October 2003 Archives
Another Anne Tyler classic: a window into the world and thoughts of Rebecca Davitch - all american mom, step-mum, grandmother and the centre of her married-into family - as she wonders whether she made the right choice between college sweetheart Will and long-dead husband Joe.
I think of Anne Tyler is the american equivalent of Anita Brookner - although I'm not sure if that would hold up to literary criticism!
Buy it: Amazon link
If you think that genetic engineering, potatoes and market gardening had much of a place in 21st century fiction, you should read Tim Pears' novel! It's more high tech big business than Ambridge.
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The story of the lives of families and friends revolving around the Water's Edge Hotel on the Bournemouth seafront.
A good read, although not for those who dislike even the slightest whiff of classical mythology.
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I'm currently reading this ... and so far, it's as great read, the story of two half-brothers, one growing up in luxury, the other destitute on the streets of Calcutta.
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Very readable novel, set in Hong Kong in the run up to the Handover in 1997. I've read a lot of Paul Theroux's travelogues, but this is the first novel of his I've tried. It proved to be very readable, although I've no idea how true to life it was.
Buy it: Amazon link
A light frothy read, which kept me engrossed from 11pm on Thursday to 3am Friday morning... yes it was a "completed in one read" book.
Not demanding at all, and all the more welcome for that - I've an over abundance of work things occupying my brain at the moment, and it's a welcome relief to read something which is the literary equivalent of, say, "This Life". A right rollicking read, likeable and unlikeable characeters, plot lines that wouldn't stand up to too much scrutiny - perfect escapism.
Buy it: Amazon link
... planning for my 4 weeks travelling in Chile with Hazel. 33 days to go. I can't wait - I've really had enough of my projects right now, the takeover one in particular. If it wasn't for Phil, I honestly think I'd be pondering heading off for longer.
None of which has *anything* to do with reading the Rough Guide!! I've spent some of this evening mapping the transport routes south of Puerto Montt using Phil's Omnigraffle - the Mac equivalent of Visio. It all looks increasingly enticing, but I can't spot a way of getting between Coiahaique/Puerta Aisen and Punta Arenas/Puerto Natales and Tierra del Fuego. I really wish the guide books would show transport routes on a single map....
The tale of a northern Chinese girl growing up in a remote town, going to university in the south, and then starting her working life in Beijing in the late 1980s and the Tiannamen Square massacre. It reads as an autobiography, and maybe it is.
Buy it: Amazon link