The son by Michel Rostain
translated from French by Adriana Hunter It is eleven days since our first person narrator has died. He was just twenty one years old when meningitis took him. Now he tells...
2 September 2013
Manon Lescaut by Abbé [Antoine Francois] Prévost
Read online – Gutenberg This is a book I would never have picked up if not for the fact that it is on the reading list of an online course I’ve...
9 June 2013
After tomorrow by Gillian Cross
In the near future the economy has collapsed. Money is pretty much useless. Matt and his family have been lucky, they can grow some food and have been sensible, trading and...
8 May 2013
Code name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
reread 24th Sept 2018 for my bookclub. And on rereading I still really enjoyed this book. I still think that some of it is a little forced, and the first person...
10 May 2012
The Lantern (group read, week 3) by Deborah Lawrenson
This is the final week of our group read of The Lantern, and it was a really good experience. First off because I don’t think I would have read this one...
24 October 2011
The Lantern (group read, week 2) by Deborah Lawrenson
For week 2 we read parts 3 & 4. If you haven’t read these bits of the book then there are spoilers ahead. Questions this week are from Kailana; The title...
17 October 2011
The Lantern (group read, week 1) by Deborah Lawrenson
When Carl first mentioned this group read I said I wouldn’t join in. I’m still on a no buying books kick so I knew I’d have to get it from the...
13 October 2011
How many miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston
ISBN: 9780141046969 ; Quotes Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper. Growing up Alec has always been isolated. His parents...
19 January 2011
The devil in the flesh by Raymond Radiguet
by Raymond Radiguet translated by Christopher Moncrieff
Although the 1930’s mini challenge has come to an end, when I spotted this book at work I thought it might fit, and wanted to read more books of that time. Of course then I read the details and discovered that it was actually written earlier than that… Oh well :)
The devil in the flesh created quite a bit of a scandal when it was published, semi-autobiographical, the author wrote it from the age of sixteen to eighteen, after his own affair with a married woman. And that, my dears, is the central theme to this book. In fact, it is the end all and the be all of everything in this book. Our 15/16 year old narrator’s affair with a married woman. And I found that incredibly off-putting.
20 August 2010
From Paris with love dir. by Pierre Morel
James Reece is trying hard to become a secret agent while working at the American Embassy in Paris. He is smart, and plays chess. And he is in love with a beautiful French woman, who has just asked him to marry her, and now his dream is coming true, he is taking action in the fight against drugs and terrorism, because he has been assigned to Charlie Wax, an “unorthodox” agent who may not play by the rules but gets things done.
Before I go any further I will say one thing: Do NOT watch this film.
19 August 2010
The chalk circle man by Fred Vargas
Author: Fred Vargas ; trans from the french by Sian Reynolds
An Adamsberg novel
Chief Inspector Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg has recently been transferred to Paris. His police methods aren’t exactly standard procedure and his inspectors have a lot to get used to. But they can have no doubt that he is a born policeman, and while even he is unable to explain how he arrives at his conclusions he is usually correct. In this case he thinks that there is something strange about the blue chalk circles that have been appearing in the Parisian streets. He is convinced that there is something sinister about them.
15 May 2010
This Night’s Foul Work
Author: Fred Vargas
Trans: Sian Reynolds
As you may already know I’m a big fan of Fred Vargas’ work and while this one is a library copy I’ll be buying this when it comes out in the proper size. I can’t stand these trade publications versions. They make no sense to me. All the negatives of a hardback with none of the positives. But enough about that; on to the plot.
The most straight-forward way of describing this book is to say that it is a murder-mystery. But with characters like Adamsberg there is no such thing as a straight-forward case. So when he spots something a little “off” about the two bodies that have shown up he decides that this case his rather than giving them over to the Drugs Squad.
18 May 2008
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