Search
Oct 13, 20181 min read
632. Nell Stevens - Mrs Gaskell And Me
A library book of Paddy's. Couldn’t entirely make this out – an eponymous (Nell Stevens) PhD student in London has a love affair which...
Sep 11, 20181 min read
621. Patrick Gale - Notes From An Exhibition
Re-read this on the plane and on arrival in Dubrovnik. One of my favourite books ever; I love the way he introduces the characters...
Aug 25, 20181 min read
619. Reginald Hill - Under World
Enjoyed no’s 597 and 615, so thought I would give Hill another go. This is the one where Ellie Pascoe comes close to having a Lady...
Aug 16, 20181 min read
617. Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire
This was very good, although I’d have enjoyed it more if: I had realised it was a reworking of Antigone and I had any knowledge of the...
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...
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 3, 20181 min read
589. Josephine Tey - The Franchise Affair
I quite like Josephine Tey, although this book had its longeurs. But it is well written and readable. The plot involves an elderly mother...
Apr 6, 20181 min read
583. Anthony Trollope - Barchester Towers
I have never read this before and perhaps because I am not in a very receptive phase didn’t enjoy it, although struggled to understand...
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...
Nov 11, 20171 min read
549. Helen Dunmore - Zennor In Darkness
I loved this; she said she likes to write about people on the periphery of major events so here we have a WW1 novel set in Zennor, just...
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...
Oct 21, 20171 min read
544. Ali Smith - Autumn
No 538 re-read before due back in the library. Brilliant, book of the year I think. No easier to follow 2nd time round, but brilliant...
Aug 10, 20171 min read
511. Thomas Hardy - Tess Of The d'Urbervilles
Triggered by 509; these Victorian (or maybe post in Hardy’s case) novelists are so prolix; 450 pages. The plot wasn’t that similar to...
Jul 27, 20171 min read
509. George Eliot - Adam Bede
I have never read this, and enjoyed it, perhaps, more than I expected. Eliot is a heavy themed writer, swinging between good quality...
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 7, 20161 min read
436. Katarina Bivald - The Readers Of Broken Wheel Recommend
This is a lovely book, totally different and beautifully constructed. A lonely young Swedish woman arrives in the run down Iowa town of...
Aug 17, 20161 min read
425. Edith Wharton - The Age Of Innocence
Another book unread (by me) since May 1977, when we bought it. I couldn’t (quite) get into it; it was good in parts, but the narrative...
Jul 29, 20161 min read
421. Chris Cleave - Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
Another library book via P. I am not reading at all fluently at the moment; this was quite a good book but I didn’t really enjoy it at...
Jun 15, 20161 min read
314. Émile Zola - Claude's Confession
Zola’s first published novel, a bildungsroman about a young man who shares a garret in Paris with a working girl, and cannot decide...