Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade (2019)
Short, autobiographical tidbits sprinkled amidst an extremely detailed analysis of the 2003 Gwyneth Paltrow movie View from the Top. I haven’t seen the movie, but it sounds terrible. The book is a bit strange at times, but really funny.
A Deadly Affair: Unexpected Love Stories from the Queen of Mystery by Agatha Christie
Audiobook narrated by Judith Boyd, Hugh Fraser, Joan Hickson and David Suchet.
A collection of Christie’s short stories. Not as gripping as her novels, but still enjoyable.
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (2024)
Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters in 412 BCE Syracuse, decide to put on the play Medea starring Athenian prisoners-of-war being starved to death in a quarry.
It won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, which surprises me because I found it terribly sad. Creative and well-written, for sure, but definitely sad.
Howards End by EM Forster (1910)
I was inspired to finally read this after watching an excellent adaptation on PBS at Christmas time. After the briefest of romances between young Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox falls apart, Helen’s sister Margaret befriends Paul’s ill mother, Ruth. After Ruth’s death, the Schlegel and Wilcox families continue to grow closer, despite their very different approaches to life.
I enjoyed it, but it was a bit slow at times.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
Audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser.
Poirot is drawn out of his rural retirement, and the growing of vegetable marrows, to solve another murder. I’ve read this so many times I practically have it memorised, but I still love it. Pure comfort reading.
Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson (2023)
Audiobook narrated by Paterson Joseph.
A collection of interconnected stories, all a bit eerie, creepy, unsettling and sad. It was good, like everything Atkinson writes, but I’m not sure I’ll be recommending it as heartily as Life After Life and A God in Ruins.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (2023)
A collection of short – sometimes very short – pieces about her marriage breakdown, drawn-out divorce, the ugly aftermath and development of a new normal with her children. She writes of her husband’s disdain for her writing career so her success must be absolutely delicious. I am delighted for her.