Reading round-up: December

It seems like literally five minutes since I last wrote one of these! I can't believe how quickly the month has flown by, but just in the nick of time, here are the books I read in December.


92. Landfall by Helen Gordon - 5/10 (full review). A rather disappointing character study focused on a thirtysomething woman who moves from London back to her parents' house. Lots of interesting themes are half-heartedly explored, but the ending is totally anticlimatic.
93. The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore - 6/10 (full review). This starts off like a straightforward ghost story (if there is such a thing!) but spins into a mash-up of genres - paranormal adventure, crime thriller, historical mystery and chick lit. Entertaining but rather too messy.
94. Great House by Nicole Krauss - 7/10 (full review). Though there is an overarching theme, this is essentially a series of short stories. The tone and style are brilliant, but the characters are hard to connect with - although I strongly related to one in particular.
95. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - 4/10 (full review). A YA novel about a boy who discovers his late grandfather's stories about children with amazing powers may really have been true, this starts really well but just doesn't go anywhere. Definitely best left to a younger audience.
96. There but for the by Ali Smith - 6/10 (full review). Intriguing and beautifully written, yet seeming to adhere too closely to a particular literary-fiction template, this tale of a man who attends a dinner party and never leaves is a book to admire rather than enjoy.
97. Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 5/10 (full review). A double-pronged story with two protagonists, a fifteen-year-old runaway and an elderly man who can speak with cats, this is a magical and philosophical book filled with metaphors. I wish I could say I enjoyed it more than I did, but it just failed to capture my imagination.
98. The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley - 8/10 (full review). A children's ghost story which I didn't expect much from, this turned out to be surprisingly excellent! Very well-written, chilling and atmospheric, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to adult fans of spooky tales.
99. The Teacher's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley - 8/10 (full review). Short but sweet, this contains three brief ghost stories, each with a truly devilish twist. While it might be intended to be enjoyed by younger readers, this book genuinely scared me!
100. The Devil's Double by Latif Yahia - 6/10 (full review). The biography on which the film of the same name (my favourite of the year) was based, this is certainly an interesting read, but also quite frustrating due to the lack of evidence that any of it is actually true.

This month's reading was a bit of a mixed bag, with literary and genre fiction, children's and YA books, and non-fiction. But the important thing is, of course, that I JUST managed to reach my year's goal of 100 books! It wasn't easy and I think I'll be setting myself a lower goal next year (or sticking to the original 2011 number of 75). I DID cheat a bit by reading a couple of children's books which took me no time at all to get through... but I DID IT!

Sadly, I haven't read anything I found amazing for quite some time and as much as this month was a mixed bag genre-wise, it was the same story as far as my ratings were concerned. I read a couple of books I'd been looking forward to for months - namely There but for the and Landfall - which failed to ignite any great passion in me. I read my first Murakami in Kafka On the Shore and was distinctly underwhelmed. I dipped my toe into YA fiction with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and was really disappointed. All in all, the best books I read in December were a couple of short volumes by Chris Priestley, a writer of ghost stories for children. I'm glad I finally managed to find some modern kids' fiction I didn't hate (it's so popular among the book-obsessed people of the internet and I always feel like such a spoilsport for not generally liking it), but I'd much rather read a great novel, and I can't wait to discover the next addition to my all-time-favourites list.

I'm working on my Best of 2011 list and book-related resolutions/predictions for the coming year, to be posted in the next few days. Happy New Year - I'll see you in 2012!

Songs of 2011

I seem to say something similar every single year, but I feel like I've taken hardly any notice of music in 2011 at all. Gone are the days when I would spend all my money/time buying/downloading (delete as applicable according to the era) new music; gone are the days when I would pride myself on continual obsessions with bands nobody else I knew had even heard of. This isn't to say music means nothing to me, as I still spend a lot of time listening to it and anything significant in my life is bound to have a designated soundtrack. It's just that since around the time I left university - three years of almost non-stop album-buying and gig-going during which music WAS MY LIFE - I've tended to stick to what I already know and like, and when it comes to new discoveries, I do pretty much follow the crowd and am very unlikely to break any new ground.

