - next months botm at work. commercial pilot writing about hist, science, autobiog, poetry of flying. breakout hit in hardback to everyones surprise. bits read like poetry. bits read like bad poetry (poss diff readers would identify diff bits as bad) sincere enthusiasm but am less thrilled than author is by subject
Clarke: Rise and Fall of the Woman of Letters 18th century professional women writers in England - liked clarkes book on dr johnsons female disciples. this not as fun as more overview of status and image of womenwriters not indiv biographies (1 woman 1 chapter) and the biog approach of prev book more accessable
de Paor: Ireland and Early Europe essays and occasional writings on art and culture gathered over 30 yrs journalism some repetition, much reprinted fr ir times,
Ewen: Francis Plug How to be a Public Author overly high concept novel about current state of book trade and author-events, merchandising of personalities, idea fun execution execrable
Aiken: Trouble with Product X reprint of one of her cod-gothic du-maurier-lite things, set in cornwall w advert agency + much skulduggery. fun

July:

Wang: Great Expectations its a board book w 12 word text, not a read. just wanted to note when I got it
Bartlett: The Hanged Man a story of miracle memory and colonialism in the middle ages real life instance of the fingerpost, recovered records of inquiry into resurrection of rebel on welsh marches
Battle: Lady Screever alice colman the worlds first female pavement artist selfpublished, not well written
Viking Society for Northern Research: Saga Book vol xxiv part 5 v dry
Coleman: The Railway Navvies
Hatherley: Ministry of Nostalgia consuming austerity keep calm and carry on angry classdriven rant about inequality and public passivity re government
Rosenblum: Romantic Child walter neurath memorial lectures
Pepys: Journal of Emily Pepys edit gillian avery, diary of tenyearold midvictorian bishop's daughter. right little madam
Todd: Matthew Todd's Journal edit trease valet journal of grand tour in 1812, rather good. he got excited about sublime in landscape and kept eye on cost various wines.
Chalmers: Pollyanna's Protegee #11 in series about the 4th person to write pollyanna, terrible schmaltz set in 1940s, morbidly curious and picked up for a quid in glorious everything-a-quid rummageshop halcyon books in greenwich. oxfammed
Freund: Dramatis Personae hist of stage, book hb and v heavy so reading when at home, cannot carry to work. not crazy about freund as writer, bogs down in too much detail on odd things
Bujold: Penric's Demon a fantasy novella in the world of the 5 gods
Aston (edit): Past and Present no 50 feb 1971 got for zenon davis article about charivaris in medieval/early modern france, much better was Thompson on bread riots in 18th England
Dale: Shirley Flight Air Hostess and the Flying Doctor 1950s girls career novel, horrific racist sexist badly written pants
Mozart: My Dearest Father penguin 80p, selection Mozart letters
Cazamian: Social Novel in England 1830 - 50 dickens Disraeli mrs Gaskell kingsley don't know if badly translated or just too French but v hard to follow the way he carves up his subject. early 20th cent take on 1940s condition-of-England fiction

not finished dramatis personae as is weight of furniture and bit dull as well (endless summaries of early renaissance Italian playscripts)

August:

Eltoukhy: Women of Karantina a novel if 100yrs solitude were set in gangland Alexandria and flavoured Egyptian
Cohen: Summer of Living Dangerously chickfic - I like julie Cohen's humour and warmth
Phillips: Wonder of Woollies memories from both sides of the counter at Britain's best loved store for the retail hist aspect, bitty, oral history anecdotes
Jackson: Withnail and I bfi film classic monograph
Lubin: Titanic bfi film classic monograph
Thirlwell: Rosalind a biography of Shakespeare's immortal heroine liked everything about the book except voice of the author
Rachlin: Edy Was A Lady edited-over memoirs of Ellen Terry's daughter, disappointing as Edy was interesting person but could not tell own life interestingly
North: To Be Or Not To Be choose your own adventure version of hamlet, expensive but fabulously done by many Canadian graphic artists incl kate beaton
Lanyon: The Mermaid Murders JL's books stand or fall by me on whether I like hero/heroes. not sure so far. eta: oxfammed
Sanders (edit): Intimate Letters of England's Kings v alan sutton-ish, writ in 1950s, some 50s era judgements about gender and sexuality (sanders is big chas 1 fangirl)
Blanc: Last Letters prisons and prisoners of the French revolution 1793 1794 scrawled en route to guillotine, handed with bribe to sans cullote, never delivered, found in paris archive by thrilled historian. context given about who wrote them and who sent to and a lot about prison conditions which varied in diff jails
Gibney: Shadow of a Year the 1641 rebellion in irish history and memory more about how hist is remembered than what happened - disputed sectarian massacre which was pretext for Cromwell, generations of academics failing to concensus on statistics
Ewing: A Flat Iron For A Farthing simple, lovely-written, hero lovable in unstressed way, must read more mrs ewing
Ashton: Victorian Bloomsbury mostly about development of UCL, all set around the streets where I used to work, anecdotal, interested in personalities, 5 star read.

September:

Hollander: Moving Pictures about narrative art, linking it to movies in what it does for viewer. felt her take on what constituted cinematic v v v subjective aka "cinematic" = these the pics she liked. hollander v keen on northern vs Italian, some of judgements felt arbitrary. saying this despite fact i kinda like same sort pics as she does, but don't feel she built good case on teh page
de Horne Vaizey: A Question of Marriage spinsterhood enforced by genetic medical condition. what medical condition was shrouded in terms deepest mystery for reasons of delicacy, spinster sublimates it all for jesus. her best friend described in text as charming the most selfish ("but charming" dHV insists) women ever, i spent most of story yearning for thunderbolt for happily married friend
Pressley (edit): A York Miscellany anthology compiled 1930s of hist nuggets and anecdotal plums taken from dull memoirs or topography.
White: Fanny a fiction edmund white writes fake autobiog of fanny trollope and her frenemy fanny wright. seems hostile to t at 1st then she seduces the reader despite w being more 21st cent liberal in so many of her beliefs. trollope of book a snob + exasperating but such a wonderful woman, zest for life and courage. maps reasonably onto nonfic biog i read of fanny t (ransom wrote that i think)
Stroud: Lockwood & Co the creeping shadow getting better and better. is the talking skull in a bottle filling the same character-role as the sarcastic demon bartimeus in his other series? wish a bit less of the bloody UST between 2 of 3 recurring characters in a 9yrs-12yrs-aimed storybook but loving it aside from that (+ suppose the 9-12s are thrilling to the hinted pash)
Baker: Fighting for Life autobiog of woman doctor and woman's rights activist who pioneered childcare for slum children in new york tenements.
Singh: Bonds of Justice paranormal romance urban fantasy - i love the overarching story but bored by romance bits of this
Welling: The Displaced early trek fanzine, which i hated. bought online cos curious, it was written about in ST Lives by winston etc, so had heard about it in 80s. incredibly mary sue, and she starts zine after everything happens then has to flashback all of it. found people's reactions to events unconvincing and lot of OOC in the canon characters. thumbs down

October:

end sept/start oct had fortnight off. intended lots reading but bored by everything no matter what, even things that ought tick all my boxes. also had glazier crisis which meant clearing all room contents to half the space then moving everything across to other half room. prompted big purge of books + cds + few dvds, old clothes, hoarded cardboard boxed flattened out that might come in useful. about 8 or 9 santa sacks to oxfam, many trudges to recycle place. Not much reading, but made another plank bookcase and bought small shelf unit - much less on floor and room less claustrophobic. resolved to be more ruthless about oxfamming things in future

Urban: Rifles six years with wellington's legendary sharpshooters milit hist so not my thing but this more the squaddies eye view rather than analysis tactics. OR SO I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. peninsular war eta: later in book lots of battle plans and tactics and i wanted to know about living conditions dammit
Onions: The Dead of Night the ghost stories of oliver onions mr james era ghosts, creepy
Wallace-Hadrill: Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent ford lectures delivered in university of oxford Hilary term 1970 lots untranslated latin, much guesswork on my part, am such peasant
Sacks: The Mind's Eye case studies a la man/mistook/wife/hat
Fowler: Bryant and May London's Glory short stories bought cos I love the series - thing is that short stories seem plot-led and the last thing i read these for is plot, so enjoyed this one less than rest series
Cook: Shakespeare's Players companion vol to women in Shakespeare; edited interviews w actors re: specific parts, some extracts fr history books, diaries etc about Garrick and kean and so forth
Ascherson (edit): French Revolution extracts from the times newspaper contemp journalism
Bradley (interviewer): British Book Trade an oral history v does what it says on the tin book (dull cover, unglam title) extracted from oral hists of 20th century, themed by job genre, done by brit-library. excited to note that i used to subscribe books in e anglia from Trevor Moore the random rep, one of interviewees. much of content i knew from scattered reading but more engrossed than expected, and this was borrowed from me a lot in staffroom at work by colleagues
Anon (poss fanny craddock, sez questionable online sources): Daily Telegraph Book of Bon Viveur in London found lovely copy w pristine djacket for a quid, pub 1950, v dated and mildly pretentious restaurant guide. prob to be xmas gift (iain?)
Beaton: King Baby picturebook, much less gratingly moralistic than princess/pony but also less entertaining pics (nice sequence of learn to crawl in pic-strip)
Southern: Victorian Theatre a pictorial survey mostly for pics, is uncritical fanboy of vic theatre, is interested in how stage effects achieved and in architecture of theatre building and of stage itself. finds scripts and actors disagreeable distraction from real business. lot of diagrams of pulleys + traps which confused me
Beaton: Wicked Godmother regency fluff romance by agatha raisin author. i used to seek out her regencies in 80s then under penname marion chesney

2 weeks off and hardly anything read - big overhaul of room for glaziers to have access so clearout of 8 or so santa sacks of stuff to oxfam, finding old things and rereading, also zero attention span lately, tired of everything

November:

Pope-Hennessy: Agnes Strickland biographer of the queens of england 1796-1874 because as i understand it (not far into book yet) she was anti-Carlyle and all that Great Men of History and one of the forerunners of social hist and going to old invoices for wardrobes not what other historians said and working out what people ate/wore how they travelled instead of list wars political dates. PaulC loved lives of queens of england + my best xmas present to him was when i found lives of bachelor kings of england (which he not know existed) only read eliz I myself.
North: Romeo and/or Juliet a chooseable path adventure will pass to min, a choose your own adventure, adds randomness jokes feminist awareness pics by likes of kate beaton
Elliman: Pink Plaque Guide to London v listy, full page bio various eminents, mostly late 19th / early 20th and v male based
Molesworth: The Cuckoo Clock vic childrens, Molesworth nowhere near as fun as ewing. can see now how sanctimonious moralising fairy in this is seen as precursor of psammyad but aside fr this, book not fun to read
Dale: Bon Voyage how to enjoy your holiday in europe with a car 1950s w dustjacket. online scan tells me is attrib to fanny craddock, certainly "frances dale" is on hol in book w partner "johnnie" tone matches too. lots on how get max value and luxury shopping w lot flourishes re: how swank + cognizant author is. period piece. andrea for xmas as it goes to n italy
Beaton: Silken Bonds regency romance, was marion chesney back in day and i used to swoop in public libraries on her stories
Vaughan: Born To Please hannah pritchard actress 1711 1768 not brill written but where else will i find a biog of her? had seen her menched in other 18th theatre hist books, seen pics of her as lady macbeth (clutch + wave daggers while managing pannier dress and beehive powdered hair) and she lowkey presence in garricks life. unscandalous and also writ by collateral descendant so po-faced, a bit
Bitel: Landscape With Two Saints how genovefa of paris and brigit of kildare built christianity in barbarian europe felt on buying they bit duct taped together as diff countries diff generations and late classical gaul not comparable w brehon ireland, but bitel said they born at same stage of the normalisation of xtianity, also, both made travel/progresses round their territory, also, see cunning title, both build what were to become key churches. a lot about gender a lot about geography intersecting w history
Spencer: Alien Taste fantasy that turned out to be space opera. likeable hero, surprises in plot, some conscientious liberal touches in worldbuilding, not going to follow up on series though as cool on fantasy genre right now.
Abelson: When Ladies Go A'Thieving middle class shoplifters in the victorian department store which devolves into analysis of class and thwarted womanhood and status issues. admit was indignant throughout on part of bilked dry goods men as the thefts in this are of unnecessary things, done for thrills. shops' profit margins often narrower than they admit to public and nothing robin hood in watching livelihoods threatened by joyriders in crinolines no matter how awful sexist and demeaning the public discourse at time about these women
Rodale: Dangerous Books for Girls the bad reputation of romance novels explained self published I think (some repetition) rant in defence romance genre, many things had read before esp on smart.bitches.trashy. website. enjoyed, read at speed
Kelly: Jane Austen the secret radical lit crit for massmarket, explains a lot of the bleeding obvious, not wholly convinced by some of her interpretations but good fresh look and interesting political angle on themes of books. 1 chapter = 1 novel. intro to each chapter a regrettably hist-noveletteish imagining of JA at various points of her life
Summers: The Playhouse of Pepys lots info but MS using book to score off other, lesser writers on subject, with the prickle of an autodidact, and tendency to use latinate polysyllables and circumlocutions to make self sound fab. also restoration theatre pretty rape culture and MS nonchalant re: incidents that illustrate this, also he digresses lot to explain how royalism is the only way, also all parlimentarians were hypocrites (all?) also royalism does not extend to king William (stuarts 4eva). some repetition
White: Galactic Gourmet pulp sf with interesting ideas, interesting biologies of aliens, avowed pacifist so space opera sans guns, irish writer. Futuristic Gordon ramsay goes to space hospital to reform cafeteria, gets in scrapes. Gordon ramsay not human, is heavy gravity elephant-thing w multiple eyes and extremities and vaguely autistic interactions. this is white - his chars v logical but lack sense of inward thought even when he writes stream of c. And his women are, to author, more alien than anything from 4th nebula
Field (edit): Methuen Book of Theatre Verse mix of doggerel and high flown, some utterly brill pieces, too many 18th century addresses to audience as delivered by yer actual actors for own preference, loved it
Saucier: Folk Tales from French Louisiana pretty baldly told stories collected mid 20th century

December:

Vincent: I Hope I Don'T Intrude privacy and its dilemmas in 19th century Britain for 1st 2 thirds was sure was book about intellectual property (lack of protection for) in Georgian London, came together in end. v academic style
Rees and German: A People's History of London is about trade unions development, v sketchy on boadicca and medieval, comes to faint attention w levellers of 17th cent, much savage indignation but few facts about 18th cent, gets stuck in when chartists happen. would not mind but wanted it to be hist of full timeline of London
Neil: Those That Cause Fear picturebook listing inuit monsters
Hall: Highgate Mums overheard wisdom from the ladies who brunch twitter feed turned book, funny, will pass to irishWilliam
Symons(edit): Sir Roger de Coverley and other essays from the Spectator got for soppy C M Brock illus, is 1905 dent everyman. not my cup of tea really
Wawn (edit): Iceland Journal of Henry Holland 1810 more about basalt than I wanted - is diary of him on geology exped to Iceland, but the bits about people, clothes and buildings fab, his beady eye on everything. got cos edited by wawn who I read a later book by about norse in brit culture
Price: Psycop Briefs vol 1 sh stories fr m/m urb fantasy series about homicide cop in chicago who sees dead people. love series, thought these (writ for online) would be too short + bitty to work in real book, mix of lengths, novella, few vignettes, well worth it. not good place to start series
Merrow: Blow Down m/m urb fantasy about plumber who - wait for it - sees dead people. or at least finds the bodies on reg basis. again, I like the hero and am following the series. re: this, have found out josh Lanyon is doing another in his holmes + moriarity series, also another adrien English book forthcoming. joy. love these two series.
Hollander: Fabric of Vision dress and drapery in painting sort of sequel to her seeing through clothes which her 1st book and which I loved. is about how painters did fabric, was it realistic, what was it doing in picture. heavily illus. currently struggling through baroque chapter (more or less chronological)
Doherty (edit): Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish Free State multiauthor, essays on aspects of MC in his various hats, part as acad response to neil Jordan film
Taylor: Players and Performances in the Victorian Theatre really great read, cleared up diff between some technical terms I'd confused, more or less chronological, all about the actor and how the job changed, techniques, status, what they were trying to do, philosophy of the job, lots about specific performers had seen mentioned elsewhere
Gatrell: City of Laughter sex and satire in eighteenth century London and regency as well. remaindered hardback so weighs a tonne otherwise wd have read ages back but v readable even by idiot self and heavily illus. starting to enjoy reading again after slew of not being able to pay sustained attention. hurray.

books read in 2015

2015-01-17T19:19:11Z

must be much more ruthless about passing things onto oxfam, am drowning in piles of books in my room, fear am a hoarder.

January :

O'Regan: Isn't It Well For Ye the book of irish mammies better as a twitter feed like so many "humour" titles
Kaye: For You Alone frederick wentworth book 2 austen fanfic. better than average (a low bar)
Trewin: The Edwardian Theatre about commercial theatre, disproportionate number of theatre hist books about experimental cutting edge stuff. fun and bitchy, I enjoy trewin
Brett: Dead Side of the Mike charles paris whodunnit. was okay, not bowled over by it
Walkley + Foster: Crinolines and Crimping Irons victorian clothes how they were cleaned and cared for
Riordan: The Finest Music early irish lyrics several poems familiar but from new translations. wonderful new pangur bawn by muldoon.
Kaminsky: High Midnight phillip marlowe wannabe (written 70sish) RPS fiction of golden age of hollywood with namedropping of 40s stars. gary cooper and hemmingway star in this. fun
Duffy (edit): Answering Back living poets reply to the poetry of the past bit overly themed anthology and some of the entries felt formulaic or flippant or unrelated to original piece. pangur ban showed up again in this, serendipitous
Hay: Mr and Mrs Disraeli a strange romance biog of their relationship by woman who on team Mrs Dizzy all the way. Good, as had prev only really read books focussed on him which were bit dismissive of wife
Goldthwaite: The Natural History of Make Believe anglophone childrens books in 19th ~ early 20th century, the uses of fantasy therein. the objective data I knew, the opinions and commentary I largely disagree with, feeling the author too pleased with self by half
Gravett: Spells picturebook
Walker: Picked Up Patched Up and Sent Home why I love the NHS one man's attempt at good press for grassroots nhs anecdotal re his life, his childrens' birth, and mildly funny
Hardwick: Mrs Dizzy 1970s biography, wanted more quotes/ contemporary accounts than Hay gave, not really worth reading.

