I love the story about Alice in Wonderland. The original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland manuscript ended up in the hands of Alice Liddell, THE Alice in Lewis Carroll's book, who was forced to sell it in 1928 to pay death duties. It was sold at auction to an American dealer, who sold it on to an Eldridge Johnson in the US. Following Johnson’s death in 1946 the manuscript was was purchased by a wealthy group of American benefactors, who donated it to the British Museum in 1948 as a token of gratitude for the British people's stand against Adolf Hitler.
Yay, I really enjoyed that! Britain's refusal to capitulate in 1940 (or cut a deall) when defeat seemed inevitable was miraculous, a triumph of hope and stubborness over evil. The fact that Churchill was so flawed a human being only adds to the wonder of it. He was wrong about so many things, but right about the one thing on which the fate of the world turned.
I've just finished (among other things) Seven Sisters by Katherine Kovacic. Women whose sisters were murdered by murdering men decide to murder the murdering murderers. And I was totes on the side of the murdering women, biting my nails, hoping they'd succeed. An impressive feat.
I’ve just finished reading (OK listening to the audio book) Sheehan Karunatilaka’s “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” – now I’m about to re-read it the old fashioned way. I had a rough idea of why so many Sri Lanka Tamils became refugees – but this makes it all so immediate, so personal, so horrific. The subject is a ghost, a recently murdered – we don’t find out by whom until almost the very end – a freelance photographer & fixer for the foreign press. He is gay in an officially puritan society, he is a gambler with more than cards. His adventures in the afterlife and with other ghosts in Columbo as he tries to secure his legacy & solve his murder, take place over seven days (hence “Seven Moons) This won the Booker Prize last year. It deserved the win
After reading that splendid review, JB, and Sarah's impressive list, and the historical insight of Peter Lloyd, my humble effort of finally reading 'Jack Charles, Born-again Blakfella' seems insignificant. I'd bought it two weeks before he'd died, when I was otherwise engaged reading 'Nine Perfect Strangers'. When he went into the Dreaming I'd found it hard to pick up the book.
The autobiography was ghost written (no pun intended) by Camilla Benson, and throughout we hear Jack's accounts of what it was like being one of the Stolen Generation, and one of the victims of institutional abuse, both sexual and brutal (made even more poignant by the recent Pell event and all of the horror that he'd been embroiled in).
Not surprisingly, these traumas led Jack into substance abuse, a life of crime (he gives some insightful details on how to be a cat-burglar!) and repeat gaol terms. Re-establishing his blak identity and family ties, becoming Uncle and advisor to Aboriginal youth, as well as his successful acting career illustrated something I hold dear - hope and the redemption of self.
Ok, I've told you his life story, so why bother reading the book? It's well-written, capturing his voice and perspectives, and dotted with amusing anecdotes. It's a powerful indictment of the systemic racism, historic and current, that too many Australians don't seem to recognise. It's also a powerful illustration of why the Voice to Parliament is utterly warranted.
That was a tremendous review and real encouragement to read. I was almost tempted to pick up the book and give it a read myself. I was stopped only by personal taste and the possiblity that my to_be_read_pile would turn sentient rise from the virtual ebook side table and beat me to death over cries of 'betrayal'. For me - the book I have read in the before times that sticks in the memory is Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir which for me still holds one of the most heartfelt, beautiful declarations of love I have ever read, and enough snarky lesbians to satisfy anyone.
I’m about half way through and loving the book so thanks for the suggestion. I love the intimate view delivered by so many diaries used as source material. That Hitler guy seems like a wrongun so I’m keen to get to the end and see if Churchill or Adolph wins.
Churchill was a giant in desperate times. The UK and the Commonwealth stood alone and held the line while the US was getting its shit together, and the Russians were still playing footsie with Adolph.
Without this man and the stubborn, valorous UK and Commonwealth, history would look differerent in some very unpleasant ways.
I second JB's recommendation- this was a great book.
