Charlie Brooker

My lovely friend Adam who is quite possibly the only reader of this blog is a big Charlie Brooker fan. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t really know who he was until one day; Adam told me he’d watched a show called ‘You Have Been Watching’. You Have Been Watching is a tv panel game where the contestants and host – Charlie Brooker – pretty much just rip television shows to shreds.

Brooker started life as an internet site editor where he used his wit and humour to express how much he didn’t like things. It was such a hit, that he was asked to create his TV show, NewsWipe which was followed by ScreenWipe. He also writes for the Guardian and created the Dead Set television series.

Back in September I wrote about the Media Guardian event I went to, and we were lucky enough to have Charlie Brooker come and do a masterclass for us. He was hilariously dour and miserable. I liked him a lot.

A few weeks ago, Adam bought me ‘Dawn of the Dumb’, a book which is a compilation of Brooker’s Guardian columns. The articles are bascically an attack on anything pop culture at the time of writing and they’re greatly entertaining. I don’t know why, but I love when people complain about stuff in a dry, witty manner. I sometimes think it would be so much easier to write a ‘It annoys us when...’ blog.

So if you feel like revelling in a little bit of misery and agreeing that really, a lot of stuff is shit, go and buy Charlie Brooker's book and join in with his disdain.

Obviously he would hate this.

Posted By: Cat

The Flying Troutmans

I like reading, and sometimes I find a book that I literally cannot put down. In these cases, I'll consume a book in a day, forgetting anything else I should be doing. The Flying Troutmans was one of those books.

Hattie has to fly back to Canada from her crumbling relationship in Paris to take care of her sister Min’s kids when she’s put into a psych hospital. Hattie decides to take Thebes and Logan on a road trip to California to find their Dad, who hasn’t seen them in ten years.

Precocious Thebes and surly Logan are such rich characters, crafted with insight of how modern teens talk and react. I especially loved that eleven year old Thebes sometimes likes to talk in hip hop slang, while Logan drops an f-bomb or two while still being a sensitive, complicated fifteen year old.

I loved this book. The writing is original and stylistic not to mention relevant. 

Buy it at amazon: The Flying Troutmans

Posted By: Cat

Love Letters of Great Men

I first heard of this book when it was featured on the Sex and The City movie. I thought, that sounds like a mighty interesting read. I went to my nearest bookshop and I asked behind the desk if they had the book. The guy directed me to a girl who had seen the movie. She directed me to the poetry department, who directed me to the internet, which informed me that the book didn't exist. I then had to tell all three people who had helped that I had been duped along with apparently hundreds of others who had searched for the book.

Imagine my surprise when this week, I finished at my job and was presented with some gifts, among them being, this book. Not only was it an awesome leaving present, but a great read. According to sources, the book was published due to the immense interest sparked when a book of the same name and content was referred to by Carrie Bradshaw in the aforementioned Sex and the City.

I'll start by saying that I am not a mushy pile of chick flick stereotype.  I've never gotten a love letter. I don't claim to like soppy, over the top gestures; but these guys knew how to sweet talk a lady. You won't find 'txt me l8r, fancy a shag?' in these pages. Instead, passages like this, from Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett on their wedding day:

...When my heart is full it may run over; but the real fullness stays within...Words can never tell you...how perfectly dear you are to me - perfectly dear to my heart and soul. I look back and in every one point, every word and gesture, every letter, every silence - you have been entirely perfect to me....

The book is comprised of letters from great (or at least, famous) men in history to their loves. A brief biography of each writer either confirms their devotion, or explains that their passion was fleeting, there was tragedy..etc. One letter is from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, and we all know how that turned out (spoiler alert: treason, incest, lost her head). Some of the letters are self centred, some quirky, and some heart wrenching. But all stir up a sense of the romance that we've lost in the age of text messaging and email. 

I'll leave you with this, used in the film and beautiful regardless; From Beethoven to his unnamed 'Immortal Beloved':

You - my Life - my All - Farewell. Oh, go on loving me - never doubt the faithfullest heart 

Of your beloved.

Ever thine,

Ever mine,

Ever ours.

Posted By: Cat