by Georges Simenon
The next in the Maigret series and one I liked a lot. A murder on a trading canal around Paris with a host of suspects and dark pasts. I think the cliché is "vintage Maigret" 8/10
Sunday, April 05, 2015
Things to Make and Break
by May-Lan Tan
This series of short stories has everything I like and hate about short stories. You get hooked very quickly to the plot driving the story and then, just as you want to know what happens next, or more about a particular character, its over. End of. If you like short stories these are good. 6/10
This series of short stories has everything I like and hate about short stories. You get hooked very quickly to the plot driving the story and then, just as you want to know what happens next, or more about a particular character, its over. End of. If you like short stories these are good. 6/10
Friday, March 20, 2015
Elisabeth is missing
By Emma Healey
This is a mystery with a twist. The story is told by an eighty two year old narrator suffering with dementia and called Maud. Her current life is full of forgotten words, places, and people. She is convinced her friend Elizabeth is missing and because we only ever hear her confused version of the story it takes a long time to solve the mystery.
However, Maud's long term memory is crystal clear and in these passages she tells us about the events of 1946 when her sister disappeared never to be found.
The two stories intertwine beautifully and the story is at one time intriguing and at another incredibly sad.
Having said that I am not sure the story worked entirely and I was left a little frustrated with the ending. 8/10
This is a mystery with a twist. The story is told by an eighty two year old narrator suffering with dementia and called Maud. Her current life is full of forgotten words, places, and people. She is convinced her friend Elizabeth is missing and because we only ever hear her confused version of the story it takes a long time to solve the mystery.
However, Maud's long term memory is crystal clear and in these passages she tells us about the events of 1946 when her sister disappeared never to be found.
The two stories intertwine beautifully and the story is at one time intriguing and at another incredibly sad.
Having said that I am not sure the story worked entirely and I was left a little frustrated with the ending. 8/10
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The book of Saladin
by Tariq Ali
The second book in an intended quartet that ended as a quintet of novels about the tensions and conflicts between Christendom and Islam over the ages. This book tells the story of Saladin and his rise to power in the twelth century, and his part in what the english refer to as the crusades.
It is peopled with great characters ranging from the sultan's wife, Jamilla and her various lovers, to Eunuchs, to old retainers and not least the Jewish narrator of the story who is employed by Saladin to write an accurate account of his life.
As with the first book I find I love the characters but the story can sometimes be a bit flat. 8/10
The second book in an intended quartet that ended as a quintet of novels about the tensions and conflicts between Christendom and Islam over the ages. This book tells the story of Saladin and his rise to power in the twelth century, and his part in what the english refer to as the crusades.
It is peopled with great characters ranging from the sultan's wife, Jamilla and her various lovers, to Eunuchs, to old retainers and not least the Jewish narrator of the story who is employed by Saladin to write an accurate account of his life.
As with the first book I find I love the characters but the story can sometimes be a bit flat. 8/10
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
A thin soil for a plot. Harold gets a letter from an old work colleague who is dying of cancer. He writes a reply and sets off to post the letter and just keeps walking from Kingsbridge in Devon to Berwick on Tweed in Scotland. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters who all help him find himself and come to terms with life changing events in his past. A little like Harold the plot seems to lose its way now and then and, like Harold, could probably have reached the end sooner than it does. The book handles the end well though. 6/10
A thin soil for a plot. Harold gets a letter from an old work colleague who is dying of cancer. He writes a reply and sets off to post the letter and just keeps walking from Kingsbridge in Devon to Berwick on Tweed in Scotland. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters who all help him find himself and come to terms with life changing events in his past. A little like Harold the plot seems to lose its way now and then and, like Harold, could probably have reached the end sooner than it does. The book handles the end well though. 6/10
MadAddam
by Margaret Attwood
The third book in the MadAddam trilogy this book takes the story on beyond the global catastrophe and fills in the backstory on Adam 1 and Zeb as well as several of the other characters. This is a book about endings and beginnings and hope as well as sadness.
I get the felling that the author had fun writing this book. There are some very funny parts such as the story of Fuck and fuck's place in the evolving mythology of the Crakers.
Not as good as the first book in the trilogy I still enjoyed this book. 7/10
The third book in the MadAddam trilogy this book takes the story on beyond the global catastrophe and fills in the backstory on Adam 1 and Zeb as well as several of the other characters. This is a book about endings and beginnings and hope as well as sadness.
