Category: Books

The Python Years

I’ve just finished reading the rather good Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years – a fascinating read for anyone with even a passing interest in the Pythons. From the very first TV show through to the UK release of the The Life of Brian you get the full story straight from the horses mouth. It’s all very readable too – thorougly recommended.

Grandad was down for a visit yesterday too, so we managed to escape for a Valentine’s dinner at the Lounge in Largs – Guinea Fowl to start, Chateuxbriand for the main course and a cheese board to finish. It was nice to get out on out own and the food was excellent – tried to book the babysitting services again but turns out we don’t actually have any free weekends until April!

Country of the Blind

Although there can be little doubt that this book was written in the Scotland in the mid nineties – the contempt for the Tory Government of the time simply drips from the pages – it’s still a right good read.

Whilst the author’s sense of humour is probably an acquired taste and the narrative jars a little at times, the plot is fast paced and full of twists and turns that keep you interested until the end.

It’s the first book I’ve read by Christopher Brookmyre and I’d give it a three out of five – certainly worth searching out some of his other titles…

Fleshmarket Close

Ian Rankin’s Fleshmarket Close is the latest installment in the Inspector John Rebus novels – and is well worth a read.

Rankin weaves so many seemingly unrelated threads through the book and somehow manages to tie them together at the end – the sister of a dead rape victim is missing; stolen medical skeletons turn up embedded in a concrete floor; a Kurdish journalist is brutally killed; the son of a Glasgow ganglord has moved in to the Edinburgh vice scene.

If you’ve not read any of the Rebus novels then start with Knots & Crosses and read them all – there’s not a bad one amongst them. 😀

Cloud Atlas

I’ve just finished reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

The book is unusual in that it consists of 6 interlinked stories set in different eras, and whilst it was an enjoyable read I can’t help feeling that a bit more could have been made of the central ideas.

The main characters of each story include an American travelling the south Pacific in the 19th Century, a musician composing in Belgium between the wars, a journalist exposing corporate misdoings in 1970s California, a modern day publisher trapped in a Retirement Home in Hull, a fabricant human created to serve in a Korean fast food restaurant and finally a goat farmer living on an island in Hawaii in a post-apocalyptic future.

It’s a good book and a recommended read, my only advice would be to perservere with it – some of the writing styles adopted are difficult to read, but it is worth the effort.