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02. West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate **** Read as the book for Delaware in my Tour of the United States. Edward is an athletic but introverted, bookworm, twelve-year old black boy living in Philadelphia, who spends his summer vacations in Rehoboth, on the coast of Delaware, where his mother has a regular summer job, whilst his father stays at home (having driven them to the resort). It's the 1960s Jim Crow era, and blacks and whites are effectively segregated. Here he develops a fascination, indeed obsession, for his 'Uncle' Rufus, who has been (for some unknown reason) expelled from the house of 'Aunt' Edna (where Edward with his mother and younger sister stay) who herself is a successful matriarchal business woman, more than capable of mainipulating even the local (white) police force. One of Edward's literary heroes is Hercule Poirot, and he determines to investigate Rufus, a hard drinking, messed up man. The bulk of the novel focuses on the development of that relationship, one banned by both Edward's mother and Aunt Edna, and its outcomes, filling in the relevant backstory of Edna's and Rufus's backstory on the way. Alexs D Pate, who I'd never heard of before researching which book to read for Delaware (there isn't a wide choice), is a great story teller, who gets well inside his main characters: Eddie and Rufus come alive in his hands, although his lesser characters are rather more lightly sketched. There's a liveliness and clarity to the opening scenes which I found immersive. After the family (bar father) move to Rehoboth, the narrative narrows down somewhat to Eddie's burgeoning obsession with Rufus to the exclusion of much else. This is the nature of the story: it is a tale of obsession after all, but I have to admit to feeling that perhaps a little something went missing as a result - this was more of a niggle than a spoiler though, and the thrust of the story still remained compulsive. The last third of the book though....hmmm. All I want to say, because much more would lead to spoilers, is that it was not what I expected, was an admirably different approach, and whilst I'm still not sure if it fully worked for me, certainly made for an interesting read. Overall, I really enjoyed the author's style: his descriptiive work in particular added a certain richness which made this as much a story of place as people, whilst on the latter, I felt I really learned something about black life at this time; this was a place, a society, a time about which I knew little; I probably still know little, but a few doors and windows have been opened. The story itself, whilst not perfect by any means for me, was still addictively readable - I looked forward to sitting down to read and left it reluctantly, reaching the end satisfied that the story had been fully told, but wanting to know more about Eddie's life beyond. A very enjoyable addition to the tour list.

Glad I'm not the only one - everybody else seems to be rave about his books!

Finished two books rapidly one after the other, or should I say 'finished with' as one of them was a non-completer. Read West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate for my Tour of the United States (Delaware). A bit of a curate's egg, but an engaging read, 4 stars. Also Never Let Me Go, the Booker short-listed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, for a book group. Drearily dull and tedious, managed just under half in total, not impressed. 2 stars at a pinch.

01. The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett **** First book of the year, and it was a chunky one, just over 600 pages. Even more so when one considers that this coves a mere 15 years. Subtitled The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, the author examines the meteoric rise of George Villiers from court introduction in 1613 to favourite of both James I and son Charles I, through to his assassination in 1628. As favourite he may well have been lover to either or both of these kings (although he also had a loving marriage too), but he was certainly their lead statesman, effectively prime minister in all but name. This is the same Duke of Buckingham who features in Dumas' The Three Musketeers, which is really what first attracted me to this biography (along with a string of great reviews!). It also covered a bit of a hole in my historical knowledge, having studied the Tudors in some depth, and read about the Civil Wars almost as much! Detailed and chunky it might have been, but it also flowed remarkably easily. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, winner of the Baillie-Gifford for her previous biography (The Pike), and a popular fiction writer, has not written a totally conventional biography. Chapters tend to be on the short side (over 100 of them), and she often varies the style, including bullet point lists, occasional semi-speculation, and asides from the main 'narrative' to cover aspects of Buckingham's life that might perhaps not otherwise fit in neatly. It all makes for a generally rollicking read, whilst not lacking in gravitas. Buckingham himself comes over as an interesting human in all his strengths and weaknesses, unjustifiably demonised at the time, but his own worst enemy in his stubborness and determination to almost unilaterally take on the Spaniards and French - he just never seemed to learn from his mistakes, or indeed from his relationship with James I, who determinedly stayed out of European conflict. At least James helped protect him from his worst errors, but once Buckingham started his association with Charles I, then there was really nobody to protect him from himself. Indeed, Charles just made the situation worse, Buckingham being blamed for many of Charles's deficiencies even when he tried to stop his royal master from some of his worst errors/excesses of stubborness (this was a time when it was regarded as treason to blame a king, so somebody else had to take it). They were basically bad for each other, and both suffered as a result, Buckingham most of all in the short term, but sowing the seeds for Charles's own tragedy some twenty years later. So, a fascinating, highly readable biography. I have to admit, however, that there were occasions in the second half, when things did very slightly drag, and I do think that the book could have come in a mite shorter without loss. But then, I'm not sure what I would have left out! Once Buckingham and Charles started getting entangled with Parliament (particularly the Commons), there was a certain amount of repetition, but that was because the same things did keep repeating themselves, with the former appearing to continually dig a deeper and deeper hole for themselves. I also think this might have been because the narrative started covering material I was already familiar with - it was the period of James I's reign where I really felt I was learning something new, and with all his faults, I did start to develop more respect for him than previously - he was a cannier man than often given the credit. Overall then, a great start to a year in which I want to read more non-fiction, and some bigger books - both boxes definitely ticked here, and very enjoyably too!

