June 2007 books
This is the latest post in a series I started last November, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.
June 2007 was the month in which B's behaviour took a serious downward step, and she had to be kept at home from mid-month (just before her 10th birthday) until other arrangements were made later in the year. I had to fly back early from a trip to Greece to help with the situation. On the positive side, F participated in a school production rather loosely based on the stories of Pippi Longstocking. (He's the one in the light green poncho.)
Apart from my curtailed trip to Greece, I also visited Kosovo, reflecting that on the day Tony Blair came to office, 2 May 1997, I returned home from a business trip by way of Slovenia; and on the day he left office, 27 June 2007, I also returned home from a business trip by way of Slovenia. My intern J left (as mentioned before, she is now a British diplomat) and was repalced by Italian V.
Culturally, this was the month both of Blink , the best Doctor Who story ever, and of the revelation at the end of Utopia, one of the best Who twists ever.
And I read 15 books.
Non-fiction 4 (YTD 35)
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Science, Culture and Modern State Formation, by Patrick Carroll
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang
Reflections on the Cyprus Problem: A Compilation of Recent Academic Contributions, published by the Cyprus Policy Center
Non-genre 2 (YTD 18)
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, by Alexander McCall Smith
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
SF 4 (YTD 39)
No Present Like Time, by Steph Swainston
The Mabinogion
McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon
Seeker, by Jack McDevitt
Doctor Who 4 (YTD 17)
Doctor Who - The Aztecs, by John Lucarotti
Doctor Who - Galaxy Four, by William Emms
Decalog 3: Consequences, edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane
Doctor Who: The Scripts: The Masters of Luxor, by Anthony Coburn, edited by John McElroy
Comics 1 (YTD 12)
Alias vol 3: The Underneath, by Brian Michael Bendis
4,300 pages (YTD 38,000)
3/15 by women (YTD 30/121)
1/15 by PoC (YTD 4/121)
The best of these was Jung Chang's history of her own family, Wild Swans. You can get it here. I was disappointed with both John Lucarotti's novelization of the story we now call The Aztecs, which you can get here, and with Kate Chopin's 1899 feminist novel The Awakening, which you can get here.
June 2007 was the month in which B's behaviour took a serious downward step, and she had to be kept at home from mid-month (just before her 10th birthday) until other arrangements were made later in the year. I had to fly back early from a trip to Greece to help with the situation. On the positive side, F participated in a school production rather loosely based on the stories of Pippi Longstocking. (He's the one in the light green poncho.)
Click to viewApart from my curtailed trip to Greece, I also visited Kosovo, reflecting that on the day Tony Blair came to office, 2 May 1997, I returned home from a business trip by way of Slovenia; and on the day he left office, 27 June 2007, I also returned home from a business trip by way of Slovenia. My intern J left (as mentioned before, she is now a British diplomat) and was repalced by Italian V.
Culturally, this was the month both of Blink , the best Doctor Who story ever, and of the revelation at the end of Utopia, one of the best Who twists ever.
And I read 15 books.
Non-fiction 4 (YTD 35)
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Science, Culture and Modern State Formation, by Patrick Carroll
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang
Reflections on the Cyprus Problem: A Compilation of Recent Academic Contributions, published by the Cyprus Policy Center
Non-genre 2 (YTD 18)
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, by Alexander McCall Smith
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
SF 4 (YTD 39)
No Present Like Time, by Steph Swainston
The Mabinogion
McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon
Seeker, by Jack McDevitt
Doctor Who 4 (YTD 17)
Doctor Who - The Aztecs, by John Lucarotti
Doctor Who - Galaxy Four, by William Emms
Decalog 3: Consequences, edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane
Doctor Who: The Scripts: The Masters of Luxor, by Anthony Coburn, edited by John McElroy
Comics 1 (YTD 12)
Alias vol 3: The Underneath, by Brian Michael Bendis
4,300 pages (YTD 38,000)
3/15 by women (YTD 30/121)
1/15 by PoC (YTD 4/121)
The best of these was Jung Chang's history of her own family, Wild Swans. You can get it here. I was disappointed with both John Lucarotti's novelization of the story we now call The Aztecs, which you can get here, and with Kate Chopin's 1899 feminist novel The Awakening, which you can get here.