It’s been nine months since I posted the books I’ve read. Here they are:
Flashman and the Tiger
Flashman in the Great Game
Flashman on the March
Flash for Freedom!
Flashman’s Lady
Flashman and the Redskins
Flashman at the Charge
Flashman and the Dragon
Flashman
Flashman and the Mountain of Light
Royal Flash – All the Flashman books are just what you expect: debauchery, fecklessness and a rollicking adventure all rolled into one.
Words and Rules – Pinker strikes again
A Case of Exploding Mangoes – a humorous look at the assassination of one of Pakistan’s leaders
A Long Long Way – How The Great War changed one boy from Dublin
Any Human Heart – a disjointed novel in the shape of journal entries that warn you not to think you know a human heart
Arthur and George – excellent fictionalized coverage of the Great Wyrley Outrages
Atonement – how you might accuse someone of something in the heat of the moment and live a lifetime to regret it
The Sea – how you might recall the days of your childhood as you live through the death of a loved one
The Secret Scripture – excellent novel about a woman incarcerated in an Irish asylum and the reasons behind her being there
Becoming Strangers – a detailed and thoughtful book about couples in the twilight of their years
Carry Me Down – what would you do if your secret talent was detecting lies, infallibly?
Cloud Atlas: A Novel – an intricate and well-thought out book that telescopically weaves together six stories to achieve closure for all concerned
Darkmans – a novel linguists will enjoy. A book where entire lives can tumble through the gaps between words. Who am I to disagree?
Half a Life – Naipaul writes the kind of post-colonialist fiction only he can pull off with ease
Mister Pip – a brilliant novel set during the civil war on Bougainville Island
The Blackwater Lightship – on being gay in a deeply conservative Irish family
The Blind Assassin – more Margaret Atwood on extramarital affairs in a small Canadian town
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – an articulate look into the mind of an autistic boy
The Gathering
The Death of Vishnu – a dying factotum in Bombay is revered as his eponymous god of gods, within the chaos that is modern India
The Inheritance of Loss – a brutally honest book about those torn between cultures and those who profess to be something they are not
The Island Walkers – an illuminating look into small-town union formation and busting in post-war Ontario
The Northern Clemency – a look at the gritty lives of the Left during the Thatcher years.
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk
The Pickup – a novel about a woman who leaves her affluent lifestyle for a world mostly unknown to her and her ilk
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – a novel with a twist, about a Pakistani immigrant to the States in the aftermath of 9/11
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