Cloudstreet, Tim Winton

Read for Book Club - chosen by Ros.

Set in Perth, this novel teems with strong Australian characters.

Two families come by chance to live together in a big old house.  Each family has their own tragedies and joys to cope with in a story spanning 30 years.

It took me a while to read, but it was worth it to follow the lows and highs.

The Stranger's Child, Alan Hollinghurst

Read on the Kindle - special purchase at 20p.

I had read and enjoyed the Line of Beauty, so when I saw this book on special offer on the Kindle I went ahead and downloaded it.

It's a novel with a broad historic sweep - starting in the early 20th Century, and ending in the current times.

Each section of the book is set in a different time, and the challenge every time the focus shifts is to work out where and when you are, and how everybody is connected.  Events and characters are viewed differently with hindsight, sometimes we know more than the characters in the book, and sometimes they have knowledge we didn't have.

Only spoiled by a slightly downbeat ending, where loose ends were left flapping in the wind, I nevertheless enjoyed this book too.

A Perfectly Good Man, Patrick Gale

Read on the Kindle, after Amazon recommendation.

A companion piece to Notes from an Exhibition, it features the same Cornwall location and some of the same characters.

An interesting structure, where Father Barnaby Johnson's chapters work backwards in time, while the rest of the narrative starts at the beginning and works forward.

Beautifully written, with the central questions seeming to be not only What makes a Good Man? but also What makes a Man Good.

I loved this book, and was sad and bereft when I finished it.

How to Eat Out, Giles Coren

Read on the Kindle, after recommendation by Amazon.

Giles Coren, son of Alan Coren, former editor of Punch, and brother of Victoria Coren, writer, presenter and champion poker player, is a food critic and television presenter. (He's also written a novel, but I haven't read that yet).

This book is part autobiography, part travelogue, and part instruction manual for how to get the best out of a dining experience in various different types of restaurant.

He may come across as pompous and opinionated some times, but he sure knows how to string a sentence together, and some of the chapters are laugh out loud funny.