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Reading awards For the past decade or so, I've done my own end of year book awards. This is a list of the main awards. Books marked with an asterisk in the first 2 categories were my overall book of the year (2022 I couldn't decide!). Fiction Book of the Year 2013: *David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. Runner-up: The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell 2014: *Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. Runner-up: Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 2015: *Middlemarch - George Eliot. Runner-up: The Aubrey/Maturin series - Patrick O'Brian (first 5 vols read this year) 2016: The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry. Runner-up: Howards End - EM Forster 2017: *To The Bright Edge Of The World - Eowyn Ivey. Runner-up: The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett 2018: A View Of The Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor. Runner-up: Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 2019: *Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo. Runner-up: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry 2020: *Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell. Runner-up: A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 2021: The Mermaid Of Black Conch - Monique Roffey. Runner-up: The Great Level - Stella Tillyard 2022: *As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner. Runner-up: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard 2023: The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams. Runner-up: Captain Hazard's Game - David Fairer 2024: *Ulysses - James Joyce. Runner-up: Orbital - Samantha Harvey Non-fiction Book of the Year 2013: Letters To Alice On First Reading Jane Austen - Fay Weldon; Runner-up: The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne 2014: Pursuit Of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 - Tim Blanning. Runner-up: Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain - Charlotte Higgins 2015: Waterloo - Tim Clayton. Runner-up: Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley 2016: *The House By The Lake - Thomas Harding. Runner-up: The Outrun - Amy Liptrot 2017: The Seabirds' Cry - Adam Nicolson. Runner-up: Love Of Country - Madeleine Bunting 2018: *East-West Street - Philippe Sands. Runner-up: Wilding - Isabella Tree 2019: Daughter Of The Desert - Georgina Howell. Runner-up: The Five - Hallie Rubenheld 2020: Island Stories - David Reynolds. Runner-up: Home - Julie Myerson 2021: *The Stubborn Light Of Things - Melissa Harrison. Runner-up: Orchard - Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates 2022: *The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf. Runner-up: Cottongrass Summer - Roy Dennis 2023: *Rocket Boys - Hiram Hickam. Runner-up: The Flow - Amy-Jane Beer 2024: Thunderclap - Laura Cumming. Runner-up: Reading Lessons - Carol Atherton Best Book in Translation 2021: The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola 2022: One Moonlit Night by Caradoc Prichard and Michel the Giant, An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie jointly 2023: Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih 2024: Elena Knows by Claudia Pineiro Best Reread (up to 2015, these were eligible for books of the year, after I've hived them off in a separate category) 2016: Emma - Jane Austen. Runner-up: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 2017: Flood Warning - Paul Berna; Winter Holiday - Arthur Ransome (jointly) 2018: Coot Club - Arthur Ransome 2019: Paddington Helps Out - Michael Bond 2020: Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf in combination with The Hours - Michael Cunningham 2021: Waterland - Graham Swift 2022: A Maigret Christmas - Georges Simenon 2023: none 2024: Another Point of View by Lisa Jardine Biggest Discovery 2019: George Mackay Brown 2020: Wendell Berry 2021: Gilbert White 2022: JB Priestley 2023: African literature 2024: Patrick Modiano And a couple of brickbats.... Duffer of the Year 2013: Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 2014: The Dinner - Herman Koch 2015: Divergent - Veronica Roth 2016: Us - David Nicholls 2017: Two Brothers - Ben Elton 2018: I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes 2019: I See You - Clare Mackintosh 2020: Gold - Chris Cleave 2021: Body Surfing - Anita Shreve 2022: The Department of Sensitive Crimes - Alexander McCall Smith 2023: Fates and Furies - Lauren Groff 2024: Normal Rules Don't Apply - Kate Atkinson Most Disappointing 2017: Jacob's Room Is Full Of Books - Susan Hill 2018: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou 2019: The Making Of The British Landscape - Nicholas Crane 2020: A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson 2021: How To Argue With A Racist - Adam Rutherford 2022: The Instant - Amy Liptrot 2023: Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver 2024: Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner

Favourite authors To qualify for this list, I must have read at least 3 of the author's books (amazing how many where I've read no more than 2, especially non-fiction). I've only included authors of adult books: for children's authors see the books list, as they are pretty much the same. Fiction: Jane Austen, JL Carr, Tracy Chevalier, Charles Dickens, Sarah Dunant, George Eliot, Margaret Elphinstone, David Fairer, Thomas Hardy, Donna Leon, Patrick O'Brian, Georges Simenon, Muriel Spark, Elizabeth Taylor, Virginia Woolf, Emile Zola Non-fiction: Tim Clayton, Laura Cumming, Jan Morris, Claire Tomalin, Jenny Uglow Both: Melissa Harrison

