new books reading list 2019
OMG
okay. still trying to best the to-read pile, still buying more new titles than ought, and right now in middle of about 5 books and dragging feet on all of them, they ought to tick my personal boxes but am in reading slump and the word of god itself could not get me gingered up. wasting a lot of time on AO3 fanfic
january:
Lee: Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue xmas gift from holly. hero is exasperating-yet-lovable bisexual aristo on his grand tour in 18th century. mix of hist fic and deliberate anachronistic language, representation of thwarted sister and coloured bestie. am still landing on exasperating with hero but later in book will prob like him more
Lezard: the Nolympics one mans struggle against sporting hysteria about london olympics so not topical but my detestation of organised sport will never waver
Riddell: Hats of Norfolk pictures pamphlet, gift from neil, i adore riddell's art
Zipes (edit): The Great Fairy Tale Tradition from straparola and basile to the brothers grimm 17th and 18th century written fairy stories, the soundbite of the book is that it's more of a crosspollinating written trad than an oral peasant thing. kind of gorged on this and only half through
Marshall: Shakespeare in the Nineteenth Century acad essays. enjoying v much but book too heavy to be portable
- Watson: The Language of Kindness nurse's account of her working life, similar intended readership to This Is Going To Hurt but less funny and, not a diary, so more of a connected narrative read. author is novelist + interested in philosophy and history of medicine so that inflects it. moving. edging on sentimental
Cremens Van Der-Does: The Agony of Fashion about changing ideas of ideal human body shape, as manipulated by various underwears. picked up in chazza shop, good illustrations but text 1950s-ish, v firm ideas about male = this and female motivated at all times to be alluring, oxfammed. hollander: seeing through clothes was better book on same topic
Evans: Old Baggage funny novel about ex suffragette + gurrrl power in between wars hampstead. charming, easy read, with likeable chars. was bored
so, terrible month for reading, didn't even finish language/kindness or old/baggage (both homeworky things for job) dragging feet enormously on the regency grand tour YA quiltbag thing which on the face of it ticks most of my personal boxes (hero supposed to be exasperating yet charming rogue, have only landed on exasperating so far) tired, changed workplaces to new branch, currently have ungodly flu.
February:
Palin: Erebus the story of a ship v massmarket and I so fascinated with Franklin had read most of the facts already - Palin rather more sympathetic and respectful to F than other authors are. Got in jan sale
Squires (translator): My News For You irish poetry 600 - 1200 new versions of poems have mostly seen translated in O'Connor or Meyers versions - very good.
Jordan + Walsh: The King's Revenge Charles ii and the greatest manhunt in british history what I remember is Richard's (v royalist) mum telling me the blueblood cavaliers were so saintly and forbearing that no such manhunt happened, this book comprehensively denies that. Good clear read, lucid despite following several personal timelines as lots of protagonists being hunted down and a lot of people changing sides under pressure.
Aiken: The Way To Write For Children highly opinionated and wittily written though some bits are reflect the decade she wrote this - i might dispute some of the bits about sheltering children by censoring topics - basically agree, but have my boundaries further out than she did
Prebble: Highland Clearances been meaning to read this since the 80s - big disappointment. the events told are sad and angry making enough; he does not need all the manipulative editorial asides, like he doesn't trust reader to identify correct baddies of story) and to be purple-prosing it up like the world's most bagpipe-wannabe violin is playing in background. also, repetitive. took a fortnight to read, sighing gustily every time i picked it up, like homework
Omrani: Caesar's Footprints journeys to roman gaul am interested in romano-gauls when empire crumbling. this is about arrival of rome in france
Grant: Come Hither Nurse 1950s memoir similar to, but less good than, monica dickens' one pair of feet. Bought £2.50 in chazza shop cos it had good dust jacket
Charles: Unfit To Print lovelorn pornographer and his sweetie, a social justice warrior hindu, fight crime in Victorian London underworld. wots not to like. kj Charles reliably quirky and charming, less bowled over by this than by prev 2 of hers I bought. novella
Simpson: Word Detective a life in words from serendipity to selfie biog but mostly about his career as editor of oxford eng dict, funnier than I expected, and v enjoyable
March:
Payton Evans: Animal Trials medievals taking animals to ecclesiastical court for various crimes, murder, destruction of crops etc. written early 20th century, tone of author unbearably arch
Cohen: Girl From Mars romance fluff by author i like, about geekery
Flanders: Howl of Wolves cosycrime series - this, the 4th, I had to import usa edition, is about grumpy publisher who stumbles into murders every week
Robb: Discovery of France nonfic by cycling and victor hugo enthusiast (both of which are brought up with surprising frequency) about how most French hist brits are taught is paris-centric and great-man-centric this is about unrecorded peasants and how the provinces thought of themselves as gascon, provencal, etc, not French
Fowler: Bryant & May Hall of Mirrors 1960s, about the time of withnail and I, not bowled over by this one, don't know why
Lockwood: Priestdaddy a memoir us poet. very funny 1st page, then put aside for other stuff till monthend.
