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Feb 16, 20221 min read
947. Adam O'Riordan - The Falling Thread
Pleased that the local library is open again post lockdown; I am probably borrowing too many books, and the choices there are quite...
Aug 6, 20211 min read
882. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell To Arms
I enjoyed this more than I expected. I can’t see anything special about his prose style. But I enjoyed this as a novel about an American...
May 13, 20211 min read
859. Tracy Chevalier - A Single Thread
Bought this by mistake, as P already has a copy and I read it 18 months ago. But I like Chevalier and it is quite a good book. About a...
Jul 24, 20201 min read
801. Jojo Moyes - The Girl You Left Behind
A real curate’s egg, if that is the right expression. Half (or less page wise) is set in France in 1916 and reminded me a lot of...
Feb 3, 20201 min read
747. George Orwell - Coming Up For Air
This was on the radio and bits of it were set quite locally in Binfield, so I thought I would give it a go. Bits I liked, for instance...
Dec 6, 20191 min read
734. Ken Follett - The Man From St. Petersburg
An Xmas present from Cristina next door, who is I think a fan and may even have met the guy. Very good, not the sort of book or writer I...
Oct 5, 20191 min read
719. Tracey Chevalier - A Single Thread
One of Paddy’s and this was brilliant. Set in the early 1930’s and about a 38 year old spinster whose intended had been killed the 1st...
Apr 25, 20191 min read
678. Jaroslav Hasek - The Good Soldier Svejk
Obviously having my own Prague spring as this was inspired by 677 above, and apart from Kafka, Hasek is the major Prague writer from the...
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...
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...
Jan 31, 20151 min read
279. Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Light Years
Never read this, or any of her books, before. Huge cast of characters, introduced in short ensemble sketches, so very difficult to...
Nov 21, 20141 min read
263. Charles Emmerson - 1913
Another birthday present; this one from Patrick Stephenson. This is a geographical/historical picture, city by major city, of the world...
Nov 23, 20131 min read
165. William Boyd - Waiting For Sunrise
Wonderful! Boyd is fast becoming my favourite modern English novelist. I have read this before (don’t know whether an earlier reading is...
Oct 31, 20132 min read
159. William Boyd - An Ice-Cream War
My other birthday book! I read this years ago, enjoyed it, and couldn't find it on Amazon for the kindle, hence the paperback purchase. I...
Oct 18, 20131 min read
156. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell To Arms
Took me all week to read this, because I began the week trying to read 'Mary Barton' by Mrs. Gaskell. I seem to have had a fall out with...
Nov 8, 20121 min read
53. Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger's Child
Never read any of his before. Enjoyed it but it was long. Why are all the characters (nearly all-male) gay? Even the central female...