Favourite books A record of the 140 books and series which I rate as 'favourites': 6+ stars! These aren't necessarily the best literature I've read, but ones, that, for whatever reason, struck a special chord in my reading that continues to resonate long after actually reading them. Individual books within a series are likely to have scored less, but the rating is for the series as a whole. The lists are divided into Fiction Non-fiction Joint fiction/non-fiction Children's fiction Fiction (82) Ackroyd, Peter: Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice Austen, Jane: Emma Buchan, John: John Macnab Carr JL: A Month in the Country Carr JL: The Harpole Report Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales Chevalier, Tracy: Falling Angels Childers, Erskine: The Riddle of the Sands Collins, Norman: London Belongs To Me Cooper, Susan: The Dark is Rising Cunningham, Michael: The Hours Davies, Martin: The Conjuror's Bird Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol Dickens, Charles: Bleak House Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Sherlock Holmes short stories Dunant, Sarah: In the Company of the Courtesan Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose Eliot, George: Middlemarch Elphinstone, Margaret: The Sea Road Elphinstone, Margaret: Voyageurs Evaristo, Bernardine: Girl, Woman, Other Fairer, David: The Chocolate House Treason trilogy Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair Forester, CS: The Hornblower series Goscinny, Rene: Asterix in Britain Greig, Andrew: The Return of John Macnab Guareschi, Giovanni: The Don Camillo series Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Hall, Sarah: Helm Hardy, Thomas: Far From The Madding Crowd Herbert, Frank: Dune Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy Hoeg, Peter: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow Horwood, William: The Stonor Eagles Horwood, William: Skallagrig Hulme, Keri: The Bone People Ivey, Eowyn: To the Bright Edge of the World Japrisot, Sebastian: A Very Long Engagement Joyce, James: Ulysses Le Carre, John: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mockingbird Leon, Donna: The Commissario Brunetti series Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall McMurtry, Larry: Lonesome Dove Melville, Herman: Moby Dick Miller, Andrew: Pure Miller, Andrew: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free Mitchell, David: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea Moorcock, Michael: Mother London O'Brian, Patrick: The Aubrey-Maturin series O'Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost Penney, Stef: The Tenderness of Wolves Perry, Sarah: The Essex Serpent Prichard, Caradog: One Moonlit Night Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News Roffey, Monique: The Mermaid of Black Conch Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy Simenon, Georges: The Inspector Maigret series Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men Stephenson, Neal: Cryptonomicon Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped Swift, Graeme: Waterland Taylor, Elizabeth: A View of the Harbour Thomas, Dylan: Under Milk Wood Thompson, Harry: This Thing of Darkness Tolkien JRR: The Lord of the Rings Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway Woolf, Virginia: The Years Woolf, Virginia: To The Lighthouse Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind Non-fiction (48) Atherton, Carol: Reading Lessons Blanning, Tim: The Pursuit of Glory Bewick, Thomas: A History of British Birds Brown, Hamish: Hamish's Mountain Walk Clayton, Tim: Waterloo Cocker, Mark: Crow Country Cumming, Laura: Thunderclap Dennis, Roy: Cottongrass Summer Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris Frater, Alexander: Chasing the Monsoon Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road Harding, Thomas: The House By The Lake Harrison, Melissa: The Stubborn Light of Things Hickam, Hiram H.: Rocket Boys / October Sky Hoskins, WG: The Making of the English Landscape Howell, Georgina: Daughter of the Desert Huntford, Roland: Shackleton Jamie, Kathleen: Findings Jardine, Lisa: A Point of View Junger, Sebastian: The Perfect Storm Kpomassie, Tete-Michel: Michel the Giant, An African in Greenland Lee, Hermione: Virginia Woolf Lewis-Stempel, John: The Running Hare Liptrot, Amy: The Outrun Longford, Elizabeth: Wellington, The Years of the Sword Macdonald, Benedict & Nicholas Gates: Orchard MacDonald, Helen: Vesper Flights MacGregor, Neil: Germany, Memories of a Nation Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for Madmen Nicolson, Adam: The Seabird's Cry Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the Reader Peterson, Mounfort and Hollom: A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe Pinker, Stephen: The Language Instinct Rackham, Oliver: The History of the Countryside de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: Wind, Sand and Stars Salisbury, Laney and Gay: The Cruellest Miles Sands, Philippe: East-West Street Schumacher, EF: Small is Beautiful Simpson, Joe: Touching the Void Taylor, Stephen: Storm and Conquest Tomalin, Claire: Pepys, The Unequalled Self Tree, Isabella: Wilding Uglow, Jenny: The Pinecone Unsworth, Walt: Everest Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen Wheeler, Sara: Terra Incognita Wulf, Andrea: The Invention of Nature Young, Gavin: Slow Boats to China Joint fiction/non-fiction (1) Klinkenborg, Verlyn: Timothy's Book with Townsend-Warner, Sylvia: Portrait of a Tortoise Children's Fiction (9) Berna, Paul: Flood Warning Bond, Michael: The Paddington Bear series Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies Kipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Book Milne, AA: Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights Ransome, Arthur: The Swallows and Amazons series Sutcliff, Rosemary: The Eagle of the Ninth White, TH: Mistress Masham's Repose

The Book Pile I am very acquisitive when it comes to books, buying (or receiving) far more than I can actually read in short order. I'm happy with that - I like to have a library of books to choose from and follow whims - but it also means that books that I intended to read pretty soon after buying can get lost! So, I've decided to create a virtual book pile. This will consist of such books, with the aim that I will now read them in the near future!. The pile needs to stay manageable, so I will limit it to no more than ten of each genre, and will generally only add books to it as books already on the pile get read. Hopefully, this, appealing as it does to my passion for lists, will help me work through the bigger long term reading list. We'll see how it all works! Books that are ineligible to be added include any that are included in another reading project* or being read for a book group (unless already on the pile!) - these are meant to be all books that could otherwise get overlooked because I'm so focused on these other areas. I'll also keep a record of which book pile books I have actually read! Fiction Chatterton - Peter Ackroyd Hy Brasil - Margaret Elphinstone The Justification of Johannes Gutenberg - Blake Morrison The Late Mr Shakespeare - Robert Nye The Road to Samarcand - Patrick O'Brian The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell Enlightenment - Sarah Perry Mason and Dixon - Thomas Pynchon Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead The Fraud - Zadie Smith Non-fiction Vanished Kingdoms - Norman Davies The Rising Down - Alexandra Harris Foxes Unearthed - Lucy Jones The Garden Against Time - Olivia Laing The Haunted Wood - Sam Leith England, A Natural History by John Lewis-Stempel Super-Infinite by Lucy Jones Walking the Invisible - Michael Stewart Wild Thing - Sue Prideaux Book Pile read this year The Scapegoat - Lucy Hughes-Hallett Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan The Burgundians - Bart van Loo The Glassmaker - Tracy Chevalier The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn Question 7 - Richard Flanagan The Land In Winter - Andrew Miller ========= * These include: Reading the World Tour of the United States Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin sequence Charles Dickens novels