That said... there's always at least a handful of songs that capture my attention and will forever remind me of the year they either a) became popular or b) entered my consciousness. So here are the songs that will always be associated with 2011 for me.



Lana Del Rey - Video Games
Lana Del Rey has been ubiquitous in the world of the internet this year, but I've got to say I don't really care about the controversy surrounding the question of whether she's 'fake' and 'manufactured'. While it's something that probably would have sent me into spasms of outrage in the past, I just don't care how calculated a piece of marketing Video Games might be, I just absolutely LOVE this song. I know people who really hate it and find her voice dreary but personally, I fail to see how anyone could listen to this and not be moved. My friend Lee said on Twitter that Del Rey has 'a voice to fall in love to' and I have to agree. I've listened to Video Games about a million times and I'm still not sick of it; no matter where her career goes next, this is a timeless song.



The Veils - Jesus for the Jugular
I first heard this on the soundtrack to The Devil's Double but, in all honesty, didn't give it much attention since said soundtrack was mostly dominated by trashy 80s pop classics. I only downloaded it in the interest of owning all the songs from the soundtrack, and thereafter found myself completely transfixed by it. There's such a weird, sinister, portentous feel to it that I can't really account for or explain. It's no surprise it ended up being used in a film as it's so atmospheric - I'm still not sure what it's actually about, but I feel like something important should be happening to me every time I listen to it. I definitely need to get round to listening to more from this band (who I hadn't heard of before discovering this song).



Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry (Original Version)
This is a track from the posthumous Amy Winehouse collection Lioness: Hidden Treasures. I'm planning to write a whole other blog post about the album, so I won't go into it too much here. But this is by far my favourite song on the compilation: a beautiful, heartbreaking demo of Tears Dry On Their Own in its original form - as a ballad rather than the upbeat song it later became. It's haunting, a wonderful paean to love and regret, and has truly changed the way I listen to the album version.



Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
This is obviously a really old song, but I only really got into it this year, and once again it was via the soundtrack to The Devil's Double. Not much more to say here other than I found it completely infectious and it wins the prize for song most played loud in my car during 2011.



Dev - Booty Bounce
So yeah, this is a bit embarrassing, but this song HAS to be included because if at any point in 2011 I was getting ready to go out or driving somewhere at high speed, I was probably listening to this. As with a lot of pop songs I got REALLY fed up of it after so many listens, but while the obsession lasted I couldn't get enough of it. The same might as well be said of quite a few of her songs - see also this, this and even this (who am I kidding, especially that).



Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars
I'd almost completely forgotten about this - I think I overplayed it earlier in the year and kind of wore it out. But it's still a great, great song and I will never get over how fantastic the massive guitar-crashing climax at 2:04 sounds.



Katy B - Louder
I had a bit of a Katy B moment earlier this year and it was hard to decide whether I included this or Easy Please Me in my list - the lyrics of the latter are far more relevant to my life, but I went with Louder because I just really love the way it sounds. I have no clue about dubstep (if that's what it is, tbh I have no idea what that even MEANS) but I know I like this. I also love the video - even though it's so simple it makes me feel inexplicably positive and nostalgic for the early days of summer.

Book review: There but for the by Ali Smith

There but for the (2011) by Ali Smith

I just... don't know. I don't know about this book. Believe me when I say that I really wanted to love it. I 'saved' it for some time before beginning, and when I didn't feel much into it on the first try, I left it for a while and tried again. Everything (the premise, Smith's reputation, great reviews in the press and here on Goodreads) suggested it would be a wonderful, even revelatory read, and yet... I mean, maybe I've shot myself in the foot by reading so many books this year. Maybe I've got some sort of book fatigue. I always get confused when I see people reading hundreds of books a year and they're almost all the same genre; endless romance, or endless YA paranormal adventure, or endless murder mysteries. I would never judge someone else's reading habits, but I do wonder how it's possible for people to read the same type of book repeatedly - especially if they finish several per week - and not get bored of reading such similar things over and over again.

