51stories

I will keep track of whatever I read on this page, so that by 31 December 09 I will be able to recollect my complete list.  No reading challenges this year, just my own list of books read and reviewed or referred to.

Novels :

Kate Atkinson – When will there be good news? (Excellent)

Shaila Abdullah – Saffron Dreams (see)

Sebastian Barry – The Secret Scripture (a wonderful book, reviewed here)

Melissa Benn – One of Us (very enjoyable)

Melvyn Bragg – Remember Me (very impressive)

Michael Chabon – Wonder Boys (a real good read)

Chris Cleave – The Other Hand (highly recommended)

Jeffrey Eugenides – Middlesex (here and here)

Dan Festerman – The amateur spy (a really good genre book)

Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections

Patric Gale – Notes from an Exhibition

Helen Garner – The spare room

Michele Giuttari – The Death of a Mafia Don (nice thriller)

Amitav Gosh – Sea of Poppies (not my favourite book)

Mohammed Hanif – A case of exploding mangos – a must read

Zoe Hellers – The Believers

Philip Hensher – Northern Clemency (here)

Victor Hugo – Les Miserables, mentioned but not reviewed….(Partly) read whilst in Paris in January 09.

Stieg Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson – The Girl who played with Fire – excellent

Stieg Larsson – The Girl who kicked the hornets’ nest – what can I say?

le Carre – A most wanted man – excellent

Jonathan Lethem – Motherless Brooklyn – read with pleasure

Attica Locke – Black Water Rising, reviewed here.

David Lodge – Deaf Sentence – a good read

Naguib Mahfouz – The Cairo Trilogy, part 1: The Palace Walk, reviewed

Naguib Mahfouze – The Cairo Trilogy, parts 2 and 3: Palace of Desire and Sugar Street (all three reviewed here)

Hilary Mantel – A Change of Climate (here)

Irish Murdoch – The Net – mentioned

Hakan Nesser – The Mind’s Eye – mentioned here

Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient, reviewed

Nahid Rachlin – Jumping over fire (mentioned here)

Marillyn Robinson – Gilead (mentioned) and Home (reviewed on 19 July 09)

Philip Roth – Indignation

Elif Shafak – The Bastart of Istanbul, reviewed on 6 January 09

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societ (see here)

Rob Smith – Child 44 (mentioned here)

Dalia Sofer – The Septembers of Shiraz, mentioned and reviewed

John Updike – Rabbit Run – reviewed here

Leon de Winter – Hofman’s Hunger, reviewed

Richard Yates – The Revolutionary Road, 25 January

Recommended Short Stories / Collections:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – The Thing around your Neck

Roberto Bolano – Last Evenings on Earth

William Boyd – Fascination

A.L. Kennedy – Indelible Acts

Frank O’Connor – My Oedipus Complex and other stories

David Sedaris – Dress your family in corduroy and denim

Ali Smith – The Whole Story and other stories

Tobias Wolff – Back in the world

Non-Fiction and Poetry

Vince Cable – The Storm (partly)

Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers & Editors (just pick it up when you feel like it)

J.M. Coetzee – Stranger Shores (Essays 1986-1999)

Annie Dillard – Living by Fiction – dipped into and out of…

Carol Ann Duffy – Rapture – mentioned here

The Guardian – How to write (have it handy)

Guardian Style Guide (and this one)

Clive James – Cultural Amnesia (partly)

Philip Larkin – Collected Poems

Sandra Newman & Howard Mittelmark – How Not to Write a Novel

Lawrence Wright – The Looming Tower – Al Qaeda’s road to 9/11