slemslempike | May Books

May
The Time-Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Sharpe's Devil - Bernard Cornwell
Good Daughters - Mary Hocking
The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
"...then he ate my boy entrancers" - Louise Rennison
Dear Diary - Claire Hennessy
Psmith Journalist - P.G. Wodehouse
The Adventures of English - Mervyn Bragg
Time after Time - Molly Keane
Five B and Evangeline - Christine Chaundler
The Priory - Dorothy Whipple
A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
Thomasina Toddy - Josephine Elder
Ramage - Dudley Pope
Flashman at the Charge - George Macdonald Fraser
Watching the English - Kate Fox
Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares
Sugar Rush - Julie Birchill
How to Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer
Sisters - Debby Mayer
Sabine - A.P.
Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson

I didn't enjoy Psmith Journalist very much, partly because it really annoys me when authors write dialogue in an accent, and the racist language completely pulled me out of the story every few pages/paragraphs. A Handful of Dust was actually quite distressing at the end, and had some similarities with The Priory, which I thought was going to end badly (because Persephone Books have a habit of ripping your heart out) but didn't, rather unrealistically, perhaps. Sabine was rubbish.

The Adventures of English and Watching the English are quite good as a joint read. I enjoyed them, although in both there were certain "we"s that annoyed me. I felt that Fox in particular was writing from a less examined position, although that could be projecting.

"...and then he ate my boy entrancers" was fabulous, although WHY she doesn't REALISE that she needs DAVE the LAUGH is BEYOND ME. I want my own Dave. Girls in Pants was good, although I prefer the first two. Is she intending to write anything further about the girls at college? Sugar Rush was a breathless read, and I'll probably watch the TV series, but it was very Julie Birchill in places.

I finally read Ramage, in a rather pleasingly Marlow fashion. And he did serve with Hornblower! I liked the book better than I did the Hornblowers I've read, more introspective. I'm in the middle of Ramage's Diamonds at the moment, where he has his first command. After that, Flashman at the Charge was a very welcome change from the stoicly heroic British Officer. How fantastic. I love his relationship with his wife, and his complete selfish cowardice. He throws the woman he fancies off a sledge because the weight is slowing him down! He's dastardly! I was thinking about voices though, and the difference a first person narrative makes. Perhaps the internal voices of even Aubrey are closer to Flashy than one might think. Although, you know, he's navy, so probably not. I didn't much enjoy Sharpe's Devil, because Napoleon bores me, although reading the navy bits was quite interesting.

Oh, and this page talks about recycling books. It's quite scary. I thought it was a list of secondhand bookshops at first, but then it lists MULCH companies and SHREDDERS.