Reviews 

A library book via P. I thought, for most of this book, which is quite a hard work read, that ‘the interestings’ (5 or 6 student-y...

This sort of thing has not been done before, and I thought it was brilliant. Too complex a plot to summarise, but a very funny and clever...

This was quite a difficult book; I have read it before, but assume a long time ago. But as it progressed, I enjoyed it more and it is...

Another Susan Hill recommendation. I don’t think I will follow these anymore as our tastes don’t match at all. This is an early novel by...

Mankell’s last book, completed I think not long before he died. Unsurprisingly, quite a gloomy book, about an elderly retired doctor...

As above. I didn’t do this justice, but didn’t enjoy it enough to want to re-read. Quindlen is obviously quite a well known and classy...

One of P’s library books. I thought this was pretty good for a first novel; a big long chronicle covering the last 100 years or so of a...

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...

Pretty obscure and not very good. A story about a hippie girl who befriends a family across the Minnesota lake from where they live, who...

Tried to read this (I think again) in the summer but without success. I don’t know what the name changes of the son and daughter are...

Her first book, pre Manon. I loved it in places. The ending was a bit dull. Basically an everyday tale of sheep farming in N Yorkshire -...

Symptomatic of being short of reading ideas, buying another by the same author immediately after finishing the first (see David Mark, 491...

Another of P’s from the library. Totally different from 506 - if that was a quasi 18th century novel about society, this was very 20th...

Juliet Nicolson is the 4th generation of the Nicolson daughters; granddaughter of Vita Sackville West. Her great great grandmother was a...

Possibly her first (famous or actual first?) book. Good, but difficult and hard work. The main narrative is a Tristram Shandy like...

One of Paddy’s – didn’t do a lot for me, although he did make points about pets and their deaths (pets generally don’t live as long as...

Another that Paddy enjoyed from the library. I guess this is chic-lit, and on the whole I enjoyed it. Made me think about the difference...

This is also very good; rooted in Three Pines (to which Gamache and his wife have now moved), as all her best books are. Gamache has now...

Pretty good and totally different. Full of pretty lurid sex which however becomes just a motif. Quite like an 18th century novel about...

A short story that I found (and bought) late last night having finished no.418. This was very paired down Penny, although set in Three...