Reread: Cold Comfort Farm

I was compiling my Top Ten list of character names a few weeks ago and was looking through my bookshelf when I came across Cold Comfort Farm.  I last read Cold Comfort Farm probably back in 2005/06 for the very simple reason that it was one of my favourite author, MegCabot's, favourite books.  I guess this is why it's so great for a new author to have a quote from an established author on the front of their book, (not that Stella Gibbons is a new author) because idiots like me will read what our favourite authors tell us to.  So, I read Cold Comfort back then and....I didn't love it.  I just didn't get it really, but I always intended to reread it in later years to see if things had changed.  So, I reread it and....things haven't changed all that much. 

Cold Comfort Farm follows the story of Flora Poste (great name, right?), a respectable girl who is orphaned at nineteen and so goes to live with her cousin Judith Starkadder and her rather uncivilised family at their farm.  Flora hopes to help the family become more respectable but this isn't easy.  All the family members feel bound to the farm because Aunt Ada Doom once saw something "nasty in the woodshed" and tells them all that she will go mad if they ever leave Cold Comfort Farm.  However, with Flora's help, the family members begin to follow their own paths and live lives of their own.

If I hadn't read any reviews or comments about this book then I'd think OK, yeah, it's a book and stuff happens and it's alright I guess but because I have read people's thoughts about this book I feel that I'm missing something.  Lots of comments say that this is a comic novel but I just didn't get it.  I want to find it funny, I'm itching to read funny books, but I just didn't.  Julie Burchill says that it's "Very probably the funniest book ever written" and I'm just sat here scratching my head going "eh, sorry, what?"  For me there were maybe a couple of amusing moments but it's nowhere near being the funniest book ever written.

Last time I read it I felt that I was missing out on something and that maybe I was too young to get it.  Now, after rereading Cold Comfort Farm, I still think that I'm not quite getting something but this time I'm thinking that maybe I'm never going to 'get it'.  That's the great thing about reading, though, that just because I don't get the humour of this book it doesn't mean that it isn't there or that other people won't get it.  So I'd be really interested to know what you think of Cold Comfort Farm if you've read it.  Did you have the same reaction I did?  Or  did you love it and find it hilarious?  And can you explain to me what it is that I'm just not getting?

One sentence back cover quote

Lots of people find Cold Comfort Farm hilarious so maybe you'll be one of them

Buy Cold Comfort Farm at Waterstones

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

This particular review contains spoilers so if you don't want the book to be spoiled then look away now.

I was lucky enough to see Helen Fielding talking at the Manchester LiteraryFestival a few weeks ago just after the latest Bridget Jones came out.  I grabbed a copy of Mad About the Boy from the pop up Waterstones outside the venue and started the book as soon as I got home.

Now I'm not all that sentimental about Bridget Jones, I'm from the second wave of readers, current twenty-somethings who've come to the books a bit later.  I wasn't waiting for the columns in The Independent each week because I had different priorities at that time (like whether I set the VCR in time to tape The Spice Girls on whatever TV programme they happened to be on that week).  I even saw the films before I read the books!  I know!  What sort of a person am I?

It's for this reason that I didn't seem as distressed as everyone else on the internet was when they heard that Mark Darcy had died and Bridget would be a single mum in this book.  Yeah, of course, it'll be a little bit sad I thought but it won't be that big a deal.  Boy was I wrong, and I'm not even attached to Mark Darcy.

The book, just like Fielding in person, is funny.  Not just as in an occasional smile here and there but actually laugh out loud funny and I love that.  However, every time Bridget started mentioning how sad she was that Mark wasn't there, I just sort of thought Yeah, I am too.  And I just don't get why it had to happen.  I know that the first couple of Bridget Jones books were about being a single 30 something looking for love but just because that's the main theme of the first 2 books, I don't see why it had to be the main theme of the third one.  It could've been a funny book about Bridget in a happy marriage in her 50s.  I know it's probably harder to come up with fun storylines for that but couldn't that have been part of the challenge?  But it's not my book, they're not my characters and it's up to Helen Fielding what she wants to do with them.

There are two main love interests in the book, Roxster and Mr Wallaker.  Roxster is a 29 year old who Bridget meets over Twitter and begins to fall in love with him.  He's sweet and charming but also ends up being confused by this relationship with an older woman though their relationship does take up most of the book.  

