The Candy House

 by Jennifer Egan

A book looking just a short way into the future and where social media and technology might take us, when a social media guru invents a technology that can retrieve memories and download them, and also upload them to the collective conscience. Scary stuff. It has a huge cast of characters who interlink over time and place. Some of these characters appeared in A visit from the Goon Squad. Keeping track of them all required a fair bit of mental gymnastics. I enjoyed the first two thirds of this book but for me it lost its way toward the end and as such lost me as well 7/10

Review of the Year 2022

 A bit less crime this year-only 5 Maigret's, all enjoyable, and a smattering of others, including The Secret Life of Writers

The Booker list was ok but not a classic. My favourite by far was The trees by Percival Everett, a truly different book. I enjoyed the winning novel, The seven moons but a number of the other novels were pretty ordinary imho.

The year was dominated by a couple of Trollopes from the Palliser series, The Forsyte Saga trilogy-which I thoroughly enjoyed, and to celebrate it's centenary, Ulysses. This book was like climbing a mountain but was in equal measure entertaining and so opaque that it became a slog to get through. 

Pierene continue to produce good books in translation with my favourite this year being Marzahn, mon amour.

Companion Piece

By Ali Smith

A really enjoyable book about modern life told through an encounter with a wacky family and a story within the story about a young female blacksmith who may or may not have made the lock which features in the first part of the story.

All good fun with a serious poke at the inept government currently in power. 8/10

To Let

By John Galsworthy 

The last part of the Forsyte trilogy and its weakest.

The story revolves around Fleur and Jon the daughter of Soames and son of Irene. It verges on melodrama but the writing is such as to walk a narrow line that keeps it real.  As a picture of Britain leaving the victorian age this is a brilliant series with wonderfully drawn characters 8/10

The Politics of Imperial Memory in France, 1850-1900

By Christina B. Carroll

This is an interesting book charting the portrayal of Empire in France from Napoleon 111 to the early 20th century.  I particularly liked the way it differentiated Empire at home to Empire overseas and also the way reaction to the second empire was such a problem for republicans.

Having said this the writing style I found difficult and not very engaging 5/10

Maigret's first case

 by George Simenon

We go back in time to Maigret's beginnings in the police force and a case which ends unhappily for Maigret but where his methods shine through all the same. A murder in the house of a wealthy coffee merchant gets covered up by the elite-including Maigret's boss. Interesting back story for the other novels 8/10

In Chancery

 by John Galsworthy

The second Forsyte novel takes us into the 20th century and the pain of Soames and Irene's divorce set against the background of the Boer war and the end of the Victorian age. Soames continues to be a bastard but is such a great character. 8/10

Ulysses Unbound

 by Terence Killeen

The guide referred to in the previous post. This book was invaluable in guiding a layman like me through the maze that is ulysses, giving a guide to the style, to the references to Homer's epic and to the many real characters and places referenced in the text. Great reference book 9/10

Ulysses

 by James Joyce

Well, well. I have finally finished this book in the year celebrating the centenary of its publication. What can I say. This was a hard read but at times incredibly engaging, as we follow Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through one day in Dublin. Each section is told in a different style and sometimes different styles within a section. I have to say without a guide to help I would have struggled but I am glad I have read it. As a novel I would give it 3/10 but as a work of such significance you have to give it more and it will stay with me for some time. 7/10

The Man of Property

By John Galsworthy

The first novel of the Forsyte saga and the BBC adaptation comes flooding back even though it was 50 years ago and me barely in my teens.  The novel paints Soames exactly as I remember him but with the added touches only a novel can bring. It paints a fantastic picture of life in late nineteenth century Britain for a narrow bunch of the aspiring middle class. Narrow in scope but great in execution  9/10

The Secret Life of Writers

By Guillaume Musso

A very engaging crime mystery set on a French island in the Mediterranean. A woman is found murdered in a remote spot, but all is not what it seems. But more than this the book plays with the reader around ares such as who is writing what and what is real. Great larks 9/10

Shrines of Gaiety

By Kate Atkinson

Set in the 1920's this is the story of a tough woman who ran a string of London nightclubs and of a policeman who tried to bring her down together with a host of other characters.  Not my favourite of her novels but still enjoyable 7/10

Body Kintsugi

By Senka Mariç 

This was a hard read. The story of a woman's experience of breast cancer it was unrelenting in how difficult this is to deal with. Even though it ended positively it left me feeling broken. Strong, powerful writing but not for the faint hearted! 6/10

