Misquoting Jesus - Bart D. Ehrman

I found out about this through an intriguing footnote in God Is Not Great, and it raises some fascinating questions about how the New testament came to be in its present form. The basic thesis is that the current text stems from a series of historical accidents that have gradually altered the original manuscripts and, in the process, altered the course of Christianity itself very profoundly.

The changes came through a gradual accumulation of 4 basic processes:

- Selection (choosing which works belonged in the canon, and which were excluded)
- Mistranslation (changes from the original Greek into Latin and then English)
- Mistranscription (accidental alterations in copying, from pre-printing days)
- Deliberate alteration (changes made to minimise apparent errors and support theological orthodoxy)

The eye-opening alterations call into question such central tenets as Mary's virginity, the doctrine of the Trinity, and Christ's divinity. (Hey! I'm sounding like a rapper!)

A Far Cry From Kensington - Muriel Spark

Spark's prose is so controlled it would be easy to miss the profoundly human and troubled nature of the characters and situations she describes. Her narrative technique, too, is supremely judged and the result is a great read containing both insight and laughs.

Incidentally, the book is set in the London publishing world of the 1950s and it reminded me strongly of working at Foyles Bookshop in the 1990s. The stories I could tell about that madhouse...not fit for a family blog.

The Well - Elizabeth Jolley

A brief and well-constructed parable set in the Australian outback. Gothic trappings enliven things a little, but it all feels rather inconsequential.

Everyman - Philip Roth

This is a brief but affecting meditation on aging and death from our Greatest Living Writer. Brilliant stuff as usual, although once again some of the female characters are a tad off-key.

As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela - Mark Thomas

I have always liked Mark Thomas' unusual blend of standup and political activism, and this wittily titled look at the UK arms trade has plenty of laughs - I particularly enjoyed the stunt with the Undercover Nun posing as a dealer. The overall feeling one comes away with, though, is sheer outrage that the British government is so culpable in the arming of vicious regimes with weapons and torture equipment. The lack of any authority accepting moral responsibility is fairly depressing, so the jokes are much needed.

What Maisie Knew - Henry James

I am by nature a fast reader so I need to adjust to this, an early novel but with many of the elements of the high James style - sentences with multiple subclauses, paragraphs that go on forever and all. It's worth persevering, though, for this unusual tale of a divorced couple using their daughter as a weapon to get at each other. Everything is told through the girl's eyes, so the reader has to pay attention to figure out the motivations of the various adult characters.

Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

I haven't read any Hardy in an age, so it was great to revisit one of the favourite authors from my youth. I enjoyed the melodramatic plot, typically reliant on deeply unlikely coincidence, and the usual chorus of rustics commenting on the main plot from the sidelines.

I noticed particularly any number of strange usages, which may or may not stem from Devonshire dialect. Sometimes they are brilliant - "He diminished down the hill" - but at others they are less so - "...concluded the small woman, bigly." Bigly?

The Honorary Consul - Graham Greene

Boozy, English, tortured Catholics wrestle with moral quandaries in deepest South America; yep, this is Greeneland alright. Its always a pleasure to visit, and this late novel is well up to scratch thanks to a convincing and compelling plot, well motivated characters and well-judged humour.

The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

This is not dissimilar to Hamilton's most well-known novel, Hangover Square, but instead of being a thriller it adopts a more comic tone, with great success. In particular, the monstrous character of Mr Thwaites will live long in my memory.

What's in a Name? - Cyril M. Harris

This is a handy little book detailing the name origins of every London tube station. In truth, most of them are pretty unsurprising ("The stream in the valley" or whatever), but there are a few surprises and some nice old photographs.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay

Most people, in Australia especially, know this book because of the film, but I found it a fascinating read in its own right. In particular, the first 70 or so pages are spectacularly good before the story loses a bit of focus.

Much of the detail seemed to be cribbed from the even better novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

The Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall

The subject of much hype, this is a highly readable sci-fi-ish thriller packed to the gills with references to movies, books and other cultural ephemera. The prose style favours immediacy over elegance - think Iain Banks or David Mitchell (who is thanked in the acknowledgments).

There are plenty of clever ideas (some a little too clever, vis the doubly punning title) but some flat characterisation lets things down a little.

I did enjoy the running gag about the cat being called Ian.