A Place of Greater Safety

Author: Hilary Mantel

Year: 1992

Pages: 880

Time It Took To Read: Over a week - it's MEATY

I've been swamped, literally swamped, with uni work since Christmas. If I'm not ignoring one module to concentrate on a TMA, I'm doing the reverse. This book was a treat for getting my January essays in on time, but I didn't start reading it til last week.

Oh my God, you guys, she needs to crack on with the last Cromwell book.

Anyway, prior to reading this book, I knew absolutely nothing about the French Revolution. I studied it briefly in year 9, but spent more time sniggering about people having to sleep in the corpse of their horse. I was a heartless child. I knew that a lot of people got their head cut off, and that it was probably ultimately not a terrible thing, but no details.

Well, now I feel like I lived through it. That's the power of Mantel's writing; one sentence and you're there. One line, one tiny piece of description and the scene is set. I think, as with her Cromwell books, it's a lot better to read if you already have a fair idea of who's who and what actually happened.

It portrays the lives of Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins, three leading revolutionaries who began as lawyers. Their love, their pain, their hate, aggression, anger, humour is all in the book. They become three dimensional, but oddly inscrutable. Their women are as important as the men, acting as a domestic balance to their almost fantastical political world, but also involved in it.
As the book drives on through death, factions, more death, insurrection, and death, you KNOW people that have been fully developed are going to die. As I couldn't remember the facts of the Revolution, I didn't know til the very end who died in what order. The last forty pages were compulsive.
It's brilliant. I am sad that I've finished it.

Book count: 6/50

A History of Ancient Britain

Author: Neil Oliver

Year: 2012

Pages: 480

Time It Took To Read: About five days

It can be difficult to find a book about prehistoric Britain that isn't laden with so much jargon that it makes it impenetrable. It's also difficult to find one with a good narrative. The simple fact is that it's hard to make a story out of limited evidence and no written artefacts.

Neil Oliver manages to weave a narrative that MAKES SENSE, that doesn't require specialist knowledge, and that is peppered with little imagined events that give it life, rather than simply being fanciful. I particularly love the way he points to the lore found in nonsense rhymes and stories, and if anyone can recommend more books that do this, please let me know.

I loved this book. I wasn't really expecting to, but I got really immersed. It takes you right up to the Roman invasion, and it's an excellent overview. 

Book count: 5/50

The Spy's Bedside Book

Author: Hugh and Graham Greene

Year: 1957

Pages: 272

Time It Took To Read: Three days

I bought this to read in bed. Everyone needs a bit of late night escapism. But I was sorely disappointed. The excerpts aren't long enough, there's very little context, and true stories are not distinguished from fiction. 

If you want a spy anthology, get The Headline Book of Spy Fiction by Alan Williams.

Book count: 4/50

The Churchills

Author: Mary S. Lovell

Year: 2012

Pages: 640

Time It Took To Read: Three days

I've got literally three books on the go, and five more in the wings. One day, I'll actually concentrate and finish them, but it is not this day.

There is something captivating (for me, at least) about society families in the Edwardian era. The changes wrought by the two world wars are fascinating. The change in lifestyle, the degradation of value, the shifts in hierarchy: all fascinating. I have read practically every decent book I can get about the Mitfords, and bought this for my mum for her birthday a couple of years ago...and then borrowed it to read myself.

The book centres on Winston and Clementine Churchill, but goes back to the Stuart era, when the first Duke of Marlborough was created. It ends with the death of Clementine in 1977, with a postscript on the fate of their descendants. There is much adultery, forced marriage, wayward children, scandal and gossip, with the statesmen of the family anchoring the narrative. 

The book touches on the politics of Churchill, but largely focuses on family life. It is slightly gossipy, with an occasional total lack of citation. I have read Mary Lovell's book on the Mitfords, and that had similar issues. However, it's a well written overview that doesn't see Winston Churchill solely as the bulldog of Parliament. 

Book count: 3/50

Beyond Black

Author: Hilary Mantel

Year: 2005

Pages: 451

Time It Took To Read: A day of pretty much solid reading

You wait all month to finish a book, and then do two in two days.

