Capers in the Kitchen: birthday

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Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Happy Birthday... Evelyn Waugh

I'm not obssessed, I swear, but it's his birthday today. Celebrate by reading Mad World by Paula Byrne or even just dip back into Decline & Fall or Brideshead. Go on, treat yourself.

What I've been digesting recently...

The Paris Wife - Paula Mclain - fabulous novel from Hadley Heminway's perspective on her marriage to Hem. The style is v similar to Tania K's, the story is fascinating from the other side of the marriage.

The Diamond as Big as The Ritz - F. Scott - I read this when I was very young and built castles in Spain on the description of the house. The darker elements had passed me by entirely.

The Passage - Justin Cronin - G.Ripping.

The Privileges - Jonathan Dee - F Scott for the 21st century - It's Gatsby and Diamond as Big as The Ritz rolled into one.

After the Fire A Still Small Voice - Evie Wyld - debut novel from a local-living Australian author who is jut lovely and writes like a dream.

Sylvia Beach & The Lost Generation - Noel Riley Fitch's biography - for a summary see left.

At Home - Bill Bryson's latest informative treatise on the rooms in our house.

The Reluctant Bride - Lucy Mangan's account of getting married.

A Room Swept White - Sophie Hannah's most recent novel - gripping but slightly bizarre twist.

A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore's Orange Prize submission - made me laugh out loud and recoil in horror

The Prince of Mist - 1st part of a quartet to be published in English for children by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - a hint of Robin Jarvis

Blueeyedboy - the latest from Joanne Harris and it made me go 'hmmmm...'

Jo Nesbo - Is Scandinavia a hotbed of excellent crime writers or what? If you haven't got there yet, go. Oh and Redbreast is the first one, despite what the translation order says.

BUtterfield 8 - John O'Hara - why haven't I come across him before? And why wasn't I born Gloria Wandrous turning up on Eddie's doorstep with a bottle of bootlegger whisky in a mink coat and nothing else?

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel. I love this period of history and the Cromwell story continues to fascinate.

A Song in the Daylight - Paullina Simons. I love her, but where's the redemption? Why the nihilism?

Possession - AS Byatt. Richly textured and pleasingly erudite. Worth a re-read.

Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Brilliant.

The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova. A fabulous tale of love and art and the Leda myth thrown in for good measure.

The Chatelet Apprentice - Nicola Floch. A Gallic Books mystery set in the 18th century. Nicely evocative.

Small Island - Andrea Levy. I'm halfway through, but I'm not sure at this point I'm entirely convinced by the amount of time devoted to the back stories. I want more of 1948.

The Other Half Lives - Sophie Hannah. Cracking story, although curiously I found all of the characters completely unlikeable - but I remained enthralled by the plot.

The Bed I Made - Lucie Whitehouse. She also wrote The House at Midnight, a book whose ending I find so viscerally disturbing I've only read it twice. This is her take on Sleeping with the Enemy. I read it alone, in bed, at night. Never again.

2666 - Roberto Bolano's magnus opus. Gripping so far, but challenging. A 4-page sentence is a new work of art

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler's seminal detective novel. My introduction to the world where men wore hats and women had endless be-stockinged legs that are noticed and commented on and they take it as their due. More please.

The Complaints - Ian Rankin's latest hard-boiled Scottish detective. Not as fabulous as Rebus in all his unadulterated sod-them-all glory, but cracking story. Riveting.

Mad World - Evelyn Waugh and the real Brideshead - Paula Byrne's in-depth and utterly fascinating bio of the life and times of Waugh and the Lygons, the family behind the Marchmains and Brideshead Revisited. Brilliant and thoughtful.

Being Geniuses Together - Humphrey Carpenter's expose of life on the Left Bank - Sylvia Beach, Joyce, a touch of Natalie Barney and a dollop of Hemingway - utter bliss...

The Girl who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - the final part to Stieg Larsson's Millenium series - but where is her sister.....???? Argh - now we'll never know.

Wedlock - Wendy Moore's rather fabulous story Mary Eleanor Bowes. Great x 4/5 to the Queen Mother, she was also the Georgian forerunner of women's rights in marriage - successfully divorcing her unutterably abusive husband and retaining her property... Up the Women.

A couple of Tania Kindersley's - for the sheer love of her...

Capers in the Kitchen

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Happy Birthday... Evelyn Waugh

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