Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady

by Florence King
This is a memoir of Florence Kink's early life. It is very funny in places and sad in others. Some of the American references were lost on me but it did not distract from the enjoyment.
Despite the wacky family she came from-and which of us have families that our nnot weird in the eyes of others-it left me feeling that this was a tribute to her family and the values they instilled in her.
Her descriptions of her sexual awakening and adventures are not for the sqeamish but she manages to handle them with humour, and deals with loss in a way that can only induce empathy. 8/10

Lourdes

by Emile Zola
A bit of a mixed bag. Zola deals well with the crisis of faith experienced by the hero Pierre, and despite his personal views, lays out the conflicts between faith and rationalism in a realistic way. However, he also wants to tell us the story of Bernadette and point out the problems of Lourdes as an institution. In fact he wants to do a lot of things and in my view spends too long doing them such that it becomes in part repetitive.
There are a host of characters in the book but I could only engage with Pierre and Marie and her father. The other characters were either too similar or too vague to find that interesting. Like all Zola the naturalism is outstanding and the descriptions of some of the sick can induce nausea, but the detail of the train journey was fascinating as was the description of Lourdes itself. However, not one of his best 5/10

New Finnish Grammar

by Diego Marani
This is a strange, fascinating tale set in the second world war about a man who is suffering from amnesia. The doctor who first treats him patches together various evidence suggesting he is from Finland and sends him to be cared for by a friend in Helsinki. The friend never appears and this story evolves as our central character tries to pick up the pieces of a lost life and lost language. It is beautifully written/translated and I only found a problem with the ending where it felt as though the author had realised a deadline was looming and pushed the resolution of the story into as short an ending as possible.
It is at times sad, at times amusing but always engaging 8/10

Pure

by Andrew Miller
This is a quirky novel telling the story of the demolition of a cemetery in Paris that formed the foundation for the catacombs. It all takes place in a year and all I can say is I loved it. 9/10

The Dreyfus Affair

by Piers Paul Read
This is a very readable and informative summary of the Dreyfus case and its impact on contemporary and later France. In the ways many history works are it is a depressing book in that we never seem to learn the lessons that history lays out for us. But don't let my melancholia stop you reading an excellent book. 9/10

A Shed of One's Own

by Marcus Berkmann
This book will only appeal to those over 45 or those with a disposition to laugh at the misfortunes of others. Being the right (or is that wrong) side of 45 I enjoyed this book immensely, laughing out loud on numerous occasions as I recognised my own woes and troubles were shared by others. Should be prescribed by doctors for all menopausal men 9/10

The Widow Lerouge

by Emile Gaboriau
Written in the 1800's this is a detective story which is both entertaining and historically interesting being one of the first in this genre.
The characters are interesting and the end  maybe predictable but definitely falls into the category of a good yarn 7/10

CharlesDickens: A Life

by Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin is a great biographer who draws you into an empathy with her subjects while remaining fairly objective about their lives.
Dickens was a literary genius but like most geniuses this did not mean the rest of his life was perfect.
I like this biography because it paints the picture of a man who while a great writer and a man of extaordinary energy we are not spared details of his flaws and lifelong inner turmoils. 9/10

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

by John Baxter
Its funny, its an easy read and it has gems of information about Paris and some great pictures. Did we need the Aussie chapter-probably not- but small quibbles like that aside-I really enjoyed this and came away with a number of places added to my list of things I want to do when next in Paris. If I had to pick one I have not done already, it will be a visit to La Rotonde as I have always avoided Montparnasse as just a busy area to be used for the railway only. If Paris are ever looking for an ex pat ambassador they have found their man in John Baxter.  7/10

Paris During the Commune

by William Gibson
This book is a collection of letters written by a British Methodist minister who was responsible for a Paris circuit. It is compulsive reading as he outlines what it was like living as an ex-pat during the bloody weeks of the Commune. In many ways it offers an alternative view, suggesting at times it was not as bad as it seemed and suggesting the commune were just a bunch of rabble rousers. Even though the description of Paris burning and the column in place vendome being pulled down are absorbing. For the immediacy and quirky angle this is well worth a read. You will need to get a second hand copy. 8/10

Hard Revolution

by George Pelecanos
I read this book shortly after reading the Turnaround and found that both books were very similar in style and approach so while I enjoyed the first book I enjoyed this less. Having said that the musical references and the depiction of the banality of normal lives during what history will determine as seminal moments is masterful storytelling. 6/10

