The Narrowboat Lad by Daniel Mark Brown / Miami by Joan Didion

The Narrowboat Lad by Daniel Mark Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of my Top Ten Books for IndiePrideDay 2016.

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk

Dave and I have toyed with the idea of a narrowboat as a permanent home in the past and even got to the online advert browsing stage, but haven't quite been enough tempted to splash out. Indeed, I have never yet stepped onto one. However I do follow narrowboating author @sort_of_dan on twitter and recently learned of a limited time sale on his first book - 99p instead of £1.99. To be honest, it is well worth the full price!

A chance comment started Brown on his 'alternative lifestyle' and in The Narrowboat Lad he talks about how it all came about, purchasing his boat called Tilly, and his first year on the water. I liked that he includes the downs as well as the ups of river living. The isolation certainly wouldn't be ideal for everyone, but being so free within nature and already just at the start of a good walk really got my attention. Brown gives a fair amount of information about the boat itself and the intricacies of canal sailing which was interesting to learn.

While wearing my book reviewer hat, perhaps the less polished writing style should have only warranted a three star rating. However, what shines through Brown's writing is his enthusiasm and joy and this so appealed to me that I happily read the whole book in practically a single sitting (it is quite short) and immediately started telling Dave all about it - always the sign of a good book!

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Daniel Mark Brown / Biography and memoir / Books from England



Miami by Joan Didion
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository

Miami is my 1980s read for the Goodreads / Bookcrossing Decade Challenge.

Having learned a lot about California and its history from my previous Joan Didion book, Where I Was From, I hoped for similar enlightenment by reading Miami. This book looks at twenty years in the Florida city, from the 1960s to the 1980s, but instead of the wide-ranging information imparted about California, Didion seems to concentrate almost entirely on the political in Miami. I do now have a basic grasp of what the Bay Of Pigs was all about and my overall understanding of the Cuban exile population's predicament in Miami has improved a little. However, I struggled to keep up with all the subterfuge and double-speak, and the sheer number revolutionary and counter-revolutionary organisations that Didion namechecks is bewildering. Her writing is insightful throughout, but this definitely isn't the best book for a beginner to Central American politics of the late twentieth century!

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Joan Didion / Reportage / Books from America