books read in 2015
must be much more ruthless about passing things onto oxfam, am drowning in piles of books in my room, fear am a hoarder.
January :
O'Regan: Isn't It Well For Ye the book of irish mammies better as a twitter feed like so many "humour" titles
Kaye: For You Alone frederick wentworth book 2 austen fanfic. better than average (a low bar)
Trewin: The Edwardian Theatre about commercial theatre, disproportionate number of theatre hist books about experimental cutting edge stuff. fun and bitchy, I enjoy trewin
Brett: Dead Side of the Mike charles paris whodunnit. was okay, not bowled over by it
Walkley + Foster: Crinolines and Crimping Irons victorian clothes how they were cleaned and cared for
Riordan: The Finest Music early irish lyrics several poems familiar but from new translations. wonderful new pangur bawn by muldoon.
Kaminsky: High Midnight phillip marlowe wannabe (written 70sish) RPS fiction of golden age of hollywood with namedropping of 40s stars. gary cooper and hemmingway star in this. fun
Duffy (edit): Answering Back living poets reply to the poetry of the past bit overly themed anthology and some of the entries felt formulaic or flippant or unrelated to original piece. pangur ban showed up again in this, serendipitous
Hay: Mr and Mrs Disraeli a strange romance biog of their relationship by woman who on team Mrs Dizzy all the way. Good, as had prev only really read books focussed on him which were bit dismissive of wife
Goldthwaite: The Natural History of Make Believe anglophone childrens books in 19th ~ early 20th century, the uses of fantasy therein. the objective data I knew, the opinions and commentary I largely disagree with, feeling the author too pleased with self by half
Gravett: Spells picturebook
Walker: Picked Up Patched Up and Sent Home why I love the NHS one man's attempt at good press for grassroots nhs anecdotal re his life, his childrens' birth, and mildly funny
Hardwick: Mrs Dizzy 1970s biography, wanted more quotes/ contemporary accounts than Hay gave, not really worth reading.
February:
Smallwood (edit): Players of Shakespeare 4 further essays RSC essays by actors - some on the dreadful shakes clown roles
Welch: The Hawk henty type yarn of clean cut britisher hero delivering swift uppercuts to nasty people - part of the histfic series about Carey family, written by welsh schoolmaster in mid20th century. no characterisation worth a damn but lots action adventure (tudor this time)
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve a guide to the principle works of britain europe and north america about fantasy in anglophone childrens books. much of the hard fact I knew already, I disagree with almost every opinion and was irritated to the point it took ages to read. the carroll chapters especially seem full of shit and theories built on no foundation been reading this since Jan
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2004 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2005 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Longford : Making Conversation persephone book in a Pym-type vein, should have loved but was bored throughout, sad about that as was gift fr Susan. reminded me of that richardson novel about getting of wisdom
Bordo: Creation of Anne Boleyn in search of the tudors most notorious queen enjoying, is about how history is written by the winners and redone for new generations - think I read something similar about the posthumous reputation of lady jane grey
Hornby: Shakespeare Wrote For Money collection of his reading-journal column from believer magazine. I don't read the same books he does, or enjoy the same books, but he's great on how readers read or fail to read books
reading v slowly, was still stuck on bloody greenthwaite till late march as i wanted to punch him about once a paragraph. also the darnton book had me stuck for ages (dry)
March:
Briggs: Dead Heat paranormal romance werewolves - the alpha omega series. bit meh about the emphasis on babyhaving in the primary couple, but briggs always gets me rooting for the characters she wants me to like
Darnton: Devil In The Holy Water or the art of slander from louis xiv to napoleon v dry and not as interested in this as in his book about french enlightenment booksellers which was so worth persevering with that I ploughed, joyless, through this one. an academic book + I too stupid to follow it
Fowler: Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart less excited by this, poss because I expect to love a bryant and may book so is hard to meet expectations. was i in bad mood reading-wise all month? took v little pleasure in reading
Davies: Voice From The Attic essays on the art of reading robertson davies on reading - his taste eclectic. theatre section a disappointment and am sure he had interesting things to say about theatre but in this book he talking about reading playscripts, alone, in armchair. for pleasure. end chapter about porn, was full of him being disingenuous about why he buying it (research for book i hold in hands! i don't care) and how the booksellers didn't understand his purity and scholarly approach. dealers kept advancing sidelong, nudging RD in ribs and going psssst i got somefing you'll like guv. is not booksellers fault they thought he wanted smut for usual reason.
Wells: Great Shakespearian Actors biog essays. mostly got for betterton and early people. very brief, not v revealing, and a lot of info had read elsewhere. foreword had stanley wells announcing epiphany that actually acting is art form. bit late to discover that in his career considering how long he's been at the shakespeare racket. advance copy, glad did not pay for it.
Gregg: I, Omega m/m paranormal novella w wolves. fucking terrible
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve most of month trudging through this. largely about christian underpinnings of fantasy (he feels fantasy usurps the role of Creator-God, so am baffled he studies fantasy at all, given is profoundly bornagain) and the narnia bit was poss the best thing on narnia have ever read, but driven to red mist rage by the several chapters about carroll which stated a hypothesis about how it was all a coded roman a clef re: Alice Liddell's mum but did not offer enough proof for me to be convinced. he seemed to feel he had proven his case past argument.
Schumacher: Dear Committee Members mild satire novel-in-letters set in midwest liberal college where eng lit professor spends all his time writing letters of recommendation. the book is composed of LORs - he digresses a lot about his horrible workplace and botched love affairs and hatred of political correctness. protagonist 1st funny ~ then a deadwhiteguy teacher ~ then poignant. surprised it got an emotional reaction from me. V light but read more or less at a sitting and laughed immoderately, ask no more of a book than that sometimes.
Gielgud: An Actor And His Time dull. he says nothing mean about anyone which is tactful and good for him, but a pity for the reader. what is left of book is mostly lists of plays he was in with notes that (insert famous actor) co-starred in this or that production. hoped for indiscretion from gielgud, which, shallow of me
Double: Getting the Joke the inner workings of stand-up comedy how jokes work. meaning of funny
Mayhew: Of Street Piemen extract (80p penguin mini-book) from london labour london poor. 4 unrelated essays of studs terkel in a hansom cab goodness. he so lets the interviewees - assorted costermongers flowergirls and street tradesmen - speak for themselves without editorial, was shaken when he did article on penny performing theatre and was shocked and tutting that the young girls were so "impudent" (aka cheerful) and "vulgar" (surprise!)
still haven't finished that devil in holy water
April:
Flanders: A Bed of Scorpions crime novel about grumpy middleaged publishing editor who keeps stumbling into murder cases. could do without apparantly obligatory romance, but it does give her a policeman ally. makes me smile. as often w crime, bored by the case, reading for the people.
Scarisbrick: Portrait Jewels opulence and intimacy from the medici to the romanovs mostly got for cheestetastic photos of pictures the size of saucers, with clustered pearls and gems done to look like buncha grapes, enammelled coat arms up top, in general, wildly over the top stuff like you see on official portraits Elizabeth I. and I love portraits anyhow. Text interesting and gave me more nuance than had on the topic to start with.
Hall: The Self Portrait a cultural history essays roughly chronological from ancient world (brief) medieval (brief) to 20th century.
Darnton: Devil in the Holy Water still. keep putting it down then not picking up again. have about 200 pagesworth of interest in this, tops, and book has overshot this by mile.
O'Connor: Best of Frank O'Connor i know it's all priests peasants n potatoes but he does fab narcissistic small boys and the short stories are perfectly paced in how they gradually feed you what is going on
Randers-Pehrson: Barbarians and Romans birth struggle of europe ad 400 - 700 v sweeping perfect for ignoramus (me)
May:
Uglow: In These Times living in britain through napoleon's wars 1793-1815 home front in gb during these wars, too diffuse imo, has rich then poor then rural then debutante then whatever then navy then army then some other thing. prefer her books on single person they feel less of a blur of random data.
Cavafy: Remember, Body penguin minibook which underwhelmed by
Gracian: How To Use Your Enemies macchievellian selfhelp of professed cynicism, would not have been up for entire text this was extracted from. Spanish Jesuit author 17th century
Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic multiverse of alternate londons, 1 of them hanoverian others varying degrees of magicness. on paper swashbuckling pirates hanoverians and alt-universe hopping should have been exactly my thing, was bored all way through. cannot work out why. been unresponsive to fantasy after 1st chapter for a bit.
