July Reading Round Up

July was another great month of reading for me, and one where I had lots of time to catch up on requests from Net Galley.  2017 is shaping up again to be a great year for books.

Two of the books that have made my top reads of the month I reviewed earlier The Children of Jocasta and These Dividing Walls but other standouts this month were:

Circe - Madeline Miller.
This was a very early proof (the book isn't actually out until sometime in 2018!) but I loved every word. It is very different from her first book The Song of Achilles whilst still firmly being rooted in Ancient Greece. The scope is huge but told very intimately - I hope it does really well.

The January Man - Christopher Somerville

Another walking book come memoir makes my list this month and this one is also shortlisted for the Wainright Prize. Somerville (and his wife or friend on occasion) takes a different walk around the UK each month. He talks about the history of the area he is walking and the legends but is quite open about how unobservant he is about his surroundings!

The story also tells of Somerville's relationship with his father and is wonderfully moving without being sentimental.

Artemis - Andy Weir

I loved The Martian when I read it on holiday a few years ago (I've not seen the film) I love this type of sci-fi - set in the not too distant future with a premise that could be true. Artemis is just this sort of fiction and added to this is a bit of a crime caper. The icing on the cake? The person "science-ing the shit out of the moon" is female!

The book is out later this year and I hope that it does even better than The Martian because there was no hint of the 'difficult second novel' here.

Travels with my Sketchbook - Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell has just completed his two year stint as the Children's Laureate and he has been a huge supporter of libraries and school libraries throughout his tenure. This is a collection of his sketches, cartoons, drafts for his final work and a diary in image form and a pure delight.  Riddell manages to capture the whimsy of life along with the terrible and I wanted to race through this book and savour every image simultaneously. Who says picture books are just for for children?

One Summer in Tuscany - Domenica de Rosa

This is a real guilty pleasure book - I won it in a Twitter competition with Quercus books and it was a pure delight to read some unashamed chick lit. Okay I guessed the main plot points early on but I enjoyed the ride as we got there and the writing definitely made me think I was in Tuscany in summer with the heat and the food. This was a fun escapist read.

Classical thinking in Heffers

Heffers Classics Forum, Cambridge. October 2016.

Last year there was no Classics Forum and I have to say I missed it, the chance to sit and listen to some of the finest Classics scholars talking about either their latest research or their newest book is always stimulating.

This year we were at a more central venue with good tea/coffee on tap and in a room where the acoustics were good and the temperature just right - even with the Zumba class above us at one point!

Like previous years the format was nice and simple, 4 sessions each with three speakers who spoke on their topics for roughly 20 minutes. This set up is ideal because if the topic doesn't interest you then there it will only last a few minutes - I hasten to add that this year all of the topics appealed and I could have listened to most of the speakers for a lot longer than their allotted times.

Highlights for me included the talk from Tim Whitmarsh on atheism in the Ancient World and Gideon Nisbet's Confessions of a Translator.  I also greatly enjoyed Jerry Toner's talk all about how to Release Your Inner Roman - I'm so pleased to see that Marcus Sidonius Falx is still sharing his guide to how to live and prosper in Ancient Rome.

The balloon debate just after lunch was also great - 5 academics presented a case for why they thought that 'their' classical work should be preserved over the others - the idea being that they are all in a balloon that is crashing and all are tossed over board and lost forever to ensure the balloon keeps flying.  Julius Ceasar's Gallic Wars, Sophocles' Antigone, Martial's Epigrams, Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Sophocles' Philoctetes went head to head but this time Edith Hall's persuasive arguments for Antigone won the day. My vote went for Martial - if only one book is going to survive then I want it to be funny!

I've come home with a stack of new books and lots of thoughts running around my head - a great day.

Holiday reading

Spring Break!

Mr Norfolkbookworm and I are just back from a week away in the sun. We both needed a break and the intention was to sit around doing very little whilst soaking up some vitamin D. I was doubly able to relax as the first draft of my dissertation was completed just before we went and so I could indulge in reading for pleasure guilt free!

