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Jul 27, 20181 min read
612. Meg Wolitzer - The Interestings
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...
Jun 23, 20181 min read
604. Zadie Smith - White Teeth
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...
Jun 9, 20181 min read
596. Sebastian Faulks - A Fool's Alphabet
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...
Mar 10, 20181 min read
576. V. S. Naipaul - A House For Mr Biswas
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...
Dec 23, 20171 min read
560. Henning Mankell - After The Fire
Mankell’s last book, completed I think not long before he died. Unsurprisingly, quite a gloomy book, about an elderly retired doctor...
Dec 17, 20171 min read
558. Anna Quindlen - Miller's Valley
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...
Dec 14, 20171 min read
557. Catherine Banner - The House At The Edge Of Night
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...
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...
Nov 13, 20171 min read
550. Emily Fridlund - History Of Wolves
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...
Nov 7, 20171 min read
548. Patrick Gale - Rough Music
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...
Sep 23, 20171 min read
528. Susie Steiner - Homecoming
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 -...
Aug 14, 20171 min read
513. Georgina Harding - The Spy Game
Symptomatic of being short of reading ideas, buying another by the same author immediately after finishing the first (see David Mark, 491...
Jul 12, 20171 min read
507. Fiona Melrose - Midwinter
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...
Jun 9, 20171 min read
495. Juliet Nicolson - A House Full Of Daughters
Juliet Nicolson is the 4th generation of the Nicolson daughters; granddaughter of Vita Sackville West. Her great great grandmother was a...
May 16, 20171 min read
487. Kate Atkinson - Behind The Scenes At The Museum
Possibly her first (famous or actual first?) book. Good, but difficult and hard work. The main narrative is a Tristram Shandy like...
May 8, 20171 min read
486. Monty Don - Nigel: My Family & Other Dogs
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...
Dec 13, 20161 min read
452. Julie Cohen - Falling
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...
Oct 25, 20161 min read
439. Louise Penny - A Great Reckoning
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...
Sep 28, 20161 min read
433. Chad Kultgen - The Lie
Pretty good and totally different. Full of pretty lurid sex which however becomes just a motif. Quite like an 18th century novel about...
Jul 19, 20161 min read
419. Louise Penny - The Hangman
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...