Jane Austen: a life

This is the best biography of Austen that I've read, to date. All the facts are presented clearly, with the usual amount of speculation and guesswork, given that we know so very little. This was fascinating, depressing and inspiring all at once. I found that the majority of the speculation was based in reality and, most importantly, it was based on research of the period in question. The way things were done during the Georgian and Regency periods contrast rather sharply with the following Victorian era, particularly in the area of 'refinement'. Austen comes alive in this book, as does most of the family. More time is spent discussing the information that we do have, than lamenting the lost letters, etc.

I thoroughly recommend this to anyone interested in Austen or her work.

This forms part of the non-fiction non-memoir challenge, which does actually allow biographies 

(just not memoirs or autobiographies).

Tolkien and the Great War: the Threshold of Middle Earth

This is an amazing book. I've never really read much about the First World War. Anyone who's so much as glanced at my non-fiction shelves or GoodReads stats will note a decided preponderance of works relating to the Second World War, but nothing on the First. Everything I know about the First World War is due to Sue Harsant, who taught me history in high school (and I shall never forget her complaining after an exam/test/assignment that we should not simply say Ferdinand, because she might think we were referring to Ferdinand the Bull who went traipsing through the daisies. Her very dry sense of humour delighted myself and Tiina Napoleon at the time).

Anyway, the point of that long aside was that this is the first work I've ever read about the First World War and so was my first glimpse into the horrors of trench warfare. I had an intellectual understanding that it was a horrific thing, but I didn't understand. I still don't, thankfully, but now I have a greater idea of what about it was so horrific. Of what it was like to be there, what happened to people on the ground. On the one hand it makes me glad for the 'advances' of mechanised warfare. At the same time, those same supposed advances terrify me. No longer does individual kill individual, now machine destroys machine and life from afar. I know they had machine guns and bombs and so on, but on the whole they could at least see who they were killing. The horror of war, and the facts of war - the facts being that you are killing individuals that are really no different from yourself - were up close and personal. They no longer are.

At the same time as this works as a general introduction (for me) to the First World War (because you can be sure I'm going to be looking for more on the subject now), it also works really well as a biographical work on Tolkien. Specifically with regard to the effect that his experiences in the war and in the Battle of the Somme particularly must have had on his writing. You cannot go through an experience of that sort without undergoing profound changes. There's a fair amount of speculation on the author's part because Tolkien was extremely reticent regarding those experiences. That speculation is backed up by fairly solid reasoning (in my completely uncritical opinion) and while I'm of the opinion that you can never know exactly how things influenced the creative process, you can work out a fair amount, especially when it's something as significant as this.

If you're interested in either the First World War or Tolkien, I'd recommend this.

Entombed

This book was originally meant to be part of Dad's birthday present. Then I read it. I like to give Dad books because he enjoys reading. In my opinion he suffers from the same malady of most of the rest of the population - he reads too slowly (I've heard it argued I read too fast, but I'm not buying it). What this means is that I like to give him books that he'll enjoy but that he wouldn't necessarily have thought to buy himself.

This, however, is a book he'd have bought himself. Like many of the other books I (and he) enjoy, this is a fairly standard murder mystery. Well, it's not a terribly standard murder mystery at all, given that generally when dealing with skeletons that were murdered 25 years ago the lead character is a forensic or physical anthropologist not a lawyer. Anyway, the point is that it's a fairly standard form of mystery writing and so not what I want to give him for his birthday (though I do think he should consider adding Linda Fairstein to his collection).

The protagonist is Alexandra Cooper, who is a lawyer for the New York District Attorney (or the Manhattan one, if they're separated like that). She works with Mercer, who seems to be an African American cop who moved from homicide to dealing with rape or vice or the special victims unit (this is number seven in the series, okay, the details are a little fuzzy) because he's good at giving victims (and surviving relatives for that matter) compassion and comfort. Her other sidekick is Mike, who is a homicide detective. They wander about New York (City, mostly, as far as I can tell) solving crimes and saving the world, or something ... I'm trying very hard not to give out more about the plot than I can help but if you like murder mysteries and Poe (who's generally credited with inventing the first detective for Murders in the Rue Morgue) then you should read this book.

