Books read in 2022
January:
Yonge: Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Roman History for the Little Ones v little arthurs hist of england esp with the character judgements on leaders - the more diff accounts i read the more it fixes sequence of classical era hist in my head - right now the sequence of events is confusion for me
Moyle: The King's Painter the life and times of hans holbein sumptuously designed book. illus biog - as he left no letters or journals, a lot inferred + comparisons of images. Gorgeously made book, a man in the middle of reformation and social revolutions
Hamilton: Gainsborough A Portrait don't like hamilton's voice as an author but gainsborough more interesting person than i thought - good read
Shaw: Strange Practice gently macabre 1st in trilogy about physician to the undead, intended as gift for N (laura wants borrow it 1st)
Castillo Price: Seasons aka psycop briefs 2 s stories filling gaps in series. these used to be little easter eggs for fans who hit the authors website, now in pb. the short ones don't translate from webpage to paper as well as the novellas do.
Rosen: Alphabetical how every letter tells a story rambly chatty run through alphabet w historical digressions. Bought cos is by nat treasure rosen
Akkerman: Invisible Agents women and espionage in 17th century britain excellent read which got on sale + feared would be dry - only spy i knew, aphra behn, akkerman thinks wasnt spy at all - thinks was con artist faking spy credentials for cash + cool factor. V readable
Harbour: Thorn Jack ya fantasy built on tam lin. American, kinda fetishises irishness. Uses irish language, gets it wrong, lots hi-culture namedropping. Aimed at yer basic moody teen. Xmas gift from laura. Enjoying it despite side eying aspects. Is a bit bronte + overwrought + swoony
Baxter-Wright: Little Book of Schiaparelli the story of the iconic fashion house gifty picturebook hb for adults, text meh, glorious outfits. Now curious re her 1940s politics in nazi occupied paris, book studiously vague on this
Foster: On Seamus Heaney short appreciation of his career by rf foster. Bought for interest in foster as not a heaney reader.
Gravett: The Rabbit Problem fibonacci in picturebook form, you wouldn't think it would work but gravett is a genius.
West: Shit Actually the definitive 100% objective guide to modern cinema snarky fluff
Cordner, Holland(edit): Players Playwrights Playhouses investigating performance 1660 - 1800 acad essays some of which meant nothing to me, fave the chapter trying to reconstruct what garrick's voice sounded like
Febuary:
Stiefvater: Shiver don't own this, werewolf ya loaned by Laura at work
Milton: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare dnf. Am more influenced by knightleys book on spycraft than i realised - knightley Loathed the soe and thought them counterproductive + turns out he convinced me too - also milton reports same behaviour in english agents (boyish adventurousness) then foreign soldiers kill and cheat (that's thuggish + vile). I generally depressed by milit hist, was idiot to read this
Fowler: Booth bionovel of usa family of actors, real person fiction, assassination lincoln, theatre hist, dysfunctional family, gender roles stifling both sexes in victorian era. immersive, polyphonic, compelling. Loved it. To be published march 22
Burgis: Scales & Sensibility a regency fantasy rom-com more heyer than austen but charming and fluffy. Loved it, will read 2+3 of trilogy as they come out
Derwent: Roman London (discovering london #1) mini booklets bought in job lot from oxfam, 1970s walking tours of historic lond, tie in with london weekend tv series.
Jubber: The Fairy Tellers a journey into the secret history of fairy tales looking at early published versions of core stories and lives of who wrote them. Had attributed too much to anon - beauty&beast lady most eyeopening. Found jubber a bit too intrusive, wanted less memoir of his travels and more on topic
Lytollis: Panic as Man Burns Crumpets the vanishing world of the local journalist v light, v funny, v forgettable v oxfammed
Briggs: Wild Sign rohypnol plotline. Wish briggs would use non sex crime forms of villainy in some books, embezzling vampires, or a werewolf fine-art forgery ring.
Hook: Rogues'Gallery a history of art and its dealers gossipy account of how art dealers influenced masterpieces. V bitchy, made me laugh, really enjoyed. Passed book to welshMark, trying to ease pressure on bookshelves
Brechin: The Conqueror's London (discovering london#2) another in series of walking guides, bits just wrong, bits v 1950s-normative (pub 1968)
Derwent: Medieval London (discovering london#3) continuation through to end wars of roses
Whitaker: Tom's Opinion, by the author of honor bright early 20th century sentimental schoolstory with scarlet fever climax. Pretty banal. Osfammed
East: London Folk Tales series that does local lore for counties across brit isles, some good stories largely raided from various books not from oral. Overblown wordy retelling, was itchy at her prose style
Jones: Artemisia Gentileschi lives of the artists short mostly text w few colour plates tipped into middle book. Was captivated by self portrait of her in act of painting mural, know this will be sad angrymaking life
Robb: The Return of the Archons (gold archive 001) fan based minipress monograph of meta - on classic trek ep had always found a bit middling he had interesting things to say tho some of the gnostic stuff was a stretch
March:
Broughton: Belinda late vic middlebrowness which bored me. Would have loved it in my 20s when on victorian kick gobbling obscure vic-novel reprints by the likes of oliphant
Hoyles: Ira Aldridge celebrated 19th century actor pamphlet length, mostly focussed on race and slavery so links him to sojourner truth and toussant l'overture etc rather than irving or macready. To be fair he was spokesman symbol + stinted himself in private life to fund abolition cause so valid emphasis. but was wanting info on his acting. Book short, seems aimed at children doing projects. Good pictures
Robertson: Tudor London (discovering london #4) onward -- not good. Strays beyond his remit to plantaganet and stuart london, loads about royals (too much) esp. palaces outside london, v little re life of londoners, author is staunch catholic-hating prod and bashing monks for long stretches of short book
Ferrie: Optical Physics For Babies light + colour in board book form
Ferrie: Bayesian Probability For Babies statistics via cookies, board book
Fraser: The Case of the Married Woman caroline norton a 19th century heroine who wanted justice for women fraser being readable and empathetic easy read
Hay, Linebaugh, Rule, Thompson, Winslow: Albion's Fatal Tree crime and society in 18th century england So good. Class warfare with case studies, smuggling poaching + trying establish pov of past underdogs
Quiller-Couch: Beauty and the Beast, illus dulac bought online in error, same cover as broadview book called meanings of beauty and the beast. Hanff in 84char+rd raves about Qs style but this was too elaborated and pompous a retelling. Pics in sumptuous blues
St Clair: The Golden Thread how fabric changed history easy read full of stuff i didn't know but somehow unsatisfying - assemblage of themed anecdotes that feels like less than the sum of its parts
Dymkowski: Harley Granville Barker a preface to modern shakespeare written 1980s, author fears hgb will disappear from theatre history (he didn't) a lot about theory related to practice in direction
Dessau: Bluffer's Guide to Stand-up Comedy short, mini-book history of standup and how it works
Cross: Complete Stories of Amanda Cross kate fansler s stories, prefer her at novel length. Last story not a fansler, 1st person narrative of posh english lady less convincing ventriloquism than posh american kate. Or maybe am conviced by kate cos i don't know any mayflower descendants
Watt: Baking Bad beaufort scales bk 1 overly twee cosy crime about WI and yorkshire dragons solving crimes + eating scones. Because of the cosy and the baking planned to pass to N. oxfammed, is far too soppy for him. Or me.
Puhak: The Dark Queens a gripping tale of power ambition and murderous rivalry in early medieval france have wanted a juicy fulllength massmarket retelling of the brunhilde vs fredegund war for years as is only glancingly mentioned in books about period. Kept inventing new search phrases on google and goodreads and nielsen. Was not sure enough source data existed. Thrilled when this book-of-my-dreams showed up. Strong bias of author (pro Brunhilde) only made book more engaging
Joy: Spock's Brain, gold archive 3 v short analysis of trek:tos episode, mostly about roddenbery era misogyny which is a fruitful enough topic
Grace: Pemberley Mr Darcy's Dragon 1st half of p+p with pern-like dragons added. Everyone out of character, darcy an idiot, lizzie a marysue, dreadful
Buxton: Cash Carriers in Shops shire album on nerdy mechanicals
Bate: Shopping in Pictures, pictures to share vintage photos of english shopping, minimal text
Pilkington: Screening Shakespeare from richard ii to henry v author is endearingly thrilled about recent invention of vhs tapes, detailed discussionn of bbc shakespeare, oliviers h5 and orson welles chimes
Bate: Mad About Shakespeare from classroom to theatre to emergency room memoir stitched together by his love of lit, a less than the sum of its parts book
Dade: All the Feels fat-positive het romance with fandom references (male lead is actor in cult show) warm, bit sentimental. Book 1 was fat fan snogs dyslexic toyboy, book 2 is plain introvert snogs adhd toyboy. Representation is fab and all that but this feels, on reflection, tick-boxy. And the men don't sound real.
April:
Ostler: The Duchess Countess the woman who scandalised a nation hanoverian hussey who got done for bigamy + was cause celebre. Great story, marred by author constantly fanficcing chudleigh's emotions + stream of consciousness. A fab historical novel but annoying in nonfic
Cunningham: Children of the Poor representations of childhood since the seventeenth century unpromising cover, so interesting inside. About large scale public policy + what it reveals about attitudes
Secret Barrister: The Secret Barrister stories of the law and how it's broken horrifying
Wawn (edit): Northern Antiquity the post medieval reception of edda and saga acad essays by multiple authors some less interesting but plenty about victorians + iceland
Morgan: Bluffer's Guide to Theatre mini book, fine, bit smirky
Stewart: Bluffer's Guide to Publishing mini book. Snapshot of the trade as it was when i started, good grief
Richards: Xenophobe's Guide to the Welsh mini book. Actually racist - the irish and canadian ones of this series were not, but this was
Hay: Dinner with Joseph Johnson books and friendship in a revolutionary age really loved her joint bio of disraeli&wife and this is about publisher/bookseller of 18th cent. V good. Johnson elusive but fascinating group bio of dissenting radical romantics before + after french rev.
Rowell illus Hicks: Pumpkinheads plotless but engaging gra nov about american teens going from friendship to romance. Is all about the artwork,really
Borchert: Van Eyck taschen artbook mostly pictures -a lot of helpful explaining of symbolism
Summers: The Werewolf in Lore and Legend when teen enjoyed his "nonfic" book about vampires, now cannot bear his grandiloquint bombastic untranslated latin scholarly posturing DNF
Bryson: A Walk in the Woods appalachian trail. Since little dribbling, find it hard to look past how vile he is to service staff. Its mid range bryson, but I kept being over aware of the fat phobia and how he despises strangers
Price: Children of Ash & Elm a history of the vikings written by archaeologist and reviews braced me for superdry archaeology stuff - written-source historians often provide more narrative flow - but is absorbing tho dense. Reading it slowly enjoying it lots
Ukazu: Check, Please! book 1 hockey selene talked me into this - queer gra novel about sweet southern usa queen who plays ice hockey and stressbakes. Adorable
Yeoman illus Blake: Quentin Blake's Magical Tales got cos blake + yeoman are a good team, also, trad tales retold.
May
Jeffs: Storyland a new mytholoogy of britain botm. reading as homework. Is topic i love but underwhelmed
Beard: SPQR a history of ancient rome took a week to read, my attention span is fucked. Really interesting but was in mood for something less overviewy - this covered too many centuries in too few pages.
Hoare: Albert and the Whale massmarket about durer, finding author irritating. disconnected flow of prose. ETA abandoned after a day, hoare fascinated by his quirky poetic self and desultory re durer
Hines: Libriomancer urb fantasy about librarianship magick - you know hero is badass cos pet SPIDER. this is deff going to neil when i've read it. Bought because used to enjoy hines' blog. romance element creepily dubcon. Hines a good bloke but that element misfired
Yeoman illus Blake: Fabulous Foskett Family Circus v slight picturebook, rhyming.
Brantenberg: Egalia's Daughters v 1970s feminist dystopia w genders swopped. Felt point was made within 5 pages so remaider of novel was making it again. + again. + again. DNF
Burgis: A Most Improper Magick heyer for tweens with the romance happening to heroines big sisters and additional highwaymen in a regency where magic works. Catnip. V sircery + cecelia. Have ordered sequel
Delafield: Diary of a Provincial Lady have not previously read, feel like i absorbed it via osmosis as if is reread
Sutherland: Monica Jones Philip Larkin and Me knew larkin was shit to women but lord what a ratbastard seething while reading
Sutherland: The Secret Trollope anthony trollope uncovered v light almost disconnected musings from decades of reading + rereading. Some statements (t's charities during famine, t's relatonship w hervieu, wanking) pulled out if sutherland's beliefs with no supporting evidence
Burgis: A Tangle of Magicks bk 2 tween fantasy/regency mashup.
Stevermer: The Glass Magician high society 1905 new york, class interacting w diff kinds of magic users, secrets, skulduggery. Heroine young + not as smart as thinks she is. Good but nowhere near as good as college of magics
Asprin, Takei: Mirror Friend Mirror Foe co written by mr sulu. Epee duels, robots, futuristic racism and corrupt corporations.
Kahn-Harris: The Babel Message a love letter to language heroically frivolous attempt to analyse the multiple translations on the packaging of the kinder egg surprise - the tangents about linguistics being the point of the book. Found the author's voice irritating
Sutherland, Connell: The Connell Guide to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park a kind of casenotes pamphlet of the austen i find hardest to love
Morice: Nursery Tea and Poison tropetastic cosy crime from 1975, got to give N
Sutherland: Who is Dracula's Father? and other puzzles in bram stoker's gothic masterpiece disappointing, after I loved. heathcliff/jane eyre/elizabeth bennet. Did not get on publication cos not fan of dracula + was right. V light, v jocular, bit of a waste of time. Best bits, he'd cribbed off online fandom
Oman: Nothing to Report dean st middlebrow reprint. Charming cheerful-upping bit of middlebrow fluff by chum of heyer's, set in home counties 1939
June:
Halliday: Otherlands a world in the making overly subdued title + cover really undersell this (pic of ferns) is snapshots of environments across geological range of time, what weather + landscape + wildlife were in miocene italy, cretaceous china, jurassic germany at a rate of one chapter each.
