2023

  1. 22/03/2023 All by: John Banville - Read: April in Spain by John Banville ★★★★☆ 📚 Slowly building up a few different threads that come together quickly. A lot of fun from the characters as opposed to the plot. …
  2. 16/03/2023 All by: Octavia E. Butler - Read: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler ★★★☆☆ 📚 A wee bit to young-adult for me to love. I enjoyed reading it in a fairly relaxed way. As much as you an enjoy the apocalypse. …
  3. 09/03/2023 All by: Rachel Cusk - Read: Outline by Rachel Cusk ★★★★☆📚 An author has a series of revealing conversations. Some short some over a few days. Not sure why this is so readable? …
  4. 25/02/2023 All by: deer, Jenna Watt, rewilding, Soctland - Read: Hindsight: In Search of Lost Wilderness by Jenna Watt ★★★★☆ 📚 Stimulating investigation deer in Scotland, rewilding, green lairds and the like. Fitted well with the recent episode of Scotland outdoors. Female ecologists & stalkers. A first stalk by the author. …
  5. 09/02/2023 All by: Kirsty Logan - Read: Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan ★★★☆☆ 📚 Fantasy history, witch hunts, plague. Some unexpected twists and reveals. …
  6. 01/02/2023 All by: Antal Szerb - Read: Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb ★★★★☆ 📚 Somewhat rambling, dreamy & hypnotic tale of a newly married couple who almost immediately split. The various Hungarians wander through Italy & Paris cross paths and each other, developing, or not, in different ways. …
  7. 18/01/2023 All by: Madeline Miller - Read: Galatea by Madeline Miller ★★★☆☆ 📚 Short, Pygmalion retold. Not The Song of Achilles or Circe. …
  8. 14/01/2023 All by: Donna Tartt - Read: The Secret History by Donna Tartt ★★★★★ 📚 A re-read. Still brilliant. A cast of over privileged young poseurs’ arrogance leads to murder and their panic to another. The consequences play out. All followed by the less wealthy narrator, who is dragged in and down by his fascination. …
  9. 11/01/2023 All by: Shehan Karunatilaka, ★★★★★ - Read: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka ★★★★★ 📚 Great read. I know almost nothing about Sri Lanka. Surprisingly touching given the setting, the after life, a world of ghosts & demons many the result of political killings. …
  10. 06/01/2023 All by: Simon Mawer, ★★★★ - Read: Swimming to Ithaca by Simon Mawer ★★★★☆ 📚 Historian discovers his mother's past in Cyprus during the 50s, intrigue, secrets and spies. I rather disliked the main character but it didn't stop me enjoying book. …

2022

  1. 23/12/2022 All by: Jean Rhys, ★★★★ - Read: The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ★★★★☆ 📚 Hot sweaty, feverish & confusing, unreliable narrators & characters, pickled by heat and rum. …
  2. 17/12/2022 All by: Helen Dunmore, ★★★★ - Read: A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore ★★★★☆ 📚 Broken characters crumble with the house. Lyrical countryside.  The young ones grow wild. Relationships are awkward or too intense. The first world war appears out of nowhere. …
  3. 30/11/2022 All by: Raymond Chandler, ★★★★ - Read: The High Window by Raymond Chandler ★★★★☆ 📚 One of a few comfort re-reads. Always enjoy Chandler despite some dated attitudes. This one has the usual slick chat, lots of smoking and a tangled web. “Moist eyes with the sympathetic expression of wet stones” …
  4. 21/11/2022 All by: Sara Baume, ★★★★★ - Read seven steeples by Sara Baume ★★★★★ 📚 October mornings peeled the night cloud back to its subcutaneous lilac tissue. The leaves earned their name by leaving the trees. A couple drop out and slowly dissolve into nature. Dreamy poetic prose. …
  5. 15/11/2022 All by: Val McDermid, ★★★ - Read: A Darker Domain by Val McDermid ★★★☆☆ 📚 …
  6. 11/11/2022 All by: Daphne du Maurier, ★★★★ - Read: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier ★★★★☆ Oh what fun. I was caught up. Great ambiguous ending. …
  7. 01/11/2022 All by: Fíona Scarlett, ★★★★ - Read: Boys Don't Cry by Fíona Scarlett ★★★★☆ 📚 This one nearly did. Emotional story of two young brothers, I dying of cancer the other getting mixed up in crime. Slightly confusing ending. …
  8. 30/10/2022 All by: Liu Cixin, ★★★ - Read: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin ★★★☆☆ 📚 I found the Cultural Revolution section interesting, the detective predictable, the physics and harder sci-fi lost me. I did finish it though. …
  9. 25/10/2022 All by: Ali Smith, ★★★★ - Read: Autumn by Ali Smith ★★★★☆ 📚 Partly a lovely story about the relationship between a girl who becomes a young woman and an old man who gets older. Dreams, time, reputation. I am sure much went over my head but I loved this. …
  10. 19/10/2022 All by: Alan Garner, ★★★ - Read: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner ★★★☆☆ 📚 Short full of allegory, symbolism & english folklore, most of which I am sure I missed, but I enjoyed listening to the strange dialect & nonsense words. …
  11. 19/10/2022 All by: Sarah Moss, ★★★★ - Read: The Fell by Sarah Moss ★★★★☆ 📚I love how Sarah Moss gets inside her characters internal dialogue. Glad I take my phone & leave note of where I go when walking! …
