The Iceberg - Marion Coutts

Marion Coutts was married to Tom, a art critic and writer who was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma brain tumour in 2008.  Faced with a grim diagnosis, this memoir chronicles their journey. As Tom begins to lose his ability to write and then speak, their young son is beginning to find his voice and his presence in this story helps to make it bearable and less depressing, as they try to find Tom more time with his family.

Marion is an artist and writer, and her writing in this book seems part poetry/part memoir and like so many cancer stories the grief is raw and open.  4/5

Dancing with Myself - Billy Idol

Oh Billy, I am sure that you have been a very naughty boy over the years, and I did enjoy this little insight into your life.  I was expecting a little more sex, drugs and rock and roll with lots more funny anecdotes.  I somehow wondered if all the drugs you did made some of the good times slip away from your memory.  Still good on you for keeping your punk rocker looks all these years!!  3/5

Yes Please - Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler has joined on the girl comedian bandwagon of popping out a little book, part memoir and part advice.  I get the feeling though, like a lot of these other girl books that they are about twenty years too early, that there is still a lot more living to be done and written about.  Much as I like Amy and enjoyed reading about her early years, I was a bit bored with the struggling improv chapters and the SNL details, only because I have never seen that show.

Her stories about being a wife and mother though were good,although you could feel that she was treading gently around these topics, and I would have loved a bit more.   3/5

Pure Joy - Danielle Steel

This is a simple little book.  Author Danielle Steel has lived a life filled with children, a few husbands and a variety of dogs.  But recently she purchased a little Chihuahua puppy Minnie, who was small enough to travel on planes with her between houses in the US and France.  This book is about the special bond she has with this little dog, and something that most pet owners can related to.

Quick and easy to read, this was a quick hours read while resting in the cool of the library on a hot summers day!!  3/5

Mrs D is Going Without - Lotta Dann

So Lotta Dann is your semi average  close to 40 year old housewife.  Married to a tv journalist and with two young boys with a career of her own, she finds herself at 5pm or wine o'clock every night downing a bottle or two of wine.  Then at every social occasion, she not only drinks to enjoy herself, but is often leaving the evening to hug the toilet bowl and be sick from drinking and hungover the next day.  She starts to realise she has a problem when she begins to lie to her husband about her drinking and hiding the bottles.

So Lotta decides that enough is enough and this book, based on her blog follows her journey to stop drinking.   An interesting incite into how many drinkers feel.  Like a lot of people I consumed a fair amount in my twenties but now in my forties am one of those annoying people who are happy having ten drinks a year.  In all honesty I lost the taste for alcohol and would prefer something fruity rather than a wine or spirits.  Still I found the book entertaining and engaging, much like the author who I had seen on a televison interview late in 2014.   I am sure that there a lot of people who can relate to her behaviour.  4/5.

Working Stiff - Judy Melinek

Judy Melinek is a Medical Examiner who begins her training as pathologist, a mere two months prior to 9/11.  The majority of the book however, is devoted to the everyday deaths she sees in New York, and I admire her blunt and opens style to telling us about how so many people end up in the mortuary.  Her advice is pretty much common sense, don't do drugs, wear your seatbelt and don't do crazy stuff.

She is able to give us a glimpse of a real forensic pathologists work, the days of doing autopsy after autopsy, unlike the glam girls presented to us on CSI or Bones, or many other books and movies, who seems to cross over and be part time pathologists slash models slash detectives and swan around solving cases.  The real job instead is spent in scrubs in the pit full of bodies and smells.  5/5

Three Minutes in Poland - Glenn Kurtz

 Glenn Kurtz discovers a family film taken in 1938, as his grandparents documented their holiday to Europe with friends.  Within that movie, is three minutes of film taken in one of their home towns showing local people and businesses.  Little did they know that most of the populations seen on the movie would be killed shortly in the next few years.

So Glenn sends the film to the Holocaust museum and is contacted by several people from that village, some of whom appear on the film as youngsters seventy years ago.  It is their stories that help to make this a fascinating read.  It makes you consider the terrible plight of the Jewish communities who were destroyed in the war, how their history and stories were lost.  Also it makes you realise how our own photos and movies may get lost over the generations as technology changes.   4/5

The Italian Wife - Kate Furnivall

I have been reading a bit lately, but have fallen behind in the posting, so it is time to do a little catch up, just in case you think that I may have been on holiday, reclining on a beach lounger reading like a maniac.  The truth of the matter is that I have been crazy busy at work, tired and run down, and blogging has lost out to sleep in the past week or two.

The Italian Wife is a wartime story about  architect Isabella Berotti, a young widow whose life is changed when she is approached by a woman and her daughter as she sits and drinks her morning coffee. All in her life is about to change as the war begins to swirl around them, and Isabella is now not sure who to trust to keep her safe.

I did enjoy the unique war story and it was nice that the story was only about Isabella, and not interrupted by a modern narrative, as I am tiring of that form of storytelling. 3/5

Movie Monday - Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

My goodness I feel a bit of a fangirl, but if there was one book I would recommend you read in 2015 it would be Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.  You can see a clip of the trailer that Frontline have made from their documentary of talking to this important author.

                                                             Source unknown

Carpool

I'm a bit addicted to listening to podcasts as I walk around the city.  I discovered this new one on youtube though which is a great way to listen to it as you peruse the internet.  It is Carpool where British actor and comedian Robert Llewellyn picks up various comedians and actors and drives them to their destination chatting along the way.  This one with Jo Brand is a classic, there is Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs, Stephen Fry.  A good excuse to head out walking while the summer weather lasts.