Paul's 2011 reading

Hello to everyone in the group! I average around 120 books a year with emphasis spread from "serious literature" to thrillers (especially series with interesting locales), to history, biography and current affairs. I have hit 38 books so far this year and these include the complete Gabriel Allon thrillers by Daniel Silva, London by Edward Rutherfurd, Rounding the Mark, The Patience of the Spider, The Paper Moon and August Heat by Camilleri, Centennial, Norweigan Wood, the latest Robert Goddard and Lee Child, a treatise on islam by There is no God but God by Reza Aslam, Theodore Rex, Heroes by Simon Sebag Montefiore, a book on soccer management by Barney Ronay and all the Jo Nesbo books except the latest in translation.
I am aiming for 144 books this year including in my list to read The Corrections, The Brothers Karamazov, books by Niall Ferguson, Paul Krugman and Simon Schama, Henning Mankell, Marin O'Brien, John Sandford, Arnaldur Indriadsson, Eugenides, Irving, Russo, Scudamore, Hensher and Mantel.
I will keep the group up to date on my progress on a weekly basis and would welcome any reading suggestions from the books group members are currently reading.

Welcome to the group and I can see your reading list is going to add to my mountain of unread books!

Which books by Ferguson, Krugman and Schama are you going to be reading? I have Schama's French revolution one, Citizens, sitting on the bookshelf where it's been for 4 years... and Rough Crossings, about the slave trade.

I like Krugman and have read a couple of his.

I've only read the first Camilleri book, The Shape of Water, but must track down the others...

Hi there.
Ferguson I have a few sitting on my shelf but The War of the World and Empire will probably be read first. The Conscience of A Liberal is my next Krugman and The American Future I have in store for me by Simon Schama.
The Camilleri series is extremely droll and cleanses the reading palate nicely after much heavier tomes! Would recommend them. I do like series set in interesting places - the Scandanavians such as Indriadson, Mankell, Nesbo, Nesser, Lackberg, Fossum, Siggurdsdottir, Edwardson, Alvtegen and Jungstedt all fall nicely into this category. Closer to my original home (I have lived in Kuala Lumpur for 17 years) Robinson, Russell and McBride also bring the Yorkshire Dales, Glasgow and Aberdeen to life.

Welcome to the group, Paul!

Review of Recently Finished Book No. 37 this year

Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami

First book I have read by Murakami and after this it wont be the last. I have previously read Kanzaburo Oe and found him unaccessible to say the least but this was a pleasure from beginning to end. There is a frankness and openness about the dialogue, particularly between Midori and Watanabe that resonates throughout their scenes together. We are drawn into wishing them together at the end whilst hoping in vain for the well-being of the other main characters

**** Stars

About to Start
Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett,
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and
Preferred Lies by Andrew Greig

I learned of Murakami through LibraryThing and have enjoyed each of the books of his I have read. I am glad to see your introduction to his work was an enjoyable one!

I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Marakami and enjoyed it though it was an odd book.

Welcome to the group! One thing this group has is lots of recommendations!

Welcome!

Changed my mind on Anna of the Five Towns and instead started The Jacaranda Tree by H.E. Bates.

Review of Recently Finished Book No. 38 this year

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri

Latest installment of the ironic series set in Vigata, Sicily. Montablon as usual casts a weary eye at the officialdom around him as his long-suffering and frankly insufferable girlfriend Livia's holiday with her friends from Genoa is ruined by missing children, dead bodies in trunks. In keeping with Camilleri's own advancing years we find Montablon considering the effects of ageing upon his memory and his libido. As serious crime fiction this quirky series will not satisfy everyone but I have read them all in turn and appreciate the characters, sense of place and humour. Can't wait to go and buy the next one to be honest.

8/10

New system
10/10 All time favourite shortlist (I have only 7 books on this list presently - more of this later)
9/10 Excellent
8/10 Very Good
7/10 Above Average (well worth reading)
6/10 Average
5/10 Below Average (only read if nothing else is available)
4/10 Poor (should avoid)
3/10 Virtually unreadable
2/10 Should never have been published
1/10 Publisher and Author should be prosecuted for offences to reading dignity

>1 PaulCranswick:/10 Publisher and Author should be prosecuted for offences to reading dignity

LOL!

Welcome to the group, Paul. The 1/10 ranking is hilarious!

I love the 1/10 ranking too, Paul!

Review of Recently Finished Book No. 39 this year

The Jacaranda Tree by H.E. Bates

The sense of time and place shines through distinctly in Bates' understated prose as an assortment of expatriates, eurasians and the local dependants (servant and the rice mill owner's girlfriend) flee north towards India to avoid the invading Japanese. The themes here are unrequited desire, race, class and prejudice. Found that surprisingly the female characters were more believable than the rather wooden male lead (Paterson). All in all well worth the trouble, readable and evocative.

7/10

Currently reading:
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Preferred Lies by Andrew Greig

About to Start
Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield

Next Up
Worth Dying For by Lee Child
Empire - The Rise and Demise of the British World Order by Niall Ferguson

Hopefully none of them get a 1/10

I hope one of these days to get my hands on a copy of The Jacaranda Tree, which I have had in the BlackHole for a while now.

Hello Paul - I LOVE Inspector Montalbano..have you ever seen the Italian-made television series? I have a couple of series on DVD (subtitled) and they are wonderful.

Anyway, interesting choices and I'll look forward to reading more of your progress..

Prue

Dear Prue,

There are three more already translated in the series The Wings of the Sphinx, The Track of Sand + 1. One of my compulsions is that I simply must read series' novels in the right order. I had a lot of trouble tracking down Rounding the Mark but luckily picked up a copy at Manchester Airport. I had the next two waiting for me after that and I am now up to speed pending finding #11.
Haven't seen the TV series as we dont get that out in Malaysia but if it is in keeping with the books it must be compulsive viewing.
Bit worried actually as Camilleri is 87 years old already and there can't be that many more in the series to come. To think he was over 70 when he started the Montalbano books. Have you read Montalbon's Pepe Carvalho books of which Camilleri is apparently making homage to?

Oh Paul - so you are in Malaysia! How exciting and exotic! (teach me to be so presumptive of your English locale) No, I've really only read one or two of the Camilleri books - I have seen 6 or more installments in the TV series and found them to be very faithful to the books, so that kind of spoiled it. I can see you are quite a methodical reader....and seem to enjoy reading a whole author catalogue. I admire that! I am way too flighty. Anne Tyler and John Steinbeck - I think I have read everything by those two writers. Most of John Fowles...(can't remember if I read Maggot or not). I don't think I have read anything at all by H E Bates....but you have piqued my interest... The Brothers Karamazov is on my list for the year...let me know when you get to it and I will try and read-along with you... Have you tried any of the classic Japanese writers - Kawabata or Mishima, for example?

Prue, Just read Norweigan Wood by Murakami and a long time ago I read something by Kenzaburo Oe but to be honest the thing went straight over my head. Malaysia - don't know whether I would call it exciting but after 17 years here (a lovely wife and three rascally offspring later) I am very much at home. The book shops here are better than average to be fair but I don't see anybody else reading too much! That's what makes this site so great for me I guess as I don't need to scour Kuala Lumpur to find like-minded individuals.
On the subject of book shops I have been busy this week or so adding to the already seemingly endless pile of books awaiting my attention. I have bought a further 10 and being a magpie to the nth degree cannot pass a bookshop without relieving the place of at least some of its contents. I have now 608 books unread on my shelf which at my rate of progress is about 5 years reading! I have recently given four hundred or so books to my kids school library as I am quickly running out of standing space. There are of course several hundred I could not conceive of giving up and these are slowly but surely being placed on my library on the site.
I bought the following books over the last couple of days:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie
Worth Dying For the latest Lee Child
Ashes to Dust the latest Sigurdardottir (Iceland's Stieg Larssen as the cover tells me- this is number three I've read the first one and the second will be up soon)
Storm Prey the latest Sandord Lucas Davenport series
Life and Fate by Grossman
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Broken April by Kadare
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Shadow by Karin Alvtegen and
In a Land of Plenty by Tim Pears
Keep you updated on the progress but God knows when I'll read these.

That is a great haul, Paul....I have no idea what prices books go for in Malaysia, but we pay about AU$30-$40. Which is why I get all my books online from Book Depository - for about $14 each, no postage, and at my door within about 10 days (and I swear 5 of those days are to come from Melbourne to Warrnambool!)

An Icelandic thriller would be a really interesting location - my husband is part Icelandic and still has relatives there. Fascinating place. We the drowned has some interesting reviews. Some very cosmopolitan choices.

As I sit here hugging the radiator, the thought of Malaysia is unbearably enticing - and so easy for you to shoot off to Bali, Thailand, Cambodia....sigh. I'm planning a holiday in Vietnam and Laos later in the year and it can't come soon enough...

Know just what you mean about the TBR racks....I am equally shameless in my acquisitiveness....there are worse vices, I'm sure! Catch you later...Prue

Wow! Terrific haul, Paul! Congratulations.

Prue, I guess paperbacks range from between RM35 to RM60 (AUD12-20). You must be referring to hardbacks right? These would range from RM75 to RM120 (AUD25-AUD40) which is similar I guess. I bought the paperbacks this time btw.

Hello Paul - nope, I am aghast to say that it is common for PAPERBACKS to cost AUD30-40 (especially the slightly larger formats) but even the small old-school PBs are 25-30 bucks. And bookshops wonder why folk have taken to buying online!

Wow Prue it's a good job I'm not staying in Oz. I'd be even poorer there than here!

Review of Book # 40 this year
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Best thriller this year that I have read by a country mile. Literate with a great sense of place and a wholly satisfactory outcome.

9/10

Review of Book # 41

The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi

Missed this off my earlier list and I remembered why - I thought it stunk.
Had assumed that the subject matter and reviews made it a no brainer but the over lyrical language started to irritate me at less than two chapters in. Soldiered on to the end but did not enjoy this in the least.