Author reading lists Three authors whose books I want to keep a track of: + Charles Dickens + Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series + Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series Charles Dickens - Novels 01. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) ***** 02. The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839) ****** 03. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) ****** 04. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) *** 05. Barnaby Rudge (1841) 06. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) 07. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son (1848) 08. The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850) ****** 09. Bleak House (1853) ****** 10. Hard Times (1854) 11. Little Dorrit (1857) 12. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) ****** 13. Great Expectations (1861) **** 14. Our Mutual Friend (1865) 15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) The Christmas Books 16. A Christmas Carol (1843) ****** 17. The Chimes (1844) *** 18. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) *** 19. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1846) Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series 01. La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) ***** 02. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon (His Excellency Eugene Rougon) **** 03. La Curee (The Kill) ***** 04. L'Argent (Money) ***** 05. Le Reve (The Dream) 06. La Conquete de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans) 07. Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck) 08. Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight/Paradise) ****** 09. La Faute de L'Abbe Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret) 10. Une Page d'amour (A Love Story) 11. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) 12. La Joie de vivre (The Bright Side of Life) 13. L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den) 14. L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece) 15. La Bete humaine (The Beast Within) 16. Germinal 17. Nana 18. La Terre (The Earth) 19. La Debacle (The Debacle) 20. Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal) (English titles as used by OUP and/or Penguin, if different to the French). Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series 01. Master and Commander 02. Post Captain 03. HMS Surprise 04. The Mauritius Command 05. Desolation Island 06. The Fortune of War 08. The Ionian Mission 09. Treason's Harbour 10. The Far Side of the World 11. The Reverse of the Medal 12. The Letter of Marque 13. The Thirteen-Gun Salute 14. The Nutmeg of Consolation 15. Clarissa Oakes 16. The Wine-Dark Sea 17. The Commodore 18. The Yellow Admiral 19. The Hundred Days 20. Blue at the Mizzen

A Tour of the United States My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would have liked, I decided a few years ago to take a tour of the USA in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the states (including Washington DC). In fact, the English Counties was modelled on an American States challenge here, but in the spirit of broadening that experience, I have amended it using these rules: a. it must be fiction or narrative non-fiction; b. an author can only appear once; c. published after 1900 (what I've read has been predominantly 19th century); d. adult books; e. no rereads. Inevitably some great books and authors will have been left off, but the process itself has already helped identify those holes, and I aim to fill them in as additional reading! Blue means read, bold means read this year. Books in black are unread, and are those I've currently got lined up - but they can (and do!) change, and some alternatives are listed below the main list. 44/51 The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Alabama) ***** To The Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) ****** The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver (Arizona) **** The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington (Arkansas) *** East of Eden - John Steinbeck (California) Plainsong - Kent Haruf (Colorado) ***** The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin (Connecticut) * West of Rehoboth - Alexs D Pate (Delaware) **** Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurst (Florida) **** The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (Georgia) ****** The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings (Hawaii) Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson (Idaho) **** So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell (Illinois) ***** The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana) ***** The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) **** The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley (Kansas) Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) ****** The Moviegoer -Walker Percy (Louisiana) **** Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout (Maine) *** Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler (Maryland) *** Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (Massachusetts) *** Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (Michigan) ****** Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota) *** As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (Mississippi) ****** Mrs Bridge - Evan S. Connell (Missouri) ***** A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean (Montana) **** My Antonia - Willa Cather (Nebraska) ****** The Ox-Bow Incident - Walter van Tilburg Clark (Nevada) ***** Peyton Place - Grace Metallious (New Hampshire) The Sportswriter - Richard Ford (New Jersey) **** The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico) Another Country - James Baldwin (New York) ****** Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (North Carolina) **** The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich (North Dakota) ***** Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (Ohio) *** True Grit - Charles Portis (Oklahoma) ***** Trask - Don Berry (Oregon) The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara (Pennsylvania) ***** The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike (Rhode Island) *** The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina) *** The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - Ann Weisberger (South Dakota) *** Shiloh -Shelby Foote (Tennessee) **** Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ****** The Monkey-Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey (Utah) The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont) ***** Commonwealth - Ann Patchett (Virginia) Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson (Washington) *** Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) **** Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam (West Virginia) ****** American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld (Wisconsin) **** The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming) ***** Alternatives for states yet to be read Hawaii: Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport; Moloka'I by Alan Brennert Kansas: Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes Oregon: Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey; Geek Love by Katherine Dunn; Hole In The Sky by William Kittredge Utah: The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff

Reading The World Full details of this project are in this thread: Constituent countries/continent are: the 193 members of the United Nations its 2 observer members (Vatican City, Palestine) one ex-member (Taiwan) the four home nations of the United Kingdom (I've read plenty from England, some from Scotland but very little from the other 2) the largest island (a self-governing autonomous territory): Greenland making a total of 200 countries. The only strict criteria is that I mustn't have read the book previously, and that all choices should be narrative prose. Otherwise, the rule is aims rather than rules, the main aim being to read an example of adult literature frome each country. Ideally by an author born in or a citizen of that country; resident is next best. This project was started in 2022, and the book should be written since 1922 (since the publication of Ulysses). I will normally go for fiction, but, non-fiction is allowed; it may even, on occasions, be preferred if I think it gives more insight into the country and/or its literature. On occasions it will need to be a book about the place written by someone who is neither from there nor a resident, but that will generally be a last resort. Countries so far: 58/200 Countries in 2022: 16, 2023: 18, 2024: 16 Countries this year: 8 (in blue below) Europe (21/47) Austria: Chess Story by Stefan Zweig ***** Bulgaria: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov *** Czech Republic: Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal **** Denmark: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle *** Finland: The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna **** France: The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano ***** Germany: Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann ***** Iceland: History. A Mess. by Sigrun Palsdottir **** Ireland: Ulysses by James Joyce ****** Italy: The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa **** Luxembourg: The Pleasure of Drowning by Jean Burlesk **** Netherlands: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden ***** Northern Ireland: Travelling In A Strange Land by David Park **** Norway: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas **** Poland: Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk ****** San Marino: The Republic of San Marino - Giuseppe Rossi *** Scotland: O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker *** Spain: A Heart So White - Javier Marias **** Sweden: The Details - Ia Genberg ***** Ukraine: Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov *** Wales: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard ****** Africa (13/54) Algeria: The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud ***** Angola: The Book of Chameleons - Jose Eduardo Agualusa **** Burkina Faso: So Distant From My Life - Monique Ilboudo **** Burundi: Baho! - Roland Rugero **** Central African Republic: Co-Wives, Co-Widows - Adrienne Yabouza ***** Congo, Republic of: Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou ***** Cote d'Ivoire: Standing Heavy - GauZ ****** Djibouti: In The United States of Africa - Abdourahman Waberi **** Ghana: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born - Ayi Kwei Armah **** Kenya: A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o ****** South Africa: The Promise - Damon Galgut ***** Sudan: Season of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih ****** Togo: Michel the Giant - Tete-Michel Kpomassie ****** Asia (11/49) Bangladesh: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam **** China: To Live - Yu Hua **** Indonesia: Man Tiger - Eka Kurniawan **** Japan: Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata **; Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto **** Kuwait: The Bone Censor's Library - Bothayna Al-Essa ****** Malaysia: The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo **** Pakistan: The Wandering Falcon - Jamil Ahmad ***** Philippines: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco *** South Korea: The Vegetarian - Han Kang * Turkey: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak ** Vietnam: The Sorrow of War - Bao Ninh ** North America (7/24) Antigua and Barbuda: Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid *** Canada: Runaway - Alice Munro *** Cuba: Havana Year Zero - Karla Suarez **** Grenada: The Bone Readers - Jacob Ross ***** Mexico: Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo **** Trinidad and Tobago: Minty Alley - CLR James ***** USA: Beloved - Toni Morrison ***** South America (3/12) Argentina: Not A River - Selva Almeda ***** Columbia: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ***** Uruguay: Who Among Us? - Mario Benedetti **** Oceania and Antarctica (3/15) Australia: Stone Yard Devotional - Charlotte Wood **** Nauru: Stories from Nauru - Bam Bam Solomon et al (plus readings from Indigehous Literatures of Micronesia) **** New Zealand: The Garden Party and Other Stories - Katherine Mansfield ******; Potiki - Patricia Grace ****

Book list 2025 January 01. The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett **** 02. West of Rehoboth by Alexs D Pate U **** 03. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro G *(*) 04. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell U ***** 05. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley *** 06. Notes from the Henhouse by Elspeth Barker *** February 07. Orbital by Samantha Harvey GR ****** 08. A Sunday in Ville d'Avray by Dominique Barberis *** 09. West by Carys Davies *** 10. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett G ***** 11. Rhine Journey by Anne Schlee ****** 12. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean U **** March 13. Co-Wives, Co-Widows by Adrienne Yabouza W ***** 14. The Burgundians by Bart van Loo **** 15. Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan X ** 16. L'Argent (Money) by Emile Zola ***** 17. Love Triangle by Matt Parker X ** April 18. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri G *** 19. Havana Year Zero by Karla Suarez W **** 20. The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning ***** 21. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood W **** 22. We'll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida G * 23. The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber U *** 24. Truss at 10 by Anthony Seldon *** May 25. Castle Dor by Daphne du Maurier G *** 26. The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks by Donald Harington U *** 27. It Comes From the River by Rachel Bower G *** 28. A Little Luck by Claudia Pineiro G ****** 29. Bookish by Lucy Mangan *** 30. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam W **** June 31. The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy *** 32. Clear by Cary Davies **** 33. The Undercurrents by Kirsty Bell ****** 34. The Great Auk by Tim Birkhead **** 35. Overlord by Max Hastings *** 36. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut G *** July 37. The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel **** 38. The Secret History by Donna Tartt GU ***** 39. A Short History of the World According to Sheep **** 40. Borderlines by Lewis Baston ***** August 41. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn ***** 42. Siblings by Brigitte Reimann ***** 43. A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter ****** 44. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller *** 45. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf R ****** September 46. Square Haunting by Francesca Wade **** 47. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier ***** 48. The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott G *** 49. Universality by Natasha Brown *** 50. A Day in Summer by JL Carr **** 51. The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits *** 52. On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle GW *** October 53. Audition by Katie Kitamura ** XX. Flesh by David Szalay X * 54. Flashlight by Susan Choi **** 55. Within the Walls by Giorgio Bassani **** November 56. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan G *** 57. Looking After Your Books by Francesca Galligan *** 58. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant R ****** 59. Helm by Sarah Hall ****** 60. The Habsburg Empire by Martyn Rady (VSI) **** December 61. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller G ***** 62. Reader for Hire by Raymond Jean ** 63. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan W **** 64. The Wall Jumper by Peter Schaeffer **** 65. Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal R ***** 66. Department of Speculation by Jenny Offil R ***** 67. Jane Austen, A Brief Life by Fiona Stafford ***** 68. Persuasion by Jane Austen R ****** 69. L'Etranger by Albert Camus R **** 70. The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud W ***** 71. Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood *** 72. The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett **** 73. The Nativity, History and Legend by Geza Vermes R **** 74. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood ****** 75. Through A Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy **** 76. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy U **** 77. Blue Meridian by Peter Matthiessen **** 78. Baho! by Roland Rugero W **** G = a book group choice, R = reread, U = Tour of the United States, W = Read Around the World, X = unfinished VSI = Oxford Very Short Introduction series Ratings * Positively disliked: almost certainly unfinished. Unforunately, most of these books tend to be book group choices, mainly because I didn't choose them for myself! LibraryThing rating 0.5 - 1 ** Disappointing or not particularly liked: likely to be skimmed, and possibly unfinished. LT 1.5 - 2 *** OK. If fiction, generally a book that I wanted/am happy to finish, but not compelling, even if I can appreciate its qualities. Non-fiction: functional, did the job, but no more LT 2.5 - 3 **** Good: an engaging read that may be 'putdownable', but demands to be picked up again! LT 3.5 ***** Very good: into the realms of 'unputdownable' LT 4 ****** Excellent: an outstanding read, even if not quite a 'favourite' (at least, not yet!). LT 4.5 ****** Favourite: books which, for whatever reason, have something special about them, even if only personal to me. For the full list of these (less than 150 of them) see post #7 below. LT 5