Mui + Mui: Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth Century England big fat hardback, not portable, this will take ages to read for reasons of convenience. ETA: looked like a does-wot-sez-on-tin book, actually not about all shops, mostly groceries, not about all groceries, overwhelmingly about tea and tea distribution + smuggling and tilted cos of source documents toward end century/early 19th cent. superdry. v statistical
Fraser: Prairie Fires the American dreams of laura ingalls wilder so many feels on this one, been looking for cheap copy for while and pb in uk delayed publication, found in charingXrd. heard originally via ana mardoll blog where she typing incandescent sjw response, chapter by chapter. Rose is ghastly.
McMullan: Shakespeare in Ten Acts exhibition catalogue brit library. mix of diff authors, essays, some dull (the one about experimental multimedia hamlet) some disappointing (the one about vortigen which simplified some stuff in misleading ways) some meh to okay. Got it for the pictures
April:
Norwich: The Story of France from gaul to de gaulle gossipy and fun and anecdotal but poss as reaction to robb:discovery france which v "not great men" hyperaware that Norwich is all about kings
Velde: Hidden Magic fairy tale pastiche, kneejerk feminism that feel have read before, illus by trina schart hyman. nice but meh
Cott (edit): There's a Mystery There the primal vision of Maurice sendak found this, esp Jungian chapter, unutterable pretentious guff
Parkin: The Impossible Has Happened life and work of gene Roddenberry creator of star trek full of stuff I knew already, fairly balanced
Rioux: Meg Jo Beth Amy the story of little women and why it still matters not overwhelmed, wish more analysis and less lists-of-current-celebs-who-luv-LW
Kaufmann: Black Tudors little data so eked out by social hist about circs of the men and women she finds traces of - chap mostly about court musicians, chap mostly about ship mary rose, etc. glad book was written to ward off "nobody black before windrush" narrative but not enough info there to fill a book
Sebastian: Ruin of a Rake m/m regency romance - usually love cat sebastian but this one didn't work for me (my mood?)
Schaefer: I Am Mr Spock little golden book picturebook, gift from neil. worked amazing number of refs to canon st:tos in
Dixon: Breton Fairy Tales trans from French, told in individual voice
Loose:Duels and Duelling affairs of honour around the wandsworth area local hist pamphlet from public library. quite listy
Drake: Dinosaurs & Dirigibles a hero only ayn rand could love - time travel is discovered and used to send rich bastards to the Jurassic to gun down the extinct
Tomalin: A Life of My Own autobiog - I love her hist biographies. surprised by sadness of her personal life, reaffirmed how intelligent and hardworking she is. The namedropping is epic to a degree that wd be annoying if didn't like her. Fairly listy/bullet pointy rather than anecdotal esp as it comes up to the present day.