2/10

Review of Book #42

Preferred Lies by Andrew Greig

Not so much a golf book but more a treatise on parents, mortality, immortality, solitude and comradeship. Parts of this were very good - parts of it repetitive (wanted to know more about his illness and parents and less about his putting and chipping and driving)

6/10

Went to KLCC Twin Towers Kinokuniya armed with my RM50 loyalty reward voucher certain I would have a free book experience whilst the family was waiting to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

As usual couldn't choose which book to take and ended up with:

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Book Thief by Markus Zucak; and
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

Guess my resolution to buy one book for every two I read to reduce my 'to read' list is floundering somewhat.

#25: I loved that one! I still have not gotten to the follow up book, The Secret Speech, yet though.

#28: Congrats on the new books!

Thanks! I am also on the look out for The Secret Speech - let me know if you get it first.

Review of book #43

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Typical Reacher fare to be honest. Gobbled up in a couple of sleep deprived sittings. Entirely predictable, consistently indestructible thoroughly enjoyable. Met rather than exceeded expectation levels and did not so much for the Nebraska tourist trade.

7/10

Like your pithy reviews Paul - must investigate Child 44....

Review of book #44

Bad Boy by Peter Robinson

Follow up with another quick fire "series" latest. As above lovers of the series (my wife included) will lap up the book and the plot as it unfolds. Must admit however I sometimes find the leading protaganist Banks' life and situation choices bewilderingly stupid and this does detract from the enjoyment somewhat. In the latest installment his erstwhile exemplary daughter becomes a chip-off-the-old-block with some startling out of character decisions which the novel revolves upon. Worth reading if you are following the series - as a stand alone would probably have not hooked me on Banks.

6/10

Hey Paul - Book 44!! Bloody hell...and where is the list of the preceding 43? Would you humour me and note it down? ((((Totally selfish and unreasonable to ask feel free to not do so!) I have never heard of Peter Robinson...what genre is it? Is it a kind of Rabbit-type series?

#23 Prue I feel your pain, here in NZ it is the same $30-40 for a paperback. My partner recently bought a book we have both wanted for ages (Life on Gorge River) but hadn't bought as were waiting for it to go on sale....waiting waiting waiting. Anyway it has been out for nearly a year and it still cost $39.95. I would have gone through The Book Depository too....

Hi Paul, I found your thread! Back up at #17 you said
One of my compulsions is that I simply must read series' novels in the right order
I totally agree! I was aghast at being asked to read World Without End for our bookclub when I hadn't read Pillars of the Earth. Even though I was assured it was a solid stand-alone book, it irked me all the way through.

#33: I also like Robinson's series. You remind me that I need to get back to it. I think I stopped at like book 9 or something.

Hey Paul - still wondering what kind of series the Robinson books are?

#35 Hi. Antipodean book prices are truly scary but I would no doubt save floor space living over there! Just another of my many compulsions is insisting on reading series in their proper order. This occasionally means long waits whilst I found the next in line. Be careful with the Jo Nesbo and the Inspector Wallender series' as both of these are not translated in the chronological order they appear in Scandanavia. This often results in returning to characters in the series you know full well were killed off earlier (or is it later?)

#36 Personally I think he peaked at around book twelve or so and he is now onto eighteen or nineteen. The series is consistent though isn't it?

#37 Prue, Chief Inspector Banks series is based in the fictional Yorkshire Dales market town of Eastvale. (This may be based around Skipton but Im not entirely sure). Banks is a tad unorthodox in his methods and makes some very strange decisions in the course of each case but is a likeable chap nonetheless. Better to start at the beginning as the travails of his private life are laid bare throughout the series and you would be thoroughly confused if you flit around the series.

# 34 Sorry Prue missed this comment. Will put up the complete list tomorrow. My thread here starts at book 37.

Review of Book # 45

Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark

Very relieved that this consisted of only 96 pages of fairly large print. It play on tense made me tense to be quite honest. The novella concerns the deliberations of servants in a swiss mansion anticipating the deaths of their employer's and secretary and their efforts to prevent third parties from preventing the fated killings taking place. Supposed to be black humour but didn't really get it.

Have previously enjoyed most of Muriel Spark's work but this was not enjoyable at all.

4/10

I shall definitely avoid - thanks Paul. I don't think I have read any Muriel Spark since Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which I probably read at about the time the movie came out.

#40: I think I will give that one a miss too, Paul. I hope your next read is more to your taste!

As requested by Prue: Full list of 2011 to 31 May 2011

1 Centennial by James Michener
2 Caught in the Light by Robert Goddard
3 Open by Andre Agassi
4 Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
5 Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
6 No God but God by Reza Aslan
7 The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva
8 The English Assassin by Daniel Silva
9 Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
10 Arabesk by Barbara Nadel
11 Turnstone by Graham Hurley
12 Lennox by Craig Russell
13 The Long Glasgow Kiss by Craig Russell
14 The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
15 Life on Air by David Attenborough
16 The Confessor by Daniel Silva
17 A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva
18 The Take by Graham Hurley
19 Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva
20 The Messenger by Daniel Silva
21 Angels Passing by Graham Hurley
22 Cantona : The Rebel Who Would be King by Philipe Auclair
23 The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva
24 High Stand by Hammond Innes
25 Heroes by Simon Sebag Montefiore
26 Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
27 Unspoken by Mari Jungstedt
28 The Defector by Daniel Silva
29 The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
30 The Manager by Barney Ronay
31 The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
32 Last Templar by Michael Jecks
33 London by Edward Rutherfurd
34 Rounding the Mark by Andrea Camilleri
35 Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri
36 The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri
37 Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami
38 August Heat by Andrea Camilleri
39 The Jacaranda Tree by H.E. Bates
40 Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
41 The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi
42 Preferred Lies by Andrew Greig
43 Worth Dying For by Lee Child
44 Bad Boy by Peter Robinson
45 Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark
46 Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield
47 Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

I know too many thrillers. In my defence the three lastest Jo Nesbo's are good quality. The first 9 Gabriel Allon series are addictive. The 4 Camilleris are wickedly compulsive. The Craig Russells and Child 44 amongst the best things I've read in a few years. Robinson and Child I always read. The Hammond Innes was one of the few that remained unread and should have remained so. Still 30 thrillers out of 47 is lop-sided. I would also add in mitigation that Rutherfurd, Michener and Delderfield make up 3000 pages of reading.

Review of book # 46:

Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield

I am I confess a sucker for sprawling Edwardian tales such as these. Certainly a creature of its time the reading feels a little dated in large parts but it harks back to a {not so} long forgotten age before cars and charts a country community coming to terms with a changing world and a nation on the brink of facing up to a redifined social order. Amid a backdrop of the suffragette movement it contrasts urban and rural, man and woman, rich and poor through the introduction of a cornucopia of characters some of which succeed better than others. Our hero Paul Craddock goes from a post-Boer War hospital bed to squire of a Devonshire community and inevitably picks the wrong girl. Sometimes wooden the plot succeeds more with some of the incidental players such as Ikey and Hazel and the benevolent Jewish/Croat Uncle. Certainly not the equal of To Serve Them All My Days but did not put me off from the attempting the next two episodes. We get to 1912 and of course we know what comes next.

7/10

Review of book # 47:

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

For an anorak like myself I start with the admission that the first volume has not been read first. Just discovered that I had the final two chapters to finish on this which I had started in February. This will indicate that it is not the easiest of reads as the immense factual details of the politics of the age are set out in a precise and somewhat detached nature by the biographer. More journalistic than analytical in that Morris does not really delve into the character of Roosevelt more deeply than the sum of his deeds the effort is nonetheless admirable. Of interest to those studying the period for sure but not for everyone. Would confess I prefer my biographies a little more racy.

6/10

Really interesting - if blokey! - list, Paul! Thanks for humouring me....You didn't convince me to read your last 2 conquests (though To serve them all my days might be a possible....I have a wonderful book called Nella Last's War in Mount TBR. Have you ever seen the telemovie? Nella took part in a national project to get ordinary Britons to write diaries of their lives (forget the proper name of the project). Nella wrote right through the war and afterwards.

# 46. Agree my list does not get in touch with my feminine side quite enough! Your Nella Last's War does sound interesting I'll certainly look that one up. Hopefully after May my list will be slightly less "macho" - anyway Breathing Lessons is definitely on my list for June; am going to read Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night, a traveller and then it's Anne Tyler.

Review of Book # 48

Broken April by Ismail Kadare

Started this enthusiastically and the first section dealing with the killing by the leading protagonist in futherance of his family's blood feud and the rituals thereafter is interesting to say the least. Lost me a little thereafter as the newly married couple (for some unexplained reason honeymooning in the least hospitable of locales) impose themselves on the tale. The subject matter is a little too alien for the characters to be sympathetic and they are not, for me, drawn convincingly enough. Fascinating as the slice of someone elses "culture" is and disturbing certainly that the novel is clearly based on real though hopefully extinct practices there is not quite enough to justify the hype. The story meanders to its inevitable and suprisingly truncated denouement. Quite a bit to admire in this but not very much to like.

6/10

Hello Paul - I have just received a little package of books and planning to dive into Silk by Alessandro Baricco. First, it's about Japan (my favourite place on earth), second it is an "hypnotic tale of erotic obsessions" (don't think I need to explain that) and third it is only 148 pages, in quite large type and with lots of white space!

#44: I still need to read To Serve Them All My Days which I have owned approximately forever!

#49 Prue, sounds interesting. Haven't been to Japan yet but my son Kyran is an avid Manga "reader" and loves all things Japanese. With such helpful hints I'm never going to be able to reduce my TBR list. Counted yesterday 625 books pending to be read on my shelves (or in my cupboards with the unfortunate rate of overflow) - well 624 if you allow that Ismail Kadare was polished off in the early hours. There are four main chains of bookstore in Malaysia - Kinokuniya (located in the Petronas Twin Towers), Times (my favourite store is in Pavilion Shopping Mall), Borders (sadly reduced in KL Times Square but still going strong at the Curve shopping mall), (Popular Books stores which is largely a misnomer given that it is the least popular of the chains and caters largely for educational & chinese books with a more limited fiction section although its store at Ikano is not bad) and finally MPH which stands for Malaysian Publishing House. They have the most stores including a big one at Mid Valley Mega Mall where I just happen to have scheduled a lunch appointment! I have a RM30 voucher which is fatal for me in that there is no way I'll be able to decide on only one book. Will see if Silk is there.

