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1215 and All That by Ed West |
This is accurate and narrative English history, but with a difference. He is funny! You will delight in his wry comments on those nasty royals as they scheme, gut their enemies, and put their personal interests above anything else. It is part of a series, but each book can be read independently. Douglas Adams and John Cleese meet Bad King John. You'll laugh.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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Against the Tide by Roger Scruton |
Regardless of your political views, this is an exceptional presentation of the conservative (small c) view. His knowledge and intellect is broad and deep. His writing is clear and elegant. His orientation is Burkean. A diverse collection of articles and essays.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts |
This biography brings a lot of recently available material into the mix. It's a sympathetic portrait of an extraordinary leader, with the blemishes included. It's well written and pulls the reader along. It's a page turner, and that's a compliment.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Churchill: The Power of Words by Winston Churchill |
Compiled by the historian Martin Gilbert. Compelling argument, keen observation, and exceptional use of the English language, as well as a journey through the 20th century. The material is drawn from speeches, newspaper dispatches, and excerpts from his books, all of which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024) |
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Crown and Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarcy from William the Conqueror to Charles III by Tracy Borman |
Two chronologies I have trouble untangling are the Thirty Years War and the Kings and Queens of England. This book offers a bit of hope with a few pages of highlights and history for each monarch, along with the big players of each reign. An entertaining read, with improbable but true stories of accident, murder, mayhem, deceit, barbarism, and other features of government. Even after reading it, you still won't be sure who followed Henry I, or which one was nicknamed "Longshanks" - (hint - it wasn't Victoria).
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys: A Fairly Short Book by Dave Barry |
This book takes the premise that regular blokes behave in silly, irresponsible and hilarious ways. A gang of guys leaving a bar to take a canoe down the ski jump at Lake Placid? A "guy" thing. Some bones broke. The book is filled with real examples. Women sometimes act that way, right? No, not in a million years. My wife spent two days cackling over it. Yes, it went beyond laughter to cackling.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Elements by Euclid |
This is an instruction manual that lasted about 2000 years. Euclid is plain fun. Yes, you have to pause and work it out, but there is a great satisfaction in "getting it." His problems ("propositions") are intriguing, and his solutions elegant and clear. If you want to do them yourself on a blank sheet, all you need is a straight edge for the lines, and a compass for the circles.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun |
During the 16th century both Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England required that their subjects, all of them, should have first and last names. This tidbit, sprinkled with information about Spinoza, Utopia, the establishment of Madrid as the capital of Spain, and much more spins out in a seamless narrative in one of the most eclectic history books ever written. From 1500 to the present is covered profoundly and elegantly.
(bwl 101 Summer 2021) |
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Great Contemporaries by Winston S. Churchill |
Among his accomplishments he won the Nobel for Literature with his histories and biographies. The language is elegant, with delightful choices of word and phrase. He is free with both praise and condemnation, and his view is quite personal. His contemporaries have to share the page with WSC as well. He is always present.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir |
Mixing hard science with speculation is a favourite genre for authors who have the requisite technical knowledge. Gregory Benford and Weir are the masters. On a desperate quest to save mankind from annihilation, the protagonist meets an alien on the same mission for his planet. It's a combination of technique, fantasy, drama, and yes, heart tugs. Oh, and spectacular imagination.
(bwl 104 Spring 2023) |
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The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe |
The reader is privy to the mind of an odious child who does hateful things, and you gradually realise that this boy is tragically psychotic. His escalating behaviour can't evoke sympathy, but you, the reader, will feel pity. This is a heartbreaking story, told in a compelling and unconventional way. Mark Twain used the voice of a child in Huckleberry Finn, but this is no Huck but a deeply flawed human being, unsparingly revealed.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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The Complete Harvard Classics - 71 volumes available digitally by Various Authors |
The collected greatest wisdom of humankind: Philosophy, literature, history, poetry, drama, Science, Sociology,.....well, trying to enumerate it is fruitless. A collection to be sipped or chewed from time to time. These are the works that the learned men of the past knew intimately. They're still relevant.