Mr Wallaker is totally different to Roxster.  He's a teacher at Bridget's son's school and it very proper and British and stiff upper lip and barely any of the book is spent on his and Bridget's relationship.  It's just sort of plopped on right at the end with Bridget realising that she's madly in love with him during the Christmas carol concert, even though they've barely spoken to each other and haven't been on a single date.  In fact, such little time is spent with Mr Wallaker that I'm probably more invested in Bridget's relationship with Roxster.  

All in all the book is a nice enough read.  It's not the same as the earlier ones because the ghost of Mark Darcy is present throughout and so I felt that Bridget is only ever going to be looking for a replacement.  However, it is a good read, I enjoyed it and it's funny.  I do think that perhaps I might not have enjoyed it as much as the other ones because I'm not yet at the point in my life that Bridget's at.  There are doubtless moments in the book where mums up and down the country will be nodding and laughing along and saying "Yes, that is exactly what it's like at the school gates/at the annual concert/at Barbara and Gavin's Christmas parties".

So maybe I'll re-read this book when I'm a bit older, but I'm still glad that I read it.  I love it when a book can make you laugh and Bridget's done just that yet again.

One sentence back cover quote

Bridget's back and funny as ever but life's changed an awful lot.

Buy Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy at Waterstones

What Alice Forgot

Aren't we all just searching for authors we can fall in love with?  Sure, we also want to fall in love with books but if you fall in love with an author you can go off and have a lovely harmless affair with all of their back catalogue.  You can snuggle up on the sofa with Book Number 4 and have a nice relaxing bath with Book Number 7, it's really rather good.  The latest author to fit into this category for me is Liane Moriarty.

I picked What Alice Forgot up from the library shelf as I had enjoyed Moriarty's most recent book, The Husband's Secret, and was hoping that I would love this book as well.  I did.

What Alice Forgot follows the story of Alice Love, a woman who trips over at a Step class and gives herself such an almighty bang on the head that she forgets the past ten years of her life.  Her mind's right back in 1998 when Twitter was just a sound that birds made.  We learn about Alice's missing ten years at the same time that she does as she tries to piece together what people tell her and fragments of memories that suddenly come rushing back.

Both of Moriarty's books that I've read so far have been so great because they make you think about the situation hypothetically happening to you.  What would you think of your life now if you'd forgotten the past ten years?  You'd be rather unlucky for it to happen to you but it could.  Would old you be happy with current you?  Would they be surprised at the choices you've made?  The relationships and friendships you've had and have? 

There's also something about Moriarty's writing that makes her work so readable.  You feel like you've barely been reading for any time at all and yet you've sailed through to page 102 and you've missed the beginning of your favourite TV programme but, oh well, let's keep on reading.  Also, it's lovely to have an Aussie setting for a change and be in the land of fairy bread, gum boots and flip flops being called thongs.

Moriarty's remaining books are on my 'to be ordered from the library' list that I keep in my head, I'm much too unorganised to actually write the list down, and so I would absolutely recommend that they make their way over to yours too.  There's humour and heart in What Alice Forgot (but not so much heart you'll start blubbing on your morning commute) and I wanted to know what happened next, both ten years ago and in the present day.

One sentence back cover quote

Moriarty writes with humour and heart, I gobbled it up.

Buy What Alice Forgot at Waterstones

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

The back cover of my copy of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets says "Eva Rice's novel is an utterly engrossing read, in the tradition of Nancy Mitford and I Capture the Castle".  Now I Capture the Castle was one of my favourite books of my teenage years and Nancy Mitford is just...well words don't describe how amazing I think Nancy is.  I mean talk about a publisher setting expectations high, for this was the description from the publisher rather than a quote from a reader.

Although I might not agree with the description 100%, I do get where it's coming from.  The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is about upper class people who are simply marvellous darling, some of whom live in a decaying house in the 1950s which doesn't sound too far from the plot of a Smith or Mitford novel.  The story is told by Penelope Wallace, a young student, and starts when a chance meeting with Charlotte turns into a firm friendship which changes Penelope's life.  Charlotte introduces Penelope to her cousin Harry who is hopelessly in love with the engaged American Marina and much of the plot involves Penelope helping Harry to make Marina jealous.  We are also introduced to Penelope's family, her young, beautiful and widowed mother Talitha and her brother Inigo who has hopes of making it in the music business. 

