* This page was created on 18 September 2011, with the corresponding post ‘A new page for a book list‘ *
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2020
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
5 Feb | The Lottery and Other Stories | Shirley Jackson |
19 Jan | We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Shirley Jackson |
16 Jan | Giovanni’s Room | James Baldwin |
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2019
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
16 Dec | Notes of a Native Son | James Baldwin |
5 Dec | The Amen Corner | James Baldwin |
21 Nov | Go Tell It on the Mountain | James Baldwin |
10 Oct | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro |
13 Sep | The Little Prince | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
22 Mar | Milkman | Anna Burns |
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2018
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
01 Oct | Billion Dollar Whale | Bradley Hope & Tom Wright |
20 Jul | Rumi: Past and Present, East and West | Franklin D. Lewis |
15 Apr | New Minimalism | Kyle Louise Quilici |
25 Mar | Goodbye, Things | Fumio Sasaki |
12 Jan | The Belgariad, Book 5: Enchanters’ End Game | David Eddings |
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2017
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
26 Dec | The Belgariad, Book 4: Castle of Wizardry | David Eddings |
20 Dec | The Belgariad, Book 3: Magician’s Gambit | David Eddings |
13 Dec | The Belgariad, Book 2: Queen of Sorcery | David Eddings |
06 Dec | The Belgariad, Book 1: Pawn of Prophecy | David Eddings |
17 Nov | A Death in the Dales | Frances Brody |
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2016
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
29 Aug | Murder On The Orient Express | Agatha Christie |
20 Aug | Endless Night | Agatha Christie |
05 Aug | The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side | Agatha Christie |
15 Jul | At Bertram’s Hotel | Agatha Christie |
28 Jun | Murder on Sisters’ Row | Victoria Thompson |
10 Jun | Rococo | Adriana Trigiani |
01 Jun | Hell | Yasutaka Tsutsui |
12 Jan | Just Kids | Patti Smith |
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2015
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
29 Apr | The Consul’s File | Paul Theroux |
25 Apr | How to Barter for Paradise: My Journey through 14 Countries, Trading Up from an Apple to a House in Hawaii | Michael Wigge |
15 Apr | Adventures of 2 Girls | Ning Cai & Pamela Ho |
06 Apr | Macbeth | William Shakespeare |
29 Mar | The Kindness Diaries: One Man’s Quest to Ignite Goodwill and Transform Lives Around the World | Leon Logothetis |
24 Mar | The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the world’s most unlikely holiday destinations | Dom Joly |
20 Mar | Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia | Elizabeth Gilbert |
05 Mar | Vroom by the Sea: The Sunny Parts of Italy on a Bright Orange Vespa | Peter Moore |
22 Feb | The Prophet | Khalil Gibran |
15 Feb | Un Amico Italiano: Eat, Pray, Love, in Rome | Luca Spaghetti. Translation by Antony Shugaar |
12 Feb | Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption | Laura Hillenbrand |
06 Feb | Home | Toni Morrison |
02 Feb | The Spinning Heart | Donal Ryan |
29 Jan | The Hundred-Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais |
22 Jan | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
09 Jan | Twelve Years A Slave | Solomon Northup |
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2014
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
22 Dec | Dream Psychology | Sigmund Freud |
17 Jun | Eden in the East: The drowned continent of Southeast Asia | Stephen Oppenheimer |
20 Feb | Labyrinth | Kate Mosse |
31 Jan | The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest | Stieg Larsson |
10 Jan | The Girl Who Played With Fire | Stieg Larsson |
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2013
DATE |
TITLE | AUTHOR |
27 Dec | Small Holdings | Nicola Barker |
12 Dec | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson |
07 Oct | House | Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker |
18 Sep | Misterioso | Arne Dahl |
17 Jun | The Bull from the Sea | Mary Renault |
25 Apr | How Not to Write a Novel | Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark |
05 Mar | Mikhail | Ramlee Awang Murshid |
19 Feb | The Inhuman Condition | Clive Barker |
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2012
Entry: Sunday, 06 Jan 2013:
And the grand total of novels I read in 2012….is!… *drumroll*…. 4! Yay!!
That’s double than what I read in the whole of 2011. Hmm, impressive. And my sharp mathematical skills calculate faster than the speed of light, that four books means I read an entire novel every 3 months. Fascinating, but how on earth shall I top that?
I think I’ll go for another double, to eight for 2013.
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Finished:
I learned how to construct tables in wordpress like the ones below, only on the day I created this page, Sunday 18 September 2011. Thanks to a tutorial of a generous blogger called timethief.
DATE | TITLE | AUTHOR |
10 Oct 2011 | BETTER ANGEL | Richard Meeker |
28 Oct 2011 | SENSE AND SENSIBILITY | Jane Austen |
19 Feb 2012 | THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU | Melissa Hill |
20 Feb 2012 | A VALLEY IN ITALY | Lisa St Aubin de Teran |
22 Feb 2012 | WHITE FANG | Jack London |
11 Aug 2012 | HARMATTAN | Gaye Shortland |
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– Books read prior to the day this page was created.
