Completed:

Jim Crace, "Quarantine"

Nominated for the Booker in 1997. Read it January 6-14. A lively, interesting study of what Christ's 40 days in the desert must have been like for him. Interesting characters but a very somber take on life in the bad old days.

Kazuo Ishiguro, "The Remains of the Day"

Booker winner in 1989. Read it February 23rd through March 1st. A thoroughly enjoyable book of bittersweet regret for the things one lets slip by in life.

J. G. Farrell, "Troubles"

The first Booker winner, which happened in 1970. Read it May 4-24. A most remarkable book. Both funny and serious, realistic and surrealistic, it beggars description. This is the closest thing I've read that captures Franz Kafka's ability to make one feel they are in another dimension. Set in Ireland just after World War One, a British war veteran accidentally winds up living in a crumbling hotel so vast it can never fully be known. To read this book is to place oneself in the hands of a master craftsman. Highly recommended.

Julian Barnes, "England, England"

Booker nominee from 1998. Read it June 8-19. I didn't care much for this one. The other two I read by him were much better.

Iris Murdoch, "The Nice and The Good"

Booker nominee during the kickoff year of 1969. Read it July 4-9. A very well written book that kept me rivetted right up to the last page. I didn't like the way she resolved the plot. Still I have to say it was one of the better books I read this eyar.

Ian McEwan, "Black Dogs"Nominated for the Booker in 1992. Read it August 9-17. A short book that would even more cutting would have made into a very good novellette.

Karen Joy Fowler, "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves"

Nominated for the 2014 Booker. From the Library.Read it September 10-14. A fairly compelling story of a girl who grew up in a family that adopted a baby chimpanzee atroubnd the time the narrator was born.

Richard Flanagan, "The Narrow Road to the Deep North"

Won the prize for the 2014 Booker. From the Library.Read it September 20-28. Very dark and somber. A depressing tale of the deprivations of life and death of Australians in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp during World War II.

Joshua Ferris, "To Rise Again at a Decent Hour"

Nominated for the 2014 Booker. From the Library. Read it October 1-7. A very readable novel. At times annoying and at other times fascinating. The plotline is absurd, the main character is emminently dislikeable, and yet I would still call it a good book. Amazing, no?

Nadine Gordimer, "The Conservationist"

Shared the Booker Prize in 1974 with Stanley Middleton's "Holiday." The first of two times there was a tie for the Booker winner. Read it October 20th thru November 2nd. Almost unbearably depressing and creepy. The muddled internal dialog style of writing didn't help matters in making the book more bearable. One of the weaker Booker winners in my opinion.

Caroline Blackwood, "Great Granny Webster"

Nominated for the Booker in 1977. Read it November 12-17. A brief, well written story that seemed more memoir than novel.

Nominated for the 2014 Booker. From the Library. Read it December 10-29. Long grim history of a middle class family from Calcutta during the Naxalite rebellions of the late 60s. This was done better in Lahiri's "The Lowland." B. Wodehouse and Dickens:

C. Northcote Parkinson, "Jeeves"

A Whimsical biography of Wodehouse's greatest creation. Read it January 29-31. You can tell what a great fan Parkinson was of Wodehouse. The book itself is ephemeral but I guess required reading for Wodehouse addicts.

James Hogg, "Lord Emsworth's Annotated Whiffle"

Read it January 26-28. Another whimsey. This time a recreation of the favorite book constantly being read by one of Wodehouse's greatest characters: the Lord of Blandings Castle. Read it February 16-17/

P.G. Wodehouse, "Yours, Plum: The Letters of P.G. Wodehouse"

Reading it May 26 - June 6. More fascinating than most books of letters. For a person who produced so many books it is amazing that so much of his effort went into plays and shows that were never produced.

Joseph Connolly, "P.G. Wodehouse"

This is the first of three biographies on my shelves. Read it June 27-30. Short and heavily illustrated with some photos I had not seen before. Not much of the material was new to me but I enjoyed it just the same.

Richard Voorhees, "P.G. Wodehosue"

Read it July 10-13. The only book of literary cricism I own on the subject of Wodehouse. A few interesting insights, but not enough to reccomend it.

Robert McCrumb, "P.G. Wodehosue: A life"

The most comprehensive biography of Wodehouse. Read it August 17th through October 19th. Lots of interesting information I had not known about, plus plenty I did not care about.

David A. Jasen, "A Portrait of the Master"

The authorized biography that appeared during Wodehouse's lifetime. Read it November 2-11. By far the best book about Wodehosue that I ahve read. Compassionate, witty, insightful, informative... you name it.

Alice Thomas Ellis, "The 27th Kingdom"

Nominated for the Booker in 1982. Read it December 1-4. An amusingly brief journey into the depths of black hearted humor. For once a person of faith is making fun of the non-believers.

C. Other Fiction:

Jean Shepherd, "Shep's Army"

Transcriptions of Shep's army stories told on his radio shows in the 1960s and 1970s. Read it Feb 18-22. Not as much fun as the radio shows, but still a joy to be able to read them.

George Eliot, "Middlemarch"

One of the later Modern Library books, first published by them in 1984, a mere 112 years or so after the book hit the newsstands as a serial. Recommended by Cliff. Read it March 12th - April 23rd. A long slow read but definitely worth it. A true classic. It's high reputation is richly deserved. Wonderful characters, wonderful story!

