by Max Porter
A very short book telling the story of Francis Bacon's death through his supposed thoughts on 6 canvasses. I felt all through that I was close to seeing what Bacon and the author were grappling for but failed on both accounts. Maybe I needed to know more about Bacon or maybe.......5/10
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A story about robots set sometime in the not too distant future would not normally be my chosen reading but I did enjoy this. It uses the robot Klara to examine what love is and what is human and a playful examination of religious belief. As you would expect all really well written with a bittersweet and almost inevitable ending, 8/10
by Charles Dickens
In many ways a collection of stories but weaved together in a humorous way by the members of the club and Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick's manservant. This is one of Dickens's funniest books with a whole host of amusing and sometimes unbelievable characters. Too long some would say, and they may have a point, but hugely enjoyable as a source of escapism 9/10
by Orlando Figes
This was a fantastic book. It manages to bring together official and unofficial accounts from all sides in a major conflict and put them in the context of European history at the time, and all in a highly engaging manner. 10/10
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This book took me by surprise. Firstly, by how vitriolic he was toward those he felt had let him down and secondly how right wing his views seem from the standpoint of the twenty first century.
What the book captures really well is how oppressive Western democracy/capitalism can be albeit in a different way to soviet communism. An interesting but long winded book. 6/10
by Patricia Lockwood
What to make of this book? First of all I needed an urban slang dictionary next to me to understand some of the language. Then, I ended the book in tears. The writing is fresh and engaging although some of the metaphors took some stretching of the imagination to work.
In the end it seemed to be an internet meets reality type of book and the writing about reality in part two wins hands down. 8/10
by JMG Le Clezio
This book is beautiful.
It follows a young woman called Lalla alongside the march of people in 1910 from South Sudan to Morocco where they were slaughtered by colonial forces. The echos of this event seem to haunt the book. There is a chapter where Lalla is walking through Marseilles after leaving her aunt which is mesmerising. The use of language-even in translation- is wonderful. 9/10
Definitely a year for fiction. On the non-fiction side I finished a biography of Marx and read a damning analysis of the big tech firms called Surveillance Capital. Also a good biography of Clement Atlee. He led the Labour party for 20 years including as PM after the second world war and yet I knew hardly anything about him so very enjoyable.
On the fiction side it has been a crime laden year including all five Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson.
The Booker prize was disappointing with my favourites not making the shortlist (Apeirogon and Redhead by the side of the road). The shortlist was full of misery and angst so much so that I could not bring myself to read the eventual winner Shuggie Bain, until after the result had been announced.
The final part of Ali Smith's seasonal quartet was released and was fun. It even managed to squeeze a covid reference in.
My favourite book of the year must go to The way we live now by Trollope. Amusing and insightful in equal measure. Roll on 2021.
by Kate Atkinson
The fifth in the Jackson Brodie series and still full of wit amongst the darkness of a trafficking ring in Bridlington as well as a number of other incidents. It is all the other stuff that makes this book the weakest of the series, as the surrounding noise makes the story hard to follow and I found myself having to frequently go back over the story to work out who was being referred to. The question is, will we see Mr B again? 6/10
Andrea Lundgren
A book of six short stories published by Peirene.
A mixed bag. I particularly liked the other -wordliness of how things come to seem and the bird that cries in the night. The others left me a bit cold. 5/10
by Herve Le Tellier
This author won the prix goncourt prize this year. He is also a member of the French oulipo group and this book is an example of how they work, writing stories around patterns. So in this book each short story is about two people having sex but they work through the alphabet, so story one starts with Anna and Ben, story two is Ben and Chloe etc. When they have got through the alphabet the characters start turning up again with different partners. All very humorous. 7/10
by Kate Atkinson
Jackson Brodie at it again in a caper, almost in the style of the keystone cops where the good guys are kidnapping children and stealing dogs all against the background of Leeds and a crime committed 30 years before. She does seem to be able to tread this narrow line between humour and ugly drama. 7/10
by Brian Moore
Set in second empire France and the recently invaded Algeria this is a fascinating tale of a magician/inventor called upon to use his skills to help the empire, and of his wife. She in many ways sits outside the story and observes but she gradually becomes the story itself. I thought this was a great book set in a period of history I love 9/10
by Kate Atkinson
The third in the series featuring Jackson Brodie and carrying the expected balance of humour, drama and intrigue to make it hard to put down. We also find out more about what happens to all the money Jackson inherited at the end of the first in the series. 8/10
by Douglas Stuart
The winner of this year's booker prize and something I had put off reading because of the subject matter.
Shuggie is growing up in Glasgow with his alcoholic mother and this is the story of their life together up until the point she dies. This is not letting out a secret as we find out this fact in the first few pages of the book. Despite the inevitable sadness of this book it sparkles with life and occasional humour. I enjoyed it far more than I expected and think it a worthy winner from the shortlist. It maybe got a little bit long in the last third of the book . 8/10
by Pierre Lemaitre
A great dig at big corporates and a thriller which is implausible in parts but still tense until the last 30 pages which were a bit disappointing. 7/10
by Denise Mina
First novel featuring Alex Morrow. Enjoyable and at times great writing. Will definitely read more 8/10
by Ali Smith
Final novel in the quartet and keeps up the current references including covid. It brings back characters from the other novels and is a really good read. Why didn't it make the Booker list? 8/10
by Brandon Taylor
I found this a very hard read.
It started well enough in a lab developing nematodes but this is only the background to the story of a black man in a postgraduate school that is predominately white. He is also gay and a victim of child abuse. The gay sex was difficult but what I really struggled with was the violence of all his encounters. The writing is good but this was not my type of story. As such it may well win the Booker this year 6/10
by Bernard Minier
The third novel in the Inspector Servaz series and Hirtman only made a fleeting appearance. This one was all about dodgy French astronauts with some twists in the tail. Good page turner 7/10