Oliphant: Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond late victorian novella about bigamy, non sensationalist, Oliphant on top form; dry, wry and balanced sympathies to all the characters
Preston Gannon: Dave's Cave seduced by art and wit of picture book about cromagnon moving house
Gillingham: William ii : penguin English monarchs series novella length biography lucid and interesting
Foulkes: Performing Shakespeare in the Age of Empire more London based than expected, covered a lot of familiar territory with the angle of shakes-as-anglosaxon-propaganda
Ziegler: George vi the dutiful king short but only mildly interested in him
May :
Hanley: Louis the French prince who invaded England time of john lackland, is a subplot in Shakespeare's king john so was curious. welltold massmarket medieval biog
Du Maurier: Mary Anne re: mary anne Clarke who was in regency scandal about bribes for promotion in brit army, ancestor of daphne du m. wanted to read for ages, not v gripped when finally got to it
Narvaez (edit): The Good People new fairylore essays anthropology-folklore mashup of academic essays, mostly about how much belief the tellers of these stories, interviewed and recorded by field workers, hold in the superstitions they tell. north atlantic, so Ireland and Scotland predominate, couple newfoundland essays
Grey: Traction Man Is Here gorg picturebook that made me smile
Layman: Outer Darkness vol 1 graphic novel by man who did CHEW. thought hero would turn out heart of gold under veneer of shithead, turns out no veneer. like the artwork, is bit firefly - cthulhu in space with lots gore. will pass to neil
Miller: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free bit homeworky about this, hist novel about broken soldier returning from peninsular war (shades of longbourne by baker) melancholy, beautifully written, but am reading cos told to by work
Coy: Looking After Daddy picturebook seen in fathersday display at foyles
Girling: Man Who Ate The Zoo frank buckland forgotten hero of natural history loved this so much, funny, anecdotal, likable-by-reader mad-victorian biog by man who really likes his subject, buckland had the mad chaos vector exuberance of steve Irwin and was obsessed by salmon - is fab book and will prob xmaspresent it to (redacted) not for vegans
Holland: Athelstan making of England penguin English monarchs series - this one is horribly purple-prose written and am hating the read
Price: Murder House (psycop 10) squeed when discovered book 10 already out
Trease: Mission to Marathon he's intermittently brill at 9-12 age fiction but this is too young for him. as is so condensed the expositionny bits v in your face. but, new-to-me trease so glad I found it.
Ribon: My boyfriend Is a Bear graphic novel with delish pics and sweet storyline
Bauer: Naughty Girls and Gay Male Romance/Porn slash fiction boyslove manga + other works by female cross voyeurs in the us academic discourse suspect guy is judging me for buying this title - is about aca-fan world, mostly recap of books had read, about fanfiction. some nice stuff about gender but so much Foucault who I take ages to parse then feel like is selfevident statement. much snide-ery about other academics. so meta : not a book about fanfic, which I expected, but about what other acads wrote about fanfic (Jenkins, Camille-bacon)
Darwin: Expression of the Emotions in Animals and Man not his best thing. enjoyed bit about nice dogs=wolf descent - nasty dogs=jackal descent, also he thinks habits acquired in course of life descend genetically, but like him so much as a man, his alertness patience and curiousity and warmth.
Brett: Deadly Habit Charles paris vol 20 cosy crime, sad entry because alcoholism but love series. bought for neil
North: William Shakespeare Punchs A Friggin Shark and/or Other Stories oh ryan north you one trick pony (his other shakespeare choose-own-adventures were great, but also tied in more precisely to specific plays)
Street: The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy austen fanfic, seen worse
Hill: Glooscap and His Magic v westernised + appropriative retelling of Canadian native amer legends, tidied up to fit western narrative tropes
June:
Joyce: Lumberjack Werebear paranorm romance bought purely cos ridiculous title. title was only good bit. deserved that disappointment
Burgis: Snowspelled the harwick spellbook v sorcery+cecelia territory, mashup of heyer comedy of manners wizardry and genderrole switch. fluffy but hit all my buttons
Lowney: A Vanished World muslims Christians and jews in medieval spain Jesuit author, significantly more upset by albigensians than by muslims or jews, okay. is v aware of themes of tolerance/multiculturalism/culture clash with a view to what today can learn from then.
Knightley: The Second Oldest Profession the spy as bureauocrat patriot fantasist and whore loving this one, bought cos enjoyed his hist of war reporters years ago. author is I think Australian broadsheet journo. his line is that spies in pursuit of job security create paranoia and international destabilisation; he wishes the big league MI5s and MI6s were disbanded. was side eyeing early part of book (starts about 1900) where seemed to be saying that English too jolly decent for all that duplicity and meanness - my irish childhood history lessons presented Dublin castle at least as unsleeping eye of mordor with regard to generations of failed revolutionaries, all taken down by moles and secret agents. He very rude about SOE
Vickers: The Quest for Queen Mary about the experience of pope-hennessy writing her official biography.
Hunter: Talent Is Not Enough mollie hunter on writing for children disappointing found her, anxious to say exactly what she meant, circling round a statement, repeating with more nuance, taking a paragraph to say something I got a page ago
McConnell Stott: What Blest Genius the jubilee that made Shakespeare massmarket description of Garrick's shindig at strat-on avon in 18th century
de Horne Vaizey: Tom And Some Other Girls a public school story fluff, and it is too hot and humid to cope with anything not-fluff
July:
Miller : L.E.L. the lost life and scandalous death of laetitia Elizabeth landon the celebrated female Byron she is interesting minor lit character, the book at its best when about writing world of London, 1820s, but author tending to present hypothesis as fact. rage at LEL's ghastly exploitative married lover
Ambler: Song of Simon de Montfort England's first revolutionary and the death of chivalry ian Mortimer level of brow, biog of medieval rebel, good read, real sense of personality (terrible anti semite, founder of parliament, lot of mixed feels)
Schwartz: Town Is By The Sea picbook about living in a mining town and knowing will be miner like granddad and dad. mostly greys browns blacks, lovely image of light on waves in one double spread
Love: Julian Is A Mermaid picbook power of transformation and imagination, lovely sense of warmth to story
Ryan: Buck Whaley Ireland's greatest adventurer
Porter (edit): Myths of the English multiauthor multisubject, mix in how well they landed with me, enjoyed the police as seen by public, the gilbert/Sullivan essay badly oversimplified vic theatre hist, the teachers as shown in kidlit was peculiar
Brown: Song of the Vikings snorri and the making of norse myths biog of original saga maker, v good read
Murray: Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) romancing the past coffee table book based on cork exhibition of Victorian artist - narrative and historical, gloriously cheesy Shakespeare illustrator, interesting text about his life
Watkins: Stephen reign of anarchy penguin eng monarchs mini books. finding these good or bad based on how I like the authors rather than the kings in question.
Yonge: Village Children edited and chosen by Gillian avery from the Langley tales cottage series for rural workingclass Victorian children. read a couple of them from other anthologies, less dull and condescending than I remembered her cottage stories being
August:
Yonge: Chateau de Melville or the young ladies written aged 15 (in French) as school exercise to raise funds for parish. not great read in itself but interesting to see where she started
Mortimer: Perfect King the life of Edward 111 father of the English nation feeling a bit grassy-knoll about his conspiracy theories re: ed2 not dying of poker, also we spend multiple chapters on brink of 100yrs war before finally toppling over into military action. his henry4 book was so good that I wanted to enjoy this as much
Rowell: Carry On ya fantasy
Charles: Proper English countryhouse-weekend murder, ff novella
Miles + Trewin: Curtain Calls anecdotes from theatre lovvies
Pollard: Fierce Bad Rabbits the tales behind children's picture books too much of this about the author not enough about the subject (felt like smacking her a lot, some really shallow thinking and she not as expert as she thinks she is)
Artmonsky: Showing Off 50 years of London store publicity and display
D'Arcens: Comic Medievalism laughing at the middle ages much dryer than was hoping for and much more about how we now find humour in medivalism when I wanted it to be about what the med sense of humour was - essentially reception studies about middle ages, a lot of don Quixote in chap 1
Dickson: Worlds Elsewhere journeys around Shakespeare's globe a lot of data and 5 years in diff contenents all searching for an overarching thesis. mildly irritating author voice, lot of things I didn't know (life of s African activist/translator) some I thought I knew (performance aboard ship of early hamlet)
Chant: Bearista paranorm romance about grizzley bear wereshifter who works coffee shop. Name of book excellent. story dull and full of idiots
September:
(didn't finish perfect king, about half through)
Lindahl et al: Medieval Folklore a gude to myths legends tales belief + customs done encyclopaedia style w articles by diff authors on diff icons or archetypes of med culture - expected bestiary type thing thus inclusion of nun article threw me