Jim Starling, "Batman: A death in the Family"

A Graphic novel from the 80s. Read it June 6th. Absolutely awful. Bad art, bad writing. Almost nothing of what attracted me to Batman as a kid remains.

Jerry Conway, "The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives"

Another graphic novel from the 80s. Read it June 6th. The artwork is beautiful and the story fairly well done, if by this point numbingly familiar. Lots of teenaged angst. Easy to see the target audience for this one.

Haruki Murakami, "Sputnik Sweetheart"

Read it June 06-08. A very strange little book. Wonderful characters thrown against a bizarre landscape. I'm not sure if there was a philosophical point being made here, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Dave Eggers, "Our Fathers, where are they?"

A present from Angela. Reading in June 21-23. Terrifyingly effective, Eggers paints a picture of disaffected youth. Written all in dialog, the book reads like a script for a play.

Zia Haider Rahman, "In Light of What We Know"

Recommended by Cliff. From the library. Read it July 14th through August 2nd. A complicated but fascinating novel. I feel I wuill have to re-read it someday to get everything out of it thtat the author put in.

Dave Eggers, "The Circle"

A loaner from Angela. Read it August 3-8. Very entertaining and creepy. Not one of Eggers' best, but definitely worth reading.

David Mitchell, "The Bone Clocks"

The newest from a great novelist. Read it September 9th thru October 13th. An enormously enjoyable book. Highly complex but very readable. I preferred the last Mitchell book a little more, but anything by him is a treat!

Colum McCan, "TransAtlantic"

Recommended by Madaline. From the library on audiodisc. Listening to it November 8-20. Very well written. The first half of the book is great historical fiction. But after the real people shuffle off the pages, the story of the generations of women who were affected by history is much less engaging. Still all in all, a successful novel, well worth reading.

Sarah Waters, "The Paying Guests"

From the library. Read it November 17-28. A gritty, compelling novel of life in England directly following the end of World War I. Not nearly as good as either "Fingersmith" or "The Night Watch" it still compells the reader breathlessly to the final page of the novel.

D. Non Fiction:

Matt Pellegrini, "The Art of Baking Bread"

A Christmas gift from Kathy. Read it December 30 - January 5. Many details on how to spend a lot of many to make fancy French bread.

Raymond Chandler, "Double Indemnity and Selected Essays and Letters"

From the second volume in the Library of America edition of the writings of Chandler. Chandler wrote the 1943 screenplay to "Double Indemnity," a novel by James M. Cain. The essays all date from around that time, and the letters run between 1945 and 1951. Reading December 17 - January 5th. Chandler turns out to be a rather elitist crabby author!

Mike Waters, "Syracuse Basketball Vault"

A Christmas present from Kathy. Read it January 18-30. A lavish history of my favorite basketball team. It brought back a lot of great memories!

Julian Assange, "Cypherpunks"

A Christmas gift from Rob. A book published in 2012 subtitled "Freedom and the Future of the Internet." Read it February 12-15. Assange and his fellow libertarians are convincing in their arguments that governments are inherently oppressive, but they are not very interested in the problems of the masses that have to live on this earth no matter what.

Nate Silver, "The Signal and the Noise"

A Christmas present from Rob. Read it March 1-11. Fascinating information about statistics and predictions and forecasts. From sports to the weather to the stock market.

Susan Hill, "A Photographic History of the Rolling Stones"

A Birthday present from Kathy. One of three Rock and Roll coffee table books. Read it April 24-27. Quite a bit of information for a picture book. Too many pictures of bill Wyman and his many wives and girlfriends!

Gerard Mankowitz, "The Experience: Jimi Hendrix at Mason's Yard"

A Birthday present from Kathy. One of three Rock and Roll coffee table books. Read it May 2-4. Not much to this one other than the pictures.

Spencer Leigh, "The Beatles in America"

A Birthday present from Kathy. One of three Rock and Roll coffee table books. Read it April 28th - May 1st. Lots of information not only about the concerts, but everything else related to Beatlemania in America in the mid 1960s.

E. Mysteries:

Richard Castle, "Heat Wave"

A Christmas present from Tom. Read it January 20-25. A Nikki Heat mystery "written" by a character from an ABC television crime show. Not well written but an entertaining mystery nonetheless.

Sue Grafton, "W is for Wasted"

From the library. Read it February 1-11. A very enjoyable entry into the Kinsey Milhone detective series. A thrilling ending complements an interesting story. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly all the loose ends were tied up.

Raymond Chandler, "The Little Sister"

Second novel in the second (and final) Library of America volume of his collected works. Read it June 24-27. A fabulous fun ride into the dark and dismal mind of Raymond Chandler. Lots of laughs sprinkled among the murderous doings of the usual cast of bad and desperate people.

Donald Westlake, "Nobody's Perfect"

Fourth in Westlake's Dortmunder series. Read it June 30th - July 4th. Very amusing, but the plot kind of fell apart at the end and I wasn't interested enough to figure out exactly how it was resolved.

total books read in 2014: 42

total from the library: 7
total listened to: 1



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