Holton: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels written by + for anglophiles ; from a brit pov, fetishising crumpets is bit weird. Pirates, flying houses, girrrl power, bonnets, instalust, namedropping brontes; this book is overstuffed. Combo of whimsicality + mayhem didn't teally work for me + author clearly enjoying it all more than i did at the paying end. DNF, oxfammed
Westermann: We, Hominids an anthropological detective story been looking for nice book about hominids for while this is not it. Dutch journo far more interested in himself than java man, a lot about the process of writing. Seems to think everybody unaware of darwin, wallace, colonialism, hist of science, decline in religous vocations, cruising culture and every other fucking thing, as he is. Could not finish. The 15% of book that was hominids was okay i suppose but too much fucking author
Parry: Ghosts of the Tsunami aftermath of natural disaster, journalist in striken village on japanese coast
Hamilton: Arthur Rackham a life with illustration coffee table book. Mildly interesting - not excited by james hamilton as a writer tho he picks interesting topics - overwhelmed by coy whimsical goblins done in shades of brown so the unRackhamish generic watercolour landscapes come as a refresher
Guy: Elizabeth the forgotten years about later reign of E1 as guy feels all the analysis has gone on her youth. He doesn't like her at all but then book's declared aim is to counter gloriana myth. Fluke am reading this now (selling lots biogs of qe2 at work right now cos jubilee)
O'Neil: Princess Princess Ever After gra novel lesbian fairy tale cute illus. loaned by selene
Xu, Walker: Mooncakes another gra novel from selene. Werewolf/deaf librarian (only looked at 1st page so far) must return before despatched to wimbledon branch
Oman: Somewhere in England v much a what happened next about characters in nothing to report, does not stand up if haven't read that - written 1940s, home counties,
thirkellish
Sutherland: Frankenstein's Brain puzzles and conundrums in mary shelley's monstrous masterpiece eh. Not excited enough about this or dracula to want whole book on it -
Burgis: A Reckless Magick 3rd of mid-level kids regency plus spells. I like her adult regency + spells better, v sorcery&cecelia. Will prob oxfam the juveniles
Hitchings: Dr Johnson's Dictionary the book that defined the world v easyread insubstantial and weirdly bitty account v little of which am going to retain. Will oxfam
July:
Twinn (edit): Gaskell Journal vol 24, 2010 fanzine of eliz gaskell by academics
Atkinson: Mr Atkinson's Rum Contract the story of a tangled inheritance man descended from 18th cent slavers does genealogy research, is horrified. Huge cache of family letters, a microhistory of how slavery benefited the british economy. Wonderful book but font is challenging - reading it slowly
Cloake: Red Sauce Brown Sauce a british breakfast odyssey cycling tour round uk themed on fryups by guardian food writer. The food history stuff was great but writer came across (to me) as narcissistic magic pixie girl
Melendez: Chef's Kiss pretty but insubstantial gra novel, marty stu college leaver falls into catering + crushes on sous chef
Goaman: Never So Good or how children were treated terrible book of hist of childhood blind-bought off web. 1970s. Writ by one of ladybird's stable of non-fic hacks. Without actual lying, oversimplified this + wrongly emphasised that to give blurry impressionistic + flawed depiction of english soc-history. Abandoned as feeling stupider for reading it
Partridge: Gentle Art of Lexicography as pursued and experienced by an addict rambling and a bit overwritten - but enough about the foreword.
Brooks: Mystery of the Portland Vase biog of artifact, wanted this to be like girl inna green gown, not enough re vase, loosely strung together thumbnail bios of people associated with it (galileo a tenuous example)
Ryan: Captain Pugwash in the Battle of Bunkum Bay picbook, a quid from oxfam. Ryans cartoon style v likeable
Pritchard: Odd Tom Coryate the english marco polo been meaning to find biog of him for years. Early 17th cent englishman who walked across europe and eventually to india. This is sutton so not brilliantly stylish or academically rigorous - brooks transcribes + abridges TC's writing adding snark in square brackets. Feel there was a better book possible on this.
Trease: Secret Fiord kid hist-fic, tweens, medieval, stone carving cathedrals
August:
Bowman: The Real Persuasian portrait of a real life jane austen heroine biog of sussex baronets daughter who overcame family snobbery to marry poor sailor after 11 yr courtship - parallel w anne elliot bit of a stretch but decent biog of regency family
Ribiero: Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 1715 - 1789 she says europe, but means mostly france. Eta: that was 1st chapter impressions, this was elite couture but ribiero put as much german/russian/italian regionalism + peasantwear as she could find sources on. Could have used more illus though - some terms hard to visualise
Pavord: The Tulip remember this coming out, + me thinking it was beautifully put together but wouldn't read it in a million years. Sumptuous illustrations. Nice font (have been reading without pleasure + slowly, suspect needing glasses is issue) pavord keeps listing prices of bulbs which without context is unhelpful even if she excited to have numbers + statistics to put in there. Enjoying more than expected, don't even like tulips
Mcardle; Tragedies of Kerry axegrinding pamphlet by antiTreaty kerrywoman about 1922-1923, list of murders and reprisals in civil war
Hartley: Steeplejack ya alt history, steampunk post colonial anticapitalist murder plot culture clash feminist noneurocentric - is full of good elements but not holding my interest, think it's me
Ukazu: Check Please sticks and scones 2nd part gra novel about college ice hockey queer romance, jock and stress baker. Sweet light insubstantial
Malki!: Wondermark Beards of our Forefathers steampunk cartoons, indy illustrator
Malki!: Wondermark Dapper Caps and Pedal-copters steampunk cartoons
Tucci: Taste my life through food oddly bland memoir by hollywood star, felt curated with aim of sounding as open+ artless as poss while revealing least possible about self. Normally love food autobiographies like dent or slater.
Cook: Pirate Queen the life of grace o'malley the true story of the legendary rebel biog of granuaile, workmanlike, lucid, not setting my pulses racing. Feel g o'm is short changed by both her biographers (but this is streets better than bloody anne chambers effort)
Yonge: Stories from Greek History for the Little Ones condescending as only a victorian adddressing 6 yr olds can be. Fun watching her retell gr myth and eliding the sex
Marshall: Actresses on the Victorian Stage feminine performance and the galatea myth not sure the prometheus story is an overarching theme, seemed a bit forcibly imposed onto account. The comparisons between french + english stage interesting
Pearse: Stuart London (discovering london #6) walking-tour guide, published 1969
September:
Hayter: A Sultry Month scenes of london literary life in 1846 group biog of network of vic-lit people incl brownings carlyles and artist hayden in narrative form day by day. enjoying - apparently inspiration for uglows lunar men
Castillo Price: Subtle Bodies psycop #13 bodyhorror urban fantasy - still feel like the 'rules' of how magic works in this keep shifting
Fowler: Bryant & May's Peculiar London idiosyncratic travel guide by fictional detectives. I read b&m for the london trivia and miscellaneous waspishness anyway
Edwards: How To Read A Suit a guide to changing men's fashion from the 17th to the 20th century heavily annotated picturebook w contemp photos + plates + illus.
Starling:Super Sloth picturebook picked up toward N2s xmas
Noble (edit): From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms acad essays about romans + barbarians by multiple historians who disagree. Set up as a casebook w lists of questions in the intro to each essay. Goffert + geary + ian wood are in this but enjoying it less than hoped
Osborne, Tarling: Viking Historical Atlas of the Earth 1995 so before climate change was inevitable, so *confident* about future in way we aren't now, dear god.
Briggs: Notes From the Sofa his columns from oldie magazine, performatively grouchy. Sounds like his own father xmas. Not to be read all in one go, became irritated by larky toryism
Biddulph: Dog Gone picturebook (to go in N2s xmas parcel. Maybe w copy of super sloth?
