July 2011 Archives

I gave up before starting the third story, having forced myself to read through both "City of Glass" and "Ghosts". They didn't really read as detective stories - more like elaborate meditations on the theme of identity.

I can't put it better than P.D. Smith does in their Amazon review:

"The description of the book is that it's a 'detective' book - well, if you like detective books, this probably isn't one for you. Yes, there are detectives in the book, and they do detecting, but they aren't investigating crimes, and they are all ultimately unsuccessful in their work."

And I had no idea that the stories interconnect, until I read that in the Product Description on Amazon...

Amazon.co.uk link: The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

Rupert Everett's frank and fascinating autobiography, filled with celebrities, luvvies and thesps, family and friends.

Amazon.co.uk link:
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins - Rupert Everett

Mediaeval family saga, with the twin themes of church and state and the power struggles within and between them in 12th century England; a time when the country was blighted both by The Anarchy and famine - a time during which "Christ and his saints slept".

Not a patch on Edith Pargeter's The heaven tree trilogy, which similarly has cathedral building at its heart, and which I'm now going to reread.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Twin, entwined tales of a falling in love in Cairo: Iris and Xan's wartime romance, and grand daughter Ruby and Ashraf's more modern encounter 60 years later.

Definitely not chick lit.

I"ll be looking out for more books by Rosie Thomas.

Amazon.co.uk link: Iris and Ruby - Rosie Thomas

Wonderful.

Finely researched on both the empire of the Dutch East India Company and Japan's traditional, closed society of the same era, with wonderful characters - good, bad and ugly - David Mitchell has done a brilliant job of bringing to life a remote era and distant part of the world.

Coming to the end of the story on the overnight train from Berlin to Paris, I cried.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell