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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
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Category Archives: grief
Bittersweet Lucy Ellman
Poorly, elderly parents abound. I was convinced the other week that there was a great quote from the writer Lucy Ellman about the death of one’s parents. It was sad, it was witty, it was pithy. It was up there … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, grief, literature, recently read
Tagged books, grief, Lucy Ellman, recently read
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RIP Trish Keenan
I’m so sad and stunned that Broadcast singer Trish Keenan has died of pneumonia following swine flu. Her voice was so haunting and beautiful and – to be selfish for a minute – I never got to see Broadcast perform … Continue reading
Posted in grief, music
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Ill of the dead
I was frantically searching for a long-lost piece of information last night, and I stumbled upon an old notebook. More than ten years ago I wrote this about a colleague, who has now shuffled off this mortal coil of quarter … Continue reading
Posted in grief, nostalgia
2 Comments
Tony Wilson remembered
On the Culture Show on BBC2 tonight, sometime Durutti Column drummer, old man Bruce Mitchell had this to say about Tony Wilson: Every crisis he had a positive take on. There wasn’t a negative bone in his body and I … Continue reading
Farewell, then, Ken Campbell
I can’t believe that Ken Campbell is dead, or that he was only 66. But it says so in his obituary, so it must be true. I saw two of his live performances, one-man shows… one in Deptford and another … Continue reading
Posted in grief, nostalgia
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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
All Cornwall is latent and the remoter west
I read this fine passage from E M Forster today, on the train appropriately enough, and wished I’d spotted it in time to add it to my essay on train travel between Paddington and Slough. Somehow it is made even … Continue reading
Posted in grief, literature, travel
2 Comments
Have a Nice Day
This morning in Pret a Manger, as I walked out into the street I noticed that there was a young woman sitting in the corner with a MacBook chatting happilly into her phone. Next to her sat a woman whose … Continue reading
Posted in grief
4 Comments
Diana verdict
I think Half Man Half Biscuit were ahead of their time with the highly amusing couplet: James Dean was just a careless driver And Marilyn Monroe was just a slag
Posted in grief, music, nostalgia
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