Woolf: Platform of Time memoirs of family and friends got for annie thack ritchie and j marg cameron
Schoch (edit): Macready Booth Terry Irving great shakespearians
Wilson: Consider The Fork a history of how we cook and eat marvellous. loved the bit about the US adopting cups to measure by and had brief flurry of watching youtube vids of vintage style cookings
Freeman: Life Moves Pretty Fast the lessons we learned from eighties movies fluff but fun even though several films i only know by reputation
Glendinning: A Suppressed Cry the short life of a victorian daughter her 1st book. vg has become a better storyteller since. things i wish had been expanded or checked out on, slight woffle in places. good but she'd have done it better later
Trela (edit): Margaret Oliphant critical essays on a gentle subversive my copy had huffy pencil marginalia all along saying bosh etc explosively. may have influenced me. pencilled anon thought the statements made were not backed up with sufficient evidence and the contributors all referred to ea other so it was a circle overall.
Perdita: Crash m/m werewolves bored me
Shevelow: Charlotte the true story of scandal and spectacle in georgian london life of charlotte cibber daughter of colley cibber, actress and crossdresser. she deserved a better biographer. lots of research done, fascinating life, was driven to distraction by long sections of madeup stream of consciousness and emotions attributed to heroine
Stroud: Lockwood and Co whispering skull childrens action adventure gothic lovely example of what it wanted to do
Booth: Victorian Spectacular Theatre 1850 1910 bit dry.
and i replaced my no-frills paperback edition of burney's evelina with a lovely norton critical edition; so got to read all the essays in the appendix of that
June:
Pirkis, Wood (edit): Slightly Foxed quarterly, spring 2015
Foster: Vivid Faces the revolutionary generation in ireland 1890-1923 finding the sardonic asides amusing, worry what this says about my politics. much more about dublin theatre than expected
Crosse: Shakespearian Playgoing 1890 1952 memoir of amateur shakes afficionado. bit listy tho' he intended to give a sense of styles of acting - his personal preferences came across v clearly
Paradiz : Clever Maids the secret history of the grimm fairy tales annoyed by this; author made firm statements (about how people felt) without evidence, which makes me mistrustful of rest of book.
Groopman : How Doctors Think how mis-diagnosis happens. reviews of this said G was arrogant. he didn't seem so to me
Morgan: Dramatic Critic selected reviews 1922 1939 theatre critic. bought for contemp reactions to young olivier gielgud richardson etc. bit repetitive as not designed to be read cover2cover, often restating points across book. glad i read, sent to oxfam after
Shakespeare: King John been reading bit about victorian staging of shakespeare, came across several refs to kingJ which had not read, now is magna carta year so have globe ticket for 13/6. hasty read on day before. reading, it feels a lot like the action is all offstage and what you see is people shouting at each other. unsure will enjoy play. ETA found play v ranty, as suspected. King J funnier than i found him in reading, the bastard stole the 1st act, can see how cardinal was plum role in vic theatre long shouty monologues during which, try as might, attention drifted. going to see nell gwynn by swale in sept globe
Flower: The Irish Tradition about development of irish lit such as in celtic miscellany. intended for casual reader, some of the anecdotes pretty funny
Jackson: Bears of England studiedly surreal sh stories, tied together at quasi poignant end
Gard: Jane Austen's Novels the art of clarity ironically lacking clarity himself, his point is that lit critics underestimate sensitivity of regular armchair readers and jargon up platitudes to up the wordcount on their book length studies of aspects of JA.
Gaiman: Sleeper and the Spindle refried fairy tale - short story in picture book form - which owed most of its charm to Riddell's illus. sleeping beauty with twist. hero was heroine, turned out to be snow white of 7dwarf fame. gift fr N
Tanitch : London Stage in the Nineteenth Century heavily illus w playbills, contemp advertising, illus of productions, quotes of contemp reviews, photos of Blist actors of day, summary of key plays for each year. v browsable
Kilpatrick: Fanny Burney not a brilliant biog, liking it for its sympathy with Hester Thrale
Colloms: Victorian Country Parsons mediocre nonfic re what it says on the tin, some of the subjects interesting but mostly a waste of time.
Cartmell (edit): Shakespeare vol 2 coll acad essays, found in oxfam. lit crit utterly beyond my comprehension but a couple of essays about vic staging (child actors : master betty) and reception of Lamb's tales, also couple reviews of productions of 2006 - suddenly realised had actually been to that Globe;Measure For Measure all male version in tudor staging (liked it less than reviewer did)
Dewey: The Tragedy Series secret lobster claws and other misfortunes selfconsciously wacky steampunky cartoons. ought not have read in one speed gobble. liked other book by him more (it was shorter and didn't give me time to get over the gimmick)
Poniatowska: Leonora a novel inspired by the life of leonora carrington went into this on basis of loving Hearing Trumpet. Either poniatowski, or the way LC presented herself to P, managed to put me right off, in this account of special-snowflaking through the 20th century. was over aware that P's source of anecdata was LC, so v odd to keep hearing reported compliments - never an accusation of bullshittery; amazing given the fucking quoted dialogue - accompanied by disclaimers of how oblivious LC was to own genius, ravishing beauty, unique insight, lonely sensitivity, spontaneous brilliance, irresistable sexuality, etc.
Nash: Provok'd Wife life and times of susannah cibber sister of tom rule britannia arne, married son of dreadful poet laureate cibber, sis-in-law of charlotte choake who read biog of recently. husband on losing interest in her pimped her out to rich fanboys, she fell in love with one, collaborated with garrick at work and stayed iin love with inamorato. prodigously wannabe respectable poor woman, sang for handel. good biog of interesting woman (itchy little americanisms like talking about place being couple blocks away from 17xx covent garden, autumn always called fall, more disappointing was how 1950s men=butch women=femininity pervaded the character judgements of everyone)
Sher: Year of the Fat Knight the falstaff diaries found proof copy at work had been thinking of paying for it. interesting but learned less than hoped about how he built role, v name droppy
July:
Bradley: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie cosy crime with 11 yr old girl detective, set 1950s England. can see why its a success, did not believe in Flavia as a human being though she's similar to, say, Harriet The Spy and others. But harriet the spy had lots of data but no experience to put it together + learned empathy painfully, and only partially, at end book. Flavia rocketed between knowing too much and too little. Think narrative/editorial voice was supposed to be adultFlavia? A lot of stereotype characters in ensemble. got for N
de Font-Reaulx: The Daguerrotype tiny picturebook of french exhibition
Delman: Lover's Perjuries or the clandestine courtship of jane fairfax and frank churchill a retelling of jane austens emma bearing in mind the low bar for austen sequels, this one not at all bad (v expensive, small press and ugly cover) no shrieking anachronisms, many original characters loosely based on minor chars from austen novels. jane had a touch of elinor dashwood
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 5 bindup of 1905 magazine re london theatre, mostly staged + stagey photos.
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 6
Hawthorne: 20 Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa diary of childminding in 1850s by nathaniel hawthorne, had read extracts in a history of childhood book before
Beaton: Princess and the Pony love her illustrations, story overly moralistic. worth everything for the dudebro knight highfiving his stallion.
