The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

A Christmas/birthday present fr5om Katy and Mark (thank you) the story starts with a girl being evacuated to a big house in Yorkshire which runs as a boarding school. The girl eventually returns to London when her father comes home from active service. The girl's life while evacuated plys a significant role in her relationships in later life and in the second part of the book she returns to the house to meet one of her teachers who owns the house and still lives there. Probably more of a feminine book than what Dad chooses to read, but worth borrowing if anyone wants to.
8/10

Blood River by Tim Butcher

This was a Book Club book and I have to confess I wasn't really looking forward to it. It's about Tim Butcher's attempt to follow the route of Stanley along the Congo River. In fact it proved better than I thought, giving an amazing insight into what life is like in the Congo since independance. The corruption that was around in the colonial years continued and parts of the country in the 2000s is still very primitive.
6/10

Sea glass - anita shreve

Another one centred around the beach house. this about a couple who move there in the 20s and he is involved in a strike 'up mill'.

7/10

A body in the library - agatha cristie

nice miss marple but an awful lot was unveiled as she was explained who done it.. that you didn't know earlier in the book.

7/10

A wedding in december - anita shreve

About a group of college friends who get togther for a wedding 15 years after graduating.

Not in anyway corny

8/10

Getting rid of Matthew - jane Fallon

Pretty much chick lit that I've fancied reading for a while.

reasonable story but a slightly odd idea that a guy leaves his wife for his mistress and she decides she doesn't want him and spends the book trying to get him to get back together with his wife

5/10

Body Surfing - Anita Shreve

there are a lot of books centred around the same house and this is another one.

about a woman who is tutoring a girl from a swanky house on the beach and her relationship with the family.

8/10

the carhallan army - sarah hall

this was mark's book for book club which he recommended.

about a group of wormen who live together in a commune after the collapse of civilisation.

Interesting but ridiculous ending.

7/10

Resistance - anita shreve

again lovely gently written but gripping story. about belgium during nazi occupation and (as the title suggests) the resistance movement.

A plane crashes and the resistance care for the pilot.

9/10

Double Vision - Pat Barker

About a guy who served in Afganistan and how he gest used to life when he comes home. I love pat barker.

8/10

the big four - agatha cristie

as sarah's chum put.. one of the most dull books ever.

not what we expect from hercule.

4/10

At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Cristie

standard miss marple. now amazing in any way though.

7/10

The Pilot's Wife - anita shreve

Fabulous. good gripping story but gently written.. not the kind of book you couldn't put down but it just kept pulling you back.

Good story too.

9/10

Escaoe routes for beginners - kira cochrane

This lady writes for the guradian and I really like her style. However the book was a bit dull and childish.

Story was a bit odd about a girl growing up on a prison island in the 50s.

6/10

Theodore Boon by John Grisham

Want a light, quick but quite entertaining read? 260 pages in less than a week? Story about a 13 year-old boy on the fringe of a murder case. Almost as if it is written for kids. But I enjoyed it - read it in less than a week. Good enough, especially for J Grisham.

Available for borrowing.

8/10

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

I hinted about this book in my last blog. It is captivating, massive, complex and hard to read even if you are an Ellroy fan. And it is the first in a series of four! Only readable by people who had read some of his earlier books and who realy took to his style and (sometimes offensive) language. Story? America in the late 50s/early 60s. Kennedies, the mafia, CIA, FBI, J Edgar Hoover (director of the FBI), Howard Hughs and an entire nation of other characters, some who are so seedy, crude, racist, sexist - but sadly, alarmingly, real.

So I need a break of at least two other lighter books (John Grisham next, then) before I attempt the next in the series.

But . . . . 10/10