Search
Apr 15, 20231 min read
1058. Seichō Matsumoto - Tokyo Express
Bought this in Blackwells in Edinburgh. A Japanese detective novel, published in the late 1950’s and, apparently, never out of print,...
Mar 30, 20231 min read
1054. RJ Ellory - A Quiet Belief In Angel
I love this book, although the plot has its incoherences. A very lyrical bildungsroman, but peppered with a series of very gruesome...
Nov 20, 20221 min read
1030. Lucy Worsley - Agatha Christie
I really enjoyed her book about Jane Austen, but found this a bit dull. Having no interest in Agatha Christie or her books probably...
Nov 16, 20221 min read
1029. William Boyd - Any Human Heart
I have read this before; it is very good. A journey through the 20th century, centred on Logan Mountstuart, a half English/half Uruguayan...
Sep 26, 20221 min read
1015. Val McDermid - 1979
Haven’t read one of her books for years, the early ones are too violent for me, but there was limited choice in the library last week....
Aug 23, 20221 min read
1006. Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea
Second read recently, this time for the book group. Enjoyed it, but it remains a very difficult book, found both the characters and the...
Mar 31, 20221 min read
962. Patrick Gale - Mother's Boy
I love Patrick Gale, but struggled initially with this. The plot is very linear with few of the surprising plot twists that one expects....
Mar 24, 20221 min read
959. Stacey Hills - Mrs England
Not exactly chick-lit, but certainly a girl’s book. About a Norland Nanny, early in the 20th century who is seconded to a family in...
Feb 16, 20221 min read
947. Adam O'Riordan - The Falling Thread
Pleased that the local library is open again post lockdown; I am probably borrowing too many books, and the choices there are quite...
Jan 28, 20221 min read
940. Robert Harris - V2
Quite a well known author, but I am not sure I have read much (if any) before. This is a bit of historical fiction, about the V2 rocket...
Jan 22, 20221 min read
937. Jim Eldridge - Murder At The Savoy
Never heard of the author; one of a series set in London during the blitz. Unclear why the central detective has to be an aristocrat...
Jan 17, 20221 min read
934. Mary Paulson-Ellis - Emily Noble's Disgrace
This is very different, quite difficult and very good. A book about a boarding house in Portabello, Edinburgh, really throughout the 20th...
Dec 14, 20211 min read
922. Sebastian Faulks - Snow Country
I enjoyed this, but don’t think I read it very well. It is quite a modest novel by Faulkes’ standards – no big themes, set in and around...
Dec 11, 20211 min read
921. Colm Tóibín - The Magician
Never read any by this guy before, but from the bibliography, at the start, I should; he sounds a bit like Antony Burgess, mixing fiction...
Sep 26, 20211 min read
898. Philip Kerr - Prussian Blue
I think I may have read one of his before – a trilogy called 'Berlin Noir', many years ago. This was long and ponderous at times, but a...
Jun 26, 20151 min read
318. Saul Bellow - Humbolt's Gift
Tried, but failed to finish this at the end of the holiday. Bellow now seems to me to be very overrated; some Jewish humour, but pretty...
Feb 14, 20151 min read
282. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Casting Off
This is the fourth, and I think she planned final book in the quartet. They do get better as you progress through them; the characters...
Feb 6, 20151 min read
281. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Confusion
Book 3 which takes us from 1942 to the end of the war. Lots of events as the girls grow up and Louise gets married to a dreadful man,...
Jan 31, 20151 min read
279. Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Light Years
Never read this, or any of her books, before. Huge cast of characters, introduced in short ensemble sketches, so very difficult to...
Nov 21, 20141 min read
263. Charles Emmerson - 1913
Another birthday present; this one from Patrick Stephenson. This is a geographical/historical picture, city by major city, of the world...