If memory serves, this was the month the lockdown eased a bit, at least around us. Not until the month was nearly over, though. That, and a spate of re-reads near the end of the month (marked, as always, with an asterisk*) got me over a book a day again.
Life in Victorian Britain (A Brief History) by Michael Paterson. Not that brief. Not that much I didn’t already know, either. But still a good read. (2 June)
The History of Rock and Roll: Volume II by Ed Ward. Seems a bit more light-weight than vol. I, but that’s largely because at 300-odd pages there just isn’t enough room to include everything that it ought to have. Still a lot of great, anecdotal fun. (3 June)
The Lost History of 1914 by Jack Beatty. Not as crap as I’d worried (though its last quarter is dismal), but still no real challenge to Clark’s Sleepwalkers. The Curragh Mutiny still infuriates me. (4 June)
The Secret History of the Blitz by Joshua Levine. Fascinating parallels with our current situation. Not a huge number of surprises… save for the existence of a fetish magazine in general distribution to the public. In 1940. WTF? (6 June)
DK Eyewitness Tokyo. A quick read, to see if it was possible to get myself excited about the idea of foreign travel again. It wasn’t possible. (6 June)
African Samurai: The True Story of a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard. Fascinating story: terrible book. Lockley writes sub-academic prose. (7 June)
My Planet by Mary Roach. Thought this was a new book. Turns out to be an old collection of columns from (of all places) Reader’s Digest. At least it was a quick read. (8 June)
101 Stumbles in the March of History by (ed.) Bill Fawcett. Another listicle-book, with a lot of pretty stupid material and bad writing. At least the chapters are short so I could read it while working out. (The post-WWII stuff is terrible.) (8 June)
Captain Easy Vol. 1 by Roy Crane. A collection of Sunday pages from the 1930s. Seem more burlesque than adventurous to me, in a big-foot drawing style. (9 June)
Captain Easy Vol. 2 by Roy Crane. By the end of 1936 Crane’s design sense and draftsmanship are superb. Stories aren’t a lot better, but this was great to look at. (9 June)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells. First Murderbot story. What a fascinating character, and what an interesting story. Though it ends awfully abruptly. (9 June)
Network Effect by Martha Wells. Cool… this is going to be an extended story. Still very basic plot and abrupt ending. (9 June)
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. Our psychotic Pinocchio is going to become a Real Boy? Clearly this is compulsive reading. (9 June)
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. I sort of appreciate the straight-ahead action plots in these books; combined with the amusing narrator they make for pleasant, non-disturbing reading. Just right for the times. (10 June)
Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher. Fantasy recommended by Lorna. Semi tech world, which I like. Cynical sarcastic characters, ditto. Only half the story. (11 June)
*Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. Her best novel, by far. I love the characters, the dialogue. A 400-page screwball comedy. Didn’t have to reread it, but glad I did. (11 June)
The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher. Second half of the “Clocktaur” story. Liked the dialogue, liked the climax a lot. Not a great story, but quite a good one. (12 June)
London: A Life in Maps by Peter Whitfield. Absolutely engrossing… as is pretty much anything involving maps, where I’m concerned. Last chapter a bit depressing. (13 June)
Regency Redux by Emily Evans Eerdmans. Subtitle is High Style Interiors: Napoleonic, Classic Modern, and Hollywood Regency. A 300-page coffee-table book, almost cripplingly heavy. Interior designers who gibber enthusiastically are not my cup of tea, but nice pix anyway. Where’s the signs of life in these interiors, though? (14 June)
A Place for Everything by Judith Flanders. The curious history of alphabetical order, it says. Certainly a book about organization, though not too enlightening about alpha order, really. A good read nevertheless, though not my fave of hers. (16 June)
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. Lorna recommended it as a sort of modern pulp adventure. Supposedly the first of a trilogy but the other two books seem never to have been written. I liked the ghoul-hunting protagonist but it was a tough slog. (19 June)
*Decadent Societies by Robert M. Adams. Another of those books I re-read every couple of years. His comments on Rome, ancien regime France, and Romanov Russia remain acute; I’m less convinced by his assessment of the US ca. 1980. Wonder if he’d think the current USA met his standards for decadence? (20 June)
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons. Sometimes fascinating, sometimes frustrating. I certainly learned a lot about Ms Nesbit (and about her asshole first husband, but oh well). Must try to read some of her stuff (22 June)
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendelsohn. Long critical study of an author I’ve only begun to read. Seems very even-handed, which I had not expected from this writer. (22 June)
The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip. One of Lorna’s favourites; I had never read it or even thought about it. I was mostly perplexed. (24 June)
Heir of Sea and Fire by Patricia McKillip. Beginning to make more sense, even through drugs. (25 June)
Harpist in the Wind by Patricia McKillip. Pulled me through itself, though in something of a drug-induced haze. (25 June)
*The Face of Battle by John Keegan. The Folio edition, with great pix. Weird to think this book is 45 years old. Still impresses. (26 June)
The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith. The Charge of the Light Brigade is just one chapter of the book; most of it is a (slightly infuriating) joint biography of two of the most inept and idiotic commanding officers in the history of the British Army. (27 June)
*Thank God for the Atom Bomb & Other Essays by Paul Fussell. Haven’t read this in decades but his style and opinions, while cranky, are always entertaining. I’m probably a lot crankier now myself. (27 June)
*Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? By Molly Ivins. Laughing while crying; the horrible thing about re-reading these columns about the Reagan years is that it’s all happening again and few seem to care. What would Molly have done with Herr Drumpf? (28 June)
*The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien. Seems much more impressive to me than it did last time I read this… perhaps 25 years ago? (28 June)
*The Two Towers by Tolkien. Rather more flowery, saga-like language in bits. Those bits are more interesting than the chapters about Frodo on the way to Mordor. (29 June)
*The Return of the King by Tolkien. I’d forgotten how much anti-climax there is here. And how much I enjoy the scouring of the Shire. (30 June)
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