Andrew Smith > Recent Status Updates

I’m finding it hard going, same old, same old. But now with a full review of a Genesis album thrown in. However, the violence has now started, one nasty act. There are also suggestions that other violent acts have previously been carried out - at this stage I’m not sure if these are imagined or real. I’ll plough on as far as I can stomach it.

These guys are all truly obnoxious. More on clothes, but also comparing the quality of their business cards, being rude to 'hard bodied' women, drinking expensive alcohol and drug taking. Still no violence. Less funny.

Nothing violent has happened. Yet. Rich kids being rude to each other and lots of commentary about what everyone is wearing. Quite funny in parts, though.

I’ve always struggled with DeLillo. I thought I’d be ok with this one, focussed on the JFK assassination - something I’m fascinated by. But the old problems soon came to the surface: sentences that seem unassociated with what precedes them. It’s like a poem that feels really clever and yet I simply can’t understand it. And the audio delivery is terrible. I’ve paused for now. I’m not sure if I’ll make further progress

I’ve really settled into this book. It’s quirky in the way the timeline jumps around, and yet it somehow it still works. I like the characters, too, and the flow feels just right. It’s a follow-up to The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, a book I had mixed feelings about. I think I’m going to like this one more.

Interviews, live playing, analysis, influences... this is amazing. So glad I stumbled across this one. Loving it!

Unbelievably powerful, brilliantly written. A series of memories and reflections that is, I think, as good a anything I've ever read.

I read a paperback copy many years back and rated it 3 stars, but I can’t actually remember a great deal about the story. So I thought I’d give this new audio version a go. I already know that it’s sumptuously narrated by the golden voiced actor Dion Graham.

I’ve read a few negative reviews, but I’m finding this book an absolute delight. Bernie’s anecdotes, in particular, are often hilarious. And what an interesting life he’s led, outside of his song writing partnership with Elton.

The audio version is tricky, given a good deal of the tale is taken up with online ‘chat’. And some of the acronyms pass me by, but I’m banking on the hope that getting a general sense of things will be enough - that and a handmade chart to log details I think may be significant.

Glenister does a great job on the reading, though the overall picture remains cloudy. I remain hooked to the puzzle.

A complex puzzle involving a large number of ever evolving pieces. Mammoth in structure, frustrating at times but, now, increasingly compelling.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this one so far. I like tennis but that’s all there is here right now. The lead character is unpleasant and one dimensional and the whole thing feels hugely repetitive - a bit like most real sporting biographies. I hope it picks up.

4 episodes of 9 in. I've never followed a podcast series before so the experience is slightly strange for me - i.e. having to wait a week for the next episode, or store them up & bulk play. I'm impressed by the quality of production and also intrigued by the story. I like, too, the fact that though it's suspenseful it's also slightly tongue in cheek.

Very technical - as educational as it is entertaining.

Episode 1 completed (30 mins & not sure how many episodes the story comprises). Production quality is brilliant, it’s like a Netflix movie without the pictures. Strong start too, with the excellent Thora Birch playing the lead character. Picking this one up via Audible, with it being released one episode at a time.

Powerful… but strange .

Book 3 - the final section - is the best! I’m still not sure if more answers will be provided (overall there remain significant gaps for me) but it’s like a book on its own, told in an original (to me, at least) way and totally gripping. Loving it.

Book 3 is already immeasurably more interesting than the last section and is starting to knit some of the strands together. And it’s set in a future world in which a series of pandemics has created a grim existence we’re probably all a little fearful of right now.

I found them first part of book 2 interesting, but the second part was a battle - I really struggled to get through it. I still haven’t worked out the link running through these stories, or rather I might have but it feels very tenuous. I’m hoping book 3 will enliven my enthusiasm for this tome.

I'm some way into book 2 now and the transition has somewhat confused me. I don't yet have a clear picture of the association between these people and those in book 1. I'm sure it'll become clear but I've come in with no knowledge of the structure and have studiously avoided the blurb. Maybe I'll just have to work it out for myself.

I woke up in the night and read for a couple of hours. I'm reminded how intense the author's writing is. That's to say that it's intense for the reader (me). I recognise in David many things I see in someone close to me and consequently I'm finding it all a bit disturbing. Hanya has an unerring ability to get to the core of people and then to keep digging.

Brilliant description of the joy, doubt, desperation and pain brought on by infatuation with another.

The construction is interesting, with extensive use of parenthesis and the slow leaking out of background information. The feel of this book (its difference, its surprise) brings Paul Auster and John Boyne to mind. And I've learned a new word: flibbertigibbet.

Very early on, but I think I'm already hooked. It's the end of the 19th Century and things are just a little different to what history tells; this is a more edgy version, a mix of now and then. The writing is great too.

A Little Life is possibly the most impactful book I've ever read. This one is a monster but I can't wait to get into it.

Sex, drugs, murder, a mystery - it's all here. And in a nicely constructed and well told tale that's really got hold of me.

Some funny stories, a good deal of procedure, a smidgen of self-aggrandisement and quite a bit of information I already had. But to be fair I am finding it interesting and I'm looking forward to what's to come.

Pick this one up, read a few pieces and put it down again. It's mostly satisfying, but it's that sort of book.