Griswold: Meanings of Beauty and the Beast months trying to get copy of this, anticlimactic + banal. Does what it sez on tin
Wagner (edit): First Light a celebration of alan garner mixed bag - a lot of impenetrable mystic guff in several. Interesting range of special interests among contributors
Gould: Bully for Brontesaurus it will never be the apatosaur to me. Was looking forward to this (still mid read) hit some duff entries early on, but the good essays wonderful ETA 1 tedious essay on baseball statistics
Hibbert: The Illustrated London News Social History of Victorian Britain largely pictures
Bruff: Village London Atlas the changing face of greater london 1822 to 1903 fascinating a/z of os maps of greater london early 19th, mid19th, late 19th, end 19th century. No street names. Shows outward creep of housing. Will give to wMark for xmas
Steptoe: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters folktale in picbook format, african story
October:
Orme: Going to Church in Medieval England lucid but unsurprising to point of being hard to pick up. Mostly late medieval because thats where records are, am left curious about origins which was what i wanted from this
Frankopan: The Silk Roads (childrens' abridged edition) nice pictures. nicely designed. Text soundbited down to telegram - not only simplifying but imo misleading in places - poss adult edition is better.
Howard: A Word in Time 1980s book by journalist (london times) about shifts in english usage. Not as witty as he thinks he is. Interesting in parts, dated in parts
Easton: The Appointment what your doctor really thinks during your ten minute consultation fascinating - gp who both trains young doctors and works in a practice makes up 18 representative consults across range of ages and problems + gives his handling of people's feelings and line of reasoning in diagnosing. Eye opening
Langley Moore: Game of Snakes and Ladders light romance about bad friend + good friend, written mid century w casual snobbery xenophobia + anti semitism.
Foster: Star Trek Log One s stories made out of st:tos animated scripts. Got for yesteryear by dc fontana, spock backstory
Kurlansky: Milk a 10,000 year history he did loads of travelling + research then plopped unrelated factoids higgledy piggledy on page jumping from country to country century to century sudden distraction by yoghurt.. somewhere in this is awonderful book. Wish his editor had bullied him unmercifully
Grant: The Good Sharps the 18th century family that changed britain so good. 18th cent family, not in history books but of the 7 who survived to adulthood, 4 boys in diff careers (clergy clergy surgeon inventor antislavery activist) so their lives touch on lots aspects of life + they so familial that they weave in and out of each other. Also they schmooze george 3
Boman: The Paper Doll's House of Miss Sarah Elizabeth Birdsall Otis, Aged 12 mostly pictures of collage scrapbook-format dolls house from 1880s posh background (summer home near fire island winters wherever posh/fashionable)
Maxwell (edit): Sylvia Townsend Warner Letters flinched when she mentioned black people or jews - not hostile, but the ugly casual disdain never meet your heroes
Speight: Shakespeare on the Stage an illustrated history of shakespearian performance £3.99 from oxfam. Well. Pictures nice. And a lot about continental productions. Speight struck me as pompous twatwoffle
Darnton: George Washington's False Teeth an unconventional guide to the 18th century essays on america and france
November:
Wilkins: Terry Pratchett a life with footnotes Wilkins was his p.a. - not a writer, but clearly adored tp.
Cross: Next Week - East Lynne domestic drama in performance 1820 1874 this was funny without sneering at its topic
Tromans: The Private Life of Pictures art at home in britain 1800 1940 more a hist of interior decor than about pictures chosen
Cameron: The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity ad395 - 600 can be summed up as'oh it's all so complicated' overviewy book aimed at undergrads which raises questions rather than answering them. pub 1993
Wilson: The Jane Austen Remedy it is a truth universally acknowledged that a book can change a life am interested in reading about jane austen. Wilson is interested in writing about ruth wilson. Cast aside w great violence unfinished
Cadbury: The Dinosaur Hunters a true story of scientific rivalry & the discovery of the prehistoric world victorians + backstabbing - recommended. Ending sad as cadbury's hero mantell ends painfully in despair while his enemy thrives
Darkshire: Once Upon A Tome the misadventures of a rare bookseller he did twitterfeed for sotheran's for years. Manon recced this to me and loving it. Funnier + less meanspirited than bythell
Mitford: Making of a Muck-raker expose articles by the best mitford, with afterthought postscripts.
Slightly Foxed vol 56 winter 2017 daisy hay on chalet school, holroyd on biographising, maxtone graham on childrens encyclopaedia.
Slightly Foxed vol 64 winter 2019 laurie graham on craddock, daisy hay on joyce grenfell, harrold on aiken
Nelson: King and Emperor a new life of charlemagne reading slowly and going back over paragraphs - the names are hard for me.
Kitamura: Sheep in Wolves Clothing picturebook got for artwork. Sumptuous blues
Hammerton (edit): Mr Punch at the Play 1920s themed anthology from punch mag (drama jokes + cartoons) late victorian humour so often tepidly funny but like the drawings and is contemp small c conservative take on theatre
Morris: Mr Darcy in Love and other jane austen studies disagree strongly on some of his takes but some interesting ideas about characterisation. He v fixed notions about male + female gender roles. jasna essays
Gielgud: A Victorian Playgoer theatrical reviews of kate terry gielgud mostly responses to 1890s plays by gielgud's mum, v conventional (scorns shaw + ibsen)
did not get far with charlemagne (basque ambush, roland) will continue in december
December:
1st week of month finishing charlemagne, interspersed with fanfic on ao3
Beaton: Ducks two years in the oil sands heartbreaking + angrymaking memoir of awful exploitative work in canada where v young kb + the few other women employees were outnumbered 50 to 1 by horny rednecks, harassment, rape, depression, despair, economics driving newfoundlanders + cape breton workers to hobsons choice. Cried 2ce in 50 pages.
Kociejowski: A Factotum in the Book Trade a memoir found this over written elitist + pretentious but he is a poet. Has all the disdain for woke-ness that you'd expect from an elderly white man
McLaughlin, Collins: Secret Agent Elephant adorable picturebook pastiching .007 spystories
Ormond: Franz Xaver Winterhalter and the Courts of Europe 1830-1870 exhibition catalogue w biography essay + ribeiro essay re fashion n winterhalter. Lots pics, had remembered his society portraits as more faceless than they are: his ladies tend to be worn by their party frocks not other way round
Hannegan: The Travel Writing Tribe journeys in search of a genre a lot of interviews with famous writers, anxiety re post colonialism, interesting book, thoughtful likeable.
Burton:The Great Gale love hester burton's hist fic for children, had not read this. Is set 1950s norfolk in flooded village, thrilling events dull book. V settled gender roles, v middle class, v blue peter or arthur ransom children
Hardyment: Writing the Thames anthology of fic+ nonfic about thames. Got cos i like hardyment
Gallati: John Singer Sargent painting friends mini book from nat portrait gallery, short biog of jss and lots pictures with a page opposite each saying who they were.
Houfe: The Work of Charles Samuel Keene pictures + short biography victorian punch illustrator
Hill: (discovering london #7) Regency London 1969 published. Started w v long overview of 18th century britain before getting to london
Pepys: Everybody's Pepys illustrated by ernest shepherd single volume abridgement. after so many extracts in diary anthologies this disappointing but have more complicated feelings now i know him better.