February:

Smallwood (edit): Players of Shakespeare 4 further essays RSC essays by actors - some on the dreadful shakes clown roles
Welch: The Hawk henty type yarn of clean cut britisher hero delivering swift uppercuts to nasty people - part of the histfic series about Carey family, written by welsh schoolmaster in mid20th century. no characterisation worth a damn but lots action adventure (tudor this time)
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve a guide to the principle works of britain europe and north america about fantasy in anglophone childrens books. much of the hard fact I knew already, I disagree with almost every opinion and was irritated to the point it took ages to read. the carroll chapters especially seem full of shit and theories built on no foundation been reading this since Jan
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2004 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2005 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Longford : Making Conversation persephone book in a Pym-type vein, should have loved but was bored throughout, sad about that as was gift fr Susan. reminded me of that richardson novel about getting of wisdom
Bordo: Creation of Anne Boleyn in search of the tudors most notorious queen enjoying, is about how history is written by the winners and redone for new generations - think I read something similar about the posthumous reputation of lady jane grey
Hornby: Shakespeare Wrote For Money collection of his reading-journal column from believer magazine. I don't read the same books he does, or enjoy the same books, but he's great on how readers read or fail to read books

reading v slowly, was still stuck on bloody greenthwaite till late march as i wanted to punch him about once a paragraph. also the darnton book had me stuck for ages (dry)

March:

Briggs: Dead Heat paranormal romance werewolves - the alpha omega series. bit meh about the emphasis on babyhaving in the primary couple, but briggs always gets me rooting for the characters she wants me to like
Darnton: Devil In The Holy Water or the art of slander from louis xiv to napoleon v dry and not as interested in this as in his book about french enlightenment booksellers which was so worth persevering with that I ploughed, joyless, through this one. an academic book + I too stupid to follow it
Fowler: Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart less excited by this, poss because I expect to love a bryant and may book so is hard to meet expectations. was i in bad mood reading-wise all month? took v little pleasure in reading
Davies: Voice From The Attic essays on the art of reading robertson davies on reading - his taste eclectic. theatre section a disappointment and am sure he had interesting things to say about theatre but in this book he talking about reading playscripts, alone, in armchair. for pleasure. end chapter about porn, was full of him being disingenuous about why he buying it (research for book i hold in hands! i don't care) and how the booksellers didn't understand his purity and scholarly approach. dealers kept advancing sidelong, nudging RD in ribs and going psssst i got somefing you'll like guv. is not booksellers fault they thought he wanted smut for usual reason.
Wells: Great Shakespearian Actors biog essays. mostly got for betterton and early people. very brief, not v revealing, and a lot of info had read elsewhere. foreword had stanley wells announcing epiphany that actually acting is art form. bit late to discover that in his career considering how long he's been at the shakespeare racket. advance copy, glad did not pay for it.
Gregg: I, Omega m/m paranormal novella w wolves. fucking terrible
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve most of month trudging through this. largely about christian underpinnings of fantasy (he feels fantasy usurps the role of Creator-God, so am baffled he studies fantasy at all, given is profoundly bornagain) and the narnia bit was poss the best thing on narnia have ever read, but driven to red mist rage by the several chapters about carroll which stated a hypothesis about how it was all a coded roman a clef re: Alice Liddell's mum but did not offer enough proof for me to be convinced. he seemed to feel he had proven his case past argument.
Schumacher: Dear Committee Members mild satire novel-in-letters set in midwest liberal college where eng lit professor spends all his time writing letters of recommendation. the book is composed of LORs - he digresses a lot about his horrible workplace and botched love affairs and hatred of political correctness. protagonist 1st funny ~ then a deadwhiteguy teacher ~ then poignant. surprised it got an emotional reaction from me. V light but read more or less at a sitting and laughed immoderately, ask no more of a book than that sometimes.
Gielgud: An Actor And His Time dull. he says nothing mean about anyone which is tactful and good for him, but a pity for the reader. what is left of book is mostly lists of plays he was in with notes that (insert famous actor) co-starred in this or that production. hoped for indiscretion from gielgud, which, shallow of me
Double: Getting the Joke the inner workings of stand-up comedy how jokes work. meaning of funny
Mayhew: Of Street Piemen extract (80p penguin mini-book) from london labour london poor. 4 unrelated essays of studs terkel in a hansom cab goodness. he so lets the interviewees - assorted costermongers flowergirls and street tradesmen - speak for themselves without editorial, was shaken when he did article on penny performing theatre and was shocked and tutting that the young girls were so "impudent" (aka cheerful) and "vulgar" (surprise!)

still haven't finished that devil in holy water

April:

Flanders: A Bed of Scorpions crime novel about grumpy middleaged publishing editor who keeps stumbling into murder cases. could do without apparantly obligatory romance, but it does give her a policeman ally. makes me smile. as often w crime, bored by the case, reading for the people.
Scarisbrick: Portrait Jewels opulence and intimacy from the medici to the romanovs mostly got for cheestetastic photos of pictures the size of saucers, with clustered pearls and gems done to look like buncha grapes, enammelled coat arms up top, in general, wildly over the top stuff like you see on official portraits Elizabeth I. and I love portraits anyhow. Text interesting and gave me more nuance than had on the topic to start with.
Hall: The Self Portrait a cultural history essays roughly chronological from ancient world (brief) medieval (brief) to 20th century.
Darnton: Devil in the Holy Water still. keep putting it down then not picking up again. have about 200 pagesworth of interest in this, tops, and book has overshot this by mile.
O'Connor: Best of Frank O'Connor i know it's all priests peasants n potatoes but he does fab narcissistic small boys and the short stories are perfectly paced in how they gradually feed you what is going on
Randers-Pehrson: Barbarians and Romans birth struggle of europe ad 400 - 700 v sweeping perfect for ignoramus (me)

May:

Uglow: In These Times living in britain through napoleon's wars 1793-1815 home front in gb during these wars, too diffuse imo, has rich then poor then rural then debutante then whatever then navy then army then some other thing. prefer her books on single person they feel less of a blur of random data.
Cavafy: Remember, Body penguin minibook which underwhelmed by
Gracian: How To Use Your Enemies macchievellian selfhelp of professed cynicism, would not have been up for entire text this was extracted from. Spanish Jesuit author 17th century
Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic multiverse of alternate londons, 1 of them hanoverian others varying degrees of magicness. on paper swashbuckling pirates hanoverians and alt-universe hopping should have been exactly my thing, was bored all way through. cannot work out why. been unresponsive to fantasy after 1st chapter for a bit.
Woolf: Platform of Time memoirs of family and friends got for annie thack ritchie and j marg cameron
Schoch (edit): Macready Booth Terry Irving great shakespearians
Wilson: Consider The Fork a history of how we cook and eat marvellous. loved the bit about the US adopting cups to measure by and had brief flurry of watching youtube vids of vintage style cookings
Freeman: Life Moves Pretty Fast the lessons we learned from eighties movies fluff but fun even though several films i only know by reputation
Glendinning: A Suppressed Cry the short life of a victorian daughter her 1st book. vg has become a better storyteller since. things i wish had been expanded or checked out on, slight woffle in places. good but she'd have done it better later
Trela (edit): Margaret Oliphant critical essays on a gentle subversive my copy had huffy pencil marginalia all along saying bosh etc explosively. may have influenced me. pencilled anon thought the statements made were not backed up with sufficient evidence and the contributors all referred to ea other so it was a circle overall.
Perdita: Crash m/m werewolves bored me
Shevelow: Charlotte the true story of scandal and spectacle in georgian london life of charlotte cibber daughter of colley cibber, actress and crossdresser. she deserved a better biographer. lots of research done, fascinating life, was driven to distraction by long sections of madeup stream of consciousness and emotions attributed to heroine
Stroud: Lockwood and Co whispering skull childrens action adventure gothic lovely example of what it wanted to do
Booth: Victorian Spectacular Theatre 1850 1910 bit dry.

and i replaced my no-frills paperback edition of burney's evelina with a lovely norton critical edition; so got to read all the essays in the appendix of that

June:

Pirkis, Wood (edit): Slightly Foxed quarterly, spring 2015
Foster: Vivid Faces the revolutionary generation in ireland 1890-1923 finding the sardonic asides amusing, worry what this says about my politics. much more about dublin theatre than expected
Crosse: Shakespearian Playgoing 1890 1952 memoir of amateur shakes afficionado. bit listy tho' he intended to give a sense of styles of acting - his personal preferences came across v clearly
Paradiz : Clever Maids the secret history of the grimm fairy tales annoyed by this; author made firm statements (about how people felt) without evidence, which makes me mistrustful of rest of book.
Groopman : How Doctors Think how mis-diagnosis happens. reviews of this said G was arrogant. he didn't seem so to me
Morgan: Dramatic Critic selected reviews 1922 1939 theatre critic. bought for contemp reactions to young olivier gielgud richardson etc. bit repetitive as not designed to be read cover2cover, often restating points across book. glad i read, sent to oxfam after
Shakespeare: King John been reading bit about victorian staging of shakespeare, came across several refs to kingJ which had not read, now is magna carta year so have globe ticket for 13/6. hasty read on day before. reading, it feels a lot like the action is all offstage and what you see is people shouting at each other. unsure will enjoy play. ETA found play v ranty, as suspected. King J funnier than i found him in reading, the bastard stole the 1st act, can see how cardinal was plum role in vic theatre long shouty monologues during which, try as might, attention drifted. going to see nell gwynn by swale in sept globe
Flower: The Irish Tradition about development of irish lit such as in celtic miscellany. intended for casual reader, some of the anecdotes pretty funny
Jackson: Bears of England studiedly surreal sh stories, tied together at quasi poignant end
Gard: Jane Austen's Novels the art of clarity ironically lacking clarity himself, his point is that lit critics underestimate sensitivity of regular armchair readers and jargon up platitudes to up the wordcount on their book length studies of aspects of JA.
Gaiman: Sleeper and the Spindle refried fairy tale - short story in picture book form - which owed most of its charm to Riddell's illus. sleeping beauty with twist. hero was heroine, turned out to be snow white of 7dwarf fame. gift fr N
Tanitch : London Stage in the Nineteenth Century heavily illus w playbills, contemp advertising, illus of productions, quotes of contemp reviews, photos of Blist actors of day, summary of key plays for each year. v browsable
Kilpatrick: Fanny Burney not a brilliant biog, liking it for its sympathy with Hester Thrale
Colloms: Victorian Country Parsons mediocre nonfic re what it says on the tin, some of the subjects interesting but mostly a waste of time.
Cartmell (edit): Shakespeare vol 2 coll acad essays, found in oxfam. lit crit utterly beyond my comprehension but a couple of essays about vic staging (child actors : master betty) and reception of Lamb's tales, also couple reviews of productions of 2006 - suddenly realised had actually been to that Globe;Measure For Measure all male version in tudor staging (liked it less than reviewer did)
Dewey: The Tragedy Series secret lobster claws and other misfortunes selfconsciously wacky steampunky cartoons. ought not have read in one speed gobble. liked other book by him more (it was shorter and didn't give me time to get over the gimmick)
Poniatowska: Leonora a novel inspired by the life of leonora carrington went into this on basis of loving Hearing Trumpet. Either poniatowski, or the way LC presented herself to P, managed to put me right off, in this account of special-snowflaking through the 20th century. was over aware that P's source of anecdata was LC, so v odd to keep hearing reported compliments - never an accusation of bullshittery; amazing given the fucking quoted dialogue - accompanied by disclaimers of how oblivious LC was to own genius, ravishing beauty, unique insight, lonely sensitivity, spontaneous brilliance, irresistable sexuality, etc.
Nash: Provok'd Wife life and times of susannah cibber sister of tom rule britannia arne, married son of dreadful poet laureate cibber, sis-in-law of charlotte choake who read biog of recently. husband on losing interest in her pimped her out to rich fanboys, she fell in love with one, collaborated with garrick at work and stayed iin love with inamorato. prodigously wannabe respectable poor woman, sang for handel. good biog of interesting woman (itchy little americanisms like talking about place being couple blocks away from 17xx covent garden, autumn always called fall, more disappointing was how 1950s men=butch women=femininity pervaded the character judgements of everyone)
Sher: Year of the Fat Knight the falstaff diaries found proof copy at work had been thinking of paying for it. interesting but learned less than hoped about how he built role, v name droppy

July:

Bradley: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie cosy crime with 11 yr old girl detective, set 1950s England. can see why its a success, did not believe in Flavia as a human being though she's similar to, say, Harriet The Spy and others. But harriet the spy had lots of data but no experience to put it together + learned empathy painfully, and only partially, at end book. Flavia rocketed between knowing too much and too little. Think narrative/editorial voice was supposed to be adultFlavia? A lot of stereotype characters in ensemble. got for N
de Font-Reaulx: The Daguerrotype tiny picturebook of french exhibition
Delman: Lover's Perjuries or the clandestine courtship of jane fairfax and frank churchill a retelling of jane austens emma bearing in mind the low bar for austen sequels, this one not at all bad (v expensive, small press and ugly cover) no shrieking anachronisms, many original characters loosely based on minor chars from austen novels. jane had a touch of elinor dashwood
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 5 bindup of 1905 magazine re london theatre, mostly staged + stagey photos.
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 6
Hawthorne: 20 Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa diary of childminding in 1850s by nathaniel hawthorne, had read extracts in a history of childhood book before
Beaton: Princess and the Pony love her illustrations, story overly moralistic. worth everything for the dudebro knight highfiving his stallion.
Garfield: On the Map why the world looks the way it does picked up cos cheap, full of great stories - garfield is great on topics i only want a superficial and anecdotal overview on - like his book MAUVE re victorian industrial chemistry (not a diss; am not up for a depth book on subject but i learned things in map)
Lanyon: Dark Horse White Knight 2 x m/m novellas
Bibby: Four Thousand Years Ago a panorama of life in the 2nd millenium BC through the bronze age all over europe. archaeology comes alive with a lot of logical extrapolations
about how it must've been to live through, chapters cover 70 years each so you don't jump centuries inna single paragraph without registering it. he states which bits guesswork and which he's pretty sure on. Is v definite about earliness and ubiquity of med sea trading routes, which had thought was a thing historians picked up on more recently (4000 yrs ago is published 1965)
Streatfeild: Magic and the Magician e nesbit and her childrens books kinda ropey, i think aimed at child readership (why? don't think many children care about the lives of the authors of the books they love)
Dench: Judi behind the scenes collection of photographs judi dench mix of personal and stage ones, got cheap wouldn't have got otherwise
White: Age of Scandal an excursion throgh a minor period the elitism left a bad taste in my mouth - starts on page one so no excuse for me not realising it would bother me - but great anecdotes and well told, just brought out the sans culotte in me while reading
Clifford & Herlihy : Envoi Taking Leave of Roy Foster truculent revisionist-bashing collection by nationalist local hist group who loathe rf foster's casual cronyism and perceived privilege. some points scored but the style was too much written in green ink with exclamations at end of every sentence and elaborate passive aggression which told against them. also, rff makes me laugh. i may be biassed myself
Hadlow: The Strangest Family the private lives of george III queen caroline and the hanoverians gossipy - v much about their soap opera emotional life not the politics of the time. the 4 georges blur into each other for me so useful that it charted the family across the 18th cent and differentiated the kings as people. tended (presumably because of source material) to lump the princesses together, which, sad. bought to find out what became of them. might pick up fraser-princesses to see if more about them as individuals
Bills : Dickens and the Artists book of exhibition, essays about various aspects of influence of D on vic art. lots pictures which is what I bought it for.
Norwich : Christmas Cracker 2010 picked up from trestle of bargain books
Fleming: Barrow's Boys horrific and inappropriately-funny horrific story of naval officers, in career slump after peace broke out post napoleon, being despatched to claim unmapped globe for england. alternately africa, searching for nile on as little money as admiralty could give them, or arctic for NW passage. bought book for NW passage. fleming gets v attached to some officers, hates others, which brings passion to the story, have been recommending freely to people who ask what am reading at moment (is reprinting now, dammit)

August:

Pointon: Portrayal and the search for identity more about the identity than portraits
Enders: Gut one of those pop-sci books. largely about poo, written in over exclamatory childrens' tv presenter style. sim mary roach books - was too irritated by style (fault of translator? orig german language) to take in much
Sheridan: The Critic or a tragedy rehearsed
McNeill: The Scots Kitchen it's tradition and lore with old time recipes writer expects cook to deal with much offal. read for hist bits, will give to N in name of his scottish grandmother
Laurenstone: Bear Meets Girl gloriously ridic paranormal romance - lovelorn polar bear shifter. will give min for xmas for her crackfic needs. enjoyed
Beaton: Scandalous Lady Wright regency. lot of rubbish this month
Ribeiro: Ingres in Fashion representations of dress and appearance in ingres' images of women coffee table book, lavish illus, done chronological so also kinda biog ingres (who I thought was spanish in 1 of those unexamined assumptions)
Geoghegan: Robert Emmet a life early 19th c irish rebel. G keen to show how he not an idiot and had v cutting edge milit tactics. bloody awful poet though
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age pub date 1926 in stodgey late victorian prose, finished/published after author's death. takes sides shamelessly and openly (is team Brunhilde; hates team Fredegundis) studiedly vague about what atrocities his villains commited, stops narrative often to state that X was baptised yet not practising behaviour of a christian STILL READING IN OCTOBER
O'Connor: Ralph Richardson an actor's life lots of information but badly written gushy style. felt like a long profile in glossy magazine
Clark: Old Norse Made New essays on the post medieval reception of old norse literature and culture
Hart: The Popular Book a history of america's literary taste had lots feels re: this at time, know I enjoyed it but not sure beyond that now (typing up list 2 months later) a lot o digressions about literacy levels, religous fashions, temporary cults
Wahrman: Mr Collier's Letter Racks a tale of art and illusion at the threshold of the modern information age not my thing, hard to follow as freemasons.
Norman: Daughter of Lir wonderful melodramatic hist fic with minimal romance plot, reminds me of Gillian Bradshaw. This one is norman conquest of ireland, protagonist is a wronged abbess who goes to w of ireland to be an amazon then sets up private spy service with help of gormless viking, tubercular exprostitute, camp monk and her amazon sisters. Book takes fire when Henry II of england on-scene. bits v funny, bits made me sad for characters, ending is rocks fall everyone dies. loaned instantly to Christel on completion. note to self: read more diana norman

September:

Kowal: Valour and Vanity heist set in a/u regency where magic works. blurb references austen, is more heyer. 4th in sequence, am more meh about this than previous, poss as heist is Not My Thing
Ashwell: Indian Tribes of the SW re: canadian 1st nations, esp their artwork and such. not much more than a pamphlet
Ebest: The Dave Store Massacre a book itching to be made into a coen bros movie. is about a trade union strike in a walmart in a dying town in midwest usa, where the main characters are all grotesques and author has capra-like mix of rage at humanity and rage at what humanity to to each other
Wang: Star Wars board book, film done as posed plush figures
Turner: Little Mother Meg sequel 7 little australians. rare cos not often reprinted. not often re cos not that great (like when i tracked down books 4+5 in what katy did sequence)
Warner: Captain Marryat a rediscovery much horribler man than had known. the story about him trying to force a duel on stranger then encountering him in front nat gallery and brawling. knowing he started in navy after nelson died had not realised how much active milit service he experienced
O'Faolain: Irish Sagas and Folk Tales oxford myth series which i usually like, but this not the best retelling of cuchullain and fionn that have read. pedestrian
Macaulay: Building the Book - Cathedral showing his design decisions when putting together childrens architecture nonfic picturebook in an annotated anniversary edition.
Curwen: History of Booksellers WHICH HAD STARTED OVER A YEAR AGO, FINALLY FINISHED. victorian hack writing, super dull aka noncontroversial for 19th century bit which most of book (earlier timeline worth reading)
Brahms & Sherrin: Benbow Was His Name sellars and yeatman histfic with strong sense of horrors of naval life at start 18th cent. authors clearly soft spot for benbow
Kennedy: Tigers and Devils m/m romance about football enthusiasts in melbourne
Stroud: Lockwood and Co the hollow boy childrens action adventure with ghosts. moves too fast to reek of the grave. enjoyed
Glyn Jones: Clutch of Curious Characters extracts fr other biographies, collection of english eccentrics. mixed bag as far as enjoyability went.
Beaton: Step Aside Pops cartoons by Kate Beaton. less strong collection than hark a vagrant was.
Blishen: A Cack Handed War memoir of being conchie working land during 2nd world war. had liked his memoirs of teaching cos interested in the teaching. in this, was exasperated by his voice in the book and not distracted by any kind of interest in combine harvester techniques
Davies: Vanished Kingdoms STILL READING THIS IN OCTOBER

October:

Davies: Vanished Kingdoms curate's egg. doubtless brill on e europe which i wanted less detail on, bloody terrible on saorstat erin (where i feel he missed point of what was going on, i feel royalty a sideissue and he made a legal entity discontinuous with its before and after frankly) happy i read him on franks and north of britain (now scotland but then had alliances w wales) dark ages kingdom of rock
Cameron: Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women intro essay by woolf which had read, and fry on julia margaret c, which had not. mostly pictures.
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age THIS TOOK MONTHS TO FINISH partly cos of victorian stodginess of prose, partly disagreements w author (flinch making anti semitism, belief of 19th century that epileptics=moral degenerates, tendency to rhapsodise about the beauty of christianity) and how he is studiedly vague about nature of beastliness of people he disapproves of, and boy does he fanboy, for example, Brunhildis versus Fredegundis, basically because of "blood of kings" vs "lowborn" lowborn is his most crushing adjective. crashing snob. judges the hell out of people; this one was never happy except when betraying a friend, this one was genial yet dignified cos descended fr senators, etc.
Cox: Shopgirls the true story of life behind the counter based on tv doc, v shallow. knew most of this. best on victorians really, runs out of steam in 1960s
Waterfield: Below Stairs 400 years of servants portraits mostly for the illustrations but the essays worth reading. largely stately home orientated as cook generals don't get memorialised the same way as butlers.
Scott: The Royal Portrait image and impact veeeerrrry bland. writ by curator of queens galleries, did not realise till end book. tactfully skips abdication crisis by moving almost straight from victoria to elizabeth. largely about portraits as PR + image management not as artworks.
Cooper: National Portrait Gallery a portrait of britain all the pics one remembers from the gallery w blurb about life of subject. lovely does what it says on the tin book
Bryson: The Road to Little Dribbling sequel to notes/small/island. dialled it in. getting impatient w Bryson as I notice how sneery he is at waiters and shopstaff. towns he likes are "nice" "agreeable" "pleasant" such bland adjectives. towns he dislikes are the ones who sell him dry cake.
Yonge: The Castle Builders one of her good ones but not one of her best. confirmation, shifts in emotional dynamics between sisters, Y navigating showing lacklustre parenting while telling parenting must be respected
Shapiro: 1606 william shakespeare and the year of lear enjoyed even though lear not one of the plays i love. esp the bits on macbeth.
Funnell: Millais Portraits catalogue of an exhibition at nat gallery. victorian art and essays about background. multiple reproductions of same pics across book, a pity and a waste
Suede: Hothead m/m romance about firefighters. romance works for me if i like chars. crime or sff can survive horrid leads, biogs positively enhanced by them (1 my fave biogs is schliemann of troy by traill and traill develops the rage for schliemann as he researches his book) but i want to slap the hero of this
Darwin: It Was Snowing Butterflies 80p penguin mini book, extracted fr journey/beagle. will never read whole thing. why on earth did they include hid racist bit about fuego.
Laurenston: Beast Behaving Badly funny relaxing paranormal rom about were polarbear who plays icehockey. enjoyable nonsense, passing to min in her crackfic xmas parcel of (i hope) joy

November:

Allason-Jones: Women in Roman Britain v archaeological (as opposed to document based) short book about records of women across 4 centuries urban rural slave rich. wide range trying to be covered so few generalisations sane. glad i read it
Playfair: Flash of Lightning portrait of edmund kean author seems to hate women - he despises the main mistress, despises the wife (who didn't understand Kean, huh) on other hand, author despises other biographers of kean, so maybe not a woman thing
Anderson: Evil Emperor Penguin childrens graphic novel, got free
Hilton: Queens Consort loved this one. in order of reign, tells what can be extrapolated about qcs from wife of william conqueror to eliz of york. reading this fast was startled by how many med kings got toppled or came close to it, had been taught england was always stable unlike all those inferior nonenglish countries (v pro england hist teaching at school) will try read more about some of these periods, curious
Ortberg: Texts from Jane Eyre just because i love the toast website really. have been cooing over articles there w ladyJo at work. fun. like most humour books taken off web, disposable
anon: Arden of Feversham tru crime elizabethan play. edition sans notes, just quick intro
Disher: Mad Genius a biography of edmund kean with particular reference to the women who made and unmade him unfinished, just awful. thought it biography but he hist-novelled it with long streams of con of various characters, all of whom disher held in contempt as various flavours of fool. unfair to the cuckolded husband and to k's downtrodden wife, but surprisingly also made kean stupid too. oxfammed the book
Sherlock: West Indian Folk Tales
Fortey: Dry Store Room No 1 the secret life of the natural history museum anecdotal, gossipy, pitching case for environmentalism. v sexist in blokey fashion which i found less charming than he prob thought he was
de Vries: Victorian Advertisments picture book of reprods fr newspapers
Hazlitt: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays disappointment - this was rel early in his writing life, not as good as essays, v fanboy gushing
Garfield: To The Letter a celebration of the lost art of letter writing not as fun as mauve or on the map by same author, was a hist/survey not anthology of letters, nice if hadn't already seen books on same subject
Ragg: When Jane Austen ReVisited Lyme Regis not v good timetravel story set during ww2 (written and published 1943 i think) mostly comparison of how places had changed. good as topography, no plot discernable. pamphlet
Keown: Peggy Ashcroft list her theatre performances till 50s. dull, listy, got for photos of productions
Bayley: The Albert Memorial the monument in its social and architectural context about rows and committee wars while sculpting, also much re: symbolism of tangle of statuary at base
Foster: Star Trek Log 3 novelisation of animated episodes which never saw. meh
Peacock: Paper Garden mrs delany begins her lifes work at 72 mrs d fascinating if elitist (encountered her mostly via life of laetitia pilkington who is not mentioned here) but far far far too much about molly peacock in this book who i don't care about to begin with and aggressively don't care about after she grandstanded her way to forefront of book allegedly about someone else. considering a tag on librarything for narcissistic authors
Hahn: Tower Menagerie the amazing true story of the royal collection of wild beasts gift fr n.
Strom: Worse Things Happen At Sea leporello concertina form gra novel. lovely illustrations and a folk song about briny deep

December:

Welch: Nicholas Carey one of the less gripping of this hist fic series for children. cross between henty for the imperialist vim and geoffrey trease for the educational vim. story a game of two halves with hero foiling italian nationalists who want freedom then off to crimea where has a good war.
Milhous: Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695 - 1708 academic and mostly about logistics and business decisions and pop taste of time - financial not creative end. wanted to find out betterton's personality, limited sense of having done so.
Merrow: Pressure Head paranormal m/m romance about plumber in st albans with crime plot. fwiw, have ordered both sequels; liked hero and had not cared for prev book by this author
Freeman: Victorians and the Prehistoric came for dinosaurs, multiple chapters re: sediments. fuckit. to be fair, is about hist mentalities about creation, fascinating, but want more dinosaurs because am mental age 8
Lasdun: Victorians At Home picturebook about interior decor, mostly of rich homes. tied into biography - lasdun has a section on each house and tells you about the people who lived in the rooms pictured
Macfarlane: Family Life of Ralph Josselin a 17th century clergyman analysis of diary of interregnum parson who scrambling to keep parish when charles ii returns. dry and academic but author squeezes his data to the uttermost.
Bear, Monette: Apprentice To Elves is the female centred final third of trilogy (tehanu, hello!) from authors you suddenly realise were writing a more male centred high fantasy than you'd expect of them, like tehanu, expected to like more than did, felt protagonist bit marysuishly fab
Druts: Russian Gypsy Tales does what sez on tin. same memes as other folktales but was often joss-wheedoned by death of chars I thought were under protective hand of narrator. amoral re theft and the structure of stories unlike wellknown stories (even the predisney grimms)
Johnson (edit): Letters of Mrs Thrale sel letters.
Nussbaum: Rival Queens actresses performance and the 18th century british theatre interesting but more sociological + theoretical academic than I wished - wanted to beat author round head w strunk and white when (often) could have put same sentiment in anglosaxon not latinate. special chapters on kitty clive etc who I wanted to know more about
Beaver: Spice of Life pleasures of the victorian age ie, circus, panto, musichalls, zoos. v about workingclass culture, ignored official theatre which did have w-class in audience, writ by man in (70s?) who wistful for those good old days of racism sexism classism and zero health safety concerns
Chambers: Provoked m/m regency romance in Edinburgh
Rushton: Eighteenth Century Costume in the National Museums and Galleries of Merseyside lots pictures, text largely about cut and changing shape of garments. more men and commoners than in some hist-fashion books
James: Lois McMaster Bujold masters of science fiction fannish monograph
Burrows: I Think I Can See Where You're Going Wrong and other wise and witty comments from guardian readers made me laugh even if is off web. edited to point of safety thank god
Brody: Irrepresssible the life and times of jessica mitford
Aurisch: High Society the art of franz xaver winterhalter treacle I know but gorge coffee table book of pics. empress eugenia looks surprisingly like someone I worked with on ox st
Merrow: Relief Valve
Merrow: Heat Trap m/m romance about paranormal plumber in e anglia who solves crime
Vicary, Francis, Carpenter: Blackie Girls' School Story Omnibus xmas gift fr jo. girls of the rose dormitory, which philip larkin loved (?), total headfuck as promised
Barton: Historic Costume for the Stage writ between wars (cuts off 1914) revised in 60s. american author, so from colonial on is interested mostly in US wasps. ea section starts impressionistic + inaccurate take on what happened in that era, then onto mens incl hair, womens incl hair, children, accessories, what style to do the set in for period, how to sew, what cheaper fabric will pass, lists useful artists/illus books to check out. fun but could have done with more illus, some of the text was unclear (was reading late at night, prob not at my most attentive)

end of year!!!

books read in 2014

2014-01-07T17:46:26Z

maybe less candyfloss this year?-

January:

Bevington: This Wide And Universal Theater shakespeare in performance then and now his hobbyhorse here is the plays within the plays and the disguises and false identities, to the point that measure for measure + midsummer nights d looked like same play through his eyes. lot about how originally staged in jacobean conditions and how that changed over time
Jamison: Fic why fanfiction is taking over the world it's not taking over the world but let that pass assortment essays, assortment levels of agreement with, worth it for the good bits
Larsen: Selected Works of T S Spivet selfconsciously quirky, illus and annotated, road trip novel about unconvincing child genius with issues, hoboes it to smithsonian where is unexpected. Film made, due out 2014. Loved start, it lost grip on me during journey when ginormous flashback to scientist g-grandmother was nested into the narrative - stories within stories within stories always lose the momentum for me sorry scherezade + wuthering Hs
Price: Turbulence Collection m/m bermuda triangle sf-fantasy (v handwavy science even by my standards + I grew up a TOS-trek fan) much plottier than your general m/m romance, was written as online serial but the pacing still worked in single volume, liked the chars
Mingle: Pursuit of Mary Bennet yet another P+P sequel, liked it (mary a fave) one for the fangirls
Orwell: Such, Such Were The Joys fragment autobiog, his awful schooldays, pamphlet length
Waller: The Perfect Man the muscular life and times of eugendandow victorian strongman bit dull really + that dread thing, writ by descendant
Mortimer: Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
Drake: Scandal of the Year bad regency romance
Balogh: Dark Angel/Lord Carew's Bride regency 2 in 1 volume. always forget how good balogh is for that itch
Lanyon: Stranger Things Have Happened an adrien english write your own damn story choose your own adventure based on book 1 of AEnglish crime m/m series, fun
Townsend Warner: Mr Fortune's Maggot thought had read this! joy to find new-to-me STW
Scheideman: Policing The Fringe the curious life of a small town mountie because duesouth. not v well written anecdotal stuff by policeman who has no enthusiasm for political correctness but seems a good egg if you don't touch his buttons re gay or skin colour.
Walton: What Makes This Book So Great re-reading the classics of fantasy and sf a shaming number of which I didn't know + ought to. long sequence re: vorkosigan got me reading this, less interested in Brust, bounced off jhereg book I read. Several I feel I should read but homework-feeling in advance about
VandeVelde: Cloaked In Red retelling, times 8, of ltl red riding hood. she did same thing, brilliantly, in RUMPLESTILTSKIN PROBLEM. very cleverly done.
Vandermeer, Roberts (edit): Thackery T Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases mixed quality, multiauthor, got for the Kage Baker short story. the alternate-victorian frame made it iffy whether the sexism + racism was ironic or what. Should have read in sips not gulps
Lisle: Diplomacy of Wolves werewolves yay, + I like lisle but this is meh for me, not sure why. terrible cliffhanger ending, is duology
Lanyon: Strange Fortune m/m a/u fantasy in world based on raj india, h rider haggard in aspiration. did not grab me, didn't care about the characters
Randall: The Wind Done Gone gone with the wind (which have not read only seen film) from pov of Scarlett's slave halfsister

Febuary:

Mitchell: On Your Marks not a mrs bradley mystery, a career novel with bit of crime cos she couldn't help herself, about training as gym teacher (which Gladys M was) above average as a career novel + I speak as someone whose school library was crammed with bodley head titles like Pam!Air Hostess! or Vicky Becomes A Vet!
Halimi: Milk For The Orange Tree autobiog of human rights lawyer who involved in Algerian civil war defending rebels against france. was frenemies w de beauvoir + friends w sartre. feminist. angry woman. Not sure how much of the clunkiness of the read was down to translator - lot sentence fragments and general ranty feel to book, some sequence of events v cloudy.
Davitt: Spoken From The Heart m/m romance set in tudoresque theatre - not histfic cos inexplicable made-up religion + made-up geography. I like Davitt but not overwhelmed by this one
Marsden: The Zombie She Carried harlequin mills&boone slash zombiefic mashup. Hero loathsome on so many levels which is down to him being oldskook alphahole circa 1970s M&B. deliberate badfic really weirds me out - is so easy to do it unintentionally, why do it intentionally?
Lanyon: In Sunshine Or In Shadow short stories 1
Aries (edit): Western Sexuality practice and precept in past and present times acad essays circa early 80s. was put off by godawful early piece re: gay culture which took all the evidence from surveys then skewed through a heteronormative sociologist's pov which had some unexamined assumptions about the rightness of monogamy being biologically programmed and had seen torch song trilogy 1ce too many
Brennan: Iron Night vampire urban fantasy, not too romancey, nice take on vampire mythos
Ashelford: The Art of Dress clothes and society 1500-1914 lush coffee table book, taken fr Nat Trust holdings as much as poss, has bits of documentation (biog snippets fr letters in same house or diaries) re original wearers. spec chapter on domestic servants' liveries. also spec chapter on childrens wear which I haven't finished as of end month, distracted by the pics and is too heavy to be portable (is essentially coffeetable book on thick paper, gorg photos of posted garments and obscure portraits from various manor houses owned by nat trust)
Lileks: Gallery of Regrettable Food xmas gift fr N, comedy off website, 50s recipe illustrations with snide captions by lileks. which I laughed at, to be honest.
Wodehouse: Leave It To Psmith because psmith was my fave wodehouse character, him + ukridge + I hadn't read this one. feeling meh about it
Wynne Jones: Islands of Chaldea had low expectations as is posthumous-finished by her sister but is a solid WynneJones, it had her tone of voice. V sad this is the last new book ever to read by her.

March:

Briggs: Night Broken the mercy thompson series is starting to buckle under the weight of its own backstory the way late buffy did - several minor recurring chars that I could not place as smoothly as Briggs expected of her constant readerz.
Ferguson: The Brontes Went to Woolworths liked, disliked, neutral with slight dislike at end. shillyshallied over sympathy - sisters charming at first but over long haul of novel, cliquish + almost bullying.
Benedict: O Brother Juniper the account of the life of a loveable and unpredictable medieval monk retelling of hagiography tales, aimed at about 7yearolds. disappointing (cos aimed at such a young readership?), benedict's wildwest stories much more fun.
Ellis: How to be a Heroine or what I've learned from reading too much breezy whistlestop tour of role models in girl-lit - she hates what katy did, etc, and how they formed Ellis. V fluffy but pleasant read.
MacKenzie: British War Films 1939 -1945 bit dry, mostly about how much input RAF + army brass had into content of films + how they used leverage they had when producers trying to get access to footage of equipment + troops.
Perl: Me and Fat Glenda 1970s children's novel, aimed at 10yrolds
Neumeier; Black Dog alt take on werewolves, rather good dystopia, mexican protagonists not at all keen on weather in new england, sold as ya fantasy, lighter on the romance angle than most urb-fantasy (hurray!)
Hardy: Artist As Narrator 19th century narrative art in england and france exhib catalogue
Beerbohm: Around Theatres coll dram crit essays from when he took over from GBS. disappointing.

April:

reading v slowly this month, cannot concentrate

~~Alexander: Shattered Glass~~ unfinished, terrible, tedious and confusing
Mitchell: Bad Attitude fluff m/m romance
Brennan: Tropic of Serpents 2nd in lady trent memoirs alternate victoriana re ladyscientist who flounces to tropical parts to study biology of (nonsentient) dragons
Marvin: Wolf (reaktion animal series) like a coffeetable book in paperback, lots pics, text not v depth, overview how humans percieve wolves, v emphasis on environmental politics in USA overall. not enough about actual wolf behaviour explained for layman, is what I wanted from this. too much stuff about how-wolf-appears-in-lit-folklore that already knew.
Dolan: Ladies of the Grand Tour massmarket re posh 18th cent women doing girlz gone wild in europe. excellent contemporary quotes from people I never heard of, v smooth read, lovely.
Forty: Hans Memling reproductions flemish med painting

May:

Salmon: Storytelling bewitching the modern mind more a diatribe about awful modern ways + soundbite mentality than about narrative as such
Brennan: Tropic of Serpents vol 2 of lady trent fantasy memoirs. v post colonial take on victorian type country under economic + military pressure from brit-alike empire. lady t only there to look at dragons in their swamp. less fun than book 1 but still recommendable
Pacat: Captive Prince awful did not finish (good cover crap book)
Flanders: Writer's Block .cosy crime with grumpy middle aged woman who edits in publishing house, enjoyed for voice of protagonist. gave to n as part of overdue bday present
Layman: Chew vol 8 feeling chew jumped shark some books ago. more plot elements than I can cope with keeping straight in head
Girling: Soho and Theatreland Through Time mostly photos .then and now all places I've worked + shopped the last couple decades
Leary: The Book Peddling Parson an account of the life and works of Mason Locke Weems patriot pitchman author and purveyor of morality to the citizenry washington's 1st biographer lot of quotes from his various pamphlets, v entertaining early american bookseller.
Sutcliffe: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe Photographer a selection of his work picturebook
Wilcox: V & A Gallery of Fashion picturebook (lovely)
Miller: The Magician's Book a skeptic's adventures in narnia not the usual for/against christian elements in narnia is about a disillusioned fan's revisit and thinking about what she got out of the books, how she responded, why, and shared conversations w other fans/exfans. enjoyed
Becton: Charlotte Collins a continuation of jane austen's pride and prejudice yet another sequel austen. the less lizzie there is in these the better the book generally. is good so far, have read so many crap things have low bar on this subgenre

June:

Muldoon: New Selected Poems irishry, v anecdotal poems
Foster: Words Alone Yeats and his inheritances based on lecture series, precursors of his sense of celticness largely
Cosslett, Baxter: Vagenda a zero tolerance guide to the media based off internet, largely rant re: womens' magazines, lot of shouting agreement at pages
Wodehouse: Tales of Wrykyn early stuff + it shows. not as funny as st austens (cos much more sport which i hate?) lot of stories only make sense if you can follow cricket scores
Mair: Fourth Forger william ireland and the shakespeare papers 18th century scam with faked up shakespeare play by fanboy of Chatterton. Story told much more pithily and funnily by trewin in night has been unrule (tamped down to a single chapter there) wanted to know more, got this. it has more quotes from letters and documents and citations, as mair a book writer not journalist thanks trewin but essentially same story
Worsley: The Courtiers splendour and intrigue in the georgian court at kensington palace v george II based, mostly about royals and royal mistresses + top of tree as there's where the documentation is. v tomalin-fraser type pop history
Lindow: Trolls an unnatural history nonfic folklore if that can be a thing. 1st references through to what they mean to people
Campbell (edit): Renaissance Faces van eyck to titian mostly picturebook, catalogue of exhibition portraits
Fenton: Dancing to the Pipers gothic-lite romcom, bored by it cos not my thing, but good if were in the mood. hero reminds me of Aiken's Butterfly Picnic
Weston: Covering Shakespeare a rundown of the plays by aging luvvie who disgruntled that only his ego admires him the way he feels he deserves
Brown, St Clair: The Distant Mirror reflections on young adult historical fiction v american in focus so lots of the texts I never read or heard of, somewhat dry in style. I always wanted a book on UK histfic for children; the Trease, Treece, Sutcliff, Uttley, Willard, Burton, Garfield etc of it all. The general stuff about parameters of hist fic are worth getting it for.

July:

Dahmus: Seven Medieval Historians aimed at teens or freshers, biographical essays and a bit about what-they-wrote about 1 historian per chapter starting w procopius (spelling?) textbooky but about my reading level, so there's that.
Waldegrave: The Poets' Daughters dora wordsworth and sara coleridge interesting women, less interesting book. Bits where waldegrave launched into making up stream of consciousness for both - should have done a novel if that what she wanted to write.
Adlard: In Sweet St James' Clerkenwell the musical coalman and his friends in the golden age of a london suburb title longer than book (local history pamphlet) various eccentrics of 18th century who would not warrant entire book but easily worth an essay: good find in 2nd hand rummage
Durcan: Crazy About Women poems based on Nat Gallery Dublin. ua fanthorpe did same thing (better) with Nat Gallery london - painting on page facing poem it inspired. Durcan overused sex! (look! rude words!sex!) and anachronisms (ha!ha! this will never wane!) - it felt like he'd run out of steam on the project but choked a book out like it was homework.
Holt: The Carlist Wars In Spain have been wanting an armchair history of this for years, everything non-textbook that's in print I could find on spain history is civil war or moorish rule or armada at pinch. Too milit-hist for me; wanted goss on royal family but so happy to find more (think I found a bit in jj norwich's hist of mediteranean which whetted appetite)
Durrell, Jennings, Thomas (RS): Penguin Modern Poets bought for jennings
Stibbe: Love, Nina it read like a v long monologue by joyce grenfell, same comic timing, same deadly eye for killer detail. this not intended as insult. surprised alan bennett did not love it madly

still reading shocking amounts fanfic via smartphone

August:

Hammet: The Thin Man mostly cos loved Nick n Nora films films are better this time
Reynolds: The Darcys of Derbyshire another P+P sequel. short. most the best sentences from P+P, transposed artistically. oxfammed.
Vecellio: Clothing of the Renaissance World europe asia africa the americas reproduction with added forewords lovely if blurred woodcuts, fun text in translation
Smallwood (edit): Players of Shakespeare 6 all hist-plays edition. actors describe playing major role in S to patchy effect.
Oman: The Epic of Qayaq the longest story ever told by my people inuit quest-saga hunting shapechanging journey odysseus in arctic furs.
Fadiman: Ex Libris confessions of a common reader essays about reading, was overhyped at time of publication, well enough but will not reread, going to oxfam
Rees Brennan, Larbalestier: Team Human ya fantasy, the galaxy quest that v gently + lovingly interrogates Twilight from the wrong perspective. ReesB always strong on heroines who have agency and focus on friendship as well as romance (gave to jamie trafalgar after)
Toibin: Lady Gregory's Toothbrush v short biog of her
Rappaport: A Magnificent Obsession victoria albert and the death that changed the british monarchy one of those interesting topic- meh author books
Dunn: Lord Roworth's Reward fluff-regency set through waterloo with Rothschild as supporting char
Rodi: Bitch In A Bonnet reclaiming jane austen from the stiffs the snobs the simps and the saps MST of 1st 3 (publication order) ja novels, originally a blog which I used to skim. not as funny as he thinks he is and hasn't read edgeworth or burney - bits I agree, bits I don't but is interesting to consider his pov, he a writer of comedy of manners in modern America. thinks everyone except him reads her as mills n boone, is wrong. He hates my fave hero (tilney) grrr. Tilney, be honest, is only hero who could do smalltalk. Is esp good on Mansfield and what he thinks were her self-set aims in going that direction.

