Bibliography, September 2022

BOTM: D. Simmons, Hyperion (1989)

D. Athill, Alive, Alive Oh (2015)

N. Bulawayo, Glory (2022)
P.K. Dick, Lies Inc (2004)
P. Everett, The Trees (2022)
A. Garner, Treacle Walker (2021)
S. Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022)
C. Keegan, Small things like these (2021)
J. Michener, Tales of the South Pacific (1947)
E. Strout, My name is Lucy Barton (2016)
E. Strout, Oh William! (2022)
D. Wolk, All of the Marvels (2021)

They weren't BOTM, but I loved Wolk's book on reading all the Marvel comics, and I loved Michener's Pulitzer prize winner behind South Pacific, and I loved Athill's clear eyed vignettes in her memoir.  I did not love most of the Booker shortlist. I thought it was one of the weakest I have ever read, though Everett's book is an exception. So all of those were great, but the best of all was Simmons multiple award winning Hyperion which is structurally engrossing (it advances the plot through a sequence of six single viewpoint narrative), literarily and historically clever (it integrates future and real history well and has some very nice references) and the plot and writing are compelling (and the ending bold). I believe the sequels are less good, but I feel they will take up most of my October.

2022 Booker ranking, and though I can only wholeheartedly recommend Everett, all of the top four were enjoyable. At the time of writing, the odds are almost a perfect inverse of this, so I have no idea who will actually win. Almost certain to be wrong:

1. Everett
2. Karunatilaka
3. Strout
4. Keegan
5. Bulawayo
6. Garner

Bibliography, August 2022

BOTM: J. Gardam, Old Filth (2004)

R. Adams, The Iron wolf and other stories (1980)
J. Berger, G (1974)
L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketer's Almanack (2022)
J.A. Brillat-Saverin, The Physiology of Taste (1825)
M. Berkmann, Berkmann's cricketing miscellany (2019)
J. Gardam, The man in the wooden hat (2009)
---------, Last Friends (2013)
K. Hughes, George Eliot: the last Victorian (1998)
D. Levy, Real Estate (2021)
I. Mortimer, The fears of Henry IV (2007)
P. Ross, A tomb with a view (2020)

I do like a good summer's worth of reading, even though this one was almost entirely random, built on things I borrowed, recent presents and things coming out of recommendations and reviews. They were mostly good though, with one notable exception. Berger's G is terrible. With it, I've now read every Booker winner. It was amongst the very worst.

Gardam's trilogy was entirely impromptu and based on Anna's immediate recommendation. There are diminishing returns in the trilogy, though people less obsessed with proper chronology would enjoy them more than I did, but Old Filth itself is exceptionally good - precise, controlled, and very well done. It's incompleteness is far more affecting than the coloured in sections in the follow up books. is It should have been highly competitive for the 2005 Booker, but didn't even make the longlist.