Please keep in mind that what follows is not really a compilation of reviews. It's just a slightly annotated list of the books I read in 2020. Titles headed with an asterisk (*) are re-reads. Two reasons for this: 1) I like re-reading, a lot, and indeed some books I read one or more times a year (for example, my annual Heyer Project); and 2) re-reading is still reading.
Note that the first few entries were begun at the end of 2019 but finished in 2020…*
The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 1: Paths to Power by Robert Caro. I always knew LBJ was something of a shit, but until reading this I had no idea just how much of one he was. Occasionally I felt sorry for him as I read this… but not often. (1 Jan.)
The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 2: Means of Ascent by Robert Caro. Pretty much devoted to LBJ’s alleged service in WW2 and the 1948 senate race in Texas, which was amazingly corrupt even by Texas standards. (1 Jan.)
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. Lightweight even for Hornby. Doesn’t provide enough depth about the title character, and I would have loved to know more than provided about the making of television in the UK in the mid-60s. Well-paced, though, and it kept me reading. (2 Jan.)
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller. Fascinating story of a person I wish I could have met, and liked―though I suspect I would not, in fact, have liked her much. (3 Jan.)
The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour by Mark Norell. Thought about leaving this off the list because while it’s amazingly comprehensive it’s also rather boring and I didn’t, in fact, finish reading it. I did, however, look at every one of the amazing illustrations, and that was a lot of fun. (3 Jan.)
The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas. Style much too academic for my taste but I appreciated the argument she makes about how bibliographers tend to the snobbish when it comes to recording the cheap-and-cheerful mass-market reprints of Austen. Great pix of old boox. (3 Jan.)
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty. Third book by the mortician I’ve read and easily the most lightweight―which is really saying something. Kids ask the most interesting questions. (5 Jan.)
Scarfe by Gerald Scarfe. A portfolio with a bit of autobio, from 1986. Turns out I don’t like his drawing style as much as I’d thought I would. Not a very good writer either. (6 Jan.)
Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune by Rory Muir. Fascinating look at Regency professions, even if it doesn’t always live up to the subtitle (in too many cases Muir comes right out and says “Younger sons of the aristocracy just didn’t take this type of job”). Still informative fun, and well-written. (8 Jan.)
*Venetia by Georgette Heyer. One of my favourite Heyer heroines, who cheerfully sets out to achieve social ruin after determining it’s the only way to get what/who she wants. (9 Jan.)
*The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Waldo Hawkridge and Ancilla Trent are fun. The supporting characters aren’t up to GH’s usual standards, I think. (10 Jan.)
*The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer. Two wonderfully funny scenes involving subsidiary characters (the Griffins, Major Daubenay). (11 Jan.)
*The Toll Gate by Georgette Heyer. One of my favourites of hers, though the mystery plot is somewhat creaky at this point. (12 Jan.)
*The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer. The instigation of the plot is outrageously unbelievable, but the main espionage plot works very well. Francis Cheviot is a nicely drawn quasi-villain; Cousin Nicky is mostly annoying. (13 Jan.)
*False Colours by Georgette Heyer. Sir Bonamy Ripple is sometimes amusing, but the humour around him seems tinged with nastiness. The Dowager Lady Staple isn’t as funny as she could be. But I do like Kit and Cressy, so this remains a favourite. (13 Jan.)
*The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer. Sophy is a great heroine, full stop. Eugenia is an okay foil, and Goldhanger would be an admirable villain were it not for the anti-semitic descriptive text Heyer uses. (15 Jan.)
*Endangered Pleasures by Barbara Holland. Some of these mini-essays are on topics now considered dodgy (cigarettes? gambling? please) but the concept is still sound. And now I want a martini. (15 Jan.)
Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion by Hilary Davidson. Worth the week it took to read for the illos and the glossary alone. The less said about the text the better. (16 Jan.)
Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton. Um. Well. Not sure why Lorna took this out from the library (maybe cuz Beaton’s Canadian?) but it didn’t thrill me. (16 Jan.)
*Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer. I like Mr. Cavendish. The supporting characters aren’t as likeable, but I have to acknowledge Selina and James have very revealing dialogue. (17 Jan.)
*The Foundling by Georgette Heyer. Liversedge has to be one of her best supporting characters, and Uncle Lionel provides many moments of tooth-grinding humour. Tom and his father, on the other hand, provide ample reasons for skipping ahead. (18 Jan.)
How to be an Epicurean by Catherine Wilson. I’m not much of a fan of philosophy but the reviews made this seem interesting. It is dense, though―even as dumbed-down as it is to make it comprehensible for the philosophically challenged, like me. Happier to be an epicurean than to be a stoic, I suppose. (20 Jan.)
*Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer. I just like all of the characters in this one. They all have wonderful dialogue, too. (20 Jan.)
Food and the City ed. Dorothèe Imbert. Not quite what I was expecting―much more on the 20th century than I expected, or wanted. Still very informative, though, and well-illustrated. Pleasing absence of academic jargon and sentence structure. And the chapter on sushi was fascinating. (22 Jan.)
*These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. Not as much fun as it used to be―the style hasn’t aged well―but some of the supporting characters are nicely drawn. (23 Jan.)
*The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer. Dialect used (sparingly) for comic effect, though John Joseph is over the top. The supporting characters are all very well drawn, even though few of them are really comic foils. Aside from Claude, of course. (24 Jan.)
My Cat Isn’t Fat, He’s Just Big-Boned by Nicole Hollander. A Sylvia collection I’d never encountered before, read in reaction to the Beaton book of a week ago. (24 Jan.)
When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll. Lorna recommended it; Carroll was a speaker at the Merril some years ago. Very odd book―Omaha the Cat Dancer meets Carmilla―but it’s short enough I was finished before being utterly weirded out. (24 Jan.)
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple. A history of the East India Company. Rather too much of a Great Men and Great Battles sort of history, and it mostly covers just the 18th century, but a quick enough read for all that. (26 Jan.)
100 Great War Movies: The Real History Behind the Films by Robert Niemi. A weird experience, reading this: episodic, somewhat scattered (the movies are by title, alphabetically) but fascinating. Read when I ought to have been working. (27 Jan.)
The Light Heart by Elswyth Thane. Historical romance, smack in the middle of a multi-book saga. Read it because of its period (1902-1917); I wanted to see how somebody else handled the Edwardian setting. I liked Phoebe and Oliver much more than I liked the world-building, alas. (28 Jan.)
*The Cartoon History of the Universe, Vol. 1 by Larry Gonick. An annual read and always enjoyed. Paying particular attention to philosophy this time. (28 Jan.)
Mighty Alice Goes Round and Round by Richard Thompson. A collection of the much-missed Cul de Sac (sort of a Peanuts for the new millennium). (29 Jan.)
*The Cartoon History of the Universe, Vol. 2 by Larry Gonick. Indian philosophy? Meh. Chinese? Yes please, so long as it’s not Confucius.(30 Jan.)
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