  12. 15/10/2022 All by: Andrea Camilleri, ★★★ - Read: Riccardino by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (Translator) ★★★☆☆ 📚 Montalbano fades out… …
  13. 09/10/2022 All by: Andrew Greig, ★★★★★ - Read: Rose Nicolson by Andrew Greig ★★★★★ 📚 Scottish History the 1570s, a period I am ignorant of. Glad to get an entertaining education & hints of what to search Wikipedia for. Fair bit of Scots, a tale of a furniture dealer, poet, scholar & courtier. Exciting as Stevenson. …
  14. 08/10/2022 All by: Michael Longley - Reading: Angel Hill by Michael Longley Swallows From their precarious nest-cup The swallows whitewash our turf-stack. When we set fire to their excrement They will be crossing the Sahara. Michael Longley …
  15. 02/10/2022 All by: Audrey Magee, ★★★★ - Read: The Colony by Audrey Magee ★★★★☆ 📚 engrossing exploration of colonisation & its woes in Ireland. 1979 adventures of an English artist & French linguist appropriating, each in their own way, the culture of an Irish isle are interspersed with reports of death in the north. …
  16. 02/10/2022 All by: Elizabeth Strout, ★★★ - Read: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout ★★★☆☆ 📚 I think I liked this better than the original Lucy and not nearly as much as the Olive books. I think I prefer her older characters. …
  17. 27/09/2022 All by: Pat Barker, ★★★ - Read: The Woman of Troy by Pat Barker ★★★☆☆ …
  18. 11/09/2022 All by: Emily St. John Mandel, ★★★★★ - Read: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 📚★★★★★ Amazing multi viewpoint story. Writing had me invested in each of the diverse characters as they came into focus. Then their stories slowly fitted together. Beautiful. Really catches the way people imagine different lives. …
  19. 09/09/2022 All by: Claire Keegan, ★★★★★ - Read: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚 ★★★★★ A beautiful wee book that drew me in quietly & has stuck in my mind. Ireland 1985, A gentle slightly troubled man digs deep. "Hunters in the Snow" on the cover seems fitting as the village approaches a snowy Christmas. …
  20. 03/09/2022 All by: Ian Rankin, ★★★ - Read: In the House of Lies by Ian Rankin ★★★☆☆ 📚 Usual enjoyable stuff Rebus retired and sticking his nose in. …
  21. 13/08/2022 All by: Andrea Camilleri, ★★★ - Read: The Terracotta dog, by Andrea Camilleri ★★★☆☆ 📚 Another Montalbano, easy read, and 99p. The food is the best part. I might read a more recent one to see how things develop and call it quits with this series for a while. …
  22. 11/08/2022 All by: Kiran Millwood Hargrave, ★★★ - Read: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave ★★★☆☆ 📚 Really interesting setting & background, remote 1600s Norway & witch hunting following the pattern of King James. The story flowed along but no real surprises. …
  23. 08/08/2022 All by: Andrea Camilleri, ★★★ - Read: The Shape of Water, by Andrea Camilleri ★★★☆☆ 📚 Turns out I must have read this years ago. And seen the episode of the T.V. series I think. A light read somewhat non-woke language here and there, mouthwatering food descriptions. …
  24. 07/08/2022 All by: Lan Samantha Chang, ★★★★★ - Read: The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang ★★★★★ 📚 Really loved this engaging & exciting book. Set in the Midwest in a family run Chinese restaurant using The Brothers Karamazov as a template in a brilliant way. Food to die for, familial murder, racism & the American dream. …
  25. 04/08/2022 All by: ★★★ - Read: Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman ★★★☆☆ 📚 Good fun Georgian mystery, no great suprises. …
  26. 31/07/2022 All by: Blake Crouch, ★★★ - Read: Upgrade by Blake Crouch 📚★★★☆☆ Climate change, gene editing, upgrades for humans. So fast paced you don't really think about possible plot holes. Very much a page turner. …
  27. 29/07/2022 All by: Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney, ★★★ - Read: The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin 📚★★★☆☆ Mcllvanney left half a manuscript, finished by Ian Rankin. Good page turner. Especially enjoyable for the 1972 Glasgow setting, chain smoking, pints & whisky in pretty rough pubs. The hero travels on the bus! …
  28. 23/07/2022 All by: Wole Soyinka - Read: Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka 📚 A huge complicated baggy book. Perhaps reflecting the chaos of reality too much to read smoothly. Sometimes exciting, sometimes amusing & quite often baffling to me. I suspect some knowledge of recent Nigerian politics would help. …
  29. 04/07/2022 All by: Cal Flyn, ★★★★★ - Read: Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn ★★★★★ 📚 The book travels to places abandoned by people & recovered to varying degrees by nature. It evokes the 'islands' weirdness powerfully. The last chapters go further, reaching into deep time, climate crisis & even faith. Marvellous. …
  30. 20/06/2022 All by: Denise Mina, ★★★★ - Read: Rizzio by Denise Mina, ★★★★☆ short account of the murder. Not too much in the way of backstory, but lots of detail & characters. Fits very well with the painting by Sir William Allan. Featured image: Out of Copyright, National Galleries of Scotland. …
