#book log

18 – BEDLAM; LONDON AND ITS MAD by Catharine Arnold

Much better than the Amazons book by Lyn Webster Wild last time; this one’s written by someone who knows their subject, is in the same field, and catches the mix of accurate detail and cheerful readability. A history of London’s Bethlem Hospital from its founding to its influence on every haunted asylum movie ever made, this is engaging and takes in the history of healthcare, mental healthcare, London, popular press, and even amusing diversions into witchcraft laws and jocular anecdotes.

Very readable, knowledgable, written by a historian who is also a psychologist and engaging writer… Yeah, this should be a TV series as well. Get to it, BBC Two. Since I’ve been alternating male and female  writers but had had to give up on the Amazons one I wasn’t sure whether to go for another female-written nonfiction book or just switch over to something else written by a bloke, but choosing this one definitely made up for the previous one.

On a more general note, I notice my rate of reading has slowed now that we’re into winter, as it’s no longer the weather to catch some rays on the verandah with a book… I do love to read in bed, but then Lesley’s like ‘my eyes need the light off’ when I’ve gone about half a paragraph, even though I found two of her sleep masks, so I don’t really get to do that unless I want to go to bed about 9pm. Which I don’t.

13 – CHANGELESS by Gail Carriger

I actually intended to read the first in the Parasol Protectorate series, which turns out to be Soulless, while this is the second book. I have the first four, but the first one seems to have been moved somewhere separate to the others, so…

Basically, it’s tongue in cheek steampunk with a Lady who acts as a secret agent in a Victorian era filled with vampires and werewolves, as well as aether and dirigibles. I was a shade worried that the vampire/werewolf thing might be that kind of sub-Twilight fashion, but that concern was very quickly dispelled. It’s more readable than that, with a nice worldbuild setup, and I was sold on it with the comparison between Scottish big and English big.

The plot gets into gear nice and gently but picking up pace and all makes sense at the end. Well, apart from one loose end which is very minor. The characters are engaging, especially the lead, Lady Alexia Maccon, and it’s all quite amusing. The blurb compares it to Austen and Wodehouse, but it’s actually more mild echo of Pratchett and genteel Blackadder, though of course those in turn were influenced by Austen and Wodehouse.

The humour works, the action works, and plot and characters work, and the worldbuilding works. There’s also an unexpected bi ethos through it, which seems coincidentally appropriate for this being Bi Visibility week. And it’s a bonus that this is caused by a good character who seems to be just introduced in this sequel.

It does end on a fairly obvious and predictable cliffhanger, which is somewhat undercut by outright stating the cause, but I didn’t feel like I’d missed anything by coming in on the second book without having read the first, and that’s a definite plus point. Overall, highly recommended, and I loved it. That said, if Gail Carriger ever reads this, I do have to mention that ‘pollock’ and ‘bollix’ should be ‘pillock’ and ‘bollocks.’

The Chimes, by Charles Dickens

You can tell A Christmas Carol went well for Dickens, cos he tried to repeat the effect a few more times, in his Christmas Books. The Chimes is the second one, published only a year later, but definitely suffers from what we’d now call sequelitis. This follows a similar path of a lead character – albeit one far more sympathetic from the outset than Scrooge – shown visions of the future to make him change his ways. The main differences being that this time it’s about New Year’s Day rather than Christmas, and about the virtues in looking forward instead of back. And also the quality has dropped from genuine classic to all over the map, like a studio-demanded instant sequel to a surprise hit. Which basically is what it is.

Anyway, it starts off well, with vibrant and spooky descriptions of a church and belltower that M.R. James must have found very inspirational, then turns into a tour of fat cat landlords, justices and capitalists stamping down on poor Trotty and his friends, and Trotty getting a big dream sequence of how awful they’ll end up if they believe what the scumbags say of decent poor folks, and look towards a past golden age that never was (Jeez, that sounded familiar, doesn’t it?) instead of raising the poor workers to better lives in future. In this sense it still rings totally true – all the fat cat scumbags could be writing in the papers today from their Cabinet offices.

However, Dickens has probably hit the gig here where he gets paid by the word, and sentences run on for whole pages, making them confusing as hell – there’s also a character death where he forgets to confirm who it actually is! - and it’s all topped off with an appalling “it was all a dream, now lets all sing and dance with all the good characters, who have miraculously turned up at home like in a Muppet version finale”. And the “goblins”, the voices of the Chimes themselves don’t have a memorable or even notable character the way that all the Xmas Spirits in the previous one did.

So, there are good bits, like the opening descriptions, the early fart gag, and the chilling speeches of the – well it’s hard not to say Tories, franjkly, they haven’t improved since. The message is fine and correct, but the delivery is also confusing, long-winded, and despite being two-thirds the length of A Christmas Carol, took three times as long to get through, and has no deep or interesting characters

22 – TWELVE ANGELS WEEPING by David RuddenAn anthology of Dr Who stories ostensibly themed around Xmas, but actually most of the stories mention a festive season barely or not at all. As you might expect from an anthology there’s quite a range styles  and also of quality. Some of the stories get the characters and monsters spot on, such as Twelve in the first story [though not the Angels who at one point move while watched], or Vastra and Strax, while others… don’t. [Hello Leela who speaks with normal contractions, and Four who just talks like a normal bloke, in the Sycorax/Ice Warrior story].

