What I'm Reading

Having finished my lovely friend Claire Allan's fourth book "It's Got to be Perfect", I’m now reading some other entertaining stuff and thought you might be interested:

On the loo (no, really. Okay then, does it sound better to say “in the bathroom”?) we have ‘Bad Karma’ by David Safier.

I blogged about the rather unusual premise for this a while back, but if you don't remember, you’ll just have to take my word for it… it’s just utterly, utterly fabulous escapism. I’ve never heard of, let alone read, a surreal rom-com, so this is a first. And hopefully not a last. It keeps me chuckling… well, all the way. If you know what I mean.  I can't remember the last time a Main Character was so concerned about her four-legged brother mating with her and her siblings - and I shall never see Cassanova in quite the same way after his appearances in this book.  Buy it. Seriously, you'll smile so much.


And in bed, we have “My So-Called Haunting” by Tamsyn Murray. Such a refreshing, funny book all about a teenager called Skye who has psychic abilities and lives with her Aunt who also has them. Between them they help ghosts who are ‘stuck’ in the living world, for whatever reason, move over to theirs. The ghost in this case is a scared, suspicious teenage boy who's the victim of a gang-related crime.  It's touching, clever and imaginative and what I love even more about this book is that it links so beautifully with Tamsyn’s last (and debut I believe) book “My So-Called Afterlife” but not in a ‘sequelly-type’ way. I love it when this happens – it makes the reader feel all clever having a bit more background knowledge… or that could just be smug-me.

And on the To Be Read pile, we have the Man Booker Prizewinner, “The Finkler Question” by Howard Jacobson, which I read the opening chapter to on-line and though it was great stuff.   “A Dry Spell” by Clare Chambers, “Leaving Poppy” by Kate Cann and “In a Summer Season” by Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that one).
I’ve also been lent “On the Other Hand” by Chris Cleave which I’m told is fab too.

Christmas shopping? Oh no – this is WAY more fun!