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is a great book.  Yes, it's "in the tradition of Nancy Mitford" but I don't think it's as good as The Pursuit of Love because it's just not as funny (I would never normally bring something like that up but the publisher did so I feel like I should address it, you can't throw around comparisons to Nancy lightly).  It's absolutely got all the things you want from a romance novel about the upper classes in the 50s, it's got characters that I care about, decadent parties with beautiful people and stuff happening that I could never imagine happening in my own life and that's what I really want from a book like this. 

If you like books set in a different era, before people had mobiles and the internet but did have telephones and record players, then this is a book for you.  If you're looking for a novel that has a silly, romantic teenager as the heroine but isn't in the YA genre then this could be just your cup of tea.

One sentence back cover quote

A delicious novel full of romance and 'beautiful people'

Buy The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets at Waterstones

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Sometimes I have a good ol' Amazon blitz.  I look through all the reviews, pick out some books I quite fancy reading, and then I order them from the library.  Ordering books from the library is brilliant because there is no pressure.  If I hate a book after 20 pages then I can just throw it to the side and pick up another one, just as I did the other week as I'm sorry but I can not read a book about someone who makes a scrapbook about vintage teacups for her wedding because if I knew that person in real life, I'd throw fruit at them.  It was thanks to this Amazon and library method that I got my hands on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

The Lit & Pie Soc is written in epistolary form, hey look at me using a fancy word that basically just means the book is a collection of ficticious letters, and is set in the aftermath of the second world war.  It focuses on Juliet Ashton, a writer living in London, who receives a letter from one of the members of the eponymous Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and so begins her fascination with the club.

Guernsey was actually invaded by the Germans during the second world war and so Juliet learns all about life under their rule, first from Dawsey Adams and then from other members of the group.  As she learns more Juliet becomes mesmerised with their story so that it takes up more of her thoughts than her real life does.

The Lit & Pie Soc is a nice book.  It moves along, things happen, there are a couple of twists, but, for me, it never really elevated itself to being a great book, despite the initial promise.  I certianly learnt a lot, and not in a lecture-y 'let me tell you everything I can about the war' way but in a very natural way.  I suppose my biggest concern was that the London lot were made to sound positively fantastic and frightfully clever darling and the gang on Guernsey, at times, came across as quite simple.

I felt like it had promise at the beginning, I like books that are letters and I used to love books about WWII so it had things going for it, but it didn't surprise me and was just a nice, standard, formulaic book with some of the characters morphing into each other.

If you're looking for something that's a bit different, that rocks the boat, that makes you think, then this isn't the book for you.  If you know what you like and you like a love story with a couple of twists but nothing too drastic then I'd suggest you should maybe think about getting this out of your local library.

One sentence back cover quote

OK, formulaic love story that lacks spark

Buy The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society from Waterstones

The Rehearsal

I popped a copy of The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton onto the desk at Waterstones (because I like to shop in physical bookshops, I'm mad like that) and the girl behind the desk asked me if I'd been looking for Catton's "new one". 

"Oh no, just this one" I replied

"Oh right, just because her other one (The Luminaries) has been Booker Shortlisted and so we've sold out of it"

This is why authors, editors, publishers, other people whose job title ends in 'or/er' laugh themselves silly when their book gets nominated for an award.  People gobble the book up in their droves or the name of the author sticks in their head so that they give their other stuff a go.  Basically, nomination = £££

But how ugly to talk about money on a book blog, I'm sorry, how terribly vulgar of me.  Let's get down to the book itself.  The Rehearsal wasn't nominated for a Booker prize but it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Betty Trask Award and has so many lovely quotes written on it, it looks like a physical manifestation of Tumblr.

The main focus of the novel is a high school sex scandal and the fall-out from it.  It follows two different paths, one mainly looks at Isolde, the sister of the girl involved in the scandal and her saxophone lessons and her teacher, known simply as 'the saxophone teacher' which is very Piggy in Lord of the Flies.  The other looks at Stanley, who is auditioning for drama school.  Each chapter swaps both the narrative and the tense over, though I have to admit I didn't notice the tense thing until chapter eleven (whoops).  This helps to give the novel a jarring feeling, something I definitely did notice.

