M. John Harrison, The Sunken Land Begins To Rise

 This got some fabulous reviews, but mainly from other writers, and looking now I can see that he appeals to professional writers who can admire his technique and structure. For a layperson like me it seemed like not much was happening. I still enjoyed it though, all the way through there was a dark melancholy just outside of the characters' consciousness, trying to seep in. Very dark and foreboding and large parts set in Mortlake, so it seemed very familiar, particularly the psychogeographic walks along the Thames and the Brent.

John Williams, Stoner

 A great novel, the story of one man's stoic, uncelebrated life, very touching and poignant, a life of 'if only. . . ' too. Not at all the 'slacker' book I had always assumed from the title. 

Tom Cox, Bad Witch

 I enjoyed Tom Cox's 'Villager' so sought this out, a crowd-funded, experimental collection of short stories. The author was obviously enjoying himself, and it is the same blend of english folk, landscape and modern intrusions, but the stories didn't really go anywhere. Lovely cover art though. Autumn seems to have arrived, the mornings are mistier and the nights are drawing in, and the house is full of apples after the kids harvested a load yesterday. we took next door's dog out for a couple of walks yesterday too, Libby in particular enjoying it. She is still canvassing for a dog, which I'm sympathetic to, but Fred is against it sadly. Helen spends a lot of time window shopping for dogs that need rehoming, but it's not going to happen without unanimity

Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety

What an epic, the entire progress of the French Revolution from the point of view of Desmoulins, Danton and Robespierre. It had a cast of thousands and I really struggled to follow who was who and what was happening, but the wit and the explanation of events and motive was masterful. Still a slog though, but you can see the seeds of the style used for her masterpieces about Cromwell. I need some light reading for a bit now though. We've just booked a few days away in Wales in October half term, so i'm already getting excited about that. I don't think Helen will be able to come with us, but hopefully we'll do some walking in the hills and see a few castles.

Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains

 Never really got into this, but needed to read it as the prelude to 'Goodbye to Berlin'. It didn't help that I put it down halfway through to pick up Hilary Mantel's 'A Place of Greater Safety' as I wanted to take something substantial to Scotland for Duncan's 50th as there would be a lot of time for reading. Looking back at my last comment I was rather uncharitable in not looking forward to it. Dunc and his family had gone to incredible efforts to put together a very memorable weekend full of booze, activities and exploring the estate. the house was really impressive, the 12,000 acres even more so. I really enjoyed it, but there were times when I was exhausted of small talk and hungover and needed time to myself. Other than Duncan, I only really knew Clayton there, and couldn't really hang on his coat tails all weekend. Most of the people there were from Rochdale Rugby club and that dominated conversation. Those of us from elsewhere were out on a limb a little, but I could and should have made more of an effort. Clay and I managed to get lost on the first night walking back from the lock, despite the house being visible. We took a wrong turn, started heading uphill to the moor and had to stop at a little cottage (which would have been the last building for about 6 miles) for help getting back. Duncan had a fantastic time though, which is what matters!

Mick Herron, Bad Actors

I always enjoy a Slough House novel, but they do appear to be subject to the Law of Diminishing Returns and it is a very similar story each time. I like the wit and the put-downs, but as the action accelerates towards the end and there are multiple fights and chases in multiple locations I struggle to follow what is happening. Mick Herron has just released a non-Slough House novel, I'll be checking out to see if it any fresher. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Inverness for Duncan's 50th. not sure what to expect, who will be there, what we'll be doing, and to be honest I could do without it, but I want to be there for Dunc.

Tim Marshall, The Future of Geography, Willem Elsschot, Cheese. Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck, Hakan Nesser, The Mind's Eye, John Williams, Butcher's Crossing, Volker Weidermann, Summer Before The Dark, Antony Beevor, Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921

