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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
280. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Marking Time
Book 2 of the above. This focuses sporadically on three of the daughters, Louisa, Polly and Clary. Louisa, who is a little older, has...
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,...
Dec 28, 20141 min read
272. Émile Zola - Earth
The only other Zola book in the house, although I have since invested something like £1.69 in Amazon to buy the complete works for my...
Dec 22, 20141 min read
271. Émile Zola - Germinal
Possibly the best book I have read this year. Zola completely turns 19th century fiction on its head and writes a book in which the...
Aug 24, 20141 min read
237. D. H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover
Haven’t read any Lawrence for ages; I think that no.223 inclined me to read another novel of thwarted love across the classes. The sex is...
Jul 6, 20141 min read
226. William Thackeray - Vanity Fair
Chose a long serious(?) book after all the Håkan Nessers, although it is hard work to read a book this long when not on holiday. Did I...
Jun 11, 20141 min read
217. Charles Dickens - Little Dorrit
One of the summer plans! Thought I’d take (to Spain) a Dickens that I didn’t know at all, never televised, so no baggage. Not sure what...
May 21, 20141 min read
211. C. P. Snow - Time Of Hope (Strangers And Brothers)
The last Bristol novel. Never read any Snow before. I found myself enjoying this more as it went on; a between the wars provincial middle...
Apr 4, 20141 min read
194. Olivia Manning - Friends & Heroes
Volume three of the above. They are now all in Athens, although only briefly as the Germans invade toward the end, and they flee on a...
Feb 5, 20141 min read
181. Patrick White - The Tree Of Man
Extraordinary. Long and difficult (although ultimately very simple) book, simply about human life. Very un-glorified. The characters are...
Dec 22, 20131 min read
171. George Eliot - The Mill On The Floss
This was an A-level set text, and I read my old copy from the time, which is almost ruined by asinine adolescent observations. I will get...
Jun 5, 20131 min read
113. E. M. Forster - Where Angels Fear To Tread
Probably enjoyed this less than I expected, although not in a very receptive mood when I read it. The plot is fairly far fetched; English...
Jun 3, 20131 min read
112. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Trying to read some old books, preferably in paper, before we fly off to Spain. I enjoyed this more than I expected; the key bit of...
Jun 1, 20131 min read
111. Henry James - The Europeans
I have rediscovered James since reading 'Portrait of a Lady' last year. This is a nicely constructed little story about two Europeans, a...
May 4, 20131 min read
101a. Leo Tolstoy - War And Peace
Can't give this a number (see no.89), but I have finally finished 'War & Peace'; it is a huge book. i would like to re-read it, but would...
Jan 21, 20131 min read
73. John Lancaster - Capital
Pretty long, 10 days to read although it is January, and we have D+Z back from Australia. Plus, lots of snow (which hasn't interrupted...
Oct 12, 20121 min read
48. J.K. Rowling - The Casual Vacancy
Never read any Harry Potter, this is her first adult book. I thought it was very good: complex, multilayered and multi-class plot about...
Sep 29, 20121 min read
46. E.M. Forster - A Room With A View
Hadn't read this for years, if indeed ever. Very slow to get moving. I thought it was quite DH Lawrence-ish; love across the social...
Sep 6, 20121 min read
38. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
Have tried reading this many times, but there is a big Ford Maddox Ford drama 'Parades End' on the TV which has encouraged me to give it...