John Le Carre, A Legacy Of Spies, John Bew, Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee, John O'Hara, Appointment in Samarra

Mixed reviews on Le Carre, with some saying it's a rehash and spying by numbers. You need to have read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to get the most out of it, but as with anything Le Carre, I loved it. Familiar characters reappearing for another adventure. The biog of Attlee is influenced by current events in the party, with Bew not a fan of Corbyn and the left. He goes out of his way to draw distinctions between Attlee's philosophy and that of Corbyn, and rubbishes Bevan at any opportunity he gets. I'm not saying these distinctions and criticisms don't have substance, but it got a bit too polemical and not enough historical sometimes.

Appointment in Samarra is from the 100 Essential Novels. Another NE (Pennsylvania) small town upper-middle class novel. Aaarrgghhhh.

Patrick Barkham, Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore

Some nice easy reading, an elegy to the National Trust's parts of our coastline. Nature writing is all the rage at the moment, and Barkham has a weekly column in The Guardian where his  brief appears to be to write whatever the hell  he wants.

This weekend we finally got a cat! Buzz has joined the family, he's about 8 months old and was found in a field in Binfield, the poor love. He's still getting used to our house (and our kids), but he's getting more confident and is happy to snuggle up already

JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent, John Julius Norwich, Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe, Graham Greene, The Heart Of The Matter, Tove Jansson, The Summer Book, Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs: 1613-1918, Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

Holiday reading in the Netherlands and Belgium. We had such a lovely time - cycling everywhere, theme park attached to the campsite, lots of geocaching. Libby's arm was still in a cast, but it didn't hold her back much. We had a waterproof cast cover so she could go in the water, and she was often the only one of us prepared to brave the North Sea. Freddie is getting much more independent now and was always off cycling round the site exploring . William was just excited by all the windmills - 'Baby Jake's House! Baby Jake's House! Dat one Baby Jake's House?'