Paul Harding, Tinkers

Aa short book that received a lot of praise and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The story of a dying man, his life and his father's life. Very gentle, beautiful language, but not a lot happens (or at least nothing I registered) so it didn't really grab me. I finished reading it on one of my company's Spirit Days, a regular day they give us for personal growth. This is an idea I applaud in theory but struggle with in practice as I'm just not sure what to do. a bot of training, a bit of reading, a bit of thinking. the downside is that all the work I could have done today will now be crammed in to tomorrow

Kurt Andersen, The Fantasy Land: How America Weny Haywire: A 500-Year History

 An amusing pop-history about the exceptionalism of America and the ingrained right to believe what the hell you want to believe, regardless of facts and how this has both always been present in American culture, and how it has gotten out of control with regards to contemporary American politics, where what you believe is more important than reality. Slightly scary and of course we have our own version with Tony Blair. It was the King's coronation on Saturday, and, far more importantly, William's 9th birthday. He had a party with his lunatic friends and they had a wonderful time causing chaos. We went as a family to Paultons Park the day after which he also loved. He's been cycling to school recently as well, things are going ok, although he still is sooo picky about what he eats and he still can't pronounce certain words, eg 'God' and 'dog' both come out as 'dod'. Libby starts dress rehearsals for her ballet show today and is a little nervous.

Kapka Kassabova, Elixir: In The Valley At The End of Time

 'I really enjoyed her previous book about the borderlands of Eastern Europe, and she is an engaging writer on the Balkans, geography, folklore and now nature writing too. A lot of it was the normal wish -fulfilment for us townies that dream of a rural, simple idyll communing with nature and picking herbs in the morning mist, but that's the demographic.  I'm not really doing the author justice, as she undoubtedly knows her stuff and has access to areas through her multilingualism that wouldn't be possible for the vast majority of us. Writing this on the Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend, the first two days of which was spent putting together IKEA furniture for Libby's room ( the wardrobe was bowing in the middle and the only solution I could come up with was to gaffer tape the backboard. it's under a lot of pressure so sooner or later it's going to explode and send leggings and crop tops flying over half of GU21. I slept out on Wheatsheaf Rec on sunday night to guard the marquee before the Grand May Fayre. a job no-one wants apparently, but I rather enjoyed it, maybe will make it an annual event. I got to meet Dangerous Steve too, who showed up in a minivan which somehow contained him and all his bikes, flamethrowers and indian bats.

Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye

 This is what I read while out on Wheatsheaf Rec guarding the marquees against a midnight attack by the  local ragamuffins and ne'er-do-wells. I didn't get into it at all unfortunately, and couldn't even work out whether it was pre or post war (it was postwar).

Noah Hawley, Anthem

 'A Great American Novel for these tumultuous times' is the quote on the front, and it lives up to that. An epic set in a crumbling world, divided between the supporters of the truth party and the supporters of the liars party (both think the others are the liars). mass suicides, roaming militias, unconstrained billionaires, natural disasters and through it all a small group of people trying to navigate through and make sense of the new reality. I really enjoyed it, but blimey it was bleak. Libby and I have finished watching 'Superstore' a so-so ensemble sitcom which meant we spent some time together at least - we need to find something new to do together - I suspect something similar as our interests sadly don't overlap much beyond that and cubs. I'm so pleased we have cubs though, time we spend together each week - she will make a wonderful leader one day

Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph

 'Quirkily he was 'Francis Joseph' throughout rather than 'Franz Josef', but I guess that might be the best, most neutral, name  for the ruler of a multilingual empire. It gave me a greater appreciation of the dutiful but limited emperor, and provokes the thought of how long the empire would have stayed together without him - would it have disintegrated after 1848 and reshaped Europe completely before the golden period for the Habsburgs? What would this have meant for Italian and German unification? It was my birthday two days ago and I ran to Mum and Dads and back (well not quite back, I got as far as The Kingfisher in Chertsey and then Dad gave me a lift home). Gave me time to think and get out which was needed, and was nice to see Harmondsworth again. I stopped at Gable Stores for a Yorkie and a Tizer too. Mum's dementia is not improving and she doesn't know what is going on most of the time and is completely reliant on Dad, but she seems happy at least pottering about. she enjoys sweeping and making patterns with stones and flowers. Freddie is off in Dorset on his Silver DoE Expedition at the moment, and I miss him very much. The weather hasn't been good, but hopefully he is ok. He'll be back tomorrow

Zoe Gilbert, Mischief Acts

 I read a previous book by Zoe Gilbert, Folk, but it didn't really register. This book had very good reviews though, and the idea of a retelling of the myths of Herne the Hunter throughout the ages was irresistible. Similar to Cuddy, a series of poems and short stories though time held together by a supernatural thread, in this case the mischievous woodland spirit of Herne the Hunter. reminded me very much of Jez Butterworth's 'Jerusalem' too, with the encroachment of society both physically and morally on the free-spirited, free-ranging creatures of the woodlands and their resistance to that encroachment. Helen and I went to see ABBA Voyage last night, a technological marvel in which a youthful ABBA genuinely appear to be on stage in front of you. It was quite a sight and Helen loved it, but I'm not the biggest ABBA fan. I was hoping she'd take a friend! She's not keen to go to see Lloyd Cole in October though, but we compromise 'cause we love each other