The Rehearsal is...weird, but in a good way.  In Isolde's chapters it's hard to tell what's real and what's not.  Which are the things that have been said and done and which are those that the characters imagine or fantasise.  I still don't really know whether some bits were real but I'm OK with that, even though I normally like things to be pretty definitive.

The saxophone teacher's point of view makes you think the hardest.  She sees everybody as playing a part, I guess in a kind of 'All the world's a stage' way, and she imagines what everybody else would be like in different roles.  So, using Hollywood as an example, what would Jennifer Aniston be like playing the role of Angelina Jolie?  What would you look like in the role of your best mate?  How would you play it?

The Rehearsal is not like anything else I've read.  It doesn't follow a formula, it makes you guess, it gives you a little bit and then moves back in time to show you the beginning.  It lets you in on things that might not even have happened and reading it never felt like a chore.  It's a good job Catton was nominated for the Booker or I might never have picked it up.

One sentence back cover quote

An unpredictable treat

Buy The Rehearsal at Waterstones

The Universe versus Alex Woods

Normally I stay away from books, TV shows and films where people are quoted as saying that it will "have you smiling through your tears" but sometimes, well, I'm just a bit of a maverick.  I decide that all those people who say that this will make you blub are all just big babies and that I'll be able to handle the storyline even though I'm one of the biggest criers around.  That's certainly what I decided when I picked up The Universe versus Alex Woods.  You see, Gavin Extence's debut novel also had critics saying that they laughed, so that was what I was hoping for, that I'd find it more funny than sad.

The novel is about Alex Woods, a teenager, and his friendship with an old man called Mr Peterson.  It begins the way that lots of books like to begin, with the first chapter sort of telling us what has happened and then the subsequent chapters showing how events lead up to that point.  In my mind the novel breaks up into two distinct parts, the first bit where we learn about Alex and the second where we meet Mr Peterson.

What we learn about Alex is that he is not a normal teenager, of course he isn't, there are no normal teenagers in books.  Alex is different because when he was ten he was hit by a meteorite.  What I love about this is that it is such a one-in-however-many-billion thing to happen that the chances of it happening are miniscule, but unlike a lot of things we see in books (vampires, werewolves, wizards) it could happen.  There you are, sitting wherever you're sitting, reading this and then a meteorite could suddenly shoot out of the sky and hit you.  And it's a great leveller, the meteorite doesn't care if you're the sort of person who wants fame or not, it's just chance that the two of you crossed paths and you've now become 'the person who got hit by a meteorite and survived' and Oprah is banging down your door for an interview (does Oprah even do interviews any more?  I can't keep up)

As you can imagine, being hit by a meteorite doesn't make for an easy life and so the first part of the novel looks at how this affected Alex's life.  Then we, and Alex, meet the curmudgeonly Mr Peterson and the relationship between these unlikely friends forms the basis of the second part of the book. 

Even though we all know what the end result is thanks to the first chapter, I don't want to give away any of the lead up, any of the surprises, so I'll try and be abstract.  This book made me laugh out loud, which is always a great thing in a book, and it made me care so much about the characters that at some points I had that horrible tugging feeling in my tummy because it was kind of heartbreaking.  As I said, I am a huge crier and, no surprises, I wasn't stronger than those critics whose quotes were used for the book.  I cried.  I cried because it is incredibly sad. 

I don't think I'd re-read this book, especially knowing everything that happens, but I would recommend it.  I'm glad I read it, it wasn't bleak and depressing because there was humour in it but after reading it I remembered why I don't normally go for books that make you cry - reading sad books is hard work.  It's emotionally draining even though you don't know these made up characters.  There are many, many people who love a book that makes you cry and if you're one of those people then this definitely is a book that should be on your To Be Read pile.  If you're someone who doesn't usually like to cry but is feeling brave then I reckon give this book a go because the humour will help soften the blow.  And if you're someone who's had an absolutely awful week and just wants something that will make you feel happy and full of laughter then, erm, maybe you should grab some chocolates and watch The Mindy Project instead.

One sentence back cover quote

Boy did I cry, but I also laughed and really cared about the characters.

