I would say Eva Ibbotson is right up there on well written comfort reads. Am looking forward to The Secret Countess when it comes available in the library.
I'm behind on reviews, probably because I'm reading more than I have been the past few years. It's been a good run of books, too - I've recaptured that feeling of being desperate to finish what I'm doing and get back to my book which I've not had in a while. Good for me, not so good for my work.
28 The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry
Thanks to 50 Bookers for drawing my attention to this series. I used to really enjoy Christopher Brookmyre books though I’ve not read one in a while. This had all his pacey story telling but I appreciated the additional medical and historical detail to this, very much. I also enjoyed the shifts in narrative perspective between the two protagonists, and (mostly) the gruesome forensic detail which never felt prurient. Key takeaway: childbirth was brutal back then, made worse by crazed villains out to make money and build their reputation off the back of your suffering. I will definitely come back to this series in the future.
29 Chip War by Chris Miller
This was a book that could (and probably was) an article somewhere. If the history of semiconductors and who did what when are your thing, this is for you. I was mostly interested in the current geopolitical situation and what has caused recent supply chain disruptions, and what may happen in the future, but there was a LOT of ground to cover before we got to that point, most of which I wasn’t particularly interested in. That said, I’m asonably convinced by his thesis that semiconductors are going to be the new oil in terms of economic and political battles in the future, and it made for some interesting conversations with 17 year old DS who – it turns out – knows a surprising amount about semiconductor manufacturing.
30 Novacene by James Lovelock
A short and curious book written just before Lovelock’s death. Both alarming and optimistic in equal measure – essentially, we are fucking up the planet but robots may come and take over and save the world.
I knew the theory of Gaia – the Earth and all organisms as a single interconnected co-operative superentity, and that is central to the thesis of this book which is that we will shortly enter a new era, following the Anthropocene era where people have shaped the environment through our actions, to one where artificial intelligence plays the dominant role. And Lovelock for one welcomes our future AI overlords – he thinks the evolved intelligence will mean they are more likely to work to protect Gaia than we are, because their survival will be dependent on it. Much like ours is, of course, but we are not clever or co-ordinated enough to really do much about it. Not entirely clear what our role is in all of this – and I’m not sure that’s Lovelock’s primary concern. To be honest, looking around he may have a point on that.
31 The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard
32 Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard
33 Into Exile by Joan Lingard
I picked this series up after recommending it up thread to someone wanting to know about the Troubles. I enjoyed these books a lot as a teenager, and was surprised how much I remembered. Kevin is a Catholic, Sadie is a Protestant and their worlds collide then merge one hot summer. This was young adult fiction before it became a genre, and although it’s not a perfect book, it’s certainly engaging and does a lot to paint a picture of what growing up in Belfast must have been like in the decades before the Good Friday Agreement. Into Exile is probably the best of the three, as Kevin and Sadie try to make a life in London but find they can’t leave their pasts behind. What I thought this did so well was capture the frustrations of early marriage and being poor just as well as it did the other challenges they face.
34 Takeaway by Angela Hui
Picked up in the library out of interest as my best friend at primary school’s parents ran the Chinese takeaway in our town, and I spent a lot of time hanging out in their flat above the shop before we moved away and lost touch. This is about being different in a small town but also about the challenges of running a small business, and growing up with complicated relationships with your parents. I thought this had a lot of heart, and I do also like a book with recipes. We’ll be giving a couple of them a go this weekend.
35 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Nearly 15 years after the rest of the world, I finally finished Wolf Hall. I must have started it over a dozen times and was always defeated by around page 100. So many people have told me how much they loved it that I assumed there must be a reason for that, and around page 230 it clicked for me as well, when something quite alchemical happened and I went from feeling like it was a dutiful slog to being gripped by the way it did something quite clever in terms of making something so remote from my life feel entirely (to use the BookTok term) relatable. The detail of the feasts, the journeys, the city and the home was absorbing, and I had just enough Tudor history to be able to navigate the plot without too many moments of wondering what was going on. An absolute stand out for me and I’m delighted I did it, and that there are still two more to go.