What I've been reading

According to Queeney
by Beryl Bainbridge

"In 1764, the great Samuel Johnson, irascible genius, unparallelled wit and the toast of all society, is plagued by ill health and has become jaded with his bickering dependents. Suffering from a bout of melancholy, he accepts an invitation to the table of Henry Thrale, a wealthy Southwark brewer, and his vivacious wife Hester."

Not bad, but suffers from the writer's 'cleverness' in introducing nobody at the start so you have to work out for yourself who everyone is and what their relationships are. In some books I can imagine this is a intriguing and interesting conundrum, but I didn't enjoy it here. And most of the characters are unpleasant, which always curtails my reading pleasure.

Bambi
by Felix Salten

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Friend Hare is brutally slaughtered as gunshots reverberate throughout the meadow and pools of blood stain the daisies. Death is everywhere - even in the trees. One of the saddest moments occurs when two lone oak leaves ponder the afterlife before tumbling to their demise from bare branches."

The above was written by a reader on the website Goodreads (which is what I use to track my reading, and also supplies the link to my current reading in my blog sidebar on the right), and it is spot on. The Disney film is what most of us know about the story of Bambi, but the book is excellent, and doesn't shy away from the more bloody aspects of life and death in the woods. In contrast to the focus on gore, Bambi reaches full maturity with no more explicit intimacy than seemingly platonic love for his cousin. But I think there's a sequel...

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos

narrated by Patrice O'Neill

"Lorelei Lee and her friend Dorothy barrel across Europe, meeting everyone from the Prince of Wales to 'Doctor Froyd' - and then back home again to marry a Main Line millionaire and become a movie star."

A cracking little book which never references its title at all, nor does it provide the famous line about diamonds being a girl's best friend, but still manages to convey every nuance that those two quotations contain. A difficult book to narrate: I think I missed out on some of the spelling mistakes that couldn't be conveyed in the audio format. Short, sweet, and all ends happily.