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1. The Holocaust by Laurence Rees
2. Cathedrals of Steam by Christian Wolmar
3. United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How It will Come About by Kevin Meagher
4. The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
5. You Don't Want to Know by James Felton
6. Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon
7. The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke
8. Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy by Tim Hartford
9. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Bucan
10. Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal
11. Houdini: the Man who Walked Through Walls by William Lindsey Gresham
12. So Far... by Kelsey Grammer
13. Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal by Lucy Cooke
14. The Time-Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer
15. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh
16. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
17. Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas
18. Jews Don't Count by David BaddielEnjoyable and timely polemic discussing why anti-semitism is a blindspot for many progressives.
19.Speaking of Harpo by Susan MarxOne of my favourite books, and definitely on the short list for when I get sent to the desert island, is
Harpo Speaks!, the memoirs of Harpo Marx. It's a charming book of anecdotes about the roughness of vaudeville in the early 20th century, and the pleasures of being part of the wealthy literary smart sets of the 1920s. I've read it many times over the past twenty years, and after wearing out one copy have a second that might need replacement too. Harpo comes across as someone who was easy-going and just out to enjoy life. I often think our annual Cottage is the closest I've come to his descriptions of holidays on Neshobe Island with the Algonquin mob.
Now, 20 years after her death, his wife tells her story, from her time Broadway and Hollywood careers, to life with Harpo, to what her life after his death (she outived him by 38 years). She talks candidly about her overbearing mother, her general hatred of stage and screen life, her family, and how she struggled to find a role for herself that wasn't just being Mrs Harpo. The most revealing content surrounds her strained relationships with her brothers-in-law and her attempts to curb Harpo's hypochondria that was often egged on by his brothers.
I would, I think, have liked more about her views on Harpo's relationship with Alexander Woollcott which even in
Harpo Speaks always comes across as unhealthy (the more I read of Woollcott, the less I like him) but this is a memoir about her life and experiences, not his.
It's an easy read but probably only for those who know and love
Harpo Speaks! and Bill Marx's
Son of Harpo. It fills in some of the gaps in both those works but rather than just rounding out our image of
Adolph Arthur Duer Marx, provides a tale about someone who was pushed into roles she didn't want and how she coped with them.