FAREWELL COWBOY - Olja Savicevic

 

SPIES IN CANAAN - David Parker

 

THE MEMORY POLICE - Yoko Ogawa

 

THE SEVENTH FLOOR - David McCloskey

 

THE SEA - John Banville

 

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES - John Irving

 

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE - Jonathan Ames

 

HORSE UNDER WATER -Len Deighton

 

THE Q DOCUMENT - James Hall Roberts

 

BUtterfield 8 - John O'Hara

 

Outstanding dialogue, no great plot but the conversations are brilliant.  Track it down

JUDGEMENT ON DELTCHEV - Eric Ambler

 

An Ambler novel overtly critical of the Soviet system, unusual for Ambler.  This is very slow paced, not his best

THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE -Richard Osman

 

The latest in the series with the nicest bunch of characters in fiction.  This as usual is very funny  and sharp in its observations. I believe the series can handle a few more outings yet

UNDER THE RED ROBE - Stanley J. Weyman

 

Published over 100 years ago, set 400 years ago, we have a very stilted tale of daring do set in France.

Very hard work to get through, thankfully its mercifully short.  A poor mans John Buchan. i wouldn't track down anymore of Weyman's books

MADAME MAIGRET'S FRIEND - Georges Simenon

Simenon was a great novelist full stop.  Pigeon holing him as a "crime writer' is doing him a huge disservice.
 

THUNDERBALL- Ian Fleming

 

When you can't decide on what to read next , grab a Bond and have a relax.  Thunderball is one of the best of the series as well

DAY OF OPRICHNIK - Vladimir Sorokin

 

Set in 2028 , a satire on what the author foresees could happen in Russia under Putin. Some humour but more cynical than satire

THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE - Agatha Christie

 

A cold Sunday afternoon read but the cheat is a shocker even for Christie

CLOWN TOWN - Mick Herron

 

Not the strongest story in this series but Jackson Lamb is one of fictions best creations.

LIFE AND FATE - Vasily Grossman

Simply a brilliant book. Huge in it's scope even though it is set in 1941-1942 around the battle for Stalingrad. 

ALL THE PRETTY HORSES - Cormac McCarthy

This hasn't stood up since I last read it 30 years ago. A good adventure but not worth re-visiting

 

FATHERS AND SONS - Ivan Turgenev

 

Great writing but the story becomes very predictable. The caused a stir when first published but that was 163 years ago.

THE WHITE GUARD -Mikhail Bulgakov

 

Four armies, one family and friends during the Russian civil war. Very interesting reading about all the factions involved.

THE TURN OF THE SCREW- Henry James

 

A good little ghost story

CANCER WARD - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A cancer ward is used as a microcosm of Soviet society.  The have and have nots are all in he same ward with their differing views and beliefs.  Amazing writing.  It is staggering to think that some still insist that communism has something going for it
 

GREAT RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES - edited by Paul Negri

 

And great sort stories they are- Puskin, Gogol, Tolstoy etc.

MY MORTAL ENEMY - Willa Cather

 

A novella, beautiful writing but its not a must read

WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE- Shirley Jackson

Don't annoy Mary Kate.
 

THE STRANGER- Albert Camus

 

Didn't get this at all, I just didn't see the point in the whole exercise. Just a bit slow perhaps to see all the hidden meanings that some rave about.

EREWHON - Samuel Butler

 

Understandable why this has never been out of print in a 150 years.  A scathing satire on Victorian England.  There is a lot of forethought in the book as well.  Butler predicts AI & the rise of the machines

Excellent reading

VERY OLD BONES -William Kennedy

 

This is the eighth book I've read in the eight book "Albany cycle' by Kennedy.

I read them out of order which is a good thing but I lucked out by leaving this until the last .

Worth tracking the set down and reading them all.  Families

MANHATTAN TRANSFER - John Dos Passos

 

I thought William Kennedy could write dialogue but Dos Passos takes it to another level entirely.  Published in 1925 a novel about New York and its inhabitants, the poor, the rich, the clever and the stupid.

A fantastic read

BILLY PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME -William Kennedy

 

The seventh I've read of the eight 'Albany cycle' by Kennedy.  This is top five.  A small time hustler gets caught up in a politicians son's kidnapping .  As always the dialogue is simply brilliant.

IRONWEED -William Kennedy

 

You see books that win major prizes and wonder why, then you read books that win major prizes and its blindingly obvious.  This is outstanding, very depressing subject matter but brilliant writing. Another in Kennedys Albany cycle

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - Shirley Jackson

Excellent, simply the best haunted house novel written 

LEGS - William Kennedy

 

A fictionalized life of gangster "Legs" Diamond", very readable, one of the better gangster reads written.  This is the first of Kennedys eight novel "Albany cycle" 

CHANGO'S BEADS AND TWO-TONE SHOES - William Kennedy

Another great bit of writing from Kennedy, incredible when you know he was 83 when it was published.  Banger of a title as well 

THE FLAMING CORSAGE - William Kennedy

 

Another of Kennedy's 8 book "Albany cycle'.

Brilliant dialogue

BEL-AMI -Guy De Maupassant

 

Whos says bad guys finish last.  A horrible character who just keeps on winning.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA- Gaston Leroux

An excellent wee gothic horror. 

THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy

 

A father & son's odyssey to survive after a world ending event.  Absolutely brutal, fantastic writing, the tension builds with every page.  Not a read if you are feeling a bit flat but this should be read at some stage

QUINN'S BOOK - William Kennedy

 

More magic.  If you like E.L. Doctorow, Kennedy is better

ROSCOE -William Kennedy

If you want to understand how a U.S political machine works read this.  Brilliant banter, very funny, one of those books you don't want to end 

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST -Nathanael West

Hollywood has always eaten its own.. A novel about some players on the edge of the entertainment business.  It's short, some humorous lines but I'm struggling to understand the raving you see about it.  

THE VALLEY OF FEAR -Sir Arthur Conan Dole

The last of the four Holmes novels.  Very ordinary, the best thing about it  is the cover on this pulp edition
 

ZORBA THE GREEK -Nikos Kazantzakis

Some interesting views on life but I found it got a bit tedious after a while.
 

THE BRIDGE OVER THE DRINA - Ivo Andric

 

Fictionalized history set over 400 hundred years where a Serbian bridge is the catalyst for these tales about the  townspeople, religions and the wars that occurred in the area.

The bridge is still standing and still used today

A riveting read 

THE MASTER AND MARGARITA- Mikhail Bulgakov

The devil comes down to Moscow....

A remarkable book.  I'm not usually a fantasy reader but the fantasy element here allowed the author to mock the Soviet leadership without getting carted off and shot.

Highly recommended.
 

O PIONEERS! - Willa Cather

The story of a farming family in Nebraska.  I've become a fan of Cather's writing instantly, she wrote beautifully.

This is far from dull .  Read the book

 

IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE- Sinclair Lewis

 

An alternative history written in 1935 where the USA is turned into a dictatorship.  How hard was this o do?  Offer everyone $7000 each was all it took and the wet brains fell for it, then became useful idiots.

This is very good and deserves to be up there with "1984" & "Brave New World"

NIGHTMARE ABBEY - Thomas Love Peacock

 

A light hearted satire of the romantic novels being written early in the 19th century, this is very very funny