The Book Count 2023

[Greg]

Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald by Stella Tillyard

There is a coda to the title as well: Irish Revolutionary

Lord Edward Fitzgerald group as a part of the privileged Anglican group of Irish leaders during the late 1700s. His former home for instance, Leinster House, is currently the seat of the Irish Congress. Fitzgerald became enamored by the writings of Thomas Paine and the French Revolution and he wanted to have the same sort of revolution for Ireland to free it from English rule. But alas. Irish revolutions are full of problems. In this case, the Irish really wanted the French Army to come in and help the Irish peasants, the Irish peasants only having pikes and no munitions. The French tried to come but their fleet got scattered by a storm and the half that did make it to Bantry Bay were afraid to land because no one was there to greet them.

The Irish persisted in the their planning, always in the hope the French would return. The French never did but the Irish eventually tried to go on without them. But on the eve of the planned date of the rebellion May 23, 1798, the leaders of the rebellion were arrested. All their plans were thrown into disarray. Fitzgerald was the last man arrested, turned in by a spy. He was shot during the capture. Fitzgerald managed to kill one of his arresting officers. Rather than give Fitzgerald medical treatment, his captors let his wound get infected. He died from the wound several days later. His captors thought it would be better for him to die rather than have to stand trial.

Fitzgerald himself comes off as rather an ineffectual figure. He was an army officer and did have some training. But nothing in the story shows him as a man to be followed. But that was never a role he sought for himself. He just wanted to help but towards the end he found himself in charge.

I can't say after reading the book I have much admiration for Fitzgerald. There are probably better books out there to discuss the United Irishman uprising of 1798.

[Greg]

The Year of Liberty by Thomas Pakenham

The subtitle for this book is "The History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798"

This is kind of the companion book to Citizen Lord. Whereas Citizen Lord told the story of Edward Fitzgerald during the United Irishman uprising of 1798, he is only given a few paragraphs in The Year of Liberty. The Year of Liberty discusses the entire conflict from Wexford to Mayo mostly from the British side as there is more documentation from that side. The book was absolute flurry of names and places I didn't know and couldn't keep straight so the book was a bit of a slog as I tried to put together what was going on. The main players in the book are Pitt the Prime Minister, Camden the Vice Royal of Ireland and Cornwallis who took over for Camden. And yes, that is our Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown.

The main picture of uprising was that it was a mess on both sides. The advantage the government had was they had guns and some military training. But both sides were disorganized with rebels getting A+ marks in lack of leadership. The big problem was that several days before the kick off to the rising all the Dublin leadership for the rebels were arrested. For a bunch of stupid reasons the leaderless rebels decided to attack anyway. They won a few battles while the Government got its act together.

In the end, the uprising was just a tragic farce which actually led to the dissolution of the Irish Parliament and the end to Ireland's limited self government.

The book was kind of a slog to get through. I wished many times the story was over but there was always one more tragic bit. Not particularly recommended.

[Greg]

Dead Man's Hand by James Butcher

Jim Butcher of Harry Dresden fame has a son who also writes books or at least a book. This is it. Following in pops footsteps, Dead Man's Hand is an urban fantasy complete with magic users. The book is set in Boston rather than Chicago and magic is more accepted in this world. DMH is in the nascent stages of world building but it does feel solid and interesting but the book suffers in comparison to Dad's work. The book also suffers because the book is a first novel, a little too wordy and over descriptive.

Grimbsy is a witch currently working at kid's themed magic restaurant, suffering through the indignities of the job because he washed out of becoming a witch police officer. He becomes the center of attention when he becomes the primes suspect when a fellow witch is murdered and the clues make Grimsby out to be the prime suspect. The Huntsmen, who seems a lot like Harry Dresden, who was friends with the murdered witch wants to get to Grimsby before Grimsby is picked up the regular witch police. The main concern for everyone is to find a mystical artifact the dead witch had so there is a lot of scrambling around trying to find the missing thing.

There were bits of the book I liked. The second half was better than the first. But there were lots of bits I didn't. James Butcher needs to work on his craft some more.

The reason there are so few entries for April at this point is I'm half way through reading a biography of Jonathan Swift that is taking an inordinate amount of time to read. I took a break from the Swift book to read this book

[thatguy]

I think that's known as a "Swift move"

--tg

[Greg]

Does that make me an OG Swifty?

[Greg]

Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel by John Stubs

This book was a rough slog. It hasn't taken me this long to read a book in ages. Many times during the course of reading, The Queen asked why I didn't quit.  I'm no Quitter.

I think it would have helped to read this book if I had a much greater familiarity with Swift's work. As it is, I only knew him as the writer of Gulliver's Travels and the fact that he was the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral. This biography goes in depth on a lot of Swift's works and many times I felt lost at what the author was talking about. My biggest take away was that Swift was a government troll who would write scathing tracts about the groups out of power. The Duke of Marlborough was a frequent target for instance.

