Reading - Michael I seem to read a lot of books ! 2017-03-13 Now reading The Honary Consul by Graham Green - didn't like Brighton Rock - one of Daphne and Frank's booksRecently I've read a few more in reverse order of reading North Star by Hammond Innes - I couldn't put this down but disappointed in the ending, it fizzled out from being a political thriller - one of Daphne and Frank's books We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - no very good, again fizzled out - one of Daphne and Frank's books Where My Heart Used To Be - Sebastian Faulks - interesting but . . . I usually like his books but this was a bit Oxbridgey. Again another book we bought from Waterstones when we went to buy Julie's Christmas books and token The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Ngoyen - again disappointing, about Vietnam but remote - one of Daphne and Frank's books 9th January 2017 I just can't believe I haven't recorded any readings for over a year! Old age is rushing on! This year I've read Clare Balding's Walking Home: Great British Adventures . . . and Other Rambles lent to me by Julie Bull. I quite enjoyed this once got into it. It made me quite sad when she talked about walking in Cornwall because she mentioned all the places Daphne and Frank had taken us to. I've also read Helen Dunmore's Exposure I won't say I enjoyed up but it kept me interested and I liked the ending which I feared would upset me - I like reading Helen Dunmore. We bought this book from Waterstones when we went to buy Julie's Christmas books and token Before those I read a book which Carmel gave me Geoffrey Archer's Dark Angel again I won't say I enjoyed it but it kept my interest and I only realised who done it a couple of chapters or so from the end. It was a surprise when realisation dawned. Supposed to be about the Korea war. All the above were read in a couple of weeks. Before that E M Forster's A Passage to India which I didn't find all that easy but I learnt a lot. I'll have to try and remember all the books I've read since last new year. 3rd January 2016 Received The Penguin Book of the British Short Story as a Christmas present from sister-in-law Julie. Read three so far but not impressed. This is the first time in many years that she's been disappointing. How to be both by Ali Smith - gave up just past halfway, wasn't enjoying it and finding it hard work. Got it in a three for two at Waterstones, to make up the three. I got confused it's Zadie Smith that I like. 23rd December 2015 Read The Warrior Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell - really enjoyed these Started This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein some time ago but finding it hard to keep awake so left it halfway through for easy reading above. Hope to continue it in the New Year. Finished Owen Jones some time ago and went on to read Paul Mason's PostCapitalism which I found interesting And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini - didn't enjoy this as much as his previous books 21st September 2015 I'm re-reading HMS Surprise by Patrick O' Brian. Previously I re-read Master & Commander also by Patrick O' Brian. I'm also reading The Establishment by Owen Jones Books read since 11th February 2015: Lady Chaterly's Lover by D H Lawrence - was it really banned becasue of the few words about sex or was it because it normalised a relationship between a middle class and working class person? The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters All that is Solid - Danny Dorkiing - Really revealing about the nature of the housing crisis (May) Honourable Friends?: Parliament and the Fight for Change by Caroline Lucas - Great book (end of April) The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine - struggled with the English My Lover's Lover by Maggie O'Farrell didn't really enjoy 11th February 2015 I've just finished The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas, a lovely book. I love reading Rosie Thomas' books they always are worthwhile to read. Previously I read The Lives of Stella Bain by Anita Shreve another wonderful author and a favourite of mine. Finished Lamentation and looking forward to the next Shardlake book in the series 18th January 2015 In less than two days I've read Lifeboatmen by Simon Wills, 390 pages, a true story of Poole Lifeboat around 1866-7. A thrilling and easy read. This book was given to me for Christmas by Julie & Richard. Julie has a knack of finding books that I will enjoy. Finished Sovereign and Revelation. 5th January 2015 Now reading Sovereign Got Lifeboatmen by Simon Wills and Lamentation, the latest Shardlake book, and lots of book tokens for Christmas 17th Decmber 2014 Now reading the second book in the Shardlake series - Dark Fire by C J Sansom. Finished Dissolution, the first in the series on Saturday Books I've read since May: The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West - interesting 24th May 2014 Now reading, half-way through, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. I was confused at the start but it's now coming together (book given to me by Elizabeth H for the BE jumble sale) Since the last notes I've read The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon. An abrupt ending but didn't spoil it. Set around 1840 to 1856 when the Ukraine was part Russia before the USSR. Very interesting assuming the history is correct - (cost a £1 from Balshaw's Spring Fair.) Previously The Wild Rose of Meath by Carey Cleaver - slightly disappointing, a bit cliched, ending - been on the sjhelves for over ten years without being read. 9th April 2014 Just finished The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier - Ok, interesting facts about the Quakers and Ohio in the 1850s. Now reading A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks 4th April 2014 Just finished Stonemouth by Ian Banks - great, best book I've read for years, pity about the language but I suppose that's how people talk today. Disappointed by On Brazzaville Beach. Not started the textbook yet! 16th March 2014 Bought All that is Solid by Danny Dorling - about housing - non-fiction about the 'fiction' of our society Read Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd - I quite enjoyed that so much so that I decided to read On Brazzaville Beach - not sure yet - I've had this novel for many years and never quite fancied it - we'll see !356 was OK but not as gripping as Sharpe novels 23rd February 2014 Now reading 1356 by Bernard Cornwell, hope it's interesting Since the last entry I've read: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes "Powerful. A tense compelling thriller" is says on the cover. Just didn't feel tense at thrilled at all. Nearly four hundred pages before I got a little interested. Definitely not my kind of read. Two Brothers by Ben Elton - interesting and informative, I believe semi-autobiographical - about Germany and Germans 1920 to 2003. 