I certainly made the most of the huge balcony and comfy sunbeds as I read 13 books in the week we were away! All that was distracting me was this view from my lounger:

The books I read (in no particular order)

Persuasion - Jane Austen.  I'm not sure why I've not read this before but my friend the Upstart Wren challenged me to read this on our break.  I wasn't sure at first but pretty soon found myself sucked in and I loved this by the end.

Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell.  This book came up as a suggestion on Goodreads and while I am pleased that I read it, I can't say that I enjoyed it. Orwell himself made me cross, especially once he got back to England but his insights into the underclass were interesting.

A Country Road, A Tree - Jo Baker.  I loved Longbourn by this author a couple of years ago and was excited to see this title on Netgalley.  I think my mistake with this one was leaping on the author and not reading more about the book as I found it stilted and the characters unlikable however once I got to the end and read the afterword it all made more sense and in retrospect I like it more. A warning to myself with this one! 

The Summer Before the War - Helen Simonson.  This was a pure delight to read, set in the summer of 1913.  War looms, and comes to pass, as the book unfolds but the book is not about the trenches - it is about how the war affected everyone.  This book isn't literary but is a delight and I was transported to the era perfectly.  This is a book I am going to champion for a long time. 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Schaffer.  After The Summer Before the War this book was the only thing I wanted to re-read as I wanted another book which balanced serious issues and whimsy. GLPPS is one of my 'desert island books' and I loved meeting my book friends again. 

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabther Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World - Matthew Goodson. I love the original novel by Verne (and the cartoon from my childhood) so I was intrigued by this book.  Bly was an investagative (and undercover) journalist in 1899 who decided that it would be possible to go around the world faster than Verne's Fogg.  She sets out eastwards... Bisland was also a journalist and when her editor heard of Bly's journey sent Bisland off in the opposite direction to both beat Fogg and her rival.  The book is part travelogue, part history and part biography and was all compelling! 

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - Joanna Canon. This is a much talked about novel set in the long hot summer of 1979, all the action takes place in just one street as two girls investigate a mysterious disappearance.  I'm not certain that I loved this as much as others but it was a good holiday read. 

Consumed - Abbie Rushton.  Abbie is a friend and I've been looking forward to reading her second novel since it was announced.  I really enjoyed this, it had a Norfolk setting and covered 'issues' in an interesting and new way.  It was a little more predictable than Unspeakable and possibly the issues were overcome a little too simply but this is a book for young adults and hopeful endings are always good. 

The Infinite Air - Fiona Kidman.  The early pioneers of flight lived in exciting times and I've long been fascinated with the female pilots such as Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart.  This follows the story of New Zealand's pioneering aviator - Jean Batten.  I'd not heard of her but found this fictionalised biography utterly compelling and a brilliant read. 

Eliza Rose - Lucy Worsley.  This is a young adult read set in Tudor times and Worsley creates a fictional foil to the ill-fated Katherine Howard. This book annoyed me intensely, it was simultaneously too adult and too childish and at no point did I warm to the Eliza or feel that the Tudor court was real. 

German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie - Monique Laney.  After WW2 many German scientist and rocket engineers were brought to the US.  With the start of the space race many of these scientists were relocated to Huntsville in Alabama right in the heart of the segregated Deep South.  This book is comprised of oral histories from all of the Huntsville community and attempts to be rounded but personally I'd have liked more of the histories and less focus on the Rudolph case.  More probing of the idea of possible Nazis (or Nazi sympathisers) being relocated to a deeply racist area would have been nice too as ultimately I am left with more questions at the end than I had at the start! 

Somewhere Inside of Happy - Anna McPartlin.  This was another book I requested through Netgalley because I'd loved the author's previous book.  At first I thought I was going to be disappointed, it seemed like a typical Irish-set, chick-lit read but the twist towards the end blew me away and while not quite such a tear-jerker as The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes this was still brilliant. 

