books read in 2014
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.
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.