Tangled Mind

Everything is reviewed on this blog! (Sometimes rather cursorily.) Check out my monthlyculture tag.

Bracketed figures show range over the last 21 years [see the year-in-summary tag for my Cultural History since 2004].

Note: 'Best' is shorthand for 'not necessarily objectively good but I really enjoyed'.

Film (in cinema): 17 (4-21). Best three = Emilia Perez, Wicked Little Letters, Lee

Film (streamed): 36 (39 last year). Best three that I hadn't already seen = Cold Comfort Farm, Nope, Crew

Theatre (live): 9 (1-26). Best three = Napoleon: Un Petit Pantomime, Doctor Strangelove, Oedipus

Theatre (streamed): 0 (38 in 2020, 16 in 2021, 8 in 2022, 0 in 2023). Must watch more NT@Home, even alone.

Concerts (classical): 9 (2-22). Best three = Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at St Pauls Cathedral, Berlioz/Rachmaninoff/Saint-Saens.

Opera: 9 (0-10). Best three = Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Fidelio, Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Gigs: 7 (0-9). Best three = Sahra Halgan, The Last Dinner Party, Lankum

Art: 4 (0-6) Best was probably 'Accidentally Wes Anderson'

Books: 184.examined here: reviews here

Also in 2024: visited Glasgow (Worldcon), Mallorca, and Cambridge.

See them all on LibraryThing or on Goodreads
* 180 books, mostly Kindle with a couple of scanned books from Internet Archive
* 124 by female writers, 52 by male writers (some collaborations, not all books tagged)
* 6 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags: my tagging is not consistent and I'm not 100% confident of search results):
* 49 fantasy, 25 SF, 33 historical (predominantly 19th / 20th century, with quite a few in classical Greece or the Roman Empire)
* 6 romance (about evenly het- and non-het romance: quite a change from last year)
* 9 YA/children's
* 14 non-fiction

My reading challenges:
* 52 books in 52 weeks (managed 52)
* Annual Non-Fiction Challenge (read all 12!)

Best six:
* Hopeland - Ian MacDonald
* The Witness for the Dead - Katherine Addison
* The Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard
* Looking Glass Sound - Catriona Ward
* Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman
* Mortal Follies - Alexis Hall

Last year's 'books read' post

See them all on LibraryThing or on Goodreads
* 164 books: 159 on Kindle, a couple of audiobooks (which cemented my view that I don't much like audiobooks), a couple of scanned books on Internet Archive
* 116 by female writers, 45 by male writers (some collaborations, not all books tagged)
* 9 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags: my tagging is not consistent and I'm not 100% confident of search results):
* 62 fantasy, 18 SF, 41 historical (predominantly 19th / 20th century: only a couple of novels set in WW1 or WW2, so that's a change from last year)
* 21 romance (majority non-het romance)
* 19 YA/children's
* 19 non-fiction

My reading challenges:
* 52 books in 52 weeks (managed 51: this challenge has some prompts very much skewed towards physical books, and I defaulted on 'chosen because of its spine', as all Kindle book spines look the same)
* Annual Non-Fiction Challenge (read all 12!)

Best five:
* Summer - Ali Smith
* The Half-Life of Valery K - Natasha Pulley
* The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
* Hench - Natalie Zina Walschots
* Base Notes - Lara Elena Donnelly

Last year's 'books read' post

See them all on LibraryThing or on Goodreads
* 159 books, all but 2 of them on Kindle (Goodreads shows 169 but this includes rereads that I did not re-review or tag)
* 123 by female writers, 34 by male writers, not all books tagged
* 17 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags: my tagging is not consistent and I'm not 100% confident of search results):
* 75 fantasy, 20 SF, 38 historical (predominantly 19th / 20th century, 10 books set in WW1 or WW2)
* 27 romance (majority non-het romance)
* 13 YA/children's
* 16 non-fiction

Best five:
* The Doors of Eden - Adrian Tchaikovsky
* The Last House on Needless Street - Catriona Ward
* Perhaps the Stars - Ada Palmer
* Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo
* In Other Lands - Sarah Rees Brennan

Last year's 'books read' post

See them all on LibraryThing or on Goodreads
* 155 books, all but 7 of them on Kindle
* 110 by female writers, 43 by male writers (some collaborations & anthologies there), 3 by non-binary writers
* 10 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags):
* 75 fantasy, 24 SF, 25 historical (predominantly 19th / 20th century, 6 books set in WW1 or WW2)
* 29 romance (of which 24 were non-het romance)
* 10 YA/children's
6 non-fiction

Best five:
* The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley (does this count? hasn't been published yet)
* Burn - Patrick Ness
* Comet Weather - Liz Williams
* Island of Ghosts - Gillian Bradshaw
* A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik

My post on the Reading Women Challenge 2020.

Last year's 'books read' post

hahhahahahaha ... well, yes, actually I did manage some outings. But 2020 was the year in which I realised just how much my cultural life means to me (not just for the cultural stimulus but for the social and emotional aspects). I miss going out, and I miss the friends I went out with.

Everything is reviewed on this blog! (Sometimes rather cursorily.) Check out my monthlyculture tag.

Bracketed figures show range over the last 17 years [see year-in-summary tag for my Cultural History since 2004].

Film: 12 (4-20). Best three = David Copperfield, Little Women, Jojo Rabbit.

Theatre: 3 (1-26). Best three = well, all of them :) Teenage Dick, Macbeth, Revenger's Tragedy.

New Category! Theatre (streamed): 38. Best three = Midsummer Night's Dream (Bridge production); Pericles; This House.

