Summer Book Reading Challenge

Cathy is hosting the annual 20 Books of Summer reading challenge again over at 746 Books. The eagle eyed among you will have spotted that the image I’ve chosen from Cathy’s selection isn’t for twenty books. There are three reasons for that.

Beastie Boys Book

Read 17/05/2020-24/05/2020

Rating 5 stars

Beastie Boys Book opens with Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) talking about the best Beastie Boy – Adam Yauch (MCA). I loved MCA. He was a renegade. He seemed to live life at a million miles an hour, curious about everything, folding his experiences into his creative output. Horovitz knows Yauch was the best Beastie Boy, too. It’s a beautiful tribute to Yauch.

Beastie Boys Book is a collection of reminiscences by Horovitz and the other surviving Beastie Boy, Michael Diamond (Mike D), with essays by music critics, famous fans and musical collaborators mixed in.

Random Thoughts on Lockdown 3

Sleep. I’ve almost forgotten what that is.

Mad Men Carousel: the Complete Critical Companion

Read 07/05/2020-16/05/2020

Rating 4 stars

Matt Zoller Seitz is a TV and film critic. I have his book The Wes Anderson Collection, which is based on a five part video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style and explores in depth the themes and subtexts of Anderson’s films up to Moonrise Kingdom. It’s a great book and I was happy when Mr Hicks bought me Seitz’s Mad Men Carousel for Xmas 2015.

I’ve watched Mad Men since it was first shown in the UK on BBC4 back in 2008.

Set the Boy Free

Read 03/05/2020-07/05/2020

Rating 4 stars

I love Johnny Marr. He’s an absolute peach of a human. Mr Hicks bought me his autobiography a while ago now. It’s a hefty hardback that I’ve been reluctant to carry with me on my commute. What better time than a lockdown to read it, then.

Random Thoughts on Lockdown 2

I read something today that contained a phrase I found pleasing. It’s in a blog post by Clare Fisher, author of How the Light Gets In. The post is part of a lockdown collaboration between Influx Press, Picador Books and Burley Fisher Books that brings together short story writers and highlights their work. It’s called Short Stories for Strange Times and is billed as a series of virtual events.

But what is the phrase I enjoyed so much?

Life in an English Village

Read 02/05/2020

Rating 5 stars

Life in an English Village was an interlude, read in no more than a couple of hours, if that. It was one of my wedding anniversary presents. My husband knows me so well.

His Bloody Project: Documents relating to the case of Roderick Macrae

Read 26/04/2020-03/05/2020

Rating 3 stars

I’ve had Graeme Macrae Burnet’s book hanging around on my Kindle for three or so years. A friend’s recent review of Burnet’s debut novel reminded me that I hadn’t got round to reading His Bloody Project.

I was in the mood for some historical fiction after the last book I read, so I charged up my neglected Kindle and opened His Bloody Project up.

Six Degrees of Separation: from The Road to The Hearing Trumpet

Hello May. You’ve arrived quickly. But then again, maybe not that quickly. Maybe I was simply in a fog for most of April. Anyway, I’m on time for this month’s Six Degrees of Separation. This month, Kate has chosen Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as the first book in the chain. I wonder where this will lead.