Other reading related news...

This is a selection of the best (in my opinion) lightweight books on the credit crisis and banking, for those who wish to gain a bit more knowledge. (Disclaimer and naughtiness alert: so far I have actually not read a single one of these all the way through though!) I got as far as the first chapter of The Black Swan but am reliably informed of its greatness by someone whose bookshelf rivals that of the Piccadilly Circus Waterstones Popular Science section.

I am further of the way through Too Big To Fail (at least past the pictures!), and reading this would be a great way of learning about finance without actually thinking much about finance, as it tells the story of the 2008 credit crisis through the 'personalities' of the major players on Wall Street (best read to yourself in an American movie voiceover accent). Best hammy and over-egged anecdote of a characters' past is when Dick Fuld apparently shouted "Eat shit and die!" repeatedly at a random, innocent and probably quite shocked passer-by. The book seems to think this was a good deed; I am not so sure.

And finally, All You Need To Know About The City, leant to me by a friend (sorry, Harry, will give it back soon!) is a really down-to-earth, no frills guide to the... I'm not going to go on.



Last week I was given (yes, that is correct, given as a present, as in, "here, you should read this) no less than TWO books that I would categorise as 'self help.' Help by Oliver Burkeman, shown above, is very grounded and basically says that most self help is rubbish and so what you should do is become less lazy, more organised and keep a gratitude journal. I was also given Strengthsfinder (www.strengthsfinder.com).

Book Group: an update

Finished and enjoyed The Help, although in some parts I found that it was a bit too 'lightweight' and occasionally lazy with the old tried and tested adage 'show, don't tell.'

Next book was added to the below list at the last minute and picked: The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell. I saw it in Waterstones and (in what is becoming a theme for the book group choices) it looked far, far too chick-litty for me, so I couldn't bring myself to by it and bought The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald instead.

Finally, a brief review of the Corrections...

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen follows the story of Alfred and Enid, two elderly pensioners and their three children, Chip, Gary and Denise, as they seemingly struggle to fit their lives around each other.

It took me a while to "settle in" to the book and the characters - the structure delves between Enid/Alfred's lives and those of their three kids, mostly dealing with one of the children at a time. The two male children and their psyches were covered first, and I did feel that the dominant theme behind both of their lives and relationships was this overpowering male sexuality; as though they related only to other people in light of this. It did make it hard for me to identify with them as characters, but I thought, give Franzen the benefit of the doubt Fran, he's written more novels than you ever have. At least there was Denise left. She couldn't be overpowered with male sexuality, surely?

Denise was a lesbian. That's right, she had sex with women. Franzen just sidestepped the mark really; the women in the novel didn't have sexuality, they had strange family hang-ups (Enid and Caroline) or sex with women, like the men (Denise).

But don't be put off. This book is so, so worth it. It is worth it for Enid, the mother torn between these conflicted and sexualised children and her ill husband. She embodies a generation of elderly people struggling to come to terms with change and aging. I found the latter part of the model painful to read, so acute was the portrayal of this family and how their individuality barred them from coming to terms with being a unit and understanding each other's needs. So, definitely worth the read if you can struggle through the man sex at the start.

Bluesy January following Excessive Travels in December

Insert your favourite excuse about why I've not been blogging enough here!



I went to Iceland for a long weekend in December with some girlfriends. It is an amazing country. We stayed in a gorgeous apartment in Reykjavík and did various cultural and geographical trips (acting like PROPER tourists and taking photos of just about everything we could see). Northern Lights, tick (after a lot of waiting about in the cold!). Erupting geyser, tick. Frozen lake, tick. Tectonic plates, tick.

Obviously, Iceland is in a bit of an interesting situation politically and financially at the moment, and the after effects of that definitely showed - one of our wonderful tour guides, Ronald, used to be a civil engineer until the financial crisis meant that they stopped building things (like the really architecturally creative churches seemingly in the middle of nowhere).

After a pit stop at home for Christmas...



In this photo, catching a few Christmas nods is my lovely sister Rozzle, who has just started a new blog that you can find here.

On Boxing Day, John and I took a car full of parents to France for a bit of skiing for a week over New Year. We had glorious sunshine all week and skiied right from the summit of Les Trois Vallées, which is something I've never done before.



Disclaimer: I don't actually know any of these people. They were in the way of my view.