Shakespeare's Language

This book was very interesting. I picked it up at the Hout Bay Library sale for the excessive amount of R5 (it was the most expensive book I bought that day, that sale was incredible!). I'm not really sure what I expected, but this was fascinating.

Essentially it looks at a bunch of Shakespeare's plays (not all of them) and talks about the language that he used, what it meant and what patterns there are. There's a lot of talk about the frequency of words in certain plays and how what he touches on in one play is developed fully in another. It was very interesting to read about the concepts that seem to underline particular plays and the ways that Shakespeare used language in order to get the ideas across in various ways.

If you have any interest in the way people use language, you should read this book.

Louisa May Alcott

I picked this up in the States, quite early on. One of the places that I wanted to go to was Orchard House, which you can see in the link above. Orchard House was one of the Alcott's residences (they seem to have moved every five minutes), but one that they seemed to keep coming back to.

Louisa May Alcott really was an amazing woman. I knew her only from the four books about the March family (given that a fair majority of South African books are obtained from British publishers/printers we have Good Wives, rather than two parts of Little Women). I knew that she'd written some other books, but I'd never read any and hadn't much interest in them. I had some vague knowledge that she'd been a nurse in the civil war and that Little Women was semi-autobiographical. I wanted to go to Orchard House because it was mentioned in the adaptation I have of Little Women (the Winona Ryder version).

So, when Steven and I were in Boston, we hopped up to Concord (Massachusetts, not the one in New Hampshire or whatever it is further to the north) and visited Orchard House. There I learnt more about her writing, the importance of her father and the society in which they lived. I was more than ready to read her biography - this apparently being one of the best biographies of Louisa May Alcott ever written. It is well written without appearing at all like a biography in any way. It's written more like a historical novel, though one knows that all the events and facts that are dramatised on the page are actual events written about in the family journal and letters.

This is a highly recommended read.

Enid Blyton: The Biography

This book is exceedingly difficult to find. I have seen references to it all over the place. I have seen an actual copy of it in the UCT Special Collections, though you aren't allowed to take it out (they also have Childhood at Green Hedges, written by her younger daughter, which is also an elusive book). Finally, for a fair amount of money, I found a copy at Quagga in Kalk Bay. The Kalk Bay book/antique shops aren't on my usual rounds because (a) they're annoyingly far away and (b) they're mostly antique shops and so tend to be expensive. At least Kalk Bay has decent shops of this sort, unlike the horrific excuse for a bookshop in Simon's Town.

Anyway, this is a biography of one of my favourite authors, Enid Blyton. I don't like all the stuff she's written (not that I've read it all) and quite agree with some of the criticism she's received (racist, classist, etc), though I'm quite willing to accept that she and her work are products of their time. Much the same way I'm quite willing to accept similar attitudes in Agatha Christie's work or historical fiction. I don't really understand why it should be sanitised simply because it's for children. Perhaps I just think children are smarter than we give them credit for. On the other hand, I still enjoy reading my Blytons, so what do I know? Well, I know how to enjoy myself for an afternoon of light reading ... well, an hour or so at least. I'd need a few Blytons to last a whole afternoon. Also, there are no better books for bathtime reading. This is not because most of my favourites have already been dropped in the bath multiple times. Really.

Enid Blyton did not live a particularly interesting life and from all I can tell was not a particularly nice person if you weren't a child. Or at least adoring. She was, as all I've read about her agrees, extremely childlike. She needed attention and adulation. She did not want any sort of responsibility that was unrelated to her writing. All relationships were conducted on her terms. The family history is interesting and I'm really glad I wasn't born at the end of the 19th century.