Most of the stories have a less than subtle, but well phrased theme, and a thoroughly predictable, usually downbeat, end twist. However, totally worth it for some of the POVs such as the Cyberman and Vastra, and some of the narrations, such as the tradtitional noir private eye, and the Sontaran eduation machine which is so totally written in Dan Starkey’s voice…

Nothing amazing, nothing awful, light and generally pleasant entertainment in easily digestible bursts.

Sadly didn’t quite make a full 24 as I’d hoped,though I did read more than 22 books overall, but the others were more work related and research, so don’t count in this recreational reading annual log. For example, 22 would have been A Christmas Carol, which I often read in December, until I remembered it was for work reference this time, and so Twelve Angels Weeping moved from 23 to 22. Oh well, it’s better than the 8 or so that I ended up with last year. The cancellations and lockdowns helped with that, but the sitting around raised my HBA1C number so I hope there’s a happy medium to be found somewhere in 2021..

21 –  MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS by Agatha Christie.Yeah, I’m familiar enough with the story to remember who did it, but not why or how it plays out, cos my set of  the Suchet Poirots doesn’t  go up to this one,  and I’m planning to watch the Branagh version which is over Xmas, so…

It’s another classic Poirot plot, from 1934, and written most in the form of interview dialogues, with very little description, which actually works to its favour; it reads as if Christie was thinking of turning it into either a play or a radio drama. Poirot’s dialogue does more than enough to give him character -  the other characters less so, none are particularly dimensional – and it’s definitely Suchet’s voice I hear, rather than Finney or Ustinov, in the books. If ever I read one that I think sounds like Malkovich, I’ll take that as a viable diagnosis of dementia…

Poirot in it does make up one thing out whole cloth rather tan from clues we’re presented with, which is unusual for Christie. Fortunately for him, it turns out to be true, and to be fair he does admit later to guessing at stuff based on the sort of household he expects an American one to be like. I still thank she was pushing it there though.

The ending is very sudden, and is open to different interpretations of Poirot’s attitude. In the Suchet version ISTR him being angry or annoyed at the decision, but I read the printed version as being perfectly OK with it…

20 – BLITZCAT by Robert Westall
This is a really good one, mostly. The titular cat is essentially the framing device for a portmanteau of affecting stories of people’s lives in 1940 and ’41. Her journey to find her one true person brings her into the lives of various people from wartime widows to carters to a bomber crew… They’re all really good, with just the right balance of threat, thrills, adventure, tragedy, humour, and feline frolics.

I’m going to spoiler it a bit now, in two ways. First, if you’re anything like me, you might want to know in advance whether the cat lives or dies at the end, as is often the case with animal themed human interest stories, before really deciding whether to read it. So, spoiler, she survives for a happy ending. Secondly, between pages 181 and 220 or so, cat and book totally jump the shark, when the cat gets to go on raids over Germany, shoot down enemy planes, get shot down, and make her way home by means of resistance guides into Portugal. Seriously.

Now, cats have made long journeys home, bomber crews did illicitly take mascots with them, etc, but this whole sequence is much more rushed than the other stories, and feels tonally more like something the author was either pressured into doing, or that he got to it when a hard wordcount limit was getting close.

Overall, though, it’s a great read, just so well pitched and affecting, and I’m totally amazed there hasn’t been a movie or TV series. In fact I think this now becomes the one story that I’d more than anything love to find a way to become a film/TV maker to script and direct. But I’d have to either drop or extend, and certainly tweak, that pp181-220 section.

NGL, I am halfway through Fight to Survive and I expected many things from this book.

Force Sensitive Boba and Boba being Shipper on Deck on Padme/Jango was not any of them.

And sure, that’s my take from the reading so far. That is me as a fanfic writer looking for content to write fic based off of. It’s my interpertation of the material rather than what the content may have been aiming for. Im making the elective decision to see things that way.

Still bizarre in a good way.

One third of the way through Fight to Survive!

• For as fast paced and simplified as the writing is I really love how Terry Bisson (the author) keeps reiterating the theme “life is hard for the small and weak.” Terry might be as subtle as the Death Star about this theme but I appreciate it.
• And then empahsizing how big the galaxy is. As subtle as a Death Star but good. Especially for a book meant for 7-12 yo leaning on the 7 side.
• “Why are you asking so many questions” being understood code for silence is terrible given bookworm Boba. My heart is breaking for this kid who’s only real outlet is knowledge seeking cause he doesn’t have anything else.
• Boba’s dream on the way to Geonosis is interesting. Dreaming about a beautiful woman in white, possibly the “mother he never had”. Fanfic writing brain be like ‘FS!Boba and Padme/Jango? FS!Boba interpeting his dream wrong and Boba/Leia?“
• "Who needed a mom when you have a dad like Jango Fett?” Boba…

• Only Jango and Boba know Dooku = Tyranus. Interesting…
• Dooku’s pats Boba’s head but Dooku’s hand is cold and Boba feels chilled by the gesture? But he feels warm when Jango does it? (Oh look, some good parenting for a change) Force sensitve Boba, Force Sensitive Boba, Force Sensitive Boba
• Alright now I want an AU in which Boba is a Jedi Knight | Archivist. That everyone is like “aren’t you a librarian?” Every time he Indiana Jones it up. Boba doesn’t even like eels and snakes. It’s perfect.
• Boba and the weird twin tailed fuzzy snake scene: force sensitive boba, force sensitive boba, force sensitive boba

I recognize this book is 150 ish pages and am not interested in making 15-30 posts about it trying to not react to every other sentence.

