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67. The Ipcress File for Len Deighton
This month's Bibliogoths read.
I always think I'm going to enjoy spy novels (and films) more than I actually do, and generally end up confused, but this is a superior example of the genre. The writing is incredibly good, which makes up for the dull confusing bit in the middle. Lots of interesting things in it - for instance, modern media would have us believe that nobody was that sophisticated on the culinary front in Britain at that time; similarly the main character serves as a good example of how the war experience could be a tool for social mobility.
General consensus (with which I agreed) was that we wouldn't go out of our way to find more of his stuff, but if it turned up in front of us we wouldn't say no.
Plus, we all need to watch the film again (which is a very small part of the book).
There was also general agreement that we need to try making the cocktails listed in the appendix. Watch this space.
68. Women of the Revolution by Robert M Dunkerley
Picked this up at a plantation house tour in South Carolina. It's about women in the Southern part of the Revolutionary War.
That the Revolutionary War took place in the South too was a bit of news to me - in the popular literature I encountered as a young person, it's all about New England. This book isn't about women soldiers, rather it focuses on women's experiences following the army (by the time of the Civil War jobs such as cooking and laundry were regularised & part of soldiering, in the 18th century it was all done by "camp followers") and women who were caught up when guerilla warfare campaigns invaded their homes.
They Fought Like Demons this isn't. There's just not enough to it. I was also put off by the copious photographs of re-enactors used to illustrate it (and pad it out to 140 pages). There were interesting factoids, but the story could have been told a lot better.
I rarely part with non-fiction books, but I'm seriously considering selling this one.
This month's Bibliogoths read.
I always think I'm going to enjoy spy novels (and films) more than I actually do, and generally end up confused, but this is a superior example of the genre. The writing is incredibly good, which makes up for the dull confusing bit in the middle. Lots of interesting things in it - for instance, modern media would have us believe that nobody was that sophisticated on the culinary front in Britain at that time; similarly the main character serves as a good example of how the war experience could be a tool for social mobility.
General consensus (with which I agreed) was that we wouldn't go out of our way to find more of his stuff, but if it turned up in front of us we wouldn't say no.
Plus, we all need to watch the film again (which is a very small part of the book).
There was also general agreement that we need to try making the cocktails listed in the appendix. Watch this space.
68. Women of the Revolution by Robert M Dunkerley
Picked this up at a plantation house tour in South Carolina. It's about women in the Southern part of the Revolutionary War.
That the Revolutionary War took place in the South too was a bit of news to me - in the popular literature I encountered as a young person, it's all about New England. This book isn't about women soldiers, rather it focuses on women's experiences following the army (by the time of the Civil War jobs such as cooking and laundry were regularised & part of soldiering, in the 18th century it was all done by "camp followers") and women who were caught up when guerilla warfare campaigns invaded their homes.
They Fought Like Demons this isn't. There's just not enough to it. I was also put off by the copious photographs of re-enactors used to illustrate it (and pad it out to 140 pages). There were interesting factoids, but the story could have been told a lot better.
I rarely part with non-fiction books, but I'm seriously considering selling this one.
