Summer reading: The Year of Living Dangerously

I think I might have failed my Summer reading list challenge.  In fact I know I have. 

You be the judge: of the five books mentioned I have only finished reading four of them, one outside of the allotted summer time frame, and only ploughing through the final one as we speak.  I did, however, read a fifth book that was not included on the list (Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, maybe more on that some other time, or check out the ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club review).

Now to the task at hand: reviewing The Year of Living Dangerously.

I’ve been told that the novel is based on, or inspired by, the experiences of CJ Koch’s brother, Philip Koch, who was an ABC foreign correspondent based in Jakarta during the 1960s.

My summer reading list

A couple of months ago, when I realised that, according to my calendar at least, summer was descending upon us and that I had a six week overseas holiday coming up, I decided that it was time to think about some appropriate summer reading material.

While I did have that six week holiday up my sleeve I didn’t want to be too optimistic about how many books I could read over the course of the holiday, and the remained of the summer.  I have chosen five books that I have either wanted to read for some time, been recommended by friends or that I have heard good things about.

So the contenders are: