Books of 2020
Some of the books I read in 2020
These are the books I’ve encountered in 2020. I’ve read most of them, and reviewed many of them. There are a couple I’ve read but not yet reviewed, and some that I’ve started and not yet finished. (Links to books reviewed take you to my review; the others are Amazon associate links.)
First there is a list of literary books, ending with a list of educational books. The books in these lists link to my reviews of the book where applicable.
Literary Books
Review of the Oulipo Compendium
The Oulipo Compendium, compiled by Harry Matthews and Alastair Brotchie, is in effect a dictionary/encyclopaedia of Oulipo. As such it is both comprehensive and easy to navigate. Oulipo is the use of restrictions (constraints) in writing. For example, writing a text in which every word starts with the same letter (a technique known as “autogram”). The point is to see what potential such constraints might have for creating literature. Contrary to what you might expect, applying such constraints tends to lead to more creativity rather than less.When the going was good
This is autobiography from Evelyn Waugh. I like to dip into occasionally. Frankly, I haven’t found the writing as engaging as his fictional works. However, it is quite fascinating to discover what life was like in the early part of the 20th century, and in particular his views on the new-fangled “talkies”. I wrote about this in an article on why constraints can be good for innovation.The Greek Myths, by Robert Graves
Many moons ago I bought myself a copy of The Greek Myths, by Robert Graves. There were several reasons for this. One was that I enjoyed a pilot episode of I, Claudius, so I assumed that the writing on which it was based must have been pretty good. Another reason was that I felt I needed to be more knowledgable about such things. And yet another was that I’d very foolishly joined a mail order book club, and I had to select something from the catalogue before I had the so-called (and hugely expensive) “book of the Month” foisted upon me.Mythos (started but not yet finished)
This is a much more engaging telling of the Greek Myths that Robert Graves’ version (see above).Book Review: The Norton Anthology Of English Literature: The Victorian Age
Covering the period 1830 to 1901, this is a treasure chest. It not only contains a huge sampling of both prose and poetry, but places them into an historical context.Review: The Art Of Mindful Reading
The first thing which struck me about this book is its quality. It's a hardback, and the pages feel lovely, not made with that cheap and nasty paper that feels like it ought to have perforations in it and be on a cardboard roll. Amazingly, the price of the book is under a tenner. As an object in itself, it would make a very fine gift without breaking the bank. But what of the actual contents?Review: Alastair Humphreys' Great Adventurers
In December 2019 I reported on the Educational Writers Award. This book was one of the finalists. Its subtitle is: The incredible expeditions of 20 explorers. The stories included here certainly are incredible, such as the prisoners who escaped from jail in order to climb a mountain — and then broke back into it! Or the young man who, paralysed from the waist down at the age of 15 because of a car accident, became a paralympics champion and visited 34 countries around the world in his wheelchair.Review: Oulipo And Modern Thought
I’ve written about the Oulipo movement before on this blog. Commonly referred to as a workshop of potential literature, it advocates and plays with the use of constraints and mathematical devices to create new writing.My 6 Word Review Of Lolita, Plus Commentary
Beautiful writing, shame about the content.Review: Write Your Book In A Flash
The subtitle of this book is: The Paint-by-Numbers System to Write the Book of Your Dreams—FAST! Gratifyingly, it does exactly what it says on the tin. The next time I write a book, WYBIAF is going to be open right there on my Kindle for easy reference.Review: Writers' London
Whenever I find myself walking around London, I spend half the time looking up rather than ahead. Why? Because London is so rich in cultural landmarks, in the form of blue plaques, that you can easily miss. For example, a few years ago I happened to glance up above a pizzeria, and for the first time noticed a plaque that read “Dr Johnson lived here from …”.Book Review: All That Is Evident Is Suspect
This is a compendium of writings from the Oulipo, the "workshop of potential literature" started in 1960 in France. Oulipo is based on constraints, be they mathematical or literary.Review: My Very First Updike
Until recently, I had never read any of John Updike’s work. Essays? Nope? Books? Ditto.Then I read Rabbit, Run.
