Serhii Plokhy, Lost Kingdom, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

Lost Kingdom was A History of Russian Nationalism, concentrating on the identity of Ukraine and Belarus. What a mess. I think I've probably read 'The Big Sleep' before, and certainly I've seen the film, and it just didn't connect with me - the same with Tropic of Cancer, which has been praised to the skies, but appears to have no plot at all to me. Talking of plots, 7 MPs left the Labour Party yesterday. Part of me is disappointed as the Labour Party should be a broad church and include all progressives, but another part of me is glad to see the back of 7 troublemakers who were actively working against Corbyn and sewing discord.  They don't feel comfortable in the current Labour Party, but I and hundreds of thousands of others feel that the Labour Party is the best it has been in a long long time. It's a real shock to hear that Labour MPs applauded the 7 for leaving, and the sympathy for their position coming from Tom Watson and other MPs makes one realise the massive gap that exists between Labour party members and MPs. This isn't over yet, as there remains a PLP heavily weighted towards centrist, Blairite liberals and a membership that is primarily socialist. There is a realignment coming, but I cannot believe there is any demand for another centrist, liberal, pro-remain party when the Lib Dems already have that territory.  Hopefully Labour will move towards a model of open primaries and mandatory reselection so we can get MPs that are selected by, accountable to, and representative of their constituencies.

Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies, Thomas Williams, Viking Britain: A History, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Ian Mortimer, The Outcasts of Time, Mark Seddon & Francis Beckett, Jeremy Corbyn and the Strange Rebirth of Labour England, Mick Herron, Real Tigers, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Big Little Lies has been on my shelf for a while, but I started reading it as Helen had another Liane Moriarty book for her Book Club (I'm very jealous of Helen being in a book club). It's marketed as chick-lit, but it's actually a lot darker and revolves around dysfunctional relationships and domestic violence. the format makes it seem more light-hearted with the flashback interviews with clueless pompous parents. The House of Mirth was that rarity, an 'essential novel' that engaged me and wasn't too much of a slog. i loved the character of Lily too, a female protagonist trapped in a patriarchal society that limits her freedom of action, but who still manages to chart her own course. Outcasts of Time was disappointing, a time-travelling novel by an author whose history books I've enjoyed. it just seemed flat and a whistle-stop tour of what has changed from century to century. Forks! Mirrors! Trains!. Meh.  The Corbyn book I couldn't put down, so good to read a book where I agreed with practically every word and which gave a fine overview of Labour history and its current status. I really don't know what is going to happen with the party, part of me wants the Blairites to split off as they are undermining Corbyn so much by weaponising anti-semitism and Europe, and I don't believe for a second that the country is crying out for another liberal, pro-market party. Just like the SDP, it'd be immensely popular with a certain type of broadsheet reader, but no-one else. On the other hand, splitting the progressive vote just means the Conservatives get back in.  Real Tigers was fab, which seems odd for any novel where the climax is set in a warehouse in Hayes. Robinson Crusoe was hard work, I ended up skim-reading through. i understand its importance as arguably the first novel in the english language, but after 300 years of plot development and character building, it seems primitive and from the 'and then' school of children's creative writing. The introduction was very interesting, explaining that Defoe's motivation for writing the novel was entirely commercial, and in explaining the character of Robinson Crusoe as a protestant proto-imperialist. It is quite shocking how casual he is about selling his companion Xury into slavery, and assumes that everything on the island is his by right to exploit as he wishes.  I guess that's the 21st century interpretation of Crusoe though, but blimey, it was hard to believe some of his behaviour and assumptions

William Gibson, Neuromancer

The book that inspired all those cult, seminal, influential dystopian films like Blade Runner and The Matrix that I don't like. I wonder if I would have felt differently if I had read it in the early '80s when the mixture of cybernetics, drugs and martial arts might have felt fresh and exciting as a vision of the future rather than the standard expectation that it seems to have become. I trudged through it to the end out of duty

Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, George Orwell, Collected Essays, Bernard Cornwell, Enemy of God, Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man, Matthew Kneale, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, Stuart Turton, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Simon Winchester, The Men Who United The States

That was a good workout. After The Golden Notebook and The Invisible Man, I couldn’t face another 'essential novel' so skipped one.  I'm not sure why 'The Golden Notebook' is considered an eseential novel, but that's down to my ignorance. The subject matter - feminism, left wing politics and decolonisation seen through the eyes of an englishwoman doesn;t fit so well with the general thrust of the very American list I have. I wonder if they had one rogue patriotic English contributor who insisted Mrs Dalloway, The Golden Notebook, Under The Net and White Teeth simply MUST be included on any serious list. Orwell was still fresh and relevant, I should reread Homage to Catalonia, which i remember throughly disillusioning me about anarchism and the glorious cause as a teenager. I enjoyed The Invisible Man, and it was good to see another view of the darker side of the American experience - the ubiquitous racism and how it informs the attitudes and actions of all. Stuart Turton's book has just won the Costa Prize, and there seems to be a competition amone reviewers for who can come up with the best cocktail of influences - Agatha Christie meets Christopher Nolan's Memento by way of the Instance of The Fingerpost or Gosford Park time travelling locked room murder mystery Groundhog Day. Whatever, it was a great read, perfect for Book Club.

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms, Jonathan Coe, Middle England

Some sombre reading while on a Scout trip to Ypres to commemorate the centenary of the armistice. Really should have had some light relief between the horrors of warfare and the senseless loss of life of WWI. AQOTWF isn’t on the list of 100 essential novels, the nearest equivalent is the Red Badge of Courage - I guess that reflects the American experience, and the Civil War is their touchstone of pointless slaughter and mechanised murder.'Middle England' is Jonathan Coe's Brexit novel, using his characters from The Rotters' Club. i enjoyed it and it was very good on the resentment and left-behindness of the Leave voters, and how we became 2 nations living in each other's midsts without realising it - and the shock that came to the liberal establishment when truths it took to be self-evident were rejected.

James Acaster, James Acaster's Classic Scrapes

Terrible title, but a funny book. Acaster is a comedian who suffers from the ability to get himself into strange situations. It  reminded me of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where a character's seemingly reasonable responses to a situation run up against a set of circumstances that move the character deeper and deeper into a hole despite their best efforts.  Makes for some very funny stories. William is singing some lovely songs at the moment 'Shiny-like a crab-spinning round' and 'I would wor fi hundred miles and I would wor Fi hundred miles.. .  .'. Fred and I are travelling to Flanders tomorrow for the Armistice centenary.

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Maybe the ground-breaking style of this hasn't aged well - to me it didn’t seem anything special, but maybe it was the first 'warts and all' disguised autobiography that touched previous taboo subjects. I make it sound like Knausgaard, which I love - not sure why I didn't get this, but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are presumably way beyond my comprehension!