I get the felling that the author had fun writing this book. There are some very funny parts such as the story of Fuck and fuck's place in the evolving mythology of the Crakers.
Not as good as the first book in the trilogy I still enjoyed this book. 7/10
Friday, February 20, 2015
The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
A novel set in the aftermath of WW1 and a mother and daughter who have lost the men in their family and trying to hang on to their upper middle class standing. With money running out they take in a young couple as lodgers and over the course of a summer their lives become increasingly entwined with disastrous consequences. A new time setting but this is vintage Sarah Waters with drama and tension right to the end, not to mention the odd twist and turn as the story unfolds.
The characters are brilliantly drawn and the detail of life after the war is fascinating 9/10
A novel set in the aftermath of WW1 and a mother and daughter who have lost the men in their family and trying to hang on to their upper middle class standing. With money running out they take in a young couple as lodgers and over the course of a summer their lives become increasingly entwined with disastrous consequences. A new time setting but this is vintage Sarah Waters with drama and tension right to the end, not to mention the odd twist and turn as the story unfolds.
The characters are brilliantly drawn and the detail of life after the war is fascinating 9/10
Saturday, February 14, 2015
The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Attwood
This is the second book in the MaddAddam trilogy and tells the story of God's Gardeners in the years immediately preceeding the waterless flood or plague that is at the centre of the trilogy.
I did not enjoy this book as much as Oryx and Crake. I found the characters hard to identify with and it was very late in the book before I managed to sort out who was who. However, it did keep me wanting to know what happened after the flood. Bring on part three! 7/10
This is the second book in the MaddAddam trilogy and tells the story of God's Gardeners in the years immediately preceeding the waterless flood or plague that is at the centre of the trilogy.
I did not enjoy this book as much as Oryx and Crake. I found the characters hard to identify with and it was very late in the book before I managed to sort out who was who. However, it did keep me wanting to know what happened after the flood. Bring on part three! 7/10
Monday, January 26, 2015
The Shadow of the Pomegranate Tree
by Tariq Ali
The story of one muslim family in Southern Spain at the time of the expulsion of the Moors. The family are very engaging and the portrayal of family life is beautifully drawn against a background of the harsh realities of the time. 9/10
The story of one muslim family in Southern Spain at the time of the expulsion of the Moors. The family are very engaging and the portrayal of family life is beautifully drawn against a background of the harsh realities of the time. 9/10
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Attwood
A reread of a book I read first over 10 years ago. I enjoyed it much more this time. It is the tale of Snowman formally Jimmy who is trying to survive and make sense of the post apocalyptic world he lives in. Through flashbacks we learn how this came about and the roles that Crake and Oryx played in it. 8/10
A reread of a book I read first over 10 years ago. I enjoyed it much more this time. It is the tale of Snowman formally Jimmy who is trying to survive and make sense of the post apocalyptic world he lives in. Through flashbacks we learn how this came about and the roles that Crake and Oryx played in it. 8/10
Thank you for this moment
by Valérie Trierweiler
The inside scoop on the Francois Hollande love triangle and what really drove him to the croissant on a scooter caper. Very trashy but some interesting insights to life at the top of French politics. One feels the lady doth protest too much however. 4/10
The inside scoop on the Francois Hollande love triangle and what really drove him to the croissant on a scooter caper. Very trashy but some interesting insights to life at the top of French politics. One feels the lady doth protest too much however. 4/10
Money
by Emile Zola
My second reading of this book and still very enjoyable. One cannot help feeling Zola would have loved to have been around in the years following 2008 and have written about unscrupulous bankers and a corrupt financial system. There is nothing new under the sun! 9/10
My second reading of this book and still very enjoyable. One cannot help feeling Zola would have loved to have been around in the years following 2008 and have written about unscrupulous bankers and a corrupt financial system. There is nothing new under the sun! 9/10
Holy Disorders
by Edmund Crispin
A tale of Geoffrey Vintner, church organist, summoned to Devon in wartime by his friend Gervase Fen who has asked him to bring a butterfly net. Murder and mayhem ensue, not to mention a spy ring and very little use for a butterfly net. This is a crime mystery told with tongue firmly in cheek and very enjoyable as a result. 8/10
A tale of Geoffrey Vintner, church organist, summoned to Devon in wartime by his friend Gervase Fen who has asked him to bring a butterfly net. Murder and mayhem ensue, not to mention a spy ring and very little use for a butterfly net. This is a crime mystery told with tongue firmly in cheek and very enjoyable as a result. 8/10
