Bibliography, August 2022

BOTM: J. Gardam, Old Filth (2004)

R. Adams, The Iron wolf and other stories (1980)
J. Berger, G (1974)
L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketer's Almanack (2022)
J.A. Brillat-Saverin, The Physiology of Taste (1825)
M. Berkmann, Berkmann's cricketing miscellany (2019)
J. Gardam, The man in the wooden hat (2009)
---------, Last Friends (2013)
K. Hughes, George Eliot: the last Victorian (1998)
D. Levy, Real Estate (2021)
I. Mortimer, The fears of Henry IV (2007)
P. Ross, A tomb with a view (2020)

I do like a good summer's worth of reading, even though this one was almost entirely random, built on things I borrowed, recent presents and things coming out of recommendations and reviews. They were mostly good though, with one notable exception. Berger's G is terrible. With it, I've now read every Booker winner. It was amongst the very worst.

Gardam's trilogy was entirely impromptu and based on Anna's immediate recommendation. There are diminishing returns in the trilogy, though people less obsessed with proper chronology would enjoy them more than I did, but Old Filth itself is exceptionally good - precise, controlled, and very well done. It's incompleteness is far more affecting than the coloured in sections in the follow up books. is It should have been highly competitive for the 2005 Booker, but didn't even make the longlist.  

Bibliography, July 2022

BOTM: C. Isherwood, A single man (1964)

J. Anim-Addo et al. This is the canon; decolonise your bookshelves (2021)
J. Cortázar and C. Dunlop, Autonauts Of The Cosmoroute (1982)
P. Furtado (ed.), Great cities through travellers eyes (2019)
O. Manning, School for Love (1952)
N. Royle, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector (2021)
A. Seldon (ed.), How Tory governments fall (1996)
J. Steinbeck, Once there was a war (1958)
E. de Waal, Letters to Camondo (2021)

First, a warning: Autonauts Of The Cosmoroute sounds fun, a pastiche of travel writing that contains solely a month long journey down a French motorway. It's not. It's terrible. Do not read it.

Several lovely and / or interesting books you could read here, though not without their issues (here's my detailed thoughts on decolonising bookshelves). Best, actually easily, was Isherwood's brilliant novel. At the time, obviously, part of the fame came from depiction of a gay relationship, and obviously the semi-clandestine nature of that relationship reflects the time. But it's brilliant because it's brilliant. Even stripped of the context, it's very well written, very precise, and blissfully, very short.

Bibliography, June 2022

BOTM: J. Lahiri, The namesake (2003)

E. Bowen, The last summer (1929)
E.M. Forster, The hill of Devi (1953)
J. Lahiri, In other words (2015)
K. Lebo, The book of difficult fruit (2021)
A. Roberts, The history of science fiction (2005)
S. Tucci, Taste (2021)
V. Vinge, A fire upon the deep (1992)

I really like Lahiri's first novel. It's clear and direct and I found it rather lovely. I read her account of immersing herself in Italian on the strength of it and that was more quotable, but sometimes a little awkward. Both were highly worthwhile.

Bibliography, May 2022

BOTM: S. Ritchie, Science Fictions: the epidemic of fraud, bias, negligence and hype (2020)

R. Adams, A Woman of the Horseclans (1983)

Arnold Bennett, The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902)

J. Crowden, Cider country (2021)
Jilly and Leo Cooper, On cricket (1986) 

U., C. & A. Frith, Two Heads: Where Two Neuroscientists Explore How Our Brains Work with Other Brains (2022)
D. Galgut, In a strange room (2010)

B. Jacques, Redwall (1986)*
J.N. Johnson, My Monticello (2021)

J.M. Le Clezio, The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations (1965)
E. Thompson, Why I am not a Buddhist (2020)

B. Tsui, Why we swim (2020)
A. Verghese, Cutting for stone (2009)

High volume month in May, and mostly good quality too. Even some of the weaker ones were ones that I'm pretty glad I read. It was close at the top between Bryan Jacques' brilliant epic about mice, Ritchie's quickfire rant on science methodology, and Verghese's Ethiopian saga.

