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Jul 13, 20231 min read
1078. Torrey Peters - Detransition Baby
Featured on Radio 4’s ‘A Good Read’, a novel about transsexuals in New York. There were points of interest but the subject didn’t really...
Aug 8, 20221 min read
1003. Dawnie Walton - The Final Revival Of Opal & Nev
Very different and quite strange. A fictionalised documentary history of a singing duo, Nev a brummie who escapes to the US to pursue...
Mar 22, 20221 min read
958. Colm Toibin - Brooklyn
I found this very slight. An Irish girl, struggling to find work in her hometown, goes to New York at the instigation of her local...
Mar 7, 20221 min read
954. Alison Lurie - Real People
I enjoyed this although it started slowly and ponderously. Illyria is a country estate, somewhere near New York, to which leading artists...
Feb 18, 20221 min read
948. Henry James - Washington Square
A serious and classic novel in response to the above thoughts; I am not sure if I have read this before, although we bought it in 1978!...
Feb 26, 20211 min read
849. R. J. Ellory - City Of Lies
This could have been called 'Gangs of New York', but I think someone else got there first. A long and at times hard work book. The...
Jul 22, 20191 min read
698. Ed McBain - Kings Ransom
Insomniac night after finishing 697, grabbed another short book from the (crime) bookshelf. Despite, I think, what people would say,...
Apr 12, 20191 min read
676. Ed McBain - Nocturne
McBain is a very good writer and I have lots of his books on the bookcase, which I haven’t read for years. I have wasted a lot of money...
Mar 17, 20191 min read
668. Ed McBain - Romance
Mc Bain is undoubtedly a clever writer and the general ‘police procedurals’ summary masks this. Here we have a play within a play within...
Mar 2, 20191 min read
664. Ed McBain - Long Time No See
A midnight flit downstairs to find a book having finished 663 at 83% on the kindle; an annoying habit of the modern publishing industry...
Sep 13, 20181 min read
622. Hubert Selby Jr - Last Exit To Brooklyn
Emergency purchase at WH Smiths in Gatwick, as kindle won’t accept my card for some reason. Wildly controversial at the time, now perhaps...
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...
May 16, 20181 min read
592. A. J. Finn - The Woman In The Window
The 2nd long library book in 4 days. This one was much better written than the last, although I was disappointed by the ending. A woman...
Jun 19, 20171 min read
502. David Mark - Cruel Mercy
The 6th DS McAvoy book. This one was certainly different; set not in Hull but New York, and with a splenetic plot involving the Mafia,...
Jan 14, 20171 min read
460. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
A Christmas best seller for middle aged men (I am told). I thought this was very good; Springsteen is a pretty honest guy, not at all...
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...
May 12, 20161 min read
398. Philip Rosenberg - Tygers Of Wrath
Another attic book. Started this before no.395 as it and the next three were all library books. This was OK, but had a very slow start. A...
Feb 21, 20161 min read
379. William Boyd - Sweet Caress
Very readable, but a little similar to other (I think W Boyd) books; the 20th century seen through the developing life of an individual....
Oct 16, 20151 min read
345. Elizabeth Strout - The Burgess Boys
P enjoyed this, but I didn’t much. You can tell it is a ‘good quality’ novel, but I just didn’t warm to it. The Burgess' are a couple of...
Oct 11, 20151 min read
344. Lawrence Block - A Dance At The Slaughterhouse
A lot more fun than Conrad, despite the title. Block writes a very good story and Matt Scudder is an interesting character. The ending is...