Stand and Deliver Your Heart
May. 31st, 2015 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyI am in one of those phases where if I can't talk about one thing, I find I can't talk about anything. The thing I can't talk about is work, which is commercial in confidence. Let's just say I think I will either be promoted or jobless by the end of the year. So the rest of this year should be fun.
Thank goodness, then, for the end of the month, which means I can break my stalemate with a book post.
May books read
* The Coal Face - Tom Doig (2015)
I'm not sure what to call this. Novella-length non-fiction? It is about the causes and aftermath of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire, which happened on the other side of the state from the City by the Sea (actually in the town where my work's other office is, which is why I read it). You know the sort of thing: decades of maintenance that followed the letter of the law but was inadequate for the purpose, ad hoc planning approvals that didn't think things through (e.g. putting plantations of highly flammable blue gums upwind of a coal mine), parts of bureaucracy not talking to other parts. History will probably record it as one of Victoria's worst industrial accidents once the long-term impacts are felt, but because no-one died on the day, it didn't get the coverage or outrage that it deserved at the time. This is a short, workmanlike account of it seen through the eyes of the local people. Interesting enough, but a really meaty version would have to include more about the organisation and politics that were happening in the background.
* The Nebuly Coat - John Meade Falkner (1903)
Did I read The Nebuly Coat just because of its name? Yes. Yes, I did. I must admit I was imagining a coat made of stars, but that's not what it's about. Not at all. This is a nebuly coat:
The nebuly coat in the book is described as barry nebuly of six, argent and vert, so imagine the picture above coloured silver and green. That's the nebuly coat.
The nebuly coat belongs to Lord Blandamer, whose home is the little village of Cullerne, which is festooned with the nebuly coat. The Blandamers liked to decorate with the nebuly coat, apparently. They put it on everything. Every single thing. The observant reader would recognise that as A Clue. I was not an observant reader, and so was astonished when this object that the book kept mentioning turned out to be decorated with a surprise nebuly coat. I can't blame the book for my lack of observation. It all but pointed a flashing neon sign at this thing. The only way it could have been more obvious was if someone had said, 'Say, you know what this is shaped like? The nebuly coat!'
So what is the book about? Well, as the story begins, old Lord Blandamer has died, and the new Lord, his grandson, is overseas. Into Cullerne comes a young architect, Westray, to oversee the mending of Cullerne's church. And that's about it. I don't mean that as a criticism. You can see how, in other hands, this would be a sensation novel in which absolutely preposterous things happen. It's just that in this book, everything is just so... likely. Even the villain is not particularly villainous. I mean, he may have murdered people (and if he did, that's pretty villainous), but the book leaves it a bit vague. They may have died of natural causes.
Basically, this book is a melancholy little oddity. I quite enjoyed it.
* Death of an Expert Witness - PD James (1977)
I've read a lot of mysteries in my time, but never a PD James. We had Death in Holy Orders at home when I was young, and I started it a couple of times with no success. (The fact it was the only one, on a shelf of Ruth Rendells, Agatha Christies and Ellis Peterses suggests my mother found James hard going as well.) So I thought I would give a different book a go, and it wasn't bad. I guessed the culprit, but not why. It was frustrating, in that it had quite a negative view of people. Just about everyone who wasn't a detective was found wanting.
Also, every other character in the book was described as wearing something made of fawn wool, which was distracting after a while. Just imagining them all off camera, so to speak, saying, 'Ooh, nice outfit. I simply adore that colour.'
Thank goodness, then, for the end of the month, which means I can break my stalemate with a book post.
May books read
* The Coal Face - Tom Doig (2015)
I'm not sure what to call this. Novella-length non-fiction? It is about the causes and aftermath of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire, which happened on the other side of the state from the City by the Sea (actually in the town where my work's other office is, which is why I read it). You know the sort of thing: decades of maintenance that followed the letter of the law but was inadequate for the purpose, ad hoc planning approvals that didn't think things through (e.g. putting plantations of highly flammable blue gums upwind of a coal mine), parts of bureaucracy not talking to other parts. History will probably record it as one of Victoria's worst industrial accidents once the long-term impacts are felt, but because no-one died on the day, it didn't get the coverage or outrage that it deserved at the time. This is a short, workmanlike account of it seen through the eyes of the local people. Interesting enough, but a really meaty version would have to include more about the organisation and politics that were happening in the background.
* The Nebuly Coat - John Meade Falkner (1903)
Did I read The Nebuly Coat just because of its name? Yes. Yes, I did. I must admit I was imagining a coat made of stars, but that's not what it's about. Not at all. This is a nebuly coat:
The nebuly coat in the book is described as barry nebuly of six, argent and vert, so imagine the picture above coloured silver and green. That's the nebuly coat.
The nebuly coat belongs to Lord Blandamer, whose home is the little village of Cullerne, which is festooned with the nebuly coat. The Blandamers liked to decorate with the nebuly coat, apparently. They put it on everything. Every single thing. The observant reader would recognise that as A Clue. I was not an observant reader, and so was astonished when this object that the book kept mentioning turned out to be decorated with a surprise nebuly coat. I can't blame the book for my lack of observation. It all but pointed a flashing neon sign at this thing. The only way it could have been more obvious was if someone had said, 'Say, you know what this is shaped like? The nebuly coat!'
So what is the book about? Well, as the story begins, old Lord Blandamer has died, and the new Lord, his grandson, is overseas. Into Cullerne comes a young architect, Westray, to oversee the mending of Cullerne's church. And that's about it. I don't mean that as a criticism. You can see how, in other hands, this would be a sensation novel in which absolutely preposterous things happen. It's just that in this book, everything is just so... likely. Even the villain is not particularly villainous. I mean, he may have murdered people (and if he did, that's pretty villainous), but the book leaves it a bit vague. They may have died of natural causes.
Basically, this book is a melancholy little oddity. I quite enjoyed it.
* Death of an Expert Witness - PD James (1977)
I've read a lot of mysteries in my time, but never a PD James. We had Death in Holy Orders at home when I was young, and I started it a couple of times with no success. (The fact it was the only one, on a shelf of Ruth Rendells, Agatha Christies and Ellis Peterses suggests my mother found James hard going as well.) So I thought I would give a different book a go, and it wasn't bad. I guessed the culprit, but not why. It was frustrating, in that it had quite a negative view of people. Just about everyone who wasn't a detective was found wanting.
Also, every other character in the book was described as wearing something made of fawn wool, which was distracting after a while. Just imagining them all off camera, so to speak, saying, 'Ooh, nice outfit. I simply adore that colour.'