31st January 2014 Just finished The Rosie Project by Graeme Simpson which I enjoyed and found interesting - OCD. Recommended it to David but got no response. 29th January 2014 Once again I can't believe it's a year since I updated this page! I was lucky to get book tokens for my birthday, a long time ago, and Christmas which enabled me to buy ten novels! I've just finished Longbourn by Jo Baker . It's 'A re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice' - a story written round the invisible servants. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Previously I'd read The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling - a book which took me over 200 pages to get into and not a character to love or identify with. I can't say I enjoyed it but it summed up all the bad things in village and community life. Having just been forced out of the sailing club passages and characters ran true to real life. Before that The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. a Swedish book translated by Rod Bradbury. A lovely story which made me laugh and laugh and laugh. In the book are some places that I've been to which gives it spice, just like The Bridge on TV which is set around Malmo to which I flew by helicopter from Copenhagen several times when I worked for Volvo Bus before the Bridge was constructed. Before Christmas read the English translations of three Shakespeare plays, leant to me by an ex-schoolteacher friend - Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar was our set book for GCE 'O' Level English Literature - I thought they all fizzled out a bit. I read The second two of Jennifer Worth's books - Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End Over the last year I've read all the Hornblower novels by C S Forester, which I read as a schoolboy, and all the Ramage novels by Dudley Pope. I find those much more to my taste than the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian, which I read some years ago - I'll read them again sometime. A Ship of War by Sean Thomas Russell - 1794 warship story, a half-Frenchman captaining a British Navy Warship June/July 2013 The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker - its got one or two poingnant moments, she went into the Tesco's at Caernarvon, I'd been there on a boating trip in 2004. I loved the passage where she said you can always see where the footpath is in the distance but when you get to it it disappears. Now reading The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. I'm surprised to find that Indians were used by our ancestors to 'administer' all the empire possessions. 10th February 2013 I can't believe it's a year since I updated this page! I've read many books over the last twelve months. From early December 2012 to late January 2013 I read all the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell. After that I read my Christmas present Dominion by C. J. Sansom . Now I'm reading Wicked Enchantments by Joyce Froome, which, curiously, is where I left off a year ago. In March I bought Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, hot off the press, the sequel to Wolf Hall. I now understand that Bring Up The Bodies is the second in a trilogy. Before I started on this new book I read Wolf Hall again, which I'd forgotten most of but I enjoyed them both. They are about the same period as that portrayed in the Shardlake series, which I read in the summer of 2012. I really like historical fiction that uses all the facts. In the case of the Sharpe novels the author explains at the end of the books what is fact and what is fiction, I learnt so much about wars and battles around Wellington's time. Others I've read in 2012: Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth; Atonement by Ian McEwan; The Thread by Victoria Hislop - reall yenjoyed that and learn a lot about the Greeks; 13th February 2012 Just about to start Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill. I've read this before many years ago. I decided to read it again after reading The Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth written around 1883. I bought the book 25th September 2000 - digital photos are good for recording - after walking over Pendle Hill with Damian, see photo!
The book I've just finished is Firewall by Henning Mankell, the eighth Wallander mystery. I've read several other books since the 5th November but I can't bring them all to mind at the moment. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - Canada 1867 . A Place Of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel - about the French Revolution . One Step Behind by Henning Mankell, the seventh book in the Wallander series I didn't finish Mingming, got a bit boring. 