Cain

by José Saramago
Very witty take on the Old Testament but it may get a bit laborious if you do not know the Old Testament in the first place. 7/10

The Turnaround

by George Pelecanos
This is an interesting tale of teenagers growing up and racism in 70's Washington and the consequences 3 decades later.It does not turn out like I expected which I enjoyed. It was a good read 6/10

The Map and the Territory

by Michel Houellebecq
This is the story of an artist called Jed Martin and features a character called Michel Houellebecq. I found it very amusing and the first part of the book works extremely well. In the later part of the book things take a rather black turn and without losing its way, I felt it rather petered out. Having said that I enjoyed this book far more than his other books that I have read and find the arguments that have raged over plagiarism of wikipedia part of the amusement factor. 8/10

Life and Fate

by Vasily Grossman
I read this book after a heavy sell on the BBC and by the publisher Vintage in September this year. I have to confess that I found it a bit of a struggle. There were a lot of intertwining stories giving a fantastic picture of how difficult and disjointed living through war can be, both for families and a community as a whole.
Having said this, I found the stories too disjointed and struggled throughout remembering who was who. Not as good as I was hoping it would be. 6/10

Bartleby, the Scrivener

by Herman Melville
This short story is fascinating and if asked to review it I think I would have to say "I would prefer not to". The purpose of it I do not know and true to Melville's comments at the beginning there is little to tell of Bartleby's history but it is a great read, if not a little quirky. 8/10

Half Blood Blues

by Esi Edugyan.
I enjoyed this book about a group of jazz musicians who get together at the beginning of the second world war in Berlin and Paris. The book moves between then and now and gradually explains why certain things happened and why certain things did not. Along the way it mixes in historical figures who add interest. Would definitely recommend to a friend. 8/10

Jamrach's Menagerie

by Carol Birch Amother Booker nominee and an interesting tale based around two factual events. However, the middle section involving lizard hunting and shipwreck was far too long for me and the shipwreck in particular needs a strong stomach to get through! Having said that it was a gripping tale and an almost upbeat ending! 7/10

The Last 100 Days

by Patrick McGuinness There was an element of nostalgia reading this book having visited Romania during the disctator's regime and having vivid memories of the TV coverage of his final days in 1989. The story is enthralling and I enjoyed it a lot. Not sure I would read it again but definitely worth reading and I liked the dvice of putting the narrator centre stage but at a late enough time to be an outsider looking in. 8/10

The Sisters Brothers

by Patrick deWitt This was a very engaging, black comic book. It was one of those books where I would like to ask the author why he wrote it in the first place. It is basically about two brothers who go out and play cowboys and then go home to mum. Why would you write that book? Why would it make the Booker longlist. I do not know but I am glad he did and glad it did. 8/10

The Sense of an Ending

by Julian Barnes A short novel of 150 pages but none the less compelling for all that. All the way through the book the narrator was being told he did not understand and even when made clear at the end it took me a while to understand. This was great story telling and I would give it the Booker now so that probably means it won't make the shortlist! Still a good book though 8/10

The Stranger's Child

by Alan Hollinghurst This is a fascinating book with its wide sweep of twentieth century Britain and the effects of a gay war poets relationships with a Cambridge friend and his sister on their immediate families and those who came after. It works best in the early parts of the book I felt but all in all, and to use a technical term, it was lush! 8/10

An Uncertain Place

by Fred Vargas
Another enjoyable crime novel with Adamsberg. If I say it involves chasing vampires it would give the wrong idea. It is a search for a serial killer very firmly set in the modern day, but it still has the delightful quirkiness which is so attractive in this series. This one was slightly off the pace of some of the others I have read 7/10

Beyond Suspicion

by Tanguy Viel
A short thriller translated from french. It was very well written and could easily be read at one sitting. Mind you, I hated the ending 7/10

Paris Trance

by Geoff Dyer
This is a novel set in Paris and covering the lives of 4 twenty-somethings discovering life and each other. It is amusing in places, but generally covered a way of life I found it hard to connect with and yet still seemed rather predictable. However, I did like Spunky the dog! 6/10