Prue my maths is not usually so bad I know I named five bookstores but I wasn't meaning to count Popular originally.

Oh Paul, when it comes to maths - like I would have noticed! lol. There is a fabulous Kinokuniya store in Sydney which I always go to when I am there (which isn't often, sadly). Warrnambool - the nearest centre to me - has only one decent bookshop and a very limited range. I'm not sure how the Borders stores in Melbourne have fared - but poorly, I think. I envy your choices! You need have no shame or guilt regarding Mount TBR at LT. Everyone here seems to have a sizeable haul in black holes. Ah the freedoom in not having to hide one's addiction! Embrace your TBR, Paul. Embrace it and love it!!

Half of a Yellow Sun was the first book I read in 2007. It took months to get to anything else as good (although eventually I made my way to Oryx and Crake, Middle Passage, and Dream Life of Sukhanov). It still haunts me.

# 53 - Thanks for the support Prue. Added another seven at the MPH on Friday - books by Cartwright, Bragg, Manning, Brink, Erskine, Izner and Shriver so I guess that my TBR will never reduce to manageable levels.

#54 thank for the comments jeanned. The reviews of Adichie's book are excellent I must say. Should be able to read it this year and will let you know what I think of it.

Ooh...which Shriver did you get? I read 'The Post Birthday World' and though it irritated the crap out of me at first, I got into it and I think it was one of the most provocative reads for the year and some of the ideas it raised stayed with me for many weeks. Shriver was on a local Book Show here with Colm Toibin and just came across as quite a cow (lol). She had a real go at Toibin - who just seems like a lovely man. What did you get by Manning? Oh heck, what did you get, period? heheh

Review of Book # 49

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Essentially this is a treatise on the joys and frustrations of reading. In turns wonderful and unfathomable Calvino presents effectively ten short stories intertwined around a plot whereby the Reader buys a book with a printer's error that has interposed two different stories bound in the same volume. The more the Reader tries to track down the different stories the more complicated things become. If one's writing gives an indication of character I would guess that Mr. Calvino was capable of immense charm but also great complexity! Some of the ten stories leave you wanting more but sadly some of them rather interrupt the story and you find yourself rushing back to the Reader and his problems. In some ways not really a novel and the failings of some of the stories prevents it from making my "best 100 list". Tremendously inventive though with a wonderful first chapter and it is one of the few books that is eminently quotable.

7/10

# 56 Prue. Apologies for being very remiss in not sharing!:

The Rain Forest by Olivia Manning
On the Contrary by Andre Brink
Crystal Rooms by Melvyn Bragg
Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner (apparently this is two french sisters)
Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
Masai Dreaming by Justin Cartwright
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

Interested to note that Ms Shriver is somewhat of the bovine species and I hope this will not distract or detract from the novel! (Hope she's not on library thing btw!)

Your teeth will grind when I tell you that the Manning, Brink, Bragg and Cartwright were on sale and purloined for the sum total of RM60 (about AUS20).

Opened my hardback copy of Breathing Lessons today - fingers crossed!!

You are very good to humour me, Paul! (I don't get out much!) Enjoyed your review of the Calvino which resides in TBR. So much for that is on order....How bloody cheap are your books!! Grrrrrr. Mutter mutter...note to self: must seek o/s IBM posting to Malaysia down the track!

#58 I heard an interview with Lionel Shriver not too long ago and she came across as very intelligent, and quite pleased that the interviewer was also obviously intelligent and well-read. I got the feeling she doesn't suffer fools- ever! So you think she's a cow then? Any reason for that?

Well, Ireadthereforeiam - Shriver had such a condescending attitude to Colm Toibin (who is far from unintelligent). She was just plain rude....not just me - there was loads of debate later about how unpleasant she had been. But I agree - not one to suffer fools (just I think for her a fool is simply anyone who doesn't share her world view)

# 61 Oh dear I don't like Lionel Shriver already - wish I hadn't bought her book now! The Heather Blazing is in my best of list so I'm with you Prue for sticking up for Colm Toibin - my irish ancestry makes me protective too. Sure Shriver is smart but so was Hitler, Napoleon and (my own pet hates) De Gaulle & Joseph Blatter but I don't care much for them either.

Paul - got to separate the messenger from the message - after all - V S Naipaul sounds positively awful man, yet people love his books (I have one in the pile). I will say that her characters aren't always likeable - but that makes thenm realistic, at least. (Trying desperately not to be responsible for putting you off!)

Oh wow, Ive never heard of the controversy surrounding Lionel Shriver! I just loved We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the bits I heard of the radio interview with NZs Jim Mora, she came across as smart and interesting, if not a bit of a show pony (big-word-wise).

I'm of the other opinion - you can't separate the writer from the book. I will not encourage bad behavior by rewarding it with my money.

Oh my gawd - please don't let me be responsible for an anti-Shriver swing...eeek!

# 63 - Prue you are right about V.S. Naipaul and this is clearly reflected in his work. In his non-fiction his prejudices are apparent for all to read but his fiction especially the wonderful A House for Mr. Biswas masks this successfully. Your influence so far is impressive - pro-Tyler (I've started Breathing Lessons btw and so far so good) is balanced reasonably by your anti-Shriver! It's all about opinions and your comments on her attitude especially to the extremely nice Mr. Toibin are valid!!

#65 - You are what you read? In that case Morphidae with your 250+ books a year you must be impressive indeed.

# 64 Megan, will still give Shriver's book (s) a fair chance! Also heard We Need to Talk About Kevin is excellent. For instance dont care for Salman Rushdie but Shame and Midnight's Children are as good as almost anything written since the second world war. I wouldn't want to read his non-fiction though as I can't stand the bloke; ditto my comments about Naipaul and I certainly wouldn't buy a book on manners written by Shriver!

Review of book # 50

1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke

Should presage this by stating that one of my best friends in Malaysia is unfortunate enough to come from the wrong side of the English Channel. This is history as it should be written - accessible, funny, anecdotal and engaging. Filled with lots of witty modern asides and packed with interesting facts such as the last three kings/emperors of France all died bizarrely whilst under British care. There is a character in the R.F. Delderfield book I recently read and reviewed who was thrown out of the British army for his role in failing to properly defend the French 'emperor-prince' from Zulu assegais. Turns out this actually happened! Not one for the scholars but who cares - I loved it.

9/10

>67 PaulCranswick: Nah, just a fast reader. And if I am what I read - I'm fast and fluffy!

>68 PaulCranswick:: I always enjoy Stephen Clarke. I'll have a look for this one.

Good review of the Stephen Clarke book, Paul....I am still enjoying and laughing out loud to Packing for Mars....

I love that book title, so funny but there is truth in there too.

It just occurred to me that I love Dan Simmons books but I once read a few conversations with him and he came across as very narrow minded and biased against many things. I'm sure there are many authors out there with a dual public face.

#72 Liked his book Drood which I read last year but felt that he portrayed both Wilkie Collins and Dickens in a less than appealing light which probably reflects on him as much as his subjects.

Adding to the awful people/great writers list - Australian Nobel winner, Patrick White was legendary for being an a-hole, but wrote some beautiful books. He hated just about everybody!

I loved Colm Toibin's Brooklyn but a lady I work with is refusing to read him because she "doesn't like the look of him"!

#75 LOL - he is not a particularly handsome man, but oh that soft Irish brogue! I loved Brooklyn too.

#75 My word Kirsty that would surely preclude many of the worlds most famous writers from ever getting published. The dear departed Somerset Maugham must remain the ugliest writer ever published but thankfully his stories were so vivid that you failed to remember his monkey-like visage at work creating the words you were so enjoying.

Love this topic, Paul - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Course there is always the beutiful - Bruce Chatwin was rather handsome; George Bernard Shaw - definitely distinguished! Mark Twain a bit of a hunk! Martin Amis - touch of the Mick Jaggers....Additions, please!

#68: Too bad my local library does not have that one. It sounds delightful!

>78 PrueGallagher:: The beautiful....I have to add David Benioff. While reading City of Thieves, just every now and again I would take a few minutes to think about the story and look at his jacket picture.

Had a squiz at Benioff - I see what you mean!

Just waving, Paul - and thought I would bump your thread up to page one to stop it languishing in page 3!

#78, #80 - Not quite proper for me to nominate handsome writers to the list...well unless you count those poems I had published! Beautiful mmm Muriel Spark had a certain studied elegance, Louise Wener the singer/story writer is adorable, Sophie Dahl although she's far too tall - wont be nominating Lionel Shriver for sure.

#82 - Had a long weekend away from the computer. Good news is that I managed to hunt down The Secret Speech the follow-up to Child 44 after failing in 5 bookstores in a row. Also quite proud that it is the only thing I bought.

Review of book # 51

Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland

Found this as a well-reviewed book supposedly in the ilk of Tom Rob Smith. Well written and well plotted as it was this debut thriller fell a little short of Child 44. Story relates the fictional return from Siberia of the Tsar's special investigator aka The Emerald Eye and his efforts to uncover the actual perpertrators of the murder of his previous boss and his family. Quite good in truth but the hero is not as believable as Smith's Leo Demidov and seems amazingly bereft of investigative skills for someone portrayed as being legendary for the same.

7/10

Review of book # 52

Storm Prey by John Sandford

The latest paperback installment of the Lucas Davenport "Prey" series where a heist of drugs goes tragically wrong and the perps (sorry for the police-procedural blurb) find their lives spiralling out of control. Seriously mixed-up and basically useless criminals well plotted as usual by John Sandford. Never going to win any awards as a stand-alone but as part of a consistent series it fits nicely.

7/10

Can now concentrate of doing Prue justice with Breathing Lessons being the only book currently on deck.

#84: I have that one hanging around my house waiting for me to get to it. I loved Child 44 but suspect that I will not love Eye of the Red Tsar.

I'm going to be trying out the Prey books. I have the first one Rules of Prey. I got it because it's set in my area.

It's been years since I read a Sanford book, but I did enjoy them.

Hello Paul - You've been a very busy boy in your Library - all those additions! And as eclectic as always - I was particularly interested in the collection you have by R K Narayan, as I have enjoyed novels by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala(I think I have Heat and Dust on my WL). Are they similar writers? Do you recommend Narayan - and which would you recommend?