Freya - Anthony Quinn.  A bit of a cheat here as I didn't quite finish this one on the plane home, but I was more than half way through before we landed.  Another real surprise of a book which follows one woman, her friends and family from VE Day through to the mid-sixties. It is full of unappealing characters but their voices and the plot is so good that I found it hard to put the book down, and I didn't want it to end - always a good sign.

Phew - what a lot of books in a short time!  Now it is back to the grindstone as I have to finish and submit my dissertation in the next three weeks, I bet I wish I was back here very quickly

Entering the Classical World

Heffers Classics Forum, Cambridge. November 2014.

This is the third Classics Forum that we have been to. I blogged about the first back in 2012 but missed mentioning last year's for some reason.

This one was possibly the best yet, between 10am and 6pm we heard presentations from 12 great speakers talking about all manner of things connected to the classical world - from atheism to how to manage a slave and all points in between.

Each speaker had 20 minutes to talk about their ideas or new books and I can say with all honesty that there wasn't a bad speaker or dull topic all day.  In addition to this there was also a 'balloon debate' during which 5 speakers championed a literary work from the classical world and we as the audience had to decide which ones we'd throw from the balloon in order to save the best. This year we saved Cicero but I'm not entirely sure if that was because we thought losing him would be the worst thing going or if his supporter was just so nice and funny that we saved his hero as favour to him.  Great fun!

I've come away with a reading list as long as my arm but as Mr Shakespeare used so many influences from the classical world in his work I feel that the day really helped round out my studies.

Here's hoping that next year's festival doesn't clash with an astronaut visit...

Lost in a good book

Book Review: How to be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis

This book nearly passed me by, but thanks to a tweet pointing me towards an excerpt I spent a very happy few days enjoying this book.

This book made me so happy - there is someone else out there who wants to be the characters they've read about. And there is someone who has thought about it even more than me - enough to write a book about it!

Samantha Ellis takes a look back at the female characters in literature that she's most wanted to be, and who's ideals she's tried to follow and then tries to decide if they are good role models or not. If they don't come up to scratch she then tries to find better ones.

I can't say that I'd ever thought as deeply about the subject as Ellis - generally I wanted to be a character for just as long as I was reading a book, although there are certainly some that have left me with a 'book hangover' and that I've found it hard to let go - many of Tamora Pierce's characters fit in this category.  However her thoughts have made me want to re-read a lot of books and look at them with the new ideas put forward in the book.

I hadn't read all of the books that Ellis talks about, and I didn't read those we had in common at the same age which may account for some of her ideas string me as new/unusual but my favourite bit of the book was that all books were championed from children's books to classics to bonk-busters.  It was the reading that was important not the book.

I find it hard to write reviews on non fiction that I've loved as much as this - it doesn't matter if you like books about books or are looking for a feminist rereading of classic books as this one slender volume covers it all.

I've already returned my copy to the library after strongly recommending it to two more people but I think I am going to have to buy this for myself and as a present for several people.

Ancient Rome in London

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, The British Museum, London. June 2013.

The European ancient world has long fascinated me.  I think I was in the first or second year at primary school when we studied the Ancient Greeks, I know we'd already 'done' the Egyptians and while it was fun learning to write hieroglyphs it took the Greeks to really capture my interest.

Visits to Greece and Italy in the decades since, plus a love of historical fiction (for children and adults) has kept the love alive and although a trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum is high on the to do list we weren't going to miss the chance to see this exhibition in the Reading Room at the British Museum.

We picked an early timed entry slot but even then the exhibition was busy.  We snuck past the introductory film - we've watched a lot of BBC documentaries on this bit of history and wanted just a little bit more room to look at everything!

The exhibition is very cleverly laid out, you start with a general idea of what 79AD life in the area was like  - things like inn signs, graffiti and murals as well as shopping artifacts are all displayed and then slowly you realise that you are entering a Roman house. You take a tour around the house popping in and out of rooms and the garden and each one is fully of frescoes, mosaics and household items which really bring the period to life.  Mr Norfolkbookworm had read the accompanying catalogue in advance of our visit and so it was like having my own private guide - I'm afraid my point of reference were the Roman Mystery books by Caroline Lawrence.  Both references really did complement each other and the exhibition.