Of Saints and Miracles

 by Manuel Astur

A book about Marcelino, a lone uneducated man who has killed his brother and has to go on the run. But, it is far more than this. A meditation on rural life, on history in this context and what it means to be human. I felt it lost its way toward the end but an enjoable short read. 7/10

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

 by Shehan Karunatilaka

A book based in Sri Lanka at the time of the civil war. Maali used to be a war photographer but now he is dead. We meet him in the immediate afterlife and he has seven nights to decide whether to go into the light or be condemned to living in the halfway house he finds himself in.
He wants to find out how he died and why, and most importantly, to have his photos found and published. We follow him on this journey. It is both funny and sad and contains some horrifying scenes from the war but I found it gripping and thought provoking and one of three books on the booker shortlist I would like to see win  8/10

Glory

 by NoViolet Bulawayo

A history of modern Zimbabwe where all the characters are animals and apart from Mugabe and the party of Power, only one individual goat is fleshed out in any storyline.

The book is very funny in places and gut wrenching in others. She uses the device of repetition a lot to emphasise a point and overdid it in places in my opinion. I also struggled with the animals a bit. I sort of get Mugabe as a horse and his wife as a donkey but who then are the cows or the ducks or the pigs and goats and why is someone a chicken and not a duck? 

If I was more aware of the history I think I would have got more from the story than I did. 6/10

Murder in the Marais

by Cara Black

 The first novel featuring Aimee Leduc, a private detective in Paris. The good news is the fact that it is set in Paris and has some great descriptions of areas of Paris.
The story is a fast paced thriller about a murder in the Marais that has links back to wartime occupation and a murder that took place then. I had identified the killer fairly early on and some of the scenes were operating in marvel comic territory. There is also one scene near the end that is like a stage direction for a Puccini opera. I may read another one but Maigret still gets my vote when it comes to Paris detectives 6/10

Booth

 by Karen Joy Fowler

A historical novel telling the story of the family of the man who killed Abraham Lincoln.

It is the story of a remarkable family but in the end I found it a bit too long and some of the characters not so interesting. However, the writing was very good and kept me hooked until the end, even though we knew all along what the end was. 7/10

Small Things Like These

By Claire Keegan 

Furlong is a coal merchant in Ireland. He was born out of wedlock in 1946 but his mother was allowed to stay with her employer and he was brought up in the house never knowing his father.

The story is set in 1985 and Furlong is happily married with five daughters. He delivers to a convent which is the site of a Magdalen laundry. The story reflects on Furlong's past and a young woman He comes across at the convent.

It is a short but poignant story, beautifully told. 8/10

Treacle Walker

By Alan Garner

A strange mix of dreamworld, comic caper and philosophical musing  who was Treacle Walker, who was Jo. Not sure I got this at all 5/10

After Sappho

 by Selby Wynn Schwartz

So the first question I have is whether this is a novel. The author of course answers this by referencing Orlando as biography.

It is a fascinating journey through intellectual, artsy lesbianism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, referencing real life people and events. The unnamed narrator seems to be the lesbian corpus looking and cheering on.
It uses this looping device so the characters keep coming around again. This does mean you want to read it quickly or you can lose track easily.
I really enjoyed the book, although i haven't answered my question but it sent me scurrying to discover more about people like Romaine Brooks and Natalie Barney and that's got to be a good thing. 8/10

Nightcrawling

 by Leila Mottley

This book is set in Oakland and is a fairly depressing tale of poverty in the US and survival against the odds. Despite the grim story line of a young girl, Keira, getting pulled into prostitution this book has an underlying hope and resilience that keeps you hanging in and desperate to see how it ends. 8/10 

Oh William!

 by Elizabeth Strout

A well told story about William and his ex-wife, Lucy Barton.

