A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - May-2011
Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time. 
La Seduction by Elaine Sciolino - May-2011
How the French Play The Game of Life
Which I read on my I Fad. Her book which basically suggests that French men are different, got a huge lift from coming out the instant DSK was arrested in NY under suspicion of raping a hotel chambermaid. Since he features in her book as a serial abuser it was somewhat unfortunate for him and very fortunate for her, for essentially this is a very short argument run very long. The Hare with the Amber Eyes by - May-2011
Didn’t grab me at all. This netsuke book I guess prepared me a little for Tokyo. I don’t say I won’t finish it sometime in France.
Some books I read on the iPad, including the one about the French, which was okay but spread a bit thin. Never Breathe a Word by Caroline Blackwood - May-2011
Collected stories by Evgenia’s mother, though I prefer her own stories. See Evgenia Citkowitz Ether, a magnificent must read debut story collection published last May. Her mum Caroline Blackwood was for a while married to the recently deceased painter Lucian Freud and I did enjoy her Great Granny Webster novella. The Women by T.C. Boyle - May-2011
Which I was quite enjoying, but left in France for the unguarded moment, to complete. The Pat Hobby Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald - May-2011
Which I did not enjoy as much as before, or as I had anticipated. The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemmingway - May-2011
I again dipped into… I married a Communist by Philip Roth - May-2011
…but I found this tale of two brothers rather annoying. Ira, the pontificating Communist, married to the anti-Semitic Jewess Hollywood starlet. I kept putting it down. Freedom of speech is the theme, and certainly it was a hard won freedom in the time of the McCarthy Committees, but it was somehow too much for me, though I finished it. The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth - May-2011
A short squib of a book which I enjoyed re-reading… White Noise by Don Delillo - May-2011
An amazingly fine novel. The book is about death and the fear of death. How we learn of it. How we feel about it. In a brilliantly described family of an Academic at a small University town the Professor of Hitler studies, a course he invented, is overtaken by an “event” (in satire worthy of Heller) a noxious toxic cloud. Simulac constantly prepare for everything but the real thing, a perfect parody of how we face death. His perception of wives, fathers, children and friends is stunningly accurate. Above all he has a deep abiding sense of humour, which means he can sidle sideways into the awesome business of writing about death. There are several set pieces of great prose: the burning of the town mental asylum, the nebulous mass of the cloud itself. An awesome novel of great value. How we hide from the things that most worry us, while still perceiving them.