Best reads in February -- Cornwell and Hadley

The two married couples at the center of Tessa Hadley’s fine new novel, Late In The Day, are a complacent,  unlikable pair.   Complacent until the unexpected death of one them turns the survivors’s lives upside down. They remain unlikable.

Hadley’s greatest gift lies in her powers of observation. She plies that skill here as — jumping from present to past and back again — she reveals the hidden connections and complications that tie the four together so intimately.

Late In The Day is a somber book, offering only a passing glimpse of a brighter future for one of its characters.  But the tone of the book (or the fact I found the characters singularly unlikable) does nothing to detract from the pleasure of a new novel from this talented British author.

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I promised a friend I would denote, each month, the one book I found most enjoyable. Two books emerged in February. If you enjoy an adventure yarn, laden with history, I highly recommend Sharpe’s Escape by Bernard Cornwell.  This recommendations comes with a caveat — Cornwell’s tales are addictive.  If literary fiction is more to your liking than seek out Tessa Hadley’s Late In The Day.  

Books read -- February

12. The Golden Tresses of the Dead, Alan Bradley

13. The Problem of Susan and Other Stories, Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell

14. The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross

15. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

16. Shrink Rap, Robert B. Parker

17. Wish You Were Here, Graham Swift

18. The Big Fella, Babe Ruth and the World He Created, Jane Leavy

19. School Days, Robert B. Parker

20. The Boats of the Glen Carrig, William Hope Hodgson

21. The Professional, Robert B. Parker

22. Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson

23. Flannery O'Connor, The Cartoons, ed. Kelly Gerald

24. Comics & Sequential Art, Will Eisner

25. Sharpe's Escape, Bernard Cornwell

26. Thirteen Ways Of Looking, Colum McCann

27. Late In The Day, Tessa Hadley

Books read -- January

1.   Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens

2.   Voodoo River, Robert Crais

3.   Yossel, April 19, 1943, Joe Kubert

4.   Lie In The Dark, Dan Fesperman
5.   A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
6.   Flash, The Making of Weegee The Famous by Christopher Bonanos

7.   Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross

8.   Perish Twice, Robert B. Parker

9.   The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Jon Morris

10. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

11. Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor

Currently  Reading --

Still Life, Louise Penny

Slowhand, The Life and Music of Eric Clapton, Philip Norman

Dreyer's English, An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer