Another Country - James Baldwin

Three of the most difficult subjects for a writer to describe convincingly are sex, music and the creative process. Baldwin takes on all of them here and does so brilliantly in this novel about artistic types in 1960s New York.

At first we follow the compelling figure of jazz musician Rufus Thomas and, after a shocking calamity, various individuals connected to him. Loyalties shift, boundaries of sexuality and race collapse and are re-erected, and we really get to know these people well.

This was my first Baldwin, and I was hugely impressed by his talent. I'll read more.

What Is History? - E.H. Carr

I suppose that if you're only going to read one historiographical book in your life then this would be it. I've never seriously thought about the nature of history as an academic discipline before, so at the very least this opened me up to some ideas that I've never considered before. Some of them were insightful, some lost me a bit and the bit where Carr claims that history is a science is just plain wrong.

I should say that the writing is very fine, and in particular the choice of metaphor is invariably enlightening and often rather amusing.

The Small House at Allington - Anthony Trollope

Book five of the six Chronicles of Barsetshire is largely unconnected with the previous four, and I confess that I missed some of my favourite characters from the earlier stories. Nevertheless Trollope's universe now feels comfortingly familiar and I was soon wrapped up in this particular tale, a classic Victorian mix of sentimentality and social critique. The author's views on class are stubbornly conservative, but his insights into human nature are sharp and beautifully portrayed.

Contains the phrase "pertinacious austerity" and several instances of the word "hobbledehoyhood".

Changing Places – David Lodge

16 years ago, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on “Intertextuality in the Novels of David Lodge”, so I enjopyed revisiting the world of Rummidge and Euphoria having read the odd book since last time. The novel remains a delight, but I suspect I’m laughing at different aspects of the various sexual and academic misadventures described than those I laughed at in my youth. Still brilliantly entertaining, and I don’t suppose I will be able to resist re-reading the other books in the trilogy soon.

The Sign of the Four – Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sherlock Holmes stories are a great comfort read, you can rely on them to entertain you in the context of a rational and explicible, yet thoroughly exciting, universe. Lovely.

Traffic - Tom Vanderbilt

Given that I spend a couple of hours per day in my car, as do many other people, it is startling to discover how little we know about why drivers behave the way they do. This interdisciplinary overview raises a number of very interesting questions, answers a few of them, but is too diffuse in its approach to provide a coherent read.

Some of the conclusions are surprising. We should all merge at the last minute when a lane ends, and I was convinced by the argument that we’d all be better off with higher parking fees in cities.