I live in a town with a nice but small library but benefit from an excellent library service which tends to have books I want and get them to me quickly. I generally pick my books based on Times review but does anyone know a good online review site for books?
Fiction:
Been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett recently, his books amuse me and help raise my spirits if I'm down, he has long been one of my favorite writers. Pratchett has a good eye for making a mockery out of life and make interesting characters in a fantasy world. I have always loved the books concentrated on either Death and the City Watch more then the others. Combining my love for humour with my love of a fantasy world, a perfect mix!
It is perhaps unfair for the Portuguese book Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago, translated by Margaret Jull Costa to have to compare. For one, the author's refusal to use quote marks is a valuable lesson on why they are so important, really hard to tell when the speaker has changed! Set in a non named modern country suddenly wakes up to discover there is no death in the country. Sarmago's rambling ways, using 10 words when 1 would do, actually helps the story and increases the very good humour as a narrator observes the reactions of the population, from the lowest to the head of the country. If death suddenly vanished, I could see all that Sarmago wrote in first half coming true, while inferior to one or two tales by Pratchett with a similar tale, it is none the less a funny books. Would give first half a 7.5 out of ten. It changes genre due to a major twist and loses the humour and looks at fewer characters, the conversation is good but the rambling method works against it and since the book is rather small, I was left with a feeling of wanting more as it seemed to happen far too quickly. A 6.5 for second half but found it sweet and would like a (highly unlikely) sequel.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman: More adult and enough differences from the movie to avoid the feeling of sameness. It is a short tale, a nice one with some humour with a very touching ending yet was left with the feeling that the book was never quite all it could have been.
History:
Napoleonic era: I don't know why seem so obsessed with that era, it is as if Britain fought only two wars ever, WW2 and Waterloo. If I like in the local library, or the next nearest one, history seems filled with those two wars with a few others. Same when reading of new books coming out, getting rather crowded those area's.
Waterloo Commanders: Napoleon, Wellington and Blucher by Andrew Uffindell. 200 pages long so never going to be a fully detailed biography of the three generals, instead looks to give an overview of the three commanders, first concentrating on pre-Waterloo careers then comparing their actions that fateful day then the ramifications afterwards in decent detail, summing up their lives afterwards. Uffindell compares the three men in terms of ability, for anyone like me who knows little of Blucher then this book is informative. I would challenge the author's assertion that the error filled Blucher was a great general but certainly overlooked in England, to make a convincing defence of such a point would require a specialised biography of the Prussian general, not a quick if informative overview.
Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson. Like Richard the III being an evil humpback, the tale of Josephine and Napoleon's marriage being one of the great romances with a sad ending has and probably always will do, live on in people's minds longer then the historical tale. It made for a good TV series back in... the 80's I think that I recently watched but it has little historical truth. A woman who went from a bankrupt family on a small island to Empress, via marriages, affairs, the Revolution, a woman of charm, kindness but a knack for survival and her own problems. As a woman, her life is fascinating but Erickson manages to also show how attitudes in France changed, she fits everything in nicely and writes a flowing account. Author's sympathies are clearly with Josephine and once or twice dubiously tries to second guess her feelings/thoughts but shouldn't take away from a very enjoyable and well written book.
Napoleon and Wellington by Andrew Robert, the niche for the book being discovering what the two commanders thought of each other and how that changed. Roberts debunks a fair few myths and gives the necessary information needed to understand the events that changed their opinions, he also gives a fair analyses of the two commander's strengths and weaknesses. Blunt about their weaknesses and praising their strengths, the only issue I have is Roberts hatred of the Whigs is blatantly obvious and leads to questions of his objectivity with anything he says about them.
Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-1799 by Philip Dwyer. About the famous French emperor from his birth (well given family detail, before it as well) to his coup against the Directory. For anyone looking for a book with details about his battles, this book isn't it. Dwyer has to sacrifice something to keep the book from becoming too large and that was it, he only goes into detail when it shows how Napoleon twisted it into propaganda. That is where Dwyer concentrates, how the general manipulated the news for his own sake, how he developed as a person and a politician. It looks at his campaigns and policies, how the Directory, the notables, the French and native people reacted to all this, it is an incredibly detailed and fascinating book. I will read the sequel to this though he could work on his attempts at humour for future works.
France:
Love and Louis XIV: The Woman in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser. This book includes his mother was one of the ladies and, to an extent, his descendants, covering his entire life, it is a good biography of the King that concentrates on his love-life. There may be bio's that, by concentrating on just the one person, will be more detailed but this book is hardly lacking in information or detail. Fraser is a very good biographer and shows how the King and his court, evolved over the years, she shows how his relationships changed, I would recommend this well written book to anyone interested in the Sun King or ancient French court/romances.
The Affair Of The Poisons: Murder, Infanticide & Satanism At The Court Of Louis XVI by Anne Somerset is about the wide spread hysteria about poison and the investigation into the allegations. While the reaction of the populace and the nobles was interesting, generally the book was poor. Somerset revealed the results of everything too early so killed suspense, failed to bring the characters to life though it was informative (and ultimately, depressing on how low humans can go), the short book wasn't enjoyable.