Review: A-Z Of Storytelling Techniques
As the title suggests, this book comprises 50 “techniques” of storytelling. I’m not sure all of the items listed could be called a “technique”. A dangling modifier, for example, is not something you would reach for in your author toolkit. Also, the term “storytelling” suggests fiction, but many if not all of the entries here may be found in nonfiction writing as well.The Amateur Marriage (Read but not yet reviewed)
I didn’t think I’d find this story about an “ordinary” set of people in American suburbia interesting. But I found it very enjoyable, and very human.The Stepford Wives (Read but not yet reviewed)
A fascinating idea, and probably one that I don’t have to reiterate here as the term “Stepford wife” has entered the vernacular. An interesting and enjoyable romp, but ultimately completely unbelievable.Book Review: Bird By Bird
It's not often one comes across a book which purports to contain instructions on both writing and life. In fact, this is the only one I've encountered. Does the concept work?Penguin Book of the Prose Poem
One aspect of the English Programme of Study is to examine different forms of poetry, such as free verse, and also for students to prepare their own poetry and scripts.Review: First Love, By Turgenev
This is the story of a boy of 15 falling in love for the first time, as related by his middle-aged self. What can I say? The language is beautiful, but in my opinion hopelessly inappropriate. The protagonist is a teenage boy, and as I was once a teenage boy I have some experience here. I can honestly say that I never met anyone at that time who would even describe his feelings, let alone do so in such an overwrought manner.Review: The Kreutzer Sonata, By Tolstoy
You’re sitting on the 10:29 from London Victoria to Brighton, having a pleasant chat with one or two other passengers. (This is very unBritish, I know, but bear with me.) Another man sits nearby, and after several minutes snorting, grunting and hurrumphing, he announces: “I killed my wife, you know. Fancy a cup of tea? No milk, I’m afraid.”Review: The Awakening, By Kate Chopin
I thoroughly enjoyed The Awakening. Set in the French part of New Orleans, and written in the 19th century, it depicts the kind of restrictions women had to endure, not least in terms of what was expected of them.Book Parts (Read but not yet reviewed)
A fascinating look at the different parts of the book — not just the text, but also the paratext, such as the table of contents or the preface. I especially liked the story of a joke publication, in which the book had an introduction, footnotes and all the other paraphernalia — but no substantive text!Review Of Why They Can't Write
Teachers want their students to succeed, so they provide all the help they can. When it comes to writing, for example, there are devices such as rubrics, writing frames and the five paragraph essay. There's then a good chance that in exams they'll produce just what the examiner wants to see. But will it turn them into writers, or make them even want to write? Probably not.Review Of Teach Like A Writer
The typical school writing assignment involves working in a way that no real writer does. This book aims to change that by providing insights into the writing process from several very different genres: fiction, journalism, politics, poetry, academia and theatre.Review: Bonjour Tristesse
Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t pick up the (fictitious) memoir of a 17 year-old girl. That’s one of the joys of doing a course like this (and one of the reasons I do them, of course): you discover writing you’d probably never come across and almost certainly wouldn’t go looking for.Review: The Oxford Dictionary Of Idioms
As I was humming and hawing about a suitable subject for an article, out of the blue popped up a reference to this book. “Great Scott!”, I declared. “This is something I could get my teeth into. I’ll give it a fair crack of the whip.”Review: Closely Observed Trains
There is some very beautiful writing in this book, and plenty of humour. The humour is that of the grim variety. It’s similar to the deadpan humour in The Compromise, which I suppose is not surprising given that the author was a Czech, and therefore subject to the same restrictions.Review: Giovanni's Room
In May 2020 I published an article in which I had experimented with a different time structure from the more usual chronological one. I’d seen the device used to great effect in a science fiction story called Happy Ending.Review Of Things Seen, By Annie Ernaux
Written in the form of a diary, Things Seen record the observations of the narrator as she travels around Paris on the RER rail network. I say “the narrator” because I’m not entirely sure whether the “I” in Things Seen refer to Ernaux herself, or a persona she’s adopted for the purpose.Review: The Comfort Of Strangers
Rather than write the traditional sort of review, I thought I would do it in the form of one of those quizzes one sees in popular magazines. Answer each question honestly, and keep a note of your answers on a sheet of paper so you can add up the score at the end.Review: Who Will Run The Frog Hospital
If you like stories about teenaged angst, and especially female teenaged angst, you will like this book. Well I don’t and I didn’t. The protagonist seems obsessed with her breasts, or rather the lack of them (at least at first). I thought that was meant to boys’ job? I found it all rather tedious, so much so that by the end I was virtually shouting, “Put them away!”Review: A Little History Of Poetry
This handsome book is a wonderful introduction to poetry from the earliest times, and from many cultures. The sections are in chronological order, but rather than demarcating them in the usual fashion through dates, the author John Carey has given them much more interesting names. For example, Copernicus in Poetry, The Great Escapist, and Fatal Attractions.Review: Book Of Clouds
This fictional memoir of a girl from Mexico living in Berlin is completely engaging. I’ve never been to Berlin, but I feel like I’ve come to know it through this book. I’d probably have derived even more pleasure from it had I had a map of Berlin open while I read, but it stands on its own anyway.Review: Chronicle Of A Death Foretold
