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Currently Reading…
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. It's funny cos it's true.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Stuck half way, but it's true, her eyes do change colour. Like David Bowie. Or a Blythe doll.
Recently read…
Gumble's Yard by John Rowe Townsend.
Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend.
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Grim, but brilliant kids' book.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Brilliant dystopian book for teens. The short prequel is a free Kindle download.
Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman. 607 pages, seven viewpoints of the same extraordinarily inter-twined events. Clever, full of good ideas but I didn't warm to the main character and didn't love it anywhere near as much as A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.
The Fear by Charlie Higson.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. I HATED this book - which was a surprise as I really liked the previous 3 Jackson Brodies, esp the previous one. Why? Too many characters I didn't care about. Not enough Jackson Brodie. And I know it's grim up North - but just too, too grim. Forced myself to finish it, but only because I bloody paid for it.
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. MUCH better than the TV adaptation, which I found very confusing. Very readable - some of the turns choices made by the main characters have had me going 'whaaat'? but it's all the more believable and enjoyable for them.
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. Good, but didn't enjoy it as much as Case Histories.
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Bliss.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer.
Solar by Ian McEwan. Good holiday read but not stunning literature.
One Day by David Nicholls. I am officially the last person-but-one in England to read this. Loved it, though. Bastard.
Moonraker by Ian Fleming. Ah, another improbably-named young woman to see you, Mr Bond. (Like I can talk).
Obstacles to Young Love by David Nobbs. This lad Nobbs will go far. Funny, touching, very occasionally annoying, but a damn fine novel.
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe. Hated the ending. Sorry. Sure it's been done elsewhere. My first, and probably last, Coe.
Hungry the Stars and Everything by Emma Jane Unsworth. Delicious!
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. It's Dickens with swear words. In a good way.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. From 1949. Perfect. It's so good, I love it so much. Cannot believe I've never read this before.
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason - bit disappointed. Just a police procedural. Not that odd. No big DNA conspiracy.
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford - I proof-read a neighbour's uni essay on this and had to read it. Bleak it is, so bleak - especially for a man of my age and circumstance. Almost gave up but half way through I 'got it' and glad I finished it. But grim. Grim.
The Game by Jack London.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 2nd Martin Beck novel from the original masters of the modern (1960s) police procedural.
Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. I enjoyed this WAY more than Engleby. Really good, flavour of Bond captured very well indeed.
Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John. Great children's book, set in St Ives, Cornwall. If the Laura Marlin Mysteries continue like this, I might have to write my own Caitlin Ros Mysteries. (Geddit?!)
Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellman.
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming.
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. My first Faulks - he's too damn popular with the ladies for my liking. I almost gave up on it on page 85. Luckily something happens on page 86. Blog post coming...
Street Kids by Chandrika Kaviraj. Excellent unpublished story for older children set in Pakistan and India during Partition.
The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. My first Bond. It's just as I would have hoped and expected. And me oh my does Vesper Lynd remind me of someone.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There's a stunning novel in here, struggling to get out. Just spare me the state of Russian agriculture, Leo, I beg you...
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø - this is shaping up very nicely, up there with The Snowman and The Redeemer.Calendar
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Category Archives: family life
Twinkle, twinkle
Sometimes I get bored reading the same stories and singing the same lullabies to my children. So I substitute lines from popular songs. Ten points if you can spot the artists at work here: Twinkle, twinkle little star How I … Continue reading
Posted in children, family life
2 Comments
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?
…in the words of Mr William Bragg. We were walking home tonight and saw an amazingly bright satellite tracking across the sky, far brighter than any I’ve seen before. And I’ve seen a few – I love watching bits of … Continue reading
Posted in children, internet
3 Comments
Flawless logic
My eldest son, 8, had picked up a bit on the TV show Smart being pulled off CBBC and the Mark Speight case and asked me about it – I said vague things about him just being in the wrong … Continue reading
Posted in children, family life, TV
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Charlie Brooker and the Spooky Coincidence
I got Dawn of the Dumb, Charlie Brooker’s collection of Guardian columns for Christmas, and I’ve been chuckling my way through it since the big day. This despite the fact that I’m clearly the sort of person Mr Brooker would … Continue reading
Posted in children, Christmas, media, newspapers, TV
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Heckled
Christmas shopping on Covent Garden last week, I got heckled by a street performer. Yes, I got heckled. Covent Garden was heaving, you could hardly move. This street entertainer had an audience of, ooh I think maybe two people. I … Continue reading
Festive Thought for the Day
Santa is an anagram of Satan. Discuss. Anyway, last year we had a hoot making our own cards with some expensive but lovely wooden stamps. This year I tried to enthuse the kids with my low-rent alternative – A6 stamps … Continue reading
Posted in children, family life
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How to put movies on a Nintendo DS using a Mac
Memo to self, type post – please ignore if you don’t have a Mac and a Nintendo DS… You will need: A Mac running OS X A Nintendo DS or DS Lite An M3 card or similar to run Moonshell … Continue reading
Posted in children, computers, gaming, MacOS X, Nintendo DS
9 Comments
Happiness is warm cola
They were handing out free Mentos at Charing Cross the other week – I couldn’t resist introducing them to some diet cola… A colleague had tried it with no luck, so perhaps the trick is to do as we did, … Continue reading
Posted in children, internet
3 Comments
Bloody kids
A week ago, during a stressful visit to Bluewater, I was dragging the kids around and my youngest was screaming. I wanted to scream too, but possibly for different reasons. I was in M&S trying to buy food and they … Continue reading
Posted in children, commuting, family life
2 Comments
How to make cider
Fill a toddler’s beaker with apple juice. Let them hide it in a remote corner of the house. Find it 2 weeks later – preferably before they do.
Posted in children, family life
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