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higgis posted a blog entry
Carry On, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse (Shane’s book 31, 2009)
I’ve never read any Wodehouse. The idea of a posh twit gadding about town with his servant just didn’t appeal to...
I’ve never read any Wodehouse. The idea of a posh twit gadding about town with his servant just didn’t appeal to...
higgis posted a blog entry
Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes (James’s book 45, 2009)
Julian Barnes is a wonderfully elegant writer, and one never finds a sentence of his with even the slightest flaw in it. In...
Julian Barnes is a wonderfully elegant writer, and one never finds a sentence of his with even the slightest flaw in it. In...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe (Shane’s book 30, 2009)
This is another of my delves back into the history of detective fiction. Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue is...
This is another of my delves back into the history of detective fiction. Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue is...
higgis posted a blog entry
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (James’s book 44, 2009)
I found this book in New York in January, in a display of books that had apparently inspired Barack Obama. Swept up in the...
I found this book in New York in January, in a display of books that had apparently inspired Barack Obama. Swept up in the...
higgis posted a blog entry
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead (Shane’s book 29, 2009)
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, this excellent novel by Colson Whitehead is concerned with race, tradition and the...
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, this excellent novel by Colson Whitehead is concerned with race, tradition and the...
higgis posted a blog entry
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler (James’s book 43, 2009)
Eric Ambler would have been 100 years old this year. To celebrate, Penguin have published five of his pre-war thrillers, novels...
Eric Ambler would have been 100 years old this year. To celebrate, Penguin have published five of his pre-war thrillers, novels...
higgis posted a blog entry
Trotsky by Robert Service (James’s book 42, 2009)
Trotsky has always intrigued me. He was an intellectual, a superb writer, but also a brutal proponent of terror, an ideologue...
Trotsky has always intrigued me. He was an intellectual, a superb writer, but also a brutal proponent of terror, an ideologue...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov (James’s book 41, 2009)
Vladimir Nabokov is one of the few writers to have written his greatest novels in a language other than his mother tongue. He...
Vladimir Nabokov is one of the few writers to have written his greatest novels in a language other than his mother tongue. He...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Wages of Wins by David Berri, Martin Schmidt, Stacey Brook (Shane’s book 28, 2009)
This is something of a niche title, I admit. If you’re not interested in American sports and economics, you’re...
This is something of a niche title, I admit. If you’re not interested in American sports and economics, you’re...
higgis posted a blog entry
Stranger Shores by J.M. Coetzee (James’s book 40, 2009)
In Stranger Shores, which collects essays from 1986 to 1999, Coetzee shows his command of huge range of subject matter just as...
In Stranger Shores, which collects essays from 1986 to 1999, Coetzee shows his command of huge range of subject matter just as...
higgis posted a blog entry
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (James’s book 39, 2009)
Alone in Berlin imagines a resistance to Hitler consisting of a husband and wife team who write and distribute handwritten...
Alone in Berlin imagines a resistance to Hitler consisting of a husband and wife team who write and distribute handwritten...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans (James’s book 38, 2009)
There are so many histories of the Third Reich that it’s impossible for the common reader to have read even a small...
There are so many histories of the Third Reich that it’s impossible for the common reader to have read even a small...
higgis posted a blog entry
Four Quartets by TS Eliot (Ian’s book 15, 2009)
The first thing to note here is the sheer intellectual achievement of these poems. I’ve dragged myself through many dry,...
The first thing to note here is the sheer intellectual achievement of these poems. I’ve dragged myself through many dry,...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (James’s book 37, 2009)
I had never heard of Clarice Lispector until I read Lorrie Moore’s review of Benjamin Moser’s recent biography of...
I had never heard of Clarice Lispector until I read Lorrie Moore’s review of Benjamin Moser’s recent biography of...
higgis posted a blog entry
The File by Timothy Garton Ash (James’s book 36, 2009)
The File is Timothy Garton Ash’s attempt to understand how the Stasi worked, through examining the file that they kept on...
The File is Timothy Garton Ash’s attempt to understand how the Stasi worked, through examining the file that they kept on...
higgis posted a blog entry
Crabwalk by Günter Grass (James’s book 35, 2009)
Günter Grass is a wilfully difficult writer. Not in the same way that Joyce or Pynchon are, by using obscure vocabuary, or...
Günter Grass is a wilfully difficult writer. Not in the same way that Joyce or Pynchon are, by using obscure vocabuary, or...
higgis posted a blog entry
Nixon and Kissinger by Robert Dallek (James’s book 34, 2009)
Richard Nixon’s reputation, or what’s left of it, rests entirely on his foreign policy. Once Dallek has finished...