September:

reading so few actual books,

Carey: Girl With All The Gifts zombie YA dystopia pimped to me by Jamie Trafalgar. Loved at first, frozen w horror at vivisection scene and stopped reading, must finish
Rodi: Bitch in a Bonnet reclaiming.. etc last 3 books. rodi has major crush on Wentworth
Fraser: Perilous Question the drama of the great reform bill 1842 I love frasers massmarket history but there seemed too many people and too much happening to fit in the book she gave us. when she does a bio of a person it focusses the book more.
Rosenthal: Almost a Gentleman regency romance, rosenthal tends to have some extraneous theme in these. (booksellers daughter was riffing off darnton's forbidden bestsellers of pre revolutionary france + had lots of book trade in 18th cent provincial france stuff, apparently rosenthal's partner is bookseller.) this one is crossdressing heroine being a dandy a la alan cumming in plunkett+maclaine film. prologue giving her awful female life, skips couple years, is in situ critiquing new generation of debs. felt had left out the interesting bit (don't care about romance) how heroine finance this? how get past old boys network to find place in ton? All the good bits left out.
Stewart: The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare a tale of forgery and folly William Henry Ireland, not especially great telling of his story

October:

Southern: Medieval Humanism and Other Studies acad essays
Hoover: Treasures of Morrow childrens sf. not overwhelmed, read cos is sequel to book I loved as child
Lanyon: Boy With The Painful Tattoo holmes/moriarity crimegayromance series. read at a sitting.
Grebanier: The Great Shakespeare Forgery a new look at the career of william henry ireland which is the version I'd rec others to read (4th forger is too dry tho it gives more direct quotes)
Stewart illus Riddell: Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death lemony snicket vein, less captivating despite gorg pictures from riddell. got free via work
Stewart: Character and Motive in Shakespeare largely an indignant rebuttal to rival academic guilty of lit-critting Shakespeare while german. On a point by point basis with added sneering. less fun than hoped for.
Miller: Year of Reading Dangerously how fifty great books saved my life reader's diary.

November:

Thomas: Where's My Shoggoth? birthday picturebook fr Neil, cutesey illus, lovecraft universe
Macdonald: Camera a victorian eyewitness based on 1970s tv show, coffeetable amounts of illustrations, mostly documentary stuff not art, arranged by genres, eg: war: empire: seaside: urban: really good find in oxfam
Harline: Polygamous Wives' Writing Club carlas xmas present, lot of diaries/letters of midvictorian mormon women, arranged with editorial text filling out what their lives were. unsensational. unifying conceit of the editor, of them meeting, a bit trying too hard - many lived within a day's journey of each other but no ref in any diary of other women of book, also, generational gaps noticeable.
Castillo Price: Meatworks did not finish, hated protagonist
Conefrey: How To Climb Mont Blanc In A Skirt author horribly avuncular, book too bitty, too many women and only a snapshot of each. patronising sexist asides pissed me off, should have been warned by that fucking title
Lackey: Blood Red not really based on red riding hood (prologue was) and heroine was boilerplate lackey-heroine. should have sworn off ML years back (but I love refried fairy tales)
Turner (edit): Victorian Parlour Poetry cheesetasically glorious with glutinous sentiment and wallowing deaths. may send to pirate-sarah
Griest: Mudie's Circulating Library And The Victorian Novel book was mostly interested in logistics of book circulation, a lot about how the profit margin worked in vic publishing, bit dry despite lovely line drawings which lured me in.
Avery (edit): Hole In The Wall and other stories bought for Yonge's Little Rick Burners, most affordable way of getting it. Other stories well worth reading too, ewing, molesworth and such.

December :

Meyer: Scarlet refried fairytale, redhood as dystopian sf for teens. LOVED book 1 (cinder) not as pushed about this one. did not finish. had flu, gave up or hated a lot of books this autumn
Holland (edit): Great Shakespeareans : Garrick Kemble Siddons Kean essays
de Horne Vaizey: The Ignorance of Sybilla short stories. best to read de H Vaizey in novel length because I've realised it's the asides + background colour I love not the plots
Lane: Purely For Pleasure essays in biography that never made book length for lane because she came to hate subject or there wasn't enough data to make a book or whatever. enjoyed
Elemental: Letters Between Gentlemen highly arch steampunk which read like a crossover of Sherlock with Prof Branestawm. Fun, if less hilarious than its author clearly felt it was. nice pictures.
Brown: Whitehall the street that shaped a nation there was a good book hiding in here. written by political journalist clearly of tory persuasion with a hardon for churchill that meant a whole chapter on him - this jumped from being chronological to being on a building by building basis to some other system entirely. ended confused. sad.
Pastis: Timmy Failure mistakes were made childrens book about a boy and his polar bear and his detective agency. unreliable narrator for the 8/10 age range. was charmed
Ingalls Wilder: Pioneer Girl the annotated autobiography roots of the little house prairie series. great end to year's reading, lovelily produced book, fascinating.

Books read in 2013

2013-01-08T16:06:24Z

I read too much, I read too much disposable guff.

January:

Chesney aka Beaton: Daphne six sisters
Chesney aka Beaton: First Rebellion heyerish regencies.
Routh: Who's Who in Tudor England
Armstrong: How Not to Write a Novel confessions of a midlist author bitter (very) crimewriter vents about how publishing really works. Many namechecks of own books. Sympathetic (it IS v few people who get fame + fortune out of it) till he said he did the trick with a hair between pages 17 + 18 of (unsolicited) manuscript to see had pub's reader read it all through. At which point I went, fuck off armstrong. It often doen't take till p17 to say NO. a browser in a shop will drop a book after a paragraph. publishers go bust by saying YES too often to uncommercial books, not by NOes.
Reynolds: Mr Darcy's Refuge a pride + prejudice variation
Murphy: Heart of Stone already know this is going to oxfam, 1/3 into it unfinished, paranorm romance with gargoyles as featured monsters. nice world setup here, am indifferent to the chars.
Martin: Samuel Johnson a biography gift fr N
Brown: Rise of Western Christendom 200 to 1000ad. undergraduate synthesis, loving it
Garner (edit): the Guizer anthol of folktales aimed children (70s? 80s?) patchy, disappointment. trickster and fool is the theme
Coleridge: Number One spck working class novel, edwardian, stultifyingly dull n snobbish, v sim to yonge's cottage novels
Rice (edit): It Was a Dark and Stormy Night fluff but i love the website
Hartman: Seraphina have not fallen in love with a dragon fantasy so hard since temeraire. YA but massive crossover potential for adult sff readers, also, UKcover is gorgeous
Grace: Darcy's Decision given good principles is trying to byronic up poor Mr D, anachronisms + americanisms abound, odd moment when brand new tombstone of D's parents is given the full deserted churchyard treatment (ivyclad, toppling romantically) when D's parents barely cold, talking about picturebooks in a way that makes me suspect author not knowing what georgian chapbooks looked like, etc. mostly irritated by byronic-ing darcy. darcy is not colin firth thanks.
Simkins: What's My Motivation? memoir of jobbing character actor. self deprecating yet smug, comes across slight lech whenever women appear + veiled contempt for all nonactors. book fine, just icked by author.
Spaner: Dreaming in the Rain how vancouver became hollywood north by northwest written by journalist, it shows. shallow. name droppy. author is self appointed hipster, judges without giving reason for judgement, director focussed to point of not acknowledging cameraman, actors or general committee nature of filmmaking. entire chapter wasted on errol flynn's deathbed. errol f had tangental connection to canadian film.
Thwaite: Glimpses of the Wonderful bio of gosse snr off Father + Son. Thwaite did excellent bio of emily tennyson, is why picked this up. really readable inn uglow-tomalin territory. He goes to newfoundland for years! which thrilled me (as 1 of the exploitative feckers from sw england cos from poole, poor relative or neighbour of families that stripmined newfoundland resources for generations)
Bradshaw: Bearkeeper's Daughter rps histfic re: empress theodora. love how immersive + sensory bradshaw's hist novels are but part through this one, started mary sue test on protagonist + he scored worryingly high. angsty childhood, excels at disparate skillsets, every powerful char is in awe of him, he thinks is just regular guy while outdoing all rivals. beacon@alexandria also kinda marysue in retrospect
~~Banks: Player of Games~~ not engaged by story so far or hero - got cheap (£1.80) so could speak from knowledge about writing style. 1 resolution working, am abandoning bks that don't work for me, unfinished
Ruck: Clouded Pearl absolute (gender essentialist) crap about lovelorn flapper, written between wars. ruck's discussed in couple of my books about development romance genre in 20th cent. 1920s edition, jacket art is amazing. contemplating new tag for librarything, to be called: I hate the protagonist
Collins: Armadale clarisse been egging me to read wilkie for years. the noble victims of plot swindles amazingly trusting bodies. crowded plot, page turny. FIVE chars all called allan armadale, did wilkie do this on a bet? fully appreciate clarisse's enthusiasm for Lydia Gwilt, the servelan of the victorian novel. Initially liked wooster!armadale but he'd be maddening in real life, byronic!armadale I warmed to the way I think author wanted me to. ending felt copout; did wilkie run out of paper or get bored? (sudden)
Wynne Jones: Reflections coll essays, speeches, memoir pieces, interview. some repetition (not written to be a single unit), wish could read a proper biography of her.
Gamble, Tucker: Family Fictions anne fine morris gleitzman jacqueline wilson and others essays re childrens writers, makes me want to read more of them than the sampler have already tried of each these 3

not finished armadale, got bogged down (but wicked miss gwilt has arrived in plot rather than offscreen, will gobble it up now)

February

Mullany: Dedication regency romance. M does older than usual h/h - 43 + 37 in this case, and she make me laugh. felt a bit cramped; too much plot in too few pages. apparently she was instructed to edit it down to length required by category M&B romance
Turner: The Phoney War on the Home Front fluffy anecdotal account from culling newspapers of the time, under vaguely categorised chapters. pretty much does what i wanted from the book send 2 carla?
Hornby: Complete Polysyllabic Spree coll "wot I read this month" articles by ladlit novelist. v funny about own failures to engage, what he likes, anti lit snobbery, wanting to read it in shop then not being bothered later.. Some of titles mentioned will keep eye out for, but NH's taste is pretty much exactly kind of books I don't want myself
Beauman: Shapely Ankle Preffer'd history of the lonely hearts ad 1695-2010 there's a good book to be written on this and this isn't it
Layman: Chew vol 6 gloriously tasteless + shamelessly silly melodrama gra nov.
Little: Set In Stone the face in medieval sculpture exhib catalogue w essays
Hicks: Girl in a Green Gown the history + mystery of the arnolfini portrait massmarket, enjoyed
Ore: Time's Child sf. like the premise, none of chars have any emotional reaction to plot, all their actions dictated by pure rationality, to same degree for every char; now i don't care either. disappointing.
Dixon: Roman Family acad hist book, a does wot title sez on the cover book, got cheap ed. regrettably covered in pencil marks. prev gentle reader underlined. Every. Fucking. Word.
Gleitzman: Worry Warts on account of prev litcrit book about gleitzman et al. is fun. cheerful child orientated vulgarity
Garstang (edit): The British Face a view of portraiture 1625-1850 exhib catalogue, text is meh, got for pics
Nixon: Beats Me Claude picturebook, wild west. log cabins, apple pies, orphans.
Davis: The Ides of April falco the next generation crime proof, already on sale on foyles so didn't read early after all. is on level with the series (which I fell out of habit of reading few bks back)
Murphy: Year of Disappearances political killings in cork 1921 1922 to find out about dunmanway killings. was going to rant extensively re: this - my god, wot a woffley, long on rhetoric, short on unarguable data, round + round in circles, book. agree w basic premise (rule of fear + reprisal in aftermath of brits out of cork - but based on family stories not, emphatically NOT, cos of murphy's text) 1 of those that have hypothesis in paragraph A, probably this happened in para B, + "as we proved" in para D sans extra data. Terribly written.
Wilson: The People's Bible remarkable history of the king james version am interested cos of social hist/lit influence but this aimed at xtians. scenesetting chapter re: medieval beliefs made me want throw against wall - way over simplifying, left me mistrustful of author's judgement + communication skillz.
Sutcliff: Silver Branch ancient romans in brit child hist fic. never read before
Knapp: Invisible Romans prostitutes outlaws slaves gladiators ordinary men + women the romans that history forgot massmarket social hist
Peyton: Flambards Divided read trilogy as girl, this is bk 4. read for what, closure? would have been more gripped by relationship woes of christina then. ending v rolleyes.
Hennessy: Junior Officers' Reading Club killing time and fighting wars unsettlingly keen on bullets, which, why is that surprise? 1 of those books where distaste for author voice made me itchy with book.

still finishing invis romans - been a v roman empire month for reading

March:

Mark: They Do Things Differently There teenfic, acerbic in a way that reminded me of jane gardam, 2 misfits sharing a fantasy version of a dull town they're stuck in
Brett: Dead Giveaway c paris crimefic. v fond of the series, will pass to N next time i see him. not one of good ones in series
Williams: Effie a victorian scandal from ruskin's wife to millais' muse W is v pro-Effie (every1 whor writes this up picks a side)
Brett: A Series of Murders c paris crimefic
Jay Gould: Urchin in the Storm science not my thing, felt v stupid
Colby Sprague: Shakespeare and the Actors the stage business in his plays 1660 -1905 with bibliographical notes + plates mostly victorian, quite listy re: actions at specific points
Briggs: Frost Burned
De Horne Vaizey: Big Game edwardian tosh, not as much fun as expected from her
Erdoes: AD 1000 living on the brink of the apocalypse really shit pop-hist tied together by life of pope sylvester. want to hunt down author + slap him for lazy generalisations and cliches abounding
Avery: Child's Eye a history of childrens books through 3 centuries only a pamphlet connecting a brochure of visuals from a programme. nice though
Finch: The Iambics of Newfoundland notes from an unknown shore travelogue by nature writer. miles better than horrible gimlette book, more empathic, more listening, less narcissistic (that note was early in reading book, now have finished book, am bit ooked by some of the sextalk/objectification in later chapters set, from internal evidence, after his divorce)
Trease: Seas of Morning 1970s histfic puffin, usual flat characterisation, tepid boy/girl romance, lots history spoonfeeding. siege of rhodes. v hatefilled toward islam
Asbjornsen, Moe: Norwegian Folktales pantheon selection w 19th century illus badly + smudgily reproduced
Brennan: Natural History of Dragons a memoir by lady trent steampunk fauxmemoir of battleaxe dragon naturalist - actually bought in hb. cover is lush, which made me check it out. love it hard so far.
Canavan: Magician's Guild got as proof copy before teen edition publication in 2007, only read now. Was put off by hype on publication. Is page turny but not all that + a bag of chips. Can talk about it to custs anyhow, not enough bothered to read bks 2 + 3 of trilogy
Farmer: Second Impressions another P+P sequel. As austen fanfic, prose/sentences above average, as histfic, mediocre, as novel short on plot, is prolonged travelogue of postWaterloo continent. all the chars stupider than austen wrote them
Fowler: Casebook of Bryant & May 1st graphic nov of crimefighting duo. read v hastily before wrapping as N's bday present. May looks *exactly* how he did in my head. B looks more tortoisey than expected.
Avery: Italian Spring children's. one of avery's victorian piecesfeel am not enjoying as much as it deserves
Langmuir: Imagining Childhood yale coffeetable artbook, re: child images in western tradition. lush illus
King: Michael Davitt pamphlet length biog ir patriot. would like to read a fuller bio of him; this very terse, designed for cramming students
Thomas: Victorian Narrative Painting pb coffeetable art book, lots pics
Townsend Warner: Innocent & the Guilty, short stories none of which had read before.
Hope: Londoners' Larder english cuisine from chaucer to the present massmarket fun
Bowron: Romantic Realists Revolutionaries masterpieces of 19th century german painting from the museum of fine arts leipzig picturebook of reproductions
Langloh Parker: Australian Legendary Tales v terse, quite alien stories, collected 189?, foreword of breathtaking racism by andrew lang (am i overreacting to his vocab? savages, paeolithic, etc).
Camden Lucey: Lovely Peggy life + times of margaret woffington another theatre hist bio. she started in dublin, have seen her portrait. biog not v grippingly written
Hanawalt: Wealth of Wives women law + economy in late medieval london
Crouch: Ivan stories of old russia folktale anthol w illus
Goldman: John Everett Millais illustrator + narrator illus pamphlet exhib catalogue
Pointon: William Mulready a book with catalogue to accompany the exhibition
Trollope: Journey to Panama and other stories even in s story form AT's ample + rambly + blokish
Birch: Chinese Myths and Fantasies folktales aimed children oxford myth+legend series reliably readable

April:

Colby Sprague + Trewin: Shakespeare's Plays Today some customs and conventions of the stage 2 drama critics at rant, mid 20th century.
Datlow + Windling: Queen Victoria's Book of Spells an anthology of gaslamp fantasy intro sez gaslamp does not equal steampunk, we'll see
Costain: Three Edwards pop hist of plantaganets by journalist, bombastic - some of his books got made into hollywood films starring like of tyrone power, v black shield of falworth presentation. abandoned around the death wallace
Busiek: Superman Secret Identity got for N's next bag o goodies. unusual art 4 the franchise, more emotion than i expect fr superman
Keating: Murder Must Appetise mini-book rant about golden age crimefic
Jones: Movies In 15 Minutes ten biggest movies ever for people who can't be bothered snarky fauxscripts of blockbusters (Troy, my fave, not in book)
Grenby + Immel (edit): Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature essays on various themes, some terrible, some fucking obvious, some moderately interesting
Ashton: 152 Strand a radical address in victorian london ought to love this based on subject, is well written, not known anything re: chapman before, struggling to pay attention
Edwards: The Aversive Clause self consciously quirky overly gimmicky short-short stories by new writer, have prob with s stories as they end just as settling into it, never make emotional connect to characters. ETA: some of the stories are sticking with me, the hittite invasion one about yuppifying a house, the deeply bitter recipe for tuna, the zombie story
Howard, Mittelmark: Read This Next and discover your 500 new favourite books listy and snarky, cd be useful for work
Roach: Packing For Mars the curious science of life in space grossout humour not my thing, so not finding this crazyfunny like reviews said, but riveting-horrifying, cures you of ever wanting be astronaut, too much about faeces, wanted her pursue some stuff she only glanced at

May:

Foulkes (edit): Shakespeare and the Victorian Stage multiauthor acad essays
Webster: Dear Enemy sequel daddy longlegs, mush
Schofield: Malarky gift fr prettyh
Armentrout: Obsidian ya fantasy paranorm romance, free off publisher. can see it being liked by its goal market. selfreflexive, postTwilight, re: alphahole male lead giving off signals that say:RUN. heroine needs rescuing a lot. science bit of sf is handwavy to star trek levels, liked it.
Healey: Wives of Fame mary livingstone jenny marx emma darwin my copy has acerbic pencilled comments in margin about woolly passages cliches and unsubstantiated claims. this may be affecting my take on this. was sad about marginalia when picked up but is like sharing the read with someone else
Lanyon: Come Unto These Yellow Sands m/m romance w murder set in midwest college. liked the hero but a bit obliquely told
Collins: Jane Austen + the Clergy dull plodding a/c of huge place of c of e in A's life, how that fed into her work. v dull
Kowal: Without a Summer fantasy of the heyer plus magic subgenre.
George: London Life in the 18th Century chock full of statistics + percentages, very dry, got bogged down in this for a fortnight. also, pretty miserable how grim people had it
Fowler: Invisible Ink how 100 great writers disappeared got for N who got me all keen on fowler. book re: books, enthusing about no-longer-readily-avail bestsellers of past, brief biogs of authors, made me want track down couple things. Faint smug at how many I already knew - silly, after couple decades in bkselling, to be smug about smattering of knowledge have painfully acquired
Terry: Food Without Fuss 200 new recipes + a few thoughts 1944 gb cookbook (rationing, so) horrific. "wartime trifle" would make the baby jesus weep. on other hand the salad w scraped plums lettuce + surprise raw cabbage is a laugh
see recipe for orange souffle:
as this is a highly nourishing dish in itself it is especially suitable for serving after a rather scanty meal.
Count one tablespoon dried egg per person
Mix well each tablespoon of dried egg with one level teaspoon of custard powder or plain flour. Per tablespoon of dried egg add a quarter of a pint of orangeade, which can be made with squash or essence.
Stir well and bake - or steam in boiling water until set
South: Of Paupers and Peers regency romance, impoverished (but is he) hero, amnesia trope whichn I know is ridic but I eat up literary amnesia with a spoon (it reminds me of those b/w melodrama "womens' pictures") read in a day, refreshing after the slog that was londonlife18th
Newman: Between Two Thorns fantasy fic a/u Bath, 2 pages in it feels pleasant but unmemorable so far ETA: cliffhanger end, bollux
Durrell: Beasts In My Belfry funny re: animals, wonder what humans he caricatured felt, is cringemaking patronising about landlady while he zookeeper
Eliot: Silly Novels by Silly Lady Novelists peng gt ideas pamphlet, few bk review articles
Grove: So Much To Tell life of Kaye Webb editor puffin books. namedropping of kidlit authors, fabor goss re: people whose books i read
Lanyon: Darkling Thrush novella typed doublespaced re wistful librarian youth searching magic grimoire. finds lurve. hoped for better from this author
Alexander: Secrets of Jin Shei alt hist fantasy china, sisterhood-thing networking ties story together with ensemble cast of varied social status + personalities. is good, should be ticking my boxes (friendship theme upstaging the romance, unfamiliar culture - faux-longago-china, lots of melodrama, emotional involvment) but v meh about reading lately
Caudwell: Thus Was Adonis Murdered find myself resistant to its charm, vocabulary too over-egged, author too pleased with self

June:

Price: Theatre in the Age of Garrick nice brisk overview of his context, chapters on things like scenery standards, lighting, music, fashion's lowest common denominators re: sujects of plays/prose style, public enthusiasm for cant
Brahms: Enter a Dragon Stage Centre an illuminated life of mrs siddons disappointingly mediocre from no bed 4 bacon lady. v arch whistlestop rushthrough of her life, lingers over the romantic tangle w laurence
Cholmondeley: Diana Tempest barely started, victorian melodrama of sub WilkieCollins variety (I liked red pottage)
Gelman-Waxner: If You Ask Me coll columns of america's most beloved + irresponsible critic spoof film reviews which loved at 1st but got the sneery mysogyny vibe I get off drag acts (G-W actually male playwright not orthodontists housewife as claimed) bang on re: lot of hollywood memes
Johnston: Old Lost Land of Newfoundland family memory fiction + myth windbaggery. uni lecture in pamphlet form, not, actually, much about newfoundland. mostly self justification about his then-recent hist novel about joey smallwood + how tall he (lecturer) had stood in face of relentless meanies who not recognise his genius. oxfammed in deep disappointment, had wanted to read about the island
Chesney aka Beaton: Plain Jane, house for the season regency rom
Christiansen: The Visitors culture shock in 19th century britain massmarket hist, anecdotal, diff takes on mostly london, diff decades, diff kinds of outsidership
Schoch: Shakespeare's Victorian Stage performing history in the theatre of charles kean horrible jargon in places : where foucault + derrida get called in as expert witnesses, interesting where penetrable
German: Chalet School and Robin one of the pro fanfics from girls gone by press. dull sentences conformist characters, which is in keeping with EBD, but was hoping to hear a theory on Robin discovering her vocation (becomes canadian nun later in EBD series)
Fowler: Bryant + May and the Invisible Code which I loved
Burton: Elizabethans at Home massmarket social hist, written I think 1950s. got for low reasons, is pretty production w original dustjacket + lots illus, also have jacobeans at home at same time. Bit yeah-I-know of a book
Lackey: Home From the Sea an elemental masters novel lackey on autopilot as she often is in her solo work nowadays (ought only buy her cowrittens but I like the concept of this series) Plot shapeless, antagonist unclear (the rozzer? the wicked selkie uncle?) liked shoutout to amelia peabody. liked the welsh xmas customs researched off wikipedia + shoehorned in. kept expecting miners-on-strike to come to fore, was up for that, didn't, disappointed. 2 dullest protagonists - off wiz of lond - reprised in this, still utterly uninterested in them. everyone in gales of laff at mogadonishly mild jokes (this also in chalet school so esp sad at it as a Thing) no single foltktale giving skeleton of book. mashup of several memes, ends with tam lin + the wizards duel off disneys sword in stone. welsh heroine good but needed more about selkie culture + overall just a novella worth of material stretched over too much bread
Hibbert: Redcoats and Rebels the war for america 1770-1781 enjoying this, anecdotal, + I don't know anything about the time + place more about personalities than milit-strategies, + that focus matched my interest, but am so ignorant I kept forgetting whether officer whose pov we were in this page was US or UK - both had similarly awful time
Snell: O Canadians Omnibus light verse - biographies in quatrains of major canadians (+ franklin) incl celine dion louis riel + many many hockeyplayers I liked his GB collection of hist people (author is husband of maeve binchy)
Smith: Collector's Item uber short sf comedy from 1950s. knowingly sexist racist imperialist, then the alien native mirrors the scientists + scientists' wives superiority complexes
Lanyon: Fatal Shadows adrien english #1 gay crime novella, bookseller hero being framed
Townsend Warner: Scenes of Childhood and other stories elegant, funny, snarky before snark was defined. s stories based on memories/anecdote about her life. some bit snobbish. wonderful eye for eccentricity
Hyacinth: The Love He Squirrelled Away mate or meal 3 m/m small press pb about the forbidden love of werewolf + weresquirrel. Expected it to be hilariously terrible. was half right
Wiggin: Mother Carey's Chickens late victorian mush about orphans in genteel poverty
Kramer: Loving Lady Marcia house of brady series regency romance w brady bunch characters. marcia brady is mary sue, cannot work out if this because good characterisation following tv series, or bad, cos she's v tiresome winsome bunny to read about
Davies: Papers of Samuel Marchbanks and I loved prev things by Robertson D but this is sneery + smug so far
Burton: The Jacobeans at Home illus social hist stuarts, uniform vol with elizabethans @home (above)
Todd (edit): Cambridge Companion to Pride & Prejudice acad essays some of which I swear have read before (or just are rehashing old ground) the 1 about austen sequels was wasted paper, the 1 re: translations, wonderful, the one speculating about diff between 1st impressions + P&P, speculation
Gauld: You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack cartoons a bit kate beaton ish (more lit less hist jokes)
Dewey: Lady Excelsior Presents The Best of Tragedy series 1 fauxVictorian images + cod gothic snark
Hillerman: Sacred Clowns crime on reservation in sw america with cops who are more fargo than miami vice. lots drinking coffee + oblique conversations. blurb regrettably blows whistle on aspect of mystery chee + leaphorn take 2/3s of book to work out
Kuykendall: We Didn't Do Anything Wrong Hardly short story pub as pamphlet, waste of time+£
Lanyon: Dangerous Thing adrian english #2 i like the lead char in this
Chambers: Granny Samurai the Monkey King & I childrens romp
Aguirre: Bronze Gods steampunk gaslight fantasy, crimefighting duo, somehow less than sum of its parts

July:

Burney: The Wanderer or female difficulties to think I once found marianne dashwood a bit mawkish + self indulgent. heroine infuriating mary sue-ish lump who alternately weeps + blushes. only way I get through it is thinking of austen's acerbic responses (love+freindship, anybody?)
Blake: Beyond the Page about Quentin B's non childrens' book projects, coffee table thing
Rendell: 18th Century Paper Cutting how richard hall illustrated his world silhouette scenes like Hans C Andersen did. compiled by multigreat grandson of artist. pamphlet ownpublished
Stroud: Lockwood & Co the screaming staircase ya fantasy by bartimeus author - pov char less engaging than B was but good pageturny swashbuckler about exorcism business run by teens in alternate england
Erastes: Standish m/m regency romance histfic. the good: the language and characters seemed in period as far as I can tell + god knows a metric tonne of regencies' research consists of reading heyer. the bad: chars fell in love (at 1st sight which I hate as a novelist's enabler) for no given reason except plot engine (not a good reason) a lot of stereotypes - charming broguish irish rogue, slender blond ingenue, angsty great dark man of byronic inclinations, wholly unbelievable debauched venetian aristo whose motivation is evil doing evil + evilitude, plotmoppet child who disappears from his parent's plans whenever shagging's afoot.
Higashida, trans Mitchell: The Reason I Jump the inner voice of a 13yrold boy with autism freebie from work, expecting to be asked for this + want be able answer custs questions
Barber :Mary Beale portrait of a 17th century painter her family + her studio art catalogue from geffrye, lot about her proto middle class clergy-ish circle friends, philosophy of friendship, edge of royal society, husband chemist making pigments, companionate marriage
Brennan: Generation V urban fantasy, not esp romance-y
Fisher: Ghost Planet sf/paranormal unfinished, am cool w fridge logic where you have epiphany days later of how story is imposs, but was noting plot holes in the sf of this WHILE I read, and the characters bloodless, described as marvellous by text but not earning the adjective
Reeve: Floating World japan in the edo period ltl gifty book got for the illus, reproductions of j block prints
Webster: Just Patty by daddylonglegs author. standard girlsown boardingschool hijinx of early 20th century
Watson: Gum Girl the tentacles of doom jnr gra nov, punny quippy stuff w terrible puns for age 8ish, art is hid
Todd: Everyday Life of the Barbarians goths franks and vandals introd book v archaeology based, written 1950s. odd sensation of reading 1950 theories which have already read later hists questioning or modifying. lots illus, is tentative where he feels not enough evidence
Reynolds: Mr Darcy's Letter P+P variation another fanfic/ alt ending. mediocre
Appleton: Charles Macklin an actor's life good bio of garrick's frenemy, bit about foote too
Coleridge (intro): Lady's Realm a selection from the monthly issues nov 1904 april 1905 woth getting for hot trends in millinery alone, v snobbish aspirational, dreadful vocational suggestions (hatmaker, sanitary inspector) hid "society column," series on secrets of men by "a spinster" clearly designed to provoke frenzy of refutation, house illus charming, attempted article on capital A art focussed on ghastly chocolatebox schmaltz by bloke have not heard of
Schertz: Ashes of Longbourn unreadably badly-characterised p+p fanfic. may not be able finish. did finish. want reward, sha'n't get one
Moore: How To Create The Perfect Wife georgian britain's most ineligable bachelor + his quest to cultivate the perfect woman read about thomas day in late 80s in written4children by townsend, but just as an aside, a soundbitey paragraph, then again later in other things, lunar men 1 of them, always the same anecdote, went how/why/what/where/when/WTF/christ,DETAILS.PLZ and longed for book length thing. just so you know, moore spends entire book fizzing w indignation at day, who sounds an oaf. sabrina his victim left more traces of her personality in the record than I feared.
Brennan: Demon's Surrender teen ya fantasy. wrapped up trilogy, realised had completely forgot entire of book 2

August:

Crispin: Case of the Gilded Fly goldenage-crime, so, men r men women r women, reader r cringing occasionally at rigidity of stereotypes. slutshaming of victim, or were they just saying she was spiteful; the 2 were mixedup in description.
Gillespie: Deborah follows lady C de Bourgh's daughter after darcy marries. the sequels without lizzie/darcy are always the best ones. it's not austen by a long shot but I liked it
Carson (edit): A Truth Universally Acknowledged 33 great writers on why we read jane austen mishmash of essays, some gush, few insights, off to oxfam with it
Addison: English Spas massmarket middlebrow social hist, lovely batsford dustjacket, book is dull, to oxfam it goes
Yeoman: Hermit and the Bear childrens, daft, sweet, Q Blake illus, Yeoman/Blake always brill team on childrens books
Berry (edit): Methuen Book of Shakespeare Anecdotes bitty, often funny, oftener pompous-lovey, many familiar
Lanyon: The Hell You Say bk 3 crime/gay romance series.
Lanyon: Death of a Pirate King ditto, bk 4
Pollard: Alfred the Great the man who made england massmarket biog
Ford (edit): Persuasions 29 jane austen journal of n america academic fanzine, enjoyed
Baker: Longbourn servants' eye take on P+P, stands up as a hist novel, one of 5 best ja sequels have read (the bar is low, but there are a couple I really liked)
Frank: Kin descent of man the neanderthals survived as bigfoot + yetis; they are ecofriendly egalitarian pacifist and a utopia. mean acronymic US guys with guns pursue them in explosion riddled graphic novel
Baker: Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea novella fin by her sister, steampunk brothel on hol romp, disappointment
Gurr: Playgoing in Shakespeare's London dry, does what says on the box
Grafton: A Fair Prospect disappointed hopes yet another alternate P+P, mediocre, gets the hamfistedprose tag
Lanyon: Dark Tide, adrien english mysteries 5 rabid completism, really
Hill: World Turned Upside Down radical ideas during the english revolution cavaliers/roundheads revolution, so levellers + diggers. lot of 17th cent theology, slow going in tea breaks. will not finish by end month (brailsford on the levellers was far more page-turny, but Hill's v apparant warmth for winstanley is endearing)

about halfway through Hill: World Turned still

September:

Ford (edit): Persuasions 28 journal of the jane austen society of north america mostly Mansfield Park related essays about obscure details by relaxing academics. interesting but would have enjoyed focus on almost any other novel by ja
Mellon (foreword): Selected Paintings Drawings and Books
Lincoln: Naval Wives and Mistresses mostly Nelson era, lot of refs to austens persuasion, lot of quotes from contemp letters
Booth: English Melodrama exactly the level of brow I wanted from it, made me gigglesnort at the stereotype characters involved, was mentally comparing to TV soaps before end of book where Booth made that comparison, lot of plot summaries and purely terrible dialogue quotes, but B not sneering at topic, respected it on own terms. lot about the class war of invariable toff villains and rugged peasant heroes
Newman: Any Other Name fantasy, mannerpunk, overly whimsical, not caring about it much. v Kowal/Wrede territory, Fey in 2 senses of word. is boring me,no urge to carry on reading.
Townshend: Darwin's Dogs how darwin's pets helped form a world changing theory of evolution v short essay-ish ponder with lots pictures, his bio + thought from particular angle. waste of reading time really
Kloester: Georgette Heyer biography of a bestseller bit disappointment after the fuss when published, v tactful, v authorised, bio
Carter: United We Spy end of spyschool schoolstory series aimed at teen girls. read out of completism, good guys/bad guys more blurry at this stage in series, realise have forgot much of backstory.
Barnes: Augustus Hare victorian gentleman much duller than it need be, esp as subject of book was scandalous. religiosity element interesting albeit filtered through too much editorialising from barnes, stuff about vic publishing industry, wanted more of. to believe barnes, hare not really so very indiscreet, merely a wearying namedropper
Jackson: Thieftaker this is going to oxfam. male written fantasy with unconvincing female characters, is like homework to pick it up + read further
Townsend Warner: Swans on an Autumn River short stories, only 2 familiar
Beetham, Boardman (edit): Victorian Womens' Magazines an anthology actually could have done with analysis rather than random slew of pickings here but enjoyable
Townsend Warner: With The Hunted selected writings unpub and scattered reviews forewords and journalism, v bitty but otherwise unavail. have been curious about her essay on austen for a bit. got with longtermservice voucher from work, also ordered a few treats via shop to use up the card.
Penny: Penny Red leftwing blog journalism
Welch: The Galleon carey chronicles reprint from slightly foxed. ya histfic, military skew brit empire (this one, saving good queen bess from plotty mary queen of scots; it's been done elsewhere and better)
Welch: For the King carey chron, in which roundheads vs cavaliers, etc
Peterfreund: For Darkness Shows The Stars dystopia sf version of persuasion. not bad as romance/sf. pretty good for austenade (where standards are low)

October:

George: Deep Sea and Foreign Going insided shipping the invisible industry that brings you 90% of everything journalism good but depressing about jobs and profit in deregulated industry + the deep unromance of modern piracy
Kelly: Mr Foote's Other Leg comedy tragedy and murder in georgian london Foote comes up in so many 18th cent theatre bios, but this book is over repetitive, too much of Kelly's reactions filtering the story, and now that he's done it, nobody will go out and do this biography properly for a generation. (felt this way about the bio of Thomas Day's matrimonial adventures) the blow by blow a/c of the amputation without anaesthetic is super ook, horrific, shocking. interesting on georgian medicine, still - late in book - wishing editor had been firmer about the many repetitions in kelly's telling of life.
Scarlett aka Streatfeild: Sally-Ann pretty much womens-realm-romancey. the scarlett heroines are all such dull girls as are their young men and there wasn't enough of the mother (who was, as ever in scarlett books, the most charming one) to repair that flaw.
Vidal: Selected Essays jumping back + forth, disorientatingly, between this annd...
James: Fifty Shades of Grey IT WAS A GIFT ALRIGHT. mad joint annotating project of shared bile in margins. most my notes about Ana - is this me holding heroines to higher standard than ~~heroes~~ or misogyny or what? Or just I expect Christian to be a dick? had bounced off book when opened random pages before; is very jack has ball. see jack's ball. run jack run. the ball is red reading scheme prose.
Davis: I'd Like To Do It Again autobiog of american hack playwright, end 19th cent, early 20th, did a lot of melodrama then moved into dawning hollywood. far too listy of names he wanted to acknowledge, read for chunks like oscar acceptance speech, but some interesting bits about melodrama structure and the politics/economics of the writing scene in USA, turn of century
Yonge: Sowing and Sewing mini-book, this must've been sh story in monthly packet. bit of a cottage novel retread of 6cushions, enjoying it, is more fully characterised than some of her written-4-the-poor books
McCann: Mind the Gap vol 1 intimate strangers gra nov, bday present fr prettyH. much plottier than expected at 1st, dribbling out clues to what is the backstory (amnesiac protagonist in coma) like the art.
Chapman (edit): Godly and Righteous Peevish and Perverse clergy and religious in literature and letters an anthology intro by C was annoyingly bad re: history of sects in england, esp on 16th + 17th centuries, assume his thing is theology + lit side. selection was good, too much trollope, amazed no Oliphant, much of it obvious choices like parson woodford or kilvert
Connolly: Ironskin alternate telling of jane eyre with sidhe and, sounds like, alt hist 1920s. Miles ahead of jenna starborn (another sff version jane eyre) but not all that and a bag of chips
Baratz-Logsted: Little Women and Me meta-lite where contemp mallrat teen is dropped into plot of LW and tries change story by vamping Laurie and stopping Beth dying. heroine uncharming which torpedoed the book, some nice ideas (Amy is also jasper-ffording her way into novel)
Lanyon: Armed and Dangerous gay romance crossed with clancy-ish action-adventure, did not like, usually like his chars, did not this time, they were members of some hawkish US interventionary gung-ho international terrorists4USA eleventyone, poss would appeal more to americans who less iffy about US interventionism. ridic to react to that but the chars did not have enough personality to distract me from their job descriptions
Bloom: Restless Revolutionaries a history of britain's fight for a republic great topic, hate the way it's written. mentally red-pencilling a paragraph at a time for clarity slows the read, disagree with bloom about several of the actors and events he tells.
Jordan: Michael Collins film script and journal wanted more detailed diary of the making of (he prob not time/energy while directing) interesting that some my fave things in film were afterthoughts. still sad Julia Roberts in it.
Dagg: Love Of Shopping Is Not A Gene problems with darwinian psychology cannot decide whether love this cos already agreed most of it, also, think is v clearly argued (cos I agree?)

