Reading in June 2023

My deep-dive into The Hobbit continued.

John D Rateliff, The History of The Hobbit

JRR Tolkien; Douglas A Anderson, The Annotated Hobbit

Bryan Perrett, The Hunters and the Hunted: The Elimination of German Surface Warships Around the World, 1914-15

At about 150 pages with no notes or indication of sources, this is something of a whistle-stop tour and lacks context.  This means that some of the chapters raise more questions than they answer (which is fine - a prompt for further reading).  Nevertheless, it's a decent read for sitting out in the garden now the summer's here.

Neil Gaiman & Collen Doran, Troll Bridge

A graphic novel adaption of Gaiman's coming-of-age story that I picked up in a charity shop.

Elmore Leonard, Out of Sight

More summer reading, this from the master of the wise-cracking thriller.  I think I'm right in saying that they made a George Clooney film out of this one.

Even typing this, I'm temped to grab another Leonard off the shelf and go and read it!

Giles Foden, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika

Foden's account of the Naval African Expedition - the transportation overland of two motor boats in order to wrest control of Lake Tanganyiki from the Germans in World War I ("It is bother the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship" as the First Sea Lord put it).  Improbably enought, it was a mostly successful endeavour.  

The book makes much of the antics of the eccentric commander of the expedition, Geoffrey Spicer-Simson.  When it came out, this was something of a sensation and best-seller.  It's a very good read.

V E Tarrant, Battlecruiser Invincible: The History of the First Battlecruiser, 1909-1916

Another short read (how could be be otherwise?), but this is much better than The Hunters and the Hunted.  It starts with a scathing examination of the design criteria that lead to Invincible's destruction contrasting Fisher's misconception that 'speed is the best protection' and 'hitting is the thing' (at a time when the Germans were building faster ships and when Invincible's turrets didn't work properly and she was supplied with dud shells) with von Tirpitz's view that a ship 'must, what ever else, be able to remain afloat and stay in action'.  There follows excellent accounts of the battles of the Falklands and Jutland as well as the rest of Invincible's short carrier, drawing heavily on diaries and eye-witness accounts.  Of particular note are the 14 pages of maps (out of a total of 1558pp), which must be the envy of longer, more 'authorative' works.

Books and Stuff - March 2014

A regular round-up of my book news...

What I've been reading this month...

Giles Foden, Ladysmith
Constantine Pleshakov, The Tsar's Last Armada

What I've bought this month...

Buzz Aldrin, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon - £2.99

Patrick Beesly, Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre, 1939-1945 - £4.99
Patrick Cormack, Heritage in Danger - £1.00
Thomas S Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution : Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought - £1.00
Tony Scotland, The Empty Throne: The Quest for an Imperial Heir in the People's Republic of China - £1.00
Peter C Smith, Sailors in the Dock: Naval Courts Martial Down the Centuries - £5.99

Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London - 50p
Jim Butcher, Ghost Story - £1.00
Elmore Leonard, Touch - 50p
John Scalzi (ed), Metatropolis - £1.00

Catherine Shaw, The Three-Body Problem - 50p
Catherine Shaw, Flowers Stained With Moonlight - 50p
Catherine Shaw, The Library Paradox - 50p

Books and Stuff - Feb 2014

A regular round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading...

Ted Allbeury, A Choice of Enemies
Giles Foden, Ladysmith
Constantine Pleshakov, The Tsar's Last Armada



What I've bought...

Nicholas Leach, Harwich Lifeboats: An Illustrated History - £1.99
Patrick Moore, Guide to the Moon - £1.00

Ted Allbeury, A Choice of Enemies - 50p
Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground - £1.99
Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grown-Ups - 50p
Anne Tyler, If Morning Ever Comes - 50p
Anne Tyler, The Tin Can Tree - 50p



What I've been given...

Kathleen L Scott, Dated and Datable English Manuscript Borders c.1395-1499

Books and Stuff - Jan 2014

A regular round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading this month...

Giles Foden, Ladysmith


What I've bought this month....

Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley - 50p
Patricia Highsmith, Ripley's Game - 50p
Elmore Leonard, Rum Punch - 99p
Seicho Matsumoto, Inspector Imanishi Investigates - 99p

Iris Butler, The Viceroy's Wife: letters of Alice, Countess of Reading from India, 1921-1925 - 50p
George Orwell, Decline of the English Murder, And Other Essays - 50p
Trevor Royle, Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856 - £1.00
The Wonder Book of the Navy (c.1920) - £1.00

Books and Stuff - Dec 2013

A monthly round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading...

I finally finished How to Seize A Dragon's Jewell, one of Cressida Cowell's 'How to Train Your Dragon' Series.  I'm not one of those adults who customarily reads children's books, but my wife bought me this as a lighthearted birthday present, knowing that dragons and I have a history.

There are two things to note: first, this is the tenth in the series; and secondly, the story background is different from that of the DreamWorks film.  Neither of these spoiled my enjoyment of the book (I also enjoyed the film).  I would think that it would be ideal for bedtime stories.  The chapters are a good length, and generally build up to exciting climaxes; add to this some great characters and dialogue and you've all the excuse you need to put on some silly voices.  The authors illustrations are nicely idiosyncratic too.

I'm going to look out for other books in this series and I also read the little book How to Train Your Viking.

Completely different is Paul Vallely's Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, which I've also finished.  As I studied the modern church at university, I've read many papal biographies.  It's a good rule of thumb that any biography written in the first year of a papacy is going to be hagiographical pap or a complete hatchet-job (sadly, some popes never progress any further - decent biography of Pius XI anyone?).

This is neither.  It's a well-written piece of investigative journalism that explores the paradox of Francis: how the authoritarian Jesuit Provincial in 1970s Argentina became everyone's favorite liberal uncle and advocate of the 'option for the poor'.  For Vallely the crux is the case of the two Jesuits imprisoned by the junta after they were disowned by Bergoglio.  His critics have used this case to level charges of collaboration against him: Vallely convincingly dismisses these charges, but argues that his naivete in saying that he no longer considered the men Jesuits gave the green light for the government to arrest them.  Vallely considers that Francis has been trying to atone ever since.

An important book on Francis' pre-papal career.

I also read the Journal of the Life Saving Awards Research Society (which had a couple of my own contributions in it) and started Giles Foden, Ladysmith.

What I've bought...

Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Viking - 30p

Rose George, Deep Sea and Foreign Going - £1.00
Mike Hally, Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age - £1.50
Mike Palmer, Eddystone: The Finger of Light - £2.00

Books for free!

From the One Man and His Brushes giveaway and Christmas gifts.

Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam

Chris Martin, A Gentleman's Guide to Beard and Moustache Management
Rebecca Rushforth, St Margaret's Gospel-Book: The Favorite Book of an Eleventh Century Queen of Scots
Andrew Salmon, To The Last Round: The Epic British Stand on the Imjin River, Korea 1951
Nigel Slater, Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food