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Thanks to Charlotte's book club, I have been reading a very mixed bag recently. The downside is that I have limited reading time and book club is taking 80% of it, but I do manage to sneak in the odd personal choice.

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola was a book club choice and I only managed half of it before losing the will to go on. Having previously read and enjoyed The Beast in Man, I was expecting a lot better, but there you go.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was another book club choice, but it was my nomination. It is an original and very engaging book that follows the lives of a group of clones who have been created purely to be organ donors. It could have been darkly depressing, but it is written with an almost surreal optimistic lightness. Ultimately it is a book about humanity and love, and one might conclude that the latter defines the former.

The Voyage of the Sable Keech by Neal Asher is a lovely piece of sci-fi escapism. I have to be nice to Neal since he is the unofficial flanerie.org Laureate, but I would have enjoyed it even if he wasn't. If you like a bit of sci-fi and you haven't read Neal Asher yet, start with Gridlinked then keep on going.

Earlier on in the year was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It is sactimonious twaddle and should be avoided.

And now I have just started on The Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Another book club choice and a book I would never otherwise have read.

Meanwhile my pile of books to be read keeps growing. I need to resist buying any more until I can catch up, although that would take about a year or a major illness.