Cornflower Blues 2012 - the books of the year, part 2

       


    I talked the other day about the 'Cornflower recommends' logo (a pipe dream), and of course my 'Blues', my books of the year, would be the first to feature it. We had novels yesterday, today it's the turn of non-fiction, and there are fewer books here simply because that category is less well-represented in my reading. As with yesterday's list, not all the books here have been published this year, but I have read them in the last twelve months.

    I'll begin with The Music Room by William Fiennes, a memoir of family and home which I wrote about here. " ... Fiennes is such an observant, sensitive narrator. He is the custodian of so many memories, and it is the texture of those remembered times, the layered details which shape and colour a moment, which his gift for language brings out. Lucid, restrained, accepting, tender - that's the mood of the piece, and it gives much to savour. If you're drawn to contemplative writing and to understated poignancy, then this essentially sad but ultimately uplifting book should touch and impress you, and will undoubtedly make you think."

    Four Hedges: A Gardener's Chronicle by Clare Leighton featured several times over on the other blog as I quoted passages which struck me as particularly well-observed. This account of the creation of a garden in the Chiltern Hills was first published in 1935, and the current edition - illustrated with the author's beautiful engravings - has an introduction by gardening writer and broadcaster Carol Klein. You'll find extracts here, here and here.

    Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale is the story of a real-life Madame Bovary and her scandalous divorce. It's meticulously researched and is a textbook example of the management of material. Read more about it here and see pictures of some of the book's Edinburgh locations here, and if you've read the book already and are looking forward to more from Kate Summerscale, her next work is to be The Electrical Boy, "a portrait of the murder of a Victorian woman by her son"; taking in working class life in London's East End, the Old Bailey, Holloway Prison and Broadmoor and the battlefields of World War One and Australia, it "illuminates changing attitudes towards criminal responsibility, mental illness, and the possibilities for a murderer of redemption."

    The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlane (who is to chair the judging panel of next year's Man Booker Prize, by the way) is perhaps best summed up in one of the book's own lines: "Stories, like paths, relate in two senses: they recount and they connect." A book about walking, thinking, observing, perceiving, going out in order to 'go in'. Precise and evocative writing complement scholarship and a poet's eye for the natural world. You'll find short extracts here, here and here.

    The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is another very moving but equally uplifting memoir, and a book about "the importance of books as manuals for life, of reading as comfort and joy, as a means of understanding others and sharing experiences." Read all about it and about my conversation with Will here, then read the book itself - you will not keep a dry eye, but that's just as it should be.

Comments

[LizF]

Another lovely selection Cornflower.
I read The Music Room a year or so ago after Dovegreyreader featured it and thought it was a beautiful book which still lingers in my memory.

I think that The End of Your Life Book Club will have the same sort of effect, so thank you for the review which persuaded me to read it as on the face of it it really wasn't the sort of book I would normally be drawn to.
What an amazing woman Mary Anne was and what a heck of an example to follow!

I have a copy of The Old Ways waiting to be read and hopefully the time off I plan to take over Christmas and New Year will give me a chance to get absorbed in it!

Both the others are at the top of my list - I am currently working my way through The Morville Hours and am very tempted to treat myself to Four Hedges as my nature/gardening read afterwards.

[Cornflower]

The Morville Hours is lovely - one of my favourites from a couple of years ago.

[Ruthiella]

I purchased The End of Your Life Book Club based on your stamp of approval CF. :)I hope to read it in 2013 or maybe over Christmas. I thought, however, I would begin with the chapter on the Hobbit, to test that there aren't any plot spoilers...can you remember if this is the case? Should I read Appointment in Samarra first, for example?

[Cornflower]

I don't recall any spoilers, Ruthiella, so if there are any I was too caught up in Will's and Mary Anne's story to notice them much!

[Mrs. Pom]

I don't think that we blog readers remember often enough to just give a comment of gratitude to the blogs that bring us so much entertainment and joy.

Your blog is just lovely, gracious, erudite, and compelling. I can't tell you how much you have influenced my reading over the past few years. As I read your "best ofs", I found myself surprised that so many of my best ofs I discovered here.

Thank you for what you do. Thank you for your calm and learned sensibility and, most of all, for bringing to our attention such fabulous books!

Merry Christmas!

[Cornflower]

Loretta, you have made my day! Thankyou so much for your kind and thoughtful words, and a Happy Christmas to you!

[Deirdre]

Thanks for both lists which have books I've purchased with "Cornflower recommends" in mind ... The Old Ways, End of Your Life Bookclub, Alys Always, the Colour of Milk ... and more on one of my own lists of book suggestions. It is always interesting to see what my favorite readers come up with!! And I concur with Mrs Pom!!