Reading Notes - November AND December

Here's what I've been reading these past two months!

Image from Amazon

You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain.  This book alone could comprise an entire blog post, but I will endeavour to be succinct.  Moore is the foul-mouthed, erudite man's Bill Bryson and by 'erudite' I actually mean mouthy, blabby and crass.  I assumed Bryson-esque writing because, well, look at this:

Image from Amazon

Image from Amazon

Same white background.  Same blue/red sans-serif font.  Same crisp images.  I can't tell if this endears me to Moore or not.  Because of all of Bryson's travel books, this one is my favourite.  So if Moore was going for Bryson-esque, I suppose I am inclined towards liking it.  And it IS funny, but it's sort of funny in a mostly crude but occasionally very clever way.  I'm trying to even think of a good comparison here - perhaps some of the writings of Robertson Davies?  That off-colour, basement humour that occasionally flashes sparks of really funny stuff?  Except I feel like that is terribly insulting to Robertson Davies, who, after all, wrote The Rebel Angels for heavens sake.  Anyway, I could fall down this rabbit hole for ages.  The point is Moore is kinda funny, but crude.  He swears a lot.  I debated putting the book down, actually, because my general rule with crudeness is that it has to actually be necessary to tell the story, and in this case it really wasn't.  The title explains the story entirely - Moore makes lists of the very worst of the worst in Great Britain, and he travels around to see these sights.  And it was a mildly interesting read if you focused on that - the very oddest, smelliest, worst of the bad road trips possible.  But by the end of the book I was really tired of the rudeness and blue language and just wanted to throw it in the recycling bin instead of subjecting anyone else to this.  (Note - by 'want to' I mean I did.  I threw it in the recycling bin.)

Beyond Belfast - by Will Ferguson.  I knew Will Ferguson was supposed to be funny, and I'm fairly certain I've read his Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw years ago and just don't remember it well.  But then, I was a little wary about 'funny travel writers' after the Moore fiasco.  But he's won the Giller Prize!  And it's a book about the Ulster Way!  I mean, surely this couldn't be bad?  So I started it as a palate cleanser, is what I'm saying.

What a relief after Moore.  Ferguson was interesting and funny and not revolting and all the things I like in travel writing - which is my genre-du-jour.  Of course, at one point I looked at the back and one of the reviews also mentions...sigh...Bill Bryson.  But GOOD Bill Bryson!  Ferguson was scrupulously careful to not take sides in the Catholic/Protestant issues he comes across in his travels, but the mere fact that he mentions that the issues exist constantly, repeatedly, (and yet again...), means that the reader is dragged into it all the time.  My Canadian side just wants to say 'oh get to the INTERESTING bits, Ferguson.  No one CARES about the various hand drums as religious indicators!'  But, then, this is life in Northern Ireland, so this writing style really serves to totally immerse you in what it must be like there in terms of always, always, always being aware of the religion issue.  By the end, though...I was done.

The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4 - by Adrian Plass (A re-read)
So funny.  Always so, so funny.  Probably not at all funny if you aren't Christian and don't know many of the inside jokes, but if you are...my land.  I laugh every time.  Obviously a play off Sue Townsend's similarly named (but very differently themed) books.

Battles at Thrush Green - by Dora Saint (writing as Miss Read)
If you haven't read Miss Read, and you like the occasional small town drama that doesn't drift into Hallmark territory, then I suggest picking up one of her books.  It doesn't really matter much which one you start with; they are all sort of gentle, quiet, British, little-things-happen type stories.  She wrote two main series, which are also connected multiple times, one being the Fairacre books and the other Thrush Green.  In this particular story we have such exciting events as...a village wide debate about what to do regarding the old churchyard, the lingering illnesses of many, a disagreement between old friends, some mushroom versus toadstool lore, and a terrible driver.  The perfect sort of story for when you are sitting on an icy porch step watching your children constructing some sort of fort-slash-ski slope in the yard although it would serve equally well as reading material in an emergency room where you are very distracted but also need to pay some attention, while standing at the stove stirring something that is taking forever to caramelize, or while on hold on the telephone.  I speak from experience.

At Home in Thrush Green - as above
Another novel set in the Cotswold village of Thrush Green.  In this one we have...let's see...the building of some smart little cottages for pensioners, a feud between two brothers-in-law over whether or not a set of stairs is safe, a tonsillectomy, the promotion of someone to partner in a small bakery cafe, and a trip to Venice, taken entirely off screen.  For several days I just picked this book up every time life got too hard.

Friends At Thrush Green - as above

This one had some returning retired teachers, an elderly citizen stealing scones from the bakery, a cottage purchased by hip young things from the big city, and other fascinating and incredibly minute slow-moving nonsense.  Perfect for a stressful time of year.