• Ok, literally the first and only time I have seen Jango correctly gender Zam so far is in this book. After he’s killed her.
• “I want you to have a childhood.” WHAT CHILDHOOD JANGO!? Your son has no friends, no school, no pets. You often leave him home alone to the point he prefers it to your company, his father and only remaining social connection aside from the librarian droid. Because you killed his vodka aunt. Aochsvbeocu1cdbk uwgwdhhd this man is an idiot.
• You know, I went into this book series thinking Zam and Jango die pretty early on. So Useless Adults wouldn’t be too much of a trope given Boba is going to run headfirst into all kinds of bad actors. Jango’s somehow defying expectations in the worse ways here.
• I will say one of the funniest things about Star Wars constantly retconning the clone contract details is that the number of clones keeps increasing and the amount of credits Jango was paid to be genetic donor keeps oncreasing but it still amounts to like… less then 10 credits per clone. Not including the training Jango does for the clones. It’s still a lot of money all added up. And raises the question more and more just how the hell Sifo-Dyas managed to sucessfully embezzle the funds that he did to create it? Sure, Dooku helped but like… You Know he used embezzled money Sidious gave him.
• I feel like Im going to have to make a seperate post for all of Jango’s bounty hunter code/rules/whatever. There’s more than I was anticipating.
• It’s really cute that this novel and the AotC novelization both have Boba and Jango discovering Obi-wan’s ship. The PoV contrast is interesting.
• Boba’s PoV over Obi-wan and Jango’s talk is amazing. “It was like a figt to see who could be the most polite!” No wonder Jango lost even if it was close.
• Ooooh, according to Taun We the Jedi involvement was supposed to be a secret. Including from Jango? That’s going to grow plot bunnies.

Got a little further in Fight to Survive before ‘lunch’ break ended and

• Always be polite to a client. Jango, is this a Bounty Hunter code or a Customer Service Code? Cause it feels pretty applicable to both.
• Jaster Mereel: Here’s how to be Mandalorian Jango: and here’s how to get/keep a job.
• “A bounty hunter never complains”. Oh god, Jango’s got a specific tone of voice for when he quotes his own rules. He is the Jethro Gibbs of the GFFA. … now I wanna watch NCIS
• Jango has a pet sea eel. Does this make him more of a fish pet owner or a snake pet owner forced to adapt to Kamino?
• Ok, I understand why the whole sea eel story upsets people but honestly, given Jango was originally a farm boy this parenting decision makes the most sense. When you raise animals with the intention of eventually slaughtering them for the sake of their meat, teaching your kid to accept death is part of life makes sense. Like literally this is the ONE parenting decision Jango has done right so far.
• Aside, Boba liking it when he is home alone compared to home with his father is very alarming. But then, given Jango is something of a brick wall on the emotional availability front I can maybe see why.
• And Zam’s dead and eveyone is crying.

Alright, I am 5 pages into The Fight to Survive and so far

• I realized this is a Young Reader book, aka for ages 7-12. Very simple sentences. Short paragraphs if you could call them that. This book is going to be a fast read. If I wasnt making this post.
• Book establishes bounty hunters are outlaws? But the whole point…. of bounty hunting… is that someone is legally wanted for escaping jail/skipping on bail/fleeing criminal conviction/etc. Like, it’s a judicial system out sourcing personel to catch crooks for it. That’s not illegal? This is clearly a case of bounty hunters = mercenaries in the GFFA.
• Ten is nearly old enough to be out on his own? 10 is like… the modern equivalent of 16? I mean I guess that makes sense given the Prequel trilogy everything with kids. But still, Yikes.
• Heeeyyyy, first rule of Jango’s Bounty Hunter code is “A bounty hunterter must be ready to go anywhere and face any danger.”
• Bookworm Boba, bookworm Boba, bookworm Boba.
• I mean he has no friends and no school and the closest he has to either is the VI controlling the library kiosk. So, this is a case of fanfiction doing better.
• “Boba, stay unattached. Remember: No friends or enemies. Only allies and adversaries”

• Maybe if you followed your own advice you’d have kept your head attached Jango.
• Zam is 100% the Vodka Aunt who causes problems for Jango’s parenting on purpose and I love her for it.

Alright, time to start readin this series. Feel free to block/filter #Book log if you dont want to see all my posts about it. Gonna queue them.