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'Her Brilliant Career' by Rachael Cooke: was given this recently as a present and from the introduction alone I've learnt so much! Having now finished it and compiled 5 A4 pages of new exciting people/books/films/events to investigate, I can definitely recommended this read!
'1222' by Anne Holt: Looking for an audio book to run to in the local library this one came highly recommended by the librarians. It definitely took my mind off of not being able to breathe properly! Murder, mystery and intrigue with a backdrop of Norwegian mountains and a main character (who I believe detects in other books by the same author) that blows all ideas of preconceptions and stereotypes out the window!
'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelly: Written when on holiday with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron (father of Ada Lovelace), John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont when she was only 19, and inspired by a terrible nightmare, 'Frankenstein' was Shelley's contribution to the challenge they had set themselves of each writing a ghost story. Daughter of Mary Wollstonecroft (author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women), she and Wollstonecroft will no doubt feature in a blog post of their own soon!
'East of the Sun' by Julia Gregson: Having a small obsession with India may have slightly influenced my choice of this second audio book from the local library. Started it today with this week's run and already it is peppered with vibrant and interesting characters and big social statements of the 1920s in which it is set!
'A Land' by Jacquetta Hawkes: One of the many recommends from Her Brilliant Career (above) it lies somewhere between history and philosophy, science and poetry and is brilliant at being all those things. Already it feels like one of those books that you spend the rest of your life telling everyone you meet to read, a book that leaves you a different, and better, person for having read, like Kim (Rudyard Kipling), To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee), or Wild Swans (Jung Chang).
'Clever Girl' by Tessa Hadley: My next audio book adventure! A wonderfully-told life story which is both brilliantly every-day and full of drama that sucks you completely into the protagonist's world.
'CryoBurn' by Lois McMaster Bujold: Thanks to recommendations from literary folk on twitter I was able to take this exciting and amusing cryo-themed sci-fi to a cryo-themed scientific conference. Up there with Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, looking forward to picking up my next Bujold!
'Doctor Who: Borrowed Time' by Naomi Alderman: OK, OK, so this is kind of riding on the 'Who' franchise more than anything else but there's a good story in there and made a nice, relaxed read after attempts to be more cultured earlier in the year!
'The Garden Party' and 'At the Bay' by Katherine Mansfield: The only two short stories in a 'Short Classics' collection I picked up at a charity shop some years ago, I can't believe I haven't found Mansfield before. All the insight and subtlety of Dickens but with her own, unique style - will definitely be seeking out more of her work in 2015!
'Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee' by Meera Syal: Is there anything this women can't do? Comedy, drama, TV, radio, theatre, film - and apparently literature...everything she touches turns to gold!
'Harry Potter' by J. K. Rowling (all seven books plus 'Quidditch Through the Ages', 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' and 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'): Well, I put it off all year as I felt that going back to one of the world's best selling authors was a bit of a cop-out - the #ReadWomen campaign was, after all, meant to bring into the lime-light lesser-known authors. However, there's no escaping the fact that I love these books. Having read them all well over 10 times they still carry me away to that magical world equally captivatingly every time. It's like putting on your favourite old jumper, more comfortable every time you where it, and yet with something new and unexpected in the pocket every time...
'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy: This was recommended a few years ago and I had my charity shop copy lying around for ages before finally deciding to delve in - and I'm very glad, and very sad, that I did. The God of Small Things follows the stories of the individual members of one family and each is as tragic as Macbeth. Beautifully written and quite the experience to read but very, very sad!
'Comsmétique de l'ennemi' (or 'The Enemy's Cosmetique') by Amélie Nothomb: I'm not sure how I ended up reading such dark and tragic books this year but this definitely ticks both those boxes. Almost entirely in the form of a sharp and at times hilariously pithy dialogue between the two main characters (with a twist I won't mention!) a series of haunting stories unfold from a seemingly innocent meeting. Vive Nothomb!
'A Vindication of the Rights of Women': That's right, I've finally started that journey! My particular edition includes 'A Vindication on the Rights of Men', 'A Vindication on the Rights of Women' and extracts from 'An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution and the Effect it Has Produced in Europe'. Here goes!
'Black by Design' by Pauline Black: The autobiography of the lead singer of The Selector.
'The Miniaturist' by Jessie Burton
'Temeraire' by Naomi Novik
'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith
'Americanah' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansbury
'Whistling for the Elephants' by Sandi Toksvig
'Tales of the Islanders' by Charlotte Brontë
'The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton' by George Eliot
'The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield' (I did manage to seek and read more but not until 2017/2018!)
'The Penelopiad' by Margaret Atwood
‘Under the Net’ by Iris Murdoch
‘Women and Power’ by Mary Beard
‘The Greenhouse’ by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman
‘The Bastard of Istanbul’ by Elif Shafak
‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Sceenplay)’ by J. K. Rowling
‘Saving Bletchley Park’ by Sue Black
[annual revisiting of Harry Potter, books 6 and 7, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard]
‘Uprooted’ by Naomi Novak
‘Honour’ by Elif Shafak
‘Offline’ by Anne Holt
‘Redemption in Indigo’ by Karen Lord
‘Kindred’ by Octavia E. Butler
‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
‘Space Opera’ by Catherynne M. Valente
‘Once & Future’ by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy
‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ by Jeanette Winterson
‘Northwest Smith: Shambleau’ by C. L. Moore
‘Cold Sleep’ by C. J. Cherryh
By Becky Chambers:
‘A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet’
‘A Closed and Common Orbit’
‘Record of a Spaceborn Few’
‘To Be Taught If Fortunate’
‘The Vela’ (with Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, and S.L. Huang)
‘The Good Heretic’
By Tomi Adeyemi:
‘Children of Blood and Bone’
‘Children of Virtue and Vengeance’
By Marie Brennan:
‘A Natural History of Dragons’
‘The Tropic of Serpents’
By Agatha Christie:
‘The Thirteen Problems’
‘Murder in the Mews and Other Stories’
‘The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side’
‘The Murder on the Links’
By Katherine Arden:
‘The Bear and the Nightingale’
‘The Girl in the Tower’
‘The Winter of the Witch’
By Robin Hobb:
‘Assassin’s Apprentice’
‘Royal Assassin’
‘Assassin’s Quest’
‘The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince’
‘Fool’s Errand’
‘The Golden Fool’
‘Fool’s Fate’
‘Fool’s Assassin’
‘Fool’s Quest’
‘Assassin’s Fate’
‘Ship of Magic’
‘Mad Ship’
‘Ship of Destiny’
‘Dragon Keeper’
‘Dragon Haven’
‘City of Dragons’
‘Blood of Dragons’
‘The Inheritance’
‘Shaman’s Crossing’
‘Forest Mage’
Library books borrowed just in time for the UK Covid-19 lockdown, March 2020...
By Agatha Christie:
‘Murder on the Orient Express’
‘A Murder is Announced’
‘At Bertram’s Hotel’
‘The Architect’s Apprentice’ by Elif Shafak
‘Spinning Silver’ by Naomi Novik
‘The Gospel of Loki’ by Joanne Harris
‘The Midnight Mayor’ by Kate Griffin
Audiobooks listened to during lockdown and following months...
‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama
[Harry Potter 1-7 - currently on the third run! “Always...” - and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them]
Books read in the months after lockdown...
‘The Crimes of Grindelwald’ (screenplay) by J. K. Rowling
‘The Human Brain: A Guided Tour’ by Susan Greenfield
‘Lobster is the Best Medicine’ by Liz Climo
‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernadine Evaristo
‘The Space Between Worlds’ by Micaiah Johnson
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