That reminds me, I finished On Roads, by Joe Moran last week. .

3/4 of the way through and..just...Crikey.

Not a book but a short story recommendation

http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016/03/cookie-jar

The Cookie-jar by Stephen King

Has Qvouwth or whatever his name is got a 3rd book yet?

Now reading 'The Girl With All The Gifts', as it is popular and about to be a big film and is written by Mike Carey who has done some great books (and comics) before.

A film partially filmed in the old Hanley bus station, fact fans. Cos when you want post apocalyptic, go to Stoke-on-Trent!

Went onto the local library service's website today and reserved every single entry on the Booker shortlist so that I can finally start my New Year challenge! If nobody returns a book by next month, I might have to actually buy one or two of them.

Now to start the second book on the shortlist: Szalzy's 'All that man is'.

Clearly you have forgotten that there's a new Jilly Cooper out.

What was wrong with the old Jilly Cooper?

odd little nuggets

Finished Paul Beatty's 'The Sell-Out'. Some laugh-out-load parts and many brilliantly worded ramblings but once you get past the humour and the whole shock value* the thing gets wrapped up pretty quickly. Some of the humour relies on detailed knowledge of American culture so I probably missed out on some of it. I'd never heard of the little rascals, for instance. I'll probably re-read it, or at least dip into it to relish and savour the author's turn of phrase.

*

Booker challenge update: finished Graeme Macrae Burnet's 'His Bloody Project'. Oh boy, this was brilliant. It's a 'history' of a young crofter in 1860s Scotland accused of a grisly triple murder, told through witness statements, his own memoir written in his prison cell, an early form of psychology report, and a trial report, all written in the appropriate styles so if you read a lot of history and didn't realise it was in the fiction section you could easily be taken in *. I was hooked right from the start (a preface considering the authenticity of the work) and the tale of the down-trodden young man's dealings with an uppity village constable, his violent father, and his sexual awakening was a real page turner.

If I can sum up the courage to plod through another 200-odd pages of the tedious 'Do not say we have nothing' by Tuesday I'll be able to say I've read the whole of the Booker shortlist before the winner is announced, but even if I don't I've read more fiction in the past few weeks than in most years, so that's definitely a Good Thing and something to consider repeating for 2017.


* the veracity of the 'Flashman' papers are well-known and much discussed.

His Bloody Project is gripping. Superb. Started it today. Loving it.

Just finished it this afternoon. Loved every minute of it.

There's an audiobook version on audible! I'll check it out.

There's an audiobook version on audible! I'll check it out.

Despite it being psychology and therefore Mere Tittle Tattle, Piffle and Poppycock, this is pretty good. I have learnt things, useful things, and some other stuff.

Convince me to read it. If you can't, it hasn't worked.

Despite it being psychology and therefore Mere Tittle Tattle, Piffle and Poppycock, this is pretty good. I have learnt things, useful things, and some other stuff.

It is an interesting read, I think it covers the culty stuff to start your malicool cult.