Bibliography, October 2020

BOTM:  M. Mengiste, The Shadow King (2019)

B. Carruthers, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (2011)
T. Dangarembga, Nervous conditions (1988)
-----------, The Book of Not (2006)
-----------, This Mournable Body (2020)
M. Engle,  A wrinkle in time (1962)
R. Kapuscinski, The Emperor (1978)
P. Lay, Providence lost (2020)
E. Orczy, The scarlet pimpernel (1905)

When the Booker shortlist came out, I agonised over whether to read all of Dangarembga's trilogy (the third was nominated). I'm so glad I did, because the original is overwhelmingly the best, and it's pretty clear that they've given the nod to book three (which is fine, but only fine) because they didn't give it to Nervous conditions. That was excellent, and I'd recommend stopping there. Book two is appallingly structured and while not without good scenes, pretty poor. I spent a bit of time deciding between Dangarembga and Mengiste for BOTM, but in the end I felt that the story in The Shadow King edged it. I am not firm in that conclusion, but it is an excellent book. The narrative flows nicely, the writing tidy and, impressively, simultaneously understated and horrifyingly evocative of the brutality its describing. It's deceptive in its approach, often seeming to be heading one way before shifting focus and direction - the shadow king in question, is a) pretty shadowy in plot and significance terms and b) not mentioned till halfway through the book. I'm going to read more of hers. 

No surprises then, that this is my preferred Booker winner. It was a pretty solid (if not outstanding) list though and I'd be unable to make a strong case for my rankings 2-4. As follows:

1. Mengiste
2. Stuart
3. Cook 
4. Taylor
5. Doshi
6. Dangarembga

I'm pretty uncertain who will win. It may well be Shuggie Bain, but I think they will want to push for a black voice in which case they may like Brian Taylor's Real Life. On balance, I ultimately think it will be The Shadow King, which would be my third in a row.

Bibliography, September 2020

BOTM: J. Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses (1981)

D. Cook, The New Wilderness (2020)
A. Doshi, Burnt Sugar  (2020)

E. John, Me (2019)

N. MacGregor, Germany: memories of a nation (2014) 
M. Morris, A great and terrible king: Edward I and the forging of modern Britain (2010) 
V.T. Nguyen, The refugees (2017)

E. Shafak, How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division  (2020)
D. Stuart, Shuggie Bain (2020)
B. Taylor, Real Life (2020)

Rock solid list (except for Shafak, which was facile). The fiction was no more than solid, but some of the non-fiction was very good indeed. Elton John's autobiography was deliriously enjoyable, and generous in his descriptions of most people in it. MacGregor was elegant and insightful about Germany. 

Elsewhere, I'm catching up on British medieval history, and my favourite this month was from one of my favourite historians. John Gillingham's work on Richard I is pretty much solely responsible for my strong performance in my English medieval history paper in finals, and I'm forever grateful for his deployment of charter statistics to understand Richard's reign. He shows the same trademark ability to count, and brilliance to look for data, in his account of the Wars of the Roses. I found his opening chapters on the nature of the wars, and their peculiar character as battle-seeking campaigns, highly convincing; and I loved his use of city wall-tax rates as evidence. The rest of the book, on the events of the wars themselves, was done well, and made a complicated saga relatively easy to follow. It's also not very long.