William's third wife is leaving him and he has discovered he has a half sister he didn't know existed. This is a third book about Lucy Barton and maybe if I had read the previous two I would have been more engaged but this did not really do much for me 5/10

The Trees

 by Percival Everett

So every so often a book hits the Booker longlist that doesn't feel like it belongs there.
In some ways this is such a book. It is a crime novel and it is very funny in places. It is also a book about racial tensions and hate crimes and the history of black Americans. All in all a strange mix that works and in true Booker style is less unresolved at the end with questions dropped into the readers lap to deal with. A great book but I will be amazed if it makes the shortlist. 9/10

Trust

 by Hernan Diaz

Always difficult to score the first booker book of the year but this novel grew on me and I enjoyed it.
It tells the story of a rich financier and his wife in the inter-war years but uses a great device which undermines the telling of history and biography. The story unfolds in 4 different books written by different people, the last being the diary of the financiers wife which unlocks the truthfulness-or does it- of the previous three. Great storytelling either way. 9/10

Maigret's Dead Man

by Georges Simenon 

I much prefer generally(maybe with the exception of The Yellow Dog) the novels set in Paris. This novel is very much set around the streets of Paris - although the crimes have largely taken place in Normandy.

Maigret is his normal obsessive self, enjoying the Parisian way of life while fighting crime. Marvellous 8/10

Fire in the Thatch

 by E.C.R. Lorac

Subtitled a Devon mystery this crime novel was excellent. Although writing as a man ECR was actually Edith Caroline Rivett and she died a year before I was born. This novel was published in 1946, and concerns a man invalided out of the army who rents a farm cottage and works hard renovating it and the garden with it. When he dies in a fire the mystery begins and many false trails are laid. I will try and find more of her writing 9/10

The Looking Glass War

by John le Carre

I found this a bit predictable. The outcome was obvious from early on which left you cringing at some of the scenes as they played out. The training sections were full of technical detail which was tedious. All in all not my favourite 4/10

The Spy who Came in from the Cold

 by John Le Carre

This book made Le Carre's name and it is easy to understand why. Smiley features in cameo appearances but the central character is Alec Leamas. The book is dark and brooding like the character of Leamas. A great book 8/10

Maigret's holiday

 by George Simenon

The best Maigret for a while where we learn a bit about the man and the fact he trained for 3 years to be a doctor. This was cut short when his father died and therefore funding with it.
His wife is in hospital and he gets caught up investigating some deaths linked to a prominent doctor in the town. 9/10

The Ballad of Peckham Rye

 by Muriel Spark
A period piece set in South London in the late 50's. It is a fascinating peek into the lives of ordinary factory people and how their lives are upset by the arrival of a very strange scotsman who is not what he seems. Strange, funny and a little unsettling 8/10

Phineas Redux

 by Anthony Trollope

Another Palliser novel.
Phineas Finn is back in London and parliament after the death of his first wife.
He is annoying as ever but the tale is told in an engaging way and is very amusing in parts. The story of the foxes and Lord Chilton is an ongoing source of fun. 7/10

Coventry

 by Rachel Cusk

A series of essays and book reviews that were at times brilliant and always well written. I particularly liked the opening essay on driving in rural areas and the one on Assisi and St. Francis. Some great insights that I recognise but could never of crystallised into coherent sentences in a hundred years. 

I was less enamoured with her reflections on relationships where all the essays seemed to be flavoured with healthy doses of angst, catholic guilt and the belief that no matter what the circumstances of peoples lives -they must be wrong and cannot possibly be getting the best from their lives. 6/10

Quantum Legacies

 by David Kaiser

A very interesting book on the development of physics over the past century and how much discovery has been made as a result of defence funding. The perils of getting funding to keep research going our well laid out. The physics is well explained although I did get lost in places - this stuff is mind boggling! 7/10

Death at Intervals

 by Jose Saramago

This was a very strange, funny and thought provoking book. It's starting point is death being cancelled one new years eve in a small country somewhere.

The rest of the book explores how people react to this and again how they react when death decides to give people one week's notice of death when she reintroduces death again. I got mixed up at the end when we have death herself having to deal with a returned letter! 8/10

The Return of the Native

 by Thomas Hardy

A typical assortment of Hardy characters in Yeobright, Wildeve, Eustacia and Diggory Venn but one of the biggest characters is Egdon Heath where the story is set. Having visited the area this year the book captures the bits of scrubland near the coast beyond Weymouth and Lulworth cove brilliantly. The story is typically tragic and a bit drawn out but his language and detail is fantastic 8/10

Maigret in New York

 by Georges Simenon

Maigret gets dragged to New York by a worried son and where he uncovers a blackmail plot and a sordid murder from long ago. Not the best as I prefer Maigret on French soil but still intriguing 6/10

Marzahn, mon amour

 by Katja Oskamp

A great tale of a woman who gives up her writing career to retrain as a chiropodist. Each chapter tells the story of one of her clients from the housing estates of Marzahn. I loved it 9/10

