Sample Saturday, on Sunday. Because yesterday was consumed by Aus v Eng World Cup cricket match (not Valentine’s Day). Continue reading
Tag Archives: lad-lit
The Two of Us by Andy Jones
The blurb for Andy Jones’s just-in-time-for-Valentine’s-Day-novel, The Two of Us, is perfectly pitched for a February release – “Falling in love is the easy part. What matters most is what happens next…”
It’s the story of Fisher and Ivy. They’ve known each other for 19 days but both are sure it’s love.
“…anyway, how we met is academic – you don’t ask how the rain began, you simply appreciate the rainbow.” Continue reading
Useful by Debra Oswald
Here’s the thing with chick-lit and lad-lit: it’s not about the ending, it’s about how the author gets you there. Because really, you pretty much know what’s going to happen within the first few chapters (there are rare exceptions to this rule – David Nicholl’s One Day comes to mind). What you want from your story is humour and an emotional conundrum or two.
Debra Oswald (of Offspring-screenwriting fame) takes you on particularly interesting journey involving organ donation, suicide attempts, a one-eyed dog, pub bands and asbestos removal in her novel, Useful.
Specifically, it tells the story of Sullivan Moss who is in equal parts a charming underachiever, unreliable, thoughtless and a spectacularly crap friend. He decides to do one ‘useful’ thing – donate a kidney to a stranger – and in the process gets a job, sobers up and makes new friends, including radio producer Natalie and her son Louis. I don’t need to tell you much more about the plot short of saying that Oswald adds a few lively twists and turns that ensures the focus is not entirely on Sullivan. Continue reading
My Biggest Lie by Luke Brown
The title of this book – My Biggest Lie by Luke Brown – made me think about the biggest lie I’ve ever told. Although I can’t think of a truly dishonest whopper, I did tell a lie once that had far-reaching consequences (it involved a boy, let’s call him Boy A; a party; meeting of another boy (Boy B); realisation that I didn’t like Boy A much anymore; a break-up with Boy A (insert lie for reason); some months thinking about Boy B before seeing him again; marrying Boy B).
Lies tend to either hang around or have a snowball effect. That’s why it’s best not to tell them. Liam Wilson, the main character of the story, discovers this as his life moves from glamorous-London-publisher-with-girlfriend to single-unemployed-guy-living-in-Buenos-Aires. A whole bunch of lies facilitate the process. Liam wants his London life back but does he have to lie to get it?
“There was a time not long ago when I thought that lying was the most natural thing in the world. I was young and I had a good haircut and a girlfriend I loved…. I wore suits I couldn’t afford in the hope that this was the way that one day I would be able to afford them…. I never spoke to anyone about Sarah because if I did I’d have to tell everyone how much I adored her. I didn’t want to over complicate the portrait.” Continue reading
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
I thought I had read everything Nick Hornby had written when I was in my twenties and early thirties. Wrong. I missed A Long Way Down (and I’m afraid to say it’s meant that I haven’t finished the Hornby catalogue on a good note…hurry up Nick and write another excellent book). Continue reading
Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace
Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace has been in my TBR stack for a very long time. It’s a very long book. This is a very short review.
The story can be summed up with this*: Continue reading
Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts
Apologies in advance to our host, Bookishly Boisterous, and the other participants who have put effort into this week’s meme. My post is lack-lustre and light-on.
1. I have had an insanely busy week – and not in a productive Get Shit Done way. No, it’s been that annoying ping-ponging-emails and returning-phonecalls and chase-up-invoices kind of week, with a little bit of being hassled on social media thrown in. Let’s file it under #yuck.
2. I’m about to buy my son these: Continue reading
Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
*sigh* I picked up Starter for Ten by David Nicholls because I loved One Day. Wrong move I’m afraid. It wasn’t a bad book, it was just quite ordinary.
If you want the nitty-gritty, you can read the book blurb here or you can simply accept my summary: nerdy, somewhat gauche boy with bad skin falls in love with the most-popular-girl and meanwhile less-popular-but-lovely-on-the-inside-girl is waiting in the wings. I think you know what happens.
Nicholls adds some nice details to set the scene, notably 1985 (lots of references to Kate Bush and mix-tapes); the main characters appearing on British TV quiz show University Challenge; and the experiences that go with first year university (if I put my ordinary mattress on the ground, does that make it a futon? No. And is a home brew kit a good investment? Depends). Continue reading
The Deep Whatsis by Peter Mattei
It’s Brett Easton Ellis meets Joshua Ferris in Peter Mattei’s satire, The Deep Whatsis.
You might think that I’d had enough of over-privileged Gen-Y brats after The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. but the caustic humour and the extreme ridiculousness of character Eric Nye well and truly had me turning the pages.
The Deep Whatsis follows antihero, Eric – he’s self-indulgent, a player, apparently sensationally successful and rich, full of self-importance and (interestingly) self-loathing – all in all, quite detestable. His world is fast-paced and emotionally empty – he works in advertising, lives amongst Brooklyn hipsters and is a poster-boy for gross consumerism and a wasteful lifestyle.
“I sit in a deck chair and face away from the beach; something about the ceaseless idiocy of one wave after another strikes me as profoundly unimaginative.” Continue reading
A top ten of top tens. I know, ace.
Every Monday night I sit down to put together my Top Ten Tuesday post. Every Monday night I think to myself “I really should be working, not blogging.” Bugger it, I love a list. I’ve always loved lists. In fact, one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received was The Book of Royal Lists, given to me when I was twelve and at the height of my Princess Diana obsession. It was 300-odd pages of lists. About the Royal Family. All sorts of useful stuff like ‘Sixteen Curious Garments Worn by Royalty’ and ‘Nine Names Applied to Members of the Royal Family by Schoolmates’ (including such gems as Flop, Bat Lugs and Pragger-Wagger). I read it all, over and over, with great interest.
For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, The Broke and the Bookish threw us a freebie and I figured what could be better than a top ten of top tens? Probably nothing! It’s a list of lists! Continue reading