  31. 01/06/2022 All by: ★★★ - In Search of One Last Song: Britain’s disappearing birds and the people trying to save them Patrick Galbraith ★★★☆☆ The author's meeting with a cross section of folk working in bird conservation, talking about the birds they love. Not the usual conservation suspects, but farmers and keepers along with poets and RSPB types. The subjects… …
  32. 28/05/2022 All by: Jennifer Egan, ★★★ - A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan ★★★☆☆ 📚 one to re-read when I am reading in larger chunks. Fragmented tales across time and characters had me a mite confused. …
  33. 13/05/2022 All by: Hiromi Kawakami, ★★ - Read: The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami ★★☆☆☆ 📚 Simple, slow and quiet tale, told rather flatly. Left me feeling slightly depressed. …
  34. 05/05/2022 All by: Douglas Stuart, ★★★ - Read Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart ★★★☆☆ 📚 …
  35. 30/04/2022 All by: Anne Tyler, ★★★★ - Read: French Braid by Anne Tyler ★★★★☆ 📚 Family story, nothing dramatic but quietly insightful. Personalities and behaviour bounce through generations. …
  36. 22/04/2022 All by: Bernard MacLaverty, ★★★★★ - Read: Blank Pages and Other Stories - Bernard MacLaverty ★★★★★ 📚 Quite spare stories, filled with details. Mostly around loss, grief or difficult lives. …
  37. 11/04/2022 All by: Elizabeth Strout, ★★★★ - Read: My Name Is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout ★★★★☆ 📚 So quiet and understated, the whitespace seems to hold the story. …
  38. 07/04/2022 All by: Connor O'Callaghan, ★★★ - Read: We are not in the World by Connor O'Callaghan ★★★☆☆📚 Mysterious or confusing narrative, slips between times & narrators. I struggled to follow. The lurch at then end was a great surprise. …
  39. 17/03/2022 All by: Olga Ravn, ★★★★ - Read: The employees: a workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn ★★★★☆ 📚 Quite unclassifiable, science fiction, elliptical, mysterious and compelling. I found Lea Guldditte Hestelund at Overgaden, the art exibit the book is 'based' on, helpful. …
  40. 09/03/2022 All by: Maggie Shipstead, ★★★ - Read: Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead ★★★☆☆ 📚 …
  41. 19/02/2022 All by: Elizabeth Strout, ★★★ - Read: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout ★★★☆☆ 📚 Found this a bit less satisfactory that Olive Kitteridge, which I adored. The boys have a sister & a fair bit of family tension. A lot going on, immigrants, New York & Maine, differences in class... …
  42. 06/02/2022 All by: Maggie Shipstead, ★★★★★ - Read: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead ★★★★★ 📚 Great book, story of fictional woman aviator who circles the globe, embedded in family history & film of her life. Covering a lot of ground, in all senses, it pretty much all fits together. …
  43. 22/01/2022 All by: Elisabeth Gifford - Read: A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford …
  44. 15/01/2022 - Read: We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie by Isenberg, Noah Read after watching the movie again, great mix of ideas and gossip, I am read for another watch. ★★★★☆ 📚 …
  45. 12/01/2022 All by: Louise Heal Kawai, ★★★ - Read: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa translated Louise Heal Kawai ★★★☆☆ 📚 Carelessly throwing this into the slight, fun Japanese novel pile. …
  46. 07/01/2022 All by: Elspeth Barker, ★★★★★ - Read: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker ★★★★★📚 2022 off to a good start. Brilliant fun. Short strange life of Scot's girl. Gothic home, weird family, horrible school. Laugh out loud & touching. …

2021

  1. 30/12/2021 - Read: Antlers of Water: Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland edited by Kathleen Jamie ★★★★★ 📚 Marvellous anthology astonished me, the range of writers on what I consider my sphere of interest that I had not read. Lots to follow up, just one e.g. Amanda Thomson Art. …
  2. 30/12/2021 - Read: Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki ★★★☆☆ 📚 3 girls growing up in Greece, lovely scenery, with the feel of long repetitive summer days. A lot going on behind the scenes that slowly emerge. …
  3. 23/12/2021 - Read: The Union of Synchronised Swimmers by Cristina Sandu ★★★★☆📚Sad tales, elliptical fragments for the lives of six defectors that sync together a story. …
  4. 17/12/2021 - Read: Ms Ice Sandwich - Mieko Kawakami ★★★★☆ 📚slim, slight but gently moving story of an adolescent boy in Japan. …
  5. 15/12/2021 - Read: Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa ★★★★☆ 📚 a Palestinian tale way beyond my ken. Carried me along but left me sadness. …
  6. 09/12/2021 - Read:An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears 📚 ★★★★☆ fascinating historical details, a tale from 4 perspectives none completely reliable, not all likeable. Science, politics and society in restoration England. …
  7. 25/11/2021 - Read: Cover Her Face - P.D. James ★★★☆☆ 📚 Country house mystery. Good fun. …
  8. 24/11/2021 - Read: Deacon King Kong - James McBride ★★★☆☆ 📚 Took me a while to get into the rhythm, a meandering tale. …
  9. 20/11/2021 - Read: Snow by John Banville ★★★☆☆ 📚 A nice trip to Ireland & crime fiction's past. Country houses, local colour and character. Somewhat disrupted by the gory details. …
  10. 19/11/2021 - Read: Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie ★★★☆☆ 📚 …
  11. 18/11/2021 - Read: The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner ★★★★★ 📚 Super book, full of small incidents, ageing, illness, deaths & disappointment in a 14th century nunnery. The Black Death, a phoney priest, riot, rape & murder. A really sense of time passing, & quite a few laughs. …
  12. 17/11/2021 - Read: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch ★★★☆☆ 📚 Pretty good 🦠 recovery material. Light on character, mad plot, very fast moving. …
  13. 16/11/2021 - Read: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler ★★★★★ 📚 A re-read, from 9 years ago. I love the narrator's voice, funny & smart. A tricksy telling that worked even though I knew the twist. …
  14. 14/11/2021 - Read: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead ★★★★★📚 Lighter than The Nickel Boys.I was expecting something akin to Chester Himes but this was gentler, more thoughtful & a more absorbing read. Politics handled lightly. I hope Ray, keeps out of trouble, if not I want to read about it. …
  15. 13/11/2021 - Read Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal ★★★★☆ 📚 An introduction, for me, to a strange artistic world painting trompe-l’œil. Lovely long sentences. The heroine has a 'lazy' eye looking two ways at once. The eye recalls Dory Previn - The Holy Man on Malibu Bus Number 3 …
  16. 07/11/2021 - Read: Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd ★★★★☆ 📚 This 1946 novel is a lot of fun. Miss Ranskill Returns from a desert island to war time Britain. Confusion and poking fun ensue. …
  17. 04/11/2021 - Read: Birdsong in the time of silence by Steven Lovett ★★★★★ 📚a metaphor filled recount of bird listening in lockdown along with many diversions into memory & natural history. Like many I spent a bit of time with birds during the first lockdown. This is a deeper dive. …
  18. 31/10/2021 - Read: The President's Last Love by Andrey Kurkov ★★★☆☆ 📚 life story of Ukrainian President Bunin. Simultaneously recounting three different time periods. Slightly surreal, satirical with hints of Bulgakov with out going the full “Heart of a Dog”. Gentleness too. …
  19. 02/10/2021 - Read: Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ 📚 “Never let me go” comes to my mind regularly, wonderful book & film. This is a gentler take on the same territory. Crystal clear storytelling. …
  20. 28/09/2021 - Read: The Sea Is Not Made of Water by Adam Nicolson ★★★★☆ 📚 Somewhat about the life in 3 tidal pools the author made. Shoreline nature, history of Argyll, sea & planet. I particularly enjoyed the ecology of the shore, the relationship between limpets, winkles crabs & seaweed. …
  21. 11/09/2021 - Read: The Case of the General's Thumb by Andrey Kurkov ★★★★☆ 📚 Ukrainian police and Russian KGB race around in a confusing and occasionally daft plot. The characters as lost as the reader. If you see a backward shooting gun in the first act... …
  22. 01/09/2021 - Read: This Is Your Mind On Plants by Michael Pollan 📚 ★★★☆☆ Three chapters, opium, caffeine, and mescaline. The opium one was recycled from some time ago, it would have been interesting to read more about the opiate crisis in modern times in the USA and the drug companies. The coffee chapter was quite fascinating,… …
  23. 22/08/2021 - Read Second Place by Rachel Cusk ★★★★☆ 📚 pretty intense narrator who is obsessed with self absorbed artist. …
  24. 10/08/2021 - Read: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby ★★☆☆☆ 📚too much driving and gun fighting for me. I should have read the blurb🤣 I can see some folk loving it, as it is exciting and tight. …
  25. 09/08/2021 - Read: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell ★★★★★ 📚 I enjoyed everything about this, the detail of life at the time and the natural world and the sadness. The idea of Shakespeare as almost a secondary character is solid. …
  26. 03/08/2021 - Read The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka ★★★★☆ 📚 told by a ghost or spirt, it covers the lives of two folk, a Brixton boy and Nigerian girl. Both places far from my ken, educating but never dull. …
  27. 31/07/2021 - Read: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin ★★★☆☆ enjoyed this tale of older Rebus. …
  28. 27/07/2021 - Read: Music Love Drugs War by Geraldine Quigley ★★★★★ 📚 Beautiful book about a group of youths in 1981 in Derry in the midst of the troubles. Their difficulty in expressing themselves & sharing feelings is heart-wrenching. I raced through this. …
  29. 26/07/2021 - All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire by Jonathan Abrams ★★★★☆ 📚 Quotes from the actors, writers, producers, directors & others involved. Going through the series in order. I've watched all 5 series several times through and this makes me want to watch it again. …