Recently finished "A Spectre Haunting" by our old China, Mr Mieville. It's a history of The Communist Manifesto - the work itself, rather than communism - and a deep and thoughtful one. Mieville looks at what various readers and critics of the manifesto have said over the century plus since its publication, seeks to correct what he sees as misinterpretations, and, more or less as a side effect, gives an overview of communist thought. Damned good read.
Ok. That one is now on The Pile on the non-fiction side. I haven't yet finished the books I said I would in here before but in my defence I was jumped by an Ed James police procedural that wouldn't let me go until i'd finished it.
I did however manage to list and review my favourite 2022 reading for another forum. I won't bore the audience here with all the commentary but I will give you the list of books that made the cut. Some-one might be interested.
Non-fiction:
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn,
Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis,
Limbo by Dan Fox,
Limited Edition of One by Steven Wilson, and
Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton
Fiction:
Stillicide by Cynan Jones
War of the Maps by Paul McAuley
Agency by William Gibson
Cold Water by Dave Hutchinson, and
Empire Star by Samuel R Delany (a re-read of course).
Loving SideB00b reading club already! This title had been on my list for ages as I had devoured all of Larson's other extraordinary works! Now I am 2/3 through this one and so glad you motivated me to pick it up. I can strongly recommend also reading Larson's 'Dead Wake' about the Lusitania - Churchill's role in that was unforgettably chilling. Can't wait for the next recommendation!
Thanks for the recommendation, JB. I enjoyed it immensely.
Your review alludes to something I noticed while I was reading it: I get really bored with biographies (and any other non-fiction) that reads like a thesis. Too much detail and I'm out of there. This one, on the other hand, was so delightfully personal and well-crafted that it was hard to put down and highly engaging. The factual accuracy was almost disguised by the warmth of the language and the evocative presentation of the anecdotes. I didn't know anything about, for example, Mary Churchill, but I became enamoured of her through her diary entries.
I wouldn't have read this if you hadn't Side-Boobed about it, and I'm glad you did.
Thanks for recommending this book JB, I thoroughly enjoyed it. For all his faults, and probably because of them, Winston's sheer bulldoggedness in the face of what seemed to be certain defeat inspired the same resilience in the British people. Larson is a seriously clever and beautifully nuanced writer. This book reads like a gripping novel and I finished it in two days, which is fast for me. If only it had been available when I was studying Modern History somewhere last century I might have taken more interest in the subject. Excellent!
I knocked over Tim Dunlop’s Voices of Us over the Christmas break, which was an excellent look at the deep shifts in our demographics and social values that led to the political shift characterised first by Cathy McGowan, Helen Haines, Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggal, then the “teal” wave in the 2022 election.
I know people are probably sick of politics after the dispatching the Morrison government but it’s well worth a read, Tim is a very thoughtful and insightful observer.
A book I finished last week was Signs of Life by Sumner Locke Elliot. He’s a bit of a forgotten Australian writer who I’ve rediscovered recently and he wrote with deep feeling tempered with a rollicking wit. He won the Miles in 1963 for his book Careful, He Might Hear You.
One of his you might potentially really like, JB, is Going - it’s set in a future dystopia in which everyone is forcibly euthanised when they hit 65. As far his books go, this one is one out of the bag, quite unlike his other books and really very good. It’s out of print but you see it regularly in Aust Lit sections at second hand book shops. There may be eBooks of it, I’m not sure.
A read an excellent review of a book only yesterday, the published diaries of one of Winston’s contemporaries, Henry “Chips” Channon. Your review put me in mind of it. The review is laugh out loud stuff and a unsettling reminder that there were some Brits, typically toffs or wannabe toffs, who were far more than merely sympathetic to Hitler and his ilk:
Thanks. I look forward to reading this. I also have another one in my library that I will read soon. It is Churchill and Orwell by Thomas Ricks. My next read is The Red Witch a biography of the writer Katherine Susannah Pritchard. Her home is now a writing centre in her honour here in Perth.
