January 2011 Archives

Another fabulous book about early European settlers in Australia from Kate Grenville. In The Lieutenant, astronomer-linguist-scientist Daniel Rooke tells of his encounters with members of the Cadigal people of New South Wales.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Lieutenant - Kate Grenville

Excellent novel, set in Finland in the early years of the 20th century at a time when it was the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire and with a long established Swedish ruling class. House of Orphans focuses on individuals - a country doctor, the daughter of a Helsinki activist, a Russian anarchist, a comfortable country matron in a loveless marriage, a disaffected, semi estranged daughter.

Amazon.co.uk link: House of Orphans - Helen Dunmore

Picked up at the work second hand book sale. Abandoned at chapter 3.

I'll be recycling The Glassblower of Murano and The Madonna of the Almonds back into the book sale system.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato

Left behind by Tom (at a guess) at the cottage in the Christmas to New Year period, A View from the Foothills is the first set of political diaries I've manages to read all the way through. Readable for two reasons - Chris Mullin comes across as a genuine MP, rather than one in it for fame and fortune, with a real human's failings and foibles, and the period he writes about (July 1999 - 09 May 2005) features events that I lived through and thought about as an adult.

One small niggle about the book though, is that Jean Corston appears through out and yet she's not listed as a member of the 'Cast' at the start of the book. She's an unfamiliar name to me, and yet comes across as an influential and respected player in the murky world of Westminster and the wider political world from party and international relations.

Amazon.co.uk link: A View from the Foothills - The diaries of Chris Mullin

The end of the road for IB, and Tim Mackintosh-Smith, his 21st century shadow.

"It isn't the end, of course. As long as people read, and travel, and write, as long as readers take to the road then go home - whatever it is that home has become - to tell their stories, the journey never ends. It is both circular and linear, a double helix inscribing itself back into the past and forward into the future."

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, p350

Amazon.co.uk link: Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah - Tim Mackintosh-Smith