Post number 02 Book list 2025 03 Reading the World project 04 Tour the United States project 05 Author reading lists 06 The Book Pile 07 Favourite books 08 Favourite authors 09 Reading awards 10 spare 11 spare 12 spare 13 spare 14 First review!

We became grandparents for the first time back in October, and seeing our daughter-in-law and son learning/dealing with their new baby has brought it all rolling back! You'll do really well if you get even half way towards your target! DiL was also very tired during her second trimester, so, as you say, things don't always (rarely, actually) work according to the book! For some reason, I missed you starting your blog, so a very belated but still heartfelt congratulations, and all the best for the next few months (and beyond!).

Gosh. I came so close to making Kairos my biggest let-down too. I think the only reason I didn't is that, whilst I expected the Kushner to be 'good', I didn't have such quite strong expectations of this, even though it won the Booker International. But I do so agree with your assessment. Creation Lake just scraped a 3-star read, Kairos was a nailed on 2 stars. Interesting to read your assessment of Hitler too - a book that has sat on my shelves unread for too long!

Some really interesting entries so far. Have to agree about the book covers to date - I even bought the Sara Brooks (a local writer) after I'd picked up the cover as it so rapidly attracted me! I'd better add my contribution pronto! Your favourite book cover of 2024: Pearl by Sian Hughes. I'll get an image up asap. Simple, almost simplistic, but covers so much of what the story is about. It was also a cut above the average paperback in terms of production values, with thicker card and, joy of joys, French flaps!. Just works. Your favourite publisher of 2024: Chacos Press An Edinburgh based indie, specialising in Latin American authors. The books of theirs I've read to date have all been excellent, and I like their production values too. I've bought a fistful of their books in their Autumn sale, and am looking forward to exploring further this year. Your favourite book shop/retailer of 2024: The Bookshop on the Square in Otley Fourth year in a row now, but I love their friendliness, the book club, the quality of service etc etc. This year's runner-up (I feel a need to mention somebody else to ring the changes here!) is the bookshop at Salt's Mill in Saltair, Bradford. Their range is always interesting, and I like the way they display their books - makes browsing a real pleasure. Your favourite literary podcast of 2024: Book Club Review The one I listen to most regularly, covering a really interesting range of books, and isn't afraid to express dislike (too many just gush). They are, though, very enthusiastic, generally well-informed, and a very easy listen. They are also very listener friendly and an excellent source of ideas! Your audiobook recommendation of 2024. None listened to this year. Your most read author of 2024: Benjamin Myers, Richmal Crompton, Deborah Levy and Patrick Modiano.. I don't tend to read mutliple books by an author in swift succession, so these four top the list with just 2 books each read. Of those, both Cromptons were disappointing and I won't be reading more (at least of her adult output), whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the other three. However, all their books were quite slim, and the most pages/words I've read must be from James Joyce (Ulysses). Your recommended re-read of 2024: A Point of View by Lisa Jardine. A collection of essays based on her talks on the BBC Radio 4 programme. Almost 20 years old, but still so topical. Beautifully constructed, and a joy to listen to, these essays rise head and shoulders above the current output - nobody quite touches the standards she and Clive James achieved, with the exception (all too rarely on the programme) of Sarah Dunant. Much missed. Your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2024 (my 'Duffer of the Year'): Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson. Her most recent collection of short stories. A complete mess. I enjoyed some of her early work, but after several 'failures' (she's as popular as ever it seems), have decided to part company once and for all. Read for one of my book groups, where the general consensus was that this was underwhelming. The book you most wanted to read in 2024 but never actually got around to: The Burgundians by Bart van Loo. A Christmas present from my wife, which I started, thoroughly enjoyed as far as I got, but had to put down for a while and never picked up again - it was always going to be the next one, but never was. High on my list for this year. The promising feature is that last year's nomination was Ulysses, which I actually did get around to reading this year! Your biggest literary let-down of 2024 (my 'Biggest Disappointment of the Year'): Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. This wasn't a bad read by any means - actually quite enjoyed it for most of the book, but never quite understood why it was short-listed for the Booker, and ultimately it proved to be a disappointingly damp squib. Just not in the same league of the others of those I read. Your discovery of the year (book, author, genre, publisher etc): Patrick Modiano I could have easily put Chacos Press here, but as they have already won one award, I'll award this one differently. Coming home late on the rails, Modiano was mentioned in a book group read in November and recommended by a member of the group. Whilst that read was on my shortlist for Duffer of the Year, I was intrigued enough to follow up, and am so glad I did. Some superbly atmospheric writing and intricate novels based around characters' search for identity. Thoughtful, redolent of the best black and white films, all shadow and light. Loved both books I read, and have others lined up. Your favourite illustrated book of 2024: A Passage to India by EM Forster. My first book of the year! Read it in the Folio Society edition with lithographs by Glynn Boyd Harte. The slightly blurry images he created seemed to match the hazy, almost steamy, atmosphere of the book's setting, and the intense heat of the events. I thought they matched Forster's style really well. Your children's book recommendation of 2024: Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond. My only children's book of the year, but would be a contender however many others I read. Still find Paddington funny, and try and make a point of reading at least one of his books at Christmas. Your recommended classic of 2024: Ulysses by James Joyce. Whichever way round I play this, this book will win 2 awards, so might as well go the whole hog. It has to be Joyce. Just brilliant. See later for the full blurb! Your favourite short