Joseph: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho rpf based on his 1man show about 18th cent londoner, earliest recorded black voter. Brilliant immersive hist fic. My brain fried by headcold and retail xmas, only a third into this at yearend
Darnton: Pirating & Publishing the book trade in the age of enlightenment bit academic and like the above had only read partway at new year. Weird in some ways v recognisable in others. Demanding read. Finished on 2nd jan 2023
At end of year was only part-into chas ignatious and darnton - brain fried by xmas in retail, was reading fanfic on ao3 instead of books. Zero attention span
Yonge: Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Roman History for the Little Ones v little arthurs hist of england esp with the character judgements on leaders - the more diff accounts i read the more it fixes sequence of classical era hist in my head - right now the sequence of events is confusion for me
Moyle: The King's Painter the life and times of hans holbein sumptuously designed book. illus biog - as he left no letters or journals, a lot inferred + comparisons of images. Gorgeously made book, a man in the middle of reformation and social revolutions
Hamilton: Gainsborough A Portrait don't like hamilton's voice as an author but gainsborough more interesting person than i thought - good read
Shaw: Strange Practice gently macabre 1st in trilogy about physician to the undead, intended as gift for N (laura wants borrow it 1st)
Castillo Price: Seasons aka psycop briefs 2 s stories filling gaps in series. these used to be little easter eggs for fans who hit the authors website, now in pb. the short ones don't translate from webpage to paper as well as the novellas do.
Rosen: Alphabetical how every letter tells a story rambly chatty run through alphabet w historical digressions. Bought cos is by nat treasure rosen
Akkerman: Invisible Agents women and espionage in 17th century britain excellent read which got on sale + feared would be dry - only spy i knew, aphra behn, akkerman thinks wasnt spy at all - thinks was con artist faking spy credentials for cash + cool factor. V readable
Harbour: Thorn Jack ya fantasy built on tam lin. American, kinda fetishises irishness. Uses irish language, gets it wrong, lots hi-culture namedropping. Aimed at yer basic moody teen. Xmas gift from laura. Enjoying it despite side eying aspects. Is a bit bronte + overwrought + swoony
Baxter-Wright: Little Book of Schiaparelli the story of the iconic fashion house gifty picturebook hb for adults, text meh, glorious outfits. Now curious re her 1940s politics in nazi occupied paris, book studiously vague on this
Foster: On Seamus Heaney short appreciation of his career by rf foster. Bought for interest in foster as not a heaney reader.
Gravett: The Rabbit Problem fibonacci in picturebook form, you wouldn't think it would work but gravett is a genius.
West: Shit Actually the definitive 100% objective guide to modern cinema snarky fluff
Cordner, Holland(edit): Players Playwrights Playhouses investigating performance 1660 - 1800 acad essays some of which meant nothing to me, fave the chapter trying to reconstruct what garrick's voice sounded like
Febuary:
Stiefvater: Shiver don't own this, werewolf ya loaned by Laura at work
Milton: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare dnf. Am more influenced by knightleys book on spycraft than i realised - knightley Loathed the soe and thought them counterproductive + turns out he convinced me too - also milton reports same behaviour in english agents (boyish adventurousness) then foreign soldiers kill and cheat (that's thuggish + vile). I generally depressed by milit hist, was idiot to read this
Fowler: Booth bionovel of usa family of actors, real person fiction, assassination lincoln, theatre hist, dysfunctional family, gender roles stifling both sexes in victorian era. immersive, polyphonic, compelling. Loved it. To be published march 22
Burgis: Scales & Sensibility a regency fantasy rom-com more heyer than austen but charming and fluffy. Loved it, will read 2+3 of trilogy as they come out
Derwent: Roman London (discovering london #1) mini booklets bought in job lot from oxfam, 1970s walking tours of historic lond, tie in with london weekend tv series.
Jubber: The Fairy Tellers a journey into the secret history of fairy tales looking at early published versions of core stories and lives of who wrote them. Had attributed too much to anon - beauty&beast lady most eyeopening. Found jubber a bit too intrusive, wanted less memoir of his travels and more on topic
Lytollis: Panic as Man Burns Crumpets the vanishing world of the local journalist v light, v funny, v forgettable v oxfammed
Briggs: Wild Sign rohypnol plotline. Wish briggs would use non sex crime forms of villainy in some books, embezzling vampires, or a werewolf fine-art forgery ring.
Hook: Rogues'Gallery a history of art and its dealers gossipy account of how art dealers influenced masterpieces. V bitchy, made me laugh, really enjoyed. Passed book to welshMark, trying to ease pressure on bookshelves
Brechin: The Conqueror's London (discovering london#2) another in series of walking guides, bits just wrong, bits v 1950s-normative (pub 1968)
Derwent: Medieval London (discovering london#3) continuation through to end wars of roses
Whitaker: Tom's Opinion, by the author of honor bright early 20th century sentimental schoolstory with scarlet fever climax. Pretty banal. Osfammed
East: London Folk Tales series that does local lore for counties across brit isles, some good stories largely raided from various books not from oral. Overblown wordy retelling, was itchy at her prose style
Jones: Artemisia Gentileschi lives of the artists short mostly text w few colour plates tipped into middle book. Was captivated by self portrait of her in act of painting mural, know this will be sad angrymaking life
Robb: The Return of the Archons (gold archive 001) fan based minipress monograph of meta - on classic trek ep had always found a bit middling he had interesting things to say tho some of the gnostic stuff was a stretch
March:
Broughton: Belinda late vic middlebrowness which bored me. Would have loved it in my 20s when on victorian kick gobbling obscure vic-novel reprints by the likes of oliphant
Hoyles: Ira Aldridge celebrated 19th century actor pamphlet length, mostly focussed on race and slavery so links him to sojourner truth and toussant l'overture etc rather than irving or macready. To be fair he was spokesman symbol + stinted himself in private life to fund abolition cause so valid emphasis. but was wanting info on his acting. Book short, seems aimed at children doing projects. Good pictures
Robertson: Tudor London (discovering london #4) onward -- not good. Strays beyond his remit to plantaganet and stuart london, loads about royals (too much) esp. palaces outside london, v little re life of londoners, author is staunch catholic-hating prod and bashing monks for long stretches of short book
Ferrie: Optical Physics For Babies light + colour in board book form
Ferrie: Bayesian Probability For Babies statistics via cookies, board book
Fraser: The Case of the Married Woman caroline norton a 19th century heroine who wanted justice for women fraser being readable and empathetic easy read
Hay, Linebaugh, Rule, Thompson, Winslow: Albion's Fatal Tree crime and society in 18th century england So good. Class warfare with case studies, smuggling poaching + trying establish pov of past underdogs
Quiller-Couch: Beauty and the Beast, illus dulac bought online in error, same cover as broadview book called meanings of beauty and the beast. Hanff in 84char+rd raves about Qs style but this was too elaborated and pompous a retelling. Pics in sumptuous blues
St Clair: The Golden Thread how fabric changed history easy read full of stuff i didn't know but somehow unsatisfying - assemblage of themed anecdotes that feels like less than the sum of its parts
Dymkowski: Harley Granville Barker a preface to modern shakespeare written 1980s, author fears hgb will disappear from theatre history (he didn't) a lot about theory related to practice in direction
Dessau: Bluffer's Guide to Stand-up Comedy short, mini-book history of standup and how it works
Cross: Complete Stories of Amanda Cross kate fansler s stories, prefer her at novel length. Last story not a fansler, 1st person narrative of posh english lady less convincing ventriloquism than posh american kate. Or maybe am conviced by kate cos i don't know any mayflower descendants
Watt: Baking Bad beaufort scales bk 1 overly twee cosy crime about WI and yorkshire dragons solving crimes + eating scones. Because of the cosy and the baking planned to pass to N. oxfammed, is far too soppy for him. Or me.