The Invention of Paris

by Eric Hazan
Subtitled A history in Footsteps this a great book covering the history of various quarters of Paris and how it has developed into today's city. From the broad sweep to the intricate details this is a great book that makes you want to get back to the city and start exploring immediately. One word of advice. Unless you know the city really well it is useful-and will probably add to your enjoyment-if you have a map/street atlas close by. 8/10

A Visit from the Goon Squad

by Jennifer Egan
The Goon Squad is time and this is a novel about time and its passing and it deals with time in the way that time deals with us. That is, moving at different speeds -sometimes fast sometimes slow. I felt the technical skills in this book outweighed the story at times but a thought provoking book. Didn't enjoy the last chapter. 6/10

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

by Peter Hoeg

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book but feel that it then started to lose its way. Probably all that snow! Still an enjoyable read 6/10

The Invisible Woman

by Clare Tomalin
This was a fascinating biography and commentary on how history can be manipulated. It leaves many questions unanswered, not least being what did Ellen Ternan think of Dickens and her relationship with him, but this in itself is comment on how difficult this book was to write. 8/10

When God was a Rabbit

by Sarah Winman
This is a first novel and it sometimes showed in the lack of character depth and some of the descriptive passages. However, this book made me laugh (out loud belly laughter) and it made me cry and it made me think. What more can you ask of a novel. I really enjoyed it. 8/10

The Museum of Innocence

by Orhan Pamuk
What can I say about this most exasperating of books. One it is very long. Two, it focusses on one man's pain following the break up of a relationship, and when I use the word focus I mean with the intensity of a magnifying glass on a hot summers day. This is painful at times and there was more than one occassion I wished our hero narrator dead so we could all move on with our lives.Having said that this is beautifully written and leaves me longing to visit Istanbul. The ending is signalled from page 1 and yet still surprises when you get there. I slated this book for all the time I was reading it and yet I think it will live with me for longer than other books I have read. 7/10

Faceless Killers

by Henning Mankell
An early Wallender and a good crime novel. I felt the linking of the two seperate plots was a bit contrived but the Wallender character is deliciously seedy! 7/10

Squirrel seeks chipmunk

by David Sedaris
A very mixed bag. Some of these are very funny, some are very dark and ssome are just not very good. It is a great bedside book though. 5/10

Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson
This is a very gentle book but with an underlying tension. It is a melancholic look back at a man's early life and how it is shaping and impacting his later life. We learn nothing, or very little of the bit in between but it does not matter. I enjoyed it very much 8/10

Seraphita

bu Honoré de Balzac
If this was the first Balzac novel I had ever read it would be my last. There is no plot to speak of and is actually just a religious pamphlet in praise of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Utter crap 1/10 no make that 0/10

Freedom

by Jonathan Franzen
This was a great book and one of the few that left me close to tears at the end. It is a story of modern life I guess and how personal lives intrude on our ideologies 9/10

The General

by Jonathan Fenby
A very good biography of Charles de Gaulle with a great balance between the personal, private man and the statesman. 8/10

Three Ghost Stories

by Charles Dickens
Great fun 8/10

The Finkler Question

by Howard Jacobson
Very amusing in parts, boring in others and fascinating in others. He is as in touch with the human condition as any writer I have come across 8/10

Our Kind of Traitor

by John Le Carre

Le Carre on good form but with an ending that seemed inevitable for a Le Carre hero. Enjoyed it though 7/10

The Elephant's Journey

by José Saramago
Written by a nobel prize winning Portuguese writer this is a fantastic story of an elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna in the 16th century. I loved it, especially the narrator's quirky asides. 9/10

The Glass Room

by Simon Mawer
The story of a house, based on a real house in Brno, this is a fascinating story of the Czech Republic from the mid 1920's to the 1960's which I found really absorbing. 8/10

Death in the Latin Quarter

by Raphael Cardetti
Set in Paris this is a fast paced mystery thriller involving book restorers and shady secret service personnel from around the world. A great holiday read that is fun and not too taxing. 6/10

Ordinary Thunderstorms

by William Boyd
Enjoyed the premise of this book of a man who has his identity taken from him by being in the wrong place at the wrong time,. However it seemed to lose its way and the ending was disappointing. 5/10

Silence

by Shusaka Endo
This story of a missionary priest in the seventeenth century going off to Japan did not do a lot for me. 4/10

Oranges are not the only fruit

by Jeanette Winterson
Very funny in places and very reminiscent in parts of my youth. Felt the last 40 pages or so lost their way but 25 years on this is still agood read. 7/10

