0185 | Thank You, Jeeves – P.G.Wodehouse
Context: On the bookshelf along with this were several other first edition Wodehouse hardbacks, some with very good dustjackets from the 1930s. Lovely. REVIEW I couldn’t help thinking of Huxley’s…
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0181 | Under Milk Wood – Dylan Thomas
Context: One of the books on the bookshelf in our bedroom at our new place in Bar Hill. REVIEW This only takes about thirty minutes to read from cover to…
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0180 | The Information | Martin Amis
Context: Finished this off just after a shopping trip to Tesco’s where I got two free blocks of cheese (always complain politely!) REVIEW Recently, I read The Old Devils by…
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0179 | Embers – Sándor Márai
Context: First fiction I’ve borrowed from a British library in well over a decade. Got this one the day I joined Bar Hill library. REVIEW This is the story of…
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0178 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Context: We listened to this in the car over weeks and weeks. Less than twenty minutes after we finished, the car’s engine died and had to be scrapped. REVIEW Murakami…
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0177 | The House on the Borderland – William Hope Hodgson
Context: Listened to this from librivox.org as we moved from Piddington back to Bar Hill. REVIEW Get a good look at that cover because that’s as scary as this ‘tale…
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0148 | Hard Times – Charles Dickens
Context: Read this mostly on my way to and from work along this farmer’s track. REVIEW This is a shorter novel than most Dickens I’ve read but it still contained…
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0144 | Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
Context: Moving house again, this time to a room in a lovely house in Piddington. REVIEW Never read any du Maurier so wasn’t sure what to expect from this. I…
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0143 | Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
Context: Snow outside, great fire, comfy sofa, cosy pub, pint of Bulmers -wonderful. Shame the book was pants. REVIEW As with Heart of Darkness, I found this a labour to…
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0137 | The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick
Context: this was a gift for my niece which I read before placing under the tree for our belated Christmas celebration. REVIEW Selznick really cares that children capture the beauty…
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0127 | Suite Française – Irène Némirovsky
Context: Read this as we celebrated 14 years married and got some flowers from the in-laws. REVIEW A moving and powerful account made all the more poignant by the background…
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0122 | American Pastoral – Philip Roth
Context: Finished this off on my bed as a migraine kicked in. REVIEW It’s going to be a while before I read another “classic American novel.” One of the few…
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0118 | Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
Context: Finished this off on my in-laws’ decking in the garden. REVIEW For a long time I’ve been wanting to get my hands on the first book in His Dark…
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0116 | Hind’s Feet on High Places – Hannah Hurnard
Context: Read this a chapter as a time as part of my daily devotional and finished it on the plane back from Portugal to the UK. REVIEW This is one…
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0112 | The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
Context: Read this in a day and finished it with the cat next to me in the study at my mum’s place in Portugal. REVIEW Poignant, evocative, thought-provoking and strong….
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0111 | Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
Context: Finished off in the garden of my mum’s house in Portugal. REVIEW I’d read a bit of Ackroyd’s non-fiction as well before this and know that while he can…
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0068 | Enduring Love ~ Ian McEwan
REVIEW My first McEwan and it won’t be the last. This guy can write a very engrossing novel.
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0066 | Trainspotting ~ Irvine Welsh
REVIEW This was an amazing read. It’s violent, offensive, stomach-churning, tragic and yet somehow, under all this, deeply poignant.