Max Porter, Shy

 I've snapped up new Max Porter books whenever they've come out, I've really enjoyed the three that I've read so far. Short, experimental, no plot to speak of, but explorations of human emotion and characters that you can relate to, feel their vulnerabilities and anxieties. Not the most appropriate reading for a sunny august just before i go on holiday, but still lovely. Have added it to Helen's 'to read' pile, which is my seal of approval I guess. 

Desmond Seward, The Hundred Years War

 I bought this at Bodiam Castle when I took the kids there last week. We took cousin Jack with us, and the kids all got along well, it was lovely to just go out with no time pressure. We go on holiday in 2 days and my brain has checked out already, it's very hard to get motivated at work. 2 days to get through yet though. . . 

Dylan Jones, The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World's Greatest Unfinished Song, H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance

'Jones' book read like an extended article for GQ, which is not all that surprising. He must have really enjoyed it, meeting lots of interesting people to interview, anecdotes from his showbiz mates and not really needing to do any academic research. It would have made a better article than a book - wonderful as the song is, there is only so much that can be said about it. 'The Wheels of Change' fell out of the bookshelf when I was looking for something else, and I don't think I've read it since the '90s. there was a slip of paper inside from Eleanor & Dan Whitehead's wedding, which would date it to 2003-ish, but I seem to remember last reading it before Alastair Briggs set off to cycle around the world after we all graduated - so 1998ish. I remember at the time I thought Wells was very earnest and took the whole cycling adventure and saving a young woman's virtue very seriously, but now it reads very tongue-in-cheek, and young Hoopdriver's low social status and opinion of himself comes to the fore more. There is the bonus of their escapades occurring on cycling routes to the southwest of London that I cycle on myself these days - Putney, Ripley, Guildford, Godalming, Chichester. . . we are getting ready to go on holiday to the Netherlands and Belgium on Friday (today is monday), hopefully lots of cycling there too.

Ann Patchett, The Magician's Assistant

 This was recommended on 'A Good Read', and it was pleasant enough, but not really my thing. A domestic drama concerning love, loss and grieving. Maybe it is because I am incredibly lucky to come from a stable family where people love each other and are nice to each other, but books involving family tragedies and how people overcome them doesn't really speak to me. As I write this news is breaking that THFC have accepted a bid from Bayern for Harry Kane. Let's see what happens, but I still haven't processed Glenn Hoddle leaving in 1987, I've no idea how I will cope with this

James G Clark, The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History

 I'm very interested in the period, and this was reviewed as the most important contribution to the subject since 'the Stripping of the Altars', and Eamonn Duffy himself has some nice things to say about it, but it was so in-depth that it was impossible to read straight - it's all-encompassing and incredibly valuable to scholars of the period but not to be read for fun by the likes of me. I've finished putting all the badges on the kids' campfire blankets (except William's), next job is a scrapbook of Cubjam for William. we went to Hampton court on Sunday and after some bickering in the car we had a nice day as a family, bodes well for the holiday in a couple of weeks.

George Orwell, Coming Up For Air

I thought I'd read this 33 years ago for my GCSE English Lit project on Orwell, but it didn't seem at all familiar. I know I read Burmese Days, maybe it was Keep The Aspidistra Flying. I've always preferred Orwell's essays and reportage to his novels though, and even Animal Farm and 1984 I don't think I've read since I was a teenager. It was much more nostalgic than I expected, not overly-sentimental, harking back to a simpler, Edwardian England of certainty and continuity rather than the late 1930's world of travelling salesmen, mock tudor bars and mechanised warfare Orwell bemoans. 

Sam Moorhead & David Stuttard, The Romans Who Shaped Britain

 That was a nice easy read, a really interesting way to see Roman Britain through the lens of some of the principal characters connected with Roman Britain. Lots of 'maybe's and 'perhaps' where evidence is missing, but still ok and mostly read in the garden between showers. We go on holiday in 2.5 weeks but my brain appears to have left already, I'm spending a lot of time looking at cycling routes in Benelux and things to do there. some new running shows have just arrived, so lots of running and cycling through tulip fields hopefully. Other projects that I want to do are finishing off the badges on the kids' campfire blankets, a Cubjam scrapbook for William and then (the big one) cataloguing all the books in the house. I should get the first two done before I start work on the last one as it could take a long time