The Kindly Ones

by Jonathan Littell
Where do I begin. It was the best of books; it was the worst of books. One thing is certain you cannot be indifferent to this book. It is the fictional autobiography of Max Aue, an intellectual who was a SS officer during the second war. He recounts his experiences from the relative safety of sixty years after the event when he is a respectable owner of a lace factory in France. The narrative is compelling as it recounts not only the history of WWII but the intimate enjoyment and pain of one man's experience. It is hard going though with some very harrowing scenes. I also found the detail of the SS and German heirarchy difficult to follow, even with a glossary at the end of the book. This is a book that will live with me for some time yet. 8/10

Indemnity Only

by Sara Paretsky
This book, first published in 1982, introduces the detective V. I. Warshawski. She is a Chicago based private investigator who has gone on to feature in numerous subsequent investigations set in the city.
This first novel starts with somebody employing Warshawski by pretending to be a wealthy banker and sending her off on a hunt that results in her finding the body of the bankers son. Despite being warned off numerous times, she pursues the case, involving fraud, murder and corruption to an exciting end. As an aside it is fascinating to read a “modern” detective who is set pre mobile phones, pre internet and who is debating whether an IBM desktop computer would be any help in her office.
The character of VI is well built and it is not hard to see why she has continued to attract readers in her subsequent adventures. The plot in this novel stretches credibility to breaking point at times, particularly in the final showdown scene. I also found most of the characters-with the exception of VI –very two dimensional but such is the nature of the genre. If you enjoy a good crime caper this is a fun read.

Parrot and Olivier

by Peter Carey
Carey is a fantastic storyteller and this is no exception. This is a crazy tale inspired by Tocqueville but covers Paris and Dartmoor as well as America itself. It is littered with amusing characters and tall story scenes. Good fun 8/10

Alone in Berlin

by Hans Fallada
This book took me by surprise. The story is in many ways a simple one of a couple whose son is killed at the front during the second world war. They start a campaign of dropping postcards denouncing Hitler. Somehow the inevitable ending is moved towards with tremendous suspense and an engagement with the characters. The best book I have read so far in 2010 9/10

Berlin Tales

Edited and translated by Lyn Marven
This is a collection of short stories with Berlin as a unifying theme. They range from excellent-Evenings after six by Kurt Tucholsky- to very poor. The photos at the start of each story are a real treat. 2/10

The Outsider

by Albert Camus
A fascinating short novel by one of France's most revered writers. Set in his native Algeirs this is a fascinating story that reminds me of a line from Eliot. Humankind cannot face too much reality or words to that effect. It is a fascinating read that left me asking questions about how I would react in similar circumstances-although I cannot envisage killing a man- and what are the things that should provoke a reaction in us. 7/10

Solea

by Jean-Claude Izzo
This is the final book in the Marseilles trilogy featuring the ex cop Fabio Montale. I can't put my finger on what makes this series so good. It could be the worn down, flawed humanity of the central character, it could be the flawed and yet beautiful city of Marseilles that features as a central character in the book, it could be the thriller that runs as almost secondary story throughout. Whatever it is I found all three of the books really enjoyable as they moved slowly to the ineviatable conclusion. 10/10

Smile or Die

by Barbara Ehrenreich
A swipe at the positive thinking industry in America with some reference to the rest of us.
I found the book quite heavy on evidence but would have liked more reasoning as to why positive thinking is not a good thing. An interesting thought provoking read all the same. 6/10

The Girl who kicked the hornet's nest

by Stieg Larsson
The final part of the Salander trilogy and like the previous two ploughs on at an unrelenting rate. As with any series like this there is an element of repitition for those who need a reminder of where we have got to and this makes the book too long. It is a great yarn though!8/10

Wolf Hall

by Hilary Mantel
This Booker Prize winning novel plots the life of Thomas Cromwell-an advisor to Henry VIII. Its detail is remarkable but I never got caught up in the story although the characters were remarkably well drawn and the scope extensive. I can see why it won the prize but I would have chosen AS Byatt above this. 7/10

My Days of Adventure

by E A Vizetelly
This is a book written by a well known journalist and publisher of Zola in 1913 and relating his experiences of being in France at the time of the franco-prussian war in 1870-1. The language is rather dated and I found some of the military detail a little too detailed but the book was very interesting when describing the situation and atmosphere in Paris as the war progressed. 6/10

Fair Play

by Tove Jansson
This is a short novel that I found totally absorbing about two women living together on an island. Nothing much happens but you are drawn in to their story in a gentle way that made you want to sit down and watch a film with them. 8/10

Any Human Heart

by William Boyd
This life of Logan Mountstuart covers the twentieth century but is less a recap of the history of this period as it is a story of the human condition. The ageing process is movingly handled and as with the whole book shines with life affirming humour. Graet book 9/10

Footprints in Paris

by Gillian Tindall
This is a very readable book covering far more than a few streets in Paris.
You can still feel pain and hurt shouting from some pages but a far louder voice is the connection of memories across family histories and physical space. 7/10

The Quickening Maze

by Adam Foulds
This book is about John Clare and Tennyson and the Doctor who treated John Care during his first period of madness. It is written by a poet and the language is in places, beautifully poetic. I enjoyed it although working out the changes in story narrative took some doing at times but added to the enjoyment. 8/10

The Little Stranger

by Sarah Waters
Set in the period just after the second war this book is a strange mix of ghost story, social history, touch of romance and thriller. I felt it got a bit bogged down about half way through but then picked up the pace again. As ever, the writing is beautiful and a joy to read and the ending was as good as it was -for me-unexpected 8/10

The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Stieg Larsson
This has been a very hyped book and is the second in the Millenium trilogy. Much of the hype is driven by the fact we know that this is it as Larsson died soon after completing this trilogy.

This is a thriller that in my view falls into the same camp as The Da Vinci Code. That is it is a highly charged fast moving plot that keeps you up at night just to find out what is going to happen. That said the first 100 pages were dull and floated around recaps of the last book and badly written sketchy details of the characters sexual leanings. However, once the story commences the next 500 pages are non-stop.
The language is not that of a literary masterpiece and I found it grating and a little nausea inducing at times, but putting that aside I enjoy a good easy read like this and will read the final book in the trilogy, which the ending this book definitely makes almost obligatory! 7/10

The Children's Book

by AS Byatt
A long gentle sweep of english artistic middle class history from late 19th century to the end of the first world war. Interwoven with this is a taut story of a large cast of characters and their triumphs and tragedies. This is not a happy book but it is beautifully written and a joy to read 9/10

The Chalk Circle Man

by Fred Vargas
This was the first Adamsberg novel and gives us his quirkiness head on which I loved. Vargas is still my favourite crime writer. 9/10

Me Cheeta

by James Lever
A fictional autobiography this is a very amusing book in places and I think if you knew your cinema history it would have been funnier still. The writing is very good but the story was stretched out for 50 pages too far for me. 6/10

A Darker Domain

by Val McDermid
Good detective yarn but found the language a bit strained at times. Comments such as somebody expertly copying a picture to a pen drive grated. However, good holiday read 5/10

Chourmo

by Jean-Claude Izzo
The second book in the Marseilles trilogy and Montale has left the police force 12 months ago but gets embroiled in a mafia backed murder of a relative and friend. While the crime story is good the attraction of these books is the city of Marselles, the food and the music of Montale and the fishing trips. I enjoyed this second book more than the first and look forward to the final episode 9/10

The Yellow Dog

by Georges Simenon
An early Maigret set in Concarneau. A good story in a great setting. Very evocative of the Breton coast while enjoying Maigret's unorthadox methods 7/10

The Shadow of the Wind

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Set i Barcelona in the middle of the twentieth century this book grew on me as it went along. There were parts at the beginning where I was a little bored and others where the story swept you along.
However, as the book moved along there were some great twists and surprises that made the second part of the book much more enjoyable. 7/10

Netherland

by Joseph O' Neil
For me this was a book about cricket in New York with another story thrown in. The other story did not grab me but the cricketing references were sublime. 7/10

Doctor Pascal

by Emile Zola
The last of the Rougon-Macquart novels. I enjoyed it because it rounded off the series well and because it is autobiographical and because it is set in Provence. You could criticize it for being melodramatic and for the boring exposition of medical theory but I wouldn't. I feel like I have lived the second empire with these characters and I am going to miss them.
The book would have been more difficult if you were not reading it at the end of the series but I am going to score it high for nostalgic reasons if othing else! 8/10