#87 Read Rules of Prey on holiday in Phuket a couple of years ago but found it hard work to be honest although the pool and the thai food were ample distractions. By book two or three I started to enjoy them though and now snap the newest up as soon as available (20 so far). No the most literate but the plotting is good.

#89 I really like R.K. Narayan - more Indian than Heat and Dust if you know what I mean (there is no colonial perspective). Set in a fictional town Malgudi his novels have a very light touch, wry humour and charming characterisation. The Financial Expert is my own favourite but The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher are also good places to start.

Sounds like fun, Paul - off to the WL!

Review of Book # 53

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Rarely I have started a novel so predisposed to like it and...well...like it I did. This is a wonderfully wry portrayal of the bonds, foibles and failings of a couple trying to come to terms with on the cusp of middle age with mortality, the breakdown of traditional family ties, responsibilities to others and underachievement. The central pair Maggie and Ira are lovingly realised and as hard as we wish them both away from the inevitable denouement of the day (the novel concerns a day in the life of this couple) we realise that no matter they will start the next day as scatty, as shabbily dignified and as together as ever.

9/10

Prue thank you.

I have not read that one by Anne Tyler yet. Thanks for the reminder, Paul!

#92 There is nothing better than the feeling of nudging someone else in the direction of a book/writer you adore and having them like it too. (And such a relief!! lol).

There is an absolutely delightful film of Breathing Lessons starring Joanne Woodward and James Garner - the two leads are perfectly cast.

Beautifu7lly eloquent review, too Paul! Thank you for that!

Review of book #54

Die Twice by Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant is the brother of Lee Child and a far more gratuitous and less subtle version of his elder sibling too. Fast paced certainly and readable but the body count is staggering and detracts from the realism of the story as a whole set as it is in downtown Chicago without a single policeman anywhere in view. The fact that the plot beggars belief spoils it for me. There is a scene towards the end where our hero does something facing three assailants which is frankly ludicrous and his ability to emerge completely unscathed against the odds almost chapter by chapter can become irritating actually. Added to this is the fact that any reader of this genre will spot the so-called twist in the tale right at the beginning of the story and Grant's Trevellyan comes way short of Child's Reacher.

5/10

uh oh, sounds not so great- disappointing for you. I dont much like the sound of a staggering body count either.

Hi Paul, I tracked you down! Child 44 was a great book, I read it last year and now you have reminded me to track down the next one. I have Eye of the Red Tsar on my wishlist, but I have heard that it's not as good as Child 44.

I started John Sandford's "Prey" series many years ago, but I've lost track of where I am in the series. I would probably have to start over at the beginning again. I wish his titles weren't all so similar, I simply can't keep them straight!

I know what you mean Judy! The Prey books are available in the shops over here in the standard versions of both UK as well as US publishers just to add to the confusion. The Rain books by Barry Eisler are similarly titled also. One pet hate is that the UK and North American versions sometimes have different titles altogether. This has happened a few times with Eric Ambler, Peter Robinson and Donna Leon leaving me wondering sometimes in the book store why there is a Banks or Brunetti book that seems years old that I've never heard of!
Recently managed to track down The Secret Speech to follow up Child 44 and it will definitely get its turn this year.

Review of Book # 55

Heliopolis by James Scudamore

Excellent novel and justifiably long-listed for the Man-Booker prize. It does not say exactly but seems to be set in and around Rio and centres upon a boy and his mother lifted from the slums by a billionaire retailer and his philanthropic wife. Tackles some very big issues inventively and sensitively.

8/10

Heliopolis sounds like one for the WL, as you rated it so highly. Darn. I just pruned the list this morning! I keep telling myself that I can only order one book for every two I read. Sigh. I have no wiill-power.

Amazing Prue we have exactly the same resolution ....with exactly the same result. I am going through all my books and discovered some 700+ books in the house that I haven't read yet. I am sure that this will keep increasing as I am reading at least 100 books less a year than I'm reading!!

I received Child 44 the other day as a Xmas gift for one of my four brothers. Not an avid reader by any means, but enjoys a good solid crime thriller type thing. Will he like it, do you think?

Child 44 is basically about someone working for the russian secret police at the beginning of the 1950's who becomes a victim of the system he had been previously proud to uphold. His eyes are gradually opened to the ills of the regime and there are various elements to what is also a serial killer thriller regarding members of his family which give the story a very novel twist. I loved it I must say but it is not really a blood and guts type thriller. Superbly written but not too flowery and should therefore appeal to most I guess.

Thanks for that Paul - I think it will be a good choice for my bro.

Review of book #56

My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Rattled this off largely travelling to the airport, waiting in the airport, sitting on the plane during a visit to Singapore (I was a third started when I set-off and it was finished almost when we made terra-firma back in Kuala Lumpur. Thora the leading protagonist in this series is likeable and the story moves along nicely without ever really gripping me totally. Well worth a read and she does manage to unearth a surprisingly large number of suspects uncovering the right one just in time for my touch-down after having accused almost every other character in the book bar her german boyfriend of committing the crimes. My second favourite Icelandic thriller writer but since I only know 2 this is dubious praise indeed. Still I will look forward to books three and four in the series.

6/10

Review of book #57

The Gate by Francois Bizot

An interest of mine having visited Cambodia last year (I bought the book in the small shop at the Killing Fields museum/memorial outside of Pnomn Penh. Scrupulously honest and somehow very French is his sense of the macabre and ridiculous as he portrays life in (a fairly short period of) captivity under the Khmer Rouge. Manages to both portray the horrors of the time as well as painting a more human and humane face on the Khmer Rouge leaders he dealt with at the time. I was disatisfied however by his referral to his Cambodian wife as "Helene's mother" he never once refers to her by name or by he position in relation to himself rather than his daughter. This struck me as strangely cold and comes across as uncaring. We are certainly left wondering what happened to her and whether the lady he makes dedication to as his wife at the conclusion to the story is the same lady or not.

7/10

Review of book #58

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay deserves plaudits for the excellent plotting of his thrillers. Genuine page turner and inventive to say the least. Ok Dickens this is not but of its genre a job well done indeed.

8/10

I have been meaning to pick up a Linwood Barclay at the library, after all he is Canadian. His thrillers get quite good reviews. Have you read others of his? Any recommendations?

Also read Fear the Worst earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed that too. I think that they are all stand alone novels so no need to worry about reading order. Noted that he is Canadian as is Giles Blunt whose Cardinal books I really like but unfortunately the two Barclay books I've read have both been based on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. No Time for Goodbye is largely set in Conn.

700+ books unread at your house???!!???@@##%%!
(woah)

Hehehe - seems like even on LT, you may attain Legend status, Paul! (Mind you, I think you achieve that on the number of CDs alone!)

#110 I know Megan I dont know whether to laugh or cry. As I am logging all the books I am constantly finding more!! At the top end of my rate of reading (up to 150 books) I have at least 5 years reading ahead of me. Problem is that I am buying more than I'm reading so the number keeps getting bigger despite my resolution to only buy one book for every two read. This falls to pieces as soon as I hit the many bookstores in Malaysia. With books retailing (paperback) at starting from RM30 (US$10) I have both a blessing and a curse. Constant source of arguments with my wife who hates clutter and let's say with my books and cd's my study does not quite correspond to her ideal. Will try to get a photo of it to demonstrate.

#111 Magpie status perhaps Prue?!

Would LOVE to see a photo, Paul!

Review of Book #59

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The review on the jacket of the book stated that the book deserves a place alongside Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I presume that this is because part of the book deals with a family hiding a jewish pugilist during the early part of the last war near Munich. In parts to be fair the book resonates but it certainly does not justify the hype and the reviewer who equated it to Anne Frank should go to the actual house in Amsterdam and see if the feeling remains that Zusak has recreated the poignancy and horror of the time to the same extent. Churlish a little I suppose as the book is actually quite inventive with the narrator being death itself but overall not quite as astounding as the cover lead me to believe.

7/10

I wasn't overly impressed with The Book Thief either Paul.....partly because it came so highly recommended.

The Book Thief is one I have happily kept off my WL, too Paul.....The hype put me off and your review clinched it. Off it stays.

You will be pleased to know that I have started on my first Wallender book! (can't recall the title but it is the first in the series). It is freezing here - actually have a fire burning in the fireplace (well, the middle of the living room would be a bit inconvenient). Envying your heat right now! How long till you go to Cambodia/Laos?

Hi Prue, bit exhausted as I drove down to Singapore and back the day before yesterday so I'll be catching up with messages today! If I'm not mistaken the Wallender is Faceless Killers. Hope you enjoy it but given the setting it is unlikely to keep you warm. I can imagine you trying to snuggle up with a good book and the idea of an open fire brings back memories of sitting in my Gran's living room as a small boy reading my latest Doctor Who and half listening to her fascinating but oft told tales of her youth whilst sipping the strongest tea available in West Yorkshire. Miss the seasons from time to time to be honest but a few hours of winter warmth makes me glad to return to the tropics.

Going to Cambodia on 27 July when my old school friend and his wife arrive from the UK.

Keep warm and enjoy the Wallender.

Plan for lots of time in Siem Reap - wonderful, wonderful place!

#119 Looking forward to it Prue. Hani went there a couple of years ago with some girlfriends and loved it. We were in Pnom Penh last year and I am eager to introduce my good friends from UK to the place.

Review of Book # 60

Blood Eagle by Craig Russell

Must start by saying that Craig Russell writes very good thrillers. Literate with well defined characters. I read the first two "Lennox" books earlier this year and would choose those over the first "Jan Fabel" which this is but nonetheless it is a job well done. Politics, extremism, gangsterism, corruption and domesticity form a complex but rewarding mix and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Slightly more leaden than his other series I feel this tone will grow with the series and to be fair the subject matter is more serious than his 1950's Glasgow books. Set in Hamburg it draws a vivid picture of the Venice of the North (I always thought this was Amsterdam to be honest), Jan Fabel like many of the good police detectives is recovering from a failed marriage and is haunted by his killing (in self defence) of a female terrorist. Good stuff.

