Me And My Big Mouth

Advent Calendar: December 24th

Today is my final advent calendar selection. Thank you to all the people who have commented or emailed to say they have enjoyed this brief series of posts, and a special doff of the cap to the authors of some of the books I have picked out who took the time to get in touch and show their gratitude. I do hope that you have found some interesting titles to add to your wish lists and that Santa brings you one or two of them tomorrow morning.

If you have been good, that is.

At some point every Christmas I will sit down and watch It's A Wonderful Life. It is a really dark and edgy film directed with remarkable ingenuity by Frank Capra. A man whose style is so recognisable he holds that rare honour, shared with Franz Kafka and only a few others, of having -esque added to the end of his name.

One of the tricks Capra used to pull with his actors was to ask them to rehearse the scene with a dummy camera and lighting set up so that he could work out how he was going to shoot it when it came to the proper take. What he didn't tell them was that the cameras were rolling and he would often use this 'rehearsal' in the final cut of the movie. He felt it made for more natural performances - the actors weren't acting too hard.

I know this because I once spent a month reading Joseph McBride's wonderful biography Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. It is almost certainly the greatest book about the cinema I have ever read and is a remarkable insight into the life and work of one Hollywood's finest directors. Even if he ultimately comes across as a not very nice chap you can't help but marvel at how cleverly he made his movies and how, when he worked with just the right people, he made magic.

So there you go. My final advent calendar window is now hanging open. See you next year.

Advent Calendar: December 23rd

The more observant amongst you may have picked up on the fact that I am a bit keen on the books of Haruki Murakami.

But I am not going to choose one of his books for my advent calendar today. Oh no.

Instead I would like to point you in the direction of Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words which is an excellent biography and critical study by Murakami's favoured translator and good friend Jay Rubin.

When I was at Waterstone's I was always trying to get this shelved next to Murakami's novels. It struck me as the place to put it if you wanted to flog it to his fans, especially those who were unaware of its existence. I did have a few spells of success but was ultimately defeated by the category nazis. Nowadays you may well have to search through the literary criticism shelves (where on earth are they? I hear you ask) if the shops have the book at all.

Rubin's book is pretty much essential reading for anyone who wants to find out more about Murakami and his work. The author manages to reveal more about Haruki than any interviews or features have done before and he offers an insightful study of the fiction and non-fiction Murakami has written.

It is a fan's book, written by perhaps the most knowledgable fan of all.

Advent Calendar: December 22nd

A bit of nostalgia for you now. Youngsters should probably come back tomorrow.

Jack Hargreaves used to present a television show called Out of Town in which he explored many aspects of country and rural life. Here's a clip.

He was also one of the team on legendary ITV kid's show How! during the 70s and early 80s.

Anyway, his short memoir, also called Out of Town, is a Cider with Rosie in miniature. Some fascinating tales about growing up on a farm (he was actually born in North London but sent to live with relatives), his time in the Royal Tank Regiment during the war and the part he played in the setting up of ITV alongside the sort of country tales and folklore that you would expect if you have ever seen his television shows.

It isn't the most attractive of packages and you may find it hard to get hold of in your local bookstore but it is a real delight and well worth seeking out.

Advent Calendar: December 21st

If you have been tempted by Manga but were worried about looking like a geek or not knowing where to start.

If you like the idea of graphic novels but can't quite get your head round them.

If you enjoy reading short stories.

If you don't mind your books a bit bleak.

Then try The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Brilliant, dark, disturbing graphic fiction.

Advent Calendar: December 20th

In the final stretch of the advent calendar with only a few days left to go. Probably too late to actually purchase these for anybody as a Christmas gift but perhaps something to treat yourself to in the sales.

Today's pick is a crime novel with a difference. The first of a series, The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees features, as far as I am aware, the only Palestinian detective in fiction.

Matt was a journalist covering the Middle East for over a decade, spending much of that time as Jerusalem bureau chief for Time magazine, so he knows his stuff.