Puhak: The Dark Queens a gripping tale of power ambition and murderous rivalry in early medieval france have wanted a juicy fulllength massmarket retelling of the brunhilde vs fredegund war for years as is only glancingly mentioned in books about period. Kept inventing new search phrases on google and goodreads and nielsen. Was not sure enough source data existed. Thrilled when this book-of-my-dreams showed up. Strong bias of author (pro Brunhilde) only made book more engaging
Joy: Spock's Brain, gold archive 3 v short analysis of trek:tos episode, mostly about roddenbery era misogyny which is a fruitful enough topic
Grace: Pemberley Mr Darcy's Dragon 1st half of p+p with pern-like dragons added. Everyone out of character, darcy an idiot, lizzie a marysue, dreadful
Buxton: Cash Carriers in Shops shire album on nerdy mechanicals
Bate: Shopping in Pictures, pictures to share vintage photos of english shopping, minimal text
Pilkington: Screening Shakespeare from richard ii to henry v author is endearingly thrilled about recent invention of vhs tapes, detailed discussionn of bbc shakespeare, oliviers h5 and orson welles chimes
Bate: Mad About Shakespeare from classroom to theatre to emergency room memoir stitched together by his love of lit, a less than the sum of its parts book
Dade: All the Feels fat-positive het romance with fandom references (male lead is actor in cult show) warm, bit sentimental. Book 1 was fat fan snogs dyslexic toyboy, book 2 is plain introvert snogs adhd toyboy. Representation is fab and all that but this feels, on reflection, tick-boxy. And the men don't sound real.
April:
Ostler: The Duchess Countess the woman who scandalised a nation hanoverian hussey who got done for bigamy + was cause celebre. Great story, marred by author constantly fanficcing chudleigh's emotions + stream of consciousness. A fab historical novel but annoying in nonfic
Cunningham: Children of the Poor representations of childhood since the seventeenth century unpromising cover, so interesting inside. About large scale public policy + what it reveals about attitudes
Secret Barrister: The Secret Barrister stories of the law and how it's broken horrifying
Wawn (edit): Northern Antiquity the post medieval reception of edda and saga acad essays by multiple authors some less interesting but plenty about victorians + iceland
Morgan: Bluffer's Guide to Theatre mini book, fine, bit smirky
Stewart: Bluffer's Guide to Publishing mini book. Snapshot of the trade as it was when i started, good grief
Richards: Xenophobe's Guide to the Welsh mini book. Actually racist - the irish and canadian ones of this series were not, but this was
Hay: Dinner with Joseph Johnson books and friendship in a revolutionary age really loved her joint bio of disraeli&wife and this is about publisher/bookseller of 18th cent. V good. Johnson elusive but fascinating group bio of dissenting radical romantics before + after french rev.
Rowell illus Hicks: Pumpkinheads plotless but engaging gra nov about american teens going from friendship to romance. Is all about the artwork,really
Borchert: Van Eyck taschen artbook mostly pictures -a lot of helpful explaining of symbolism
Summers: The Werewolf in Lore and Legend when teen enjoyed his "nonfic" book about vampires, now cannot bear his grandiloquint bombastic untranslated latin scholarly posturing DNF
Bryson: A Walk in the Woods appalachian trail. Since little dribbling, find it hard to look past how vile he is to service staff. Its mid range bryson, but I kept being over aware of the fat phobia and how he despises strangers
Price: Children of Ash & Elm a history of the vikings written by archaeologist and reviews braced me for superdry archaeology stuff - written-source historians often provide more narrative flow - but is absorbing tho dense. Reading it slowly enjoying it lots
Ukazu: Check, Please! book 1 hockey selene talked me into this - queer gra novel about sweet southern usa queen who plays ice hockey and stressbakes. Adorable
Yeoman illus Blake: Quentin Blake's Magical Tales got cos blake + yeoman are a good team, also, trad tales retold.
May
Jeffs: Storyland a new mytholoogy of britain botm. reading as homework. Is topic i love but underwhelmed
Beard: SPQR a history of ancient rome took a week to read, my attention span is fucked. Really interesting but was in mood for something less overviewy - this covered too many centuries in too few pages.
Hoare: Albert and the Whale massmarket about durer, finding author irritating. disconnected flow of prose. ETA abandoned after a day, hoare fascinated by his quirky poetic self and desultory re durer
Hines: Libriomancer urb fantasy about librarianship magick - you know hero is badass cos pet SPIDER. this is deff going to neil when i've read it. Bought because used to enjoy hines' blog. romance element creepily dubcon. Hines a good bloke but that element misfired
Yeoman illus Blake: Fabulous Foskett Family Circus v slight picturebook, rhyming.
Brantenberg: Egalia's Daughters v 1970s feminist dystopia w genders swopped. Felt point was made within 5 pages so remaider of novel was making it again. + again. + again. DNF
Burgis: A Most Improper Magick heyer for tweens with the romance happening to heroines big sisters and additional highwaymen in a regency where magic works. Catnip. V sircery + cecelia. Have ordered sequel
Delafield: Diary of a Provincial Lady have not previously read, feel like i absorbed it via osmosis as if is reread
Sutherland: Monica Jones Philip Larkin and Me knew larkin was shit to women but lord what a ratbastard seething while reading
Sutherland: The Secret Trollope anthony trollope uncovered v light almost disconnected musings from decades of reading + rereading. Some statements (t's charities during famine, t's relatonship w hervieu, wanking) pulled out if sutherland's beliefs with no supporting evidence
Burgis: A Tangle of Magicks bk 2 tween fantasy/regency mashup.
Stevermer: The Glass Magician high society 1905 new york, class interacting w diff kinds of magic users, secrets, skulduggery. Heroine young + not as smart as thinks she is. Good but nowhere near as good as college of magics
Asprin, Takei: Mirror Friend Mirror Foe co written by mr sulu. Epee duels, robots, futuristic racism and corrupt corporations.
Kahn-Harris: The Babel Message a love letter to language heroically frivolous attempt to analyse the multiple translations on the packaging of the kinder egg surprise - the tangents about linguistics being the point of the book. Found the author's voice irritating
Sutherland, Connell: The Connell Guide to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park a kind of casenotes pamphlet of the austen i find hardest to love
Morice: Nursery Tea and Poison tropetastic cosy crime from 1975, got to give N
Sutherland: Who is Dracula's Father? and other puzzles in bram stoker's gothic masterpiece disappointing, after I loved. heathcliff/jane eyre/elizabeth bennet. Did not get on publication cos not fan of dracula + was right. V light, v jocular, bit of a waste of time. Best bits, he'd cribbed off online fandom
Oman: Nothing to Report dean st middlebrow reprint. Charming cheerful-upping bit of middlebrow fluff by chum of heyer's, set in home counties 1939
June:
Halliday: Otherlands a world in the making overly subdued title + cover really undersell this (pic of ferns) is snapshots of environments across geological range of time, what weather + landscape + wildlife were in miocene italy, cretaceous china, jurassic germany at a rate of one chapter each.