8/10

Hi Paul, I've read the first three of the Jan Fabel books, you've just reminded me that I need to be on the lookout for the next one in the series. But his other series that you mentioned, Lennox I haven't come across before, they sound interesting. I may have to track at least the first one down. I like the time setting of the 1950's.

#122 Judy the Lennox books (there are three published and I have read the first 2 - the third is still hot off the press) came out subsequent to the first 4 or 5 Fabel's. Setting is Glasgow in the early post-war period and the leading protagonist had a dubious war-record (he was in the Canadian services incidentally!) and a still more dubious present and future. In with the crime kings of the city he lives on his wits with considerable wit. The stories told in the first person are droll and fast paced. Needless to say I recommend.

Hey, Paul. Regarding the number of unread books at your house, I have 1000+, so I can relate. I am glad for Madeline's TIOLI challenge, which helps me get at least a few read each month :)

Hi Paul : ). Had to come by your thread! By way of celebrating our differences, I've enjoyed your comments on The Book Thief at #114. I read it in the winter and loved it - death as narrator was so interesting to me.

I find it so interesting that as readers we can share similar tastes on many books but still have completely different experiences with others. And I've done a lot of upstream swimming with books that have received rave reviews far and wide, the merits of which have been simply lost on me.

Thanks Paul, the Lennox series sounds like something I would definitely want to read, so onto the wishlist they go!

#124 Stasia I am clearly merely your apprentice! I am profoundly relieved that I am not alone in my magpie existence.

#125 Got a feeling that The Book Thief may improve in my memory over time. I also thought the idea of death as narrator was novel but I just dont think it quite matched the hype. Having being in Amsterdam only two months earlier at the Anne Frank Huis I was hard pushed to accept the comment that the book was on a par with hers.

#126 Let me know how you get on Judy.

#127: I keep trying to make dents in the unread pile at my house, but somehow the library's books always look so much more interesting!

#127 Oh Stasia! Lucky you to have access to a good library! My loca library is geared entirely to OAPs (Old Age Pensioners) and children, with many shelves of Mills and Boon. Sigh.

#129: I am very lucky. Yes, my local library has cut out a lot this past year, but it is still a wonderful resource for me.

Must bow to your feel though Stasia about the volume of your TBR. I am simply amateur status. *bows at your feet*

Trust me, my hubby wishes I held amateur status. I am working on reading through the unread books at my house - TIOLI challenges really help with this! - but it is slow work and I get distracted easily :)

Hello Paul - did you notice I am into the 20s now? Nothing compared to your heady numbers - must be in the 50s by now, right? but I am not-so-quietly pleased.

Prue watching your progress with more than a little interest. Willing you to get on schedule for the 75 and hopefully your holiday will give you ample opportunity. I'm up to 60 at the moment but this of course pales into insignificance compared to the zillion or so that Morphidae has read so far. Don't quite have his appetite for fantasy but am humbled and inpressed nonetheless. Had a slow week to be honest as I have done a lot of self-driving to Singapore and back twice so this month so far has yielded only 1 completion whereas I finished 15 books in June.

Sixty is damne impressive from where I suit - especially as we are talking big books - no YA, or childrens' story books. Must check out morphidae! Is it a pleasant drive to Singapore? Or it motorways/highways?

>134 PaulCranswick: *looks in pants. Sees a certain lack of plumbing. Coughs.* :D

Need to remember that I'm at home and disabled. So I have lots of time on my hands.

# Morphidae k I'm supposed to be running a company as well as feeding my habit but despite the "time on your hands" your reading rate is nonetheless astounding!

#136 lol re: plumbing

I was pretty impressed with myself last year when I beat my previous record of 52- that's over a book a week! I know I'm a junior reader compared to most here, but it's all about reading and having fun and I did that (like I bet you all are too!).

#136 - also laughed out loud. And I'm with Paul - the number of books you get through is noteworthy even among the prolific readers on LT

*waves hello to Paul*

I am waving right along with Prue!

#138-140 Thank you ladies; just spent a little quiet reflective time considering the intricacies of one's plumbing!

very....male-like of you!

LOL

Review of Book #61 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Stunning novel. Set against the turmoil of the 1967/70 Biafran War of independence from Nigeria this is a moving and exquisitely written story that makes you smile and frown in equal parts. Not being aware of the political or historical backdrop was no disadvantage here as the tale (told from the Biafran point of view) brutally exposes the bigotry and stupidity of races fighting over shared territory. Here we have Hausa vs Igbo but it could so easily have been rich/poor; man/woman; black/white, muslim/christian; jew/gentile..... The characters a fabulously realised from a servant boy to an idealistic englishman to a pair of unidentical twins (same as me). Stand aside Child 44 because as good as you are - this, though a very different type of book is my best of the year so far.

9/10

I believe that one is already on my TBR list! I've known several students who have come to America from Nigeria over the years. The ones who were in college at the same time I was did remember the war and the changes wrought by it. I'm sure our current student worker from Nigeria probably only knows what his parents or grandparents have told him.

Great recommendation for Half of a Yellow Sun Paul - onto the obese WL it goes...I have a funny feeling I have a book my him at home in Melbourne (where the number of TBRs is quite tiny...must have a look when I go down there next).

#145 Lori I have read both Chinua Achibe and Ben Okri before and they didn't quite connect with me but this was entirely different. The historical perspective laid out in the book is of course skewed relative to Adichie's own Igbo background but nevertheless she writes persuasively and with a very honest eye to the wrongs committed on both sides. This is not in any direct sense a war novel and it concentrates on the civilians caught up in the conflict in their different ways.

#146 Prue it would appear from the inner sleeve of the book that Chimamanda Adichie is an extremely attractive young lady! Still I would look her up as this is well worth the read. Try to find a version with slightly larger print than the one I have just soldiered through as I am still squinting as I type.

I read Half A Yellow Sun last year and it was a thought-provoking book. I remember the Biafran War from the TV news but I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't really pay much attention. This book did an excellent job of showing the cause and effect from many different perspectives, and, although I didn't feel a personal connection to the book, it was very well done.

I agree with you and Judy - a very well done book.

#147 - lol! well the name is not exactly a give-away of gender to this non-African languages speaker. I wondered, BTW if you have ever checked out the Sky Arts Book Show online? They have some terrific author interview clips and I have picked up quite a few recommendations from diving in to some of the other programme segments...

http://thebookshow.skyarts.co.uk/

apologies if I have passed this along or mentioned it previously!

#150 Thanks for the thread I will look it up. I know what you mean with certain names but the english are more to blame than the Nigerians - Joyce Cary, Evelyn Waugh and George Eliot anyone!?

I always thought 'Frankie and Johnny' was a song about gay love....

#152 lol....Johnny Cash meets Oscar Wilde

Now THAT would be an interesting pairing. Hehehe *mental image*

Review of Book # 62 The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

In truth he was always going to have difficulty following up Child 44 and this one doesn't satisfy in the same way - the plot is more contrived and less believable. Having said that the debut was very very good and this is merely good. Well written with an action packed denouement this is worth reading without hitting the heights of its predecessor. Set around the Hungarian uprising and the denouncement by Kruschev of the excesses of the Stalin regime the main protagonist is still haunted by his Cheka-d past.

7/10

#155: I loved Child 44 but have not yet read The Secret Speech for just the reason you mentioned - the difficulty of following up a terrific book. One of these days I imagine I will get to it though.

Phew. Think I can dodge The Secret Speech.

Review of Book 63 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

Unremittingly bleak and told in a spare style this famous novel recounts a single day in the life of a prisoner at a Russian labour camp at the end of the Stalin era. The attention to detail is admirable but the story not in the least likeable with a collection of miserable characters who failed completely to capture my sympathies. Interesting historical document this may be; a page turner it is not. Caught somewhere between novel and reportage.

5/10

Okay, so I'll pass on Books 62 and 63. However, I have a question - am I going to need a crash course in Russian politics/history to enjoy Child 44? Do tell, Paul ...

#158: I read that one already and I agree, 'unremittingly bleak' sums the book up pretty well.

#159 No Nancy I reckon you can enjoy the book pretty much for itself without the politics intruding too much - all you need to get is that Russia is pretty much under state control and that the secret police (not yet called KGB) are not the nice guys. Socialism is being promoted as the perfect solution to the world's ills and murder doesn't exist - into this ideal society comes a serial killer and Leo (our "hero") has his eyes opened. Enough twists and turns to open a bottle of chablis I must say that it is very rare for a thriller to get shortlisted for a "serious" literary prize and even rarer for it to actually deserve to be.

#161 Thanks, Paul! Sounds great! It's on the list. Make me laugh with Enough twists and turns to open a bottle of chablis ... LOL

Review of Book # 64 Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsson

I am on a roll with quality thrillers this year. Scandi thrillers are amongst my favourite genres and this comes from Denmark. Carl the leading protagonist is recuperating from being part of a team ambushed by gunmen where the other two were either killed or paralyzed. He is gifted, divorced and very demotivated (a well trodden path see Harry Hole {Nesbo}, Wallender {Mankell} and Erlendur {Idriadason}). A department is set up to look into cold cases and he is sent out to pasture as a new squad of one. The first case he looks into is the subject of this novel. Well plotted, with great characters and a very interesting structure to the story. Joins the pantheon of Scandi favourites and I will gobble up the next one.

8/10

#163: Unfortunately for me, my local library does not realize that Scandinavia exists, let alone produces writers. Yet another series I would love to be able to read if only my local library carried the books!

#163 - darn it, Paul - you make this one sound really good! And alas - Stasia - my fingers can all too easily walk to my local library aka Book Depository...Must be firm must be firm...

The Scandi-thriller- A genre unto its self.
(I got as far as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

Hi Paul, I agree, one can get addicted to Scandinavian thrillers quite easily. I had my fair share earlier this year but your recommendation on Jussi Adler-Olsson makes me want to start a new round. Adler Olsson is on a roll here too: I see 4 of his books have all been translated just last year.
Apart from that, I see we have similar reading-tastes which is rather odd because I tought mine is eclectic and quirky, hovering between classics, historical novels, thrillers, cozy mysteries, international literature, etc.
Anyway, I've starred your thread.

I've added Mercy to the WL, Paul....oh dear, your Scandi thriller passion is contagious!

