Too many books

[slemslempike]

I have realised that I am too far behind to post my proper book posts, so I am dumping everything here and mentioning a few that stand out, however if you've read any of the others would be delighted to discuss.


May
Relentless - Kernick, Simon
Girl Parts - Cusick, John M
Before I Die - Downham, Jenny
Trans: A Memoir - Jacques, Juliet
Lies, Damned Lies, and History - Taylor, Jodi
Bye Bye Balham pt 1 - Herring, Richard
The Final Minute - Kernick, Simon
Nice Work (If You Can Get It) - Imrie, Celia
Ostrich Boys - Gray, Keith
The Spirit Ring - Bujold, Lois McMaster
The Total Package - Evanovich, Janet
Mad About You - Moriarty, Sinead
Sisterland - Sittenfeld, Curtis
Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal - Winterson, Jeanette
Mack the Life - Mack, Lee
Animal - Pascoe, Sara
I'd Rather We Got Casinos - Wilmore, Larry
Rumpole of the Bailey - Mortimer, John
Empire Antarctica - Francis, Gavin
The Tennis Party - Wickham, Madeline
The Trials of Rumpole - Mortimer, John
Swimming Pool Sunday - Wickham, Madeline
Rumpole's Return - Mortimer, John

Why Be Happy... was wonderful, and I loved tracing the differences and similarities between that and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit. Sara Pascoe's book was a bit too evolutionary focused for me, I'm much more interested in the social implications rather than "women's brains do this", though she does it quite well if it must be done. Not as good as Come as you are, but a good read for her personal stories. Empire Antarctica is the story of a doctor wintering over at the base, which was an interesting read compared to the Antarctic explorer books I've read, but I'm not sure I'd want to work with him very closely.

June
Paradise Lodge - Stibbe, Nina
Martha Quest -Lessing, Doris
Eligible - Sittenfeld, Curtis
A Prviate Function (and other plays) - Bennett, Alan
What the **** is Normal - Martinez, Francesca
The Box Lady and Other Pesticles - Herring, Richard
Looking for La La - Campbell, Ellie
Trying to Float - Rips, Nicolaia
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Taylor, Elizabeth
It Ends With Revelations - Smith, Dodie
Handstands in the Dark - Godley, Janey
All Day Saturday - MacInnes, Colin
Being Sam Frears - Mount, Mary
Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. - Delaney, Rob
New Moon With the Old - Smith, Dodie
The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Danforth, Emily M

I thought Eligible, which is a modern-day Pride and Prejudice, read like Sweet Valley high modern-fic. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont I thought was excellent, an elderly woman moves into a hotel for her retirement, and knowing that her family won't visit, pretends that a young man she meets is her nephew. I can't remember which Dodie Smith was the one about a woman married to a gay actor who meets a politician who wants to make her divorce him so they can marry - that odd mix of very forward thinking for the time and startlingly homophobic.

July
Sunny Side Up - Smale, Holly
Untold Stories - Bennett, Alan
Humping my Bluey - McInnes, Graham
Number 11 - Coe, Jonathan
The Summer Before the War - Simonsen, Helen
Dodger - Pratchett, Terry
How a Bad Girl Fell in Love - Girl on the Net
The Dud Avocado - Dundy, Elaine
First Term at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
How to Get a Job - Green, Alison
A Day at the Office - Dunn, Matt
Making it Up as I Go Along - Keyes, Marian
Second Term at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
Summer Term at Trebizon - Digby, Anne

The Girl on the Net book was more about depression than I was expecting and excellent for it. The Dud Avocado was very good indeed. Marian Keyes' book included her holiday diary of a boat trip to Antarctica.

August
The Great St Mary's Day Out - Taylor, Jodi
Parson's Nine - Streatfeild, Noel
The Suffragette Bombers - Webb, Simon
Sleeping Arrangements - Wickham, Madeline
West End Girls - Colgan, Jenny
Boy Trouble at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
More Trouble at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
Tennis Term at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
Rumpole and the Primrose Path - Mortimer, John
Three Wishes - Moriarty, Liane
The Other Mitford - Alexander, Diana
Second Rumpole Omnibus - Mortimer, John
Jolly Foul Play - Stevens, Robin
Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After - Colgan, Jenny
The Crown - Cass, Kiera
Hester and Harriet - Spiers, Hilary
Papercuts - Bateman, Colin
Call of the White - Aston, Felicity
The Barchester Chronicles - Trollope, Anthony
Fathomless Riches - Coles, Richard

The Suffragette Bombers didn't get any better, and seemed to switch willynilly between "these foolish women didn't even realise how much they could hurt people" and "they were evil murdered", which aren't fully compatible. I did like the point he raised that when people said they only bombed empty houses they weren't including servants as people, but overall it was not very good. Also not very good - The Other Mitford, which is a book about Pam written by her friend. The snippets of actual Pam were okay, but the majority of the book is a rehash of all the other Mitford books.