Garfield: On the Map why the world looks the way it does picked up cos cheap, full of great stories - garfield is great on topics i only want a superficial and anecdotal overview on - like his book MAUVE re victorian industrial chemistry (not a diss; am not up for a depth book on subject but i learned things in map)
Lanyon: Dark Horse White Knight 2 x m/m novellas
Bibby: Four Thousand Years Ago a panorama of life in the 2nd millenium BC through the bronze age all over europe. archaeology comes alive with a lot of logical extrapolations
about how it must've been to live through, chapters cover 70 years each so you don't jump centuries inna single paragraph without registering it. he states which bits guesswork and which he's pretty sure on. Is v definite about earliness and ubiquity of med sea trading routes, which had thought was a thing historians picked up on more recently (4000 yrs ago is published 1965)
Streatfeild: Magic and the Magician e nesbit and her childrens books kinda ropey, i think aimed at child readership (why? don't think many children care about the lives of the authors of the books they love)
Dench: Judi behind the scenes collection of photographs judi dench mix of personal and stage ones, got cheap wouldn't have got otherwise
White: Age of Scandal an excursion throgh a minor period the elitism left a bad taste in my mouth - starts on page one so no excuse for me not realising it would bother me - but great anecdotes and well told, just brought out the sans culotte in me while reading
Clifford & Herlihy : Envoi Taking Leave of Roy Foster truculent revisionist-bashing collection by nationalist local hist group who loathe rf foster's casual cronyism and perceived privilege. some points scored but the style was too much written in green ink with exclamations at end of every sentence and elaborate passive aggression which told against them. also, rff makes me laugh. i may be biassed myself
Hadlow: The Strangest Family the private lives of george III queen caroline and the hanoverians gossipy - v much about their soap opera emotional life not the politics of the time. the 4 georges blur into each other for me so useful that it charted the family across the 18th cent and differentiated the kings as people. tended (presumably because of source material) to lump the princesses together, which, sad. bought to find out what became of them. might pick up fraser-princesses to see if more about them as individuals
Bills : Dickens and the Artists book of exhibition, essays about various aspects of influence of D on vic art. lots pictures which is what I bought it for.
Norwich : Christmas Cracker 2010 picked up from trestle of bargain books
Fleming: Barrow's Boys horrific and inappropriately-funny horrific story of naval officers, in career slump after peace broke out post napoleon, being despatched to claim unmapped globe for england. alternately africa, searching for nile on as little money as admiralty could give them, or arctic for NW passage. bought book for NW passage. fleming gets v attached to some officers, hates others, which brings passion to the story, have been recommending freely to people who ask what am reading at moment (is reprinting now, dammit)
August:
Pointon: Portrayal and the search for identity more about the identity than portraits
Enders: Gut one of those pop-sci books. largely about poo, written in over exclamatory childrens' tv presenter style. sim mary roach books - was too irritated by style (fault of translator? orig german language) to take in much
Sheridan: The Critic or a tragedy rehearsed
McNeill: The Scots Kitchen it's tradition and lore with old time recipes writer expects cook to deal with much offal. read for hist bits, will give to N in name of his scottish grandmother
Laurenstone: Bear Meets Girl gloriously ridic paranormal romance - lovelorn polar bear shifter. will give min for xmas for her crackfic needs. enjoyed
Beaton: Scandalous Lady Wright regency. lot of rubbish this month
Ribeiro: Ingres in Fashion representations of dress and appearance in ingres' images of women coffee table book, lavish illus, done chronological so also kinda biog ingres (who I thought was spanish in 1 of those unexamined assumptions)
Geoghegan: Robert Emmet a life early 19th c irish rebel. G keen to show how he not an idiot and had v cutting edge milit tactics. bloody awful poet though
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age pub date 1926 in stodgey late victorian prose, finished/published after author's death. takes sides shamelessly and openly (is team Brunhilde; hates team Fredegundis) studiedly vague about what atrocities his villains commited, stops narrative often to state that X was baptised yet not practising behaviour of a christian STILL READING IN OCTOBER
O'Connor: Ralph Richardson an actor's life lots of information but badly written gushy style. felt like a long profile in glossy magazine
Clark: Old Norse Made New essays on the post medieval reception of old norse literature and culture
Hart: The Popular Book a history of america's literary taste had lots feels re: this at time, know I enjoyed it but not sure beyond that now (typing up list 2 months later) a lot o digressions about literacy levels, religous fashions, temporary cults
Wahrman: Mr Collier's Letter Racks a tale of art and illusion at the threshold of the modern information age not my thing, hard to follow as freemasons.
Norman: Daughter of Lir wonderful melodramatic hist fic with minimal romance plot, reminds me of Gillian Bradshaw. This one is norman conquest of ireland, protagonist is a wronged abbess who goes to w of ireland to be an amazon then sets up private spy service with help of gormless viking, tubercular exprostitute, camp monk and her amazon sisters. Book takes fire when Henry II of england on-scene. bits v funny, bits made me sad for characters, ending is rocks fall everyone dies. loaned instantly to Christel on completion. note to self: read more diana norman
September:
Kowal: Valour and Vanity heist set in a/u regency where magic works. blurb references austen, is more heyer. 4th in sequence, am more meh about this than previous, poss as heist is Not My Thing
Ashwell: Indian Tribes of the SW re: canadian 1st nations, esp their artwork and such. not much more than a pamphlet
Ebest: The Dave Store Massacre a book itching to be made into a coen bros movie. is about a trade union strike in a walmart in a dying town in midwest usa, where the main characters are all grotesques and author has capra-like mix of rage at humanity and rage at what humanity to to each other
Wang: Star Wars board book, film done as posed plush figures
Turner: Little Mother Meg sequel 7 little australians. rare cos not often reprinted. not often re cos not that great (like when i tracked down books 4+5 in what katy did sequence)
Warner: Captain Marryat a rediscovery much horribler man than had known. the story about him trying to force a duel on stranger then encountering him in front nat gallery and brawling. knowing he started in navy after nelson died had not realised how much active milit service he experienced
O'Faolain: Irish Sagas and Folk Tales oxford myth series which i usually like, but this not the best retelling of cuchullain and fionn that have read. pedestrian
Macaulay: Building the Book - Cathedral showing his design decisions when putting together childrens architecture nonfic picturebook in an annotated anniversary edition.
Curwen: History of Booksellers WHICH HAD STARTED OVER A YEAR AGO, FINALLY FINISHED. victorian hack writing, super dull aka noncontroversial for 19th century bit which most of book (earlier timeline worth reading)
Brahms & Sherrin: Benbow Was His Name sellars and yeatman histfic with strong sense of horrors of naval life at start 18th cent. authors clearly soft spot for benbow
Kennedy: Tigers and Devils m/m romance about football enthusiasts in melbourne
Stroud: Lockwood and Co the hollow boy childrens action adventure with ghosts. moves too fast to reek of the grave. enjoyed
Glyn Jones: Clutch of Curious Characters extracts fr other biographies, collection of english eccentrics. mixed bag as far as enjoyability went.
Beaton: Step Aside Pops cartoons by Kate Beaton. less strong collection than hark a vagrant was.
Blishen: A Cack Handed War memoir of being conchie working land during 2nd world war. had liked his memoirs of teaching cos interested in the teaching. in this, was exasperated by his voice in the book and not distracted by any kind of interest in combine harvester techniques
Davies: Vanished Kingdoms STILL READING THIS IN OCTOBER
October:
Davies: Vanished Kingdoms curate's egg. doubtless brill on e europe which i wanted less detail on, bloody terrible on saorstat erin (where i feel he missed point of what was going on, i feel royalty a sideissue and he made a legal entity discontinuous with its before and after frankly) happy i read him on franks and north of britain (now scotland but then had alliances w wales) dark ages kingdom of rock
Cameron: Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women intro essay by woolf which had read, and fry on julia margaret c, which had not. mostly pictures.
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age THIS TOOK MONTHS TO FINISH partly cos of victorian stodginess of prose, partly disagreements w author (flinch making anti semitism, belief of 19th century that epileptics=moral degenerates, tendency to rhapsodise about the beauty of christianity) and how he is studiedly vague about nature of beastliness of people he disapproves of, and boy does he fanboy, for example, Brunhildis versus Fredegundis, basically because of "blood of kings" vs "lowborn" lowborn is his most crushing adjective. crashing snob. judges the hell out of people; this one was never happy except when betraying a friend, this one was genial yet dignified cos descended fr senators, etc.
Cox: Shopgirls the true story of life behind the counter based on tv doc, v shallow. knew most of this. best on victorians really, runs out of steam in 1960s
Waterfield: Below Stairs 400 years of servants portraits mostly for the illustrations but the essays worth reading. largely stately home orientated as cook generals don't get memorialised the same way as butlers.
Scott: The Royal Portrait image and impact veeeerrrry bland. writ by curator of queens galleries, did not realise till end book. tactfully skips abdication crisis by moving almost straight from victoria to elizabeth. largely about portraits as PR + image management not as artworks.