November:

Gilman: Pack of Lies urban fantasy series book 2, sidhe + crime mashup, enjoying as not a romance (but author trying for bloody UST so is clearly going to get tediously shippy in later books)
Aiken: Kingdom Under The Sea illus Pienkowski which is why N fancied + got as part my bday present. lush silhouette pics, e europe fairytales
Brosh: Hyperbole and a Half unfortunate situations flawed coping mechanisms mayhem and other things that happened quietly brill cartoon/short stories about being depressed, selfesteem issues and idiot pet dogs. one warms so much to her when she's saying the worst things about herself. want to show craig this
Novik: Crucible of Gold temeraire series finally realised who Temeraire reminds me of: is paddington bear, all polite, innocent but with firm opinions
Layman, illus Guillory: Chew vol 7 bad apples disorientated, have lost track of the series, but this vol seems back to form after couple disappointing books
Menges (edit): Shakespeare Illustrated art by arthur rackham edmunc dulac charles robinson and others mostly reprods of book illus, victorian + edwardian
Poole: Shakespeare and the Victorians arden book, a bit about how staged (london-centric) then influences on some novelists, poets, the art side. serendipitous to be looking at dover book by menges at same time
Pamfiloff: Accidentally in Love with.. a God? crack-y premise, horrible book which tweaked buttons I didn't know I had. really annoying, wanted it to be fluffy fun romp. was taking too seriously. oxfammed
Fanthorpe + Bailey: From Me To You love poems I love ua fanthorpe even when she's flip or silly
Andersen, illus Clarke, Harry: Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales got for Harry Clarke illus, which are lush, beardleyesque, dulac richness of colour, was stained glass artist fr ireland at turn of century
Mitchell: Bad Boyfriend gay rom novella
Merrow: Camwolf gay rom novella, werewolves, set in cambridge (not outstanding on cambridge scene setting)
Kotsonouris: Retreat From Revolution dail courts 1920-1924 short acad piece about transition from use of british crown courts to the alternatives run by sinn fein during war of independence + after (there's a scene in wind that shakes the barley film, set in one of these)
Price: Spook Squad ongoing paranormal/crime/gay/melodrama, getting more plotty as it goes
Scarlett aka Streatfeild: Pirouette not one of the enjoyable scarletts - heroine i wanted to slap
Raby: Fair Ophelia a life of harriet smithson berlioz got largely for the 1820sish illus, fascinating + sad bio of actress who nearly made it as star, got acclaim but never money, married the (creepy stalkerish) berlioz
Baker: In The Company of Thieves postobit release sh stories in Company universe, couple had read as limited ed novellas fr subterranean press
Robinson: Muckraker the scandalous life and times of w t stead britain's 1st investigative journalist lively read w some turns of phrase that made me smile; wts seems to have had a nasty streak
Lane: Literary Daughters accounts of women writers' relationships w their fathers, 1 chapter per woman, burney edgeworth dickinson eliot woolf bronte barret-browning beatrix potter. feminist sensibility to account, not academic but easy read
Hyland: James Connolly life + times series pamphlet by irish hist assn. political bits rather dense for me poss because condensed into soundbites
Mitchell: Bad Company i like these romances when I like the chars, in this case, not, was bored.
Lanyon: In From The Cold the i spy novellas lanyon m/m action-adventure, chars 2dimensional at best, regretted buying
Huff: The Silvered werewolf sword sorcery, regency tinge, not, despite publisher claims, paranormal romance. (thank god) the wolf/mage aspect v teen wolf fanon, enjoying this but if it goes all romancey later in series prob will not pursue

December:

Fox: Midwinter Prince m/m, really shitty book, wooden dialogue, unreal chars, peculiar responses to what other chars had said/done, sent to oxfam. previous read was "the silvered" (with the vivisected werewolves + the marathoning mage) + I bought into *that* premise better than I did this book
Shattuck: The Hamlet of Edwin Booth text reconstruction of how booth performed in devastating detail. numbing in effect
Watterson: Homicidal Jungle Psycho Cat calvin+hobbes cartoon collection
Ashton (edit): Pictures in the Garrick Club a catalogue of the paintings drawings watercolour and sculpture compiled and written by geoffrey ashton largely annotated pics 19th century actors + clubmen. essays at front
Williams: Margaret Oliphant a critical biography much of which I knew from the unfin autobiography that her neices hagiographied up, but the assessments of her novels interesting
Woolf: Flush I gather she's doing some sort of metaphor about women being restricted and cast as idiots but could not have taken much more of this whimsy; thank god is short.
Hill: Bones in the Belfry cosy crime about sociopath vicar, part-told by his unimpressed pets, set 1950s
Foster: Charles Stewart Parnell the man and his family v v revisionist, fond re ascendency in way can see infuriating many
Morris: Mr Collins Considered approaches to jane austen midbrow essays about how C is seen as 2D char, compares him to others in JA novels to see is he an outlier in all his aspects
Mellin: Tilting house launching slide hauling potato trenching and other tales from a newfoundland fishing village oral hist w emphasis on building techniques
Travers: Parnell Reconsidered coll acad essays various aspects
Horgan: Noel Browne passionate outsider bio of the tuberculosis TD, post WW2 ireland.
Lloyd: Richard Cosway english portrait miniaturists mostly reproductions of portraits regency types, lovely. "little bit of ivory two inches wide" brief biographical intro
Asbury: White Hart Red Lion the england of shakespeare's histories horribly written by windbag actor too in love with self, travel book about modern sites of plays, also about the RSC cycle of hist plays when they did most of the civil war as a series.
Hill: No Castanets At The Wells awful, knew it would be awful, got it (cheap) remember mildly liking series as child, the few I read, reread bk 1 this year and dear god the 50s gender rigidity and WASP of it all.
du Garde Peach: Stone Age Man in Britain and v much "man" it is - loved the bit about "their wives sewing" their furs - in line with the epic "little arthurs's history of britain" in tone
Turner: Judy and Punch schoolstory in 7 little australians series, happens during book 1. aside fr australia interest, is run of mill edwardian boarding school story
Muldrow: Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From A Little Golden Book gift fr Carla, mixed mostly 1950s illus
Hannah (edit): 13 Poems of Revenge gift fr prettyH
Patterson: The Year 2001 Poetry Diary terrible parish newsletter verse by mum of cleaver ("hand model") patterson
Ford (edit): Persuasions 30 acad fannish essays on austen
Drake: If The Slipper Fits regency flavoured romance, set 1830s, heroine not an idiot, bizarre royal victorian scandal shoehorned into last 5 pages
Whitfield: Illustrating Shakespeare picturebook about art design and publishing gift eds of S - prob based on an exhibition at brit lib
Temple: Very British Problems disposable (but funny) joke book. Cd have been called v middle class problems
Briggs: Blooming Books coffee table book about career of picturebook illustrator

stet

2012-08-27T21:40:26Z

Surprising mini rant from cust the other day, on being told we had several Virginias but no Leonards in stock, about how infinitely superior/more prose stylist/profounder issues Mr Woolf was than Mrs. Have not the reading chops (selected essays, To Lighthouse, Orlando, 2 vols c reader, extracts of diaries for her: zero for him bar a skimread of a page of novel that left not a vestige in my head for him) to argue the case + anyway, goddamn lit league tables. Sense Mybuggery, though.

how tom beat capt najork + his hired sportsmen

2012-07-31T21:10:39Z

Well obviously I hate sport.

Because I'm bone idle and lazy and all.

And am fat because of b.i. + lazy + hate sport and all, but another thing that has me avoid sport on telly is the jingoism.

Pretty glad overseas aren't, by + large, experiencing the full flow of BBC commentary. It's embarrassing. They're supremely focussed on the UK guy, even though the UK is at the back of the field or is having a bad day. Their chap is so far behind it would take lightening strike on rest of field for him/her to catch up, and there the BBC are, debating statistical probability of lightening strike instead of just bloody letting it go. And at the edge of the camera frame you can see the flailing limbs of faster more co-ordinated athletes (but that is the cameraman being sloppy cos no way could average UK viewer be interested in seeing good example of gymnastics; that'd be madness right), and at the end, a howl of "YES! Britain got bronze" and no word whatsoever of poor furrin sap who actually won that coveted gold. It's shameless pothunting (wasn't that what p g wodehouse school stories called this?) and "how many medals?" and to hell with let the best man win.

me:China are getting a lot of success.
Carryann: We-elll. Their population, they've got the statistics, yeah. That many people, some of them are bound to be good.

Possibly it's easy for me to say all this. Ireland is never going to be worrying anybody on this front.

There was a hilarious moment on monday when that boy from basement huffed that male gymnasts were pointless (pretty much my take on most sport to be fair) and that these studmuffins - not a word he was using or would use - had been taking stuff.

me: steroids?
him: nahh.
me: cos they did tests. Some guy got sent home.
him: that stuff off holland and barrett.
K: what? Echanacea?
Which is when the laughing started at the poor child. K was doing an impro sketch of dawning suspicion in the shop with Geoff and Steve, health food purveyors, comparing notes and realising a stream of furtive chinese men in lycra, already very fit, had cleaned them out of legal enhancers. I laughed so hard I had a coughing fit.

See? Unfit.

castle builders

2012-07-17T23:25:58Z

This week is stressy - most of the floor team are on hols or phoned in sick, and my response to forced multitasking is to get verbally cranky - not any kind of recipe for decent cust service. Why do people say "I'm looking for a book" then do dramatic pause. Dramatic p is unnecessary, guys. On plus side, posted packet this morning to sussex and card to canada, and payday is end of week, hurray, and will see sarah h on sunday evening. Crystal returned the terrible strauss biopic (great waltz) + was suitably bemused by inaccuracy bad acting cringey dialogue and shameless manipulation of same. Then she loaned me bollywood thing. hmmm. Clarisse still has colonel blimp.

Last night beautiful jarndyce (overpriced antiquarian booksellers fr bloomsbury) catalogue on my mat. how the hell do they have my address? Spent evening looking at prices of 1st editions of vic novels + laughing derisively. O, £850, right? It was the 19th century women writers one, end of the alphabet. The Yonges were mostly ones I had reading copies of, but Jarndyce were doing association copies or dragonhide bindings for the lolz. The kind of edition you get nervous handling so cannot read in comfort. There was 1 I don't have (£40, and it was a hist novel which tends to mean stodgey prose fr Yonge, and set in old testament maccabees parts, decided not worth it. may reconsider this) Saw some reading copies of Sewell, a precursor of Yonge, decided to get her semi-autobiographical Experience of Life. Dashed down in morn coffee break, bought, feel, like you do post indulgence, both sheepish + smug. Lady in shop kinda recognised me she said, so did I her; neither of us could work out from where. Think with hindsight she buys her guardian paper off me most days.

Dropped catalogue off to our 2nd hand dept for them to ogle.

Am buying books quicker than can read them, bad.

Want to do fandom things, been reading YA meta at weekend, watched programme for 1st time in years, all nostalgic.

forbidden best sellers of pre revolutionary france

2012-07-11T01:10:10Z

Mark Hodder's book (Burton & Swinburne.. Spring Heeled Jack) has an excellent jacket design. Snowbooks and Angry Robot do many of the best covers in UK SF. That said, wish I'd tried to read this before wasting £££ on book 2, as am bogging down in the series start + don't want to read book 2.

It's steampunk. It's got a retconned slightly less racist empire. I enjoy spotting the real person bits. (But, why is Oscar Wilde an adorable newspaper selling scallywag?) Cannot quite work out why is not working for me. Overuse of exclamation marks ought not have this much effect. The sexual assaults are not a plus of course, but that's not it. Is v fast moving, and the chars should have more of an emotional reaction, or some reaction that's more convincing, than they are. But emotion would get in way of action-adventure, and this is Andy macNabb in a topper.

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Am back at work this week after time off,+ celebrated with new theme on table, of boys' urban fantasy (mostly male pov char) - urban fantasy with 87% less snogging. Because what killed the subgenre IMO was that it became mills and boone with almost no fantasy input. The alpha hero wouldn't like sunlight but you could forget the vampire-werewolf thing a lot in them, the way the increasingly samey new releases were going.

& urban fantasy is a lot more potentially varied than that. It can include a bleeding spectrum which is enriching. I say this as someone who reads romance for pleasure, + only realised how much when started listing books in annual posts.

So: urban fantasy that isn't primarily or even in large part romance. Aaronovich, Jacka, that tiresome fratboy druid 1000 years old by Hearne - he has a telepathic wolfhound who is worth the reading of the book, the Sonia Bateman series with the grumpy genie and bloodfeud, the Pratt book about the middleaged female magic user who is maybe asexual, the 1st dresden files book, the 1st in series about druid in boston who is impaired + has pissed off the sidhe, the flautist with the doggy, the Stewart thing with smugfest champion who duels demons to win back his clients souls after unwise contracts, couple other things.

Prev themes this year have included sf by women (2 Naomi Mitchisons in blazingly ugly small press edition, one tiptree anthology which didn't sell, Le Guin, who does sell reliably, 1 Russ, Door Into Ocean, Sparrow the one about jesuits in space, etc.) That was unrenumerative. Also a zombie theme table, which sold but did not inspire me a lot. Because the books that sold from it would have sold if had buried them under the floorboards of diff shop from one I was selling them from.

god, cannot remember what this year's themes have been. There was one about worldbuilding rather than following single hero, which was horribly vaguely worked out.

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Today's read was collection of vic photos of working women in workwear, stitched together by text of Arthur Munby being creepily objectifying. Avoiding the steampunk debacle dammit.

from mangle to microwave, hardyment (hist domestic machinery UK 20th cent)

2012-04-30T21:34:49Z

Most exciting thing personally - hideosity of Thursday last, when set off late, stressed all journey, got in Exactly On Time (no leeway for sorting out belongings or picking up milk for tearoom), felt wrongfooted + guilty, and was snappy and bad mood all day. Cust would do normal customerlike thing, and instead of thinking, how whimsical + various is human nature! I would stand there daydreaming about killing them in disturbingly circumstantial detail. New boss noticed how snarly I was on till, made some faint reproaches, kept trying to will self into positive + fluffy mood, could not pull back from boiling rage, was all tendonny neck, all evening. + had planned to hide my witch of endor persona from him for a while yet. dammit.

resolved: must set out with elbow time to have soothing cuppa before shift + time to make mental to-do list for day. Generally the same tasks are at the back of my head every shift for days before they get acted on, but planning makes one feel in control.

2nd most exciting thing, I suppose, was friday, the hostage situation next to the shop, and we were just outside the police cordon anyway. Loads of command vehicles for medics + fuzz, and a helicopter, and our security guard, yearning for SAS action, volunteering his aid. We asked what the police told him when he returned from behind the DO NOT PASS ribbon, but he looked over our heads and replied distantly, "I can't talk about that."

For the record, the BBC site not v informative, slow to react and not much in the report when they made one. Mike went on dailymail.com to my horror, and huffington post came up trumps. I was awed. American, and they had the whole thing sussed.
Richard: No. They have a UK office.
me: Ah, well.
R: They have a UK office IN THE BUILDING NEXT TO WHERE IT ALL KICKED OFF.
me: So.. this isn't an example of peerless investigative reporting is it.
R: More a case of noticing teams of flack jacketed rozzers running in step through their office. With rifles.

The rumour going round on the day was that a man had been denied a heavy goods vehicle licence. He paid a lot of money, took lessons, took a test, failed the test, felt he'd paid the money and what was this talk of "skillset" and "road safety" of which you speak.

He went into the office.
man: Where's (name)
(I was told name, have forgotten)
woman behind desk: I'm NOT HER.
She lied about her name. She lied about being pregnant. She was sincere about wanting to leave threatening man. Left building, doubtless thinking, this honesty is the best policy is a load of malarky. I must phone my mum who told me this nonsense and put her straight about the power of the porky.

nessreader @ 2012-04-25T23:24:00

2012-04-25T22:24:33Z

Tonight I meant to go to music thing, had been sent facebook invite to colleague's band. Wussed out, too tired when work ended, and dying to eat hot food and curl up at home. Will feel mildly bad about this next time I see him.

In other news, I must remember to:
pass Krystal the vampire alternate hist with Biggles as a vampire now have read the proof copy. (It's vol 2 of anno dracula)
nag Clarisse to watch Colonel Blimp dvd, one of my joint fave films of all time. She hasn't ever seen it, and that is wrong. But cos I'm pressing her to borrow, not her, will take a lot of nagging
remind Cleo about the Amanda Cross crime I loaned her which she still has.

We are selling pooloads of 50 shades of grey trilogy at work. It is extraordinarily badly written.
That online source of retro boiled sweets (apple+custard this week) is unregretted.

books read for 1st time in 2012 post

2012-04-20T22:59:27Z

Everything I think of as a potential entry sounds boring so I haven't been blogging. Boring or self serving or both. Anyway. Reading a lot, trying to have the books in less of a blur than last year

January:

Doran, J: Their Majesties' Servants annals of the english stage from thomas betterton to edmund kean brill start to year, stuffy anecdotal hist by pop historian (mid 19th c es turner, which is to say: highly anecdotal pop history with laughs in) with lots of potted bios. Got bit repetitive, cos, overall successful careers followed same pattern. Was aware in reading, as Doran seemed not in his telling, of how toxic + harassy greenroom must've been in 18th + 19th cent, no wonder so many great actresses married undistinguished blokes
Fowler: Paperboy memoir of chap who wrote bryant+may crime series. dysfunctional childhood, nostalgia via defunct brandnames. similar to, but not as widely accessable as, slater's (nostalgia+angst) toast. gave2N
Brandon: The People's Chef bio of Soyer, massmarket. recipes as chapter headers.
Dickson: Children's Crusade, medieval history modern mythistory mostly about aftermath of the event + how the past gets constructed by later generations
Lanyon: Somebody Killed His Editor fluff
Meyer: Cinder got proof copy, buzz on net. also adore fairytale reboots. is teenfic hence the way they handled the romance. So, not entirely aimed at me. sf dystopia cyberpunk, cliffhanger at end drat, v inventive. did not tie itself to cinderella sequence of events, instead it recycled images + themes. The slipper was an upgraded bionic foot for instance. impressed me for the way they shifted the plot while retaining iconic elements of grimm. will not follow series unless suddenly get yen to read YA.
Cannadine: History and the Media essays from high-brow journos + massmarket historians, mixed in relevence, about in what shape hist reaches outside academia. Not history, but about presentation of history + how history reaches people outside the history profession. So is re perception of history not a retelling of history data. One of my best reads this year, scooped off a bargain table without great expectations.
Melnyk: Great Canadian Film Directors 1 chapter, 1 essay, 1 director
Mulrooney: Black Powder White Lace the du pont irish + cultural identity in 19th century america Is ages now since I read this, but I recall carpetbiting rage at bits of this, esp the bit where she explained 18th c irishwomen status benefited from BREHON LAW, and the bit about saint-name significance.
Grange: Henry Tilney's Diary fanfic. my fave JA hero, v dull book of him, too instep with N abbey, felt like an MST (Grange's austenades are like that)
Reynolds: English Portrait Miniatures
Walton: Imagining Soldiers and Fathers in the Mid Victorian Era, charlotte yonge's models of manliness expensive, unregretted. wish had posted at time, would have more to say ETA: coomented bit in comments below
McEwan: Bruce MacDonald's Hard Core Logo like the BFI monographs on specific films, McE mostly interested in economics of the canadian popmusic industry not the dysfunctional chars in film. + am all about the frightfullness of joe dick + billy talent
Bullington: Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart either unfinished or I forget much of 2nd half. 1 clever idea is not enough for a book, esp if idea is "medieval was really gross, yo"
Andrews: We'll Always Have Parrots, cosycrime set at con, mildly amusing, fortunately got cheap. sent on to oxfam shop
Mulvihill: Charlotte Despard barely knew her name re: victorian ireland overshadowed as hardline republican lady by the likes of maud gonne + countess markiewitz, fascinating bit was her social work in sarf london, "round about a £ a week" era. thing that gets me a bit is how in vic england upperclass women at a loose end who weren't novelists by nature wrote + published novels so seemingly casually. +, more to point, got em published with as little effort. despard better as a more non narrative writer it seems, would have done better not forcing herself to parable her messages to readership.
Tatar(edit): Annotated Hans Christian Andersen got for lavish illus. just as well. footnotes all from dept of the bleeding obvious

Febuary:

Sturrock: Heaven and Home, charlotte m yonge's domestic fiction and the victorian debate over women searching affordable copy for years, anticlimactic read. title refs the side of yonge that compells me to read her, body of text forgettable/banal
Santat: Sidekicks gra nov, to give to N. story adorable, not mad on illus style
Haimowitz: Counterpoint Elves! Intrigue! Terribly written! + a centuries long elf vs human war sounded so full of possibilities. How can one be that old + still a sullen teen? + protagonists so stupid..
Kraus + Kraus: Hidden World of Misericords text amounted to few captions. o for colour pics. photos blurry, prob to keep book affordable
Granville-Barker: Prefaces to Shakespeare, lear etc
Hart: Mick the real michael collins impassioned debunking. he oversold his case when he said collins was in no way remarkable. May have had eye 4 main chance as hart said, but also genius of organisational skills + pragmatist/manipulator
Wolf: Daily Life of the Vikings
Del Franco: Undone Deeds urban fantasy, end of series, confused: had hero died or what? suggest is bad thing when you go reading reviews after finish cos can't interpret final pages. apparently hero was dead. + also he was or whatted.
Davis: Murther and Walking Spirits passed to Khrystal. ending all bogus-mystical but how else with dead protagonist? (reminds me of last bit of willis' passage)
Woodland: Story of Winchester (medieval towns series) winchester interesting. this book, not.
Griffith: Vampire Empire Greyfriar fab worldbuilding, wish had told other story in it instead of le starcrossed luvvers of yawn. Heroine described as feisty by author, me I thought her idiot + naive. and SOPPY
Fletcher: Victorian Girls biog lord lytton's daughters, high church, posh, short of cash by their ranks standards, described as real life yonge family. wish F had not lost interest in following each life once married. crossover with balfour, gladstone + of course phoenix park murders
Ruggiero: Bonding Passions tales of magic marriage + power at the end of the renaissance picked up in clearance. superstitious prostitutes versus inquisition in n italy. gripping. witches, proles, superstitions, mentalities. again, picked up from clearance box. again, 1 of standout reads of year
Koda: 100 Dresses pictures, posh frocks + vintage ballgowns. ravishing
Singh: Play of Passion I love the overarching plot in this series about power struggle between spockian telepaths + brutish shapeshifters + poor normal mugs in middle but skim the shagging in the individual books; this means I get about 50% reading out of the book I paid for. Or less.
Byrde: A Frivolous Distinction fashion + needlework in the works of jane austen pamphlet
Wolf: Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain dry. would have got nothing from transcription if not for essay preface which gave some context
German: Deira Joins the Chalet School Brent Dyer did the most awfulstageoirish girls, real pixie o'shaughessys, the worst was Biddy Ryan who left Ireland in toddlerhood, was adopted off an alp by quixotic adolescents yet biddy had a brogue when dramatically convenient. preface addresses this a bit
Elder: Lady of Letters (oursin had this in recent reading post, nearly did comment) got it cos wanted to spend £££ on greylady press, had forgot the premise by time it surfaced in to-read pile. better than expected, quiet, moving, not at all formulaic. reminded me of Mary Renault's het romances (same era?ish) in the way protagonist worked out sex roles for self having been educated to be asexual, not taking essentialist version on what women or men were or how they should interact.
Holloway: Playing the Empire acting dynasty, australia to england. have been obsessing about late 19th cent theatreworld lately. This not riveting in itself but tied in with that interest
Newman: Anno Dracula Bloody Red Baron proof. biggles as vampiric flying ace, fab. demonisation of germans for being german, hmmm. promised to chrystal
Michaels: Faith and Fidelity
Fay: Letters from India Fay v Aunt-Norriss-ish. a glorious monster with a powerful sense of entitlement + little empathy for rivals.
Fallis: Just the Facts Ma'am (howdunnit series)

March:

Barnard: Making the Grand Figure lives + possessions in ireland 1641 - 1770, material culture, consumption, 18th c. lavish illus, is from yale publishers. v amanda vickery territory as to era + focus.
Michaels: Love and Fidelity
Michaels: Duty and Devotion m/m
Trewin: Pomping Folk in the 19th Century Theatre
Carriger: Timeless urb fantasy, return to form, there was quality dip in mid series
Trewin: The Night Has Been Unruly anthol of theatre scandals extracted from biogs + various sources, less fun than the in-his-own-words book
Jones: Desert of Souls buddy road trip, arabian nights flavour (next big thing in fantasy? couple near east/arabian theme fantasies in pipeline) good intentions, unmemorable
Lackey: Unnatural Issue my head is one big ? on this. world war 1? bland as blancmange? formulaic? is her elemental masters series, donkeyskin story
Garrett (edit): Travellers Literary Companion to Italy anthol
McCann: After the Lockout proof. pimped to me by publishers newsletter + back blurb as being about dublin lockout, was about the post1916 backlash. smalltown conservative ireland. communist nationalism vs RC church. 2 loathsome protagonists. wanted more lockout + less of that (overdone) easter rising
Oliphant: Royal Edinburgh her travel books v dull. done for money, judging from feel of prose. chapters on medievals had more about royal family than edinburgh, understandably. big pash for 1st 4 james stuarts. gave to iain
Stadal Museum: Master of Flemalle + Rogier Van Der Weyden pictures, just
Briggs: Fair Game big twist at end, cannot wait for next story set in this world
Trewin: Benson and the Bensonians es turner territory but theatre history. he likes benson too much to be funny about him
Lanyon: All She Wrote
Kincaid: Novels of Anthony Trollope written 1970s when AT desperately unfashionable. text somewhat defensive
Healey: Lady Unknown life of angela burdett-coutts clarisse wants to borrow this one. keep confusing b-coutts with barbara smith-bodichon, dammit.
Watson (edit): Cambridge Guide to Childrens Books in English encyclopaedic. bit out of date, was new published around the time I stopped specialising in kidlit
Habel: Dearly Departed proof, teenfic, romance, zombie male lead, retro-futuristic mess of world. World fab, characters all had same voice (alternating pov juggling 4 char's take on plot)

reread: pratchett, monstrous regiment. yonge, stokesley secret. yonge, strolling players. mangan, my family and other disasters. austen, emma.