  30. 24/07/2021 - Read: The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson ★★★★☆ 📚 Great read, a mix of the history of the study & natural history of eels with the author's eel fishing with his father. The list of folk who studied eels runs from Aristotle through Freud to Racel Carson. Includes a bit of recent Swedish… …
  31. 23/07/2021 - Read: Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes ★★★★☆ 📚 Multi narrator life story of Clio, Scottish singer & activist. Starts at her end in 2018. Revisiting most of the narrators and scenes revels more & more about all the characters. …
  32. 22/07/2021 - Read: The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature by Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst(Translator) ★★★★☆ 📚 New science about trees back up with references mixed with personal rumination and experiences. The good trees do for us and the planet and the bad we do to them. Some really fascinating snippets about… …
  33. 21/07/2021 - Read: Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan ★★★☆☆ 📚 A novel Maddox up of short stories over 100 years linked by a Edinburgh tenement. Gothic, ghosts, queer, beat, crime and more. Some seemed to flow for me better than others. Probably best read in fewer sessions than I did. …
  34. 04/07/2021 - Read: Pew by Catherine Lacey ★★★★☆ 📚 The main character has little memory and their sex, colour, age and origin are all in doubt. They are discovered in church and meet the locals, good folks to their own thinking, without talking Pew revels them to us. We never find out about Pew and the ending… …
  35. 26/06/2021 - Read: Burning Your Own by Glenn Patterson ★★★★☆ 📚 1969, Mal is 10. I’d have been 11. Mal lives in a estate in Northern Ireland. Great, horrible, atmosphere. Football with his pals and building bonfires with civil rights and politics in the background. …
  36. 08/06/2021 - Read: Cunning Women: A feminist tale of forbidden love after the witch trials by Elizabeth Lee ★★★☆☆ 📚 I enjoyed this well enough, unlikely plot, felt a bit like a young adult book. …
  37. 29/05/2021 - Read: The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig ★★★☆☆ 📚 a take on “Strangers on a Train”. This kept me turning the pages but spelled things out a bit too much. I also guessed what was going on even before the big hint. …
  38. 26/05/2021 - Read: August by Callan Wink ★★★☆☆ 📚This was a nice change from the daily introspective books live been reading. August, the main character says little and doesn’t seem to think much. The sensitive silent type. I enjoyed reading about his mum more. …
  39. 20/05/2021 - Read: Jo Baker Offcomer ★★★☆☆ 📚 a bit to queasy for me, young woman who is in a bad situation cutting herself with a blade and stupid choices. …
  40. 16/05/2021 - I Give It to You by Valerie Martin ★★★★☆ 📚 Set in Italy, mix of World War II history and the story of the story. Echos of The Leopard with the decline of the land owning class. More than one level of betrayal. …
  41. 17/04/2021 - Read: so you’ve been shamed by Jon Ronson ★★★★☆ 📚 I think I must have read excerpts of a lot of this over the years since it was published. Still quite interesting although I kept hearing Louis Theroux in my head. …
  42. 16/04/2021 - Read: The Last Crossing by Brian McGilloway ★★★★☆ 📚 dual timeline kept me turning pages. The Troubles in the 80s and 30 years later …
  43. 15/04/2021 - Read: The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld ★★★★☆ Fragmented stories of misogyny across time. Quite unsettling in both content and style. 📚 …
  44. 07/04/2021 - Read: The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey ★★★★☆ a lot of fun with an unusual take on mermaids. 📚 …
  45. 27/03/2021 - Read: The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine ★★★☆☆ enjoyable quick read. Teenagers pov, secret daughter of a French politician and a famous actress. Suspicious adult friends, trouble. …
  46. 20/03/2021 - Read: Barkskins by Annie Proulx ★★★★☆ pretty huge multi generational story of destruction of the North American forests. Side trips to China and New Zealand. 📚 …
  47. 02/03/2021 - READ: Writers & Lovers by Lily King ★★★☆☆ …
  48. 14/02/2021 - Read: The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid ★★★☆☆ I enjoyed the Wordsworth, The Mutiny on the Bounty and Lake District background more than the actual plot. …
  49. 09/02/2021 - Read: The Beloved Children by Tina Jackson ★★★★☆ engaging tale of theatre & show people. 📚 …
  50. 24/01/2021 - Read: Summerwater by Sarah Moss ★★★★★ 📚 I love the way you are taken into the character’s heads. Feels very real to me. …
  51. 03/01/2021 - Read The Heavens by Sandra Newman ★★★★☆ Time travel in dreams, madness, an unstable 'present', lots of fun. 📚 First book I've finished this year. …

2020

  1. 26/12/2020 - Read: Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi ★★★★☆The damage parents(mothers in this case) do. There isn’t any redemption or reconciliation as the mother drops into dementia.
  2. 13/12/2020 - Read: Recursion by Blake Crouch ★★★☆☆ enjoyed the morph from crime to sci-fi. A nice page turner, maybe a bit too much recursion😀📚  
  3. 12/12/2020 - Read: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart ★★★★☆ set in my home town powerful stuff. Growing up poor with an alcoholic mother Shuggie didn’t have to look for his troubles, chinks of hope shut down one after the other. ShuggieBain (edition) | Open Library
  4. 27/11/2020 - Read: Pine by Francine Toon ★★★★☆ “Gothic Horror” is well out of my usual reading zone, but I enjoyed the slow introduction of the hopeless father & his daughter in the highlands. 📚
  5. 22/11/2020 - Read: Expectation by Anna Hope ★★★★☆ surprised that this feminist, to an extent, literary fiction kept me reading page turner. 📚
  6. 13/11/2020 - Read: Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor ★★★★☆ lots of fun with the life of Bram Stoker. Told through fragments of notes, letters and memories. Some nice opacity, hints and the odd ghost.
  7. 26/10/2020 - Read: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite ★★★★☆ well that was fun!
  8. 26/10/2020 - Read Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins ★★★☆☆ pretty twisted tale with an increasingly suspect unreliable narrator. Tense & queasy.
  9. 13/10/2020 - Read:  The Odyssey by Homer translated Emily Wilson ★★★★☆ easy to read, put in context a lot of novels based on greek tales I’ve read in the last couple of years.
  10. 13/09/2020 - Read: An Unnecessarily Women by Rabih Alameddine ★★★☆☆ 📚a strange mix of the Beirut setting and literary references dominated the plot.
  11. 22/08/2020 - Read: The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt ★★★★★ several unreliable narrators, set in the NY art world beyond my ken. Became an engrossing and affecting read. 📚
  12. 06/08/2020 - Read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto 📚 ★★★★☆ two sad stories of young folk dealling with death.
  13. 06/08/2020 - Read: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 📚 ★★★★☆ enjoyable strange tale.
  14. 31/07/2020 - Read: Kartography by Kamila Shamsie ★★★☆☆ 📚
  15. 22/07/2020 - Read: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. I loved the paragraphs, often lacking fullstops and capitals, carried me along. ★★★★★ 📚
  16. 12/07/2020 - Read: The Little House by Kyōko Nakajima, trans: Ginny Tapley Takemori ★★★★★ beautiful story, delicious food. Glimpse into social and domestic life in Japan before & during WW2 📚
  17. 07/07/2020 - Read: The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe – Queasily page turning. ★★★☆☆ 📚
  18. 26/06/2020 - Read: A God in Every Stone - Kamila Shamsie ★★★★☆ page turner, interesting history of WW1 & the Qissa Khwani massacre in Peshawar 📚
  19. 26/06/2020 - Read: Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown ★★★☆☆ 📚 99 witty chapters. Some laugh out loud.
  20. 26/06/2020 - Read: Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout ★★★★☆ lot of darkness with light at the end. 📚
  21. 14/06/2020 - Read: Redhead by the side of the road by Anne Tyler ★★★★☆  📚
  22. 13/06/2020 - Read: The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald ★★★☆☆ Enjoyed revisiting my teenage library. 📚
  23. 13/06/2020 - Read: Old Baggage by Alissa Evans ★★★★☆ Comic novel about Suffragette in the 20s & 30s
  24. 04/06/2020 - Read:The Wedding by DorothyWest ★★★★☆ quite outside my normal zone. I enjoyed all the dips into the history of a middle class black American family.
  25. 20/05/2020 - Read: The Hiding Game – Naomi Wood ★★★☆☆ Covers lots of interesting ground with a bit of mystery. Looking back at the Bauhaus during the rise of Nazis. Love, art intrigue, drugs…
  26. 14/05/2020 - Read:The Women in Black – Madeleine St John ★★★★☆ perfect read for the time, brief looks at the lives of women working in department store in 50’s Australia. Enjoyable, funny and characters very Australian.
  27. 24/04/2020 - What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt ★★★★☆ Well that was complicated. My wife said it was 3 different books in one. I enjoyed them all.
  28. 12/04/2020 - Read: Here We Are by Graham Swift ★★★★★ Really engaging novella. I both wanted to get to the end and find out what happens and keep having more to read.
  29. 10/04/2020 - Read: A Drink Before The War Dennis Lehane ★★☆☆☆ Though a detective might cheer me up, but too may big guns and bangs.
  30. 06/04/2020 - Read: Actress by Anne Enright ★★★★☆ 📚 enjoyed the descriptions and characters, especially the actress herself. Like the layers being revealed.
  31. 01/04/2020 - Read: A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry ★★★☆☆ This was good fun but I think I prefer his less eventful books such as Annie Dunn.
  32. 28/03/2020 - Read: Nightingale by Marina Kemp ★★★★☆ I enjoyed this, absorbing description of seasons in France, reviling characters and story slowly. Slight fall away at the end.
  33. 22/03/2020 - Read: The Fifth Book Of Peace by Maxine Hong Kingston ★★★☆☆ I didn’t really enjoy the middle section set in Hawaii, but the last about working with Vietnam veterans was interesting and absorbing.
  34. 19/02/2020 - Read: Middle England by Johnathan Coe ★★★★☆ Almost like a series of sketches played very much to my liberal values. Enjoyable rather than thought provoking.
  35. 08/02/2020 - Read: They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple ★★★★☆ I am getting through most of the authors books by now. This seems most obviously moral, although I didn’t notice all of the Christian symbolism. The writing is clear and I enjoy being taken to the period.
