28/03/16: Penelope Lively – Moon Tiger (1987)

What a great novel. Claudia Hampton, now a 76-year-old woman, lays dying in her hospital bed. She recalls episodes of her history (sometimes dovetailing with world history) and the people she shared it with – her daughter, her brother, her partner and the true love of her life, killed in action in World War II. As fragments of memory drift in and out of focus, the story of her life emerges in patchwork form. It's a very satisfying approach. Although the perceptions are fundamentally Claudia's, the author also allows us inside the minds of the other characters for a more multilayered texture. There's a huge intelligence to the writing and it's a joy to read something of this quality and richness. One of the most enjoyable of the Booker Prize novels (it won in 1987), this is a book that stays with you.

19/03/16: Matt Lewis – Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster, Survival and One Man's Ultimate Test (2015)

A riveting true story of a fishing ship, the Sudur Havid, which sank in the icy waters of the South Atlantic in 1998. Only 21 of the 38 crew survived, although when you read about what happened it seems miraculous that even they lived. The author relays the facts in a non-judgemental manner and comes across as a good-natured, practical young man who was thrown into an absurd and terrifying situation.

It's painful to read the catalogue of mistakes that led up to the disaster. The ship was old and poorly equipped. There was a lack of safety measures and procedures. The lifejackets were stored in lockers for which only one man had a key. And, most fatally, there was a misguided decision to keep on fishing through the storm even when the craft – already overloaded – started taking on water. Even the attempts to escape via life-rafts were chaotically disorganised.

The book has photos from beforehand and afterwards, but none are from the voyage in question. All cameras were lost with the vessel.

A gripping account, it is horrifying in places and hard to stop reading. It is a book that reminds you how lucky you are to be alive.

02/03/16: Lawrence Block – The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons (2013)

This 11th Bernie Rhodenbarr novel is a joy. The unlikely plot deals with spoons and buttons, theft and murder, but the main reason to read it is for the extremely dry, very funny dialogue. Block really has an ear for the way people talk. The gentleman burglar's conversations are full of literary references, little linguistic puns and hilarious observations. It's such a rich mix that you can just sit back and enjoy the way the sentences unfold.

It's also recommended to anyone who loves old bookshops and who despairs of the day when there are no more. I now want to read the previous 10 volumes...