And here we are as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
(Mathew Arnold, Dover Beach)
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson |
| A digital Collection, for a couple of dollars. Is there a finer poet in the English language? Some would say no. Generally very short poems, but filled with astonishing imagery, gesture, sometimes wry, often imbued by nature, loss, hope.
I gained it so,
By climbing slow,
By catching the twigs that grow
Between the bliss and me.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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The Complete Works by William Shakespeare |
I love Kindle, and collections like this for a pittance are the greatest value on the planet. The wealth of the plays and sonnets is inexhaustible and stays fresh and alive for a lifetime, all filled with pithy comments on humanity. "Headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe" from A Comedy of Errors, just one of thousands. Highlight the quotes you cherish and read them collected in one place.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey |
Adam Grant - in a hospital bed - is investigating the criminality of Richard III. The crime, history, and research all tied up and presented to us with an unexpected (?) conclusion, one shared by more than a few historians. Is British royalty ever boring? No. This is a good detective yarn. Tey had a very successful play, Richard of Bordeaux, which featured a young actor and director by the name of John Gielgud. He and Tey remained lifelong friends.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart |
So much of life is determined by chance, but what if you determined all your life's choices by chance? Luke is in the middle of a stagnant life. He decides to spruce it up by determining all his actions by a roll of the dice. He lives as the dice tell him to. The result is an outrageous novel, a cult classic from the 70s.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton |
It's about a gold mining community in New Zealand in the 1860s. And a murder mystery. And about 12 fascinating principal characters. And about the ethnic variation of the population. And about the South Sea and Oriental Trade. And about the Zodiac. This is an amazing and profound book. This snapshot doesn't begin to describe how remarkable this book is. The 2013 Man Booker winner.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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The Lyrics 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney |
A two volume charmer. Paul's biography done through words to his songs. The titles are in alphabetical order, so the chronology is random, as are the topics. The style is conversational, and you sense you are having a chat with a very open and relaxed Paul. If you were around from the '60s onward, this work resonates.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan |
Flanagan graphically portrays the horrors of Australian POWs in WWII, building a railway through the jungle for the Japanese. Some of these descriptions are disturbing. The title refers to a journey taken by the Japanese Haiku poet Basho to the north of Japan in the 17th century. This novel shows a different and terrible Japanese mind. As the story unfolds, the emphasis is on the Aussies, but we are asked to reflect on post-war guilt by the Japanese, and recovery by the prisoners themselves. It is humankind at its harshest.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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The Open Society and its Enemies by Karl Popper |
A wonderful examination of totalitarianism with a side trip into philosophy, all clearly written and accessible. Popper believed strongly that philosophy should not be arcane and filled with jargon. Popper and Bryan Magee stand out as philosophers you want to read. The subject is deep but the water is sparkling clear.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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The Overstory by Richard Powers |
Nine wanderers range across cultures, history, science, landscapes, artificial intelligence, ecology, love, and especially TREES, arriving independently at a redwood forest. It is a sweeping narrative filled with poetic language and awe. Their stories are absorbing, and the arboreal themes skilfully woven. This is not a book to be gulped down - you chew each paragraph and savour. You will never see a TREE in the same way again. My vote for America's best writer today.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens |
It abounds with wit and the foibles of people like those we have met, and perhaps a bit of ourselves mixed in. And the beautiful Victorian prose. Perhaps Toole had read this before he wrote A Confederacy of Dunces (see bwl 29). It's a bit Pickwickian.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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The York Minster Monuments and Their Stories by Herbert George Roselle |
After two years of info gathering and picture taking, I have compiled the memorial contents of the York Minster as a guidebook, and also as an informative sketch of the background behind the monuments. It's an amazing place but there was little available in the way of information about the memorials throughout, some spectacular, and some of great historical and biographical significance. It is available on Amazon Kindle. I chose this format so that people visiting the Minster can follow the suggested route around and be informed.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024) |
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Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens by David Mitchell |
A history of British monarchy up to Elizabeth, filled with humor and not so much majesty. History without pain or boredom. These people were often quite pious but not very nice. They varied widely in their ability to rule but excelled in killing as needed, or even not needed. A wonderful essay on the greatness of Shakespeare caps off the reign of Elizabeth I. An enjoyable excursion.
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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