Richard Nixon’s reputation, or what’s left of it, rests entirely on his foreign policy. Once Dallek has finished...
higgis posted a blog entry
Hunger by Knut Hamsun (Shane’s book 27, 2009)
This 1890 novel, Hamsun’s first, is widely considered to be a major influence on 20th Century literature. Hamsun wanted...
This 1890 novel, Hamsun’s first, is widely considered to be a major influence on 20th Century literature. Hamsun wanted...
higgis posted a blog entry
Trilogy by Marguerite Duras (James’s book 33, 2009)
The three novellas collected in this volume are very different, but each is fascinating in its own way. Least successful...
The three novellas collected in this volume are very different, but each is fascinating in its own way. Least successful...
higgis posted a blog entry
Inner Workings by J.M. Coetzee (James’s book 32, 2009)
It’s all gone a bit Coetzee-tastic around here. He’s the kind of author – Philip Roth is another – who...
It’s all gone a bit Coetzee-tastic around here. He’s the kind of author – Philip Roth is another – who...
higgis posted a blog entry
Mexico Set by Len Deighton (Ian’s book 14, 2009)
There are more spoilers below. Go and read the books first if you’re going to, I’ll ruin it for you...
There are more spoilers below. Go and read the books first if you’re going to, I’ll ruin it for you...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Innocent by David Szalay (James’s book 31, 2009)
The Innocent received some rave reviews, so I decided to check it out. It’s the story of an NKVD officer who is forced to...
The Innocent received some rave reviews, so I decided to check it out. It’s the story of an NKVD officer who is forced to...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Shane’s book 26, 2009)
This is an odd book that inhabits the intersection between detective noir and comic fantasy. It has its moments and contains...
This is an odd book that inhabits the intersection between detective noir and comic fantasy. It has its moments and contains...
higgis posted a blog entry
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (Shane’s book 24, 2009)
It may seem unlikely, given the title, but Dead Souls is a comedy. Envisaged as a trilogy, only the first part was published...
It may seem unlikely, given the title, but Dead Souls is a comedy. Envisaged as a trilogy, only the first part was published...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore (James’s book 30, 2009)
There is a rather disconcerting sameness running through this collection of Lorrie Moore’s stories. In a preface she...
There is a rather disconcerting sameness running through this collection of Lorrie Moore’s stories. In a preface she...
higgis posted a blog entry
The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas (James’s book 29, 2009)
The White Hotel has been on my reading list for years and years. My English teacher at school in the 80s was always on about...
The White Hotel has been on my reading list for years and years. My English teacher at school in the 80s was always on about...
higgis posted a blog entry
Berlin Game by Len Deighton (Ian’s book 13, 2009)
Great book. To discuss it all I’m going to have to give away bits of the ending and things that happen along the way, and...
Great book. To discuss it all I’m going to have to give away bits of the ending and things that happen along the way, and...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk (James’s book 28, 2009)
Rachel Cusk is a fine writer, but has had the misfortune to come to the public’s attention because of a supposedly...
Rachel Cusk is a fine writer, but has had the misfortune to come to the public’s attention because of a supposedly...
higgis posted a blog entry
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee (James’s book 27, 2009)
Summertime is the final part of J.M. Coetzee’s semi-autobiographical trilogy that began with Boyhood and continued with...
Summertime is the final part of J.M. Coetzee’s semi-autobiographical trilogy that began with Boyhood and continued with...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Humbling by Philip Roth (James’s book 26, 2009)
Philip Roth is one of my very favourite authors, so it pains me to say that The Humbling is a catastrophic failure on almost...
Philip Roth is one of my very favourite authors, so it pains me to say that The Humbling is a catastrophic failure on almost...
higgis posted a blog entry
Youth by J.M. Coetzee (James’s book 25, 2009)
Youth is the second part of Coetzee’s fictionalised semi-autobiography, covering his early twenties. As with Boyhood, it...
Youth is the second part of Coetzee’s fictionalised semi-autobiography, covering his early twenties. As with Boyhood, it...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Shane’s book 23, 2009)
I’d read so many good things about this novel – in the press and from otherwise respectable people on Twitter...
I’d read so many good things about this novel – in the press and from otherwise respectable people on Twitter...
higgis posted a blog entry
2666 by Roberto Bolano (Shane’s book 22, 2009)
I felt a lot of pressure to consider this a masterpiece. After all, that’s how almost every critic has described it and...
I felt a lot of pressure to consider this a masterpiece. After all, that’s how almost every critic has described it and...
higgis posted a blog entry
Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee (James’s book 24, 2009)
J.M. Coetzee is possibly the greatest writer working in the English language at the moment. Unaccountably, his brilliant...