I don't think I'd have been friends with her, but she wrote some fantastic books. And that's all I have to say on the matter.

CS Lewis: The Man Behind Narnia

I picked this book up at Bargain Books the other day. I really am completely hopeless when faced with books that are cheaper than usual. Though, it's always worth it to check, 'cause I once saw a book at an EB sale where the sale price was higher than the normal price! Anyway, I picked this up because it looked interesting and I needed a third for my '3 for R99' bunch.

This is a biography that's really aimed at American children. I can tell this from the style of writing and the way that they keep choosing to explain what I feel are fairly self-explanatory words. I guess that they're words that most non-British children wouldn't be familiar with (what that says about me, I'm not sure, but probably has something to do with my large accumulation of books by British authors through my life).

It's well-written and informative. I had no idea about much of Lewis's life story (I didn't even know he was actually Irish!) and this was a very interesting introduction to it. It did, of course, focus mainly on his writing, but that's to be expected, since it's aimed at children who enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia. But as someone who did not enjoy them, it's still a good introduction to the author. Apparently I have the same objection to Narnia as Tolkien did - it's just a mish-mash of myths that don't (or shouldn't) go together. It drove me nuts and apparently did the same to Tolkien.

This is a good introductory book and I'll certainly be looking out for others - both by this author and on this topic.

The Lord of the Rings: a Reader's Companion

This is a must for anyone who is interested in the way in which Tolkien wrote LotR, as well as anyone interested in extraneous information. The two authors are two of the best Tolkien scholars, I gather, so it's a very informative read. It's a hefty tome in and of itself, so trying to manage it and my enormous copy of LotR together is a bit difficult (I've never tried it with Panda in the house, I suspect it would be a complete failure). It's a fascinating read. Information varies from explanations of the text to suppositions of inspiration and influence to discussions on Tolkien's writing process. Probably not a book that everyone needs to own (though I keep seeing it at every book sale, so theoretically everyone could own it) but it's one I'm very pleased to have on my shelf.

The Healing Power of Jane Austen

Being an Austenite and a Pemberlian, I found this article particularly interesting. The idea of fiction as medicine is not one I'm unfamiliar with, but I've never seen it so clearly and bluntly expressed as it is here. I too delve into particular favourite books based on my mood. If I feel the need to cry, the chapter where Beth dies in Good Wives (the second volume of Little Women and not given the separate title in the US) is a guarantee and the one I almost always turn to. On the other hand, I'm very good at making myself cry. It's really helpful in LARPs, even if it does give me a headache. Austen, Alcott, Blyton, Tolkien - these are all authors I turn to when I feel that there's something not quite right, something missing. After reading Austen or Alcott I almost always feel uplifted and just better about myself. I could say the same about LotR, but I don't usually read it for that purpose as it takes too long and has a more variable effect on me. It worries me greatly that a large proportion of people are taking tv as medication these days, without it having quite the same effect. Perhaps that's just my opinion, but people who aren't readers miss out on so many role models and examples - not just of how to behave and pull yourself through adversity, but how not to behave. And while you can argue that many of the moral messages are overly religious and outdated, they have the same impact. The moralising, preachy tone of Little Women doesn't bother me in the slightest. I delight in it. It's part of the reason I read it. For them, the story of Jesus is the blueprint of how to live a good life. For me, reading Little Women shows the advantages of doing what needs to be done, what is necessary, before you do what you want and have fun. I know many other people will have different choices for their "medicating literature" and I'm always interested in the choices that people make in terms of what they read in this way.

The Story Giant

This I picked up at an Exclusive Books sale, because it looked like great fun. I was right. This is a lovely book for children, particularly for reading to younger children. It's well illustrated and filled with various tales from around the world.

I really don't know what to say about this, beyond: buy it and read it to your children or grandchildren, nephews or nieces or cousins. It's a wonderful book.