Some recent reads

Another mini round-up of some recent reads, partly to tick off books on Century of Books – to make it clear that my task is a little more achievable than it might currently appear! The theme here is “books that weren’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but were still very much enjoyable”.

The High Path (1982) by Ted Walker

One of the beautiful Slightly Foxed Editions – I read it on and off for many months, and it was the sort of warm, leisurely experience that I was always happy to go back to. It’s not my favourite of their books, and many of its details have already faded from my mind, but it was dependably enjoyable nonetheless.

Awkward Black Girl (2015) by Issa Rae

I really like the TV show Insecure, starring and created by Issa Rae, and so I used one my audiobook credits to download Rae’s… autobiography? Comedy? Guidebook? Fans of Rae will enjoy this, and recognise her tone, but because she wrote it before she became famous, there’s very little about her career. I wanted behind the scenes stuff on Insecure, essentially.

The Curtain (2005) by Milan Kundera

Translated by Linda Asher, this is an essay about literature in seven parts. I did enjoy some of the ideas in it, but I find Kundera’s fragmentary and aleatory style more rewarding in fiction than in non-fiction, I think.

The Swish of the Curtain (1941) by Pamela Brown

A children’s book about a group of children who set up their own acting company, I quite enjoyed reading this (and was grateful for the review copy). But I think it might be best to read it first when you are under 14 – and then with nostalgia forever. Coming to it for the first time at 32, I couldn’t warm to it as much.

So, neither hits nor misses – the sorts of books I might normally not write about on here, but will for the sake of #ACenturyOfBooks!