Marian Keyes

Something else I particularly enjoyed
reading last year...

I have quite wide and varied taste in reading material.  Let's face it, when I'm desperate I'll read the instructions for the 4 year old's drum kit.  I hate a vacuum of reading material.  Luckily, I'm far from desperate at the moment;  there's quite a stack of seductive books by the bed, distracting me from writing. (I don't know why they're there, particularly - I read anywhere, any time I can, as I suppose most wannabe authors must).

I've just finished Marian Keyes' latest offering, The Brightest Star in the Sky.  I enjoy her writing a lot (two of her previous books were used as pain-relief and distraction during two separate labours), although I think I'm only just beginning to appreciate all the craft that goes into her work.  Some of her characters are so neatly observed;  they leap from the page and stroll around with you.  Even though I've finished the novel now (I turned the last page at 2am - I was reading fiercely by the end), the characters are still in my head.  She has a brilliant touch for the sex scenes, too, I think  -  she walks that fine line between too much detail and too little with surgical precision.  The fact I was up till 2am (even though the alarm was set, as usual, for a 6am start) says a lot about how I found the plot too.

Thank goodness I can explain to Ste that reading is now a serious and important part of trying my hand at this writing game, and not just snatched minutes of indolence. But I'm not going to let myself open another book till I've got a few hundred words on screen...