13. Nine Perfect Strangers- Liane Moriarty This was my second Liane Moriarty book and it will probably be my last. In both this and Big Little Lies, the premise and the characters were quite interesting, but in each case the plot just got sillier and sillier.
14. Brazil- Michael Palin This was read by Michael Palin and was therefore delightful. He brought this land of carnivals, football, favelas and bodegas to life with plenty of local colour. He even made subjects like waste management and architecture seem exciting to me. The only thing I didn’t like was his fake Brazilian accent when quoting the locals.
15. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald I’d never read this before: it had its moments, but I couldn’t really see why it is considered such a classic.
16. The Collector- John Fowles I read the book last year and absolutely loved it; this was the audiobook. The narrator was skilful and made the main character seem even more creepy, but I really felt the long section from Miranda’s diary should have been read by a woman.
17. Ready Player One- Ernest Cline This is an excellent dystopian novel, mostly set inside a virtual-reality gaming world. I enjoyed all the 80s references, eg. to the Rubik’s Cube, Commodore 64, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Max Headroom, Knight Rider, Duran Duran, Wham! etc. The plot got a bit cheesy towards the end, but overall I loved it. I’m planning to watch the DVD this weekend.
18. Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life- Peter Godfrey-Smith Recommended on one of these threads, this book certainly taught me a great deal about the intelligence of octopuses. They are able to make an underwater collection of objects that interest them, and they can also work out how to access a new food source, e.g. how to open a clam. In an aquarium or lab, they can squirt jets of water at specific, recognised humans or at lights (to make the light go out). An octopus can even ‘plan’ an escape, by waiting until no human is watching then climbing out of a bucket and crawling along the floor. It was interesting to discover that, as a sentient being, the octopus has similar rights to vertebrates in EU law, e.g. it has to have an anaesthetic before being operated upon. The parts of the book which focused on evolution and genetics weren’t quite as accessible to me, but this was an interesting read.
19. Engleby- Sebastian Faulks I bought this in a recent Audible sale because I like the narrator Michael Maloney. It is excellent, but very different to Birdsong which I also enjoyed recently. It is told from the protagonist’s point of view: for much of the novel, I could really relate to him (he loves music and books, prefers his own company to socialising and finds family relationships difficult), but it gradually becomes clear that he has left out some very important parts of the story.
20. Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure- John Cleland As an eighteen year-old (having long since grown out of Forever by Judy Blume), I was quite keen on this smutty novel from 1749. This time around, however, I thought there was just far too much sex! Also, there are some instances where non-consensual sex is described in a titillating way, and this rather unsettled me.