I seem to be reading mainly non-fiction these days. All the following are non-fiction except book 93.
89) Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story, Rachel Clarke.
Account of life as a junior doctor in the context of Jeremy Hunt's efforts to change their contracts and the strikes. I found this thought-provoking - she is good at portraying how bright, dedicated, enthusiastic doctors can experience the slow leaching away of these qualities in an environment where they are constantly over-worked, under-supported, taken advantage of and disrespected. A useful political perspective.
90) Bits of me are falling apart, William Leith
Middle-aged male feels his life is falling apart (newly-separated from the mother of his child, worried about health). Wallows in self-pity, which makes him feel worse, so further self-pity etc etc.
91) The Politics of Washing, Polly Coles
Englishwoman moves to Venice with husband and four children. I liked some aspects, such as her account of the Italian school system, but she goes on and on about how tourism is destroying Venice. She has a point, and there is certainly a strong case for banning cruise ships, but the overall effect is "I am entitled to enjoy Venice but the rest of you plebs should stay away so you don't spoil it", which grates a bit. See also recent pronouncements by Donna Leon.
92) The Art of Failing, Anthony McGowan
A year in the life a children's author. I think it's taken from a blog - reads like a diary. I enjoyed this - funny and nicely lugubrious. He has a way with simile and does the plangent thing well.
93) The Travelling Bag, Susan Hill
Sub-MR James ghost stories. I did feel a tremor, but only because I read them late at night and I'm a wuss.
94) Ways of Seeing, John Berger
Challenging myself with a genre I don't usually read - I suppose it's classified as art history. The copy I read was an elderly library book with poor-quality photo reproductions, which made it more of a challenge. I couldn't "read" the photo essays at all. But I loved the section on modern advertising - the points are still valid, even if the ads used now seem quaintly 1970s.
95) The Rules Do Not Apply, Ariel Levy
American woman writing about the pull between motherhood and leading a life of freedom and adventure, a theme for which I have some sympathy. She spends a lot of time writing about her female partner's descent into alcoholism and about her own miscarriage while on a trip to Mongolia. I'm not sure it needed to be book-length - the Guardian had an interview with her and an extract from the book when it came out earlier this year, and it pretty much covered everything in the book.
Currently on 96). Come, Tell me How you Live, by Agatha Christie, her autobiographical account of life on archaeological digs in the Middle East in the 1930s. Really enjoying it. Of its time in terms of the amused condescension to the locals, but it's humanising to hear the Grande Dame of crime-writing moaning about being fat and tongue-tied, having a dodgy tummy and being bitten by fleas. I want to board the Orient Express, bound for the plains of Mesopotamia.