Flight of the Falcon

by Daphne du Maurier
As you would expect this was a good taut thriller but I did find you were always one step ahead of the hero. Set in a fictional university town in Italy it moves at a rapid rate and is definitely a good holiday read. 7/10

Total Chaos

by Jean-Claude Izzo
Set in Marseilles this is a thriller with a flawed hero and the backdrop of a flawed city which makes both attractive. This is the first in a trilogy and I will definitely hunt out the other two episodes. 8/10

Map of Another Town

by MFK Fisher
This picture of Aix en Provence in the late 50's to early 60's is great. She creates maps from her memory which is a great way of remembering places. Having just visited the town it was interesting to compare her map with mine. 8/10

Seeking Whom he may Devour

by Fred Vargas
A wolf, Adamsberg, and a trip way out of Paris but still a great quirky novel. Glass of wine, open fire, feet up, forget reality and enjoy....8/10

The Paris Enigma

by Pablo de Santis

A crime thriller set largely in Paris at the time of the 1900 world fair. I did not enjoy it. There were too many characters who were left without much more than a name and by the end, which I did enjoy, one could easily have lost the will to finish it 3/10

La Debacle or The Downfall

by Emile Zola

The penultimate novel in the Rougon Macquart series and a harrowing account of the last days of the empire, the French defeat at Sedan and the subsequent Paris commune. Gritty stuff but a great novel and covering all the stuff that Zola excels at such as realism, crowds and the baser sides of the human condition. It was great to see Jean Macquart again. 9/10

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery
This book was very funny, witty, sad and all in all the best book I have read during the last year. 9/10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Steig Larsson
A good thriller with a double story line running through it. Some of the language is pretty naff but it doesn't detract from the excitement. I think I still prefer Fred Vargas. 7/10

This nights foul work

by Fred Vargas
A french detective novel which is fairly wacky and reminds one of "The Incredible Journey" at one point. However, I like my crime novels off the wall and you will need to suspend your disbelief no more than you would for Agatha Christie or most other crime novels. The serious crime unit under Adamsberg is an interesting place there is no doubt. 8/10

L'Argent

by Emile Zola
A very timely read of this the 18th novel in the Rougon Macquart series. It deals with the rise and fall of a bank toward the end of second empire France. It has many parallels with the current financial crisis and is perhaps a warning not to over react too much. These things are cyclical after all even if the scope widens to a global level.
Some of the book gets bogged down in technical stock dealing and the English reader suffers from there only being one translation in existence. Now would be a good time for a new full translation! Not one of Zola's greatest by any means but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would from some of the comments I had read earlier. 7/10
www.emilezola.info

The White Tiger

by Aravinda Adiga
The story of a an Indian growing up in India in a time of huge change(ie Now!). It is a very readable tale touching on the caste system, corruption, murder, the new economy and the emergence of India-all in an engaging style. The main character remained somebody I felt distant from and could not take to, but I am not sure we are meant to like him. He is a killer and a corrupt businessman after all! 8/10

A Fraction of the Whole

by Steve Toltz
This is a long meandering book which in many ways is full of drivel and in others is very amusing. It reminds me in some ways of Peter Carey's, Illywhacker but maybe that is just the Australian connection kicking in. At over 800 pages I could have done with it being a little shorter but I skipped along through it just to find out what happened next. I would not read it again. 6/10

The Clothes on their Backs

by Linda Grant
As someone who grew up in the 70's I enjoyed some of the nostalgia in this book but I never really connected with the story or the characters and was left disappointed come the end. 6/10

Rancid Pansies

by James Hamilton-Paterson

The third novel featuring Gerald Samper, a snobbish writer living in Italy(mostly). While not as laugh out loud funny as Fernet Branca this is still very amusing in places and a great critique of the Princess Diana myth as only Samper could do it. 6/10

La Bete Humaine

by Emile Zola

The seventeenth novel in the Rougon Macquart and one of the best. After the dream this is straight back in to the darker side of the human existence and a roller coaster murder yarn set on the railway line between Le Havre and Paris. It is Zola at his best painting wonderful descriptions of the landscape and a plot that runs along with the railway it depicts. 9/10

Have Mercy on Us All

by Fred Vargas
The second novel I have read by this author. It is published by Vintage in the UK and had some bad editing mistakes but apart from that annoyance was a good read. The main character is likeable and suitably flawed as a human being to make him attractive.
The premise behind the story requires some suspension of reality but is none the less absorbing for that. 7/10