Browne: Hansel et Gretel this is the level of my French language reading - picture book level. got for pics. i find Anthony browne depressing and bleak
Polack: History and Fiction writers their research worlds and stories v dry acad study of how and how depth, hist novelists research, their relationship w academic historiography. about 20 interviews used and quoted
Sorosiak: I Cosmo childrens book told from dog point of view. cloyingly sentimental, read for work
Keane: Best of John B Keane collected humorous writings dated chauvinistic smug and grisly yet in 80s I thought him so funny - flann O'Brien did this kind of whimsy better and funnier in cruiskeen lawn
Renz: Sleep Tight Little Wolf / Dors Bien Petit Loup still researching bilingual French picbooks, this one had too dull a story although the educational web backup was exemplary
Ichikawa: Y A-t-il Des Ours En Afrique? gorge pics, story faintly condescending
Ramos: C'Est Moi Le Plus Beau adorableness in French
Braithwaite: My Sister The Serial Killer lit-thriller novella set in lagos, not a wasted word, full of emotion despite the matter of factness of narrator. passed my copy to iWilliam
Joseph: The Tragic Actor a study of tragic acting in England from burbage and alleyn to forbes-robinson and irving really good read. a lot about vocal quality of early actors and how they balanced naturalism with emphasising the key syllables for poetic content.
McGovern: Bloodlust and Bonnets graphic novel spoofing paranormal romance, set early 19th century, adorable mutual hate of Byron and walter scott an element I liked. fluff, hasty plot resoltion after lot of faffing round being winsome
Baring-Gould: Annotated Mother Goose good collection, interesting notes (the Opies got there 1st of course). written by husband/wife couple from Minnesota in 1940s, some wince making racism. (husband is grandchild of sabine baring gould, ooh
Charles: Magpie Lord m/m fantasy novel. loved other Charles books, this one is less than the sum of its tropes
Sebag Montefiore (edit): Written in History letters that changed the world anthology of letters, which I love, but selection not bowling me over
Hodge: The Steam and the Gaslight about development of overground trains in Victorian London and its suburbs, mix of punch cartoons and statistical tables and ranty op-ed pieces from 1880s newspapers
October:
Ramos : Maman! more French picturebook, counting theme
Ramos : C'est Moi Le Plus Fort ditto
Pope : Fish Into Wine the newfoundland plantation in the 17th century academic but enjoyable and engrossing. settlement details and trying to reconstruct power relations among planters, poor and outside investors. What I understood, was fascinated by.
Ortberg : The Merry Spinster tales of everyday horror liked but didn't love. some v creepy retellings of myth, a lot about power, guilt tripping and forced love
Lanyon : Mainly By Moonlight m/m, ought like it, is full of tropes I love. eta: after bored-by-hero start, warmed to this. however, is 1 in trilogy and not a self contained story in itself which is irritating
Happy Reader vol 9 lit quarterly with celeb bits - this one is lily cole+ treasure island. oxfammed.
Burke: Shooting The Darkness iconic images of the troubles and the stories of the photographers who took them based on rte documentary
Hatton: Queen of the Sea a history of Lisbon v disorganised - lots of info but hops about in time and space in the telling
Gonick: Cartoon History of the Universe books 1-7 bit flip and soundbitey about evolution - disappointed after was so blown away by his medieval Africa and india accounts in other book
Jamieson: Roller Girl preteen graphic novel about friendship and finding an identity - liked it lots
Brahms, Simon: No Nightingales lovely dustjacketed edition. making same kind of jokes as no bed for bacon, set in queen anne's london
Paynter: The Forgotten Sister mary bennet's pride and prejudice as p+p fanfic goes rather a good one - bit of out of character but Mary is interesting - as austen fanfics go one of the best I've read
Dening: Mr Bligh's Bad Language passion power and theatre on the bounty v historographical and theory based about perception (then and now) of what happened ~ gd v definite that history is a story we tell ourselves based on clues.