Cooper: National Portrait Gallery a portrait of britain all the pics one remembers from the gallery w blurb about life of subject. lovely does what it says on the tin book
Bryson: The Road to Little Dribbling sequel to notes/small/island. dialled it in. getting impatient w Bryson as I notice how sneery he is at waiters and shopstaff. towns he likes are "nice" "agreeable" "pleasant" such bland adjectives. towns he dislikes are the ones who sell him dry cake.
Yonge: The Castle Builders one of her good ones but not one of her best. confirmation, shifts in emotional dynamics between sisters, Y navigating showing lacklustre parenting while telling parenting must be respected
Shapiro: 1606 william shakespeare and the year of lear enjoyed even though lear not one of the plays i love. esp the bits on macbeth.
Funnell: Millais Portraits catalogue of an exhibition at nat gallery. victorian art and essays about background. multiple reproductions of same pics across book, a pity and a waste
Suede: Hothead m/m romance about firefighters. romance works for me if i like chars. crime or sff can survive horrid leads, biogs positively enhanced by them (1 my fave biogs is schliemann of troy by traill and traill develops the rage for schliemann as he researches his book) but i want to slap the hero of this
Darwin: It Was Snowing Butterflies 80p penguin mini book, extracted fr journey/beagle. will never read whole thing. why on earth did they include hid racist bit about fuego.
Laurenston: Beast Behaving Badly funny relaxing paranormal rom about were polarbear who plays icehockey. enjoyable nonsense, passing to min in her crackfic xmas parcel of (i hope) joy
November:
Allason-Jones: Women in Roman Britain v archaeological (as opposed to document based) short book about records of women across 4 centuries urban rural slave rich. wide range trying to be covered so few generalisations sane. glad i read it
Playfair: Flash of Lightning portrait of edmund kean author seems to hate women - he despises the main mistress, despises the wife (who didn't understand Kean, huh) on other hand, author despises other biographers of kean, so maybe not a woman thing
Anderson: Evil Emperor Penguin childrens graphic novel, got free
Hilton: Queens Consort loved this one. in order of reign, tells what can be extrapolated about qcs from wife of william conqueror to eliz of york. reading this fast was startled by how many med kings got toppled or came close to it, had been taught england was always stable unlike all those inferior nonenglish countries (v pro england hist teaching at school) will try read more about some of these periods, curious
Ortberg: Texts from Jane Eyre just because i love the toast website really. have been cooing over articles there w ladyJo at work. fun. like most humour books taken off web, disposable
anon: Arden of Feversham tru crime elizabethan play. edition sans notes, just quick intro
Disher: Mad Genius a biography of edmund kean with particular reference to the women who made and unmade him unfinished, just awful. thought it biography but he hist-novelled it with long streams of con of various characters, all of whom disher held in contempt as various flavours of fool. unfair to the cuckolded husband and to k's downtrodden wife, but surprisingly also made kean stupid too. oxfammed the book
Sherlock: West Indian Folk Tales
Fortey: Dry Store Room No 1 the secret life of the natural history museum anecdotal, gossipy, pitching case for environmentalism. v sexist in blokey fashion which i found less charming than he prob thought he was
de Vries: Victorian Advertisments picture book of reprods fr newspapers
Hazlitt: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays disappointment - this was rel early in his writing life, not as good as essays, v fanboy gushing
Garfield: To The Letter a celebration of the lost art of letter writing not as fun as mauve or on the map by same author, was a hist/survey not anthology of letters, nice if hadn't already seen books on same subject
Ragg: When Jane Austen ReVisited Lyme Regis not v good timetravel story set during ww2 (written and published 1943 i think) mostly comparison of how places had changed. good as topography, no plot discernable. pamphlet
Keown: Peggy Ashcroft list her theatre performances till 50s. dull, listy, got for photos of productions
Bayley: The Albert Memorial the monument in its social and architectural context about rows and committee wars while sculpting, also much re: symbolism of tangle of statuary at base
Foster: Star Trek Log 3 novelisation of animated episodes which never saw. meh
Peacock: Paper Garden mrs delany begins her lifes work at 72 mrs d fascinating if elitist (encountered her mostly via life of laetitia pilkington who is not mentioned here) but far far far too much about molly peacock in this book who i don't care about to begin with and aggressively don't care about after she grandstanded her way to forefront of book allegedly about someone else. considering a tag on librarything for narcissistic authors
Hahn: Tower Menagerie the amazing true story of the royal collection of wild beasts gift fr n.
Strom: Worse Things Happen At Sea leporello concertina form gra novel. lovely illustrations and a folk song about briny deep
December:
Welch: Nicholas Carey one of the less gripping of this hist fic series for children. cross between henty for the imperialist vim and geoffrey trease for the educational vim. story a game of two halves with hero foiling italian nationalists who want freedom then off to crimea where has a good war.
Milhous: Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695 - 1708 academic and mostly about logistics and business decisions and pop taste of time - financial not creative end. wanted to find out betterton's personality, limited sense of having done so.
Merrow: Pressure Head paranormal m/m romance about plumber in st albans with crime plot. fwiw, have ordered both sequels; liked hero and had not cared for prev book by this author
Freeman: Victorians and the Prehistoric came for dinosaurs, multiple chapters re: sediments. fuckit. to be fair, is about hist mentalities about creation, fascinating, but want more dinosaurs because am mental age 8
Lasdun: Victorians At Home picturebook about interior decor, mostly of rich homes. tied into biography - lasdun has a section on each house and tells you about the people who lived in the rooms pictured
Macfarlane: Family Life of Ralph Josselin a 17th century clergyman analysis of diary of interregnum parson who scrambling to keep parish when charles ii returns. dry and academic but author squeezes his data to the uttermost.
Bear, Monette: Apprentice To Elves is the female centred final third of trilogy (tehanu, hello!) from authors you suddenly realise were writing a more male centred high fantasy than you'd expect of them, like tehanu, expected to like more than did, felt protagonist bit marysuishly fab
Druts: Russian Gypsy Tales does what sez on tin. same memes as other folktales but was often joss-wheedoned by death of chars I thought were under protective hand of narrator. amoral re theft and the structure of stories unlike wellknown stories (even the predisney grimms)
Johnson (edit): Letters of Mrs Thrale sel letters.
Nussbaum: Rival Queens actresses performance and the 18th century british theatre interesting but more sociological + theoretical academic than I wished - wanted to beat author round head w strunk and white when (often) could have put same sentiment in anglosaxon not latinate. special chapters on kitty clive etc who I wanted to know more about
Beaver: Spice of Life pleasures of the victorian age ie, circus, panto, musichalls, zoos. v about workingclass culture, ignored official theatre which did have w-class in audience, writ by man in (70s?) who wistful for those good old days of racism sexism classism and zero health safety concerns
Chambers: Provoked m/m regency romance in Edinburgh
Rushton: Eighteenth Century Costume in the National Museums and Galleries of Merseyside lots pictures, text largely about cut and changing shape of garments. more men and commoners than in some hist-fashion books
James: Lois McMaster Bujold masters of science fiction fannish monograph
Burrows: I Think I Can See Where You're Going Wrong and other wise and witty comments from guardian readers made me laugh even if is off web. edited to point of safety thank god
Brody: Irrepresssible the life and times of jessica mitford
Aurisch: High Society the art of franz xaver winterhalter treacle I know but gorge coffee table book of pics. empress eugenia looks surprisingly like someone I worked with on ox st
Merrow: Relief Valve
Merrow: Heat Trap m/m romance about paranormal plumber in e anglia who solves crime
Vicary, Francis, Carpenter: Blackie Girls' School Story Omnibus xmas gift fr jo. girls of the rose dormitory, which philip larkin loved (?), total headfuck as promised
Barton: Historic Costume for the Stage writ between wars (cuts off 1914) revised in 60s. american author, so from colonial on is interested mostly in US wasps. ea section starts impressionistic + inaccurate take on what happened in that era, then onto mens incl hair, womens incl hair, children, accessories, what style to do the set in for period, how to sew, what cheaper fabric will pass, lists useful artists/illus books to check out. fun but could have done with more illus, some of the text was unclear (was reading late at night, prob not at my most attentive)
end of year!!!
