by Max Porter
Shy is a troubled teenager and this book covers one night of his life as he sets out from a special residential school with a rucksack full of rocks.
Max Porter's books are refreshingly different and this one is no different. It was a lively, sad, funny engaging story. Loved it. 9/10
by Ali Smith
Two abandoned children, a horse destined for the knackers yard, lots of red lines and a society under seeming totalitarian rule. Nothing is fully explained as we gradually piece together what is happening in two time slots five years apart and sometime in the near future.
For all this I enjoyed this book, typically witty and playful but I was left frustrated by the unresolved endings. I wonder if Glyph will help when it is published. I am not holding my breath! 8/10
by Agatha Christie
A Hercule Poirot novel centred around an evening of bridge at the murder victim's house. Which of the four players at table 1 killed him and which of the four sleuths at table 2 will uncover the killer. Good stuff 7/10
by Andrew Martin
Who could have thought that a book about trains could be so interesting and amusing.
I finished this book while on a short visit to Paris and I have to say that as a result of reading this book I was looking at trains and stations in a much more interested way. Martin takes us through the history of the metro before diving into a line by line description and it is readable at every stage-well maybe not the details about the different types of train. Loved it 9/10
A voyage through Eliot's sources and his friendships and his marriage as he spends 1917 to 1922 developing what will become the Waste Land.
I found it fascinating and at times a fraction overlong but a good read. There is much about Ezra Pound which I found informative and he also spends a considerable time on Eliot's attitude toward the Jews.
He is sympathetic toward Vivian and recognises how she and Eliot both struggled in their marriage. Well worth ploughing through 8/10
by Lauren Elkin
I like Elkin's writing and this, her first novel, is no different. The title refers to the scaffolding that surrounds Anna's Paris apartment for the duration of the novel-set in the year following lock down.
She is recovering from a miscarriage and has been signed off work. She is a shrink. The book explores through the lens of Lacan primarily, issues of desire and selfhood. The central section dwells on a couple from fifty years previous who lived in the apartment, who were exploring the same issues. There are various hooks that tie the two parts together.
Did I enjoy it? I don't know. I found the characters very annoying and very middle class self absorbed twenty first century types -but I guess that is what Elkin was aiming at. It was interesting subject matter but at the end I was not quite sure it worked. I need to muse some more 6/10
by Michel Houellebecq
Well that was a cheery little number. The clue is in the title I guess.
We follow Paul, a high flying civil servant who is preparing with his boss-the finance minister-for the 2027 presidential election. We follow the story from the end of 2026 through 2027.
Apart from his career, his marriage and family are not in a good place and there is a wierd string of cyber/activist/terrorist attacks going on which nobody can fully explain.
It's a while since I read a Houellebecq novel but I really found this one interesting and as ever I was left with many unanswered questions-but you know that when you take one of his novels on 8/10
by Eric Hazan
A book about a man who loved Paris by a man who loved Paris. This book is full of interesting detail but you do want a map to hand to locate streets and areas that he mentions. Really enjoyable if you like Paris or Balzac or both 8/10
by Colin Barrett
A story of rival families caught up in small town drug dealing in Ireland. The characters were generally well drawn but it did engage me greatly. 5/10
by Richard Powers
I so enjoy this author. His imagination and cast of characters are Dickensian in scope.
This story is about a couple of friends who meet at school and play a lot of games together but get absorbed by the game of go. One of them goes on to become a tech billionaire, the other does not. There stories intersect and fly apart and along the ways we meet a host of characters, learn about the oceans and AI and climate change and French Polynesia. It is capped off with a fantastic twist in the tale.
The biggest surprise though is how this book did not reach the Booker shortlist. 9/10
by Kate Atkinson
Jackson Brodie is back and he is on good form.
This is a very funny and entertaining book with multiple deaths and multiple reasons in true Agatha Christie style. Brodie stumbles into the mystery almost by accident and meets up with some old friends! It is great larks and written in a way that keeps it the right side of daft. Loved it 9/10
by Samantha Harvey
This is a very short book at just over 100 pages and deals with one day -or I should say 24 hours on board the International space station and the interactions and lives of the astronauts aboard. I did not expect to enjoy it and yet it was strangely absorbing as well as being informative about life in space. 8/10
by Rachel Kushner
A spy story with a difference. Sadie Smith is sent to infiltrate a commune in South West France as well as keep an eye on a low ranking government official. She used to be employed by the FBI but her current employer remains unknown.
The book never really got going for me and although I enjoyed some of her fun one liners to end various sections I was yearning for something to happen. By the time it did happen it all felt too late. 6/10
by Tommy Orange
Another family saga. This time about a twentieth/twenty first native american family in Oakland. A look at life for the underprivileged and discriminated against in modern America. It was well written but left me a bit cold 6/10
