Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners, Annie Proulx, The Shipping News, Sarah Churchwell, Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream, China Mieville, The City And The City

Haven't enjoyed a book as much as 'The City And The City' in a long time. It's a standard police procedural, but set in a Balkan city that shares space with another city - they're in the same physical space but there is a collective agreement not to 'breach' the divide. 'Behold America' was chilling, a reminder of the white supremacist. 'pure American' tradition in US culture and politics. Hard to believe it's come to the forefront again with Trump. We saw her speak at Hay and she was so passionate

I've just bought a new tent as our old one was too small for the family. It's up in the garden at the moment and we've been sleeping in it as it is just too hot in the house

John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle, Marie Phillips, The Table of Less Valued Knights, Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, David Crystal, Listen to Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Children's Language, Martin Amis, Money, Marcus Tanner, The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library

John Julius Norwich has sadly passed away since I read his history of France. It reminded me of George Macdonald Fraser's last books - very indulgent, personal, irreverent and from a man out of step with the modern world. Very uncharitable view and in both cases I wonder if their publishers knew they were on the way out and either waived normal editorial standards or rushed through publication. 'An American Tragedy' was the dark side of the American Dream, and stands with 'Ragtime' with its claim to be the Great American Novel because it explores the exploitation, the social barriers, the ambition and drive of those without who are prepared to go to any lengths to enter the gilded world they see.

Read most of it in Hay at the festival, where I had a wonderful time with Helen. I've been excited about it for months - it was great for the two of us to get away, and we stayed in a gypsy caravan next to Stewart Lee. Him recognising me at a talk he was chairing and saying 'oh, hello there!' may be one of the highlights of my life.

Junot Diaz, The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Not the book I was expecting, about a young Hispanic nerd in NY. That's how it starts, but it soon expands to cover the tragic history of a Dominican family in the 20th Century and the horrors of the Trujillo regime. Really enjoyable and learnt a lot about Dominican history. It was William's 4th birthday at the weekend and we had a big party. He's a real handful at the moment. It's lovely as he's talking far more and loves to sing and mimics his brother and sister. He wants to go 'geocachin' all the time, despite not really understanding it.  Hard to believe he starts school in September, he seems so young!

Next Erlendur - Arctic Chill

China Mieville, The Last Days Of New Paris

Margaret Mitchell, Gone With The Wind, Lucy Mangan. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, Cyril Hare, An English Murder, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, Elizabeth Drayson, The Moor's Last Stand: How Seven Centuries of Muslim Rule in Spain Came to an End

My holiday reading for the US. Gone With the Wind was breathtakingly racist, and the most alarming thing was the insouciance with which Margaret Mitchell and her characters just accepted the superiority of well-bred whites and that slavery was beneficial to all. It was still a gripping read though, and I ended up sneaking off most nights after the kids had gone to the bed to read a few more chapters while overdosing on free root beer and cakes at the Resort Food Hall in Disney World. Helen also had to tell me off for reading about Sherman's March to the Sea when I should have been watching the Orca display at Seaworld.

I'd read anything by Lucy Mangan, I've been a fan of her articles in The Guardian for years, and when she writes a book about childhood reading that's just the nuts. My responses to each chapter generally fell into one of two categories. A) I had read the book and nodded along enthusiastically with agreement or B) I had not read the book and stuck it straight on my Amazon wishlist so I was no longer missing out. One book she raved about, 'Private: Keep Out', is now out of print and battered second hand copies are changing hands for £700!

Cyril Hare's 'An English Murder' kept me diverted on the plane back via Iceland. It was a corking, classic english murder mystery. I was going to ask Alan if he had read it, but we weren't able to meet up in NY unfortunately as Alec was unwell. 'Blood Meridian' was unremittingly violent and I lost my way at times. No doubt a truer version of The West than Hollywood's, but I prefer the humour and verbosity of Deadwood over unending barbarity and depravity. Finally, a defence of Boabdil, the last Moorish ruler of Granada. His story is such a tragic one, it's no wonder it has inspired so many paintings, books etc. Makes me desperate to go back to Andalucia.

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived In The Castle

A nice slice of chilling American Gothic centring on a reclusive oddball aristocratic family imprisoned in their stately pile following a hideous poisoning. Really enjoyable, I was forever sneaking a few extra pages when I got a chance. We're off to the US on Wednesday, so have just started 'Gone With The Wind', the first few chapters of which are outrageous in their faux-nostalgia and blinkered view of the antebellum south. Let's see how it continues. . .

Frank McLynn, The Road Not Taken: How Britain Narrowly Missed a Revoloution, 1381-1926

As a historian, McLynn can be a bit partial and iconoclastic. He takes aim at quite a few shibboleths of English history. It’s hardly new to hear Henry VIII and Churchill denounced, but McLynn is very disparaging about Elizabeth I and Edward III, our perfect queen and perfect king - which makes an interesting change. It was a bit blah for me until the home ground of the 1926 strike was reached. McLynn was in no doubt that it was a truly revolutionary moment, and if the TUC hadn’t caved then the opportunity was there. Of course, as he himself states, the TUC never wanted a revolution and weren't prepared to go there. It's chilling to remember the state's response to the strike though - the black propaganda of the British Gazette, the encouragement of fascists to violence, the willingness for the military to shoot strikers. The General Strike was not intended by the strikers to bring about revolution, but the response of Baldwin's Government and its supporters showed that they thought that a possibility and they were prepared to kill ordinary British working people to avoid that. To Save The Nation. It's easy to draw parallels with the state's approach to striking miners at Orgreave and to anti-capitalist demonstrators more recently.

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Still processing this a bit, the horror of what slavery does to the human psyche is something so beyond my experience it's difficult to digest. To murder your own child so they wouldn't have to endure life on the plantation - how horrifying. A book to recommend.

How do  I segue from that to our holiday in just over a week? I'm torn between some light reading or taking a great big tome that has been sitting there a while. Hmmm. In the meantime, Libby has become a fixture at cubs, despite being a year too young. I found a spare scarf and woggle, and she is now known as 'Black Six'. Daddy's Little Enforcer.