Hello Paul - hope you are gloriously sunning yourself in Krabi and having a fantastic time...

Because I can, I am thinking that August August should be restricted to 20th century Nobel prize-winners - so as to qualify for the 'august' bit. What do you think?

#169 Hi Prue back and bronzed from Krabi - great week but my ambitions for a great big book fest fell to pieces amid the heat and showers. Martin Chuzzlewit fizzled and then frazzled after 50 or so pages to be set aside. Did manage to clear up some others though but being in a group I was bullied somewhat in my preference for a shady nook to complete "the next chapter.

Wow your August idea is a good one but maybe a little late for me to change my list at the eleventh hour. If you do manage an all Nobel month it would be well worth extra brownie points! Thinking aloud (well almost) I know I have some Gunther Grass, some Sartre (suppose he qualifies even though he turned it down) some Saul Bellow amongst others but I expect the Bainbridge waiting impatiently to picked up and perused tomorrow may object if I throw her back upon the shelves!!

Review of Book #65 Decision Points by George W Bush

Expected my preconceptions about the bugling and bigoted first executive to be confirmed. Didn't expect to find his version of events well argued and fairly humane. Candid and self-critical even though I didn't agree with his position on, amongst other things, the war in Iraq - I do understand his reasoning better. Didn't expect to cast aside Martin Chuzzlewit in favour of completing this whilst on a relaxing break in sun drenched Krabi. One false note for me was the excruciating laudatory comments made to Bush senior whose chequered career seems to be elevated on a par with FDR!
Better though and more likable than I expected.

7/10

Welcome back from Krabi, Paul. Any pictures to post? In the interim between finishing Little House on the Prairie for Juvenile July and starting August August, I am racing through Mystic River See what you have done? You have stirred up the murder mystery monster...And now my fingers (seemingly with minds of their own) sprint along the shelves to snatch up a quick crime fix. Certainly wouldn't want to upset beryl by banishing her to the back once more...which Bainbridge are you reading?

Review of Book #66 The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

Don't know if I am getting more reactionary with age but I was strangely unmoved by this effort by Krugman. I was enervated by his earlier analyses on the asian crash of the late nineties but thoroughly unconvinced by this advocacy of tax and spend solutions. It seems out of kilter to expect a widespread widening of the welfare system to improve rather than deteriorate the economic advantages of the west and the US in particular. As someone spending 20 years in SE Asia and from a generally liberal background I must admit the approach to state provision here through a compulsory assisted savings programme and emphasis on the work ethic and family to provide responsibilities as well as rights is the way forward. The state should be a genuine safety net to provide for the sick, the old and the genuinely infirm - it should not be there to provide a crutch for the idle. To operate a totally free market economy in a world where wages in China together with their welfare and employment "regulations" makes them naturally pre-eminent in trade seems to me self-defeating. The west needs a concentrated approach to fair trade not free trade and Krugman misses the point.

5/10

Review of Book #67 The Ice People by Maggie Gee

Thought I'd love this - but I didn't. Characters were quite one-dimensional and the scenario painted entirely implausible. The idea of a new ice age is apparently not so far fetched if there were a series of volcanic eruptions in a concerted manner the debris could cause world temperatures to plummet for a protracted period but this isn't the case put forward here - we have men segregated from women, reproducing killer robots and glib phraseology which is cringeworthy. Not difficult to read but extremely problematic to actually enjoy.

4/10

Good reviews Paul - neither books for me (thank goodness)

What Prue said~

I enjoyed your reviews, as well. I have the Krugman, and found your comments very interesting. I have The Conscience of a Liberal (although my LT library indicates otherwise), and I'll move it up my TBR list. I won't read Bush's book, but I had planned to pick up The Ice People, as I thoroughly enjoyed her most recent(?) novel The White Family. I'll strike it from my wish list.

What Prue and Stasia said ~

I'm not sure I could read a book by or about G W Bush. Not very open minded of me maybe....but there you go!

#177 & #179 Must admit that I read Decision Points largely because I wanted to hear his rationale for some of the decisions which I considered amongst the most catastrophic by an American President doing as it has so much harm to USA's moral standing in the world. Didn't convince me on Iraq but I would also have to say I didn't sneer half as often as I anticipated and I came away a little less disgruntled with his regime than before. He came across as convinced and sincere although I still believe he got some huge calls wrong. Interesting his pandering to the oil lobby and the Enron debacle are not mentioned at all.

Review of Book # 68 The White Guns by Douglas Reeman

Dated but interesting yarn about the Royal Navy trying to clear up the German naval base of Kiel after the end of the second war. The victorious but patently exhausted sailors face dilemma upon dilemma as they confront an enemy they both loathe and pity in almost equal measure. In addition they are working under the restraint of trying to pacify an ally (Russia) who is rapidly an obvious enemy in the making as loyalties change. The flotilla personnel are torn between duty and their desire to get home after six years of war. Interesting detail on a neglected subject but the stilted prose did take a little digesting. Overall worth a read especially as I picked this up free in my hotel room in Krabi left behind by a thoughtful ex-guest.

6/10

#172 Will get the boss to help me post up some pictures. I have embarked on the August slug-fest this morning with An Awfully Big Adventure by Bainbridge. The first three (Bainbridge, The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury and Josh Lawton by Melvyn Bragg) are all 200 page treats to get me off to a good, quick start. Haven't read Mystic River but I did enjoy Shutter Island so all the best with Mr. Lehane and his convolutions.

I will be very intersted to read your thoughts on The History Man - it has been on my WL FOREVER and I noticed it is just back in stock at Book Depository...

Good luck with your Beryl Bainbridge book. I think Master Georgie has scarred me for life - I gave it 2 stars last year and am in no hurry to try her again! (Of course if you love An Awfully Big Adventure I will probably change my mind and give it a try. The fuss must be about something...)

I'm eager to get your take on An Awfully Big Adventure, and any other books by her that you've read and liked.

Enjoying reading your thread, Paul. Too many books to comment on, but I was a big promoter (some would say irritatingly so) after I read Half of a Yellow Sun a few years ago. I've had The Gate on the TBR for years, and have looked at Heliopolis several times in bookstores but have always put it down and walked away. Looking forward to following your reading progress.

Does Baryl Bainbridge come with a warning? I have Every Man for Himself staring at me from the bookshelf - TBR TBR TBR it screams. It did win a prize....

Review of Book # 69 An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

If ever a book was saved by its last two chapters this was it. Mildly ironic, mildly acerbic, mildly readable for the most part Ms Bainbridge gets into her stride only as the pages left in this short novel a wearing thin (how to distinguish between novella and short novel anyone?). Set in the local reperatory theatre world in the immediate aftermath of the second world war in Liverpool, it is a tale of obsessions, unrequited and forbidden loves alongside the foibles and petty ambitions of the cast of characters. Has a surprising and blackly tragi-comic ending which almost excuses the fits and starts of the earlier 150 pages. Enjoyed it more than most of the other books I've read by the late prolific author.

7/10

#187 Every Man For Himself is set on the Titanic and the ending is, of course, predictable. Bought it in hardback about 15 years ago and got through it quickly. Her usual style and enjoyable for the most part - always seemingly light of touch with a serious point waiting to pounce upon you somewhere in its depths. She is not my favourite author by any means but I have never had to cast aside he work in stupor, mystification or frustration!

#189 phew, I'll allow it to convince me to read it soon then :-)

Review of Book #70 Josh Lawton by Melvyn Bragg

A gem of a novel. Bragg concerns himself with themes of jealousy, covetousness, love (at turns wholesome, forbidden, and adulterous) and creates memorable characters in this compact Cumbrian novel. Well worth a read.

8/10

#188/191: Adding both of those to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendations, Paul.

You're doing really well with your "August" reads. I started The Siege of Krishnapur and I think I am going to really love this book.

The Siege of Krishnapur is fantastic! And Troubles, the first novel in J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy, is even better.

Ditto what Darryl said.

#193-195 I do like JG Farrell. Read Singapore Grip as few years ago and like it a lot. This was helped by living in the vicinity I suppose but his style I literate as well as readable which is an oft-neglected combination these days. Have Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur as well as The Hill Station somewhere on my shelves. The general consensus is that Troubles is his masterpiece - so as usual Darryl is spot on!

I loved Troubles too. I still need to get to The Siege of Krishnapur and Singapore Grip.

Hi Paul! You are reading up a summer storm - well done! I've been full-on summer-ing, but my reading has been slow. In any case, I'm following along and enjoying your adventures, both in reading and travel : ).

In my opinion, The Singapore Grip was less good than the other two, but I found it extremely interesting to read about Singapore during World War II as it was a part of history I was unfamiliar with.

I don't think I have ever read anything by Melvyn Bragg - he was ubiquitous enough on the small screen when I lived in London during the 80s...but if you think him worthwhile, I might give him a shot! I have seen mixed reviews of Troubles here on LT, but again - I will trust the similarities in our taste and move it to a frontal position on the Shelves of Shame. Thanks Paul for your interesting reviews and catholic tastes!

Review of Book # 71 The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury

A little bit a novel of its time if truth be known - setting out as it does the mores of the intellectual university community of the late sixties and seventies. Permissive, radical and fairly objectionable the characters in this novel whilst stereotypes are enjoyable nonetheless. A great send-up of the faux-marxist, bed-hopping culture that (apparently) abounded at the time as well as a morality tale of sorts as the leading protagonist gets embroiled in a sex and marking scandal that threatens his job while assisting his street cred. Good fun even if a tad on the dated side. Would help to have sampled the university life at or near the dregs of the time concerned. Must admit I don't remember anywhere near as much sex but whether this is an indicator of clean living or the early stages of dementia I couldn't hazard to say.

7/10

...galloping towards 75.....

Sigh of relief - I might just give The History Man a miss and cross it off the WL. I am trying - without much luck - to get my WL down below 100. I am enjoying Mystic River very much - almost done in fact and will post a review shortly.

#201: I think I will give that one a pass. I hope you enjoy your next read more, Paul.

