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.
Tag: ★★★★
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?
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.
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.
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.
Read: The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ★★★★☆ 📚
Hot sweaty, feverish & confusing, unreliable narrators & characters, pickled by heat and rum.
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.
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
Read: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier ★★★★☆ 📚
Oh what fun. I was caught up. Great ambiguous ending.
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.