story (or collection) of 2024: Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton. I'm going to cheat on this one. Aside from my 'duffer' above, the only other collection of fiction short stories was Alice Munro's Runaway. The problem is, I'm not at heart a short story reader, so I'm almost certainly not a fair judge, but I can't say that she ovewhelmed me, in spite of her reputation (now, if it was Mansfield....!). So, I'm going to go for the non-fiction version of the short story, ie essays. And there were several excellent collections, but the best non-reread (otherwise Jardine would be a serious contender) was clearly the Carol Atherton. A superb balance of literary criticism, discussion educational values and insight into the world of secondary teaching. Compulsive reading. Your favourite literary character of 2024. Two immediate stand outs for me, so a joint award. Well, the Oscars allow for best male and female actors! Uncle Toby in Tristram Shandy - one of the nicest, gentlest men in literary fiction, Janine Duszejko from Olga Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, one of the most irascible 'heroines' I've come across, but i found myself rooting for her! Your poetry recommendation of 2024: Autumn Journal by Louis Macniece. Not read much this year, but I thoroughly enjoyed this slim volume and its reflections on pre-war Britain. Thought provoking and atmospheric. An impulse buy at Salt's Mill bookshop (good for poetry), and worth it. Your favourite genre of 2024 (you can invent your own!): Books in translation. Just revealing a whole side of literature I haven't encountered before, and producing book after book of gripping reading. The funniest book you read in 2024.: Paddington Abroad again. I'm not generally into 'funny' books, but this is so ridiculous and good-hearted, I can't help but laugh. Your favourite biography/memoir of 2024. The Marriage Question by Claire Carlisle Biographical treatment of George Eliot's relationship with George Lewis. Fascinating and sympathetic wihout being hagiographic. I thoroughy enjoyed it, and learned a lot too! Your non-fiction recommendation of 2024. Thunderclap by Laura Cumming Just pipping the Carol Atherton above. Brilliant memoir/discussion of Dutch art. Sounds potentially a bit dry and worthy, but this was beautifully written and utterly unputdownable. Read whilst in Edinburgh (where Cumming and her father - part subject of this book - came from, and where I was able to see one or two of the paintings discussed). On Chapel Sands, her previous book, was good, but this was another step upwards. Your fiction book of the year 2024: Orbital by Samantha Harvey Taking this to be contemporary fiction. I read this a few weeks before the Booker, and was rooting for it on the night. A rare occasion where I actually agreed with the judges! Superb, slim, lyrical, powerful and thought provoking. One to reread very soon (actually, I will, as one of my book groups has it scheduled for February - looking forward to it!)/. Your author of the year for 2024: Deborah Levy (putting aside those listed above, but she'd be up there anyway) Another author who I 'discovered' this year, and who I'm enjoying getting to know. Read both August Blue and the first book in her 3-volume memoir. So lean in her writing, but so to the point. Another who makes compulsive reading. Picked up her latest collection of essays in the Waterstone's half-price sale, so am expecting to carry on where I left off in December! Your overall book of the year, 2024. It just has to be Ulysses. Utterly dominated my spring and later summer reading (split into two parts). Yes, a huge and difficult read, and I was very glad of Patrick Chambers's excellent guide, but massively rewarding. I totally get why many regard this as the greatest novel ever, and it goes straight into my top half dozen books. The Molly Bloom soliloquy at the end was one of the most addictive pieces of writing I've ever encountered - just washes over, immerses and revives you (the two previous sections are pretty tiring!). Just going to have to reread this soon ,perhaps in smaller chunks. Can feel a trip to Dublin coming on! I hope/intend to read Brenda Maddox's biography of Norah Joyce some time early this year - have it out of the library. My own personal award: Best book in translation: Elena Knows by Claudia Pineiro. Worthy of their own category as they now take up a significant proportion of my reading (about one third). A very close contender for fiction, this was a surprise read right at the end of the year. Superficially a quirky crime novel, it proved to be so much more with a huge kick to it. One of those books where when you get to the end, you just have to sit back and breath out slowly and carefully! Can't remember when I was so set back on my heels by a book. Loved it!

#50 To Live by Yu Hua for China **** Fifty up! Fugui is the oldest child of a well-off family in pre-communist China who squanders the family fortune on gambling and prostitution, and is forced to become a tenant farmer on the land that he previously owned. He and his family then live (and die) through the civil wars, arrival of communism, the Cultural Revolution and more. Life is a struggle, sometimes very brutal, but, ironically, it's their very poverty which on some occasions enables them to survive when those who have acquired their former wealth suffer even more so under the new regimes. Iniitally cutting an abhorrent figure, Fugui grows throughout the book even as all around him collapses, and his resolution and handling of all that is thrown at him (and that's a lot, almost too much!) makes him, in his poverty and persistence, an object for respect. He is the ultimate survivor, standing perhaps (as I suspect Yu Hua is trying to tell us) for so many Chinese in general? Apparently this was originally banned in China but 'has recently been named one of the last decade's most influential books there' (so the blurb states). I have consistently found books from eastern Asia quite hard to read and enjoy - there's something about the writing that I find a bit cold, almost distant? I struggle to explain it, but it always reminds me of the way that myths and legends are told - is it something to do with the emphasis on events, or telling rather than showing? I can't quite put my finger on it, but they hardly ever engage me in quite the same way as I've found, for instance, reading African or Latin American literature. It was no different for much of this book, but somewhere around two-thrds of the way through I found myself gradually becoming rather more immersed. A couple of things (I won't spoil by saying what) kicked me out of that towards the end, but as eastern Asian books of late go, this proved one of the most profound and powerful reads I've had.

