What I'm reading ...

I have started Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult. I needed a holiday read and knew that this author - a personal favourite - would deliver. Here’s the blurb:

A woman is found in a graveyard in Los Angeles, unable to remember anything about herself or her life. No one is more surprised than she when her husband comes to the police station to take her home - and turns out to be Hollywood's leading film star.

Bewildered by the perfect life that has been suddenly thrust upon her, Cassie finds herself living a dream. But there is something dark and disturbing behind this glamorous façade - and it is only as her memory gradually returns that it will all come crumbling down . . .

Occupational Hazards - by Rory Stewart

As expected, this was a well-written book that gave a clear picture of the author’s experiences in Iraq. Overall, I had the impression that he and his colleagues were endeavouring to do an impossible job in chaotic circumstances. The fact that they had any success is probably the most surprising.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Occupational Hazards by Rory Stewart. Having read another of the author’s books and being a regular listener to TRiP podcast, this one looked interesting. Here’s the blurb:

By September 2003, six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the anarchy had begun. Rory Stewart, then a young British diplomat, was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority's deputy governor of a province of 850,000 people in the southern marshland region. There, he and his colleagues confronted gangsters, Iranian-linked politicians, tribal vendettas and a full Islamist insurgency.

Occupational Hazards is Rory Stewart's inside account of the attempt to rebuild a nation, the errors made, the misunderstandings and insurmountable difficulties encountered. It reveals an Iraq hidden from most foreign journalists and soldiers, a rare and compelling insight that remains just as important today.

Strange Sally Diamond - by Liz Nugent

This book starts out quite “light”, but the story soon becomes rather darker. It is well written, with clear characters. The author does a good job of getting into the [rather confused] minds of the two main protagonists.