"AMERICAN GODS" Neil Gaiman:
Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller and ‘American Gods’ is his masterpiece (so far). On the surface it is the story of Shadow, an ex-con employed by a mysterious man known only as Wednesday, but it is also the story of America, of Gods, people, fantasy, faith and everything in-between. American Gods is a book you will find in the Fantasy section, but due to the quality of the storytelling and the depth of the characters, you can’t help but believe every word. You will laugh and cry in equal amounts, love every word and character, and feel a sense of loss when it is done. The best fantasy books take the world that already exists and take a side-step left, and this is no exception. There is more truth in this book than any you will find in the whole non-fiction section. I recommend this book to anyone who knows how to read.
"PSYCHOVILLE" Christopher Fowler:
Billy Marsh is forced to move to the suburbs with his distinctly working class family. The middle class world of Invicta Cross slowly destroys them. The
second half of the book sees a young, successful couple move in to the
same neighbourhood ten years later. People begin to die. Psychoville is clever, brutal and a brilliant satire on middle class culture, where wealth is revered and materialism essential. The violence of the second half is almost pornographic, though, in context, you can’t help feel it is justified. The suspense and tension of Psychoville is so perfectly orchestrated that you have to read one more chapter, then another, and before long its dawn, the books finished and you find yourself back at the beginning just to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Highly satisfying.
"HELLS ANGELS" Hunter S. Thompson:
‘Hells angels’ was written before Mr Thompson started to create his own myth and is a ‘straight’ piece of journalistic writing than his other work, painstakingly researched and engaging from the word go. The Hells Angels are an American legend, the last outlaws that terrify and fascinate sterile suburbia in equal measure, and as you read you can’t help but understand this mixture of revulsion and intrigue. But to say this novel is simply an investigation into the Hells angels is to do it an injustice, it is a study of America at a time when its very social fabric was being re-woven, an important historical document that is also an entertaining and highly satisfying read.
"COMET IN MOOMINLAND"
Tove Jansson
Moomins are white, hippo looking
creatures that walk on their hind legs.
They live in Moomin Valley which is one of
the most peaceful places on earth. You
will be surprised to learn that this book
haunted me as a child, but it does deal
with the end of the world. There is a comet
in the sky growing bigger every day, and
Moomintroll sets off with his friend Sniff to
find out if it will hit the Earth. When I was
much younger I read this book over and
over. I read it again as an adult a few
years ago and it still sent shivers down my
spine. The writing is perfect, the
characters are lovable as well as
believable, and Tove Janssons
illustrations are pitch perfect. Guaranteed
to please children and adults alike.
"FIGHT CLUB" Chuck Palahniuk: For those who don’t know, Fight Club is the story of a man who leads an unfulfilling life as a Risk Assessor for an automobile company, who has insomnia that is only cured by going to self help meetings for people who have terminal diseases. This book has the dubious honour of being made into a Hollywood film that, if I’m honest, is just as good as
the book, which is a rare thing indeed, and is testament to the quality of writing on offer within this thin tome. Fight Club is an indictment of modern society, an exposé on the emptiness of consumer culture, and a powerful reminder on the power of friends and community to get you through this vacuous existence. It’s also incredibly funny and has some of the most quotable passages ever set to paper. I recommend this book to anyone alive right now. It is also much less violent than you think, in fact there is hardly any fighting at all.
"THE WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLE" Haruki Murakami:
Mr Murakami is one of my favourite writers; his
style is lucid, poetic and full of charm. His
characters are normally quiet, lost souls who say
little but think lots, who often get caught up in
situations they neither understand nor instigate,
and 'The Wind Up Bird Chronicle’ is no exception.
Toru Okada is unemployed and looking for his lost
cat when we meet him, but soon he is looking for
his lost wife. This is a truly epic tale that often
goes off on bizarre and unexpected tangents, but
it is all so beautifully controlled and eloquent that
you can’t help but read on. Haruki Murakami has
been compared to Kafka, David Lynch and F.
Scott Fitzgerald to name a few. Personally, I feel
he is unique, and definitely a master of his craft.
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"THE DAMNED UNITED" David Peace (Faber & Faber)
First of all, I don’t like football. Football is alright as a kick about in the car park, a bit of a run around on a Saturday afternoon with your mates and few beers, but that’s it. All the statistics, the leagues, the transfers, the monotonous flow of twenty two men on a field passing a ball about, well, watching football is like watching a screensaver, its hypnotic, sport as a lava lamp. It’s lucky this novel isn’t about football the main character just happens to be a football manager.
