Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2018)
L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2020)
C. Brahms & S.J. Don't Me Disraeli (1941)
F. Craddock, The Lormes of Castle Rising (1975). Yes, that Fanny Craddock. It's mad.
B. Cribbens, Bernard who? (2018)
J. Man, Barbarians at the wall (2019)A. Nafisi, reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Before running into the sand on my attempt to read Trollope's mediocre debut, I've had an thoroughly enjoyable reading month despite lockdown removing a number of opportunities to actually read. I'm not convinced they were all exceptional quality; BOTM was.
Christopher de Hamel's book is about medieval manuscripts. Obviously, I loved it, but I think almost anyone. It's brilliantly engaging, written as a conversation, not an analytical monograph. And it makes a persuasive case very lightly for the value of what can be found in books objects, rather than just the words that in them (a tendency to which I am guilty of). I read it on kindle, which I slightly regret as the illustrations in the hardback are meant to be excellent, but even without them, I think this was marvellous. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is the first book on the medieval era you should buy - though now I write that sentence, I can't think what that book is - but it's definitely up there.
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