0426 | The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes
This is a book about time and what it does to us. In particular, it’s about how time gives us a different perspective and how, horrifically, it can bring us…
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0426 | That They May Face the Rising Sun | John McGahern
Now I know what many are going to say on finishing this: ‘what the heck was that about? Where was the story? What was the point?’ And I have to…
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0425 | I’m OK, You’re OK | Thomas Harris
About fourteen billion years ago when I was a young child, I remember my mother had this book on my parents’ bookshelf. I remember three things about it. Firstly, it…
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0424 | The Secret Agent | Joseph Conrad
Been quite a while since I’ve read any Conrad. In fact, I started this back in about 2006 but never finished it. This time, I listened to it on Librivox…
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0423 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole
I was hoping this was going to be funnier than it was. It’s a satirical look at the USAnian way of life through the eyes of one of the great…
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0422 | Jude the Obscure | Thomas Hardy
My my, Hardy does it again. What an excellent novel, all the more so because of the personal price it cost him. In dealing with the subject of marriage and…
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0421 | Persuasion | Jane Austen
Well, having finished this, I’m persuaded that Austen is one of the most, if not the most, hyped authors of English literature. Yet again, we find a love triangle and,…
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0420 | Growth of the Soil | Knut Hamsun
The 1001 books list does it again and throws something superb my way. This one just crept into Arukiyomi’s Hall of Fame, a brooding saga of a novel with symbolism…
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0419 | The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Anne Brontë
I usually breathe a sigh of relief when I finish a “classic” like Wildfell Hall. I certainly did after Persuasion which I shall review shortly. But Anne’s classic has a…
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0418 | The Great War for Civilisation | Robert Fisk
Like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this is the agonising tale of humanity bravely told. Fisk displays the full range of his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Middle East, knowledge…
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0417 | Mastering Arabic Script | Wightwick & Gaafar
In preparation for heading out to Saudi to work, I started to teach myself Arabic. First thing to master is the beautiful script. My local library had a copy of…
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0416 | Novel with Cocaine | M. Ageyev
Very quick read this one and it’s been a while since I dipped my feet in Russian lit. This novel brought it all back to me and would be a…
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0415 | Henry VIII: King and Court | Alison Weir
There, in a charity shop, completely unblemished as in a proper bookshop, lay Weir’s encylopaedic description of one of the most magnificent courts of English royalty. And it was mine…
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0414 | A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage | Abdellah Hammoudi
Right, I think it’s time to share the news with the faithful few who follow this blog: I’m off to Saudi Arabia in a few weeks to work teaching English…
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0413 | Bring up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel
The second installment in Mantel’s chronicle of the life of Thomas Cromwell is as good, if not better, than the first. This trilogy is turning out to be a classic…
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The Spreadsheet Returns
It’s an historic day people: the spreadsheet is back after an 8 month absence. What’s new? Well, the clean and simple new look includes… all the changes since the new…
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0412 | Excellent Women | Barbara Pym
Never heard of Barbara Pym, let alone read anything by her. But she turned out to be a sardonically witty writer with a lot to say about life, particularly relationships…
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0411 | JavaScript: The Missing Manual | David Sawyer McFarland
Long, long ago, in a country far away, I attempted to teach myself JavaScript. I wasn’t really sure why I was doing it and that’s probably why I never finished…