September
Binny Bewitched - McKay, Hilary
What They Do In The Dark - Coe, Amanda
The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo - Schumer, Amy
Mockstars - Russell, Christopher
Snowball in Hell - Brookmyre, Christopher
Taman Budiman - Sheppard, Tan Sri Dato Mubin
Versions of Us - Barnett, Laura
The List - Vivian, Siobhan
The Witness - Kernick, Simon
The Shell Seekers - Pilcher, Rosamunde
Nothing Tastes as Good - Hennessy, Claire
Cluny Brown - Sharp, Margery
September - Pilcher, Rosamunde
The Third Rumpole Omnibus - Mortimer, John

The ending of What they do in the dark has left the nastiest taste in my mouth for a long time - it's meant to, but no less full of revulsion. taman Budiman is the memoirs of a British civil servant in Malaysia before independence, before the second world war, and his career and growing love of hte country leading to his taking Malaysian citizenship and setting up a museum. I had the Shell Seekers when I was too young to really appreciate it, but this time round it was exactly right and just lovely - it's long and I never wanted it to end.

October
Summer Camp at Trebizon - Digby, Anne
Coming Home - Pilcher, Rosamunde
End of Summer - Pilcher, Rosamunde
Year of the Fat Knight - Sher, Anthony
Rivers of London - Aaranovitch, Ben
Venetia - Heyer, Georgette
Charity Girl - Heyer, Georgette
A Perfect Spy - Le Carre, John
Little Drummer Girl - Le Carre, John
The Pumpkin Eaters - Mortimer, Penelope
I am the Secret Footballer - Anon
The Apprentice Witch - Nicol, James
Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookshop - Sloan, Robin
A Murder of Quality - Le Carre, John
Men Explain Things to Me and other essays - Solnit, Rebecca
The Kindness - Samson, Polly
What Alice Forgot - Moriarty, Liane
The Convenient Marriage - Heyer, Georgette
Faro's Daughter - Heyer, Georgette
Our Kind of Traitor - Le Carre, John
Sprig Muslin - Heyer, Georgette

The Year of the Fat Knight is Sher's time playing Falstaff at Stratford, while, indeed, his partner was the director. It was very good indeed on the worries and anxieties about acting, getting into and out of character, and when it does and doesn't all come together. The Le Carre I liked most was A Perfect Spy, and now I need to read all the Smiley ones.

I am now using google docs to keep track of my books, and have started inputting the previous years into it, so I can do retrospectives with lots of statistics. Lovely.

Comments

[chiasmata]

Thoughts in no particular order:

- Ahhhh, that is so true about Eligible! I enjoyed it very much, that said. (Not that I think you were criticising, particularly.)

- What did you think of Binny Bewitched compared to Hilary McKay's other books?

OK, that was all of two thoughts. Hmm.

[jossish.livejournal.com]

I love The Shell Seekers!

I just read What Alice Forgot this week - I find I always want to read Liane Moriarty books very quickly to find out where she's going and then forget them almost instantly once I finish because the endings are always a bit unsatisfyingly neat.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

[Insert usual comment here about me having nothing to say but appreciating these book posts even if they're mostly lists.]

P.S. Clovember?

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

P.S. Clovember? /another subject I enjoy reading without having much to say myself.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I was enjoying it, and then I realised it reminded me of Sweet valley, and then Lydia and Kitty just morphed into Jessica for me.

I like the Binny books, but it's probably my least favourite of the four series. Still very good, as it's McKay, but I miss the family/friends closeness. I also am always surprised to find it's set in the UK every book, I think the writing reminds me of Tessa Duder.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

They are very unsatisfyingly neat, yes- I think particularly The Husband's Secret where yet another incident means it's balanced out, except it very much isn't.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

[usual comment enjoying your usual comment and knowing people are reading]

You went on a bit of a Trebizon binge there!

[jinty]

I bought the first 3 Trebizon books when they were reissued at the beginning of this year, partly because I was interviewing Anne Digby for my Jinty blog (she also wrote for girls comics before doing prose full-time). In fact Trebizon was also serialised in Tammy in a couple of different ways - as a comic strip version and as prose. I quite enjoyed them but of course it's fatally easy to compare them to Antonia Forest, and hardly anything will survive that comparison. I expect if I'd read them at the time I would have liked them a lot.

Re: P.S. Clovember?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

See next entry! Though an attempt to take a good photo in the work bathroom didn't go so well, and therefore I might not be able to post many photos.

Re: You went on a bit of a Trebizon binge there!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I didn't know Trebizon was serialised in Tammy! I'd love to see the comic strip of it. I enjoyed Trebizon very much when I was young and read them first, but they are very slight on rereading. I binged through them as they are easily to hand when I am at my parents' house and want something quick to read before bed.

Re: P.S. Clovember?

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Terrible photos in work loo mirrors are an integral part of the time-honoured Clovember tradition!

Re: You went on a bit of a Trebizon binge there!

[jinty]

This interview with Anne Digby on the Jinty blog includes a scan of one episode of Trebizon done in comics form in Tammy:
https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/anne-digby-interview/

Re: You went on a bit of a Trebizon binge there!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That's not what I think Rebecca looks like! Great to see it, thanks. I think her writing probably works quite well for comics.

Re: You went on a bit of a Trebizon binge there!

[jinty]

I don't think it's what Elizabeth Exton looks like either :-)

Yes, Digby's writing works pretty well for comics, but she did write comics for a number of years it turns out, so maybe some of the way she did comics rubbed off onto her prose writing too?