January :
O'Regan: Isn't It Well For Ye the book of irish mammies better as a twitter feed like so many "humour" titles
Kaye: For You Alone frederick wentworth book 2 austen fanfic. better than average (a low bar)
Trewin: The Edwardian Theatre about commercial theatre, disproportionate number of theatre hist books about experimental cutting edge stuff. fun and bitchy, I enjoy trewin
Brett: Dead Side of the Mike charles paris whodunnit. was okay, not bowled over by it
Walkley + Foster: Crinolines and Crimping Irons victorian clothes how they were cleaned and cared for
Riordan: The Finest Music early irish lyrics several poems familiar but from new translations. wonderful new pangur bawn by muldoon.
Kaminsky: High Midnight phillip marlowe wannabe (written 70sish) RPS fiction of golden age of hollywood with namedropping of 40s stars. gary cooper and hemmingway star in this. fun
Duffy (edit): Answering Back living poets reply to the poetry of the past bit overly themed anthology and some of the entries felt formulaic or flippant or unrelated to original piece. pangur ban showed up again in this, serendipitous
Hay: Mr and Mrs Disraeli a strange romance biog of their relationship by woman who on team Mrs Dizzy all the way. Good, as had prev only really read books focussed on him which were bit dismissive of wife
Goldthwaite: The Natural History of Make Believe anglophone childrens books in 19th ~ early 20th century, the uses of fantasy therein. the objective data I knew, the opinions and commentary I largely disagree with, feeling the author too pleased with self by half
Gravett: Spells picturebook
Walker: Picked Up Patched Up and Sent Home why I love the NHS one man's attempt at good press for grassroots nhs anecdotal re his life, his childrens' birth, and mildly funny
Hardwick: Mrs Dizzy 1970s biography, wanted more quotes/ contemporary accounts than Hay gave, not really worth reading.
February:
Smallwood (edit): Players of Shakespeare 4 further essays RSC essays by actors - some on the dreadful shakes clown roles
Welch: The Hawk henty type yarn of clean cut britisher hero delivering swift uppercuts to nasty people - part of the histfic series about Carey family, written by welsh schoolmaster in mid20th century. no characterisation worth a damn but lots action adventure (tudor this time)
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve a guide to the principle works of britain europe and north america about fantasy in anglophone childrens books. much of the hard fact I knew already, I disagree with almost every opinion and was irritated to the point it took ages to read. the carroll chapters especially seem full of shit and theories built on no foundation been reading this since Jan
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2004 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Norwich (edit): Christmas Cracker 2005 being a commonplace selection pamphlet
Longford : Making Conversation persephone book in a Pym-type vein, should have loved but was bored throughout, sad about that as was gift fr Susan. reminded me of that richardson novel about getting of wisdom
Bordo: Creation of Anne Boleyn in search of the tudors most notorious queen enjoying, is about how history is written by the winners and redone for new generations - think I read something similar about the posthumous reputation of lady jane grey
Hornby: Shakespeare Wrote For Money collection of his reading-journal column from believer magazine. I don't read the same books he does, or enjoy the same books, but he's great on how readers read or fail to read books
reading v slowly, was still stuck on bloody greenthwaite till late march as i wanted to punch him about once a paragraph. also the darnton book had me stuck for ages (dry)
March:
Briggs: Dead Heat paranormal romance werewolves - the alpha omega series. bit meh about the emphasis on babyhaving in the primary couple, but briggs always gets me rooting for the characters she wants me to like
Darnton: Devil In The Holy Water or the art of slander from louis xiv to napoleon v dry and not as interested in this as in his book about french enlightenment booksellers which was so worth persevering with that I ploughed, joyless, through this one. an academic book + I too stupid to follow it
Fowler: Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart less excited by this, poss because I expect to love a bryant and may book so is hard to meet expectations. was i in bad mood reading-wise all month? took v little pleasure in reading
Davies: Voice From The Attic essays on the art of reading robertson davies on reading - his taste eclectic. theatre section a disappointment and am sure he had interesting things to say about theatre but in this book he talking about reading playscripts, alone, in armchair. for pleasure. end chapter about porn, was full of him being disingenuous about why he buying it (research for book i hold in hands! i don't care) and how the booksellers didn't understand his purity and scholarly approach. dealers kept advancing sidelong, nudging RD in ribs and going psssst i got somefing you'll like guv. is not booksellers fault they thought he wanted smut for usual reason.
Wells: Great Shakespearian Actors biog essays. mostly got for betterton and early people. very brief, not v revealing, and a lot of info had read elsewhere. foreword had stanley wells announcing epiphany that actually acting is art form. bit late to discover that in his career considering how long he's been at the shakespeare racket. advance copy, glad did not pay for it.
Gregg: I, Omega m/m paranormal novella w wolves. fucking terrible
Goldthwaite: Natural History of Makebelieve most of month trudging through this. largely about christian underpinnings of fantasy (he feels fantasy usurps the role of Creator-God, so am baffled he studies fantasy at all, given is profoundly bornagain) and the narnia bit was poss the best thing on narnia have ever read, but driven to red mist rage by the several chapters about carroll which stated a hypothesis about how it was all a coded roman a clef re: Alice Liddell's mum but did not offer enough proof for me to be convinced. he seemed to feel he had proven his case past argument.
Schumacher: Dear Committee Members mild satire novel-in-letters set in midwest liberal college where eng lit professor spends all his time writing letters of recommendation. the book is composed of LORs - he digresses a lot about his horrible workplace and botched love affairs and hatred of political correctness. protagonist 1st funny ~ then a deadwhiteguy teacher ~ then poignant. surprised it got an emotional reaction from me. V light but read more or less at a sitting and laughed immoderately, ask no more of a book than that sometimes.
Gielgud: An Actor And His Time dull. he says nothing mean about anyone which is tactful and good for him, but a pity for the reader. what is left of book is mostly lists of plays he was in with notes that (insert famous actor) co-starred in this or that production. hoped for indiscretion from gielgud, which, shallow of me
Double: Getting the Joke the inner workings of stand-up comedy how jokes work. meaning of funny
Mayhew: Of Street Piemen extract (80p penguin mini-book) from london labour london poor. 4 unrelated essays of studs terkel in a hansom cab goodness. he so lets the interviewees - assorted costermongers flowergirls and street tradesmen - speak for themselves without editorial, was shaken when he did article on penny performing theatre and was shocked and tutting that the young girls were so "impudent" (aka cheerful) and "vulgar" (surprise!)
still haven't finished that devil in holy water
April:
Flanders: A Bed of Scorpions crime novel about grumpy middleaged publishing editor who keeps stumbling into murder cases. could do without apparantly obligatory romance, but it does give her a policeman ally. makes me smile. as often w crime, bored by the case, reading for the people.
Scarisbrick: Portrait Jewels opulence and intimacy from the medici to the romanovs mostly got for cheestetastic photos of pictures the size of saucers, with clustered pearls and gems done to look like buncha grapes, enammelled coat arms up top, in general, wildly over the top stuff like you see on official portraits Elizabeth I. and I love portraits anyhow. Text interesting and gave me more nuance than had on the topic to start with.
Hall: The Self Portrait a cultural history essays roughly chronological from ancient world (brief) medieval (brief) to 20th century.
Darnton: Devil in the Holy Water still. keep putting it down then not picking up again. have about 200 pagesworth of interest in this, tops, and book has overshot this by mile.
O'Connor: Best of Frank O'Connor i know it's all priests peasants n potatoes but he does fab narcissistic small boys and the short stories are perfectly paced in how they gradually feed you what is going on
Randers-Pehrson: Barbarians and Romans birth struggle of europe ad 400 - 700 v sweeping perfect for ignoramus (me)
May:
Uglow: In These Times living in britain through napoleon's wars 1793-1815 home front in gb during these wars, too diffuse imo, has rich then poor then rural then debutante then whatever then navy then army then some other thing. prefer her books on single person they feel less of a blur of random data.
Cavafy: Remember, Body penguin minibook which underwhelmed by
Gracian: How To Use Your Enemies macchievellian selfhelp of professed cynicism, would not have been up for entire text this was extracted from. Spanish Jesuit author 17th century
Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic multiverse of alternate londons, 1 of them hanoverian others varying degrees of magicness. on paper swashbuckling pirates hanoverians and alt-universe hopping should have been exactly my thing, was bored all way through. cannot work out why. been unresponsive to fantasy after 1st chapter for a bit.
