Just back from a week in the sun where in between some quality sightseeing, lazing, eating and drinking I got through a few books.
Another light and fluffy life story I read was Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel-Horwood's autobiography, All Balls and Glitter. Quite interesting but nowhere near enough backstage gossip from Strictly as I would have liked (and to be honest, what I bought the book for).
Onto more weighty work with the release of a hidden gem from 1928, Patrick Hamilton's Twopence Coloured. It's been released by Faber Finds and if you've read any of his work before, then you must read this one too. It's about a young woman from Brighton who tries, succeeds and then fails, in her quest to Become Someone on the London Stage. Wonderful book.
And then I read The Slap by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas. This is a book that I'd picked off the shelf in Waterstones loads of times, reckoned it was going to be middle-class angst over whether one should or not slap a child, and then I'd always put it back on the shelf, dismissing it. But this time I didn't put it back and it was well worth a read. The Slap of course, isn't what the book is about in the end and as it's set in Australia was a great deal more interesting than I had first thought it might be. A good read.
Finally I started on Skippy Dies by Paul Murray which I'm still reading now and enjoying a lot. It reminds me of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meaney in it's style, so far, and it's set in a boy's boarding school in Dublin. So far, so good.
3 comments:
Did you not think that the slap started out well, and kind of withered away a bit?
Interesting I HATED The Slap, I didn't even finish it. I just read 'The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, fabulous stuff.
I liked The Slap *apart from the frequent bad sex bits!* but yes, enjoyed it all the way through. Dislikable bunch though!
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