Five Photos of my wife

by Agnes Desarthe
A gentle and at times amusing, at times sad tale of a man's search for a memory of his wife. I really enjoyed this book 9/10

The Dream (Le Reve)

by Emile Zola
This was hard work and far from being the most enjoyable book I have read of Zola's.
The main character Angelique is the Rougon-Macquart connection. She was abandoned as a child and the story starts with her turning up in a church porch from where she is taken in by some church embroiderers. She is annoying and I couldn't wait for some Zolaesque tragedy to take her away. Sadly it did not.
I will need to read around this to try and redeem the book but it definitely his worst to date- in my humble opinion! 4/10

The Three Evangelists

by Fred Vargas
Very enjoyable crime thriller. An easy read and great to relax with. 8/10

Testimony

by Nicolas Sarkozy
Fascinating stuff. The man intrigues me with his certainty about life and his beliefs. His piece on his wife and their eternal bond which has subsequently evaporated is illuminating. His utopian vision for France is straight from one of his beloved America's movies. Having said this I like this man and some of his open discussion of chaging France is refreshing.
Gets a bit bogged down in places but worth reading soon before it gets consigned to the political tract bin. 8/10

The Gathering

by Anne Enright
I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the writing very much and there were some extremely moving and disturbing passages as well as some darkly humorous ones. However, I felt the story line was a bit thin and the ending unsatisfactory. It was almost as though having revealed to the reader the central issue of the story the rest of the book lost its way. Would still recommend it though. 7/10

Ninety three

by Victor Hugo
Set in 1793 this book was about the Vendean war at the time of the French revolution. The second half of the book was good and had some great insights into the terrors and hardships of civil war and also some detail on how enlightened some of the revolutionary thinking was. However the first half of the book was hard going and pretty dull. 4/10

Dawn, Dusk or Night

by Yasmina Reza
Subtitled 'a year with Nicolas Sarkozy' this is a book of reflections and observations of the French president during the manic year leading up to his election in May 2007.
I found the style of this book difficult to get my head around and yet I could not put it down. It is mesmerising and offers this love him hate him view that resonates with my own reactions to Sarkozy. So many of the observations are fleeting glances when I would have liked to stay longer, but maybe this is the nature of the man where clearly what you see is only what he wants you to see. The book mercifully steers clear of any comment on his private life and gets an extra point from me for that alone. 9/10

Rounding the Mark

by Andrea Camilleri

Another Inspector Montalbano crime mystery set in Sicily. This is very easy reading but great fun although easier than some to unravel fairly early on. 6/10

La Terre (The Earth)

by Emile Zola
The fifteenth novel in the Rougon Macquart series and I think one of the best.
It is shocking even today and exposes some of the more base and brutal sides of mankind, where Jean Macquart as a outsider throughout observes the futile battle of the peasants with the soil and themselves. Some of the scenes are brilliantly written such as when Lise is giving birth at the same time and i the same location as their household cow is giving birth to twin calves. There is even humour with Jesus Christ's(a character not a deity) farting exploits. Definitely a must read if you want to sample Zola. 9/10

Notes from Exile

by Emile Zola
This book is edited and translated by Dorothy Speirs
I guess this book is a little niche but I loved it. It is very short and contains notes that Zola made when forced into exile in England during the Dreyfuss affair.
What is more it includes photos taken during that time by Zola himself. Then there is even more with an introduction that gives us some background on the Vizetelly family who were responsible for some of the early Zola translations. For his pains one of them received a prison sentence for publishing porn. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 10/10

The Power of Flies

by Lydie Salvayre
Originally published in French these are the musings of a madman (or is he?) who has murdered someone and addresses himself to the judge, the warder and his psychiatrist. You do find out who he has murdered but not until the very end and there are several potential candidates along the way. We only ever hear the voice of the accused and as such he provokes our sympathy but it left me wanting to write somebody elses point of view. What did the judge think or his wife or his father. A good thought provoking book. 8/10

The Courtesans

by Joanna Richardson

Brief biographies of a number of different courtesans from the French second empire days. It was fascinating reading and an insight to French society of that time. I found the style a nnoying at times and felt that the author was always trying to restrain from passing judgement on these women. 5/10