April:

Steedman: Labours Lost domestic service and the making of modern england
Fowler: Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood
Savage: Sean Lemass people from 1970s are now on syllabus for 2ndary school. god. pamphlet irish hist assn
Underdown: Fire from Heaven life of an english town in the 17th century microhistory dorchester, bit montaillou
Sarath: Unexpected Miss Bennet fanfic mary bennet, liked. is not brill book but I fond of mary b.
Rutter: Clamorous Voices shakespeare's women today for "today" read 1990. interviews w rsc actresses
Styles + Vickery: Gender Taste and Material Culture in Britain and America 1700 - 1830 Yale published, so lush illustrations.
Aaronovich: Rivers of London 3rd book due out, all that time I've had proof of 1, not cared enough to read. Book 3 out now so its been awhile. now have read it, is not the masterpiece the hype would have you believe. likeable hero, london is a char in book, author has clearly worked in cust service (was bookseller) to judge from from the sparkpoints of how rucks+riots start in story. the 2 plotlines, rivers and punch-revenge, did not tie together in my head, this may be me. Might read book 2 but only if find bargain copy.
Czerneda: Hidden In Sight space opera, friendship theme
Utechin: Epitaphs from Oxfordshire short, lot of plinkyplinky verse
Ford: Jane Vows Vengeance end of a trilogy about Vampire!Jane Austen and her sidekick, emo!vamp!byron and the mother in law from hell. silly but to me irresistable. Given the ticky boxes this hits, ought like it even more, esp when vamp!Charlotte Bronte turns to dark side.
Farrell (edit): Irish Parliamentary Tradition with 3 essays on the treaty debate by fsl lyons coll thomas davis lectures from early 70s
Delyani: The Love Thing austen connection in plot barely discernable (20th cent m/m P+P rewrite. Apparently)
Scarlett aka Streatfeild: Ten Way Street fresh impressed with how unendearing Streatfeild's prince charmings are. ("now I have declared my love all your other obligations and emotional ties will melt away. right. right?") + the cinderellas go from blind indifference to steaming lurve in the time it takes to make said declaration. Which is about three mins, tops. the one I liked most, clothespegs, had the thinly sketched rupert be as much in love with his heroines family as her - and so was Streatfeild more in love with the family than she was with heroine now I think of it.

May

Bradshaw: Beacon at Alexandria think it was mentioned in online discussion of hist fic about women (smart bitches trashy?) as being good, not overly romantic. kinda renault in the flavour + way it looks at gender roles + limitations
Ward (edit): Specimens of English Dramatic Criticism XVII - XX centuries
Ozment: Serpent and the Lamb, cranach luthor and the making of the reformation overly exclamatory!!! with the !!! also, wanting massmarket, annoyingly slangy, kept referring to leadership of luthoran splinter group as "the wittenberg brains trust" weird obsessive rant re: evilmarxist e german historians (found his dewy hymn to rapacious capitalism quite as ideologically driven) presented his subjective reactions as fact, thus, cranach was more committed in this depiction than that one; we must trust ozment's judgement as he not telling any evidence. more about cranach than luthor.
O'Day: Family and Family Relationships 1500 - 1900 england france and the usa
Stead: Georgian Cookery, recipes and history mini book from nat trust - the era not the region
Ambaum, Barnes: Too Much Information 9th in comicstrip series about sarky librarians. not in my libthing collection, got to give N
Gaunt: Golden Age of Flemish Art cheap picturebook from van der weyden to rubens w overview history + photos of med buildings in bruges
Moon: Childrens Books of Mary (Belson) Elliott, blending sound christian principles with cheerful cultivation bibliography w summaries, early 19th c author. gift from n
Willis: All About Emily expensive novella fr subterranean press. willis, so goldenagehollywood refs abound, slightly spiky, riffs off all about eve. did not warm to it, for same reasons lack of connection 2 narrator as bellwether, too short to redeem self from things i disliked. ps: found brill fanfic of BELLWEATHER
Davies: Heart of Europe short history of poland written midSolidarity period to give hist context for politics watchers, v dated, lots angles I wanted more about thought irrelevant to solidarity-issue by davis
O'Faolain: Women in the Wall virago, merovingians hist fic, wrenching melodrama
Healey: Coutts & Co 1692 - 1992 snobbery + dull, v slow reading cos the way she sentimentalises big cash + aristos + nepotism + privilege. theres a bit about victorian railways "importing" irish as navvies, word choice left bad taste in mouth, howabout "recruiting," that would depersonalise the people less. madly imperialist
Langley: With Abandon werewolf m/m smut w kidnap maguffin
Keyes: Flowers For Algernon thought that as I'd heard the premise why readit; it still made me cry. the way pov char thinks of women hard to get past
Gantz (translator): Mabinogion
Walton: The Prize In The Game wish blurb had fessed up this was a/u of the Tain
Martin: Tennyson the Unquiet Heart a biography

reread: de horne vaiszey: houseful of girls, de horne vaizey: betty trevor, lewis: evolution man, tennyson: illustrated poems

June:

Hahn: The Journey austen fanfic, fucking terrible
Crispin: Sarek trek fic, have read the start, not sure but think - in snatches - furtively - at work when should be shelving stock - without buying. 1st 1/3 of story familiar
McCreery, Del Col: Kill Shakespeare 2 gra nov. not as bowled over as was by book 1
Wallace-Hadrill: Barbarian West whistlestop overview of collapse roman empire to v early mid ages
Ockman, Silver (curators): Sarah Bernhardt the art of high drama coffee table exhibition tie-in from new york jewish museum on SB, mostly about surviving artifacts - early photos mucha posters art nouveau bracelets, gorge illus, couple essays
Carter: Out of Sight Out of Time ya girls action adventure, 5th in series, fun
Hellekson, Busse: Fan Fiction + Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet acad essays
Davitt: Hourglass m/m romance about fictional cult tv series being movie-fied. v funny in places; the ebay listings + fannish emails between chapters, the entertainingly vile producer, etc. Got cos Davitt was making clever remarks on an online romance forum, + had seen some fanfic by her
Stewart: A Devil in the Details boy centred urban fantasy, more fights + less snogs. paladins, duels for souls, 1st person pov with a kind of geeksnark that read too smug for me to enjoy - author more in luv w hero than I was.
Bolt: Impossible Life of Mary Benson hb called "as good as god as clever as the devil" as reader sad for duller title in pb; as bookseller, thanking god + devil 4 it. "clever" titles invariably get mangled by cust memories ("something to do with intelligent" "it has devil in the title") = then we can't identify wot the hell book is, that's being requested, huffy all round, us + cust, lost sales. promised to loan clarisse when have read it. pageturny, archbishop benson has stepped out of pages of way of all flesh, is your basic-issue monstrous vic husband
Ferguson: Why I Hate Canadians essays - about 15 years old, so the journalism - is v topical - outdated. Aimed at canadians, lots stuff I never heard about
Brook: Heart of Steel steampunk w piratical zeppelins and gender equality and victorian couture. loved worldbuilding in prev title (iron duke) skimming luv scenes
Jackson (edit): Victorian Theatre, the theatre in its time anthol contemp extracts about acting, behind scenes, marketing of theatres in eng.
Cheng: Love in a Fallen City litfic. 1st sh story is like gigi in a cheongsam. finding most of stories sad or infuriating or both
Muller: Costumes of Light picturebook of matador outfits, v v kitsch. glorious embroidery
Mullen: Smell of the Continent hist of victorian package tourism. lots quotes fr contemp letters/diaries, v funny, v little not covered by prev readings on subject.
Finney: Daughter of Erin really dreadful massmarket edwardian romance, full of oirishry. bought for the pretty shamrocky picture binding from a fave char x rd shop, sentimental, the chars all idiots, the peasants all idiot doglike loyalty alternating with idiot violence, ugh to the oirish-ery of it
Maguire: Making Mischief, a sendak appreciation lots illustrations, v good on visual parallels with classic art/artists.
Mullan: What Matters in Jane Austen sutherland-ish midbrow essays about aspects of JA novels. illuminating nitpickery
Mullen: Smell of the Continent tourism for the masses from waterloo to 1914. excellently quote-y + bonus potted bio of Thomas Okey (who have couple books by) but overall, duplicates "leading the blind" and that other hist of package tours
Kellogg (edit): Sagas of the Icelanders (finished in july)
Warner: Friendship & Loss In The Victorian Portrait, may satoris by frederick lord leighton may s turns out to be descended from theatre kembles! lots of name dropping about browning thackeray etc. picked up when visiting leighton ho museum

July

Trimble: On The Good Ship Enterprise trekfan v early, was involved precancellation, BNF, reminiscing. read elsewhere she + husband got thoroughly fucked over by roddenberry, no word of it here. Lot of Mark Lenard (sarek) and bridge cast anecdotes
Lindskold: Through Wolf's Eyes then i can compare it with the considerably less fluffy "tempering of men" when that finally arrives
Gorey: Unstrung Harp or mr earbrass writes a novel spent 4th july on absolute orgy of bookbuying in brit heart foundation charity shop in streatham, pbs at a quid each. found ridic cheap (£15 new) lord darcy which have been swithering over getting self. worth the bus journey (133) also found lavender garden in vauxhall v soothing sit in sun reading
Robinson: Callahan's Crosstime Saloon had heard about this yrs ago, saw it for a quid in that charity shop. Worth about a £, wd feel cheated if paid more. is alright but not my thing, v blokey, v punny, narrative voice v pleased with self, has dated awkwardly. not bad, but sending this copy on to oxfam
Hodder: Burton & Swinburne in the Curious Case of Springheeled Jack bk 2 has been on top of to-read pile for months, had lost bk 1 in slurry till fortuitous book avalanche
Thurman: The Artist's Mother cheap picturebook with page text about lives of painters + their mums on oppo page from art reproduction (will be xmas gift)
Hiley (edit): Victorian Working Women portraits from life 19th c phtographs women in mining-fishing-heavy labour costumes, text from Munby diaries (munby super creepy + objectifying) some quotes from hannah culwick
Darnton: Forbidden Bestsellers of PreRevolutionary France 18th c book trade, smuggling porn + political gubbins across from neuchatel. reconstructed chart of bestsellers, indy booksellers going bust, why have i not read this before?
Rowson: Life + Opinions of Tristram Shandy, graphic novel bounced off Sterne (having liked sentimental journey) + this too makes a virtue of never getting to the point, kept getting lost in visual jokes in margins. pastiches of hogarth here + there, loved it. loaned to krishna
Nimoy: I Am Not Spock er. yeah. expected it way more pretentious, cos of time he did signing of I AM SPOCK in 90s in cambridge + his letter re how to treat him, how to pronounce name, exactly what kind sandwich acceptable, ran to 4 tightly typed pages. + he bit diva behind scenes. this book pretty grounded really. his poetry's still inforgivable.
Gilman: Hard Magic urban fantasy
Thackeray Fuller + Hammersley (edit): Thackeray's Daughter memoir stitched together from letters of A Thack Ritchie, with friends reminiscing
Arts council GB: Daniel Maclise 1806 - 1870 exhibition catalogue fr 1972. alas all the reproductions black + white + blurry + not enough of them, but it was cheap. The oils have seen by him were lush and winterhalter coloured, + v soppy with all the models overacting + victorian narrative art of the cheesiest. lovely
Lindskold: Wolf's Head Wolf's Heart cos I liked book 1 of this
Layman: Chew vol 5 gra nov series about crime and oddities and food. back on form after vol4
Clot: Haroun Al Rashid and the World of the 1001 Nights 90% haroun 10% 1001 nights
Willis: Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories I adore CW but her tourist in name story is so wilfully inefficient at buying london theatre ticket am distracted through plot by mentally suggesting better ways of going about it. Had read darling daughters before + somehow let it bounce off me - prob cos could not cope at time with issue.
Meredith: Born in Africa the quest for the origins of human life digging for fossils of proto-man, mostly about academic infighting in anglophone community in 20th cent. Wanted more about conclusions of science not the politics of the scientists.
Monette, Bear: Tempering of Men vol 2 iskayne. v much midbook of trilogy as far as plot arc goes, liked it better than comp wolves actually - more ensemble, and introducing quasiRomans to the kindaVikings made my head spin bit. Had not remembered chars other than brooding emo chap who the lead of book one (Bk1 was his pov and he bit oblivious to other people like shadows on wall + he the cave), oh, and the worldbuilding of course, want to reread book one + catch introduction of these people I now care about.
Baker: Ancient Rockets treasures + trainwrecks of the silent screen anthol from tachyon books of snarky online essays (tor.com) about primitive sff films. written in last year of Kage Baker's life. Got cos I love her work + interesting bits here re: films which, honestly, am unlikely to watch. bit expensive for what it is - tachyon have pretty production values - got cos completeist fangirl. Am tempted to track down at least some of these films now have read it.
Imlady: Syrian Folktales and so I went oooo. Cos I don't know these, and non-w-euro folktales = yay + so forth. 16 stories I think, about 2 pages each (book v expensive for the length, small press) stories good but told v baldly in a bulletpoint style. 16 hadiths, disproportionate number of hadiths were about saying grace before meals. 16 recipes, many of which went engagingly vague at key moments "remove internal organs of camel" "this (dish) will feed many people"

August:

(still reading the Willis anthology; she has v distinct tone + if I gobble it all down in 1 session it'll be indigestible)

Clarke: Ambitious Heights writing friendship love the jewsbury sisters felicia hemans and jane carlyle got for a quid off a trestle purely cos I liked her thing about 18th cent blustockings, wonderful. I don't know enough about victorian journalism, had only hazy knowledge of geraldine j + not know her sister at all - the book is about the js; carlyle + hemans are there as a lens to see them through Note to self: find more books about vic journalism.
~~Strout: Dead To Me~~ always thought sensing the past of objects the tiptop nonexistant power + peculiar is not used more in fantasy. So the premise looked yummy, using that power for forensics. oddly, not attention grabby. Keep being distracted or finding other reads. Protagonist not actively horrid just uninteresting. 2 B fair, main reading happens in staffroom @ lunchbreak + olympic TV is on, hard to read against background noise. ETA: gave up partway through, don't usually do this but was actively avoiding picking it up, flippancy that didn't work for me, a hero who never came together in my head as a coherent char, did not care about "mystery" oxfammed.
Coogan: De Valera long fellow long shadow feel v furtive about reading this, coogan v disapproved of by oldbat as being tooIRA in sympathy. Is not dull, is v researched + coogan v engaged with his subject, which usually makes for good biog, but bogging down in it, poss cos dev is horrible horrible man. STILL READING THIS AT END OF MONTH
Lewis (edit): Adoring Audience fan culture + popular media acad essays, tends to pathologise fans as losers/dysfunctional, written early to mid 90s on internal evidence. It feels dated, it reads a bit alienating from fan perspective.
Stratmann: Cruel Deeds & Dreadful Calamities the illustrated police news 1864 - 1938 got toward a xmas gift, mostly for the pictures. Text is basically long captions, is all about the sketch reproductions re newsstory
McDonald: Look To The Lady sarah siddons ellen terry & judi dench on the shakespearian stage taken from uni lecture series, comparing the actresses + the kind of performances expected of them
Malan: The Mirror Prince okay but unremarkable elves/traitors/kingdom/mcguffins swashbuckler, will have forgotten it within a week
De Lisle: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen massmarket life of lady jane grey + her siblings, liked de lisle's thing about accession of James I. my interest flagged before the book's end but solid weir-fraser type thing
Funnell: Guide to Victorian + Edwardian Portraits picturebook, text = captions. Cooing over it with Pat + Krishna + talking about lives of Terry + Irving - the irving pic is wonderful
Sacks: Uncle Tungsten memories of a chemical boyhood

September:

(still haven't got further than treaty talks in the dev biog from august, finding dev so infuriating cannot read it easily)

Lindskold: Dragon of Despair 3rd in fantasy melodrama about raised by wolves gel + mystic kingdom. reading purely for pleasure
Eichler: Mush! sled dogs with issues gra nov about team dogs + northern survivalist, really charming + sweet, want to show to N
Martin: No Vulgar Hotel the desire + pursuit of venice v rambly loveletter to venice by miss manners. bit rambly
Sewell: Experience of Life reading this v slowly, is compulsively readable re; character development + active religion (is, as was told, precursor of yonge - is same sort of reading pleasure) but 1st person narrator + now tied in knots to indicate the baddie without making pov char com across judgemental. baddie, a wicked uncle, is currently swindling orphans out of inheritance
Perry (edit): First Actresses nell gwynn to sarah siddons book of Nat Portrait Gallery exhibition, got to see faces of hist actresses have been reading about this year. Brilliant!
Price: Magic Mansion m/m romance in reality tv show.
Almedingen: Land of Muscovy, history of early russia disappointing. knew was childrens but aimed at much younger readers than her novelised biogs of her own ancestors - katia, ellen, fanny, etc - + tone is a bit little arthurs hist of brit.
Brailsford: Shelley Godwin and their circle liked his book on levellers, wanted to read him on radical politics closer to now. many his books about the economic side of ww1 reparations, written as they were imposed, so this is as now as could do. Much of it an elaborate paraphrase of Godwin's Political Justice
Sfar: Klezmer tales from the wild east gra novel itinerant jewish musicians e europe, era vaguely 1930s (maybe), art style is drunken quentin blake. got to immerse in different world, only know some 1/2 remembered isaac bash singer stories fr this milieu
Potter: Boys in Khaki Girls in Print womens literary responses to great war kinda reiterates the craig/cadogan book on ww1 only in academic prose
~~Woodhead: Shopping Seduction & Mr Selfridge~~ ~~suspect this 1 going to oxfam after reading all high living + materialism. izzit going to be a reallife ladie's paradise we ask~~ gave up + oxfammed it. prose is in journalese, simpering enthusiasm for consumerism and ladies who lunch, author is ex-personal shopper + fashion editor 4 mags
Davis: History of Shopping much drier than above, written 50s I think, overview fr customer pov of development supply chain for, esp, food+clothes
Yonge, Coleridge et al: The Miz Maze, or the winkworth puzzle, a novel in letters by 9 authors went in with low expectations, + early part book had some lumpen exposition (letterfic suffers badly from the as-you-know-john problem) but diff correspondants written by diff authors did mean variety in voice, + thing I love is seeing same person/incident from diff angles (is why have secret love 4 headhopping in fanfic + everyone else DESPISES it) there was a warmed over smarmy mr collins alike, cheap joke but he did make me laugh. the sturdy anglosaxon worth ten mediterranean fools trope pretty front + centre
Thirkell: Three Houses memoir childhood, freebie off publisher.
Hicks: Friends With Boys gra novel aimed at teen. bigeyed manga influenced art, gentle storyline about going to big school + negotiating bullies loneliness crowds. Loved characters, sweet without cloying. got to give n.
Trollope: Two Heroines of Plumplington late work - set in barsetshire! - one for rabid completists only. has more in common with Young Visiters than framley parsonage NOT done with light hand
Tarr: His Majesty's Elephant kid-histfic about elephant sent to charlemagne, such a lovely random note in the chronicles that have already encountered childrens (picturebook) with the story.

also FINALLY finished bloody dev biog. reread chunk of temeraire book 1.

