0136 | Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Context: flowers from Kathy for Mrs Arukiyomi’s birthday which were decorating our room as I read this. REVIEW While everyone else was reading this in my childhood, I was tucking…
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0135 | In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
Context: Everyone was wrapping presents for Christmas while I read this. Lots of book-like shapes with my name on them there! REVIEW A fine piece of reportage which is only…
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0134 | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
Context: read this in bits while watching Roy Keane equalise for Liverpool against Arsenal with the father-in-law. REVIEW On p161 out of the 176 pages of this novella, Winterton states…
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0133 | Christ Stopped at Eboli – Carlo Levi
Context: Read this in the tea shop of Reed’s in Downham Market with the in-law’s on the way to Susan’s funeral. REVIEW This is Captain Corelli’s Mandolin meets Walden if…
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0132 | Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Context: Finished this off just after we celebrated Mrs Arukiyomi’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. REVIEW An amazing book, made all the more poignant by the fact that it was her…
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0131 | Waterland – Graham Swift
Context: Read large parts of this while doing a loooong backup on my laptop. REVIEW Now this is an interesting book. It’s interesting because, as far as I know, it’s…
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0130 | One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Context: Failed to finish this as I was working through the final modules of my survey course. REVIEW Pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants,…
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0129 | The Magus – John Fowles
Context: Read often with a bit of nourishment at Wycliffe. REVIEW When Arukiyomi was a mere early teen, he read The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Didn’t understand it much but liked…
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0128 | The Cider House Rules – John Irving
Context: Finished this (first edition) off the day we made a massive £7 at a car boot sale. REVIEW I really liked this but had a really hard time trying…
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0127 | Suite Française – Irène Némirovsky
Context: Read this as we celebrated 14 years married and got some flowers from the in-laws. REVIEW A moving and powerful account made all the more poignant by the background…
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0126 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Context: Finished this as we prepared to do some car-boot sales to get rid of stuff prior to moving to PNG. REVIEW My second Kundera novel after The Book of…
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0125 | Seize the Day – Saul Bellow
Context: Finished this off in an afternoon in my room at the Wycliffe centre. REVIEW Wow. Little books (127 pages in my edition from the 50s) can certainly pack some…
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0124 | The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
Context: Finished off this on my bed at the Wycliffe centre. REVIEW An amazing book that, for a first novel, is a great feat of literature. There’s so much going…
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0123 | Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac
Context: Finished this off in bed at the in-laws’ REVIEW Never read any Balzac but certainly will do again. This is a lovely period piece that gives you a great…
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0122 | American Pastoral – Philip Roth
Context: Finished this off on my bed as a migraine kicked in. REVIEW It’s going to be a while before I read another “classic American novel.” One of the few…
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0121 | A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines
Context: Read this as I hitch-hiked into and back from Cambridge. REVIEW This is a novel that many people have had spoiled as it is, or at least used to…
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0120 | Indigo – Marina Warner
If you’re here looking for v4 of the spreadsheet then you’re following a bad link I accidentally posted on the web. The new version of the spreadsheet is HERE If…
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0119 | Villette – Charlotte Bronte
Context: Finished off in the garden while housesitting for some friends. REVIEW Forget Jane Eyre. Yes, I said forget her. There is such a huge chasm of difference between these…