0239 | She – H. Rider Haggard
Context: finished this off as we made a long and very snowy drive back from up north to Cambridge. REVIEW Influential in terms of its contribution to the sci-fi fantasy…
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0237 | I’m Not Scared – Niccolo Ammaniti
Context: read while I was suffering from the worst cold I’ve had in years. REVIEW It begins with the discovery, by young Michele, of something horrific which is all his…
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0236 | The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
Context: Night fell on my day in bed while I finished this off – the fourth book in a day. Felt much better afterwards. REVIEW Not only has Hamid got…
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0234 | The Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille
Context: One of four books I finished in a day in bed in Stockton. Not feeling great. REVIEW This is a disturbing book. Of that, there is no doubt. Quite…
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0233 | The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Context: The first book I finished on my new Sony Reader. Read while the snow melted on the new housing estate foundations they’re building over the road. Thi REVIEW This…
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0232 | Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren
Context: Got this for my niece for Christmas… when, unusually, I got a stocking from the mother-in-law. REVIEW This is one of the few books on the list which a…
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0231 | Flaubert’s Parrot – Julian Barnes
Context: As I was reading this, it started snowing in the UK… and it went on an on for days. First white Christmas we’ve had for years. REVIEW This is…
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0230 | The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
Context: Finished this off while I was attending the first workshop of the Oral Literature Project at Cambridge University. REVIEW Another tale of woe from Wharton. I can forgive anyone…
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0229 | The Waves – Virginia Woolf
Context: Mrs Arukiyomi made some great flower decorations for her parents’ anniversary while I was reading this. REVIEW Wow wow wow wow. What an amaaaaazing book. It’s in fact the…
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0226 | The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro
Context: We got and started opening a chocolate advent calendar while I was finishing this off. REVIEW This is one of the strangest books I’ve read in a long time….
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0225 | Marks of Identity – Juan Goytisolo
Context: Had to break out the hot water bottle on more than one occasion while reading this. It’s getting cold here. REVIEW Now the 1001 Books list has its critics….
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0223 | The Coast Watchers – Eric Feldt
Context: finished this off at the desk where I’m doing my research job downstairs at 77 Field View. REVIEW This book tells the story of the Coast Watchers, a group…
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0222 | Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Context: finished this off while doing weights. Jogging’s on hold as my left hamstring recovers from a slight strain. REVIEW Okonkwo is a man who doesn’t do things by halves….
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0221 | Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Context: This was my toilet book at Field View. It’s amazing how much you get through on the loo and while brushing your teeth. REVIEW Take a ball, a lovers’…
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0220 | The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy
Context: Read this as our landlady’s pumpkin decayed slowly in the garden. REVIEW Hard-hitting crime writing doesn’t come much better written than this. Ellroy takes up where writers like Chandler…
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0219 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Context: finished this off over a bowl of Weetabix at our friends’ house in High Wycombe. REVIEW I was round at a friend’s house this weekend and, in the hallway,…
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0216 | Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton
Context: I bought myself a nice reflective yellow top to wear jogging while I listened to this in autumn’s gathering gloom. REVIEW I really like Wharton. This is the third…
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0214 | Candide – Voltaire
Context: Listened to this all the way back from taking my dad 2 hours to Heathrow Airport in driving rain and heavy traffic. REVIEW Way back in the 18th century,…