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The Driver’s Seat
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark Published: 1970 Length: 128 pages I really didn’t know what was going on in this book. I think I basically got what was happening by the end, and then I read a comment on Goodreads that made it click for me, but I think I may need to re-read this again soon just to see how the story unfolds when you know what’s to come. I mean, you know the ending when you start the novel. Spark tells you, but I guess I didn’t believe her. This is about a single woman who travels on holiday to a southern city in Europe to find…
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Cloudstreet
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton Published: 1991 Narrated by: Peter Hosking Length: 12:50 (426 pages) I bought this for our Australia trip and never managed to get to it while we were there, but I did read it when we returned. It follows the lives of two very different families, as they’re uprooted by circumstance from their previous homes and find themselves living in the same house on Cloudstreet in Perth. It’s an unflinching look, over multiple decades, of these two working-class families as they become involved in each other’s lives. This isn’t a description that would typically get me excited to read a book. I’m not often a fan of…
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Law School
Law School: Sex and Relationship Advice by Benjamin Law Published: 2017 Length: 125 pages We visited quite a few bookstores while we were in Australia last year. I was keeping an eye out while browsing for books I might not come across in Canada, and this seemed like a fun one. It’s a collection of articles from a humour sex and relationship advice column in a Melbourne-based magazine called The Lifted Brow. People write in about their various situations and Benjamin Law and his mother, Jenny Phang, both respond. Seeing both responses on the same page is just hilarious, and both Benjamin and his mother seem like very open and…
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Dear Fahrenheit 451
Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence Published: 2017 Narrated by: Stephanie Spicer Length: 05:35 (244 pages) I loved this! It would be a great book to turn to if I find myself in a reading slump again this year. Her love of books in this is so contagious that it’s hard to come out of it without immediately picking up a new book and diving in. The format that she came up with is perfect. Each essay is just a letter addressed to a book, some purely comedic and others more…
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The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb Published: 2013 Series: Farseer Trilogy 0.5 Length: 157 pages I love Robin Hobb, and was very excited to see a book from her that was under 800 pages. This novella takes place long before FitzChivalry Farseer, of the Farseer Trilogy and beyond, was ever born. It tells of the story of the origins around society’s attitude towards The Wit, a telepathic magic that allows humans to communicate and bond with animals, and why some people with the magic now refer to themselves as Piebalds. It’s considered a dirty, low magic in the current books, but it wasn’t always that way.…
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Ayoade on Ayoade
Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by Richard Ayoade Published: 2014 Length: 303 pages I let this sit on the shelf for far too long thinking it would be a bit of a slog after a skim through the first couple pages, but I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got to it. I’m a huge fan of pretty much everything Ayoade has had any part in, so I really shouldn’t have doubted. From his early acting in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Nathan Barley, his breakout role in The IT Crowd, his film directing career, his panel show appearances, his travel and gadget shows, his interviews, particularly the one in…
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January in Review
Books Acquired: Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb Stoner by John Williams Shakespeare’s Sonnets: The Complete Illustrated Edition by William Shakespeare Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan Sex Criminals, Vol. 4 by Matt Fraction Books Read: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer Akira, Vol. 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo American War by Omar El Akkad I spent my bookstore gift certificates from Christmas at the beginning of the month, which always makes for a good start to the year. I picked up Assassin’s Fate, the last in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Loving it so far, sad to see their journey potentially nearing its…
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Nod
Nod by Adrian Barnes Published: 2014 Narrated by: Tim Beckman Length: 06:12 (206 pages) Almost all of civilization suddenly lose the ability to sleep and begin to deteriorate mentally over the period of a few weeks. About one in every ten thousand adults can still sleep, and they all seem to share the same dream each night. A number of children can also sleep, but they’ve all stopped speaking and no one knows what happens in their dreams. No one really knows what’s happening at all, not even the author. This takes place in current day Vancouver, Canada and follows a couple, one who can sleep and the other who…
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Mortality
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens Published: 2012 Length: 104 pages I have spent many, many hours over the years listening to Christopher Hitchens speak. I disagreed with some of his political stances, but I always enjoyed listening to his eloquent, and often savage, responses in religious debates. In mid-2010, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which he sadly died from at the end of 2011. In that period of sickness, even while struggling with both the effects of the illness and the effects of the treatment, he kept writing and speaking publicly, which really speaks to his passion. His descriptions of what was happening to his body, and his thoughts when…
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Small Gods
Small Gods: A Discworld Graphic Novel by Terry Pratchett Illustrated by: Ray Friesen Series: Discworld Graphic Novels #4 Publisher: Doubleday Published: 2016 Length: 128 pages It’s been about twenty years since I read Small Gods, but I have fond memories of it. I still consider it one of my favourite Pratchett novels, and although my memory is quite hazy on the plot, I can still vividly picture an enraged tortoise bouncing up and down and screaming threats of smiting by thunderbolts. I love the idea that the power of a God is determined by the strength of the faith of his believers, which in this case results in the Great…
