Books read in 2013
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