0432 | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Maya Angelou
This was and wasn’t what I expected. I think I underestimated the historical context and so failed to appreciate the significance of the story I was being told. I found…
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0431 | All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy
This novel is probably the most evocative I think I’ve read out of North America. Hauntingly beautiful, tragic and yet reassuring too, the Texan and Mexican landscape lives and breathes…
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0423 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole
I was hoping this was going to be funnier than it was. It’s a satirical look at the USAnian way of life through the eyes of one of the great…
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0418 | The Great War for Civilisation | Robert Fisk
Like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this is the agonising tale of humanity bravely told. Fisk displays the full range of his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Middle East, knowledge…
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0414 | A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage | Abdellah Hammoudi
Right, I think it’s time to share the news with the faithful few who follow this blog: I’m off to Saudi Arabia in a few weeks to work teaching English…
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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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0406 | The Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman
This is by a long way the shortest item you’ll read on the 1001 books list. I’m not really sure why it was included at all in a list of…
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0395 | A Home at the End of the World | Michael Cunningham
Context: The second book I finished while we were staying in Port Vila, Vanuatu REVIEW Not read any Cunningham since The Hours waaaay back at review #0057 in September 2007….
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0390 | Main Street | Sinclair Lewis
Context: Finished this off while out on a day walking around Brisbane. New mp3 player so a new way of capturing images for the blog. REVIEW Babbitt was a book…
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0361 | The Talented Mr Ripley | Patricia Highsmith
Context: While reading this the 1001 App Facebook page got it’s 100th like. REVIEW Wow! This was some page-turner. Once you’re in there’s no escape, you just can’t wait to…
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0359 | Elizabeth Costello | J. M. Coetzee
Context: Finished this as Mrs Arukiyomi was hosting one of her popular cafes one Saturday. REVIEW This was a really strange novel. You can’t win the Nobel Prize without being…
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0349 | In a Free State | V. S. Naipaul
Context: Was reading this when I visited the National Orchid Garden of PNG outside Port Moresby. Amazing variety of the weirdest-looking flowers I’ve ever seen. REVIEW I don’t think I’ve…
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0345 | The Maltese Falcon | Dashiell Hammett
Context: Was reading this on the balcony and a huge moth had decided to take up residence on our tablecloth. REVIEW As far as US detective novels that I’ve read…
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0341 | The Thin Man | Dashiell Hammett
Context: Got some nice chairs to relax on for the veranda while reading this. REVIEW Not read any Hammett before but as soon as I hit the first line, I…
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0340 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes
Context: Just after I finished this off, a 7.3 earthquake with more explosive force than an atomic bomb smashed a pot in our living room from 100 miles away. REVIEW…
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0326 | On Beauty | Zadie Smith
Context: Started reading this as I prepared to go on a 320km bike ride through Western Province, PNG. REVIEW Definitely enjoyed this more than White Teeth and this is an…
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0323 | Moll Flanders | Daniel Defoe
Context: Finished this as the wife and I read by the first fire we made in our new house. REVIEW This is a quite remarkable novel for its time and…
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0319 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee
Context: Our gardener started a little veggie garden for us while I was reading this one. I kid you not but those beans were seeds FOUR days ago! REVIEW And…