The book did broaden my understanding of the religious politics of the day but I found myself confused many times about the differences between Anglican, Presbyterian and Dissenter. It was quite the muddled mess in my brain.

Although the book is titled Reluctant Rebel, I never got a sense of what he actually did to earn that sobriquet. He wrote a lot of pamphlets. He loaned a lot of money to the poor. But he hated the thought of being an Irishman. He was an Englishman and being in Ireland was being in exile. He believed that to the end of his days. He rebelled against the Whig government because he was a staunch Tory. I think. 

There was a lot of misogyny in his life. He also suffered from Menares Disease which caused dizziness and the loss of hearing all throughout his life. He also might have been on the spectrum.

One of the benefits I did take away from the book is I have a better understand of the William of Orange and King James conflict and how that came about. Swift was for William of Orange. Other than that, it was a long slog.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Amongst our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

I'm getting kind of tired of these. At first the idea of a solid police procedural with magic was quite clever but nothing is really progressing with the characters. I don't see a lot of stakes for them. And the mysteries at the heart of the story aren't very compelling. In this one two men are killed under mysterious circumstances. Both have rings which have been stolen. And the villain from previous cases is in the mix as well.

At this point in the series, I know all the characters and their quirks. I need for them to do something fresh.

Finally got to this one. I enjoyed it more than the previous outing (False Value). I thought it more as a return to form. I liked the Python references, too.

[Greg]

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett

I enjoyed books 1 & 2 of this series very much. But book 3 didn't really do it for me. It is the final big battle against the magic user they have been fighting all along. The whole world is involved and the book feels like one long action sequence, a well described action sequence but it just didn't grip me.

The problem also could be it's been a long time since I read the first two books and I don't recall the back stories of the characters all that much and this book did little to fill that in.

[Greg]

Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor

A story told from different perspectives of the Great Famine during the year of 1847. The majority of the action takes place aboard the coffin ship Star of the Sea carrying passengers fleeing the horror of Ireland. David Meredith is Lord Kingscourt who used to have a massive estate near Clifden Connemara. But his father rather the estate too deep into debt to salvage it. Mary Duane is the servant and former romantic interest of Meredith. Pius Mulvey used to live on the estate. And there is Grantley Dixon a reporter telling the tale and involved in it. Mulvey has been tasked by the Fenians to kill Meredith or be killed himself.

It's a very gothic sad tale about a terrible time in Ireland's history. It took me forever to get through it.

[Greg]

Burner by Mark Greaney

The Gray Man continues his adventures as he mourns the loss of the love his life. This time the Ukraine War is the backdrop. There is an iPhone with all of Russias financial secrets on it. There is a banker in Switzerland who must get the drive to New York so a forensic accountant can put names to all the dirty money. The Gray Man and other security forces are tasked with stopping that from happening. Lots of fights and shoot outs and improbable situations that are the hallmarks of the Gray Man series.

[Drunk Monk]

I started to read this because the park I take Yuki to is called Star of the Sea and Stacy got if for me as a gift. It was well written but so depressing and dark. I gave up about a third of the way in but might pick it up again. I did enjoy its descriptive style and it was outside of my usual entertainment fare.

[Greg]

Well, Star of the Sea starts really sad and then goes straight down hill from there.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Well, Star of the Sea starts really sad and then goes straight down hill from there.

Ah, the "Pulitzer Prize Cult of Despair" method. Excellent.

[Greg]

Ghostlight by Joseph O'Connor

The tragic romance between Molly Allgood and John Milton Synge starts sad and then becomes tragic. From the blurbs on the back cover, people loved this book. I did not. 

It's a stream of consciousness novel that jumps between two time periods. The first is when Allgood and Synge are having their romance and getting ready for marriage. The second period is Mary as old destitute woman in London living out her last days. It's also told in the first person and that bothered me. I saw it as a gimmick and kept waiting for the author to stop. Both time periods are unhappy. The romance between Synge and Allgood seems constantly on the verge of falling apart. Except for the last letter between the two of them, there doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be together. The last section is of an alcoholic woman struggling to exist a squalid flat in London panhandling for money to buy booze.

Good times.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Ghostlight by Joseph O'Connor

The tragic romance between Molly Allgood and John Milton Synge starts sad and then becomes tragic. From the blurbs on the back cover, people loved this book. I did not. 

It's a stream of consciousness novel that jumps between two time periods. The first is when Allgood and Synge are having their romance and getting ready for marriage. The second period is Mary as old destitute woman in London living out her last days. It's also told in the first person and that bothered me. I saw it as a gimmick and kept waiting for the author to stop. Both time periods are unhappy. The romance between Synge and Allgood seems constantly on the verge of falling apart. Except for the last letter between the two of them, there doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be together. The last section is of an alcoholic woman struggling to exist a squalid flat in London panhandling for money to buy booze.

Good times.

The "Pulitzer" method continues.