The problem with this book, then, is that I feel like I've already read it several times this year. Back in the days when I read about 10-20 books a year, there's every possibility I would have been blown away by this, thought it was an absolute masterpiece. But what I've begun to realise recently is that there's a certain type of acclaimed literary novel that can be every bit as predictable as its trashier equivalent. These books are always loosely constructed around some sort of plot idea but aren't really 'about' whatever that is; they always rely heavily on themes of memory, loss, regret, grief and how we relate to others; the narrator/s is/are usually someone old, or older, looking back and reflecting on events from their childhood and younger life; the meaning and significance of language, how we choose to use it, and the formation of stories about our lives/ourselves invariably play a key role. Examples from my reading of this year alone are: Great House, Landfall, The Blue Book, The Sense of an Ending, The Sea, The Gathering, The Finkler Question, to some extent Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and a couple of Paul Auster's books. All of these can, at least loosely, be said to fit into the above description. In particular, The Sense of an Ending and The Blue Book are incredibly similar to There but for the, to the point that they could almost have been written by the same person.

To summarise the story, it's 'about' a man, Miles, who goes upstairs during a dinner party with a group of people he barely knows, locks himself in a spare bedroom, and refuses to come out. This event forms a background for a series of narratives from people loosely connected to Miles. There's Anna, a vague acquaintance from many years ago; Mark, who brought Miles to the party, although the pair had only met briefly before this; May, an elderly woman seemingly facing the end of her life in hospital, whose connections to the dinner-party characters are very slowly revealed; and finally, Brooke, an extremely precocious 10-year-old also present at the party. The narratives are written in the third person, but offer an intimate insight into the characters' thought processes. There are tangents, diversions and recollections galore as the characters explore what their relationships to one another mean, question themselves and dredge up long-lost memories. Brooke's chapter is the best, a lively stream-of-consciousness filled with jokes and puns, witty and clever but, in the end, perhaps a bit pointless.

There is no doubt that Ali Smith is a brilliant writer. Her wordplay and use of language are absolutely wonderful and the characterisation is equally skilful. But I didn't connect with the story, I didn't engage with the narratives, I wasn't desperate to go back to the book whenever I had to put it down; I just didn't like it all that much, to be honest. Sound familiar? It's what I've thought about at least half of the books I listed above. Great writing is great writing, but that alone is not enough to make a great story. Whenever I don't like a literary novel the critics have been raving about, I worry it's because I'm too stupid to truly appreciate it; but I'm really pretty sure that wasn't the case with this. I completely understood everything I was supposed to love about it, it simply failed to elicit any sort of emotional response from me. Sadly, this is another book I very much admired but didn't much enjoy.

Rating: 6/10

More December books

The Drowning Pool (2011) by Syd Moore

The story: Sarah Grey, a young mother whose husband has recently died, relocates to the coastal town of Leigh-on-Sea. The seaside community is a welcome escape from reminders of Sarah's past, and she quickly develops a network of close friends. During a drunken night out, Sarah learns that one of the local legends concerns a woman with the same name as her - supposedly a 'sea-witch' who attacked children and cursed a ship and its crew. After that night, Sarah begins to experience a series of visions, dreams and strange incidents, and gradually becomes convinced she is the subject of a haunting by the malevolent spirit of her 19th-century namesake. The story is given a further twist when Sarah discovers she may have a neurological condition; could what she's experiencing be down to a brain tumour? The Drowning Pool (the title relates to a local pond said to have been used for 'ducking' trials during witch-hunts) follows Sarah as, using various methods, she attempts to get to the bottom of what is really going on, and tries to understand why she is being haunted.