The Damned United is the story of
a sociopath, a maniac who, like all
good despots, tries to wipe all
evidence of the previous regime
out of existence, even going so far
as to go batshit with an axe in his
own office and making firewood
out of his predecessors desk. This
is the story of Brian Clough, the
very real man who took over from
Don Revie as manager of Leeds
United, First Division champions
(there was no Premiership in the
seventies) and one of the most
fearsome teams of their day. The
fact that this is a story about a real
man, thoroughly researched by
David Peace, makes everything
that happens in these pages all
the more remarkable. I warn you
now, you probably won’t like Brian
Clough, he’s almost the exact
opposite of a sympathetic
character, he’s selfish, single
minded, offensive, rude, paranoid
and ruthless. So as much as he is
a perfect football manager, he’s
also someone you would never
choose to have as a friend, but
there is something about him that
intrigues you and almost forces
you to keep reading. Even after
reading the book I can’t decide
whether he is a genius or just a
vindictive, arrogant, malicious
areshole, and that is all due to the cleverly controlled writing of David Peace. The story is told in two interweaving halves, one telling of Cloughs career before Leeds united, the other telling of his maniacal reign of Leeds. The book speeds along due to this structure as you never spend more than a few paragraphs on each half, making putting the book down very difficult. A book about football for those who hate football, as well as those who seem to enjoy it. Well researched and beautifully executed creating a true anti-hero out of the myths and legends that make up Brian Clough, the most controversial man football has seen until Gazza bought a dressing gown, a few lagers and a fishing rod to try and sort out the Roaul Moat standoff by the riverbank. A fascinating and rewarding read.
"GRACE UNDER PRESSURE AND OTHER STOOL PIGEON STORIES" Edited by Phil Hebblethwaite (Stool Pigeon)
For those that don’t know (and it should be few) The Stool Pigeon is a free publication which has been home to true music journalism since 2005. And when I say free, I mean it costs you nothing, and when I say true I mean not watered down by record company demands or the egos of pop stars who think they control the
music press, they don’t, the music
press controls them, it’s just most of
the publications out there have
forgotten this fact. Now the music
press is mainly funded by
advertising revenues shelled out by
those who are being reported on,
well, it doesn’t take a genius to
work out the conflict of interest. So
it is good to know a publication like
The Stool Pigeon exists, and in
handy book format we have 166
pages of their best work to date.
Grace Under Pressure contains
interviews and stories that cover a
wide range of artists- Mark E.
Smith, Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg
(who in one hilarious article by
Daddy Bones is impossible to get
to, an article that ends with said Mr.
Bones resignation; whether it was
accepted you’ll have to read for
yourself) Marilyn Mansun, Grace
Jones (who ,by the end of the
interview, seems intent on a date with the interviewer John Doran), Killing Joke, Omar Souleyman, Sonic Youth(who take Luke Turner shopping before their appearance on Jools Holland) and The Cramps. And that’s not even half of the artists who grace this modest tome, not to mention the articles of superb reportage from the likes of Ben Jacob who is almost killed in Venezuela, and Emma-Lee Moss who goes for a ride through Saddle Creek’s Omaha. The writing throughout Grace Under pressure is top quality and obviously comes from scribes who are passionate about their chosen subjects and topics, which is half the fight won. Music journalism can be a slippery beast to grasp, and with today’s journo’s acting more like PR bitches than actual writers it’s even harder to find honest reporting in the incestuous music industry. Even if you have no interest in the bands or artists being discussed, you will be interested by the end of each article, or at least amused. And one of the great things about The Stool Pigeon is that they do not act like these people that produce music are gods- just read Ash Dosanjh’s interview with Evan Dando for a quick example. All in all an informative, interesting, often funny, sometimes scary look at some of the most iconic artists of our time, with some of the best writing to be found in the world of journalism, and not just music journalism. Worthy of your attention, and worthy of the attention of all those glorified, glossy paged adverts that pose as music magazines. This is how it should be done, mature, insightful and entertaining, and not one product rammed down your throat.
