Monthly reads: November 2021

 

Another month, another post, another pile of books. I didn't think I read this much, actually. Felt a lot less, but I had a strong few days right at the end of November. Guess I need to get out the Christmas reads now, huh?

British Politics: The Basics (Bill Jones)

A pretty good book if you want to learn more about, well, the basics of Britain's politics and the peculiarities of the political system. I think I did learn a few things I didn't know yet! However, I didn't like that sometimes the author's personal opinion about certain things was showing through – and I feel like I wouldn't have agreed with his political views. I might be wrong about this, though, Another point were some minor errors, both in regards to spelling (some parts didn't make any sense until I noticed that a word was missing) and also – to a smaller extent – content-wise. I remember noticing a mistake in a passage about Henry VIII, for example. And well, I can't say whether there was anything similar in other parts of the book where I didn't notice it. Well, and I think stuff like that shouldn't happen in a quite expensive book which is also supposed to be used by students and undergraduates. Still, it wasn't bad and I would still recommend it – you will get a good overview about everything and the 'further reading' sections are also really good, for example.

Theresa May: The Enigmatic Prime Minister (Rosa Prince)

I absolutely dislike the Tories and if I'd live in the UK I'd most definitely never vote for them. Having said that, I'm really interested in politics as a whole – which means I also want so learn more about the more recent Prime Ministers, even if they are/were Tories. It's obviously isn't necessary to agree with a person's opinions to read something about them, right? This book is a pretty interesting political biography about Theresa May – it's mostly about her professional and less about her private life. Of course there were some parts about her childhood etc. because we obviously need to know at least something about a person to understand their political motivations. But I liked that the author clearly put the emphasis on her professional life. However, after learning more about Theresa May's motivations I sort of understand even less how someone who cares about helping people and improving their lives can be a Tory member. Well, I do get that she's pretty much a traditional conservative in other areas (as seen during her time at the Home Office, for example), but that is a thing I never quite understood. Not just about her, but also about other politicians, for that matter.

Cricket for Dummies (Julian Knight)

I started watching BBC News all the time last year, and there was one thing that made me really curious during the sports news broadcast: the cricket results. Honestly, that's pretty typical for me, I have those random bouts of curiousity all the time. And so I was intrigued enough to buy this book and start learning more about cricket. (You might laugh at me if you'll learn that my actual #1 motivation is due to the fact that my favourite comedian talks a lot about cricket on Twitter, haha.) Well, 'more'...to learn anything at all, actually. I haven't seen a single cricket match so far, but I think I really want to change that after reading this book. Mind you, I'm still not entirely sure whether I properly understood the rules, but...the author mentioned that a person either hates cricket because they find it boring and can't understand why people would sometimes even think of a drawn match as a really thrilling affair...or that that's exactly what someone loves about the game. And honestly, I think I fall into the latter group. I'm all for tactics and stuff and I imagine a tense match to be a lot of fun, even if there isn't a winner in the end. Well...the Ashes are coming up, maybe I'll find a way to watch!

Die wandernde Erde (Cixin Liu)

This isn't the first time I was reading short stories by Cixin Liu, so I already knew what to expect. (I actually even read one of the stories in this book. The German publisher surely made some extra money by releasing some stories as a seperate book, huh... Glad I bought both copies for very few money.) Anyway, I loved most of the stories and novellas. It's not like I actually get what the author and his characters are talking about when they are explaining difficult quantum physics stuff etc. - but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment in the slightest and it's also quite educational. And in some cases also pretty thought-provoking, because the author also mentions issues like humans destroying the environment and thus their own means of living without getting overly preachy about it. Well, actually it wouldn't hurt to preach about the issue as it's so important, but...eh. In any case, I tremendously enjoyed this collection and now I'll finally take a look at his most famous book trilogy 'Three Body Problem'. (I think that is the English title? Not entirely sure, as I still buy his books in the German edition since the English one isn't the original version after all.)

James Bond 007: Liebesgrüße aus Moskau (Ian Fleming)

Oh god, the sexism and racism. Frankly, even though I am able to give an author the benefit of the doubt and will also acknowledge that the Bond novels are a product of an entirely different time. But still, the passages about 'woman wanting to get beaten' and how evil Turks are etc....ew. And the thing is, it's not like this stuff makes the book in any form better. Quite the contrary actually, I couldn't care less about Kerim's lenghty rant about dumb women and evil Turks. So well, I was pretty bored throughout huge parts of the book. BUT! Sometimes the action suddenly does pick up the pace, and the book was a delight to read when it finally did. The final few chapters for example – more of that, please. (Though I think it was a bit dumb of Bond to trust the other MI6 agent just like that. Would the MI6 really not notice if one of their agents was borderline insane? I don't think so.) I'd say it's a bit of a shame, all that sexist and racist stuff. I think I'll still read at least a few more Bond books, if I feel up to the task of ignoring the less entertaining parts of it...

A Man With One Of Those Faces (Caimh McDonnell)

I mostly bought and read this book because it got recommended to me on Tumblr, and also because I heard that Chris Addison is working on a TV show adaption of the trilogy. I'm really glad he does, because that was the final push of motivation I needed to finally buy, er, all books in the series, haha. Just mention his name and I would watch/read about anything. (Guess which comedian I was talking about in the part about the cricket book?) Er, well. Putting that aside (one day I will write a post about my Britcom obsession and all that, I promise), I really loved this book A LOT. These days I rarely ever get curious enough about a book's story to keep me guessing about what could happen next. Or wanting to pick up the book again and just read a few cheeky pages when I'm really supposed to do something else. Well, that's what this book did for me. It took me a while until I got into it, but then...I just wanted to find out what's going on. And I got to love all the characters, too! It's not just the main cast, but you just gotta like them all. I'm especially fond of Detective Wilson and Phil, I think? Anyway – there's no need to regret my purchase of all the books, because I definitely want to read them all. I would have read them already to be entirely honest, but...I think I keep them for special occasions. There are just not enough books which could get me out of the biggest reading slumps (so far only Sherlock Holmes and Jeeves & Wooster managed just that) and I feel those ones could be among them.

The Westminster Alice / The Unbearable Bassington (Saki)

I only stumbled across those two works and the author Saki in general because of the Guardian's 1000 books list. I mentioned that before, didn't I? Well, and while going through the books on that list I noticed that both works are really quite short, so I decided to read them right away. The Westminster Alice is a really funny little parody on the political events in England during the time of writing in the style of Alice in Wonderland. While I do have some knowledge about British history, I was still glad that I found extensive explanations about some of the characters and puns. A really delightful read in any case! The Unbearable Bassington is a bit longer than Alice and even better, if you ask me. It started off as a pretty funny and witty little story (I got reminded of PG Wodehouse or Oscar Wilde, for example) and it ended with a surprisingly sad ending. Seriously, it wasn't even that dramatic, but the last sentence alone made me feel all kinds of things. Really, really great. Well, I definitely need to read more stories by Saki now. Apparently he wrote quite a few of those witty little things, so that's something to look forward to!