February Books

[slemslempike]

February
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
Momentum - Mo Mowlem
40 Years of University Challenge - Peter Gwyn
High Wages - Dorothy Whipple
Never Learn to Type - Margaret Joan Anstee
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Mil Millington
Crossriggs - Jane and Mary Findlater
One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
Mr Starlight - Laurie Graham
Black Hearts in Battersea - Joan Aiken
Further Under the Duvet - Marian Keyes
The Angel Makers - Jessica Gregson

Quite a few from the bookswap - One for the Money was great. I didn't like Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argues About very much, despite enjoying the columns, and I think it's partly because the columns you could see as a snippet from a relationship, and the book made it seem like relentless misery. Crossriggs is a Virago that was described as like Jane Austen, which it really wasn't. Early 1900s, and mostly around a woman who pretty much gives up her life to look after her family but much more cheerful than that. And the whole way through it seemed like she was going to be saved by marriage, but then it turned out that she got left huge amounts of money and went off to New Zealand, which was quite refreshing.

Black Hearts in Battersea I have unaccountably never read before - in fact, I don't think I've read any Joan Aiken before, which is something I am happy to have rectified. I didn't realise they were going to be funny.

Never Learn to Type is the autobiography of the UN's first woman... some kind of director that I've forgotten, but very impressive. It's a really interesting career, but not always a terribly interesting book, as it gets mired down in list-like recounting, but does have a lot of stuff about the barriers she faced because she was a woman.

Comments

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's pretty much exactly the same way as I felt about TMGAIHAA.

[cosmolinguist]

Evelyn Waugh is somebody I barely knew about until quite recently when it seems one of those names that everybody I know or admire is mentioning. Perhaps someone I should be investigating at some point, then.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I adored The Wolves of Willoughby Chase when I was tiny, but it never occurred to me she'd written other books. (That happened a lot, weirdly. Led to a lot of happy discoveries when I grew up and developed a brain.) And then it did, and I love Dido and Simon to tiny little pieces.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

What did you think of The Angel Makers? After I posted about it I found that the author is on LJ, BTW.