Woolf: Platform of Time memoirs of family and friends got for annie thack ritchie and j marg cameron
Schoch (edit): Macready Booth Terry Irving great shakespearians
Wilson: Consider The Fork a history of how we cook and eat marvellous. loved the bit about the US adopting cups to measure by and had brief flurry of watching youtube vids of vintage style cookings
Freeman: Life Moves Pretty Fast the lessons we learned from eighties movies fluff but fun even though several films i only know by reputation
Glendinning: A Suppressed Cry the short life of a victorian daughter her 1st book. vg has become a better storyteller since. things i wish had been expanded or checked out on, slight woffle in places. good but she'd have done it better later
Trela (edit): Margaret Oliphant critical essays on a gentle subversive my copy had huffy pencil marginalia all along saying bosh etc explosively. may have influenced me. pencilled anon thought the statements made were not backed up with sufficient evidence and the contributors all referred to ea other so it was a circle overall.
Perdita: Crash m/m werewolves bored me
Shevelow: Charlotte the true story of scandal and spectacle in georgian london life of charlotte cibber daughter of colley cibber, actress and crossdresser. she deserved a better biographer. lots of research done, fascinating life, was driven to distraction by long sections of madeup stream of consciousness and emotions attributed to heroine
Stroud: Lockwood and Co whispering skull childrens action adventure gothic lovely example of what it wanted to do
Booth: Victorian Spectacular Theatre 1850 1910 bit dry.
and i replaced my no-frills paperback edition of burney's evelina with a lovely norton critical edition; so got to read all the essays in the appendix of that
June:
Pirkis, Wood (edit): Slightly Foxed quarterly, spring 2015
Foster: Vivid Faces the revolutionary generation in ireland 1890-1923 finding the sardonic asides amusing, worry what this says about my politics. much more about dublin theatre than expected
Crosse: Shakespearian Playgoing 1890 1952 memoir of amateur shakes afficionado. bit listy tho' he intended to give a sense of styles of acting - his personal preferences came across v clearly
Paradiz : Clever Maids the secret history of the grimm fairy tales annoyed by this; author made firm statements (about how people felt) without evidence, which makes me mistrustful of rest of book.
Groopman : How Doctors Think how mis-diagnosis happens. reviews of this said G was arrogant. he didn't seem so to me
Morgan: Dramatic Critic selected reviews 1922 1939 theatre critic. bought for contemp reactions to young olivier gielgud richardson etc. bit repetitive as not designed to be read cover2cover, often restating points across book. glad i read, sent to oxfam after
Shakespeare: King John been reading bit about victorian staging of shakespeare, came across several refs to kingJ which had not read, now is magna carta year so have globe ticket for 13/6. hasty read on day before. reading, it feels a lot like the action is all offstage and what you see is people shouting at each other. unsure will enjoy play. ETA found play v ranty, as suspected. King J funnier than i found him in reading, the bastard stole the 1st act, can see how cardinal was plum role in vic theatre long shouty monologues during which, try as might, attention drifted. going to see nell gwynn by swale in sept globe
Flower: The Irish Tradition about development of irish lit such as in celtic miscellany. intended for casual reader, some of the anecdotes pretty funny
Jackson: Bears of England studiedly surreal sh stories, tied together at quasi poignant end
Gard: Jane Austen's Novels the art of clarity ironically lacking clarity himself, his point is that lit critics underestimate sensitivity of regular armchair readers and jargon up platitudes to up the wordcount on their book length studies of aspects of JA.
Gaiman: Sleeper and the Spindle refried fairy tale - short story in picture book form - which owed most of its charm to Riddell's illus. sleeping beauty with twist. hero was heroine, turned out to be snow white of 7dwarf fame. gift fr N
Tanitch : London Stage in the Nineteenth Century heavily illus w playbills, contemp advertising, illus of productions, quotes of contemp reviews, photos of Blist actors of day, summary of key plays for each year. v browsable
Kilpatrick: Fanny Burney not a brilliant biog, liking it for its sympathy with Hester Thrale
Colloms: Victorian Country Parsons mediocre nonfic re what it says on the tin, some of the subjects interesting but mostly a waste of time.
Cartmell (edit): Shakespeare vol 2 coll acad essays, found in oxfam. lit crit utterly beyond my comprehension but a couple of essays about vic staging (child actors : master betty) and reception of Lamb's tales, also couple reviews of productions of 2006 - suddenly realised had actually been to that Globe;Measure For Measure all male version in tudor staging (liked it less than reviewer did)
Dewey: The Tragedy Series secret lobster claws and other misfortunes selfconsciously wacky steampunky cartoons. ought not have read in one speed gobble. liked other book by him more (it was shorter and didn't give me time to get over the gimmick)
Poniatowska: Leonora a novel inspired by the life of leonora carrington went into this on basis of loving Hearing Trumpet. Either poniatowski, or the way LC presented herself to P, managed to put me right off, in this account of special-snowflaking through the 20th century. was over aware that P's source of anecdata was LC, so v odd to keep hearing reported compliments - never an accusation of bullshittery; amazing given the fucking quoted dialogue - accompanied by disclaimers of how oblivious LC was to own genius, ravishing beauty, unique insight, lonely sensitivity, spontaneous brilliance, irresistable sexuality, etc.
Nash: Provok'd Wife life and times of susannah cibber sister of tom rule britannia arne, married son of dreadful poet laureate cibber, sis-in-law of charlotte choake who read biog of recently. husband on losing interest in her pimped her out to rich fanboys, she fell in love with one, collaborated with garrick at work and stayed iin love with inamorato. prodigously wannabe respectable poor woman, sang for handel. good biog of interesting woman (itchy little americanisms like talking about place being couple blocks away from 17xx covent garden, autumn always called fall, more disappointing was how 1950s men=butch women=femininity pervaded the character judgements of everyone)
Sher: Year of the Fat Knight the falstaff diaries found proof copy at work had been thinking of paying for it. interesting but learned less than hoped about how he built role, v name droppy
July:
Bradley: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie cosy crime with 11 yr old girl detective, set 1950s England. can see why its a success, did not believe in Flavia as a human being though she's similar to, say, Harriet The Spy and others. But harriet the spy had lots of data but no experience to put it together + learned empathy painfully, and only partially, at end book. Flavia rocketed between knowing too much and too little. Think narrative/editorial voice was supposed to be adultFlavia? A lot of stereotype characters in ensemble. got for N
de Font-Reaulx: The Daguerrotype tiny picturebook of french exhibition
Delman: Lover's Perjuries or the clandestine courtship of jane fairfax and frank churchill a retelling of jane austens emma bearing in mind the low bar for austen sequels, this one not at all bad (v expensive, small press and ugly cover) no shrieking anachronisms, many original characters loosely based on minor chars from austen novels. jane had a touch of elinor dashwood
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 5 bindup of 1905 magazine re london theatre, mostly staged + stagey photos.
Dangerfield (edit): Play Pictorial vol 6
Hawthorne: 20 Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa diary of childminding in 1850s by nathaniel hawthorne, had read extracts in a history of childhood book before
Beaton: Princess and the Pony love her illustrations, story overly moralistic. worth everything for the dudebro knight highfiving his stallion.