The verdict: The awful, tacky cover almost put me off this altogether, but the plot sounded right up my street and the fact that the Kindle edition is just 99p sealed the deal. It's actually a pretty good book, engaging, original and fast-paced; the trouble with it is that it tries to pack so much into one story. It starts as a spooky tale with a psychological twist, as Sarah wonders whether her 'ghost' could be a product of illness or grief, and struggles against her friends' doubt. Then it turns into an assessment of the horrors of witch-hunts from a feminist perspective. Then it starts diverging into Sarah's friends' lives, particularly an old family scandal that appears to have seriously affected one of her closest friends, Sharon. Then it becomes a historical mystery, with Sarah researching her namesake's past and turning up some fascinating old diaries and letters. Then it goes all swoon-worthy-romance for a couple of chapters. Then it becomes a suspense thriller - can Sarah trust the man she is falling for? Finally, it becomes a crime novel with a paranormal slant, resulting in a bloody and really rather daft climax. The genre mash-up is sometimes an advantage, delivering some genuinely unpredictable twists, but in the end it's all too much. It's a shame, because this is an enjoyable story with some truly interesting foundations (the local legends and Sarah's 'haunting'). I don't think I'll be bothering with the author's second novel (there's an unpromising extract at the end of this one), but The Drowning Pool was definitely enough fun to be more than worth 99p.

Rating: 6/10


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2011) by Ransom Riggs

The story: Jacob Portman is an isolated, bored and friendless American teenager. Since childhood he has been very close to his grandfather, who told endless exciting and far-fetched tales about his own youth which Jacob has never forgotten. The stories - about Abraham Portman's escape from horrifying 'monsters' to a children's home full of refugees with amazing powers - have been explained away in intervening years as an allegory for the refugees' survival of WWII. The photographs that accompanied them, supposedly showing the extraordinary abilities of these 'peculiar' children (such as the levitating girl pictured on the cover), Jacob now regards as poorly doctored fakes. However, when his beloved grandfather dies in strange circumstances - leaving behind a letter from his old headmistress, Miss Peregrine, and a series of intriguing clues - Jacob begins to suspect there could have been something more to those odd stories after all. He persuades his father to take a birdwatching trip to the Welsh island where the children's home is situated, and sets out to discover the truth.

The verdict: I was well and truly sucked in by the beginning of the book, and initially it had all the makings of a great light read. The set-up is well-crafted - lonely Jacob is a sympathetic character, the mystery of his grandfather's past is tantalising, and the island itself, while contrived, is a suitably atmospheric setting for the rest of the action. The trouble begins about a third of the way in: after Jacob has solved the mystery of the children's home (which doesn't appear to surprise him anywhere near as much as it should), the book slumps into a very formulaic series of events in which everything seems to happen way too easily. The tension collapses, the characters' speech (whether faux-British slang-laden or 'old-fashioned') is beyond parody, and Jacob's voice is uneven, sounding far too mature and descriptive at certain points. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but so many of the major developments left me with a lot of unanswered questions, and the conclusion was far from satisfying (or, indeed, conclusive). And yes, I know it's for kids, but good YA literature should no more be peppered with plot holes than the adult equivalent. Despite its popularity among the online reading community, I rarely read YA fiction, and this book reminded me of why. I was immediately sucked in by the fascinating premise, but the story ended up being a lukewarm rehash of elements of X-Men and Harry Potter, without any of the drama, excitement or decent characterisation. Unsurprisingly, my conclusion about this book is that I'd have enjoyed it much more 15 years ago. Not quite a complete waste of time, but I wouldn't recommend this to adult readers at all.

Rating: 4/10


Great House (2011) by Nicole Krauss

The story: Great House is both a novel with an overarching theme, and a collection of short stories - most of which are told in two parts, and all of which have loose connections with the others. In All Rise, a lonely writer in New York is haunted by the memory of a Chilean poet she met many years ago. In True Kindness, an elderly man in Israel, close to death, is both infuriated and pained by recollections of his difficult relationship with his youngest son. In Swimming Holes, a man is consumed with jealousy over the mystery of his wife's connection to a young male visitor, and after her death he sets out to discover the truth about what they meant to one another. Finally, in Lies Told By Children, a young American student at Oxford University becomes infatuated with a brother and sister whose father, an antiques dealer, has devoted his life to recovering the furniture stolen from his family by the Nazis. A single motif connects these stories: a huge, imposing antique writer's desk, owned by a variety of the characters at different points in history, and pivotal to the lives of a few.

The verdict: This is yet another of those literary novels that's all about characters looking back on their lives, meditating on loss, memory and regret (see also: this year's Booker winner, Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending). Everything seems to be unspoken, everything is dreadfully complicated, and everyone suffers in silence, hardly ever simply asking for the answers they seek. In a lot of ways, it's nothing new, but the key thing is, this woman really can write. I frequently found the descriptions breathtaking, and the characterisation is wonderful; even if the characters' actions are often frustrating and sometimes very hard to understand, they seem so real. I found myself highlighting paragraphs all over the place: partly because I strongly related to a couple of the characters (especially Nadia, the narrator of All Rise), but also because their observations were so beautifully put, succinct yet poetic. However, my favourite part of the book was the very first story-half, which I genuinely loved, but the rest of it failed to match up to that promise. It isn't that I didn't like the use of short stories to build a fractured narrative, more that I felt there was something fundamental missing - I simply couldn't connect with most of the characters as I'd have liked to. I would read something else by Krauss, because I think she is a wonderful writer, but I just couldn't fall in love with this book, no matter how much I admired the tone and style.

Rating: 7/10

BUMPER CHRISTMAS POST

Somehow the entire run-up to Christmas has happened without me writing a single blog post about it. This is bad form, because I LOVE Christmas and everything about the festive period. It's just that for the past few weeks I've been 'snowed under' (ho ho ho) with work and #partyseason antics, and have been kind of absent from the internet. And now it's five days until Christmas Day! How did that happen?

Whenever I look at other Christmas want lists on blogs, it always seems like everyone has a perfectly formed wishlist consisting mainly of clothes, makeup, perfume and cute homeware. Mine isn't like that. I think it's because I a) am highly dubious about other people buying me clothes, b) I always completely forget about makeup and beauty stuff, and c) I buy myself anything I REALLY want, and if I don't REALLY want it then chances are I'll have forgotten it existed by the time the 'what do you want for Christmas?' moment rears its head.

So, I know everyone and their cat has done one of these already, but here's mine anyway...


1. A hairdryer. It doesn't matter which one, this is just a generic picture of a hairdyer - as long as it's better than the one I'm using at the moment, which was £6 from Argos about 5 years ago and is even more useless than one of those you get attached to the wall in foreign hotels, then I'll be happy.

2. Ferrero Rocher with LIMITED EDITION ~green~ PISTACHIO FLAVOUR!!! Enough said.

3. I spotted this Versace-rip-off print dress in Miss Selfridge the other day, and upon inspection of the website I discovered there's also a slightly odd sleeveless shirt version with a strange hole in the back. I wouldn't mind either, although it's highly unlikely I'll buy them myself unless they're at least half price.

4. DVDs, of course: Doctor Who series 5 & 6, True Blood Season 3, The Big Bang Theory complete boxset, X-Men: First Class and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Don't judge my taste in TV and film, please, I use it for pure escapism, okay. (I obviously also want The Devil's Double but that doesn't come out until Boxing Day, when I will venture out and get it for myself.)


5. THIS DRESS. Aaaahhhh, this dress!! Brace yourselves, I am about to use a Clichéd Blogger Phrase... It is THE DRESS OF DREAMS. Let's face it, I have put on far too much weight to get away with this sort of thing anymore, but if someone bought me this dress, I WOULDN'T CARE. It combines my three favourite things: 1) black 2) gold and 3) tacky shit. It couldn't BE any more perfect and if it gets reduced, I am 100% definitely buying it for myself. And breathe.


6. This ASOS Slim Heritage Check (or 'CHeck') Coat has been on my wishlist for months now. I just keep hoping they're going to reduce it to less than £60. Then I spotted... 7. the Belted Midi Coat the other day whilst idly browsing (always dangerous). HOW GORGEOUS IS IT?! I feel as though it would make me look a million dollars, but in reality I'd probably look like a bag lady shuffling around in it.

