[books 2011] another mixed bag

When I say mixed, I mean a mixture of stuff the doesn't require much brain power. Concentration is still an issue.

35. Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne

I've reviewed Rayne's work on here before. They're all the same idea - gothic-type potboiler, spanning multiple historical periods. A poor woman's Kate Moreton, if you will. This one revolves around an East-End music hall that has been shut (but well maintained) since 1914 and the mysteries therein.

This is the first one I've had trouble getting into, and there were a few parts in the first half where the prose was a bit clunky and a scene or two that just doesn't fit, but the second half was un-put-downable, despite being full of historically highly unlikely (but not impossible) scenarios.


36. Stories I only tell my friends: The autobiography by Rob Lowe

I appear to have become a celebrity autobiography junkie. Lowe's been everywhere pimping it out, but the only thing I caught was a lengthy interview on (I think) Front Row on Radio 4. I was a teenager at the time of the Brat Pack movies, and as there wasn't a lot else to do, I saw a lot of movies. I've never seen The Outsiders (I hated being forced to read the book at school) but Lowe's account of its filming is really interesting. On the other hand I saw St Elmo's Fire more than a few times. And I'm a terminal West Wing fan.

Interesting factoids - Tom Cruise was a total tool even before he was famous. Patrick Swayze comes across as a hard-working, likeable guy yet I've never knowingly seen any of his films. In fact, I've run a long way to avoid them.

This book is surprisingly good. Lowe claims to have written the whole thing himself. I'm not sure I buy that, but he does write scripts, so it's possible. I really warmed to him as I read it. Maybe that's effective writing, maybe that's because in comparison to Slash's account of himself, Lowe is a stellar human being.

He's very clear that his success is a combination of hard work and luck. His parents took him to live theatre when he was 8, it blew him away and he decided that day that acting was for him and pursued it single-mindedly. He was living in Ohio at the time, but got lots of acting experience (some paid) in local community theatre and TV. His mom moved the family to Malibu when he was a teeager, which had the advantage of being able to take the bus in to the studios in LA every day after school to look for work, agents, etc. but provided no avenues for actually getting any acting practice.

Most of the book is about his childhood and becoming a star. I was sad that The West Wing is relegated to one chapter near the end. If you're after the sex tape stuff, that's only very briefly touched on, mostly to point out if he'd done it now it would give his career a boost instead of nearly ending it.

So, surprisingly moving and interesting. And short.

37. The Sky Road by Ken Macleod

You can't say I don't have eclectic taste in reading material.

Only Ken would have the 4th volume of a series be an alternative history - a minor character from The Stone Canal does something different, and the future is very different from that in The Cassini Division.

My memory is too poor to put the whole series together very well, but I think I liked this the best out of all four of the books in this series.