0213 | The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
Context: Finished this off on a run through the autumn leaves reminiscent of the red weed. REVIEW As a young teenager I was fascinated by Jeff Wayne’s musical version of…
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0212 | The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain
Context: finished off a huge bar of Dairy Milk while reading this. Thought I’d better get some before Cadbury’s stops being British forever… REVIEW This is a definitive novel. There’s…
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0211 | Another World – Pat Barker
Context: Started reading this as we browsed charity shops in Cambridge. By the next day I’d finished it and had some more books to add to my groaning shelves. REVIEW…
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0210 | The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Context: Read this as we walked the South West Coast Path for four days for our 15th wedding anniversary. REVIEW Collins practically invented the whodunnit and this is his first…
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0209 | Fathers & Sons – Ivan Turgenev
Context: finished this off on a 2 mile run with a lovely sunset and autumn breeze in my face. REVIEW I’ve not read a Russian novel that has disappointed me….
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0208 | What I Loved – Siri Hustvedt
Context: Did my first ever work on a car engine while reading this. I replaced the rocker gasket. Now I feel like a real man! REVIEW Now, I’ve read a…
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0203 | The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Context: Read this while we visited the SIL base at Ukarumpa in PNG and stayed in this house. REVIEW Edith’s own unhappy marriage and explorations of marital crises in Ethan…
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0202 | Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
Context: Read this at the Ukarumpa SIL base while I was visiting the LCORE building and doing some language database work. REVIEW I never did discover, while reading this, just…
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0201 | A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
Context: Read this as we visited the orientation course base at Nobnob, just outside Madang in Papua New Guinea. REVIEW Long, long ago, when I didn’t read novels but thought…
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0200 | The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
Context: Read this on Holloways Beach, just north of Cairns as we settled into the sand for a day. REVIEW A true war story is never moral. It does not…
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0199 | Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham
Context: Was reading this by the side of the pool at our host’s place when we couchsurfed Cairns. REVIEW What name beginning with W could possibly be so bad that…
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0198 | The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Context: Finished this off the day we went into Perth taking our friends’ bikes to cycle around King’s Park and the Swan River. REVIEW Never read any Oscar Wilde but,…
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0197 | To Have and Have Not – Ernest Hemingway
Context: finished this on our AirAsiaX flight from Stansted to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian food was lovely. REVIEW This is not a well-known Hemingway as far as I’m aware. Nevertheless, it’s…
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0195 | The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
Context: Broke the back of this one whilst outside in the garden reading on some deceptively comfortable garden furniture. REVIEW Philip Roth’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel American Pastoral didn’t really do…
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0194 | Silas Marner – George Eliot
Context: Listened to this walking around Cambridge trying to find a decent pair of sandals for our trip to Papua New Guinea. REVIEW Only read Middlemarch before by Eliot although…
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0193 | The Radiant Way – Margaret Drabble
Context: Finished this off in a brand new armchair at my mate’s house. Gorgeous chair from Marks & Spencers. Perfect for reading in. REVIEW Fifty pages into this, I was…
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0192 | August is a Wicked Month – Edna O’Brien
Context: Read this while I waited for Barry to come and cut the church hedge with me. Incidentally, this is where I married Mrs Arukiyomi nearly 15 years ago. REVIEW…
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0190 | Smiley’s People – John le Carré
Context: Got my first cold in a year and a half just as I finished this off. I should have been reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold!…