0399 | Mary Barton | Elizabeth Gaskell
Context: Sorted out a load of scrap metal from my late father-in-law’s old office while listening to this. REVIEW My first Gaskell was a bit of an unexpected page turner…
-
-
0398 | The Secret River | Kate Grenville
Context: The first book I read back in the UK where I could finally avail myself of the wonders of ordering books for free at a library… mmmmmm! REVIEW As…
-
0396 | A Sentimental Journey | Laurence Sterne
Context: Was spending a relaxing day at Byron Bay, New South Wales when I started reading this. REVIEW Apparently there’s a movement in literature (and probably elsewhere in the arts)…
-
0395 | A Home at the End of the World | Michael Cunningham
Context: The second book I finished while we were staying in Port Vila, Vanuatu REVIEW Not read any Cunningham since The Hours waaaay back at review #0057 in September 2007….
-
0394 | Doctor Zhivago | Boris Pasternak
Context: One of a couple of books I read while we stayed in Port Vila, Vanuatu with this amazing view of the harbour from our veranda. REVIEW Being Russian, this…
-
0393 | Tarzan of the Apes | Edgar Rice Burroughs
Context: kids jumping into an azure lagoon in Vanuatu provided a perfect backdrop for this book! REVIEW I thought this was going to be hard going and a difficult read….
-
0392 | The River Between | Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Context: Was reading this when we climbed Mt Yasur in Vanuatu and watched it belch lava into the night. REVIEW This is a very important book and a pretty good…
-
0391 | Alias Grace | Margaret Atwood
Context: Was reading this as we pulled into the island of Malaita on a ferry in the Solomon Islands. REVIEW Another Atwood down. She’s quickly becoming an okay author. But…
-
0390 | Main Street | Sinclair Lewis
Context: Finished this off while out on a day walking around Brisbane. New mp3 player so a new way of capturing images for the blog. REVIEW Babbitt was a book…
-
0389 | Shirley | Charlotte Brontë
Context: Was reading this when we took a final walk up the hills around Ukarumpa before leaving PNG. REVIEW This completed my reading of the canon of Charlotte Brontë’s completed …
-
0388 | Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel
Context: Recorded an album while I was reading this. REVIEW Now here’s a different kind of novel. Kind of. Mantel has refined her style to provide us with an intimate…
-
0387 | L’Assommoir | Émile Zola
Context: Started reading this while I was staying in Kokopo, East New Britain for work. REVIEW If you want to know what life’s really like, I’m noticing that the later…
-
0386 | The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle | Tobias Smollett
Context: Listened to Vol I of this on a boat from Masarau to Kokopo, East New Britain, PNG with the volcanoes of Rabaul in the distance. REVIEW I started off…
-
0384 | The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas
Context: Started this on my way down from Mt. Wilhelm, PNG’s highest peak. Paused at a stream to get my breath back. REVIEW This is a rollicking tale of derring-do,…
-
0383 | The Children’s Book | A. S. Byatt
Context: Mrs Arukiyomi picked up a ton of great fruit at the market as I was finishing this off. REVIEW Not read any of Byatt’s work before although I have…
-
0382 | That Hideous Strength | C. S. Lewis
Context: Moved into our fourth home in 2 years while I was reading this. REVIEW The final book in Lewis’ so-called space trilogy was a disappointment to me. At least…
-
0381 | Evelina | Fanny Burney
Context: Listened to this as we encountered a landslide on the road to Mt Wilhelm, PNG’s highest peak (4507m)which the wife successfully climbed while I succumbed to altitude sickness at…
-
0377 | The Sorrows of Young Werther | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Context: Messed around on one of the world’s great slip’n’slides while I was reading this. REVIEW Heard that this is one of the most accessible Goethe’s and so it made…