  36. 31/01/2020 - Read: The High Window by by Raymond Chandler ★★★★★ re-read of a favourite, so good.
  37. 24/01/2020 - Read Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout ★★★★★, maybe not quite as great as Olive Kitteridge but still... got better and better as it went on and the last paragraph... 📚
  38. 17/01/2020 - Read: A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier ★★★☆☆ I enjoyed the gentle pace and mild despair. For the most part it felt like it was right in place in between the wars.
  39. 10/01/2020 - Read: the confession by Jessie Burton ★★★☆☆ 📚
  40. 04/01/2020 - Read: Surfacing - Kathleen Jamie ★★★★☆ "you are not lost, just melodramatic. The path is at your feet, see? Now carry on. " 📚 super book connecting archaeology & or relationship with nature. Must try her poems as I've lived all the books of essays. (1st book of 2020)

2019

  1. 30/12/2019 - Read: Olive Kitteridge ★★★★★ As good as I expected. I was completely absorbed by stories. Probably the last book I'll finish this year and possible the best.
  2. 27/12/2019 - Read: Rosewater by Tade Thompson ★★½☆☆ I like the Nigerian setting and the less esoteric parts. Found the time jumping annoying on Kindle.
  3. 20/12/2019 - Read: Marilyn and Me by Ji-min Lee ★★★★☆
  4. 16/12/2019 - Read: Shadows on Our Skin by Jennifer Johnston ★★★★★ heartbreaking. 📚
  5. 09/12/2019 - Read: The Leavers by Lisa Ko ★★★★★ great read that grew and grew on me. Chinese illegal immigrants in New York and back in China. Great characters and story.📚
  6. 01/12/2019 - Read: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett ★★★★☆ good fun modern fairy tale, with some unlikely happenings.
  7. 16/11/2019 - Read: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins ★★★☆☆ 📚 l think I would have liked this better if I'd read it quicker.
  8. 16/11/2019 - Read: Calypso by David Sedaris ★★★☆☆ I think I prefer David Sedaris on the radio in small doses. I did laugh out loud a few times 📚
  9. 30/10/2019 - Read: John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James ★★★☆☆ my least favourite Marlon James so far. Got a bit too “magic realist” for me around the middle. 📚
  10. 15/10/2019 - Read: Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler ★★★☆☆
  11. 15/10/2019 - Read: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton ★★★☆☆ I probably would not have finished this if I had another novel to hand, but I did enjoy it more as I went on. Family saga, I imagine this would speak to Australians more than me.
  12. 15/10/2019 - Read Ask Again, Yes by by Mary Beth Keane ★★★☆☆
  13. 15/09/2019 - Read: The Book of Night Women ★★★★★ this is a hard book to put down but hard to read the iniquity and violence.
  14. 07/09/2019 - The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff ★★★★★ a lovely unexpected delight. A 2 week family holiday in 1930s Bogner described in gentle detail. Tender and a little sad.
  15. 07/09/2019 - City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★☆ for the first half, some nice fast paste banter. Really laughed out loud.
  16. 15/08/2019 - Read: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell ★★★★★ Another one to re-read. Lovely voice. 📚
  17. 09/08/2019 - Read: The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov ★★★★☆ second time round after many years, still a great read.
  18. 01/08/2019 - Read: Bread Making for Beginners by Bonnie Ohara ★★★★☆ I’ve usually made bread by following the instructions on a bag of flour. Even the first recipe in this is an improvement.
  19. 20/07/2019 - Read: Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba 📚 ★★★★☆ Such a disquieting book, almost unpleasant at times. Short & powerful.
  20. 20/07/2019 - Read: Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple ★★★☆☆ My least favourite of a favourite author so far.
  21. 05/07/2019 - Read: Transcription by Kate Atkinson ★★★★☆ WWII home front spies. Heroine Juliet is engaging & funny. Some nice twists & turns. 📚
  22. 27/06/2019 - Read: Sal by Mick Kitson ★★★★☆ Enjoyed the setting and nature writing. The narrative voice of 13 year old Sal was strong and the book wears its heart on its sleeve. Felt somewhat like a YA novel.
  23. 24/06/2019 - Read Tiger by Polly Clark ★★★★☆ Enjoyed descriptions of the wilds of Siberia. The first couple of pages and the last two or three were weakest parts of the book.  📚
  24. 27/05/2019 - Read Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss ★★★★☆ Felt like two separate books, surprisingly moving when the stories came together at the end.
  25. 22/05/2019 - Read: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne ★★★★☆ Recent social history of gay men in Ireland through the life of one and his unlikely family. Lots of jokes, set pieces and conicidences beyond belief.
  26. 22/05/2019 - Read: My Former Heart by Cressida Connolly ★★★★☆ slow, in a good way, drift through the lives a few generations of women.
  27. 07/05/2019 - Read: Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple ★★★★☆ another lovely read. I like the way her stories don’t have an arc in the way a modern novel does. I am taking her books only occasionally as I am worried about running out. 📚
  28. 30/04/2019 - Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy ★★★★☆ fascinating idea, the decedents of Anna Karenina in post war London.