I love the story about Alice in Wonderland. The original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland manuscript ended up in the hands of Alice Liddell, THE Alice in Lewis Carroll's book, who was forced to sell it in 1928 to pay death duties. It was sold at auction to an American dealer, who sold it on to an Eldridge Johnson in the US. Following Johnson’s death in 1946 the manuscript was was purchased by a wealthy group of American benefactors, who donated it to the British Museum in 1948 as a token of gratitude for the British people's stand against Adolf Hitler.
Yay, I really enjoyed that! Britain's refusal to capitulate in 1940 (or cut a deall) when defeat seemed inevitable was miraculous, a triumph of hope and stubborness over evil. The fact that Churchill was so flawed a human being only adds to the wonder of it. He was wrong about so many things, but right about the one thing on which the fate of the world turned.
Impressive review!
I've just finished (among other things) Seven Sisters by Katherine Kovacic. Women whose sisters were murdered by murdering men decide to murder the murdering murderers. And I was totes on the side of the murdering women, biting my nails, hoping they'd succeed. An impressive feat.
I’ve just finished reading (OK listening to the audio book) Sheehan Karunatilaka’s “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” – now I’m about to re-read it the old fashioned way. I had a rough idea of why so many Sri Lanka Tamils became refugees – but this makes it all so immediate, so personal, so horrific. The subject is a ghost, a recently murdered – we don’t find out by whom until almost the very end – a freelance photographer & fixer for the foreign press. He is gay in an officially puritan society, he is a gambler with more than cards. His adventures in the afterlife and with other ghosts in Columbo as he tries to secure his legacy & solve his murder, take place over seven days (hence “Seven Moons) This won the Booker Prize last year. It deserved the win
After reading that splendid review, JB, and Sarah's impressive list, and the historical insight of Peter Lloyd, my humble effort of finally reading 'Jack Charles, Born-again Blakfella' seems insignificant. I'd bought it two weeks before he'd died, when I was otherwise engaged reading 'Nine Perfect Strangers'. When he went into the Dreaming I'd found it hard to pick up the book.
The autobiography was ghost written (no pun intended) by Camilla Benson, and throughout we hear Jack's accounts of what it was like being one of the Stolen Generation, and one of the victims of institutional abuse, both sexual and brutal (made even more poignant by the recent Pell event and all of the horror that he'd been embroiled in).
Not surprisingly, these traumas led Jack into substance abuse, a life of crime (he gives some insightful details on how to be a cat-burglar!) and repeat gaol terms. Re-establishing his blak identity and family ties, becoming Uncle and advisor to Aboriginal youth, as well as his successful acting career illustrated something I hold dear - hope and the redemption of self.
Ok, I've told you his life story, so why bother reading the book? It's well-written, capturing his voice and perspectives, and dotted with amusing anecdotes. It's a powerful indictment of the systemic racism, historic and current, that too many Australians don't seem to recognise. It's also a powerful illustration of why the Voice to Parliament is utterly warranted.
That was a tremendous review and real encouragement to read. I was almost tempted to pick up the book and give it a read myself. I was stopped only by personal taste and the possiblity that my to_be_read_pile would turn sentient rise from the virtual ebook side table and beat me to death over cries of 'betrayal'. For me - the book I have read in the before times that sticks in the memory is Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir which for me still holds one of the most heartfelt, beautiful declarations of love I have ever read, and enough snarky lesbians to satisfy anyone.
I’m about half way through and loving the book so thanks for the suggestion. I love the intimate view delivered by so many diaries used as source material. That Hitler guy seems like a wrongun so I’m keen to get to the end and see if Churchill or Adolph wins.
Yeah, I liked "Mary Churchill's War" as well.
Churchill was a giant in desperate times. The UK and the Commonwealth stood alone and held the line while the US was getting its shit together, and the Russians were still playing footsie with Adolph.
Without this man and the stubborn, valorous UK and Commonwealth, history would look differerent in some very unpleasant ways.
I second JB's recommendation- this was a great book.
