Christmas Mischief

I know I have said this before, but I don't understand why I find the things Mischief Theatre do so funny. 

I mean Magic Goes Wrong was, like Comedy about a Bank Robbery before it, probably more clever than funny. The magic itself was super slick, but still I laughed. But the Goes Wrong Show, that really tickled me. Tickled to an embarrassing level I'd say. 

Anyway, what have I read in December? 

Slade House - David Mitchell
The Tattooist of Auschwitz- Heather Wilson
The City of Brass - SA Chakraborty
Bearmouth - Liz Hyder
Twas the Nightshift before Christmas - Adam Day
Release - Partick Ness

After having another attempt at the Jacob de Zoet book I figured I should probably give up on that and switch to the David Mitchell (the other one) book that I hadn't read. I really enjoyed it, which only makes me wonder why I found Thousand Autumns so unexcitedly unreadable. Weird. 

Another book that took two attempts was Bearmouth. I was put off by the phonetic spelling, then saw it bubbling away in the end of year charts, so figured it was worth the perseverance. 

By any standards I should have quit City of Brass. The premise is brilliant (it's basically a Middle Eastern Daughter of Smoke and Bone) but the set up was frustrating and by the time the ending came I had stopped caring about any of the characters. 

I finally got round to reading the Tattooist of Auschwitz. Whilst it was absolutely brutal, it was a much easier read than the genie book, which I guess is why it's been in the best sellers chart for a couple of years. 

I suspect I'm not the only person who has read the Adam Kay book in the ladt couple of days. It had me chuckling. Not as much as Mischief, mind, but some good solid chuckles none the less. 

And Release, which embarrassingly I had read before. I don't remember reading it, but as soon as I started everything seemed familiar. Often on a re-read it is the other way round. I remember the act of reading but not the story (I've read both The Alchemist and the Great Gatsby twice, and have no idea what happens in either). Still, thoroughly enjoyed this the second time. 

Stuff I've been Reading- November

Tenth of December- George Saunders
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Everisto
Snowflake AZ - Marcus Sedgwick
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

Happy advent people. Got some biggies in the reading bucket this month, Booker Winners a-go-go. Check me out. 

But let's start with the YA. We are both more comfortable starting there. I say YA, Marcus Sedgewick is very much at the literary end of YA. Snowflake AZ was a curios book. It was about something that a cynic like me sneers at, but managed to do it in a way that stopped me sneering. Which is no mean feat.

I got George Saunders the wrong way round. If I had my ear to the pulse I would have read this before Lincoln in the Bardo,  rather than a year or so after. Ho hum. I always struggle with short stories and whilst some of these were ace. It generally came across as a smorgasbord of good ideas, rather than a coherent meal. 

Girl, Woman, Other could have beem the same. It wasn't. It was brilliant. You don't need me to tell you that, she's just won the Booker. Oh no wait, Booker prize winners often come across as more pretentious than fun - this might be the best Booker winner I've read. 

And that includes English Patient. I know it's a modern classic, but I just didn't care about any of the characters. And call me old-fashioned but I find that pretty important in a book  

That and believability. It felt like When We Were Orphans got bored of being believable at about the half way point. It then became silly and I wanted it to be over.