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Jul 29, 20161 min read
421. Chris Cleave - Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
Another library book via P. I am not reading at all fluently at the moment; this was quite a good book but I didn’t really enjoy it at...
Jul 13, 20161 min read
417b. Joseph Conrad - Nostromo: A Tale Of The Seaboard
I hate this but after about 160 pages I gave up on this. It was all unmitigated hard work. So I didn’t progress any further. Very...
May 21, 20161 min read
401. Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent
I don’t know when I last read this book, but I thought it was absolutely wonderful this time round. It is quite beautifully constructed;...
Apr 17, 20161 min read
393. Robert Campbell - Alice In La-La-Land
Rescued a load of rather low grade thrillers from the attic in a search for other books, as in Simon Raven novels, none of which I could...
Apr 10, 20161 min read
391. James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss
Bought this with the last chunk of a Xmas book voucher, because it was well positioned in Waterstones as you went through the door. I...
Feb 27, 20161 min read
380. John Le Carré - The Night Manager
Bought this, slightly conned by Waterstones’ promotion, as it is being serialised on the TV. Don’t think I have read a Le Carré since...
Dec 13, 20151 min read
361. Justin Cartwright - Lion Heart
I think this guy is good. Hard to summarise this thematically, as there a multiple strands – Richard I’s attempt to recover the Cross...
Nov 28, 20151 min read
358. Justin Cartwright - Up Against The Night
A wonderful book and change from Zola by a writer I had never heard of. Cartwright writes about modern South Africa from a liberal...
Nov 5, 20151 min read
351. Ray Celestin - The Axeman's Jazz
Lots of books to read at the moment, as I cashed in my Waterstones voucher which D gave me for my birthday. This was shortlisted in some...
Oct 8, 20151 min read
343. Joseph Conrad - Heart Of Darkness
I read this to compare and contrast with no.342 above, and despite being better known and perhaps regarded, I thought it was pretty dire....
Oct 3, 20151 min read
342. Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
Had been meaning, not very actively, to re-read this for some time, partly to remind myself of the plot. It is actually very good. What...
Jun 6, 20151 min read
308. Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
This year’s aeroplane read. Never read any Michael Connelly before and, by chance, this looks like a re-issue of his first published...
May 15, 20151 min read
303. Joseph Conrad - Victory
A bit of a need to read something masculine and classic (no connection meant) after the above. Leaves thinks highly of this, and, having...
May 9, 20151 min read
301. Maria McCann - As Meat Loves Salt
This is totally different; a kind of 17th century 'Brokeback Mountain'. It is huge in scope, covering bloody bits of the civil war which...
Apr 2, 20151 min read
293. Charles Cumming - A Colder War
Marketed (a bit) as the new John Le Carré, I thought perhaps it was at first, but it is actually quite derivative (of Le Carré). The plot...
Mar 8, 20151 min read
288. Patrick Cockburn - The Rise Of Islamic State
It took me six chapters and nearly 100 pages to find out what I wanted to know. Chapter 7 summarises the recent Middle East history,...
Dec 17, 20141 min read
270. Rachel Cusk - Outline
Paddy got this from the library and enjoyed it, initially. I didn’t; it is the sort of book I can’t really see the point of writing,...
Nov 2, 20141 min read
258. Michael Connelly - The Gods Of Guilt
John Harvey is obviously a friend of Connelly and recommended him. This was one of the courtroom, as opposed to more overt, thrillers,...
Oct 21, 20141 min read
255. John Carey - The Unexpected Professor
I found this very dull until about the last two chapters when it suddenly blazed into life. Perhaps Carey’s early life was dull as the...
Aug 17, 20141 min read
235. Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
Not sure what pointed me in this direction; maybe a surfeit of detective novels. I had read this may years before (bought my copy in...