July 2014 books
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, 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.
I spent most of July 2014 at work in Brussels, escaping at the end to Northern Ireland. Before that, F and I went to a re-enactment of the Battle of Wavre:
And the following weekend we had a day-trip to Huy.
Little U was overwhelmed with fangirlishness on seeing the Teletubby ride at the Eurotunnel terminal.
I read 30 books that month. Those that were potential Clarke Award finalists did not get written up at the time.
Non-fiction 6 (YTD 35)
Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 2, by Richard Bagwell
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell
The Essence of Christianity, by Ludwig Feuerbach (not fnished)
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 (not finished)
Fiction (non-sf) 4 (YTD 22)
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell
Billionaire Boy, by David Walliams
SF (non-Who) 14 (YTD 67)
Binary (®Evolution), by Stephanie Saulter
Andromeda’s Fall, by William C Dietz
The Moon King, by Neil Williamson
Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
The Girl With All The Gifts, by M.R. Carey
My Real Children, by Jo Walton
Plastic Jesus, by Wayne Simmons
The Echo, by James Smythe
Rogue Queen, by L. Sprague de Camp
The Bees, by Laline Paull
334, by Thomas M Disch
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
Glaze, by Kim Curran
Shovel Ready, by Adam Stermbergh
Doctor Who 4 (YTD 38)
Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
The Book of the Still, by Paul Ebbs
Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File, by Gavin Collinson and Joe Lidster
Comics 2 (YTD 13)
De Sterrensteen, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Peter Van Gucht & Luc Morjaeu]
Brussel in Beeldekes: Manneken Pis en andere sjarels, ed. Marc Verhaegen
~8,800 pages (YTD ~49,900)
8/30 (YTD 44/175) by women (Lightbown/Spada, Kingsolver, O'Farrell, Saulter, Walton, Paull, Curran, Orman)
3/30 (YTD 13/175) by PoC (Bounoider, Saulter, Paull)
The best of these was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, which you can get here, followed by Crash, which you can get here, and The Girl With All The Gifts, which you can get here. The worst was Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider, acquired at the Wavre re-enactment; readers will be startled to learn that "Wellington was an Englishman, a bit like Paddington Bear." In fact, as we all know, Wellington was born in Ireland, and Paddington Bear was a) from Peru and b) a bear. You can get it here.
I spent most of July 2014 at work in Brussels, escaping at the end to Northern Ireland. Before that, F and I went to a re-enactment of the Battle of Wavre:
And the following weekend we had a day-trip to Huy.
Little U was overwhelmed with fangirlishness on seeing the Teletubby ride at the Eurotunnel terminal.
I read 30 books that month. Those that were potential Clarke Award finalists did not get written up at the time.
Non-fiction 6 (YTD 35)
Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 2, by Richard Bagwell
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell
The Essence of Christianity, by Ludwig Feuerbach (not fnished)
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 (not finished)
Fiction (non-sf) 4 (YTD 22)
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell
Billionaire Boy, by David Walliams
SF (non-Who) 14 (YTD 67)
Binary (®Evolution), by Stephanie Saulter
Andromeda’s Fall, by William C Dietz
The Moon King, by Neil Williamson
Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
The Girl With All The Gifts, by M.R. Carey
My Real Children, by Jo Walton
Plastic Jesus, by Wayne Simmons
The Echo, by James Smythe
Rogue Queen, by L. Sprague de Camp
The Bees, by Laline Paull
334, by Thomas M Disch
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
Glaze, by Kim Curran
Shovel Ready, by Adam Stermbergh
Doctor Who 4 (YTD 38)
Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
The Book of the Still, by Paul Ebbs
Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File, by Gavin Collinson and Joe Lidster
Comics 2 (YTD 13)
De Sterrensteen, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Peter Van Gucht & Luc Morjaeu]
Brussel in Beeldekes: Manneken Pis en andere sjarels, ed. Marc Verhaegen
~8,800 pages (YTD ~49,900)
8/30 (YTD 44/175) by women (Lightbown/Spada, Kingsolver, O'Farrell, Saulter, Walton, Paull, Curran, Orman)
3/30 (YTD 13/175) by PoC (Bounoider, Saulter, Paull)
The best of these was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, which you can get here, followed by Crash, which you can get here, and The Girl With All The Gifts, which you can get here. The worst was Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider, acquired at the Wavre re-enactment; readers will be startled to learn that "Wellington was an Englishman, a bit like Paddington Bear." In fact, as we all know, Wellington was born in Ireland, and Paddington Bear was a) from Peru and b) a bear. You can get it here.