The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

 

 A great adventure story where an ordinary person becomes a hero.

Great pace and action.

But (as it is a novel) the coincidences are a bit unbelievable. 

The Listener by Tove Jansson

 

I love Tove Jansson - a collection of odd short stories where not much happens but that contain beautiful descriptions that make me want to move to Scandinavia. 

The Windermere Witness: 1 (The Lake District Mysteries) by Rebecca Tope

  

A disappointing easy read which didn't seem to quite fit together and have too many main characters which were unnecessary.

Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene

         

 This is a exhaustive exploration of how the human brain reads.
Stanislas Dehaene takes his specialized subject (cognitive neuroscience)  and is able to render accessible what might otherwise be difficult. 

J: A Novel Howard Jacobson

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

  

I didn't enjoy this novel. 
I thought it would be funny but it wasn't.  Amusing, yes. Thought-provoking, sure. Funny no!
It combines a mishmash of topics: baseball, Judaism, and dentistry and they never quite add up to a cohesive whole.
I struggled at times with the multi-page paragraphs and the general ceaselessness of switching between inner monologues and first person.

How to be both Ali Smith