Maigret at Picratt's

By George's Simenon

An interesting change of tone as Maigret investigates the murder of a stripper in Montmartre. The language is more earthy and the police are tougher in their approach but the story was good 7/10

Review of the Year 2023

 Another interesting year but no totally stand out books. I read three Rushdie novels of which Shalimar the Clown was good and the Enchantress of Florence fun. His latest book Victory City, I did not enjoy so much.

On the Booker front my two favourite books did not make the shortlist(Sebastian Barry and Tan twe Eng) but the winner Prophet Song was ok but not standout.

In non fiction Technofeudalism was interesting and tied in well with Runciman's How Democracy Ends, but my favourite was probably writers and revolution about 1848 as seen through different writers eyes.

My standout book of the year. There were some good new books from Barbara Kingsolver, Zadie Smith and Sebastian Faulks but the most memorable book was a Simenon book. Not Maigret, although Maigret's Memoirs was great fun, but The Man who Watched the Trains go By. It was scary and compelling. This probably was followed by The Wide World, the first in a new trilogy by Pierre LeMaitre.

Love in a Time of Hate

 by Florian Illies

The sub-title of this book is Art and Passion in the shadow of War, 1929-1939. It is a wide ranging look at numerous artists during that period and their complicated love lives. That said the vast array of people covered is also the books weakness as it becomes impossible to keep up with who they are all as we jump in and out of stories. 6/10