 The accumulated reading on our wonderful holiday to the Netherlands and Belgium. We arrived back a few days ago and I'm in the post-holiday blues period, so while the memories are still fresh I should get them all down! It seems like we were away for ages, maybe that's because we stayed in two places, so already the first week at Duinrell seems distant, and the trip to get there, stopping at some little french village for breakfast from the patisserie and lunch in Middelburg underneath a deafening clock seems even longer ago. Fred navigated, and he's much better at it than me or Helen. We've come to rely on him for so much, he's very practical which we need in our family. He's also just learnt to solve a rubik's cube, and is patiently trying to explain it to us, but it is not going in to our old heads. Duinrell cost an absolute fortune, but it was perfect. we had a lovely 'duingalow' with 4 big bedrooms and with the theme park and water park onsite the kids were able to spend the days on rides and would happily never have left the site.  We did make it out once or twice and dragged them on a cycle ride to Leiden, Fred and I went out to explore a bit and i managed to get some long runs and cycles in by myself. The second week in Belgium was at a Center Parcs in the Ardennes, and being in the forested hills was fantastic, again I managed a few runs and a cycle to the 'three frontiers' of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, but it was so hilly that long distance cycles weren't on the agenda. Fred and I also headed out to the Col de Stockau nearby which had a tribute to Eddy Merckx at the top. We had to walk up, it was an absolute killer.  I also cut my head open exiting a very spooky cave after finding a geocache. Luckily Fred was with me to make sure I was ok. The kids actually got on quite well together, although there was a little bickering occasionally. The holiday seems to have tired out William completely, and he missed his first football training on Saturday. He showed up for the friendly match on sunday, but wasn't himself and after a few minutes on the pitch asked to be subbed off, bless him. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. Yesterday was Mum's 75th so we went over to Harmondsworth to see her. Jo and Vicki were there too, so we had a lovely afternoon. We got the spirit level out and Libby isn't quite as tall as Helen yet despite a recent growth spurt. It'll be soon though.

'The Future of Geography' wasn't a book I'd normally read, but I've enjoyed previous books by Tim Marshall so thought I'd give it a whirl. It was about the geopolitics of space, which I cannot get my head round. I can't see how the material benefits of mineral extractoin or whatever from space can possibly justify the expense of retrieving it, but maybe I don't have the necessary vision to see what humanity is capable of. It is quite disorienting to consider that Elon Musk, who otherwise appears to be an egocentric spoilt trolling buffoon may actually be a genuinely visionary pioneer when it comes to space. Let's see. Willem Elsschot's 'Cheese' was the result of wanting to read something of Dutch literature, and it was very funny indeed, a scathing satire of the world of work and the boredom, pettiness and pointlessness of office life. I'd love to read more, but it seems this is the only book of his that has been translated into english. 'The Mind's Eye' was another 'Dutch' read, even if set in the deliberately vague northern european Maardam of Inspector Van Veeteren. An enjoyable procedural, I'll try and read some more and get back into the habit. I seem to enjoy fiction much more than non-fiction at the moment, there's no books in my non-fiction pile that I'm excited about reading at the moment, but that's bound to change. 'Butcher's Crossing' was superb, a revisionist western that I preferred to the later works of Cormac McCarthy which cover similar, but more visceral and hallucinatory territory. I've never bothered with John Williams as I assumed 'Stoner' was about some slacker bumming around, but that's not the case at all, and I'll read it asap. Nora Ephron's collection of witty articles was a really nice read between courses - I'm hardly the target audience and I'll give it to Helen to read as I'm sure she'll love it. It was light, funny and self-deprecating, I'll look out for more. 'Summer Before The Dark' could have been written for me, a fictionalised account of Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth expatting in Ostend, exiled from their homeland and lamenting a lost world while the storm clouds gather over europe. Finally, Antony Beevor's new book on the Russian Revolution and Civil War which went into great depth. whenever I read about the Revolution, I wonder where my sympathies would have been, as on both sides there was such inhumanity, terror and atrocity. Maybe I once thought that the bolsheviks had the advantage of doing it in the interests of the workers and peasants, but Lenin and Trotsky didn't give a fig for them. I wonder when I would have figured it out and what I would have done. I'd like to think I'd have fought back (although not with the Whites), but I think the reality is I would have been meekly arrested for counter-revolutionary democratic tendencies without putting up a fight. 

I've just had a quick look through the photos of our holiday to try and note down any other memories. on the way down to Belgium we stopped off at a town called Lier, which looked awful when we pulled into the underground car park, but which turned out (like so many towns we saw)to have a fantastic medieval square, wonderful clock tower and a special treat for Libby, a cat cafe. After that we broke the journey again at the Netherlands' highest point, which is also where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet. For a few seconds the kids were all in different countries, but they still managed to wind each other up. I laughed when I saw 'ski resort' marked on the map, but it turns out the Ardennes were actually a very hilly (if not quite mountainous) area. We also explored some huge cave (this time with a proper guide so I didn't bash my head) at Han, which also had a land-train ride round a wildlife park which played a very jaunty dutch pop tune which the kids (and Helen) loved.