What not to do and how to do it by Danny Wallace

I really do like Danny Wallace - I like what he says and does and how he goes about things. He doesn't just think - he does. He is as I would like to be - but I am lazy - Danny clearly isn't.

This book was a collection of his writings for the newspaper. He has a good eye and takes a great angle on things - he spots the awkward, recognises our frailties, senses our confusion and takes unnecessary stances. He is a funny man who tells a good tale. He also writes without an ego - well, he has an ego, but it is his ego that leads him astray and he happily mocks it. A quick read and well worth the time - many smiles came from my time with the book - possibly a guffaw or two as well.

A review from the internet:
"A husband and now a new father, Danny Wallace is a man who struggles to understand the unspoken rules of society ... for example, when do you hug? And when do you not hug? How do you react when you realise that yesterday's underpants might still be in your trousers? What do you do if you think you might have a man-crush? And what happens when you think you may have accidentally ordered your wife a prostitute for her birthday? Following the bestselling "Awkward Situations for Man" and based on his incredibly popular columns, Danny Wallace entertains us with more stories from his often embarrassing and bewildering life. No one said it was easy being a man. And Danny is finding it harder than ever."

Bonkers by Jennifer Saunders

I didn't read this one - just listened to the audio version - and I think that it was a great way to get the story as she read it with great energy and humour and frankness. She covered quite a lot and expressed herself very well. I also liked how she could sound like Dawn French and Joanna Lumley when required.

I have always liked French and Saunders - though when I last saw them live, it was not a great experience. And though I like Jennifer, I have never felt a connection to the person - only her characters. Having listened to the book, some of that gap has been bridged. (When I listened to Dawn French's autobiography, the same experience occurred where I felt more of a bond to the person behind the character - this despite the fact that it wasn't her reading the book - it was the lovely Liza Tarbuck).

In both Dawn French's and this autobiography, there are some personal things shared - for Dawn, I was particularly absorbed when listening to the story of her father's suicide. With Jennifer, it was when she talked about being diagnosed with cancer.

Anyway - it was a really good listen and I'm pleased that I listened rather than read.

A review from the internet:
"Jennifer Saunders' comic creations have brought joy to millions. From Comic Strip to Comic Relief, from Bolly-swilling Edina in Ab Fab to her takes on Madonna or Mamma Mia, her characters are household names.
But it's Jennifer herself who has a place in all our hearts. This is her funny, moving and frankly bonkers memoir, filled with laughter, friends and occasional heartache - but never misery.
BONKERS is full of riotous adventures: accidentally enrolling on a teacher training course with a young Dawn French, bluffing her way to each BBC series, shooting Lulu, trading wild faxes with Joanna Lumley, touring India with Ruby Wax and Goldie Hawn.
There's cancer, too, when she becomes 'Brave Jen'. But her biggest battle is with the bane of her life: the Laws of Procrastination. As she admits, 'There has never been a Plan. Everything has been fairly random, happened by accident or just fallen into place. I'm off now, to do some sweeping...'
Prepare to chuckle, whoop, and go BONKERS."

Becoming Johnny Vegas

At the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2000, I saw Johnny Vegas on three occasions and I don't know whether I have laughed at anything more than I did on those occasions - he was hilarious - and unlike anything else going around at the time.

Since then, I have seen him on a few things and bought DVDs of shows etc and nothing has really captured that initial exposure. He was great in the TV series, Ideal, but he was acting. He is great on things like QI - because he is a very funny man. And on other things he is good to. So I like the bloke a lot and am always looking out for stuff.

And now he's written his autobiography that I listened to rather than read.

I don't think I have encountered such an open exposure before - he bares his soul and with such clarity too - but it is painful and uncomfortable at times. And hearing him tell the story is moving. It is so real and confronting - you can feel his pain and you can share understand his story and you can hear the humour.

It is his story - the story of Michael Pennington and how Johnny developed within him and how Johnny gained his strength and developed and grew. How Johnny rebelled against things that Michael didn't. And how he broke out and dominated. I experienced Michael Pennington when I heard "Johnny" on Desert Island Discs, so I was prepared.

It was a hell of a listen and I'm pleased that I got to learn about Michael and I understand Johnny and it was a good experience - not at all what I had expected - but there's nothing wrong with that.

A review from the internet:
"Becoming Johnny Vegas traces the ups and downs of Michael Pennington, the lad from Thatto Heath, who would go on to be an award-winning stand-up.
Promising to be an honest account of his youth in St Helens and his time training to be a priest when he was 11, he said he had no interest in producing a “bog standard stocking filler”.
Now making a name for himself as a successful director and actor he said: “I’ve been Johnny Vegas so long now, I just want to go back to where I came from and try to find out exactly where I got him.
“There’s a mythology surrounding Johnny Vegas that even I, as Michael Pennington, have struggled to differentiate between the fact and fiction at times.”