Cooke: Tres, tres fort picturebook with oxenbury illus, another French language childrens thing
reading v slowly and without understanding, unable to pay attention or think
November:
Trease: Laughter at the Door a continued autobiography his histfic that I read as child is part why I love history today - 3 of them unmissable books (crown of violet, red towers of Granada, cue for treason) bit disappointed by his biog of wartime experience sneering at Indians and working classes
Hicks: Me and My Missus fifty years on the stage horribly written full of bonhomie Edwardian stagestar memoirs. he prefaces lot anecdotes by telling how hilarious they will be and then they're not, take a moment to compress and crispen the story, is still not that funny. compulsive name dropper - jm barrie (hated author) irving (not impressed between lines) ellen terry (charming(of course)) clawed anecdotes about kean and garrick and Macready out of older stagers. pretends to be humble but is smuggo. also the kind of person who phoned the war office during great war when spotted suspiciously teutonic waiters, as mentioned in knightleys book about spycraft
Brenton: Play vol 2 would rather watch than read, hist plays
Creighton: The Elegant Canadians fairly terrible book written to commemorate centenary of Canadian federation. fluffy social fic about the elite. I adore social history but wish she had acknowledged not all Canadians described in this silver fork mix of fact and faction
Chaniotis: Age of Conquests the greek world from alexander to Hadrian v military. is confusing story power games in mediterranean of post-Alexander the great but confusion is my fault as writer being as clear as poss about a multi stranded story
Ritchie (edit): Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century acad essays. the last one (re: philosophy in s) nearly killed me but some great stuff about publishing in 18th cent and some about the lovely Ireland vortigern scandal
Chant: Bear In A Bookshop ridic paranorm romance about dyslexic werebear falling for nerdy bookseller, lot of librarian fetishizing, funnier as concept waste of reading time
Yu: Sorry Please Thank You reminded me of Vonnegut (who despite best efforts have been unable to get into) tremendously metafictional and ultimately tiresome collection of short stories.
Grant: Private Keep Out childrens, prob semi autobiog, about growing up poor up north just after ww2. what family from one end street was trying for.
Burgis: Thornbound regency fantasy with gender and politics and fae
Barley: Not a Hazardous Sport innocent anthropologist rides again - to Indonesia this time. DID NOT FINISH BY ENDMONTH
Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death hist crime set in henry 2, about the anti-Semitic blood libel, set in Cambridge where I used to live for a decade - heroine too modern in outlook but I adore Diana norman DID NOT FINISH BY ENDMONTH
December:
Norwich: Christmas Cracker 2000 pamphlet commonplace book
Best: Joker Face over 250 comedians share their best one liners photo of face, name, couple vital statistics. so many I don't know here
Uglow: Mr Lear a life of art and nonsense I adore uglow, she + tomalin my fave hist biographers, but lear's humour is bit tiresome for me. the stuff about art travel and Victorian networking was brill though and uglow can make the most unpromising subject riveting (she did a hist of gardening frex)
Brahms + Simon: Titania Has A Mother v kingdoms-of-elfin territory, horribly mimsy and twee with bit of mild racism and anti Semitism in case was in danger of enjoying it. weirdly, it uses the same comic techniques as no bed for bacon which is one of my fave comic novels but tudor outing was allwhite so this stuff didn't come up. really hating this
McLysaght + Breen: Oh My God What a Complete Aisling chicklit. v bridget jones diary territory about culchie in Dublin being sophis. a lot of irish-brandname dropping. kinda feelgood but deff a book to read once and pass to Oxfam. (thinking of passing to irishWilliam 1st, he might get a laugh out of it)
Peacock: Costume 1066 - 1990s pictorial timeline w annotations, wanted for ages then spotted in chazza shop for 2.50
Bew: Castlereagh the biography of a statesman really good read. really slow read as it needs you to pay attention. mostly knew him as architect of union in 1801, this also about his career in UK
Price: the ABCs of Spellcraft trashy m/m urban fantasy
Alcott: Eight Cousins utter schmaltz, am not in mood for this Victorian guff
Uglow: Henry Fielding writers & their work have read 2 w&theirw books before, short overview things. they were children's literature (nice but kinda soundbitey) and charlotte yonge (nice but kinda soundbitey) reading this because I would read jenny uglow's grocery list if I found it