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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
Author Archives: blogmywiki
I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times
Ian Jack has written a very interesting piece about the death of newspapers – in The Guardian. Printed papers, he argues, are going to become a niche, luxury product like artisanal (awful word) cheese. I’d prefer to think of them … Continue reading
Posted in media, newspapers
Tagged Death of Newspapers, firewall, Guardian, kindle, newspapers
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Review: Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Caution: this review contains spoilers. This book is crap. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi was recommended to me by an old school friend. (To be clear: the school is old. She isn’t). And I hated it. Awkward, as they … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, literature, recently read
Tagged fiction, Geoff Dyer, kindle, recently read
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The Guardian on the Kindle: Review
I’m just over a week into my 14 day free trial of The Guardian and The Observer on the Kindle, and here’s what I Reckon. I know there’s no reason why anyone should give a damn about what I Reckon, … Continue reading
Fantasy Celebrity MPs’ Question Time
You know what you have to do, Mr Speaker. You need to call all the following MPs to speak in one day, and we can have the bestest celebrity edition of Today (and Yesterday) in Parliament ever: Richard Bacon, (Con) … Continue reading
HUNGRY the STARS and EVERYTHING
There’s a tagline on the back jacket of Emma Jane Unsworth’s first novel that is out of place: ‘Can Mr Wrong ever be Mr Right?’. This makes it sound like chick-lit, and it’s at odds with the rather sophisticated under-designed … Continue reading
David Cameron: a metaphor
It struck me on the train this morning that the recent hospital photo opportunity where a camera crew got thrown out of a ward by a senior surgeon, is a metaphor for Cameron’s premiership thus far. Dave goes along with … Continue reading
Where did you get that hat?
I never got hats. For starters, I look a right tit in any hat, so that rules out me ever wearing one. Women’s hats were equally baffling to me. The word ‘fascinator’ only entered my vocabulary during the recent royal … Continue reading
Grace in Small Things (2)
The view as I turn the corner from Great Peter Street into Lord North Street never fails slightly to take my breath away. You may recognise it from the film An Education. Watching a young man support his girlfriend as … Continue reading
Posted in Grace in Small Things
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A load of balls
I’m not sporty – and I always had sympathy with the small child in the Alan Partridge sports headlines on The Day Today and On The Hour who caused turmoil at major sporting events by pointing out that golf, for … Continue reading
Is ‘Nordic Noir’ really so strange?
I’ve just finished reading Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason – desperate to finish it so I can watch the film back. It’s another bit of ‘Nordic Noir’, so fashionable at the moment: Scandinavian crime fiction in the mould of Wallander … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, literature, recently read
Tagged detective fiction, fiction, Iceland
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