Garfield: On the Map why the world looks the way it does picked up cos cheap, full of great stories - garfield is great on topics i only want a superficial and anecdotal overview on - like his book MAUVE re victorian industrial chemistry (not a diss; am not up for a depth book on subject but i learned things in map)
Lanyon: Dark Horse White Knight 2 x m/m novellas
Bibby: Four Thousand Years Ago a panorama of life in the 2nd millenium BC through the bronze age all over europe. archaeology comes alive with a lot of logical extrapolations
about how it must've been to live through, chapters cover 70 years each so you don't jump centuries inna single paragraph without registering it. he states which bits guesswork and which he's pretty sure on. Is v definite about earliness and ubiquity of med sea trading routes, which had thought was a thing historians picked up on more recently (4000 yrs ago is published 1965)
Streatfeild: Magic and the Magician e nesbit and her childrens books kinda ropey, i think aimed at child readership (why? don't think many children care about the lives of the authors of the books they love)
Dench: Judi behind the scenes collection of photographs judi dench mix of personal and stage ones, got cheap wouldn't have got otherwise
White: Age of Scandal an excursion throgh a minor period the elitism left a bad taste in my mouth - starts on page one so no excuse for me not realising it would bother me - but great anecdotes and well told, just brought out the sans culotte in me while reading
Clifford & Herlihy : Envoi Taking Leave of Roy Foster truculent revisionist-bashing collection by nationalist local hist group who loathe rf foster's casual cronyism and perceived privilege. some points scored but the style was too much written in green ink with exclamations at end of every sentence and elaborate passive aggression which told against them. also, rff makes me laugh. i may be biassed myself
Hadlow: The Strangest Family the private lives of george III queen caroline and the hanoverians gossipy - v much about their soap opera emotional life not the politics of the time. the 4 georges blur into each other for me so useful that it charted the family across the 18th cent and differentiated the kings as people. tended (presumably because of source material) to lump the princesses together, which, sad. bought to find out what became of them. might pick up fraser-princesses to see if more about them as individuals
Bills : Dickens and the Artists book of exhibition, essays about various aspects of influence of D on vic art. lots pictures which is what I bought it for.
Norwich : Christmas Cracker 2010 picked up from trestle of bargain books
Fleming: Barrow's Boys horrific and inappropriately-funny horrific story of naval officers, in career slump after peace broke out post napoleon, being despatched to claim unmapped globe for england. alternately africa, searching for nile on as little money as admiralty could give them, or arctic for NW passage. bought book for NW passage. fleming gets v attached to some officers, hates others, which brings passion to the story, have been recommending freely to people who ask what am reading at moment (is reprinting now, dammit)
August:
Pointon: Portrayal and the search for identity more about the identity than portraits
Enders: Gut one of those pop-sci books. largely about poo, written in over exclamatory childrens' tv presenter style. sim mary roach books - was too irritated by style (fault of translator? orig german language) to take in much
Sheridan: The Critic or a tragedy rehearsed
McNeill: The Scots Kitchen it's tradition and lore with old time recipes writer expects cook to deal with much offal. read for hist bits, will give to N in name of his scottish grandmother
Laurenstone: Bear Meets Girl gloriously ridic paranormal romance - lovelorn polar bear shifter. will give min for xmas for her crackfic needs. enjoyed
Beaton: Scandalous Lady Wright regency. lot of rubbish this month
Ribeiro: Ingres in Fashion representations of dress and appearance in ingres' images of women coffee table book, lavish illus, done chronological so also kinda biog ingres (who I thought was spanish in 1 of those unexamined assumptions)
Geoghegan: Robert Emmet a life early 19th c irish rebel. G keen to show how he not an idiot and had v cutting edge milit tactics. bloody awful poet though
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age pub date 1926 in stodgey late victorian prose, finished/published after author's death. takes sides shamelessly and openly (is team Brunhilde; hates team Fredegundis) studiedly vague about what atrocities his villains commited, stops narrative often to state that X was baptised yet not practising behaviour of a christian STILL READING IN OCTOBER
O'Connor: Ralph Richardson an actor's life lots of information but badly written gushy style. felt like a long profile in glossy magazine
Clark: Old Norse Made New essays on the post medieval reception of old norse literature and culture
Hart: The Popular Book a history of america's literary taste had lots feels re: this at time, know I enjoyed it but not sure beyond that now (typing up list 2 months later) a lot o digressions about literacy levels, religous fashions, temporary cults
Wahrman: Mr Collier's Letter Racks a tale of art and illusion at the threshold of the modern information age not my thing, hard to follow as freemasons.
Norman: Daughter of Lir wonderful melodramatic hist fic with minimal romance plot, reminds me of Gillian Bradshaw. This one is norman conquest of ireland, protagonist is a wronged abbess who goes to w of ireland to be an amazon then sets up private spy service with help of gormless viking, tubercular exprostitute, camp monk and her amazon sisters. Book takes fire when Henry II of england on-scene. bits v funny, bits made me sad for characters, ending is rocks fall everyone dies. loaned instantly to Christel on completion. note to self: read more diana norman
September:
Kowal: Valour and Vanity heist set in a/u regency where magic works. blurb references austen, is more heyer. 4th in sequence, am more meh about this than previous, poss as heist is Not My Thing
Ashwell: Indian Tribes of the SW re: canadian 1st nations, esp their artwork and such. not much more than a pamphlet
Ebest: The Dave Store Massacre a book itching to be made into a coen bros movie. is about a trade union strike in a walmart in a dying town in midwest usa, where the main characters are all grotesques and author has capra-like mix of rage at humanity and rage at what humanity to to each other
Wang: Star Wars board book, film done as posed plush figures
Turner: Little Mother Meg sequel 7 little australians. rare cos not often reprinted. not often re cos not that great (like when i tracked down books 4+5 in what katy did sequence)
Warner: Captain Marryat a rediscovery much horribler man than had known. the story about him trying to force a duel on stranger then encountering him in front nat gallery and brawling. knowing he started in navy after nelson died had not realised how much active milit service he experienced
O'Faolain: Irish Sagas and Folk Tales oxford myth series which i usually like, but this not the best retelling of cuchullain and fionn that have read. pedestrian
Macaulay: Building the Book - Cathedral showing his design decisions when putting together childrens architecture nonfic picturebook in an annotated anniversary edition.
Curwen: History of Booksellers WHICH HAD STARTED OVER A YEAR AGO, FINALLY FINISHED. victorian hack writing, super dull aka noncontroversial for 19th century bit which most of book (earlier timeline worth reading)
Brahms & Sherrin: Benbow Was His Name sellars and yeatman histfic with strong sense of horrors of naval life at start 18th cent. authors clearly soft spot for benbow
Kennedy: Tigers and Devils m/m romance about football enthusiasts in melbourne
Stroud: Lockwood and Co the hollow boy childrens action adventure with ghosts. moves too fast to reek of the grave. enjoyed
Glyn Jones: Clutch of Curious Characters extracts fr other biographies, collection of english eccentrics. mixed bag as far as enjoyability went.
Beaton: Step Aside Pops cartoons by Kate Beaton. less strong collection than hark a vagrant was.
Blishen: A Cack Handed War memoir of being conchie working land during 2nd world war. had liked his memoirs of teaching cos interested in the teaching. in this, was exasperated by his voice in the book and not distracted by any kind of interest in combine harvester techniques
Davies: Vanished Kingdoms STILL READING THIS IN OCTOBER
October:
Davies: Vanished Kingdoms curate's egg. doubtless brill on e europe which i wanted less detail on, bloody terrible on saorstat erin (where i feel he missed point of what was going on, i feel royalty a sideissue and he made a legal entity discontinuous with its before and after frankly) happy i read him on franks and north of britain (now scotland but then had alliances w wales) dark ages kingdom of rock
Cameron: Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women intro essay by woolf which had read, and fry on julia margaret c, which had not. mostly pictures.
Dill: Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age THIS TOOK MONTHS TO FINISH partly cos of victorian stodginess of prose, partly disagreements w author (flinch making anti semitism, belief of 19th century that epileptics=moral degenerates, tendency to rhapsodise about the beauty of christianity) and how he is studiedly vague about nature of beastliness of people he disapproves of, and boy does he fanboy, for example, Brunhildis versus Fredegundis, basically because of "blood of kings" vs "lowborn" lowborn is his most crushing adjective. crashing snob. judges the hell out of people; this one was never happy except when betraying a friend, this one was genial yet dignified cos descended fr senators, etc.
Cox: Shopgirls the true story of life behind the counter based on tv doc, v shallow. knew most of this. best on victorians really, runs out of steam in 1960s
Waterfield: Below Stairs 400 years of servants portraits mostly for the illustrations but the essays worth reading. largely stately home orientated as cook generals don't get memorialised the same way as butlers.
Scott: The Royal Portrait image and impact veeeerrrry bland. writ by curator of queens galleries, did not realise till end book. tactfully skips abdication crisis by moving almost straight from victoria to elizabeth. largely about portraits as PR + image management not as artworks.