Buy The Universe versus Alex Woods at Waterstones

Diana the Huntress

I came to Diana the Huntress after starting a couple of books that I just couldn't finish.  The first just went on and on about old age and how rubbish it is and how there's always something hurting you and if it's not one thing it's another and I just thought to myself 'This will be bad enough if it happens to me in later years, I don't need to spend my young, mobile years reading about it.  Now I should probably touch my toes to prove to myself that I'm still youthful'.  The second book was not all that upbeat either and reading it felt like a drag so I gave up on that too.  I needed something fluffy and light.

Diana the Huntress fits the 'fluffy and light' description perfectly, just look at the front cover.  Nothing says 'this is not a book that will make you miserable' like a cartoon of a lady lying on her bed in a baby pink room.  Although Diana herself is not a girly girl.

Diana the Huntress is part of the Six Sisters series by MC Beaton and from the cover of the book, you can tell that it's going to work to a certain formula.  But working to a formula is fine, it's sometimes exactly what you need, you just want a nice story that you know will result in a happy ending.  The book is the fifth in the series and although I hadn't read the previous four books when I picked this up, it didn't matter, the story works perfectly well as a stand alone.

Diana is the fifth of six sisters (surprise, surprise) and is living at home with her parents and younger sister Frederica.  Diana is somewhat of a worry for her father as although he enjoys her company he worries that she's just not feminine enough.  He does indulge Diana in her passion, hunting, but only if she disguises herself as a man which, I'm sure you can guess, results in lots of shenanigans.

However, the main focus of the book is, you've guessed it, romance.  Awwwww.  Diana encounters two young(ish) men who have just moved to her neck of the woods, Lord Mark Dantrey and Mr Emberton, and must work out for herself which one she truly loves.

Diana the Huntress is perfect for when you want to read a book but you don't want it to take up too much headspace.  It's light, it's fun, there's action as well as the romance so you shouldn't grow bored and sometimes, dammit, you just want a plot that's predictable but will make you smile.

One sentence back cover quote

I wanted light and fluffy and I got it

Buy Diana the Huntress at Waterstones

Penelope

I loved Penelope.  I shouldn't have even picked it up really.  Its cover is a photo of the back of a (real life) girl who is surrounded by cartoon animals.  Maybe I'm the weird one here but aren't your least favourite bits of old films when the worlds of cartoons and real life mix?  (Mary Poppins is, of course, the exception to this rule but even that section drags on a bit)  The second thing that meant I shouldn't have picked up this book is its name - Penelope.  Apologies to any Penelopes out there but I've never really liked the name, maybe I watched too much Wacky Races as a kid and didn't warm to Penelope Pitstop.

For whatever reason though I picked up the book and I am so I glad that I did.  The novel, written by Rebecca Harrington, is about Penelope O'Shaughnessy who is starting her freshman year at Harvard and is really rather awkward.  She finds it hard to make friends and to understand the meanings behind things, sometimes she acts like a bit of an idiot and is occasionally totally clueless but I still loved her anyway.  She has a unique way of looking at the world, everything is pretty much black and white for her and that's what makes Penelope's voice such a funny one.

As the book is set at Harvard the main focuses are friendship, romance and academia and yes, there are some references to typically Harvard things so if you get irked by things like that, this book probably isn't for you.  However if you enjoyed Rory's college years of the Gilmore Girls (I know it was Yale then and not Harvard but it's still Ivy League) then you'll understand the setting a little better.

The book is fairly dialogue heavy, just skimming through it now I can see a lot of speech marks, and it reminded me of a 30s or 40s book.  As I was reading it I thought that the characters' way of speaking, and the characters themselves, wouldn't have been out of place in an Evelyn Waugh or Nancy Mitford novel.  The author's note at the end of the book mentioned that Harrington had been inspired by, amongst other things, Waugh's Decline and Fall and I felt like a right genius after I read that which was nice as in English lessons at school when other people used to say 'Oh this novel actually reminded me of so and so' and everyone around them would nod in agreement I felt like a right fraud because I hadn't seen that influence.  So, if you like that sparky, flowery way of talking that they used in the 20s-40s, Penelope is the perfect novel for you, it just transplants that way of speaking into a modern setting.

