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  Alright, a...... No, No, won't write that, too obvious.  There's more to Mr McConaughey than that infamous quote.   This is a memoir punctuated with the lessons he learnt from life, and every time MM finds something that allows him to move forward, he sees that as a green light and on he goes. I don't think there are too many people who could have experienced his childhood and then come out the other side so well balanced, but there are no victims in here.  Despite the physical violence between his parents and the use of corporal punishment meted out to the three boys in the family, MM considers he was bought up with strong values that made him who he is today. He learnt he could do wrong, even steal, but when questioned by his father he must never lie.  Once when he and a friend went to Pizza Hut and left without paying, the other boy's father called to let MM's father know what had happened.  MM was given two chances to confess that he knew the foo...

  It's not very often it happens, but this is likely to become one of those books that I will remember forever.  It challenges the way the reader thinks about nature and the condition of being autistic, and I hope it has a positive impact on everyone who reads it. Over the first few pages, I found the writing style a little clunky, and I wondered why the editor hadn't smoothed the wording over a bit, but then after about 50 pages or so, I realised that the text  has to be left as it is because this is Chris.  The way the language is used is how he thinks and speaks, and I had demonstrated the eternal problem he has with the rest of us when I expected him to change it just to make it better for me! Once I got over myself, I allowed his language to do its job and he let me see the world through his eyes.  Chris has a unique view of the world and he is truly interested in every bird, every creature and every creeping thing.  As a child, he picked up dead thin...

  This is not a work of fiction, this is a memoir. This is truth, humanity, love and loss. Pain, anxiety, support, and empathy. Soul searching, risk, inaction and action. Identity, lies, hope and lust. Religion, translation, poetry and guilt, and all the while it is not fiction, and it will stay with you.

  So. Booksta:  Patrick Freyne?  Never heard of him, so why would I want to read a collection of essays about his life? Me: It's very well written.  Funny even. Booksta: Maybe if I'd heard of him..... Me: He would be a great man to have sitting next to you on a long haul flight.  A wealth of amusing anecdotes about his childhood and mis-spent youth in a band. Booksta: In a band? Does he know Bono? Me: Probably not, but he mentions him once.  I bet he has a lovely speaking voice.  He comes from Cork you know.  Same place as Graham Norton. Booksta:  Oh, I've heard of Graham Norton.  Does Patrick know Graham? Me:  No.  Booksta:  You're not really selling this. Me: I know, but I liked it and now I like Patrick.  Sometimes it's just nice to spend some time with someone who tells a good tale.  I think that talent comes in the DNA if you're from Cork.  It's the home of the Blarney Stone after all. Booksta: Does he ...

  Angel Delight. If any part of your childhood happened in the UK in the 1970s then you will surely remember the arrival of these packets of magic dust that transformed half a pint of milk into pudding.  No saucepans or fancy kitchen implements required, just a bowl and a fork, and by the time you had it all mixed together it was already setting into a smooth and creamy mousse.  This was a taste of the future! As soon as I saw the bowl of Angel Delight on the front of Grace Dent's book I was sure I wanted to read it.  I wanted to re-live the days when an Arctic Roll was something really special and tinned spaghetti on toast was considered a balanced meal.  I wasn't disappointed.  I got all that, but I also got a lot more that I hadn't been expecting. Grace Dent writes with the kind of unashamed honesty that starts off as bravado and slowly, slowly morphs into what life was really like for a girl growing up on a housing estate in Carlisle.  By fourteen ...