Cooper: National Portrait Gallery a portrait of britain all the pics one remembers from the gallery w blurb about life of subject. lovely does what it says on the tin book
Bryson: The Road to Little Dribbling sequel to notes/small/island. dialled it in. getting impatient w Bryson as I notice how sneery he is at waiters and shopstaff. towns he likes are "nice" "agreeable" "pleasant" such bland adjectives. towns he dislikes are the ones who sell him dry cake.
Yonge: The Castle Builders one of her good ones but not one of her best. confirmation, shifts in emotional dynamics between sisters, Y navigating showing lacklustre parenting while telling parenting must be respected
Shapiro: 1606 william shakespeare and the year of lear enjoyed even though lear not one of the plays i love. esp the bits on macbeth.
Funnell: Millais Portraits catalogue of an exhibition at nat gallery. victorian art and essays about background. multiple reproductions of same pics across book, a pity and a waste
Suede: Hothead m/m romance about firefighters. romance works for me if i like chars. crime or sff can survive horrid leads, biogs positively enhanced by them (1 my fave biogs is schliemann of troy by traill and traill develops the rage for schliemann as he researches his book) but i want to slap the hero of this
Darwin: It Was Snowing Butterflies 80p penguin mini book, extracted fr journey/beagle. will never read whole thing. why on earth did they include hid racist bit about fuego.
Laurenston: Beast Behaving Badly funny relaxing paranormal rom about were polarbear who plays icehockey. enjoyable nonsense, passing to min in her crackfic xmas parcel of (i hope) joy
November:
Allason-Jones: Women in Roman Britain v archaeological (as opposed to document based) short book about records of women across 4 centuries urban rural slave rich. wide range trying to be covered so few generalisations sane. glad i read it
Playfair: Flash of Lightning portrait of edmund kean author seems to hate women - he despises the main mistress, despises the wife (who didn't understand Kean, huh) on other hand, author despises other biographers of kean, so maybe not a woman thing
Anderson: Evil Emperor Penguin childrens graphic novel, got free
Hilton: Queens Consort loved this one. in order of reign, tells what can be extrapolated about qcs from wife of william conqueror to eliz of york. reading this fast was startled by how many med kings got toppled or came close to it, had been taught england was always stable unlike all those inferior nonenglish countries (v pro england hist teaching at school) will try read more about some of these periods, curious
Ortberg: Texts from Jane Eyre just because i love the toast website really. have been cooing over articles there w ladyJo at work. fun. like most humour books taken off web, disposable
anon: Arden of Feversham tru crime elizabethan play. edition sans notes, just quick intro
Disher: Mad Genius a biography of edmund kean with particular reference to the women who made and unmade him unfinished, just awful. thought it biography but he hist-novelled it with long streams of con of various characters, all of whom disher held in contempt as various flavours of fool. unfair to the cuckolded husband and to k's downtrodden wife, but surprisingly also made kean stupid too. oxfammed the book
Sherlock: West Indian Folk Tales
Fortey: Dry Store Room No 1 the secret life of the natural history museum anecdotal, gossipy, pitching case for environmentalism. v sexist in blokey fashion which i found less charming than he prob thought he was
de Vries: Victorian Advertisments picture book of reprods fr newspapers
Hazlitt: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays disappointment - this was rel early in his writing life, not as good as essays, v fanboy gushing
Garfield: To The Letter a celebration of the lost art of letter writing not as fun as mauve or on the map by same author, was a hist/survey not anthology of letters, nice if hadn't already seen books on same subject
Ragg: When Jane Austen ReVisited Lyme Regis not v good timetravel story set during ww2 (written and published 1943 i think) mostly comparison of how places had changed. good as topography, no plot discernable. pamphlet
Keown: Peggy Ashcroft list her theatre performances till 50s. dull, listy, got for photos of productions
Bayley: The Albert Memorial the monument in its social and architectural context about rows and committee wars while sculpting, also much re: symbolism of tangle of statuary at base
Foster: Star Trek Log 3 novelisation of animated episodes which never saw. meh
Peacock: Paper Garden mrs delany begins her lifes work at 72 mrs d fascinating if elitist (encountered her mostly via life of laetitia pilkington who is not mentioned here) but far far far too much about molly peacock in this book who i don't care about to begin with and aggressively don't care about after she grandstanded her way to forefront of book allegedly about someone else. considering a tag on librarything for narcissistic authors
Hahn: Tower Menagerie the amazing true story of the royal collection of wild beasts gift fr n.
Strom: Worse Things Happen At Sea leporello concertina form gra novel. lovely illustrations and a folk song about briny deep
December:
Welch: Nicholas Carey one of the less gripping of this hist fic series for children. cross between henty for the imperialist vim and geoffrey trease for the educational vim. story a game of two halves with hero foiling italian nationalists who want freedom then off to crimea where has a good war.
Milhous: Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695 - 1708 academic and mostly about logistics and business decisions and pop taste of time - financial not creative end. wanted to find out betterton's personality, limited sense of having done so.
Merrow: Pressure Head paranormal m/m romance about plumber in st albans with crime plot. fwiw, have ordered both sequels; liked hero and had not cared for prev book by this author
Freeman: Victorians and the Prehistoric came for dinosaurs, multiple chapters re: sediments. fuckit. to be fair, is about hist mentalities about creation, fascinating, but want more dinosaurs because am mental age 8
Lasdun: Victorians At Home picturebook about interior decor, mostly of rich homes. tied into biography - lasdun has a section on each house and tells you about the people who lived in the rooms pictured
Macfarlane: Family Life of Ralph Josselin a 17th century clergyman analysis of diary of interregnum parson who scrambling to keep parish when charles ii returns. dry and academic but author squeezes his data to the uttermost.
Bear, Monette: Apprentice To Elves is the female centred final third of trilogy (tehanu, hello!) from authors you suddenly realise were writing a more male centred high fantasy than you'd expect of them, like tehanu, expected to like more than did, felt protagonist bit marysuishly fab
Druts: Russian Gypsy Tales does what sez on tin. same memes as other folktales but was often joss-wheedoned by death of chars I thought were under protective hand of narrator. amoral re theft and the structure of stories unlike wellknown stories (even the predisney grimms)
Johnson (edit): Letters of Mrs Thrale sel letters.
Nussbaum: Rival Queens actresses performance and the 18th century british theatre interesting but more sociological + theoretical academic than I wished - wanted to beat author round head w strunk and white when (often) could have put same sentiment in anglosaxon not latinate. special chapters on kitty clive etc who I wanted to know more about
Beaver: Spice of Life pleasures of the victorian age ie, circus, panto, musichalls, zoos. v about workingclass culture, ignored official theatre which did have w-class in audience, writ by man in (70s?) who wistful for those good old days of racism sexism classism and zero health safety concerns
Chambers: Provoked m/m regency romance in Edinburgh
Rushton: Eighteenth Century Costume in the National Museums and Galleries of Merseyside lots pictures, text largely about cut and changing shape of garments. more men and commoners than in some hist-fashion books
James: Lois McMaster Bujold masters of science fiction fannish monograph
Burrows: I Think I Can See Where You're Going Wrong and other wise and witty comments from guardian readers made me laugh even if is off web. edited to point of safety thank god
Brody: Irrepresssible the life and times of jessica mitford
Aurisch: High Society the art of franz xaver winterhalter treacle I know but gorge coffee table book of pics. empress eugenia looks surprisingly like someone I worked with on ox st
Merrow: Relief Valve
Merrow: Heat Trap m/m romance about paranormal plumber in e anglia who solves crime
Vicary, Francis, Carpenter: Blackie Girls' School Story Omnibus xmas gift fr jo. girls of the rose dormitory, which philip larkin loved (?), total headfuck as promised
Barton: Historic Costume for the Stage writ between wars (cuts off 1914) revised in 60s. american author, so from colonial on is interested mostly in US wasps. ea section starts impressionistic + inaccurate take on what happened in that era, then onto mens incl hair, womens incl hair, children, accessories, what style to do the set in for period, how to sew, what cheaper fabric will pass, lists useful artists/illus books to check out. fun but could have done with more illus, some of the text was unclear (was reading late at night, prob not at my most attentive)
end of year!!!