Almost bestial …

Tender is the Flesh left me feeling viscerally sick …

Lanny - Max Porter

Beautiful prose

My annual reading challenge had been to read the shortlisted books for the major literary prizes - I’ve come across some great books that I would otherwise not have read, in this way. Bonus is that most of the books are really well written, even if the themes are not immediately relatable.

Close tie between Dolores Umbrige (Harry Potter) and Annie Wilkes (Misery) . Unbridge probably by a scratch … a bloody quill induced scratch.

War and Peace - it was presented as this hugely unreadable behemoth of a book whereas in reality (and with the right translation), it was actually a very moving and entertaining piece of historical fiction and now one of my favourite stories

I hated the ended that was influenced by Mrs Tchaikovsky but besides that - just a great book.

So three of the Booker prize shortlisted books are listed - The Bee Sting, This Other Eden and Western Lane. The currently favourite - A Study in Obedience, isn’t.

Holly is an odd choice tbh.

Also glad that the NYT has discovered cozyfic, with the addition of Emily Wides Encylioaedia of Fairies .

All in all … an eclectic and somewhat random collection tbh. .

Ohhhhh I promise you that if it ever gets releases, it’ll hit every chart there is in terms of hype …

He’s RE-written the same 1100 pages six times over by now, I wager …

Def original but only if you are sufficiently proficient in the language to grasp the nuances .

Prophet Song - Paul Lynch

an exercise in aggressive empathy (it worked).

Jaws.

I was 7 years old and my parents were really irresponsible letting me borrow that book from the library.