Kapka Kassabova, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, Noah Hawley, Before the Fall, Dorothy Carrington, Granite Island: Portrait of Corsica, Flann O'Brien At-Swim-Two-Birds, Ron Chernow, Hamilton, Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass, Steven Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century

What a mixture. My occasional meanderings around Eastern Europe have reached the border of Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, and thus the divide between Muslim and Christian, Ottoman and Habsburg (ish), Communism and Western Democracy (ish) Slav, Greek and Turk. Another enjoyable read of bandits, mountains, superstition, and the intractability of conflict in the Balkans. Then Granite Island as a friend at work has just been to Corsica. Will make it there one day to smell the maquis and the cheese.  . .

Didn’t really get At-Swim-Two-Birds, another essential novel I don't understand. Hamilton was a book I should have read a long, long  time ago, about one of the greatest of the founding fathers. 'John Adams' is still on my shelf, although I've seen the miniseries starring Paul Giamatti at least.. .

The Golden Compass is a reread to prepare for Pullman's new book in September, which I'm very excited about. Fred's not yet at a reading level to enjoy Pullman, sadly. I worry that he is not going to be a book lover, but what can you do? The more I push him, the more he could grow to dislike reading

Libby broke her arm at the weekend. I'm so used to thinking of her as a tough little nut that I told her to shrug it off when she fell off the swing. It was only later when it started to swell up that we realised how serious it was. It took a while for her to get used to the plaster cast, it must be very frustrating for her. She seems to be adjusting now - we just pray the plaster comes off before our holiday.