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[books 2009] backlog
40. The Town that Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth J Harvey
This was recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zoo_music_girl and I can't resist anything set in Newfoundland. Parts of it were quite engaging in an absurdist sort of way, but I found it was far too long for what it was (not a complaint I often make!). I had a real ethical problem with the ending. (The town in question cuts off its electricity supply so that it can commune with the spirits of their ancestors and thus be at peace/living healthily. Screw that.)
I had a lot more to say on the subject at the time, but I've put this off so long I can't remember.
41. The High Window by Raymond Chandler
Genius. Every single word. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.
42. Genesis by Karin Slaughter
I really liked this too - she combines characters from the two series that she has been writing so far and it works surprisingly well. I think it's the longest thing she's written to date, but I still got through it in less than 48 hours.
43. A History of the Black Death in Ireland by Mary Kelly
As recommended bynwhyte. This is a well-written book for the general reader, but I found it frustrating. This is not the author's fault - almost all the evidence for the Black Death in Ireland is in the records of the English colony. The Gaelic Irish are an almost otherworldly presence in the background, and I wanted to know more!
It's good on in which ways the experience of the Black Death was similar in Ireland to the rest of Europe, the main difference being the constant warfare in Ireland slowed recovery, and it brought me up to date on the latest scholarship on the artistic & literary response to the Black Death. It turns out that one of the best papers I ever wrote is now Completely Wrong. (Re-dating of a some key works of art and closer inspection of the written output show that the supposed shift in attitude towards death that has always been ascribed to the plague turns out to have started pre-plague in the early 14th century.)
It also highlighted that I knew absolutely nothing about the later middle ages in Ireland. Not my period in any country, but a pretty embarrassing gap nonetheless.
This was recommended by
zoo_music_girl and I can't resist anything set in Newfoundland. Parts of it were quite engaging in an absurdist sort of way, but I found it was far too long for what it was (not a complaint I often make!). I had a real ethical problem with the ending. (The town in question cuts off its electricity supply so that it can commune with the spirits of their ancestors and thus be at peace/living healthily. Screw that.)I had a lot more to say on the subject at the time, but I've put this off so long I can't remember.
41. The High Window by Raymond Chandler
Genius. Every single word. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.
42. Genesis by Karin Slaughter
I really liked this too - she combines characters from the two series that she has been writing so far and it works surprisingly well. I think it's the longest thing she's written to date, but I still got through it in less than 48 hours.
43. A History of the Black Death in Ireland by Mary Kelly
As recommended by
nwhyte. This is a well-written book for the general reader, but I found it frustrating. This is not the author's fault - almost all the evidence for the Black Death in Ireland is in the records of the English colony. The Gaelic Irish are an almost otherworldly presence in the background, and I wanted to know more! It's good on in which ways the experience of the Black Death was similar in Ireland to the rest of Europe, the main difference being the constant warfare in Ireland slowed recovery, and it brought me up to date on the latest scholarship on the artistic & literary response to the Black Death. It turns out that one of the best papers I ever wrote is now Completely Wrong. (Re-dating of a some key works of art and closer inspection of the written output show that the supposed shift in attitude towards death that has always been ascribed to the plague turns out to have started pre-plague in the early 14th century.)
It also highlighted that I knew absolutely nothing about the later middle ages in Ireland. Not my period in any country, but a pretty embarrassing gap nonetheless.
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I've not read any detective fiction since because it won't be as good.
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Surprisingly, I can get behind James Ellroy - not as good, but his re-creation of 40s LA is a worthy work of art in itself.
I did find myself completely unable to get into Dashiell Hammett, because it is essentially the same thing as Chandler, and probably OK, but simply not up to the same standard.