Graeme Strachan > Recent Status Updates

A nice compendium of Dickens’ Christmas writings. His pickwick papers pieces do feel like dry runs for Christmas Carol.
The Sexton who is kidnapped by Goblins is basically just Scrooge’s story massively condensed.

Had forgotten how funny Christmas Carol is though.

Getting a bit Twilighty.

Way too much chat about tea.

Cosy fluff. Not bad for it.

Continues to be frank and funny.

It’s not really the “memoir” you’d expect as there’s not much of connect the dots outside Bourdain’s work stories. E.g. he mentions various girlfriend, then mentions he has a wife.

Will be interesting to hear if there just isn’t much to the man outside the kitchen.

Still funny, still insightful.
I definitely don’t ever want to work in a kitchen now.

Depressing reading. It’s amazing anything gets done in Parliament.

As with any great memoir of a famous person, it’s insightful.

In this case, that Bourdain was in many ways kind of a difficult asshole, and probably a nightmare to know, while at the same time being a charming brilliant chef, and raconteur.

I can see the fingerprints of this book all over TV shows like The Bear and films like Boiling Point.

Purge to be shocking, in fact just… makes sense.
Parliament is nonsense.

I started this on holiday, and read 90 pages on the plane, then didn’t touch it again since.

It’s fascinating, and strange. Reminds me that I really must read more Thomson. The Five Gates of Hell is an amazing book.

Creepy

For all the length of the book, it feels a little like I'm reaching toward the end too fast.

I again sense this is a book that benefits from repeat readings.

The section on Italian attitudes to unwritten "food rules" (usually with no explanation beyond "that's how it is done") is painfully accurate.

Still very amusing, runs in nicely from the first book, if not in any new or surprising way thus far, elicits a smile and a nod of recognised appreciation as before.

The section on Covid feels weirdly vague and then occasionally specific, odd snippets such as Sturgeon living off soup prepared by a colleague's partner begs a myriad of basic organisation questions that seem slightly unbelievable.

There's also almost a legalese feel to the chapter on Alex Salmond, which feels like arse covering and revisionism (even if it is not). But it's still a good read.

Like all political memoirs, there an awful lot of
“this bad decision happened in my party but I alone knew it was a bad idea but couldn’t speak up for… reasons”

But otherwise it’s an interesting insight into the broader political movements of Sturgeons life, even if it feels a little at arms length at times.

Not sure where or how I came by this book, but on a whim I pulled it from the “to read” shelf and read through it.

Honestly… I think I just don’t find most of Martin’s comedy all that funny. It’s all a bit “aren’t I clever?” Only it isn’t, it’s just musings and absurdity, with a wide vocabulary.

Picked up the audiobook on a whim.
I only occasionally listen to political memoirs, but I’m quite interested in the history and political events leading up to Scottish Independence.

The narration on the audiobook is surprisingly stilted, considering Sturgeon is a practiced public speaker, but it seems to be smoothing out a little as she reads.

A vaguely mediocre mix of the dynamics of The Dirty Dozen meets Suicide Squad, set in a grimdark generic fantasy world.

Pretty much every character is rote, dull and forgettable.

Got back into this; and Asher has finally started rehearsals!

The jumping timelines and lives does breed a sense of confusion that the book could easily avoid with a simple “life 10” or similar at the start of every chapter.

So far, fascinating. A curiously non linear story of semi-immortal beings.

Still bumping on issues with this.
It’s an issue perhaps exacerbated by choices made by the audiobook narrator, but no-one sounds like a real person when they talk. Particularly male characters who are all given the same flat intonation, which only makes more plain how robotic and bizarre and samey each character is written.

The book is becoming deeply frustrating.
It’s horribly facile and repetitive, underlining things previously mentioned only a chapter before.

I get that it’s supposed to be the POV of Nora who is apparently academically and artistically brilliant but lacks gumption and self-love but she comes across as an utter naive moron most of the time.

This book seems petrified to show anything that it hasn’t already told the audience 5 times.

The effect is that Nora comes across as wilfully stupid and naive in multitudinous ways that contradict her supposed intelligence and learning so often mentioned in the text.

It’s becoming quite a frustrating read in many ways.

I’m listening to the audiobook version and aside from having to speed it up, due to the somewhat slow and languid (but decent) performance by Carey Mulligan, I’m struggling with the fact that I both enjoy the concept but am not loving execution.

Haig seems to have forgotten that we’re supposed to like or connect with the protagonist. Even a little.

But she’s just so unlikable, gloomy and self pitying.