This first book won a CWA award and has been nominated for loads more. There are three in the series and more Omar Yussef mysteries to come.

If you like crime novels and are looking for something that is bloody good but a little bit different then see if you can sneak one of these into your stocking.

Advent Calendar: December 19th

If you enjoy reading haiku then you should really own a volume of the work of Basho.

If you enjoy writing haiku then The Haiku Handbook is essential reading.

It is a wonderful, unpretentious and enjoyable read offering remarkable insight into the form.

It also contains the finest ever explanation of why people write, read and enjoy haiku:

'It is hard to tell you how I am feeling. Perhaps if I share with you the event that made me aware of these feelings, you will have similar feelings of your own.'

Brilliant.

OK, so I accept you probably haven't got dozens of people on your Christmas list who would want this but perhaps it is something to treat yourself to with your inevitable book tokens.

The Haiku Handbook by William J. Higginson is published by Kodansha International. And as the snow has put me in a festive mood here is a quick haiku for you:

pausing in the snow

a robin, fresh from murder,

looks me in the eye

Advent Calendar: December 18th

Simon Daley is an Englishman. His wife's family come from India. Over the past few years he as been getting his Indian mother-in-law to teach him how to cook authentic Indian food.

This book is the result.

It is the perfect book for someone who loves Indian cuisine but who doesn't come from an Indian background. Beginner's can master the basics which are simply explained and clearly illustrated but more confident cooks can try out the more adventurous dishes.

Cooking with My Indian Mother-in-law by Simon Daley and Roshan Hirani is published by Anova Books.

Advent Calendar: December 17th

This is a short, small format book. A mere slip of a thing at 96 pages.

Set in the 19th century, it tells the story of a young Japanese poet who travels across the snowy mountains to study with a great haiku master. During his journey he stumbles upon the frozen body of a young woman and reawakens a long-forgotten tragic love story.

Snow by Maxence Fermine is beautiful, thoughtful and superbly crafted. A few years back I bought copies for all my friends at Christmas. I don't think the UK publisher exists any more so snap it up while you can.

Advent Calendar: December 16th

If you like the books of Anne Tyler, Richard Yates, Alice Munro or Kent Haruf then you should really find some room on your bookshelves for Charles Baxter.

Saul and Patsy is, if you ask me, his finest moment. On the surface a simple story of a marriage in the American Midwest but it reveals so much more through subtle glances, throwaway lines and tiny moments shared between the characters.

It also has the best opening/closing chapter combination in fiction.

I shall leave it there.

Advent Calendar: December 15th

If I were to describe About The Size Of It as a funny and thoughtful book about the history of weights and measures you might think I had gone a bit wonky.

But it is. It really is.

It is also a passionate plea for the reinstatement of imperial measures because, well because they are pretty much all based on common sense. And Warwick has a wonderful knack of getting you as enthused as he clearly is about his subject.

A bit like Johnny Ball.

This short but brilliant book would fit snugly into most Christmas stockings, although I do not have the precise dimensions to hand.

Advent Calendar: December 14th

As most of you know, I read to my children every night. I am sure they will grow out of it at some point - Ethan will be 11 in a few weeks and his teenage years aren't far away - but while they are still up for it I will carry on. It is the best part of every day.

We must have got through dozens of books over the past few years but the best by quite some distance, if you ask me, has been Barkbelly by Cat Weatherill.

It is the story of a small wooden child adopted by an elderly couple. After a tragic accident he has to flee the village and embarks upon an odyssey to rival the very best adventures in children's literature.

I consider it a travesty that this isn't considered a modern classic. Actually, that's not quite right, I am pretty sure anyone who has read it holds it in high esteem. I just wish more people knew about it.

Do please spread the word. And check it out if you haven't done so already.

Advent Calendar: December 13th

The best short story collection I have ever read.

And I have read some good ones. This, this and that are three stunners that spring to mind.