Holton: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels written by + for anglophiles ; from a brit pov, fetishising crumpets is bit weird. Pirates, flying houses, girrrl power, bonnets, instalust, namedropping brontes; this book is overstuffed. Combo of whimsicality + mayhem didn't teally work for me + author clearly enjoying it all more than i did at the paying end. DNF, oxfammed
Westermann: We, Hominids an anthropological detective story been looking for nice book about hominids for while this is not it. Dutch journo far more interested in himself than java man, a lot about the process of writing. Seems to think everybody unaware of darwin, wallace, colonialism, hist of science, decline in religous vocations, cruising culture and every other fucking thing, as he is. Could not finish. The 15% of book that was hominids was okay i suppose but too much fucking author
Parry: Ghosts of the Tsunami aftermath of natural disaster, journalist in striken village on japanese coast
Hamilton: Arthur Rackham a life with illustration coffee table book. Mildly interesting - not excited by james hamilton as a writer tho he picks interesting topics - overwhelmed by coy whimsical goblins done in shades of brown so the unRackhamish generic watercolour landscapes come as a refresher
Guy: Elizabeth the forgotten years about later reign of E1 as guy feels all the analysis has gone on her youth. He doesn't like her at all but then book's declared aim is to counter gloriana myth. Fluke am reading this now (selling lots biogs of qe2 at work right now cos jubilee)
O'Neil: Princess Princess Ever After gra novel lesbian fairy tale cute illus. loaned by selene
Xu, Walker: Mooncakes another gra novel from selene. Werewolf/deaf librarian (only looked at 1st page so far) must return before despatched to wimbledon branch
Oman: Somewhere in England v much a what happened next about characters in nothing to report, does not stand up if haven't read that - written 1940s, home counties,
thirkellish
Sutherland: Frankenstein's Brain puzzles and conundrums in mary shelley's monstrous masterpiece eh. Not excited enough about this or dracula to want whole book on it -
Burgis: A Reckless Magick 3rd of mid-level kids regency plus spells. I like her adult regency + spells better, v sorcery&cecelia. Will prob oxfam the juveniles
Hitchings: Dr Johnson's Dictionary the book that defined the world v easyread insubstantial and weirdly bitty account v little of which am going to retain. Will oxfam
July:
Twinn (edit): Gaskell Journal vol 24, 2010 fanzine of eliz gaskell by academics
Atkinson: Mr Atkinson's Rum Contract the story of a tangled inheritance man descended from 18th cent slavers does genealogy research, is horrified. Huge cache of family letters, a microhistory of how slavery benefited the british economy. Wonderful book but font is challenging - reading it slowly
Cloake: Red Sauce Brown Sauce a british breakfast odyssey cycling tour round uk themed on fryups by guardian food writer. The food history stuff was great but writer came across (to me) as narcissistic magic pixie girl
Melendez: Chef's Kiss pretty but insubstantial gra novel, marty stu college leaver falls into catering + crushes on sous chef
Goaman: Never So Good or how children were treated terrible book of hist of childhood blind-bought off web. 1970s. Writ by one of ladybird's stable of non-fic hacks. Without actual lying, oversimplified this + wrongly emphasised that to give blurry impressionistic + flawed depiction of english soc-history. Abandoned as feeling stupider for reading it
Partridge: Gentle Art of Lexicography as pursued and experienced by an addict rambling and a bit overwritten - but enough about the foreword.
Brooks: Mystery of the Portland Vase biog of artifact, wanted this to be like girl inna green gown, not enough re vase, loosely strung together thumbnail bios of people associated with it (galileo a tenuous example)
Ryan: Captain Pugwash in the Battle of Bunkum Bay picbook, a quid from oxfam. Ryans cartoon style v likeable
Pritchard: Odd Tom Coryate the english marco polo been meaning to find biog of him for years. Early 17th cent englishman who walked across europe and eventually to india. This is sutton so not brilliantly stylish or academically rigorous - brooks transcribes + abridges TC's writing adding snark in square brackets. Feel there was a better book possible on this.
Trease: Secret Fiord kid hist-fic, tweens, medieval, stone carving cathedrals
August:
Bowman: The Real Persuasian portrait of a real life jane austen heroine biog of sussex baronets daughter who overcame family snobbery to marry poor sailor after 11 yr courtship - parallel w anne elliot bit of a stretch but decent biog of regency family
Ribiero: Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe 1715 - 1789 she says europe, but means mostly france. Eta: that was 1st chapter impressions, this was elite couture but ribiero put as much german/russian/italian regionalism + peasantwear as she could find sources on. Could have used more illus though - some terms hard to visualise
Pavord: The Tulip remember this coming out, + me thinking it was beautifully put together but wouldn't read it in a million years. Sumptuous illustrations. Nice font (have been reading without pleasure + slowly, suspect needing glasses is issue) pavord keeps listing prices of bulbs which without context is unhelpful even if she excited to have numbers + statistics to put in there. Enjoying more than expected, don't even like tulips
Mcardle; Tragedies of Kerry axegrinding pamphlet by antiTreaty kerrywoman about 1922-1923, list of murders and reprisals in civil war
Hartley: Steeplejack ya alt history, steampunk post colonial anticapitalist murder plot culture clash feminist noneurocentric - is full of good elements but not holding my interest, think it's me
Ukazu: Check Please sticks and scones 2nd part gra novel about college ice hockey queer romance, jock and stress baker. Sweet light insubstantial
Malki!: Wondermark Beards of our Forefathers steampunk cartoons, indy illustrator
Malki!: Wondermark Dapper Caps and Pedal-copters steampunk cartoons
Tucci: Taste my life through food oddly bland memoir by hollywood star, felt curated with aim of sounding as open+ artless as poss while revealing least possible about self. Normally love food autobiographies like dent or slater.
Cook: Pirate Queen the life of grace o'malley the true story of the legendary rebel biog of granuaile, workmanlike, lucid, not setting my pulses racing. Feel g o'm is short changed by both her biographers (but this is streets better than bloody anne chambers effort)
Yonge: Stories from Greek History for the Little Ones condescending as only a victorian adddressing 6 yr olds can be. Fun watching her retell gr myth and eliding the sex
Marshall: Actresses on the Victorian Stage feminine performance and the galatea myth not sure the prometheus story is an overarching theme, seemed a bit forcibly imposed onto account. The comparisons between french + english stage interesting
Pearse: Stuart London (discovering london #6) walking-tour guide, published 1969
September:
Hayter: A Sultry Month scenes of london literary life in 1846 group biog of network of vic-lit people incl brownings carlyles and artist hayden in narrative form day by day. enjoying - apparently inspiration for uglows lunar men
Castillo Price: Subtle Bodies psycop #13 bodyhorror urban fantasy - still feel like the 'rules' of how magic works in this keep shifting
Fowler: Bryant & May's Peculiar London idiosyncratic travel guide by fictional detectives. I read b&m for the london trivia and miscellaneous waspishness anyway
Edwards: How To Read A Suit a guide to changing men's fashion from the 17th to the 20th century heavily annotated picturebook w contemp photos + plates + illus.
Starling:Super Sloth picturebook picked up toward N2s xmas
Noble (edit): From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms acad essays about romans + barbarians by multiple historians who disagree. Set up as a casebook w lists of questions in the intro to each essay. Goffert + geary + ian wood are in this but enjoying it less than hoped
Osborne, Tarling: Viking Historical Atlas of the Earth 1995 so before climate change was inevitable, so *confident* about future in way we aren't now, dear god.
Briggs: Notes From the Sofa his columns from oldie magazine, performatively grouchy. Sounds like his own father xmas. Not to be read all in one go, became irritated by larky toryism
Biddulph: Dog Gone picturebook (to go in N2s xmas parcel. Maybe w copy of super sloth?
