Indignation - Philip Roth

I love philip roth. Bought this in salzburg airport, it's a relatively new novel by him and it's pretty short. It's about a Jewish boy going to University in the States in 1951. The politics and environment are very saddening. What's interesting is Roth manages to make a sympathetic story about a rather disagreeable main character (similar in a strange way to his book everyman). I found it incredibly readable (finished in a day) and it left me feeling rather bleak but moved.


8.5/10

another world - Pat Barker

Thought this was brilliant, although I was a bit scared. The family relationships are really well done and the feeling of a plot or life on the edge of disaster was compelling. Thought the character Geordie was great. I think I still liked the trilogy more, but this was a great development.

8/10

Cat among the pigeons - Agatha Christie

Set at a girls' school, but with an international politics plot and priceless jewels too. Hercule Poirot comes along and saves the day but he's not in it for the first half and he's not as funny as in Styles. Interesting to read a book from this era that centres almost entirely on women.


7/10

The secret of chimneys - Agatha Christie

This one comes before The Seven Dials and is about the same characters - jolly good fun all round!



7/10

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

His second book (see earlier review of Child 44). Another big, longish action book about a family in the post Stalin era in Russia, this time about Gulags, Khrushcev and the Hungarian revolt. Good to read if you have read his first book. But I hope he writes a very different book next!

7/10

Facing the Light by Adele Geras

I got this as a swap on read it swap it and didn't know anything about it. It's a very easy read and a bit mindless. It's about a woman's 75 birthday party and of course family secrets unfold as the family prepare for it. An easy read that isn't a life changer!
5/10

The Reluctant Fundamentailist -Mohsin Hamid

Very good read...quite a quick book. The story is told by one side of a conversation and explains why a man gave up his financially successful life in USA to return to his homeland. Found the end rather strange...I'm still not sure what happened but maybe that was the clever part and it left you thinking!
9/10

Morven Callar by Alan Warner

Strange book written with a strong Scottish accent or vernacular, set around the time of rave clubs - 1980? You know that someone (in our family) said that you read Ian McEwen books waiting for the explosive incident. In this book it happens in the first sentence. Seven words. and yet the book has lots of tension and twists in it, and even in the slow passages keeps you occupied and turning pages. Wierd but a very good read. SPEAK NOW if you want to read it - mum is about to put it on readitswapit.

9/10

Pompeii by Robert Harris

A good novel if you like them based on excellent historical research. A fast read because it is a good, tense story line with believable characters. It's about a young (30s?) engineer who is sent from Rome to fix the massive aquaduct which supplies water to the whole bay of Naples. . . . whilst Vesuvious seems, to anyone who can read the symptoms, to be behaving strangely! A good story with a page-turning end.

9/10

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

On loan from Sarah. A monologue covering 200 pages. Surprisingly it never flags - keeps you reading as quickly as you can. Very unusual style and equally unusual ending.

8/10

The Brain Dead Megaphone by George Saunders

A gift from Patti, our snowbird. A series of essays by a critic/reveiwer/TV personality/author. He is the opposite of US TV ranters like Nancy Griffiths and Glenn Beck. Insightful and entertaining essays on life, people, politics in the US and the wider world.

6/10

The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

This is a Marple mystery. In the same way I was surprised to find how funny Poirot is, I discovered Miss Marple is actually very irritating. Her quirk is to make comparisons between characters and events in the plot with people in her own village. So I found that part of this quite annoying, but the actual story was pretty good in the end.

6.5/10

The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie

A country house mystery with lots of jolly ladies and chaps - all baffled by how ghastly the murder and throw themselves in to solving the mystery. A touch famous five, but a pretty good story.

7/10

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

This month's book club, written by same woman who wrote The Lovely Bones and strange in a similar way. It's about a woman who kills her very ill mother...(not a nice theme). Not sure if you are supposed to sympathise with her or not but still quite an interesting read...and like her other two, a quick read.
7/10

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

This author wrote The Remains Of The Day which became an excellent film 'starring' Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Get that from DVD club if you want to see 'below the stairs' life in the ... 1920s?

This is 5 short stories picturing life in England. Suzie bought it for my birthday. They are an easy read and enjoyable but nothing exciting or insightful. Borrow it if you want some light reading (no vampires or Torchwood).

7/10

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

T R S's first novel, well reviewed in Sunday Times and then a birthday pressie from Sheila who hadn't seen the review - coincidence. Detective drama with a harrowing theme (serial child murder) and a stunningly portrayed setting in post-Stalinist russia. A good thriller and a terrific insight into everybody's life in that crazy era (the farce of trying to eat and live in those conditions, and not only do your neighbours betray you, you partner will. Sound like 1984?). My only problem was that it was the book I took into hospital with me on 19 May - not a good time to read something as harrowing as this. But I did, eventually, and it is a good read. Sheila has now bought me his second novel. . . . watch this space.

8/10

A short history of nearly eveything - Bill Bryson

One of the new genre of books popularising science. Very successful. Gave lots of information in a way which was undestandable/accessible. Allowed the reader to grasp the scale of the universe and the tiny stuff inside DNA, and the emergence of homo sapiens. But 573 pages made it hard work overall so you need to need to read it or take it in small chunks.

8/10

The Big Four - Agatha Christie

This was marvellous. A crazy international spy thriller with poirot solving countless mysteries as he uncovers the identities of the wicked four trying to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Very funny. The comments about race and sex aside, it's quite hard to think this was written in the 20s.



8/10

Keeping the world away by Margaret Forster

This month's Book Club and one which I wouldn't have chosen for myself. It centres around a painting from the turn of the last century and the effect it has of 5 women over the years ending with the present day. Surprisingly I enjoyed it and more exciting is the fact that Noelle lent me a book about the life of the painter (Gwen John).
8/10

The Midden by Tom Sharpe

I swapped this book through Readitswapit. Many years ago Dad and I read a selection Of Tom Sharpe books and found ourselves laughing out loud. Sadly this didn't cause the same reaction.....not sure if it's not as funny as his early books or maybe I'm just that bit older! Typical Tom Sharpe story about the gentry getting into all sorts of mishaps and corrupt police forces....it will be going back on my RISI list for exchange.
5/10