Two books from the publishers and sent to me via NetGalley today, one great and one not as expected and not so great. I don’t even know if I can write the second one down in my journal as being finished or DNF as I think I’ve read slightly less than half of it properly …

Rolf Potts – “Souvenir”

(Jan 2018 – ebook)

Exciting Shiny New Books news for this one – my review of “Souvenir” is available now. It was a great book, recommended by my friend (pusher / enabler) Cari, and I think the series looks really interesting in itself. Do pop over and have a read – Shiny are also sharing all sorts of archive stuff as they’ve reached the grand old age of four!

Thank you to the publisher for choosing me to read this one.

Paul Theroux – “Figures in a Landscape”

(26 March 2018)

I thought this was a book of his travel writing, which I do love, but there was more literary criticism than I was prepared for, unfortunately all about writers I’m not really interested in (Maugham, Hunter S. Thompson, Thoreau (of whom he’s very critical). There was a lovely piece about Oliver Sacks and some nastiness about Britain; the piece on Hawaii was very interesting and it’s important to read about how messed up Africa has become but that was upsetting without any form of redemption. I nearly gave up at the long portrait of a New York dominatrix, but the book is, for me, good in parts like the curate’s egg.

This book was published on 08 May 2018. Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for letting me read it in return for an honest review.