Moving away from the “I don’t believe it” style of post, just back from 2 weeks of sunshine in Portugal. Here is what I read while I was away :
1. James Caan – from Brick Lane to Dragons Den
Picked this one up from the airport on the way out. Very interesting account of how Caan became an entrepenneur, how he started his businesses, how he grew the businesses, and how he managed to exit them, and what he’s done since.
2. The Blair Years – the Alistair Campbell diaries
This one was a fascinating but quite difficult read. Had wanted to take a look since I heard Alistair Campbell was keeping a diary. Very interesting to remember news items and go back and see his version of it. Goes right from Labour’s election through to the Hutton enquiry. Some things came across really strongly – like how much infighting there was in Labour and how unfit they were from government before they got elected, how Blair’s speeches which looked off the cuff were all written for him and rehearsed, how lonely the job of PM must be, the rivalries between Brown and Mandelson, and his hatred of the media with have in the UK, particularly the Mail, the Telegraph and the BBC.
3. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Set in 18th Century Paris (including where I used to live) and South of France, an account of a boy abandoned on the stinking streets of Paris who discovers he has a sense of smell more developed than any other human. He learns his trade as an assistant to a master perfumier. But he becomes obsessed with the scent of young women entering adulthood and can only satisfy his obsession by killing them and capturing their scent.
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khalid Hosseini
This is the guy who wrote The Kite Runner. I couldn’t put this one down. It’s the very moving and tragic story of the collision of lives of 2 women from very different backgrounds who become wives to the same man. All set against the backdrop of recent Afghan history – Soviet invasion, the Mujjahadeen, the Taliban and the war on terror.