Once you've wandered around the house the exhibition becomes a little darker - it is like the ash cloud from Vesuvius is descending over the exhibition. The first things you see are some of the molten and burned items then there are some of the preserved bodies from the area.  There aren't many but they are incredibly moving and one that has been preserved in resin not plaster and in that you can see the tendons, muscles and bones.

Despite there being lots of people in the space I didn't feel cramped and could always see the items I was interested in. In such a small place the exhibition organisers have done a great job in bringing Ancient Rome to life and now I really want to visit the 'real thing' more than ever.

Plaster cast of a dog

(NB for the faint hearted some of the 'restricted' items are on show including the infamous Pan and Goat statue)

Theatrical Interlude 22

Berenice, Donmar Warehouse, London. November 2012

Now the nights are longer and the days colder the early starts and late finishes that a day in London necessitates are becoming less appealing but I know that once I get over that the trips are going to be fun.

I have in fact made four trips to London in just 10 days. Once to see a comedy tryout, once to go to the London Aquarium with my sister and nephew, once for a Sherlock themed fund raiser and then lastly to go to the Donmar Warehouse with my usual theatre going partner in crime.*

Not knowing anything in particular about the story we chose this play solely because this adaptation has been written by Alan Hollinghurst who is one of our favourite authors.

The Donmar Warehouse is fast becoming one of may favourite venues in London. I can't say I'd necessarily like to see a very long play there as the seats are padded benches but the space is so intimate and cosy that I feel at home as soon as I enter the auditorium.

Berenice is set in Rome just after the death of the Emperor Vespasian. His successor Titus is in love with Queen Berenice, a non Roman.  Vespasian disapproved of the match but now that Titus is in charge Berenice is just waiting for his proposal. Life is never that simple and when another suitor appears and all of Rome disapproves of the match then you know things aren't going to go well...

The play is formed of long speeches rather than snappy dialogue and has a very sparse set - the only props are two chairs, a staircase and a dagger. None of this matters, the actors make it a very intense and captivating play, odd in the extreme but compelling. The ending is also a surprise in many ways and that was really pleasing to me.

I still am unsure why a play set in the Golden Palace, in the heart of Rome, was full of sand, even falling from the roof of the theatre but I loved it and I am now going to have to search out a fuller (translated) version of Racine's original play.

The Berenice set from our seats in the circle, sand and all!

*My theatre-going-partner-in-crime is now fine with me revealing her identity (as she told me in no uncertain terms on Saturday) and so to find out more about my talented friend Rebecca please do check out her website!

A long time ago

Heffers Classic Festival, Cambridge, November 2012.

While theatre and Shakespeare appear to be my new favourite things my love of Greece and Italy and of the stories from antiquity are still high on my agenda

Retellings of Greek and Roman myths and legends are books that I am always drawn to. Just this year it became clear that I wasn't the only one as Madeline Miller won the Orange Prize for Fiction with her retelling of the story of Achilles, Patroculus and the Iliad. I've blogged before about my love of the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence too.

It isn't just the stories that I like, the histories and architecture also captivate.  Seeing that there was going to be a dedicated to the classics nearby I booked tickets as soon as they were available.

The day was well organised and scheduled, with several sessions though out the day all featuring 3 or 4 speakers. Limiting the talks to 15-25 minutes was good in many ways - if the topic didn't appeal you knew it was only short, and also you got to hear loads of ideas. BUT every so often I really wanted to listen to all the ideas the speaker had!

What I liked most about the day (apart from the chance to chat to one of my favourite authors!) was that the talks were pitched perfectly - they were neither too simple and thus patronising nor were they so academic that I was lost at any point.

My book list has grown incredibly, and I now want to travel extensively through the Greek and Roman world. I don't think I'll try to learn Latin though!

Roll on the 2013 festival.