Just for general wonderings…
‘Tangled Secrets’ by Anne-Marie Conway
Teenage fiction.
Maddie’s life is a tangled mess of secrets. She has lost her Nan, she has problems at home and being bullied at school.
Then she gets told a secret that sends her spiralling.
Pretty good little book.
‘The Drift’ by CJ Tudor
Now, I normally like novels by CJ Tudor, I’ve read a couple, The Chalk Man and The Taking of Annie Thorne, but didn’t really enjoy this.
It involves three groups of people, each with a killer within them, who come together (well, what’s left of the groups) at the end.
I quite liked the first half of the novel, but then I felt it got a bit monotonous and obvious.
Probably not worth a read.
If July was a bit tricky finding a production, August was probably even more difficult.
We’re probably not planning enough in advance, especially as we’re starting to run out of local ‘new’ venues to attend.
But we found one…
Production: Things We Do For Love
Venue: Southwold Theatre
The play, written by Alan Ayckbourn, first performed in 1997 centres on a love triangle between two women and a man.
Southwold Theatre holds around 180, nice little place, serves beer and ice cream.
As for the play, we quite liked it, well written, only four characters, all really good. Great acting, funny in places and staged really well on a small budget.
Goes straight in at number three!
‘Strange Houses’ by Uketsu
Wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with this one. It starts with a floor plan that is ‘off’ somehow, and then descends into a strange sinister story that includes murder and a family curse.
I really liked the first half of the book, very interesting. Then it all starts to get very confusing and far-fetched.
In the end it left me feeling slightly disappointed.
‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver
Slightly late to the party (yet again) with this one.
Well I wouldn’t agree with New York Times Readers’ who said it was ‘Best Book of the Century’, but it was definitely a good read.
It’s probably the longest book I’ve read in a while.
The novel follows Demon, a young lad who is put into foster care because of a drug addicted mother and goes through a pretty horrendous life. Everything negative that you could think of probably happens to him, with a few positives points in between.
I’m not going to say anything else except, it is well worth a read.
‘The Hotel Avocado’ by Bob Mortimer
Loved this. I thought it was even better than Bob’s debut novel, The Satsuma Complex.
The story continues where the first book left off. After Gary’s run-in with some dodgy cops, things are about to get even more worrying.
I would definitely recommend.
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