Concerts (classical): 3 (2-22). Glyndebourne Young Artists was a delight, a sunny day and an outdoor concert with some splendid performances. I was in the choir for Haydn Nelson Mass (horribly close to first lockdown). And ah, the Musical Homelands at Cadogan Hall, can't believe that was only this year ...

Opera: 0 (0-10). Boo.

Gigs: 0 (0-9). Double boo. Here is a song close to my heart: 'All I Want for Christmas is a Rock Show'.

Art: 1 (Went to Madrid to look at pictures!) I do not mention the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the National Gallery, for which we have had multiple tickets and been foiled every time.

Books: 156 and counting. Separate post coming eventually: reviews here (ongoing: am behind on reviewing).

Also in 2020: visited Spain and Malta; zero conventions (well, 0.5: I 'attended' Punctuation, but Zoom does not work well on my Chromebook, and I found it hard to navigate). (This is also one reason I'm not at many online gatherings. The other reason is that I seldom hear about them until afterwards ...)

copied and pasted from last year's apart from the numbers / faves

A quick review of my cultural outings in 2019. Everything is reviewed! (Sometimes rather cursorily.) Check out my monthlyculture tag.

Bracketed figures show range over the last 16 years [see year-in-summary tag for my Cultural History since 2004].

Film: 16 (4-20). Best three = The Favourite, Captain Marvel, The Aeronauts.

Theatre: 13 (1-26). Best three = Tartuffe, Noises Off, Ocean at the End of the Lane

Concerts (classical): 9 (2-22). Best three = Monteverdi Vespers, Mahler 2 [because I was in the choir, and it made me understand the music better], Tallis Scholars

Opera: 3 (0-10). Best three = all of them :) though I was in the choir for La Belle Helene, my debut! and immense fun, though exhausting.

Gigs: 1 (0-9)

Art: 10 [Hmm, I don't seem to have tracked this before ...]

Books: 136. Separate post coming eventually: reviews here (ongoing: am behind on reviewing).

Also in 2019: visited Ireland; two conventions.

copied and pasted from last year's apart from the numbers / faves

A quick review of my cultural outings in 2018. Everything is reviewed! (Sometimes rather cursorily.) Check out my monthlyculture tag.

Bracketed figures show range over the last 15 years [see year-in-summary tag for my Cultural History since 2004].

Film: 15 (4-20). Best three = Infinity War, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Shape of Water.

Theatre: 26 (1-26). Best three = Amadeus, Bacchantes, Midsummer

Concerts (classical): 7 (2-22). Best three = Brahms Piano Concerto #1; Voices New Zealand; Rachmaninoff Vespers

Opera: 10 (0-10). Best three = Cenerentola, Maria Stuarda, Violetta

Gigs: 9 (0-9) Best three = Breeders, Psychedelic Furs, Decemberists

Books: 85. Separate post coming eventually: reviews here (ongoing: am behind on reviewing).

Also in 2018: Ozymandias died, arrival of Marlowe; visited Czech Republic, France, Spain; two conventions.

Still catching up on reviews
112 books (some of which were novellas), 79 by women
all but 3 were fiction

My best five some novels which engaged me and which I reread at least once, regardless of their flaws or failings:
- Too Like the Lightning -- Ada Palmer
- Chalk -- Paul Cornell
- City of Stairs -- Robert Jackson Bennett
- All Systems Red -- Martha Wells
- Untamed -- Anna Cowan
- Spectred Isle -- K J Charles
- Christopher Wild -- Kathe Koja
- Touch -- Claire North
- Hammers on Bone -- Cassandra Khaw

My various book-sites:
- Blog
- Librarything
- Goodreads

A quick review of my cultural outings in 2015. I'm not reviewing here much lately, so not linking to tags, but you are welcome to dig out whatever's there.

Intro bit in bold is range over the last 12 years [eeep! see 'year-in-review' tag for my Cultural History for over a decade]:

* 4 - 20 films (10 in 2015, 12 trips to cinema, most enjoyed The Martian, Jurassic World. Objectively best: probably Mad Max: Fury Road. Also saw Jupiter Ascending, Age of Ultron x 3, Ant-Man, Child 44, Man from UNCLE, SPECTRE, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.)

* 1 - 15 theatre trips (14 in 2015, highlights were Bakkhai, Oresteia, Nell Gwynn. Also saw Antigone, Waiting for Godot, Hamlet, To Kill a Mockingbird, Crossing Jerusalem, The Other Mozart, The Cocktail Party, misc Edinburgh Festival things.)

* 2 - 22 classical concerts (12 in 2015 including two performances of Beethoven's 9th. Most enjoyed Beethoven Piano Concerto #5, pianist Freddy Kempf. Also Berlin Phil x 2, plenty more Beethoven, some Rachmaninoff and Sibelius, Berlioz Requiem at Albert Hall with a friend singing in the choir).

* 0 - 6 operas (5 in 2015: Purcell's Indian Queen (disappointing); Tom Randle's Love Me to Death workshop / preview, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman (excellent); Donizetti's Wild Man of the West Indies; Figaro Fugit.)

* 0 - 9 gigs (4 in 2015: Paloma Faith, Will Butler, FFS (best musically), One Direction (best experience, possibly because my expectations were low, possibly because of atmosphere created by 20,000-strong, predominantly young female, audience).)

Other highlights included meeting Elizabeth Knox and discovering that she knows who I am :) :) :); my third year co-running a track at Nine Worlds; four holidays (Lyon, Edinburgh, Rome, Gran Canaria); my first Edinburgh [Fringe] Festival, thanks anef and doubtingmichael.

I've cut down on the Coursera courses due to Real Life, but managed a few:

Introduction to Classical Music

Sagas and Space - Thinking Space in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia [this was excellent]

Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics [this was hard]

Superhero Entertainments

2015 books already done here.