My first attempt to read a book by Marquez was not entirely successful. That is to say, I gave up after about five pages. “Magic realism?”, I thought. “I don’t think so.”Review: Ethan Frome
Brrrr. I could feel the cold seeping into my bones as I read this book. It wasn’t just the cold of the New England winter, but the sense of a lack of life, a lack of vibrancy in the eponymous character and his household.Review: Leaving The Atocha Station
This is a very clever book. Too clever, in fact, for any one person to fully appreciate I think. There are so many references, to books, philosophers cultural stereotypes and even a film, most of which are unreferenced, that when the tutor said “This echoes <name of Russian philosopher I didn’t quite catch> my first response was to type “Of course!” in the class chat. By that time even I was becoming slightly exasperated with the author’s apparent showing off his erudition.Review Of Help! For Writers
It’s the sort of book that you can read from cover to cover, or just dip into at random. That’s my kind of book. Just now, for example, I flicked to page 101 and discovered this…The Compromise
Dovlatov was a journalist in the then Soviet Union, and this book comprises a series of compromises he was obliged to make, in order to keep his job. What’s interesting to me is that the censorship he describes goes on on a very subtle level.Story Craft, by Jack Hart (started but not yet finished)
I haven’t linked to this on Amazon because there is a new edition coming out in March 2021. I’ve been send a pdf version of it, and so far I think it’s great. It shows you how to write a nonfiction article as if you were writing a novel. I already use fiction techniques in my writing, but this book takes a more analytical approach than I’ve encountered so far.How To Write Short (started, but not yet finished)
Another book from Roy Peter Clark. I quite like his books because they’re both well-informed and engaging, and this one is no different. It goes into different types of short writing, and how to make it interesting. See also my review of Short Form Creative Writing.The Go-Between (started, but not yet finished)
Look, I know this is a classic, but I am finding it really hard going. I haven’t yet emphasised with any of the characters, and so far am finding the whole thing a bit long-winded. Admittedly, I’ve only read 25% of it so maybe I’ll change my mind, but right now it feels like a bit of a penance. The famous first line: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” is great. I think the author’s big mistake was writing any more after that.You Talkin’ To Me? The Unruly History of New York English (started, but not yet finished)
I had an uncle from the Bronx, and even though when I met him he had been living in Los Angeles for decades, he never lost his New York accent — or attitude. One of my ambitions, once this pandemic is over, is to visit New York if I can. In the meantime, this look at the various cultures and dialects in New York is a reasonable substitute for actually being there. It’s academic, but nevertheless really engaging.James Baldwin: Living in Fire (started, but not yet finished)
I started this after reading Giovanni’s Room (see above). I wanted to find out more about James Baldwin. This book is a political biography. I’d go further and say it’s written from a Socialist perspective. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that I think it’s worth bearing in mind. I think it’s very engaging and has confirmed my thoughts of Baldwin as a great force for good. However, I find the use of the term “heteronormative male” rather grating, considering that according to the OED the first published use of the term was four years after Baldwin had died.
Educational Books
Review: Are Your Kids Naked Online? Updated
The first thing to note is that the book is aimed at parents, so not all of it will be useful for teachers. However, if you provide advice to parents on this topic it might be worth making a note of this book for future reference.Scratch Programming
This is well set out, with clear print and plenty of illustrations. It starts with an introduction to the Scratch 3 environment, and in next to no time the reader is creating a program.Review: The School Fundraising Handbook
One of the chief banes of my life as a head of computing in a comprehensive school was acquiring enough money to develop the subject and to improve the experience of using education technology for everyone across the school.Book Review: Critical Media Literacy And Fake News In Post-Truth America
If there was ever a time that reliable news, and knowing how to evaluate the veracity of an information source, were crucial, it is surely now. I’m writing this at a time when Covid-19 is spreading like wildfire, accompanied by a spread of information from unverifiable sources.Book Review: Leaders Eat Last
Most of us have worked for all kinds of leaders, some good, some bad, some outstanding, others dismal, plus the odd one or two whose presence or absence appears to make no difference at all. But what makes someone a great leader?Book Review: Hello World: How To Be Human In The Age Of The Machine
One of the dilemmas facing us is how much power to give to a computer program that is in effect a black box. For example, if an AI program works out, based on the data, that the chances of your being guilty of a crime are millions to one in favour, that's an objective truth which cannot be argued with, right?Book Review: Little Quick Fix: Find The Theme In Your Data
This little book provides guidance on how to make sense of qualitative data. You've carried out some research, perhaps in the form of interviews. You transcribe the recordings (or use an app, or pay someone to do it for you), but all that does is give you a lot of pages of notes. What now?Book Review: How Charts Lie
The great thing is that it’s dead easy to create charts. Bar charts, pie charts, histograms, 3D charts, line graphs — you name it, Excel can do it in a second. All you have to do is select the data to be included, and click on a couple of things, and you’re good to go. The dangerous thing is that it’s dead easy to create charts.Book Review: Teachers Vs Tech?