5th November Is it really so long since I updated this page? I'm reading The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell , the sixth book in the Wallander series if you don't count The Pyramid. Since June I've also read the 3rd, 4th & 5th novels: The White Lioness, The Man Who Smiled (I got that one from the library) and Sidetracked. Whilst on Holiday with Cousin Daphne she introduced me to the Shardlake series! I've now read them all, by C. J. Sansom: Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation and Heartstone. I really enjoyed them and am looking forward to the next one, that is, if there is one. Earlier read I King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard again, a book I read as a young person. It was interesting to read it and realise how much attitudes have changed to other races. I've also read The Voyages of a Simple Sailor by Roger D. Taylor and am part way through his book Mingming, the name of his ocean cruiser - originally a Corribbee - only 19' long. True life experiences. Roger likes to have long periods of solitutude at the mercy of the oceans. 21st June Midsummer's day! The nights will start drawing in soon - ever the pessimist - where has the spring gone, the year so far? Nearly finished Wherever You Go, There You Are but found myself reading novels again. Trudie Lloyd and Jaja bought me the next Wallander novel for my birthday: The White Lioness by Hennning Mankell , I really enjoyed that. Next I read Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. I really enjoyed lots of the prose, is that the right word? I saw the film many years ago and didn't like the ending but the book ending is more satisfying. I've just finished Wild Decembers by Edna O'Brien. Can't say I enjoyed that because it brought back feelings that I don't like. I struggled understanding some of the dialogue. It was one of the five books I got for a £1. 22nd May Just finished The Sculptress by Minette Walters , as I stared to read this book I thought I'm not going to enjoy this because one of the leading characters was immensely fat and repulsive to look at but then I overcame this and she seemed normal size. I really couldn't put his one down. Minette Walters is good. This was another of my Sue Rider bargain books. I've read too many novels so have started on Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. A book about meditation 16th May 2011 Really enjoyed the Dogs of Riga. Need to look out for the next one in the series or send to Amazon. A couple of weeks ago I bought five books for £1.00p from the Sue Rider barn - The Brass Dolphin was one of them. If you get them in the cafe they charge you £1.00p each? I got into a conversation with a lady who was perusing as well. She strongly recommended Leslie Thomas, who I'm not all that keen on but I picked up Running Away, which I'm reading now. It's, well OK but a bit corny. 9th May 2011 Hi, She may not leave by Fay Weldon was OK and the end was interesting. Then read The Brass Dolphin by Caroline Harvey - aka Joanna Trollope. It was Ok but I didn't like the heroine some times, she seemed a bit selfish and unkind. I have enjoyed most of Joanna Trollope's novels in the past. Now reading The Dogs of Riga by Hennning Mankell , the second book in the series if you don't count The Pyramid. 14th April Started on She may not leave by Fay Weldon, seems promising. Just Finished Iain Banks' Transition. I laboured through with occasional bouts of interest and good political statements but then it all fizzled out! This man is highly regarded so I must not be intellectual enough for him. I enjoyed Solar for its humour and exposure of the world we live in. Not sure if the 'hero', not a likeable person, got his comeuppance but I'm sure in real life he'd have come out of it on top. Like most books, I wasn't happy with the ending. 4th April Now reading Solar by Ian McEwan 3rd April I finished A Place of Greater Safety and learnt a lot about the French Revolution. Contrary to what I'd always believed the revolution took several years, I'd always imagined that the storming of the Bastille and the execution of the aristocracy all took place at once but it didn't, read the book to find out, it's good. Robespierre was a good man until the very end. Next I read The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, another kind of historical novel, which I enjoyed. After that, read in a few days, The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters. An unlikely tale which became un-put-downable and I didn't have a clue who the guilty person was until near the end. March 7th - Now reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I liked Wolf Hall so picked this up from a charity shop. There are a lot of characters and I'm struggling with them, my age no doubt. It was hard to get into it but I'm enjoying it now. A book about a little boy in Africa? Just like where Lloyd's Dad lives in Jamaica 11th February - Just finished The Pyramid. it ends with the phone call that leads straight into Faceless Killers. I enjoyed the book and it is more realistic than some crime fiction but I think I'll have a rest from crime for my next read. 10th February - I've read a few more books since 27th. The first one was Sebastian Faulk's A Week in December. I said I was expecting more from this and I wasn't disappointed. I really enjoyed it and one section explained the greed and unconcern that the bankers have for us. Despite what they claim they have brought the world to the brink. My understanding of stocks shares derives from Mary Poppins but I'm way out of date. Avarice is too kind a word for what they do now. Then, having been told by my son that Wallander was a good TV series, the Swedish series, and then having read about the author recently I decided to try the books. The first one of Henning Mankell's is the Faceless Killers which I found interesting and enjoyable. The first books are set in an area of Sweden that I visited in the nineties with work so the book had added piquancy because I knew some of the places. Wallander goes to the airport in Copenhagen by ferry whereas I was privileged to use the helicopter. I believe that they've built a bridge across the divide between the two countries now. Now I've almost finished the last book in the series which is set in the period before the series begins - The Pyramid. I thought it should have been read first but I don't think it matters now I've almost finished it. Today I renewed my library card, 'use it or lose it' is the saying and the time looks bleak for libraries so I'm doing my bit, it's a lot cheaper than Amazon too. I've ordered Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee on the recommendation of a friend. 