Fuck it, I’ll end on an uneven number and start 2026 fresh!
131 . The Philosophy Of Modern Song by Bob Dylan
I’m a Dylan fan and this was on my Wishlist for ages but it was £35 and I couldn’t justify it. It recently showed as 99p and I snapped it up. It’s a bunch of essays of various length about various songs, what’s happening in the song and what was going on in music or with the artist at the time. I only knew 20-30% of the songs already, and I was lucky to find a Spotify playlist of them all. Literally this book would be pointless without the playlist, you wouldn’t know what he was referring to so it’s odd that it comes without it.
132 . Bring The House Down by Charlotte Runcie
Set at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Alex, a critic fires off a 1 star review of a one woman show and goes about his business. When later he meets the woman, he has sex with her without telling her about the review. Consequences abound.
What’s odd about this book is it’s told from the viewpoint of Sophie, Alex’s colleague at the paper he writes for. It covers her reaction to all the drama, but also her marriage, working mother guilt and her grief over her own mother and none of this is particularly relevant to the story or interesting in any way. It just drags the narrative away from the action and seems a strange choice. Ultimately a bit forgettable? In the two days since I read it, I forgot Sophie’s name and as I was about to write this, the title.
133 . The Housemaid by Freida Mcfadden
Rich bitch Nina employs down on her luck Milly to be her housemaid but nothing is what it seems. I can’t say much for spoilers but a lot of the themes here are well worn and cliched. The advertised twist is pretty decent, I kicked myself for not spotting it. It was a decent, trashy, yarn but I won’t be reading the sequels or any further McFadden as I don’t hear good things.
134 . And He Shall Appear by Kate Van Der Borgh
An unnamed protagonist attends Cambridge. It’s the “from a working class background and feels like an outsider” cliche, and he becomes infatuated with and wishes to be part of would be magician Bryn and his set. I don’t want to shit on this book as I think it’s a debut but so much potential is squandered. If the first part of the title is “Speak of the devil” then you really want Bryn to be a devil, and for there to be real horror moments but he’s just an entitled posh boy. I empathised with the idea of idolising someone at uni who doesn’t merit your esteem, but that’s about it really. Comparisons made to The Secret History and the Dark Academia category don’t wash, it’s no Saltburn and it’s not even as good as The Kellerby Code. but it could have been so much darker and so much better.