But, anyway, this one stunned me with every single story. Odd, surreal, original and, more often than not, very funny.

The title story is one of the best. A boy goes to school on Halloween dressed as Hitler only to find that someone else has come as Anne Frank. Hilarity ensues.

The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot is published by Counterpoint in the US but is pretty easy to get hold of online over here.

Advent Calendar: December 12th

Subtitled 'The Manure Parliament 2008-9', this is a collection of parliamentary sketches from Times politcal correspondent Ann Treneman.

It really has been a bizarre year in politics and the author does a cracking job of capturing the incredulity of the nation while our illustrious leaders pretty much fucked everything up.

Annus Horribilis: The Worst Year in British Politics is one for the Private Eye subscriber or Have I Got News For You viewer on your Christmas list.

Advent Calendar: December 11th

We have a basement kitchen in our house. We pretty much live down there. Radio on. Kettle on. Sorted.

Our kids love to cook and bake. I think it might have something to do with the fact that they have been brought up in a room next to the oven.

But I must be honest, I have struggled to find more than a couple of really good cookbooks for children - both in terms of cooking for them and cooking with them.

Here are two that get the Pack family thumbs up.

Nora Sands was the dinnerlady who helped Jamie Oliver in his mission to change the way our children eat at school. Her own cookbook, Nora's Dinners, is full of recipes designed to make with your kids from crunchy carrot salads to fruit crumbles. Nothing too fancy but everything is (reasonably) healthy and pretty simple to do.

I am a big fan of this book and that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the child making Mighty Muffins on page 122 is my son Ethan when he was five years old and minus his front teeth. Honest.

The other well-thumbed book in our collection, covered in stains and full of sticky bookmarks, is Cooking for Children by Trish Deseine. Trish is France's version of Nigella Lawson, only blonde, and better looking and I bet she wouldn't push past me to jump the queue at a book event like that posh bird did. Oh, and she is actually Irish.

For an Irishwoman to win over the French with her food writing you know she must be good. And she is.

Cooking for Children is a bit more fancy and elaborate than Nora's Dinners but the recipes are still simple and effective and all of them are dishes that the kids can help to make or do themselves. Ethan and Martha can recommend the Pancake Gateau.

If you do pick up either of these then let me know and I'll give you my address so you can send me some cake when you bake it.

Advent Calendar: December 10th

Imagine if you will a cross between Gormenghast, A Dance to the Music of Time and The Forsyte Saga. Only set in Japan.

What you have probably come up with, whether you realise it or not, is something pretty close to The House of Nire by Morio Kita.

This is a quite an obscure Japanese novel from the mid-1980s. Well, not so obscure that it hasn't been translated into English but sidelined enough that a bunch of Japanese people I know from the world of books have never read it.

Well I have, and it is wonderful.

Epics are, well, epic. This usually just means they are bloody long. And Nire is bloody long but it is also incredibly rewarding. Set in and around an insane asylum - no that's too strong, perhaps sanatorium would be better - run by the Nire family it starts out at the beginning of the First World War and takes us through to the end of the Second.

First up, this is an opportunity to read about these wars from a Japanese viewpoint. Yes, they are covered in some of the Japanese fiction we can read over here but rarely both wars in the same book and never in such an insightful and, it must be said, comic manner.

For The House of Nire is, above all else, very funny. It is gripping and moving and heartbreaking and lots of other things ending in ing but it is, at heart, a comedy. And I am struggling to think of a comedic novel from any culture that can sustain the amusement and attention as much as this can.

I don't think it is currently in print but there seem to be quite a few copies listed on Amazon Marketplace so I am confident you should be able to pick one up. It would be worth going the extra mile to do so if you ask me.

Advent Calendar: December 9th

As the decade draws to a close (which I realise doesn't actually happen for another year but you know what I mean) the media is chock full of retrospectives, best ofs and round ups. Tim Footman's entertaining look back at The Noughties manages to be both thoughtful and flippant at the same time. He writes brilliantly about 9/11 while also being able to tackle Big Brother and other less weighty topics without trivialising them.