Review of Book # 72 The Rights of Desire by Andre Brink

Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee certainly have more laurels but for me Andre Brink has always been my favourite amongst South African writers. This is not his best novel by any stretch of the imagination but it does consider some of his favourite themes - loss, longing, obsessions, the supernatural and sex (often prohibited as in Black & White in Old South Africa, here we have a retiree falling for a younger lodger and struggling to contain himself). As always set amongst the fabric of a changing South Africa wherein his frustrations at the decay of society and lawlessness there in the hopeful aftermath of the end of Apartheid shines through. Evocative and exquisitely written as it is Brink's leading man Ruben Olivier fails to quite hit the mark and is less than believable as the fauning suitor. There are however some marvellous metaphors on the state of marriage - how about "we started out as rabbits and ended up as cats and dogs!"

7/10

#205 we started out as rabbits and ended up as cats and dogs! And a picture is worth a thousand words! hehe I like the sound of The Rights of Desire, Paul. Don't know any South African writers, so you've provided some insight with that as well. Thanks : ).

Paul I've only read one Andre Brink novel and his memoir but I love his writing too. The novel was A Dry White Season and it was in the local library here in our suburb in Reinach so I got it out because I'd heard of it. It ended up being one of my top 5 books last year. His memoir, A Fork in the Road, was excellent too.

I have The Other Side of Silence here waiting - but I know it'll be grim so it hasn't leapt off the shelf at me yet. Have you read it?

#207 Cushla my favourite (maybe because it was the first I read) was Rumours of Rain. The Other Side of Silence I would mark higher than Rights of Desire. The latter is a contemporary novel in post apartheid South Africa the former is an interesting but quite fantastic tale of a band of ladies taking on the third reich in south west Africa (Namibia). Well worth a read and evokes late colonial life without rose tinted spectacles.

Finally catching up on your thread and finding a wealth of material for my tbr list. I read Melvyn Bragg's Credo a couple of years ago, loved it, but haven't moved on to his other books so will keep an eye out for Josh Lawton.

#207: Cushla - Andre Brink has been sitting on my tbr list since I read that review of yours.

You always add riches to my reading lists, Paul! Thank you so much.

No hope of catching up, but thought I'd drop in and say hi.

I will have to look for more of Brink's work too. Like Cushla, the only novel of his I have read is A Dry White Season.

Review of Book #73 Starter for Ten by David Nicholls

Reverted to this as I was starting to struggle on Angela Carter's fantastic (as in unbelieveable) Nights at the Circus. Lit light fast paced story of an undergraduate's first year at school, of his yearning for the wrong girl, of his banal difficulties of his home-life and of his participation in University Challenge (for non-brits an actual Quiz show from the UK pitting 2 university teams of four against each other in competition. The catch-phrase of the quiz master the fabulously named Bamber Gascoigne is "Here's your starter for ten" {as in points} and hence the book's title}.
All said enjoyable, witty and a blessed relief from Ms. Carter but no literary award winner.

6/10

Nice review of Starter for Ten, Paul. Your description of University Challenge sounded identical to G.E. College Bowl, a TV show on NBC that I occasionally watched with my parents in the late 1960s, which also featured two colleges pitted against each other, with four members to a side. I did a Wikipedia search, and found out that University Challenge was based on College Bowl, which was sponsored by General Electric (G.E.) and thus named G.E. College Bowl. The program received recognition several years ago here in Atlanta, as a tape of the 1966 episode in which Agnes Scott College, a local and highly regarded but tiny women's college, upset mighty Princeton was uncovered, which can be seen on YouTube, in three parts:

1966 - GE College Bowl - Part 1 of 3

I watched this episode (all three parts) several years ago; it's quite exciting, particularly the frantic finish.

Thanks for that Darryl will certainly watch!

You're welcome, Paul. I also love the vintage commercials, including the first one that features the General Electric Heat 'N Serve Baby Dish. I'm pretty sure that my parents had one of those for my younger brother, as he was born in 1965.

TV was so much better in the 1960s than it is now. A show like G.E. College Bowl would never make it on any of the major television networks in the US at the present time. Instead, we have Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

I saw the movie version of Starter for Ten when it was on the telly a few years back. It was a good story, but I don't feel compelled to read the book anymore. Enjoyed your review though.

Speaking of College Bowl, my one and only link to a "celebrity" - my mother's cousin was the host of that one for a while in the 60's or maybe the 50's - his stage name was Lee Leonard. But it's a pathetic claim on my part, because I don't think I ever met him.....

#216 The "style" of the students forty odd years was comical to say the least Darryl. Thoroughly enjoyed the clips and my how times change. You are spot on that there is a complete dumbing down of society generally in the last generation or so reflected in the inane television output from both sides of the Atlantic. Sharon Penman would have cringed though that the students didnt know their War of the Roses history! The adverts were great and G.E. were clearly determined to get their money's worth. Amazing to see the host so fervently plugging their products. Saw them washing the baby food warmer by immersing it totally in water. Surely this would be dangerous viz the fact that it was then being plugged straight back in!

#217 Think I also caught the last part of the movie before. James McAvoy if I'm not mistaken.

#218 Wow Janet didn't realise my review would start a flood of reminiscence! Nice story.

Review of Book # 74 The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor

I have read some good books this year and this short novel is amongst the very best. William Trevor casts a jaundiced eye across the contents of a small coastal town and brings to light the wrong doings and tragedies of its inhabitants brilliantly through the medium of one superbly realised and spiteful young individual - Timothy. Adultery, homosexuality, children abandoned, and basic human weaknesses are revealed under the surface of the seemingly mundane existences of the people of Dynmouth. Timothy preys upon the innocent by opening their eyes to goings-on they would have preferred to have left as was -and all for a scheme of his which he follows tenaciously. Great read and heartily recommended. Its spare and understated prose is a wonderful canvas for the dastardly plans to unveil.

9/10

I'm trying to be more strict as to what I add to the wish list these days, because it's getting out of control, but have added The Children of Dynmouth all the same. Sounds great, and they have it at the library too wouldn't you know.

I just bought one of those super-cheap mini Penguins by William Trevor - The Mark 2 Wife - three short stories I think. Sort of a try before you buy.

Adding to the TV quiz discussion, one of my favopurite programs here is a show called 'Letters and Numbers'. Two contestants randomly select a mix of 9 vowels and consonants and whoever makes the biggest correct word in 30 seconds or so wins the round (they play several rounds). In the numbers portion, they select a mix of six numbers (big and small but 100 is highest) then have to use those to reach a randomly generated number below 1000. TV doesn't get much more riveting. If you lose, you get a dictionary, if you win you get to play again - until you lose and get a dictionary. It is probably the most humble little program I have seen - and kind of has a cult following here...

#222 Nice to hear from you Prue - I hope everything is ok with your Mum. Your programme has a version in UK called "Countdown" which similarly has a cult following. As a fount of useless knowledge it was also incidentally the first programme ever aired on Channel Four in the UK in 1982. The first host was the late Richard Whiteley who was famous for being bitten by a stoat on live tv and blubbing like a big girl's blouse and the delectable Carol Vorderman was the queen of numbers (she very rarely failed to solve a number). They are long replaced and the show remains a classic and possibly the longest running quiz show series in the UK. It developed originally from a french show called Des Chiffres et Des Lettres apparently.

And what about Only Connect as far as cult quiz shows go? Is this only a UK thing? Basically, team gets shown four pictures, or words, or whatever, one at a time, and has to guess the link. If you guess after 1 clue you get max points, then declining. Later rounds are a bit different, but on the theme of "links". It's a "don't miss" in our house, although we do watch most of it on catch-up tv. Last week, one of the links was "black dogs", which I got when the clue "Winston Churchill's depression" came up - only knew about that thanks to discussions on LT!

I haven't seen Only Connect, Janet - sounds fun - but Countdown is an old favourite. I'm sure that my performance in quizzes must be improving thanks to all the random bits of knowledge that I'm acquiring thanks to LT discussions!

#220: Adding that one to the BlackHole. I am always excited to discover a new (to me!) book by William Trevor, one of my LT-discoveries.

Throw in three more UK quiz shows that I loved when I lived there - Mastermind, The Weakest Link and Fifteen-to-One
Mastermind has four contestants who take turns to be "quizzed". They answer questions firstly on a chosen specialist subject (i.e. the novels of William Trevor!) and after that round they then participate again in turn lowest score in the last round first on 2 minutes of general knowledge. The original quizmaster the late lamented Magnus Magnusson (really) introduced the catchphrase "I've started so I'll finish" with regard to any question part asked before the buzzer sounds. Most points at the end wins. Fifteen-to-One and The Weakest Link are elimination games the latter hosted by "the Queen of Mean" Anne Robinson whereby we start with 12? contestants and at the end of the round the contestants vote who they believe to be the weakest link off (usually tactics prevail and the smartest fellow goes home early or the ladies combine to send the guys home). Great shows and I do miss that sort of TV in Malaysia.

Review of Book #75 Generation A by Douglas Coupland

That's 75 up for the year but it was a shame not have done it with a book I enjoyed more. Have now read 2 "Sci-Lit" novels in the space of a month (see #174 Review of Book #67 above) and come to the firm conclusion that it is not the genre for me. On the plus side this was fairly easy reading and the initial third of the book actually quite enjoyable but the whole was let down by a long and extremely tedious sequence of short stories told by the 5 leading characters of the novel - a sort of Decameron or The Canterbury Tales on internet acid. It seemed a fairly obvious way to fill out the novel to full length so that the writer start collecting royalties.

5/10

I wish you had enjoyed #75 better, Paul, but congratulations on reaching the goal!

Well done on 75, Paul!! Yours is the second thread I've read recently where #75 has been a disappointment. Enjoyed your comments about Sci-Lit - not a genre for me either.

Congratulations, Paul on reaching your 75! (Books not years) :)

I have come by to give you the link to the September Series and Sequels Thread. It's a little early, but some people want to plan and list their projected reads. Hope to see you over there.

Congrats!

229-232 Thanks Guys - now that monkey is off my back I can get down to some proper reading!

Judy thanks for the link - I must be a little psychic as I was actually going through my stocks last night to set aside my reading for the series and sequels fest. Reckon I may finish 12 or 13 this month on Modern Lit so I have put up an ambitious 15 so let's see.

You've done really well with the modern lit, I've ended up falling a little short, mostly as I've found myself on massive wait-lists at the library. I have started the Booker nominee Snowdrops by A.D. Millar today though.