The first fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North

Wow! I liked the look of this book - it appealed to my mind's sense of adventure and intrigue. I think that time travel has always held a grip on me - even though I know that it can't happen - logic forbids it - it is impossible. But I still like it. But this story isn't the standard time travel tale as it isn't time that changes as much as the participants of it.

The main character lives the same life over and over - not the same experiences as he returns from each life with his memory intact, so he has the equipment and experience to change things along the way. Some things can't change and some events have to be relived, but lots can be altered.

And there are others who are the same, so over lifetimes, they get to know each other. And then there are messages left from past and future lives that people can learn from - so the lifetimes of time are linked through the communications of those who return to live again.

And in the book, there are those that relive their lives with some familiarity and a few who remember everything. So people are born with knowledge and look out for others with that gift and help them through the difficulties that a kid goes through as previous knowledge returns to them as they grow up.

But what happens if a person uses their knowledge for their own gains regardless of the consequences of others. If I was born again but had the knowledge that I now have, then I could affect all sorts of developments. The more I have learned the more I could teach and manipulate.

And so it is with this book. The main character, Harry, is telling the story and tells of people he's met and re-met. People he meets just once. The various lives he chooses and jobs he takes and places he goes. And the similarities between the lives.

And then one of the others who retains all their memories (Victor) starts going rogue and the story is of Harry's encounters with Victor and how he plans to save the world before Victor destroys it.

It is an easy book to read (lots of short chapters) but it is very clever. To create this world, with these rules, to develop into the labyrinth through time and how a sub-culture exists within this one - a race of people with different perception and desires who are interconnected with others who are oblivious to their differences. It is very clever.

And as a plot, it has all the characteristics that make a good story and the intrigue of how it will work out.

I really liked this book - it is different and clever - I think that I'll look out for the audio version and experience it again.

A review from the internet:
"If doomed to repeat one’s life over and over again during the 1940s, who wouldn’t try to kill Hitler? Yet not interfering with history is one of the cardinal rules of the Cronus Club, a select group of people known as the kalachakra, who loop through time. Anyone who breaks the rules gets punished by the club to make sure the offense isn’t repeated in the next life. That system works fine until a little girl tells an old man named Harry that the world is ending — but in every succeeding timeline, the end happens earlier. Meanwhile, Cronus Cub members are being killed off by one of their own, and it’s up to Harry to stop the rogue kalachakra by any means necessary. The true heart of the book lies in Harry’s twisted relationship with this nemesis, because the only way to kill a kalachakra is to get him to reveal the specifics regarding his birth. Harry’s arch enemy ends up becoming, in a sense, his best friend as well as colleague, making their mutual betrayals all the more wrenching."

Who Is Tom Ditto by Danny Wallace

Another Danny Wallace read for me and another good read. It is an easy read and I enjoyed the characters and liked them. It isn't  mystery book, but I was intrigued all the way through as to how things would work out.

The main character Tom was a chap that I liked and I cared how things were going for him. And the people he met and some of their 'ways' were interesting to ponder.

The book rolled along mixing the tale of Tom with a parallel telling of the history of the CCs and how they came to exist.

It gave me food for thought on how we develop into who we are and where we source our inspiration from. It also made me think about how people have found themselves to be who they are and what they can do if they aren't happy with that person.

Anyway, it is a nice novel and I enjoyed the read. Thanks once again, Danny.

A review from the internet:
"We join the action just as our ‘hero’ Tom, (early thirties, reads the ‘news’ on the radio) finds out that his girlfriend has NOT left him.
"Tom,
I have not left you. But I am gone.
Please carry on as normal.
Love always,
Hayley"
Has Hayley gone or hasn’t she? Is she coming back? If she has gone, but is coming back, when is she coming back? And what is he supposed to bloody do in the meantime?
And what if she’s never coming back?
Trying to work out what’s happening to his confusing life, Tom tries to track Hayley down. In doing so, he stumbles across a strange and eccentric group of people with an irregular and highly -addictive hobby.
Next, he’s being followed, but he’s not sure by whom. And then he also almost loses his job at the radio station in the now infamous ‘Jam Nazi’ episode, which of course, you know about.
Above all, Tom is trying to work out who everyone is.
Because who is Hayley? Who is this new girl following him around the supermarket?
And who, for that matter, is Tom Ditto?"