Cross Channel

 by Julian Barnes

Great collection of short stories by Julian Barnes dealing with the interaction between the French and the English at various times through history.  Very funny in places and thoughtful in others. I really enjoyed it 9/10

The Vivisectors

 by Missouri Williams

Where to begin. This novel was a real struggle to get started with and I only picked up the flow of it from half way through and even then I was struggling.

It is set in an unnamed crumbling city of lofty spires and the university. The city is being overrun by vegetation and the gardeners-who are a powerful faction in the running of the city-are in dispute with the academics.

In the middle of this we find Agathe who is not speaking to her father and whose mother has been seriously injured in a suicide attempt. Having abandoned her own studies she is living with her uncle and working for an academic from another city.

The university is in uproar over a student who has come into conflict with a professor called Jacob and this throws Agathe and the student together in very weird circumstances.

The book has some beautifully written snippets but as a book it left me cold. Not for me 4/10

All Them Dogs

 by Djamel White

Think the Sopranos set in present day Dublin and you just about have the plot for this novel! The main character is even called Tony! The pace is relentless and the outpouring of anger is written with real intensity. 

Surprised to see it on the Booker longlist and it wouldn't make my shortlist, but stranger things have happened. 6/10

The Renovation

 by Kevin Orhan

This novel, like many it appears on this year's longlist, throws you off kilter when early on our central character Dilara discovers that builders have installed a Turkish prison cell instead of the expected ensuite in her bedroom. Not only that, but the cell leads to an actual Turkish prison even though she lives in Italy!

Crazy as this sounds, this is an absorbing novel about homeland and belonging but also about love and loss and the pain of loss when drawn out and gradual-her father has dementia and is living with them. 8/10

The Palm House

By Gwendoline Riley 

This is a well regarded author but I could not get into this book. The characters I found impossible to find a connection with or anything remotely interesting about them.

I enjoyed the occasional bit of humour but otherwise left me cold 4/10

The Things We Never Say

By Elizabeth Strout

I did not expect to enjoy this novel as much as I did. It follows Artie Dam, a popular and successful teacher who life finally overwhelms as he descends into loneliness and depression. Sad, it is but engaging and touching the nerve endings of people of my age I suspect. It asks the question of whether it is true that no man is an island. It doesn't really answer the question. 9/10

A prayer for Owen Meany

 by John Irving

A sprawling novel of over 700 pages that took me a little while to get into but ended up being totally absorbing. It is set mostly in 1960's New Hampshire at the time of the Vietnam war and two boys, the narrator and Owen Meany grow up together and become best friends, even though Owen manages to kill John's mother at the start of the book with a wild, uncharacteristic swing of the bat in a little league baseball game.

It touches on friendship and faith as the narrator looks back from twenty years hence when he is living in Canada. It is sad and moving in places but also has one of the funniest passages I have read as the 1953 christmas pageant unfolds. 9/10

The Alchemist of Paris

 by M. C. Dulac

A gothic page turner which starts in current day Paris but then takes us back by way of a diary to strange happenings in a house in Paris. Can alchemists make gold or extend life, and what happens if they can. All will be revealed. Fun holiday read 7/10

The Wizard of the Kremlin

 by Giuliano da Empoli

A strange book in many ways and supposedly modeled on a real character, Vadim Baranov works as a key advisor to Putin. He uses his background in reality TV to great effect in setting Kremlin goals and political outcomes but eventually he wants out.

The book never quite worked for me but it was apparently turned into a 2025 film which I may have to watch 5/10

The Proof of my Innocence

 by Jonathan Coe

A very enjoyable read part murder mystery, part piss take of the conservative party and far right as they went through the Liz Truss fiasco. A good holiday read 7/10

Midnight's Children

 by Salman Rushdie

The novel that probably established, and keeps, Rushdie amongst the list of great living authors. 

Saleem is born with one thousand and one others at midnight on Indian independence day. Those that survive all have some unusual power and the book is Saleem's sort of autobiography as well as a potted history of India and Pakistan since independence. It is very absorbing and in places very funny; for me it is the closest I have come to a twentieth century Dickens. The book had me regularly reaching for Wikipedia to check out people and events from history. It is not an easy read but definitely worth keeping going through the 650 pages that make it up. 8/10

Gabriel's Moon

 by William Boyd

A really enjoyable spy caper set in the early 1960's. The characters are brilliantly drawn, although with an annoying habit of always telling us what they are wearing. Le Carre it is not but a page turner it most definitely is 7/10

Flashlight

 by Susan Choi

A story told from the perspectives of four main characters over a period of several decades from the end of the twentieth century to the present. Louisa is found nearly drowned on a beach near her house. Her father, who left the house with her is missing presumed drowned although his body is never found. Her mother is suffering from MS although at this point it has not been fully diagnosed. The story of their lives unfolds over time and through Japan and Korea and America. It is beautifully told and after a slow start it's pace picks up toward a poignant ending 9/10

Endling

 by Maria Reva

A wacky read that I enjoyed immensely. It is set in Ukraine just at the time the Russian invasion is starting in 2022. It involves an endangered snail called Lefty and some young women involved in the mail order bride industry together with some of the would be Western husbands. It does get a little complicated. It made me laugh, it made me sad, it made me question and wonder. It has the most ambivalent of endings. What more do you want from a novel. I hope it makes the Booker shortlist but it may be a bit too off piste for this. 9/10

The Rest of Our Lives

 by Ben Markovits

A road trip of sorts set in America. Tom's daughter is heading off to college and he and his wife have been not getting along since she had an affair of sorts six years previously. This could be the time for a break so after dropping off his daughter he keeps driving West and reflecting on his life, 

I found a lot of the basketball and education references difficult, but they probably are fine if you understand American culture. It didn't quite work for me although I did recognise and enjoy some of the references to getting older and the life unfulfilled. 6/10

Flesh

 by David Szalay

The story of a man who starts life with little in a flat in Hungary and ends life with little in a flat in Hungary. A lot happens in between as we move from Hungary to Iraq and to London, and up and down society. As a consequence the story pulls you along as we get close to the central character but never really know him. His mother features at various times through the story but I found her a bit unbelievable.  An interesting read 7/10

Murder Mindfully

 by Karsten Dusse

A black comedy crime novel about a solicitor who turns to killing after attending a mindfulness course. The premise is amusing and their are some funny parts such as a magpie flying off with a key piece of evidence but the book lacked much in the way of suspense. You always knew how it would end and much of the book was just going through the motions, although I did like the ending. 5/10