Just for general wonderings…
‘The Last Devil to Die’ by Richard Osman
The last of the Thursday Murder Club series apparently.
Nice easy read – these books are great. The characters are fab, good easy plot, you don’t have to think too hard.
Nice way to finish a year of reading.
It was a busy year on the gig front – we had challenged ourselves to a gig a month. It must go down as a success. We attended 15 gigs across the year. The only failure was in October: we had Newton Faulkner at The Waterfront booked in, but it also coincided with a mahoosive storm which meant roads were flooded and attendance impossible.
January. Norwich Arts Centre. January is not the best month for gigs. Having decided on attending at least one gig a month, this was one of those ‘sounded like it might be alright’ bookings. Big band, bit folky, good stagecraft.
February. Ipswich Corn Exchange. The year was always going to include Frank Turner, this was a new venue for me. Good support bands: The Wilswood Buoys and Lottery Winners. Standard Frank, good support, great night.
February. Norwich Arts Centre. Beans is always on tour so it is no surprise to hear this is the first of two this year. Solid gig, sing-a-long, great entertainment.
March. The Waterfront, Norwich – downstairs. Great band, rowdy gig, bit short.
March. Epic Studios, Norwich. Another new venue for me. Damon celebrating 25 years in music. Sit down gig, loved it, one of the best of the year.
April. Epic Studios, Norwich. Having seen Lottery Winners twice as support, this was the first headline gig. Really enjoyed it, very entertaining, in the top three gigs of the year.
May. The Waterfront, Norwich – upstairs. This was one of those ‘well we need a gig for May – let’s book it’ gigs. Swedish indie band, good gig, great sound.
June. The Waterfront, Norwich – downstairs. Local funk band. Often seen busking outside Primark. Entertaining evening.
July. Norwich Arts Centre. Another one of those ‘sounds like it might be a good night’ booking. It was a good night. Good band.
August. Fisher Theatre, Bungay. August is always a notoriously difficult month for going to gigs – most bands are on the festival scene. So we were left with a folk night. Not a lot to say really, except, I loved the flute man.
September. Norwich Arts Centre. Sit down gig. Nice evening.
November. Norwich Arts Centre. I love the band, but wasn’t quite sure what to expect because they do a lot of collaborations. As it turned out, didn’t have anything to worry about: great evening’s entertainment.
November. The John Peel Centre, Stowmarket. A first for me at this venue. Second beans gig of the year, and he never disappoints. A spoken word support, and Tensheds on the piano. Fab evening.
November. Norwich Arts Centre. I love seeing Skinny Lister. In the top three gigs of the year.
December. Rock City, Nottingham. Billy celebrating 40 years in music. I’ve seen Bragg a lot, this show was slightly disappointing, can’t quite put my finger on why.
What a year it has been! Seen some brilliant bands, visited some fabulous venues and really enjoyed the whole idea of trying to see at least one gig a month. As for the top three gigs of the year? Considering I am a big Frank Turner and Billy Bragg fan, you’ll notice neither make it into the top three:
1. Lottery Winners
2. Badly Drawn Boy
3. Skinny Lister
Next year we will still be going to plenty of gigs, just without the pressure of seeing one every single month. Here’s to 2024!!
‘All My Secrets’ by Sophie McKenzie
Teenage fiction: a recommendation from one of my students. She even brought the book in for me to borrow, so I had to read it.
I’ve read Sophie McKenzie books on the past, ‘Girl, Missing’ for example, great piece of teenage fiction: pretty basic plot line, tense and exciting, great for teenagers. This book was no different.
This book is aimed at female teenagers and has everything they would love:
It also has everything that would drive an adult crazy:
So there you have it, standard teenage fiction.
‘When the Cawdads Sing’ by Delia Owen’s
Slightly late to the party with this one. Really liked it.
Up with there with the best books of the year.
No spoilers here.
‘Eleanor & Park’ by Rainbow Rowell
Teenage fiction. Love story.
I actually quite liked this book. A tad slow to get going, but a couple of really good characters, and the ending just worked.
Don’t really want to say too much about it; don’t want to spoil it for anyone who wants to read in themselves. Two teenagers, 16 years old, he’s into music and invisible, she’s slightly chaotic, bullied and has an abusive stepdad. They get together.
‘Why We Run’ by Robin Harvie
This book started pretty disappointingly, it wasn’t quite what I expected when I read the blurb.
I expected a book mostly about the fella’s attempt at completing the Spartathon, 153 mile race between Athens and Sparti. What I got was a lot of history, not just about The Spartathon, but the Olympics and other historical races.
It did improve when he started talking about him actually running the race. So not all bad.
Spoiler Alert: he didn’t even finish The Spartathon.
He did give a reason as to what he hoped people would get from the book:
My modest hope is that these pages will point you in the right direction to uncover your own reasons for why you run.
Robin Harvie, ‘Why We Run’
It didn’t.
Next up: back to a bit of teenage fiction.
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