Congratulations, Paul!

>219 PaulCranswick: Saw them washing the baby food warmer by immersing it totally in water. Surely this would be dangerous viz the fact that it was then being plugged straight back in!

I went back and looked at that commercial, and it looks as though the dish consists of two parts, the base with the heating element, and the tray where the baby food sits. From what I could tell, only the tray was immersed in water in the commercial.

Thanks Darryl. I'll also look at the commercial again - not that the product has been around for 25 years!

Review of Book #76 A Football Man by John Giles

I have several passions in my life:
1 My wife
2 My three wonderful children
3 My fledgling (extremely fledgling) business empire
4 Reading, books and the friends they bring me
5 Music
6 Cycling (mainly watching it these days)
7 Walking; and
8 Leeds United
The last brings up the rear only because I don't want to upset the wife! John Giles was the midfield maestro of our greatest ever side of the late sixties to mid seventies. A brilliant but much maligned team and for those not so familiar Giles is the irish fella slandered somewhat in The Damned United. Here he gives his story and though I am thoroughly biased I did enjoy it immensely.
The book was a break from August Modern Lit as I left the book I was reading on the back seat of my car not knowing it would spend two days in the car hospital. Car retrieved and Damon Galgut's The Imposter has been recommenced.

8/10 For fans of Leeds of course

Review of Book #77 The Imposter by Damon Galgut

Finished off on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Have read some good books recently and this is another of them. Set in modern South Africa with a protagonist facing a mid-life crisis and he takes up residence in a summer house in the country belonging to his brother. He meets an old school friend of whom he has little recollection of and spends time with the "friend" and his attractive coloured wife in an idyllic estate. The story has themes of corruption, deception, obsession and the redefining of the racial divide. Still not sure which character in the book was the Imposter but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

8/10

Nice review of The Impostor, Paul; I'll probably read this next year. I've enjoyed the two Galgut novels I've read this year, In a Strange Room and The Good Doctor.

Hi Paul, I'm late to the party, but congrats on reaching 75.

I've never read anything by Douglas Coupland and must say that every time I consider picking something up by him, I don't because it occurs to me there are so many other books I'd rather be reading...

Hello Paul! The Imposter sounds really interesting - darn it! I have Miss Wyoming on my SoS and I think it will stay there for quite a while...Congratulations on reaching target!!!!! I still have such a long way to go...limping ahead...Being married to a Manchester man, there is only one team in our household (and it is NOT City)...

Ha Ha Prue - Man Utd or ManUre as the Leeds fans unaffectionately call their cross Pennine rivals have long been Leeds' eminence gris but I don't know how much is genuine dislike and how much is grudging respect/ abject jealousy. Great team to be honest with horrible red-nosed manager/coach whilst we are a mediocre team hankering for better days with a young and likeable manager/coach.

You don't have to be a Leeds fan to hate Man U - us Liverpool fans hate them as well!

Yep Janet it is a common denominator amongst fans of clubs other than Leeds, Man Utd and Chelsea that everyone else hates them! As a Leeds fan through and through since I could crawl I've only recently got used to the weight of the huge chip on my shoulder. Always had a soft spot for the Pool to be honest and throughout the Revie/Shankley years there was always a mutual respect which is certainly missing with Man Utd.

Yep, we hate Chelsea, too, and the Arsenal (that one because we live really close to them, meaning many of my kids' friends support them, so they hate it when Arsenal do better than Liverpool, as has been the case for a long time, although NOT THIS YEAR, and they get teased). We don't hate Leeds, although to be fair we disliked quite a few players there in the past :).

p.s. - I hope no one takes this personally! I don't hate the supporters, just the teams!

Review of Book #78 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I have had a good month with my modern lit and this probably is tops. Nominated for the Man Booker in 2009 I can only say that Wolf Hall must be unbelievably good to have beaten this to the prize.
Gives a nod to the slow burning gothic novels of a century earlier the story is concerned with a series of incidents occuring at Hundreds Hall in Warwickshire in the aftermath of the second world war. Brilliantly realised the novel chills as it exposes greed, superstitions and class divergences in what amounts to a very good novel. I enjoyed Fingersmith but felt that it tailed off somewhat - Waters put that right here and I would say that this is the best thing I have read this year.

9/10

I've had that book for several months now, and your review is making me want to pick it up right now. But I won't because I've got so many planned reads that I really want to get to... I wonder how long it'll be till I finally read it?

#246: Sounds like you enjoyed The Little Stranger a lot more than I did. The book just fell flat for me. I could not figure out why it was nominated for the Booker prize. Ah, well.

Oh Paul! Our first disagreement! I'm with Stasia on this one - I liked The Little Stranger but would never place it high up in the pantheon. As for Wolf Hall - maybe my hiostory knowledge wasn't up to the task but I ditched it after about 150 pages. I think maybe it made me feel stupid for not 'getting' it. I could appreciate the depth of research and skill, but it left me disinterested.

Dear Prue even Laurel and Hardy didn't always see eye to eye on everything! Haven't read Wolf Hall yet but I was impressed by Sarah Waters' book. Will stick to my guns on this one but I was disappointed that the Doctor didn't get the girl as plain as she appeared to be. Thought it was a good old fashioned read and I'm a good (well sometimes at least) old fashioned fellow.

Review of Book #79 I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This by Bob Newhart

Grew up being a fan of the bittersweet and gentle humour of Bob Newhart. This memoir (if that is what it was trying to be) left me cold and barely smiling. Picked up this book at the train station as I was stuck without my car and left without reading material (my car was marooned on the back seat in the car hospital overnight). I will try to take better care of my car in future and keep my books closer to me.

5/10

Doubtful I will ever pick up the Bob Newhart book, since I rarely read memoirs to begin with.

#249 Prue, I felt exactly the same about Wolf Hall and like you, struggled though just about 150 pages too and then dropped it out of frustration. Did not help at all that I have very little understanding whatsoever of the Tudor era. So I decided to put it aside until I'd read up more on that period until such time as I was well versed enough and could better appreciate Mantel's unusual approach.

I made it 3/4 of the way through Wolf Hall. I like the period and know a bit about it but the style grated on me and I realized I just didn't care. Farthest I've ever gotten in a book when I quit.

#249, 252 & 253 Got three opinions that I value all negative but it is already sitting on the shelves in all its Tudor pomp insisting that I too have to see what all the fuss was about. I am a sucker for historical fiction so hopefully we will beg to differ.

Wolf Hall is sitting on my shelves as well Paul. I have to admit it's sheer size is daunting, and I have read so many books centered on the Tudors, not sure when I'll be ready to tackle it.

I enjoyed Wolf Hall, but liked it rather than loved it. The style of the writing took me a while to get used to.

Another Wolf Hall opinion - I really really really loved it!

Hello Paul - thank you for your many kind thoughts over the past few weeks - it was a surprisingly difficult time. Anyhoo, good of you to notice my lack of progress on The Museum of Innocence (not) Truth is, I am just not in the mood...So I have put it aside for now in favour of other fare...I will return to it...but it is a bit slow going and I want fast food not a slow stew. Hope you and yours are all doing well!

Wolf Hall is definitely one of those books that generates very mixed opinions. It's one of those books that you simply have to try it to see what you think.

I was a big big fan of Wolf Hall and it got me started reading almost everything Mantel has written; her books are very varied.

#258 Dear Prue, it is holiday season here in Malaysia imminently celebrating the end of Ramadhan and Malaysia's independence on 31 August and my tribe are eagerly anticipating the pocket money that the festivities bring them from all their relatives and friends' parents. Will be travelling down to Southern Malaysia (Johor Bahru, Malaysia's second largest city and across the straits from Singapore) this afternoon to spend a few days with Hani's parents and extended family which is thoroughly enjoyable but for the absence of air-conditioning!
Glad to hear that your mum is on the mend and that this difficult time has been weathered.
Must admit wasn't surprised that the Pamuk was a bit heavy going under the circumstances - don't forget it was your prompting that got everyone into serials and sequels for September - I hope you'll join in with your usual vim and gentle good humour.

I loved and thoroughly enjoyed Wolf Hall, despite knowing nothing about Tudor history.

Review of Book # 80 Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

I have read enough books to realise that Ms. Carter is an exceptional writer but regret that this was not my cup of tea at all. I must admit that the "magic realism" genre is profoundly difficult for me as I like to empathise with characters or at least be able to place myself in the situations devised but I couldn't get excited as to whether the leading protaganist was really a half-swan or not. I'll stick to stories I can relate to thank you very much and nurture my stifled imagination somewhat before I try Angela Carter again.

4/10

Review of Book #81 The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn

Don't mistake the writer for the late lamented hollywood giant of the same name but this Mr. Quinn will surely become better known after this debut novel. Grew into his work after a somewhat turgid opening and by the end I became eager to look out for his next novel. Mixes an obvious love for Architecture, Liverpool and history in a tale of love, war and old buildings. There is an interesting slant on the war novel as this concerns those left behind and too old to fight as the leading character becomes a "rescue man" digging out those buried amongst the rubble of the buildings he had sought to glorify during the blitzkreig of Liverpool in the second world war. Love and betrayal also play a part in an enjoyable if old fashioned tale which ought probably to have been edited down by 40 pages or so to become amazing.

7/10

Review of Book #82 The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

Toibin has walked these paths before in Story of the Night, (the care of those dying from Aids) but he does it better here. Centres around an estranged family Grandmother, Mother, Daughter and the Aids suffering son as they come together and work out their differences as Declan (the son) deteriorates before them. Not a jolly tale certainly but a sympathetic and non-melodramatic novel which lays bare human weaknesses and misunderstandings and how the actions of others, well intentioned or no, are misinterpreted by those around them.

8/10

Everybody my new thread for the group is http://www.librarything.com/topic/122968 . Please join me on my struggles to reach triple figures for the year.

Paul, I know you've moved on to another thread and will pay a visit and star shortly, but just wanted to say I lost track of this thread somehow, which I truly regret as there are many interesting topics here on which I would most definitely have commented. Added The Rescue Man the the wish list.

Thanks Ilana for your kind message. The Rescue Man is worth a read especially after the first 50 pages or so.