They all were very good, though with some minor issues. Redwall is ultimately a children's book with the requisite plot, though I do love it. Cutting for stone was engrossing, though it dragged a little in the middle and I did keep expecting it to be about something more than it was.

Ritchie's book I'm sure has some data flaws and it is polemical so I suspect is overdone. But for me did work really well for me a) as a primer on some of the issues I'd never thought about - replicability vs reproducibility for example - and a string of key examples that allowed me as a non-scientist to get some insight into the issues that science is grappling with. It's well structured and very well done.

Of course, as soon as I write this, I can't help but think of the best description of the struggles that scientists and non-scientists have in taking to each other. This does not come up in the book, which is a shame:

Bibliography, April 2022

BOTM: R. Caro, The power broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York (1924)

R.  Adams, The Witch Goddess (1982)
R.  Adams, Bili the Axe (1982)
R.  Adams, Champion of the Last Battle (1983)
Daunt books (ed.), In the kitchen: essays on food and life (2020)
I. B. Singer, The magician of Lublin  (1960)
E. Waugh, Decline and fall (1928)

Of course it was. I have many weaknesses, and amongst them is one for massive famous works of analysis. This one is no exception. Everyone says it's one of the best books on power and politics and America; everyone is right. Why is it so good? It's meticulously researched: there's a reason why it's so long. It's analytically absolutely rock solid. Those years of research aren't just regurgitated, but properly processed and worked through. What I was surprised by is how brilliantly written it is: lucid, fast moving, masterful at zooming in and our again. It tells it's story well, and it didn't feel like a chore, even when I had to read it at high pace to finish before I went to a play on the subject.

Decline and fall is also a masterpiece. In almost any other month, it would have won. I do think they should edit the bits about the black man though.

Bibliography, March 2022

BOTM: B. Lenon, Much promise: successful schools in England (2017)

J. Barber, Conquest (2015)
P. Baker, Fabulosa! The story of polari (2020)
W. Cather, O Pioneers (1915)*
K. Feiling, In Christ Church Hall (1960)
S. Hoare, Palaces of Power: History of London’s  Clubland (2019)
S. Leys, The death of Napoleon (1986)
P. Longworth, Russia's Empires (2005)
H. Morales, Pilgrimage to Dollywood (2014)
S. Plokhy, The gates of Europe: the history of Ukraine (2015)
W. Shakespeare, Henry V [Arden]
S. Weyman, Under the red robe (1894)

Several excellent options here - Feiling, Cather, and Morales were much of a par with Lenon's analysis of effective schools. None were perfect. Feiling is of course an absurd, though marvellously written, set of biographical sketches. Cather I have read before, though thoroughly enjoyed (massively disappointed to discover that the Song of Lark is twice as long). Morales was good on Dolly Parton, but hasn't done the wider reading about Country music in general and it showed. Lenon had flaws too, not least glossing over financial issues (one of his successful schools just has a £1.5k top up per pupil from HSBC) and social ones (I'd have liked even more analysis of the numbers especially for FSMs). But it was fascinating, easy to read, and at this stage of decisions about my children's education, highly relevant.

Bibliography, February 2022

BOTM: F. Dunlop, Shark's fin soup and sichuan pepper (2008)

C. Achebe, Arrow of God (1964)
O. Butler, The parable of the sower (1993)
O. Butler, The parable of the talents (1997)
P. Carey, Parrot and Oliver in America (2010)
R. Riordan, Percy Jackson and the lightening thief (2005)
A. Wilson, The old men at the zoo  (1961)

What a nice book Fuchsia Dunlop's memoir is. There's something thrilling about reading someone's extraordinary enthusiasm, and the detail they take you down. Obviously, that depends on the subject. I doubt I'd be quite so delighted with a memoir about cement, though even then I suspect I may find hidden treasures from a real enthusiast. No issues here. I love Dunlop's cookbooks and I love the food she writes about. And it's the star here too. What elevates the book though is also the context in which it is put - both of a China opening up (Dunlop first visits in the 90s) and a westerner engaging with it. Interestingly, because this is now 14 year's old, it's also a window back to the early part of her career. That all sounds lots heavier than it is. It's a much lighter read than that, and all the better for it.