Thursday 3 February 2011

Bite size reviews

Meet Mr Mulliner  (P.G Wodehouse) contained short stories that are told by the titular Mr Mulliner, often concerning his relatives and their sometimes far flung and slapstick adventures.  Fun and silly, it kept me entertained on tedious train journeys.
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Nocturnes (Kazuo Ishiguro) contained five short stories about 'music and nightfall'.  It wasn't a straight read like Ishiguro's other novels that I have read previously and at times I had to revisit certain passages to make sure that I understood them fully.  All five stories are completely different; some are heartbreaking like the one about a man who hires a young musician to serenade his wife, while others are frustrating like that of the man who goes to stay with friends who seem to be at a crises point within their marriage.
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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Jane Austin and Seth Grahame Smith) was again another book that was taken on one of my many train journeys.  All I can say is that I honestly tried.  I like Pride and Prejudice.  I like zombies!  I even have a shirt saying I love zombies!  My friends liked it and generally, that's enough for me.  However, as it turns out, it's not.  I managed to read four chapters in the correct, chronological, order and proceeded to skim the rest of the book, and it was just blah.  The pictures were pretty but that's about the only good thing I can say. 
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Hollywood Undercover (Ian Halperin) was a quick weekend read as a prelude for my fast approaching trip to L.A .  Much like Pegg, all the salacious details are left out, and much like Mr Stevens, I was left questioning the reliability of the gossip that was, sometimes cryptically, divulged. Otherwise it's just a romp through the back workings of Hollywood.  I got 3/4 of the way through and became somewhat disillusioned with it.  The only part that I found intriguing was the section on Scientology, and after that had passed there wasn't really a lot going for this book.

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