Picador

Less Than Zero

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Finally got round to reading to it..., 2010-06-21
I've been meaning to read this book for a while after thoroughly enjoying one of Ellis' previous books American Psycho. This didn't disappoint me. Yes the characters are mostly unlikeable and some of the subject matter is pretty bad taste but the humour is fantastically dark and I found it pretty difficult to put down. Which is the sign of a good book I would say! Looking forward to getting hold of the film next!

The Places In Between

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Great Adventure, 2010-03-27
I have never been to Afghanistan. I have read half a dozen books about it but this is the only one which has given me much of a feel for what the people are like.

Stewart walks from Herat to Kabul a few weeks after the Americans and British 'defeated' the Taliban in the winter of 2001-2. He walks on a route that no-one uses for long distance travel, even in a car or truck, a route which is direct as the crow flies, through many mountainous villages.

The book gives some indication of the different races, languages, and political affiliations, affiliations between regional overlords, those who fought for and against the Russians, for and against the Taliban. Almost everyone lives in bone-numbing poverty, at least by European standards.

Unless I missed something Stewart met precisely three women during this journey, and only talked to one of them. There were probably more but if there were, he doesn't mention them. Afghanistan is evidently a country in which women stay out of sight. Whether or not the Taliban are in power only makes a difference of degree. This is not a matter of much apparent interest to Stewart, but his conversations and interactions with the men he meets are unputdownable. Almost everyone he meets is carrying a Kalashnikov.

It starts slowly but develops a head of steam. Great reading.

August Heat (Montalbano 10)

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AUGUST HEAT MONTALBANO 10, 2010-06-06
CAMILLERI BOOKS ARE A GREAT READ, THE DETECTIVE WITH A PASSION FOR GOOD FOOD, YOU CAN TASTE ITALY, COMPELLING READING.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador)

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shocking, surprising and mind-blowing, 2009-12-02
It is guaranteed that the reader will be utterly blown away with this extraordinary collection of medical insights into the symptoms that can occur when there are brain malfunctions with their consequenct bizarre changes in mental perceptions.This essentially is a collection of case histories that are quite out of the scope of the average persons understanding. Oliver Sacks' accessible style of writing gives us glimpses into the 'unreal' lives of patients who have to negotiate their everyday lives lacking some essential and basic abilities to relate to the world in a 'normal' way either in the business of memory, sensory perception or mobility.Each case reads like a whacky novel and leaves the reader with a feeling of walking on thin ice because the very foundations upon which we as 'normal'human beings base our lives come into question too.Not to be missed!

Imperial Bedrooms

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Magisterial Imperial, 2010-07-25
I feel biased for being still slightly in love with Bret Easton Ellis.

Bought imperial bedrooms, at the time being midway through American psycho, wanting more Ellis, in any form available. You hear things, that IB is more of the same from Easton Ellis, that the plot isn't as substantial - but my experience seems to indicate that these become problems only when, oddly enough, you've read the majority of the mans oeuvre.

The writers at Slate described the joy of a Brett Easton Ellis novel being as much in the style as it's more traditional virtues of novel-writing. I think this is partially true. And that style is present in IB - the cold and jaded man of a very specific period, keeping his mental scale balanced with alternating uppers and downers on one side, and hyperviolently graphic sex on the other. Timeless in a way only possible when this is how you identify 1985 - a style that successfully survives the new placement of 2010. iPhones, man!

Avoid the tangents - buy this book? If you know that you'll have difficulty getting over this being a short work, nor is it the product of a reborn Brett Easton Ellis, then maybe not. But this is a strong Novella, by a strong writer, and a comfortable addition to the bookshelf where I keep nihilism. It's very good - and a taste of a style that you can't find done as well anywhere else today. If you read, read this. It's original and good. Have I told you it's good? It totally is.

The more books of this calibre there are, the better bookshelves get.

American Psycho

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One of the best novels of the 1990s., 2010-05-16
I wonder how many came to this book because they'd heard of its jaw-dropping violence and went away rubbing their heads because they just didn't get it, or loved it in a superficial, prurient way, failing all the while to understand what it's about. Ellis must have been, and probably still is, laughing all the way to the bank. Yes, the violence is extreme, but it's extreme in a Tom and Jerry kind of way. You must make up your own mind whether Bateman is real, whether the events in the book are, within the context of the book of course, real, or whether he is some sad loser who's created an imaginary character to act out his own, unrealised, fantasies (the explanation I feel all the evidence points to) because Ellis has never revealed the answer. Make no mistake, for all the controversy this is a Great novel in every sense of the word.

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

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Couldn't put it down!, 2010-07-09
"Parisians" is an enthralling, irresistible evocation of place and its human inhabitants...a river of sensation simultaneously dreamlike and as real as the aroma of fresh-baked bread.

The Road

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haunting, 2010-07-23
So moving that I am lost for words. I could not put this book down and it has haunted me ever since I finished it. The love of a father & his young son surviving whilst surrounded by horrors gripped me. The story will not click with everyone but if it does then you should prepare for an emotional sledgehammer.

The Lovely Bones

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Not sure how to review this book..., 2010-07-13
I haven't seen anyone else's review of this book but this is an odd book to review... So the positives of this book for me is that it is well written and engaging. The story is certainly unsual and intriguing and you'll want to keep reading more.

Having said this, personally I found that I was fairly uncomfortable with the story being told and the narator's perspective on what happened to her. I found it strange that she seemed to not have a huge amount of ill-will aimed at her murderer. I guess that is kind of the point; in the afterlife I suppose we let go of such things.

The pain that the narrator's family goes through however is really tangible and painful.

So this is certainly a good book but it does not make for comfortable reading. But it certainly isn't a book you'll forget soon.

Red Dust Road

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everyone should read this book, 2010-07-10
just beautifully written - what Jackie Kay leaves out is just as important as what she chooses to tell us ... a poet's deftness with language and a lightness of touch that makes this both highly entertaining and deeply profound. A rare writer.