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farahmendlesohn's reviews
306 reviews
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
informative
slow-paced
3.0
I usually love Worsley’s work but this book is insightful and silly in equal measure. I’m not a “Janeite” and the sentiment, the “we can imagine Jane ….”, and the general fondling of speculation was rather irritating. Still well worth reading but left a cloying feeling.
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve
3.5
The ending it a little weak but otherwise this is a riveting read (tho oddly, I kept thinking it was by Frances Hardinge, this seems more her kind of story).
Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This is not a misery memoir.
Sjunneson writes with passion and candour, exploring the disparity between how she is seen and treated, and how she understands her own body.
Nor is it a plea for understanding/sympathy etc. It's a demand to be taken on her own terms and for other disabled people to experience the same. It's the memoir of someone angry and someone who is an activist.
Highly recommended.
Sjunneson writes with passion and candour, exploring the disparity between how she is seen and treated, and how she understands her own body.
Nor is it a plea for understanding/sympathy etc. It's a demand to be taken on her own terms and for other disabled people to experience the same. It's the memoir of someone angry and someone who is an activist.
Highly recommended.
Faith, Hope and Charity: English Neighbourhoods, 1500-1640 by Andy Wood
5.0
Disclosure: Andy is a friend.
----
I've come late to early modern history, but have been reading widely for the past few years. This is that rare thing, a very definitely academic book that is easily accessible to anyone interested. Wood takes a very straightforward approach. Make an assertion and then pile up the evidence around it. The result is fascinating and *contextualised* annecdotes that add up to more than the some of there parts.
There are inspiring sections--both men and women ganging up to prevent domestic abuse--and depressing ones--the blind eye turned to people dying in the streets, the turning out of pregnant women. In many ways the callousness of the 17th century is replicated in our own time, we've just figured out how to make it more visible.
Wood reminds us of how much neighbourhood and neighbourliness was a double edged sword: for some it provided a safety net, but it was exclusive as well as inclusive, and it demanded conformity.
----
I've come late to early modern history, but have been reading widely for the past few years. This is that rare thing, a very definitely academic book that is easily accessible to anyone interested. Wood takes a very straightforward approach. Make an assertion and then pile up the evidence around it. The result is fascinating and *contextualised* annecdotes that add up to more than the some of there parts.
There are inspiring sections--both men and women ganging up to prevent domestic abuse--and depressing ones--the blind eye turned to people dying in the streets, the turning out of pregnant women. In many ways the callousness of the 17th century is replicated in our own time, we've just figured out how to make it more visible.
Wood reminds us of how much neighbourhood and neighbourliness was a double edged sword: for some it provided a safety net, but it was exclusive as well as inclusive, and it demanded conformity.
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography by Graham Robb
5.0
Outstanding. I listened on audible and blogged the good bits. So much I didn't know. My favourite chapter tho' is on the working dogs of France.
Farewell Mr Puffin: A small boat voyage to Iceland by Paul Heiney
3.0
A pleasant enough read.
I am not sure why this didn't work for me. It has all the ingredients: history, the sea, landscape, puffins (or not) but it just didn't quite bite.
I am not sure why this didn't work for me. It has all the ingredients: history, the sea, landscape, puffins (or not) but it just didn't quite bite.
The Cannonball Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
4.25
A bit slower than the others and I'm not quite sure about the domesticity of the crime v the wider crimes ie whether the balance quite works. But it remains fascinating, engaging and horrific.
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
4.0
I'll look forward to the next one. This was classic hard boilidish detective. I would like Lillian Pentecost to be a bit more fleshed out tho.
The Silver Collar by Antonia Hodgson
5.0
Rather good historical thriller (not really a detective novel). I really enjoyed this conjuration of 1728, a period I don't know much about.
Brilliant over the top villain. Monologues like crazy and you almost expect her to be tying the heroine to railroad tracks... except they don't exist yet.
Brilliant over the top villain. Monologues like crazy and you almost expect her to be tying the heroine to railroad tracks... except they don't exist yet.
Highland Fling by Sara Sheridan
2.0
Dismal.
Maybe if you've read the whole series you are engaged with the characters, but as it is the main characters were all a bit flat, and the walk ons were ciphers. I had no engagement at all with two of the three victims.
I also had issues with constant little irritants. I can't call them mistakes precisely but it was everything from a sentence on the first page whose tenses hadn't been reconciled through to a saucer smashing on a carpet (only if there are stone tiles and no underlay!) to oddities in clothing/jewellry/habits. And while I may hate dialect writing, there was very little difference in the speech of either Highlanders or visiting Americans.
I did finish the book because I wanted to know how it ended. It was sort of ok, but it needed far more structural foreshadowing.
Maybe if you've read the whole series you are engaged with the characters, but as it is the main characters were all a bit flat, and the walk ons were ciphers. I had no engagement at all with two of the three victims.
I also had issues with constant little irritants. I can't call them mistakes precisely but it was everything from a sentence on the first page whose tenses hadn't been reconciled through to a saucer smashing on a carpet (only if there are stone tiles and no underlay!) to oddities in clothing/jewellry/habits. And while I may hate dialect writing, there was very little difference in the speech of either Highlanders or visiting Americans.
I did finish the book because I wanted to know how it ended. It was sort of ok, but it needed far more structural foreshadowing.