#49 The Black Notebook (L'herbe des nuits) by Patrick Modiano for France ***** So much to choose from for France, but I finally settled on this one, partly because Modiano is a Nobel laureate, and partly because he was until recently, completely unknown to me, so I was intrigued! The first I did know was when his name cropped up in Antoine Laurain's The Red Notebook, read earlier this autumn for a book group (and not a book I'd wanted to choose for France!), followed up in the subsequent book group discussion, where I learned that Laurain rather idolises Modiano. A quick dip into a book that the introducer had brought with her suggested that I might appreciate Laurain's taste in books rather more than his writing. In the event, that supposition proved correct, and I loved this slim, deeply atmospheric novel, set in Paris, and so redolent of the Paris of Georges Simenon's Maigret. There's even an element of mystery, but the mystery is more personal, as the protagonist, Jean, remembers back to his past and his relationship with the elusive Dannie and a group of unsavoury individuals she hangs out with - he (Jean) is still trying to work it all out! It's not the most scintillating of plots - intriguing rather than gripping - but I just lapped up that sense of place! Looking forward to exploring Modiano's work more now, and to that end have already acquired a copy of Missing Person.

#48 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden for the Netherlands ***** Set in the late 50s/early 60s, with the war still fairly fresh in minds, Isabel has lived on her own in the family home since the death of her mother (promised to her brother when her uncle, who owns the house, dies), and is comfortable in her solitariness: her distrust of others is almost agoraphobic. And then, out of the blue, she has her brother's girlfriend foisted on her to stay whilst he is away on business, completely upsetting her routine and her life, leaving her riddled with suspicion, even hate - and so the relationship takes its course. And it's a sinuous course too, with much to be revealed that is concealed along the way. Whereas the Kushner was cool (too cool for its own good IMO) and sooo laid back, this was passionate and intense, with a depth to the characterisation and an almost claustrophobic sense of place that I really enjoyed. Now, this I could understand why it was shortlisted, an impressive debut. Perhaps not quite as good as Orbital in my view - the other nominee I've read - but a contender, and certainly better than some previous winners I've read. Also my book for the Netherlands in my world reading project.

#47 So Distant From My Life by Monique Ilboudo for Burkina Faso **** This is a slim volume, barely 120 pages, and centres on Jeanphi, a young man desperate to emigrate. He tries a variety of different ways, eventually resorting to what are for him extreme measures, difficult to reconcile with, to achieve his goal. The effects of this decision have consequences, which Jeaphi doesn't appear to fully appreciate until it's almost too late. The author, obviously well-informed (her biography is pretty formidable), packs in a huge amount especially given the small space, addressing a whole range of issues, including migration, post-imperial colonialism, corruption, attitudes to homosexuality, the role of NGOs and more, yet writes with a spark and a lightness of touch that made this a very easy read - I fairly rattled through it! However, enjoyable and readable as it is, the balance between the length and the heft didn't quite work for me: there's almost too much rammed in here, leaving too many unresolved questions at the end as the author seemed to keep wanting to move on to another theme she wanted to cover. Either the book needed to be a fair bit longer (it's not often I say that!), or she needed to focus a bit more tightly on fewer topics. I'd reckon the former, as it's the interaction of all the issues that makes things so real to life. And that may just be what the book was about: so many challenges, demands, pressures all bouncing off each other, no time to fully consider them, all needing to be surmounted in order to get on - and if you take your eye off the ball, and let something slip under the radar, then that's when it all goes wrong. So, can Jeanphi make that happen? What this book certainly highlighted is how tough the challenge is for someone in his position. It was certainly a book that made me think, and one I'd definitely recommend for a book group, as there's plenty (almost too much!) to discuss and learn from. I'd certainly want to discuss the final twist too. Does it work? I'm not sure, but it certainly took me by surprise.

#46 Ulysses by James Joyce for Ireland ****** A book that I've intended to read for many years, but kept shying away from: "when I've got the time to devote to it". Making it my choice for Ireland - and putting it right at the centre of the project by requiring every other book to be 'post-Ulysses' - was designed to force the issue! In the end, I started this in March, read about one-third, and then took a break between the end of April and the beginning of September, at which point, for various reasons, I set myself the target of reading it by early October. And finished it was today! It is comfortably the biggest, most challenging, even most exhausting, book I've ever read; it's the only one (so far!) where I've been glad of a guide alongside it (I used Patrick Hamilton's The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, and found it very useful in keeping me on track!). Even with that help I found a few sections very difficult (excruciatingly so at one point, fairly early on - but Hamilton helped me keep going!), but I was very pleasantly surprised as to how much was anything but, and overall it ranks amongst the most enjoyable books I've ever read, culiminating in the glorious final section, Molly Bloom's stream of consciousness soliloquy. It's certainly the most intricate book (fiction or non-fiction), and the one, when I got to that final "Yes!, that has provided the greatest sense of achievement! I totally get why this is often cited as the greatest novel ever written. I'm not going to attempt to write a fuller review, but just to say that I will definitely be reading it again, although perhaps in small sections now I have an overall broad grasp of it (if anybody can ever 'grasp' this novel!), and definitely want to visit Dublin to track Leopold Bloom's day! How can I give this anything but 6 stars? Wow!