J.M. Coetzee is possibly the greatest writer working in the English language at the moment. Unaccountably, his brilliant...
higgis posted a blog entry
Rock Crystal by Adalbert Stifter (James’s book 23, 2009)
I picked up Rock Crystal because I saw somewhere – I can’t remember where – that it was W.G. Sebald’s...
I picked up Rock Crystal because I saw somewhere – I can’t remember where – that it was W.G. Sebald’s...
higgis posted a blog entry
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Shane’s book 22, 2009)
The Kublai Khan sits in his garden while Marco Polo regales him with descriptions of the strange and wonderful cities he has...
The Kublai Khan sits in his garden while Marco Polo regales him with descriptions of the strange and wonderful cities he has...
higgis posted a blog entry
War of the Worlds by HG Wells (Ian’s book 12, 2009)
Among the shelves of ‘classics’ in bookshops there are some that you think you probably ought to read, some you...
Among the shelves of ‘classics’ in bookshops there are some that you think you probably ought to read, some you...
higgis posted a blog entry
Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler and Robert B Parker (Ian’s book 10, 2009)
I love Raymond Chandler. It’s not just the humour or the seedy atmosphere of 1940s Los Angeles, it’s the quality of...
I love Raymond Chandler. It’s not just the humour or the seedy atmosphere of 1940s Los Angeles, it’s the quality of...
higgis posted a blog entry
What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin (Ian’s book 9, 2009)
A post and a great-looking recipe for fried potatoes with yoghurt and feta sauce on a blog I like very much, The Wednesday...
A post and a great-looking recipe for fried potatoes with yoghurt and feta sauce on a blog I like very much, The Wednesday...
higgis posted a blog entry
Infinite Jest: A Reader’s Guide by Stephen Burn (Shane’s book 21, 2009)
A new baby has been keeping me far too busy to do Infinite Summer this year. However I managed to get a little of the flavour...
A new baby has been keeping me far too busy to do Infinite Summer this year. However I managed to get a little of the flavour...
higgis posted a blog entry
Halting State by Charles Stross (Ian’s book 7, 2009)
You wait for years for Edinburgh-based augmented reality crime fiction, then two come along at once.The Edinburgh here is not...
You wait for years for Edinburgh-based augmented reality crime fiction, then two come along at once.The Edinburgh here is not...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod (Ian’s book 6, 2009)
My father-in-law sent me this book with a note attached: It’s like Rebus with IT. Fair enough then.The IT in question is...
My father-in-law sent me this book with a note attached: It’s like Rebus with IT. Fair enough then.The IT in question is...
higgis posted a blog entry
Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun (James’s book 18, 2009)
I first heard of Irmgard Keun when I bought her novel The Artificial Silk Girl, which I liked a great deal. Here, Penguin gives...
I first heard of Irmgard Keun when I bought her novel The Artificial Silk Girl, which I liked a great deal. Here, Penguin gives...
higgis posted a blog entry
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson (Ian’s book 5, 2009)
Captain Robert FitzRoy is one of those interesting, but marginal, figures in history that you might well have heard of but...
Captain Robert FitzRoy is one of those interesting, but marginal, figures in history that you might well have heard of but...
higgis posted a blog entry
Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile by Françoise Sagan (James’s book 15, 2009)
These two novellas form a natural diptych. What’s utterly remarkable about them is that Sagan was just eighteen years old...
These two novellas form a natural diptych. What’s utterly remarkable about them is that Sagan was just eighteen years old...
higgis posted a blog entry
Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig (James’s book 13, 2009)
Stefan Zweig is having something of a renaissance in this country thanks to Pushkin Press. A few years ago, they published a...
Stefan Zweig is having something of a renaissance in this country thanks to Pushkin Press. A few years ago, they published a...
higgis posted a blog entry
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler (Shane’s book 20, 2009)
Eric Ambler was born in 1909 and to mark the centenary of his birth Penguin has reissued five of his first six novels. Written...
Eric Ambler was born in 1909 and to mark the centenary of his birth Penguin has reissued five of his first six novels. Written...
higgis posted a blog entry
John Adams by David McCullough (James’s book 10, 2009)
John Adams is a fascinating figure, a genuine radical democrat, lawyer and polemicist who played a crucial role in the...
John Adams is a fascinating figure, a genuine radical democrat, lawyer and polemicist who played a crucial role in the...
higgis posted a blog entry
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (James’s book 8, 2009)
Kazuo Ishiguro only publishes every five years or so, so it’s unusual to have a new book from him so comparatively hot on...
Kazuo Ishiguro only publishes every five years or so, so it’s unusual to have a new book from him so comparatively hot on...
higgis posted a blog entry
The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown (James’s book 7, 2009)
The Rise and Fall of Communism is a general history of the roughly eighty year period that spanned the Russian...
The Rise and Fall of Communism is a general history of the roughly eighty year period that spanned the Russian...