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The Sportswriter
by Richard Ford
The life of an ordinary American, Frank Bascombe, living an ordinary life. It was interesting but not gripping and I am not sure how quickly I will return to the other books in this series. 6/10
The life of an ordinary American, Frank Bascombe, living an ordinary life. It was interesting but not gripping and I am not sure how quickly I will return to the other books in this series. 6/10
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
The Origins of Totalitarianism
By Hannah Arendt
I worked through this as an audiobook which was not the best format in which to read this book. Having said that the book, which is now over 50 years old was fascinating. A lot of her analysis still holds true despite subsequent shifts in power. Definitely a good -but dense-read 7/10
I worked through this as an audiobook which was not the best format in which to read this book. Having said that the book, which is now over 50 years old was fascinating. A lot of her analysis still holds true despite subsequent shifts in power. Definitely a good -but dense-read 7/10
Suspended Sentences
by Patrick Modiano
This is a book of 3 short novellas whose link is Paris and looking back. This is writing for the soul. Nothing great happens and yet the writing is beautiful and a credit o the translator. This has to be near the top of my favorites list for this year 9/10
This is a book of 3 short novellas whose link is Paris and looking back. This is writing for the soul. Nothing great happens and yet the writing is beautiful and a credit o the translator. This has to be near the top of my favorites list for this year 9/10
Friday, November 28, 2014
Perfidia
by James Ellroy
This is the first novel in a second LA quartet but set in the second world war-ie before the first quartet.
It is a wild ride and I found the slang hard to follow at times. It portrays the unreal world of LA just as Pearl Harbour takes place and is told around the murder of 4 Japanese from the same family.
It is hard to split the good guys from the bad guys-which is a large part of the books appeal. I would recommend you try and read this in big chunks-it is 700 pages long-as that helps get into the language and the staccato writing style. 7/10
This is the first novel in a second LA quartet but set in the second world war-ie before the first quartet.
It is a wild ride and I found the slang hard to follow at times. It portrays the unreal world of LA just as Pearl Harbour takes place and is told around the murder of 4 Japanese from the same family.
It is hard to split the good guys from the bad guys-which is a large part of the books appeal. I would recommend you try and read this in big chunks-it is 700 pages long-as that helps get into the language and the staccato writing style. 7/10
Saturday, November 08, 2014
The Search Warrant
by Patrick Modiano
The winner of the nobel prize so as I had not come across him before had to be worth a try.
The book is simple in concept and very short but I found it absorbing. The narrator sees a newspaper article about a girl who disappeared in the middle of occupied Paris in 1942. He sets out to discover what happened to her. Written in journalistic style it takes us through his investigations over a number of years. It grew on me as I went through it. 8/10
The winner of the nobel prize so as I had not come across him before had to be worth a try.
The book is simple in concept and very short but I found it absorbing. The narrator sees a newspaper article about a girl who disappeared in the middle of occupied Paris in 1942. He sets out to discover what happened to her. Written in journalistic style it takes us through his investigations over a number of years. It grew on me as I went through it. 8/10
The Night Watch
by Sarah Waters
A foray out of the nineteenth century for Sarah Waters as she writes a book about London during world war 2 and its immediate aftermath. The book starts at the end in 1947 and works backwards in 2 leaps to 1941. It is a device I was sceptical of before reading the book but it is brilliantly executed and very gripping. It will certainly satisfy those who always read the last page of the novel to see what happens! The characters are rendered with so much care and I so wanted to know what happened to Kay. A great read 9/10
A foray out of the nineteenth century for Sarah Waters as she writes a book about London during world war 2 and its immediate aftermath. The book starts at the end in 1947 and works backwards in 2 leaps to 1941. It is a device I was sceptical of before reading the book but it is brilliantly executed and very gripping. It will certainly satisfy those who always read the last page of the novel to see what happens! The characters are rendered with so much care and I so wanted to know what happened to Kay. A great read 9/10
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
We are all completely beside ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
A family reflection narrated by Rosemary and concerning her parents and two siblings. A quirky enjoyable novel touching on some current issues. It has been shortlisted for the Booker but I would be surprised if it won
A family reflection narrated by Rosemary and concerning her parents and two siblings. A quirky enjoyable novel touching on some current issues. It has been shortlisted for the Booker but I would be surprised if it won
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