This Book Will Save Your Life - A.M. Homes

Richard Novak is a man apart. Literally. Living in the Los Angeles hills, financially sustained in his successes as a stock market daytrader, he has shed all meaningful contact from his life, eschewing family and friends in favour of an isolationist existence. Richard's rather aimless malaise of a life is suddenly interrupted by an indeterminable pain. Initial worries of a life-threatening heart attack prove false, but the scare is sufficient enough to set in motion a journey of discovery, the intimate and often surreal details of which becoming the story's focus. In a nutshell, this includes Richard broadening his social circle, learning the joys of altruism (if ...  Read the complete review

A 57-year-old man experiences a pain attack and when he’s asked in hospital who he wants to call, he doesn’t know what to answer. Existential angst sets in, “He didn’t want to die. He couldn’t die. He hadn’t even lived yet.” Nothing serious can be found, though, and when he’s back home, he decides to change his life. So far, so unoriginal, tons of books must have been written in the western world about this subject (I doubt that Hindus and Buddhists bother what with their belief in rebirth), if an author uses this plot, they must wrap it into a captivating story to make readers want to read it. What has A. M. Homes made of it? The story is set in ...  Read the complete review

This is the first book by A.M. Homes that I have read and thus I had no preconceptions of my own approaching it. The professionals' reviews uttered things like 'glass-sharp' and 'acid-etched' while the readers' ones were more along the lines of 'nice' and 'uplifting'. And Stephen King said that it might even save somebody's life. There is little doubt that "This Book Will Save Your Life" won't do any such thing, in fact it's one of those books that one enjoys a lot while reading, but which leaves no lasting impact. On the surface, it's an enjoyable story of emotional redemption, of a man re-establishing his connections with human world and his own ...  Read the complete review

---Greek lightning--- Yes, I know it's been a while. In the time that I have been neglecting the interweb I have, in fact, been having a real life. Don't gasp like that, it's just not cool. The main reason I fell off the face of the planet was that I went on holiday for two glorious weeks in the sunshine. I spent my days lounging round in the sun, frolicking in the sea and eagerly drooling over any man under 30 (years old), 13 (stone) and above 18 (back to the years) that walked past. In my defence, they were all topless, Greek gods. Throw in that I was having to spend these two weeks in the company of my dearest but decidedly lesbionic friends while the cute ...  Read the complete review

Firstly, let me say, this is not the sort of book I usualy read. I am into Micheal Crichton, Stephen King, and when I feel intellectual, Richard Dawkins or something related to therapy or social constructionism. It was only when I was heading for Waterstones checkout with a bunch of 'murder, death, kill' books under my arm I thought: "Time to do a bit of more chilled reading", lol. So, after looking at the front cover, and being surprised at the reviews on the back (I thought it was a diet book at first), I decided to buy it. It is what I would call a bubble gum book (bit like bubble gum pop): It is pleasant, not very taxing, ...  Read the complete review