- Titles in boxes: I still have a copy of these books… somewhere.
- Titles outside boxes are books I only remember I have read.
- Titles in blue: are the ones I enjoyed.
- In purple: are books I love deeply. Close to my heart.
- And in pink: are the ones I don’t like.
- As for the others, I don’t remember whether I liked them or not.
A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED | Agatha Christie | ||
CARDS ON THE TABLE | Agatha Christie | ||
CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS | Agatha Christie | ||
CROOKED HOUSE | Agatha Christie | ||
MURDER IS EASY | Agatha Christie | ||
PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES | Agatha Christie | ||
POSTERN OF FATE | Agatha Christie | ||
THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES | Agatha Christie | ||
THE SECRET ADVERSARY |
Agatha Christie |
–
INTERESTING MONSTERS | Aldo Alvarez |
– a collection of short stories; includes gay characters.
–
THE TESSERACT | Alex Garland |
– fast paced action based in the Philippines. Manila, I think.
–
CORRIDOR | Alfian Sa’at |
– Alfian Sa’at: is a Singaporean writer
–
DUBIN’S LIVES | Bernard Malamud |
–
THE ITALIAN SECRETARY | Caleb Carr |
– a ‘further adventure’ of Sherlock Holmes. Enjoyable read.
–
CAUGHT STEALING | Charlie Huston | ||
SIX BAD THINGS | Charlie Huston |
– both were free e-books I read on my iPhone via the Stanza app. Tough guy adventure featuring the same protagonist. Pretty cool.
–
MY CHOCOLATE REDEEMER | Christopher Hope |
– Sweet and whimsical. Usually I like worlds like that, and I wanted to like this, but it was quite boring. It was a struggle to finish it.
–
FASCIST ROCK | Claire Tham |
–
EVERVILLE | Clive Barker |
– I’ve read this epic horror fantasy novel a few times. It’s breathtakingly wonderful every single time.
–
A ROOM WITH A VIEW | E. M. Forster |
–
ETHAN FROME | Edith Wharton | ||
MADAME DE TREYMES | Edith Wharton | ||
SANCTUARY | Edith Wharton | ||
SUMMER | Edith Wharton | ||
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE | Edith Wharton | ||
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY | Edith Wharton | ||
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH | Edith Wharton | ||
TWILIGHT SLEEP | Edith Wharton |
– all eight of these Edith Wharton novels were free e-books I read on my iPhone via the Stanza app. That is truly amazing. Free books. Beautiful classics especially. In my phone. Free!
–
GATES OF EDEN | Ethan Coen |
–
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
– I read this after watching the movie. Another free e-book I read on my iPhone via the Stanza app.
PRIVATES | Gene Horowitz |
– A sweet, moving gay novel. A guy recalling his younger years when he was serving in the army.
ANIMAL FARM | George Orwell |
–
STRANGER THAN LOVE | Graeme Woolaston |
– I remember this is a gay novel, but nothing else.
–
A FINE FAMILY | Gurcharan Das |
–
GABRIEL’S GIFT | Hanif Kureishi |
–
MARCOVALDO | Italo Calvino | ||
THE PATH TO THE SPIDERS’ NESTS | Italo Calvino | ||
TIME AND THE HUNTER | Italo Calvino |
–
HOLIDAY IN DEATH | J.D.Robb |
–
LORD OF THE RINGS, PART 1: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING | J.R.R.Tolkien | ||
LORD OF THE RINGS, PART 2: THE TWO TOWERS | J.R.R.Tolkien | ||
LORD OF THE RINGS, PART 3: THE RETURN OF THE KING | J.R.R.Tolkien |
–
ODDFELLOWS | Jack Dickson |
– Gay novel.
GOING TO MEET THE MAN | James Baldwin |
– a collection of beautiful short stories.
– added 18 Sep 2011: GIOVANNI’S ROOM / James Baldwin
– added 18 Sep 2011: ANOTHER COUNTRY / James Baldwin
– added 18 Sep 2011: JUST ABOVE MY HEAD / James Baldwin
–
EUSTACE CHISHOLM AND THE WORKS | James Purdy | ||
NARROW ROOMS | James Purdy |
– both books were gifts from an editor at GMP (Gay Men’s Press).
–
THE JANISSARY TREE | Jason Goodwin |
– A gloriously entertaining whodunit. Not only that, but it’s set in Istanbul in the 1830s during the declining years of the Ottoman Empire. The sleuth summoned to investigate is Yashim Togalu, a eunuch.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE | Jane Austen |
– Another free e-book I read on my iPhone via the Stanza app.
–
THE COMING OUT PARTY | John Caffey |
– This was given to me by a good friend Bob, who has sadly passed away.