Oh, Hilary Mantel! I read the Cromwell books last summer and LIVED in them. I'm generally not a fiction fan, but Mantel writes obliquely enough for me to know exactly what she means without feeling it. It sounds like bollocks when you say you 'feel' what the characters feel when you read a book, but that's what I do. I don't visualise it, I feel it. In fact, I live it. It means books like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo make me feel awful for days after reading them. It's why I prefer non-fiction or fiction from a male perspective. 

Beyond Black is a book about women, and the men that have hurt them and made them miserable. It is also about mediums, and sceptics. I am a massive sceptic about mediums. I think they exploit the grieving with their utter bollocks, but this book makes you think well...what if they WERE real? What demons would they face every day, listening to the lost dead witter on? What if the dead held a grudge? Why do some people who hear voices get locked up or medicated, and others get TV shows? 

Alison, the medium, has a history of utter misery and secrets so dark, she is literally haunted by them. Colette, her manager, is a woman who has had a bitter, beige sort of existence. And Morris...Morris is grim.

There is a deep, sensual realism in Mantel's writing, that lets you breathe the world she describes. Places you know you've been: the new build estate, the flashy chain restaurant, the dodgy village hall, the relentless toll of the motorway - all drawn perfectly. 

I can't wait to read more of her stuff. 

Book count: 2/50

Overground Underground

Author: Andrew Martin

Year published: 2012

Pages: 320

Time It Took To Read: A few nights

This year, the #50books2014 is being hosted by Sara. I don't think I'm going to hit it this year, but I shall have a go. 

This month has been chaos, but I have finally finished a book. I've got three on the go now... I've had a lot of uni work on, which means a LOT of reading, writing, reading, cursing, writing and then FEAR waiting for the results. I've also finally seen the paediatrician with my eldest, and he's on the autistic spectrum. This isn't a surprise to us, but having it confirmed is a lot to swallow. On top of all that, I got engaged at the beginning of the month, and since we're getting married in August, that's a lot of planning that needs doing NOW.

But...I managed to read this. I am an unashamed geek about railways. So much so that my boyfriend proposed on a disused railway platform. I love the underground as only one who doesn't NEED to use it can. I love how it sprawls across London like a drunk. Each station is different, some historical, some shiny and huge (Jubilee extension, I'm looking at you). This book covers the history of the system, and aside from somehow missing out the 7/7 bombings seems comprehensive. It's also enjoyably written with trivia dotted about, which makes it a far more entertaining read than some other books on the Underground I've read recently. 

Book Count: 1/50

The Dresden Files

After reading Storm Front, I downloaded the entire Dresden Series and read them back to back, on my shitty 2-hour-battery-life e-reader. I have now finished them.

Titles: Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Night, Small Favour, Turn Coat, Changes, Ghost Story, Cold Days

Author: Jim Butcher

Series: The Dresden Files, books 2-14

Year published: 2001-2013

Pages: Varies, up to about 700

Time It Took To Read: A day each, if I could have read them solidly without needing to charge the bloody e-reader

I love this series. It encompasses huge amounts of mythic lore, from God and angels to faries (sidhe), trolls, pixies, ghost and spirits, Norse mythology, shapeshifters, vampires, demons, and incubi. At the centre is a wizard, who remains fundamentally human (at least...mostly), with a sense of righteous, and indignant, fury. He wants things to be right. He senses that there's a much bigger wrongness with the world than merely what is happening with Chicago. He doesn't know who he really is, and keeps being fed snippets of personal history. 

I am eager to read more. Butcher's plan is to write 20 regular files books, and then an apocalyptic trilogy to finish things off. That means I only have to wait about TEN MORE YEARS to finish it. 

And it brings my final tally of the year to 63 new books. I've also re-read a lot of old ones, so it's probably closer to 100 books this year. I've got about 12 new ones to read waiting on the shelf, and my boyfriend's moved in with his huge stock of sci-fi and fantasy. MOAR READINGS!

Happy New Year!