Okay, that's it for the wishlisting. How do people find all these things to wish for?! It's exhausting. I could of course make a wild imaginary one and stick an iPad, £100 candles and £150 bottles of perfume, Steve Coogan and this (!!!) on it but that would just depress me, frankly. A £48 dress is unrealistic enough at the moment. Paying the gas bill is unrealistic enough at the moment, ffs.


I've watched Scrooged about 4 and a half times over the past few days. I really, really fancy Bill Murray in this film, which is a bit weird because I've never fancied him in anything else. Ever. I think it's the suit.


I also saw this for the first time ever a few days ago... Yes, I know it's hard to believe but I've seriously never seen Nightmare Before Christmas before now. I was nine when it came out, okay, and I saw the trailer in the cinema and THE ANIMATION TERRIFIED ME. It wasn't this trailer either, it was a much scarier one. Anyway, at 27 I've finally decided I am old enough to withstand the horror, and I really liked it. (I also saw Elf for the first time this year - not, I hasten to add, because I was previously scared of it. I'm just way behind with Christmas films, but I still maintain that Santa Claus: The Movie is a classic.)


This is the best Christmas song of all time, just in case anyone needed reminding.


I FINALLY managed to figure out what this song is after being subjected to it day after day at work last year and then realising I kind of... really liked it.

This took me so long to write I missed The Only Way Is EsseXmas and will have to watch it on the dreaded ITV Player. I hope you're happy with that. PS, Merry Christmas.

Book review: Landfall by Helen Gordon

Landfall (2011) by Helen Gordon

Landfall is a funny book. I don't mean that it's amusing - the absence of any humour is one of the problems with it. I mean that it confounded my expectations, but not in a particularly good way. Having read the blurb and extracts from a number of reviews, I had a certain impression of what I was about to read, but almost nothing I anticipated turned out to have anything to do with the reality of the book. Although there are various elements of mystery and intrigue running through it, as well as a continuous theme about the ways in which we connect with others, it sidesteps all of these and isn't really about anything at all.

The story is essentially a character study, focused on a 34-year-old woman, Alice, who is single and living in London. An art critic with a good reputation but no real roots, she is haunted by the disappearance of her younger sister, Janey, when both were teenagers. When the magazine she works for folds, she returns to her parents' home in the suburbs to house-sit and reflect on her life. Shortly afterwards, she is charged with looking after her 16-year-old American cousin, Emily, who joins her in the house. The third protagonist is Danny, a lonely kleptomaniac teenager living with his mum and dad next door, who observes the pair and develops an awkward crush on Emily.

Like a lot of debuts, Landfall feels slightly amateurish, and what it reminded me of more than anything was the early work of one of my favourite authors, Scarlett Thomas. I'm not saying it possesses the same immaturity as, say, one of Thomas's fluffy Lily Pascale mysteries, but then it isn't trying to be an amusing, zeitgeisty crime thriller (and anyway, a little bit of those books' warmth, zest and verve definitely wouldn't go amiss here). There are flashes of something really interesting in Alice's conversations with her friends - and later with an artist she idolises, Karin Ericsson - but the narrative seems to swerve away just as these start to touch on genuinely engrossing topics. The dialogue is noticeably artificial in a number of places, and the characters lack the depth they need in a reflective novel like this. Emily, in particular, seems to be a complete caricature of an airhead American teenager, obsessed with her looks and health, perceiving all adults as ancient. The cartoonishness of these character traits seems out of place with the sombre and serious tone of the book and the quiet, uneventful nature of the plot. I never felt the narrative really got under the skin of the characters, even Alice, whose ruminations are described in such detail - and Danny, undoubtedly the most intriguing person in the book, is underused.

