[books 2009] Various
Nov. 12th, 2009 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro58. In the Woods by Tana French
In 1984 three children go to play in the woods near their homes near Dublin. Only one ever returns.
Twenty years later, the surviving child is a police detective and has changed his name. So when a girl's body is found in the area where his friends disappeared, nobody stopped him being the primary investigator.
The first third of this is a better-than-average mystery. Then it gets really good. There's a lot of unsubtle foreshadowing that makes you think it's all going to end badly in a specific way, which makes for an interesting combination of "I can't put this down" and "I don't want to look". French is playing with your mind, though, and it ends not at all as I suspected, and she gets away with an interesting subversion of the convention.
Also notable is how scathing she is about corruption in the Irish government, especially in anything to do with land development deals.
To date she's written one more book - I'm going to get it from the library soon, but now that I know what her angle is I suspect it'll be a law of diminishing returns.
59. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War by DeAnne Blanton & Lauren M Cook
Somebody referred to this on Facebook a few months ago and I couldn't resist.
At least four hundred women (that are documented) pretended to be men, joined up, and fought in the American Civil War. This is the story, so far as it can be told. In places it reads a bit like a laundry list putting together all the information, but the analysis is good and there's more than a few fascinating facts that rate more investigation. The aspect I find most interesting is that it was common knowledge at the time that there were women soldiers in the Civil War, and it was not until the 1930s that women soldiers' achievements were marginalised and erased from history. That, and farming/working class women found it easier to pass themselves off as soldiers than more pampered middle class women (which is, once you think about it, really obvious).
It's also introduced me to the whole range of academic literature about women who lived as men in the 19th century (it was a not uncommon phenomenon). Must....Resist.
If History Nobody Tells Us Because It Messes With Their World View is your thing, this book is for you.
60. The Lovers by John Connolly
Private eye Charlie Parker (sans PI licence and gun permits) decides to look into his father's death, something that is presented in the earlier books as a straightforward event. It turns out (predictably) that the entities responsible for his father's death are after Charlie now, and drops a great big hint about what kind of monster will be coming after him in the next book.
It's no secret that I'm a sad fan girl of Connolly's. I didn't like the last couple of books as much as I did the earlier ones, but he's back on form with this one.
In 1984 three children go to play in the woods near their homes near Dublin. Only one ever returns.
Twenty years later, the surviving child is a police detective and has changed his name. So when a girl's body is found in the area where his friends disappeared, nobody stopped him being the primary investigator.
The first third of this is a better-than-average mystery. Then it gets really good. There's a lot of unsubtle foreshadowing that makes you think it's all going to end badly in a specific way, which makes for an interesting combination of "I can't put this down" and "I don't want to look". French is playing with your mind, though, and it ends not at all as I suspected, and she gets away with an interesting subversion of the convention.
Also notable is how scathing she is about corruption in the Irish government, especially in anything to do with land development deals.
To date she's written one more book - I'm going to get it from the library soon, but now that I know what her angle is I suspect it'll be a law of diminishing returns.
59. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War by DeAnne Blanton & Lauren M Cook
Somebody referred to this on Facebook a few months ago and I couldn't resist.
At least four hundred women (that are documented) pretended to be men, joined up, and fought in the American Civil War. This is the story, so far as it can be told. In places it reads a bit like a laundry list putting together all the information, but the analysis is good and there's more than a few fascinating facts that rate more investigation. The aspect I find most interesting is that it was common knowledge at the time that there were women soldiers in the Civil War, and it was not until the 1930s that women soldiers' achievements were marginalised and erased from history. That, and farming/working class women found it easier to pass themselves off as soldiers than more pampered middle class women (which is, once you think about it, really obvious).
It's also introduced me to the whole range of academic literature about women who lived as men in the 19th century (it was a not uncommon phenomenon). Must....Resist.
If History Nobody Tells Us Because It Messes With Their World View is your thing, this book is for you.
60. The Lovers by John Connolly
Private eye Charlie Parker (sans PI licence and gun permits) decides to look into his father's death, something that is presented in the earlier books as a straightforward event. It turns out (predictably) that the entities responsible for his father's death are after Charlie now, and drops a great big hint about what kind of monster will be coming after him in the next book.
It's no secret that I'm a sad fan girl of Connolly's. I didn't like the last couple of books as much as I did the earlier ones, but he's back on form with this one.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-12 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-12 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-12 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-13 08:54 am (UTC)I love 'hidden history' myself. Usually the things that get erased are things that involve people who aren't white, male and posh. Given how tough rural life in the US could be, I'm not surprised the women were soldiers too.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 11:00 pm (UTC)