by Georges Simenon
For some undisclosed reason Maigret has been banished from Paris to the provinces. In a small town near Nantes a body is discovered in a house belonging to a retired judge and the judge is trying to dispose of it. Very strange goings on in rural France! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A body found dead in the cellars of a posh hotel in Paris with fingers pointing clearly at one of the staff.
Maigret gets a trip to the South of France where he seems very out of place, as well as getting mixed up with a rich American before we finally discover the true murderer. 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A melancholy affair this one as Cecile should not have died and to some extent Maigret believes he is responsible. He gets to the bottom of it in the end though :) 8/10
by Juan Emar
A crazy book written by a chilean author in the 1930's. Very funny in places and totally bizarre throughout. 7/10
by Georges Simenon
Another strange case. Maigret has been retired for sometime and is living in the Loire valley near Tours.
His nephew, a policeman, does something stupid and is arrested for murder drawing Maigret back to Paris and his detective work.
I need to read around this as there are 55 more novels in this series and the next one has Maigret back in full detective mode so clearly not published chronologically. 8/10
by George Simenon
An interesting book with Maigret about to retire and a strange barge owner whose past catches up with him. Darker than some but really enjoyable 9/10
by John McGregor
A difficult but compulsive read. Robert, has worked for 30 years in Antarctica for several months of the year. On his last trip he has a stroke in the middle of a storm and further tragedy ensues. The large part of the book deals with the aftermath of these events and Robert's handling of his speech and mobility impairment. It also deals with his wife who holds a senior research post and the effect it has on her life. This gets lost toward the end of the book and I ended up musing on how this would pan out. Thought provoking stuff and written in a totally engaging style 9/10
by Gustave Flaubert
A book made interesting by its historical setting and the key events in the 1840's in France as it passed from monarchy to republic. The plot is limited, following the life of the main character, Frédéric Moreau. He is generally annoying but is in love with the wife of a man called Arnoux who is modelled on a real life character. His character drawing is good and some of Frederic's friends are at times funny, monstrous or to be pitied. I never felt any of this for our hero. 7/10
by Georges Simenon
Off on his travels again, Maigret is in Cannes and Antibes on the cote d'Azur. A man has been murdered. He is a foreigner but has lived in France for sometime and was a hero of the resistance. He appears to have fallen on hard times but there is more to it than that. Very enjoyable! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
Maigret gets shot while on his way to the Dordogne for a holiday.
He has to solve the case from his convalescent bed. Good policing mystery. 8/10
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
