Reading not writing 2009 #7
I know, I know, I'm really late with this one., but at least I still have the list. For some reason reading Cotillion seems to have triggered a Georgette Heyer surge in me and I read a further 6 of her regency romances, mostly back to back. I'd read them all before of course, and most of them are old friends.
61. Beyond the pale by Donal Hickey. This is a variably humorous selection of news stories from regional Irish newspapers, depicting some of the eccentricities of Irish life. It was all right.
62. Doubts and Desires by Richard Holloway. Interesting examination of one man's way of reconciling modern life and knowledge with Christianity - he's a retired episcopalian bishop FWIW. It's left to the reader to determine whether what this man believes is still Christianity.
63. Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the first in a long series, which my beloved encouraged me to read. It was enjoyable, and given that it is about the first Afghan war remarkably apposite. Not sure if it was sufficiently enjoyable for me to want to read the next one though.
64. The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne. One of the first south sea adventure stories, first published in about 1860. Too sanctimonious for my taste but makes an interesting contrast to Lord of the Flies. Treasure Island was much, much better.
65 -70. Frederica, Sylvester, The Quiet Gentleman, The Talisman Ring, Faro's Daughter, and Sprig Muslin all by Georgette Heyer. I love all of these, for different reasons - TQG and TTR are both as much detective novels as they are romances, TTR and FD are both set in the 1790s rather than the 1810s of the later books. Frederica and Sylvester and both pure comedy, and Sprig Muslin is hardly a romance at all. The same plot elements appear in many of them, and many of the characters are identifiably the same types.
71 Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It's really a historical fantasy, I suppose set in 18th century France, about a man who has an extremely sensitive sense of smell, but no personal odour of his own. I saw the movie adaptation before I read the book, but I do think I prefer the book. The film was an excellent adaptation, but for a tale about the sense of smell it was missing the extra dimension. Very disturbing all the same.
72. Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North. A marvellous debunk of just about every major scare over the last 20 years starting with Edwina Currie's Salmonella eggs and concluding with global warming.
73. A death in Tuscany by Michele Guitarri. Police procedural set in Italy. Written by a former head of Florentine police. It was OK, and the plot was suitably twisted, but I'm not sure I found the protagonist sufficiently engaging to want to meet him again.
74. The political gene by Denis Sewell. This starts off as an interesting look at the way ideas provoked by Darwin's development of the theory of natural selection were applied by the now discredited eugenics movement. The second half was less well written, being a polemic against much of modern science, and overall I didn't much care for it. However the point that eugenics was once mainstream science is a valid one, but it's not any more.
75. The book thief by Markus Zusak. In that it's a novel about the second world war for children, this is similar to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but it's a very different sort of story. It charts the life of a German orphan, being cared for by a slightly dissident family during the early years of the war. Unusually, it's narrated by Death. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, it's too unsettling, but well written nevertheless.
76. The Sleekit Mr Tod by Roald Dahl. This is Fantastic Mr Fox translated into Scots and it's just wonderful.
"Doon in the glen there wis three ferms. The men that owned them were aboot as scunnersome and grippy an ony men ye could meet. There were cried Fermer Boggin, Fermer Boonce and Bermer Beek...On a brae above the glen steyed Mr Tod, and Mrs Tod and the fower Wee Tods. Ilka nicht, Mr Tod wid jouk doon tae yin o the ferms and help himsel tae a meal for his wife and weans."
Fabulous. And hysterical, and far,far funnier than the original.
61. Beyond the pale by Donal Hickey. This is a variably humorous selection of news stories from regional Irish newspapers, depicting some of the eccentricities of Irish life. It was all right.
62. Doubts and Desires by Richard Holloway. Interesting examination of one man's way of reconciling modern life and knowledge with Christianity - he's a retired episcopalian bishop FWIW. It's left to the reader to determine whether what this man believes is still Christianity.
63. Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the first in a long series, which my beloved encouraged me to read. It was enjoyable, and given that it is about the first Afghan war remarkably apposite. Not sure if it was sufficiently enjoyable for me to want to read the next one though.
64. The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne. One of the first south sea adventure stories, first published in about 1860. Too sanctimonious for my taste but makes an interesting contrast to Lord of the Flies. Treasure Island was much, much better.
65 -70. Frederica, Sylvester, The Quiet Gentleman, The Talisman Ring, Faro's Daughter, and Sprig Muslin all by Georgette Heyer. I love all of these, for different reasons - TQG and TTR are both as much detective novels as they are romances, TTR and FD are both set in the 1790s rather than the 1810s of the later books. Frederica and Sylvester and both pure comedy, and Sprig Muslin is hardly a romance at all. The same plot elements appear in many of them, and many of the characters are identifiably the same types.
71 Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It's really a historical fantasy, I suppose set in 18th century France, about a man who has an extremely sensitive sense of smell, but no personal odour of his own. I saw the movie adaptation before I read the book, but I do think I prefer the book. The film was an excellent adaptation, but for a tale about the sense of smell it was missing the extra dimension. Very disturbing all the same.
72. Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North. A marvellous debunk of just about every major scare over the last 20 years starting with Edwina Currie's Salmonella eggs and concluding with global warming.
73. A death in Tuscany by Michele Guitarri. Police procedural set in Italy. Written by a former head of Florentine police. It was OK, and the plot was suitably twisted, but I'm not sure I found the protagonist sufficiently engaging to want to meet him again.
74. The political gene by Denis Sewell. This starts off as an interesting look at the way ideas provoked by Darwin's development of the theory of natural selection were applied by the now discredited eugenics movement. The second half was less well written, being a polemic against much of modern science, and overall I didn't much care for it. However the point that eugenics was once mainstream science is a valid one, but it's not any more.
75. The book thief by Markus Zusak. In that it's a novel about the second world war for children, this is similar to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but it's a very different sort of story. It charts the life of a German orphan, being cared for by a slightly dissident family during the early years of the war. Unusually, it's narrated by Death. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, it's too unsettling, but well written nevertheless.
76. The Sleekit Mr Tod by Roald Dahl. This is Fantastic Mr Fox translated into Scots and it's just wonderful.
"Doon in the glen there wis three ferms. The men that owned them were aboot as scunnersome and grippy an ony men ye could meet. There were cried Fermer Boggin, Fermer Boonce and Bermer Beek...On a brae above the glen steyed Mr Tod, and Mrs Tod and the fower Wee Tods. Ilka nicht, Mr Tod wid jouk doon tae yin o the ferms and help himsel tae a meal for his wife and weans."
Fabulous. And hysterical, and far,far funnier than the original.