Another Century of Books Round-Up

As December continues apace, so does my need to catch up with A Century of Books posts. So here is a whole bunch of mini-reviews (more mini than review) of books I’ve read for ACOB that I don’t have a whole blog post worth of stuff to say about…

Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner
I got my village book club reading Lolly Willowes, and listened to the audiobook. As usual, I was bowled over by how brilliant Warner’s writing is – about the dynamics of an overlooked spinster living with her brother’s family, and the lengths she calmly goes to for some form of autonomy. I’ve read the novel many times and I always love it. It’s fair to say my book group were more mixed… and generally confused when she becomes a witch.

The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) by Grace Paley
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) by Grace Paley
Both these collections have been on my shelf for a very long time, and I’ve heard such good things about Paley’s short stories… but I ended up feeling quite lukewarm, and I can’t think of anything to say about them?

The Tao of Pooh (1982) by Benjamin Hoff
A fun book explaining the principles of Tao through the principles of Winnie the Pooh et al – and quoting liberally from the books, so enjoyable chiefly because it was a bit like re-reading the Pooh books. I’m not sure I remember much about Taoism off the back of it, but I certainly enjoyed remembering what a genius A.A. Milne was.

Tentacles of Unreason (1985) by Joan Givner
A slim collection of short stories by Joan Givner, whose The Self-Portrait of a Literary Biographer I enjoyed so much last year. Definitely not in the same league as her autobiographical writing IMO, but very readable and some very interesting character creation. I’d definitely read more stories by her, but it didn’t have the same oh-wow-this-is-excellent spark that her other book had.

Keepers of the Flame (1992) by Ian Hamilton
This is subtitled ‘literary estates and the rise of biography’, and so I’d thought it might be similar to Janet Malcolm’s ruthlessly brilliant book about Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath – or, more accurately, about their literary estates and biographers. Hamilton covers a wide, wide range from Donne to Shakespeare to Hardy to Plath but I wished it had been (frankly) more gossipy. But perhaps I shouldn’t hope for a Malcolmesque book from someone who isn’t Malcolm. On its own terms, this is very well researched. It’s not really about literary estates or biography until the final chapters, but it’s an interesting enough walk through the history of authorial reputation.

Notes from a Small Island (1995) by Bill Bryson
A few years ago, I gave up on Bryson’s much-loved book about touring the UK. I’ve loved some of his books, but Notes from a Small Island felt a bit try-hard. It turns out I enjoy it an awful lot more as an audiobook – my second attempt at it was far more successful. It’s still not very subtle humour, and his book on Shakespeare is definitely much better and funnier in my opinion, but I’m glad I got closer to seeing what the fuss is about.

Uncle Tungsten (2001) by Oliver Sacks
I adore Sacks, and I loved his much-later autobiography. This earlier attempt of ‘memories of a chemical boyhood’ was interesting to me when it was autobiographical, and much more tedious when it was explaining various histories of science. I’ve realised why I love his neuroscience: because it is unabashedly about people. I’m just not interested in science that isn’t directly, obviously about people’s behaviours. That’s a failing in me, not the book, of course.

The Audacity (2021) by Katherine Ryan
Katherine Ryan’s memoir is exactly what you expect it to be. For me, that was a good thing.