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I've just noted that I first posted re "Lessons" on March 27 saying it was shaping up to be my book of the year - it's been a struggle since those early few pages!!

Lessons by Ian McEwan - struggling a bit with it to be honest, McEwan is clearly a very bright man, a lot brighter than a thicko like me, and whereas I've managed to negotiate my way through, and enjoy, several of his previous works I think I've more than met my match here!! I'll persevere in...

Lessons by Ian McEwan - only 20 or so pages in but it's already shaping up as my Book of the Year

Box 88 by Charles Cumming

by by by!

I'm revisiting "Our Game" by John Le Carré and also just starting 'The Children of Men", the end of the world novel by, of all people, by PD James!!

pressed the wrong button.... should continue to say "...a fast paced thriller although McCloskey's continual use of CIA acronyms and modus operandi assumes knowledge on the part of the reader that not many will possess.

Just finishing "Damascus Station" by David McCloskey. McCloskey is an ex CIA analyst and this is, I think, his first novel. Its ok. It was a fairly stodgy difficult read for the first 150 or so pages with just enough going on to keep you reading. It picks up thereafter and becomes a fast...

I'm about 1/3rd of the way through -

A Fortnight in September by R C Sherriff "A wonderful novelist, at his best when dealing with the inner lives of everyday people ... humane, tense and deeply moving, a little miracle of a book" - Craig Brown A book where nothing happens, but everything happens.

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris

A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre - the story of Kim Philby's so-called great betrayal. All true and reads like a John Le Carre novel.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan - instantly accessible, tension already building......

The Ratline by Philippe Sands - about a Nazi on the run after the war.

"Big Sky" by Kate Atkinson - excellent.

Just started, somewhat belatedly, "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole....it looks like a book that I should've read years ago!!

The Grey Men by Ralph Hope - Pursuing the Stasi into the present....almost 100,000 Stasi just disappeared into german society overnight and this book seeks to out some of them.

A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre

"Margrave of the Marshes" by John Peel and family. A lovely, gentle, funny and quintessentially english book.

As a matter of interest, I struggled a bit through "Wolf Hall" (I found that too wordy!!) and have got a copy of "Bring Up The Bodies" - am I going to be struggling again? Re: your views on Dickens, yes, some books are too wordy and he tends to over-indulge in places but others (Pickwick...