0384 | The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas
Context: Started this on my way down from Mt. Wilhelm, PNG’s highest peak. Paused at a stream to get my breath back. REVIEW This is a rollicking tale of derring-do,…
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0383 | The Children’s Book | A. S. Byatt
Context: Mrs Arukiyomi picked up a ton of great fruit at the market as I was finishing this off. REVIEW Not read any of Byatt’s work before although I have…
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0382 | That Hideous Strength | C. S. Lewis
Context: Moved into our fourth home in 2 years while I was reading this. REVIEW The final book in Lewis’ so-called space trilogy was a disappointment to me. At least…
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0381 | Evelina | Fanny Burney
Context: Listened to this as we encountered a landslide on the road to Mt Wilhelm, PNG’s highest peak (4507m)which the wife successfully climbed while I succumbed to altitude sickness at…
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0377 | The Sorrows of Young Werther | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Context: Messed around on one of the world’s great slip’n’slides while I was reading this. REVIEW Heard that this is one of the most accessible Goethe’s and so it made…
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0376 | The Book Thief | Markus Zusak
Context: Borrowed this from the house of a friend at Ukarumpa. REVIEW Heard a lot about this… all of it good… about how tear-jerking it is and its merits as…
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0375 | For the Term of His Natural Life | Marcus Clarke
Context: Started selling off stuff in preparation for moving out. Someone bought the house we’re renting. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted… REVIEW This was an unexpected page-turner….
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0374 | The Mysteries of Udolpho | Ann Radcliffe
Context: Started reading this on the last few days we had in Kokopo with its fabulous market – easily the best in PNG. REVIEW Boy that was awful. Awwwwwww. Ful….
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0372 | Gargantua & Pantagruel | François Rabelais
Context: Ironically, I started reading this just before we moved house, and I finished reading it just as we discovered we had to move out of the house we subsequently…
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0371 | Of Human Bondage | W. Somerset Maugham
Context: Finished this off the day that we hiked up Tavurvur, an active volcano just outside Rabaul surrounded by sea so hot it boiled! REVIEW The only Maugham I’ve tackled…
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0370 | At the Mountains of Madness | H.P. Lovecraft
Context: Just as I finished this off, one of our team members had to be medevaced from Kokopo back to our base in the Highlands. He seems to be better…
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0369 | Oscar and Lucinda | Peter Carey
Context: We visited a beach to the southeast of Kokopo while I was reading this. REVIEW This was a wonderful book from start to finish. Carey writes with great insight…
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0367 | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf
Context: We wandered down to the beach a number of times to watch the sun set over the volcanoes of Rabaul while I was reading this. REVIEW My sixth Woolf…
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0366 | Kristin Lavransdatter | Sigrid Undset
Context: I read this at home and as we have a paddock next door with horses and they feature widely in the novel, decided this would make a good context…
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0365 | Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson
Context: Listened to the librivox.org recording of this while I washed up over many nights. REVIEW Another rollicking adventure from the pen of RLS. I’ll be kind of glad not…
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0364 | Out of the Silent Planet | C. S. Lewis
Context: While I was reading this, we went next door to have dinner with some friends and their dog. REVIEW A colleague has this trilogy and highly recommended it so,…
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0363 | Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia | Samuel Johnson
Context: Got another pineapple out of the garden while I was reading this. Lovely! REVIEW Now here’s a wee tale that reads like a novelist’s version of the Biblical book…
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0362 | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists | Robert Tressell
Context: Was reading this when I visited PNG’s only shopping centre in Port Moresby. Saw a Huli warrior in the supemarket in full regalia! REVIEW Took me a long while…