Griswold: Meanings of Beauty and the Beast months trying to get copy of this, anticlimactic + banal. Does what it sez on tin
Wagner (edit): First Light a celebration of alan garner mixed bag - a lot of impenetrable mystic guff in several. Interesting range of special interests among contributors
Gould: Bully for Brontesaurus it will never be the apatosaur to me. Was looking forward to this (still mid read) hit some duff entries early on, but the good essays wonderful ETA 1 tedious essay on baseball statistics
Hibbert: The Illustrated London News Social History of Victorian Britain largely pictures
Bruff: Village London Atlas the changing face of greater london 1822 to 1903 fascinating a/z of os maps of greater london early 19th, mid19th, late 19th, end 19th century. No street names. Shows outward creep of housing. Will give to wMark for xmas
Steptoe: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters folktale in picbook format, african story
October:
Orme: Going to Church in Medieval England lucid but unsurprising to point of being hard to pick up. Mostly late medieval because thats where records are, am left curious about origins which was what i wanted from this
Frankopan: The Silk Roads (childrens' abridged edition) nice pictures. nicely designed. Text soundbited down to telegram - not only simplifying but imo misleading in places - poss adult edition is better.
Howard: A Word in Time 1980s book by journalist (london times) about shifts in english usage. Not as witty as he thinks he is. Interesting in parts, dated in parts
Easton: The Appointment what your doctor really thinks during your ten minute consultation fascinating - gp who both trains young doctors and works in a practice makes up 18 representative consults across range of ages and problems + gives his handling of people's feelings and line of reasoning in diagnosing. Eye opening
Langley Moore: Game of Snakes and Ladders light romance about bad friend + good friend, written mid century w casual snobbery xenophobia + anti semitism.
Foster: Star Trek Log One s stories made out of st:tos animated scripts. Got for yesteryear by dc fontana, spock backstory
Kurlansky: Milk a 10,000 year history he did loads of travelling + research then plopped unrelated factoids higgledy piggledy on page jumping from country to country century to century sudden distraction by yoghurt.. somewhere in this is awonderful book. Wish his editor had bullied him unmercifully
Grant: The Good Sharps the 18th century family that changed britain so good. 18th cent family, not in history books but of the 7 who survived to adulthood, 4 boys in diff careers (clergy clergy surgeon inventor antislavery activist) so their lives touch on lots aspects of life + they so familial that they weave in and out of each other. Also they schmooze george 3
Boman: The Paper Doll's House of Miss Sarah Elizabeth Birdsall Otis, Aged 12 mostly pictures of collage scrapbook-format dolls house from 1880s posh background (summer home near fire island winters wherever posh/fashionable)
Maxwell (edit): Sylvia Townsend Warner Letters flinched when she mentioned black people or jews - not hostile, but the ugly casual disdain never meet your heroes
Speight: Shakespeare on the Stage an illustrated history of shakespearian performance £3.99 from oxfam. Well. Pictures nice. And a lot about continental productions. Speight struck me as pompous twatwoffle
Darnton: George Washington's False Teeth an unconventional guide to the 18th century essays on america and france
November:
Wilkins: Terry Pratchett a life with footnotes Wilkins was his p.a. - not a writer, but clearly adored tp.
Cross: Next Week - East Lynne domestic drama in performance 1820 1874 this was funny without sneering at its topic
Tromans: The Private Life of Pictures art at home in britain 1800 1940 more a hist of interior decor than about pictures chosen
Cameron: The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity ad395 - 600 can be summed up as'oh it's all so complicated' overviewy book aimed at undergrads which raises questions rather than answering them. pub 1993
Wilson: The Jane Austen Remedy it is a truth universally acknowledged that a book can change a life am interested in reading about jane austen. Wilson is interested in writing about ruth wilson. Cast aside w great violence unfinished
Cadbury: The Dinosaur Hunters a true story of scientific rivalry & the discovery of the prehistoric world victorians + backstabbing - recommended. Ending sad as cadbury's hero mantell ends painfully in despair while his enemy thrives
Darkshire: Once Upon A Tome the misadventures of a rare bookseller he did twitterfeed for sotheran's for years. Manon recced this to me and loving it. Funnier + less meanspirited than bythell
Mitford: Making of a Muck-raker expose articles by the best mitford, with afterthought postscripts.
Slightly Foxed vol 56 winter 2017 daisy hay on chalet school, holroyd on biographising, maxtone graham on childrens encyclopaedia.
Slightly Foxed vol 64 winter 2019 laurie graham on craddock, daisy hay on joyce grenfell, harrold on aiken
Nelson: King and Emperor a new life of charlemagne reading slowly and going back over paragraphs - the names are hard for me.
Kitamura: Sheep in Wolves Clothing picturebook got for artwork. Sumptuous blues
Hammerton (edit): Mr Punch at the Play 1920s themed anthology from punch mag (drama jokes + cartoons) late victorian humour so often tepidly funny but like the drawings and is contemp small c conservative take on theatre
Morris: Mr Darcy in Love and other jane austen studies disagree strongly on some of his takes but some interesting ideas about characterisation. He v fixed notions about male + female gender roles. jasna essays
Gielgud: A Victorian Playgoer theatrical reviews of kate terry gielgud mostly responses to 1890s plays by gielgud's mum, v conventional (scorns shaw + ibsen)
did not get far with charlemagne (basque ambush, roland) will continue in december
December:
1st week of month finishing charlemagne, interspersed with fanfic on ao3
Beaton: Ducks two years in the oil sands heartbreaking + angrymaking memoir of awful exploitative work in canada where v young kb + the few other women employees were outnumbered 50 to 1 by horny rednecks, harassment, rape, depression, despair, economics driving newfoundlanders + cape breton workers to hobsons choice. Cried 2ce in 50 pages.
Kociejowski: A Factotum in the Book Trade a memoir found this over written elitist + pretentious but he is a poet. Has all the disdain for woke-ness that you'd expect from an elderly white man
McLaughlin, Collins: Secret Agent Elephant adorable picturebook pastiching .007 spystories
Ormond: Franz Xaver Winterhalter and the Courts of Europe 1830-1870 exhibition catalogue w biography essay + ribeiro essay re fashion n winterhalter. Lots pics, had remembered his society portraits as more faceless than they are: his ladies tend to be worn by their party frocks not other way round
Hannegan: The Travel Writing Tribe journeys in search of a genre a lot of interviews with famous writers, anxiety re post colonialism, interesting book, thoughtful likeable.
Burton:The Great Gale love hester burton's hist fic for children, had not read this. Is set 1950s norfolk in flooded village, thrilling events dull book. V settled gender roles, v middle class, v blue peter or arthur ransom children
Hardyment: Writing the Thames anthology of fic+ nonfic about thames. Got cos i like hardyment
Gallati: John Singer Sargent painting friends mini book from nat portrait gallery, short biog of jss and lots pictures with a page opposite each saying who they were.
Houfe: The Work of Charles Samuel Keene pictures + short biography victorian punch illustrator
Hill: (discovering london #7) Regency London 1969 published. Started w v long overview of 18th century britain before getting to london
Pepys: Everybody's Pepys illustrated by ernest shepherd single volume abridgement. after so many extracts in diary anthologies this disappointing but have more complicated feelings now i know him better.
Joseph: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho rpf based on his 1man show about 18th cent londoner, earliest recorded black voter. Brilliant immersive hist fic. My brain fried by headcold and retail xmas, only a third into this at yearend
Darnton: Pirating & Publishing the book trade in the age of enlightenment bit academic and like the above had only read partway at new year. Weird in some ways v recognisable in others. Demanding read. Finished on 2nd jan 2023
At end of year was only part-into chas ignatious and darnton - brain fried by xmas in retail, was reading fanfic on ao3 instead of books. Zero attention span