December Wrap Up

 

I read three books in December, and although that was quit a while away now, here is my blog post form wrap up! If you head to my YouTube channel, or click here, you’ll be able to watch it in video form…wiiiith a bit of a difference from normal!!

Moving on!

The first book I finished in December was Gun Button to Fire by Tom Neil.

This is a memoir from a RAF pilot who downed 19 planes during the battle of Britain and his writing really helped me to get into his mind during the time he was participating in the war. If you’re interested then check out my full review of the book here.

Book two was How to Manage Your Slaves by Jerry Toner

This book was incredibly well researched and so very interesting. I knew from the moment I picked this book up in the shop that I would adore it and I’m mad at myself for taking over 3 years to read the damn thing! Again if you would like to see my full review you can find it here.

Finally, my third book was The Beggar of Volubilis by Caroline Lawrence (The Roman Mysteries #13)

This was sadly probably my least favourite book in this series so far, I skimmed a lot of it just to get it over and done with. Thankfully as it’s a kids book I was able to do this and get to the parts of the story I actually enjoyed. Full review here.

It was an interesting reading month, an interesting month! I was working retail in December which is the main reason why my reading suffered, but I’m still happy with what I read.

What did you read in December? What was your last read of 2019? Of the decade!

From the eyes of a pilot, the Battle of Britain

 

My wonderful boyfriend bought me this book around two and a half years ago now, as a small present, and I’ve finally gotten around to reading it! I picked it up on Remembrance Day (11th November) and finished it a little while later as the text was a lot smaller than I had anticipated!! I still did really enjoy this book, however, with the insight from Flight Officer Tom Neil who brought down 19 enemy planes during the Battle of Britain and survived to tell his story.

This is not a somber book. There are of course moments of death and mourning, but Neil chooses not to linger on them, and in all it is quite a positive attitude that prevails throughout. Learning more about the contributions that the RAF (Royal Air Force) made at that time was incredibly interesting as despite being a self confessed lover of WWII based books, I haven’t read much from the RAF point of view and therefore was quite lacking in knowledge about the topic. Thanks to this book, I now know a lot more, and it keeps you interested and hooked.

Neil writes well, and that of course is a main component, but also, the personal touches that are shown. The little habits of the boys, how they lived each day, what they worried about and joked about. Knowing that those were real, they weren’t fabricated from knowledge of the time, they were what Tom and his friends were really talking and thinking about. It makes it all so much more real. Despite how long ago this was, it really brought me right there with them in a way that I haven’t really experienced before.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone British, to learn more about the contributions of the RAF to the Battle of Britain in a more personal manner than a textbook could portray, and also to anyone interested in the era. This is definitely a good book to add to your repertoire and one which will provide you with much information. I gave it 4.5*