October:

Sedia: Heart of Iron russian steampunk roadtrip to china, could not be less interested in luv triangle being set up, heroine in drag had extraordinary run of luck/ deus ex m. worldbuilding yay. plot, meh
"Geillor": Twilight of Lake Woebegotten parody twilight (which have never managed to read more than a page a time of despite attempts). psycho version of Bella fun to read, sort of Becky Sharp lite. considerably easier to read than twilite
Major: As Near to Heaven by Sea, history of newfoundland + labrador tiresomely folksy sentence style + he assumes readers already versed in newfoundland celebs, but anecdotal and all the stuff I wish I already knew.
de Horne Vaizey: Heart of Una Sackville not one of her better ones tbh but do like how she makes wanting2Bgood uncloying
Lindskold: Wolf Captured series continues past this but getting bored now, prob last one shall read
Bradshaw: London in Chains hist fic, restoration london, disgraced woman on the make, dawn of journalism. wish had discovered her earlier in life, think I only saw her 1st, went o gawd ANOTHER bloody retelling of arthur and never picked up again
Butler: The Eggman & the Fairies essays by angloirish guy born about 1900. the prose is fine, but the reek of summers of tennis parties at the big house + the contempt for anyone who is earning a living and the constant theme of prods = intellect while celts = (amusingly misguided, natch) heart, pissed me off throughout.
Rubino, Rubino-Bradway: Lady Vernon and her Daughter expansion austen novella l susan. poss cos source is more obscure, works very well, really decent read
Brandt: The Man Who Ate His Boots the tragic history of the quest for the northwest passage thought was about franklin, is several late 18th early 19th c chaps chundering across the tundra with flag (to plant) in 1 hand, inuit (by scruff neck) in other fist. Too sad to read without breaks between chapters
Agas: A/Z of Elizabethan London mostly graphics
Pascal: Sweet Valley Confidential ten years later it's as if pascal's last bump into lit was the shopping n fucking doorstops fashionable in the 80s. The attempts at boy stream of consciousness was esp hilarious, the shifts in character to accomodate movie-of-week plottwists eye watering, terrible english, awkward brand name dropping. hilarious
Hopkins: Lure of London 1929 book about rambles round london districts, aimed at homesick colonials. racist, classbound, v nudgenudge about prostitutes. anecdotal
Grace: Not My Bag gra nov about rather dappy artist (semi memoir) who works dept store cos financial crisis, gets caught up office politics
Garrett: Lord Darcy 60s ish pulp sf, not aged well PCwise. wooden chars, same adjectives applied same people over + over (originally these s stories spread across multiple mags) is crime/alt universe/magic using 4 forensics
Phillipps: Language of Thackeray dry, v linguistic, all the turns of phrase you don't register rocketing through the story. must reread pendennis
Evans: Painted World from illumination to abstraction catalogue of v+a exhibition, got remaindered. aimed not to be all about art-in-frame-on-wall, but turned out that way. aimed not to be all-europe-all-the-time, but turned out ditto. chronological chapters
Fawkes: Dion Boucicault stage oirish victorian actor-manager biography. had seen one of his melodramas + disliked it acutely
Foss: People of the First Crusade the truth about the christian-muslim war revealed
Pritchard: Shooting the Cook misery memoir - bbc director of Keith Floyd + K Floyd's ego.

reread GhosTV reread Emma

november:

Freund: Laughter & Grandeur theatre in the age of the baroque lots about 17th cent french theatre, tends to be a bit whistlestop overview + not wonderfully written, but full of info. summarises too many plots of forgotten tragedies but that does mean you get a sense of what the going cliches were. annoyed by some of the editorial moments from freund
Bradshaw: Corruptible Crown sequels london in chains, hist fic re: levellers, must read more bradshaw
Mantel: The Giant, O'Brien rps histfic about anatomist hunter versus freakshow hit O'B Mantel rewrote o'b'S probable character to make points about the art of the story + antiIrish feeling. Re: the latter, felt she strained my patience with "beautiful" "poetic" turns of stage oirish phrase - will let flann o'b away with this, but few other writers. Apparently mantel conveniently discovered dead irish granny in family tree in course of publicising this book. am v tired of being told by english how much more racy + celtic they feel cos of defunct irish ancestor who died before they were born
Tarr: Ars Magica fantasy with gilbert the medieval french pope, church politics, late carolingians and a brazen head
Gore-Browne: Gay Was The Pit, life and times of Anne Oldfield actress 1683 1730 badly written and sentimental where it isn't nudgenudge re: alleged nymphomania of actresses but not likely to find another bio of her
Bujold: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance benefitted from diminished expectations, had been so unimpressed by cyroburn, was cautious re: Ivan-story. It was fluffy but entertaining, like an oldschool romcom and I actually liked new char Tej (am v bleh about the sainted Ekataerin) It wouldn't work for a new reader, too many scenes where chars from prev books in series are wheeled in and you get what Tej thinks of them, but they don't function in plot of this one, so newreader would be all; what are you doing here in this story? Ivan was sexually harassing Elena Bothari 1st book, took me ages to come to like him (poss when he desuicided Miles with ice bath?) is so much fun in this
Curwen: History of Booksellers the old and the new written 1870s, so not that new, stodgey mediocrelevel victorian prose, anecdotal about restoration chaps on the make, interested in subject
Barber: Devil's Crown history of henry II and his sons e of acquitane hardly there at all, Paul would be so sad. Is spinoff of 70s tv series, lots illustrations.
Levitt: Dog Days urb fantasy, blessedly not para romance. written by straight white boy, hero straight white boy. hero bit arsehole. won't pursue series (this, bk 1, self contained, which am glad of) cos dislike pov char and had some minor sexism + homophobia dogwhistles.
Yonge: Treasures in the Marshes one of her terrible cottage novels; 2 parallel families. 1 good and humble 1 dissatisfied + wicked. because no digressions or complex psychological stuff, the bones of the structure too clear
Hitchings: Secret Life of Words how english became english armchair etymology (have I put the insect -ology there?) random words selected to highlight his points, wish more detail, too many random examples, insufficiently organised
Bauer (illistrator): Swedish Fairy Tales childrens book, trans fr swedish, many authors, united by 1 illustrator (v Rackhamesque) who died 1918. Stories great, trolls + wintry stuff
Jones + Bennett: Steelhands 4th in steampunk mannerpunk melodrama series about clockwork dragons + the RAF johnnies who used to fly them. a kind of cross between sarah monette + temeraire
Eaton: Yes Papa! mrs chapone and the bluestocking circle want to read further about the women in clarkes mr johnson's women
Rosen: All Men of Genius ya-ish steampunk retell of 12th night with char names pinched from importance being ernest. lots fun, never felt worried about outcome + chars never came completely alive - poss for stylistic reasons, a lot of telling not showing. frothy, read in a day.
Nimoy: My Incredibly Wonderful Miserable Life son of leonard nimoy, bit arsehole, objectifying narcissistic privileged, not as good a writer as hoped from reviews read b4 opening this
Warwick, Pitz, Wyckoff: Early American Dress heavily illus in line drawings, colonial era, lots about working clothes, lots about development early america. v waspy perspective, written 70s I think
Cherryh: Sunfall coll sh stories written late 70s (?) pub as book 1980. earth under a dying sun etc. Set in paris (story of lurve) rome (decadence) moscow (medieval throwbacks with wood for technology) new york (native amer skyscraper scalers fixing nu-tower of babel) london (bimbo courtesan in tower of london gets verbal bollocking from shade of queen elizabeth I for being a wuss) Peking (mongol horde with numinous overtones) the stereotypes she thought would endure were most noticable part. nothing dates quite like old sf
Clive: Christmas with the Savages novelised memoir aimed at children of posh victorian nursery life by sister lord longford.

did not finish hist booksellers

December:

Furnas: Fanny Kemble leading lady of the 19th century stage
Fullerton: A Dance With Jane Austen how a novelist + her characters went to the ball v slight thin, sending direct to oxfam shop, nice illustrations
Bann, Whiteley et al: Painting History delaroche & lady jane grey exhibition catalogue remainder, went to this + loved it couple yrs back
Thompson: Body Boots & Britches folktales ballads and speech from country new york orig pub 1939, returned book cos of enthusiastic chapter re: injun-killers, could not hack how he wrote about killing people
Lackey (edit): Elemental Magic anthol s stories about my fave of her fantasy series, other authors
McDonagh: Idiocy a cultural history v dry, cites 2 yonge novels! - developments in how mental deficiency was percieved through 19th century, a bit about tudor + early 20th, too. novels, institutional records, medical discourse. terminology changes through time covered, had to think 2ce meaning of word from 18th to end 19th c
Kowal: Glamor in Glass enjoyable but fluffy heyerplusmagick thingy
Trewin: Five and Eighty Hamlets theatre critic reminisces about 60 years of productions
Mills: Two Victorian Ladies paraphrased + compressed diaries sisters mid 19th century w linking passages. duller than should have been, dullness the editor mills' fault i think
Clarke: Queen of the Wits a life of laetitia pilkington Swift is horrible in this, had read anecdotes that put him in a bad light but thought offday or embroidered story, is total shit here. lp v much a woman on make, repelled by her eye for main chance but would I mind if man were as ambitious as this? norma clarke a joy to read
Smith: Desmond born about the time pilkington died, also married bad husband @ 15, forced support self with hack writing (smith's generation did more novels less poetry) terrible lovestory twixt 2 unconvincing paragons of whom the married lady faints in crisis + wannabe cuckold lurks + stalks in monk costume, punctuated by diatribes about fr revolution which is what smith wanted to write about; she hates her own loveplot
Ben Amos: Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern English Society
Gibson: Squeaking Cleopatras the elizabethan boy player a sutton published this, so; great topic but terribly written book
Sturrock: Storyteller the authorised biography of roald dahl dahl still comes across as an arse in his authorised biog
Scalzi: Redshirts galaxy quest in paperback form, have been panting to read this since summer, gobbled inna day, wonderful trekjokes + one of the codas made me cry. will force n to read this.
Cartland: Poems of Barbara Cartland lines on life and love you can keep your mcgonnegall
Beaton: Minerva six sisters heyer type thing, made me laugh, quick read after being bogged in dahl all week, researched details like fine points of duel and author judging heroine's sincerity oddly shoehorned in as narrator asides
Beaton: Taming of Annabelle six sisters prev book ended without tying off ends
Beaton: Deirdre and Desire six sisters heyer-ish
MOMA: Tim Burton exhibition catalog gift fr prettyh
Thackeray: Thackerayanascrubbed together collection of illus marginalia fr T's books assembled shortly after dissolution of his library when he died. Chrystal spotted this one for me at work

bryant and may off the rails

2011-10-07T21:32:49Z

It is how long since updated? This is a placeholder, and frankly, now have forgotten the things that happened this summer. There was a condolence letter to write which was a week or so of phrasing and rephrasing in head, followed by evening of writing in best hand, followed by week after sending of worrying had hit wrong nerve. Which is stupid, is (they say) the contact that counts, kinda self regarding to brood so about exact words.

There was a trip to the Globe to see the play about Anne Boleyn - which I saw adverts for in 2010, dithered too long and they were sold out when I finally decided to show self a good time. Self, there were no tickets left. So when it went on the 2011 schedule, decided MUST go. It was fun, more slapsticky than had expected - the chap playing James 1st was hilarious, but everyone had some memorable or punchy lines, and they all made most of them - and 1 of reasons for going, that the plot arc was based around famous woman, and about her religious/political agenda, not her probs finding a shag, turned out justified. (I mean, obv, Henry much in evidence, but in poor light) Brenton managed to make it a bit complicated and multi POV. It was wonderful. I'd see the play again.

There was Neil, coming up to London for daytrip. I owe him for so many weekends on his sofa, so wanted to find nice things to amaze and if necessary scare him with. Me being museum fan, this meant one thing. This meant 3 things, all of them museums. I think it was the day of some ghastly sports event in Hyde Park, and Apsley House, Park Lane, Marble Arch and places adjacent were no-go zones unless wearing Adidas. Also, in case of my going disguised, you had to look at home in adidas. Hasty reroute via Regent St to get to Wallace Collection. Wanted to introduce N to brown bread ice cream, which poncey ice-c parlour in Christopher Place do, but not in their freezer that day. This, N to this day unsure b bread ice cream exists. (It DOES. It's YUMMY.)

Found Wallace Collection, tidge lost on way cos diff angle of approach, went in telling N that we'd just stop in quick, don't worry, not v exciting. Is about decade since last went, remember being underwhelmed. However, N did curatology and museum studies as part degree, is meticulously observant of things I don't notice, placement lighting emphasis how visitor flow is nudged along, all that. Is fascinating going to museum with him. W Coll is tiny bijou stately home, and all the gilding had been regilded since last there, blinding. Humming, future so bright I gotta wear shades (not really) we strolled through, N looking politely interested, me bit sheepish. Some wonderful pics on wall, laughing cavalier, a small saint pic crivelli had never seen before, canaletto. Lots of women falling out of bodices. N tutting mildly at the unstable nature of their blouses.

Then we got to reason for going. The suits of armour. N+I used to play d+d together, so we both gripped by renaissance firearms, many done in cellini aesthetic with rioting 3D mermaids lunging off pistol butt in way that would give you nasty bruise on palm of hand. Ornamentation on everything, tritons on cannon, a gun with enclosed knife as too long to reload, armour for a horse with unicorn spike on forehead, oriental armour across 2 rooms, we loved it. We used to spend ages roleplaying weapon purchases as it was, if had this extra knowledge, would've, all of then group, spent double time articulating mother of pearl inlays and bas relief detailing.

Tea at the lab coats and chutneys deli, then wandered up Marylebone High St. Alas, though cabbages + frocks market open this week no boar on spit - they usually have pig barbie with organic condiments and was planning to finally try it. Also the stall with artificial silk flowers not there. Got bus to Brit Library, showed him the sf exhibition. As before, he much more alert to the how of the display. Had, myself, thought it brilliantly presented but not so great content. Tea in caff near tavistock Sq. Wandered through bloomsbury to Cartoon Museum (he ASKED for that one) where I left him as it Dr Who, not my thing. Went and browsed the oxfam on corner. Must remember cartoon musum shop in future for great and uncliched cards. Forbidden Planet, met friends of Ns, all off to Neals Yard for (overpriced) cake, then cocktails at Freuds to finish. The friends left (I have their faces in my head, architect + chap known from schooldays, but not names, am sure at least one will have been called Andy) so N + I had supper in Turkish place, where we in cavernous refridgerated basement picking at saucer of complimentary olives. No, really, the olives liked my hat + everything.

So that was fun. Momentary temptation, as result, to drag prettyh to Wallace Collection all over again for the decorative killing machines of yesteryear (Have no imagination) if not the John Soane, but did not force museums on her as she rightfully resistant to being force marched through sites of Uplift and History. (She did not escape being bussed past Albert Memorial in marked manner. My self denial has limits) Ought post about her visit (tomorrow after work) esp as was all twitchy about meeting her, in case of mutual hate or crogglement.

Too long a post. Stop now.

monthly packet

2011-07-18T17:50:09Z

Am reading (currently, a space opera by Julie Czerneda about a paranoid shapeshifter), pleasant change of pace after immersion in mind of Mrs Duberly, who is v dislikable victorian lady with enriched sense of entitlement. Kept thinking how her tent, foody treats, efforts of servants, extra blankets, and lavish fawning could have gone to help someone who needed it if she'd just stayed away from glorymongering and war-touristing the crimea.

Am pretending to complain about the London weather while secretly I like rain.

Am weeding old shrunken Tshirts from drawer to oxfam - they use them for rags for bulk industrial use I hear - because 40somethings do not carry off the Winnie the Pooh crop top look with grace,

And finally, am wasting ridiculous amounts of time on free online gaming: Sushi Cat - a game scorned by freerange poultry cos it is that lacking in skill. And freerange poultry don't have opposable thumbs so clearly they have low standards in computer games.
(I am really dreadful at computer games)

Such is life.

iWilliam has cancelled his party. Hope he has as good a weekend as would have with guests. Will anyway not have horrific mess in his home come sunday morning.

hunting ground, briggs

2011-07-11T18:33:59Z

Back at work. Missed it.

As now under new management, starting to look more confidently at ordering forthcoming titles. Had not been researching forthcomings with usual thoroughness for a while. Thus, only discovered today ( oursin ) that Vintage Classics are republishing 2 Stella Gibbons in August 2011 - the Charmers and Here Be Dragons. Nice.

Discovered, also via scout through fantasticfiction.co.uk the existence of frightening Australian paranormal romance series called Savage Australia by Lexxie Couper. Her August title has a texan involved with a tasmanian tiger shifter. Very alliterative (I like the expression on female model's face on cover). I thought Laurenston's rom-fantasies had the lock on quirky varieties of were, but how little I knew. Am guessing from the blurb that it's a Samhain publication, always amused by their blurbs. The publisher is small, ships from US and tends to pricey and this combined with slow death of paranormal romance dept's sales means will not be stocking it.

Will, though, have some fresh new titles on the table soon. Other books. Some American, some UK, some I like, some I wouldn't read but hope to sell. V pleased about that and with prospects of work + section.

miser of mayfair by chesney

2011-07-09T15:11:12Z

Okay, finally finished Gibbon (which have been reading on + off since Feb) which was alternating between fascinating and homeworky, depending largely on whether he was on about e or western empire. Individual sentences lucid, but so long + wall of text, needed to sub-vocalise, which made it go slowly. Or maybe am just too dim for him.

On balance, not as anti-Christian as his rep, just the institution + hierarchy of the church he resented. But it was a case of a writer being mostly on the same venn diagram as his topic but not quite. There's a Fantastic bio, 2 vols, of Yeats by RF Foster; he is superb at late victorian ireland and london, he writes deliciously, he knows the politics, lead figures - you have a sense that RFF could talk your ear off at a party about years of encounters with the personality of AE, that is, that he knows loads and is cherrypicking the relevant/interesting parts rather than this is everything his research churned up for this specific project - and RFF gamely, self consciously, has a go at lit-critting the poetry, but then Yeats gets into rosicrucianism and automatic writing and RFF's total contempt for spiritualist guff is manifest. Similarly, Gibbon was all over the epic and the detail of power struggles but when it came to the grudge fight over phrasing the creed he threw his hands in the air and went o for fucksake.

Most of my Gibbon reactions were of the frivolous - kept, among all the Caesars, remembering exbookseller Cesar, who nobody but SarahH would recall if I spoke of him. He was a handsome boy, bit abstracted, and when you spoke to him it took a minute for him to realise he was in a conversation and another minute for him to adjust to english. He passed his workshifts in a kind of fugue state, then went home, washed all over, and put on his dancing booties. He may have been operating on very little sleep.

In other news, had a week off, recently for no special reason been panicked about finances, tried not go out near shops or things that charged to let you in, skipped meals a couple of days (and wow, felt crap then. wot surprise. am idiot. Basically lost a couple of days of the week to sloth and hunger pains, god. Am idiot, idiot) Was, also, in full social terror of intended meeting with ex school friend, which had me taking stock and feeling like a waste of space and failure in life. This is pure social panic, but anyway, was twitchy before, tense during (and is NICE person, which was the point) and throwing random wobblies for 24 hours after.

Helen grabbed the cheque, dammit. Will send small book to Tullow. Worried said wrong things. Worried failed to say right things. Worried did not explain that was giving her my ear - not looking her in face for most conversation - cos can hear better when ear angled like is part of Jodrell Bank. Am not built for le social.

When I mentioned was sweary - we last met in the 1980s - sharp intake of breath from herself.

Speaking of, will crash on N's sofa in couple of weeks, so did the daytrip to Willesden. There, amid many delightful poundshops, is place that sells loose leaf Barry's gold blend Irish Tea, the drink of the gods. Is not obtainable in Brighton, where they moodily settle for PG Tips the peasant bastards. N likes it. While was there, browsed the indy bookshop in the library complex - which has brilliant childrens selection - and spent £17 on principle. I know, I know, inconsistent after week of miserliness, but last time was there, only picked up polish hist fic thing that won american librarian award, and was telling Liam I always bought something in there (on principle) and he gave me heebyjeeby eyebrown cos polish childrens hist fic had cost me less than fiver. Tcha! to my claims of consumerist morals, he thought.

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Another thing, while in Willesden, enjoyed (a) mini exhibition on Louis Wain (found postcard to give Clarisse the cat obsessed) and Brent Museum which had not been in. Is tiny but charming w lots of A/V recordings of aged local inhabitants re: previous decades. (Weird, 70s is Way Back When) Above, image I found in the display case about Wembley (local) and their empire show in 1924. Is the Canadian offering - full scale sculpture of the then Prince of Wales, the Mrs Simpson one, done in good salt butter. Thank you Canada.