– A memorable and very funny gay novel about a bored middle aged gay guy, and his personal pet project of turning an ugly fat youth into a sought-after Adonis.
WARRIORS AND OUTLAWS | John R. Gordon |
– An exciting fast-paced action story, but also sensitive and thought-provoking, set in London with black gay characters.
–
THE SEXUAL OUTLAW | John Rechy |
– A non-fiction gay book, very steamy with very graphic sexual accounts. But it’s not just eroticism; this is an intelligent and mature documentary, a “passionate outcry against the oppression of homosexuals“.
OF MICE AND MEN | John Steinbeck |
– I got this after watching the movie.
–
DAMAGE | Josephine Hart |
– I have never watched the movie till now. The book was devastatingly beautiful.
–
CODY | Keith Hale |
– a gift from the same editor at GMP.
–
THE ROAD TO CHANDIBOLE | Marie Gerrina Louis |
–
THE CHARIOTEER | Mary Renault | ||
THE MASK OF APOLLO | Mary Renault |
–
OUTCASTE | Matampu Kunjukuttan |
–
THE ENGLISH PATIENT | Michael Ondaatje |
– I read this after watching the film.
DINNER FOR TWO | Mike Gayle |
–
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING | Milan Kundera |
–
A WOMAN OF CAIRO | Noel Barber | ||
THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE | Noel Barber |
–
EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE | Paul Gervais |
– A gay novel. Sensitive and moving and heartbreaking, yet also funny sometimes. I don’t remember where and how I found this, but I will never forget the book itself.
THE VALKYRIES | Paulo Coelho |
– Painfully boring. A massive disappointment after all the hype I’ve read about him. Perhaps I shouldn’t have started with this. Should have dived into The Alchemist, his huge bestseller. It’s just that I came across this at a second-hand bookstore for a few dollars. A Coelho; of course I picked it up.
–
THE HAKAWATI | Rabih Alameddine |
– A giant masterpiece of a book, incredibly rich and layered, ultimately about a Lebanese guy and his love for his fascinating family. The style and the plot of the book left me breathless and anxious after it sucked me right in into its labyrinth of fairy tales and legends, woven into the main storyline set in modern-day Beirut.
– Usually I prefer to buy second hand books, but I bought this brand-new when I saw it at a Kinokuniya while in Bangkok. So happy I did.
–
GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT | Reginald Hill |
–
ROAD RAGE | Ruth Rendell |
– A gift from Tony.
–
THE UNRAVELLING | S.P. Samuel |
– A wonderful book from a local writer.
–
THE MOOR’S LAST SIGH | Salman Rushdie |
–
THE LINGUIST | Sebastian Beaumont |
–
MUSIC UPSTAIRS | Shena Mackay | ||
THE ORCHARD ON FIRE | Shena Mackay |
–
– added 19 Sept 2011: THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT / Sidney Sheldon
– added 19 Sept 2011: A STRANGER IN THE MIRROR / Sidney Sheldon
– added 19 Sept 2011: MASTER OF THE GAME / Sidney Sheldon
– added 19 Sept 2011: IF TOMORROW COMES / Sidney Sheldon
– added 19 Sept 2011: THE SANDS OF TIME / Sidney Sheldon
–
DIAL M FOR MERDE | Stephen Clarke |
–
IT | Stephen King |
– added 18 Sep 2011: – CHRISTINE / Stephen King / a horror about a haunted car
– added 18 Sep 2011: – CUJO / Stephen King / a horror about a rabid dog
–
JACOB’S ROOM | Virginia Woolf |
–
MY EDUCATION | William S. Burroughs | ||
QUEER | William S. Burroughs | ||
THE PLACE OF DEAD ROADS | William S. Burroughs |
–
You have read so many awesome books! The year doesn’t matter. Agatha and Edith are dear old friends of mine, i.e., I read them a long time ago and I am old….ish! :)
Thanks, Cindy! Yes those are two amazing writers you mentioned. I’ve loved Agatha for a long time too, whereas Edith was quite recent, but I quickly read some of her stuff. She’s really something, her writing is gripping and we just fall for her characters.
I love this! You’ve read many good books. I read “Giovanni’s Room” and “Ethan Frome” too! lovely books! James Baldwin is one of my Favorite!
Have you read “Just Kids” by Patti Smith? It’s about the legendary Punk Rocker Patti Smith’s friendship with her gay buddy Robert Mapplethorpe in New York City in the 1960s-1980s. Absolutely stunning – the book that defines my life. I wrote about it here: https://thangtranjuly20.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/review-just-kids_by-patti-smith-memoir-arts-friendship-new-york/
Thank you for the lovely compliment! I really love those two books ‘Giovanni’s Room’ and ‘Ethan Frome’, and James Baldwin is one of my favourites too.
I have not read ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith, although it sounds very familiar. I think I have heard/read about how good it is. I would love to read it now. Thanks for the link to your review, which I’ve just read and now I definitely want to pick up ‘Just Kids’ soon! Cheers.