Recently finished "A Spectre Haunting" by our old China, Mr Mieville. It's a history of The Communist Manifesto - the work itself, rather than communism - and a deep and thoughtful one. Mieville looks at what various readers and critics of the manifesto have said over the century plus since its publication, seeks to correct what he sees as misinterpretations, and, more or less as a side effect, gives an overview of communist thought. Damned good read.
Ok. That one is now on The Pile on the non-fiction side. I haven't yet finished the books I said I would in here before but in my defence I was jumped by an Ed James police procedural that wouldn't let me go until i'd finished it.
I did however manage to list and review my favourite 2022 reading for another forum. I won't bore the audience here with all the commentary but I will give you the list of books that made the cut. Some-one might be interested.
Non-fiction:
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn,
Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis,
Limbo by Dan Fox,
Limited Edition of One by Steven Wilson, and
Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton
Fiction:
Stillicide by Cynan Jones
War of the Maps by Paul McAuley
Agency by William Gibson
Cold Water by Dave Hutchinson, and
Empire Star by Samuel R Delany (a re-read of course).
Loving SideB00b reading club already! This title had been on my list for ages as I had devoured all of Larson's other extraordinary works! Now I am 2/3 through this one and so glad you motivated me to pick it up. I can strongly recommend also reading Larson's 'Dead Wake' about the Lusitania - Churchill's role in that was unforgettably chilling. Can't wait for the next recommendation!
Thanks for the recommendation, JB. I enjoyed it immensely.
Your review alludes to something I noticed while I was reading it: I get really bored with biographies (and any other non-fiction) that reads like a thesis. Too much detail and I'm out of there. This one, on the other hand, was so delightfully personal and well-crafted that it was hard to put down and highly engaging. The factual accuracy was almost disguised by the warmth of the language and the evocative presentation of the anecdotes. I didn't know anything about, for example, Mary Churchill, but I became enamoured of her through her diary entries.
I wouldn't have read this if you hadn't Side-Boobed about it, and I'm glad you did.
Thanks for recommending this book JB, I thoroughly enjoyed it. For all his faults, and probably because of them, Winston's sheer bulldoggedness in the face of what seemed to be certain defeat inspired the same resilience in the British people. Larson is a seriously clever and beautifully nuanced writer. This book reads like a gripping novel and I finished it in two days, which is fast for me. If only it had been available when I was studying Modern History somewhere last century I might have taken more interest in the subject. Excellent!
I knocked over Tim Dunlop’s Voices of Us over the Christmas break, which was an excellent look at the deep shifts in our demographics and social values that led to the political shift characterised first by Cathy McGowan, Helen Haines, Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggal, then the “teal” wave in the 2022 election.
I know people are probably sick of politics after the dispatching the Morrison government but it’s well worth a read, Tim is a very thoughtful and insightful observer.
Excellent review. I’ll have to get a copy.
A book I finished last week was Signs of Life by Sumner Locke Elliot. He’s a bit of a forgotten Australian writer who I’ve rediscovered recently and he wrote with deep feeling tempered with a rollicking wit. He won the Miles in 1963 for his book Careful, He Might Hear You.
One of his you might potentially really like, JB, is Going - it’s set in a future dystopia in which everyone is forcibly euthanised when they hit 65. As far his books go, this one is one out of the bag, quite unlike his other books and really very good. It’s out of print but you see it regularly in Aust Lit sections at second hand book shops. There may be eBooks of it, I’m not sure.
A read an excellent review of a book only yesterday, the published diaries of one of Winston’s contemporaries, Henry “Chips” Channon. Your review put me in mind of it. The review is laugh out loud stuff and a unsettling reminder that there were some Brits, typically toffs or wannabe toffs, who were far more than merely sympathetic to Hitler and his ilk:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n02/geoffrey-wheatcroft/not-even-a-might-have-been
Enjoy!
Thanks. I look forward to reading this. I also have another one in my library that I will read soon. It is Churchill and Orwell by Thomas Ricks. My next read is The Red Witch a biography of the writer Katherine Susannah Pritchard. Her home is now a writing centre in her honour here in Perth.
Kind Regards
Gina