0268 | The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
Context: Weeded my mate’s allotment while reading this. REVIEW The final part of the Regeneration trilogy picks up with Billy Prior getting cleared to return to the front in France…
-
-
0265 | Regeneration – Pat Barker
Context: Read this while we visited our friends’ lovely house in Newcastle. REVIEW I’ve had this on my shelf for a very long time and imminent emigration to Papua New…
-
0264 | A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka
Context: England were justifiably knocked out of the World Cup while I was finishing this off. REVIEW Now this I enjoyed. Here’s a book that is perfect for someone…
-
0261 | The Lambs of London – Peter Ackroyd
Context: Finished this in the midst of scanning hundreds of photos wihle whittling stuff down to store for the next period of emigration. REVIEW For once, a book by…
-
0256 | Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Context: Finished this off as we were heading back in my sister’s car from another day out over the Easter holidays with her family who came to stay. REVIEW I’d…
-
0255 | Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar
Context: Read this as we visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Inside there was a statue commissioned by Hadrian of his lover, Antinous. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let me take a…
-
0253 | The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Context: Was reading this as we attended a wedding in Somerset. Someone had made a great model of the couple for the cake. REVIEW This is a rare book in…
-
0252 | Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
Context: Finished off while driving down to Reading to pick up the wife from a friend’s place. REVIEW The 1001 Books list has totally changed the way I read novels….
-
0250 | Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Context: finished this on my way down to Tesco’s to get myself some shopping. REVIEW Yet another Austen and, as I suspected, they’re starting to take on much of a…
-
0239 | She – H. Rider Haggard
Context: finished this off as we made a long and very snowy drive back from up north to Cambridge. REVIEW Influential in terms of its contribution to the sci-fi fantasy…
-
0238 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
Context: 2009 became 2010 while I was reading this. REVIEW I don’t read thrillers as a rule so, when I unwrapped this book on Christmas day, I was intrigued to…
-
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…
-
0224 | The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
Context: Visited the Christmas Fayre at Bury St Edmunds while reading this. REVIEW This is the second book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I read the first, Northern Lights…
-
0221 | Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Context: This was my toilet book at Field View. It’s amazing how much you get through on the loo and while brushing your teeth. REVIEW Take a ball, a lovers’…
-
0219 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Context: finished this off over a bowl of Weetabix at our friends’ house in High Wycombe. REVIEW I was round at a friend’s house this weekend and, in the hallway,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…