Christodoulou takes aim at those who think nobody needs to learn facts, because we can look things up on Google. Her argument is, in essence, how can we evaluate what we find there if we don’t have any underlying framework by which to judge it?Book Review: Talk Triggers
I’m quite fortunate, I think, in that much of my work comes through word of mouth recommendations. This is great, but I’ve often thought: isn’t this a bit hit and miss? Yes, I try to under-promise and over-deliver, but unless they’re an arrogant so-and-so or a complete ignoramus, doesn’t every freelancer? So what can I do that is different?Review: Your Press Release Is Breaking My Heart
I once worked in a school where the headteacher was so good at generating publicity for the school (and himself) that the local press were virtually in residence there. Nearly every week, the local paper featured a story about the school, complete with a photo of the headteacher and a group of students. (Indeed, on one occasion the reporter pulled me aside and asked: “Is there any chance of getting a photo without the headteacher in it?”)Book Review: 100 Top Tips - Microsoft Excel, By Sean McManus
This is a pocket-sized guide to 100 things you can do with Excel, and how to do them. When I say “pocket-sized”, I mean it: the book is smaller than A5, and so can easily fit into an inside jacket pocket or a small handbag.Book Review: 50 Teaching And Learning Approaches
What's the good of educational theory? Plenty. But it's not always practical to wade through research and long articles to find something you can use in that lesson with Year 9 on Tuesday morning. That's where this book comes in.Book Review: The Meritocracy Trap
We have all come to believe that meritocracy is a good thing. However, according to Markowits, the ideal of meritocracy has in itself caused class divisions – between the 'elite' and the middle class. Competition to 'perform' is intense, to say the least. This push towards higher and higher achievement may be seen both in the classroom (the competition for places in 'good' schools, and the boardroom (the competition to reach the higher echelons of management).Book Review: How Charts Lie (Short Version)
We are presented with charts all the time. But are they telling us how things really are? You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that charts may not always tell you the truth: take a look at the graphs your students are producing in Excel. All they need is some data and a built-in wizard, and they can produce a good-looking graph in seconds.Review: The Fourth Education Revolution
The title of this book invites curiosity: what were the other three ‘revolutions’? The subtitle hints at what the next revolution is: Will artificial intelligence liberate or infantilise humanity?Review: Learning Theories For Everyday Teaching
Teachers, especially newly-qualified ones, definitely need to know some educational theory, otherwise there is a danger that their practice will be little more than trial and error. However, there is very little time while doing the job to be able to afford the luxury of reading widely and deeply, and then figure out what to apply in their classroom, and how. This book makes a good attempt at addressing this issue without dumbing down.Review Of The Fourth Education Revolution Reconsidered
Covid19 has shown up inequalities in several ways. For example, the so-called digital divide has been exacerbated by lockdowns obliging schools to close. Those pupils who have least access to technology clearly suffer the most, in educational terms. On the plus side, many schools have adapted remarkably well, and impressively quickly, to the need to provide online teaching.Review: The Complete Learner's Toolkit
I have mixed feelings about this book. It’s potentially useful as a repository of ideas to apply in lessons. However, and this could not have been predicted, I think the pandemic has made it difficult if not impossible to implement its ideas more fully.Quick Look: Science Fictions
It’s really rather annoying when a non-fiction book received for review is not only useful, but readable. And not merely readable, but enjoyable, even entertaining.Radical Technologies (started but not yet finished)
Clear and engaging chapters about somewhat abstruse technology like blockchain. Well-written, and not as technical as you might imagine.Inside the nudge unit
Open any standard economics textbook, and you will be assured that people, being perfectly rational, will always buy the best rather than the worst, the cheapest rather than the dearest, and so on. There’s a caveat, of course: people have to know that a better or cheaper option exists.Talk Triggers
Oscar Wilde once said that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. The same could be said about businesses. You can spend lots of money on advertising, but in an ideal world, your customers will do a lot of your advertising for you.Bite-Size Python: An Introduction to Python Programming
My review has been submitted to Teach Secondary magazine, and at the time of writing I cannot republish it here. All I’ll say here is that the author has done a good job of making a difficult-to-learn programming language accessible.Audiobooks (a quick review)
Here are my first impressions of this book as I read through it and dart about within its pages.As with all Penn’s books, it has three excellent characteristics: it’s comprehensive, it’s based on her experience, and it’s easy to read.
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