Bibliography, November 2017

BOTM: R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004)

E.M. Brent-Dyer, Exploits of the Chalet Girls*
Evliya Celebi, Book of Travels. Ed. & tr. E. Dankoff and S. Kim, An Ottoman traveller (2010)
C. Fisher, Postcards from the edge (1987)
A. Lurie, Real People (1969)
J. O'Neill, Netherland  (2008)
C.P. Snow, George Passant (1940)

Late. So a flurry of these will come at once. It was thin on quality, though a number of these are famous. A number of them are also dated, especially Snow, but also Fisher. I thought Lurie was dated too, but I only realised on completion that it was written in the 60s not the 80s. It nonetheless doesn't hold up so well now. Many of them had very good parts, but none quite held it together enough. Irwin on the Alhambra was the best of the bunch.

Bibliography, October 2017

BOTM: J. Morris, Spain (1964. Revised 1979)

C.S. Farrelly, The Shepherd's Calculus (2017)
M. Hudson, Managing without profit (2009)
U. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea  (2001)
D. Smith, Former People (2012)

Bit of a thin month, after September's triumphant march through the Booker shortlist (even if the judges didn't agree). For most of it, I thought I was going to give my third BOTM in a year to Ursula Le Guin, because it was a nice collection. Then I read Morris on Spain, the first half of which I loved. It's always fascinating reading about Spain because of the rapidity of the shifts of political perspective. This, written in the 1960s and revised in the 70s, is obviously dated, but all the more interesting for it. It's a brilliant evocation of the history and that period of emergence of modern Spain in those decades. It was particularly poignant to read against the backdrop of the current constitutional mess. And this quotation - about forgiveness - may be one of my lifetime favourites.

Bibliography, September 2017

BOTM: T. Piketty, Capital in the 21st century (2013)

P. Auster, 4 3 2 1 (2017)
E. Fridlund, History of Wolves (2017)

M. Hamid, Exit West (2017)
P. Lock, The Franks in the Aegean: 1204-1500 (1995)

F. Mozley, Elmet (2017)
G. Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo  (2017)
A. Smith, Autumn (2017)

I gave myself a few extra days to finish Auster so I could fit the whole Booker shortlist in one month, especially as - miracle of miracles - it's before the announcement of the winner. He seems to have written (very nicely; and in far too many words) Sliding Doors - it was a lot better than I'd feared and it's certainly my favourite Auster (this is easy; I hate pretty much everything else of his I've read). 

Overall, it was a pretty good Booker list, with only Ali Smith really not up to it - her Brexit stuff was extremely clumsy. Everyone says Lincoln in the Bardo is going to win, but I thought it was nowhere near as clever or profound as everyone else, and the citations seem to be trying to make the same point as GCSE History about unreliable evidence. I had a few issues with Hamid because the high concept sneaks up on you, but then I thought it was great. The start especially is very good. Mozley also sagged slightly in the middle, but was genuinely gripping and a rare evocation of a raw, less civilised, world, just occasionally poking through the cracks of ours. It wasn't cheery, but it was powerful. It was my favourite.

Ranked as below:

1. Mozley
2. Hamid
3. Auster
4. Saunders
5. Fridlund
6. Smith

Not one of them made BOTM. That was Piketty, which I loved. It's not the book I expected it to be at all. It's got hard, real data in. I've referred to it in endless conversations already and I expect to keep coming back to it. It has flaws - its policy solutions are weaker than the analysis - but the good bits (which is most of it) are very very good. The data should be essential reading for any wider discussion about inequality and wealth. It won't be.

Bibliography, August 2017

BOTM: A. Bennett, These Twain (1918)

E.M. Brent-Dyer, The Chalet girls in Camp (1932)
J.P. Bean, (ed.) Singing from the floor: a history of British folk clubs (2014)
D.L. Sayers, Five red herrings (1931)

Slim pickings this month because a) I was finishing the doctorate and b) I've started to read Piketty. I also called the winner last month - These Twain  is masterful. Arnold Bennnett is desperately unfashionable now, but I don't really know why. He's capable of drawing character and plot on the domestic stage with great skill and without melodrama. I spent much of Clayhanger and this volume waiting for the business to fail, but it doesn't. The action is elsewhere. There aren't quite as many lovely asides as in the first volume, but it's a brilliant anatomisation of a marriage. It's obviously dated in some ways, but only in a trivial way. There will be more Bennett to come. Honourable mention to Bean's oral history of British Folk. I don't really like oral history, but this really grew on me.

Bibliography, July 2017

BOTM: M.F.K. Fisher, The Gastronomical me (1943)

A. Bennett, Hilda Lessways (1911)
J. Cash, Forever words (2016)
The Detection Club, The Floating Admiral (1931)
C. Hitchens, No one left to lie to (1999)
J. Williams, The Copper promise (2014)

This was a bit of struggle. I'm loving Bennett, but Hilda Lessways doesn't quite do it (spoiler: no problems with the follow up next month). Similarly, the idea of the Detection Club is so conceptually perfect the book, while fun, didn't quite live up to it. I even had issues with my chosen volume. Fisher's writing is lovely, but it did need an editor - there were moments of meandering. However, the good bits were very good.  And her account of Dijon and Burgundian cuisine manged to evoke nostalgia for a place I have never visited. I wonder if I can persuade A that we need a family holiday to eastern France.

Bibliography, June 2017

BOTM: R.D. Putnam, Bowling alone (2000)

F. Bacon, History of the reign of King Henry the seventh (1626)
P. Lively, Passing on (1989)
F. Mount, Tears of the Rajas (2015)

I've spent the last few years worrying about the decline of our great institutions (broadly defined). I feel that the many and variegated assaults on those community networks like the Church or the Masons or the Rotary or Working Mens' clubs are going to be disastrous when the demographics play through. I'd extend that to different kinds of institutions like the BBC and even the loss of institutional control in, inter alia, local government, education and major companies. I think it's relatively overlooked. You can't build a community without continuity and while I applaud the specific work that is brilliant, I think without the rootedness and the breadth that bigger organisations bring, we have a major social problem. Putnam basically argues a slice of this (about bottom up participation) much better, with graphs. It was great, though really really depressing.

Bibliography, May 2017

BOTM: R. Adams, Watership Down (1972)*

K. Jackson, Coles to Jerusalem (2016)
D. Morris, The washing of the spears (1965)
K. Raworth, Doughnut Economics (2017)
A. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956)

This is tricky. I liked a number of these a lot. I'm nervous that I gave BOTM not to the best of them, but to the one with the most niche interest. Raworth was brilliantly insightful, but frustratingly without traction on a number of issues. And while I thoroughly enjoyed Morris' account of the Zulu wars, it has dated and the narrative around the Battle of Isandlwana needs an editor. I freely admit that I loved Angus Wilson's most famous work in part because the plot centres about medieval historians and medieval history, but don't let that put you off. It's actually brilliant, and full of excellent one liners. It's of its time, obviously, but I think still remains highly relevant about family, work and politics. AND its central plot is about an archaeological discovery.

Edit: I had totally forgotten that I reread Watership Down this month. That was much better than all of them. I love Watership Down.