At under 200 pages it is a bit of a whistle stop tour but it does the job well. I'd suggest it might make a good gift for an older teenager who might not have been paying attention when the decade started or for anyone interested in contemporary cultural history.

Advent Calendar: December 8th

I've mentioned this book before and I may well mention it again but only because it is nigh on the perfect gift for about half the people on my Christmas list.

A brilliantly researched and highly amusing history of reading on the loo, Closet Reading looks back over 500 years of toilet books. Along the way Phil Norman unearths some amazing antiquarian titles, interviews modern greats of the genre such as Gyles Brandreth and manages to squeeze an entire chapter out of Radio 1 DJs, the Hairy Cornflake and all.

This is pretty much the ultimate toilet book and no self-respecting loo library should be without it. As John Lloyd, creator of QI, says on the cover Closet Reading is:

'Quite interesting for anyone who's quite interested in this sort of thing.'

Advent Calendar: December 7th

This charming and beautifully packaged collection of tributes to dear, departed pets would be the perfect stocking filler for any animal lover in your life. The editor, Susie Cornfield, has cleverly combined classic pieces of literature - Kenneth Grahame, Thomas Hardy, Anna Sewell - with new and original material from a bunch of famous people - Brigitte Bardot, Jilly Cooper, Ann Widdecome - along with contributions from everyday members of the public.

The end result is a cornucopia of poetry, fiction, eulogies and reflections on the theme of animals and our relationships with them, especially when we lose them to the great zoo in the sky.

Farewell, My Lovely manages to be engaging, funny and genuinely moving in places without ever becoming too twee. This new, extended hardback edition includes a foreword from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall which is bound to impress your granny.

Advent Calendar: December 6th

Tom Holt is best known as the author of modern fantasy novels from the Terry Pratchett school. I have read one. It was OK. Won't read any more though.

I am the same with Pratchett.

But Holt also has a sideline in historical fiction. Funny historical fiction. Hilarious, in fact.

The pick of the bunch is The Walled Orchard. Our hero, Eupolis, is a dramatist. The greatest dramatist Greece has ever produced. We'd all know about him if it wasn't for that tosser Euripedes who, although greatly inferior, has a habit of sucking up to the right people. We follow Eupolis from his lowly birth through to his triumph as a playwright and on to his somewhat less successul time as a soldier, bumping in to numerous names from classical history in the process.

If, like me, you love the Greek myths and plays then this skillful and clever comedy will greatly appeal. Holt's historical novels are so good they make me wish I liked his fantasy stuff more as they would give me much more to read.

But I don't, so will have to make do with this and a couple of others.

Advent Calendar: December 5th

If your nearest and dearest embarrasses you by insisting on reading Dan Brown while you wish they would give their attention to someone a tad more literary then might I suggest you wrap a copy of The Colour of a Dog Running Away and pop it under the tree for them this Christmas?

Imagine The Da Vinci Code re-written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon after he has been overdosing on Murakami and The Magus.

Sort of.

Richard Gwyn's debut novel has all the thrills and spills of one of Dan Brown's potboilers but is a better piece of writing by a long chalk. I lost myself in it when I read it a few years back and recommended it to anyone who would listen at the time. 

Lucas comes home to his flat in Barcelona to discover a postcard pushed under his door - a Miro painting on one side, a date and time on the other. Intrigued, he visits the Miro Foundation, standing opposite that very painting at the alloted time. There he meets a rather attractive woman and embarks upon a remarkable adventure involving the mysterious roof people of the city, being kidnapped and taken to the Pyrenees, obscure Cathar sects, fire-eaters and a rather intense love affair.

People who bought the book on Amazon also bought titles like 2666, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Angel's Game which gives you an idea of where it is pitched.

Page-turning literary thriller. Every Christmas needs one.