Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford (Penguin edition — which includes all four novels. Take that, Graham Greene!)
Denial: The Unspeakable Truth by Keith Kahn-Harris (Recommended.)
The Blind Spot: An Essay on the Novel by Javier Cercas (translated by Anne McLean)
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie (Awful. Poorly written; emotionally off; more than enough “quirky” for a lifetime — some interesting ideas and characters rapidly devolve into hollow, cartoonish cutesyness. To borrow Jeanette Winterson’s apt phrase: “printed television”.)
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (Highly recommended.)
Piggy Goes to University by Miriam Elia and Ezra Elia (I get it, but I don’t think this succeeds in what it’s trying to do.)
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher
Vain Shadow by Jane Hervey (Persephone Books. Recommended.)
Thornhill by Pam Smy (Graphic novel. *spoiler* I can’t believe the ending — the neglected, unloved girl children commit suicide and find each other as friends. Now they can haunt the abandoned orphanage together! You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s a lot of real pain in these girls’ lives and the author is giving us a double suicide as a “happy” ending? And this appears to be marketed as a childrens’ book. Vulnerable children are just that — vulnerable. It’s unfashionable to talk about social responsibility in regard to fiction, but I think when you’re writing a book that neglected, abused children are going to identify strongly with you do have a responsibility not to present suicide as a happy-ending option.)
The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani (Highly recommended.)
Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan (Pretentious and tiresome; gave up on page 49 — there are much better books out there more deserving of my time.)
We Go to the Gallery by M. Elia and E. Elia (Hilarious. Avoided this series of books at first because I assumed they were going to be trendy-ironic. For this one at least, I was wrong)
The Tenant & The Motive by Javier Cercas (translated by Anne McLean)
The Art of Reading by Damon Young (not recommended)
The Impostor by Javier Cercas (translated by Frank Wynn)
Venice by Jiro Taniguchi
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (translated by Michael Hofmann) *Best work of fiction I have read in years. Highly recommended.*
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey (Heartbreaking and highly recommended.)
To Fight Against This Age: On Fascism and Humanism by Rob Riemen
Solitude: I Pursuit of a Singular Life In a Crowded World by Michael Harris (Recommended — it gets better and better.)
The Comforters by Muriel Spark
White Houses by Amy Bloom (regurgitated research plus imagined naughty bits, very much not recommended)
Ten Arguments for Deleting You Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier (highly recommended)
The Power by Naomi Alderman (not recommended)
An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell by Deborah Levy (Abandoned halfway through as it was dreadful.)
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima
The Long March by William Styron
The Balloon by Donald Barthelme (short story)
The Atheist in the Attic by Samuel R. Delany (PM Press edition includes the essay “Racism and Science Fiction”)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
The Aeneid by Virgil (Robert Fagles translation)
Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung
When Doing the Right Thing is Impossible by Lisa Tessman (philosophy, Oxford University Press)
The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt Play. Highly recommended.