Winter '16 Gut Reactions

I failed!! Completely and utterly. The Winter TBR pile contained eleven books but due to The Christmas Rewrite, I managed very very little recreational reading. (I did, however, consume three writing-craft books, which took some time.)
Of the seven Christmas books listed I managed all of two. Yes, two. In a holiday. So poor.
Of the others mentioned, I managed another two. I know, I know...

Lovely Santa CP gifted me three which I leapfrogged in, because I am particularly naughty like that. They were;

I’ll be home for Christmas – CRISIS anthology (YA)
Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven (YA)
Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland (YA)

 Easily (the competition is small) the joint Book of the Season are Holding up the Universe and Our Chemical hearts which were top-rung YA novels. Loved them. One of them doesn’t even have a happy ending – which is tantrum territory – but get this- I didn’t mind. That’s how otherwise pleasing it was – or else I’m just growing up a bit…

 Given I read very few, there’s only a couple of other thoughts;

-          One was just too worthy, which detracted from the enjoyment.

-          I love quirky forms of storytelling and one of these had that. But the quirky form in this case made it quite hard to read, distorting the flow of the narrative, which I doubt was the desired effect. I'm verging on feeling that the form was trying to disguise an underdeveloped story. Overall it felt like a case of 'form over experience.'

 That’s it. Epic fail, but it was for good reasons, so no apologies.
Onwards!

Funny stuff for your ears.

Having given the focus to The Bestseller Experiment in my last post, I also wanted to give a nod to a few of the comedy podcasts that I've been listening to.

 The Guilty Feminist is a fave; comedians Sofie Hagen and Deborah Frances-White "covering topics 'all 21st century feminists agree on' while confessing their insecurities, hypocrises and fears that underlie their lofty principles."
So much of what they observe is spot on and absolutely recognisable. And so so funny.

 My dad wrote a porno, has me barking with laughter in the car, scaring other drivers, as Jamie Morton reads an erotic novel his 60 year old father has written, OUT LOUD to his friends Alice Levine and James Cooper, who critique. And they do critique; constantly, harshly and widely as it is truly awful on many many levels. (I’m claiming that one as a writing-related piece, as their deconstruction of Rocky Flintstone’s Belinda Blinked, is both hysterical and informative about the pitfalls of scene construction. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it… As an aside Belinda Blinked is actually available on Amazon. The reviews are entertainment in themselves.)

And then there is Standard Issue, which is a supplement podcast to Standard Issue e-magazine. Comedian Sarah Millican set the magazine up in response to all the women's magazines out there, with the aim of it being "for all women, and not making you feel shit about yourself." These podcasts have female comedians in conversation, covering all sorts of issues and opinions, with intelligence and humor. They chat, following me around the house, as I do my chores with my phone in my back pocket and they never fail to make me smile and laugh.

Anyone got a podcast to recommend?