Five Minutes Peace

BOOK REVIEW: Frank Skinner On the Road by Frank Skinner

Comedian Frank Skinner's autobiography is one of my favourite books of all time. It's interesting, gripping, hilarious and also surprisingly moving. If you've only ever seen Skinner on TV talking football or doing stand-up then you would be amazed.

You see, rather than being just - as Skinner claims most people see him - "football, f*ck f*ck f*ck", he's actually highly intelligent (he has a Masters in English Lit) and articulate, a devout Catholic and, he claims, almost "testosterone-intolerant".

On the Road is, as you can probably guess, a book about his comeback stand-up tour, his first for ten years. As I started reading,I was a bit worried that it was going to be too comedy-focussed and a bit self-indulgent. Skinner admits that he keeps a journal obsessively and is prone to over-analysis and I was concerned that chunks of his journal had been imported wholesale into the book, without the benefit of an editor. But I persevered and I'm so glad I did.

An Apple ebook reader? I am so there

I really want a Kindle. Or any ebook reader. Although I am concerned that, per author Jennifer Weiner's recent experience (that she's been sharing on Twitter @jenniferweiner), if you lose your Kindle, you lose all the books you've downloaded on to it too.

But I also adore Macs. I've got a Mac desktop. I've got an iPod mini. Both are on their last legs. I really want an iPhone or an iPod touch, but wait... What's this? An Apple ebook reader? *drools*

BOOK REVIEW: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I was so clueless when I bought this book that I actually thought it was based on the life of Jackie Kennedy, which I thought would be fascinating. Wrong First Lady. It's actually based on the life of Laura Bush, which is perhaps even more interesting as much less is known about her, despite her spending much longer in the White House than Jackie. Although Sittenfeld has claimed the book is only very loosely based on Laura's life and that she invented most of the finer details, her eponymous character does share a lot of similarities with the most recent former First Lady. 

Like Laura, Alice Lindgren grows up in a small town and accidentally kills a classmate in a driving accident when she is 17. She trains as a teacher and librarian, marries in her early thirties (late for the era) and her husband, who is more conservative than she, becomes President after quitting booze and being "born again". Where Sittenfeld has to speculate (and where the reader has fun speculating with her) is those finer points: what brought two such disparate personalities together? How hard would it be to integrate into the upper middle classes? And how do you cope when your husband becomes leader of the free world and some of his policies might be at odds with your personal values? 

How many books have you had from the library?

I love libraries, but I have to be very careful with how many books I take out since - thanks to a combination of life speeding away from me and my absentmindedness - the fines can sometimes be painful (a friend of mine is currently paying off £61 - can anyone beat that?).

Over the years I must have had thousands of books out, but 91-year-old Louise Brown from Scotland is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th book. After withdrawing her first book in 1946, she has borrowed at least six books a week (recently increasing this to twelve). Funnily enough, there's no mention in the BBC piece of whether she's actually read all the books she's taken out, but let's assume she's read most of them. Possibly even more amazing is that she's never had a late fine.

FMP RECOMMENDS: Momversation

I have no idea why I read so many so-called "mommybloggers" when I don't have a child myself and am not planning one anytime soon (maybe they're interesting people who write well, or something?) but I do. 

And so I have become a little bit obsessed with Momversation, the site where some of my favourite bloggers who happen to have children discuss everything from whether circumcision is cruel to finding time to read (and what their favourite books are when they do get to curl up with one). 

The Fantastic Mr Fox movie to premiere in London

I'm embarrassed to have to admit that I've never actually read Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr Fox, but I certainly will before seeing the movie, which, it has been announced, will have its world premiere at this year's London Film Festival.

The animated comedy, featuring the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep, will open the event on 14 October and will be on national release from 23 October. [via BBC]

My holiday reading list - what's yours?

Yes, it's that time of year again. I'm going away for a week and so have the joy and stress of compiling a selection of books to take with me. This year we're actually probably going to be away for less than a week, but I'm taking seven books anyway. A book a day is beyond hopeful with a 5-year-old and a 6-month-old, but I'm taking them anyway. Just in case.

As usual, I have to take a selection of non-fiction, fiction (both adult and young adult), books that I've been looking forward to reading and books I've been saving for holiday. Oh and one book that I don't really want to read, but know I should (guess which one?).

BOOK REVIEW: Secrets by Freya North

How would you feel if a small, defensive, slightly scruffy woman turned up on your doorstep after answering the advert you placed for a house-sitter? Coupled with the fact said woman seems to have accepted the job, even though if wasn't yet offered. Then there is a small matter of the child she is carrying in her arms. I can't say what Joe's exact thoughts were as this is a nice blog, but lets just say they weren't particularly enthusiastic.

Joe, a bridge engineer from The North, was on the verge of offering the house-sitting job to a bustling and doughy Mrs Dunn. Yet, here was this prickly London girl on his doorstep, annoyed with him because he has a dog. He starts to show her around the six bedroomed house, hearing himself tell her to choose any bedroom and that, yes, she can watch his TV.

BOOK CLUB: July - Unsticky by Sarra Manning

This month's book is Sarra Manning's Unsticky and I absolutely loved it. In fact, I almost read it again I loved it so much (and it was only a few weeks ago that I read it for the first time). But I worried while I read it. Why?

Well, it's described in the blurb as a "Pretty Woman for the 21st Century" and, much as I love Pretty Woman, it's pretty problematic from a feminist point of view and I found the same with Unsticky. I just didn't know what to think.

In case you haven't read it, it's the story of Grace Reeves, who is pretty disappointedd in life. She's in debt, her boyfriend's dumped her, her job is totally unsatisfying. And then she meets Vaughn. Rich and attractive Vaughn who wants him to be her girlfriend. No, sorry, who wants her to pose as his girlfriend, for which he will pay her a monthly fee. As the back cover asks: "Where's the line between acting the trophy girlfriend, and selling yourself for money?" So, um, discuss. In the comments. (Bear in mind that if you haven't read the book, there may well be spoilers in the comments.)

BOOK REVIEW: Gorgeous by Rachel Vail

Meg Cabot recommended Rachel Vail's Gorgeous (on her blog, not to me personally - unlike Keris, I haven't yet met the great lady) as a fabulous and fun summer read. It's the story of Allison Avery, who is so desperate to be gorgeous that she sells her cell to the devil. Yep, her cell as in her mobile phone. This is Faust with a twist. 

At first, the attention she garners for being so good-looking is only good: the boy she's lusted after all year finally notices she's alive, she makes friends with Roxie, the fun and fearless new girl at school and even her teachers seem to like her more. What's more, she accidentally enters a teen modelling competition and becomes a surprise success. 

But selling your cell to the devil doesn't come without consequences. Allison's parents begin to have problems, she's not sure which of her friends she can trust, she still doesn't seem to measure up to her seemingly perfect sisters and her phone won't stop randomly texting people or making weird and embarrassing noises at the worst possible times...