[books 2015] Catching up
These are all from January, so I'm being crap again.
5. The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery by Catherine Bailey
I knew this book was going to suck, but I thought it would be at least amusingly sucky. Oh boy was I wrong. I only finished it because I was going to write a long scathing review, but now I find that I can't even be bothered. (Go read the Guardian's review - it covers most of the points I would have made).
This is history for people who know nothing about history, or how society used to work. I think it's for people who read chick lit. The author is all shock! horror! that aristocratic parents in the late Victoria era weren't all cuddly with their children. And that they abused their power. Apparently that came as news, or she thinks it will do to her readers. And then there's the "explanation" that while staying away from the war to be with one's young family is seen as a good thing these days (a huge insult to every soldier with children who has deployed in recent conflicts), it was considered desertion in WWI (unless you knew the right people).
If I'd ever stuck such irrelevant quotes and padding in any of my undergraduate essays I would have been deservingly failed and have no degree.
The stupid, it burns!
If I was in any way less than effusive about Jenny Uglow's achievement in In These Times, this book has thrown into perspective what a towering piece of scholarship it is.
On the other hand, I kind of want to visit the stately homes mentioned in the book now.
6. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Regular readers will know that I adored the first book in this series, Rivers of London, but feel that recent efforts had somewhat gone off the boil.
Aaronovitch is back on top form with this one. I read it in two days.
Detective Peter Grant (in the division of all things spooky) is completely out of his element - in the countryside (Herefordshire). Some girls have gone missing and he is sent to make routine enquiries with a registered hedge wizard in the area. That's a dead end, but he feels the need to stay and help out as a regular police officer. Not surprisingly the case turns out to be all supernatural.
Alternatively funny and suspenseful (and unicorns are really scary!), I just couldn't put it down.
7. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Tom Paine?
Started reading it in the summer and then got distracted. This is Paine's treatise on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and on government in general. It's longer and more difficult that Common Sense but still full of wonderful quotes which are still relevant today. The last chapter on "Ways and Means" could bog you down in figures, but some of his best points are found there.
5. The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery by Catherine Bailey
I knew this book was going to suck, but I thought it would be at least amusingly sucky. Oh boy was I wrong. I only finished it because I was going to write a long scathing review, but now I find that I can't even be bothered. (Go read the Guardian's review - it covers most of the points I would have made).
This is history for people who know nothing about history, or how society used to work. I think it's for people who read chick lit. The author is all shock! horror! that aristocratic parents in the late Victoria era weren't all cuddly with their children. And that they abused their power. Apparently that came as news, or she thinks it will do to her readers. And then there's the "explanation" that while staying away from the war to be with one's young family is seen as a good thing these days (a huge insult to every soldier with children who has deployed in recent conflicts), it was considered desertion in WWI (unless you knew the right people).
If I'd ever stuck such irrelevant quotes and padding in any of my undergraduate essays I would have been deservingly failed and have no degree.
The stupid, it burns!
If I was in any way less than effusive about Jenny Uglow's achievement in In These Times, this book has thrown into perspective what a towering piece of scholarship it is.
On the other hand, I kind of want to visit the stately homes mentioned in the book now.
6. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Regular readers will know that I adored the first book in this series, Rivers of London, but feel that recent efforts had somewhat gone off the boil.
Aaronovitch is back on top form with this one. I read it in two days.
Detective Peter Grant (in the division of all things spooky) is completely out of his element - in the countryside (Herefordshire). Some girls have gone missing and he is sent to make routine enquiries with a registered hedge wizard in the area. That's a dead end, but he feels the need to stay and help out as a regular police officer. Not surprisingly the case turns out to be all supernatural.
Alternatively funny and suspenseful (and unicorns are really scary!), I just couldn't put it down.
7. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Tom Paine?
Started reading it in the summer and then got distracted. This is Paine's treatise on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and on government in general. It's longer and more difficult that Common Sense but still full of wonderful quotes which are still relevant today. The last chapter on "Ways and Means" could bog you down in figures, but some of his best points are found there.