Rome: I'm hoping the English love of Rome is shared across Europe, certainly we love certain sections of it over here. Hannibal and later on Cesar but these two books cover Rome's fall which hasn't always been fashionable, that seems to be changing.
The Fall of the West: The death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy. The historian has often worked on earlier Roman periods and was a regular expert on BBC's former show Time Commanders. The book is rather aggressive and seems to attack every essay or book ever about the collapse of Roman Empire in the west while managing to give Western companies/governments an unfavourable comparison. His theories on why Rome fell do make sense and it contains an excellent glossary but it is a book that could done with being split into two books rather then one so he didn't have to limit the economy of the Third Century to one page. Some may find it too aggressive but none the less a very interesting read.
The Ruin of the Roman Empire by James J. O'Donnell. A book split into three parts, the revival of the West under Theoderic, the poor rule of Justinian and how everything fell apart in Pope Gregory the Great's lifetime. The writer comes across as extremely arrogant, sarcastic, dismissive of conventional history and some of his dismissive view points will upset people (he insults Reagan, neo-con's and anyone who believes the Bible/Korean to be very accurate). While I found Goldsworthy's theory that we need to go back to the 3rd century for the decline of Rome, I can't bring myself to agree with O'Donnel. How can Justinian be that incompetent and not kill himself getting out of bed? His lecture on what the Modern World may learn is coloured by his obvious feelings against certain people/parities. Dragged on a bit in third part but there was a good book in there for first two parts, when the author kept to the facts then he was entertaining and informative. If his editor can just keep him from expressing opinions on/comparisons with modern life, it would have been far better.
Others:
Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King by Ian W.Walker. Harold, the second shortest reigning King England ever had, is known for losing to William I in 1006 at Hastings, killed that day due to an arrow to the eye. As books looking over England's history tends to due a summary of anything before William's reign then start the King's from the Norman invader. Few seem to have studied Harold, in part perhaps due to difficulty finding sources about the King that aren't blatantly biased one way or another. Mr Walker was brave to take on the task and has done it well, carefully considering what source to accept when source clash and explaining it to the reader, explains why he chose one theory over another rather then taking advantage of his audience by not showing the alternatives. Mr Walker perhaps is too kind towards Harold's motives at times but I may just be too cynical, the book suffers as it is hard to get at Harold the man rather then Harold the Earl then King means informative rather then fascinating but not Walker's fault. He has done a service to our knowledge of the time before the Normans.
The Red Prince. The Fall of a Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Europe by Timothy Snyder. A book about a bisexual Hapsburg Duke who wished to be King of Ukraine, he fought for several sides and lived in several countries in a bid for that goal. He saw the Hapsburg's fall and the rise of Hitler and Stalin, it gives a lot of information about what happened in the East after WW1, it informed me a lot about the decline of the Hapsburg Empire, neither an area I had heard much about. With such an ambitious man who saw the world he knew collapse around him and struggled in such turbulent times, this should have been a fascinating book but Snyder struggled. Early on he alluded to time quite a bit, which was baffling, his ****of writing left things half explained, characters vanish with no explanation of what happened to them afterwards, tip toes around relations, failing to bring the Duke to life. One of the best bits, if possibly shouldn't even have been included, was near the end when Snyder, writing in 2008, made comparisons between modern Europe and the Hapsburg's in a theory, on the whole the book was very dull which is a great pity given the potential and how unlikely it is we will see anyone write about the Red Prince for some time.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin was a great book and whatever happens, I'll be thankful for the Obama hype seeing the book return to England. In England, we barely manage to learn anything about our history that isn't Tudor (by that, a brief look at Henry VIII and Elizabeth I) or Victorian so information about Lincoln beyond the basics? I didn't know much but his hefty tome corrected all that, taught me about his rivals and American politics at the time while being entertaining thanks to the little stories. It isn't too often I feel sad at the end of a book but Goodwin managed to ensure the President's death hit home so very hard, a fitting finale to the excellent book.
The Sisters who would be Queen, the tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey by Leanda De Lisle. The Grey family were, by thanks to their mother, outside contenders for the throne and would have probably faded out of history if Henry VIII's divorces not thrown the succession into some chaos. In theory, had the King's three children died without issue, the crown would have fallen to the Grey family but due to questions of legitimacy, region and politics, Jane Grey was made Queen of England for nine days before Mary Tudor took London and get her crown. Katherine has recently got more limelight as Elizabeth locked her up over a marriage. Leanda De Lisle writes about both well, showing the politics of the time and how it affected them greatly, getting into their personalities and destroying the (deeply disturbing at times) Jane Grey myths, she manages to dig beneath the surface and write a sad story about three dimensional characters though she struggles a bit with Mary Grey due to a lack of sources and shes rushes the bit about the descendants but these are small complaints about an excellent book.