Book list

* 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
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

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INTERESTING MONSTERS

Aldo Alvarez

– a collection of short stories; includes gay characters.

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THE TESSERACT

Alex Garland

– fast paced action based in the Philippines. Manila, I think.

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CORRIDOR

Alfian Sa’at

– Alfian Sa’at: is a Singaporean writer

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DUBIN’S LIVES

Bernard Malamud

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THE ITALIAN SECRETARY

Caleb Carr

– a ‘further adventure’ of Sherlock Holmes. Enjoyable read.

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	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.

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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.

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FASCIST ROCK

Claire Tham

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EVERVILLE

Clive Barker

– I’ve read this epic horror fantasy novel a few times. It’s breathtakingly wonderful every single time.

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A ROOM WITH A VIEW

E. M. Forster

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	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!

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GATES OF EDEN

Ethan Coen

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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

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STRANGER THAN LOVE

Graeme Woolaston

– I remember this is a gay novel, but nothing else.

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A FINE FAMILY

Gurcharan Das

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GABRIEL’S GIFT

Hanif Kureishi

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	MARCOVALDO	Italo Calvino
	THE PATH TO THE SPIDERS’ NESTS	Italo Calvino
	TIME AND THE HUNTER	Italo Calvino

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HOLIDAY IN DEATH

J.D.Robb

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	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

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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

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	EUSTACE CHISHOLM AND THE WORKS	James Purdy
	NARROW ROOMS	James Purdy

– both books were gifts from an editor at GMP (Gay Men’s Press).
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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.

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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.

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DAMAGE

Josephine Hart

– I have never watched the movie till now. The book was devastatingly beautiful.

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CODY

Keith Hale

– a gift from the same editor at GMP.

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THE ROAD TO CHANDIBOLE

Marie Gerrina Louis

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	THE CHARIOTEER	Mary Renault
	THE MASK OF APOLLO	Mary Renault

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OUTCASTE

Matampu Kunjukuttan

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THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Michael Ondaatje

– I read this after watching the film.

DINNER FOR TWO

Mike Gayle

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THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Milan Kundera

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	A WOMAN OF CAIRO	Noel Barber
	THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE	Noel Barber

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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

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	MUSIC UPSTAIRS	Shena Mackay
	THE ORCHARD ON FIRE	Shena Mackay

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– 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

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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

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JACOB’S ROOM

Virginia Woolf

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	MY EDUCATION	William S. Burroughs
	QUEER	William S. Burroughs
	THE PLACE OF DEAD ROADS	William S. Burroughs

–