Skios by Michael Frayn

An easy to read, engaging and at times thought provoking novel about identity.  The plot follows two strangers on a plane to a Greek island who, through a series of coincidences and assumptions, unknowingly switch places.  It is a fun, if a little unlikely story, which contains (if you want it to and if you look for it) a serious message about personality and self.  The characters are easy to relate to and very likeable which adds to the light-hearted charm of this book.  Another great holiday read that you could read deeper into if you felt like it.

Whilst I am surprised this made it into the Booker long list, I very much enjoyed this book which is well written without being pompous and pitches the moral analysis just right.

The Yips by Nicola Barker

Blimey.

A long and bizarre novel.  The writing is very good and the plot is fairly engrossing but the character development is minimal and the dialogue staggeringly unrealistic.   How many teenagers who fail their A levels and find themselves working in a hotel bar pepper their banter with words like "suppurating"?

In my opinion, the lack of connection with the characters made this book a lot less engaging than it would otherwise have been.  The best novels are those that read like a conversation bringing a story to life and this novel was much too flat, almost essay like, to achieve that.  Instead, although it is easy to appreciate the language and even the unusual plot, there is something so one dimensional about this book that I frequently found myself subconciously drifting off into shopping lists and must-not-forget-to-dos.  A shame because there is a lot of quality writing here, but the dialogue lets it down.

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I really enjoyed this book which is about a man who feels stifled by his nursing home and so goes on an adventure on his 100th birthday.  It is fun, well written and with some brilliantly eccentric characters.  It is not a realistic novel so don't try to pick holes in the plot or over analyse it - it's just a very good, light-hearted story which would be a perfect summer read.

The Gathering by Anne Enright

A very literary book which is hard to describe as enjoyable (although it is more readable than, say, Possession).  It is a novel about a large Irish family dealing with a family bereavement.  The writing is excellent but very challenging and so not easy to read.  It is the writing not the plot that is the primary focus for this book which results in a novel which is intellectually stimulating and rewarding but not much fun.  It is a very poetic novel and so a great read if you are interested in language but don't pack it with your suntan lotion.

The Red House by Mark Haddon

A book about two families who go on holiday together for a week in a countryside cottage.  The writing is very good and this is an enjoyable, if intense, read but the lack of any real character development let this down for me.  In my view, this novel suffered from too many characters and no one single, fully developed voice.  The mother of one of the families, Angela, is probably the most prominant character and so the one that it is easiest to connect with but even she is too indistinct to be powerful.  I still enjoyed this book and it is a good read but it is the writing not the characters or the plot that really elevates this novel above average.

How the Trouble Started by Robert Williams

A short, dark novel about an adolescent boy who is struggling to come to terms with a tragic accident which occured when he was eight.  This book is difficult to read because it challenges the natural assumption that the narrator is fundamentally good.  The writing is simple but very powerful.  This is a disconserting, often uncomfortable novel which is worth a read if you don't mind the darkness.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

A book about sport. American sport. Baseball. But for all that, it was quite good.

It is long and there's lots of technical bits which I did not understand (bunts, for example) but it is definitely readable even with negligible baseball knowledge (by which I mean zero baseball knowledge and moderate rounders knowledge). The writing is not particularly beautiful or challenging but inoffensive and the plot itself is suprisingly engaging. There's an intreguing sub-plot involving the balance of power in relationships which makes this less obviously a sports novel, although it is not quite developed enough to make this a non-sports novel. This is a bit frustrating but frankly to be expected if you pick up a book called The Art of Fielding with a picture of a baseball and bat on the front cover (because yes, we do all judge). Overall, this is an acceptable book about sport.