Holiday novels

Someone asked me whether I'd had a relaxing holiday and read lots of books. I said yes to both, but when they (jealously, as they had been on holiday with 3 small children) asked me which books I'd read, I couldn't remember any of them! They were quietly amused, and I sat there cracking my head at which ones they were all through the rest of the conversations.
Finally I managed to remember 3, and including the one I'm still reading now that makes 4. Somehow the fifth book has completely disappeared from memory.
I think that is quite interesting, because I remember liking, enjoying, and maybe even getting a little emotional at all novels I read. So they had some impact while I was reading them, but not enough impact to actually remain with me?

One of the novels I can remember is a Dutch book by Bert Wagendorp called Ventoux. It is supposedly about the 'magic of male friendship', and the author has stated in several interviews that he thinks male friendship is deeper and more special than female friendship, because only men could not talk to each other for 30 years and then meet again, pat each other on the back, and go drink a beer. Which is probably true, but that does not mean female friendships (or male/female friendships, of which I tend to have more) are not as deep as the full male bonding, it just means that the author is male and had enforced his male perspective.
While a fun read, it was not really life-changing.

I am currently still reading Wolf Hall, because I read Bring Up the Bodies and then discovered that this is actually the sequel to Wolf Hall, so I decided to read them in the wrong order because the main plot line is known anyway: Henry VIII kills or disposes of everyone in his way to marry Anne Boleyn, and in the sequel he does the same to marry Jane Seymour. Also, the novels are great anyway, whichever order you read them in.

The novel that made the most impact was Ghostwritten by David Mitchell, which can be seen as a sort of study for his real masterpiece Cloud Atlas. You can see the same sort of techniques and interweavings at work, but also where he will improve and how he will learn to give his characters more depth of personality. Still, a brilliant novel.

Then I read a non-fiction work about how the digital world is destroying all our mental capacity, which was fun and disturbing. And then there was the fifth book, which I cannot remember.

So really, the novel that had the strongest impact on me recently must be The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, even though I bought that as an afterthought and finished it in an afternoon. I even cried a little towards the end, which is in my eyes the mark of a really good novel. And it just goes to show that great authors keep on getting better and producing better things, even when it's just a novella, even when it's fantasy. Which makes me very hopeful about David Mitchell's upcoming works.