0262 | Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
Context: Took this on an 8 mile walk around Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire when we stopped for a pub lunch. REVIEW Everyone’s seen at least one of the Bond…
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0259 | Bel Ami – Guy de Maupassant
Context: Finished this off as we visited some friends in Cleveland, Ohio. REVIEW This book spirals downwards in a debilitating circle of debauchery as George Duroy aims to satsify his…
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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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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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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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0215 | 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour – Joseph E. Persico
Context: Finished this off, appropriately, on Remembrance Sunday here in the UK. This morning we’d attended the Remembrance Service at our local church. REVIEW My mate Gareth lent me this…
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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,…
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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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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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0206 | Neither Here nor There – Bill Bryson
Context: on the shelf at our friends’ place in Dubai so I thought I’d give it a go. REVIEW Read a lot of Bryson and I have to say that…
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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!…
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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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0123 | Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac
Context: Finished this off in bed at the in-laws’ REVIEW Never read any Balzac but certainly will do again. This is a lovely period piece that gives you a great…
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0119 | Villette – Charlotte Bronte
Context: Finished off in the garden while housesitting for some friends. REVIEW Forget Jane Eyre. Yes, I said forget her. There is such a huge chasm of difference between these…
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0047 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ~ John Le Carre
REVIEW Not read an overt spy novel before. Never read any Carre either. Not sure I’ll read either anytime soon…
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0039 | The Book of Laughter & Forgetting – Milan Kundera
If you enjoyed this book, you’re going to love the map. REVIEW Erm… if anyone can enlighten me on what it is I’ve just read, I’d be more than grateful….