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.

Bibliography, January 2022

BOTM: P. Short, Mitterrand: a study in ambiguity (2013)

C. Achebe, A man of the people (1966)
A. Glenconner, Lady in Waiting (2019)
M. Kamman, When French women cook (1976)
W.S. Maugham, The painted veil (1925)
J. Rayner, The last supper (2019)
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)*
I. Suzuki, Terminal boredom (2021)
O. Tokarczuk, Drive your plow over the bones of the dead (2009)

It's an effort, Short's monumental book on Mitterrand. It's almost 600 pages and it really covers the ground. This has downsides - it took a third of the month to read, and sometimes I think it does lose its way in the details of the Presidency. And it does help that I didn't know the background. I'm sure students of the (frankly, insane) French political system in the Fourth and Early Fifth Republics will find less new and interesting than I did. Equally, People whose knowledge of the resistance is not based largely on 'Allo 'Allo may find the earlier chapters less fresh. 

But, caveats aside, it does fulfil its very broad and ambitious scope. The writing is crisp, and though Short inherits a vast treasure trove of material, he marshals it well. He brings to life the background and underlying personality of Mitterand - with some great anecdotes. And that's important, because by the post-war period, that's clearly overlaid by his vast ambition and the layers of 'ambiguity' described here. It's very good on Mitterrand's pre-presidency career, and his critical decision to oppose De Gaulle, as well as how he sidestepped better placed rivals to lead that faction. I'm very glad I read it.

Quick note for The Painted Veil. I really like Maugham's writing and I think he's criminally underread now. This was again excellent. Everyone should start with Cakes and Ale, but it's all great. 

Bibliography, 2021

Tantalisingly close to the pre-baby benchmark of ten books a month, in the end I fell short by five. If I'm honest, I would have been a hollow victory, bulked up with a lot of science fiction and fantasy (28 books, more than any year since 2002). Much of that was excellent, and I am very glad I did a strong run through of golden age Sci-Fi too. It is, however, a) easier to read and b) doing nothing for my aim to hold down my white men percentage in fiction. 

Fiction in general was high. I actually read a little less non-fiction than last year, and it should also be noted that I read nine books by or about the Mitfords, which is probably too many. For the first time in a while, BOTMs were roughly in line with reading rates. Fiction about half my BOTMs (four of which were science fiction). History and cultural books three each.

Choosing a favourite novel was only slightly difficult. I do love Foundation and Dune, and Shipstead I thought was robbed of the Booker, but this was a straight choice between Achebe and a loving Martian pastiche of the Chalet School. I loved the latter, but Anthills of the Savannah was outstanding. I wish people talked about this more than Things fall apart.

Again this year, non-fiction was overwhelmingly harder. Three outstanding books in Didion, Trevor Roper and Alexievich. They are all massively famous which makes it embarrassing that I'd read none of them before. Of all of them Alexievich is the one that everyone should read. It's immediacy and remorseless illumination of a completely invisible part of World War Two is essential reading. But, for me, and for any historian I suspect, Trevor Roper's analysis of the end of that war is just an exemplary piece of writing and the historical method. I don't think schoolchildren should study the War, but if they are going to, I find it baffling that they aren't forced to read this.

Jan: The Mitford sisters (ed. C. Mosley), Letters between six sisters (2007)
Feb: C. Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Mar: H.R. Trevor Roper, The last days of Hitler (1947)
Apr: R. Heinlein, Double Star (1956)
May: S. Sturluson, The prose edda
Jun: S. Alexievich, The unwomanly face of war (1985)
Jul: L. Sprague de Camp, Literary swordsmen and sorcerers (1976)
Aug: J. Didion, The year of magical thinking (2005)
Sep: I. Asimov, Foundation (1951)*
Oct: M. Shipstead, Great circle (2021)*
Nov: F. Herbert, Dune (1965)*
Dec: C. Brenchley, Three twins at the Crater School (2021)

Bibliography, December 2021

BOTM: C. Brenchley, Three twins at the Crater school (2021)

D. Adams and M. Cawardine (1990)

E. Carrere, The kingdom (2014)
D. Devonshire, Wait for me (2010)
K. Addison, Witness for the dead (2021)
C. Mieville, Perdido Street station (2000)

M. Rubin, The hollow crown, 1307-1485 (2005)

E. Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1968)

C. Thubron, Emperor (1978)

I. Vincent, Dinner with Edward (2016)

Three great books here. Taylor is one of those largely forgotten novelists that deserve not to be, and this was excellent. Better though was Dinner with Edward. I read it in a single sitting and it was exactly what you would want this memoir to be. The right balance of introspection and external engagement, and in this case combined with a lovely bit of food porn. I am already committed to the apricot souffle. Looking online, I am not the only one.

However, and with full credit to Anna, my favourite book is intensely personal. I had never imagined that anyone other than me would write a loving pastiche of the Chalet School set on Mars under a steampunk future British Empire. But they have, and it is amazing. Tonally, it's near (though not absolutely) perfect, the world-building is unobtrusive, and the plot contains the right mix of excitement within a fundamentally secure environment. There's another one. I hope there are many more.  

Couple of final thoughts on The Kingdom. Lots of chat about how good this is in religious circles, but I found it very difficult to read. I felt, like I did with Tey's The Daughter of time (and in fact Thubron's on this list), that it was fatally flawed as a book because it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Firstly, the autobiographical section, and especially the intrusions into the main text, were unnecessary (the section on the author's pornography watching habits was a particular low point). Then it falls between two stools: is it a novelistic treatment of Luke and Paul or is it a serious analytical work? I wish it had been the former, but it kept trying to be the latter, and you just can't do that without footnotes. Frustrating, though some sections were very good indeed.