  29. 20/04/2019 - Read The Melody by Jim Crace ★★★★☆ set in a slightly altered eastern European country, hints of strange wild creatures.
  30. 28/03/2019 - Read The Far Cry by Emma Smith winner of the James Tait Black Prize for best English novel of 1949. I enjoyed this a lot. Some lovely descriptions & character revelations. I do wonder if it would get published today. 📚 ★★★★☆
  31. 06/03/2019 - Read: Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo ★★★★☆ Quite delightful set of characters giving a wee peek into life in Lagos at the top and bottom of the social ladder. Enjoyed.
  32. 01/03/2019 - Amongst Women by John McGahern ★★★★☆
  33. 27/02/2019 - read: Love is Blind William Boyd ★★★☆☆
  34. 16/02/2019 - Read: The Blank Walk By Elisabeth Sanxay Holding 📚 ★★★★☆ A surprise. Noir-ish from the POV of a well off mother. Raced through it.
  35. 16/02/2019 - Read: The Priory by Dorothy Whipple ★★★★☆ I can’t imagine that this novel would get through a writers workshop or past a publisher today. Several story arcs weave, some slip away. Lovey clear writing, some nice nature and a rather comfortable happy ending. 📚
  36. 31/01/2019 - Read All Among The Barley by Melissa Harrison 📚 ★★★★☆ Thoroughly enjoyed. Some lovely writing. Perhaps too many themes pulled in at the end.
  37. 12/01/2019 - Read So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley – Roger Steffens 📚★★★☆☆

2018

  • 26/12/2018 - Read: Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo: Barry is a hoot, an unreliable entertaining narrator whose flaws slowly appear. Serious points nicely framed in fun. ★★★★★ 📚
  • 19/12/2018 - Read Trick by Domenico Starnone, trans. Jhumpa Lahiri. Good fun. I think I need to read The Jolly Corner and then re-read the appendix to fully ‘get” this. 📚 ★★★★☆
  • 01/12/2018 - Read They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple Published in 1944 a story of three middle class sisters their lives, marriages and children. I doubt it would get past a publisher today, but I loved this. ★★★★★ 📚
  • 12/11/2018 - Read: Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 📚 ★★★★★ Short read. Some nice nature writing contrasts the unpleasant abusive father.
  • 04/11/2018 - Read: Dirt Music by Tim Winton ★★★★☆ I’ve started this one a few times, but finally go the groove after hearing Tim Winton on a podcast. Enjoyed it. Quite preposterous ending. 📚
  • 04/11/2018 - Read:The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald ★★★☆☆ I’m occasionally re-reading Ross Macdonald after a 40 odd year break. Effective, entertaining, Chandler style detective. 📚
  • 18/10/2018 - Read The International by Glenn Patterson ★★★★✩ Enjoyable dive into a Belfast pub on the eve of the troubles.
  • 29/09/2018 - The Circle by Dave Eggers 📚 ★★★☆☆ A quick read.
  • 26/09/2018 - Read: Tenth of December by George Saunders
  • 27/08/2018 - Read NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman I was, for some reason expecting more about ‘long sought solutions to the autism puzzle’ from the blurb. This was more of a history lesson. Easy to read in a Sunday supplement sort of way. The […]
  • 28/07/2018 - Read, and like a lot, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders ★★★★★
  • 21/07/2018 - 📚 Read Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, enjoyable, opaque and wandering story told in fragments.
  • 09/07/2018 - Read Ties by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri 📚 Very enjoyable, funny, several view points & a nice twist. If I had read the preface before I started I would not have bought, it was referring to a more intellectual book altogether!
  • 05/07/2018 - 📚 Bee Quest by Dave Goulson. I think I need to backtrack on the author to get some basic bee knowledge. Sometimes fascinating, sometimes depressing. The chapters marginal land in London and the re-wilding of Knepp Castle were my favourites.
  • 17/06/2018 - 📚 Circe by Madeline Miller ★★★★★ A wonderful read. Best thing I’ve read for a long time.
  • 20/03/2018 - 📚 The Little Red Chairs – Edna O’Brien Not sure this really worked for me. Felt like half a novel and then several short linked pieces. The violence was brutal. Maybe the unexplained and spaces helped but I thought there was something missing. ★★★
  • 23/01/2018 - Just finished Black Money by Ross MacDonald. Effective twisting Chandler-like crime from the 60s. I must have read it first as a teen in the 70s and enjoyed it again despite the odd grate against modern sensibilities. 📚 ★★★
  • 14/01/2018 - 📚 Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan Very enjoyable, pulled me along. Detail from several fascinating aspects of history (crime, war, merchant ships, diving) in the period. The drawing together at the end happened at a faster rate, perhaps too quick? ★ ★ ★ ★
  • 13/01/2018 - BBC Radio 4 – The Reservoir Tapes Subscribed to the RSS feed. I really enjoyed reading Reservoir 13 last year, starts like a crime novel and then turns into a flow from the characters and place. 📚
  • 09/01/2018 - 📚 Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei (with More Ways) by Eliot Weinberger I am trying not to finish this. A look at a 20 word poem via 19 translations is amusing, fascinating and I am throughly enjoying it. Going to look at some of Mr Weinberger’s essays later.

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