The Eustace Diamonds

 by Anthony Trollope

The third Palliser novel and not one I enjoyed that much. Lizzy is an abominable character and the narrator tells us as much at the start of the novel. The trouble is many of the other characters, Frank, Lord Fawn, Mrs Carbuncle and Mrs Hittaway to name a few, are all equally horrible. The novel does pick up pace a bit once the diamonds have actually been stolen but the book is too long for the tale it tells. The Duke of Omnium's brief appearances are great though. 5/10

Chouette

 by Claire Oshetsky

I am still musing over this book. It is no doubt a parable about living with challenging children be that by behavior or disability but this was a difficult read in places and yet fascinating and brilliant in others. I shall continue to think about the owl baby and there are some great musical references that I would urge any reader to follow up. 8/10

Moonfleet

 by J. Meade Falkner

A real swashbuckling tale in the style of Lorna Doone. Set on the Dorset coast near Swanage it tells the tale of John Trenchard and his life with the smugglers of that area. Good lively page turner although there is never a doubt about the outcome 8/10

The Artful Dickens

 by John Mullan

A good read looking at the way Dickens used certain literary constructs to achieve results and how these were often breaking the mould.

It was full of great quotes but it did use a lot of the same scenes over again which I thought was a bit lazy. There was also a lot of reference to Edwin Drood. 6.5/10 

Maigret gets Angry

 by Georges Simenon

Maigret has been retired for a couple of years when he gets an unexpected visit from an unknown old lady whose grand-daughter has apparently committed suicide. He can't help himself and gets drawn into a dark family history. Vintage stuff but we never did find out what happened to Maigret's aubergines! 8/10

Net Zero

 by Dieter Helm

A thought provoking book examining whether we are on the right track to get to net zero by 2050 or not.

The basic premise of the book is that for the last thirty years (ie since the formation of the UNFCCC) we have been focussed on the wrong things and approaching it the wrong way in that the approach is:
1. Top down from the UN via the annual COP meetings.
2. Measures are aimed at producers and not polluters.
He backs this up with the evidence in the growth of ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere and the continued global growth in the use of fossil fuels, all of which stacks up and makes for depressing reading. One of his aims is to try and make sure we do not give up the drive for net zero as a lost cause. I admire his optimism but am still not convinced.

This being the case, however, he proposes a three-fold solution that would address the problem he has set out. These are that firstly the polluter pays. ie we move from a production based approach to a consumption based approach. This inevitably leads to some form of carbon tax which applies to consumption so it would need to be applied on imports. Interestingly, Europe is already looking at this and Macron raised it in his speech last week when France took over the presidency of the EU. He suggests that this is a simple straightforward affair and less prone to lobbying and corruption. I seem to recall the same things being said about VAT when it was introduced and that is now incredibly complex. However, I do agree that a tax on carbon has to be brought in. We will not pay for carbon voluntarily.
Secondly it is invoking the principle of public money for public goods. This applies to infrastructure and R&D. In particular he focuses on broadband and electricity infrastructures which should be built by public monies and universally available. 
Thirdly there should be net environmental gain in anything we do to mitigate the effects of loss and cheating. I found this hard to seperate from the first point in that any net gain will have to be achieved through the polluter pays principle.
I liked the fact that the book does not shy away from the cost of this and even addresses the thorny moral questions of whether the rich industrialised countries should pay for adaptation measures in those countries most affected by climate change or whether we should have an obligation to accept climate refugees.

The final section of the book looks specifically at agriculture, transport and electricity. These were interesting but I got a bit lost in some of the technical arguments. All in all though a good challenging read to start the year. 8/10

Phineas Finn

 by Anthony Trollope

The second of the Palliser novels following the fortunes of Phineas in love and politics over the five years he spends as an MP for his home constituency in Ireland. Very amusing in places and a great commentary on politics of the period. Our hero could be annoying at times but he gets there in the end you feel 8/10

Manon Lescaut

by Abbe Prevost

I read this because of the operas by Puccini and Massenet. It definitely lends itself to opera, with a narrative that is both dramatic and absurd, but having said that I enjoyed it. The character of Des Grieux is much better drawn than Manon but he manages to invoke our sympathy for both. Like all good opera it does not end well! 7/10 

Covid by Numbers

 David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

Does what the title says with lots of graphs and charts showing how the virus has affected our lives up to June 2021. Written in plain english and with a light touch this is a very readable survey of the pandemic thus far. 8/10