27th January - I've just finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, famous for The Time Traveler's Wife, which I didn't enjoy at all. This is one of the three books I got with Julie's book token from Waterstones. Well it was easier to read and understand than the TTW. I didn'treally enjoy it but then I don't believe in ghosts and the whole story, whilst an interesting study in " the process of grief, the transforming power of love", I would add greed/selfishness, hasn't left me a better person. However I did feel sad for some of the characters at the end. 20st January - today I've read Daphne Du Maurier's Scapegoat, which I thoroughly enjoyed, especaially as she didn't duck out of the ending. I watched the film with Alec Guinness many years ago but I could only remember the ending, which left you in doubt. The book ends quite sadly but it wouldn't have been acceptable otherwise. Note: I read all 373 pages in one day. 19th January 2011 I've just finished Hardball by Sarah Paretsky. Really unputdownable. I really enjoyed this after reading one of my Christmas presents from Julie - The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, this was a bit hard work whilst he was setting the scene but I enjoyed it towards the end. A novel fairly faithfully built round an actual moment in history. I've read lots of Bernard Cornwell's books, the one I enjoyed most, many years ago, was Sea Lord, a sailing adventure. 7th October - this morning I finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. It was unputdownable, as the cover says, but I got bored towards the end. There were lots of what are purported to be facts, sadly I can't remember most of them except our minds are only in their infancy, i.e. we only use a very small part of our brains. I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code some time ago but then Angels and Demons was so similar that I decided not to read any more but as it was so long ago I thought I'd have another try. I'm reading The Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert, a kind of textbook about the mind. This is about the power of the mind and how it can destroy us if we aren't 'mindful'. Earlier this year I read John Kabat-Zinn's book Full Catastrophe Living, about mindfulness. I read this book after completing my second mindfulness course at the beginning of the year. Bitter Medicine by Sara Paretsky about the detective V. I. Warshawski, female. Not like the usual thrillers and I like her. This was an earlier book first published in America in 1987 but only released in this country in 2008. Early in July I read three books by Stieg Larsson, the Millennium trilogy - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Different and enjoyable. I read all of them on holiday over a few days. Apparently, so I'm told, the books were written to expose various dealings in Sweden, where the books are set. Interesting that Stieg is no longer alive, 'died' very young. I love stories about the sea so I bought the complete set of Hornblower novels by C. S. Forester, and read them all again, actually some for the first time as I'd first read them in my teens when not all of them had been written. The ones Forester was 'forced' to write by his publishers I thought weren't as good as the early ones. I also found I didn't like Hornblower as much, obviously because my values have changed so much over the years. I re-read Under Enemy Colours by Sean Thomas Russell. This book was given to me by my in-laws for Christmas in 2007. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and waited in anticipation for his second novel in the series, which came out this year, A Battle Won, not as many pages and not too disappointing. Apart from the comics - Wizard, Adventure, Hotspur and another one, which contained stories without pictures my first novels were the Ca pt. W E Johns Bigggle's books and the C. S. Forester Hornblower novels. In my later teens I read novels in the John Bull magazine, Neville Shute's Requiem for a Wren, A Town Like Alice, Winston Graham's Little Walls, all serialised, and my mothers magazines Woman, Woman's Own, Woman's Weekly. Adventure and romance. I read classics like Lorna Doone, Treasure Island, 39 Steps, my first mystery? I also read Daphne Du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek and Rebecca Under Enemy Colours by Sean Thomas Russell - 2008 & 2010 Hornblower novels by C. S. Forester - all 2011 (2nd time) The Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Bitter Medicine by Sara Paretsky - 2010 Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn - 2010 The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - October 2010 Scapegoat by Du Maurier January 2011 Hardball by Sarah Paretsky - January 2011 The Fort by Bernard Cornwell - January 2011 Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger - January 2011 A Week in December by Sebastian Faulk - February 2011 A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel - March 2011 March by Geraldine Brooks She may not leave by Fay Weldon - March 2011 The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse - March 2011 Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee - 2011 Transition - by Iain Banks - April 2011 The Pyramid by Hennning Mankell - April 2011 She may not leave by Fay Weldon - April 2011 Running Away by Leslie Thomas - May 2011 The Sculptress by Minette Walters - May 2011 Wild Decembers by Edna O'Brien - June 2011 Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - June 2011 Dissolution by C. J. Sansom - September 2011 King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard The Voyages of a Simple Sailor by Roger D. Taylor and am part way through his book The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - January 2012 The Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth - February 2012 Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth - 2012 Most of Sam Llewellyn's sailing novels |
