This is a tough book to rate- there are things I really enjoyed about the writing and the story, and things that made me want to shake the characters nearly to death. Basic Plotline: Jude and Noah are twins living with a magical mother (and grandmother), and their scientifically-minded father (the artichoke). The story opens with Noah’s arc beginning at age 13. Noah is a quiet loner who is obsessed with art, and getting into the art high school nearby, when he falls in love […]
London, you’re a Lady
Let’s get this out of the way: I really, really love London. I duly loathe the London Eye, I have my favourite Camden Lock stands and I feel a shiver of excitement whenever I smell the tube’s musk. Other tourists ask me for directions. As soon as I win the lottery – which is only a matter of time, really – I’m moving there. Until then I’m content to take my students there every year (twice, sometimes) and when I show them around, I love […]
Hot Pockets 2: The Hot-Pocketing
There are few things Americans like to do more than eat. No one knows that better than comedian Jim Gaffigan. He has made a career celebrating and poking fun at our national obsession. In his new book, Food: A love Story, Gaffigan collects many of his stand up bits and expands on them, adds more, and delivers a consistently amusing, wry, and laugh out loud funny book. What I liked best about the book is that as much as Gaffigan professes his dislike for fruits […]
A Bridge Too Far
This may be the first time I read a book about something and at the end, feel like I have learned absolutely nothing about the subject. Not because Going Clear is not a good book, but because so little is known about the organisation it discusses, the Church of Scientology, that it’s hard to know what to make of it. A quick google search doesn’t reveal anything more: the book says X, the church says Y. In fact, there is an entire website – run […]