WE NEED YOU LAZZARO, YOU, LAZY, GREASY BASTARD AND OTHER STOOL PIGEON COLUMNS" By Son Of Dave (Stool Pigeon)
This collection of Columns from The Stool Pigeon
by Son Of Dave gets the ball rolling with an
article titled ‘Music Magazines Are Agonisingly
Boring Things To Read’. Did I mention The Stool
Pigeon is a music magazine? Well, I have now.
Reading this book you gives you the sense that
your life has not so much been wasted, but rather
lived in the shadow of people who couldn’t lead
a quiet existence if they were physically stitched
to a desk and given 2.4 kids and a beautiful wife.
By the end of the week Son Of Dave would have
sold them for whiskey and a plane ticket to
Tijuana, most probably by accident when he was
actually trying to find some milk in the fridge. To
say that Son Of Dave has life in abundance is
like saying that volcanoes are a teensy bit hot. In
this slim volume, 78 pages to be exact. you will
find the type of writing popularised by Hunter
S.Thompson and Charlie Brooker, with less of
the former's restraint and more of the latter’s
insight into modern life. Each column printed
here cracks along at a pace you can barely keep
up with and takes you to places you couldn’t imagine when you read the first sentence. With the density of the writing on show, and the format it was originally printed in, this book is best read in small doses, the type of book that can sit by the side of the toilet or be read on those ten minute bus journeys to work. It’s not a page turner in that you want to carry on reading to the end once you’ve started, for one you’d be exhausted halfway through and another you wouldn’t have any memory of most of it by the time you’ve finished, but you will want to return to it again and again and find sentences and images that are fresh with each re-read.
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Satirising middle class culture?
"1984" George Orwell:
1984 is essentially a love story that takes place in a world where love is outlawed. This is the novel that gave us the phrases ‘Big Brother’, ‘Thoughtcrime’ and ‘Newspeak’. 1984 predicted the widespread use of CCTV for population control, a television in every house and the dumbing down of language. 1984 is a bleak book where the only hope comes from the reader’s knowledge that it hasn’t got that bad yet, but it could if you let it. When the debate on The Anti Terror Bill was raging it was put to Blair in parliament that “1984 was meant as a warning, not a text book”, and seeing as that bill was passed, it’s time the warning was taken seriously.
"NAIVE SUPER" Erlend Loe:
‘Naïve. Super’ is the story of a 25 year old who doesn’t know what he wants from life, he’s finished university and he is seemingly crushed into inactivity by the weight of possibilities that the world offers, and also by the existence of the world itself. He finds pleasure in the small things, like riding his bike, bouncing a ball and playing with his hammer and peg. The simple, declarative sentences and almost autistic point of view of the protagonist are beautifully rendered, crafted from a perspective most of us have forgotten even exists. This book will change the way you see the world simply by reminding you how you once felt, and you’ll laugh with joy as you rediscover your own naivety.
"ONLY FORWARD" Michael Marshall Smith:
Sci-Fi is an acquired taste, which is why I like ‘Only Forward’. Though it is set in a future where Britain is one giant metropolis separated into distinct districts, you are never overwhelmed by technical jargon or speculative science. What you get is a fantastic detective story, part mystery, part psychedelic trip, leaving you captivated in it's
imaginative scope. The protagonist, Stark, is the epitome of noir detective cool, but the real star of this story is the city itself, with its districts such as Colour, which is set up entirely for people who like colours, or Action where the inhabitants are all workaholic Gordon Gecko’s on steroids. There are many, many more, but half the fun of ‘Only Forward’ is discovering them for yourself. A rewarding and highly inventive novel that manages to surprise even on repeat visits.
"NAGASAKI" Tatsuichiro Akizuki:
‘Nagasaki’ is the first full-length eye
witness account of the atomic bomb
attack on Nagsaki. It is written by
Dr Akizuki who survived and tended
to those who suffered in the attack,
and his written account of his efforts
to help those who were struck by the
attack is almost impossible to
comprehend. At that time no one
knew what radiation sickness was,
even what an atomic bomb was. The
scenes he describes could just are
more reminiscent of Dantes ‘Inferno’ than anything you can imagine happening in this world. This is not a pleasant read. ‘Nagasaki’ is one of the most horrific books I have read, and one of the most inspiring. As much as the dropping of ‘Fat Man’ on Nagasaki should make us ashamed of our humanity, Dr Akizuki’s determination to help his fellow man amidst such horror should inspire us all. A truly heroic tale.
