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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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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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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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….
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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)…
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0392 | The River Between | Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Context: Was reading this when we climbed Mt Yasur in Vanuatu and watched it belch lava into the night. REVIEW This is a very important book and a pretty good…
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0391 | Alias Grace | Margaret Atwood
Context: Was reading this as we pulled into the island of Malaita on a ferry in the Solomon Islands. REVIEW Another Atwood down. She’s quickly becoming an okay author. But…
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0388 | Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel
Context: Recorded an album while I was reading this. REVIEW Now here’s a different kind of novel. Kind of. Mantel has refined her style to provide us with an intimate…
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0387 | L’Assommoir | Émile Zola
Context: Started reading this while I was staying in Kokopo, East New Britain for work. REVIEW If you want to know what life’s really like, I’m noticing that the later…
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0386 | The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle | Tobias Smollett
Context: Listened to Vol I of this on a boat from Masarau to Kokopo, East New Britain, PNG with the volcanoes of Rabaul in the distance. REVIEW I started off…