Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?

These are all stories set in the South Pacific, in American or Western Samoa. The eye for detail is not maybe as intricately composed as Conrad or as lyrical as Melville but Maugham conveys a setting well, mixed with the important cultural mores of the anglo-saxons dotted around these islands, administering curious justice and concern for the “natives”.

Maugham strikes me as an observer with an eye on the wrongs of imperialism, despite being a product of it. There is as much adherence to and observation of Polynesian dress, rituals and morals, the islands are clearly a place he loved, while the Anglo-Saxons are realistically portrayed with all their flaws, arrogance, ennui and frustrations. Magnificent to read.

This is a beautifully written memoir of childhood, disappointment, a yearning for something better that always seemed to exist in another town - one that you didn’t have a ticket for. Ending just as Suede were going to hit big, this is open and generous, loving and honest. It’s also a testament to belief and vision, and the right circumstances colluding to give you the moment - if you’re alert enough to take it.

It’s nicely plotted with an enjoyable cast of characters and a suitably odious villain. This is certainly not real life - the story is tidier, the characters better lit and the ending more satisfactory than messy reality. But greatly entertaining.

It was not terrible! Her method is: strong story that doesn’t have to be plausible (three half-sisters from different worlds inherit father’s ranch), varied cast of other people (one person per character trait), very good plotting, limited nuance and wit, a lot of blunt dialogue (everyone intent on telling it like it is), more sex than you might expect, and three eligible men who, it appears, will pair off with the sisters by the end. Then, wham, blood-soaked viciousness like you wouldn’t believe. Now there is tension, fear, suspicion. We have abruptly exited the universe of Hallmark movies. When next I’m looking for some literary down-time I’ll try another of hers.

God, this was grim. So very grim. I enjoyed it. Violent, bloody, macho wilderness noir. A bit of a poor-man’s Alaskan Cormac McCarthy. Y’know, the early McCarthy, where everyone is damaged and evil. This is the kind of thing I used to read all the time so it was a bit like visiting an old friend. Not great but it was good old fashioned twisted fun.

The first Murdoch I’ve read for several years - I had a phase of reading her a lot then suddenly stopped. And this novel reminds me why. She writes with passion and wit, and creates an intriguing world, but after a while there’s something airless about it, and I feel it’s her world, not one I recognise. Afterwards I feel I’ve been to Murdochland and come back without any souvenirs. Most of her novels, very readable at the time, don’t stay in my mind afterwards, and I have trouble remembering which was which.

I was working in a bit of a deprived part of London a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to come across a book cafe. I wandered in and most of the books that had been donated seemed to be the standard stuff you find in charity shops, five copies of The Da Vinci Code or Shane Ritchie’s Rags to Richie etc. However I was pleased to find an old copy of The Wizard of Earthsea in amongst the tat. I started reading it and I was hooked, as I was when I read it as a teenager, and was inevitably a bit late for work. Anyway re-discovering that book and remembering an article on the Guardian a few weeks ago about the joys of re-reading inspired me to read the whole Earthsea saga again. Just finished the sixth book The Other Wind. It is notable how the second three books are more mature than the first three. But I still enjoyed all of them and was quite emotional at the end of the final book. A combination of enjoying the books now and also remembering how much I’d enjoyed them when I read them for the first time.