Then there's this claim, taken from the back of the book (not a quote from a critic, this is part of the actual blurb): '[this novel] culminates in one of the most surprising and destabilising endings you'll have ever read'. As you can imagine, this raised my expectations for the ending considerably; I was expecting to be knocked off my feet. And then... nothing happens. I mean, there's a climatic event, and some of what I think is described in films as 'mild peril', but nothing revelatory or explosive or in any way staggering. The recurrent references to Janey turn out to be something of a red herring, and perhaps it's the genre-fiction reader in me, but I found this very frustrating.

All in all, it's safe to say I was disappointed by this book. However much the plot hovered on the edge of something intriguing, I felt I was always left to watch rich white people having minor existential crises, while the really interesting stuff was happening somewhere just off the page. That said, I think Helen Gordon has a promising and unique voice, and I will be keeping an eye out for her future work.

Rating: 5/10

Reading round-up: November

Aargh! Yet again, I've been neglecting to update here with recent book reviews. The reason for this is that I try to leave a gap between them so I can post about other things as well, but I just haven't had time to write any of those other posts. I HAVE been updating Goodreads, though, and I've linked to all the individual reviews below.

Anyway, here's this month's round-up of the books I've read and what I thought of them.


83. High-Rise by JG Ballard - 6/10 (full review). A postmodern fable about the breakdown of a mini-society within a huge tower block; lacking in subtlety, and filled with inevitably off-putting characters, but alarmingly prescient for its time, and definitely thought-provoking.
84. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 8/10 (full review). The most fun I've had with a book in ages, this sci-fi romp set in the near future - in which the whole world is obsessed with an immersive videogame - is witty, exciting and moving. I didn't expect to get into this, but it really surprised me.
85. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth - 8/10 (full review). A dark tale told from the point of view of a lonely, delusional woman who has an unhealthy fascination with her new neighbour. Certainly disturbing, but in places it will ring uncomfortably true with anyone who lives alone.
86. Brodmaw Bay by F.G. Cottam - 9/10 (full review). Another wonderfully chilling ghost story from one of my favourite modern authors. This one follows the Greer family as they relocate to a seemingly idyllic coastal village which harbours some truly terrible secrets...
87. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman - 7/10 (full review). A funny, sad and believable coming-of-age story, this examines the causes and consequences of a stabbing on an inner-city estate, as seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy. The narrative is excellent but the plot ultimately unsatisfying.
88. UR by Stephen King - 6/10 (full review). This is a very short novella about a teacher who mysteriously receives a magical Kindle. Somehow, it's not actually as daft as that makes it sound, but it's still far too brief to be sufficiently involving.
89. The Prestige by Christopher Priest - 8/10 (full review). Genuinely unpredictable, this tells the story of two Victorian magicians locked in an intense rivalry - as discovered by their ancestors in the present day. Full of twists and turns, with an unexpectedly surreal ending.
90. Lustrum by Robert Harris - 8/10 (full review). The second book in a trilogy about Roman statesman Cicero, this picks up the story from Imperium but ups the drama, sex and violence. Compelling, exciting and educational to boot, with brilliantly drawn and sympathetic protagonists.
91. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - 6/10 (full review). Told in the form of a letter, this recounts the life of an Indian 'entrepreneur' with a dubious past. It has some fascinating themes, but the lack of any characters you can understand or relate to lets it down.

Brodmaw Bay was my favourite book of the month. I'd been waiting for it for what felt like forever, and I was so glad that it lived up to my expectations. Lustrum was a close second - Robert Harris's trilogy of novels about Cicero is shaping up to be a brilliant series, and I just hope I don't have to wait too long for the third installment to be published. Also worth mentioning from this month's batch are A Kind of Intimacy, Ready Player One and The Prestige, all highly recommended. (NB: I just watched the film version of The Prestige tonight and was really disappointed. The book is quite different from the film, and it's much, much better - very glad I read it first!)

After completing my original 2011 goal of 75 books by early October, I decided to up my goal to 100. This means I have my work cut out for December, as I have to read 9 books... which just about matches my reading levels for most of the previous months, but bear in mind I have Christmas and ~the party season~ to contend with. I'm hoping I will just scrape 100 for the first time EVER!