I'd added Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey/ Stephen Maturin saga to my reading list on the basis of "if you liked Sharpe, then you'll like this", supported by a few personal recommendations. I have to say, whilst I'm a stickler for historical authenticity (I can be flexible on complete accuracy, particularly the further back in time we go), I did find the sailing ship terminology and naval conventions a bit heavy going. It's a very male dominated cast and crew, and at present I'm not feeling terribly inspired to carry on with the next in the series. I like my heros a bit grubby, and Jack Aubrey's a bit too upright to fit the bill. Even though I've not seen the movie, I also struggled with Jack-the-character versus Jack-as-played-by-Russell-Crowe.
Amazon.co.uk link: Master & Commander - Patrick O'Brian
A fascinating account of the Armenian people - their history, language and lands.
Philip Marsden's personal quest to understand the Armenian dispora takes him from the Near/Middle Eastern lands of Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, along to the Eastern European lands of the Black Sea and finally into the Caucasus and modern-day Armenia.
Sounds a dry as dust? It isn't.
Amazon.co.uk: The Crossing Place: Journey Among the Armenians - Philip Marsden
The last novel of the holiday, and another 'healthy' dose of Inspector Rebus. The Hanging Garden features drugs, prostitution and people trafficking from Eastern Europe, Nazi war crimes, an escalating gangland war between the criminal kingpins of Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh - and then it turns out that the Japanese Yakusa are somehow involved too. John Rebus on the other hand is trying to keep himself off the booze and saturated fats, but then a hit-and-run and botched police sting bring him face to face with the deaths of two people who mean the most to him....
Amazon.co.uk: The Hanging Garden - Ian Rankin
More Rebus in an attempt to crack the chronology, Let It Bleed precedes Black & Blue and starts with an epic car chase through snowy Edinburgh and onto the Forth Road Bridge.
When the two young crims choose commit suicide rather than answer questions as to their kidnapping of the Lord Provost's daughter, and a recently released con chooses to blow his head off at a local councillor's constituency meeting, Rebus finds himself drawn into the murky worlds of politics - both high establishment clay pigeon shoots and gangland council estates.
Amazon.co.uk: Let It Bleed - Ian Rankin
I loved Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, and The Hungry Tide serves up a similar helping of east Asian life, this time bringing together marine biologist Piya, a middle class second generation Indian American, and Kanai, a successful New Delhi entrepreneur and man of the world.
After an initial meeting on the train from Kolkata to Port Canning, the novel's setting settles in the Sunderbans, the little known tidal waterworld of the Ganges river delta, with the plot shifting between the generations just as the politics, people and rivers shift endlessly around in the delta.
A beautiful and thought-provoking read.
Amazon.co.uk: The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh