Balzac and the Litle Chinese Seamstress: Dai Sijie

Set in Cultural revolution China. 2 adolescent boys from bourgeois families are sent to the countryside to be re-educated. An engaging coming-of-age story alongside the story of the finding of literary culture in the harshest of places set against the backdrop of a fascinating period of history.

Becky

Black Dogs - Ian McEwan

Not one of his best, but then again not many are. Mysticism versus rationality. A very easy read and quite short, the main lesson being if you are attacked by 2 ferocious black dogs you better start praying, either that or throw your sandwich at them.

All He Ever Wanted - Anita Shreve

Set in New England in the early 20th Century this novel recounts the life of Nicholas Van Tassel. Unrequited love, obsession and the slippery slope. You are supposed to sympathise with the protagonist and thus with his acts, obsession being the justification. Personally i just felt he was a twat that turned into an evil twat. An interesting read though.

Three books for the price of one

Boy A - by Jonathan Trigell
The Authors first novel, disturbing subject matter handled with compassion and humour. Well worth reading.

All Quiet on the western front - by Erich Maria Remarque
A Classic, written in 1929 by WW1 veteran from the German perspective. Very readable and very moving.

Life and Limb - by Jamie Andrew
This is the true story about a climbing disaster and how the climber rebuilt his life. Touching the Void meets Lance Armstrongs It's not about the bike.

Zoe

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: Mario Vargos Llosa (1977)

Set in Lima. Semi-autobiographical story of an 18 year old journalists relationship with his 30 year old aunt and their involvement with an eccentric Bolivian scriptwriter of Peruvian radio soap operas. (exactly what it says in the title!) You get involved not just in their story but various soap plots as well. Cleverly written and amusing.
Much more entertaining than the other two books of his I read: The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (bit dull and political); The Green House ( couldn't understand who was who, where they were what they were doing or why- some things lost in translation I fear!)

Becky

The Sea - John Banville

Not read a book all year except John Banville's 'The Sea' which is selfconsciously verbose although generally well written and not a bad story..

C. Rostrup

Sorry Carl couldn't resist putting this on the blog!

Sherlock Holmes: The Biography by Nick Rennison

Written as if Holmes actually lived in the 19th/early 20th Century and was one of the most important men to the British Empire. By combining actual historical events (Jack the Ripper, Sudanese wars, Irish uprising etc) with Arthur Conan-Doyle's stories, Rennison creates a truly believable biography of arguably the world's greatest fictional character - as well as its finest consulting detective.

D. McCall

Bruce Chatwin - Biography

Bruce Chatwin, born 1940. Public school, meteoric rise through Sotherby's (turn out to be a bunch of criminals), Sunday Times journalist and then novellist. Spent most of his life running away from his sexuality. Died of Aids, one of the first "celebrities" to do so in the press. A seriously troubled, and well travelled man.

Bizarrely you learn more about the places he went from this biography than you do from his books, but then he always said they should not be in the travel section.

A fascinating read.

J

On The Black Hill, Songlines and In Patagonia are fantastic. I haven't read his others but will do so shortly.

Read anything interesting lately?

Whilst celebrating a fine young lady's birthday the conversation veered towards books. What are you reading? Which authors do you like? etc etc... I'm always on the lookout for new authors and since the departure of my aunt Hilary get surprisingly few recommendations. Hopefully this will change all that.

Anyone wanting to recommend a book please add a comment on this post and i'll create a new page. If you want to comment on a recommendation do it on the relevant post - it's not rocket science!

Founding members: Beck, Kitty, Leon and Jimmy.