Micro Review 41

 

The Writer's Cats by Muriel Barbery. Ilus. Maria Guitart & trans. Alison Anderson (Gallic Books)

Gifted copy

Following on from my recent review of Muriel Barbery's A Single Rose the kind people at Gallic Books sent me a copy of her new volume  The Writer's Cats- a book about writing, books and cats how did they know it would appeal to me?

As a bookseller I had a love/hate relationship with little volumes like this, especially at Christmas time. They had to be ordered so far in advance and you could never quite gauge the quantities needed, plus the run away best seller was always one that you'd not predicted.

As a consumer I've become very much more of a fan of this type of book, they do cheer you up and there's always so much detail making rereads a pleasure. It is also  nice to have a picture book for grown ups that isn't just 'adult' in nature.

I know several people who this book would appeal to (and who read this blog) so I am not going to review the book in case it spoils any Christmas surprises but this was a delight to read and so whimsically funny that it left me smiling for a long time after reaching the end.

Should we ever get another cat (or 2, or 4) then I'll definitely refer back to this book for name suggestions.

Many thanks to Isabelle and the team at Gallic Books for the copy - the book is published this month and will make a lovely gift for cat loving authors/readers.

The Becket List Blog Tour (#IndieBookNetwork)

 

The Becket List by Henry Becket (RedDoor Press)

Let's face it 2020 has been a pretty miserable year and anything that can raise a smile has to be a good thing, and for me The Becket List has really been a tonic over the past few weeks.

When I was offered the chance by Bex at Ninjabookbox to take part in another #IndieBookNetwork project - and one that was going to be based around a humour book - I was very excited, any thing that chases off the onset of the winter blues is to be embraced.

The Becket List seemed to be just what the (book)doctor ordered:

The Becket List is a not entirely serious compendium of 'First World Problems' - the sort of stuff that drives us round the bend on a daily basis. How is it that atonal music, bus stations, cling-film and coat-hangers can bugger us up so comprehensively? Or passport control people, modern poetry, or just about anything you'll find in a typical hotel bedroom? Embracing both the inanimate - from allen keys to rawlplugs - and the animated (well, in some cases) - from your fellow-travellers to every third-rate waiter who ever walked the earth - this book is essential for your sanity. As such, this comprehensive A to Z provides a signal service to humanity.

The list is arranged alphabetically and I've been reading it one (or two) letters a day during my coffee break and it has made me laugh out loud more than one. I think Mr Norfolkbookworm has got a little fed up with me reading extracts to him as he's trying to do the crossword.

With any personal list there's entries that made me nod in agreement with Henry Becket's thoughts and then there of course there were some entries that I thought were a little harsh, even then his reasoning often brought me round to his point of view! 

I think that my two top entries were the ones on cats and the weather forecasts - both were spot on with my feelings and it was nice to see that others share my opinions on the latter! A little of me would have liked to have heard his opinion on bucket lists but that is a minor quibble.

The book is illustrated by Tony Husband, but the book isn't reliant on them which makes the joy of coming across them all the funnier - the illustration below is actually about teapots and not vicars but it captures my experience with every teapot I've ever used...

This book should bring delight to anyone who comes across it - however grumpy or not they are in general!

Huge thanks to Bex at Ninjabookbox for offering the chance to take part in the blog tour, RedDoor Press & Helen at Literallypr for the copy of the book and then of course to Henry Beckett and Tony Husband for writing a book that has raised a smile in the gloom of autumn 2020.