27/1/11 - Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

My favorite book last year was probably Wind-up Bird - so I thought it was time to try Murakami's most famous book. And even though it is only January - this certainly looks like it will be my favorite for 2011. A beautiful love story set in the late 60 Japan - with student revolutions fizzing and fizzing out, free love. Why did it take him so long to go back to Midori - she was lovely from the start - he just had to get over his nutter girlfriend from before. Some very dark parts in the book for sure - but such lovely quirky characters all the way through. Oh - and a fair dose of free love too which lubricates the story nicely.

15/1/11 - Jo Nesbo - The Snowman

Father Christmas bought me this book - but the Book Depository mail was a little slow of the season - so it arrived late. Was it the new Steig Larsson? Maybe. Another gripping murder mystery - just couldn't put it down. Obviously set in the cold autumn in Norway - so rather a chilly edge. Pretty gruesome and sexy in places too. This is apparently the fifth in the series of books about Harry Hole - the detective - and certainly will not be the last one of these I read.

30/12/10 - Rosamund Lupton - Sister

Father Christmas gave this to Catherine - and she wasn't too pleased when I borrowed it while she was reading it - and couldn't give it back until I had finished it. It certainly pulled me into the mystery - I was desperate by the end wanting to know what had happened. I also felt a little home-sick for the sound of the song birds in spring and the frost.

28/12/10 - Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

I've read it a few times - so nice to come back. So haunting - the mystery, even cult, of Kurtz. Then we hear so little from him before he dies. Loved the book again - but think I need to read it again - only a few pages about the horror and I think I missed their significance at the time. Excellent last words - 'The horror! The horror!' - beats 'Could you pass the mayonnaise'.

22/11/10 - Robert Harris - Fatherland

OK - I needed a book for the flight - and this was perfect. A crime fiction - set in Nazi Europe in the 1960s - with Hitler an aging 75. Sure - an easy read - but interesting characters and gripping tale - slightly tempered by the over-telling of the underlying mystery.

18/11/10 - David Malouf - Ransom

Book-club book - re-write of a small part of the Illiad by Homer. It was interesting and engaging at times I guess - but I think I'd probably rather have read the Illiad - or even better the Odyssey.

31/10/10 - Damon Galgut - In a Strange Room

South African man traveling the world - but not really engaging in anyone or anywhere he goes - nor me for that matter. The protagonist seems just such an observer and passive. The constant switching between first and third person was also annoying - I am sure there was a clever point to it - author/lead character alternating - but I still didn't like it. The third part of the book was more engaging - but too tragic and sad.

21/10/10 - Maggie O'Farrell - After You'd Gone

An unashamedly romantic tear jerker - what am I doing - my last book as Love Story too. SPOILER ALERT - it was so sad when her lover died - and then she falls into this coma - only surfacing on the very last page. As a boy - I would have to say that it is clearly overly romantic and all this focus on what a perfect couple they are and how pure their love is, is to me little unrealistic. But as Daniel - I did end up enjoying the book OK - I admit it - and shed a few tears.

3/10/10 - Erich Segal - Love Story

At Catherine's farm in Balidu for a beautiful weekend, but without a book. The farm has lots of books from the 70s - so what better than Love Story. The woman still dies at the end - and I did shed a few tear. Of course it is a little sickly sweet - but a light read for a couple of sittings.

12/9/10 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes The Complete Novels

Only 4 Holmes novels - but there are some short stories I have never read. The first "A Study in Scarlet" introduces Watson ad Holmes - to us and each other - along with their shared apartment 221B Baker St. Half however was a tedius American back-story - I just wanted to get back to Holmes. "The Sign of Four" was more fun - with the body in the locked room - how did they do it? Also had a bizaar boat chase along the Thames - felt like a 19th Century car chase. Third was my favorite - "Hound of the Baskervilles" - which I remembered reading when I had hair - so I worked out who-done-it even before Holmes I like to think. Some suspense and the big old desolate manor house in the moors. I had always thought it was Yorkshire - but turns out it was Devon. Starts off with the lovely debate between Watson and Holmes on who owned the walking stick. He is such a smart cookie that Holmes and Watson is just not up there. Finally I have just finished "The Valley of Fear". By now I was just wanting to finish the collection - bit over Holmes right now - but wouldn't mind watching another Holmes movie. Again this one had a long back story in America - filling in the whys and wherefores once Holmes had worked it all out. Was certainly more fun than the first though. But although the back-story was a little more interesting with a few twists and turns - the best part of the book was Holmes' deductions and just being 2 steps ahead of Watson and Scotland Yard.

26/7/10 - Peter Temple - Truth

Now I do love the pulp thriller crime fiction genre - and I did tear through this one. Set in Melbourne - follows the head of homicide - Villani. Rather quirky voice - and I did get lost with all the characters. Interesting - but not my favorite book club book.

13/7/10 - John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

Quick read - only 100 pages. He didn't seem to need any more than that though. The characters are simply but beautifully drawn, and the story just seems so inevitable from page one. It is tragic and I was certainly pulled into caring for these people. I am not surprised it has been such an enduring book. I didn't bother reading the 400 pages of fluff around the story though.

5/7/10 - Kate Atkinson - Behind the Scenes at the Museum

It took me ages to read, and I think I read a couple of others in the process - so it was not a very gripping read. But there was one part that was so poignant and sensitive - I almost cried and since it was near the end of the book - it almost made the book worth while. There were funny anecdotes about English families in the 60's, siblings relating, mad parents, crazy holidays in Scotland. Some seemed quite familiar!

20/6/10 - Ian Rankin - Fleshmarket Close

I have a couple of other books on the go that I am struggling with - so why not squeeze in a simple, familiar, unchallenging Rebus? I was like pulling on a pair of warm old woolen socks - comfortable, familiar. Nice to be back in Rebus' world again - although I am starting to think he should probably lighten up a little on the alcohol - bit of a dependency there - and he has sucked Siobhan into this addition too by the looks of it. And while he is at it - the fags could go too. but then he wouldn't be Rebus would he. Still a good read - with all the old characters as well - including big Ger.

28/5/10 - Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

About an unemployed guy who's cat disappears, then his wife leaves him, he meets some increasingly odd people and goes to great lengths to find his wife and find out what the hell is going on. Started off great, with interesting little Japanese cultural references, then some insights into Japan in the war. It certainly got more odd but I loved it. Loved the characters, from the ancient soldier with stories of miraculous survival, to May the off kilter teenager, Malta and Creta sisters, Nutmeg and Cinnamon. It did get very odd and I am not really sure what happened in the last bit - but I still loved the book.