Alison Weir, The Cardinal: The Secret Life of Thomas Wolsey

 I assumed this was non=fiction, and was surprised I hadn't heard of it. It turns out it's a novel, and not a very good one. Good luck to anyone writing about Wolsey in the shadow of  Hilary Mantel's incredible, unsurpassable Wolf Hall trilogy, but anything would suffer in comparison. The dialogue in this is clunky and often risible, characters often declaiming or using cod-medieval language, forsooth. Example 'Begone, the lot of you! My friend and I have more weighty matters to discuss!'. Maybe Damien Lewis could make it sound believable.

Yael Van Der Wouden, The Safekeep

 Picked up on impulse in Waterstone's, and it's been hyped a bit, appearing on a few 'summer read' lists. It was the story of two women alone in a house in post war Netherlands, and the friction and attraction between them, with  a twist in the third act. Jolly good holiday reading, so it'll go into Helen's Tsundoku. Today was William's last day at primary school, so after 14 odd years we are no longer part of the Goldsworth School family. I feel a little robbed as William decided last week that he would cycle to and from school by himself; that's great, and I'm super-proud of him for that, but it meant that I unwittingly had my last ever school pickup the week before.. It would have been nice to mark the occasion. They had the leavers' assembly earlier today and I sneaked out for an early lunc to watch it Lots of tears as they sang songs about growing up. I hope he thrives at Woking High School, but I must admit to being more worried about our baby boy coping than I ever was with the other two. 

Ben riley-Smith Blue Murder: The Rise and Fall of the Conservative Government 2010-2024

 Didn't really learn anything new from this book, but it did depress me further about the incompetence and venality of the entitled charlatans who run this country. Written by a journalist, who seemed keen to point out how in the know he was, mentioning few times there were juicy stories he could not tell as he hadn't verified them. there was nothing in here that hadn't appeared in the national press, so not at all revelatory. In 5 days we will all be going on holiday to Wales, so the holiday spirit is starting to kick in and my work ethic is suffering. On Friday I had to do a logical reasoning test, which I completely struggled with. I thought logical reasoning was a strength of mine, but the test identifying patterns were too complex for me. I'm becoming more convinced my cognition is suffering as I age, a big worry given Mum's condition. I still manage the crossword though and I'm trying to keep my brain active, but more and more I have lapses of memory on phone numbers, names, etc. 

Denis Johnson, Train Dreams

 There was a glowing review of this on 'A Good Read' or similar, and although I have read some Denis Johnson before and not really been captured by it, I thought I' give it a go. Never really got into it though, and it was so dreamlike I struggled to follow the narrative. a tragic tale of a loner living a solitary life in the woods. He seemed to remain the same while the world around him changed so there's probably an allegory in there I'm missing

Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Why Confederates Fought: Family & Nation in Civil War Virginia

 I bought this because I saw it on the shelves when we were nosing around Royal Holloway's new library, as it looked just the sort of well-written and researched micro-history I enjoy about a period that interests me. It does worry me slightly that I do have a regard for some of the heroes of the confederacy like Lee and Stonewall Jackson due to their gallantry, romanticism and quixotic pursuit of a lost cause. Then I remind myself that they were fighting to preserve slavery, one of the great evils of humanity and I'm back in the room. 

Sebastian Faulks, Snow Country

 A novel of three parts set in Austria, and the first two parts were heaven for me - Habsburg Austria (and just after) and full of cafes, cakes and regimental order. The third part went more in the direction of a different mitteleueopean tradition, full of Freud, psychoanalysis and Magic Mountain alpine retreats. It's a sign of my lack of intellect, but I don't really get all these inward-looking examinations and didn't enjoy it so much. Finished this just before taking the cubs away to camp, which was as fun and exhausting as ever, particularly as the temperature has been in the 30s. We had six adults with us though, so it was a breeze in comparison to previous years. Now need to start planning for next year. . . 

Bijan Omrani, God Is An Englishman: Christianity and the Creation of England

Great title, but very disappointing read. The author was setting out to show how instrumental in a positive way Christianity has been to the shaping of English culture and identity and bent over backwards to make his case. Because Christianity and Englishness are both so wide-ranging, it's possible to cherry pick examples that prove the opposite of another - for example, he makes the points that Christians were instrumental n the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire, but not that for the previous 1500 years they had been perfectly ok with it, and many opposed the abolition. There was one point where he claimed that the common belief that Christian festivals like Easter are based on pre-christian traditions is not true. This was based on the fact that there is no documentary evidence for there being a pre-christian god called Eostre, other than Bede saying there was. So we can leave aside all the fertility/spring imagery of eggs, bunnies, overindulgence etc which has nothing to do with Christianity, and also leave aside that one of the most partisan Christians in English history said it was based on a pre-Christian festival. I'm not denying that Christianity has had a profound impact on English culture, it certainly has, both in a negative and positive way. some of the greatest social reforms and civilising measures have been driven by Christians - but they've also been opposed by them. Some of the worst atrocities and shaming episodes in English history have been opposed and denounced by some Christians - but also supported fully by others.

Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans

 Crikey, only 3 months since I reread Marina Lewycka's debut novel and I've forgotten a lot of the plot already. I +think+ the two books interlink and characters from the debut have cameos in this book, but I could be wrong. I enjoyed this old-fashioned boy-meets-girl story in a novel setting - amongst migrant labourers trying to scratch out a living in a foreign, unwelcoming country. Tonight I'm helping out at the Squirrels sleepover, not sure how it will go. Have also been landed with the organisation of the Scout trip to Ypres next week month and trying to make sense of it - we should have paid some months ago and owe £3k apparently