N. Faber, Faber and Faber: the untold story (2019)
R. George, Ninety percent of everything (2013)
E. Huxley, The flame trees of Thika (1959)
J. Lees-Milne, People and places (1992)
L. Lynn, Coal miner's daughter (1976)
T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010)
H. Turtledove, Agent of Byzantium (1987)
There were some great books this month. Bloodlands was good, but not as strong as Snyder's earlier book on the region. It was however very good on the different historiographic elements of our understanding of the Holocaust. I was very struck by the difference in our knowledge of Auschwitz being in part a function of both its westerly location and its combined function as a labour camp. This brought out the picture to include those multitudes gassed in camps with very few survivors and those millions shot in regions further east.
However, the best three were all memoir. Huxley was excellent, but felt slightly shallow, an impression that comes mostly with its age I think. Its preoccupations and lack of curiosity of the indigenous communities have dated. Loretta Lynn's autobiography was great, and actually far from shallow, but the narrative punch of the first half I don't think was backed up by the second. That had a bit too much opinion and not enough story - Lynn is much better at the former. Goldman's book on Hollywood, on the other hand, was riddled with opinion, and he is very good at it. I picked it up on whim. I hadn't realised how big a scriptwriter Goldman was. That's incidental to the book, but it does give it credibility. It's also funny, well-written (you would hope so) and illuminating. Best of a good month.
