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Currently Reading…
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. It's funny cos it's true.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Stuck half way, but it's true, her eyes do change colour. Like David Bowie. Or a Blythe doll.
Recently read…
Gumble's Yard by John Rowe Townsend.
Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend.
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Grim, but brilliant kids' book.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Brilliant dystopian book for teens. The short prequel is a free Kindle download.
Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman. 607 pages, seven viewpoints of the same extraordinarily inter-twined events. Clever, full of good ideas but I didn't warm to the main character and didn't love it anywhere near as much as A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.
The Fear by Charlie Higson.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. I HATED this book - which was a surprise as I really liked the previous 3 Jackson Brodies, esp the previous one. Why? Too many characters I didn't care about. Not enough Jackson Brodie. And I know it's grim up North - but just too, too grim. Forced myself to finish it, but only because I bloody paid for it.
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. MUCH better than the TV adaptation, which I found very confusing. Very readable - some of the turns choices made by the main characters have had me going 'whaaat'? but it's all the more believable and enjoyable for them.
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. Good, but didn't enjoy it as much as Case Histories.
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Bliss.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer.
Solar by Ian McEwan. Good holiday read but not stunning literature.
One Day by David Nicholls. I am officially the last person-but-one in England to read this. Loved it, though. Bastard.
Moonraker by Ian Fleming. Ah, another improbably-named young woman to see you, Mr Bond. (Like I can talk).
Obstacles to Young Love by David Nobbs. This lad Nobbs will go far. Funny, touching, very occasionally annoying, but a damn fine novel.
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe. Hated the ending. Sorry. Sure it's been done elsewhere. My first, and probably last, Coe.
Hungry the Stars and Everything by Emma Jane Unsworth. Delicious!
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. It's Dickens with swear words. In a good way.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. From 1949. Perfect. It's so good, I love it so much. Cannot believe I've never read this before.
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason - bit disappointed. Just a police procedural. Not that odd. No big DNA conspiracy.
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford - I proof-read a neighbour's uni essay on this and had to read it. Bleak it is, so bleak - especially for a man of my age and circumstance. Almost gave up but half way through I 'got it' and glad I finished it. But grim. Grim.
The Game by Jack London.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 2nd Martin Beck novel from the original masters of the modern (1960s) police procedural.
Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. I enjoyed this WAY more than Engleby. Really good, flavour of Bond captured very well indeed.
Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John. Great children's book, set in St Ives, Cornwall. If the Laura Marlin Mysteries continue like this, I might have to write my own Caitlin Ros Mysteries. (Geddit?!)
Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellman.
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming.
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. My first Faulks - he's too damn popular with the ladies for my liking. I almost gave up on it on page 85. Luckily something happens on page 86. Blog post coming...
Street Kids by Chandrika Kaviraj. Excellent unpublished story for older children set in Pakistan and India during Partition.
The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. My first Bond. It's just as I would have hoped and expected. And me oh my does Vesper Lynd remind me of someone.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There's a stunning novel in here, struggling to get out. Just spare me the state of Russian agriculture, Leo, I beg you...
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø - this is shaping up very nicely, up there with The Snowman and The Redeemer.Calendar
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Rear window
Years ago I used to share a large house with my girlfriend and her dad. It was a bit of an odd arrangement, but I think he was lonely and desperately wanted his daughter to move back in. She made … Continue reading
In watermelon sugar the deeds were done…
Just took my Richard Brautigan anthology off the shelf and it looks like I haven’t read it in a while. The bookmark is one of the strips of paper BBC World Service studio managers used to write their shifts down … Continue reading
Posted in BBC, fiction, literature, nostalgia, radio
2 Comments
I love Steven Moffat
Who?! The man who is talking over Doctor Who from Russel T Davies. The seriously cool man who wrote the Best. Episode. Ever: “Blink”. He also wrote “The Empty Child” (‘are you my mummy?’) which is the SCARIEST. EPISODE. EVER. … Continue reading
Posted in children, Doctor Who, TV
4 Comments
Church Halls
I love church halls and village halls. I can still recall the mural in the village hall where I grew up in North Somerset, painted in the 1960s with villagers of the time dancing round a may pole. Today my … Continue reading
The Tree that Couldn’t Grow Leaves
(another short story, I’m afraid… look away) Winterlong the tall tree stood shoulder-to-shoulder with all the other trees beside the busy road that snaked through the forest. The tree spent the short days watching the ebb and flow of the … Continue reading
Posted in fiction
2 Comments
Jimmy Mizen, day 2
There’s a very odd atmosphere in our community today. It’s never been so quiet, even on a Sunday. Especially on a Sunday. Very odd seeing the priest that baptised my daughter being interviewed live on the BBC News Channel. I … Continue reading
Posted in family life, grief
3 Comments
In the midst of a party, death
We were on our way to a friend’s 40th birthday party on the bus and really hacked off that the bus was diverted. There had been ‘an incident’ on Burnt Ash Hill, road closed, we spent 90p on a bus … Continue reading
Posted in grief
5 Comments
I don’t like cricket
I really don’t like cricket. I ought to love it – I mean I hate sport, and what could be less sporty than standing around most of the time, waiting and running for shelter at the first hint of rain. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
Pain in the neck
I was diagnosed with spasmodic torticollis this week – a violent, crippling pain in the neck that came from nowhere, wiped out Tuesday, most of Wednesday and thankfully has now gone away, leaving me with nothing more than a stiff … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Boris 4 Mare LOL!
I said I was voting for Ken. Well I didn’t, quite. When it came down to it, in the polling station, usual Labour party worker sitting outside demanding to see my polling card (fuck off)… I couldn’t quite bring myself … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