This book was so good that, although I didn't want to finish the book, I was looking forward to the ending when I would then be able to Google Rebecca Harrington to my heart's content.  You know when you read someone's writing and you wish that you were mates with them, that rather than just reading their tweets you could actually read the texts that they sent you, because you're mates?  That's how I felt about Rebecca Harrington.  She has this way of writing that I love and I just can't wait for her to release another book.

After I finished the book I did Google away and also did something I normally do, read the book reviews on UK and US Amazon (only if I haven't already seen them).  Honestly, I expected enthusiastic praise, other people had to love this book as much as I did, right?  Apparently not, it received the highest number of one star reviews I've seen for a long time.  From what I can work out, people don't seem to get the humour and the style of writing, they can't stand the fact that Harrington doesn't use contractions (ie she writes 'can not' instead of can't) and don't understand that the ficticious characters at the ficticious Harvard don't have to speak the way that the real people at the real Harvard do.  I only mention the one star reviews because I would hate for someone to have seen them and been put off the book.  Penelope is so ridiculously good that actually, I don't mind the name Penelope all that much now.  In fact, I think I might, maybe, slightly like it.

Buy Penelope at Waterstones

Our Spoons Came from Woolworths

Do you remember when books used to regularly have order forms at the back of them with similar books you might like so that you could fill it in and post it off next time you passed the post box rather than going into town to your local bookshop?  It was like internet shopping without the internet.  I felt like I hadn't seen one of those in a newly published book for years until I got to the back of my copy of Stella Gibbons' Nightingale Wood and there was a page asking me if I'd like to fill in a form and send in my cheque so that 28 days later, one of these 5 books would be mine.  I didn't of course, I have no idea where my cheque book is, but one of the titles of the books caught my eye - Our Spoons Came from Woolworths.

Isn't that such a lovely name for a novel?  Isn't it so nostalgic?  Especially now that Woolies has closed.  Who even knew that Woolworths sold spoons though?  I'm just about old enough to remember shopping there so when I reminisce to my future children about it I'll tell them how I went there when I was a young'un to buy Pick n Mix and clogs and they won't even laugh about the clogs because by that time they'll be back in fashion again.  

So the name of the novel stuck in my head and a few months later I finally got around to buying it.  Our Spoons Came from Woolworths is written by Barbara Comyns and tells the story of Sophia's life between the ages of 20 and 28 in the 1930s and 40s.  The first chapter almost gives you an outline of the whole story, that things weren't great for a while but it all turns out OK in the end, which is good because at the end of the novel you can go back to re-read it (the chapters aren't very long) and see how the whole thing fits together.  Sort of like How I Met Your Mother but much shorter and with fewer canned laughs.

Our Spoons... is funny and also a little sad in parts but is written in an unusual way.  The best way I can describe it is 'practical', it details what happened, beginning sentences with 'After this....Then he said....Then he opened....Then he walked....Then he saw....The next day...Soon after' There aren't great big chunks of dialogue or brilliant exchanges between characters, Sophia simply wants to tell us her story without any bells and whistles.  She doesn't embellish things or give a sob story, she'd be totally useless on The X Factor.

At first I found this style of writing annoying until I came to Chapter 9 where Comyns actually addresses the fact that the book isn't written in a 'typical' style and I suddenly realised that it's Sophia's story, rather than Comyns', and Sophia wouldn't know how to write in any other way than the way she writes.

So, to the content of the book. If you're looking for something incredibly complex that's going to make you think about the book you've just read for days on end then I wouldn't go for Our Spoons... as it's an interesting, but not earth-shattering, account of life in the 30s.  It talks of marriage, working, children and all the other things that novels of today also deal with except the people in this don't have telephones so there are no drunken text mishaps to deal with. 

I love reading books from the 20s-50s because that time is within living memory and yet it is so entirely different to how we live now.  That's why I pick up books like Our Spoons...  I can't believe Sophia's life and the choices that were available to her and it's a life that people lived not that long ago.  I don't want to make it sound like this book is one massive downer though, because it isn't.  There is humour in it and Sophia has that typical 30s attitude of not letting sad stuff make you sad.  And standing at 196 pages it's a quick read, perfect for if you're busy and don't want to make a big time commitment to a book.

Buy Our Spoons Came from Woolworths at Waterstones