Search
Jul 1, 20161 min read
416. Lisa Jewell - The Girls
Another from P (I can’t decide what to read at the moment so am piggy backing on her choices). This was brilliant, I thought. A...
May 27, 20161 min read
403. Helen Stevenson - Love Like Salt
P’s book of the year so far, but not mine. The memoir of a woman who has a daughter with cystic fibrosis, who goes to live in France with...
May 25, 20161 min read
402. Samuel Butler - The Way Of All Fish
This has sat on our bookcase since October 1977 unread. It seems to be quite a famous book, but it is pretty poor. I don’t know who...
Apr 8, 20161 min read
390. Doris Lessing - The Summer Before The Dark
Don’t think I have ever read any Doris Lessing. This struck me as both ponderous and dated. A middle aged woman discovers that motherhood...
Mar 27, 20161 min read
387. Henry James - The Ambassadors
Bought in February 1977 from the 2nd hand book store in the town where we then lived, but never as far as I can tell, read until now. One...
Jan 21, 20161 min read
371. Charity Norman - The New Woman
A library book via P, although probably a ‘woman’s book’, I loved this, beautifully written with a really well constructed plot – would...
Dec 13, 20151 min read
361. Justin Cartwright - Lion Heart
I think this guy is good. Hard to summarise this thematically, as there a multiple strands – Richard I’s attempt to recover the Cross...
Dec 5, 20151 min read
359. Karl Ove Knausgaard - A Death In The Family
I hated this at first; to say that Zola is prolix is unjust in the context of Knausgaard. The first 200 pages seemed to be a tedious...
Nov 1, 20151 min read
350. Patrick Gale - A Place Called Winter
Fond though I am of Patrick Gale, I didn’t like this much; too much gay proselytising, although he explains the genesis of the book (a...
Aug 29, 20151 min read
333. Kate Atkinson - A God In Ruins
As it is a library book, due back 5 September, I thought worth another read. It is actually quite an old fashioned novel, reminded me at...
Aug 25, 20151 min read
332. Kate Atkinson - A God In Ruins
What a wonderful title! And a wonderful book, possibly highlight of the year so far. The story of a family, largely a man, spanning the...
Aug 12, 20151 min read
328. Patrick Gale - Rough Music
This is another good book, but nothing like as good as no.327. It may be quite autobiographical (at least in its settings) and lacks the...
Aug 8, 20151 min read
327. Patrick Gale - Notes From An Exhibition
If I had to pick my favourite novel, I think this might be it. It is absolutely brilliant (I have put Jane Siberry on to type this up,...
Jun 17, 20151 min read
315. Émile Zola - The Fortune Of The Rougons
The first in the huge cycle of novels about this family and their antecedents. Thematically, this is the end of republicanism and...
Jun 14, 20151 min read
220. William Faulkner - The Sound And The Fury
Best serious holiday read so far. Never read any Faulkner before, but this, although difficult was very good, especially part two (out of...
May 31, 20151 min read
307. Émile Zola - A Love Episode
I wouldn’t have chosen this, but it is very difficult to navigate a Complete Works on a kindle. This is an odd book, about a widow with a...
Apr 5, 20151 min read
295. Katharine Norbury - The Fish Ladder
I read the first half of this thinking it was a novel with a rather slow start. It is difficult to say what sort of book it is – lots of...
Feb 17, 20151 min read
283. Elizabeth Jane Howard - All Change
The final book in the quintet; I wouldn’t have read this straightaway but had to spend four hours in the hospital waiting room yesterday...
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...