Marzahn, mon amour

 by Katja Oskamp

A great tale of a woman who gives up her writing career to retrain as a chiropodist. Each chapter tells the story of one of her clients from the housing estates of Marzahn. I loved it 9/10

The Eustace Diamonds

 by Anthony Trollope

The third Palliser novel and not one I enjoyed that much. Lizzy is an abominable character and the narrator tells us as much at the start of the novel. The trouble is many of the other characters, Frank, Lord Fawn, Mrs Carbuncle and Mrs Hittaway to name a few, are all equally horrible. The novel does pick up pace a bit once the diamonds have actually been stolen but the book is too long for the tale it tells. The Duke of Omnium's brief appearances are great though. 5/10

Chouette

 by Claire Oshetsky

I am still musing over this book. It is no doubt a parable about living with challenging children be that by behavior or disability but this was a difficult read in places and yet fascinating and brilliant in others. I shall continue to think about the owl baby and there are some great musical references that I would urge any reader to follow up. 8/10

Moonfleet

 by J. Meade Falkner

A real swashbuckling tale in the style of Lorna Doone. Set on the Dorset coast near Swanage it tells the tale of John Trenchard and his life with the smugglers of that area. Good lively page turner although there is never a doubt about the outcome 8/10

The Artful Dickens

 by John Mullan

A good read looking at the way Dickens used certain literary constructs to achieve results and how these were often breaking the mould.

It was full of great quotes but it did use a lot of the same scenes over again which I thought was a bit lazy. There was also a lot of reference to Edwin Drood. 6.5/10 

Maigret gets Angry

 by Georges Simenon

Maigret has been retired for a couple of years when he gets an unexpected visit from an unknown old lady whose grand-daughter has apparently committed suicide. He can't help himself and gets drawn into a dark family history. Vintage stuff but we never did find out what happened to Maigret's aubergines! 8/10

Net Zero

 by Dieter Helm

A thought provoking book examining whether we are on the right track to get to net zero by 2050 or not.

The basic premise of the book is that for the last thirty years (ie since the formation of the UNFCCC) we have been focussed on the wrong things and approaching it the wrong way in that the approach is:
1. Top down from the UN via the annual COP meetings.
2. Measures are aimed at producers and not polluters.
He backs this up with the evidence in the growth of ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere and the continued global growth in the use of fossil fuels, all of which stacks up and makes for depressing reading. One of his aims is to try and make sure we do not give up the drive for net zero as a lost cause. I admire his optimism but am still not convinced.

This being the case, however, he proposes a three-fold solution that would address the problem he has set out. These are that firstly the polluter pays. ie we move from a production based approach to a consumption based approach. This inevitably leads to some form of carbon tax which applies to consumption so it would need to be applied on imports. Interestingly, Europe is already looking at this and Macron raised it in his speech last week when France took over the presidency of the EU. He suggests that this is a simple straightforward affair and less prone to lobbying and corruption. I seem to recall the same things being said about VAT when it was introduced and that is now incredibly complex. However, I do agree that a tax on carbon has to be brought in. We will not pay for carbon voluntarily.
Secondly it is invoking the principle of public money for public goods. This applies to infrastructure and R&D. In particular he focuses on broadband and electricity infrastructures which should be built by public monies and universally available. 
Thirdly there should be net environmental gain in anything we do to mitigate the effects of loss and cheating. I found this hard to seperate from the first point in that any net gain will have to be achieved through the polluter pays principle.
I liked the fact that the book does not shy away from the cost of this and even addresses the thorny moral questions of whether the rich industrialised countries should pay for adaptation measures in those countries most affected by climate change or whether we should have an obligation to accept climate refugees.

The final section of the book looks specifically at agriculture, transport and electricity. These were interesting but I got a bit lost in some of the technical arguments. All in all though a good challenging read to start the year. 8/10

Phineas Finn

 by Anthony Trollope

The second of the Palliser novels following the fortunes of Phineas in love and politics over the five years he spends as an MP for his home constituency in Ireland. Very amusing in places and a great commentary on politics of the period. Our hero could be annoying at times but he gets there in the end you feel 8/10

Manon Lescaut

by Abbe Prevost

I read this because of the operas by Puccini and Massenet. It definitely lends itself to opera, with a narrative that is both dramatic and absurd, but having said that I enjoyed it. The character of Des Grieux is much better drawn than Manon but he manages to invoke our sympathy for both. Like all good opera it does not end well! 7/10 

Covid by Numbers

 David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

Does what the title says with lots of graphs and charts showing how the virus has affected our lives up to June 2021. Written in plain english and with a light touch this is a very readable survey of the pandemic thus far. 8/10

Review of 2021

 A criminal year with 10 Maigret's, 2 George Smiley's and a French detective from pre revolutionary France.

The Booker list was quite enjoyable this year. I liked the winner but my favourites were probably Great Circle and A Town Called Solace. 

However, my book of the year must be Orlando Figes' book, The Crimean War. It was for a layman like me so engaging and informative. A close run contender would be Desert by JMG Le Clezio.

The Chatelet Apprentice

 by J F Parot

The first book featuring Nicolas Le Floch investigating the disappearance of a police officer. Set in the eighteenth century it is a great page turner. 7/10

Winter Flowers

 by Angelique Villeneuve

A book about a family in 1918 Paris where the husband has returned from the war with his face half blown off. It gently tells the story of how they learn to live together again. It is set in bleak times but is told with a gentleness and an overriding sense of hope. I liked it 9/10

Ankomst

 by Gohril Gabrielsen

A researcher on her own in the far North of Norway gradually unravelling. I didn't enjoy this even though it has a great if somewhat frustrating end to the book 5/10

Animal

 by Lisa Taddeo

Not sure what I made of this. Our heroine/anti-heroine is Joan and she is depraved by her own assessment.
The book is her trying to explain to (for most of the book) an unknown character the reasons why she has turned out so. It is a brutal book and yet you do feel drawn to and repulsed by Joan in equal measure. She has so little empathy for others but there are mostly plausible reasons for this. It definitely kept me engaged 7/10

In the shadow of the fire

 by Herve le Corre
This is an odd but interesting book. It is a love story, a police investigation into abduction, and a history of the Paris Commune or more particularly, it's bloody final 10 days. At times I found it a bit drawn out whereas at other times it fairly rattled along. It managed to portray both the horrors and the hope of the Commune and in some way explain why that hope has travelled down through the years. 7/10

Sigmund Freud

 by Stefan Zweig

A brief introduction to Freuds life and work, written during Freud's lifetime (1931). It was interesting but a bit dry in the delivery at times. 5/10

A Murder of Quality

 by John Le Carre

The second Smiley novel and very good. No spies in sight but a straight whodunnit in a posh english public school. 8/10

Bewilderment

 by Richard Powers

A wacky novel even by Powers's standard. It involves a 9 year old boy who has lost his mother and is brought up by his astrobiologist father. They spend evenings travelling to far away planets and days grappling with the loss of Ally (the wife/mother). I enjoyed it but not as much as The Overstory. 7/10 

Call for the Dead

 by John Le Carre

The first novel involving George Smiley which involves a number of murders involving the East Germans. What looks like a straightforward suicide is suspicious to Smiley who gets drawn into a typically complicated plot. Great stuff! 9/10