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Nov 24, 20181 min read
641. Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime And Punishment
I have never read this before, although our old paperback edition was bought 41 years ago. So better late than never. I didn’t enjoy The...
Sep 15, 20181 min read
623. John Steinbeck - The Grapes Of Wrath
I had never read this and really enjoyed it, although probably a holiday/beach read. Written with great power, anger and a lot of...
Jul 30, 20181 min read
614. Graham Greene - The Tenth Man
A very slight novelette, written as a film script when Greene was contracted to Hollywood post war as he couldn’t fund life from writing....
Jul 20, 20181 min read
611. Graham Greene - The Comedians
Took me a long time to read this (not long) book, but a lot of sport on TV and I struggled to get into it. The characters all have banal...
Jun 19, 20181 min read
602. Edith Wharton - The House Of Mirth
Not a lot of humour or mirth in this. I enjoyed The Age of Innocence (593) and thought I would try another Wharton. Proved to be (by the...
Jun 16, 20181 min read
599. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaids Tale
Good, dystopian novel, which I am not sure whether I have read before. In some ways, very like 1984. I enjoyed it and particularly her...
Jun 2, 20181 min read
594. Henry James - The Wings Of A Dove
Maybe optimistic to pick a difficult late James after enjoying 593, but you can see the logic I hope. And I read the Ambassadors...
May 18, 20181 min read
593. Edith Wharton - The Age Of Innocence
I have tried (I don’t think successfully) to read this is the past, but it is brilliant. The themes are all Henry James, but the cultural...
Mar 20, 20181 min read
579. Graham Greene - Brighton Rock
This is interesting because I first read this in June 2012 (no 19) and hated it! 6 years later I thought it was pretty good; not that...
Feb 12, 20181 min read
572. Muriel Spark - The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
I don’t think I have ever read any Muriel Spark before, but put her on my list after reading 568. Quite a strange book; Jean Brodie’s...
Feb 4, 20181 min read
570. Charles Dickens - A Child's History Of England
I thought I would read some Dickens, partly because Susan Hill (568) likes him, and chose this as I don’t like the novels. Dickens does...
Jan 13, 20181 min read
566. Jane Austen - Emma
I found this quite hard work, but ultimately probably enjoyed it. Emma is a prototype unreliable narrator (although not the narrator in...
Dec 30, 20171 min read
563. Thomas Hardy - A Pair Of Blue Eyes
His third book, which we seem to have had in the house for years, but I had never read. One girl, 2 men in love with her. Friends prior...
Dec 9, 20171 min read
556. Graham Greene - The Human Factor
This is the book I meant to read, a domestic spy story, but very good. Maurice Castle is a minor functionary in the security services in...
Dec 7, 20171 min read
555. Graham Greene - The Honorary Consul
Reading this for bizarrely incorrect reason. Meant to read The Human Factor after enjoying 554 above, but both it and The Honorary...
Dec 2, 20171 min read
554. Graham Greene - A Burnt Out Case
Read this about a year ago with little comprehension. So the plot is: Querry, a successful and celebrity architect turns up in a Catholic...
Nov 26, 20171 min read
552. Elizabeth Gaskell - Wives And Daughters
Tried to read this, I think 5 years ago at Stuart’s in Spain, but gave up. These 19th century novels are incredibly long, but I got to...
Oct 28, 20171 min read
545. Nicolai Gogol - Dead Souls
Been meaning to read this for years, strange and paradoxically both difficult and easy to read. Very long and unfinished, in fact Gogol...
Sep 22, 20171 min read
527. Patricia Highsmith - Deep Water
Struggled to get into this, but it is a cleverly written portrait, not so much of a psychopath but of a disintegrated marriage which...
Aug 17, 20171 min read
514. Graham Greene - The Third Man
During a sleepless night on 15 August, I began re-reading Patrick Gale’s Rough Music on my kindle as a bit of emergency late night...