The Laundry Files had been recommended to me as a series before, and this time it was a book shop employee pushing them, so I picked it up. The book took me about two weeks to read. I carried it to and from work, and always found a reason to read something else. (Though the news these days is very distracting..) Normally I read much faster than that! The book is a mix of an old school spy novel (he describes his influences as Len […]
A Young Man, a Castle & a Very Deep Hole
Let me first just say that I am very much a fan of Patrick DeWitt. His previous book, The Sisters Brothers, delighted me with its quirky weirdness. And Undermajordomo Minor does the same. It’s definitely quirky, definitely weird and, like The Sisters Brothers, quite funny. Especially if you have a sort of weird sense of humor. Undermajordomo Minor tells the story of Lucien (Lucy) Minor who leaves his home village of Bury because he doesn’t feel he has any reason to stay. His father has passed away, […]
Being David Mitchell (the one that didn’t write Cloud Atlas)
First coming across him as Peep Show‘s Mark, and since then on That Mitchell and Webb Look and the ten thousand comedy panel shows that litter the Dave channel, I find David Mitchell very, very funny. Which is why, when finding myself feeling rather down, I chose to read his autobiography. And while Back Story didn’t raise many belly laughs, it was still an amusing and pleasant way to pass some time. David Mitchell would be the first to admit that he’s not had the […]
Muslims! They’re just like us!
…anyone who says love is all that matters hasn’t quite grown up. Sofia Khan is a lot of things: a fair-to-middling book publicist, a hijabi, a second-generation Londoner, and a modern girl. She is not a romantic, and she most definitely does not need a man, especially her former fiancé who expected her to move in with his family following the wedding. An off-hand joke during a meeting leads to a book deal: Sofia has been contracted to write a book dating as a modern Muslim girl. Writing […]
“My life is just a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.”
One of the reviews of this book (which I picked up, along with its sequel, for $2 at Half Price Books) on Goodreads says, “i have said it before and i will say it again: junkies are boring.” And blunt as that may be…it’s not totally inaccurate. I’ve read good books written by recovering addicts (Kristen Johnson’s Guts springs immediately to mind), but read enough and they begin to blur together. “What I’ve learnt – to my cost – on several occasions in my life, is […]
Where’d You Go, Maria Semple
The more I think about this book the less I like it. Today Will Be Different is the story of a single day in the life of Eleanor Flood. Eleanor is trying to be the best version of herself. She has plans to make this day perfect. She is going to be present. She is going to be a better mom, a better wife, a better friend. Eleanor is not a bad person, she’s just a bit of a mess. But her plan begins to […]
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