0410 | The House of the Seven Gables | Nathaniel Hawthorne
Only read The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne before and I enjoyed that. This though, was another story. It started well enough with a Poe-like sense of mystery and doom foretold….
-
-
0409 | Behind the Beautiful Forevers | Katherine Boo
Saw this reviewed in The Guardian and as it reminded me of Lapierre’s City of Joy kind of mixed in with A Fine Balance, I thought I couldn’t go wrong…
-
0408 | Pamela | Samuel Richardson
Start to finish: badly-written, moralising drivel. If this book hadn’t been as influential as it had been, this would probably have received my lowest rating. It did however prove inspirational…
-
0407 | The Nice and the Good | Iris Murdoch
I’m not getting on too well with Iris Murdoch. Under the Net went pretty much over my head. The Bell was a good read. And this one falls somewhere in…
-
0406 | The Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman
This is by a long way the shortest item you’ll read on the 1001 books list. I’m not really sure why it was included at all in a list of…
-
0405 | Saturday | Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan’s books fall into two categories for me: those that start superbly and kind of taper off (Atonement, Enduring Love) and those that start well and end well (Amsterdam,…
-
0404 | Storm of Steel | Ernst Jünger
Nice to finish off the year as I began it with a book I’m happy to rate as ‘excellent’. This is a remarkable book for so many reasons. Firstly, it’s…
-
0403 | A Bend in the River | V. S. Naipaul
Context: Visited a certain opera house while reading this. Can’t remember where it was now… 😉 REVIEW Another Naipaul down. Not as good as In a Free State which I…
-
0402 | Londonistan | Melanie Phillips
Context: Went for many long walks through Ropner Park in Stockton-on-Tees around the time I was reading this. Many hard decisions to make. REVIEW This is not a relaxing read….
-
0401 | The Mayor of Casterbridge | Thomas Hardy
Context: Finished this off in Argyle Sqaure, Bloomsbury, London while I was in London for my brother-in-law’s wedding. REVIEW Haven’t tackled Hardy for a while. I found the last effort…
-
0400 | In the Heart of the Seas | Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Context: Finished this off while lying on a new memory foam topper that I bought for our bed. Mmmmmemory foooooaaaaaammmmmm! REVIEW Here’s a strange book. I spent most of this…
-
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…
-
0397 | Confessions | Jean Jacques Rousseau
Context: Listened to this while we were travelling between Brisbane and Sydney. REVIEW It was radical at the time. It isn’t now. Now we can hardly stop public figures from…
-
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….